The Nestorians and their Rituals/Volume 1/Chapter 7
CHAPTER VII.
Oct. 29th.—We left Mardeen at 11 a.m., and in four hours passed the remains of a Roman building called Kasr (palace) Karandelân, not far from the Coordish village of Kasr Ibreej. Two hours beyond is the large village of Amooda, where we put up for the night. This plain, which might be rendered one of the most fertile in the world, is only cultivated here and there by the Coords and a few Arabs of the Jeboor and Tai tribes. Our road to-day lay along the Toor Mountain, about ten miles from its southern base. This range stretches to the north as far as the Tigris, which separates it from the Taurus.
Oct. 30th.—We started from Amooda at half-past 6 a.m., and after travelling ten miles, passed the site of another Roman building, called Kasr Serteka, or Senjeka, the stones of which were removed about five years ago by Meerza Pasha to build the new barracks near Nisibeen. At noon we reached the latter place, which at present can scarcely claim the title of village. What a change has come over this famous city, once the firmest bulwark of the Roman provinces of the east, which defied the attacks of the victorious Shapoor, who thrice besieged it with the flower of the Persian army, a.d. 338, 346, and 350! It finally fell into their hands under Jovian, a.d. 363, after the retreat and death of the emperor Julian, and resisted all the attempts of the Romans to regain possession of it. S. James, one of the Fathers of the Council of Nice, was present at Nisibis during the last memorable siege of Shapoor; and here in after ages flourished that famous nursery of Nestorianism, the rival of Edessa, which gave birth to those learned and zealous missionaries who carried a knowledge of the Gospel into Tartary, India, and China.
Nisibeen is at present inhabited by 300 families, chiefly Arabs of the Tai tribe, who live in tents pitched amidst the debris of the ancient city, and speak Coordish as well as their own native language. The Christians, who are Jacobites and Armenians, number twelve families, without a church or priest. Of forty Jewish families who resided here a few years ago, four only remain, the rest having been driven by oppression to seek a shelter elsewhere.
The principal relics of antiquity still extant at Nisibeen, are the two solitary marble columns at a short distance from the village, a few ornamental figures, and the so-called Church of S. James. The latter consists of two apartments partly buried in an accumulation of rubbish, which surrounds the whole building. The first, which is of a circular form, is supported by Corinthian pillars, and is in a tolerable state of preservation. The chief entrance faces the east, and this circumstance,10 as well as the internal arrangement of the edifice, leads me to conclude that it was not a church, but a mausoleum erected over the remains of the holy Bishop. The contiguous apartment is destitute of architectural ornament; and from this we descended by a narrow staircase into a sepulchral vault, a subterranean cell measuring 14 ft. by 8 ft. A marble sarcophagus, one side of which has been ruthlessly destroyed, doubtless in hope of finding treasure, marks the traditional grave of S. James. We discovered the following mutilated inscription over the principal entrance, which is now entirely blocked up with rubbish:
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The Mohammedans hold this building in high veneration, and none visit the Zein-ool-Abedeen, a sacred shrine close by, without first performing their devotions within its walls. It was related to us by our Tatar, that about fifty years ago, one Tamr Pasha turned the church into a stable, and next morning all his horses were found dead. Several Moslems also told us that when Meerza Pasha designed to rebuild Nisibeen, he converted the building into a magazine for straw; but being warned in a dream, he ordered it to be removed immediately, and built a wall to support the falling roof of one of the apartments. He moreover offered to restore the church at his own expense, and intended to add a monastery to it, and present it to the Syrian Christians, His recal, said my informants, prevented the execution of his pious designs.
Another Mohammedan pointed out to us the position of the crescent on the dome of the shrine, the horns of which, instead of being pointed upwards, turned in the direction of the church. On inquiring the cause, he replied: "The founder of Zein-ool-Abedeen always prayed towards the tomb of the saint."
Oct. 31st.—We started from Nisibeen at 7 a.m., and after crossing the Jaghjagha, the ancient Mygdonius, over a ruined bridge of eight arches, we reached the small village of Haj Oghloo, at 3 p.m., where we put up for the night. We passed nine Coordish villages during our day's journey, in some of which are a few Jacobites and Yezeedees. At Haznaoor there are fifteen Jacobite families, without a priest or a church. Ten hours' ride from Haj Oghloo brought us to Babeel, and the day following we reached Jezeerah, about eighteen miles distant. The whole of the district from Nisibeen is under the jurisdiction of Bedr Khan Beg, the Emeer of Buhtân, generally known as the Emeer of Jezeerah, of whose cruelty we heard much from the persecuted Christians on the road, and whose barbarity to the Nestorians a few months after will be recorded in the succeeding narrative.
