THE NESTORIANS.
1841-1848.
Mr. and Mrs. Perkins, finding a sea voyage necessary for the
recovery of her health, left Oroomiah July 5, 1841, and arrived at
New York on the 11th of January, just in time to be present at the
special meeting of the Board in that city. Their passage from Smyrna
had been prolonged to one hundred and nine days, and much solicitude
was felt for their safety. They were accompanied by Mar Yohannan,
who desired so earnestly to see the new world, that he could not be
dissuaded from coming. As the early friend and constant helper of
the mission, and as representing one of the most interesting
branches of the ancient Church of Christ, he was received by the
Board and the religious community with Christian affection, and his
visits to different parts of the country with Mr. Perkins were both
pleasant and useful.
The number of pupils in the seminary at the close of 1841 was
forty-six; there were also eighteen in the boarding-school for
girls, and there were twenty free schools in as many villages, all
taught by Nestorian priests. The free schools contained four hundred
and seventy pupils, of whom forty were girls; making the whole
number in the schools five hundred and sixteen. The press, during
its first year, sent forth sixteen hundred volumes, and three
thousand six hundred tracts, containing in all five hundred and ten
thousand pages. Under the superintendence of Mr. Perkins, Mr. Homan
Hallock cut and cast a new font of type, modeled on the best Syriac
manuscripts. This was in the year 1841. Three years later, Mr.
Breath, the printer at Oroomiah, with the help of a native
assistant, cut and prepared two sets of type after the most approved
forms of Syriac calligraphy. The natives pronounced these types
perfect. The two sets resembled each other, the only difference
being that in one the stroke was larger and the letter more open.
Mr. Breath afterwards prepared a third set, of a medium size
compared with the other two.
While the plain of Oroomiah is perhaps one of the most fertile and
beautiful in the world, its luxuriant vegetation occasions fevers at
certain seasons, and ophthalmia is prevalent. To escape fevers, the
missionaries built dormitories on the tops of their flat-roofed
houses. This preventive not being found sufficient, a health-station
was formed in the elevated village of Seir, about six miles from
Oroomiah, where dwellings were provided for two families, which were
surrounded by a strong stone wall, to serve as a defense against any
sudden incursion of the Koords.
Mr. and Mrs. Perkins and Mar Yohannan embarked at Boston on their
return in March, 1843. They were accompanied by the Rev. David T.
Stoddard and wife, and by Misses Catherine E. Myers and Fidelia
Fiske, who went to promote the education of their own sex among the
Nestorians. They reached Oroomiah on the 14th of June, and were
received by the Nestorians with great manifestations of joy. Mr.
Perkins, while at home, prepared for the press an octavo volume of
five hundred pages, entitled "A Residence of Eight Years among the
Nestorian Christians." It is in the form of a journal, is
illustrated by a map and plates, and is a history of the mission
during that time.
The ancient Syriac version of the Scriptures was held in such
veneration by the people, that there were strong reasons for making
it the basis of the proposed version in the modern language. The
case was referred to the Prudential Committee, who decided that the
only proper course was to translate from the original Hebrew and
Greek, and the translation was made accordingly.
The female seminary at Oroomiah now came under the efficient
superintendence of Miss Fiske, and soon assumed a very interesting
religious character. The whole number under instruction in the two
seminaries, and in the forty-four village free schools, was eleven
hundred and forty-two. The call for preaching tasked the capacity of
the mission. The missionaries were free to preach in the Nestorian
churches, and generally found attentive congregations, and they were
aided in the ministry of the word by five intelligent native
preachers. Dr. Perkins thus speaks of a congregation at Ardishai:
"The church was crowded to overflowing. It would have been difficult
for half a dozen more to press themselves into it. Priest Abraham
read the first chapter of the Epistle of James, which we expounded
for more than an hour, to the great satisfaction of the people, who
did not suppress their audible Amen, and ejaculatory comments of
approbation. Priest Abraham spoke very appropriately and feelingly
on the subject of temptations, applying it to his hearers, who are
now so sorely beset by the Jesuits. That crowd of eager listeners
presented a thrilling spectacle. I could not help thanking God for
the privilege of addressing them on the things that pertain to their
everlasting well being."
