Chapter X: In Persia--Controversies with Mohammedans, Soofis, and Jews (1)

Henry Martyn's first week in Persia was enough to lead him to use such language as this: 'If God rained down fire upon Sodom and Gomorrah, how is it that this nation is not blotted out from under heaven? I do not remember to have heard such things of the Hindus, except the Sikhs; they seem to rival the Mohammedans.' The experienced Bengal civilian, Mr. E. Scott Waring, had thus summed up his impressions: 'The generality of Persians are sunk in the lowest state of profligacy and infamy, and they seldom hesitate alluding to crimes which are abhorred and detested in every civilised country in the universe. Their virtues consist in being most excellent companions, and in saying this we say everything which can be advanced in their favour. The same argument cannot be advanced for them which has been urged in favour of the Greeks, for they have laws which stigmatise the crimes they commit.' Every generation seems to have departed farther and farther from the character of the hero-king, Cyrus. At the present time, after two visits to Europe by their Shah, the governing class, the priestly order of Moojtahids, and the people seem to be more hopelessly corrupt than ever.[54]

So early as the twelfth century the astronomer-poet of Persia, Omar Khayyam, of Naishapur, in his few hundred tetrastichs of exquisite verse which have ever since won the admiration of the world, struck the note of dreary scepticism and epicurean sensuality, as the Roman Lucretius had done. His age was one of spiritual darkness, when men felt their misery, and all the more that they saw no means of relieving it. The purer creed of Zoroaster had been stamped down but not rooted out by the illiterate Arab hordes of Mohammed. A cultured Aryan race could not accept submissively the ignorant fanaticism of the Semitic sons of the desert. The Arabs destroyed or drove out ultimately to India the fire-worshippers who had courage to prefer their faith to the Koran; the mass of the people and their leaders worked out the superficial Mohammedanism identified with the name and the sufferings of Ali. The new national religion became more and more a falsehood, alike misrepresenting the moral facts and the character and claims of God, and not really believed in by the general conscience. The few who from time to time arose endowed with spiritual fervour or poetic fire, found no vent through the popular religion, and no satisfaction for the aching void of the heart. The loftier natures ran by an inevitable law of the human mind either into such self-indulgent despairing scepticism as Omar Khayyam's, or into the sensual mysticism of Sadi, Jami, and Hafiz, of the whole tribe of ascetic enthusiasts and impostors, the Soofis, fakeers, and durweshes, who fill the world of Islam, from the mosques on the Bosporus to the secret chambers of Persia and Oudh. To all such we may use one of the few rare tetrastichs which Omar Khayyam was compelled by his higher nature to write:[55]

O heart! wert thou pure from the body's dust,
Thou shouldest soar naked spirit above the sky;
Highest heaven is thy native seat--for shame, for shame,
That thou shouldest stoop to dwell in a city of clay!

We must remember all this when we come to the disputations of Henry Martyn with the doctors of Shiraz and Persia. They, and some fifteen millions out of the hundred and eighty millions of Islam in the world, are Shi'ahs, or 'followers' of Ali, whom, as Mohammed's first cousin and son-in-law, they accept as his first legitimate imam, kaliph, or successor; while they treat the _de facto_ kaliphs of the Soonni Muslims--Abu Bakr, Omar, and Othman--as usurpers. The Persians are in reality more tolerant of the Christians, the Jews, and even the Majusi (Magi), or fire-worshippers, all of whom are people of the Book who have received an inspired revelation, than of their Soonni co-religionists. The people--though not of course their ruler, who is of Turkish origin--are more tolerant of new sects, such as that of Babism, and even their spiritual guides or the more respectable among these are in expectation of a new leader, the twelfth, the Imam-al-Mahdi, who has once before been manifested, and has long been waiting secretly for the final consummation.

We must also realise the extent to which Soofi-ism had saturated the upper classes and the Moojtahid order, who sought out Henry Martyn, and even recognised in him the Divine drunkenness, so that they always treated him and spoke of him as a _merdi khodai_, a man of God. The first Soofi--a name taken either from the word for the woollen dress of the Asiatic or from that for purity--was Ali, according to the Shi'ahs; but this form of philosophical mysticism, often attended by carnal excesses through which its devotees express themselves, is rather Hindu in its origin. The deepest thought of the Asiatic, without the revelation of Jesus Christ, is for Brahman and Buddhist, Sikh and Soofi, Hindu and Mohammedan, this absorption into the Divine Essence, so as to lose all personality and individual consciousness. That Essence may be the sum total of all things--the materialistic side; or the spirit underlying matter, the idealistic side, but the loss of individuality is the ultimate aim. But such absorption can be finally reached only by works--asceticism, pilgrimage, almsgiving, meditation--and by cycles of trans-migrations to sublimate the soul for unconsciousness of all that is objective, and of self itself. Hafiz is as full of wine and women in his poems as Anacreon or the worst of the Latin erotic poets; but the Soofis, who revel in his verses, maintain that they 'profess eager desire with no carnal affection, and circulate the cup, but no material goblet, since all things are spiritual in their sect; all is mystery within mystery.'

