Pioneers East: The Early American Experience in the Middle East

355 Pages·1967·6.383 MB·English

by  David H. Finnie

Pioneers East
H ARV ARD MIDDLE EA STER N STUDIES 13

Pioneers East
The Early American Experience
in the Middle East
By DAVID H. F1NNIE
H ARVARD U N IVERSITY PRESS
Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1967
© Copyright 1967 by the President
and Fellows of Harvard College
All rights reserved
Distributed in Great Britain
by Oxford University Press, London
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 67-20875
Printed in the United States of America
In Loving Memory of
ISABELLA H O LT FIN N IE
(1892-1962)

In pursuing over a number of years an academic and profes­
sional interest in American relations with the Middle East, I kept
coming across occasional vague references to early points of
contact which I had not expected. In due course I found the
opportunity to look into the subject in detail, and this book is
the result. Granting the importance of missionary activity, it
turned out that there were many other fields of interest and ac­
tivity which deserve more attention than they have received. In
particular the role of Americans in Ottoman naval affairs in the
i83o’s (Chapter 3) has been a revelation to me, and I believe it
will be to others as well.
Many people have helped and encouraged my research and
writing. Debts to Middle Eastern scholars and various amiable
volunteers are acknowledged later in the context of the assistance
they provided, but it is appropriate to mention here that Elliott
Nixon and Janet Finnie have been particularly helpful in many
ways. For voluntary secretarial service beyond the call of duty
I am grateful to Betty Barratt, Helen Cullen, Betty Hicks, and
Jane Kendrigan. Special thanks are due to a young lady who has
gladly met my requirements for staples and Scotch tape. Above
all I have depended on the advice, encouragement, and patient
viii Preface
understanding of my wife, for whom the production of a book
on family time over five years has been an undertaking fully and
most cheerfully shared.
D. H. F.
New Canaan, Connecticut
July, 1966
Contents
1. INTRO D UCTIO N i
2. SM YRNA 20
3. CO NSTANTINO PLE: TH E T R EA T Y OF
1830 AND TH E TURKISH N A V Y 45
4. DAVID PO R TER S CO NSTANTINO PLE 82
7. MISSIONS in
6. EG Y PT 137
7. PALESTIN E AND SYRIA 167
8. PIONEERS OF PERSIA AND
MESOPOTAMIA 203
9. EA ST OF SU EZ 242
to. TH E OFFICIAL AM ERICAN PRESENCE 250
u . PIONEERS IN RETRO SPECT 271
Appendix I. Charles Rhind’s Separate and
Secret Article 279
Appendix II. Americans in Egypt, 1832 to
1842 281
Appendix III. Contemporary Accounts 287
Sources 295
Notes 299
Index 323
x Contents
ILLU STRATIO N S (Following page 18)
John Lloyd Stephens.
From an early engraving.
Henry Eckford.
Harpers Magazine, July 1882, p. 224.
Jonas King.
Isaac Bird, Bible Work in Bible Lands (Philadelphia, 1872),
p. 87.
Pliny Fisk.
Alvan Bond, Memoir of Pliny Fisk (Edinburgh, 1828), frontis­
piece.
Dancing-girls.
William Thomson, The Land and the Book (New York, i860),
n, 345-
John Lowell, Jr.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Harriet Livermore.
Rebecca Davis, Gleanings from Merrimac Valley (Portland,
1881), frontispiece.
Sarah Smith.
Edward W. Hooker, Memoir of Mrs. Sarah L. Smith (Boston,
1840), frontispiece.
William Goodell.
William Goodell, The Old and the New (New York, 1853),
frontispiece.
LyncUs expedition.
William Francis Lynch, Narrative of the United States Expedi­
tion to the River Jordan and the Dead Sea, 9th ed. (Philadelphia,
1856), facing p. 146.