154:, however, she quickly grew fame as a doctor. In England, she had been considered too weak to work in medicine but Bird saw it as her duty to provide what medical care she could even though she had received no formal training. Bird had medical books sent from England and spent many hours in study to improve her skills. Qualified doctors and nurses after observing Bird's work commended her medical abilities. One doctor commented, âIf she had made medicine her profession, she would have been in the front rank of women doctors. She worked with me . . . and I had the very greatest admiration for her work as a âdoctor.ââ Medical work provided a strategic base for
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194:âauthorities of Islamic lawâwho often forbade their people from going to Bird for treatment. Bird often wrote of âspiesâ sent by the mullahs who would infiltrate her Bible studies and report back to their superiors or who would sit outside her dispensary and warn away patients. At one point, the wife of a mullah even attempted to poison Bird over tea.
189:
Throughout her missionary work, Bird experienced inconsistent opposition from Muslim authorities. Her primary concern in Iran was to evangelize the
Persians and she included this in her medical work by praying with her patients, speaking to them about the Christian faith, and conducting Bible studies
99:
She worked closely with her father
Charles at the Anglican Castle Eden Rectory until his death in 1886. Later she "refused an offer of marriage from one for whom she had the greatest affection, as she had already offered to go abroad and was convinced that her life-work lay in some foreign land, then
197:
Bird's ministry and work remained busy in spite of persecution, however. To a large degree many ignored the prohibitions set out by the mullahs. Since women were forbidden and unwilling to visit a foreign male doctor and the medical needs were so great, many continued to visit Bird when they felt
198:
that the mullah's spies were not watching. Bird writes of receiving one hundred and two patients, men and women, in one morning alone. Further, the bans on seeing Bird actually advertised her dispensaries, and, when the mullahs withdrew their bans, many more patients flocked to see her.
121:
The Church
Mission Society had established itself in Iran in 1869 but the only women present at that time were married. While married women still provided valuable ministry, in the nineteenth century it increasingly became recognized that single women could also provide unique ministry
145:
that for the first several months of her stay in Iran she devoted herself to learning the
Persian and Arabic languages. After this, she attempted to build relationships with Persian women but was for the most part rejected by the community. Bird faced many similar female hardships as
242:, which outlines some of the CMS missionary work among Iranian women and children, Bird's observations of the Iranian culture, and some personal accounts of medical work and converts. She wrote it in order to raise awareness in England of âthe spiritual needs of Persian women.â
95:
Mary Bird was the fifth child of a family of six. She was so small when she was born that she was nicknamed "Tiny" by her siblings. When she was five years old, a missionary guest of her father's told her stories of Africa, inspiring her to pledge her life to
Christian missions.
226:, England, to take her sister's place. During her eight-year stay there, Bird effectively advocated missions. Bird moved back to Iran in 1911 after her mother's death and resumed her work. After another four years of missionary service, Mary Bird died on August 16, 1914, from
103:
In 1891, Bird was accepted by the CMS to travel to Iran and work there as a missionary pioneering women's ministry among the
Persians. Before she left, Bird prepared by studying for a few months at "The Willows", a training college for women workers in
30:
Although she had received no official medical training, Bird was the first female medical missionary to be employed by the CMS. Born in a weakened state, Bird died in 1914 at the age of fifty-five leaving behind a vibrant medical ministry in Iran.
222:, inspiring many. She returned to Persia in 1899 and spent five years continuing her medical and teaching ministries in Yezd and Kerman. When her younger sister married in 1904 and could no longer care for their ailing mother, Bird travelled to
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advantagesâsuch as greater time to be able to devote to working with and evangelizing indigenous women. CMS ministry to specifically women in Iran did not develop in full until Bird was contacted to pursue this area of missions.
181:. In the last three and a half years of Birdâs time in Iran, ten doctors and six nurses had taken over her work in Isfahan, Yezd, and Kerman. Bird appreciated this because it gave her greater time for teaching and evangelizing.
205:
broke out again in 1897 but this time against converts as well as the CMS missionaries. Despite this, the CMS medical ministry grewâin part because the
Iranians valued the medical and educational services missionaries offered.
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Bird arrived in Iran with âMiss Stubbsâ who was to head up a school for girls. When Bird arrived in 1891, there were only four other CMS missionaries in Iran. In 1894 missionary
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and meetings. Birdâs foreign religious evangelization combined with her popularity created tension between the CMS and the local Muslim
437:
Three Brave Women: Stories of heroism in heathen lands of Mary
Slessor of Calabar, Mrs. Burleigh of Cape Horn, and Mary Bird of Persia
238:
Besides her constant written communication with her family, friends, and the CMS headquarters in
England, Bird wrote a book in 1899,
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with the CMS in 1879. By the time Bird arrived in 1891, however, the mission had been without a medical missionary for some time.
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Bird most often worked alone but took every opportunity to work with foreign doctors. In 1897 Dr.
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446:. Vol 4. CCSRG monograph series. Centre for Comparative Studies in Religion and Gender, 2000.
63:(1788â1853)âwas the head of the Revenue Department of the North West Provinces of India, and
375:. "CMS Women Missionaries in Iran, 1891-1934: Attitudes Towards Islam and Muslim Women." In
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67:âthe intrepid woman traveller, writer, and explorerâwas the cousin of Mary Bird's father.
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553:
535:
381:. Edited by Sarah Ansari and Vanessa Martin, p. 27-50. London: Curzon Press, 2002.
