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From Evangelizing to Modernizing Iranians: The American Presbyterian Mission and its Iranian Students

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Jasamin Rostam-Kolayi*
Affiliation:
California State University, Fullerton.

Abstract

This article examines the American Presbyterian education project in Iran from the early nineteenth century to 1940. While most literature on the subject concerns Iranian state-missionary relations and Presbyterian boys' schools in Iran, this article seeks to address the interactions between American Presbyterians, the Iranian state, and students and families of Iranian girls' schools. A study of the Presbyterians' flagship girls' school in Iran Bethel/Nurbakhsh and its sixty-six-year history reveals missionary intentions, tactics, and accomplishments, as well as the adaptations and accommodations pressed upon them by the Iranians they served. Despite the school's promotion of modern American norms and Christian teachings, the young graduates of Iran Bethel/Nurbakhsh developed a strong sense of loyalty to both Iran and Islam, thus turning an evangelist mission into an important feature of the construction of Iranian nationalism and modernity.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Association For Iranian Studies, Inc 2008

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References

1 I am grateful to the Presbyterian Historical Society (Philadelphia, PA.) for granting me a fellowship to conduct research for this study. I would also like to thank Houri Berberian, Afshin Matin-Asgari, Holly Shissler, and the anonymous reviewer for their thought-provoking and useful feedback.

2 Motto of the American Girls' School, Tehran. “Iran Bethel, Teheran, Persia, Report for the School Year, Sept. 1890–Sept. 1891,” Presbyterian Historical Society (hereafter PHS), RG 91–20–12.

3 See, for example, Armajani, Yahya, “Samuel Jordan and the Evangelical Ethic in Iran,” in Religious Ferment in Asia, ed. Miller, Robert J. (Lawrence, 1974)Google Scholar; Boyce, Arthur, “Alborz College of Tehran and Dr. Samuel Martin Jordan,” in Cultural Ties between Iran and the United States, ed. Saleh, Ali Pasha (Tehran, 1976Google Scholar); Naser, S., Ravesh-e Doktor Jordan (Tehran, 1324/1975)Google Scholar and websites, such as alborzi.com.

4 See Zirinsky, Michael, “Onward Christian Soldiers: Presbyterian Missionaries and the Ambiguous Origins of American Relations with Iran,” in Altruism and Imperialism: Western Cultural and Religious Missions in the Middle East, Tejirian, Eleanor H. and Simon, Reeva Spector, eds. (New York, 2002)Google Scholar; “A Presbyterian Vocation to Reform Gender Relations in Iran: The Career of Annie Stocking Boyce,” in Women, Religion and Culture in Iran, ed. Vanessa Martin and Sarah Ansari (Surrey, 2002); “The Presbyterian Who Introduced Soccer to Iran,” Presbyterian Outlook (3–10 August 1998); “Render Therefore unto Caesar that Which is Caesar's: American Presbyterian Educators and Reza Shah,” Iranian Studies 26, no. 3–4 (Summer/Fall 1993): 337–356; “A Panacea for the Ills of the Country: American Presbyterian Education in Inter-War Iran,” Iranian Studies 26, no. 1–2 (Winter/Spring 1993): 119–137; “Presbyterian Missionary Women in Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Iran,” translated into Persian by Manijeh Badiozamani, Nimeye-Digar Persian Language Feminist Journal 17 (Winter 1993): 38–63; and “Harbingers of Change: Presbyterian Women in Iran, 1883–1949,” American Presbyterians: Journal of Presbyterian History 70, no. 3 (Fall 1992): 173–186.

5 As this article discusses in more detail, Armenian Christian, Jewish, Zoroastrian, and Baha'i students attended Presbyterian schools, though in smaller numbers than Muslims during the Reza Shah period. I do not mean to suggest that they became devout Muslims in the process. However, it is understood that they too were supporters of Iranian nationalist projects.

6 In a discussion of the origins of anti-Americanism in the Arab world, Ussama Makdisi discusses the nineteenth-century missionary-Middle East encounter. See Makdisi, “‘Anti-Americanism’ in the Arab World: An Interpretation of a Brief History,” Journal of American History (September 2002): 538557CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7 Abu-Lughod, Lila, “Introduction,” in Remaking Women: Feminism and Modernity in the Middle East, ed. Abu-Lughod, Lila (Princeton, 1998), 16CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

8 See, for example, Boyce, Annie Stocking, “Chapters from the Life of an American Woman in the Shah's Capital,” unpublished memoirs, PHS, RG 91–18–11 and Helen Barrett Montgomery, Western Women in Eastern Lands (New York, 1910)Google Scholar.

