FRANCES B. P ACKARD 
 
 (Mr*. Harry P. ) 
 
 
 
 BOARD OF FOREIGN MISSIONS 
 
 of the 
 
 PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN THE U. S. A. 
 156 FIFTH AVENUE. NEW YORK 
 
 1920 
 

 EDITOR’S NOTE 
 
 In the spring of 1920 the author of these 
 pages, with her husband, Dr. Henry P. 
 Packard, and her five boys came out of the 
 thick of the experiences she records to seek 
 sorely needed rest and refreshment during 
 furlough year. 
 
 It means much, therefore, to have this 
 story from her pen — a story written in the 
 midst of summer conference work and a 
 round of visits to relatives and friends. 
 
 The Editor would call attention to the 
 fact that Dr. Packard was the missionary 
 hero of the story told on page five. As 
 the successor of the beloved Dr. Cochran, 
 Dr. Packard wields a vast influence in Persia. 
 
 B. Carter Millikin. 
 
The Story of Our Missions in Persia 
 
 Chapter I 
 
 THE WORLD WAR IN THE 
 PERSIAN MISSIONS 
 
 K 
 
 A S we were on our way home from Persia in April, 
 1920, I was asked by a lady whom we met on the 
 . steamer where we had come from. When I an- 
 swered, “From Persia,” she said, “Way out in Persia! 
 Then you did not see anything of the War, did you?” 
 When I gave her a list of the main events of the War, as 
 the missionaries in Urumia saw them — three Russian occu- 
 pations and evacuations; two British occupations and 
 evacuations; one Christian regime; one period of nominal 
 Persian authority, which was practically Kurdish control; 
 massacres on a dozen different occasions, of from forty or 
 fifty to more than 2,000 native Christians; crowding of the 
 Mission yards with from 500 to 15,000 refugees five or six 
 times, the refugees remaining for a period of from five days 
 to six months ; epidemics, famine and deportation — she said 
 with almost a gasp, “Well, you did see something of the 
 War !” 
 
 The story of Persia during the War is indeed lurid, 
 for though Persia as a government remained neutral, wars 
 raged almost continually in parts of her territory. Hostile 
 armies ravaged the country, destroyed crops, killed thou- 
 sands of men, women and children, and carried hundreds 
 of helpless women and girls into captivity, and pestilence 
 and famine stalked through the land. 
 
 In order to understand the situation, one must have 
 some idea of the political conditions in Persia at the begin- 
 ning of the War. The Persian revolution of 1905 to 1909 
 was an effort to replace an absolute monarchy with a con- 
 stitutional government. The history of Persia for decades 
 
 3 
 
had been "a tale of tyranny, cruelty and misgovernment 
 on the one side, and disorder, robbery and rebellion on 
 the other.” 
 
 The friends of Persia hoped that the overthrow of 
 monarchical power would mean a new and better Persia; 
 and so it might have, if some stronger nations had been 
 ready to help her during a probably long period of neces- 
 sary reformation. Persia lacked money and strong men, 
 and she became the victim of the struggle of European 
 powers for the mastery of Asia. 
 
 Mr. Herbert Adams Gibbons, in “The New Map of 
 Asia,” sets forth in no uncertain terms the selfishness and 
 greed of the two great powers which have sacrificed the 
 political independence and economic prosperity of Persia 
 in order to carry out their own imperialistic ambitions. 
 Schemings and intrigues led to the consummation of the 
 Anglo-Russian Agreement, which, communicated to the 
 Ambassadors of the powers in Petrograd on September 
 24, 1907, established a Russian zone in the north, a British 
 zone in the south and a neutral zone between. The Per- 
 sians, because they had no force with which to oppose it, 
 were compelled to submit and to suffer the disastrous 
 political and economic consequences. 
 
 When Mohammed Ali Mirza came to the throne, and 
 in the autumn of 1906 convoked the first Parliament at 
 Teheran, the Liberals in Persia had great hopes for the 
 future. There followed three years of conflict between 
 the Shah and the Parliament, involving the country in 
 civil war. Finally, in the summer of 1909, Mohammed Ali 
 was deposed, and his twelve-year-old son, Sultan Ahmed 
 Shah, was declared Ruler. But still Persia did not have 
 peace because it did not suit Russia and Great Britain to 
 have her quiet. Disturbances in Persia gave excuses for 
 these two powers to intervene, and consequently disorders 
 were deliberately fomented by them. Russia sent more 
 troops into North Persia and finally occupied Tabriz and 
 established a military governor for the Province of Azer- 
 baijan. Great Britain, in the meantime, policed the south- 
 ern trade routes and finally sent Indian troops into the 
 
 4 
 
interior. When an American commission, at Persia’s re- 
 quest, came to take charge of her finances, and when the 
 leader, Mr. Shuster, dared to defy the partitioners of 
 Persia, Russia and England demanded the dismissal of 
 the Americans and a promise that all advisers should be 
 appointed only after consultation with the Russian and 
 British ministers. There followed months of bullying on 
 the part of the two great powers, which reduced Persia 
 to a state of financial and economic slavery. 
 
 This was Persia’s condition at the beginning of the 
 Great War. Let us now take a more careful look at the 
 Province of Azerbaijan, in the northwest corner of Persia, 
 for that region was the storm center. There are two sta- 
 tions of the Presbyterian Board in this district; each con- 
 sists of five or six families and about the same number of 
 single missionaries. These two stations are situated near 
 Lake Urumia, Tabriz on the east side and Urumia on the 
 west. Tabriz is the capital of the province, and commer- 
 cially the most important city in Persia. It is, next to 
 Teheran, the largest city of the country. The population 
 of both cities is prevailingly Mohammedan, but each has 
 a Christian quarter, in Tabriz mostly of Armenians and in 
 Urumia mostly Syrians. For reasons both geographical 
 and commercial, Tabriz suffered less than Urumia. 
 
 The city of Urumia lies in the center of a plain, well 
 watered by three rivers, dotted with four hundred villages, 
 sixty of which were Christian, twenty part Christian and 
 part Mohammedan and the rest Mohammedan. This plain 
 lies between Lake Urumia on the east, the mountains of Kur- 
 distan on the west and lesser mountains on the north and 
 south, separating it from the plains of Salmas and Sulduz, 
 respectively. It is a fertile country and yields rich crops 
 of grapes, wheat, rice, tobacco, and various fruits and 
 almonds. The annual export of raisins from Christian 
 villages alone in normal times was worth nearly a million 
 dollars. It is a land which, under a decent government, 
 would be a veritable paradise. 
 
 The Syrian population of Persia was estimated before 
 the War at i 6,000 living in villages and fche city of Urumia 
 
 5 
 
and in the plain of Salmas. A much smaller number of 
 Armenians live chiefly in the Salmas and Khoi regions and 
 in a few small villages near Urumia. Four Missions were 
 carrying on work among these people. The Presbyterians 
 had the oldest and largest Mission in Urumia, with a 
 smaller one in Salmas. A Roman Catholic Mission was 
 carried on in both places, but chiefly in Salmas, by the 
 order of Lazarists. The Archbishop of Canterbury’s Mis- 
 sion was doing a small work in Urumia, and a larger one 
 among the Syrians in the mountains. The Russian Ortho- 
 dox Mission, by reason of Russian political ascendency, 
 had won many converts and was carrying on a large work. 
 
 Our troubles in Urumia began three weeks before the 
 declaration of war between Russia and Turkey, when, from 
 the 9th to the 12th of October, 1914, the Turks and their 
 half-savage allies, the Kurds, attacked Urumia. Several 
 villages were destroyed, and their surviving inhabitants fled 
 to the city. The Russians defended the town and after- 
 wards armed the Christians in outlying villages to defend 
 themselves in case of another attack. They also fortified 
 the city by trenches and defences on all sides and declared 
 their intention to hold Urumia at any cost. 
 
 After the formal declaration of war, the Turks invaded 
 Transcaucasia and threatened the communications of the 
 Russians in Persia with their base in the Caucasus. Thus 
 it came about that the Russians evacuated Urumia sud- 
 denly on January 2, 1915; Salmas on January 4th, and 
 Tabriz on the 5th. With the Russians all the Christian 
 population of Urumia and Salmas fled, except such as were 
 not physically able or who had not sufficient warning to 
 get away. The story of this flight of twelve or fifteen 
 thousand people, in the bitter cold of mid-winter, is appal- 
 ling. Many perished by the way, the aged and children 
 falling from exhaustion and exposure, and many mothers 
 dying in child-birth. Many others died of disease after 
 crossing the Russian border, where they scattered in the 
 villages and towns of Transcaucasia, 
 
 The departure of the Russians was the signal for the 
 Kurds to rush upon the defenceless plain, and from the 
 
 6 
 
2d to the 10th of January they and the Persian rabble 
 wrought havoc in the outlying Christian villages. Several 
 thousand Christian villagers found refuge with kindly Mo- 
 hammedan neighbors; a few saved their lives by profes- 
 sing Mohammedanism; more than a thousand died as 
 martyrs to their faith, and over two hundred women and 
 girls were carried off into captivity. About 15,000 
 reached the three compounds of the American Mission and 
 found safety under the American flag, while three thousand 
 took refuge in the French Mission compound. 
 
 Days of greatest anguish followed when we questioned 
 whether the invading Turks would respect our flag or not; 
 and, if they did, whether they could hold in check their 
 lawless Kurdish allies. It was then that the value of years 
 of our Mission’s service became apparent; for, though the 
 American flag did much, no one doubts that the personal 
 influence of our own men accomplished more. 
 
 During January 2d and 3d, refugees from all the vil- 
 lages of the plain and the Christian quarter of the city 
 poured into our yards. They filled all the available school 
 rooms, cellars, hallways, closets, offices, treasury room and 
 church. The missionary residences were invaded, each 
 family taking in at least the immediate relatives of its 
 own servants and frequently others. Fiske Seminary was 
 the storm center, as it were. Babies were bom and people 
 died outside the ladies’ kitchen door. A dark closet under 
 the stairway was used as a cell for the crazy, and at other 
 times a place to die in for old women who could not take 
 care of their needs and who had no one to help them. 
 
 Later, as village after village emptied itself at our 
 doors, adjoining properties were commandeered, holes 
 knocked through the walls, their own street gates being 
 barricaded, and thus ten or more yards were added to our 
 city premises. Still later, houses across the street and 
 farther away were necessary. 
 
 In Sardari, our Moslem Boys’ School property, Rev. 
 Jacob David (the Syrian head teacher) had charge of 
 nearly a thousand refugees. In the school room of the 
 seminary, seating usually 120 girls, about 400 people were 
 
 7 
 
crowded, with no room to lie down at night. In the church, 
 where there were over 3,000, it was even worse. 
 
 A bread department was organized, with Miss Lewis 
 in charge. Most of the refugees had no food — several 
 thousand of them were mountaineers and the lowest type 
 of villagers of the plain, and “about as easy to manage 
 as a drove of wild Texas steers in a stampede.” Over 
 five tons of bread were given out daily; each person was 
 allowed one sheet of bread per day, about ten and a half 
 ounces, and most of them had nothing else for months. 
 
 The work of sanitation was a herculean task, with ten 
 thousand people in the space of a small city block, no 
 sewer system and sanitary conveniences most inadequate. 
 Several streams, of water in narrow stone channels flowed 
 through the yards, and these were the chief sources of 
 water for drinking and washing purposes. Mothers washed 
 their babies’ soiled clothes in the stream and the next 
 moment gave them a drink from it. Mr. McDowell was 
 chief sanitary officer. He appointed crews for the yards 
 and rooms, and relays of patrol along the streams, but 
 daily vigilance on his own part and frequent use of the 
 “big stick” were necessary. He also superintended the 
 burial of the dead, and for over four months the deaths 
 ranged from ten to thirty-nine daily. 
 
 At the Hospital-College compound we had only 3,000 
 refugees, but they filled every niche and cranny. In our 
 own house, for three months, we had twenty-four people 
 besides our own family, and four families were cooking 
 their meals on our small, four-hole cook stove. It speaks 
 well for the good nature of our own cook and all the other 
 cooks that there was never the sound of a quarrel. 
 
 On January 4th, Dr. Packard went out to meet Karini 
 Agha, head of the Mamush Kurds and the greatest of all 
 the Kurdish chieftains, who was approaching the city. 
 This man had sent word sometime before that he was 
 coming to Urumia, adding, "I am not Kurdu Reg nor 
 Abdulah Beg, but Karini Agha, at whose coming the moun- 
 tains tremble.” I suspect that the mountains kept per- 
 fectly calm, but certain it is that tha people trembled. 
 
