The Nesturians in the Trap of Missionary Activities: The Catholic, Orthodox and Protestan Missionary Activities among the Nesturians, and Their Political Consequences

Abstract

This study examines the missionary movements among the Nesturian community of the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century. The study, therefore, analyzes the development and consequences of Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant missionary activities in the light of the Ottoman archival documents. Missionary activities among the Nesturians started by the Catholic missionaries in the 11th century, and reached its golden age especially in the late 19th century with the activities of Orthodox and Protestant missionary organizations. In this framework, the Nesturians became the mass target of missionary activities in the Ottoman Middle East throughout the 19th century and they kept their importance as a competition ground among the missionary groups throughout that century. It should be stated that missionary activities among the Nesturians had more political aspects rather than religious, as it was the case among other ethnic and religious groups living in the Ottoman Empire. In this respect, because of the destructive and separatist effects within the empire and the anti-Ottoman influences outside, missionary activities among the Nesturians were anxiously monitored and tried to be controlled by the Ottoman administration. Unsurprisingly from time to time, such type of endeavors caused some diplomatic crises between the Great States and the Ottoman State.