THE NESTORIANS.
1833-1836.
The facts brought to light by Messrs. Smith and Dwight respecting
the Nestorians, made it the duty of the American Board to commence a
mission among them. Accordingly in January, 1833, the Rev. Justin
Perkins, then a tutor in Amherst College, was appointed the first
missionary to that people; and Mr. Smith, being ready to return to
the Mediterranean, having published his "Researches in Armenia and
Persia," it was decided that Mr. Perkins should accompany him as far
as Malta. They received their official instructions together, in the
chapel of the Theological Seminary at Andover, on a Sabbath evening
in September, and the two brethren embarked, with their wives, on
the 21st of that month. Mr. Perkins, in the interval, had been
prostrated by a fever, but it was deemed safe for him to proceed,
and his recovery was so rapid that he was soon able to administer to
the comfort of his associates at sea.
"Your first duty among the Nestorians," said the Prudential
Committee in their instructions to Mr. Perkins, "will be to
cultivate an intimate acquaintance with the religious opinions and
sentiments of the Nestorians. You are aware that, excepting the
information collected by Messrs. Smith and Dwight, during the few
days they were at Oroomiah, almost all we know concerning that sect
in modern times, is derived from papal writers. The learned
investigations of some of these entitle them to high honor, and may
be of great use to you, in the way of furnishing topics for inquiry,
but the Committee wish the information which you communicate
concerning the present state of the Nestorian Church, to be the
result of your own personal investigations; at least to be thus
corroborated. The churches of this country ought to be accurately
informed as to the number of the Nestorians, their places of
residence, their doctrines, rites, morals, education, etc. Whether
you will be able at present, with a due regard for personal safety,
to penetrate the Koordish mountains, and visit the Nestorian
Patriarch, is very doubtful. But the journey should be performed as
soon as may be, lest interested and perverse men should prejudice
his mind against you."
After stating that they should take pains to show the Nestorians,
that they had no intention of subjecting them to any foreign
ecclesiastial power; and showing that the acknowledgment of the New
Testament, as the only authoritative standard of religious truth,
made them stand on common ground with the people to whom they were
sent; it was stated, that their main object would be to enable the
Nestorian Church, through the grace of God, to exert a commanding
influence in the regeneration of Asia.
"Concentrated effort," it was added, "is effective effort. There is
such a thing as attempting too much. Many a missionary has attempted
such great things, and so many, in a new field, that he has
accomplished little, and perhaps nothing as he ought. Your surveys
may extend over a great surface; but a richer and speedier harvest
will crown your labors, if your cultivation is applied to a single
field."
The Nestorians are a branch of the ancient Christian Church, and
derive their name from Nestorius, a native of Syria and Bishop of
Constantinople, who was excommunicated by the third General Council
at Ephesus, in the year 431. The cause of his condemnation was
probably the desire to humble the occupant of the see of
Constantinople, which had begun to eclipse its sister patriarchates,
rather than any real doctrinal errors. He was banished to Arabia
Petræa, then to Libya, and finally died in Upper Egypt. But his
cause was the cause of his countrymen, and he had influential
friends in the patriarchate of Antioch, who denied the fairness of
his trial and the justice of his condemnation. His case was ardently
espoused by many young men from Persia in the famous school of
Edessa (now Oorfa), and though these were expelled, and the school
itself was destroyed in the year 489, by order of the Emperor Zeno,
the banished youths carried home with them a warm sympathy for
Nestorius, and various causes combined to extend it among the
Persian ecclesiastics. In the year 498, the sect had so multiplied,
as to have the appointment of the Archbishop of Seleucia and
Ctesiphon, who then declared himself Patriarch of the East.
"This sect continued to flourish, though occasionally persecuted,
under the Persians, the Saracens, and the Tartars. They had
celebrated schools for theology and general education. For centuries
they maintained missions in Tartary, China, and other eastern
regions. Their churches were scattered from Syria and Cyprus to
Pekin, and from the coast of Malabar and Ceylon to the borders of
Siberia. Early in the eleventh century, Unkh Khan, a Tartar prince
on the northern borders of China, invited Nestorian missionaries
among his people, and himself became the famous Prester John. Gengis
Khan and several of his sons and grandsons, who conquered China and
almost all Asia and a part of Europe, were connected with Prester
John by marriage. Several of them had Christian wives, and one of
them at least professed himself a Christian. Under some of this
dynasty, Central Asia was comparatively a civilized country; and
Christian travellers passed with safety from the banks of the
Euphrates to Samarcand and Pekin. Some of the Chinese emperors
favored Christianity, and ordered the erection of numerous churches.
Meanwhile the sword of Moslem fanaticism was advancing eastward.