 8 
 
Dr. Packard went, with two Syrian and two Moslem com- 
 panions, hoping to negotiate with Karini Agha for at least 
 limiting the amount of rapine and plunder of the Christian 
 villages, but they did not see Karini Agha that day. God 
 had other work for the doctor to do, and gave him the 
 opportunity to save the lives of nearly 3,000 people 
 in the village of Geotapa and surrounded by Kurds. 
 
 It was almost five months before the Russians re- 
 turned on May 24th, bringing freedom and safety to the 
 Christians. The story of those months is one of long- 
 drawn-out agony and suspense. The crowding of the 
 refugees and the inadequate food we w r ere able to give them 
 meant inevitable filth, sickness and death, and before relief 
 came nearly four thousand had died. There were frequent 
 times of terror and panic; there were searchings, by night 
 and day, of our own houses and the refugees quarters, by 
 the Turks. There was always before our eyes the search for 
 vermin in heads and garments, and we missionaries, too, 
 had to prosecute a similar quest all too frequently. There 
 were smells that we could hardly endure every way we 
 turned. There were three massacres, in each of which 
 from fifty to seventy men were taken out, and, with their 
 hands tied together, shot in cold blood. Prominent Chris- 
 tian men were frequently taken and held for enormous 
 ransoms. Our money gave out, and we were compelled 
 to borrow thousands of dollars in order to feed the multi- 
 tude. After some weeks the missionaries began to go 
 down with the typhus and typhoid that were carrying 
 off so many of the poor people. Out of eighteen adult 
 missionaries, thirteen were sick and three of them died. 
 It seemed as though we were indeed walking, or, rather, 
 dwelling “in the valley of the shadow of death,” but the 
 Shepherd walked with us ; and if at times we felt like 
 saying “All thy waves and thy billows have gone over 
 me,” we could always add, with the psalmist, "yet the 
 Lord will Command His loving kindness in the day time, 
 and in the night His song shall be with me, and my prayer 
 unto the God of my life.” 
 
 After the return of the Russians, every effort was made 
 
 V 
 
to get the Christians to go back to their dismantled, and 
 in many cases demolished, homes. The relief committee 
 distributed to them sickles, scythes and spades, and also 
 loaned them animals for agricultural work. By the begin- 
 ning of August prospects were growing brighter, and then 
 a Turkish drive in another part of the war zone forced 
 the Russians to evacuate Urumia the second time. Again 
 almost the whole Christian population of the plain fled, 
 among them many who had returned with the Russians 
 from the first flight. At this time most of the missionaries 
 also fled, acting on the advice of the Russian Consul and 
 our own Consul in Tabriz. Our own family and Miss 
 Burgess, our trained nurse, stayed to look after the sick 
 and helpless who were left behind in the hospital com- 
 pound. Mr. McDowell and Mr. Labaree remained in the 
 city compound to look after the property and about two 
 hundred people who had taken refuge there. This flight 
 was precipitated by what proved to be a false alarm, and 
 within a month most of the people were back again, 
 though many had fallen victims to cholera and the hard- 
 ships of the road. They had hardly become settled in 
 their twice-plundered homes, when about 35,000 Syrians 
 from the mountains poured down upon the plains of Salmas 
 and Urumia. These people had fled for their lives after 
 months of battling with the Turks and Kurds, hiding, and 
 often starving, in mountain fastnesses. The ruined villages 
 of the Urumia district, already crowded, had to give shelter 
 to nearly 16,000 of these mountaineers. The problem of 
 relief was well-nigh overwhelming. 
 
 The year 1916 and eight or nine months of 1917 was 
 a time of comparative quiet, when the usual lines of mis- 
 sionary work were carried on, and in addition an enormous 
 amount of relief work. Heroic efforts were made to keep 
 up the food supply of the region by the distribution of 
 seed for both spring and fall sowing. There were frequent 
 alarms, and the question of possible flight was often con- 
 sidered, but tilings went on fairly quietly until the Russian 
 break-up in the fall of 1917. 
 
 At that time there was constant talk of the withdrawal 
 
 10 
 
of the Russian army, and the question was, should the 
 Christian population go with the Russians. The other 
 alternative was to arm as many Syrians and Armenians 
 as possible, with the hope that they could hold out until 
 the English took Mosul, which event, it was believed, would 
 make the Christians safe in their own homes. This latter 
 course was advocated by Russian officers, many of whom 
 offered to stay in Urumia to officer the newly organized 
 battalions of Syrians and Armenians; also by a French 
 officer, who had been sent to Urumia by an Allied staff 
 which had taken over the direction of the military affairs 
 on the Caucasian front upon the disintegration of the Rus- 
 sians, and finally by the British acting political officer on 
 that front, who had formulated the plan to keep the front 
 closed with local Christian forces after the withdrawal of 
 the Russian troops. 
 
 It is not strange that the people decided to stay, trust- 
 ing to the promises of the Allied representatives; and right 
 loyally did the Christian fighters support the cause of the 
 Allies. They were a ragged and unkempt army, an im- 
 perfectly disciplined force of irregulars, but they were 
 splendid fighters, and in fourteen pitched battles against 
 Persians, Kurds and regular Turkish forces they were 
 victorious during the first six months of 1918. 
 
 During January of that year the older boys of our 
 college gradually left school and entered the army, and 
 almost all of the Christian men from sixteen to sixty years 
 of age were armed. They were drilled by Russian and 
 French officers and armed with regulation French rifles, 
 and with a few rapid-firing guns and Russian cannon. 
 
 The Persians, when they saw the Russian forces dis- 
 integrating, thought it was their great opportunity, and 
 they, too, began to arm themselves. Their leaders issued 
 the order .that every Moslem who had no gun should sell 
 his wife if necessary and buy one. An effort was made by 
 Dr. Shedd and the Russian Consul, M. Nikitine, to have 
 the Persian Government organize a gendarmerie, composed 
 of Moslems and Christians, to keep order; but this and 
 every other effort to harmonize the warring elements failed 
 
 11 
 
of accomplishment. There were continual clashes in which 
 a few Christians or Moslems were killed, and finally, on 
 February 22d, general shooting throughout the city 
 announced that a planned battle was on foot. 
 
 It afterwards developed that the Moslems had intended 
 by a concerted attack on the Christians, at a time (5 o’clock 
 in the afternoon) when most of the fighters were out in 
 the villages, to wipe out the Christian quarter of the city, 
 and then to move on to the villages one by one. From 5 
 P. M. until midnight the battle kept up, and by that time 
 Agha Petrus and Malik Khoshaba, the Syrian leaders, had 
 control of a large part of the city, and there was a lull for 
 a few hours. In the morning the fighting began again and 
 continued until 3 P. M., when a great shouting announced 
 that the Christians had taken the Public Square (the 
 arsenal yard), and a white flag had been raised. Then a 
 company of Mullahs, with flags of truce, went to Mar 
 Shimun, the Syrian patriarch, and surrendered. A few 
 hundred native Christians had overcome several thousand 
 Moslems, and less than a score of Christians were killed, 
 while more than 600 Moslems lost their lives. 
 
 The capitulation was a signal for a flight of Moslems 
 and Kurds to our city and hospital compounds to escape 
 the vengeance they feared from the victorious Christians. 
 As a matter of fact, the Christian leaders succeeded in 
 controlling their forces, so there was comparatively little 
 looting or murder. One man who was caught plundering 
 was led through the streets by a chain through his nose, 
 with his face blackened and wearing a placard saying that 
 all looters would be treated in a similar fashion. There 
 were many disorders in the villages, however, and looting 
 prompted by hunger quite as much as by a desire for 
 revenge. 
 
 At the time of the Moslem effort to wipe out the Chris- 
 tians of Urumia, the Christians in Khoi, a three days’ 
 journey to the north, had been in great danger, and Dr. 
 Packard had been sent to try to bring them away to a 
 place of greater safety. The Khoi Christians had been 
 overpowered and disarmed before Dr. Packard got there 
 
 12 
 
and were held as hostages by the Mohammedans for the 
 good behavior of the Christians of Salmas and Urumia. 
 There were 3,300 of these Syrian refugees, besides a resi- 
 dent Armenian population of 1,600. The Governor would 
 not permit them to be taken away, and later on over 3,000 
 of them were massacred. 
 
 On March 18, 1918, Mar Shimun was treacherously 
 killed by the Kurdish chief, Ismail Agha, commonly called 
 Simko. This outrage incited the Christians to terrible 
 measures of revenge. There were fights in Salmas and 
 Urumia plains, in all of which the Christians were vic- 
 torious. There were lootings and killings all about us, 
 so that our Mission compounds were the only safe places 
 for Kurds and Moslems of all classes and conditions. For 
 four months our yards were crowded. At the hospital 
 compound our refugees were mostly from nearby Moslem 
 villages, besides many Kurds. Each family set up village 
 life on a small scale on its own little spot, and the family 
 included not only countless children, but cows, donkeys, 
 sheep, goats, hens, oxen, horses and water buffaloes as 
 well. The filth, the noises and the smells were indescrib- 
 able; patience was exhausted and bodies wearied in the 
 struggle to safeguard our streams and wells. 
 
 The thing that made such conditions bearable was the 
 evangelistic opportunity they presented us, and we tried 
 to make the most of it with frequent talks and meetings, 
 using the baby organ and the Victrola as attractions. 
 
 Early in the year, when the Persians found they were 
 no match for the Syrian and Armenian forces, they invited 
 the Turks and Kurds to come and help them. In the spring, 
 as the Turkish armies began to draw near, there were 
 anxious days and endless debates about flight. There were 
 frequent battles, and the hospital was full of the wounded. 
 In May, sickness among the missionaries added to our 
 anxieties. On June 6th, during a propitious lull in hos- 
 tilities, Paul Ellis was born. Thirteen days later the 
 Turks again drew near, and all day we could hear the 
 rattle of machine guns and an occasional boom of cannon. 
 
 13 
 
Once more our valiant army drove the Turks back and 
 we had a few days’ respite. 
 
 None of us are likely to forget the Fourth of July, 
 1918. The Turks were surrounding us on all sides, and 
 the ammunition of the Christians was getting low. The 
 Christians of Salmas had fled to Urumia some weeks before, 
 and thousands were on the verge of starvation. As the 
 weather grew hotter, sickness increased, and the sights 
 and smells grew to be unbearable. It was anything but 
 a glorious Fourth. On July 8th, at 7 A. M., we were 
 thrilled to see a British aeroplane flying above us. There 
 was first fear and then the wildest joy when it was seen 
 that it was not an enemy plane. It flew away the next 
 day, leaving us all cheered by the promise of another visit 
 and of help from the British. 
 
 Again hope was deferred; again the Turks pressed upon 
 us from all sides, and on July 31st flight could no longer 
 be averted. At 2 o’clock in the morning we held a station 
 meeting and voted that all the missionaries should stay at 
 the hospital compound except Dr. and Mrs. Shedd, who 
 were to go with the fleeing people. By 8 A. M. the thou- 
 sands — they were estimated at nearly 70,000 (including 
 the Armenian refugees who had fled from Van in Turkey, 
 and Armenians and Syrians from Salmas) — had started 
 on their way, on foot, on donkeys, in ox carts or in aban- 
 doned Russian Red Cross wagons. By 9.30 we heard shots 
 and wild shouting from the neighboring hills, and soon 
 past our gates rushed the Kurdish horsemen. Some of 
 them stopped, broke in our side gate, killed two people 
 and made a mad rush into the yard and then into the Ellis 
 house. With horrid uproar of shouts, pounding and shots 
 they entered, looking for plunder, stripping the ladies of 
 rings and other jewelry and the men of their shoes. They 
 tried to carry off Mrs. Richards, and were only prevented 
 by their haste to get away before the arrival of the Turkish 
 regulars, who were coming on their heels. 
 
 On August 1st, the Turks took possession, confiscated 
 our horses and cows, and established their sick soldiers 
 in our hospital, turning out our Christian patients to lie 
 
 14 
 
on the ground or in the cots we hastily improvised in the 
 rooms of the college buildings. Four days later Mrs. 
 Pflaumer and Miss Bridges, of the American Orphanage, 
 came to us with about fifty orphans, all that were left of 
 their family of one hundred and five. We learned then 
 that Mr. Pflaumer had been killed the day the Kurds and 
 Turks entered, as he and Mrs. Pflaumer were holding Miss 
 Bridges to save her from a Kurd who was trying to carry 
 her off. 
 
