John Wortabet

the missionaries’ views and behavior towards Eastern Christians.³⁵ Like many other converts,³⁶ John (whose real name was Yuhanna) accepted the Anglicization of his name and used it for signing English documents. Anglicized names were not merely expeditious; they also became a part of many Syrian Protestants’ identities. It was not unusual for Syrian Protestants to give their children the names of missionaries, or the names of missionaries’ wives and children, as a sign of their regard for the American mission.³⁷

Did the Syrians whose lives were shaped by their education at American schools become “hybrid objects” with both “native knowledges” and “the knowledges of cultural authority,” as defined by h^omi b^habha?³⁸ If they appeared Western but did not renounce their origins, which culture did they feel was their own? The

mission-Eastern churches that offended the missionaries, not the culture itself, as evident with Smith and Van Dyck.

The missionaries’ behavior towards the converts reflects Bhabha’s description of the colonial subject as a “mimic man” who resembles the colonizers but is not accepted as their equal. (The Location of Culture, 87) (2000), 129.

32 Henningsen, “On Difference, Sameness and Double Binds,” 152.

33 Ibid., 153.

34 Ibid., 139–40. Another example of this is the nineteenth-century mission sponsored by the London Missionary Society in southern Botswana. Native preachers were expected to “speak the truth,” but without criticizing or disagreeing with their mentors, so they recited the mission-aries’ sermons word for word and even mimicked their gestures. See Comaroff and Comaroff, Of Revelation and Revolution, 82.

35 Wortabet, Researches into the Religions of Syria, 14: “It is certain that, among all the clergy of the Greek Church in Syria, there is not more than one or two that can be called learned men.”

Mazwi described the warlike nature of the South African people and referred to them as “na-tives.” See Henningsen, “On Difference, Sameness and Double Binds,” 143.

36 For example, Jurj became George or Gregory, and Sardas became Susan. Names were not al-ways Anglicized, although the children of Syrian Protestants often received English names. See the names in appendix II.

37 On the occasion of Cornelius Van Dyck’s fiftieth anniversary in Syria, Willam Eddy wrote about Van Dyck’s wife Julia that “not without reason is ‘sit Julia’ a name honored and loved in Syria, and proudly worn by many Syrian girls.” See Presbyterian Church in the USA, “Dr. Van Dyck’s Semicentennial,” 289. John Wortabet named two of his sons William Thomson (after the missionary William M. Thomson) and Erwin Whiting (after the missionary George B.

Whiting). Butrus al-Bustani gave one of his daughters the name of Eli Smith’s first wife, Sarah Huntington.

38 Bhabha, The Location of Culture, 115.

aries did not want converts to become Westernized, nor did they encourage freedom of thought that was independent of their own ideology. Nevertheless, the Ameri-cans unknowingly promoted the merging of cultures, as is evident with Bustani and Wortabet. The integration of different intellectual and cultural influences was a widespread phenomenon of the nineteenth-century world, which was characterized by upheaval and the continuation of the Enlightenment.³⁹ The new cultural contacts were irreversible, and since influence flowed in both directions (as with Smith and Van Dyck), they should not be dismissed as hegemonial or cultural imperialist.

Syrian Protestants, both male and female, chose to adopt Western Protestant forms of thought and behavior. In many cases, Syrian girls decided for themselves to stay with mission families. Syrian boys and men profited from the education and les-sons in industriousness that they received at mission schools.⁴⁰ In a formal sense, Syrian converts were alienated from their upbringing, since their excommunication or departure from their home church created a division within their own family.

On the other hand, they found refuge and security within a new faith community, without having to distance themselves entirely from their upbringing or heritage.⁴¹ In acquiring new values, they developed a kind of hybrid cultural identity. The fol-lowing sections will depict the insights gained by Bustani and Wortabet throughout this process.

III.1. “A MAN AHEAD OF HIS TIME”⁴²? MUʿALLIM⁴³ BUTRUS AL-BUSTANI (1819–1883)

1. Biographical overview

Butrus al-Bustani was born in Dbayye, northeast of Sidon, in November 1819.

