Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 11.djvu/786

 PERSIA

722

PERSIA

more influence in Tatary and China, beyond the limits of Mohammedan conquest. This was a period of comparative peace in those regions, antl of the greatest missionary zeal and enterprise on tlie part of the Nestorians, who phmted churclios in Transoxiana as far as Kashgar, in the regions of Mongolia, and throughout Northern China. To attest this fact there are extensive Cliristian graveyards containing memorials of the Turkish race on the borders of China, and the monument of Si-ngan-fu, in Shensi, giving the history of the Xestorian Mission in China for 14.^ years (a. d. 6.iG-7Sl). Timothcus, a patriarch of the Church for forty years, was zealously devoted to missionary work, and many monks traversed Asia. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries there were large Christianized communities. A Mogul prince, I'nkh Khan, g.ave the name to the celebrated I'rcster John, and his successors were nominal Christians till over- thrown by Jcnghis Khan. The names of twenty-five metropolitan sees, from Cyprus in the west to Pekin in the east, are recorded, and their schools were spread far and wide through Western and parts of Central Asia.

B. From Jenghis Khan to the Present Time. — The last of the race of Christ ian kings — probably Christian only in name — was slain by Jcnghis Khan about a. d. 1202. Jenghis had a Christian wife, the daughter of this king, and he was tolerant towards the Christian faith. In fact the Mogul conquerors were without much religion, and friendly towards all creeds. The wave of carnage and conquest swept westward, cov- ered Persia, and overwhelmed the Caliph of Bagdad in 12.5S. This change was for a time favourable to Christianity, as the rulers openly declared themselves Christians or were partial to Christianity. The patri- arch of the Nestorians was chosen from people of the same language and race as the conquerors; he was a native of Western China; he ruled the Church through a stormy period of seven reigns of Mogul kings, had the joy of baptizing some of them, and for a time hoped that they would form such an alliance with the Christians of Europe against the IMoham- medans as should open all Asia, as far as China, to Christianity. This hope did not last long; it ended in a threat of ruin: the Nestorians were too degraded, ignorant, and superstitious to avail themselves of their opportunity. After a time of vacillation the Moguls found Mohammedanism better suited to their rough and bloody work. The emperor, having decided, flung his sword into the scale, and at his back were 100,000 warriors. The whole structure of the Nes- torian Church, unequal to the trial, crumbled under the persecutions and wars of the Tatars. With Timur-Leng (a. d. 1.379-140.5) came their utter ruin. He was a bigoted Moslem, and put to the sword all who did not escape to the recesses of the mountains. Thus did Central Asia, once open to Christian mis- sions, see the utter extermination of the Christians, not a trace of them being left east of the Kurdish Mountains. The Christian faith was thrown back upon its last defences in the West, where hunted and despised, its feeble remnant of adherents continued to retain, as it were, a death-grip on their churches and worship.

During the last five centuries Christianity has been simply a tolerated but oppressed and despised faith in Persia. From the invasions of Tini\ir-Leng until the accession of Abbas the ( Ireat (1 .582), a period of two hundred years, its history is almost a blank. In 1603 some Armenian chiefs appealed to Shah Abbas for protection against the Turks: he invaded Armenia, and in the midst of the war decided to deva-state it, that the Turks might be without pro- visions. From Kars to Bayazid the .AniieniMMs were driven before the Persian soldiery to the banks of the Aras, near Julfa. Their cities and villages were depopulated. From every place of concealment they

were driven forth. Convents were plundered, and their inmates driven out. The captives were forced to cross the Aras without proper transports. Many women and children, sick and aged, were carried away by the swift current. Two chiefs were beheaded to hasten the progress. Women were carried off to Persian harems. Through mifrequcMled paths, and with untold hardshiiis, they reached their destina- tions. The principal colony, five thousand souls, was settled at New Julfa, near Ispahan, where they were granted many privileges. Both Armenians anddeor- gians were scattered through Central Persia, and some of their descendants are villagers in the Bakhtiyari country. A colony of seven thousand was planted at Ashraf, in Mezanderan, where malaria destroyed the greater portion of them; the remnant were restored to .Vrmenia in the reign of Safi Shah. The colony at Julfa (now known as Tulfa, on the River Zendeh) prospered greatly and became very wealthy by trade and the arts.

Under the Safavean kings, the Christians of Azar- bedjan and Transcaucasia suffered much from the wars of the Turks and Persians. Both banks of the Arras were generally in the hands of the Persians. Some of the shahs were tolerant, and the Christians prospered; some overtaxed them. The last. Shah Sultan Husain, oppressed them: he repealed the law of retaliation, whereby a Christian could exact equivalent punishment from a Mu.ssulman criminal; he enacted that the price of a Christian's blood should be the payment of a load of grain. Julfa was sub- jected to great suffering at the time of the invasion of the Afghan Mahmud. It was captured, and a ransom of seventy thousand tomans and fifty of the fairest and best-born maidens exacted. The grief of the Armenians was so heartrending that many of the Afghans were moved to pity and returned the cap- tives. When Mahmud subsequently became a maniac the Armenian priests were called in to pray over him and exorcise the evil spirit. Nadir Shah continued to oppress the Armenians, ostracized them, and inter- dicted their worship. On this account many emi- grated to India, Bagdad, and Georgia. About eighty villages remained between Hamadan and Ispahan. Under the Kajar dynasty the state of the Christians is better known. Notices of them abound in the narrations of travellers of the period. Agha Moham- med, founder of the Kajar dynasty, sacked Tiflis and transported many Georgians into Persia. Others went to Russia. Their descendants, mostly Mohara- metlans, are frequently met occupying high positions in the Government.

At the time of the Russian war, early in the nine- teenth century, nine thousand families of Armenians and many Nestorians emigrated from Azarbedjan. Some were induced to come back by Abbas Mirza, uncler the protection of the English. Tho.se in Tabriz were exempted from taxes and had the right to appeal to the British consul. This right of protection was afterwards withdrawn, and finally, after many vain protests on the part of the Armenians, the exemption from taxes was annulled in A. D. 1894. Tlie condition of Christians in Persia under Nasr- ed-Din and his successors, down to the present time, will be described in the following section.

C. Catholic Missions. — The history of Catholic missions in Persia is intimately connected with the various attempts made by the Nestorians, in the last nine centuries, to join the Catholic Church. In some cases, these movements were the results of efforts made by the early Franciscan and Dominican, and, after them, the Jesuit missionaries. In 1233 the Nes- torian eatholicos, Sabarjesus, sent to Pope Gregory IX an orthodox profession of faith and was admitted to union with the Church of Rome. The same was done, in 1.304, by .labalaha (1281-1317) during the pontificate of Benedict XI. lo 1439 Timothcus, Nestorian