 For the next two months we were kept prisoners in 
 our own homes, and the enforced idleness after months of 
 busy activity was one of our greatest trials. All our sup- 
 plies were confiscated by the Turks, who doled out a mere 
 pittance for our orphans and sick people. Our own babies 
 were sick, and Mrs. Ellis and I had to steal condensed 
 milk from our own supply in the hospital, carrying it under 
 our big aprons before the very eyes of the Turkish offi- 
 cers. Soon we all became infected with a very vicious 
 form of malaria, which was brought to us by the Turks, 
 and every day from 2 or 3 to a dozen of us were down with 
 chills and fever. Our servants, too, all took their turn, 
 while among the refugees typhus, smallpox, dysentery and 
 malaria all claimed their victims. Many died from fright 
 and from the lack of any incentive to get well. Miss 
 Sehoebel, after a sickness of ten days, died of pernicious 
 malaria on September 28th. These were dark days, in- 
 deed, but always there was light in our dwellings. We 
 we're all blessed with a large sense of humor, and merri- 
 ment and fun-making, as well as hymn singing and prayers, 
 helped us over many a hard place. The Victrola was an 
 untold blessing, for Turkish guards, patroling in front of 
 our houses, could not prevent us from enjoying the great 
 musical artists of the world, and often I was uplifted as 
 I played on my piano some such glorious thing as “Be 
 not afraid, saith God the Lord” from the “Elijah.” “Life 
 is more than meat,” indeed, “for which,” a friend once 
 said, “we should be thankful, at its present price.” 
 
 On October 8th we were deported by the Turks on 
 three hours’ notice, and five days later we reached Tabriz. 
 
 15 
 
Here we were kept under guard until October 22d, when 
 our guards told us we were free to go where we pleased, 
 though no trial of any kind had been held. That same 
 day Dr. Vanneman and Mr. Jessup, of the Tabriz Sta- 
 tion, were set free, after having been confined in one room 
 for forty-four days. 
 
 Meanwhile, in Tabriz, the work, in spite of complex 
 and dangerous political conditions, and unrest and fear 
 among the people, had been going on in a very encourag- 
 ing way. There had been much misinterpretation of the 
 Urumia situation, and charges that the Urumia mission- 
 aries had encouraged the Syrians to fight against the 
 Persian Government. German and Turkish influences had 
 been at work in Tabriz for some time past, and frequent 
 newspaper articles had been published against the Ameri- 
 cans. Intrigues had been carried on, not only by German 
 and Turkish agents, but also by the growing number of 
 so-called Persian Democrats. The advance of the Turks 
 caused a scattering, and it was with difficulty that the work 
 of the schools was carried on. The graduation exercises 
 of the Boys’ School, however, were held at the usual time, 
 and on that very day 150 Turks entered the city. 
 
 All the Europeans, including the Consuls, were on the 
 point of leaving, and it was decided that all the mission- 
 aries must go with them except Dr. Vanneman and Mr. 
 Jessup and Mr. Rieben, who was the Swiss teacher of 
 French in the Boys’ School. On June 10th, a long cara- 
 van, bearing people of fourteen nationalities, started out 
 on a twenty days’ overland journey, “a motley proces- 
 sion of covered wagons, carts, horsemen, camels and 
 donkeys escorted by a force of British Cossacks and two 
 machine guns.” Accidents were frequent and danger of 
 attack threatened, but they all reached Kazvin safely. 
 Some of the missionaries remained in Kazvin, some went 
 to Plamadan and Teheran. 
 
 In the meantime, Dr. Vanneman and Mr. Jessup were 
 closely confined by the Turks, who used every means to 
 find out from Dr. Vanneman, Treasurer of the Mission, 
 where the relief mone)' had been deposited. The last three 
 
 16 
 
weeks they saw no one but their jailors, the armed sen- 
 tinels who were changed every hour. Mr. Rieben had 
 fortunately not been arrested, and he, with the help of 
 the Spanish Consul, had been able to safeguard some of 
 the Mission properties and possessions. The buildings, 
 however, had been occupied by the Turks, and all showed 
 signs of bad treatment. Those in the hospital compound 
 were entirely looted and very much injured. 
 
 The last of the Turks left Tabriz on November 5th, 
 but it was not until the spring of 1919 that the bulk of 
 the missionaries were able to get back to Tabriz. While 
 in East Persia, they were all busy helping in missionary 
 and relief work. 
 
 The thousands who fled from Urumia on July 31, 1918, 
 endured sufferings beyond any pen to depict. Six times 
 they were attacked by small Turkish forces and by Persian 
 enemies along the way. Food was scarce and water much 
 of the way unobtainable. Dysentery and cholera carried 
 off thousands, and others fell from exhaustion and died 
 by the way. Our Mission sustained an irreparable loss in 
 the death of Dr. Shedd. Through months past he had 
 given his life and strength without stint to the people who 
 pressed upon him for advice and help of every sort, and 
 in the hours of that flight he had led and encouraged them 
 so that he had no physical strength to resist the dreaded 
 cholera when he was attacked on the sixth day of the 
 journey. 
 
 The mass of the refugees were settled by the British 
 in great camps at Bakuba, while a few thousands remained 
 in Hamadan, or made their way back to Tabriz. The 
 Urumia missionaries remained in Tabriz through the winter 
 of 1918 and 1919 helping that undermanned station. 
 
 In the spring, however, it seemed advisable to reopen 
 the work in Urumia, where 870 Christian refugees were 
 gathered in our main city compound under the care of 
 Mrs. Judith David. She had at first borrowed money to 
 feed these people and buy them a few of the necessities 
 of life, and later we were able to send her relief funds 
 from Tabriz. The local authorities and the Governor of 
 
 17 
 
the province gave us confident assurances of safety, and 
 so on May 2, 1919, the Packard family started for Urumia, 
 leaving the rest of the missionaries to follow in a couple 
 of weeks. The buildings were all in such bad condition 
 after their occupation by the Turks that it seemed best 
 for one family to go over first to put the houses and the 
 hospital in usable condition. We reached Urumia on May 
 4th and received a pathetically glad welcome from the 
 870 refugees. Dr. Packard, with the help of Rev. Jacob 
 David, began to organize relief work for Jews, Moslems 
 and Kurds, as well as for the Christians, and I was busy 
 bringing order out of the mess in our two Mission houses 
 and at the hospital, out at the compound two miles out- 
 side of the city. We were almost never so tired or so 
 happy in our lives as we were those three weeks in our 
 home after months of exile; and then, on May 24th, the 
 blow fell that put an end to all our happy plannings. 
 
 There had been growing hostilities between the Mos- 
 lems of Urumia and the Kurds who had come down from 
 the mountains and wrought havoc all over the fair plain. 
 On different occasions there had been fights between small 
 companies of them, and the feeling had grown intense; 
 and then the good Governor, who had kept things going 
 on an even keel, was recalled and an old-time Persian from 
 Teheran was sent to take his place. He knew nothing of 
 Urumia conditions and nothing of Kurds, and he very soon 
 precipitated trouble. Another cause for trouble was the 
 sending of a bomb to the Kurdish chieftain, Simko, in a 
 box that was labeled “Sweetmeats.” It is undoubtedly 
 true that this bomb was sent by Persian officials. When 
 the box was opened, seven Kurds were killed by the explo- 
 sion, among them a brother of Simko. 
 
 On May 24th occurred a battle between the Kurds and 
 the Persians, in which the former were driven out of the 
 city; and then the Persian mob, their blood being roused, 
 turned upon the defenseless Christians in the American 
 Mission yard. They killed two hundred and seventy of 
 them and wounded one hundred others. They stripped 
 many of the women and looted everything on the place, 
 
 18 
 
including more than $50,000 worth of relief stores. For 
 twenty-four days our family, with the six hundred refugees 
 who escaped, were captives in the Governor’s yard, and, 
 in the meantime, the hospital and our homes were being 
 stripped of everything in them by a mob of Persian looters. 
 We were finally taken out on June 17th by our Consul from 
 Tabriz, Mr. Gordon Paddock. Mr. Paddock, w T hen after 
 many days a message had finally reached him telling him 
 of our plight, organized a rescue party, and, after nine 
 days of dangerous travel through Kurdish country, in which 
 they had many narrow escapes, he, Mr. Mueller and Dr. 
 Dodd reached Urumia on June 15th. It was with the great- 
 est difficulty and danger that he succeeded in getting us all 
 out and safely transported to Tabriz. This tragedy of 
 May and June, 1919, though occurring six months after 
 the Armistice, must be considered as one of our war-time 
 experiences. God grant that it may be the last one ! 
 
 Among the stations of East Persia, Hamadan was the 
 most affected by the war. Like Urumia, it lay in the track 
 of contending armies, and was repeatedly occupied and 
 evacuated by both Russians and Turks. It was finally 
 occupied by the British. In all the stations of the Persia 
 Missions, the war brought extra burdens, with added diffi- 
 culties in carrying on the regular work, and in addition 
 an enormous load of relief distribution. 
 
 Chapter II 
 
 THE MINGLING OF MANY NATIONS 
 
 P ERSIA is a Bible land, and many of its people are 
 survivors of the races who dwelt there in Bible times. 
 It lies between Afghanistan and the old Turkish Empire, 
 and between British India and Russia, on the highway be- 
 tween Europe and Asia. It is a most out-of-the-way place, 
 and few travelers ever visit it. This isolation must con- 
 
 19 
 
tinue until railways are built. A war measure of Russia, 
 to defend the Caucasus front against the Turks, projected 
 a railroad into the city of Tabriz, with a branch to the 
 northern end of Lake Urumia. This Transcaucasian rail- 
 way is now in the hands of four different countries, Persia, 
 Armenia, Georgia and the Republic of Azerbaijan. Its 
 former efficiency under the Russians has departed and 
 may perhaps never be restored unless Russia is rehabili- 
 tated and assumes control again. Before the war the in- 
 crease of Russia’s commercial interests in Persia demanded 
 better roads than Persia possessed, and a macadamized 
 road was built by the Russians from Resht on the Caspian 
 Sea to Teheran, and a branch from Kasvin to Hamadan. 
 
 Modern Persia is only a fraction of the ancient empire. 
 It is now only 900 miles from east to west and 700 miles 
 from north to south. It contains 628,000 square miles, 
 and is more than three times as large as France, while its 
 population is only one-quarter that of France. Persia is 
 partly a desert and much of it is only sparsely settled. 
 Along the western border, however, and on the shores of 
 the Caspian Sea, it is exceedingly fertile. The basin of 
 Lake Urumia is the garden spot of Persia. There the 
 climate is fine, the soil fertile and the region well watered. 
 The climate in the lowlands bordering the Caspian Sea is 
 semi-tropical. Along the Persian Gulf the country is low 
 and sandy and very hot. Elsewhere Persia is an enormous 
 plateau, with pure, bracing air. There are many moun- 
 tains in Persia, and between them beautiful valleys. In 
 the central and south central part are extensive salt deserts. 
 Lake Urumia is a great salt lake, over 80 miles long and 
 about 30 wide, the densest body of water on the planet. 
 
 The Government of Persia is a constitutional monarchy, 
 but the Parliament exercises little influence, and its dis- 
 missal has frequently followed very shortly after its first 
 sitting. The ignorance of the people and the influence 
 of the land-owners make a farce of elections. The present 
 Kajar Dynasty, from a tribe of conquering Turks, came 
 into power about 1790 A. D. For corruption and ineffi- 
 
 20 
 
ciency, this Government is rated by European travelers 
 as one of the worst in the world. 
 
 Migrations and invasions have been the cause of an 
 astonishing mixture of races in modern Persia. An esti- 
 mated population of 9,500,000 before the war has been 
 greatly reduced by the vicissitudes of the war. Two- 
 thirds of the population are Aryans. These include Per- 
 sians in the south, Kurds in the northwest, Lurs and 
 Bakhtiaris in the west and southwest, and Armenians in 
 the northwest province, in Teheran and Isphahan. Semites 
 make up a small portion of the population. Of these the 
 Syrians live in the extreme northwest, while Jews are 
 scattered sparsely but widely through the country. Three 
 hundred and fifty Arabs live in the south of Persia. There 
 are 2,500,000 Turks living chiefly in the northwest. One- 
 quarter of the inhabitants are Nomads, or wandering tribes 
 of semi-Nomads, over whom the Government has little 
 control. There are only two cities of over 200,000 popula- 
 tion, Tabriz and Teheran. The majority of the people 
 live in villages of from 50 to 1,000 or more inhabitants. 
 
