Most of the other groups that worked in Persia were either small or stayed only a short time or both. Although they were forced to leave during World War I, in 1317 Š./1938 they reestablished their mission in Arbīl in Iraqi Kurdistan (Bodensieck, I, pp. The following year missionaries of the intersynodal Lutheran Orient Mission arrived in Sāwj-Bolāḡ (Māhābād). 314-15), in 1328/1910 the American Lutheran churches were granted missionary responsibility for Kurdistan by the Edinburgh World Missionary Conference. 110).Īfter abortive efforts by American and Swedish Lutherans to aid the Nestorian missions (Richter, pp. 25), and the British and Foreign Bible Society, which in 1319/1901 maintained in Būšehr an office for distributing bibles (Bliss et al., p. A supporting role in evangelization was played by the American Bible Society, which distributed bibles through Presbyterian missions (Bliss et al., p. The Division of Foreign Missions of the Assemblies of God, though a relative latecomer in 1344 Š./1965, was also quite successful in establishing the Assemblies of the Church of Iran (Wilson, p.
Two Protestant denominations, the American Presbyterians and the British Anglicans, have had the longest history of involvement and the most extensive institutional presence in Persia. In 1340 Š./1961 Ḥasan Dehqānī Taftī was consecrated the first Persian bishop of Kelīsā-ye osqofī-e Īrān ( Episcopal church of Iran).Īlthough most missionary groups in Persia carried out charitable activities, particularly in education and health care, the primary purpose of the Protestant groups was conversion. By 1330/1912 there was an Anglican diocese in Persia with the Englishman Reverend C.
In 1285/1869 an Anglican missionary, Robert Bruce (1833-1915), settled in Isfahan (Bliss et al., p. This translation was later combined with the Persian New Testament by Martyn and Mīrzā Sayyed ʿAlī Khan to make a complete Bible for Persian readers (see bible vii). In 1254/1838 Reverend William Glen, a Scottish missionary who had spent some years in Astrakhan working on a Persian translation of the Hebrew Bible, visited Tabrīz and Tehran to enlist the aid of local scholars in revising his text. In 1227/1812 Henry Martyn (1781-1812), a chaplain of the East India Company, completed, with the help of Mīrzā Sayyed ʿAlī Khan of Shiraz, a Persian translation of the New Testament it was intended as a tool for evangelization among Muslims (Bliss et al., pp. In southern Persia British missionaries had been at work since the early 19th century. Because of Islamic opposition in Isfahan, however, the idea was abandoned (Bliss et al., p. had traveled through Persia and Central Asia to explore the possibilities of working among Muslims. In 1249/1834 Reverend Frederic Haas of the Basel mission and Reverend J. Asahel Grant, a physician (1807-44), with their wives to Urmia in 835 respectively (Bliss et al., pp. Dwight (1803-62) made an exploratory visit, which in turn led to the posting of Reverend Justin Perkins (1805-69) and Dr. Joseph Wolff (1795-1862), a Jew from Bavaria, converted to Christianity in England, visited the Nestorian (Assyrian) Christians in Azerbaijan and wrote a report that piqued the interest of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (A.B.C.F.M.), an organization at that time affiliated with the Congregational Church and several Reformed and Presbyterian denominations (Bliss et al., pp. Pfander (1803-65), who visited Persia in 1246/1831 and wrote Mīzān al-ḥaqq and other polemical essays much used by later missionaries among Muslims (Bliss et al., pp. In 1236-55/1821-39 Swiss missionaries from Basel were stationed in Šūšī (Šūšā) in Qarābāḡ the best known of them was Reverend K. In 1160/1747 a Moravian mission from Saxony visited Persia with the intention of converting Zoroastrians but was forced to withdraw because of political disturbances (Bliss et al., p. It began with the arrival in Persia of European and American missionaries in the 18th and 19th centuries (see christianity viii). The conversion of Armenians, Assyrians, Jews, Muslims, and Zoroastrians in Persia to Protestantism as the result of missionary activity by foreign societies and national churches is discussed here (for conversion in a broader sense, see Horner, 1981 Lofland and Skonovd Rambo Tippett).