What Henry Martyn learned to find, in even his brief experience of the Aryan Shi'ahs, to whom he offered the love of Christ and through the Son a personal union with the Father, is best expressed in this description by the most recent skilled writer on the people, before referred to:

Persia is the one purely Mohammedan country which, in the
process of a national revolt against the rigid hide-bound
orthodoxy of Islam, has only succeeded in wrapping more closely
round its national and political life the encircling folds of
that 'manteau commode, sous lequel s'abrite, en se cachant à
peine, tout le passé.' Under the extravagances and fanaticism of
the Shi'ah heresy, the old Zoroastrian faith lives on,
transformed into an outward conformity to the forms of the
Moslem creed, and the product is that grotesque confusion of
faith and fanaticism, mysticism and immorality, rationalism and
superstition, which is the despair and astonishment of all who
have looked beneath the surface of ordinary everyday life in
Persia. Soofi-ism, with its profound mysticism and godless
doctrine, has found a congenial home in Persia, often, indeed,
blossoming into beautiful literary form such as is found in the
_Rubaiyāt_ of Omar Khayyam, or in the delightful pages of the
_Gulistan_ of Sheikh Sadi, or in the poems of Hafiz.

Soofi-ism is the illegitimate offspring of scepticism and fanaticism. It is tersely described by one Persian writer as 'a sensual plunging into the abyss of darkness'; by another as 'a deadly abomination'; and by a third as 'the part of one who goes raving mad with unlawful lusts.' Nevertheless, as Professor Kuenen has well observed, the true Soofi is a Moslem no more.

All Martyn's experience among the Wahabees of Patna and the Shi'ahs of Lucknow had fitted him for the discussions which were almost forced upon him in Persia, for he went there to translate the New Testament afresh. But he had, in his reading, sought to prepare himself for the Mohammedan controversy. When coasting round India, he made this entry in his _Journal_: '_1811, January 28._--Making extracts from Maracci's _Refutation of Koran_. Felt much false shame at being obliged to confess my ignorance of many things which I ought to have known.' Soofi-ism met him the day after he reached Shiraz, on the first visit of Seyd Ali, brother-in-law of his host, Jaffir Ali Khan. Thus:

_June 10._--He spoke so indistinctly, and with such volubility,
that I did not well comprehend him, but gathered from his
discourse that we are all parts of the Deity. I observed that we
had not these opinions in Europe, but understood that they were
parts of the Brahmanic system. On my asking him for the
foundation of his opinions, he said the first argument he was
prepared to bring forward was this: God exists, man also exists,
but existence is not twofold, therefore God and man are of the
same nature. The minor I disputed: he defended it with many
words. I replied by objecting the consequences, Is there no
difference between right and wrong? There appeared a difference,
he said, to us, but before God it was nothing. The waves of the
sea are so many aspects and forms, but it is still but one and
the same water. In the outset he spoke with great contempt of
all revelation. 'You know,' said he, 'that in the law and Koran,
etc., it is said, God _created heaven_ and the _earth_,' etc.
Reverting to this, I asked whether these opinions were agreeable
to what the prophets had spoken. Perceiving me to be not quite
philosophical enough for him, he pretended some little reverence
for them, spoke of them as good men, etc., but added that there
was no evidence for their truth but what was traditionary. I
asked whether there was anything unreasonable in God's making a
revelation of His will. He said, No. Whether a miracle for that
purpose was not necessary, at least useful, and therefore
credible? He granted it. Was not evidence from testimony
rational evidence? Yes. Have you then rational evidence for the
religion of Mohammed? He said the division of the moon was
generally brought forward, but he saw no sufficient evidence for
believing it; he mentioned the Koran with some hesitation, as
if conscious that it would not stand as a miracle. I said
eloquence depended upon opinion; it was no miracle for any but
Arabs, and that some one may yet rise up and write better. He
allowed the force of the objection, and said the Persians were
very far from thinking the eloquence of the Koran miraculous,
however the Arabs might think so. The last observation he made
was, that it was impossible not to think well of one by whose
example and instructions others had become great and good;
though therefore little was known of Mohammed, he must have been
something to have formed such men as Ali. Here the conversation
ceased. I told them in the course of our conversation that,
according to our histories, the law and Gospel had been
translated into Persian before the time of Mohammed. He said
they were not to be found, because Omar in his ignorant zeal had
probably destroyed them. He spoke with great contempt of the
'Arab asses.'

