Howard Baskerville
1907 with, from top: The Salvation Regiment, made up of Baskerville’s
students; Memorial School in Tabriz (later known as Parvin High
School), where Baskerville was a teacher; Sattar Khan, leader of
the constitutionalist military force; Sattar Khan with fighters
in Tabriz
(Photos courtesy
Dr. Thomas M. Ricks, independent scholar; Photo illustration by
Steven Veach)
Baskerville’s
simple grave in an Armenian cemetery in Tabriz, Iran.
An
American hero in Iran
One hundred years ago, Howard Baskerville 1907 left Princeton
and fought for liberty in Persia
By Mark F. Bernstein ’83
On a windswept plateau near the foothills of the Sahand Mountains in
northern Iran stands the grave of a martyr.
Set in a small walled courtyard amid apricot and almond trees, the grave
is a plain stone sarcophagus carved with the martyr’s name —
Howard Baskerville, a member of Princeton’s Class of 1907 —
and the dates of his birth (April 13, 1885) and death (April 20, 1909).
A hundred years ago, the site, in the city of Tabriz, was a cemetery and
hospital grounds for Presbyterian missionaries. Whoever once carefully
tended to Howard Baskerville’s grave, and his alone, with fresh
flowers, no longer does so. The Armenian man who lives in the adjoining
house built the wall in part to discourage pilgrims, but Tabrizis still
can direct a visitor to the site.
That it is the grave of an American and a Princetonian makes the place
remarkable. That it is the grave of a martyr to constitutional liberty,
and that it is still honored in the heart of a nation whose government
is hostile to the United States and many of its values, makes it more
remarkable still.
Baskerville has been likened to Lafayette, a foreigner who helped another
people defend their freedom, but the comparison is inapt. He was neither
a professional soldier like Lafayette; nor a romantic like Lord Byron,
who took up the cause of Greek independence; nor even a mercenary like
another Princetonian, Johnny Poe 1895, who shipped himself off to far
corners of the globe in search of glory. Baskerville, a teacher who planned
to become a minister, found his way to what was then called Persia as
a teacher, and ended up dying for a cause that he, as an American, felt
morally bound to support.
A good dose of Scotch Presbyterianism ran through the Baskerville family;
Howard was the son and grandson of clergymen and one of five brothers,
four of whom pursued the ministry. (His younger brother, Robert, graduated
in the Class of 1912.) Howard was born in North Platte, Neb., and the
family moved to the Black Hills of South Dakota before he matriculated
at Princeton. Baskerville was a sober, serious-minded young man who graduated
cum laude and liked to box and ride horses for exercise. Though
a religion major, he took two courses taught by Woodrow Wilson 1879, then
Princeton’s president: “Jurisprudence” and “Constitutional
Government,” the latter of which would have as great an influence
on his future as his religious studies.
Shortly before his graduation, Baskerville wrote to the Presbyterian
Board of Foreign Missions explaining that though he intended eventually
to continue his studies at the Princeton Theological Seminary, he wanted
to gain experience in a foreign language and culture first. He eventually
accepted a teaching position in Tabriz for two years.
Tucked in the northwest corner of Persia (the country’s name was
officially changed to Iran in 1935) not far from the border with Azerbaijan
and Armenia, Tabriz is an ancient city; some have suggested that it is
located on the site of the Garden of Eden. At the beginning of the 20th
century, it remained distant from the Persian empire that was centered
in Tehran not only geographically and historically, but linguistically.
Most Tabrizis spoke Azeri rather than Persian.
Baskerville arrived in Tabriz in the fall of 1907 to teach science and
English at the American Memorial School, which was run by the Presbyterian
mission. There were 80 Muslims enrolled, as well as 135 Christian Armenians
and Assyrians. “It is curious,” the principal, Samuel G. Wilson,
observed in an annual report, “to call a roll in which more than
half have the title of khan [meaning ‘leader of a tribe’],
followed by their father’s title, such as ‘The Glory of the
Court’ [or] ‘The Pride of the Army.’” Wilson added,
“Besides leaders of the people, we are training teachers for their
new schools.”
