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MLA: Parshall, Ardis E. "A Photograph: The Book of Mormon Comes to Life in Syria, 1925." Keepapitchin.org, 09 Sep 2013, https://keepapitchinin.org/2013/09/09/a-photograph-the-book-of-mormon-comes-to-life-in-syria-1925/.

APA: Parshall, A. (2013, Sep 09). A Photograph: The Book of Mormon Comes to Life in Syria, 1925. Keepapitchinin.org. https://keepapitchinin.org/2013/09/09/a-photograph-the-book-of-mormon-comes-to-life-in-syria-1925/

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19 thoughts on “A Photograph: The Book of Mormon Comes to Life in Syria, 1925”

  1. What a melange of cultures! Latter-day Middle East Saints . . . dressed as the New World ancestors of ancient Middle Eastern figures. [head explodes]

    I should add that their costuming has quite a sense of authenticity (whatever that word means in this context). Oh, and love the curlicued mustaches! Great find.

  3. I am intrigued by the mustaches. Most of the Book of Mormon individuals portrayed in paintings don’t have facial hair, which on the other hand seems pretty characteristic of middle eastern cultures in general. Obvious exceptions, courtesy of Arnold Friberg, are Lehi, Abinadi, King Noah and his crew of yes-men. Nehpi? Nope. Ammon and Moroni? Not them either. It would be fun to go in and photoshop a bunch of those paintings and add at least mustaches like we see here.

  4. Great photograph, Ardis. Any accompanying text or anything like it? (YMMIA? No women? Can’t tell about the person seated to the left of the white-bearded gentleman.)

  5. I have no further information right now — I am going through a handwritten source that might report this, but it is slow going.

  6. I think some guy decided to grow our his beard and wax it into a handle-bar mustache,then all the other guys thought it looked cool and decided to grow theirs the same way.Probably not the real answer.

  7. Oh, that is outstanding!

    I have portrayed Nephi several times for Primary classes. They always seem to ask me; I guess I’m the most swarthy guy in the ward…

  9. This is a wonderful photograph, for a lot of reasons. One thing that strikes me about it, and the rest of the stuff from Turkey/Syria/the Ottoman Empire, is how “foreign” it all seems. We’re accustomed, at least these days, to seeing pictures of Latter-day Saints who are East Asian or African or Hispanic or Tongan or Samoan or Maori, along with the western and northern Europeans who make up the majority of church members in the United States these days. But Arabs and Turks and Armenians? There just aren’t very many in the church still, and the political situation in Arab and other majority Muslim lands suggests that it may be a long time before there are. So these photographs are like a view into a world that has vanished, which we may not see ever again, and which has left very little mark on the church today.

  12. Like Grant said, classic! Great photo.

    Perhaps you’ve already mentioned, but did these Saints convert from other Christian faiths, with the exception of Saim Effendi?

  13. Yes, as Armenians, they had been born into the Armenian Church, a many-centuries-old apostolic orthodox church. I don’t know the original faith of the few German converts, but none of them would have been in Aleppo.

  14. I served my mission in Madrid, Spain, and there is a solid core of Armenian members there–all of the immigrants to Spain who joined the Church either there or in Germany (their first stop between Armenia and Spain). I did not know much about Armenia before my mission but I fell in love with the Armenian members and their faith, love, and generosity (and food!)

  15. It must be a woman to the left of the white bearded man because that would have been Sarai. Have any of you read the history of the mission president Wilford Booth who saved the Armenian saints in Aleppo from the Turks by getting them out of the country. He died there and is buried in a decrepit grave in a Greek Orthodox cemetery in Aleppo.

  16. The two Mormon graves in the Aleppo cemetery (President Joseph Wilford Booth, and Elder Emil Huber) are cared for periodically by Mormon visitors. This 2009 blogpost by such a visitor has color photographs of the graves — it’s safe to say that as of four years ago, they were well tended.

  17. James Goldberg has come up with identifications for many of those pictured:

    top row (left to right): Joseph Bezjian, unknown, Hagop Asaian, Abraham Hindoian, Yacob Berberian, unknown
    front row (left to right): unknown, Garabad Junguzian, Khanum Policajian (yes, a woman), unknown, Joseph Ouzounian, unknown

  18. I read the following on Church History Daily and immediately thought of this photograph and wondered if they are the same occurance:

    In 1925, youth in the Aleppo Syria Branch performed in a play called The Death of a Drunkard and Five Weddings in One Night, based on the events in 1 Nephi. Several hundred friends and neighbors attended.
    James Goldberg, “The Armenian Exodus,” history.lds.org

    Quite the catchy title for a play about the Book of Mormon.

  19. Yep, the very same event, mahana. It’s fun that you remembered this photo when you read that!

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