The efforts of the Jesuits among the Nestorians began in 1838. In
1842, they pushed their proselyting measures so recklessly among the
Armenians of Ispahan and Tabriz, as to lead the Persian King, at the
instance of the Russian Ambassador, to send them out of the kingdom.
A "permanent order" was at the same time adopted, probably on
Russian suggestion, growing out of repugnance to the political
influence of the Jesuits, that no native Christian should be
proselyted from one Christian sect to another. The French
government, after some delay, sent an envoy to Persia to effect, if
possible, the return of the Jesuits; but before his arrival, they
had covertly made their way to Oroomiah, run another race of
proselytism among the Nestorians, and been a second time expelled.
The French agent therefore took cognizance of both expulsions, and
gave the greater prominence to the more recent one, since it had
just occurred, and was fresh in mind, and since the Jesuits were
just then specially intent on adding the Nestorians to their sect.
His demand, however, that they should have leave to return, was
refused. He then required the expulsion of the American
missionaries, as being obnoxious to the same law. The Russian
Ambassador, whose protection the mission had enjoyed since the
departure of the English embassy in 1839, denied that it was the
object of the mission to proselyte in the sense contemplated by the
law. The French envoy then demanded an investigation, and to this
the Ambassador and the Persian government readily assented. Two
Mohammedan meerzas were sent from Tabriz to Oroomiah to make the
investigation. These fell under the papal influence at Oroomiah, and
made a report so strongly prejudiced against the mission, that it
was thought necessary to send a committee to the capital to
counteract their misrepresentations. Messrs. Perkins and Stocking
were sent accordingly. Riding rapidly on horseback, many hundred
miles, over cold regions just as winter was setting in, and sleeping
on the ground at night without beds, with other similar discomforts,
seemed to them not the least trial of this undertaking. On their
arrival at Teheran, the importance of their errand was very obvious.
They found the report of the meerzas bearing manifest traces of
Jesuit influence. It made but few tangible charges, yet contained
many serious and unjust insinuations. They were able to meet it with
satisfactory explanations, and thus the storm passed by, without
inflicting the injury which the mission feared. I am not aware that
the "permanent order" against proselyting ever proved any serious
embarrassment to the mission. The banishment of the Jesuits had not
been requested by the Nestorians, nor by the missionaries. The
Russian Ambassador assumed the whole responsibility, saying that the
business was his own, that he was authorized to protect the
Christians in Persia, which could not be done while these papal
disturbers remained in the country. An attempt by the Jesuits to
wrest from the Nestorians one of their ancient and favorite
churches, appears to have been the immediate cause of the decisive
measures last mentioned. Of course these papal emissaries returned
again, but with a somewhat diminished arrogance.1
1 Manuscript letter from Rev. Justin Perkins, D. D., dated Oroomiah,
Persia, March 28, 1844.
There were also embarrassments of a serious nature within the
Nestorian community. In the subjugation of the mountain Nestorians,
while the Patriarch fled to Mosul, several of his brothers escaped
to Oroomiah, and threw themselves on the hospitality of the mission,
which of necessity fell short of their wishes. They demanded money
of the mission, on the ground that they were the ecclesiastical
heads of the people. In this they were unhappily countenanced by the
Patriarch, upon whom an influence hostile to the mission had been
successfully exerted; who wrote a letter, calling upon the
ecclesiastics and people of Oroomiah to oppose the mission and its
schools. The people, as a body, had sense enough to refuse
obedience. In view of the attitude thus assumed by the patriarchal
family, and the questionable conduct of some of the bishops, a
thorough reconstruction of the school system was rendered necessary.
The seminary for boys and the village schools were accordingly
dismissed, and finally the female boarding-school under Miss Fiske.
"When this last result was announced to the pupils," writes one of
the mission, "there was a general burst of grief. Their tears and
sobs told, more expressively than language, the bitterness of their
hearts. Nor did they weep alone. And who would not weep at such a
scene? Here were those, whom we had hoped to train up for immortal
blessedness, about to be sent back to a darkness almost like that of
heathenism. The stoutest Nestorians who were standing by were
melted. After these tender lambs had been commended to the gracious
Shepherd of Israel, they began to make their preparations for
leaving us. The most trying thing was the parting, of the pupils
from each other, and from those who had been to them as parents.
