AN AMERICAN MARTYR IN PERSIA

The story of an “American Lafayette” who gave his life for Persian independence.

Religion scholar Aslan provides a unique biography of Howard Baskerville (1885-1909), a Presbyterian missionary who died leading a charge in the Persian Constitutional Revolution. The author folds Baskerville’s biography into the broader history of that revolution, which was an outcome of the authoritarianism and colonialism that marked Persia in the early 20th century. Aslan begins with a vivid account of Baskerville’s youth and his transition from the Black Hills of South Dakota to Princeton, where he fell under the influence of the university’s president, Woodrow Wilson, who sought to fashion the student body into “an army of righteous young men primed for national service.” The author shows how Wilson’s robust ideals about democracy deeply affected Baskerville, who left college for Persia to begin life as a missionary, settling into a Christian school in Tabriz. Aslan then dives into the story of the Constitutional Revolution, an episode marked by extraordinary foreign involvement, mainly by Russia and Britain. The author’s retelling of the revolution is clear and dramatic. Readers may be surprised to find that Baskerville does not join the revolutionary forces until three-quarters of the way through the book and well into the timeline of the conflict. Nevertheless, he received a command position and, at perhaps the most crucial point of the fighting, led an early-morning raid in which he was mortally wounded. His bravery, but also the timing of his death, led to his becoming a hero to the people of Persia/Iran—until the Islamic Revolution of 1979. Aslan notes that after that point, references to Baskerville basically came to an end in Iran. Largely unknown in the country where he was born and officially forgotten in the country where he died, Baskerville’s legacy emerges intact from the text.

An intriguing read that breathes life into a pivotal moment of Persian/Iranian history.