 Persia is a polyglot land. The national and literary 
 language is Persian ; the religious language is Arabic. 
 Turkish is most generally spoken in northwest Persia. 
 Kurdish, Syriac and Armenian are also used. 
 
 The peasants and Nomads are physically vigorous, but 
 the inhabitants of the towns are weaker, and the wealthy 
 tend to degeneracy and effeminacy. Persians are quick 
 of perception, fond of discussion, imaginative, with good 
 memories, and show great aptitude for religious and phil- 
 osophical speculation. Some Persians are tall, but the 
 majority are of medium stature. They have regular fea- 
 tures, dark complexions, black hair and eyes. Though 
 courtly and polite, luxurious in taste and fond of dress, 
 many are nevertheless able to endure great hardships. 
 They live much in the open air and delight in horses and 
 the chase. The nation has produced some great poets and 
 is full of poetry lovers. 
 
 The mass of the people are attached to the soil and 
 are transferred with it from one great land-owner to an- 
 
 21 
 
other. Pitiless exactions are frequent. The masters fur- 
 nish seed, and the subjects till the soil, supplying animals 
 and implements, while the master takes two-thirds of the 
 crop and his overseer makes further levies on the subject. 
 The subject must also pay his taxes and feed the servants 
 of the master who are sent to divide the crops. 
 
 The Assyrians live in northwest Persia and in the 
 mountains of Kurdistan within the old Turkish Empire. 
 These people are the remnant of a once widespread Chris- 
 tian Church. They had famous schools in Edessa and 
 other places. They were favored by Haroun A1 Rashid 
 and held positions of honor at his court. Under Hulakhu 
 Khan, grandson of Ghenghiz Khan, they were in great 
 favor and had a most flourishing school in Maragha. Until 
 the close of the fourteenth century, this church prospered 
 with only an occasional persecution. Tamerlane, with his 
 victorious Kurds, came out of the Central Asian plateau 
 and devastated the lands occupied by this early church. 
 Later the fanatic zeal of the Mohammedans all but ex- 
 terminated the Christian faith in Persia and drove the 
 remnant of Christians to seek refuge in the inaccessible 
 fastnesses of the mountains of Kurdistan. Here most of 
 them have lived for more than four centuries, and here the 
 patriarch Mar Shimun is recognized as their religious and 
 political head. Some ventured down to the plain of Mosul 
 and have become Catholics, while others descended to the 
 plains of Persia, where many have become Russian Ortho- 
 dox Christians ; a few, Catholics ; and several thousands 
 have become a flourishing Protestant Church, called the 
 Syrian Evangelical Church. 
 
 There are 70,000 Armenians in Persia. They are a 
 people of pure morals, save those who have been long in 
 Russia, and are great lovers of their homes and families. 
 They are characterized by a spirit of clannishness and 
 great pride of race and faith. They are very industrious 
 and have great ability. Commercial^' they are the most 
 enterprising people in Persia. 
 
 Between Mesopotamia and Central Persia 20,000 Jews, 
 the remnant of the Assyrian and Babylonian captivities. 
 
 22 
 
are scattered in many cities and towns. In some places 
 they are farmers, but most of them are tradesmen. 
 
 Chapter III 
 
 THE OLD RELIGIONS IN A NEW DAY 
 
 T HE social and moral conditions of a country can 
 rightly be understood only when the religion of that 
 country has been studied. The ancient religion of Persia 
 was the faith of Zoroaster. This faith, if we may judge 
 by the spirit of its earliest hymns and its oldest religious 
 monuments, was the worship of One True God. This early 
 religion gradually degenerated into the worship of fire and 
 the heavenly bodies, and was corrupted by the additions 
 of the occult sciences of the Magi and the corrupt mysteries 
 of Babylon, so that in the time of Cyrus and Queen Esther 
 the religion of Persia was a mixture of idolatry with the 
 worship of the True God of Heaven; yet withal, it was 
 doubtless the purest in the world after that of the Hebrews. 
 This is perhaps the reason why God used Cyrus and the 
 Persians as instruments to restore His people and rebuild 
 His temple. This religion survives today in Kirman and 
 Yezd, the only places where perpetual fires are still kept 
 burning. There are perhaps 10,000 worshippers in these 
 two places and in smaller groups throughout Persia. 
 
 In the seventh century the faith of the “Camel Driver 
 of Mecca” was forced upon the Persian Emperor and his 
 people by “the fiery hordes of Arabia,” and for more than 
 1,000 years “Mohammed has swayed and cursed the mil- 
 lions of Persia.” There are two great sects in Islam, the 
 Sunnis, or orthodox, and the Shiahs, or heterodox Mos- 
 lems. The latter are partisans of Ali, the son-in-law and 
 nephew of the prophet, and his two sons, Hassan and Hus- 
 sein. These they hold to be the rightful successors of 
 Mohammed instead of Abubekr, Omar and Osman, who 
 
 23 
 
were the Caliphs recognized by Orthodox Moslems. The 
 Shiah faith is held chiefly in Persia. The Persians are 
 most fanatical in their devotion to the house of Ali, and 
 have incorporated his name in their regular call to prayer, 
 saying, "Mohammed is the Prophet of God, Ali is the Vicar 
 of God.” Once every year, the month of Moharrem, or 
 mourning, commemorates the deaths of Hassan and Hus- 
 sein. The latter of these was cruelly slain with his fol- 
 lowers on the battlefield of Kerbola, which has ever since 
 that time been held sacred by the Shiah Mohammedans. 
 For the first nine days of Moharrem the people assemble 
 in their Mosque and listen to the story of the tragedy re- 
 cited by their priests, and travel about the streets beating 
 their breasts and calling out the names of Hassan and 
 Hussein. On the tenth day occurs what has been called 
 the “Persian Passion Play.” From every Mosque in the 
 city processions parade the streets, companies of men and 
 boys repeating the various events of the battle of Kerbola ; 
 some leading riderless horses ; some bearing a litter with 
 a red-stained dummy on it to represent the corpse of Hus- 
 sein; some dressed like captive women and girls being 
 driven along with whips by their mail-clad captors ; and 
 always, with every company, a band of white-sbirted men 
 cutting their heads with swords, and others with naked 
 trunks beating their backs with chain-whips, and others 
 with padlocks locked through the flesh of their chests. 
 The processions from all quarters of the city converge to 
 the Public Square, where the Governor reviews them. 
 Here their frenzy increases until many have to be de- 
 prived of their swords to keep them from seriously injur- 
 ing themselves. The streets throughout the city are 
 thronged with pious spectators, who cry and beat their 
 breasts, or sprinkle dust and chaff upon their heads. This 
 celebration is of rather recent development, having come 
 into practice not much more than one hundred years ago. 
 Some of the missionaries maintain that it should be con- 
 sidered an encouraging sign as indicating a decadent Islam. 
 
 There are many sects within the main divisions of Shiah 
 Mohammedanism, most notably the Ali Illahis, and Babis 
 
 24 
 
or Bahais ; because of this they may be considered the weak 
 point of Islam. There are some Sunni Mohammedans in 
 Persia among the Turkish-speaking population of Azer- 
 baijan, and the Kurds along the Turko-Pcrsian border are 
 all of that sect. 
 
 Some one has well said, “In Persia, as elsewhere, Mo- 
 hammedanism has proved a barrier to progress and has 
 resulted in a very low moral condition. Probably nowhere 
 in the world has deceit been more nearly universal, the 
 state of the family and woman more degraded, and the 
 ruins of past achievement more manifest than in Persia.’’ 
 
 There are two Christian sects represented in Persia, 
 the Assyrian or Nestorian and the Armenian. Both of 
 these ancient churches have held to their faith through 
 much persecution and trial, and this, in spite of the fact 
 that their religion for centuries has been a purely formal 
 one, a keeping of fasts and occasional reading of ritual in 
 an ancient language which the mass of the people do not 
 understand. It is touching to see how they have stood 
 firm and suffered for their faith that was hardly more 
 than a name, but that name was the name of Christ, and 
 even in their dense ignorance and darkness they have held 
 that name as their most precious possession, dearer than 
 life itself. We, who live in a land of comfort and en- 
 lightenment, may well ask ourselves whether Christ is as 
 precious to us as he has been to His suffering followers 
 in the land of persecution and darkness. 
 
 The Assyrians of Kurdistan and West Persia are the 
 remnants of one of the oldest Christian churches. They 
 hold the tradition that their ancestors accepted the gospel 
 as preached to them by the Apostle Thomas in the first 
 century. The name Nestorian was given to them because 
 they followed Nestorius, a Bishop of Constantinople, who 
 was condemned as a heretic in A. D. 431. His heresy 
 consisted of certain opinions regarding the person of 
 Christ, which were not generally acceptable to the church 
 of that day. The Assyrians themselves reject the name 
 Nestorian, but still it clings to them. “The growth of 
 this early Assyrian church,” says one, “is one of the bright- 
 
 25 
 
est and most interesting chapters in the annals of Chris- 
 tianity. By its wonderful missionary enterprises, churches 
 were planted from Egypt to China and from north of the 
 Caspian Sea to the southern boundaries of India.” The 
 story of the persecutions of the Assyrians has been out- 
 lined in a previous chapter. They have always been, as 
 their Moslem neighbors bear witness, “a people of the 
 Book.” They have clung tenaciously to their Bibles, even 
 though the masses of the people are too ignorant to read 
 for themselves. Those who have learned to read have 
 often had to share one copy of the Bible with many others, 
 and many a boy from the mountains, when he came down 
 to Urumia college, could read only when the book was 
 upside down, because he had been one of a circle around 
 a single Bible and his place had always been at the top 
 of the book. For thousands of these ignorant Christians 
 religion consists in keeping rigidly two fasts each year, 
 and except for this their lives are very little different from 
 those of their Kurdish neighbors. It should, however, be 
 said that the standard of family life has remained astonish- 
 ingly pure through the centuries of contact with Islam. 
 
 The Armenians, like the Assyrians, are a people of 
 pure morals and are even more intense in their pride of 
 race and religious history. They also are ignorant and 
 superstitious, and are absolutely under the control of their 
 priests, a class bigoted and overbearing to the last degree, 
 and all too often as ignorant as the masses whom they 
 mislead. They are more self-assertive and forth-putting 
 than the Assyrians, and in recent years they have done 
 much to establish schools for themselves. Theologically 
 they differ from the Assyrians in that they permit the 
 adoration of saints and the worship of images and believe 
 in the doctrine of Transubstantiation, all of which things 
 are abhorrent to the Nestorians. 
 
 It is not to be wondered at that these old Christian 
 faiths have not been a great force in influencing Moham- 
 medanism. They have had the strength that has enabled 
 them to keep themselves separate, and to die if need be 
 rather than accept Islam, but they have lacked the en- 
 
 26 
 
lightenment that would enable them to teach their Moslem 
 neighbors, and they have lacked the love that would make 
 them desire to help their enemies. A great change in these 
 two respects has already been wrought by the years of 
 missionary work among them, as will be shown in a later 
 chapter, and there are many signs that a still greater 
 advance w r ill be seen in the next few years if the people 
 can be restored to their homes and once more dwell near 
 their Moslem neighbors. 
 
 One other religion remains to be mentioned, namely, 
 that of the Jews. More than a mention is not necessary, 
 for a Jew is a Jew wherever found, and the problem of 
 converting him is not very different in Persia than in 
 other lands. It should be said that quite a number of 
 Persian Jews have accepted Christ, especially in East 
 Persia, and we believe that they, like the other races in 
 Persia, will be still more accessible after the recent years 
 of suffering. 
 
