Justin Perkins
Encyclopedia
Justin Perkins was an American
Presbyterian missionary
and linguist. He was the first citizen of the United States to reside in Iran, and he became known for his work among the people there as an "apostle to Persia".
, in an area now within the city of Holyoke, Massachusetts
. He was the son of William Perkins and Judith Clough Perkins, and a descendant of a John Perkins who arrived in Massachusetts in 1631 and eventually settled in Ipswich, Massachusetts
in 1633. He spent his early years on the farm. At the age of eighteen, he had a religious experience
and enrolled at the Westfield Academy, going on to graduate with honors from Amherst College
in 1829. He then spent a year teaching at the Amherst Academy, two years studying at the Andover Theological Seminary, and one year as a tutor at Amherst College, before being ordained
a Presbyterian minister in the summer of 1833. At roughly the same time, on July 21, 1833, he married Charlotte Bass of Middlebury, Vermont, with whom he would eventually have seven children. Six of those children would die in Persia, and the only survivor, Judith, would die shortly after returning to the United States.
, his specific appointment being for the remaining members of the Assyrian Church of the East
in northwestern Persia.
He found that the people he was to serve were living lives of poverty and ignorance, functioning as virtual serfs to their Muslim rulers. To address these matters, he established a missionary center in Urmia
in 1835, with himself, Asahel Grant (an American physician), and their respective wives Charlotte and Judith (née Campbell). Perkins was taught by Qasha Auraham and Mar Yohannan, the latter the Assyrian Church of the East bishop of Urmia. Mar Yohannan visited the USA with Perkins in 1843. Perkins' mission there would continue for 35 years. He then began preaching, generally with the full consent of the local Assyrian church clergy, and often in their churches. He also established a boy's school there, which was the first school to use the learning by teaching
method in central Asia. He shortly followed this with several other schools for boys and girls in the surrounding villages, and, later, at the express request of the Muslim government, established similar schools for the Muslim population.
He was also the first to reduce to writing the vernacular
of the locals, the modern Syriac language
. Thereafter, he produced several volumes in that language for the edification of the people. He established a printing press
at Urmia, and used it to produce several works, eighty of which Perkins himself either translated or wrote. These included a magazine
Rays of Light, which was devoted to "Religion, Education, Science, Missions, Juvenile Mattes, Miscellany and Poetry", and which would continue to be produced until his death. He translated portions of the Christian Bible which appeared at various times. Primary among these were a translation of the New Testament
which appeared in 1846, of the Old Testament
in 1852, and a referenced version of the Old Testament in 1858. The first two of these contained the text in ancient and modern Syriac in parallel columns. His other works included books for regular and Sunday school
s, hymn
books, and translation of religious works by the likes of Isaac Watts
, John Bunyan
, Philip Doddridge
, and Richard Baxter
.
He was widely recognized at the time as a scholar of the Syriac language. The high esteem in which he was held by both the Muslim and Christian populations made it possible for him to acquire various older documents which have been very valuable to scholars over the years.
. Following his example, Americans concentrated on improvements in education, book and periodicals publishing, and especially in establishing the first medical college in Iran (1879). The Americans may also be credited with creating the opportunity to put into writing the vernacular Assyrian neo-Aramaic of the Christians of northwest Iran and producing the first periodical in all of Iran (1849), produced in the language at the American Mission press in Urmia
.
Perkins was not only a trained missionary, but he was also an ethnically aware watercolorist
whose drawings of men, women and children belonging to the various ethnic group
s of northwest Iran survive in his books as well as in unpublished drawings. These provide a colorful presentation of ethnic costumes, colors and fabrics available to local populations during the mid-19th century. Perkins and other missionaries in the active Protestant mission in Urmia were probably among the first to present lectures about Iran in the United States as well as being the first Americans with whom the general Persian population had contact. While not officially a diplomat, Perkins, and later missionaries acted much as did provincial consular officers at later times.
He described his experiences in A Residence of Eight Years in Persia among the Nestorian Christians with Notices of the Muhammedans (1841), and Missionary Life in Persia (1861).
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Presbyterian missionary
Missionary
A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin...
and linguist. He was the first citizen of the United States to reside in Iran, and he became known for his work among the people there as an "apostle to Persia".
Biography
He was born in the Ireland Parish of West Springfield, MassachusettsSpringfield, Massachusetts
Springfield is the most populous city in Western New England, and the seat of Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States. Springfield sits on the eastern bank of the Connecticut River near its confluence with three rivers; the western Westfield River, the eastern Chicopee River, and the eastern...
, in an area now within the city of Holyoke, Massachusetts
Holyoke, Massachusetts
Holyoke is a city in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States, between the western bank of the Connecticut River and the Mount Tom Range of mountains. As of the 2010 Census, the city had a population of 39,880...