_June 13._--Seyd Ali breakfasted with us. Looking at one of the
plates in Hutton's _Mathematical Dictionary_, where there was a
figure of a fountain produced by the rarefaction of the air, he
inquired into the principle of it, which I explained; he
disputed the principle, and argued for the exploded idea that
nature abhors a vacuum. We soon got upon religion again. I
showed him some verses in the Koran in which Mohammed disclaims
the power of working miracles. He could not reply. We talked
again on the evidence of testimony. The oldest book written by a
Mohammedan was the sermons of Ali. Allowing these sermons to be
really his, I objected to his testimony for Mohammed, because he
was interested in the support of that religion. I asked him the
meaning of a contested passage; he gave the usual explanation;
but as soon as the servants were gone he turned round and said,
'It is only to make a rhyme.' This conversation seemed to be
attended with good. Our amiable host, Jaffir Ali, Mirza Jan, and
Seyd Ali seemed to be delighted with my arguments against
Mohammedanism, and did not at last evince a wish to defend it.
In the evening Jaffir Ali came and talked most agreeably on
religious subjects, respecting the obvious tendency of piety and
impiety, and the end to which they would lead in a future world.
One of his remarks was, 'If I am in love with any one, I shall
dream of her at night; her image will meet me in my sleep. Now
death is but a sleep; if therefore I love God, or Christ, when I
fall asleep in death I shall meet Him, so also if I love Satan
or his works.' He could wish, he said, if he had not a wife and
children, to go and live on the top of a mountain, so disgusted
was he with the world and its concerns. I told him this was the
first suggestion in the minds of devotees in all religions, but
that in reality it was not the way to escape the pollution of
the world, because a man's wicked heart will go with him to the
top of a mountain. It is the grace of God changing the heart
which will alone raise us above the world. Christ commands His
people to 'abide in Him'; this is the secret source of
fruitfulness, without which they are as branches cut off from
the tree. He asked whether there was no mention of a prophet's
coming after Christ. I said, No. 'Why then,' said he, 'was any
mention made of Ahmed in the Koran?' He said, 'One day an
English gentleman said to me, "I believe that Christ was no
better than myself." "Why then," said I, "you are worse than a
Mohammedan."'

_June 24._--Went early this morning to the Jewish synagogue with
Jaffir Ali Khan. At the sight of a Mohammedan of such rank, the
chief person stopped the service and came to the door to bring
us in. He then showed us the little room where the copies of the
law were kept. He said there were no old ones but at Baghdad and
Jerusalem; he had a printed copy with the Targum, printed at
Leghorn. The only European letters in it were the words 'con
approbazione,' of which he was anxious to know the meaning. The
congregation consisted chiefly of little boys, most of whom had
the Psalter. I felt much distressed that the worship of the God
of Israel was not there, and therefore I did not ask many
questions. When he found I could read Hebrew, he was very
curious to know who I might be, and asked my name. I told him
Abdool Museeh, in hopes that he would ask more, but he did not,
setting me down, I suppose, as a Mohammedan.

_June 25._--Every day I hear stories of these bloody Tartars.
They allow no Christian, not even a Soonni, to enter their
country, except in very particular cases, such as merchants with
a pass; but never allow one to return to Persia if they catch
him. They argue, 'If we suffer this creature to go back, he will
become the father of other infidels, and thus infidelity will
spread: so, for the sake of God and His prophet, let us kill
him.' About 150 years ago the men of Bokhara made an insidious
attempt to obtain a confession from the people of Mushed that
they were Shi'ahs. Their moulvies begged to know what evidence
they had for the Khaliphat of Ali. But the men of Mushed, aware
of their purpose, said, 'We Shi'ahs! no, we acknowledge thee for
friends.' But the moollahs of Bokhara were not satisfied with
this confession, and three of them deliberated together on what
ought to be done. One said: 'It is all hypocrisy; they must be
killed.' The other said: 'No, if all be killed we shall kill
some Soonnis.' The third said: 'If any can prove that their
ancestors have ever been Soonnis they shall be saved, but not
else.' Another rejoined that, from being so long with Shi'ahs,
their faith could not be pure, and so it was better to kill
them. To this another agreed, observing that though it was no
sin before men to let them live, he who spared them must be
answerable for it to God. When the three bloody inquisitors had
determined on the destruction of the Shi'ah city, they gave the
signal, and 150,000 Tartars marched down and put all to the
sword.

_June 26._--We were to-day, according to our expectation, just
about setting off for Ispahan, when, Mirza Ibrahim returning,
gave us information that the Tartars and Koords had made an
irruption into Persia, and that the whole Persian army was on
its march to Kermanshah to meet them. Thus our road is
impassable. I wrote instantly to the ambassador, to know what he
would advise, and the minister sent off an express with it.
Mirza Ibrahim, after reading my answer, had nothing to reply,
but made such a remark as I did not expect from a man of his
character, namely, that _he_ was sufficiently satisfied the
Koran was a miracle, though he had failed to convince me. Thus
my labour is lost, except it be with the Lord. I have now lost
all hope of ever convincing Mohammedans by argument. The most
rational, learned, unprejudiced, charitable men confessedly in
the whole town cannot escape from the delusion. I know not what
to do but to pray for them. I had some warm conversation with
Seyd Ali on his infidelity. I asked him what he wanted. Was
there any one thing on earth, of the same antiquity, as well
attested as the miracles, etc., of Christianity? He confessed
not, but he did not know the reason he could not believe:
perhaps it was levity and the love of the world, or the power of
Satan, but he had no faith at all. He could not believe even in
a future state. He asked at the end, 'Why all this earnestness?'
I said, 'For fear you should remain in hell for ever.' He was
affected, and said no more.

_June 27._--The Prime Minister sent me, as a present, four
mules-load of melons from Kaziroon. Seyd Ali reading the 2nd
chapter of St. Matthew, where the star is said to go before the
wise men, asked: 'Then what do you say to that, after what you
were proving yesterday about the stars?' I said: 'It was not
necessary to suppose it was one of those heavenly bodies; any
meteor that had the appearance of a star was sufficient for the
purpose, and equally miraculous.' 'Then why call it a star?'
'Because the magi called it so, for this account was undoubtedly
received from them. Philosophers still talk of a falling star,
though every one knows that it is not a star.'