 HE home life of Persia is not very different from 
 
 that of Turkey or any other Moslem country. The 
 worst evils of the social system are not in spite of, but 
 the result of, the religions of the country, but it must be 
 admitted that the women of Persia, as a whole, are less 
 enlightened than even their Moslem sisters of Turkey. 
 Their very dress is significant. In Turkey the women, to 
 a great extent, have cast aside the veil, but in Persia the 
 Moslem woman still walks about enveloped in the hideous 
 black chuddar, which does not allow a glimpse of her face 
 to be seen, nor a breath of air to reach the poor soul 
 wrapped up in it. In Teheran some of the more advanced 
 Persian ladies appear on the street in European cos- 
 
 Chapter IV 
 
 HOME LIFE AND INDUSTRIES 
 
 27 
 
tumes, but in Northwest Persia no one is yet bold enough 
 to discard the chuddar. In East Persia the percentage 
 of illiteracy among women is doubtless much lower than 
 in Azerbaijan, but in the latter province, outside of the 
 Christian women, not more than two or three in a thou- 
 sand can read and write. Among the Kurds, the illiteracy 
 of women is still greater, though in the matter of dress 
 they are better off than their Persian sisters. They 
 go unveiled and are in every way freer than the Persian 
 Mohammedan women. The wife of a Kurdish Sheikh was 
 once a patient in our hospital in Urumia, and, while she 
 was there, I called upon her several times. A man servant 
 interpreted for us, as she knew no Turkish, and I knew no 
 Kurdish. There was a woman with her who seemed of 
 a higher rank than the other servants, and I noticed that 
 they all called her “Shatawn Khanum,” which means Lady 
 Satan. Finally I asked the interpreter why she was called 
 Lady Satan, if it was because she was so much worse than 
 the rest of them. “Oh, no,” he answered, “she is not bad 
 at all, only she is as clever as the devil himself ; she is the 
 only woman in Kurdistan who knows how to read and 
 write, and she is secretary for the Sheikh’s wife. 
 
 Persian houses are flat-roofed and built usually of sun- 
 dried brick or adobe, except the houses of the wealthy, 
 which are faced with burnt brick. Poor people and vil- 
 lagers usually have but one room, -with mud floor, and no 
 furniture except a few rolls of bedding, spread out at 
 night, and tied up in a calico cover and turned up against 
 the wall by day, a few cooking utensils and dishes, a 
 samovar and a kursee. The kursee is the common furnace 
 of houses of all grades. It consists of a wooden frame, 
 standing eighteen inches high, and is sometimes three or 
 four feet square — sometimes as much as two yards square. 
 It is placed over a hole in the ground, in which glowing 
 charcoal is kept, and is covered with a thick comforter, 
 which is frequently more than five yards square. The 
 family sit about the kursee, with their feet underneath it 
 and the comforter drawn up around their waists. 
 
 The kursee is one of Persia’s best breeders of disease. 
 
 28 
 
One cannot but fear, when invited to sit under the com- 
 forter, that some child sick with scabies, scarlet fever or 
 smallpox has recently been tucked up in its folds. It is 
 not unusual for a child to be so closely wrapped under the 
 comforter that he is suffocated to death from the charcoal 
 fumes that come from the fire. 
 
 In villages and homes of the poor in the city, the hole 
 under the kursee is very deep and is called a tandoor. It 
 is both oven and cook stove for the family. Boiling pots 
 are suspended over the coals at the bottom, and when 
 bread is baked it is slapped across the sides of the tandoor. 
 Bread baking is done very infrequently, a supply for sev- 
 eral months being made each time. The dough is formed 
 into little balls, which are first rolled out and then flung 
 from one hand and arm to the other, until greatly elongated 
 and about as thin as heavy paper or felt; then they are 
 spread over a padded wicker frame of oval shape, about 
 a yard long and half as wide, and with this they are slapped 
 against the sides of the tandoor, where they cling for a 
 few moments until baked through, when the baker woman 
 peals them off and stacks them about on the floor to dry. 
 
 The kursee has a close rival as a disease breeder in the 
 public bath or Hammun. Here all the people of all classes 
 and conditions, sick or well, decent or filthy, bathe in turn, 
 for Persian houses know no bathrooms. Here women meet 
 each other and have their only chance in the week to gossip 
 to their heart’s content. They spend hours in the Hammun, 
 which includes not only bathing, but hair-dressing, mani- 
 curing and the application of various cosmetics. The 
 stick which is used to blacken the eve-brows and eve-lashes 
 is one of the chief causes of the almost universal spread of 
 trachoma and other eye diseases. 
 
 Even in wealthy homes, the furnishings are much sim- 
 pler than they are in Europe and America. There are 
 usually separate quarters for men and women, each of 
 which has a reception room. These rooms are beautifully 
 carpeted with Persian rugs and are furnished with many 
 cushions, and in recent years with chairs and serving tables, 
 for tea must always be served to callers. 
 
 29 
 
The ornamentation of homes consists chiefly in mir- 
 rors large and small, and lamps and candlesticks of all 
 sizes and kinds. In not a few homes in recent years the 
 graduation diplomas of sons or daughters from the Ameri- 
 can schools hold a place of honor. 
 
 The living arrangements of the homes of the people 
 are simple and primitive. The food consists of bread and 
 matzoon (sour milk), a meat stew or perhaps a rice pillaf. 
 All eat from a common dish, using their fingers or bits of 
 bread in lieu of spoons and forks. Sometimes larger strips 
 of break are broken off and used as plates, and then the 
 plate is devoured little by little with the food. The vine- 
 yards of Persia furnish many important additions to the 
 diet, among them fresh grapes and those that are hung for 
 the winter, raisins, molasses, vinegar and wines. 
 
 The life of women and girls in Persia is a hard one. 
 The Persians are fond of children, but they prefer boys 
 to girls; and when a girl is born into a home where there 
 are already several sisters, she is frequently named “Guz- 
 bes,” meaning “enough girl.’’ Her mother, too, will very 
 likely be divorced for having brought the unwelcome little 
 waif into the world. Little Guzbes will not be sent to 
 school, of course, as girls have no more mind than donkeys. 
 She will have to begin to keep the fast of Ramazan when 
 she is nine years old, though her brother will not fast until 
 he is twelve. When she is eleven or twelve years old her 
 family will arrange a marriage for her with a man she has 
 never seen, and she will become a drudge for him instead 
 of for her father or brothers. She will become the mother 
 of many children probably, but only a few will live to 
 grow up because Guzbes has never been taught how to 
 take proper care of babies. As she grows older, other 
 wives will perhaps be brought to share her home, and she 
 will steal, here a little and there a little, of her husband’s 
 money or the household supplies, hiding them away against 
 the day when she may be divorced and turned out of the 
 house. The daughter of a wealthy home does not suffer 
 from the drudgery of life, but who shall say her lot is 
 easier, as she does nothing day after day, except to drink 
 
 30 
 
tea, or smoke cigarettes or the water-pipe, and try to make 
 herself more pleasing to her husband than his other wives? 
 
 The moral conditions in a large Moslem household are 
 better left to be imagined than described. As in patri- 
 archal times, the sons bring their wives to their father’s 
 house and all live under one roof. The son of one of 
 Urumia’s greatest noblemen attended our school for Mos- 
 lem boys, and one day heard the Hakim Sahib (foreign 
 doctor) give a talk to the school on personal purity. After- 
 wards he said to his teacher, “How could a young man 
 possibly grow up pure in my father’s house?” His father 
 had had 133 wives, and there were in his house own chil- 
 dren and great grand-children of the same age. 
 
 There are beginning to be a few happy exceptions to 
 the foregoing picture. Thanks to missionary schools and 
 other contacts with missionaries, the sentiment is growing 
 that was expressed by one high-class lady when a mis- 
 sionary mistook her daughter for a sister; she said, "She 
 is my daughter, though she is only twelve years younger 
 than I am, but her father and I have agreed that we will 
 not give her in marriage until she is at least seventeen 
 years old.” There is a demand for a change on the part 
 of the young men also, and an increasing number of school 
 boys are saying, “We do not want to marry little girls 
 who cannot read and write. We want our wives to be 
 educated.” 
 
 The homes of the Christians in Persia are very different 
 from those already described, though the houses they live 
 in are in general the same. Polygamy is, of course, un- 
 known, and divorce of exceedingly rare occurrence. Edu- 
 cation has been given to three generations of Christian 
 women, so that it is not uncommon now for a graduate of 
 Fiske Seminary to have a grandmother who also studied 
 there. Even village girls are educated, thanks to an effi- 
 cient system of village schools for both boys and girls. 
 This is the chief reason for the fact that even a casual 
 traveler can tell a Christian village from a Moslem village 
 as far away as he can see it by the appearance of greater 
 cleanliness and comfort. It is a fact of great significance 
 
 31 
 
that during a cholera epidemic some years ago the Christian 
 villages and Christian houses of the city suffered less than 
 their Moslem neighbors, because they followed the advice 
 that was printed and circulated by the missionary doctor, 
 while the others were inclined to scoff at it. 
 
 The Moslem attitude is always fatalistic and they say, 
 “If it is God’s will that we die of cholera, we shall die; and 
 why should we boil our water and avoid eating fruit?” But 
 when they saw how much better the Christians came 
 through than they did, they decided there was something 
 worth while in the instructions of the missionaries. 
 
 The chief industry of Persia has for centuries been the 
 making of rugs. In almost every home a loom is set up, 
 which the women and girls w’ork on in their spare moments, 
 completing a rug in a few months, or, if a large one, taking 
 more than a year to finish it. Recently this industry has 
 been commercialized by foreign companies, who have estab- 
 lished factories, where women and boys give their whole 
 time to making rugs, but still rugs continue to be made in 
 many homes, especially in the villages and among the 
 Nomad tribes. 
 
 Chapter V 
 
 A CENTURY OF MISSIONS 
 
 I T was more than a century ago, in 1811 , that Henry 
 Martyn went to Persia, the first Protestant missionary 
 to that land. He lived in Shiraz for about eleven months, 
 and in that time, besides giving frequent and bold testi- 
 mony before the Mohammedans, he completed a transla- 
 tion of the New Testament and the Psalms into Persian 
 which he had begun in India. He presented a copy of 
 this translation to the Shah, and then journeyed westward, 
 a solitary apostle of Jesus Christ, until death overtook him 
 in the little village of Tokat, in Asia Minor. There a 
 
 32 
 
shaft set up by the East India Company marks his lonely 
 grave. Thus was the land claimed for Christ. 
 
 Since then a number of societies have worked in Persia 
 for a longer or shorter period; most prominent among 
 them, the Presbyterian Board of the United States of 
 America, beginning work in 1833; the Church Missionary 
 Society of England entering in 1869, and the Archbishop 
 of Canterbury’s Mission established in 1886. The last- 
 mentioned carried on work until the beginning of the war, 
 among the Assyrian Christians of Urumia and the moun- 
 tains of Kurdistan. 
 
 The work of the Church Missionary Society is entirely 
 in South Persia, having stations at Isphahan, Shiraz, Kir- 
 man and Yezd. Their work has been wonderfully blessed 
 and has resulted in hundreds of conversions of Moham- 
 medans. The Presbyterian Board has occupied North 
 Persia and has two missions, known as the East and West 
 Persia Missions. The latter includes the stations of Uru- 
 mia and Tabriz. The former includes stations at Teheran, 
 Resht, Kasvin, Hamadan, Kirmashah and Meshed. 
 
 In 1829 the American Board sent two men to explore 
 the region of Northwest Persia. It was as a result of 
 their report concerning the oppressed Nestorians on the 
 plain about Lake Urumia that the Nestorian Mission was 
 established, four years later, when the Rev. Justin Perkins 
 was appointed its first missionary. Urumia was formerly 
 occupied as a station by Dr. Perkins and Dr. Grant and 
 their wives, on November 20, 1835. 
 
 For twenty years the effort was to reform the old Nes- 
 torian church without interfering with its organization ; 
 then separation inevitably came about, but not as a violent 
 disruption. The converts were first invited to unite with 
 the missionaries in celebrating the Lord’s Supper; gradu- 
 ally pastors were put in charge of the little congregations 
 of the different villages, and in 1862 the first meeting of 
 the Presbytery was held. Now there are four Presbyteries, 
 three in Persia and one in Turkey, which together form 
 a Synod. 
 
 The history of the growth of the work in the Urumia 
 
 33 
 
region is a thrilling story of Pentecostal blessings and 
 Apostolic power. Through labors, pestilence, famine, per- 
 secution and perils, the mighty work of God was mani- 
 fested in remarkable providences and in abundant conver- 
 sions. It is a long record of noble missionaries and faithful 
 native workers doing exploits through the power of God. 
 
 It has always been the hope of the missionaries that 
 the Assyrian Church would be the source of supply for 
 evangelists to the Moslems of Urumia and all of North 
 Persia. This hope has been realized to a certain extent, 
 and we believe will be increasingly realized as a result of 
 the terrible sufferings and dispersion of God’s people dur- 
 ing the war. The Assyrian Evangelical Church, before the 
 war, had attained a degree of self-support that w r as en- 
 couraging though not wholly satisfactory. It was doing 
 its work through three well-organized native boards, 
 Evangelistic, Educational and Legal. It had furnished 
 many workers for other fields, including Tabriz, Salmas, 
 Maragha, Hamadan, the Caucasus and the mountain field 
 as far as Bohtan, 200 miles away on the Tigris River. Col- 
 porteurs and evangelists from Urumia have “hazarded their 
 lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ’’ in many 
 places. 
 
