Magnus Bäcklund (12 December 1866 – 26 June 1903) was a Swedish missionary to
Chinese Turkestan
Xinjiang, SASM/GNC: ''Xinjang''; zh, c=, p=Xīnjiāng; formerly romanized as Sinkiang (, ), officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC), located in the northwest ...
with the
Mission Covenant Church of Sweden
The Mission Covenant Church of Sweden ( sv, Svenska Missionskyrkan), founded in 1878, was a Swedish evangelical free church. It was the second-largest Protestant denomination in Sweden, after the national church, the Church of Sweden. In 2011, t ...
.
Magnus was born in
Alstakan,
Gunnarskog parish,
Värmland
Värmland () also known as Wermeland, is a '' landskap'' (historical province) in west-central Sweden. It borders Västergötland, Dalsland, Dalarna, Västmanland, and Närke, and is bounded by Norway in the west. Latin name versions are '' ...
. He grew up in a poor family and had to work hard. He found employment at ''Östlund & Almqvist'' in
Arvika. He studied German, French, and Greek during this time.
In 1895 he travelled to Kashgar, but being delayed, he studied
Uyghur in Bukhara, and only arrived in Kashgar June the following year, 1897. In Xinjiang, he worked at the Mission hospital.
On 26 June 1903 he died of typhoid,
[Hartmann, Martin. Chinesisch-Turkestan; geschichte, verwaltung, geistesleben, und wirtschaft. Halle a.S.: Gebauer-Schwetschke druckerei und Verlag m.b.h, 1908., Pg. 107]
/ref> and was buried in Kashgar. He was 37 years old.
Bibliography
*J. Lundahl (editor), På obanade stigar: Tjugofem år i Ost-Turkestan. Stockholm, Svenska Missionsförbundet Förlag, 1917
*E. John Larsson, Magnus Bäcklund: ett Guds sändebud i Centralasien, Kristinehamn: Värmland, 1914.
Notes
External links
Mission and Change in Eastern Turkestan
(English Translation of select chapters of ''Mission och revolution i Centralasien'')
Swedish Protestant missionaries
Protestant missionaries in China
Christian missionaries in Central Asia
1866 births
1903 deaths
Deaths from typhoid fever
Swedish expatriates in China
infectious disease deaths in China
{{Sweden-reli-bio-stub