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Mary Bird left her work in Julfa and
Isfahan in 1897, traveling back to England on a
369:. Edited by Gerald H. Anderson, p. 65. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 1998.
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456:
72:
24:
642:
606:
505:
444:
Religious Feminism in an Age of Empire: CMS women missionaries in Iran, 1869-1934
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unknown to her, and that a life of comparative ease in England was not for her".
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430:
Neither East nor West: One Womanâs Journey through the Islamic Republic of Iran
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23:(CMS) missionary who pioneered Christian ministry to Iranian women and women's
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had taken over medical work from Dr. E. F. Hoernle who had begun working in
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took over Birdâs work in Isfahan leaving Bird free to open dispensaries in
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301:, London: Church Missionary Society, Salisbury Square, E.C. 1916, p. 113.
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340:, London: Church Missionary Society, Salisbury Square, E.C. 1899, p. v.
327:, London: Church Missionary Society, Salisbury Square, E.C. 1916, p. 74.
314:, London: Church Missionary Society, Salisbury Square, E.C. 1899, p. 67.
288:, London: Church Missionary Society, Salisbury Square, E.C. 1916, p. 59.
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275:, London: Church Missionary Society, Salisbury Square, E.C. 1916, p. 5.
262:, London: Church Missionary Society, Salisbury Square, E.C. 1916, p. 4.
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150:. When she used her limited first aid skills to cure a small boy of
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London: Church Missionary Society, Salisbury Square, E.C., 1916.
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London: Church Missionary Society, Salisbury Square, E.C., 1899.
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178:
51:. Mary Bird's fatherâCharles Robinson Bird (1819â1886)âwas the
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463:. London: Eagle Books No. 42, Edinburgh House Press, 1942.
394:
Rethinking Global Sisterhood: Western Feminism and Iran
39:
Mary Bird was born into a family filled with Christian
418:
Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library Publishers, 1977.
398:
Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2007.
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and spoke of her work in Iran throughout England and
388:
Adam Matthew Publications (accessed March 3, 2011).
451:Riding to Danger: The story of Mary Bird of Persia
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363:Duffy, Joan R. "Bird, Mary Rebecca Stewart." In
482:
366:Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions
749:Category:Christianity in the Sasanian Empire
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475:
47:, politicians, travellers, explorers, and
284:Rev. H. Carless quoted in Clara C. Rice,
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414:Christian Mission to Muslims: the record
729:Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Urmia
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470:
87:, are also remotely related to Bird.
386:"Church Missionary Society Archive,"
845:Church Mission Society missionaries
461:She Went Alone: Mary Bird of Persia
378:Women, Religion and Culture in Iran
323:Mary Bird quoted in Clara C. Rice,
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724:Christianity in the Safavid Empire
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856:
719:List of Assyrian churches in Iran
714:List of Armenian churches in Iran
442:Francis-Dehqani, Gulnar Eleanor.
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739:Bible translations into Persian
432:. New York: Pocket Books, 2001.
373:Francis-Dehqani, Gulnar Eleanor
825:Christian medical missionaries
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338:Persian Women and Their Creed
312:Persian Women and Their Creed
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240:Persian Women and Their Creed
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143:Persian Women and Their Creed
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835:English expatriates in Iran
602:Assyrian Pentecostal Church
597:Assyrian Evangelical Church
590:Armenian Brotherhood Church
585:Armenian Evangelical Church
562:Assyrian Church of the East
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453:. The Highway Press, 1949.
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141:Bird relates in her book
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17:Mary Rebecca Stewart Bird
744:Persian Bible Dictionary
607:Anglican Diocese of Iran
524:Chaldean Catholic Church
519:Armenian Catholic Church
158:and Bird opened a small
77:Archbishop of Canterbury
840:People from Castle Eden
769:Christianity portal
514:Catholic Church in Iran
55:of the English village
683:William McElwee Miller
668:Ralph Cooper Hutchison
411:Vander Werff, Lyle L.
81:Charles Richard Sumner
21:Church Mission Society
633:Joseph Gallup Cochran
498:Christianity in Iran
85:Bishop of Winchester
61:Robert Merttins Bird
623:Mary Bruins Allison
404:Mary Bird in Persia
325:Mary Bird in Persia
299:Mary Bird in Persia
286:Mary Bird in Persia
273:Mary Bird in Persia
260:Mary Bird in Persia
69:William Wilberforce
554:Church of the East
536:Oriental Orthodoxy
439:. Partridge, 1926.
435:Chappell, Jennie.
428:Bird, Christiane.
79:, and his brother
59:, her grandfatherâ
19:(1859â1914) was a
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73:John Bird Sumner
25:medical missions
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391:Naghibi, Nima.
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83:(1790â1874),
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75:(1780â1862),
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65:Isabella Bird
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27:in the CMS.
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810:1914 deaths
805:1859 births
210:Final Years
203:persecution
201:Widespread
108:, England.
57:Castle Eden
799:Categories
246:References
185:Opposition
160:dispensary
156:evangelism
91:Early life
734:New Julfa
693:Eli Smith
628:Mary Bird
224:Liverpool
166:in 1894.
707:See also
216:furlough
348:Sources
234:Writing
192:mullahs
164:Isfahan
152:malaria
117:The CMS
41:bishops
220:Canada
179:Kerman
112:Career
53:rector
45:clergy
35:Family
136:Julfa
175:Yezd
162:in
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43:,
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