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A Residence of Eight Years in Persia among the Nestorian Christians with Notices of the Muhammedans

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This is the annotated diary of an American Protestant missionery who from 1833 to 1841 investigated prosletysing opportunities in Azerbaijan (the region of Persia/Iran not the modern day country which didn't come into independent existance till 1918). Part of the spur for his mission was the fear that nominally Christian Nestorian-Armenian communities in that region were lacking spiritual leadership in their historical faith while Catholic missioneries were feared to be snapping up souls leading to a sort of 'competition' amongst other sects to send their own missioneries. According to some historical sources the eventual result of all the missionary activity of this era was the terrible anti-Christian backlash during WW1, though that is a subject beyond the scope of the book which makes no attempt to add a contemporary introduction to put the book into its historical context.

Thus while Perkins' account is interesting as a primary historical source it is not an especially readable book for general non-historians. The book is simply a reprinting of the 1843 original. That means that the only footnotes are Perkins' original ones aimed at a mid-19th century readership. What would have been very useful would have been up-to-date commentaries and notes for modern readers, at the very least pointing out the contemporary spellings/names of places visited which would make reading easier for non specialists. Still, many are fairly straight forward (Erivan = Yerevan, Oroomiyah=Orumiyeh=Urmia) and as the subject matter is already pretty specialist perhaps the editors assume that anyone buying the book will already know the region's history and name changes.

Those seeking tidbits of historical insight from the book should note that Perkins' base during his stay is Orumiyeh where to this day you can find a Armenian-protestant community that trace their faith back to Perkins' visit. Perkins also stays a while in Tabriz ('Tabreez') and gives extensive reports of his journeys to and from the region.

Interesting passages include his notes about Armenians who had recently moved out of Eastern Anatolia into what is today Nakhchivan, encouraged by the Russian authorities who had only very recently gained control over Nakhchivan. Perkins reports that those he had met would often prefer to return to their former homes (despite the risks from Turks) rather than stay in the new Russian province but that they were not actually permitted to leave!