History of the missions of the American board of commissioners for foreign missions to the oriental churches, Volume I

In Short

This volume is a detailed institutional history of the early foreign missions established by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions across the Ottoman Empire and Greece. Drawing directly from missionary journals, official reports, and contemporary correspondence, it traces the first three decades of American Protestant engagement with historic Christian sects, Muslim authorities, and local Jewish communities. It documents the establishment of schools, translation presses, and independent evangelical congregations from Jerusalem to Constantinople and the mountains of Kurdistan. The record survives as a primary witness to the cultural and political collisions that reshaped the nineteenth-century Eastern Mediterranean.

The Story

The narrative opens in 1819 with the departure of Pliny Fisk and Levi Parsons from Boston, bound for Palestine. Sent under instructions from the American Board to survey the Holy Land and inquire into the spiritual needs of its varied inhabitants, their arrival marks the beginning of an ambitious movement. Finding Jerusalem politically unstable and hostile to permanent settlement, early laborers shift their headquarters to Beirut, establishing what becomes the Syria Mission. There, missionaries apply themselves to Arabic and Armeno-Turkish, set up elementary schools, and begin printing evangelical literature. Their work soon attracts local converts, leading to immediate conflict with established ecclesiastical hierarchies—most tragically illustrated by the imprisonment and death of the Maronite convert Asaad Shidiak, whose family delivers him up to the Patriarch.

As political unrest, fires, and epidemics disrupt regional stations, operations expand into the heart of the Ottoman Empire. In Constantinople, missionaries establish a foothold in Pera and later found the Bebek Seminary on the Bosphorus to educate young Armenians. The narrative moves across geographic hubs, tracking parallel efforts among the Greeks, the Armenians, the Jacobites, and the mountain Nestorians of Kurdistan. The press becomes a central weapon of the enterprise: script scholars and printers design new Arabic and Syriac typefaces modeled on local calligraphy to publish vernacular Bibles and educational tracts.

Progress triggers fierce institutional pushback. Traditional Patriarchs issue formal decrees of excommunication against native converts, stripping Protestant sympathizers of their civil rights, commercial standing, and protection under Ottoman law. This severe economic and social ostracism backfires by forcing the converts to organize independently. Influential local scholars and leaders—such as the Syrian intellectual Michael Meshakah—publicly renounce their former church ties, authoring treatises against papal authority and traditional dogmas. Confronted by growing international pressure and domestic unrest, the Ottoman government intervenes, limiting the secular authority of the Patriarchs and formally recognizing Protestant subjects as a distinct civil community.

The story ends mid-century with a landscape fundamentally altered. Ottoman imperial reforms guarantee basic religious rights, while American stations stretch from the Aegean islands to the remote heights of Koordistan. Small, self-governing Protestant churches, native-led schools, and active printing operations operate across Constantinople, Nicomedia, Aintab, and Oroomiah, establishing an enduring American presence in the Levant.

How It Unfolds

The voyage begins Two young ministers, Pliny Fisk and Levi Parsons, sail from Boston in 1819 under broad instructions to survey the religious conditions of the Holy Land. They initiate contacts in Malta and Smyrna, laying the groundwork for Protestant activity in the Ottoman periphery.

Establishing the Levant stations Driven from Jerusalem by civil instability, missionaries relocate to Beirut in 1823, focusing their energy on learning Arabic and Armeno-Turkish. They open schools and secure the protection of friendly European consuls to build a permanent base of operations.

Persecution and early martyrs Local ecclesiastical authorities react sharply to the growth of evangelical views among their flocks. The convert Asaad Shidiak is betrayed by his own family and handed over to the Maronite Patriarch, enduring imprisonment and dying for his refused recantation.

Expanding to the imperial capital Missionaries push into Constantinople, establishing educational hubs along the Bosphorus despite devastating urban fires and frequent political shifts. The opening of the Bebek Seminary provides formal training for a new generation of Armenian youth.

Technological adaptions To overcome local prejudice against crude European typography, missionaries design completely new Arabic and Syriac type fonts based on classical regional manuscripts. These custom typefaces allow mission presses in Smyrna and Oroomiah to flood the region with accessible vernacular literature.

