Asahel Grant

Who was Asahel Grant?

Asahel Grant was the first American missionary to Persia. Asahel Grant was born at Marshall, N. Y., studied medicine at Pittsfield, Mass., and practiced in Utica, N. Y. In 1835 he went as a missionary with the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions to Persia, settled at Urmia and worked among the Nestorians there and elsewhere in the Mid East. He died in Mosul, Turkey. He was a daring adventurer throughout the Middle East, but had little success in converting the fierce Nestorians, whom he considered among the "ten lost tribes" of Israel. He wrote The Nestorians and an appeal for Christian doctors to engage in missionary work. Like David Livingstone before him, Grant thrilled western audiences with his adventures and inspired a number of biographies. His success as a physician not only saved his life on several occasions, but opened the way for missionary successors.