'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎540] (603/714)

540 PERSIA
cousin of Mar Shimun, and is a young man named Mar Anraham.
When he succeeds he will take the dynastic title that always
accompanies the Patriarchal throne.
Tn recent times, and ever since these provinces were converted
into pashaliks and seriously governed by the Porte, the authority
His of Mar Shimun has sensibly dwindled. During the
authority savage Kurdish outbreak of Badar Khan Beg against
the Nestorians in 1843, the then occupant of the patriarchate fled
into Persian territory to Urumiah. Since his return to Kochannis
he has received a monthly subsidy of 12/. from the Turkish
Government, who have acted astutely in assuming the role of pay
masters. I he malelcs or headmen no longer pay him implicit
obedience ; his authority over the hill tribes is in parts nil ■ and
the ieigning I atriarch has still further weakened his position by
incapacity, indolence, and it is said by even worse characteristics.
He is in a somewhat difficult position; for on the one hand he is
salaried by the Porte, on the other he is at once in correspondence
and co-operation with the English Church, and is angled for by
the American Presbyterians; while his own sympathies have been
rumoured to be in favour of the Russians. His name is Reuil, and
he signs himself Reuil Shimun. In the clash of conflicting interests
above mentioned it is probable that this peculiar and almost iso
lated relic of theocratic government is doomed, and that the Mar
Shimun of the future will play but a small part on the political stage.
Of the tenets of the Syrian Christians it is both difficult and,
in this context, unnecessary to give a minute account; the pecu-
Creed and Harity of the Church consisting rather in organisation
and ritual than in any written standard of doctrinal belief,
and the missionaries of the various foreign persuasions being apt
to read their own dogmas into the Nestorian Creed. It may be
said, however, that it presents many of the features that might be
expected in a ( hurch, dating from the fifth century of the Christian
era, which, owing to its peculiar situation and surroundings, has
altered but little up to the present time. An ambiguous canon of
the Holy Scriptures, an uncommon and elastic catalogue of sacra
ments, a hereditary and celibate episcopate, accompanied by very
strict observance of the Sabbath and the Christian fasts, are among
its most striking characteristics. 1
Ihe churches may also be mentioned, which are mostly very plain, un
pretentious buildings, in order not to excite Mussulman hostility; and the