9 See Hill, Patricia, The World Their Household: The American Woman's Foreign Mission Movement and Cultural Transformation, 1870–1920 (Ann Arbor, 1985)Google Scholar.

10 “The Reminiscences of Jane Doolittle,” 1983, 20–22, in the Oral History of Iran Collection of the Foundation for Iranian Studies. (To date, Doolittle's is the only missionary oral history included in this collection. Scholars may consult the collection on the Foundation's premises in Bethesda, MD.)

11 Zirinsky, “Onward Christian Soldiers,” 240.

12 Justin Perkins, A Residence of Eight Years in Persia among the Nestorian Christians (Andover, 1873), 249, 337. Perkins recounts that even before 1838, with the establishment of the first girls' school, Nestorian girls already attended classes with boys in the town of Ada, near Urumia, where they were sent by their parents without any urging on the part of missionaries. See also Perkins, A Residence of Eight Years in Persia among the Nestorian Christians, 290.

13 Perkins, A Residence of Eight Years in Persia among the Nestorian Christians, 497. Statistics for Urumia schools reveal that ninety girls and 165 boys were enrolled in 1911. Those numbers climbed slightly so that by 1928 the Fiske Seminary (primary girls' school) had 109 students enrolled, while the boys' primary school had 176 students. See Statistical Summary, Urumia, PHS, RG 91–4–17.

14 Perkins, A Residence of Eight Years in Persia among the Nestorian Christians, 404–405.

15 See, for example, Szuppe, Maria, “Status, Knowledge, and Politics: Women in Sixteenth-Century Safavid Iran,” in Women in Iran: From the Rise of Islam to 1800, eds. Nashat, Guity and Judith, Tucker (Urbana and Chicago, 2003)Google Scholar.

16 For a detailed discussion of the various types of “new” schools of the nineteenth century, see Ringer, Monica M., Education, Religion, and the Discourse of Cultural Reform in Qajar Iran (Costa Mesa, 2001)Google Scholar.

18 Perkins, A Residence of Eight Years in Persia among the Nestorian Christians, 287.

17 For a discussion of the Qajar shahs' reactions to foreign educational activities and missionaries in Iran, see Ringer, Education, Religion, and the Discourse of Cultural Reform in Qajar Iran, 116–143.

19 For a discussion of Armenian opposition to American Mission schools, see Berberian, Houri, “Armenian Women in Turn-of-the-Century Iran: Education and Activism,” in Iran and Beyond: Essays in Middle Eastern History in Honor of Nikki R. Keddie, eds. Matthee, Rudi and Baron, Beth (Costa Mesa, 2000), 7879Google Scholar.

20 Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A., A Century of Mission Work in Iran, 18341934 (Beirut, 1936), 84, and Ringer, Education, Religion, and the Discourse of Cultural Reform in Qajar Iran, 119.

21 Cora Bartlett, “Report of Iran Bethel, Sept. 1893–Sept. 1894,” PHS, RG 91–20–12. According to the principal, the girls reported that the priest told them not to marry anyone associated with the American school or bury their dead.

22 See Berberian, “Armenian Women.” Other religio-ethnic minority schools began to open their schools around the same time as the Armenian community, most likely also in reaction to missionary schools.

23 Board, Century, 88.

24 On the emergence of modern-style schools in Azerbaijan, see Ringer, Education, Religion, and the Discourse of Cultural Reform in Qajar Iran, 173–178.

25 Arasteh, Reza, Education and Social Awakening in Iran, 1858–1968 (Leidin, 1969), 164Google Scholar.

26 The American Presbyterians did not establish schools in central and southern Iran due to a formal agreement signed in 1895 with the British Anglican Church Missionary Society. American and British missionaries partitioned the mission field between them with the Americans controlling the northern half and the Anglicans the southern half. Zirinsky, “Onward Christian Soldiers,” 241.

27 Boyce, report, June 30, 1938, p. 1, PHS, RG 91–7–4. The American Boys' School in Tehran later expanded in 1925 to include a high school called the American College, renamed Alborz College in 1935. Iran Bethel expanded to include a middle school and high school in the 1920s.

28 Anna Schenck, “Report of the Girls' Boarding School, Teheran, Persia, for the annual year of '88 & '89,” PHS, RG 91–21–12.

