The Nestorians and their Rituals

Front matter

Volumes:

Volume 1

SHEIKH NÂSIR. The religious head of the Yeseedees.

THE

Nestorians and their Rituals:

WITH THE NARRATIVE OF

A MISSION TO MESOPOTAMIA AND COORDISTAN

IN 1842-1844,

AND OF A

LATE VISIT TO THOSE COUNTRIES IN 1850;

ALSO,

RESEARCHES INTO THE PRESENT CONDITION OF THE SYRIAN JACOBITES, PAPAL SYRIANS, AND CHALDEANS, AND AN INQUIRY INTO THE RELIGIOUS TENETS OF THE YEZEEDEES.

BY THE

REV. GEORGE PERCY BADGER,

One of the Honourable East India Company's Chaplains in the Diocese of Bombay.

VOLUME I.

MDCCCLII.

Preface

PREFACE TO VOLUME THE FIRST.

A considerable part of the information contained in this volume was collected several years ago, and would have been made public then, but for prudential considerations touching the welfare of the Nestorians. The author regrets this delay the less, since circumstances have permitted him to revist the scene of his labours, and to add to the stock of information acquired during his former sojourn in the East. Yet, notwithstanding, it is with some diffidence that he now sends these pages to the press: they were written in Mosul and its vicinity, where he had no opportunity of submitting them to the revision of any learned friend; and, being himself prevented from returning to England for that purpose, they are sent to the publisher with all the inaccuracies of style arising from the author's limited attainments in this department of literature. He is fully alive to his own backwardness in this respect, and would, therefore, at the outset, candidly apprise his readers, that if they anticipate gratification from the language in which the following researches are narrated, they will most probably be disappointed. Imagery borrowed from fancy sometimes indeed endangers the truthfulness of description, and conveys a wrong impression of the things described; but, when legitimately used, heightens the interest of objects when seen without destroying their reality, and adds a charm to perusal which every writer is bound to afford, to the best of his ability, who solicits the attention of the reading public. As to his own deductions from the facts and events recorded, these he well knows will be canvassed as all other personal opinions are; but if the result shall eventually tend to further the object which he has in view in publishing these researches, he will feel that he has not written in vain, and will be satisfied.

Now, although the author, for the reasons aforesaid, is debarred the pleasure of recognizing an extraneous help in the compilation of this work, yet he is in duty bound to acknowledge the kindly interest which our late venerable Primate and the present Lord Bishop of London took in the personal welfare of the agents engaged in the mission to the Nestorians, and in the progress and success of their labours. It was chiefly owing to their influence that the enterprize was undertaken, and its short duration and untimely end must be referred rather to the unprepared state of the Church at home rightly and adequately to fit her for the pious task of reforming the Christian communities of the East, than to any want of zeal on the part of their Lordships to promote and to support it. Similar acknowledgments are due to the Lord Bishop of Gibraltar, to the Rev. Ernest Hawkins, and to the Committees of the two Societies which provided the funds for the mission, for their uniform kindness and generosity towards those who were commissioned to carry out the benevolent design of their instructions.

The author would furthermore be guilty of unpardonable neglect, were he to omit mentioning his coadjutor, Mr. J. P. Fletcher, now an ordained missionary of the Gospel Propagation Society in India, whose ready co-operation in the work to which both were appointed, and brotherly sympathy in seasons of sickness, weariness, and fatigue, he will ever recall to mind with feelings of lively gratitude.

To the courtesy of Robert Clive, Esq., the author is indebted for the original portrait of Mar Shimoon, and for the two views of an old Nestorian church contained in the second volume of this work. A similar acknowledgment is due to C. F. Barker, Esq., whose long residence in the East enabled him to make a better use of the author's imperfect sketches than he could have expected with less suitable aid. The task, however, of preparing these illustrations for the press devolved upon F. C. Cooper, Esq., the artist who was associated with Mr. Layard, by the authorities of the British Museum, to perpetuate by his pencil the long-lost relics of the power and skill of the Ancient Assyrians. Mr. Cooper has lately been making a laudable effort to communicate to the public a portion of his Eastern acquirements, in a popular form, by means of a diorama of Nineveh; and, it is to be hoped, that he will ere long publish the contents of a well-assorted portfolio, illustrative of oriental costume and manners, which he collected during his sojourn in Mesopotamia and Coordistan. The reader will not fail to perceive how much these volumes owe to the talents of the above-named gentlemen; and to Mr. Cooper especially, are the thanks of the author due for his generous and unsolicited offer to undertake a task which has cost him no little time and trouble.