 In 1871 the w’ork w r as transferred by the American 
 Board to the Presbyterian Board. The following year a 
 station was opened at Teheran and a year later at Tabriz. 
 Hamadan was next occupied in 1880 and in 1883 the work 
 was divided into the East and West Persia Missions. In 
 the work of both Missions there has always been 
 co-operation with the American Bible Society and the 
 British and Foreign Bible Society to the great advantage 
 of the work. Now the British and Foreign Bible Society 
 has charge of all the work in Persia. The work in all the 
 stations of both Missions has been carried on along similar 
 lines, including evangelistic, educational and medical 
 agencies, ministering to all the races and peoples repre- 
 sented in the various fields. Urumia also had a press and 
 published evangelistic and educational literature for the 
 two Missions. In general, it may be said that the work 
 
 34 
 
for the Mohammedans has resulted in more converts from 
 Islam in East Persia than in West Persia, as the people 
 are less fanatical in regions nearer the capital. There are 
 many signs already that the Moslem work in West Persia 
 is to be greatly increased and we trust greatly blessed as 
 a result of the war that brought such terrible sufferings 
 to both Christians and Mohammedans. We have heard 
 many of the Christians say, “These troubles came upon 
 us because we had not been faithful in trying to convert 
 our Moslem neighbors, and we are praying God to let us 
 return home that we may tell them of our Christ.” And 
 we have heard more than one Mohammedan say, “I have 
 seen what my people have done to the Christians, and I 
 have seen how they have borne the persecutions, and I am 
 done with Islam.” 
 
 In West Persia, especially in the Urumia district, the 
 entrance of the Russian Mission about 1890 caused a great 
 setback to the work, as a large majority of the old Nes- 
 torian Church in Persia and a few of the Evangelical 
 Church members went over to the Russian Orthodox Church 
 for the sake of the political advantages they expected to 
 reap. This hindrance was removed by the war, and the 
 Evangelical Church now has the opportunity to win these 
 thousands who are left without any spiritual shepherd. 
 
 A later chapter will be devoted to educational work, 
 but something should be said here of the medical work as 
 an agency in winning the favor of the Mohammedans. 
 
 Islam constitutes probably the most difficult problem 
 before the missionary church today, and nothing has been 
 more effective under God’s hand in grappling with this 
 problem than the medical arm of our missionary service. 
 The proud Mullah, who would not touch a Christian’s 
 hand for fear of pollution, has kissed the hands of the 
 surgeon who opened his blind eyes. The fierce Kurd who 
 cares nothing for education, and less than nothing for 
 preaching, is ready to call himself the slave of the doctor 
 who saved his child’s life by an operation. Many were 
 the times during the war when the Urumia missionaries 
 and the native Christians in the mission yards owed their 
 
 35 
 
safety to the fact that certain Kurdish chieftains, or mem- 
 bers of their families, had been saved from death by the 
 surgeon’s knife or the doctor’s traveling medicine bag. 
 The starving beggar whom none would touch has been 
 brought to love the tender Christian hands that washed his 
 filthy body and laid it in a clean bed; and the educated 
 nobleman who would scorn the Christian’s Book has learned 
 to read and love the Bible that was read to him as he lay 
 in the American hospital. 
 
 The story of our newest station, Meshed, is a fine example 
 of the way in which medicine is the handmaid of evangel- 
 ism. Meshed is a city of 120,000 inhabitants, the capital 
 of the fertile province of Khorassan, lying north of the 
 borders of Afghanistan and Russian Turkestan; here the 
 great overland caravan routes from India and Central Asia 
 on the east, and Persia, Arabia and Turkey on the west, 
 converge. It is the nearest and best approach to the last- 
 closed country, Afghanistan. It is one of the strategic 
 challenging places of the world from a missionary’s point 
 of view. Meshed is one of the three sacred cities of the 
 Mohammedan world, Mecca and Kerbola being the other 
 two. Thither the tribes go up, tribes of pilgrims, 100,000 
 of them annually. They come from Kashmir, Afghanistan, 
 Bokhara, India and every part of Persia, and besides these 
 transients, Meshed has a most cosmopolitan population of 
 its own, including Arabs, Turks, Hindus and Persians. 
 This city had been visited a few times by missionaries 
 from Teheran and Hamadan, but was first occupied in 
 1911 by Rev. L. F. Esselstyn, D. D. He very soon asked 
 for a medical associate, feeling that evangelism and medi- 
 cine must work together if they were to gain the attention 
 of the multitude, and a splendid team they have made. 
 
 The American doctor in Meshed in ten months saw 
 17,000 patients and performed four hundred operations. 
 In the dispensary, thousands of visitors have heard the 
 Gospel message, and thousands of copies of Scriptures have 
 been sold. Sometimes a boy or man who has bought a 
 book on some previous occasion comes and testifies to the 
 crowd that he has found it “very sweet,” or “the word of 
 
 36 
 
God,” or “necessary for ns all.” Even the illiterate buy 
 it, saying they will get some one to read it to them. 
 
 The force at Meshed has been greatly increased dur- 
 ing the last year. An adequate hospital is to be built and 
 educational work started at once. Dr. Esselstyn, the noble 
 pioneer, has gone to his reward, having fallen a victim to 
 typhus fever in 1918, while carrying a heavy burden of 
 relief work in addition to his usual labors. 
 
 Many stories might be told of individual converts from 
 Islam, but two must suffice, one from each Mission: 
 
 Mirza Ibrahim lived in Khoi, seventy-five miles to the 
 north of Urumia. He became acquainted with Shamasha 
 Werda, a graduate of Urumia College, who was an evan- 
 gelist for that region for many years. Through him, Mirza 
 Ibrahim first became interested in Christianity. After- 
 wards he was further instructed and baptized by our 
 Syrian pastor in Salmas. Persecution began as soon as 
 he was baptized. His wife left him, and he was cast out 
 by his entire family. Finally he had to flee to the mis- 
 sionaries in Urumia, and for some time was engaged in 
 translating Foster’s “Story of the Bible” into Turkish. 
 He was not contented, however, and felt that he must be 
 out in the villages preaching the gospel. For some months 
 he was very active preaching in the villages of the Baran- 
 duz River, and then he was arrested and sent to Urumia 
 and imprisoned. Soon he was transferred to the govern- 
 ment prison of Tabriz. There he preached Christ con- 
 stantly to his fellow prisoners until the fame of him 
 reached the authorities, who urged all the prisoners who 
 would win merit as good Mohammedans to silence him, by 
 violence if necessary. Accordingly, they fell upon him 
 with blows and abuse; and when that did not stop him, 
 they finally choked him almost to death with their hands 
 one night. In the morning his condition was so serious 
 that the authorities, in alarm, allowed Dr. Vanneman to 
 go to see him. The doctor found his neck lacerated and 
 his throat so obstructed that nothing could be done for 
 him. He died after a few hours of suffering, but was 
 conscious to the last and glad and triumphant in Christ. 
 
 37 
 
(Mirza) Seyid Khan is a converted Gorani Kurd of 
 Senna. When asked one time what first interested him 
 in Christianity, he said it was not any preaching that he 
 had heard; it was the holy life of the Assyrian pastor that 
 made him willing to study for himself the copy of the New 
 Testament that this man presented to him. When he be- 
 came a Christian, his family were terribly angry, for they 
 were descended from seven generations of Mohammedan 
 Mullahs. He fled to Hamadan, whither his brother fol- 
 lowed him with dagger and gun to kill him. He studied 
 medicine with Dr. Holmes in Hamadan, and later studied 
 in England. When he returned to Persia, he became the 
 leading eye specialist in Teheran. At one time he was sent 
 for to visit a patient in Senna, his former home. Many 
 of his friends urged him not to go fearing for his life, but 
 he believed that it was God’s opportunity for him, and 
 he went. When his former neighbors saw what a great 
 and wise man he had become, they brought many w r ho 
 were sick to see him, and the Mullahs said, “What a pity 
 such a man is not still a Mohammedan ! Let us try to find 
 out what changed his faith.” So by day he ministered to 
 the sick, and far into the night he talked of his Christian 
 faith; and, when he left, the blessing of many who had 
 hated and longed to kill him, followed him. Today he is 
 still doing the work of a Christian physician, and the 
 brother who followed him with rifle and dagger is now a 
 touring evangelist, preaching Christ in all the region 
 around Hamadan. 
 
 Chapter VI 
 
 EDUCATION, THE GIFT OF THE WEST 
 TO THE EAST 
 
 W HAT western education has done for Persia and 
 what opportunities are as yet ungraspcd are both 
 suggested by a remark of an ignorant old Kurd made to 
 
 38 
 
a missionary a number of years ago. He said, “I saw 
 the Christians in Urumia fifty years ago; they were 
 ignorant laborers and poor. I see them today, and because 
 of your schools and churches, they have become the learned 
 and the masters, and the land is in their hands; but the 
 Kurds are as yet as dogs. I have thirty-two boys under 
 my roof. Give us a school, and these thirty-two boys 
 shall be your first scholars.” 
 
 More than eighty years ago all of Persia was almost 
 as primitive and unenlightened as in the time of Abraham. 
 Today there are thousands of her population who have 
 seen a light, and who have moved out of the darkness and 
 superstition in which they and their fathers had sat for 
 centuries; but still darkness covers much of the land, and 
 many reach out their hands and beg for schools as did 
 the poor old Kurd. 
 
 The story of western education in Persia begins in a 
 dark little cellar in Urumia, on a cold January day in 1836, 
 when Rev. Justin Perkins gathered about him ten little 
 Assyrian boys. On the second day seventeen came, and 
 in the course of time that little school grew into Urumia 
 College and the American School for Boys, with depart- 
 ments for Moslems and Jews as well as Christian boys. 
 This institution has sent out hundreds of teachers, preach- 
 ers and colporteurs, and, in connection with Westminster 
 Hospital, more than a score of native physicians. 
 
 The first school for girls began in 1838, with Mrs. 
 Judith Grant as teacher and four little Nestorian girls as 
 pupils. When Miss Fidelia Fiske arrived five years later, 
 she determined to start a boarding department in order 
 that she might remove the girls from the vice and degrada- 
 tion of their home environment. On the opening day no 
 pupils appeared at first, and Miss Fiske was almost dis- 
 couraged, but before the day was over Mar Yohanan 
 brought her two little girls and placed their hands in hers, 
 saying, “They be your daughters; no man take them from 
 your hand. Now you begin Mt. Holyoke in Persia.” 
 
 This Mar Yohanan had been taken to America for a visit, 
 and on his return had reported the wonders he had seen 
 
 39 
 
in these words: "The blind they do see, the deaf they do 
 hear, and the women they do read — they be not beasts.” 
 
 Out of Fiske Seminary have gone hundreds of teachers 
 and preachers’ wives and thousands of enlightened mothers, 
 and for the last fifteen years there has been a department 
 of the school for Moslem girls, and a hopeful beginning 
 has been made in a school for Jewish girls. 
 
 Besides the American School for Boys and Fiske Semi- 
 nary for Girls, there are schools of primary grade in most 
 of the Christian villages on the plain and in about fifty 
 mountain centers, and plans were on foot for opening 
 schools in certain Moslem villages when the vicissitudes 
 of the war put an end temporarily to all the work in the 
 Urumia field. 
 
 In Tabriz there are two large mission schools, the 
 Memorial School for Boys and the School for Girls. The 
 former was started in the face of bitter opposition, in 
 1873, and the latter in 1879. Both schools reach all classes 
 of Persian children, rich and poor, as well as the Armenians 
 and Jews. Both schools have successful boarding depart- 
 ments and large day schools. Their courses include grades 
 from the kindergarten through high school. Lessons are 
 given in the Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Armenian, Russian, 
 French and English languages. 
 
 A large development of village school work is one of the 
 great opportunities that Tabriz station is eager to enter 
 into. This is shown very significantly by the fact that 
 recently a petition was received at Tabriz from Maragha, 
 signed by seventy Armenians, asking for a school. Thirty- 
 five years ago there came from the same place a petition 
 from the Armenians that the Protestant church in their 
 town should be removed. 
 