Conflict in the mountain wilderness Physician-missionaries like Dr. Asahel Grant venture into the rugged mountains of Kurdistan to work among the independent Nestorian tribes. They navigate dangerous blood feuds, regional warlords, and Ottoman military incursions that eventually scatter the native population.

The excommunication and civil reform The Armenian Patriarch launches a formal campaign of anathema against all evangelical converts, cutting them off from traditional guilds and civil protections. The resulting crisis forces the imperial government to intervene, granting Protestant subjects their own legal standing within the empire.

The People

• Pliny Fisk and Levi Parsons — The pioneer envoys sent out from Massachusetts in 1818. Driven by a desire to plant evangelical Christianity in Bible lands, they face immediate resistance, harsh travel conditions, and early deaths, setting the tone of self-sacrifice for the entire enterprise.
• Asaad Shidiak — A young Maronite scholar of Syria who embraces Protestant doctrine through his work with the missionaries. Seeking freedom to teach and write, he is betrayed by his brothers, dragged before his Patriarch, and held in isolation until his death.
• William Goodell — A resilient missionary who establishes the key stations in Beirut and Constantinople. He endures catastrophic fires, plague, and exile while translating the Scriptures into Armeno-Turkish and mentoring native converts.
• Dr. Asahel Grant — A courageous physician who offers his medical skill to reach the warlike Nestorian tribes of the interior mountains. He traverses treacherous mountain passes and treats hostile chiefs, serving as a mediator until local wars break his health.
• Apisoghom Khachadûrian — An early Armenian convert who refuses financial bribes and family pressure from the Patriarch. He becomes the first native pastor of the evangelical church in Constantinople, leading his congregation through severe economic excommunication.
• Michael Meshakah — A prominent Greek Catholic scholar from Damascus who wrestles with skepticism before turning to Protestantism. He authors influential Arabic polemics that challenge papal authority across the Levant.

In Its Own Voice

"The two grand inquiries ever present to your minds will be, WHAT GOOD CAN BE DONE? and BY WHAT MEANS?"

Dr. Worcester delivers these words to the first outgoing missionaries in Boston, defining the practical and wide-ranging mandate that drove American operations in the Mediterranean.

"If I had not read the Gospel, I should have been astonished at this movement of yours; but now I see through it all."

Asaad Shidiak addresses his family as twenty of his relatives assemble to carry him by force to the Patriarch's prison, framing his betrayal as the fulfillment of biblical prophecy.

"'Let me know,' said he, 'how much you receive as a salary from those men (meaning us), and I will pledge myself to secure more for you, if you will only come over to our side.'"

The Armenian Patriarch attempts to bribe the young convert Apisoghom Khachadûrian into silence just days before issuing a sweeping decree of excommunication against all Protestant sympathizers.

What It's Really About

Rufus Anderson presents a historic record of cultural and doctrinal collision. At its core, the book examines what happens when Western evangelical idealism—relying on print culture, individual conscience, and literal Scripture translation—confronts the ancient, communal traditions of the Eastern churches and the complex socio-political hierarchy of the Ottoman Empire. The narrative argues that spiritual renewal cannot be separated from political and educational transformation. Beneath the accounts of conversions and printing presses lies a deep structural inquiry into religious liberty, showing how the isolation of native converts unexpectedly forced the Ottoman state to dismantle traditional civil monopolies and grant modern legal protections to religious minorities.

Why Read It Today

This volume appeals to readers interested in nineteenth-century religious history, Middle Eastern diplomacy, and the origins of American engagement with the Levant. Anderson writes with the methodical clarity of an administrator, drawing directly from firsthand journals, official dispatches, and eyewitness testimony. Reading it feels like sifting through an expansive nineteenth-century archive: precise, unhurried, and dense with geographic and biographical detail.

The narrative does present structural challenges for modern readers. Its length is substantial, and the geographic focus shifts repeatedly across Syria, Greece, Turkey, and Persia. Readers will also encounter nineteenth-century Protestant biases regarding traditional Eastern liturgies, Islam, and regional customs. Yet beneath the period attitudes lies a vivid historical canvas. The book records extraordinary human drama: dangerous mountain journeys, early medical work, language preservation, and individuals making profound sacrifices for their convictions. It stands as an essential primary resource for understanding how early American institutions shaped their global outlook.

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