One word on the principal design of this publication. If the researches which it comprises, or the suggestions which the writer ventures to make on the duty of the Anglican Church to promote the spiritual welfare of the ancient Christian communities in the East, and the way in which such a work should be undertaken and carried out, or the expressed goodwill of the clergy and laity of those communities towards us, and their desire to be more closely united to us in brotherly love and in the confession of our common faith, as these favourable manifestations are made known in the following pages; if these, or any other portions of his work shall tend to rouse in the hearts of British Churchmen a sincere desire to restore the Nestorians to primitive orthodoxy in doctrine, and to the full enjoyment of the great privileges of the Gospel, and further to exert themselves zealously in this charitable work, the author will deem his labour most fully and amply repaid.

P.S. The MS. of these volumes was forwarded to England and offered to several London publishers, who declined publishing it at their own risk, and as the author was not in circumstances to incur the expense of sending it to the press, he had well-nigh abandoned the hope of seeing the work in print. At this juncture, an esteemed friend obtained for him the acquaintance of Mr. J. Masters, who at once submitted the MS. to the perusal of the Rev. J. M. Neale, Warden of Sackville College. The favourable opinion formed of the work by that gentleman induced Mr. Masters to undertake its publication, and the zeal which he has manifested in its eventual success calls for the author's sincere thanks. The kindness of Mr. Neale led him, moreover, to offer his services to revise the proof sheets, and to supply some notes in illustration of the text. The author most gratefully acknowledges the obligation which this timely and valuable assistance has conferred upon him,—an assistance the more to be appreciated since it was proffered to a stranger.

Notice by the Editor

NOTICE BY THE EDITOR.

The absence of the Author from England rendered it, of course, impossible for him to revise the proofs of the present Work. But it also did more than this. It deprived him of the opportunity of consulting the great writers, who, like Le Quien and Asseman, have treated on the doctrines and history of the Nestorians, and of verifying or modifying his statements by their's.

Under these circumstances, he requested me to take charge of the book through the press. I felt it a privilege to be in any way useful in the publication of so very valuable a contribution to the Ecclesiastical History of the East; but the difficulties of the task have not been inconsiderable.

It is no part of my duty, as Editor, to recommend the work. Still, I cannot but observe, that the second volume treats far more satisfactorily of the rituals and theology of the Nestorians than any book yet published in Europe: while the first supplies a desideratum in Ecclesiastical History, the atrocious massacres of Bedr Khan Beg.

Two remarks, however, I must be allowed to make.

The first is, that Mr. Badger is throughout an advocate for the Nestorians, and (naturally, perhaps laudably) takes an advocate's view of his client's side. Few, I suppose, would be satisfied with the concordat he proposes, in which the character and sentiments of Nestorius are left an open question. And in the same way, points of resemblance between the Nestorian and English Communions are discovered with amazing ingenuity.

The second is, that while the schismatical interference of Rome with the Orthodox Eastern Church cannot be too strongly reprobated, the case is widely different in her dealings with the Nestorians. If the Eastern Church makes no efforts among them, why is Rome, any more than ourselves, to be debarred from that duty?

It is to be hoped, however, that English Churchmen will at length awake to the necessity of having an ecclesiastical agent accredited to the East by the synodal voice of the English Church herself. If the following volumes shall in any respect tend to such a result, they will have done yeoman's service both to the Nestorians and to ourselves.

J. M. N.

Introduction

INTRODUCTION.