Jezeerah (literally "an island"), the ancient Be-Zabde, is situated in a deep valley on the western bank of the Tigris, the waters of which insulate the town during several months of the year, when the divided stream is crossed by two crazy bridges of boats. The place is in so dilapidated a condition, that the best lodging we could procure was an open recess, where I lay for three days suffering from a severe attack of fever, which obliged me to call in the aid of a Christian female phlebotomist. She bled me freely from the arm, and otherwise attended me during my illness. Bedr Khan Beg was residing in a mountain fortress called Deir Guli, about four hours distant, and Jezeerah was governed by a Coordish Mutsellim, who ruled the Christians with a rod of iron. The bulk of the population consists of Coords, there being not more than twenty Jacobite and sixty Chaldean families in the place, who have each a church and a priest. Coordish is the language generally spoken by all classes of the people. Until within the last few years, a Nestorian Metropolitan resided at Jezeerah, but most of his flock here and in the plains around having joined the Church of Rome, he retired into the Buhtân mountains opposite, where he has still the oversight of a large diocese. Since then, Mutran Basileos, a Chaldean Bishop, has been appointed to this see; he seldom resides however at Jezeerah.
A heavy gloom seemed to pervade the inhabitants of this town: the poor Christians were afraid to open their mouths, and related to us in whispers many sad tales of Bedr Khan Beg's tyranny and oppression. The Coords, as they walked through the streets, or sat in the bazaar, looked upon us with sovereign contempt, and told us by their insolent and haughty bearing, that they hated us, as they did all who bore the name of Christ. Their star was yet in the ascendant, and I have no doubt that many of them were even then looking forward with satisfaction and rapture to the projected slaughter of the mountain Nestorians.
Nov. 5th.—We left Jezeerah at 10 a.m., and in six hours reached the Chaldean village of Takiân. Our road to-day lay at the foot of the high mountains of Joodi, the Tooré Kardo[1] of the Syrians, and supposed by them as well as by the Mohammedans to be the spot on which the ark rested after the deluge. This tradition is also handed down in the name of a village in the mountains, called the "Market of the Eight," with reference to the number of Noah's family who were preserved from the flood.
Takiân is situated in the valley of Zakho, through which the Khaboor flows, and is bounded on the north by the lofty mountains of Joodi and on the south by a lower range called Jebe Bekher, which separates the valley of the Khaboor from the plains of Mosul. There are five Chaldean villages in the vicinity of Takiân, all of which have submitted to Rome within the last few years. Nahrwân is the only Nestorian village left in the plain between Zakho and Jezeerah. From the people here I learned that many Nestorians still inhabited the mountain province of Buhtân.
Nov. 6th.—Seven hours' ride brought us to Zakho, a small provincial town built upon an island formed by the divided stream of the Khaboor, and reckoned within the pashalic of Mosul. We found here a few Chaldeans, twenty Papal Syrian families, with a church and priest, and seventy houses of Jews: the rest of the inhabitants, amounting to about 2,000 souls, are chiefly Coords. In the evening we had a visit from the Mutsellim, who managed to drink four large bowls of tea before he took his departure.
Nov. 7th.—Three hours' ride through a rugged pass in the Bekher range brought us once more to the plains of the Tigris, over which we travelled till 7 p.m., when we put up at the Yezeedee village of Semiel. After a journey of eleven hours, the day following we reached the large Chaldean village of Telkèf, where we were received in the house of Mutran Basileos by my brother-in-law and sister, Mr. and Mrs. Rassam, whom I had not seen for several years, and by a goodly number of native friends who had come thus far to congratulate us on our safe arrival.
Nov. 9th.—Three hours' ride from Telkèf brought us opposite the mounds of ancient Nineveh, where those interesting relics of remote antiquity which have since been dug up then lay buried and undisturbed in the grave of many centuries. We crossed the Tigris for the fifth time over a bridge of boats, and soon reached the British Vice-Consulate, where in the embraces of a devoted mother, who in her old age had accompanied my sister to these far distant parts, I forgot the toil and fatigue of a long and wearisome journey.
