Russia is attracting considerable attention, it may interest my
readers to hear that one of the earliest promoters of the _Stundist_
movement was Yacub Dilakoff, a Syrian, and a graduate of the Old
American College. He went to Russia thirty years ago, and was so
horrified at the ignorance and gross superstition of the peasantry
that he studied Russian in the hope of enlightening them, and to aid
his purpose became an itinerant hawker of Bibles. The "common people
heard him gladly," and among both the Orthodox and the Lutherans
prayer unions were formed, from which those who frequented them
received the name by which they are known, from _stunde_, hour.
Dilakoff, whom the _Stundists_ love to call "our Bishop," has been
thrown into prison several times, but on his liberation began to teach
among the sect of the _Molokans_ in the Crimea and on the Volga with
such success that sixteen congregations have been formed among them.
His zeal has since carried him to the _Molokan_ colonies on the Amoor,
where he has been preaching and teaching for three years with such
remarkable results as to have received the title of "a Modern
Apostle."
[28] In twenty-eight years after its establishment a conference of
bishops, presbyters, and deacons, all of whom had received ordination
in the Old Church, with preachers, elders, and missionaries, met and
deliberated. "This conference adopted its own confession, form of
government, and discipline----at first very simple. Some things were
taken from the canons and rituals of the Old Church, others from the
usages of Protestant Churches. The traditions of the Old Church were
respected to some extent; for example, no influence has induced the
native brethren to remit the diaconate to a mere service in
temporalities. The deacons are a preaching order."
Of the subsequent history of this church the same authority writes as
follows:----
"The missionaries in 1835 were welcomed by the ecclesiastics and
people, and for many years an honest effort was made to reform the old
body" (the Syrian Church) "without destroying its organisation. This
effort failed, and a new church was gradually formed for the following
reasons----
"(1) _Persecution._ The patriarch did all in his power to destroy the
Evangelical work. He threatened, beat, and imprisoned the teachers and
converts, and made them leave his fold. (2) _Lack of discipline._ The
converts could no longer accept unscriptural practices and rank abuses
that prevailed, and it became evident that there was no method to
reform them. At every effort the rent was made worse. (3) _Lack of
teaching._ The converts asked for better care, and purer and better
teaching and means of grace than they found in the dead language,
rituals, and ordinances of the Old Church.
"The missionaries were slow in abandoning the hope that the Nestorian
Church would become reformed and purified; but their hope was in vain,
their efforts therefore have been not to proselytise, but to leaven
the whole people with Christian truth. The separation was made in no
spirit of hostility or controversy. There was no violent disruption.
The missionaries have never published a word against the Old Church
ecclesiastics or its polity.
"The ordination of the Old Church has always been accepted as valid.
The missionaries and the evangelical bishops have sometimes joined in
the ordination services, and it would be difficult to draw the line
when the Episcopal ordination ceased and the Presbyterian began in the
Reformed body.
"The relation of the Presbyterian mission work to the old
ecclesiastics is thus something different from that found among any
other Eastern Christians. The Patriarch in office fifty years ago was
at first very friendly to the missionaries, and personally aided in
superintending the building of mission houses. Subsequently he did all
in his power to break up the mission. The Patriarch now in office has
taken the attitude of neutrality, with frequent indications of
fairness and friendliness toward our work.
"The next in ecclesiastical rank is the Mattran (Syriac for
Metropolitan), the only one left of the twenty-five Metropolitans
named in the thirteenth century. The present incumbent recently made
distinct overtures to our Evangelical Church to come to an
understanding by establishing the scriptural basis of things
essential, and allowing liberty in things non-essential. He fails,
perhaps, to understand all the scriptural issues between us, but he
has a sincere desire to walk uprightly and to benefit his people.
"Of the bishops, three have been united with the Reform, and died in
the Evangelical Church. The three bishops in Kurdistan are friendly,
and give their influence in favour of our schools.
"A large majority of the priests or presbyters of the Old Church, in
Persia at least, joined the Reform movement, and as large a proportion
of the deacons. In all, nearly seventy of the priests have laboured
with the mission as teachers, preachers, or pastors, and more than
half of these continue, and are members of our Synod. In some places
the Reform has gathered nearly all the population within its
influence. In many places it is not unusual to find half the
population in our winter services. On the other hand, there are many
places where the ecclesiastics are immoral and opposed, and ignorance
and vice abound, and the Reform moves very slowly."