Members of his family⁴⁴ had served within the Maronite church for generations, and Bustani himself attended the ʿAyn Warqa seminary in Ghasta. He learned Ara-bic, Syriac, Italian, and Latin at the seminary, and he later taught there as well. He left the school in 1840 in order to go to Beirut, where he came into contact with the American mission and converted soon thereafter. In 1841, the missionaries hired

39 Conrad, “Enlightenment in Global History,” 1014.

40 Lindner, “Rahil ʿAta al-Bustani,” 52–53: Through Sarah Smith, “Rahil was … encouraged to embody a hybrid identity that fused elements of American evangelical Protestantism, particu-larly its view of piety, industriousness and literacy, with her Ottoman Syrian culture and Arabic language.”

41 Semaan, Aliens at Home, 5.

42 This is the title of Yusuf Qasm Khuri’s dissertation, reprinted in 1995 (Rajul al-Sabiq li- ʿAsrihi).

43 Arabic for “master” (see below).

44 Almost nothing is known about Bustani’s siblings. According to Lindner (“Syrian Protestant Families”), one brother was named Kanaan. Sarruf and Nimr (“al-Marhum al-Muʿallim Butrus al-Bustani,” 2) mention a total of three brothers. In 1858, missionaries visited one of Butrus’s brothers, whom they did not name. See Bird, journal: January 1, 1854–December 10, 1867:

ABC 76 (1), (HHL).

him as a private Arabic teacher and co-worker at the seminary in Beirut.⁴⁵ Around this time he met Rahil ʿAta, who had lived with and received her schooling from different mission families since she was a child.⁴⁶ They married in 1843 and had nine children.⁴⁷

Between 1846 and 1848, Bustani directed the ʿAbeih seminary with Cornelius Van Dyck and wrote several textbooks. He was among the founding members of the native Protestant church in Beirut, and was a member of its council of elders until 1878.⁴⁸ Although Bustani received theological training from the missionaries, he decided against ordination and instead pursued a successful career as a trans-lator, author, and journalist. He was a key figure of the Syrian nahḍa, and today he remains one of the best known Syrian scholars of the nineteenth century. On May 1, 1883, he died of a heart attack, “pen in hand, surrounded by his books and manuscripts.”⁴⁹ (Figure 7)

2. “May [he] live as burning and shining light … in this dark land”⁵⁰: Bustani’s work for the mission

When Bustani came to Beirut at the age of 21, the missionaries were at first much more interested in his abilities than in winning him over to the Protestant faith, as was the case with many native helpers.⁵¹ With his education at ʿAyn Warqa, Bustani was assured of a good career within the Maronite church – similar to Asʿad al-Shidyaq, Jacob Wortabet, and Bishop Dionysios Carabet, who had served the

45 MH 37 (1841), in: ROS 3, 297.

46 More on Rahil ʿAta in: Jessup, The Women of the Arabs, 120–39; Booth, “‘She Herself was the Ultimate Rule,’” 433–38; Lindner, “Rahil ʿAta al-Bustani.”

47 According to Lindner’s research (“Rahil ʿAta al-Bustani,” 8), the children’s names were Sarah Marie (1844–1866), Salim (1846–1884), Adelaide (or Idlid), Martha (1849–1933), Louise Kathrine (1853–1923), Emma, Amin Judson (1859–?), Najib William (1862–1919), Nasib (1866–?), and Alice (1870–1926). Sarah Bustani was named after Sarah L. Smith, who was the first to take Rahil in. She died from typhus in 1866. See Jessup, The Women of the Arabs, 137–38.

48 NECB minutes (June 21, 1878), 32.

49 Jessup, Fifty-Three Years in Syria, vol. 2, 484. His wife Rahil died in 1894. See Lindner, “Rahil ʿAta al-Bustani,” 62.

