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Render Therefore unto Caesar the Things Which Are Caesar's: American Presbyterian Educators and Reza Shah

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Michael P. Zirinsky
Michael P. Zirinsky*
Affiliation:
Department of History, Boise State University
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Extract

When Presbyterian missionaries entered Iran, they did so with the intention of introducing modern, Western civilization to the country. Regarding themselves as “servants of God sent to render service to man,” they favored a future for Iran in education, society, and politics much like what they foresaw for America: a nation that would be Christian, scientific, vigorous, cooperative, and democratic. In the inter-war years, it seems, they sought to achieve this vision by supporting Reza Shah's military dictatorship.

This seeming pro-Pahlavism can be explained, in part, by Jesus‘ exhortation to “render … unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's and unto God the things which are God's” (Matt. 22:21). Serving but one God—that of Abraham, Isaac, Moses, and Jesus—the missionaries had to contend with two “caesars.” While they were patriotic Americans, loyal to the United States, they lived and worked in Iran, and therefore served at the pleasure of the Iranian government.

Type
Articles
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 26 , Issue 3-4 , Summer Fall 1993 , pp. 337 - 356
Copyright
Copyright © Association For Iranian Studies, Inc 1993

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Footnotes

*

Research for this article was supported in part by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Idaho State Board of Education, Boise State University, and the Idaho Humanities Council, a state-based affiliate of the NEH, and was undertaken primarily at the Presbyterian Historical Society (PHS), Philadelphia, and the United States National Archives (NA), Washington.

References

1. Robert Speer to Wallace Murray, letter, 20 Dec. 1933, NA, RG 59, 391.1163/46; J. Elder, History of the Iran Mission (ms, ca. 1960), PHS; and M. P. Zirinsky, “Presbyterians and Pahlavi Persia” (paper delivered to the American Historical Association, 30 Dec. 1987).

2. See Poikal, J. G. “Racist Assumptions of the 19th Century Missionary Movement,” International Review of Missions (July 1970): 271–84Google Scholar.

3. Grettie Yandes Holliday, 10 Nov. 1917, PHS photocopy of a typescript, Indiana Historical Society, Smith Library; C. A. Douglas, “Narrative of the Teheran Station, 1906–1907,” PHS, microfilm #273.

4. Charles W. Russell, Tehran, 15 May 1913, NA, RG59, 391.116/30.

5. East Persia Mission Microfilm, PHS, v. 189, #1, cited by Armajani, Y. “Sam Jordan and the Evangelical Ethic in Iran,” Religious Ferment in Asia (Lawrence, Kan.: 1974), 29Google Scholar.

6. Schuler, H. C. “The Approach to Shiah Islam (A Symposium),” The Moslem World (1927): 50–54Google Scholar.

7. “The Passion Play of Islam,” The Moslem World (1932): 283–6; cf. Chelkowski, P. J. (ed.), Ta'ziyeh, Ritual and Drama in Iran (New York, 1979)Google Scholar.

8. Taylor Gurney, 8 Sept. 1927, PHS, RG 91–2–13.

9. Jordan, Samuel M. “Constructive Revolutions in Iran,” Moslem World (1935): 349–50Google Scholar.

10. Zirinsky, M. P. “Harbingers of Change: Presbyterian Women in Iran, 1883— 1949,” American Presbyterians: Journal of Presbyterian History 70 (1992): 172–86Google Scholar.

11. Murray, Tehran, 22 Dec. 1924, D.808, NA, RG59, 391.116/198.

12. Elder, Iran Mission, 19Google Scholar, 68; Shedd, M. L. The Measure of a Man: The Life of William Ambrose Shedd, Missionary to Persia (New York, 1922), 138–272Google Scholar; PHS, RG 91; NA, Tabriz, RG 84; M. P. Zirinsky, “Massacre 1919: American Missionaries and the Disintegration of Iran” (paper presented to the Idaho Historical Conference, 3 Oct. 1992).

13. Mosaddeq to Kornfield, 8 Oct. 1923, NA, RG 59, 391.116/231. Hoffman Philip wrote on 26 Sept. 1926 from Tehran that “my personal sympathy … has been … alienated owing to Doctor Packard's bitter and unequivocal criticisms of the Persian Government ever since my arrival” (D.176, 391.116/243).

14. Wadsworth, Tehran, 28 Dec. 1933, D.1607, and 10 Jan. 1934, D.1615; Speer to Murray, 20 Dec. 1933. The mission valued Reza'iyeh properties at 1.4 million rials but accepted less in deference to government reasoning that they would be used for public purposes (NA, RG 59, 391.1163/46–48).