[29] "By God's help: (1) To raise up and restore a fallen Eastern
Church to take her place again amongst the Churches of Christendom.
(2) To infuse spiritual life into a church which the oppression of
centuries has reduced to a state of weakness and ignorance. (3) To
give the Chaldaean or Assyrian Christians (_a_) a religious education
on the broad principles of the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church;
(_b_) a secular education calculated to fit them for their state of
life, the common mistakes and dangers of over-education and of
Europeanising education being most carefully guarded against. (4) To
train up the native clergy, by means of schools and seminaries, to be
worthy to serve before God in their high vocation, and to rise to
their responsibilities as leaders and teachers of the people in their
villages. (5) To build schools, of which at present there are none,
owing to the extreme poverty and misery of the people. (6) To aid the
Patriarch and Bishops by counsel, by encouragement, and by active
support. (7) To reorganise the Chaldaean Church upon her ancient lines,
to set in motion the ecclesiastical machinery now rusty through
disuse, and to revive religious discipline amongst clergy and laity.
(8) To print the ancient Chaldaean service-books. They are now only in
MS., and the number of copies is totally insufficient for the supply
of the parish churches."
[30] "_Old Syriac_ as a lesson means reading portions of Holy
Scripture, and translating them into modern Syriac."
[31] The absolute fact, however, is that Christian nations have not
shown any zeal in communicating the blessings of Christianity to
Persia and Southern Turkey. England has sent two missions--one to
Baghdad, the other to Julfa. America has five mission stations in
Northern and Western Persia, but not one in Southern Turkey or Arabia.
The populous shores of the Persian Gulf, the great tribes of the
plains of the Tigris and Euphrates, the Ilyats of Persia, the
important cities of Shiraz, Yezd, Meshed, Kashan, Kum, Kirmanshah, and
all Southern, Eastern, and Western Persia (excepting Hamadan and
Urmi), are untouched by Christian effort! Propagandism on a scale so
contemptible impresses intelligent Moslems as a sham, and is an injury
to the Christianity which it professes to represent.
LETTER XXVII
URMI, _Oct. 14_.
Very few European travellers visit Urmi and its magnificent plain, the
"Paradise of Persia," though it is only 112 miles from Tabriz. Gardens
come up to the city walls, and the plain, about fifty miles long by
eighteen broad, is cultivated throughout, richly wooded, very
populous, and bounded on the east not by a desert with its aridity,
but by the blue waters of the Urmi Sea, and on the west by the
magnificent mountains of Kurdistan. The city is some miles to the west
of the lake.
Urmi is on the whole very pretty and in good repair. The Christian
quarter is almost handsome, well built and substantial, and the houses
are generally faced with red bricks. The bazars are large and well
supplied, and trade is active. The walls and gateways are in good
repair, and so is the deep ditch, which can be filled with water,
which surrounds them. Every gate is approached by an avenue of noble
_elaegnus_ and other fruit trees. The gardens within the walls are very
fine, and orchards and vineyards, planes and poplars testify to the
abundance of water and the excellent method of its distribution. The
altitude is stated at 4400 feet. The estimate of the population varies
from 12,000 to 20,000.
Though the Sea of Urmi receives fourteen rivers, some of them by no
means insignificant, and has no known outlet, it recedes rather
steadily, leaving bare a soil of exceeding richness, and acres of
dazzling salt. It has very few boats, and none suited for passenger
traffic. Its waters are so salt that fish cannot live in them.
The antiquarian interests of Urmi consist in the semi-subterranean
Syrian church of Mart-Mariam, said to have been built by the Magi on
their return from Bethlehem! a tower and mosque of Arab architecture
seven centuries old, and some great mounds outside the walls, from
sixty to one hundred feet in height, composed entirely of ashes,
marking the site of the altars at which the rites of one of the purest
of the ancient faiths were celebrated. As the birthplace of Zoroaster,
and for several subsequent ages the sacred city of the Fire
Worshippers and the scene of the restoration of the Mithraic rites,
Urmi must always remain interesting.
