Maria Theresa Asmar (1804–c. 1870) was a Chaldean author, foremost known for her book ''Memoirs of a Babylonian Princess'', which consists of two volumes and 720 pages. This book was composed some time in the early nineteenth–century, describing her travels through
Assyria
Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , romanized: ''māt Aššur''; syc, ܐܬܘܪ, ʾāthor) was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization which existed as a city-state at times controlling regional territories in the indigenous lands of the A ...
,
Chaldea
Chaldea () was a small country that existed between the late 10th or early 9th and mid-6th centuries BCE, after which the country and its people were absorbed and assimilated into the indigenous population of Babylonia. Semitic-speaking, it was ...
,
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the F ...
,
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
,
Syria
Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
,
Lebanon
Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...
, and
Palestine
__NOTOC__
Palestine may refer to:
* State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia
* Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia
* Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East ...
and the
harem
Harem (Persian: حرمسرا ''haramsarā'', ar, حَرِيمٌ ''ḥarīm'', "a sacred inviolable place; harem; female members of the family") refers to domestic spaces that are reserved for the women of the house in a Muslim family. A hare ...
system used in Turkey. The book was finally translated into English in 1844. Maria Theresa Asmar died in France before the
Franco-Prussian War, and was known as "Babylon's Princess" in Europe.
Life
In describing her origins, Asmar notes: ''"I am descended from a family in the East, who derive their origin from the
Brahmins
Brahmin (; sa, ब्राह्मण, brāhmaṇa) is a varna as well as a caste within Hindu society. The Brahmins are designated as the priestly class as they serve as priests (purohit, pandit, or pujari) and religious teachers (guru o ...
, and have long professed the Christian religion in the church of
Travancore
The Kingdom of Travancore ( /ˈtrævənkɔːr/), also known as the Kingdom of Thiruvithamkoor, was an Indian kingdom from c. 1729 until 1949. It was ruled by the Travancore Royal Family from Padmanabhapuram, and later Thiruvananthapuram. At ...
; a church which, according to history, was originally planted by
Saint Thomas, the apostle of our Lord in the
Indies
The East Indies (or simply the Indies), is a term used in historical narratives of the Age of Discovery. The Indies refers to various lands in East (disambiguation)#Geography, the East or the Eastern hemisphere, particularly the islands and ...
. My ancestors, some centuries ago, according to the tradition of our family, left Travancore for Persia, and finally migrated to
Bagdad."'' She was an adherent of the
Chaldean Catholic Church
, native_name_lang = syc
, image = Assyrian Church.png
, imagewidth = 200px
, alt =
, caption = Cathedral of Our Lady of Sorrows Baghdad, Iraq
, abbreviation =
, type ...
.
It is worth noting that, Asmar was a descendant of
Mar Joseph IV Lazar Hindi "the Indian" of
Diyarbakir, who led the Chaldean Catholic Church between 1759–1796. Asmar also claimed descent from
Mar Joseph V Augustine Hindi "the Indian" (?–1827) of Diyarbakir, who was a successor of Mar Joseph IV. Indeed, the Asmar family's influence, particularly within clerical circles of the Chaldean Catholic Church are notable. Asmar also caimed Mar Basilius Asmar, the Archbishop of Diyarbakir as her uncle. According to the family records of the district of
Tel-Keppe, the Asmar family settled in the district of Nineveh some time in the nineteenth–century. The family originally hailed from Diyarbakir in south-east Turkey.
Facing tremendous obstacles, Asmar, set up a school for women in
Baghdad
Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...
and welcomed with open arms western Christian
missionaries
A missionary is a member of a religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Mi ...
, who then bribed the
Turkish government
The Government of Turkey ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Hükûmeti) is the national government of Turkey. It is governed as a unitary state under a presidential representative democracy and a constitutional republic within a pluriform multi-party ...
to give them the licence for the school and forbid Maria to carry on with her project. Left frustrated and angry to have been treated this way by fellow Christians, she sought
sanctuary
A sanctuary, in its original meaning, is a sacred place, such as a shrine. By the use of such places as a haven, by extension the term has come to be used for any place of safety. This secondary use can be categorized into human sanctuary, a saf ...
with the Arab
Bedouin
The Bedouin, Beduin, or Bedu (; , singular ) are nomadic Arab tribes who have historically inhabited the desert regions in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, the Levant, and Mesopotamia. The Bedouin originated in the Syrian Desert and A ...
s. She set about recording their daily lives, everything from the weddings and celebrations to their assaults on other tribes. She explains in great detail Bedouin life.
In her book, she describes how her family fell to a plague and martyrdom because of their Christian faith. She eventually took refuge with
Emir Beschir, the governor of Lebanon, at the
Beiteddine Palace
Beiteddine Palace ( ar, قصر بيت الدين) is a 19th-century palace in Beiteddine, Lebanon. It hosts the annual Beiteddine Festival and the Beiteddine Palace Museum.
History
Emir Bashir II of the Shihab dynasty, who later became ...
.
[Ibid. 43] From there she moved on to Europe where she was repeatedly robbed and fell into poverty. Her old friend from Lebanon, too, fell into poverty when he had been dethroned, thus leaving Maria without anything to sustain herself financially. After staying twelve years in Europe - she wrote her book, making an account of the events that led up to that point.
Bibliography
*''Memories of Maria Theresa Asmar An Iraqi Woman's Journey into Victorian London'' (2009), Emily Porter PhD (editor). Fadaat House for Publishing, Distributing and Printing, Amman, Jordan.
References
External links
Digitized copy of ''Memoirs of a Babylonian Princess''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Asmar, Maria Theresa
1804 births
1860s deaths
Iraqi women writers
Iraqi writers
Iraqi Christians
19th-century writers in Ottoman Iraq
Iraqi memoirists
French people of Iraqi descent
19th-century memoirists
19th-century women writers from the Ottoman Empire
19th-century educators
Iraqi Chaldeans