_September 2_ to _6_.--At Mirza Ibrahim's request we are
employed in making out a proof of the Divine mission of Moses
and Jesus. He fancies that my arguments against Mohammedanism
are equally applicable against these two, and that as I
triumphed when acting on the offensive, I shall be as weak as he
when I act on the defensive.

_September 7_ to _11_.--Employed much the same; daily disputes
with Jaffir Ali Khan about the Trinity; if they may be called
disputes in which I bring forward no arguments, but calmly refer
them to the Holy Scriptures. They distress and perplex
themselves without measure, and I enjoy a peace, as respects
these matters, which passeth understanding. There is no passage
that so frequently occurs to me now as this: 'They shall be all
taught of God, and great shall be the peace of thy children.' I
have this testimony that I have been taught of God.

_1812, January 19._--Aga Baba coming in while we were
translating, Mirza Seyd Ali told him he had been all the day
decrying the law. It is a favourite tenet of the Soofis, that we
should be subject to no law. Aga Baba said that if Christ, while
He removed the old law, had also forborne to bring in His new
way, He would have done still better. I was surprised as well as
shocked at such a remark from him, but said nothing. The poor
man, not knowing how to exist without amusement, then turned to
a game at chess. How pitiable is the state of fallen man!
Wretched, and yet he will not listen to any proposals of relief:
stupidly ignorant, yet too wise to submit to learn anything from
God. I have often wondered to see how the merest dunce thinks
himself qualified to condemn and ridicule revealed religion.
These Soofis pretend too to be latitudinarians, assigning
idolaters the same rank as others in nearness to God, yet they
have all in their turn spoken contemptuously of the Gospel.
Perhaps because it is so decisively exclusive. I begin now to
have some notion of Soofi-ism. The principle is this:
Notwithstanding the good and evil, pleasure and pain that is in
the world, God is not affected by it. He is perfectly happy with
it all; if therefore we can become like God we shall also be
perfectly happy in every possible condition. This, therefore, is
salvation.

_January 21._--Aga Boozong, the most magisterial of the Soofis,
stayed most of the day with Mirza Seyd Ali and Jaffir Ali Khan
in my room. His speech as usual--all things are only so many
forms of God; paint as many figures as you will on a wall, it is
still but the same wall. Tired of constantly hearing this same
vapid truism, I asked him, 'What then? With the reality of
things we have nothing to do, as we know nothing about them.'
These forms, if he will have it that they are but forms, affect
us with pleasure and pain, just as if they were more real. He
said we were at present in a dream; in a dream we think
visionary things real--when we wake we discover the delusion. I
asked him how did he know but that this dream might continue for
ever. But he was not at all disposed to answer objections, and
was rather vexed at my proposing them. So I let him alone to
dissent as he pleased. Mirza Seyd Ali read him some verses of
St. Paul, which he condescended to praise, but in such a way as
to be more offensive to me than if he had treated it with
contempt. He repeated again how much he was pleased with the
sentiments of Paul, as if his being pleased with them would be a
matter of exultation to me. He said they were excellent precepts
for the people of the world. The parts Mirza Seyd Ali read were
Titus iii. and Hebrews viii. On the latter Mirza Seyd Ali
observed that he (Paul) had not written ill, but something like
a good reasoner. Thus they sit in judgment on God's Word, never
dreaming that they are to be judged by it. On the contrary, they
regard the best parts, as they call them, as approaching only
towards the heights of Soofi-ism. Aga Boozong finally observed
that as for the Gospels he had not seen much in them, but the
Epistles he was persuaded would make the book soon well known.
There is another circumstance that gained Paul importance in the
eyes of Mirza Seyd Ali, which is, that he speaks of Mark and
Luke as his servants.

_January 24._--Found Seyd Ali rather serious this evening. He
said he did not know what to do to have his mind made up about
religion. Of all the religions Christ's was the best, but
whether to prefer this to Soofi-ism he could not tell. In these
doubts he was tossed to and fro, and is often kept awake the
whole night in tears. He and his brother talk together on these
things till they are almost crazed. Before he was engaged in
this work of translation, he says, he used to read about two or
three hours a day; now he can do nothing else; has no
inclination for anything else, and feels unhappy if he does not
correct his daily portion. His late employment has given a new
turn to his thoughts as well as to those of his friends; they
had not the most distant conception of the contents of the New
Testament. He says his Soofi friends are exceedingly anxious to
see the Epistles, from the accounts he gives of them, and also
he is sure that almost the whole of Shiraz are so sensible of
the load of unmeaning ceremonies in which their religion
consists, that they will rejoice to see or hear of anything like
freedom, and that they would be more willing to embrace Christ
than the Soofis, who, after taking so much pains to be
independent of all law, would think it degrading to submit
themselves to any law again, however light.