During the day we received friendly visits from well nigh all the native clergy of the town, as also from many of the principal laymen. Among these was Gregorius Isa, the Papal Syrian Bishop of Mosul, with whom I had travelled in Syria six years before, and Mutran Matta, who had within the last few weeks returned from Deir Zaaferân, where he had been consecrated bishop over the Syrians on the Malabar coast. He had been educated in the college at Cottyam, and spoke English fluently. On the death of the only Jacobite bishop in India he was sent to be consecrated as his successor, and had arrived at Mosul on his way to the patriarch at the beginning of the year. Here he candidly told his co-religionists that he was not validly ordained priest, as the bishop was a corpse when his hands were laid upon his head. So great, however, was the desire of the Jacobites to see him officiate that they induced him to offer the oblation and to preach in their churches, which he did through the assistance of a deacon, who interpreted his Syriac into Arabic. It appears that in his discourses he frequently inveighed against the errors of the Papacy, which so irritated the Romanists that they used all their influence to have him sent out of the town. His claim to British protection saved him from this indignity, and he afterwards repaired to Deir Zaaferân, where the patriarch ordained him priest and bishop, and gave him the oversight of all the Jacobites on the Malabar coast. He was a man of much intelligence, but from the drift of his remarks, as well as from his after conduct, he seems to have entertained a design of introducing many sectarian doctrines and practices among the Syrians in India. He was on the most intimate terms with the three American Independent missionaries resident at Mosul, and constantly joined in their religious services. On reaching India he attempted to carry out his latitudinarian principles of reform into practice, and so many complaints were made against his proceedings, that the patriarch finally deposed him, not however before he had succeeded in creating a schism in the diocese. To this gentleman I believe myself indebted for a libel which was published in the London "Record" newspaper, attributing to me the error of holding the Apocrypha to be canonical and inspired Scripture. This unintentional or wilful perversion of the truth must have arisen from my having expressed regret that the Apocrypha was not published with the Syrian Bible, chiefly on the ground that the Jacobites desired it, and that many lessons therefrom were appointed to be read in our churches. The Arabic edition of our ritual had already fallen into the hands of the Syrians, and several had expressed their surprise that with such high sanction we did not supply them with the means of referring to the books from which the lessons were taken. I do not believe that the bishop himself wrote the libel in question, but he most probably repeated the conversation to some friends of his at Mosul, who from the first viewed our mission as an interference, and from whom several similar misrepresentations which appeared in the same periodical could only have proceeded.
The mention which has been made of the Syrians in India leads me to add a few remarks on the after proceedings of the patriarch towards them. A successor was appointed to replace Mutran Matta in the charge of the diocese by the late Mar Elias, but as he did not accomplish his mission satisfactorily, the present patriarch sent out another to supersede him. There are therefore more than three Jacobite bishops on the Malabar coast, each laying claim to the obedience of the Indo-Syrians, and each countenanced and supported by different parties in the diocese. Confusion and discord must be the natural consequences of such misrule, for which the patriarchs are chiefly to be blamed. Their principal aim is to obtain pecuniary assistance, and if this is not forthcoming the bishop is judged as being unfaithful in the discharge of his office, and another is sent out to succeed him. And when we add to this the general incapacity of the Syrian prelates, we cannot wonder if the state of the Jacobites in India is deplorable in the extreme.
The day following our arrival I paid a visit to the famous Mohammed Pasha of Mosul, surnamed Injé Beirakdâr, whose interference in the Nestorian affairs will be frequently alluded to hereafter. He received me very graciously, and in return for some European curiosities of which I begged his acceptance, he shortly after sent me the present of a horse. Thinking that he ought to treat me as one of the English Oolema, he showed me a Turkish work on geometry which was open before him, and made no little effort to impress me with the idea that he himself was a man of considerable learning. So adroit had he become in the practice of this species of deception, that I was astonished to learn afterwards that he could not even read. It was a common custom with him, on the arrival of despatches from the Porte, to have a long private interview with the Tatar who brought them, from whom he generally managed to glean something of their import. Thereupon calling for his secretary he first gave him an outline of what he pretended to have perused, and then directed him to read over the whole in his presence.
Mohammed Pasha had already ruled over this province for seven years, and had been instrumental in introducing many salutary reforms in the administration. Before his appointment Mosul had been governed for a century and a half by native pashas of Christian origin. Abd-ool-Jeleel was a Nestorian, one of whose sons embraced Islamism, and afterwards rose to the dignity of pasha. "From him the government of the province became hereditary in that family, and descended in unbroken succession till within a few years, when it was violently interrupted by an insurrection, which introduced a train of miseries that have but just now ceased. The people esteeming themselves oppressed by their ruler, determined to free their city from him and from the race altogether. Several pashas of the family, who attempted to regain the government, were murdered, and the last of the name, having added to the hate of the people the ill-will of the Sultan, was sent into banishment near Constantinople.
"The town during these events became a scene of complete anarchy. The people were divided into factions, and the peace of the city was destroyed by incessant brawls and murders. Walls were built across the streets to separate hostile quarters. Trade was almost entirely destroyed, and the place was, for some time, without a governor. The rayahs procured their safety by combining in companies of three or four to support some influential partisan, who, in turn, protected them. Clothes were torn from passengers in the street. Assassinations were frequent and committed with impunity. The inhabitants could not go half an hour from the city, on the land side, for fear of robbers from the desert, who came and plundered to the very walls.
