Anna Nyström-Mässrur (9 December 1849 – December 1913) was a Swedish missionary. She served in the

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region spanning Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is situated between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, comprising parts of Southern Russia, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. The Caucasus Mountains, i ...

and in Persia, and in 1894 moved to the

Xinjiang Xinjiang,; , SASM/GNC romanization, SASM/GNC: Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Sinkiang, officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People' ...

region of China. She married Persian-born doctor

Josef Mässrur Josef Mässrur (born Ghäsim Khan) (also sometimes spelled Josef Messrur) was a Christian Persian missionary to Chinese Turkestan with the Mission Union of Sweden. Mässrur was born in Tehran, Persia, of Persian parents. He studied medicine and ...

Kashgar Kashgar () or Kashi ( zh, c=喀什) is a city in the Tarim Basin region of southern Xinjiang, China. It is one of the westernmost cities of China, located near the country's border with Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. For over 2,000 years, Kashgar ...

in May 1895, Equmeniakrykan Church website, ''Mission and Revolution in Central Asia'', by John Hultvall (1981), page 10
/ref> and they worked together in

Yarkand Yarkant County,, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency also Shache County,, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency also SASM/GNC ro ...

. They made many

Uyghur Uyghur may refer to: * Uyghurs, a Turkic ethnic group living in Eastern and Central Asia (West China) ** Uyghur language, a Turkic language spoken primarily by the Uyghurs *** Old Uyghur language, a different Turkic language spoken in the Uyghur K ...

friends, and Raquette writes that fifteen years later that they were well remembered by many Uyghurs. The couple left in 1900 for a visit to Sweden, arriving there on 2 November of that year. In the autumn of 1901 they left Sweden, and returned to Persia, Josef's homeland, where Anna lived until just before her death, when she returned to Sweden. Her health had been weakened during a

cholera Cholera () is an infection of the small intestine by some Strain (biology), strains of the Bacteria, bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea last ...

epidemic in

Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

in 1892. On arriving back in Sweden in December 1913, she was so weakened by her illness that she was immediately hospitalized, and died soon after.

References

Bibliography

*J. Lundahl (editor), På obanade stigar: Tjugofem år i Ost-Turkestan. Stockholm, Svenska Missionsförbundet Förlag, 1917 Swedish Protestant missionaries Protestant missionaries in China 1849 births 1913 deaths Female Christian missionaries Protestant missionaries in Iran Swedish expatriates in China Swedish expatriates in Iran People from Gnesta Municipality {{Sweden-bio-stub