They threw their arms around the neck of their teacher, and said
again and again, 'We shall never more hear the words of God.'"
Nearly all the pupils of this seminary returned of their own accord,
and after the hostility of the patriarchal family had become known
to their parents. Miss Fiske was aided in the instruction by a pious
Nestorian deacon. Besides the ordinary instruction, the pupils were
taught several useful arts, of which their less favored mothers knew
little or nothing; among which were knitting and sewing, and these
branches many of the mothers were eager to learn from their
children. Moreover they were taught industry, self-denial,
benevolence, and the preciousness of time. The boys' seminary was
reorganized in the following spring, under the superintendence of
Mr. Stoddard; who received a number of promising boys into his
family as an experiment, with the understanding that the pupils
would reside wholly on the mission premises.
There was still enough of vacillation among the bishops, and of
dissatisfaction among the Patriarch's brothers, to raise a question
which the mission submitted to the judgment of the Prudential
Committee, as to how far it was proper to employ the higher
ecclesiastics on wages. The Committee approved of the course which
had been pursued in relation to the four bishops on the plain of
Oroomiah, Mar Yohannan, Mar Elias, Mar Joseph, and Mar Gabriel; but
intimated, while deprecating sudden changes, that the services of
the bishops, should they prove troublesome helpers, might be
dispensed with gradually. What the Committee feared was, that
putting them forward in a manner which had seemed proper in time
past, might now give them too much control of the reformation that
was believed not to be far off. The fundamental principle was, to
pay only for services rendered, and for none more than their fair
and true value. It was also recommended, that care be taken to
preserve the independence of the mission; the evangelical character
of its influence upon the people; its unquestioned right to prepare
for the expected religious awakening; and when it came, to pursue
the appropriate measures according to their own better informed
judgments.
The mission to the Mohammedans of Persia, of which an account is
given elsewhere, having been discontinued, the Rev. James L. Merrick
and wife joined the Nestorian mission in 1842. In 1844, the health
of Mrs. Merrick made it necessary for her to visit England, her
native land. She was followed by her husband in the next year, and
he, soon after his arrival at Boston, was released from his
connection with the Board. Mr. Jones retired from the mission in
1844.
John and Moses, two young Nestorians of hopeful piety, were ordained
deacons by Mar Elias and Mar Yohannan. John was a native of Geog
Tapa, the largest Nestorian village in the province, and one which
always took the lead, whether for good or for evil. Abraham, the
well-known priest, and the two newly ordained preachers, divided the
village into districts for visiting and preaching. Mr. Stocking, and
after him Dr. Perkins, found there abundant evidence of unusual
religious interest. Scores of persons called on the native preachers
almost every evening, after the toils of the day, and many lingered
to a late hour. There were cases of special interest, and none but a
skeptic could doubt the presence and power of the Holy Spirit.
In May, 1845, the Shah, at the instance of the English and Russian
Ambassadors, appointed Dawood Khan, of Tabriz, an Armenian from
Georgia and an officer of the army, Governor of the Nestorians. The
object was to protect the Christians from the oppressions they had
long suffered from the Moslem nobles residing in the district.
We have now entered on an auspicious period in the history of the
mission. Geog Tapa became the radiant centre of spiritual life. The
preceding year had been one of apprehension, but the brethren now
learned not to despond every time the heavens gathered blackness,
for in the darkest hour the sun may break forth and change the whole
scene. We have come to the beginning of that series of revivals,
with which the mission was so remarkably blessed.
