PERSICO
725
PERSICO
ents; 3000 communicants; 2092 pupils distributed
among 62 schools ; 4 hospitals. The Church Mis-
sionary Society, established in 1869, has stations in
Kirman, Yezd, Shiraz, and at Ispahan. The work is
mainly medical and educational. The statistics are:
33 missionaries, including 4 male and 5 female physi-
cians; native clergy, 1; native teachers, 28; Chris-
tians, 412; communicants, 189; schools, 8, with 409
scholars; hospitals, 6. The British and Foreign Bible
Society also does an extensive work in Southern Persia.
The greatest competitor of the two above-mentioned missionary societies is the Anglican mission known as "The Assyrian Mission", which was established in 1884 by Archbishop Benson of Canterbury with headquarters at Urumiah and Kotchanes, the seat of the Nestorian patriarch, and having for its prin- cipal aim the union of the Nestorian with the Anglican Church. It is interesting to read an estimate of the work of this mission from the pen of an Amer- ican Presbyterian missioner: it repudiates the name Protestant, and has for its avowed object the streng- thening of the Nestorian Church to resist Catholic influences on the one hand and Protestant on the other. It has a strong force of missionaries, who wear the garb of their order, and are under temporary vows of celibacy and obedience. Its present statistics are: missionaries, 2; schools, 30, with 470 scholars, besides 12 distinctly Nestorian schools in various sections of Kurdistan. This mission originated in 1842, when "Arehljishop Howley, with the assistance of the So- ciety for the Propagation of the Gospel, sent the Rev. G. P. Badger to Slosul, to begin work among the mountain Nestorians. Just at that time the Kurdish sheikh, Bcrd Khan, was raging in the mountains of Kurilistan. The general confusion and disorder were such that Badger had to retarn in despair to England within a year" (Richter, "History of Protestant Missions in the Near East", 1910). Thirty-four years later the Rev. E. L. Cutts was sent to Kurdistan, but left within a year. The Scandinavian Wahl, however, remained for five years (1880-8.5) in the heart of Kurdistan amidst great privations. After the or- ganization of "The Assyrian Mission", in 1886, one of its missionaries settled at Kotchhannes, some 7000 feet above sea-level, while its headquarters were established at Urumiah.
Many other small Protestant enterprises have lately sprung up in Persia, especially at Urumiah. The United Lutheran Church of America maintains a few kashas (Nestorian priests), and in 190.5, sent an American missionary, the Rev. Mr. Possum, to superintend the work. A Syrian congregation at Urumiah, having left the Russian Church, has joined this mission. The Swedish-American "Augustana Synode" employs a kasha, who conducts two day- schools. The Evangelical Association for the Ad- vancement of the Nestorian Church, founded at Berlin in 1906, employs a kasha who has had a Lu- theran training in Germany. He co-operates to some degree with the .A.nglicans, and has added a fourth to the already existing mission printing establishments at Urumiah. For ten years Dr. Lepsius's German "Orientmission" maintained outside Urumiah an orphanage for Syrian fugitives from the mountains, but it is to be closed soon. The English Plymouth Brethren employ three or four kashas in the "Awis- halum" Mission, named after the chief representative of the mission in Persia, Awishalum [Absolora] Seyad. There are also small missions connected with the American Dunkards, the Holiness Methodists, the American Southern Baptists and Northern Baptists, and the English Congregationalists.
The latest non-Catholic missionary enterprise in Persia was that of the Russians, in 1898. The aim of this mission is more political than educational or re- ligious, and the extraordinary readiness with which several thousand Nestorians flocked to the Russian
Orthodox Church is explained by the fact that the
Nestorians were very anxious for foreign protection
against the tyranny of Persia and Turkey.
I. History, etc. — Maspero, The Passing of Empires (London, 1899); DiEuLAFOT, La Perse, la Chaldee, el la Susiane (Paris, 18S9); Benjamin, Persia an(i (Ac Persians (Boston, 1887); Raw- LINSON, The Sixth and Seventh Great Monarchies of the Ancient Eastern World (London, 1886); db Ragozin, History of Media (London, 1892); Benjamin, History of Persia (London, 1892); Rawlinson, History of Parthia (London, 1890) (these three in the History of the Nations series); Malcolm, History of Persia (London, 1S29); Bahbier de Metnard, Dictionnaire geogra- phigue, historigue et littiraire de la Perse (Paris, 1861); Watson, History of Persia from the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century (London, 1873); Piggot, Persia, Ancient and Modern (London, 1874); JusTi, Geschichte des alien Persiens (Berlin, 1879); Noi^ DEKE, Aufsiitze zur persischen Geschichte (Leipzig, 1887); GcT- SCHMIED, Geschichte Irons und seiner Nachbarldnder (Tubingen, 18S8) ; JusTi AND Horn in Geiger and Kuhn, Grundriss der iranische Philologie, II (Strasburg, 1897-1900); Christensen, L' Empire des Sassanides, le peuple, Vetat, la cour (Copenhagen, 1907); CuRzON, Persia and the Persian Question (London, 1892); DE Morgan, Mission scientifique en Perse (Paris, 1894) ; Sykes, Ten Thousand Miles in Persia (London, 1902); Jackson, Persia, Past and Present (New York, 1906). — On Persian Art: Diehla- FOy, L^Art antique de la Perse (Paris, 1884) ; Perrot and Chipiez, History of Art in Persia [hondoa, 1892); Gayet, L'.4r( persane (Paris, 1896); Adbin, La Perse d'oujourrf'/iui (Paris, 1908).
II. Language and Literature. — Hammer, Geschichte der schonen Redekunste Persiens mit einer Blutenlese (Vienna, 1818); OusELET, Biographical Notices of Persian Poets (London, 1846); Pizzi. Storia delta letteratura Persiana (Turin, 1894); Idem. L'Epopea persiana (Turin, 1887) ; Reed, Persian Literature. Ancient and Modern (Chicago, 1893); Chodzko, Specimens o/ the Popular Poetry of Persia (London, 1842) ; MoHL, Le Shah- Nameh de Firdousi (Paris. 1876-78); Rogers, The Shah-Namah of Fardusi (London, 1907); Dole and Walker, Flowers from Persian Poets (New Yorlc, 1901); Horn, Geschichte der persischen Literatur (Leipzig, 1901); and above all, Browne, Literary History of Persia, I (London, 1902), II (1906).— See also bibliographies to Avbsta and .\vEaTA, Theological Aspects of.
III. Christianity in Persia. — A. Earlier Periods. — Tabari, Geschichte der Persen und Araber zur Zeit der Sassaniden, ed. NoLDEKE (Leyden, 1879) ; Barhebrjsus, Chronicon Ecclesias- ticum, ed. Abbeloos-Lamy (Louvain, 1874); Assemani, Bihlio- theca Orientalis (Rome, 1719-28), especially III, pts. i, ii; Bedjan, Acta Martyrum et Sanctorum (Leipzig, 1890-99); Hoffman, Ausziige aus Syrischen Akten persischer M&rtyrer (Leipzig, 1886); Thomas of Marqa, Book of Governors, ed. Budge (London, 1893) ; Bedj.\n, Fr. tr. Chabot, Jabalaha: Vie de Jabalaha, etc. (Paris, 189.')); Wright, A Short History of Syriac Literature (London, 1891); Duval, Littlrature Syriaque (Paris, 1899); Duchesne, tr. Mathew, Churches Sepandnl from Rome (New Yorlt, 1907); Bvukitt, Early Eastern C}ni '/j-i', ^.",v York, 1904) ; LabourT Le Christianisme dans /'- ', u^ la dynastic Sassanide (Paris, 1904); Adeney, 77,. ',. / - /-r/iCAurcAes (New York, 1908); Shedd, Islam aiui // - ",,.■'7 Diurc/ies (Philadelphia, 1904); O'Leary, The Synnc church and Fathers (London, 1909); Wigram, An Introduction to the History of the Assyr^ ian Church. 100-640 A. D. (London, 1910); Babthold, Zur Geschichte des Christenthums in Mittel-Asien bis zur mongolischen Erobcrung (Tubingen, 1901).
B. Catholic Missions. — Annates de la Congregation de la Mission; Chardin, Voyages en Perse et autres lieux de I'Orient (Amsterdam, 1711); Memoires des Jesuites d' Ispahan; Piolet, La France au dehors, ou Les Missions cathotiques frangaises au XIX' siicle, I: Missions d'Orient (Paris, 1900), 185-222; Miller- Simonis, Du Caucase au Golfe Persique (Paris, 1892) ; Giamil, GenuincE relationes inter syros orientates sen chaldcsos et romanoa pontifices (Rome, 1900) ; Missiones catholicce cura S. C. de Prop. Fide descriptce (Rome, annual).
C. Non-Catholic Missions. — Perkins, Residence of Eight Years in Persia (Andover, 1843); Idem, Missionary Life in Per' sia (Boston, 1861); Guest, Story of a Consecrated Life (London, 1870): Anderson, History of the Missions of the A. B. C. F. M. Oriental Missions (Boston. 1874); Bassett, Persia; Eastern Mission (Philadelphia, 1890) ; Wilson, Persian Life and Cus- toms (Chicago, 1895); Idem, Persia: Western Mission (Phila- delphia, 1896); Richter, A History of Protestant Missions in the Near East (New York, 1910), 279-337; Riley, Progress and Pros- pects of the Archbishop of Canterbury's Mission (London, 1889); Maclean and Browne, The Catholicos of the East and His People (London, 1S92) ; Lawrence, Modern Missions in the East (New
^°'^' i^»^'- Gabriel Oussani.
Persico, Ignatius, cardinal, b. 30 Jan., 1823, at Naples, Italy; d. 7 Dec, 1890. He entered the Capu- chin Franciscan Order on 25 April, 1839. Immedi- ately after ordination he was sent in November, 1846, to Patna, India. The vicar Apostolic, Anastasiua Ilartmann, made him his sncius and confidant. In 1850 Persico accompanied Bishop Hartmann to Bom- bay, when he was transferred to that vicariate, and as- sisted him in founding a seminary .and establishing the "Bomb.ay Catholic Examiner". At the time of the Goanese schism in 18.53, the bishop sent Persico to Rome and London to lay^he Catholic case before the
