Persian women : a sketch of woman's life from the cradle to the grave, and missionary work among them

Dedication

TO THE SACRED MEMORY OF MY TENDER, AFFECTIONATE AND ROVING MOTHER, NOW DECEASED ; TO MY DEVOTED WIFE, WHO, WITH HEROIC SACRIFICE AND A WOMAN'S DETERMINATION, CHOSE TO LIVE A. LONELY LIFE OF SEPARATION FOR THE THREE AND ONE-HALF YEARS, AND URGED ME TO COME TO THE UNITED STATES AND QUALIFY MY- SELF FOR FUTURE USEFULNESS ; TO MY SYMPATHETIC AND TRUE FRIEND, MRS. MARY SNEED LEWIS, FRANKFORT, KY., WHO FOR THE FOUR YEARS OF OUR ACQUAINTANCE HAS DAILY TAKEN ME UPON THE WINGS OF HER PRAYERS, AND WHOSE CONSECRATED LIFE HAS EVER BEEN AN INSPIRATION TO ME J THIS MODEST VOLUME IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED.

Maeek Yonan 210

Preface

During- the four years that I have been in the United States it has been my privilege to address many I^adies' missionary societies, Sunday schools, and different Christian organizations, and wherever I have told the sad story of my Christless countrywomen a deep interest has been manifested in their behalf. From my limited experience, I am fully convinced that wherever there is lack of interest in foreign missions in any church or among- the Christian women of the United States, it is not from indifference or cold-heartedness, but because of ignorance in regard to the real condition of these Christless women.

Dr. A. T. Pierson has said : " Facts are the fingers of God. To know the facts of modern missions is the necessary condition of intelligent interest."

For this reason, and in response to many requests, I have endeavored in the following pages to give a brief picture of the real every-day life of Persian women.

Trusting that some g-ood may be accomplished by it, I send it out on its mission.

I have also availed myself of such help as I could get from such authors as Ex-minister S. G. Benjamin, in " Persia and Persians ; " Rev. Sam G. Wilson, in "Persian L,ife and Customs;" Dr. Jessup, in ""Women of the Arabs;" Miss Reed, in "Persian Literature ; " Mrs. Isabella Bird Bishop, in her "Journeys in Persia and Kurdistan " and " Woman and Her Savior in Persia." To the latter I am especially indebted for suggestions with regard to mission work. From each of these I have found a good deal that I wanted to say, already expressed in much better English than I could command.

Would also thank Miss Annie E. Wilson, of Eouisville, Ky., for kindly help in revising- the English of my manuscript. The Author.

Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Louisville, Ky.

INTRODUCTORY.

The author of this little volume, a native of Oroomiah, Persia, has been for about five years in this country preparing - himself to preach the gospel to his own people. He was for one year a student in Westminster College, Missouri. He then took the full three years' course in the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, being graduated with degree of B.D., in the class of 1896. Since then, having been licensed by the Presbytery of West Lexington, he has spent a portion of his time in a course of medical study in this city, and a portion in visiting the churches of Kentucky and Missouri in the interest of mission work in his native land. Two years ago he was joined by his wife, who has spoken with great acceptance to ladies' societies and gatherings of Christian women, telling in her own earnest and impressive way of the condition of women in Persia, without the gospel, and of the inestimable blessing which she and so many others have enjoyed through the work of Christian missions in the land of her birth.

Mr. Yonan has been with us in intimate association, in the class-room, in religious exercises, and in social life for four years, and all who know him can bear testimony to. the purity and unselfishness of his character, to his earnestness and laboriousness as a student, to his intense zeal for the spread of the gospel in Persia and the world, and to his remarkable gift in vivid and graphic portrayal of the wrongs and sufferings of his people. Those, who have listened to the thrilling stories from his lips of the atrocity of the Turk, and of the heroism of the Christian martyrs of Armenia, will be interested to follow him, as in this little volume, from the stores of his own personal observation, as well as from the testimony of other competent witnesses, he gives us a view of woman's life in that far-off but interxii Introduction.

esting- land. Every reader will join us in the hope and prayer that the way may soon be open for him and his accomplished wife to return as missionaries of the Cross to the land that g-ave them birth.