The first revival was in the year 1846, and the first hopeful
conversions were in the female seminary in January. Both seminaries
were moved. A number in each came to their teachers with the
inquiry, "What shall I do to be saved?" The religious concern
rapidly increased. The 23d of January was set apart by the mission
as a day for private fasting and prayer. On the preceding evening,
as the people were assembling for a religious service, Mr. Stoddard
observed signs of deep feeling in different groups, and was
convinced that a revival had begun. After service, the people came
in crowds to his study, and he, with unutterable delight, unfolded
the Gospel of Christ to one company after another, until near
midnight. On the 25th, Tamo, a deacon from the mountains, was
overwhelmed with a sense of his sinfulness. At the same meeting,
priest Eshoo sat with his face buried in his handkerchief, and when
spoken to wept, but said nothing. On the day following, he led the
devotions in the male seminary, in a prayer so humble and earnest,
so in contrast with his former sing-song tone and thoughtless
manner, that Mr. Stoddard could not refrain from tears. He had
evidently learned how to pray, and his knowledge, his stable
character, and his important position would enable him, if truly
converted, to do much good among his people. Though every room about
the premises, that could possibly be spared from other uses, had
been opened for retirement, so numerous were the awakened that they
could not find places in which to pour out their souls to God. Such
was the natural excitability of the people, that it was difficult to
keep their expressions of feeling within proper bounds. On the 26th,
deacon John came to Mr. Stoddard, saying that the boys were weeping
violently in one of their rooms, and desired that he would go to
them. John added, that he had been looking at them with amazement,
having never before seen anything of the kind, and he knew not what
to do. Mr. Stoddard entered the room with Dr. Wright, and they found
fifteen or twenty boys lying on the floor, weeping, groaning, and in
broken sentences praying for mercy, presenting a scene of great
confusion. Some older people were standing around in silent wonder,
thinking that an angel had visited the school. Measures were
immediately taken for checking this disorder. The pupils all
promised that no two of them would again pray aloud at the same
time. The school was still the next day, but with no diminution of
solemnity.
Miss Fiske had often ten or fifteen women, relatives of her pupils,
to pass the night with her, making it necessary to collect together
all the spare pillows, cushions, and quilts in the house, and make
the sitting-room one great dormitory. She frequently conversed with
them till midnight, and then she heard them from her room, praying
most of the night.
Priest Eshoo called his neighbors together, and told them of the
great change in his feelings. So upright had he been as a priest,
that a confession of his need of salvation through the blood of
Christ made a strong impression. It became more and more evident
that he was truly a child of God. On the 5th of February, he
announced his great joy that his oldest daughter, a member of Miss
Fiske's school, was hopefully born again, and he thought she knew
the way to the cross better than himself.
The name of this daughter was Sarah. She was the first in the
revival to ask the way to heaven, the first to find the way, and the
first to enter it. Sarah was a tall, dark-eyed girl ten years old
when she entered the school. There were then but few books in the
school except the Bible, and she became very familiar with its
pages. She first learned that she was a sinner in January, 1846, and
she lived only five months after that time. Her father loved to have
her pray with him, and so remarkable was her Christian experience,
that Mr. Stocking had great pleasure and profit in conversing with
her. Miss Fiske also felt it to be a delightful privilege to watch
over her as she was nearing heaven. They would sit for an hour at a
time, and talk of the home of the blest, while Sarah would sing, "It
will be good to be there." She had a rare anxiety to be the means of
saving souls. The girls, and the women too, loved to have her tell
them "the way, for" as they said, "we can see it when she tells us."
Her health was not good at the time of her conversion, and as early
as March the sentence of death was visible on her countenance. But
she clung to her school till May, and continued to attend the
meetings, even when it was necessary for some one to aid her in
reaching the chapel. The "Dairyman's Daughter" was a favorite book
with the girls of the school, and young disciples were sometimes
heard to say, as Sarah took her seat in the house of God, "Have we
not an Elizabeth Wallbridge among us?" She lingered till June, and
was often found with her open Bible and several women by her side,
whom she was leading to Christ. Her praying companions often had
meetings in her room. Her last words were, "Lord Jesus, receive----"
Here her voice ceased.1
1 _Life of Fidelia Fiske_, p. 173.
