author
W. A. (William Ainger) Wigram
1872–1953
An Anglican priest, traveler, and historian, he wrote vividly about the Assyrian Church of the East and the communities he knew in Kurdistan and Persia. His books blend close observation, religious history, and a firsthand sense of a world under strain.
1 Audiobook
The Cradle of Mankind; Life in Eastern Kurdistan
by W. A. (William Ainger) Wigram, Edgar Thomas Ainger Wigram
About the author
Born in 1872, William Ainger Wigram was an English Church of England priest and author whose name is closely tied to the study of the Assyrian Church of the East. Reliable reference sources agree that he spent years working with the Archbishop of Canterbury’s mission to Assyrian Christians, and that this experience shaped much of his writing.
Wigram wrote both history and travel-based nonfiction. He is especially remembered for books on the Assyrian Church and for works such as The Cradle of Mankind, which drew on his time in eastern Kurdistan and surrounding regions. His writing is often valued for bringing together scholarship, missionary experience, and detailed eyewitness description.
He died in 1953. For readers today, his work offers a window into the religious history of the Middle East and into the way one early-20th-century English observer tried to understand the people and churches among whom he lived.