The Christian population of the city is not very large, though it is
estimated that there are 20,000 Syrian Christians in the villages of
the plain. The city Syrians are mostly well-to-do people, who have
come into Urmi to practise trades. The best carpenters, as well as the
best photographers and tailors, are Syrians, and though in times past
the Moslems refused to buy from the Christians on the ground that
things made by them are unclean, the prejudice is passing away.
There is a deputy-governor called the _Serperast_, whose duty it is to
deal with the Christians. The office seems to have been instituted for
their protection at the instigation of the British Government, but the
Europeans regard it simply as a means of oppression and extortion, and
desire its abolition. Canon Maclean goes so far as to say, "The
multiplication of judges in Persia means the multiplication of
injustice, and of the number of persons who can extort money from the
unfortunate people." The _Serperast_ depends chiefly for his living
and for keeping up a staff of servants on what he can get out of the
Christians in the way of fines and bribes, and consequently he
foments quarrels and encourages needless litigation on all hands, the
Syrians being by all accounts one of the most litigious of peoples.
I write of the Christians of Urmi and its plain as Syrians because
that is the name by which they call themselves. We know them at home
as _Nestorians_, but this is a nickname given to them by outsiders,
and I know of no reason why we should use a nomenclature which
attaches to a nation the stigma of an ancient "heresy." They are
sometimes called Chaldaeans,[32] and the present Archbishop of
Canterbury has brought into currency the term "Assyrians," which,
however, is never used by themselves, or by any Orientals in speaking
of them. The Moslems apply the name Nasara (Nazarenes) solely to the
Syrian Christians. They claim that Christianity was introduced among
them by the Magi on their return from Bethlehem. The highest estimate
of their numbers is 120,000, and of these more than 80,000 are in
Turkey. The Persian Syrians inhabit the flat country, chiefly the
plains of Urmi and Salmas, where the fertile lands are most carefully
cultivated by their industry.
In my last letter I remarked upon the prosperity and garden-like
appearance of the Urmi Plain. Its 20,000 Syrian inhabitants usually
live in separate villages from the Kurds, Persians, and Armenians, and
are surrounded on all sides by Moslems of the Shiah sect. The
landlords or Aghas of their villages are generally Moslems, who govern
their tenants in something of feudal style. Land is a favourite
investment in Persia, and owing to the industrious habits of the
Syrians, the "Agha-ship" of their villages commands a high price. The
Aghas often oppress the peasants, but the tenure of houses is fairly
secure, and according to Canon Maclean, to whom I am indebted for my
information, a system much like the Scotch feuing system (though
without feu charters) is in force. If a man wishes to build a house he
takes a present of a few sugar-loaves or a few _krans_ with him, and
applies to an Agha for a site. After it is granted he pays an annual
ground rent of 4s. 9d., but he can build his house as he pleases, and
it cannot be taken from him so long as he pays his ground rent.
Moreover, he can sell the house and give a title-deed to the
purchaser, with the sole restriction that the new possessor must
become a vassal of the Agha.
In addition to the payment of the ground rent, the tenant is taxed
annually by the Agha for every female buffalo 2s., for every cow 1s.,
and for every ewe and she-goat 6d., after they have begun to bear
young. The Agha also receives from each householder annually two
fowls, a load of _kiziks_, some eggs, three days' labour or the price
of it, and a fee on every occasion of a marriage. Each house pays also
a tax of 8d. a year and gives a present of firewood to the _Serperast_
of Urmi, the Mussulman governor of the Christians. In his turn the
Agha pays to the Shah from a third to a half of the total taxation.
A village-house, even when built of sun-dried bricks, rarely costs
more than L35, and often not the half of that sum.[33] The great
feature of a Syrian dwelling is what is called emphatically "the
house"; the combined living-room, bedroom, smoking-room, kitchen,
bakery, and workroom of one or more families. This room cannot possess
a _balakhana_, as its openings for light and air are in the roof. A
stable, store-rooms, and granary are attached to it.