On the 13th of February, Deacon Isaac,--one of the Patriarch's
brothers, and to a considerable extent his representative in the
district, respected moreover among the people for his force of
character, as well as for his official station,--made Mr. Stoddard a
visit. His manner showed that he wished to converse on the subject
of religion, and Mr. Stoddard commenced by asking him, if he
rejoiced in what the Lord was doing for his people. He replied,
"None but Satan can help rejoicing. I do certainly rejoice. But I am
like a man that stands on the shore of a lake, and seeing a
beautiful country on the other side is gladdened by the prospect,
but has no means of reaching that country himself. Would that I were
a child, that I might repent too! But no, it cannot be. My heart is
ice. There is no such sinner among the people as I am. I do not
believe it is possible for me to be saved." He was reminded of the
freeness of Christ's love, and his willingness to receive the vilest
sinner that will come to him. After some hesitation, he admitted
that it was so. "But," said he, "the great obstacle is myself. My
heart is perfectly dead. You may cut and thrust me with a sword, but
I am insensible to the stroke. And if you kindly pour ointment on my
wounds, it is all the same. I choose sin. I love sin. The wild
beasts in the mountains are enticed by the hunters, and seize the
bait, not knowing what they do. But I take this world with my eyes
open, knowing that I am choosing destruction, and eating death. It
is a shame for me to remain in such a miserable condition, while
these boys are weeping over their sins, and I am ashamed. But such
is the fact, and I expect to die as I have lived, and go to hell."
He seemed to speak with sincerity, and Mr. Stoddard learned that he
conversed with his people in a similar manner.
On the 16th of February, Mr. Stocking went to Geog Tapa, accompanied
by Miss Fiske and John. Miss Fiske found herself surrounded by a
company of females at the house of priest Abraham; and again, at the
close of a meeting in the church, about fifty of the women present
met her in the school-room, for conversation and prayer. A
considerable number of them were evidently awakened, and a few gave
evidence of real conversion. Yet there were opposers at Geog Tapa,
who said, "Why all this ado? Must all we have done for salvation go
for nothing? Have all our fathers gone to hell?"
Several of the converts in the seminary for boys having rooms near
Mr. Stoddard's study, he could hear their voices from morning till
night, as they pleaded in prayer, and their petitions came evidently
from the depths of the soul. Their natural love for vivid metaphor,
combined with much ardor, gave great vividness to their prayers.
They begged that the dog might have a single crumb from the table of
his master; at another time, they were smiting their breasts by the
side of the publican; at another, they were prodigals, hungry,
naked, and far from their father's house; again, they sink in the
sea, and cry out, "Lord save me, I perish;" again, poor, diseased,
outcast lepers, they came to the great Physician for a cure. Those
who had given themselves to Christ, now built their house on the
Rock of Ages, while the waters were roaring around them; now they
washed the feet of their Redeemer with tears, and wiped them with
the hairs of their head; and now, having become soldiers of the
cross, they planted the blood-stained banner in the inner citadel of
their souls.
Before the end of May, the boys' seminary was removed to Seir, to
obviate the necessity of a long vacation, which might be injurious
to the pupils in their peculiar state of feeling. Mr. Stoddard was
often delighted, in walking about the mountains, to find pupils
praying in secluded spots. A Mussulman once fell in with a pupil
thus engaged, and having never before seen a Nestorian praying in
secret, he stopped in silent wonder. The young man, on being asked
what he was doing, commenced teaching the Mussulman how to pray, and
so deeply interested him, that they kneeled down together, and the
prayer was renewed in the Turkish language, that it might be
intelligible to the stranger.
The estimated number of converts in the two seminaries, at the close
of 1846, was fifty. The general aspect of Geog Tapa, containing a
population of about a thousand, was much changed. Almost every one
who had come to years of discretion, gave good attention to the
preaching of the Gospel, and as many as fifty seemed to be true
disciples. Cases of hopeful conversion were found in eight or ten
other villages on the plain. Nor was the awakening restricted to the
plain. Of one hundred and fifty hopeful converts, twelve were at
Hakkie, and ten at Gawar, fifty miles further west, and both
mountain villages.
An edition of the New Testament, with the ancient and modern Syriac
in parallel columns, was printed near the close of 1846. The value
to the Nestorians of having the Scriptures in their spoken language,
cannot be estimated. The translation was made by Dr. Perkins from
the original Greek, and the type was that made by Mr. Breath. Dr.
Perkins entered at once upon a translation of the Old Testament from
the Hebrew. Among the books that had been recently printed, was a
new and enlarged edition of the Nestorian Hymn-book. The hymns were
sung in all the social religious meetings of the Nestorians, and in
some of their churches, and with most happy effect. The sentiments
of the hymns, and much of their language, entered largely into the
prayers of the people. The hymns were also committed to memory by
not a few, who were unable to read.