15. “Dr. Mossadegh referred … to the Tabriz School difficulty in a recent speech in the Medjlis concerning the ruthlessness of the [government] … in tearing down houses for the purpose of street improvements, without indemnification of the owners” (Philip, Tehran, 5 Oct. 1927, D.451, NA, RG 59, 391.1164 American Girls’ School Tabriz/4).

16. Ferrin, Tabriz, 26 Feb. 1929, D.42, NA, RG 59, 391.1163/15.

17. Hart, Tehran, 25 Aug. 1932, D.1214, NA, RG 59, 391.1164/52.

18. Eṭṭelā'āt (Tehran), 16 Nov. 1935; Hornibrook, Tehran, 21 Jan. 1936, D.694, NA, RG 59, 391.1162/11.

19. Jordan to Speer, 25 Feb. 1921. See Zirinsky, M. P. “Imperial Power and Dictatorship: Britain and the Rise of Reza Shah, 1921–1926,” International Journal of Middle East Studies 24 (1992): 639–64CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Tehran station letter, 1 Jan.-l May 1921, PHS, RG 91–3-18.

20. Murray, Tehran, 4 Mar. 1925, D.941, NA, RG 59, 391.116/210.

21. C. H. Allen, Hamadan, 14 July 1926, 14 Mar. 1926, PHS, RG 91–2-11.

22. Arthur C. Boyce, Tehran, 23 Jan. 1926, PHS, RG 91–2-11.

23. Lillian McHenry, Tehran, 6 Jan. 1926, PHS, RG 91–2-11. The reference is to the murder of Mirzadeh ‘Eshqi on 18 July 1924. See M. P. Zirinsky, “Blood, Power, and Hypocrisy: The Murder of Robert Imbrie and American Relations with Pahlavi Iran, 1924,” International Journal of Middle East Studies 18 (1986): 282.

24. Walter A. Groves, Tehran, 27 Apr. 1926, PHS, RG 91–2-11.

25. Badeau, J. S. “The Role of the Missionary in the Near East,” International Review of Missions (1954): 402–3Google Scholar.

26. Donaldson, D. M. “Intellectual Awakening in Modern Iran,” International Review of Missions (1936): 172–3Google Scholar.

27. Brown, A. J. One Hundred Years (New York, 1936)Google Scholar.

28. Elder, Hamadan, 1937, PHS, RG 189–1–2.

29. Wishard, Tehran, 1910, PHS, microfilm reel #273.

30. Donaldson, “Intellectual Awakening,” 172–83; Elder, Kermanshah, 1933, PHS, RG 189–1-2.

31. William McElwee Miller papers, letter, 30 Aug.-28 Sept., 1941, PHS.

32. Zirinsky, “Imperial Power and Dictatorship,” 647–9.

33. Foreign Relations of the United States, 1927, III: 567ff.

34. Boyce to Speer, letter, 31 Dec. 1927, PHS, RG 91–25–4.

35. B. Gilbert Smith, British Consul, Tabriz, to Sir Percy Loraine, Tehran, 25 Jan. 1926, enclosed in Philip, Tehran, 7 Mar. 1926, D.44, 391.1163/—; Ferrin, Tehran, 26 Oct. 1927, D.80, NA, RG 59, 391.1164/12; Philip, Tehran, 5 Oct. 1927, D.451; Ferrin, Tehran, 13 Dec. 1927, D.86, NA, RG 59, 391.1164 American Girls’ School Tabriz/4, 7.

36. Murray, Tehran, 12 Jan. 1925, D.844, Dulles NEA minute, 25 Mar. 1925, NA, RG 59, 391.116/199.

37. Speer-Lansing correspondence, 9, 17 Nov. 1927; PHS, RG 91–25–4.

38. Philip, 16 May 1928, FRUS, 1928, III: 720–21, (791.003/121); Fisher, Hamadan, to Speer, New York, letter, 22 Dec. 1927, sent by Speer to Shaw, State Dept., 2 Feb. 1928, NA, RG 59, 391.1164/23.

39. C. B. Fisher, “Mission Schools in Persia (After One Year of Government Regulations),” The Moslem World (1930): 251–6.

40. A. C. Boyce, “Alborz College of Tehran and Dr. Samuel Martin Jordan Founder and President,” in Ali Pasha Saleh, ed., Cultural Ties between Iran and the United States (Tehran, 1976), 189.

