Primary sources for the Punjabi Psalter found only at Presbyterian Historical Society

Afternoon light spills into the reading room on day last month, falling across tables covered in pages and book carts full to the brim with boxes. Presbyterian Historical Society Communications Associate McKenna Britton sits across from Dr. Yousaf Sadiq, a visiting scholar squeezing in a few more hours of digging before catching a flight back to Chicago. “Where, besides PHS, are you looking?”

“The thing is,” Sadiq pauses. “Everything is right here.”

Image

Having presented the day before at the World Christianity Conference at Princeton Theological Seminary, Sadiq made sure to stop by PHS before the conclusion of his trip — in part to conduct some research in PHS’ Reading Room, and in part to chat about his work with the Punjabi Psalter.

Sadiq earned his doctorate from the London School of Theology. It was during his studies, as he worked to develop his thesis, that he began piecing together a history of the Punjabi Psalter, a metrical translation of Psalms into the Punjabi language set to indigenous music, which was collaborated upon and created in the late 19th century. The Psalter plays a foundational and highly influential role in the personal and communal worship of the global Punjabi Christian community. Sadiq’s research works to contextualize the Psalter and provides a more complete background upon which its colorful history may rest.

“This project was initiated by the Presbyterian missionaries,” Sadiq adds by way of explanation. This is why he’s here, and why he has been here multiple times before — because the PHS archives serve as the doorway to his research, a cornerstone of resources that he has had trouble finding elsewhere.

While pursuing his doctorate in London, Sadiq found a few items of note in the British Library archives, including some original poems written by the Rev. Dr. Imam-ud-Din Shahbaz. But the bulk of his studies have involved the collections held within the Presbyterian Historical Society in Philadelphia. “I have seen the personal files of every single missionary who was involved,” Sadiq said, his voice laced with appreciation. “All of that stuff — if you want to look into the contributions of these individuals — the Presbyterian Historical Society is the only place to go.”

What makes the Punjabi Psalter such a unique product of 19th century foreign mission work is the way the Western missionaries invested in the local culture and community rather than bending local culture to Western standards. Before the Psalter, most mission stations and agencies would use Western melodies for their religious services. The group involved in the creation of this text gathered indigenous melodies and tunes through observation and study, hired a Punjabi poet to collaborate with, and worked to ensure that the compiled resource would fully and truly benefit the people they were there to serve. This is an example, Sadiq says, of “how to do missions successfully.”

An advertisement was put in the papers asking for applicants who knew all the Indian melodies and had tremendous Indian poetic skills. When it was discovered that the chosen applicant — Shahbaz, a local evangelist and poet — was a member of the Church Missionary Society, the CMS happily transferred him to the Presbyterian mission, excited to see the project flesh out. Shahbaz went on to create the versified, or poetic translation, of all 150 psalms in Punjabi, accompanied by a music committee. The group was comprised of the three daughters of missionary Samuel Martin, who spent hours sitting and listening and creating compositions together.

“I think the beauty of this work,” Sadiq shares, “is that it reaches far beyond denominational boundaries. You can go to a Catholic church in Pakistan — the service will start with the singing of the Punjabi Psalms and it will end with the singing of the Punjabi Psalms. The same in an Anglican, Presbyterian, or Pentecostal sanctuary — any church you go to.”

Psalm 20 is regularly sung at funerals both at church and at the graveyard to express grief and sorrow. Psalm 127 is sung when parents bring the child to church for the first time. Psalm 45 is used at wedding ceremonies. Psalm 72 is sung at the end of a church service, generally associated with offering.  For every situation or occasion, there is a particular psalm, and it is turned to by Presbyterians and Catholics and other Punjabi Christians alike.

Sadiq offers up the personal memory of his parents, who he knew did not go to school, humming and singing and teaching him the psalms from the Punjabi Psalter. “Growing up in Pakistan, I have learned these psalms from my parents. They must have learned from their parents, and their parents before them,” Sadiq reflects. “We sing them and pass them along to our children, but no one has taken the time to gather the background and foundation of such an influential text until now.”

For him, the project serves a dual purpose: to give the story of the creation of this rich cultural text back to the people to whom it belongs, and to discover and expand upon his own identity as a Pakistani Christian. “Who I am, what makes me, especially in terms of my faith,” he says. “Think of what we can learn from this work. Even after 150 years, this continues to be the backbone of Christian worship in Pakistan.” To further the point, Sadiq shares that the book continues to be well-received within the church in Pakistan and across denominations; the first person to purchase 200-plus copies was an Anglican bishop.

At the same time, however, Sadiq is eager to reach a wider audience. During his visit, he spoke to a Pakistani Christian community in Northeast Philadelphia. He met with children and young adults who had been born in the city, who hadn’t known this history but had heard their grandparents singing the songs. His next goal is to have this project reach the global church in order to promote education and exploration within Punjabi Christian communities everywhere.

Image

He similarly feels that this history and the texts produced from his research would appeal to those outside of the church, to non-Christian Punjabi speakers. To better prepare this story for global reach, Sadiq founded the Punjabi Psalter Society a few months back. The goal of the society is three-fold: to preserve, propagate and publicize the Punjabi psalms. Through collaboration and continued research, Sadiq is actively pursuing all three. The history of the Punjabi Psalter has been preserved within the pages of Sadiq’s two texts, seen above; he has presented his research across the globe, teaching young people and old alike their own heritage; he is working now to compile a pictorial history of the psalter that will further publicize the history of the psalms.

Regardless of all this progress and the plethora of discoveries being made every day as he continues to piece together this story, “there are a lot of things missing,” Sadiq said. One of the walls he has run up against is the inability to contact the descendants of the missionaries, who he thinks might have access to personal or family archives with valuable information. “Some of these people may not be aware of what they have in their personal archives,” he says. This article, he hopes, will act as a sort of beacon, urging anyone who might have family history connected with the Presbyterian missionaries, or the Psalter itself, to reach out to Sadiq. He encourages young people to ask their parents questions, to dig into their family history as he has done himself over the course of this project, and to revel in what they find.

And remember — the PHS archives are at your disposal, too. You can search through our online catalogs and databases to see if PHS has anything of interest to you or your research project. The PHS library catalog, Calvin, contains records for over 75,000 books, periodicals, and processed archival collections. Sheppard allows you to search through  Archives, Vertical Files, Museum, and Communion Tokens Database all at once.

PHS has a plethora of resources available to you, including Subject Guides, Archival Collection Finding Aids, and our Reference Archivists, who are happy to assist you in your research. For example, you can access the Guide to the India-Pakistan Mission Records,, which Sadiq sifted through during his visit.

When you’re ready, schedule a research appointment with PHS, which can’t wait to see what you discover within the archives — each day, PHS employees are amazed by what they learn from researchers, whether about the world at large or about the extensiveness of our own holdings.

Interested in supporting the Punjabi Psalter project? Want to collaborate with Sadiq as he pieces together fragments of the past? Visit the Punjabi Psalter Society website to view additional resources and get in contact with Sadiq if you have stories, materials, or questions about the Punjabi Psalter. You may also reach out via email here. Sadiq is eager to hear from any individuals or congregations who may be interested in getting involved.