John Avetaranian
| Johannes Avetaranian | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
June 30, 1861 Erzurum, Ottoman Empire |
| Died | December 11, 1919 (aged 58) Wiesbaden, Weimar Republic (Germany) |
Johannes Avetaranian (Erzurum, Ottoman Empire, June 30, 1861 – Wiesbaden, Weimar Republic, nowadays Germany on December 11, 1919), born Muhammad Shukri (Turkish: Mehmet Şükri), was, according to his autobiography, a Turkish descendent of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Avetaranian was originally a mullah in Turkey who converted from Islam to Christianity, and later became a missionary for the Swedish Mission Covenant Church in Southern Xinjiang (1892–1938). He translated the New Testament into the Uyghur language. He preached Christianity in Xinjiang and at a Swedish Protestant mission. He died in 1919, aged 58, in Wiesbaden, Weimar Republic.
Avetaranian was born in Erzurum, in 1861, to a Muslim family. His mother was deaf, blind, and mute, and died when Avetaranian was only two years old. His father was a dervish.
He took the Armenian name of Johannes (John) Avetaranian (Avetaran means 'Gospel') and was baptised in Tiflis, Russia (modern-day Tbilisi, Georgia) on 28 February 1885.
He was the first person from the Mission Union of Sweden to stay in Kashgar (in 1892).
He left Kashgar in 1897, thinking that he would soon return, but that did not work out. Instead he worked with the German Orient Mission (DOM) in Bulgaria, where he started a Christian newspaper, Gunesh, in Turkish. The newspaper was circulated in Turkey proper.
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Wikipedia