Bagdad fell before it, and all the country on the Euphrates; then
Persia, then Cabul, and the regions of the north. The Nestorian
Church being thus crushed at home, its missions languished. And
finally, about the year 1400, Tamerlane, who has been called 'the
greatest of conquerors,' swept like a whirlwind over the remains of
Nestorian Christianity, prostrating everything in his course."1
1 Tracey's _History_, p. 312. See also _Missionary Herald_ for 1838,
pp. 289-298. Narses on being expelled from Edessa, opened a school
at Nisibis, A. D. 490, which became celebrated. About the same time,
Acacius, also from Edessa, established a school at Seleucia. It was
revived in 530, and was in existence as late as 605. A school was
established at Dorkena, A. D. 585. At Bagdad were two schools in
832, and two others were in its neighborhood. Schools existed at
Terhana, Mahuza, Maraga, and Adiabene, in Assyria, and at Maraga, in
Aderbijan. There were also schools in Elam, Persia, Korassan, and
Arabia. The school at Nisibis had a three years' course of study.
The studies to a great extent were theological; but to the study of
the Bible, they added, in the schools generally, the study of
grammar, rhetoric, poetry, dialetics, arithmetic, geometry, music,
astronomy, medicine, etc.
From Malta, Mr. and Mrs. Perkins proceeded to Constantinople, where
they were cordially welcomed by Messrs. Goodell and Dwight, near the
close of the year. After a sojourn of five months, awaiting the
proper season for travelling, they took passage, in an English
vessel, for Trebizond; and there they commenced their long land
travel of seven hundred miles to Oroomiah.
Mrs. Perkins was the first American lady to visit Trebizond, and the
inhabitants thronged the streets to gaze upon her as she passed
through the city. On the day of their entrance into Erzroom, they
crossed the Euphrates, which is there only a few rods wide, and
easily forded on horseback. The city is on an elevated plain,
cultivated through almost its whole extent, with numerous villages
everywhere in sight.
They were now in one of the oldest cities in the world, founded, as
tradition says, by a grandson of Noah, and had gone over a third of
the distance to Tabriz, and the most difficult part of the journey.
Here they were detained nearly a month by the incursions of Koordish
robbers along the direct road to Tabriz. The Pasha having gone with
his troops to drive back the marauders, Mr. Perkins resumed his
journey on the 15th of July. Next day he overtook the Pasha, who
assured him that he could not safely go in advance of his army. The
only alternative was to return to Erzroom for several weeks, or take
a circuitous route through the Russian provinces. He thought it best
to choose the latter course, and the Pasha kindly furnished him with
a guard of horsemen as far as the frontier. On the 22d they crossed
into Georgia, and soon found themselves subjected to a most annoying
quarantine of fourteen days. The laws of the empire in that province
were very oppressive, particularly in their operation upon
travellers. The ukase of the Emperor Alexander, favoring the
introduction of foreign goods for ten years subsequent to 1822, had
expired. Consequently Mr. Perkins was not allowed to take any of his
baggage with him, except wearing apparel, not even medicines; he was
required to send all back into Turkey. Resuming his journey on the
7th of August, Mr. Perkins passed on rapidly to the Arras, which
divides Georgia from Persia. Here he was needlessly and wantonly
detained six days, for his passports. The hardships resulting from
such treatment, with other causes, had now brought Mrs. Perkins into
a very critical state of health. As a last resort, Mr. Perkins
addressed a letter to Sir John Campbell, British ambassador at
Tabriz, describing their situation, and enclosing his letters of
introduction to that gentleman. Scarcely had he crossed into Persia,
three days after, although his distance from Tabriz was not less
than a hundred miles, when he was met by a courier from the
ambassador, with a letter written in the kindest terms, and the
duplicate of another which he had procured from the Russian
ambassador to the officials on the frontier, with a view to put an
immediate stop to Mr. Perkins' detention. The kindness of the same
gentleman led him to send a takhtrawan for Mrs. Perkins, together
with delicacies for her comfort on the way.
A providential escape occurred during the first night after crossing
the Arras. Their road led up a high mountain. As they were ascending
it, the forward mule of the takhtrawan became obstinate, and
suddenly ran back, forcing the one behind upon the very brink of the
precipice, along which the road ran; and had not divine mercy stayed
them just there, takhtrawan, bearers, and occupant would have been
dashed down the precipice together.
The following day, they had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Riach,
physician of the embassy, whom they had seen at Constantinople, and
who had come, with a Russian travelling passport, determined to
cross the frontier, if necessary, and remain with them until their
liberation. The medical skill of Dr. Riach did much to aid Mrs.
Perkins in completing the journey to Tabriz, where they arrived on
the 23d of August, seventy-four days after their departure from
Trebizond. Three days after, Mrs. Perkins became the mother of a
daughter, of whose existence she was unconscious for several days.