It was during the existence of the Euphrates Expedition sent out by the British Government under the command of Colonel Chesney, R. A., in the year 1835, that the Nestorian tribes inhabiting the mountainous districts of Coordistan, and other Christian sects dwelling between the two great rivers which almost insulate Mesopotamia, were brought into more general notice. The information respecting these communities contained in Rich's "Notes on Coordistan," is very brief, and after him, until very lately, there appears to have been no European traveller in those parts, who had made it a primary object of his research to inquire into the condition of the native Christians. Of the Nestorians in central Coordistan, scarcely anything was known beyond their existence; their isolated position amidst lofty and rugged mountains, as well as the temper of the fierce and lawless Coords by whom they were surrounded, having hitherto presented to the most daring adventurer almost insurmountable obstacles to his attempting to penetrate within their secluded boundary.

These impediments were in a measure removed by the partial establishment of the Ottoman jurisdiction over a large portion of Coordistan. This event took place in the year 1834, when the Turks, roused to a sense of the danger which threatened their eastern territory from the confederate Coords, who under the famous Rawandooz Beg, had plundered and destroyed many villages in the plains of the Tigris, sent a strong army against them under Resheed Pasha, who succeeded in capturing the rebel chief, and for a season effectually weakened the strength of his warlike followers. This blow, from which the Coords inhabiting the district to the south-east of the Nestorian territory have hardly yet recovered, together with other political intrigues set on foot to that end, had a powerful influence in inducing Noorallah Beg, the Emeer of the independent Coords of Hakkari, to sue for an appointment under the Pasha of Erzeroom, and to be officially recognised by the Sublime Porte. Noorallah Beg already boasted of having reduced the mountain Christians to his obedience, so that the surrender of his own independence virtually comprised the subjection of the Nestorian tribes to the Ottoman sway.

Another event which gradually opened central Coordistan to the researches of the traveller, and to the labours of the Christian missionary, was the appointment of Mohammed Pasha, surnamed Injé Beirakdâr, to the government of the Mosul pashalik. This individual, who from being a groom had risen step by step to the high dignity of a provincial governor, was as famous for his vigorous efforts to reduce to order the unruly tribes comprehended within the limits of his jurisdiction, as for his grasping ambition, and the tyranny with which he oppressed all the subjects of the Sultan placed under his immediate authority. The Osmanlis, fully bent upon establishing Turkish rule over the whole of Coordistan, found in Injé Beirakdâr a fit instrument for effecting the object aimed at, and in furtherance of their purpose placed under his control the hereditary Pasha of Bahdinân, who had hitherto been nominally dependent upon the Pashas of Baghdad. It did not require any very great exercise of political intrigue, at which Mohammed Pasha was a perfect adept, to persuade the Porte that Ismaeel Pasha, then governor of Bahdinân, was disaffected to its interests, and upon this plea he was allowed to expel him from the strong fortress of Amedia, and to extend the limits of his jurisdiction to the foot of the Tyari mountains,—the border-land of the Nestorian tribes.

These machinations eventually led to a direct communication between the government at Mosul and the Nestorian Patriarch, who now placed between two enemies, the Emeer of Hakkari, and Mohammed Pasha, both alike busy in fomenting divisions among the Christians, in order the more easily to seize upon their inheritance, was obliged to refer and submit sometimes to one and sometimes to the other; and, it is to be feared, was not unfrequently driven in his precarious position to side with that party, which for the time appeared to be the stronger, or from which he had the most to dread both for himself and for his people.

The sad result to the interests of the mountain Nestorians, brought about by the ambitious designs of these two rival Mohammedan rulers, who were all along the agents (unconsciously to themselves perhaps,) of the deep-laid policy of the Porte, will be detailed in the course of the following narrative; they are simply mentioned here in order to show by what instrumentality God was pleased to throw open to the pious efforts of His Church a new country, and a primitive Christian community having many claims upon her sympathy and regard.

The facilities for holding intercourse with the mountain Nestorians, which these political changes introduced, having become known in England through the reports of the Euphrates Expedition, and especially through the information collected by Messrs. Ainsworth and Rassam on their return to Europe through Mesopotamia and Asia Minor, it was agreed upon by the Royal Geographical and Christian Knowledge Societies, to send these gentlemen on a special mission to Coordistan. The general result of their journey Mr. Ainsworth has published in two interesting volumes entitled "Travels and Researches in Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, Chaldea, and Armenia;" besides which he drew up a separate report for the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, wherein he gives a full account of his visit to the Patriarch, Mar Shimoon, and the mountain Nestorians.

