CHAPTER XIX.
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.