29 “Iran Bethel, Teheran, Persia, Report for the School Year, Sept. 1890–Sept. 1891,” PHS, RG 91–20–12.

30 H. McCampbell, “Report of Iran Bethel, Sept. 1891–Sept. 1892,” PHS, RG 91–20–12; Annie Gray Dale, “Report of Iran Bethel for 1892–93,” PHS, RG 91–20–12.

31 Ringer, Education, Religion, and the Discourse of Cultural Reform in Qajar Iran, 139.

32 Board, Century, 87–88.

33 “The Reminiscences of Jane Doolittle,” 13.

34 Augustin Ferrin, 28 August 1929, “Christian Missions in Persia,” U.S. National Archives in College Park, MD, (hereafter NACP), M715 891.404/16.

35 Dispatch by John L. Caldwell, 12 June 1915, NACP, M 715.891.401b.

36 This is suggested in an American Legation report. See Augustin Ferrin, 28 August 1929, “Christian Missions in Persia,” NACP, M715 891.404/16. See also Zirinsky, “Render Unto Caesar,” 345.

37 Bartlett, “Annual Report of the Girls' Boarding School, Tehran, Persia,” October 1888, PHS, RG 91–20–12; Bartlett, “Report of Iran Bethel, Tehran, Persia, Sept. 89 to Sept. 90,” PHS, RG 91–20–12.

38 Perkins, A Residence of Eight Years in Persia among the Nestorian Christians, 13, 250–251, 316.

39 Perkins, A Residence of Eight Years in Persia among the Nestorian Christians, 404–405.

40 Ringer, Education, Religion, and the Discourse of Cultural Reform in Qajar Iran, 114, 132, 139.

41 “Iran Bethel, Annual Report, 1890–91,” PHS, RG 91–20–12.

42 Letter from Boyce, 6 February 1920, PHS, RG 91–20–12.

43 Board, Century, 77–78.

44 L.H. McCampbell, “Report of Iran Bethel, Sept. 1894–Sept. 1895,” PHS, RG 91–20–12.

45 Bartlett, “Report of Iran Bethel, Tehran, Persia, Sept. 89 to Sept. 90,” PHS, RG 91–20–12.

46 Bartlett, “Annual Report of the Girls' Boarding School, Tehran, Persia,” October 1888, PHS, RG 91–20–12.

47 For example, in the 1894–95 school year, of the seventy eight students enrolled, sixty one were boarding and seventeen were day students. L.H. McCampbell, “Report of Iran Bethel, Sept. 1894–Sept. 1895,” PHS, RG 91–20–12.

48 Boyce, “Household Arts for Tehran Girls,” c. 1916, 1–3, PHS, RG 91–18–11.

49 Boyce, “Household Arts for Tehran Girls,” 1–3.

50 See, for example, Afsaneh Najmabadi, “Crafting an Educated Housewife in Iran,” and Omnia Shakry, “Schooled Mothers and Structured Play” in Abu-Lughod, Remaking Women.

51 See, for example, Montgomery Western Women in Eastern Lands and Basci, K. Pelin, “Shadows in the Missionary Garden of Roses: Women of Turkey in American Missionary Texts,” in Deconstructing Images of “the Turkish Woman,” ed. Arat, Zehra (New York, 1998), 106Google Scholar.

52 Jane E. Doolittle, 1929–30, RG 91–20–12 as cited in Zirinsky, “Harbingers of Change,” 182; Boyce, “The Missionary's Job,” 4.

53 Boyce, “Household Arts for Tehran Girls,” c. 1916, 1–3, PHS, RG 91–18–11.

54 Boyce, “Station Letter from Tehran: A Fiftieth Anniversary Celebration,” 1925, PHS, RG 91–20–12. Zirinsky has written extensively on American Presbyterian Mission-Iranian state relations in the Reza Shah era. See “Render Therefore unto Caesar that which is Caesar's”; “A Panacea for the Ills of the Country” and “Presbyterian Missionaries and American Relations with Pahlavi Iran.”

55 “Fifty Years Old,” c. 1925, PHS, RG 91–20–12; Bartlett, “Annual Report of the Girls' Boarding School, Tehran, Persia,” October 1888, PHS, RG 91–20–12.

56 “The Reminiscences of Jane Doolittle,” 8; Bartlett, “Annual Report of the Girls' Boarding School, Tehran, Persia,” October 1888, PHS, RG 91–20–12. Bartlett discusses the first two Zoroastrian girls admitted to Iran Bethel as boarding students in 1888 and their “peculiar head gear” that she had trouble putting on them and was soon set aside.