50 MH 37 (1841), in: ROS 3, 297.

51 See Liebau, Die indischen Mitarbeiter der Tranquebarmission, 138. When Bustani was a teacher at the seminary, the mission sang his praises enthusiastically: “The exception above referred to is Butrus el-Bistany, teacher of Arabic in the Seminary. His case is of great interest

… and uniting uncommon capacity with professional zeal, he has elevated the character of the Seminary. His grammatical attainments are thorough – a branch of knowledge which is exceed-ingly rare in the country, and in which the boys have never before had suitable instruction. His department has been exemplary, and of his own accord he has conducted the usual Arabic reli-gious exercises of the school – reading the Scriptures, with exposition and prayer. … If he re-mains steadfast, we can do no less than generously sustain him, both for the value of his ser-vices and the great importance of his example. We must at all events be enabled to secure as far as possible the instruction which he now furnishes, or the Seminary must languish.” See Syria Mission to Anderson (Beirut, April 24, 1841): ABC 16.8.1., Vol. 1.

church before working for the American mission.⁵² There were a number of cir-cumstances that likely brought him to Beirut in 1840. The withdrawal of Egyptian troops eased the political situation in the region, encouraging many people to come to the city from the mountains.⁵³ Bustani’s widowed mother could keep him from being sent to Rome for additional training since she needed his help to support her-self and her other two sons. Thus, the young Syrian probably went to the city to look for work.⁵⁴ Henry Harris Jessup’s explanation, which was published after Bustani’s death, should be read with caution. According to Jessup, Bustani discovered the

52 Semaan, Aliens at Home, 45, 78. More on these individuals in appendix II. For the theory that conversion can be a way out of certain life circumstances and a chance for a better future, see Thomas O’Dea, The Sociology of Religion (1966), 60, cited in: Semaan, Aliens at Home, 93.

53 Glaß, Der Muqtaṭaf und seine Öffentlichkeit, vol. 1, 76.

54 According to Tibawi (“The American Missionaries in Beirut and Butrus al-Bustani,” 157), there is no evidence for the frequent assertion that Bustani was employed as a translator for the

Figure 7: Butrus al-Bustani

doctrine of justification while reading the New Testament in Syriac; he then fled to Beirut, where he sought protection in Smith’s house for two years, “lest he be shot by spies of the Maronite Patriarch.”⁵⁵ On one hand, it is not surprising that, in the eyes of the missionaries, Bustani’s move was driven by a search for religious mean-ing that led him to the missionaries. On the other hand, Bustani could only have met Smith in 1841, when Smith returned from the United States.⁵⁶

Whether it was practical or religious motivations that brought him to Beirut, Bustani seemed to be looking for new challenges after ten years of studying and then teaching at ʿAyn Warqa. Only a year after his arrival in the city, Bustani had already distanced himself from his home church. While the Maronite patriarch at-tempted to win him back, he composed a tract about the corruption of the papacy.⁵⁷ Bustani converted between 1843 and 1844 and accompanied William M. Thomson and Cornelius Van Dyck (with whom he had been close friends since 1841) to ʿAbeih, in order to establish a mission station and school.⁵⁸ In 1845 the mission sent him to Hasbeiya, where a growing number of villagers wanted to renounce the Greek Orthodox faith and needed the mission’s support. Under Bustani’s leader-ship, the town’s new school became the most disciplined and orderly of all the mission schools.⁵⁹ Eli Smith befriended the talented young man in 1841. A close relationship developed between the two, with Smith assuming the role of mentor and supporter.⁶⁰ In 1845, Smith wrote about the young Syrian:

[He] is remarkable for his sprightliness … he showed a good mind, susceptible of serious impressions, and he particularly distinguished himself by the ease and perfect accuracy with which he committed to memory the Assembly’s Catechism. In decision and boldness as a Prot-estant, he was surpassed by none.⁶¹

Due to animosities with the Greek Orthodox patriarch, the situation in Hasbeiya was tense. For a while Bustani was there by himself because he did not think that the presence of foreign missionaries was advisable, as he wrote: “Not that you would be in personal danger, but your presence would more and more incense the Greeks; and if any disorders should occur, the missionaries would be blamed as dis-turbers of the peace.”⁶² The mission followed Bustani’s advice, showing once again how much the Americans depended upon their native colleagues. The young Syrian from Dbayye soon became one of the few highly promising native candidates for pastoral office.⁶³ Bustani led the committee of native Protestants that met several

British army. Smith wrote that Bustani gradually became more familiar with English. See Smith to Anderson (Beirut, December 31, 1842): ABC 16.8.1., Vol. 1 (159).