 In the East Persia Mission there are a number of 
 schools that have had a romantic history and a remark- 
 able record, which can only be briefly mentioned here. In 
 Teheran there is the Boys’ High School, which was started 
 in 1887, and which is now being raised to an institution 
 of college rank. It may astonish American readers to 
 know that this institution has in it more Mohammedan 
 
 40 
 
pupils than there are in the seven splendid American col- 
 leges that have been established in the Turkish Empire. 
 
 In the first years of its history, like all other Mission 
 schools in Persia, it drew its pupils from the non-Moham- 
 medan population, but the Persians soon came to see the 
 advantage of sending their boys to such a school, for, as 
 some of them said, “The Americans have a factory where 
 they manufacture men,” and now more than half the pupils 
 are Mohammedans. These come from all classes, among 
 them many from the best and most influential families and 
 several from the royal house. 
 
 The Girls’ School in Teheran, called Iran Bethel, was 
 begun about forty years ago at a time when Persian women 
 hardly dared to be taught even at home and when, if a 
 girl w r ent to school, the family tried to conceal the fact. 
 Year by year it has grown in favor with the people, and 
 now it is not only the popular thing for Mohammedan 
 mothers to want their girls to attend an American school, 
 but fathers as well eagerly seek to have their daughters 
 received there. 
 
 In Hamadan the Boys’ School was one of the first 
 enterprises undertaken when the station w T as opened in 
 
 1881, and the Faith Hubbard School for Girls began only 
 a year later, when Miss Annie Montgomery went there in 
 
 1882. The story of Miss Montgomery’s long service is 
 a record that would inspire the dullest heart, and although 
 she herself moved on to a higher service two or three years 
 ago, her life is going on multiplied in hundreds of Persian 
 homes today. 
 
 There is not time to tell of other schools, but in general 
 it is true that wherever there is a Mission station, one of 
 its earliest activities is the founding of schools for boys 
 and girls, and there is no more potent agent in breaking 
 down prejudice than American schools, with the possible 
 exception of American hospitals. Colporteurs of the Bible 
 Society have said, that wherever they have found gradu- 
 ates of our schools in cities or in villages, with very few 
 exceptions, they have found them friendly and in many 
 
 41 
 
cases ready to help interest the community to buy Scrip- 
 tures. 
 
 In West Persia and in East Persia many converts have 
 been won among Mohammedan pupils of our schools. Per- 
 sia herself is seeking education, for her wisest men know 
 that her sorest need is for men to know enough to be lead- 
 ers. So eager are they for western education that they 
 are even willing that their boys and girls should receive 
 instruction in the Christian Bible, since that is a necessary 
 part of the American school teaching. 
 
 This victory has not been won without struggles. In 
 the schools in Urumia and Tabriz and Teheran, and all 
 the other educational institutions, the Bible is regularly 
 taught. There have been in every school complaints, defec- 
 tions and even revolt, in some cases threatening disaster 
 to the work, but always in the end attendance has increased, 
 and loyalty to the school has grown stronger because they 
 know that the American school has something to give them 
 that they cannot get anywhere else. 
 
 Many a boy, as he has eagerly studied his science les- 
 son, has found that his faith in Mohammedanism is shaken, 
 and through knowledge of nature some have come to know 
 nature’s God. One boy in the Urumia school said, after 
 hearing a lecture on water, “The doctor lectured to us 
 about water, and he showed us the whole glory of God.” 
 
 Americans believe in education; Persians are beginning 
 to believe in it and to long for it, and some sort of educa- 
 tion they are bound to have. So far the Mission schools 
 have had the field to themselves, but recently the Persians 
 are sending their boys to Paris and are bringing French 
 teachers out to start Government schools. Now is the 
 time when we must greatly enlarge our work to meet the 
 hourly increasing demand, or we must see rationalistic or 
 atheistic education take the place that is now open for the 
 Christian Missionary School. 
 
 42 
 
 
Chapter VII 
 
 WHAT OF THE FUTURE? 
 
 P ERSIA is changing fast. Like the other nations of 
 Asia, she has felt the stirrings of a national conscious- 
 ness, and of ambitions and desires which the selfishness 
 and the imperialistic aims of European powers have not 
 allowed her to realize. What she will be politically is not 
 yet certain, though at present it looks as though she would 
 become more or less a vassal state of Great Britain. At 
 any rate, rightly or wrongly, for good or for evil, Eng- 
 land has undertaken to administer Persian affairs for a 
 time, and this means progress and development in many 
 material ways, the building of railroads and the introduc- 
 tion of many of the accompaniments of civilization. All 
 these will inevitably affect missionary work, and the Church 
 should see in it a call to enlarge and expand on a scale 
 hitherto undreamed of. 
 
 The next few decades will be the most critical time in 
 Persian history, and it is for the Church of Christ to say 
 whether Persia’s next generation shall become Christian or 
 atheist. Mohammedan it is not likely to remain. Shall 
 we plant the new hospitals and schools that the mission- 
 aries are asking for? Shall we send evangelists and cor- 
 porteurs and preachers into every corner of this awaken- 
 ing land? This is the challenge of progress and develop- 
 ment that confronts us in East Persia, and the appeal from 
 West Persia, though the situation is so different, is not less 
 imperative. 
 
 Urumia has been for the past few years, and still is, 
 “the red spot” on the missionary map of the world. Her 
 villages are for the most part deserted or inhabited by 
 roving bands of Kurds. Her fields and vineyards lie waste 
 and uncultivated, and in the city the streets are full of 
 starving beggars, while the formerly well-to-do Moslems 
 are reduced to poverty. The Christian population are all 
 
 43 
 
in exile, while the Moslems have been reduced perhaps 50 
 per cent, by war, sickness and famine. 
 
 Mr. Mueller, after a visit to Urumia a few months ago, 
 described Mart Maryam, the Christian quarter of the city, 
 as “a maze of uncovered buildings, a wilderness of white 
 walls looking to heaven.” He says, ‘‘The street below, 
 that used to be such a busy thoroughfare, was dead and 
 silent; one almost listened for the sound of jackals. When, 
 perchance, a man walked up the street, his heavy foot- 
 falls seemed almost an intrusion in the city of the dead. 
 Those who built up this section, because of their religion 
 and their defense of the Allied cause, are now scattered 
 to the four winds and dare not return unprotected.” 
 
 Of the three Mission compounds, only Sardari, the 
 American Boys’ School yard, remains approximately in- 
 tact, thanks to the fact that it has been used since the 
 deportation of the missionaries, first for a Mohammedan 
 school and then as city police headquarters. The Hospital- 
 College compound and central city yards present scenes 
 of desolation that almost equal the houses of Mart Maryam. 
 There are gaping holes where doors and windows used to 
 be; stairways, balconies and other woodwork have been 
 torn out, and several of the buildings give evidence that 
 fires were set in an effort to destroy them entirely. Broken 
 pieces of stoves and battered safes, and in one home the 
 cast-iron plate that used to be the inside of a piano, are 
 the only remnants of former furnishings. Some charred 
 bits of paper are all that remain of fifteen or twenty 
 years’ work on a Syriac Concordance. Hospital equip- 
 ment, school desks, libraries, press, station records, and 
 safes and the material part of happy missionary homes, 
 all are gone. Blood stains in rooms and on window sills 
 and walls show where the victims of the last massacre 
 died their martyr deaths, and it is reported that the wells 
 are full of decomposing bodies. 
 
 Docs this picture stagger your faith, and will you be 
 of those who say, “Surely the missionaries will not go 
 back to such a place again?” Or, do you see in it, as the 
 missionaries themselves do, a challenge, a trumpet call that 
 
 44 
 
we must hasten to answer? If “the blood of the martyrs 
 is the seed of the Church,” surely a great harvest is to be 
 reaped in the coming years in the Urumia field. The mis- 
 sionaries of that station on the field, at last accounts, were 
 still in Tabriz, but were hoping from week to week that 
 it w ould be possible for them to go back home. 
 
 The sufferings of these war years have brought many 
 changes that are full of hope. 
 
 In 1917, as reported in a previous chapter, 35,000 
 mountaineers came down to the Salmas and Urumia plains 
 as refugees from Kurdistan and Tabriz. Mr. McDowell 
 wrote concerning them: “For years we have had to go to 
 
 them, spending days and weeks in toilsome and dangerous 
 journey ings, to minister to small congregations scattered 
 over a wfide area. This past winter, these scattered tribes 
 have gathered together within a narrow compass at our 
 very door. It is to be regretted that the urgency of caring 
 for the bodies of these people has sometimes interfered 
 with ministering to their souls ; but that we have served 
 them with our own hands has been marked by many and 
 has given greater power to the word when spoken.” 
 
 During the long months when relief was given them, 
 daily services were held wdienever possible in all the dif- 
 ferent centers, and since the great flight of 1918 the enor- 
 mous camp at Bakuba has had preaching services and 
 primary school advantages, such as never have been pos- 
 sible in all the years of heroic work done by Mr. McDowell 
 and other touring missionaries. 
 
 In many of the Syrian Christians a new spirit has been 
 born as the result of their sufferings, and in the refugee 
 congregations there is a marked growth in the evangelistic 
 spirit. It is a surprising fact, reported in recent letters 
 from Tabriz, that not only is there effort on the part of 
 many to tell their neighbors about Christ, but there is also 
 an amazing development of independence and purpose to 
 become self-supporting, as soon as they possibly can after 
 being repatriated to their homes and villages. Of the 
 many stories that might be told to show the transformed 
 spirit of Syrian Christians, I shall tell only two. 
 
 45 
 
Rabi Surra was one of the wealthiest women in the 
 Syrian nation. Her husband, who had studied in Canada 
 and was a Canadian subject, had been a lay preacher of 
 great usefulness, but was killed sixteen years ago by Kurds. 
 Rabi Surra had been embittered against the church by this 
 occurrence, and though personally most friendly to all the 
 missionaries, she would have nothing to do with the church 
 or any of its meetings. She was a large, cheerful and 
 hospitable woman, and often entertained the missionaries 
 at dinner in her beautiful city home, or in her vineyard 
 near the village of Gulpashan. She had a widowed daugh- 
 ter, Mary, who came to live at home after the death of 
 her husband in 1916, and a son, Baba, who had been born 
 after his father’s death and consequently was the light of 
 his mother’s eyes. Besides these, she had adopted three 
 motherless children of a deceased relative, and for years 
 they had been as her very own. 
 
 Katy, the oldest of these, was a seminary graduate; 
 she had married a fine young man and had a baby son, 
 about a year old, when the flight occurred, at which time 
 the baby’s father fled with the mass of the people. Adina, 
 the second girl, was a junior in the seminary and a very 
 beautiful girl. Juan was ten years old and also very 
 pretty. Rabi Surra and her household were among those 
 deported to Salmas in August, 1918, by the Turks. They 
 suffered from exhaustion, heat, hunger and thirst, and one 
 by one they became sick with the terrible dysentery that 
 carried off thousands of Armenian and Syrian victims of 
 those awful Turkish deportations. When I went back to 
 Urumia in May, 1919, Rabi Surra told me the story of it 
 all, and I shall always thank God that I saw the glory 
 of her face as she told of God’s providences and loving 
 kindness. She was pitifully thin as compared with the 
 Rabi Surra we used to know, but her face had on it a 
 shining light that was even more beautiful than the happy 
 and prosperous look of the days of her generous hospi- 
 tality. This, in substance, is what she said: 
 
 “When I lived at home in comfort and luxury, my heart 
 was hard toward God and toward His Church, for I 
 
 46 
 
thought he had no right to let so good a man as my hus- 
 band be killed and one who had done so much for the 
 Church, but now my heart is softened, and I wish that I 
 had a new tongue with which to tell of God’s loving kind- 
 ness. When we were taken to Salmas, through all the suf- 
 ferings of the way, God was very near to us — a support 
 to rest upon. He comforted us in every trial, and He 
 heard our prayers and answered them. When the Turkish 
 officers came to search out the pretty girls, and their choice 
 fell upon our three in turn, we cried to God to keep them 
 pure and He heard and sent sickness. First Katy became 
 sick, and I carried her on my back over the hot, dusty 
 miles with no chance to wash my clothes, which she could 
 not help soiling. After a day or two Katy died, and her 
 baby soon followed her. Then Adina was taken sick the 
 very day that a Turkish officer had been looking for her. 
 She died and so was safe. Then one day even little Juan 
 was in danger, and God heard our cry and sent her a sick- 
 ness, and in a day or two she died. Mary and Baba and 
 I were left to return, w r eeks later, to Urumia. On the 
 way Baba was taken sick, but God was good and permitted 
 us to get him back to Urumia, and there he died in the 
 Mission yard. Then it seemed there was no reason why 
 I should live on, and at first I wished that God would take 
 me, too, but now I know that so long as I have a tongue 
 with which to tell His praise, there is something for me 
 to do, and I am willing to stay as long as He wants me 
 to, to tell my old neighbors and the Moslems how great is 
 God’s loving kindness.” 
 