Mr. Ainsworth's report, and other communications received respecting the Christian sects inhabiting that district, induced the Christian Knowledge and Gospel Propagation Societies, chiefly at the suggestion of the Lord Bishop of London, to send out another mission into Coordistan. The previous acquaintance with the East, which the author had acquired during two years* residence there, and especially his knowledge of the Syriac and Arabic languages, seeming in a measure to qualify him for the undertaking, he was deputed to be the bearer of letters commendatory to several of the Eastern Primates from His Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury, and from the Lord Bishop of London, and to carry out the benevolent intentions of the two Societies as contained in the following instructions:

"Instructions to the Rev. George Percy Badger, on his departure to Coordistan.

In the year 1838, the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, gave instructions to Mr. Ainsworth and Mr. Rassam, to make inquiry into the state of the Christians in Coordistan. The result of that inquiry has been communicated to the Society in a Report, transmitted from Mosul in 1840; by which it appears that the Christians both in that country and in Mesopotamia are in a state of very great depression, and that the Patriarch Mar Shimoon, of Julamerk, who is the temporal and ecclesiastical head of the Christians in independent Coordistan, as well as others of the Bishops and Clergy, were anxious to have a Clergyman of the Church of England to assist them in the education and improvement of their people.

It appears also by letters recently received from Mesopotamia, that a considerable number of the Chaldean Christians are very desirous of restoring the independence of their church, and that Mar Elîa of Alkôsh, who claims the patriarchate of the Chaldeans, has proposed to enter into amicable relations with the Church of England.

Under these circumstances it has been determined, with the sanction and approbation of His Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Lord Bishop of London, to send the Rev. G. P. Badger on a special mission to Chaldea and Coordistan, accompanied by Mr. J. P. Fletcher as his assistant.

Mr. Badger will proceed to his destination as soon as convenient, travelling by way of Constantinople and Trebizond; and if practicable he will pay a visit to Jerusalem in order to put himself in communication with the Bishop of the United Church of England and Ireland in that city, under whose jurisdiction he will be placed.

The following are the points to which Mr. Badger will direct his attention.

1. To testify to the Bishops and Clergy of those countries the goodwill of our Church towards them, and the desire which is felt in England to see their churches restored to a flourishing condition as branches of the True Vine, taking care to explain to them the doctrine and discipline of the Church of England, and to assure them that she claims no jurisdiction or authority over them, or over any of the Churches of the East.

"2. To render such assistance to the Patriarchs, Bishops, and Clergy, as he may be able to give in the work of Christian education, and to take such steps as they may approve for the establishment of schools, and for the instruction of the people generally.

"3. To make inquiries as to their wants in regard to the Holy Scriptures, and to distribute copies of the Bible and of the Arabic version of the English Liturgy wherever they may be useful.

"4. To procure ancient MSS. of the Holy Scriptures and of the Chaldean liturgies and rituals; and to ascertain what alterations have been made in their rituals in modern times, and by what authority, and how far these alterations have been approved by the native clergy and people.

"5. To collect such Arabic MSS. and printed copies of the Holy Scriptures and of ancient liturgies as may be serviceable in the new translations of the Bible and of the Liturgy which are being prepared by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.

"6. To make particular inquiries into the state and condition of the churches in Chaldea and Coordistan with respect to doctrine and discipline, and to the numbers of their clergy and people.

"7. To make communications upon all these subjects to the Bishop of the United Church of England and Ireland in Jerusalem, and also to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, and to the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge."

The following are copies of the letters commendatory above alluded to:

"To the Right Reverend, our brethren in Christ, the Patriarchs and Prelates of the Holy Eastern Church, William, by Divine Providence, Archbishop of Canterbury, Primate of all England, and Metropolitan, greeting in the Lord.