. He was the son of William Perkins and Judith Clough Perkins, and a descendant of a John Perkins who arrived in Massachusetts in 1631 and eventually settled in Ipswich, Massachusetts
Ipswich, Massachusetts
Ipswich is a coastal town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 12,987 at the 2000 census. Home to Willowdale State Forest and Sandy Point State Reservation, Ipswich includes the southern part of Plum Island...
in 1633. He spent his early years on the farm. At the age of eighteen, he had a religious experience
Religious experience
Religious experience is a subjective experience in which an individual reports contact with a transcendent reality, an encounter or union with the divine....
and enrolled at the Westfield Academy, going on to graduate with honors from Amherst College
Amherst College
Amherst College is a private liberal arts college located in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. Amherst is an exclusively undergraduate four-year institution and enrolled 1,744 students in the fall of 2009...
in 1829. He then spent a year teaching at the Amherst Academy, two years studying at the Andover Theological Seminary, and one year as a tutor at Amherst College, before being ordained
Ordination
In general religious use, ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart as clergy to perform various religious rites and ceremonies. The process and ceremonies of ordination itself varies by religion and denomination. One who is in preparation for, or who is...
a Presbyterian minister in the summer of 1833. At roughly the same time, on July 21, 1833, he married Charlotte Bass of Middlebury, Vermont, with whom he would eventually have seven children. Six of those children would die in Persia, and the only survivor, Judith, would die shortly after returning to the United States.
In Persia
In September, 1833, he set sail for Persia as a missionary for the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign MissionsAmerican Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions
The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions was the first American Christian foreign mission agency. It was proposed in 1810 by recent graduates of Williams College and officially chartered in 1812. In 1961 it merged with other societies to form the United Church Board for World...
, his specific appointment being for the remaining members of the Assyrian Church of the East
Assyrian Church of the East
The Assyrian Church of the East, officially the Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East ʻIttā Qaddishtā w-Shlikhāitā Qattoliqi d-Madnĕkhā d-Āturāyē), is a Syriac Church historically centered in Mesopotamia. It is one of the churches that claim continuity with the historical...
in northwestern Persia.
He found that the people he was to serve were living lives of poverty and ignorance, functioning as virtual serfs to their Muslim rulers. To address these matters, he established a missionary center in Urmia
Urmia
- Demographics :According to official census of 2006, the population of Urmia is about 871,204.- Language :The population of Urmia is mainly Azerbaijani people, with Kurdish, Assyrian Christian, and Armenian minorities...
in 1835, with himself, Asahel Grant (an American physician), and their respective wives Charlotte and Judith (née Campbell). Perkins was taught by Qasha Auraham and Mar Yohannan, the latter the Assyrian Church of the East bishop of Urmia. Mar Yohannan visited the USA with Perkins in 1843. Perkins' mission there would continue for 35 years. He then began preaching, generally with the full consent of the local Assyrian church clergy, and often in their churches. He also established a boy's school there, which was the first school to use the learning by teaching
Learning by teaching
In professional education, learning by teaching designates currently the method by Jean-Pol Martin that allows pupils and students to prepare and to teach lessons, or parts of lessons...
method in central Asia. He shortly followed this with several other schools for boys and girls in the surrounding villages, and, later, at the express request of the Muslim government, established similar schools for the Muslim population.
He was also the first to reduce to writing the vernacular
Vernacular
A vernacular is the native language or native dialect of a specific population, as opposed to a language of wider communication that is not native to the population, such as a national language or lingua franca.- Etymology :The term is not a recent one...
of the locals, the modern Syriac language
Syriac language
Syriac is a dialect of Middle Aramaic that was once spoken across much of the Fertile Crescent. Having first appeared as a script in the 1st century AD after being spoken as an unwritten language for five centuries, Classical Syriac became a major literary language throughout the Middle East from...
. Thereafter, he produced several volumes in that language for the edification of the people. He established a printing press
Printing press
A printing press is a device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium , thereby transferring the ink...
at Urmia, and used it to produce several works, eighty of which Perkins himself either translated or wrote. These included a magazine
Magazine
Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...