55 Jessup, “Muallim Butrus el-Bistany,” 275.

56 MH 37 (1841), in: ROS 3, 309.

57 Ibid., 297.

58 MH 40 (1844), in: ROS 3, 389.

59 MH 41 (1845), in: ROS 3, 411.

60 Smith married Rahil ʿAta and Butrus al-Bustani in the summer of 1843. See Smith to Anderson (ʿAbeih, August 3, 1843): ABC 60, Box 2 (105). Since Hetty Smith’s and Rahil’s children were about the same age, the families remained close. See Lindner, “Rahil ʿAta al-Bustani,” 57.

61 MH 41 (1845), in: ROS 3, 411.

62 Ibid., 434.

63 See also N. A. Keyes’s report on the “native helpers”: ABC 16.8.1., Vol. 1 (21).

times in 1847 and 1848, in order to draft a petition for founding the Beirut Church.

One particular passage in the document sounds as if only the Protestant faith could overcome the country’s confessional rivalries:

We were indeed of different sects: Greeks, Greek Catholics, Latins, Maronites and Armenians:

but we have abandoned all the animosities and jealousies existing between the sects, wishing them no more to be mentioned among us, inasmuch as we have become members of one body in Christ … all believers in him should be one in faith and love.⁶⁴

Parallels with Bustani’s writings from the 1860s and 1870s, about patriotism and peaceful coexistence (see below), are unmistakable. The Protestant faith seemed to offer a chance for harmony and a sense of unity. It had already become clear that Bustani’s encounter with the mission would have a formative influence on his thought.

The petition was composed by Bustani, Elyas Fawaz, and sixteen other con-verts, although not all of their names are known. The petitioners believed that a new church should be led by a pastor from their own ranks, who would of course require the mission’s support “in counsel and labors … as a matter of necessity at the beginning.”⁶⁵

When the Beirut Church was founded between February and May 1848,⁶⁶ Bustani was already being considered as Smith’s assistant for the Bible translation.

Bustani, who was still teaching in ʿAbeih, could not move back to Beirut until the summer of 1848.⁶⁷ Because of his leading role in founding the native Protestant congregation, he must have been considered as a pastoral candidate,⁶⁸ although there is no evidence of this in the historical sources. When Rufus Anderson visited the mission in Beirut in 1844, Bustani told him that he aspired to preach to others.⁶⁹ As Smith later reported, however, Bustani had already changed his mind by the end of that same year:

He then claimed that, as ordination would give him a permanent character, and cut him off from ways of acquiring a living now open to him, he must have a permanent lien for an adequate sup-port, upon our society, or upon a parish, before taking upon himself the vows of the ministry.⁷⁰

Under these circumstances, Anderson responded to Smith around 1847 that Bustani should not be pushed towards ordination.⁷¹ However, Smith did not give up, and

64 “Translation of a Petition from the Native Protestants at Beirut to the American Missionaries”:

ABC 16.8.1., Vol. 4 (23).

65 Ibid.

66 An exact date of founding is not known. The petition was delivered to the mission on Febru-ary 9, 1848 (see MH 44, 1848, in: ROS 3, 50), and the church’s council of elders met for the first time on May 19, 1848 (see NECB minutes, May 19, 1848, 1).

67 Smith to Rev. D. Brigham (Bhamdoun, October 26, 1848): ABC 16.8.1., Vol. 5 (173). Mikhaʾil ʿAraman (see appendix II, no. 9) replaced Bustani at the seminary. See Tibawi, American Inter-ests in Syria, 123.