 God did not keep her very long away from her dear 
 ones, for on the 24th of May she was one of the two hun- 
 dred and seventy who won the martyr’s crown in the 
 American Mission yard. 
 
 The other story is of one of our native pastors who 
 fled with the nation, leaving his wife and children in the 
 home of a Moslem friend. It should be explained that 
 many men went in this same way, knowing that they could 
 not possibly remain and be safe themselves, but believing 
 that their families could be protected by Moslem friends, 
 
 47 
 
and many Moslems did keep Syrian families safe for sev- 
 eral weeks, until the Turks began a search and removed 
 them from their friends’ houses and deported them to 
 Salmas. 
 
 The wife of this preacher, with her three daughters 
 and one young son, was removed from their friend’s house. 
 They were somehow separated, and the mother and the 
 brightest of the three daughters were turned over, for a 
 time, to a wealthy Moslem of the city. Later they were 
 deported, and both died by the wayside. The other two 
 daughters and the son were in some way rescued by their 
 faithful Moslem friend, and eventually reached Tabriz 
 safely, and there met their father when he returned from 
 the southern flight. 
 
 This preacher was very active in doing evangelistic 
 work among the refugees at Tabriz, and showed an excel- 
 lent spirit, except that he said he could never forgive the 
 man who had tried to ruin his daughter, though his efforts 
 were unsuccessful, thanks to the mother’s fierce fight to 
 protect her. One day when he had been reading to a little 
 company from the Sermon on the Mount, he said to me, 
 “How can I ever preach again on the Lord’s prayer and 
 say the words, ‘Forgive us our debts as we forgive our 
 debtors,’ for I can never forgive that man, and I would 
 give my last penny and spend my last energy to bring 
 him to the gallows.” We agreed that only a working of 
 God’s spirit could change his feeling, and so we prayed 
 together and pledged ourselves to pray daily separately 
 for this work of grace in his heart. One day, about two 
 weeks later, he came with shining face and said, “It is 
 gone, it is gone, that hatred has been taken out of my 
 heart, and now I will gladly preach the gospel of God’s 
 love to that man who was my worst enemy if I have the 
 opportunity.” 
 
 A similar miracle of grace has been wrought in the 
 hearts of many of the Christians, so that, while some 
 cherish a spirit of bitterness and hatred, a goodly number 
 are filled with a desire and deep purpose to win the Mos- 
 lems for Christ. 
 
 48 
 
But how about the Mohammedan attitude toward the 
 Christians? It must be admitted that the religious leaders 
 of the people are still bitterly opposed to the return of 
 any Christians, either Syrian or American, and they are 
 trying by every means in their power to keep the fires of 
 fanaticism aflame. But the people are starving, and they 
 know that the Americans could help to feed them. Their 
 fields and vineyards are lying waste, and they know that 
 the Christian farmers are the best cultivators of the soil. 
 They are sick unto death, and they remember that the 
 American Hospital used to heal the sick. Their children 
 recall their happy days in the Mission school, and now 
 there is no one to teach them. The mass of the people will 
 no longer listen to the priests who tell them the mission- 
 aries are not their friends. One story must serve to illus- 
 trate the change of attitude that we believe has taken place 
 in many Moslems. 
 
 There is an old lady of noble family in Urumia, who 
 formerly was very wealthy. When I first knew her, 
 twelve years ago, she was of the strictest class of Moham- 
 medans, one who would not even shake hands with the 
 missionary ladies when we called upon her, because an 
 infidel touch would defile her. When we were kept in the 
 Governor’s yard for twenty-four days in May and June, 
 1919, with the six hundred Christian refugees, as told in 
 Chapter I, our quarters immediately adjoined the home 
 of this great lady. She invited me to come to see her, 
 and, after the first call, asked me to come every day. I 
 went, and frequently one of the Syrian women went with 
 me. The old lady said one day, “Are you really as happy 
 and contented as you seem to be? You have lost your 
 home and everything in it, and you live, and eat, and sleep 
 on the floor of one room, when I know you have been used 
 to a big and comfortable house; are you really happy?” 
 After answering her question, I said, “Will you let me tell 
 you a story? It is of a man who was happy in much 
 harder circumstances than these, for he was in prison 
 with manacles of chains upon his hands.” She said, “Tell 
 me.” Then I told of Paul, how he had persecuted the 
 
 49 
 
Christians just as her people had been persecuting the 
 Syrian Christians, and then how he was converted and 
 gave all his time and strength to preaching the Christ 
 whom he had before hated; how he was often in prison, 
 and beaten, and how once he was brought before a ruler 
 out of his prison dungeon to be asked the question she 
 had asked me ; and he answered that he was happy, indeed, 
 so happy that he wished all his hearers to be as he was, 
 except for his bonds. Then I said, “I wish that you knew 
 my Christ, who can make people glad even in the hardest 
 circumstances,” and she said, “Well, it must be your Christ, 
 for I never knew of any people of my religion who could 
 be happy the way you and these other Christians are.” 
 After that I told her many stories of Jesus’s life on earth, 
 and one day when I dared to say, “I believe that many of 
 your people, even some of those who have killed the Chris- 
 tians, will some day accept Jesus Christ as their Saviour,” 
 she, who would have ordered me out of the house for 
 speaking such blasphemy a few years ago, said with a 
 shrug of her shoulders, “Inshallah (if God wills), it may 
 possibly be so.” When I said good-bye to her the day 
 we left, she said, “This is the blackest day Urumia has 
 seen. I pray God that I may live to see you and the other 
 missionaries come back.” And she drew my face down and 
 kissed both my cheeks, she who a few years before would 
 not have touched my hands with her finger tips. 
 
 We cannot shirk the task by saying, “They do not want 
 us.” Even if they did not want us, they need us, and 
 that is sufficient ground for going there, but they do want 
 us and want us desperately. Will the Christian Church 
 make it possible to rebuild the waste and ruined places? 
 We want a larger and better-equipped hospital than Persia 
 has yet seen. We want the old school plants enlarged to 
 include kindergarten work for the mass of little children 
 who have never dreamed of such happy play and joyful 
 work; to include advanced courses of study for all, inau- 
 gurating domestic science for girls and agriculture for boys. 
 
 Two large fields adjoining the present hospital-college 
 compound have been given to the Mission by a wealthy 
 
 50 
 
Syrian, and the Mission proposes to turn over the hospital 
 side of the compound to the college, thus giving an ade- 
 quate property for a splendid agricultural department, in 
 a country where the agricultural methods are still those 
 of the time of Abraham. This would give the hospital an 
 •opportunity to rebuild in a location nearer the city, and 
 for that reason much more advantageous. An ideal prop- 
 erty is obtainable, less than one thousand yards from the 
 city gate, which gives opportunity for a large dispensary 
 and drug room, within easy reach of the sick, together 
 with adequate hospital buildings, including an Isolation 
 Building, matron’s home and nurses’ training school, power 
 house and physicians’ residences. 
 
 Besides these educational and medical plans, provision 
 must be made for rebuilding the ruined churches and 
 manning them with those who wish to take up the work 
 of the pastors who are gone, who counted not their lives 
 ■dear unto themselves and who are worthy to be classed 
 in the eleventh chapter of the Hebrews. Not only must 
 the vacant places be filled, but scores of new places must 
 be manned with preachers, teachers and physicians. 
 
 While writing this, there has come under my eye the 
 startling news that a whole tribe in Northwest Liberia has 
 been converted to Mohammedanism, and practically every 
 man of them has become a Mohammedan missionary. It 
 is stated that “the leaders of the Liberian Moslem Move- 
 ment are exerting every influence to have a mosque erected 
 in every town and village in the country.” Should we 
 who follow the Kingly Christ, and who have “the vision 
 glorious,” fall behind the servants of the false prophet ? 
 Will Christian America rest in her ease and comfort while 
 the world is dying for lack of the gospel that has been 
 the source of all her jov? God spoke of old, through his 
 prophet Ezekiel, to a people who were too selfish and 
 lazy to give the message of life. He said, “When I say 
 unto the wicked, ‘thou shalt surely die’ and thou givest 
 him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from 
 his wicked way to save his life, the same wicked man shall 
 
 51 
 
die in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at thine 
 hand.” 
 
 We are proud to recall with what fine enthusiasm and 
 high ideals America entered the war. Let us seriously 
 ask ourselves what has become of that splendid spirit. 
 The war may be over in the sense that peace has been 
 declared, but the sufferings of the world across the water, 
 especially in the Near East, were never greater than they 
 are now, and America is getting out from under the world’s 
 load, her idealism choked by the fog of comfort and the 
 smoke of politics. As some one has well said, “She has 
 made a political toy of the Peace Treaty and has come 
 near nullifying all the splendid effects of our participa- 
 tion in the war.” America comes dangerously near appear- 
 ing to the rest of the world as a quitter, and is anything 
 more contemptible than that? Oh, deaf to the world’s cry 
 of need ! Oh, blind to the God-given opportunity to be 
 a “Big Brother” to the little fellows in the world family ! 
 Would that some trumpet call would waken us before it 
 is too late, before the little fellows die for lack of the help 
 we might give, and before we die from the dry-rot of 
 selfishness ! “Behold, I have set before thee an open 
 door!” Will America accept the opportunity, or will she 
 fail? 
 
1920 
 
 STATISTICS FOR EASTERN 
 PERSIA MISSION 
 
 Established 1872 
 
 Principal Stations 6 
 
 Out Stations 4 
 
 American Missionaries 40 
 
 Native Force 76 
 
 Organized Churches 4 
 
 Unorganized groups of believers 81 
 
 Communicants 502 
 
 Adherents 1,188 
 
 Sunday School Membership 557 
 
 EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS 
 
 Kindergartens 1 
 
 Pupils 33 
 
 Primary and Intermediate Classes 8 
 
 Pupils , 1,088 
 
 High Schools 3 
 
 Pupils 118 
 
 Printing Press — 
 
 MEDICAL STATISTICS 
 
 Hospitals 4 
 
 In-patients 873 
 
 Dispensaries 7 
 
 Out-patient Visit* 34,706 
 
 53 
 
J 
 
 1920 
 
 STATISTICS FOR WEST 
 PERSIA MISSION 
 
 Established 1835 
 
 Principal Stations 2 
 
 Out Stations 7 
 
 American Missionaries 35 
 
 Native Force 39 
 
 Organized Churches 1 
 
 Unorganized groups of believers 8 
 
 Communicants 588 
 
 Adherents 1,250 
 
 Sunday School Membership 750 
 
 % 0 
 
 EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS 
 
 Kindergartens 1 
 
 Pupils 12 
 
 Primary and Intermediate Classes 3 
 
 Pupils 695 
 
 High Schools 1 
 
 Pupils 55 
 
 Printing Press (not in operation) 1 
 
 MEDICAL STATISTICS 
 
 Hospitals 1 
 
 In-patients 100 
 
 Dispensaries 2 
 
 Out-patient Visits 9,500 
 
 54 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 "The Persian Revolution of 1905-09” (very good). — 
 Browne Cambridge. 
 
 “Persia Past and Present/’ 1906. — Jackson, A. V. W., 
 spent a winter in Urumia. 
 
 "Life in the Moslem East.” — Ponafidine (married Miss 
 Cochran and she with two of her three sons and hus- 
 band were murdered by the Bolsheviks), 1911. 
 
 “The Strangling of Persia.” — Shuster, W. M., 1912. 
 
 “Persia and Its Peoples.” — Sykes, F. C., 1910. 
 
 “The Foreign Doctor.” — R. E. Speer, 1911 (out of print, 
 but in libraries). 
 
 “Twenty Years in Persia.” — J. C. Wishard (very good), 
 1908. 
 
 “Death of a Nation.” — A. Yohanan, D. C., 1916 (one of 
 the latest). 
 
 “Bahaism and Its Claims” (most authentic book on sub- 
 ject). — S. G. Wilson. 
 
 “Modern Movements Among Moslems.” — Same author and 
 very good. 
 
 55 
 
INNIS 4 SONS