Revival and Awakening: American Evangelical Missionaries in Iran and the Origins of Assyrian Nationalism

451 Pages·2015·2.27 MB·English

by  Adam H. Becker

Revival and Awakening

Revival and
Awakening
American Evangelical Missionaries in Iran
and the Origins of Assyrian Nationalism
Adam H. Becker
The University of Chicago Press
Chicago and London
Adam H. Becker is associate professor of religious studies and classics at New York
University. He is the author of Fear of God and the Beginning of Wisdom.
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2015 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. Published 2015.
Printed in the United States of America
24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 1 2 3 4 5
ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 14528- 0 (cloth)
ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 14531- 0 (paper)
ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 14545- 7 (e- book)
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226145457.001.0001
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Becker, Adam H., 1972– author.
Revival and awakening : American evangelical missionaries in Iran and the origins of
Assyrian nationalism / Adam H. Becker.
pages ; cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978- 0- 226- 14528- 0 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978- 0- 226- 14531- 0 (pbk. : alk.
paper) — ISBN 978- 0- 226- 14545- 7 (e- book) 1. Missions to Assyrian Church of the
East members—History—19th century. 2. Protestant churches—Missions—Iran—
History—19th century. 3. Missionaries—United States—History—19th century.
4. Evangelistic work—Iran—History—19th century. 5. Syriac Christians—Iran—
Religion—History—19th century. 6. Assyrian Church of the East members—
History—19th century. 7. Nationalism—Religious aspects—Christianity—History—
19th century. I. Title.
BV2628.N4B43 2015
266'.02373055—dc23 2014019847
o This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48- 1992 (Permanence of
Paper).
Patri Matrique (hac in serie, Michael).

Contents
Prelude: A Song of Assyria ix
Acknowledgments xv
Note on Transliteration and Names xvii
Introduction: Religious Reform, Nationalism, and Christian Mission 1
1 The Church of the East before the Modern Missionary
Encounter: Historicizing Religion before “Religion” 37
2 A Residence of Eight Years in Persia (1843): Mr. Perkins of West
Springfield, Massachusetts, meets Mar Yokhannan of Gawilan, Persia 71
3 Printing the Living Word: Moral Reform and the
Awakening of Nation and Self (1841– 70) 102
4 Being Together in the Living Word: The Mission
and Evangelical Sociality (1834– 70) 137
5 Death, the Maiden, and Dreams of Revival 181
6 National Contestation and Evangelical Consciousness:
The Journals of Native Assistants 223
7 Continuity and Change in the Late Nineteenth Century: New Institutions,
Missionary Competition, and the First Generation of Nationalists 257
8 Retrieving the Ruins of Nineveh: Language Reform, Orientalizing
Autoethnography, and the Demand for National Literature 299
Epilogue: Mirza David George Malik (1861– 1931) and
the Engaged Ambivalence of Poetry in Exile 339
Notes 359
Bibliography 399
Index 419

Prelude: A Song of Assyria
I have a music video to thank for the origins of this project. Around the year
2000 I discovered Juliana Jendo’s “Alap Bet,” a song and video that aim to
teach the Christian Aramaic alphabet.1 Jendo, an Assyrian pop singer, origi-
nally hails from Tel Tamer, a village north of Hassake in Syria. Assyrian
Christians settled in this part of eastern Syria in the 1930s after many were
expelled from the new state of Iraq. Some of those expelled were already refu-
gees from what is now Turkey due to the expulsion of Assyrians during World
War I, an event simultaneous with and related to the better-k nown Armenian
genocide. In 1980 Jendo and her family came to Chicago, where a large Assyr-
ian community remains today.
The lyrics of the song, which I translate here from Neo-A ramaic, begin:
“alap: Assyria is our mother / bet: Mesopotamia is our country. We have one
language and these are our letters.” The first lines have an alliterative acrostic
play: the word for “Assyria,” ator, begins with alap, the first letter of the Assyr-
ian alphabet, whereas bet, the second letter, is part of the word for “Mesopo-
tamia,” bet nahrain (lit. “the place of the rivers,” originally meaning “between
the rivers”). The twenty- two letters of the alphabet are then chanted, a series
that is repeated in the song’s refrain. Each individual letter of the alphabet
receives special attention in the song as a series of words that begin with that
letter are listed— alap alaha ata (alap: then the words for “God,” “flag”), bet
baba bruna brata (bet: “father,” “son,” “daughter”)— and the lyrics continue
through the whole alphabet alliteratively listing words from the mundane
(“world” and “wealth”) to abstractions, practices, and social figures relevant
to the community (“love,” “freedom,” “fasts,” “prayers,” “teachers,” and “mar-
tyrs”). During the introductory credits of the accompanying video, which
include Jendo’s name in English and Aramaic, a winged ancient Assyrian bull