Rays of Light, which was devoted to "Religion, Education, Science, Missions, Juvenile Mattes, Miscellany and Poetry", and which would continue to be produced until his death. He translated portions of the Christian Bible which appeared at various times. Primary among these were a translation of the New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
which appeared in 1846, of the Old Testament
Old Testament
The Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism...
in 1852, and a referenced version of the Old Testament in 1858. The first two of these contained the text in ancient and modern Syriac in parallel columns. His other works included books for regular and Sunday school
Sunday school
Sunday school is the generic name for many different types of religious education pursued on Sundays by various denominations.-England:The first Sunday school may have been opened in 1751 in St. Mary's Church, Nottingham. Another early start was made by Hannah Ball, a native of High Wycombe in...
s, hymn
Hymn
A hymn is a type of song, usually religious, specifically written for the purpose of praise, adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification...
books, and translation of religious works by the likes of Isaac Watts
Isaac Watts
Isaac Watts was an English hymnwriter, theologian and logician. A prolific and popular hymnwriter, he was recognised as the "Father of English Hymnody", credited with some 750 hymns...
, John Bunyan
John Bunyan
John Bunyan was an English Christian writer and preacher, famous for writing The Pilgrim's Progress. Though he was a Reformed Baptist, in the Church of England he is remembered with a Lesser Festival on 30 August, and on the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church on 29 August.-Life:In 1628,...
, Philip Doddridge
Philip Doddridge
Philip Doddridge DD was an English Nonconformist leader, educator, and hymnwriter.-Early life:...
, and Richard Baxter
Richard Baxter
Richard Baxter was an English Puritan church leader, poet, hymn-writer, theologian, and controversialist. Dean Stanley called him "the chief of English Protestant Schoolmen". After some false starts, he made his reputation by his ministry at Kidderminster, and at around the same time began a long...
.
He was widely recognized at the time as a scholar of the Syriac language. The high esteem in which he was held by both the Muslim and Christian populations made it possible for him to acquire various older documents which have been very valuable to scholars over the years.
Legacy
Perkins' presence set the tone for the American presence in Iran during the second half of the 19th century when the missionary-led American presence took responsibility for a broad network of primary and secondary schools in northwest Iran that served to bring literacy among the indigenous Christian Aramaic speakers - members of the Assyrian Church of the EastAssyrian Church of the East
The Assyrian Church of the East, officially the Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East ʻIttā Qaddishtā w-Shlikhāitā Qattoliqi d-Madnĕkhā d-Āturāyē), is a Syriac Church historically centered in Mesopotamia. It is one of the churches that claim continuity with the historical...
. Following his example, Americans concentrated on improvements in education, book and periodicals publishing, and especially in establishing the first medical college in Iran (1879). The Americans may also be credited with creating the opportunity to put into writing the vernacular Assyrian neo-Aramaic of the Christians of northwest Iran and producing the first periodical in all of Iran (1849), produced in the language at the American Mission press in Urmia
Urmia
- Demographics :According to official census of 2006, the population of Urmia is about 871,204.- Language :The population of Urmia is mainly Azerbaijani people, with Kurdish, Assyrian Christian, and Armenian minorities...
.
Perkins was not only a trained missionary, but he was also an ethnically aware watercolorist
Watercolor painting
Watercolor or watercolour , also aquarelle from French, is a painting method. A watercolor is the medium or the resulting artwork in which the paints are made of pigments suspended in a water-soluble vehicle...
whose drawings of men, women and children belonging to the various ethnic group
Ethnic group
An ethnic group is a group of people whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage, often consisting of a common language, a common culture and/or an ideology that stresses common ancestry or endogamy...
s of northwest Iran survive in his books as well as in unpublished drawings. These provide a colorful presentation of ethnic costumes, colors and fabrics available to local populations during the mid-19th century. Perkins and other missionaries in the active Protestant mission in Urmia were probably among the first to present lectures about Iran in the United States as well as being the first Americans with whom the general Persian population had contact. While not officially a diplomat, Perkins, and later missionaries acted much as did provincial consular officers at later times.
He described his experiences in A Residence of Eight Years in Persia among the Nestorian Christians with Notices of the Muhammedans (1841), and Missionary Life in Persia (1861).
Works by Perkins
- A Residence of eight years in Persia, among the Nestorian Christians. Andover, Mass.: Allen, Morrill & Wardwell, 1843
- 'Journal of a Tour from Oroomiah to Mosul, through the Koordish Mountains, and a Visit to the Ruins of Nineveh, Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 2, 1851 (1851), pp. 69+71-119
- Nestorian biography: being sketches of pious Nestorians who have died at Oroomiah, Persia. Boston: Massachusetts Sabbath School Society, 1857. Includes chapters by Perkins.
- Missionary life in Persia: being glimpses at a quarter of a century of labors among the Nestorian Christians. Boston: American Tract Society, 1861.
Works about Perkins
- Henry Martin Perkins (1887) Life of Rev. Justin Perkins, D.D., Pioneer missionary to Persia
- John P. Ameer, Yankees and Nestorians : the establishment of American schools among the Nestorians of Iran and Turkey, 1834-1850 (Harvard University PhD 1992