Ill health obliged Mr. and Mrs. Holladay to visit their native land
in the spring of this year, and they were not able to resume their
connection with the mission. The Rev. Joseph G. Cochran and wife,
and Miss Mary Susan Rice, embarked for Oroomiah in June, 1847.
The cholera, in its progress from the east, reached the plain of
Oroomiah in the autumn of 1846, and about two thousand persons died
in the city. An interesting account of the pestilence by Dr. Wright,
as it came under his observation, may be found in the "Missionary
Herald" for 1847.1
1 _Missionary Herald_, 1847, pp. 154-157.
Among the noticeable occurrences of the year 1847, was the visit of
Dr. Wright, to Bader Khan Bey, on the same errand which took Dr.
Grant to him three years before. The request came through Nûrûllah
Bey and the governor of Oroomiah, and the mission advised him to go,
as such a visit might open the way for the Gospel into the
mountains. Mr. Breath was requested to accompany him. They took with
them deacon Tamo, who was a subject of the recent revival, and
deacon Yoosuph, an assistant in the medical department. Leaving
Oroomiah on the 4th of May, they reached Julamerk, the home of
Nûrûllah Bey, in five days; and in his absence, were cordially
welcomed by his nephew, Suleiman Bey, and other relatives. They were
detained there thirteen days by a report, that the mountains beyond
were covered with snow. The Emir was at home the last three days,
and soon became familiar and kind. Two days from Julamerk, they were
refreshed by a bath in a hot sulphur spring, admirably suited for
the purpose. Four days more brought them to the residence of Bader
Khan Bey. There had been a wonderful change in the mountains since
Dr. Grant's first entrance. Our travellers crossed the wild central
regions of Koordistan with no fear of robbers. The principal reason
for this was doubtless the character and energy of Bader Khan Bey's
government; which extended from the Persian line to Mesopotamia, and
from the neighborhood of Diarbekir to that of Mosul. Nearly all the
chiefs in northern Koordistan came to pay their respects to him
while the missionaries were there, bringing valuable presents. Even
the Hakkary Bey, though higher in rank, and once more powerful than
he, seemed to feel himself honored in his presence. In the wildest
parts of Koordistan, our travellers often slept in the open air,
their horses let loose to graze around them during the night, and
their luggage without a guard; yet nothing was stolen. In most parts
of Turkey and Persia, such a course would not have been safe.
They spent four weeks with the chief. During the last two, the
Hakkary chief was there also, and the demeanor of both was kind and
respectful from first to last. Dr. Wright was every day engaged
professionally among the sick in the Khan's family and retinue. He
also introduced the vaccine matter, of which they had never heard
before. Nûrûllah Bey was unwilling, for some reason, that they
should return through Tiary and Tehoma. They therefore took a
northern route by Bashkallah, a fortress about thirty miles
northeast of Julamerk, and reached Oroomiah, July 3, after an
absence of two months.
The Nestorians within the range of their observations manifested
simplicity and readiness to receive instruction, but were in danger
from the inroads of Rome.
It appears to have been the intention of the Turkish government in
1847, doubtless through the influence of the English Ambassador at
Constantinople, to restore the Nestorian Patriarch to his native
regions, and constitute him the civil head of his people; and while
at Mosul, he was invited to the seat of government for that purpose.
Distrusting the motives of the Porte, he fled to Oroomiah, where he
arrived in June. It was a kind Providence that delayed his coming
until there were no longer grounds for dissatisfaction arising from
members of his family being in the employ of the mission. There were
indeed ill disposed Nestorians, who were always ready to fill the
ears of the Patriarch with insinuations against the mission. Among
these were two of his own brothers, the least respectable portion of
his family. But there were others who were watchful to correct
misrepresentations, and to give him right views of the results of
the mission, and of its doctrines. Among these were two of his
brothers, deacon Isaac and deacon Dunka, whom he held in high
esteem.
