Asahel Grant
Asahel Grant (August 17, 1807 – April 24, 1844) was one of the first American missionaries to Iran. Asahel Grant was born at Marshall, New York, studied medicine at Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and practiced in Utica, New York. In 1835 he went as a missionary with the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions to Iran. He settled at Urmia and worked among the Nestorians there and elsewhere in western Asia. He died in Mosul in the Ottoman Empire. He was a daring adventurer throughout the Middle East, but had little success in converting the fierce Nestorians, whom he considered  among the "ten lost tribes" of Israel. He wrote "The Nestorians" and an appeal for Christian doctors to engage in missionary work. Like David Livingstone before him (although not as famous), Grant thrilled western audiences with his adventures, inspiring a number of biographies, including those cited on this page. His success as a physician not only saved his life on several occasions, but opened the way for missionary successors.