T. D. WlTHERSPOON, D.D., L,L,.D., Professor of Homiletics and Pastoral Theology.

Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Louisville, Ky., Sept. 23, 1897.

PERSIAN WOMEN.

Chapter I. Persian Romance

The Persians are among the most romantic and sentimental people on earth. Their close contact with the Arabian literature, poetry, nomadic life and desert songs has colored the pages of their romance with passionate loves, tragic hates, burning sentiments, and uncontrollable resentments and jealousies, which are purely characteristic of the inhabitants of the desert.

The gorgeousness of their poetry, the fiery sentiments of their songs, and the bewildering descriptions of their fiction cannot be rivaled, even by the magnetic pen of Shakespeare in the tragedy of a Romeo and Juliet."

The wild imagination of its writers has wandered freely in the mystical wilderness of sorcery, and has found bountiful material from their fabulous mountains of emerald, and the lofty hills of ruby; from the great rivers, ever gushing from the fairy fountains and watering the valleys, from which the perfume of the orange blooms and the sweet fragrance of roses come ceaselessly to recreate the fainting hearts of the Oriental lovers.

Four things have furnished material and inspiration to the poets and singers of Persia, and have enabled them to pour out the little gems of their imagination and to weave the gorgeous web of their poetry and song, which are distinctly Persian in characteristics and style. We may term these the Persian's "Great Four."

The Roses, with their magnificent bloom, smiling at the face of the rising sun, and bowing in reverence before the crimson draperies of his setting, and filling the air with their sweetest perfumes.

"Each morn a thousand roses bring You say; Yes, but where leaves it the rose of Yesterday?"

The Cup of Red Wine, freshly prepared from the luxuriant vines, glowing within the crystal glasses, to make happy the saddened hearts, "according to Persian sentiment.

"Drink, for you know not whence You come, nor where; Drink, for you know not why You go, nor where!"

The Nightingale, with its golden wings and silvery feathers, hopping from bough to bough and singing consi antly its harmonious songs in behalf of the red wine to the rose.

" 'Wine! Wine ! Wine! * Red wine!' the Nightingale cries to the Hose."

Person Romantic Mythology. 3

And Woman, with her charming beauty and pleasant manners, makes the world a paradise for man. For "without woman how could there be romance or song?"

The poets and singers, having these four things for their theme, wrote fluently and sang feelingly; especially the local musicians, who with their violins upon their shoulders, would go about, finding nothing more attractive and pathetic than the stories of "Y'ar" — Sweetheart, and "lover."

PERSIAN ROMANTIC MYTHOLOGY.

One of the greatest achievements of this age has been the bringing to light the history of the hidden past into the living present. The stupendous stone has been rolled away from the deep sepulchre, and a buried literature has been resurrected with great triumph. The voices of the civilization and culture of the ages that are past are ringing clearly from the ruins of each city and rock of the Orient. Oh! what a cloud of witnesses to the living Providence! The tablets tell us that Persia, from time immemorial, has been the home of romantic literature, sentimental poetry, and luxuriant mythology. Among the numerous descriptions of deities and kings in the great pantheon of the Cuneiform Age, the story of "Ishtar, the Queen of Beauty and Love, the great Goddess of Romance" reads with pathos and feeling. Ishtar was the daughter of "Sin, the Moon-god," the original of the Greek Venus, and the prototype of

Freyja, the weeping goddess of love, among the Northmen. She is represented in the legend as dressed in great splendor, with her rings and jewels, her girdle decorated with diamonds and rubies, and going to Hades, the region of darkness and shadow, to search for her missing husband, Tammuz. At her arrival she found the door of Hades closed and fastened. Going to the porter she said, in part:

"Oh, keeper of the entrance, open the gate!

Open thy gate, I say again, that I may enter!

If thou openest not thy gate, and I enter not,

I will assault the door; I will break down the gate,

I will attack the entrance, I will split open the portals,

I will raise the dead to be the devourers of the living!

Upon the living the dead shall prey!"