_February 4._--Mirza Seyd Ali, who has been enjoying himself in
idleness and dissipation these two days instead of translating,
returned full of evil and opposition to the Gospel. While
translating 2 Peter iii., 'Scoffers ... saying, Where is the
promise of his coming?' he began to ask 'Well, they are in the
right; where are any of His promises fulfilled?' I said the
heathen nations have been given to Christ for an inheritance.
He said No; it might be more truly said that they are given to
Mohammed, for what are the Christian nations compared with
Arabia, Persia, India, Tartary, etc.? I set in opposition all
Europe, Russia, Armenia, and the Christians in the Mohammedan
countries. He added, at one time when the Abbasides carried
their arms to Spain, the Christian name was almost extinct. I
rejoined, however, that he was not yet come to the end of
things, that Mohammedanism was in itself rather a species of
heretical Christianity, for many professing Christians denied
the Divinity of our Lord, and treated the Atonement as a fable.
'They do right,' said he; 'it is contrary to reason that one
person should be an atonement for all the rest. How do you prove
it? it is nowhere said in the Gospels. Christ said He was sent
only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.' I urged the
authority of the Apostles, founded upon His word, 'Whatsoever ye
shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever ye
shall loose on earth,' etc. 'Why, what are we to think of them,'
said he, 'when we see Paul and Barnabas quarrelling; Peter
acting the hypocrite, sometimes eating with the Gentiles, and
then withdrawing from fear; and again, all the Apostles, not
knowing what to do about the circumcision of the Gentiles, and
disputing among themselves about it?' I answered, 'The
infirmities of the Apostles have nothing to do with their
authority. It is not everything they do that we are commanded to
imitate, nor everything they might say in private, if we knew
it, that we are obliged to attend to, but the commands they
leave for the Church; and here there is no difference among
them. As for the discussions about circumcision, it does not at
all appear that the Apostles themselves were divided in their
opinions about it; the difficulty seems to have been started by
those believers who had been Pharisees.' 'Can you give me a
proof,' said he, 'of Christianity, that I may either believe, or
be left without excuse if I do not believe--a proof like that of
one of the theorems of Euclid?' I said it is not to be
expected, but enough may be shown to leave every man
inexcusable. 'Well,' said he, 'though this is only probability,
I shall be glad of that.' 'As soon as our Testament is
finished,' I replied, 'we will, if you please, set about our
third treatise, in which, if I fail to convince you, I can at
least state the reasons why I believed.' 'You had better,' said
he, 'begin with Soofi-ism, and show that that is
absurd'--meaning, I suppose, that I should premise something
about the _necessity_ of revelation. After a little pause, 'I
suppose,' said he, 'you think it sinful to sport with the
characters of those holy men?' I said I had no objection to hear
all their objections and sentiments, but I could not bear
anything spoken disrespectfully of the Lord Jesus; 'and yet
there is not one of your Soofis,' I added, 'but has said
something against Him. Even your master, Mirza Abul Kasim,
though he knows nothing of the Gospel or law, and has not even
seen them, presumed to say that Moses, Christ, Mohammed, etc.,
were all alike. I did not act in this way. In India I made every
inquiry, both about Hinduism and Mohammedanism. I read the Koran
through twice. On my first arrival here I made it my business to
ask for your proofs, so that if I condemned and rejected it, it
was not without consideration. Your master, therefore, spoke
rather precipitately.' He did not attempt to defend him, but
said, 'You never heard _me_ speak lightly of Jesus.' 'No; there
is something so awfully pure about Him that nothing is to be
said.'

_March 18._--Sat a good part of the day with Abul Kasim, the
Soofi sage, Mirza Seyd Ali, and Aga Mohammed Hasan, who begins
to be a disciple of the old man's. On my expressing a wish to
see the Indian book, it was proposed to send for it, which they
did, and then read it aloud. The stoicism of it I controverted,
and said that the entire annihilation of the passions, which the
stupid Brahman described as perfection, was absurd. On my
continuing to treat other parts of the book with contempt, the
old man was a little roused, and said that this was the way that
pleased them, and my way pleased me. That thus God provided
something for the tastes of all, and as the master of a feast
provides a great variety, some eat _pilao_, others prefer
_kubab_, etc. On my again remarking afterwards how useless all
these descriptions of perfection were, since no rules were given
for attaining it, the old man asked what in my opinion was the
way. I said we all agreed in one point, namely, that union with
God was perfection; that in order to that we must receive the
Spirit of God, which Spirit was promised on condition of
believing in Jesus. There was a good deal of disputing about
Jesus, His being exclusively the visible God. Nothing came of it
apparently, but that Mirza Seyd Ali afterwards said, 'There is
no getting at anything like truth or certainty. We know nothing
at all; you are in the right, who simply believe because Jesus
had said so.'