Her life was probably saved, under God, through the combined skill
and kind attentions of three English physicians, who were then
providentially at Tabriz. The Ambassador was exceedingly kind; so
were Mr. and Mrs. Nesbit, who have been already introduced to the
reader. Dr. Riach, afterwards at the head of the embassy, stayed
five days and nights with Mrs. Perkins, not retiring from the house
till he saw some hope of her recovery. "The treatment we received
from them on our first arrival," writes the missionary nine years
after, "is but a specimen of their kindness to us from that period
to the present."
The field about to be occupied was of limited extent. The Nestorians
numbered not more than one hundred and fifty thousand souls. Their
territory extended from Lake Oroomiah three hundred miles westward
to the Tigris, and two hundred miles from north to south, embracing
some most rugged mountain ranges, and several very beautiful and
fertile plains, the largest of which formed the district of
Oroomiah. Education was then at the lowest ebb among the people,
hardly a score of men being intelligent readers, while only one
woman, the sister of Mar. Shimon, was able to read at all. They had
no printed books, and but very few manuscripts of even portions of
the Bible, and these were in the ancient Syriac, which was an
unknown tongue to almost all of them. Their spoken language was an
unwritten dialect of the Syriac. Still deeper was their moral
degradation, almost every command of the decalogue being
transgressed without compunction, or even shame when detected. Yet
they were entirely accessible to the Protestant missionary, and were
more Scriptural in their doctrines and ritual, with far less of
bigotry, than any other Oriental sect; so much so, indeed, that the
Nestorians were sometimes called the "Protestants of Asia."
Mr. Perkins wisely determined upon acquiring a knowledge of the
Syriac before going to reside among them. To obtain a teacher, he
visited Oroomiah in October, accompanied by the Rev. Mr. Haas, of
the Basle Missionary Society, then residing at Tabriz. The manner in
which he was everywhere received by the Nestorians was exceedingly
encouraging, and he obtained the services of Mar Yohannan, one of
their most intelligent bishops, as a teacher, who brought with him a
young priest, scarcely less promising than the bishop himself.
Asahel Grant, M. D., and wife, left Trebizond for Persia September
17, 1835, accompanied by Rev. James L. Merrick, who was to commence
a mission to the Mohammedans of Persia. Mr. Perkins met them at
Erzroom, to assist on their journey through the inhospitable region
of the Koords.
The province called Oroomiah is situated in the northwestern part of
modern Persia. It is the northwestern part of ancient Media. A
beautiful lake, eighty miles long and thirty broad, and four
thousand feet above the level of the sea, is its boundary on the
east, and a chain of snow-covered mountains bounds it on the west.
The water of the lake is so salt and bituminous that fish cannot
live in it, while its shores are enlivened by numerous water-fowl,
of which the beautiful flamingo is most conspicuous.1 The plain
contains about three hundred villages and hamlets, and is covered
with fields, gardens, and vineyards, which are irrigated by streams
from the mountains. The landscape is one of the most lovely in the
East, and its effect is heightened by its contrast with the adjacent
heights, on which not a solitary tree is to be seen. Along the
water-courses are willows, poplars, and sycamores; and the peach,
apricot, pear, plum, and other fruits impart to large sections the
appearance of a forest. Near the centre of the plain, four hundred
feet above the lake, stands the city of Oroomiah. It dates from a
remote antiquity, and claims to be the birthplace of Zoroaster. It
is built chiefly of unburnt brick, is surrounded by a high mud wall
and a ditch, and has a population of twenty-five thousand, of whom
the larger part are Mohammedans. The Nestorians of the plain were
estimated at twenty thousand.
1 An analysis of the water of the lake is said to have proved it to
be highly charged with sulphureted hydrogen.
Dr. Grant left Tabriz six days in advance of his associates, to
prepare for their coming. But so tardy had been the carpenters, that
Mr. Perkins and the ladies found things in a very sorry condition.
It was late in November, and after facing a driving rain all day,
they had to content themselves with unfinished and unfurnished
rooms; and as the muleteers did not arrive with their baggage, they
had neither bedding, nor a change of clothing. But they had a
blazing fire, and provisions from the market, with a sharpened
appetite, and slept comfortably on piles of shavings, covered with
the clothes they had dried by the fire.
Dr. Grant awakened great interest as a physician. He was continually
thronged with patients sick with all manner of diseases, real and
imaginary. Moslems and Nestorians came together. Children brought
their aged parents, and mothers their little ones. Those blinded by
ophthalmia were led by the hand. Those relieved from suffering were
ready to kiss his feet, or even his shoes at the door. But it was a
laborious and trying position. A thousand silly questions must be
answered. Nor was there any certainty that the prescriptions would
be followed, even if understood; and every Nestorian, though
suffering under the most alarming disease, would sooner die than
touch a spoonful of chicken-broth during a fast. Dr. Grant gained
great repute by the removal of cataracts, and the consequent
restoration of sight. There were patients from great distances.