Baskerville moved in with Wilson, his wife, Annie, and their teenage
daughter, and attended family prayers with them each morning. Annie Wilson
wrote later that they would read aloud to each other on Friday evenings
— The Virginian, The Old Curiosity Shop, Vanity Fair, and
Bleak House among their selections, as well as Jungle Folk
of Africa and a history of the Reformation.
W.A. Shedd, one of Baskerville’s colleagues, recalled in a letter
after Baskerville’s death, “As a teacher he was successful,
and in his earnest, sincere, and manly character gained the respect of
everyone.” In a society strictly segregated by gender, Baskerville
had both male and female students, and taught the girls how to ride and
play tennis in addition to their geometry lessons. Baskerville introduced
his students to some of the Western canon, drilling his English class
for a production of The Merchant of Venice and delivering a Thanksgiving
sermon that closed with the patriotic lines from Sir Walter Scott: “Breathes
there a man with soul so dead / Who never to himself hath said, / ‘This
is my home, my native land!’”
Unlike many of the foreign teachers, Baskerville took
a personal interest in his students, notwithstanding his inability to
speak much Persian or Azeri. He would visit them at home or invite the
boys to meet him in his room for tea and what is described as a “religious
conversation.”
“He was extremely popular and many wanted to attend his class
in history,” recalled S.R. Shafagh, one of Baskerville’s students,
in a tribute published on the 50th anniversary of his death. “Soon
the older students asked Dr. Wilson to institute a class on international
law, which he did and left it in the care of Baskerville.”
As Baskerville grew closer to his students, he began to take a greater
interest in their culture and affairs. Shafagh recalled Baskerville and
Wilson coming to his house on Nou Ruz, the Persian new year.
Although Wilson spoke fluent Azeri, Baskerville sat uneasily through the
visit. As he rose to leave, he managed to get out: “I congratulate
you all on your New Year’s Day,” which he had memorized.
Persian politics throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries fell under
the shadow of the rivalry between Great Britain and Russia for hegemony
in central Asia, which Rudyard Kipling called the “great game.”
Forced to turn to the European powers for loans, Persian leaders over
the years began to give much of the country’s wealth to outsiders.
In 1907, Britain and Russia agreed to divide Persia into spheres of influence,
with Britain taking the southern provinces and Russia the northern ones,
including Tabriz. The so-called Treaty of St. Petersburg was concluded
without bothering to consult the Persians.
The Persian constitutional revolution had begun in 1906 when protesters
forced the reigning shah, Muzaffar al-Din Shah, heir to a dynasty that
had ruled Persia since 1779, to appoint an elected assembly called the
majlis, or parliament. The majlis wrote a constitution,
the first in Central Asia or the Middle East, which Muzaffar al-Din Shah
signed in December. The new constitution promised equality before the
law and personal rights and freedoms, required the shah to obtain legislative
approval before seeking foreign loans or making treaties, and promised
universal public education and freedom of the press.
Unfortunately, Muzaffar al-Din Shah died on New Year’s Day, 1907,
just weeks after signing the constitution, and was succeeded by his autocratic
son, Muhammad Ali Shah, who immediately began pushing back against the
country’s new freedoms. In June 1908, Muhammad Ali Shah launched
a successful coup, closed the assembly, and executed many supporters of
the constitution.
Opposition to Muhammad Ali Shah centered around Tabriz, which, because
of its location near Turkey and Russia, had greater exposure to foreign
trade and ideas. The leading military opponent was Sattar Khan, who at
one point defied orders to put up white flags of surrender to approaching
royalist forces, and instead rode along the city limits tearing down white
flags that had been planted by others. When Tabriz refused to capitulate,
Muhammad Ali Shah laid siege, his royalist army supplemented by Russian-trained
Persian cossacks. The royalists slowly gained control of all roads leading
into and out of the city, cutting off supplies, and waited to starve Tabriz
into capitulation.
