The Western Christian Presence in the Russias and Qājār Persia, c. 1760–c. 1870

Copyright

Dedications

Contents

Foreword

Acknowledgements

Abbreviations

Note on Transliteration and Style

Maps

Introduction

1 The Historical Backdrop

2 Forerunners of the Nineteenth-Century Missionary Presence (1): Catholic Missionaries and Apologists in the Early Qājār Era

Don Leopoldo Sebastiani, Romano: Classical and Biblical Scholar, Orientalist, Missionary Apostolic in Turkish Arabia, Persia, Kabul, and Qandahar (1804–14), Intelligencer, and the Attempted Catholic Mission to Afghanistan (1804–10)

Leopoldo Sebastiani’s Mission to Persia (1803–08)

Leopoldo Sebastiani and European Politics

The Attempted Mission to Afghanistan (1804–c.09)

Sebastiani’s Sojourn in British India (1808–13)

Sebastiani’s Difficulties with Rome

3 Forerunners of the Nineteenth-Century Missionary Presence (2): Early Modern Evangelical Protestant Missionaries in Persia and Baghdad

United Brethren Missionaries in Afshār Persia (1747–48)

Henry Martyn, Missionary, Biblical Scholar and Apologist in India and Persia

Anthony Norris Groves: Mission to the East (Baghdad 1829–33 and Persia)

4 The United Brethren Mission in Sarepta in the Ciscaucasus (c.1765–1892): The First Decades and Asiatic Russian Mission (c.1765–1822)

Exploratory Journeys and Surveys among the Tatar Tribes of Mount Caucasus (1773–81) and Missionary Sojourns among the Kalmyk tribes in the Ciscaucasus (1815–22)

Biblical Translations into Kalmyk

Further Contacts with the Kalmyk Tribes

5 Scottish Missionaries of the Edinburgh Missionary Society and Independent Scottish Bible Missionaries (1802–35) in the North Caucasus

John Love and Proposals for a Scottish Mission to Asia

The Russian Context: Enlightenment Influences and Military Expansionism

Henry Brunton and the Karass Mission

Henry Brunton, Scripture Translation and Printing at Karass

The Influence of Protestant Pietism and the Foundation of the Russian Bible Society (1812–24)

6 Scottish and Jesuit Missionaries in the North Caucasus and the Imperial Russian Dominions: Karass, Astrakhan, Mozdok, Orenburg, the Crimea and Odessa (1805–30s)

The Exploratory Journey of Ebenezer Henderson and John Paterson for the RBS

Jesuit Missions Established during the Nineteenth Century within the Expanding Russian Empire

The Jesuit Mission at Mozdok

The Suppression of the Jesuits in Imperial Russia

Karass, Astrakhan, Orenburg and Vladikavkaz (c.1815–23)

The Crimea: Katti Girei and the Short-Lived SMS Mission Post

Beginnings of William Glen’s Caucasian and Persian Ministry

Captain Peter Gordon, Itinerant Independent Missionary (1820)

Conversion of Mīrzā Muḥammad ʿAlī Alexander Kāẓim-Beg (1802/3–70)

The Astrakhan Mission and William Glen (1821–30)

John Melville of Odessa: Bible Missionary and Distributor in the Russias (1820s–c.75)

The End of the Karass Mission

Concluding Remarks on the Scottish Missionaries

7 Basel (1833–37) and Scottish (1847–52) Bible Missionaries in the Caucasus, Transcaucasus and Persia

Joseph Wolff’s Sojourn in Georgia

Basel Missionary Evangelistic Practices

Difficulties at Shūsha

Preparations for the Persian Mission and the Composition of Pfander’s Mīzān al-ḥaqq

Apologetical Content of the Mīzān al-ḥaqq

Further Basel Missionary Travels among Muslims and Armenians

The Basel Persian Mission (1832–33) and Founding of the Mission in Tabriz (1833–34)

Friedrich Haas and the Mission Post in Tabriz

Haas’s Encounter with Persian Life and Culture

The High Point of the Basel Mission Station in Tabriz

Conflict between Haas and the Basel Committee

Russian Imperial Decrees Order the Closure of the Shūsha Mission

The Nascent Persian Mission

Pfander’s Description of the Persian and Turkish Worlds

The Basel Mission to Persia winds up (1837)

William and Andrew Glen, Scottish Bible Missionaries in Persia (1847–52)

8 ‘The Nestorian Mission’ (1833–69) of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions in Azarbaijan and Kurdistan

Background to the Early Nineteenth-Century American Protestant Missionary Movements

Background to the Nestorian Mission

Armenians in Tabriz and Tehran in the Early Nineteenth Century

East Syrian Christian Antecedents to the Modern Missionary Era

Background to and Establishment of the ABCFM Mission in Urmia (Urmi) Azarbaijan

Education, Revivalism, Printing and Clashing Ideologies, 1835–70

The Evangelical–Nestorian Separatist Movement

Bible Translation Work and Printing

American Protestant Clashes with Persian Nestorianism

‘Mission to the Mohammedans’ (1834–41)

Mission to the ‘Independent’ or ‘Mountain’ Nestorians (1839–51)

Persian Government Interference and the Last Years of the ABCFM Mission

9 The Lazarist (Vincentian) Mission (1838–70): The Catholic Mission in Urmia (Urmi), Persian Azarbaijan and Tehran

Historical Antecedents: Saljuqs, Mongols and Tīmūrids; Intellectual and Cultural Interchanges between East and West; Hospitallers, Humanitarian and Christian Orders and the First Western Missionaries to the East

Origins of the Congregation of the Mission (Lazarists, Vincentians)

The Madame de Ricouart Foundation

The First Treaty between France and Persia (1708)

France and Vincentian Missionary Expansion (1780–1804)

Diplomatic Mission of General Claude Mathieu de Gardane to Persia (1807–09)

Role of Eugène Boré (1838–41): Initiator and Catalyst of the Vincentian Mission

The First Lazarist Pioneers: Ambroise Fornier, Joseph Darnis and Augustin Cluzel

The Arrival of the Daughters of Charity (1856)

The First Sojourn of the Mechitarists (1856–64)

Statistical Survey of the Vincentian Mission (1842–59)

Comte de Challaye’s Report on the State of Catholic and Protestant Missions in Persia (1854)

Augustin Cluzel (1815–82), Head of the Vincentian Mission (1858) and Apostolic Delegate in Persia (1874–82)

10 Persian Jews: Western Contacts and Missions (1811–90s) (1): Historical Perspectives: Early History of the Persian Jews, Persian and Western Intellectual Interaction with European Jews, and Missions to the Jews in Europe and Persia

Missions to Jews Contextualised

Early Nineteenth-Century Missions to Persian Jews

Joseph Wolff: Missionary Extraordinary to the Jews and Muslims

Joseph Wolff’s Mission to Bukhārā (1843–44)

Departure from Tabriz via Constantinople to London

Jacob Samuel (c.1800–c.40): Intrepid Convert Missionary in Turkish Arabia, Persia and India

11 Persian Jews: Western Contacts and Missions (1811–c.90s) (2): The Mission to Baghdad, Mesopotamia and Persia (1844–90s) of the London Society for the Promotion of Christianity among the Jews

Missionary Work of John Henry Brühl (1823–93) and Other Jewish Converts to Christianity

Evaluation

12 Conclusion

Bibliography

I Manuscript Sources

II Printed Sources

A Sources in Persian and Arabic

B Principal Printed Works in European Languages

C Other Printed Works in European Languages

Index