57 Board, Century, 87-88; Rice, C. Colliver, Persian Women and Their Ways (London, 1923), 153Google Scholar.

58 Gertrude Peet, “Report of Iran Bethel for the year 1919–1920,” PHS, RG 91–20–12; Lillian B. McHenry, “Report of Iran Bethel School, 1925–1926,” PHS, RG 91–20–12; “Report of Iran Bethel School, 1 July 1927 to 1 July 1928,” PHS, RG 91–20–12.

59 Minutes, 9 August 1913, “East Persia Minutes, 1911–1921,” PHS, RG 91–1–3.

60 Mary Johnson to Speer, 11 January 1929, PHS, RG 91–20–10. In the Tabriz schools, established in 1873, school attendance records reveal that in 1911 the number of girls was 125 and of boys 241. Those numbers jumped drastically in 1928 to 316 girls and 371 boys in the primary and middle schools. Statistical Summary for Urumia and Tabriz, PHS, RG 91–4–17.

61 Letter from Huldah Allen to Sheppard, 7 December 1936, “Faith Hubbard School, 1917–44,” PHS, RG 91–19–26.

62 Its enrollment had jumped to 378 students in 1925/26. Lillian B. McHenry, “Report of Iran Bethel School, 1925–1926,” PHS, RG 91–20–12 and Doolittle, “Annual Report of Iran Bethel School,” 1 July 1929, PHS, RG 360.

63 By this time, Nurbakhsh was a middle and high school only. Boyce noted that enrollment in 1935–36 was 310, while Doolittle mentioned that it was 300. The previous year's enrollment was 135 students. Annie Boyce memo to Executive Committee of Iran Missions, 1 January 1936, “Sage College File, 1936–42,” PHS, RG 91–20–14; Doolittle letter to Executive Committee, 14 October 1935, “Iran Bethel/Nurbakhsh,” PHS, RG 91–20–12.

64 See Doolittle in “From the Eastern Mountains,” The Board of Foreign Missions, 1939, PHS, RG 360.

65 Interviews with Nurbakhsh graduates of the late-1930s reveal that their fathers had received a modern-style education themselves and/or lived abroad. Graduates also noted that their families were not hesitant about schooling their daughters with foreigners or other religious communities. Zary Nouri's father had placed her earlier in Tarbiat School operated by Baha'is. Interviews with Fakhri Shaybani Samiian, 31 July 2004 and 16 April 2006, Laguna Hills, CA and with Zary Nouri, 16 January and 22 May 2006, Fresno, CA.

66 Matthee, Rudi, “Transforming Dangerous Nomads into Useful Artisans, Technicians, Agriculturalists: Education in the Reza Shah Period,” Iranian Studies 26, no. 3–4 (Summer/Fall 1993): 315CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

67 See Matthee, “Transforming Dangerous Nomads,” 317–18, 334; Menashri, David, Education and the Making of Modern Iran (Ithaca, 1992), 113Google Scholar, 121, 122; and Szyliowicz, Joseph, Education and the Modernization in the Middle East (Ithaca, 1973), 230232Google Scholar, 236–237, 239, 250–251.

68 Division of Education and Information, Board of Foreign Missions, 1946, PHS, RG 360.

69 She received the Sepas Medal for her contributions to Iranian education in 1963. Several years later, Minister of Education Farrokhru Parsa presented her with a second award. Memo to Rodney Sundberg, “Honors Conferred Upon Miss Jane Doolittle and Mr. Commodore Fisher,” 16 August 1963, PHS, RG 360; “Central Files,” PHS, RG 360; “The Reminiscences of Jane Doolittle,” 33. Nurbakhsh graduate Fakhry Shaybani Samiian credited the Nurbakhsh Alumnae Association with pushing for state recognition of Doolittle's work. Another source, Voorhees, Elizabeth C. Kay, Is Love Lost? Mosaics in the Life of Jane Doolittle “Angel Mother” in a Muslim Land (Pasadena, 1988)Google Scholar, notes that Doolittle received four awards, in 1966, 1968, 1972, and 1979. See Voorhees, 158–159. I thank the anonymous reader for bringing this latter fact to my attention.

70 “The Reminiscences of Jane Doolittle,” 15, 27.

