When Heaven Meets Homeland: Rethinking the Role of American Presbyterian Missionaries during the Persian Constitutional Revolution (1905-1911)

This paper critically examines the role of Presbyterian missionaries in Persia during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, focusing on their political involvement and personal motivations. It challenges traditional interpretations of missionaries as mere cultural agents or extensions of American imperialism, highlighting instead the complex, sometimes conflicting, relationships they had with both the local populations and the political landscapes of their host countries. By analyzing personal letters, memoirs, and diaries of missionaries, such as Sarah Wright, Howard Baskerville, and Thomas Kirkpatrick, this study argues that missionaries were deeply engaged in local political affairs, particularly during the Persian Constitutional Revolution of 1905 to 1911. Their assumed neutrality, influenced by directives from the American government and missionary organizations, often masked their active participation in political movements, including their opposition to the autocratic rule of Mohammad Ali Shah. Through a microhistorical approach, this paper highlights the nuanced and varied experiences of individual missionaries, revealing their internal conflicts, moral dilemmas, and personal stakes in the political struggles they encountered. This research aims to complicate existing historiographical narratives by emphasizing missionaries as politically conscious figures, whose actions were shaped by a combination of religious, moral, and political motivations.