"In the midst of these commotions, the Sultan interfered, and sent the present Pasha, a man noted for his severe and relentless disposition, to the city. As soon as he had arrived, attempts were made to assassinate him. Continual plots were formed against his life, which he escaped by the energy and activity of his movements. One by one, he brought the leaders of the factions into his power, and secretly despatched them. As soon as they were gone, the danger was past, and he continued the work of beheading at his leisure, until every vestige of the insurrection was suppressed and removed. The city is now more completely under the authority of the Sultan than it has been for a century past. The Pasha was just introducing the new order of the military, and the manner in which it was received, was a fair specimen of the feeling with which it was met, at the outset, in every part of the empire. As soon as it was announced that the Pasha was about to make his first enlistment of soldiers, the city was thrown into an indescribable panic. Officers were walking through the streets in search of men. Thousands fled and hid themselves in secret places in the city, or escaped to the mountains. The Pasha ordered every gate to be closed, excepting one, through which none were allowed to go out without a passport. The bazaars were closed, and deserted by all but a few old men, and the streets appeared as if the pestilence were abroad. As I passed along, [a.d. 1838,] I heard the cries and lamentations of women in the houses from which one or more had been taken. Fathers and mothers were to be seen about the palace imploring for their children who had been seized."[2]
In the course of a few years Mohammed Pasha had a well-organized army at his command, by the aid of which he entirely suppressed the inroads and depredations of the Arabs, Coords, and Yezeedees, and rendered this province one of the safest in the empire. The spirit and firmness which these reforms exhibited would have been far more praiseworthy had they been accompanied with less barbarity and fewer exactions. But he was a man of cruel and grasping disposition, and a perfect adept in intrigue and cunning. The refusal of the Yezeedees in Singar to pay the amount of taxes which he demanded of them, as well as some disturbances which arose in that district, were visited by him with summary chastisement. Several hundreds were totally massacred, and the ears of a large number were cut off, and hung up before the gates of Mosul. He retorted upon the Arabs of the desert their former outrages, and such tribes as came within his reach he indiscriminately plundered. The Coordish Pasha of Amedia he dispossessed of his hereditary dignity, took from him his provinces, and reduced the hardy and warlike Coords to obedience and even to abject submission. In his exactions he made no distinction between Christians, Moslems, Jews, or Yezeedees—they were all sheep of his flock whom he valued only for the fleece which they brought him. A striking instance of this took place during our residence at Mosul. Hitherto the Seyyids, or descendants of the False Prophet, who are distinguished by being privileged to wear a green turban, had been free from the payment of certain taxes which were levied upon all the Sultan's subjects, and Mohammed Pasha determined to bring them within the operation of the law. A deputation from their number ventured to expostulate with him upon the indignity and injustice which this new ordinance offered to the family of the Prophet. Whereupon he demanded, on what they founded their right to such immunity, and how he was to know that they really were what they pretended to be. The Seyyids then pointed to their green turbans, the badge of their genealogy and sacred privileges, "Is that all?" said the Pasha, "why the ducks near Kerkook have green heads, and are notorious for a filthy habit of wallowing in the mire. I doubt whether you are any better; so away with you and pay the taxes."
The immense wealth which he derived from his exactions, as well as from the sale of monopolies, enabled Mohammed Pasha to maintain his standing with the Porte notwithstanding the many complaints which were frequently made against his administration. It is well known that he was in the habit of sending large bribes to the Sultan's ministers, who urged in his behalf the vigour with which he had suppressed anarchy and rebellion, and the general efficiency of his rule, whenever any effort was made to remove him from office. Notwithstanding these outlays he continued to amass vast treasures, and he frequently boasted that the supreme government was in his debt to the amount of £150,000. He longed to extend his sway over the mountains north of Amedia, and used every species of intrigue to get that district annexed to the Mosul pashalic. To this end he secretly fomented disturbances among the Coords and Nestorians, and was himself the first to convey the intelligence of such feuds to the Sublime Porte. Hereafter we shall see the baneful results of these machinations, and it is chiefly on account of the part which his avarice and ambition led him to take in the Nestorian affairs that this sketch of his history and character has been laid before the reader.
A severe fever which attacked four of our party, carried off one of our servants after a lingering illness, and brought Mrs. Badger and myself to the brink of the grave, suspended our operations and researches for the first four months after our arrival at Mosul.
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MOSUL FROM THE EASTERN BANK OF THE TIGRIS.