"These brothers," writes Mr. Stocking in July, 1847, "have appeared
truly friendly for two years, and disposed, to the full extent of
their influence, to aid us in our work. Both have been regular
attendants on our preaching; and, though not pious, they maintain
decidedly evangelical views in regard to the doctrines of grace.
Deacon Isaac especially, one of the most talented of the Nestorians,
is always ready, before the Patriarch and all others, boldly to
advocate the doctrine of justification by faith through grace alone.
He has studied critically, and appears to understand, as well as an
unconverted man can, the book of Romans; without the study of which,
he has been heard to remark, no one can understand what Christianity
really is. We have been interested to learn, through our native
helpers, that these brothers have voluntarily acted in concert, one
or both never failing to be with the Patriarch whenever there was
any one present to assail us and our work, ready to confront them to
their faces, and repel all false charges."
The Patriarch received priests Eshoo, Dunka, Abraham, and John, who
called to obtain his coöperation, with apparent cordiality, and gave
his full consent to their preaching in all the dioceses. He told
them that his letter from Mosul, forbidding preaching and schools,
was written through the importunity of Mr. Rassam. He spent a month
at Seir, where he had much friendly intercourse with the
missionaries. He even invited Dr. Perkins to preach in his tent, and
Messrs. Wright and Stoddard led in prayer, before and after the
sermon, while the Patriarch himself pronounced the benediction at
the close. The hymns sung on this occasion were from the new
Nestorian Hymnbook.
The Patriarch's friendly deportment continued till some time in
April, 1848, when he threw off the mask, if he had worn one, and
took the stand of open and decided opposition. This was not wholly
unexpected, and while it was matter for regret, it did not occasion
much alarm. His power to do harm had been greatly circumscribed by
the providential embarrassments of his civil and ecclesiastical
relations; by the extensive prevalence of evangelical truth among
the Nestorians; by their friendliness, and the good will of the
Persian government towards the mission; and by the number, standing,
and influence of the religious among his people. His first
unfriendly act he concealed from our brethren, but it was made known
to them by the British Consul at Tabriz. It was a formal
communication to the Russian Consul at that place, designed to
prejudice him against the American missionaries, of whom his Embassy
was the nominal protector. The Consul made no response to this. The
first open attack was on the seminary under the care of Mr.
Stoddard. The Patriarch next endeavored to withdraw the native
assistants from the missionaries; at one time calling into exercise
all his powers of persuasion, and at another uttering the severest
threats. Though his people were deriving great advantages, in many
ways, from the educational system introduced by the mission, he
recklessly determined to deprive them of it, without providing
anything to supply its place. He ordered the leading men of Geog
Tapa to break up the schools in that village, and received a
respectful but decided refusal. The priest of Charbush was ordered
to suspend his school, but declined. The Patriarch came to that
village soon after, and his servants, meeting the priest in the
street, beat him severely and wounded him. Those same servants
returning to the city intoxicated, entered the mission premises, and
fell to beating Mar Yohannan and his brother Joseph, and priest
Dunka, who happened to be sitting within the gate. The Governor at
once interfered. At that juncture, an order arrived from the Heir
Apparent, the ruler of Azerbijan, directing the Mohammedan
authorities to allow no one to molest the missionaries, or any one
in their employment. In September, the Patriarch sought the
intervention of the chief Doctor of the Mohammedan law against the
mission. It so happened that the missionaries were paying their
respects to the Moolah, at the very time when the Patriarch called,
with a large retinue of Nestorians, on this business. The Moslem
doctor made him a public and mortifying reply: "These gentlemen," he
said, "are peaceable men; the Mohammedans respect them, and are
pleased with them. Why are you falling out with them? You, who are
Christians, ought to respect them even more than the Mohammedans."
For a time the Patriarch and the Jesuits, both aiming at the
overthrow of the mission, were in practical combination. As a
necessary means to this end, both wished to expel from office Dawood
Khan, the Christian Governor and civil protector of the Nestorians
of that province; and the Mohammedan nobles were in sympathy with
them in this, as that dignitary stood in the way of their exactions.
