volume 2 - Robert Bedrosian's Armenian History Workshop

Mr. Jeremiah Shamir. 71
and at one time in his life he had been employed in the
British Consulate at Mosul. He talked Arabic, Turkish,
and the local Syriac dialect Fallehi, and he had some
knowledge of Persian. He kept a small school, but
depended for his living upon a small business as a dealer
in books and manuscripts. He had been employed by
Sachau to collect Syriac manuscripts for the Royal
Library at Berlin, but being dissatisfied with his treatment
by the Germans he transferred his services to me.
Through him I obtained several manuscripts and a
copy of the great Syriac Bible which the American
Missionaries printed at Urmi with the old Peshitta
version and the Fallehi translation arranged in
parallel columns. He knew the owners of many valuable
manuscripts in Mosul, and through him I was enabled
to examine many works which I had only known by
name through the Catalogue of 'Abhd-Isho'. But he
rarely succeeded in arranging the purchase of a really
good manuscript, for the Jacobites disliked him because
he was originally a Nestorian, and the Nestorians distrusted
him because he had become a Protestant, and
because he was supposed to be a member of the congregation
of the American Mission. He had travelled
extensively in many countries and knew Asia Minor,
Armenia, Persia and Kurdistan thoroughly, and, judging
by his conversations and the contents of many letters
which I received from him, I came to the conclusion
that he was a Freethinker. He knew a great deal
about the Yazidis and their beliefs, and I obtained
from him a stout octavo manuscript written in Arabic,
containing the fullest history I had ever seen of this
interesting people. I suspected that whatever religious
sympathies he possessed inclined to the Yazidis, for the
manuscript was the only one in which I ever knew
him to take personal interest. Usually books and
manuscripts were regarded by him as things to buy
in order to sell them again at a profit as quickly as
possible.
Speaking generally, I found the Nestorians far readier
to help me to acquire manuscripts than the Jacobites,