41. Ferrin, Tehran, 26 Feb. 1929, D.42, NA, RG 59, 391.1163/28.

42. Boyce, “Alborz,” 191; that inculcation was a central mission purpose may be inferred from its cable address, “Inculcate, Tehran.” 43. Hart, Tehran, 7 Feb. 1931, D.359, NA, RG 59, 391.1164/30.

44. Hart, Tehran, 1 April, D.505, 27 April 1931, D.570, NA, RG 59, 391.1163/33, 35.

45. Hart, Tehran, 25 Aug. 1932, D.1214, NA, RG 59, 391.1164/52.

46. C. B. Fisher, Hamadan, 1939–40 report, PHS.

47. Memo, Near Eastern Affairs, 27 Sept., 1932, NA, RG 59, 391.1164/52.

48. BFM, “Brief Summary of Report of the 1939 Deputation to Iran” 2, PHS, RG 9 1 - 22–16.

49. Engert, Tehran, 13 Aug. 1939, T.78, NA, RG 59, 391.1164/82; PHS RG 91–22, folders 17–19; FRUS, 1939, IV, 1940, III, and 1941, ID; and Boyce, “Alborz,” 208- 15; J. L. Dodds, “Report of the Board's Commission to Negotiate with the Iran Government regarding Educational Work and Educational Properties,” 18 Nov. 1940, 6, PHS, RG 91–22–17.

50. Murray, NEA, to Welles, 17 Aug. 1939; NEA memorandum of conversation, 8 Sept. 1939, NA, RG 59, 391.1164/90 and 99.

51. Murray, NEA, to Welles, 12 Sept. 1939, NA, RG 59, FW 391.1164/99.

52. C. B. Fisher, Hamadan, 1939–40 report, PHS, RG 91–19–25.

53. Dodds, “Commission Report,” 4.

54. Dodds, “Report” 1, PHS, RG 91.

55. PHS, RG 91–22–16; Dodds, “Commission Report,” 18 Nov. 1940, 10.

56. See, inter alia, FRUS 1940, HI: 700–1; PHS, RG 91–22–17.

57. PHS, RG 81–9-8; unsigned, undated 1940 memorandum on Community School letterhead, PHS RG 91–20–15.

58. PHS, RG 91–20–15; Tajbaksh, K. and Aidinian, O. C., eds., Mirror of the Past, Reflections on the Present (Tehran, 1979)Google Scholar; Pahlavi, Mission, 245; Time, 20 June 1949, 4; CS reunions, Estes Park, Colo., 1 Aug. 1980, and Los Angeles, 2–4 Aug. 1991. After the war under C. B. Fisher CS met on the former mission hospital grounds; the spirit it tried to inculcate may be judged by its students’ daily recitation in chapel: “I pledge allegiance to my own country, and to the United Nations, of which it is a part. One world brotherhood, of peaceful nations, with freedom and justice for all.” CS split about 1965, many of its faculty establishing Iran Zamin, which also continued the mission tradition.

59. Wilber, D. N. Adventures in the Middle East: Excursions and Incursions (Princeton, 1896), 144Google Scholar et passim; interview, 1 July 1987; letter, 17 Aug. 1987.

60. Directory of American Scholars, 1982, 1: 19; Thomas Ricks, interview, June 1987; PHS, H5; Washington Post, 31 Jan. 1981; Groseclose, E. Introduction to Iran (New York, 1947)Google Scholar; RG 91–6-4; RG 189–1-4.

61. Wilber, letter, 17 Aug. 1987; Cottam, Nationalism in Iran, viii. After retirement from U.S. service, Gurney worked for Iran's Washington embassy (letter, Gurney to C. H. Allen, 1 July 1970, PHS, H5).

62. E. M. Wright, PHS, H 5; The Daily Record (Wooster), 16 Feb. 1980.

63. PHS, H5; Who Was Who in America VII (1977–81): 633; Directory of American Scholars (1974), 1: 700; Charlotte Elizabeth Young, Memoirs and Letters (n.p., n.d.), preserved in PHS.

64. Directory, 1974, 700; Who Was Who, 1977–81.

65. Directory, 1974, 700; Who Was Who, 1977–81; interview with H. L. Bodman, Jr., 1 Oct. 1988.

66. C. B. Fisher, banquet speech to Community School Reunion III, Los Angeles, 3 Aug. 1985.