71 See, for example, Letter from Doolittle to Sheppard, 21 April 1930, PHS, 91–20–12; Boyce appealed to her alma mater to send interested graduates to Tehran. See letter from Boyce to the Student Volunteer Band, Wellesley College, 6 February 1920, PHS, RG 91–12–20.

72 “The Reminiscences of Jane Doolittle,” 2–3, 12–13.

73 Thomas M. Ricks, “Twentieth Century Memories of Alborz and Sage Colleges of Tehran, Iran: The Political Culture of Missionary Education,” paper delivered at the Sixth Biennial Conference on Iranian Studies, London, UK, August 2006. See also Hill, The World Their Household, on growing secularization within the American Protestant missionary movement abroad.

74 Mary Johnson to Dr. Speer, 11 January 1929, PHS, RG 91–20–10.

75 This was also the case in the Ottoman Empire; few Ottoman students in American Mission schools converted to Protestant Christianity. See, for example, Ussama Makdisi, “Reclaiming the Land of the Bible: Missionaries, Secularism, and Evangelical Modernity,” American Historical Review (June 1997): 680–713 and Jeremy Salt, “Trouble Wherever They Went: American Missionaries in Anatolia and Ottoman Syria in the Nineteenth Century,” in Altruism and Imperialism.

78 Doolittle quoting from Qazal, the Sage College student paper, in “From the Eastern Mountains,” Board of Foreign Missions, 1939, 10–11, PHS, RG 360.

76 L.H. McCampbell, “Report of Iran Bethel, Sept. 1894–Sept. 1895,” PHS, RG 91–20–12.

77 Sage College was the Mission's three-year junior college for women founded in 1928. The college's first principal was Winifred Shannon, an American missionary with administrative experience from the Presbyterian Beirut College for Women in Lebanon.

79 Doolittle, letter to the Board of Foreign Missions, 30 October 1933, PHS, RG 360.

80 Letter from Jane Doolittle, 1933, PHS, RG 91–20–12. This newspaper story also appears in Voorhees, 87–88.

81 “The Reminiscences of Jane Doolittle,” 20, 30.

82 Interviews with Fakhri Samiian and Zary Nouri.

83 See, for example, “The Reminiscences of Jane Doolittle,” 20–22, 25, 37, 44–45.

84 “The Reminiscences of Jane Doolittle,” 20–22.

85 Interview with Zary Nouri, 16 January 2006, Fresno, CA.

86 Interview with Fakhri Samiian, 16 April 2006, Laguna Hills, CA.

87 “The Reminiscences of Jane Doolittle,” 18.

88 “The Reminiscences of Jane Doolittle,” 44.

89 Interviews with Fakhri Samiian and Zary Nouri.

90 For a recent discussion of this topic with special focus on health, hygiene, and reproductive politics, see Kashani-Sabet, Firoozeh, “The Politics of Reproduction: Maternalism and Women's Hygiene in Iran, 1896–1941,” International Journal of Middle East Studies 38 (2006): 129Google Scholar.

91 Julia Clancy-Smith's discussion of the École Louise-René Millet for girls in Tunis, Tunisia also examines the influence of girls' school curriculum on household. See Clancy-Smith, “Envisioning Knowledge: Educating the Muslim Woman in Colonial North Africa, c. 1850–1918,” in Iran and Beyond, 112.

92 Farmaianv, Sattareh Farman, Daughter of Persia: A Woman's Journey from her Father's Harem through the Islamic Revolution (New York, 1993), 104Google Scholar.

93 Farman Farmaian, Daughter of Persia, 105.

94 Farman Farmaian, Daughter of Persia, 108.

95 Doolittle connected Presbyterian school student organizations with “developing unity and eliminating race prejudice,” which she uses to suggest religious prejudice. Doolittle, “Annual Report of the Iran Bethel School,” 1 July 1929, 4, PHS, RG 360.

96 Board, Century, 87 and “The Reminiscences of Jane Doolittle,” 42.

97 Gertrude Peet, “Report of Iran Bethel for the year 1919–1920,” PHS, RG 91–20–12.

98 Doolittle, “Statistical Report of Iran Bethel School, 1928–1929,” PHS, RG 360.

99 Boyce, 11 January 1936, PHS, RG 91–18–11 and “The Missionary's Job,” 3–4.

100 Armajani, “Samuel Jordan and the Evangelical Ethic in Iran,” 33.

101 Boyce, “Alborz College,” 196.

102 Samuel Jordan quoted in Boyce, “Alborz College,” 198.

103 Mary Park Jordan, Tehran Station, 1930-31, “Report—Work for Women, 1916–39,” PHS, RG 91–19–13.

105 Jordan, Samuel, “Constructive Revolutions in Iran,” The Moslem World 26, no. 4 (October 1935): 348Google Scholar.

104 Letter from Jane Doolittle to Dr. Sundberg, 22 February 1967, PHS, RG 630. For more on this subject, see Zirinsky, “Harbingers of Change,” 173–174, 181, 184. Zirinsky argues that American Presbyterians preferred to work with the elite because, as Calvinists, they tended to associate wealth and power with inward grace. They also believed that acceptance from the authorities would eventually gain them respect among ordinary people.

