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Kamil Abdul Messiah
1898 · 157 pages
Kamil Abdul Messiah
by Henry H. Jessup
The Setting of the Crescent and the Rising of the Cross is the story of Kamil Aietany, a young man from a prominent Beirut Muslim family who came to faith through the Arabic New Testament. Written by the veteran Syria missionary Henry H. Jessup, it quotes Kamil's own letters so extensively that much of it reads as testimony in his own voice — the record of a convert who joined the Arabia mission and died young, apparently poisoned.
The changed life
A well-born Beirut Muslim, educated in Turkish and Arabic and bound for government service, he sought out the scriptures for himself, was baptized, and gave the rest of his short life to mission work among the Bedouin and in Arabia with Zwemer and Cantine — dying at his post, buried under Muslim rites.
Summary
Kamil Abdul Messiah — published in 1898 as The Setting of the Crescent and the Rising of the Cross — tells the story of Kamil Aietany, a young Syrian from a prominent Beirut Muslim family. Sent to the Jesuit college to study Greek, he encountered the New Testament, and when his instructors advised him to deceive his father about his motives, his conscience revolted; he sought out the American missionary Henry H. Jessup instead, and read the scriptures for himself day after day in Jessup's study.
He was baptized, taking the name Abdul Messiah — 'servant of the Messiah' — and gave himself to mission work: first among the Bedouin, then with Samuel Zwemer and James Cantine in the pioneering Arabia mission at Basrah. He died there suddenly and young, apparently poisoned, and was buried under Muslim rites before his friends could reach him.
The book is Jessup's memoir of his convert, but it is built on Kamil's own letters, quoted at length throughout — so that much of it is testimony in Kamil's own voice: a partly first-person record, honestly framed, of one of the earliest Syrian converts from Islam of the missionary era.
Who was Henry H. Jessup?
Kamil Aietany (Kamil Abdul Messiah) was born into a prominent Muslim family of Beirut and educated in Turkish and Arabic in the military schools, destined for Ottoman government service before his conversion.
Henry Harris Jessup (1832–1910), the author, spent fifty-three years as a Presbyterian missionary in Syria and knew Kamil personally from the morning the young man first appeared at his study in 1890; he wrote the book, he says, 'as a labor of love.'
Common questions
- Who was Kamil Abdul Messiah?
- Kamil Aietany was a young Syrian from a prominent Beirut Muslim family who converted to Christianity through reading the Arabic New Testament, took the name Abdul Messiah ('servant of the Messiah'), served with the pioneering Arabia mission, and died young — apparently poisoned — in 1892.
- Is this book a first-person testimony?
- Partly, and we say so plainly: it is a biography by the missionary Henry H. Jessup, but it quotes Kamil's own letters so extensively that much of the story is told in Kamil's own words. It functions as a mixed first-person source rather than a pure autobiography.
- Is the text in the public domain?
- Yes. It was published in Philadelphia in 1898 and is confirmed public domain; we link a free source, and our edition adds clean, readable typesetting.
A note on the text. Kamil Abdul Messiahis in the public domain. What you're buying is our edition — the careful typesetting and design. The original text is also available free here.