But this political alliance, though at first promising success both
to the Patriarch and the Jesuits, in the end led to the signal
overthrow of both. It was stated to the mission by Mr. Stevens, the
English Consul, as a well ascertained fact, that Mar Shimon had
united his interests with the French Jesuits, and that they had
strong hope of making use of him to cast their net over his people.1
Up to this time, the mission had not applied to any European
functionary for interference in their troubles with Mar Shimon. Nor
did they now; but Mr. Stevens, hearing of his persecuting course,
took up the matter of his own accord, gave the information as above
stated, and befriended the missionaries in various ways. The
Patriarch having declared, that he had the countenance and support
of the Russian Consul, that official wrote sharply rebuked him for
so doing. The four bishops of Oroomiah and nearly all the priests
and deacons, with many of the leading Nestorians in the province,
now united in a representation to the Persian Government, highly
commending the character, objects, and labors of the mission. It is
recorded, that the converted Nestorians also, with scarce an
exception, stood firmly by the mission, in the face of trials and
reproaches; and the same was true of many who made no pretensions to
piety.
1 _Missionary Herald_, 1849, p. 30.
News of the death of the King arrived at Oroomiah on the 14th of
September. He was succeeded by his eldest son, a young man of twenty
years, who for the last year had been Prince Governor of Azerbijan.
In Persia, the death of the King interrupts for a time the regular
transaction of public business.
An immediate effect of the news was to displace the Governor of
Oroomiah, Yahyah Khan, with whom Mar Shimon had been forming an
alliance, to strengthen him in his persecutions.
Through the friendly, but unsolicited agency of the English Consul,
five of the most prominent of Mar Shimon's coadjutors were put under
heavy bonds in no way to aid or abet him again in similar
proceedings. Should they violate their written engagements to the
authorities, they would expose themselves to severe corporal
punishment and heavy fines.
Another requisition from the government was, that the two servants
who had entered the mission premises, and beaten and insulted
several of the ecclesiastics, should be taken to that same
inclosure, and be bastinadoed to the satisfaction of the mission.
Only one of the two could be found. He was brought thither, and laid
upon the pavement with his feet tied to a pole, and a large bunch of
rods by his side; and the missionaries were requested to come and
see that due punishment was inflicted. But they, greatly to the
satisfaction of the crowd of Nestorians who had assembled to witness
the punishment, complied with the earnest entreaties of the culprit
to excuse the crime he had committed, and he was at once released.
The repeated mention of Suleiman Bey's friendly attentions to Dr.
Grant, must have interested the reader in his behalf. But we are now
obliged to place him among the persecutors of the Lord's people.
Tamo was teacher in the male seminary for about ten years, and
became hopefully pious in the revival of 1846. He accompanied Dr.
Wright and Mr. Breath in their visit to Bader Khan. His family
resided in the mountain district of Gawar, within the limits of
Turkey. Being fleet, athletic, and capable of great endurance, he
was well fitted for a mountain evangelist. After an extended
preaching tour in the summer of 1848, he spent some time at his
mountain home. The Bishop of Gawar had received a charge from Mar
Shimon to ruin him, and made complaint against him to Suleiman Bey.
He was seized by that chief, heavily fined, and his life threatened.
But Suleiman Bey was taken, meanwhile, a prisoner by the Turks.
Afterwards, Tamo, while on his return to Oroomiah with two of his
brothers and a nephew, all members of the seminary, was attacked in
the night by a party of ruffian Koords, also incited by the
Patriarch, who beat all the company with clubs, and called to each
other to "kill them." Friendly Koords came to their rescue, but not
until they had been stripped of nearly all their clothing and
suffered cruelly from the hands of the barbarians.
In the year 1848, Bader Khan Bey, failing in one of his favorite
night attacks on the Turkish army, was taken prisoner in his own
castle of Dergooleh, and placed, as such, on one of the islands of
the Grecian Archipelago.
Nûrûllah Bey, also, some time in 1849, was driven from his
stronghold at Julamerk, and fled from castle to castle, till he also
was taken captive by the Turks, whom he had aided to destroy the
Nestorians, and went into captivity, far from the scenes of his
former power. Suleiman Bey, as already stated, was taken captive
while cruelly persecuting deacon Tamo, and died at Erzroom, while on
his way to Constantinople.1
1 _Missionary Herald_, 1850, p. 96.