"We earnestly commend to your good will and brotherly kindness our beloved in Christ, George Percy Badger, a Priest of our United Church of England and Ireland, whom we have charged, as occasion may be offered, to salute your Holinesses in our name, and to express to you our respect and affection towards you, and our zeal and fervent desire for the welfare and peace of your churches. He will tell you all things that you may wish to know concerning our apostolical Church, and its feelings of love and kindness towards the ancient and apostolical churches of Christ in the East. Wherefore we entreat you to receive him as a brother, and to accept at our hands the expression of our constant goodwill towards you, which we would desire to offer by him.

"Given under our hand and seal, at our palace of Lambeth, this thirteenth day of March, in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and forty-two.

"W. Cantuar."

"To their Holinesses the Patriarchs and other Prelates of the Christian Churches in Mesopotamia and Coordistan, William, by Divine Providence, Archbishop of Canterbury, Primate of all England, and Metropolitan, greeting in the Lord.

"Understanding that you have expressed the desire that we would send to you one of the clergy of our Church, who might assist you in the establishing of schools for the instruction of children, and make known unto us more particularly the things of which you stand in need, we have herewith sent to you our beloved in Christ, George Percy Badger, a priest of our United Church of England and Ireland, whom we have charged to salute your Holinesses in our name, and to assure you of our goodwill towards you, and our hearty desire to render you all the assistance in our power. We earnestly commend him to your Holinesses, and request you to receive him as a brother, and to make known your wants to him, and we shall be rejoiced to learn through him all things concerning you, and by what means we may more effectually contribute to your prosperity and welfare.

"Given under our hand and seal, at Lambeth, this thirteenth day of March in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and forty-two.

"W. Cantuar."

The next letter from our late Most Reverend Primate is the same as that immediately preceding, with the exception of the address, which is as follows:

"To His Holiness the Patriarch and other Prelates of the independent churches of Coordistan, William, by Divine Providence, Archbishop of Canterbury, Primate of all England, and Metropolitan, greeting in the Lord."

The next is from the Right Reverend the Lord Bishop of London.

"To the Most Reverend Father, His Holiness Mar Shimoon, Patriarch of the Church of Christ in Coordistan, in the name of Jesus Christ, (He is Lord of all,) health and peace.

By these letters we commend to your Holiness our beloved son in the Lord, George Percy Badger, a priest of the ancient apostolic Church of England, wherein I am an unworthy Bishop, entreating you to receive him with fatherly love and kindness, of which he is deserving. He will make known to your Holiness the present state of our Church; and our desire to act in the spirit of Christian friendship and goodwill towards the Church over which the Divine Providence has placed you. And we have directed him to report to us concerning your welfare, and the present condition of the ancient Church in Coordistan.

"We pray that Almighty God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, may have you in His holy keeping, and protect the Church committed to your care.

"Your Holiness's humble servant,

"And brother in Christ,

"C. J. London.

"London, March 20, 1842."

It not having been found convenient for him to visit Jerusa- lem on his journey into Coordistan, the author was provided with the subjoined additional letter from the late Bishop Alexander.

"To their Holinesses the Patriarchs and Bishops of the Christian churches in Mesopotamia and Coordistan, grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father, and Christ Jesus our Lord. This is the sincere wish and prayer of Michael Solomon Alexander, by Divine permission, Bishop of the United Church of England and Ireland in Jerusalem.

"It is one of the pleasing signs of the times in which we are privileged to live, that a desire is felt in the different Apostolic churches of Christ to hold out to each other the right hand of fellowship, and to endeavour by word and deed to promote each other's temporal and eternal welfare. We cannot but hail this as an indication of the speedy approach of that much longed-for period, when the kingdom of Christ shall be established, and when the Lord shall be One and His Name One. It was with a view to this, that I have, in the providence of God lately been placed here, and I have much pleasure in adding my brotherly salutations to those of His Grace the Primate, and the Lord Bishop of London, and to join with them in the request that your Holinesses will receive the bearer, our beloved in Christ, George Percy Badger, a priest of our holy Apostolic Church, with all fatherly love and kindness, as he comes to you with a message of peace and offers of assistance.

