Anna Nyström-Mässrur (9 December 1849-December 1913) was a Swedish missionary. She served in the Caucasus and in Persia, and in 1894 moved to the Xinjiang region of China. She married Persian-born doctor

Josef Mässrur Josef Mässrur (born Ghäsim Khan) (also sometimes spelled Josef MessrurIn Tibet and Chinese Turkestan: Being the Record of Three Years' Exploration By Henry Hugh Peter Deasy pg. 284) was a Christian Persian missionary to Xinjiang, Chinese Turkest ...

Kashgar Kashgar ( ug, قەشقەر, Qeshqer) or Kashi ( zh, c=喀什) is an oasis city in the Tarim Basin region of Southern Xinjiang. It is one of the westernmost cities of China, near the border with Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Pakistan ...

in May 1895, and they worked together in

Yarkand Yarkant County,, United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency also Shache County,, United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency also transliterated from Uyghur as Yakan County, is a county in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous ...

. They made many Uyghur friends, and Raquette writes that fifteen years later that they were well remembered by many Uyghurs. The couple left in 1900 for a visit to

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

, arriving there on November 2 of that year. In the autumn of 1901 they left

, and returned to Persia, Josef's homeland, where Anna lived until just before her death, when she returned to Sweden. Her health had been weakened during a

cholera Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting and ...

epidemic in Persia in 1892. On arriving back in Sweden in December 1913, she was so weakened by her illness that she was immediately hospitalized, and died soon after.

Bibliography

*J. Lundahl (editor), På obanade stigar: Tjugofem år i Ost-Turkestan. Stockholm, Svenska Missionsförbundet Förlag, 1917 Swedish Protestant missionaries Protestant missionaries in China 1849 births 1913 deaths Female Christian missionaries Protestant missionaries in Iran Swedish expatriates in China Swedish expatriates in Iran People from Södermanland {{Sweden-bio-stub