Vineyards are the chief reliance of the Syrians of the Urmi Plain,
their produce, whether as grapes, raisins, or wine, being always
marketable. They are held on the same tenure as the houses, and as
long as the vine-stocks remain in the ground, and the ground rent,
which is 7s. a year for the _tanap_, a piece of ground 256 yards
square, is paid, the tenant cannot be evicted. Where vineyards are
sub-let for a year a fair rent is from 10s. to 12s. a _tanap_. If a
tenant buys a property from an Agha the yearly taxation is 5s. a
_tanap_; grass fields and orchards are held on the same tenure as
vineyards, and at the same rent. With ploughed land the case is
different. If the tenant provides the seed, etc., he gives the Agha a
third of the produce, and if the Agha provides seed the tenant returns
two-thirds. The tenant of ploughed land may be changed annually.
This paying the rent in kind is going on just now in every village,
and the Aghas secure themselves against dishonesty by requiring that
the grain shall be threshed on their floors. In addition, their
servants watch night and day by turns, in an erection similar to the
"lodge in a garden of cucumbers" or melons, an arbour of boughs
perched at a height of seven or eight feet upon four poles. The
landlord's _nasr_ appears at intervals to take away his master's share
of the grain. It is all delightfully primitive.
The arrangements sound equitable, the taxes are moderate, and in some
respects the Christians are not more victimised by their landlords
than are their Mohammedan neighbours. The people acknowledge readily
that as regards oppression they are much better off than they were,
and that in this respect the presence of the American missionaries in
Urmi has been of the greatest advantage to them, for these gentlemen
never fail to represent any gross case of oppression _which can be
thoroughly substantiated_ to the Governor of Urmi, or in the last
resort to the Governor of Azerbijan. The oppressions exercised by the
Aghas consist in taking extra taxes, demanding labour without wages,
and carrying off Christian girls for their _harams_. The laws which
affect Christians specially and injuriously are--
1. That the evidence of a Christian is not received against a
Mussulman.
2. That if any member of a Christian family becomes a Moslem, he or
she becomes entitled to claim the whole property of the "house," which
as often as not consists of two or three families. The apostatising
member of a household is usually a girl, who either falls in love with
or is carried off by a young Mohammedan, who declares truly or falsely
that she has embraced his creed. A good governor is careful in these
matters, and in some cases gives the girl only her share of the family
property, but a bad governor may at any time carry out the law, or use
it as a means for extorting ruinous bribes.[34]
Every Christian man above the age of sixteen pays a poll tax of 3s.
annually for exemption from military service, but from this impost the
headman of a village, who is at once its tax-gatherer and its
spokesman, is free. He ranks next to the priest, and is treated by
the villagers with considerable respect. I have found the Syrian
_kokhas_ as polite and obliging as the Persian _ketchudas_.
Although the Persian Government has been tolerably successful in
subduing the Kurds within its territory, the Christians of the slopes
of the Urmi Plain are exposed to great losses of sheep and cattle from
Kurdish mountaineers, who (it is said) cross the Turkish frontier, and
return into Turkey with their booty.[35]
The American and English missionaries do not paint the Syrians
_couleur de rose_, though the former during their long residence in
the country must have lifted up several hundreds to the blessings of a
higher life, and these in rising themselves must have exercised an
unconscious influence on their brethren. Since I came I have seen
several women whose tone would bear comparison with that of the best
among ourselves, and who owe it gratefully to the training and
influence of the Fiske Seminary. I like the women much better than the
men.
The Christians complain terribly of the way in which "justice" is
administered, and doubtless nothing can be worse, but the Europeans
say that the people bring much of its hardship upon themselves by
their frightful litigiousness, and their habit of going to law about
the veriest trifles. Intense avarice seems to be a characteristic of
the Syrians of the Persian plains, and they fully share with other
Orientals in the failings of untruthfulness and untrustworthiness.
They are said to be very drunken as well as grossly ignorant and
superstitious, and the abuses and unutterable degradation of their
church perpetuate all that is bad in the national character. The
women are spoken of as chaste, and some of the worst forms of vice are
happily unknown among the Syrians, though they are practised by the
Moslems around them. Their hospitality, their sufferings for the
faith, and their family attachment are justly to be reckoned among
their virtues, but on the whole I think that the extraordinary
interest attaching to them, and which I feel very strongly myself, is
due rather to their Past than to their Present.