_March 22._--These two days I have been thinking from morning to
night about the Incarnation; considering if I could represent it
in such a way as to obviate in any degree the prejudices of the
Mohammedans; not that I wished to make it appear altogether
agreeable to reason, but I wanted to give a consistent account
of the nature and uses of this doctrine, as they are found in
the different parts of the Holy Scriptures. One thing implied
another to such an extent that I thought necessarily of the
nature of life, death, spirit, soul, animal nature, state of
separate spirits, personality, the person of Christ, etc., that
I was quite worn out with fruitless thought. Towards evening
Carapiet with another Armenian came and conversed on several
points of theology, such as whether the fire of hell were
literally fire or only remorse, whether the Spirit proceeded
from the Father and the Son, or from the Father only, and how we
are to reconcile those two texts, that 'for every idle word that
men shall speak,' etc., with the promises of salvation through
faith? Happening to speak in praise of some person who practised
needless austerities, I tried to make him understand that this
was not the way of the Gospel. He urged these texts--'Blessed
are they that mourn,' 'Blessed are ye that weep now,' etc. While
we were discussing this point, Mohammed Jaffir, who on a former
occasion had conversed with me a good deal about the Gospel,
came in. I told him the question before us was an important one,
namely, how the love of sin was to be got out of the heart. The
Armenian proceeded, 'If I wish to go to a dancing or drinking, I
must deny myself.' Whether he meant to say that this was
sufficient I do not know, but the Mohammedan understanding him
so, replied that he had read yesterday in the Gospel, 'that
whosoever looketh upon a woman,' etc., from which he inferred
that obedience of the heart was requisite. This he expressed
with such propriety and gracefulness, that, added to the
circumstance of his having been reading the Gospel, I was quite
delighted, and thought with pleasure of the day when the Gospel
should be preached by Persians. After the Armenians were gone we
considered the doctrines of the Soofis a little. Finding me not
much averse to what he thought some of their most exceptionable
tenets, such as union with God, he brought this argument: 'You
will allow that God cannot bind, compel, command Himself.' 'No,
He cannot.' 'Well, if we are one with God, we cannot be subject
to any of His laws.' I replied: 'Our union with God is such an
union as exists between the members of a body. Notwithstanding
the union of the hand with the heart and head, it is still
subject to the influence and control of the ruling power in the
person.' We had a great deal of conversation afterwards on the
Incarnation. All his Mohammedan prejudices revolted. 'Sir, what
do you talk of? the self-existent become contained in space, and
suffer need!' I told him that it was the manhood of Christ that
suffered need, and as for the essence of the Deity, if he would
tell me anything about it, where or how it was, I would tell
him how the Godhead was in Christ. After an effort or two he
found that every term he used implied our frightful doctrine,
namely, personality, locality, etc. This is a thought that is
now much in my mind--that it is so ordered that, since men never
can speak of God but through the medium of language, which is
all material, nor think of God but through the medium of
material objects, they do unwillingly come to God through the
Word, and think of God by means of an Incarnation.

_March 28._--The same person came again, and we talked
incessantly for four hours upon the evidences of the two
religions, the Trinity, Incarnation, etc., until I was quite
exhausted, and felt the pain in my breast which I used to have
in India.

_April 7._--Observing a party of ten or a dozen poor Jews with
their priest in the garden, I attacked them, and disputed a
little with the Levite on Psalms ii., xvi. and xxiv. They were
utterly unacquainted with Jesus, and were surprised at what I
told them of His Resurrection and Ascension. The priest abruptly
broke off the conversation, told me he would call and talk with
me in my room, and carried away his flock. Reading afterwards
the story of Joseph and his brethren, I was much struck with the
exact correspondence between the type and antitype. Jesus will
at last make Himself known to His brethren, and then they will
find that they have been unknowingly worshipping Him while
worshipping the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel.

_April 8._--The Prince dining to-day at a house on the side of a
hill, which commands a view of the town, issued an order for all
the inhabitants to exhibit fireworks for his amusement, or at
least to make bonfires on the roofs of their houses, under
penalty of five tomans in case of neglect. Accordingly fire was
flaming in all directions, enough to have laid any city in
Europe in ashes. One man fell off a roof and was killed, and two
others in the same way were so hurt that their lives were
despaired of, and a woman lost an eye by the stick of a
sky-rocket.

_July 9._--Made an extraordinary effort, and as a Tartar was
going off instantly to Constantinople, wrote letters to Mr.
Grant for permission to come to England, and to Mr. Simeon and
Lydia, informing them of it; but I have scarcely the remotest
expectation of seeing it, except by looking at the Almighty
power of God.

Dined at night at the ambassador's, who said he was determined
to give every possible _éclat_ to my book, by presenting it
himself to the King. My fever never ceased to rage till the
21st, during all which time every effort was made to subdue it,
till I had lost all my strength and almost all my reason. They
now administer bark, and it may please God to bless the tonics;
but I seem too far gone, and can only say, 'Having a desire to
depart and be with Christ, which is far better.'

TO REV. D. CORRIE

Shiraz: September 12, 1811.

Dearest Brother,--I can hardly conceive, or at least am not
willing to believe, that you would forget me six successive
months; I conclude, therefore, that you must have written,
though I have not seen your handwriting since I left Calcutta.