Nestorians came from the mountains, Koordish chiefs from the regions
beyond, and some from the distant borders of Georgia. Among the
multitudes, were the governor of the province, two princes of the
royal family, and many of the Persian nobles. His services were
gratuitous, he made no show to attract customers, and being ready to
aid the native physicians with both medicine and instruction he gave
them no offense.
Dr. Grant possessed a rare fitness for the position. I have a vivid
recollection of him at the time of the annual meeting of the Board
at Utica in 1834, when he presented himself, one stormy evening, to
offer his services as a physician for the mission to the Nestorians.
What specially impressed me was his commanding form and mien, joined
with calm decision and courage, qualities eminently fitting him for
a life in Koordistan. The impressions made by that brief personal
interview, were sustained and strengthened through a most intimate
correspondence till his death.
It is in the early stage of a mission, that the value of a pious
physician is most apparent. With the exaggerated conceptions usually
entertained of the temporal blessings he is able to confer, he is
welcomed by all classes from the first. Every door is opened, every
man and woman is accessible. The good-will thus awakened is more or
less shared by his fellow missionaries, and is thus likely to be all
the sooner confirmed by a spiritual appreciation of the Gospel.
Soon after their arrival, the missionaries were invited to attend a
wedding at Geog-tapa, a large Nestorian village five miles distant.
As they approached, a multitude came out to meet them, with trumpets
and drums, and shouts of "welcome, welcome." The pupils of an
English school, which priest Abraham had opened, saluted them with
"good morning." They found a fat buffalo just knocked down before
the bridegroom's house, and the bride was standing, like a veiled
statue, in the farther corner of a large room, which was soon filled
by the rushing multitude. It was customary to have the marriage
ceremony in the church, commencing at least an hour before day
because of its length, and because all parties, even the officiating
priests, were obliged to fast till it was over; but out of regard to
the strangers, it was deferred till their arrival, and was in the
dwelling of the bridegroom's family. Priest Abraham officiated,
assisted by two other priests and by several deacons, in reading the
prayers and Scripture selections, all in the ancient Syriac. After
an hour's reading, the time came for joining hands. Several women
caught hold of the veiled bride, and pulled her by main force half
across the room toward her intended husband. Several men at the same
time seized the bridegroom, who, after a modest resistance, yielded
and advanced towards the bride. He was not able to secure her hand,
however, without a struggle, but at length succeeded; and then both
took a submissive stand near the officiating clergy. After reading
another hour or more, the bishops, priests, and missionaries, with
the multitude, advanced and kissed the married pair.
Mr. Perkins engaged Mar Gabriel, a bishop, fair in form, but of a
restless spirit, to reside with him as his teacher in Syriac; and
the year did not close before this indefatigable missionary
commenced reducing the modern Syriac to writing, with the aid of
priest Abraham, who wrote a beautiful hand. His first translation
was the Lord's Prayer. The Nestorians were much interested, having
never heard reading in their spoken language. Even the sober priest
could not refrain from immoderate laughter, as he repeated line
after line of his own writing.
What soon became a seminary for males was commenced on the 18th of
January, 1836, with seven boys from the city, and the number was
soon increased to fifty by accessions from the surrounding region,
among whom were three deacons and one priest. Manuscript cards
prepared by Mr. Perkins supplied the place of books. They read in
the ancient Syriac, and the cards in the modern dialect, and in
English, and also wrote with their fingers in sand-boxes, and made
some progress in arithmetic. There were several free schools, but
only a very small proportion of the hundred pupils were females.
Several of the clergy resided with the mission, and conducted
worship once on each Sabbath in their own language. At this service
a portion of Scripture was read, which they had previously studied
with Mr. Perkins, and its meaning was explained and enforced. It is
a singular fact, that Dr. Grant was obliged to teach a Mohammedan
school during a small part of each day, to quiet the Mussulmans, who
were jealous of these favors to their despised Christian subjects,
and resentfully inquired, "Are we to be passed by?"
Experience showed that the families had been removed to Oroomiah too
soon; for it took place during cold weather, and the new mud used in
repairing the walls of their chambers had not been sufficiently
dried. This predisposed them to disease during the hot, malarious
summer, when all were more or less affected with illness. A bilious
fever brought Mr. Perkins to the borders of the grave; and while he
lay thus sick, and at one time insensible, Dr. and Mrs. Grant were
seized with fever and ague. Missionary labors were of course
suspended. The Nestorians sympathized deeply, and rendered all the
aid in their power, and Mohammedans also manifested much concern.