106 Marvin Zonis's study of Iranian political elites notes that about 21 percent of the total number of his upper class informants attended either the Dar al-Fonun or Alborz College. See Zonis, The Political Elite of Modern Iran (Princeton, 1971), 168Google Scholar.

107 “The Reminiscences of Jane Doolittle,” 45.

108 Iran Taymurtash was reported to have plotted an assassination of Reza Shah as revenge for her father's death in prison. For a fictionalized account of her life, see Behnud, Masud, Een Seh Zan (Tehran, 1376)Google Scholar.

109 For more on Parvin Etessami, see Milani, Farzaneh, Veils and Words: The Emerging Voices of Iranian Women Writers (Syracuse, 1992), 100126Google Scholar.

110 Mary C. Johnson, Personal Report, 1929, “West Persia Mission,” PHS, RG 91–4–9.

111 Mary Park Jordan, Tehran Station, 1930–31, “Report—Work for Women, 1916–39,” PHS, RG 91–19–13.

112 I thank Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet for informing me that her grandmother, a graduate of Nurbakhsh, later served in the Iranian parliament.

113 Farman Farmaian, Daughter of Persia, 59.

114 Personal Report, Marie Gillespie, 1927–1928, “West Persia Mission,” PHS, RG 91–4–9 and Personal Report, Judith McComb, 1927–1928, “West Persia Mission,” PHS, RG 91–4–9.

115 Lillian B. McHenry, “Report of Iran Bethel School, 1925–1926,” PHS, RG 91–20–12.

116 “The Reminiscences of Jane Doolittle,” 14.

117 “The Reminiscences of Jane Doolittle,” 14.

118 Minister of Education Tadayon to Director of the American School, 23 May 1927, NACP, M715 891.42.13.

119 Doolittle, “Abridged Annual Report of Nurbakhsh School-Sage College,” 30 June 1937, PHS, RG 360.

120 Letter from Jordan and Boyce, enclosure in Philip Hoffman to Sec. of State, 13 October 1927, NACP, M715 891.42.14.

121 Augustin Ferrin, “Reorganization of the Persian Ministry of Education,” 6 March 1929, NACP, M715 891.42.17.

122 Doolittle, “Annual Report of Iran Bethel School,” 1 July 1929, 6, PHS, RG 360.

123 Letter from Doolittle, 3 January 1929, PHS, RG 360.

124 “The Reminiscences of Jane Doolittle,” 22.

125 Wm. H. Hornibrook, 10 October 1934, NACP, M715 891.42.46.

126 Charles C. Hart to Sec. of State, 25 March 1933, NACP, M715 891.42.40.

127 Iran Bethel closed for a year in the late nineteenth century due to financial reasons, not as a result of a state order. See “Fifty Years Old,” c. 1925, PHS, RG 91–20–12.

128 Engert to Sec. of State, 13 August 1939, NACP, M1202 891.42.75. Zirinsky notes that the American Community School survived 1940 and continued as a school for the children of missionaries that also educated non-missionary children. See Zirinsky, “Render Unto Caesar,” 352.

129 “The Reminiscences of Jane Doolittle,” 44.

130 Memorandum from Mr. Patterson to Mr. Allen, 15 September 1938, PHS, RG 91–20–10.

131 Interview with Zary Nouri, 22 May 2006, Fresno, CA.

132 One high-ranking Alborz College graduate, for example, was Reza Shah's minister of education, Ali Asghar Hekmat. See Matthee, “Transforming Dangerous Nomads,” 330.

133 Sage College, for example, furnished its home economics curriculum for use in Iranian government high schools for girls. Doolittle letter to Dr. Dodds, 29 August 1939, “Sage College File, 1919–1935,” PHS, RG 91–20–14.

134 Augustin Ferrin, “Christian Missions in Persia,” 28 August 1929, NACP, M715 891.404.16.