"It will at all times afford me pleasure to hear of you, and of your church's welfare, and to be in any way instrumental in promoting it. Praying that the King of Zion may bless His Church and people everywhere, and hasten the coming of His kingdom,

"I remain,

"M. S. Angl. Hierosol."

The foregoing instructions will make the reader acquainted with the object of our mission, and with the nature of the researches contained in the following volumes. Not that they are confined to these topics; for it was judged that even way-side information respecting countries and people as yet but little known would not be devoid of interest to the general reader, and could in no way contravene the ends proposed by the Societies. In these volumes, therefore, will be found many occasional notices of the different places visited, the political, social, and religious condition of the inhabitants interspersed with a narrative of the usual incidents of travel, which, as when they occur, often serve to relieve the tedium of a journey, so when told frequently attemper the dryness of more important details. Moreover, in order to render a portion of this work serviceable as a guide-book to those whom business or pleasure may hereafter bring into Mesopotamia and Coordistan, the diary form has been adopted, and the distance from one locality to another recorded with an ever-recurring precision, which the fire-side reader may deem tedious, but which the actual traveller will often refer to with eagerness and satisfaction.

A melancholy interest will attach itself to the following pages on account of the details which they contain respecting the repeated massacre of the Nestorians by the barbarous Coords, the flight of the Patriarch Mar Shimoon, the captivity and sufferings of many of the Christians among the Moslems, their rescue, and the means adopted to restore them to their homes, and the venerable Patriarch to his ancient diocese. The part which the author was called upon to take, in relieving the necessities of the refugees and liberated captives, and in supporting the cause of the unfortunate Nestorians in various other ways, as also the full confidence which was placed in him by Mar Shimoon, who deputed him to transact the most important affairs touching the welfare of the whole Nestorian community, put him in possession of many facts relative to these disasters which have never yet been made public, and gave him a full insight into the political relations existing between the Patriarch and the Coordish Emeers of Hakkari, and into the intrigues which were set on foot by the Ottoman Porte to compass the subjection of the independent tribes.

Further, as the author resided in Mosul nearly a year after Mar Shimoon and many of his clergy and laity had sought refage in that city, he had abundant opportunity of acquiring from the best sources ample information respecting the civil and ecclesiastical government which had hitherto existed among the Nestorians. To the Patriarch and especially to his worthy and learned Archdeacon Kash'Auraha, who with his family were inmates of the author's house up to the date of his departure from Mosul, he is indebted for the statistics of the churches, clergy, and laity, belonging to his community. The correspondence which he afterwards kept up with Mar Shimoon, and his own researches during a second visit to the Nestorians in 1850, have enabled him to continue their history up to the present time, and to give a succinct narrative of the downfall of the confederate Coordish chiefs their enemies, and of the final establishment of the Ottoman rule over the mountain tribes of Central Coordistan.

The Syrian Monophysites, or Jacobites, will frequently come under notice in the ensuing pages, and a full account will be given of their present condition as a Christian sect; for although it formed no part of the author's instructions to make any researches among this people, yet he was thrown into circumstances where duty called him to assist in a struggle which is not yet ended between them and the dissenters from their body who have joined the communion of the Church of Rome. In so doing he was necessarily brought into friendly relations with their Patriarch and Bishops, and during his residence at Mosul, and when visiting the principal towns and villages inhabited by this people, he found many opportunities of labouring for their welfare; and although truth forbids that he should give a very favourable account of the state of religion and ecclesiastical discipline among them, yet he will ever cherish a pleasing recollection of the hospitality and kindness with which he was received, when they knew him to be a priest of the Church of England.

The efforts of Latin missionaries are frequently noticed in these volumes, the plans upon which their operations are based shown, and the chief causes of their success, and its results, considered. The history of the two modern communities, the Papal Syrian and Chaldean, is also given, together with the part which French political agents have acted, and are still acting, to forward the interests of the See of Rome throughout Turkey. Some remarks will also be made on the missions of Dissenting Societies in that empire, and the impolicy and mischief of their interference with ecclesiastical concerns proved, from the necessary tendency of their doctrines and principles to produce latitudinarianism in religious belief, and never-ending schisms, among the Christians of the East.