The Persian translation goes on but slowly. I and my translator
have been engaged in a controversy with his uncle, which has
left us little leisure for anything else. As there is nothing at
all in this dull place to take the attention of the people, no
trade, manufactures, or news, every event at all novel is
interesting to them. You may conceive, therefore, what a strong
sensation was produced by the stab I aimed at the vitals of
Mohammed. Before five people had seen what I wrote, defences of
Islam swarmed into ephemeral being from all the moulvi maggots
of the place, but the more judicious men were ashamed to let me
see them. One moollah, called Aga Akbar, was determined to
distinguish himself. He wrote with great acrimony on the margin
of my pamphlet, but passion had blinded his reason, so that he
smote the wind. One day I was on a visit of ceremony to the
Prime Minister, and sitting in great state by his side, fifty
visitors in the same hall, and five hundred clients without,
when who should make his appearance but my tetric adversary, the
said Aga Akbar, who came for the express purpose of presenting
the Minister with a piece he had composed in defence of the
prophet, and then sitting down told me he should present me with
a copy that day. 'There are four answers,' said he, 'to your
objection against his using the sword.' 'Very well,' said I, 'I
shall be glad to see them, though I made no such objection.'
Eager to display his attainments in all branches of science, he
proceeded to call in question the truth of our European
philosophy, and commanded me to show that the earth moved, and
not the sun. I told him that in matters of religion, where the
salvation of men was concerned, I would give up nothing to them,
but as for points in philosophy they might have it all their own
way. This was not what he wanted; so after looking at the
Minister, to know if it was not a breach of good manners to
dispute at such a time, and finding that there was nothing
contrary to custom, but that, on the contrary, he rather
expected an answer, I began, but soon found that he could
comprehend nothing without diagrams. A moonshi in waiting was
ordered to produce his implements, so there was I, drawing
figures, while hundreds of men were looking on in silence.

But all my trouble was in vain--the moollah knew nothing
whatever of mathematics, and therefore could not understand my
proofs. The Persians are far more curious and clever than the
Indians. Wherever I go they ask me questions in philosophy, and
are astonished that I do not know everything. One asked me the
reason of the properties of the magnet. I told him I knew
nothing about it. 'But what do your learned men say?' '_They_
know nothing about it.' This he did not at all credit.

I do not find myself improving in Persian; indeed, I take no
pains to speak it well, not perceiving it to be of much
consequence. India is the land where we can act at present with
most effect. It is true that the Persians are more susceptible,
but the terrors of an inquisition are always hanging over them.
I can now conceive no greater happiness than to be settled for
life in India, superintending native schools, as we did at Patna
and Chunar. To preach so as to be readily understood by the poor
is a difficulty that appears to me almost insuperable, besides
that grown-up people are seldom converted. However, why should
we despair? If I live to see India again, I shall set to and
learn Hindi in order to preach. The day may come when even our
word may be with the Holy Ghost and with power. It is now almost
a year since I left Cawnpore, and my journey is but beginning:
when shall I ever get back again? I am often tempted to get away
from this prison, but again I recollect that some years hence I
shall say: 'When I was at Shiraz why did not I get the New
Testament done? What difference would a few months have made?'
In August I passed some days at a vineyard, about a parasang
from the city, where my host pitched a tent for me, but it was
so cold at night that I was glad to get back to the city again.
Though I occupy a room in his house, I provide for myself.
Victuals are cheap enough, especially fruit; the grapes, pears,
and water-melons are delicious; indeed, such a country for fruit
I had no conception of. I have a fine horse which I bought for
less than a hundred rupees, on which I ride every morning round
the walls. My vain servant, Zechariah, anxious that his master
should appear like an ameer, furnished him (_i.e._ the horse)
with a saddle, or rather a pillion, which fairly covers his
whole back; it has all the colours of the rainbow, but yellow is
predominant, and from it hang down four large tassels, also
yellow. But all my finery does not defend me from the boys. Some
cry out, 'Ho, Russ!' others cry out, 'Feringhi!' One day a
brickbat was flung at me, and hit me in the hip with such force
that I felt it quite a providential escape. Most of the day I am
about the translation, sometimes, at a leisure hour, trying at
Isaiah, in order to get help from the Persian Jews. My Hebrew
reveries have quite disappeared, merely for want of leisure. I
forgot to say that I have been to visit the ruins of Persepolis,
but this, with many other things, must be reserved for a hot
afternoon at Cawnpore.

What would I give for a few lines from you, to say how the men
come on, and whether their numbers are increasing, whether you
meet the Sherwoods at the evening repast, as when I was there!
My kindest love to them, your sister, and all that love us in
the truth. May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your
spirit, and with your faithful and affectionate brother,

H. MARTYN.

The Secretary to the British Embassy to Persia, and afterwards himself Minister Plenipotentiary to its Court, Mr. James Morier, has given us a notable sketch of Henry Martyn as a controversialist for Christ, and of the impression that he made on the officials, priests, and people of all classes. As the author of the _Adventures of Hajji Baba of Ispahan_ and other life-like tales of the East, and as an accomplished traveller, the father of the present Ambassador to St. Petersburg is the first authority on such a subject. In his _Second Journey through Persia, Armenia, and Asia Minor to Constantinople_[56] he thus writes:

