Page 237 - Neglected Arabia Vol 1 (3)_Neat

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8 NEGLECTED ARABIA
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and so, for purposes of comparison, that standard cannot lie used. But
that is the basis on which the only really significant judgment in the i
universe is founded; and it is as a preacher of Christ that I am here. 1
Indeed, I do my utmost to protect the Kurds from civilization; for they \
are a primitive people, at the beginning of what may well be a great '1
history; and at this time of their foundations, it is especially important \
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to remember that other foundation can no man lay than that which is. '
laid, which is Jesus Christ.”
With this purpose always in mind, what is the best approach to the $
Kurds ? That has been my problem. Missionary work among them—*
that is, among those of this region—is at its beginning. There are no -
missionary institutions especially for the Kurds of Iraq. We have no \
mission doctor. Literature distribution is futile; for there is no Kurdish’ \
literature and the Kurds are almost totally illiterate in any other lan- J
guage. Very few of them understand any language other than their- !
own dialect and there are four distinct Kurdish dialects, as well as end- •
less local variations. My method of approach, both by choice and by force. *
of circumstances, has been personal. I regret to say that I have, not •
exercised that eternal vigilance which is the price of success. In this ■
matter of personal approach, it is ruinously easy to let circumstance^ -
prevent one from doing the work that we are here to do. I have often -3
been tempted to envy the teacher or the doctor or any institutional worker -;j
whose schedule requires him to do his work. As it has been, I have \
spent a good deal of time in the Kurdish villages, sitting in their houses. *
and adapting myself to their ways and learning their language; I have* :
a good many friends in Kurdistan and some of them have seen some-1 J
thing of Christ; but this personal method of approach in which I helicvo
1ms not yet brought form the fruit which every laborer id the Lurd'i A
vineyard likes to see. Yet 1 still believe that it is the best method for* %
me. In only a few cases have I not been cordially received by my Kurdish- *
hosts. I have never seen even the shadow of the danger that is supposed*
to lurk wherever Kurds are. I cannot say that the Kurds are open- •
minded; they are, as a rule, rather fanatically religious, far more punc­
tilious than their neighbors of the plain in their observance of the formal
ceremonies of Islam, and suspicious of anything that does not conform
to the letter. But theirs is the fanaticism of ignorance; they know almost
nothing of their religion except its outward form; they piously read the
Koran in Arabic and understand not a word of it. Their devotion to it
is well illustrated by the following incident. I was sitting in the house
of Mohammad Abdul Rahman. Early in the morning, his son Rashid
took his seat in the window, the only place there was enough light, and
began reading the Koran in that sing-song chant that he learned from
the village mullah. The father and I were conversing at the opposite
end of the room, paying no attention, so far as I knew, to Rashid. *
Suddenly the father interrupted the son: “You read that wrong, it should
be so-and-so.” In how many Christian households could that he done in
the reading of the Bible? And yet neither one of them had the slightest
idea of what the words meant.
This is what I mean by desolate Kurdistan. The Kurds are human;
they have the natural hunger for the Bread of Life. But they have been
given a stone. They have accepted it, not on the grounds of reason, but
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