Islam and the Oriental Churches

William A. Shedd was born in Urmia in 1865. His parents were members of the American Mission to the Assyrians since 1859. He joined the Mission in Persia in 1892 and served as its head from 1904 until his death during the Assyrian Exodus in 1918. This book contains the texts of six lectures he delivered to students studying to become missionaries at Princeton during 1902-03 while he was on leave in the United States. He based his lectures on Syriac sources and provides details of the relationship between the Syriac Churches (principally the Assyrian Church of the East and the Syriac Orthodox Church) and Islam. Having been born in Urmia, Shedd was practically a native speaker of modern Assyrian. Given the general antipathy of the American Mission towards the old liturgical language of the Assyrians and its literature, it is surprising to see how well versed he was in this language. Although this book is older, it remains a valuable resource on the subject.