Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 1.djvu/328

274 "Be it then known unto you, brethren, that during the last two months, the enemies of the truth,—the tyrannical Ishmaelites of Coordistan,—have risen up against us, and have almost put an end to the Christians dwelling in the provinces of Tyari and Dez. They have smitten our priests and deacons with the edge of the sword, and have slain men, women, and children, without distinction, and the remnant, even a great multitude, they have carried away into captivity. Our churches and monasteries, wherein God was wont to be glorified, and His praises resounded at the offering up of the holy Eucharist and the appointed seasons of common prayer, have these infidels razed to the ground; and now, instead of prayer and praise is heard the loud voice of the Hanafites [Mohammedans] uttering blasphemies against the religion of . Not content with the destruction of our churches, they have despoiled them of the holy vessels, the patens, and chalices, with the vestments, which they have defiled, and now our inheritance has passed into the hand of strangers, and our homes to those of infidels. We are orphans and fatherless, our mothers are as widows, our necks are under persecution, we labour and have no rest. We have given the hand to the Hakkari Emeer and the Beg of Jezeerah to be satisfied with bread. Truly our fathers have sinned, and we have borne their iniquities; servants bear rule over us, and there is none to deliver us out of their hand. They have ravished the women in Tyari, and the maids in the villages of Dez; our princes have been hung up by the hand, and the faces of our elders were not honoured; our elders have ceased from the gates, and our young men from their music. The joy of our hearts is gone, and our dances are turned into mourning. The crown is fallen from our heads. Woe unto us that we have sinned! For this our heart is faint, for these things our eyes are dim,—because the mountain of our Zion in Tyari is desolate. Moreover, they have destroyed all our books.

"This being our case, we beseech you to stir up your Christian care and zeal, and to assist us in our poverty by your benevolence and overflowing charity springing out, as it is written, from a cheerful heart, so that we may be enabled to re-build our churches and monasteries, and you will be the praiseworthy means of supporting and preserving our community now persecuted by