68 Badr, “Mission to ‘Nominal Christians,’” 294.

69 Anderson to the Syria Mission (On board the Turkish steamer, April 23, 1844): ABC 16.8.1., Vol. 8.

70 Smith to Anderson (Beirut, June 17, 1851): ABC 16.8.1., Vol. 5 (199).

71 Anderson said this during Smith’s final visit to the United States in 1846/47: ibid.

he encouraged his student Bustani to continue his theological studies, hoping that he might change his mind. By 1850, Anderson seems to have forgotten Bustani’s earlier conditions, as he once again began to push for the mission helper’s ordina-tion, rejecting the argument that Bustani did not have enough time because of the translation.⁷² Some missionaries thought that Bustani ought to end his work with Smith in order to devote himself to theological study, even if “this would involve the abandonment of the translation altogether.” Smith countered: “I declared my be-lief that Butrus was not available.” Did Smith hinder Bustani’s ordination because of the Bible translation, or was he rather trying to protect Bustani, who still seemed uncertain about his ambitions? Smith’s own answer was unclear: “I do not think he had changed the views which led him to abandon the ministry so long ago.”⁷³ To Van Dyck, it seemed like the mission was preventing the Syrian scholar’s ordi-nation. In his aforementioned letter to Anderson from 1850, in which he criticized his colleagues’ treatment of the Syrian Protestant, he assumed that Bustani would become the pastor of the Beirut Church, “but whether there will not be a practical difficulty made about it remains to be seen. I have great fears that such will be the case.”⁷⁴ According to Van Dyck, Bustani was discouraged because the office of pastor within the native church (as defined by the mission) would not allow him enough independence so that he could dedicate himself entirely to his work.⁷⁵

The insufficient compensation for Syrian employees of the mission was another sticking point for Bustani. For this reason, he sought a position as translator for the American consulate in Beirut, although he wanted to continue to work for the mission part-time. In 1851, Smith reported to Anderson that Bustani had accused Smith of preventing him from earning additional income from other activities. For this reason, Smith did not want to comment on Bustani’s new plan.⁷⁶ Nevertheless, a private letter from Smith to Bustani in 1850 shows that Smith did intend to speak with the consul on Bustani’s behalf, recommending his student for another posi-tion.⁷⁷ It seems reasonable to believe that Smith supported Bustani in all of his en-deavors, but also that he might have represented this differently to the ABCFM. Van Dyck, who agreed with Bustani’s decision to work for the American consul,⁷⁸ wrote in October 1850 that Bustani had taken the position at the consulate.⁷⁹ Smith’s

72 Anderson to the Syria Mission (Boston, June 27, 1850): ABC 2.1.1., Vol. 13 (HHL).

73 Smith to Anderson (Beirut, June 17, 1851): ABC 16.8.1., Vol. 5 (199).

74 Van Dyck to Anderson (ʿAbeih, August 27, 1850): 5 (320). More on this extensive letter in chapter II, section 2.2 and chapter III, section 2.3.

75 Van Dyck to Anderson (ʿAbeih, October 21, 1850): ABC 16.8.1., Vol. 5. Thomson reported that Bustani was not prepared to change his mind about pastoral office until there was a significant change in the mission. See Thomson to Anderson (ʿAytat, September 2, 1850): ABC 16.8.1., Vol. 5 (254); Badr, “Mission to ‘Nominal Christians,’” 294.

76 Smith to Anderson (Beirut, June 17, 1851): ABC 16.8.1., Vol. 5 (199).

77 Smith to Bustani (Bhamdoun, October 12, 1850): ABC 50 (HHL).

78 Smith to Anderson (Beirut, June 17, 1851): ABC 16.8.1., Vol. 5 (199). According to Smith, Van Dyck also put in a good word for Bustani with the consul.

79 Bustani worked at the consulate until 1862, even serving as interim consul in 1857 while a search for the position was underway. After 1862, Salim al-Bustani assumed his father’s posi-tion. See Tibawi, “The American Missionaries in Beirut,” 167–68.

statements about the matter are contradictory. In the same letter (mentioned above)

statements about the matter are contradictory. In the same letter (mentioned above)

Im Dokument The Mission of the American Board in Syria (Seite 171-0)