On this plain the dress of the men is much assimilated to that of the
Persians, but the women wear their national costume. The under-garment
is a coloured shirt, over which is worn a sleeved waistcoat of a
different colour, and above this is an open-fronted coat reaching to
the knees. Loose trousers, so full as to look like a petticoat, are
worn, and frequently an apron and a heavy silver belt are added. The
head-dress is very becoming, and consists of a raised cap of cloth or
silk, embroidered or jewelled, with a white muslin veil over it and
the head, but the face is exposed, except in the case of married
women, who draw a part of the veil over the mouth. It is not proper
that the hair should be seen.
There is something strikingly Biblical about their customs and speech.
At dinner at Geog-tapa I noticed that it is a mark of friendship for a
man to dip a piece of bread (a sop) into the soup and give it to
another, a touching reminiscence. A priest is greeted with "Hail,
Master," a teacher is addressed as "Rabban," the salutation is "Peace
be with you," and such words as _Talitha cumi_ and _Ephphatha_
occasionally startle the ear in the midst of unintelligible speech,
suggesting that the Aramaic of our Lord's day was very near akin to
the old Syriac, of which the present vernacular is a development. As
among the Moslems, pious phrases are common. A Syrian receiving a
kindness often replies, "May God give you the kingdom of Heaven," and
when a man makes a purchase, or enters on a new house, or puts on a
new garment, it is customary to say to him, "May God bless your house,
your garment," etc. A child learning the letters of the alphabet is
taught to say at the close, "Glory to Christ our King." A copyist
begins his manuscript by writing within an ornamental margin, "In the
strength of our Lord Jesus Christ we begin to write," and a man
entering on a piece of work honours the Apostolic command by saying,
"If the Lord will I shall accomplish it."[36] My friends tell me that
I shall find the Syrians of the mountains a different people, and a
mountaineer is readily recognised in the streets by the beauty and
picturesqueness of his dress.
The eight days in Urmi have been a very pleasant whirl, a continual
going to and fro between the College and the Fiske Seminary, the
English clergy house and the Sisters' house, receiving Syrian visitors
at home and holding a reception for them in the city, calling on the
Governor, visiting the English upper school, where deacons, in the
beautiful Syrian costume, with daggers in their girdles, look more
like bandits than theological students, and spending a day at
Geog-tapa, where I saw Shamasha Khananeshoo's (Deacon Abraham's)
orphanage, dined with him and his charming wife, and a number of other
Syrians in Syrian style, and went to the crowded Geog-tapa church,
where the part of the floor occupied by the women looked like a
brilliant tulip-bed. Here, in the middle of the service, the _Qasha_
or priest said that the people, especially the women, were very
anxious to know for what reason I was travelling, to which evidence of
an enlightened curiosity I returned a reply through an interpreter,
and reminded them of the glories of their historic church and its
missionary fervour.
Geog-tapa (_cerulean hill_) possesses one of the largest of the
Zoroastrian mounds of ashes. It is a pity that these are not
protected, and that the villagers are allowed to carry away the soil
for manure, and to break up the walls and cells (?) which are imbedded
in them for building materials. This vandalism has brought to notice
various curious relics, such as earthenware vessels of small size and
unique shape, and a stone tomb containing a human skeleton, with
several copper spikes from four to five inches long driven into its
skull. In another mound, at some distance from this one, a large
earthen sarcophagus was discovered, also containing a skeleton with
long nails driven into its skull.
Deacon Abraham's work is on the right lines, being conducted entirely
by Syrians. It is most economically managed, and the children are
trained in the simple habits of Syrian peasants. The religious
instruction is bright and simple. The boys receive an elementary
education, a practical training in agriculture on some lands belonging
to the Orphanage, and in various useful handicrafts. As much of the
money for the support of this work is raised in England, it is
satisfactory to know that the accounts are carefully audited by the
American missionaries.
The days have flown by, for, in addition to the social whirl, I have
been occupied in attempts, only partially successful, to provide
myself with necessaries for the journey, and in an endeavour,
altogether unsuccessful, to replace Johannes by a trustworthy servant.
The kind friends here have lent me a few winter garments out of their
slender stock, and have helped me in every way.