The Persians, who were struck with his humility, his patience
and resignation, called him a _merdi khodai_, a man of God, and
indeed every action of his life seemed to be bent towards the
one object of advancing the interest of the Christian religion.
When he was living at Shiraz, employed in his translation, he
neither sought nor shunned the society of the natives, many of
whom constantly drew him into arguments about religion, with the
intention of persuading him of the truth and excellence of
theirs. His answers were such as to stimulate them to further
arguments, and in spite of their pride the principal moollahs,
who had heard of his reputation, paid him the first visit, and
endeavoured in every way to entangle him in his talk. At length
he thought that the best mode of silencing them was by writing a
reply to the arguments which they brought against our belief and
in favour of their own. His tract was circulated through
different parts of Persia, and was sent from hand to hand to be
answered. At length it made its way to the King's court, and a
moollah of high consideration, who resided at Hamadan, and who
was esteemed one of the best controversialists in the country,
was ordered to answer it. After the lapse of more than a year he
did answer it, but such were the strong positions taken by Mr.
Martyn that the Persians themselves were ashamed of the futility
of their own attempts to break them down: for, after they had
sent their answer to the ambassador, they requested that it
might be returned to them again, as another answer was preparing
to be given. Such answer has never yet been given; and we may
infer from this circumstance that if, in addition to the
Scriptures, some plain treatises of the evidences of
Christianity, accompanied by strictures upon the falseness of
the doctrines of Mohammed, were translated into Persian and
disseminated throughout that country, very favourable effects
would be produced. Mr. Martyn caused a copy of his translation
to be beautifully written, and to be presented by the ambassador
to the King, who was pleased to receive it very graciously. A
copy of it was made by Mirza Baba, a Persian who gave us lessons
in the Persian language, and he said that many of his countrymen
asked his permission to take Mr. Martyn's translation to their
homes, where they kept it for several days, and expressed
themselves much edified by its contents. But whilst he was
employed in copying it, moollahs (the Persian scribes) used
frequently to sit with him and revile him for undertaking such a
work. On reading the passage where our Saviour is called 'the
Lamb of God,' they scorned and ridiculed the simile, as if
exulting in the superior designation of Ali, who is called
_Sheer_ Khodai, the Lion of God. Mirza Baba observed to them:
'The lion is an unclean beast; it preys upon carcases, and you
are not allowed to wear its skin because it is impure; it is
destructive, fierce, and man's enemy. The lamb, on the contrary,
is in every way _halal_ or lawful. You eat its flesh, you wear
its skin on your head, it does no harm, and is an animal
beloved. Whether is it best, then, to say the Lamb of God, or
the Lion of God?'

Henry Martyn had not been two months in Shiraz when, as his attendant expressed it, he became the town-talk. The populace believed that he had come to declare himself a Mussulman, and would then bring five thousand men to the city and take possession of it. Dissatisfied with their own government, many Mohammedans began to desire English rule, such as was making India peaceful and prosperous, and as was supposed to enrich all who enjoyed it. Jewish perverts to Islam crowded to the garden, where at all times, even on Sunday, the saintly visitor was accessible. Armenians spoke to him with a freedom they dared not show in conversation with others. From Baghdad to Busrah, and from Bushire to Ispahan and even Etchmiatzin, visitors crowded to talk with the wonderful scholar and holy man. Thus on July 6 he was presented by Sir Gore Ouseley to the Governor, Prince Abbas Mirza.

Early this morning I went with the ambassador and his suite to
court, wearing, agreeably to custom, a pair of red cloth
stockings, with green high-heeled shoes. When we entered the
great court of the palace a hundred fountains began to play. The
prince appeared at the opposite side, in his talar, or hall of
audience, seated on the ground. Here our first bow was made.
When we came in sight of him we bowed a second time, and entered
the room. He did not rise, nor take notice of any but the
ambassador, with whom he conversed at the distance of the
breadth of the room. Two of his ministers stood in front of the
hall outside; the ambassador's mihmander, and the master of the
ceremonies, within at the door. We sat down in order, in a line
with the ambassador, with our hats on. I never saw a more sweet
and engaging countenance than the prince's; there was such an
appearance of good nature and humility in all his demeanour,
that I could scarcely bring myself to believe that he would be
guilty of anything cruel or tyrannical.

Mahommed Shareef Khan, one of the most renowned of the Persian
generals, having served the present royal family for four
generations, called to see me, out of respect to General
Malcolm. An Armenian priest also, on his way from Busrah to
Ispahan; he was as ignorant as the rest of his brethren. To my
surprise I found that he was of the Latin Church, and read the
service in Latin, though he confessed he knew nothing about the
language.

The first of Henry Martyn's public controversies with the Shi'ah doctors, as distinguished from the almost daily discussions already described in his _Journal_, took place in the house of the Moojtahid of Shiraz on July 15, 1811. The doctrine of Jesus, represented by such a follower, was beginning so to tell on Shi'ahs and Soofis, ever eager for something new, that the interference of the first authority of Islam in all Persia became necessary. Higher than all other Mohammedan divines, especially among the Shi'ahs, are the three or four Moojtahids.[57] They must be saintly, learned, and aloof from worldly ambition. In Persia each acts as an informal and final court of appeal; he alone dares to temper the tyranny of the Shah by his influence; his house is a sanctuary for the oppressed; the city of his habitation is often saved from violence by his presence. This was the position and the pretension of the man who, having first ascertained that the English man of God did not want demonstration, but admitted that the prophets had been sent, invited him to dinner, preliminary to a conflict. Martyn has left this description of the scene: