The total number of the Nestorians is estimated variously. Statistics in both Turkey and Persia are generally mere guesses. In any case, it is now only a small remnant. The largest number I find is given by Silbernagl, 150,000,[1] the smallest 70,000.[2] Cuinet, who is generally sound, gives 100,000.[3] What do these people call themselves? It is generally difficult to find the technical name used by the smaller Eastern Churches for themselves, because so often they have none, calling themselves simply "Christians," or some such indefinite title. Most Nestorians if asked what they are would say simply Mshīḥâye (Christian), or Suryâne (Syrian), both of which names they also give to the Jacobites. Often they distinguish themselves from us and the Orthodox as "Christians of the East." But they have not the smallest objection to the name "Nestorian." Mâr ‘Ebedyeshu‘, Metropolitan of Nisibis, in 1298 drew up a profession of faith,[4] which he calls "The Orthodox Creed of the Nestorians."[5] He dates it at the end as written in September "in the year of Alexander, 1609, in the blessed city of Ḥlāt, in the church of the blessed Nestorians."[6] He makes a list of Church books (mentioning the "false" Synod of Ephesus),[7] written (he says) by "Nestorian divines."[8] Nor has their custom changed since his time. Mr. Badger heard these people call themselves Suryâne, Nesṭuryane, Ḳrisṭyane, Mshīḥâye; but never Ḥaldaye (Chaldee), which is the recognized name for the Uniates. Lately a student at the Anglican mission-school shocked his teachers by writing in an essay on his people the statement: "The Syrians have taken their religion from Mâr Nestoris."[9] So it seems that if one were to ask one of these people whether he be a Nestorian, he would answer quite simply that he is. No doubt the more educated would say that their religion is that of Christ and his Apostles, as taught and
- ↑ Verfassung, u.s.w., p. 268.
- ↑ Herzog and Hauck: Prot. Realenz. (article by Petermann and Kessler), vol. xiii. p. 733.
- ↑ Namely, 10,000 in Persia, 40,000 Turkish "rayahs," 50,000 ‘ashīrah Nestorians (La Turquie d'Asie, Paris, 1892, vol. ii. p. 650). The Anglican mission agrees with this (Kurds and Christians, p. 12).
- ↑ In Badger, op. cit. ii. pp. 49–51.
- ↑ Ib. p. 49.
- ↑ Op. cit. i. 178.
- ↑ ii. 378.
- ↑ Op. cit. i. 178.
- ↑ Maclean and Browne: The Catholicos of the East, p. 150.
