Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [‎371r] (744/1814)

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INSTITUTIONS AND DEFORMS
507
real grievances of which to complain, and the same may be said
of the Armenians, though both may have to submit to the stigma
of social inferiority in the middle and lower grades of life.
UberTy in No objection is raised by the Government to the settle-
T ersia nient of missionaries, or building of schools, chapels, and.
dispensaries in the country ; to the free circulation of the Christian
scriptures, or to the distribution of Christian books. The latter
are even printed and published by Mohammedan printers at
Teheran. In these respects the Persian Government sustains the
honourable traditions of the Sefavi monarchy, under whose rule
there were houses belonging to the four orders of Catholic Friars
at Isfahan. But the attitude of the Government is not always the
same thing as the attitude of individual governors; and the
security and freedom enjoyed by the Christian missionaries depend
very much on the character of the latter. The Zil-es-Sultan, for
instance, does not regard with a very friendly eye Dr. Bruce’s
establishment at Julfa. The protection, however, that is extended
to missionaries by the ministers of their nationalities at Teheran is
an effective guarantee against positive injustice, and, on the whole,
the Christian missions have very little to complain of in Persia.
They must, of course, reckon upon the active hostility of the
mullahs ; and there was, at the time of my visit, a prominent Seyid
Source of in Isfahan who distinguished himself by the bitterness
hostility 0 f fanatical antagonism, and did all in his power to
provoke anti-Christian violence . 1 These Seyids, or descendants of
the Prophet, are an intolerable nuisance to the country, deducing
from their alleged descent and from the prerogative of the green
turban, the right to an independence and insolence of bearing from
which their countrymen, no less than foreigners, are made to
suffer. In Persia, however, not the least of the obstacles with
which Christian communities are confronted arise from their own
sectarian differences ; and the Mussulmans are perfectly entitled
to scoff at those who invite them to enter a flock the differ
ent members of which love each other so bitterly. Protestants
squabble with Roman Catholics, Presbyterians with Episcopalians,
the Protestant Nestorians look with no very friendly eye upon the
1 In May of last year, another of these firebrands, Haji Seyid All Akbar, raised
a disturbance by preaching against the Christians in Shiraz, and was forcibly
expelled from that city, several lives being lost in the riot that ensued, but the
Government behaving with commendable firmness.