Although Baskerville supported the constitutionalist cause from the
time of his arrival — taking time after classes, for example, to
take food to soldiers on the front lines — his conversion as a full-fledged
ally developed over a period of months. He criticized the Anglo-Russian
treaty to his students and was especially scornful of Sir Edward Grey,
the British foreign secretary, for having abandoned liberal ideals. The
example of his Persian students and friends had great influence. According
to one of his school colleagues, Baskerville became particularly close
with one student, Mirza Husayn Sharif-zada, who became one of the most
influential constitutionalist leaders in Tabriz, and was deeply affected
when Sharif-zada was assassinated in 1908.
By March 1909, Baskerville asked to organize 150 students to help Sattar
Khan in the defense of Tabriz. At his class’s last meeting, Baskerville
spoke to his students about their duty to serve their country and told
stories of the American revolution. “He repeatedly said,”
Shafagh recalled in 1959, that “he could not watch calmly from a
classroom window the starving inhabitants of the city who were fighting
for their right.” Baskerville himself explained his motives a few
weeks later, at a banquet given by some Armenian soldiers in the constitutionalist
movement. “I hate war,” he began, but he went on to say that
war could be justified in furtherance of a greater good, in this case
the protection of the city and the cause of constitutional liberty. He
was ready to die for these causes, Baskerville continued. When he finished
speaking, the Armenians cheered, “Long live Baskerville!”
while Baskerville sang for them a verse of “My Country ’Tis
of Thee.”
This was not something a visiting American or a missionary was supposed
to be doing, and a great deal of pressure was put on Baskerville to change
his mind. One day, Baskerville and his men were drilling when William
F. Doty, the American consul in Tabriz, arrived at the parade grounds.
Shafagh later said that Doty immediately made it clear he had come to
see Baskerville. “I am compelled to remind you that you as an American
citizen have no right to interfere with the internal politics of this
country,” he informed Baskerville. “You are here to act as
a teacher and not as a revolutionary.”
According to Shafagh, Baskerville replied, “I cannot remain and
watch indifferently the sufferings of a people fighting for their right.
I am an American citizen and am proud of it, but I am also a human being
and cannot help feeling deep sympathy with the people of this city.”
When Doty demanded that Baskerville turn in his passport, Baskerville
refused. Doty was furious to learn that Baskerville had been making use
of the library at the American consulate, doing research in the Encyclopaedia
Britannica on how to make grenades.
Baskerville’s conversion also drew opposition from the evangelical
Presbyterian missionaries, who objected both to his participation in a
violent movement and to his taking sides in a political struggle, which
might jeopardize their ability to send other missionaries to the region.
Baskerville resigned from the mission, which in turn disavowed his activities.
Nevertheless, Annie Wilson recalled that when Baskerville attended worship
services, as he always did, on the Sunday after his decision, he “had
quite an ovation afterward, the men pressing around to shake his hands.”
When he visited the Wilsons that afternoon, Annie begged him to be careful,
saying, “You know you are not your own.” Baskerville replied,
“No, I am Persia’s.”
By April of 1909, after 10 months of siege, the city of Tabriz had all
but exhausted its food and medical supplies and, surrounded by royalist
forces, had no way to get more. Many were reduced to eating grass. In
mid-April, a decision was made to send a small force to break through
the siege lines and collect food from nearby villages. Baskerville volunteered
for the assignment.
On April 15, he and a British journalist, D.C. Moore, set out on a sortie
only to have the mission fail, reported Annie Wilson, because Sattar Khan
failed to provide the cannon he had promised. By April 19, Tabriz was
down to its last day’s supply of wheat. Anticipating that the aborted
breakout a few days earlier had alerted the royalists, Baskerville urged
Sattar Khan to ask the Europeans for help in obtaining the best terms
of surrender he could get from the shah. But Sattar Khan seems to have
determined to attempt another breakout, and Baskerville, despite misgivings
about the plan’s chances of success, agreed to try again.
At first light on April 20, Baskerville and two other sorties set out
to scout for breaks in the city walls. Shafagh, who was with Baskerville,
recalled the scene vividly. “The dawn was just breaking,”
he wrote, “and a mild breeze of the spring was beginning to blow.”