The porter being greatly alarmed by the thundering words of Ishtar very politely and tremblingly said:

"Stay, lady! do not shake down the door, I will go and tell this to Queen Nm-ci-gal." The porter entered and said to Mn-ei-gaL,

"These curses thy sister Ishtar utters. Blaspheming thee with great curses /'

The Queen of the Hades trembled on hearing the threats of Ishtar, and said quietly:

"Go, porter! open the gate for her, But strip her like others, at other times."

Ishtar went to the first door of Hades and" she was admitted, but her crown was taken away from her head. At the second door they took away her beautiful ear-

Persian Romantic Mythology. 5

rings. At the third door her precious stones were taken away. At the fourth door her lovely small gems were taken from her forehead. At the fifth, she was deprived of her emerald girdle. At the sixth door the golden rings on her hands and feet were taken away. xind at the seventh and last door she was admitted, but was stripped of her last, garment.

At each door she pathetically exclaimed: "Keeper, do not take from me my jewels and garments!" But the keeper did not listen. All these things she suffered and gave up her precious treasures because of her intense love for her missing husband. After she had wandered long in Hades, there was great concern on her behalf among the gods. And the god "Hea" volunteered to rescue Ishtar from the shadows of hell. As the result of his mission, the seven gates swung open on their hinges and at each she received back her stolen decorations and resumed her great honors and adorations as the great imperial goddess of Love and Beauty.

The tablets giving this narrative in full are preserved in the British Museum.

SENTIMENTAL LITERATURE.

If Greece had her Homer, Italy her Dante, and England her Shakespeare and Tennyson, Persia is equally proud of her Omar Khayyam, Firdusi, Hafiz, Kizanii, •and Sa'de, whose exquisite pearls have been great inspiration and stimulant to thousands of youth.

Their writings are sentimental and mystic in style, tender and pathetic in thought and beautiful and flowery in language.

One of the foremost of the Persian poets is undoubtedly JSTizami, of Ganja, who lived in the twelfth century. He was the founder of the Eomantic epoch, and has contributed more love songs to the Persian literature than any other. One of his best productions, is his story entitled:

* "LAILI AND MAJNUN

Two ardent lovers, whose misfortunes and devoted affection excite tears of sympathy and interest in all the East. Majnun was the son of a chieftain, and Laili, the daughter of an humble Arab, who nevertheless possessed all the pride if his desert race. Laili was so beautiful and charming, that when Majnun first gazed upon her flashing dark eyes, and,

"The soft expression of her face, Distraction stung his burning brain; No rest he found by day or night, She was forever in his sight!"

As Laili's people were accustomed to wandering in the desert, they one day folded their tents and went to the mountains with their families and cattle, leaving no

*A fuller description of L,aili and Maj nun's story will be be found in " The Persian Literature," bv Miss Reed.

Laili and Majnun. 7

trace of their march, and cutting off every possible way for the two lovers to communicate with each other.

Majnun became almost insane in the vain search after his love through the groves and glens of the wilderness and the solitary rocks of the mountains. At length his father, alarmed by his condition, took an organized band and went in search of the Arab tribe. Finding them, in their mountain stronghold he made proposition of marriage for his son to the maiden, but in such a conceited and haughty way that he received a very cold and unfavorable message in response. The chieftain, indignant and full of anger took his homeward trip. When poor

"Majnun saw his hopes decay He beat his hands, his garments tore, He cast his fetters on the floor In broken fragments, and in wrath, Sought the dark wilderness path, And there he 'wept and sobbed aloud, Unnoticed by the gazing crowd."

Once, while wandering near the camp of the Arabs he was seen by some relations of Laili, who represented him as a wild and insane youth in the desert. The maiden, recognizing her lover in their description, rejoiced over the tidings though she feared to go out to meet him, dreading her father's wrath. But anxiously,

'Trom morn to eve she gazed around, In hopes her Majnun might be found."

Once, while sitting at a fountain under a shady cypress tree near the encapment, with bright hopes of chancing to see her beloved, she mournfully sang her faithfulness.

"Oh, faithful friend and lover true, Still distant from thy Laili's view; Still absent, still beyond her power, To bring thee to her fragrant bower; Oh, noble youth, still thou art mine! And Laili, Laili still is thine! 7 '

While she was thus chanting her love songs under the cool shade of the tree, a stranger, a princely youth by name Ibn-Salaam, passed by. His eyes rested upon her crimson lips and the beaming softness of her dark eyes. Electrified by her grace and beauty, he hurried to her father with a plea for his daughter's hand. Because of his kingly apparel and dazzling ornaments he was favored by the father of Laili, who gave his consent to the proposed union.

The poor Ma.jnun may wander, threaten, and try to induce his friends to fight the cruel Arab, but all is vain. The contract is signed and the father has pledged his word of honor.

The new lover brings Ms costly gifts; a long line of camels, all laden with embroidered robes, beautiful rugs and carpets, silks of all kinds, and the most valuable gems to be laid at the bride's feet.

The rattle of the drums and the shrieks of the pipes, the music for the marching steeds, announces the coming of the bridegroom, dressed in the richest cashmere,

Laili and Majnun. g

and smiling at each step like the rising sun. The wedding takes place in due time although against the maiden's will, whose pitiful pleadings were unheard and uncared for by any mortal. She still cherished Majnun's memory with tenderest feeling though the wife of Ibn Salaam now.

"Deep in her heart a thousand woes, Disturbed her days' and nights' repose; A serpent at its very core, Writhing and gnawing evermore; And no relief, a prison room Being now the lonely sufferer's doom."

The rolling years and the whirling months did not bring any soothing to the heartache of Laili. She sat quietly in her prison tower, watching the circling of the sun by day and the flashing of the stars by night, with but a fainting hope in her sad heart for her Majnun.

Once, while sitting in her chamber meditating on her fate, she heard an unusual noise below; shrieks and wailing cries; a great confusion in the family. A messenger entered with a death note announcing the death of ibn Salaam. Although the messags was a star of hope and a benediction to her heart, yet to fulfil the Arab law she assumed the garments of woe and wept with the rest.

"But all the burning tears she shed. Were for Majnun. not the dead."

When the prescribed years of mourning were fulfilled and she was freed from her rockbound tower, she called io Persian Women.

her trusted servant boy and sent a hasty message to Majnun. She appointed a time and place for the two lovers to meet in communion sweet. She made her way through groves of palms and bowers of roses, not stopping until she saw the haggard form of her lover. Stepping gently to his side she laid her hand upon his arm and said:

"Ah, Majnun, it is thy Laili that has come!" As he recognized the familiar voice and the gentle touch, overcome with emotion, he fainted at her feet.

"His head which in the dust was laid, Upon her lap she drew, and dried His tears with tender hand and pressed Him close and closer to her breast; Be here thy home, beloved, adored, Eevive, be blest — Oh! Laili's lord!

"At last he breathed, around he gazed, As from her arms his head he raised; 'Art thou/ he faintly said, f a friend Who takes me to her gentle breast?

Dost thou in truth so fondly bend Thine eyes upon a wretch distressed V

" 'Are these thy unveiled cheeks I see? Can bliss be yet in store for me?

Is this thy hand so fair and soft?

Is this, in sooth, my Laili's brow?'

"In sleep these transports I may share But when I wake — 'tis all despair! Let me' gaze on thee — e'en tho ? it be An empty shade alone I see; How shall I bear what once I bore When thou shalt vanish as before?"

Laili and Majnun. II

To this, Laili responded quickly and readily:

"Here in this desert, join our hands, Our souls were joined long, long before; And if our fate such doom demands, Together wander evermore.

Oh, Majnun! never let us part, What is the world to thee and me?

My universe is where thou art, And is not Laili all to thee?"

Majnun, knowing that, according to the Arab law, he could not make her his wife, with tearful eyes and faltering voice, answered:

"How well, how fatally I love, My madness, and my misery prove; All earthly hopes I could resign — My life itself, to call thee mine.

But shall I make thy spotless name, That sacred spell — a word of shame?"

"Shall selfish Maj nun's heart be blest, And Laili prove the Arab jest?

The City's gates though we may close, "We cannot still onr conscience's throes. No, we have met, a moment's bliss Has dawned upon my gloom in vain; Life yields no more a joy like this; And all to come, can be but pain."

He clasped her close to his aching heart, and kissed her sorrowfully — his last good-bye.

