Mission and Revolution in Central Asia - Svenska Missionskyrkan

most difficult thing was that a Christian missionary had married a Muslim. The fact that
Mässrur had abandoned Islam and become a Christian could not be understood by the
Muslims. In their opinion he was still a Muslim, and by marrying him, Anna also became a
Muslim. For that reason their acting came to harm the Mission for a long time ahead. 70
Writing about it herself to MCCS President Ekman, Anna Nyström-Mässrur talks about her
“fall” in the following way,
“Is there no possible way of tempering justice with mercy and letting us remain in the service of the
Mission and testify with our lives to God’s love and the power of Jesus Christ… We do not ask to
preserve the title of missionaries, because we can no longer preach in public with words. But let us work
with our hands among the sick and the suffering … so that these poor people may feel that we love them
and understand that we work for their best… I am asking you all this covered with sorrow and shame…” 71
The Mission Board in Stockholm however did not find this matter so serious. In a letter to
Högberg, Ekman writes that “although surprised by this step of hers, we cannot but express
our hearty blessing upon their union, hoping that this step was taken in the name of the
Lord.” 72
The attitude of the Mission Board implied full forgiveness and wholehearted rehabilitation
of the Mässrur couple. It was however considered appropriate that they should leave Kashgar
and so in 1896 they were sent to Jarkend to start mission work there. Their presence was no
longer necessary in Kashgar as other missionaries had arrived.
This new centre was the largest town of Eastern Turkestan, situated about 150 kilometres
south-east of Kashgar. 73 It was only with the greatest difficulties that the missionaries
managed to rent a site in the centre of Jarkend. As none of the local people dared work for the
foreigners, Mässrur himself built up a temporary mission station. These premises however
came to provide accommodation for the missionaries for 12 years, until a better site could be
bought appropriate for a larger and more spacious mission station. In 1900 the Mässrur couple
left Eastern Turkestan and returned to Persia where Doctor Mässrur resumed his practice. A
couple of years later they wanted to come back to Kashgar. At that time it had become known
that Mässrur was an opium smoker and the missionaries thus found him less acceptable in the
service of the Mission. 74
In 1896 Magnus Bäcklund came to the mission field. Already in the summer of 1903 he
got typhoid fever and died shortly afterwards. He was the first missionary to succumb in this
new mission field. Bäcklund came to share his few years of work between medical care and
linguistic research. On his arrival in Eastern Turkestan he had more or less the same feeling as
most people at that time: it was clear to him that in order to accomplish anything, he had to
have medical training. So he went back to Sweden already in 1898. After one year of studies
he returned to the mission field where he served until his death.
Bäcklund made his most important contribution as a linguist. Already as a young student at
the Mission School, his talent for languages was discovered. “He had an almost irresistible
passion for language studies.” 75 He acquired the elements of the Turkish language in Sweden,
while waiting for his departure. Long breaks during the trip to the mission field gave him time
for further training. Upon his arrival in Kashgar, however, he realized that the Turkish dialect
that he had studied differed so much from the Kashgar dialect that he had to start again from
scratch. “With his brilliant talent for languages” he however rapidly caught up. It was also
70
Hedin, 1898, p. 375.
71 th
Anna Nyström to Ekman, February 15 , 1895.
72 th
Ekman to Högberg, February 29 , 1895.
73
Palmaer, 1938, p. 110.
74 rd
Albert Andersson and Bäcklund to Ekman, March 3 , 1902.
75
Larson, 1914, p 8.
11