But the ranks may not have been as eager to risk death as their leaders
were. “I heard at first that when he was near the enemy his 150
men dwindled to five, but I have seen two of the men who were there, and
they put it at nine or ten. None of the rest would come on,” reported
Moore, who had been in another sortie that morning.
As Baskerville led his reduced force through the wall, a royalist sniper
fired at him. Baskerville returned the shot and, thinking that the sniper
had fled, waved his men forward. When Baskerville turned his back, the
sniper reappeared and shot him twice, once through the heart, the bullet
completely piercing his body. Although some accounts say that Baskerville
died a few hours later in his students’ arms, Annie Wilson recorded
that the Presbyterian doctor who examined him concluded that Baskerville
died instantly.
Baskerville’s body was carried back to the Wilsons’ house,
where it was washed and dressed in a black suit for burial, a white carnation
placed in his buttonhole. “[W]hen all the sad service was done,”
Annie Wilson wrote, “he looked beautiful and noble, his firm mouth
set in a look of resolution and his whole face calm in repose. I printed
a kiss on his forehead for his mother’s sake.” A merchant
who brought a cloth to drape Baskerville’s coffin told Annie Wilson,
“We know he died for us.”
Five days after the funeral, Baskerville’s parents, in Spicer,
Minn., received a telegram:
Persia much regrets honorable loss of your dear son in the cause
of liberty, and we give our parole that future Persia will always revere
his name in her history like Lafayette and will respect his venerable
tomb.
Sattar Khan and Jamani Ayoleti
Sattar Khan later sent along Baskerville’s rifle, which he wrapped
in a Persian flag.
Although Baskerville’s sortie failed, the cause for which he died
did not. In part because of the publicity that followed Baskerville’s
death, the British and Russian delegations pressured Muhammad Ali Shah
to allow their representatives into Tabriz, ostensibly to remove all European
citizens there. That broke the siege, and constitutionalist forces were
able to make gains elsewhere, finally deposing the shah. Ultimately, however,
constitutional democracy could not be sustained, and Reza Shah Pahlavi
took power in 1925. His son was deposed by the Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979.
Baskerville’s sacrifice at 24 became a national legend and his
funeral cause for a massive outpouring of mourning. Thousands turned out
in the streets of Tabriz to watch his coffin pass. During services at
the Presbyterian church, Wilson delivered the eulogy while some of Baskerville’s
former students sang the old hymn, “There Is A Happy Land,”
in Azeri. Sixteen floral wreaths covered the coffin. A band playing the
Persian funeral march led the caisson to the cemetery, where S.H. Taqizadah,
a member of the Persian parliament, spoke briefly. “Young America,”
he said, “in the person of young Baskerville, gave this sacrifice
for the young constitution of Iran.” When the Persian parliament
finally reconvened that November, one of its first acts was a speech of
tribute to Baskerville.
He remained, and remains, in the Iranian memory. In 1950, a memorial
tablet (which apparently has been removed) was placed on Baskerville’s
grave, containing part of a verse by Aref Qazvini, the national poet of
Iran, which read:
Oh, thou, the revered defender of the freedom of men,
Brave leader and supporter of justice and equity,
Thou has given thy life for the felicity of Iran,
O, may thy name be eternal, may thy soul be blessed!
Even as American relations with Iran reached their lowest point, Baskerville
remained an exception to general Iranian enmity. In December of 1979,
during the hostage crisis, Dr. Thomas M. Ricks, then a professor of Middle
East and Iranian history at Georgetown University and now an independent
scholar who is working on a book about Baskerville, led a group of American
clergymen to Tehran to meet with Ayatollah Khomeini. On its last night
in Iran, the group visited a mosque. When the group was introduced, a
middle-aged Iranian got up and asked, in clear English, “Where are
the American Baskervilles of today?”
Several schools in Tabriz and elsewhere in Iran reportedly are still
named for Baskerville. In Tabriz’s Constitution House, which stands
on the site of what was once Sattar Khan’s house, a bronze bust
of Baskerville was erected in 2003. Ricks says that there was some debate
at the time over honoring an American, but the bust and memories of the
young teacher remain. At the bottom of the bust is an inscription in Persian:
“Howard C. Baskerville. He was a patriot — history maker.”