Accompanied by her servant, she went back to her home and lived a most solitary life. The time of life's sunset drew rapidly nigh. She called her mother to her i2 Persian Women.

bedside and entreated that when she was dead, Majnun might be allowed to weep over her grave.

After she was gone, the faithful servant took the tidings to the poor love-stricken Majnun. He made Ms way weepingly to the grave and mourned over her for weeks. At last he was found with Ms head resting upon the tomb and the peaceful touch of death upon Ms brow.

Laili^s tomb was opened and they laid the stilled heart beside her own.

"One promise bound their faithful hearts — one bed Of cold, cold earth umted them when dead. Severed in life, how cruel was their doom, Ne'er to be joined but in the silent tomb!"

Another of Nizami's productions is his stoiy of Shirin and Farliad, two other lovers, whose devotion and sad life is no less thrilling and sentimental than that of Laili and Majnun. Some of the Persian scholars even admire it more. Shirin was the betrothed of the King Khosroe Parwiz and Farliad was a famous sculptor in Ms employment. These two fell in love with each other; and the King being aware of it, promised to give her to him if he could execute the impossible task of bringing to the city the abundant waters of the mountains. Farhad set himself to the Herculean labor, and to the horror of the King nearly accomplished it, when Khosroe Parwiz dreading the advancing necessity of losing Shirin or being dishonored, sent to inform him of her death. Being at the time on the top of a precipice, urging on

ASLEY AND KARAM. II

the work of the aqueduct, the news filled him with such ungovernable despair that he threw himself down and was killed.

THE PASSIONATE LOVE SONGS.

There are numerous love songs in Persia that have never been reduced to writing. The musicians sing them with greatest ardor; and are always listened to with breathless attention. One of the most popular songs in Persia is the stoiy of the lovers,

ASLEY AND KAPvAM.

They lived several hundred years ago in Oroomiah. According to the legend, Asley was the daughter of a Nestorian, a man of considerable means and from the well known family of the Maleks, who lived in a pretty villa, just a few miles cast of the City. The daughter was celebrated for her beauty and gracefulness. She spent most of her time by a marble fountain just at the outskirts of the woods instructing her maids in caring for the plants, vines and flowers that grew so luxuriantly in her father's exquisite garden. She is represented as always dressed in her flowing Oriental costumes, embroidered richly in silk of rarest value, whose varied colors were constantly reflected in the crystal waters of the gushing fountain. The artistic garden, the beautiful girl, and the refreshing fountain were objects of special pilgrimage, and all passei-s by admired the untrained work of art.

But it was viewed with the added fascination of novelty by Karam, the son of a wealthy Mohammedan of a neighboring village. Once, as he was hunting in the adjoining woods, his "Lala-man," guardian, was holding the "Kurgoon," a trained bird, and as he let it fly to start up a flock of birds that they might shoot into them, the bird made a. peculiar sound, awe-stricken by the loveliness of a woman, to attract the attention of the master and the guardian to the living picture at the fountain. Karam beholding the beauty and grace of her divine countenance, loved her from that very moment and made up his mind to marry her. Forgetting his hunting, he sat under the shade of a palm tree, and, inspired by her beauty, wrote poems upon the palm leaves and sent them to her by the "Lala.-man." Asley in answer wrote poems of love to her lover of the forest, which, with their messages of love and encouragement, the guardian joyfully returned to his master.

The years passed by. The lovers' patience being exhausted, according to custom, Karam goes to his father and with pathetic pleading, persuaded him to visit her father on a love mission. But the difficulties in the way seemed as great and high as the everlasting hills. There were not only social problems to be solved, but religious

differences, one being a Mohammedan, the other a !N"estorian Christian. After many heated debates the Malek

gave his decisive answer, that it was impossible for him

to marry his daughter to the richest Mohammedan upon

ASLEY AND K.ARAM. 1 5

the face of the earth. Thus the father of the lover returned to his home with no word of hope for his only son. But Karam, nothing daunted, made Ins way every day to the woods near his sweetheart's home and sung the sweetest stories of his love, and wept bitterly over his disappointment for ten long years, so that her father was unable to persuade her to marry any one else. Tradition says his grief was so intense that the willows and palms have wept ever since in sympathy with him.

After ten more years, Asley's father being alarmed by the threats of the youth and the mental depression of his daughter, sold all his possessions, and taking his daughter started on a long journey northward to Russia, thinking in this way to* get rid of the young Moslem.

But the love-insane Karam, bidding good-bye to his parents and home, followed the trace of his "Y'ar," singing touchingly:

"Oh Justice ! I appeal in behalf of my misfortune I ha,ve left my friends and fatherland; I am a grief-stricken wanderer, After my missing, black-eyed Asley.

"Though far thou mayest sojourn; 'Twill not discourage me to follow; If necessary, I will enter into thy Church, And bow with confession before thy cross."

The maiden's parents settled at length in a Russian town — a lonely family in a strange land. One evening while Asley was sitting on the roof of the house enjoying the mountain scenery, she heard below her the tune of a Persian love song, sung by a wandering minstrel. She instantly recognized her faithful lover's voice and her fainting hopes revived with joy. After wandering around and singing his love story for awhile, he thought he would change his appearance in order to go to her home without being recognized by her parents. In this way he could at least get a chance to see his beloved "Y'ar." Allowing his hair and beard to grow long, he assumed the garb of a Dervish, "holy man;" and went to the door and knocked. The servant came. He said to the servant:

"I am a man of God, a dervish, and have been suffering from tooth-ache for some days and have come to ask the mercy of your mistress to relieve my pain.*' (The mother of Asley is supposed to have been a dentist.)

The servant reported the dervish's trouble to her mistress who went to the door and welcomed him in with promise that she would make every effort to relieve his pain. She took him to her office and called her daughter to hold his head in her gentle arms while she was pulling the tooth.

Both the daughter and the patient wept bitterly. The mother thought the dervish wept because of his pain, and her daughter from sympathy.

After the first tooth was pulled, the dervish said: "Pull the other by its side, it pains me too."

She pulled that one and then he ordered still another

ASLEY AND KARAM. 1 7

one to be pulled, and another, and another, till all of his teeth were gone. Then, having no further pretext for remaining he took his head from Asley's lap and said:

"I have had thirty-two teeth pulled, but did not feel any pain because my head was in the arms of my love."

After singing a song, he begged to be allowed to rest his wearied bones over night in the comfortable home. Next morning he made himself known to Asley's parents, who wearied with the attempt to keep them separated, consented to their marriage.

But the end of their devotion was indeed pitiful. The night they were wedded it grew very cold. Asley drew her lover's seat near to the great log fire. As the legend goes, the inward burning fire of his long smothered passion was kindled by the outward warmth into visible flame. Asley, terrified at seeing her newly made husband burning to death, as she supposed, hastily snatched a pitcher of oil, supposing it to be water, and poured it upon him. This so greatly increased the raging fires that her own intense love also burst into flame. She threw her arms about her husband and together they were consumed to ashes. Such was the devoted faithfulness and loyalty of the two lovers, and such was the unfortunate end of their career.

There is a beautiful fountain in Geogtapa, a village about four miles from Oroomiah, which to this day bears the name of Asley. Travelers visit the place with great interest and often with tears of sympathy and admiration.

CHAPTEE II.

If we were to draw our conclusions as to the status of woman in Persia from the romantic mythology of the past and the sentimental literature and passionate love songs of the present, we would be led to imagine that she had the highest respect, honor, and admiration of society, and was at the zenith of glory and happiness.

On the contrary, in Persia, as in all the Orient, the men deem it obligatory to make a profound apology whenever they make mention to their companions of a dog, a hog, a donkey, or a woman. With them, woman is no more than an idol of sensuality and a slave of passion.

Custom and Religion are the "Maga Charta" for determining woman's condition and position in society. In Persia, these are two mighty powers in remarkable unison and harmony, wielding a tyrannous sceptre over the blinded masses. The one represents the infallible dictates and sacred institutions of their ancestors; the other, the inspired principles claimed to have been given from heaven by the hand of the angel Gabriel to Mohammed, the "Apostle of God." Both of these indorse the inferiority of woman. The successive ages and the tremendous revolutions of history have been able to do («8)