Symbol and Secret: Introduction

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FINAL PAGE OF THE ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT of the Kitáb-i Íqán in the hand of 'Abdu'l-Bahá. Note that the term "revealed" (al-manzul) appears in Bahá'u'lláh's own colophon.
(Courtesy of the Bahá'í World Centre.)

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FOREWORD

Bahá'u'lláh (1817-1892), the Prophet-Founder of the Bahá'í religion, penned an enormous number of works, but it can be argued that the 1862 Book of Certitude (the Kitáb-i Íqán) is his masterpiece. Christopher Buck has, in this well-argued book, advanced our understanding of the context, literary techniques, and interpretive aims of Bahá'u'lláh's Book of Certitude, producing the first book-length academic study devoted entirely to a major work of Bahá'í scripture.

No reader of the Book of Certitude can fail to be struck by how much of it consists of commentaries and references to verses of the Qur'an. Its first audience was after all a Shiite Muslim, an uncle of Bahá'u'lláh's predecessor, the Báb (1819-1850). The traditions and sciences of the Qur'an commentary constitute one of the more important branches of Islamic learning. It is the virtue of Symbol and Secret that it takes account of several overlapping intellectual traditions in elucidating the Book of Certitude's approach to Islamic scripture. The author shows an awareness of the main schools of Muslim Qur'an commentary, and also of contemporary academic scholarship on the subject. It is the latter, especially the work of scholars such as Wansbrough and Rippin, that provide the author with the analytical leverage to illuminate for us the place of the Qur'án in the Book of Certitude. Buck succeeds in demonstrating how important academic training and a knowledge of Islamics are for a profounder appreciation of Bahá'í scripture.

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As soon as it was penned, friend and foe recognized the Book of Certitude as an extraordinarily powerful book, written in a crisp and straightforward style (commented on favorably by the Cambridge Orientalist E. G. Browne in his A Literary History of Persia). It exhibits a lucid and tantalizing view of sacred history, theology, and the mystical path that attempted to vindicate the Bábí movement and yet to prepare the way for the emergence from it of something new. It was authored only a year or so before Bahá'u'lláh's initial declaration of himself as the promised one of the Báb at the Garden of Necip Pasa (the "Garden of Ridván") in Baghdad. There is little doubt that the early Bahá'í community in Iran considered it their most central text of scripture, and it was perhaps the first Bahá'í book to be printed, in Bombay, around 1882. Bahá'u'lláh himself referred to it, in a letter to the Zoroastrian agent in Tehran, as the "Lord of Books" (sayyid-i kutub), and he put forward its framework for the understanding of universal religious history as a way of reconciling the "prophetologies" of Hinduism, Christianity, Zoroastrianism, and Islam.

The eminent Bahá'í scholar Mírzá Abú'l-Fadl Gulpáygání (1844-1914) initially refrained from writing anything about the Bahá'í religion, after adopting it in 1876, feeling that such works of Bahá'u'lláh as the Book of Certitude made any further discussion unnecessary. Even once he was prevailed upon to begin writing on Bahá'í spirituality and doctrine, Mírzá Abú'l-Fadl referred frequently to this book. He wrote to a correspondent in 1888: "It is therefore incumbent upon you to cup your hand and drink from the spring of certitude [the Kitáb-i Íqán] that has flowed form the pen of the All-Merciful throughout these times. It is, for all its conciseness, the key to the psalms and tablets, and is the interpreter of the books of God, Who dispels the darkness at each dawn. Thereby have the seals of the prophets been broken and the abstrusities of the allusions of past scriptures

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been resolved. Exert yourself to the utmost and reflect on this holy book, that you might be inspired to the correct understanding of every chapter." Mírzá Abú'l-Fadl's own masterwork, his 1898 Fará'id (Priceless Things) was devoted to the rebuttal of an attack on the Book of Certitude by a Shiite cleric resident in Tiflis (Tiblisi), Georgia.

The salience of the Book of Certitude has not lessened with time. An English translation by Ali Kuli Khan, published in New York in 1904, became popular in the nascent American Bahá'í community of the early twentieth century. The work's continued significance for those from a Christian background is no doubt related to the attention Bahá'u'lláh gives to the Gospel verses and prophecies, discussion of which occupies some one-fourth of the book.

Bahá'u'lláh's great-grandson, Shoghi Effendi Rabbání (1896-1957), the Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith, published a fresh translation of the Book of Certitude in 1931 and elsewhere called it "foremost among the priceless treasures cast forth from the billowing ocean of Bahá'u'lláh's Revelation." He adds: "Well may it be claimed that of all the books revealed by the Author of the Bahá'í Revelation, this Book alone, by sweeping away the age-long barriers that have so insurmountably separated the great religions of the world, has laid down a broad and unassailable foundation for the complete and permanent reconciliation of their followers."

Juan R. I. Cole
Ann Arbor, Michigan
9 February 1995

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Without the encouragement and expertise of my advisor, Professor Andrew Rippin, this book would not have been possible. All of the essential theoretical elements were crystallized under his direction. His strong editorial hand shaped the final draft. I can safely say that I learned what interpretation is from him. From the intellectual heritage of his mentor, John Wansbrough, I have likewise benefited. I am very much indebted to the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Calgary for awarding me graduate assistantships in support of this research, and for much comradery.

To visiting Professor Naphtali Kinberg (Department of Arabic Language and Literature at the University of Tel Aviv) I owe my exposure to Arabic rhetorical criticism, which gave me clearer insights into quranic symbolism, Wansbrough's writings, and those of Bahá'u'lláh. To Professor Leah Kinberg (Department of Middle East History at the University of Tel Aviv) I am grateful for inspiring confidence in the direction my research has taken. To the Universal House of Justice at the Bahá'í World Centre in Haifa, Israel, I am greatly indebted for the documents provided over the years. To my wife Nahzy, my patient instructor in Persian, I express appreciation for the many personal sacrifices she has made in support of my research. This goes for my sons, Takor and Taraz, as well.

For their encouragement and criticism, my gratitude to Dr. B. Todd Lawson (Middle East and Islamic Studies, University of Toronto), Dr. Nosratolláh M. Hosseini (Bahá'í

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scholar, Burnaby, B.C.), Dr. Robert Stockman (Research Coordinator, Bahá'í National Center, Wilmette, Illinois), Dr. David S. Ruhe (Haifa), Anthony Lee and Payam Afsharian (Kalimát Press), and to my first mentor in religious studies, Mr. Tom Cicchitti (Bellingham, Washington). For the Arctic safari that crystallized my thinking prior to writing this thesis, I am grateful to my brother Carter Buck and to my son, Jason Buck. My thanks also to Stephen Menard, Bill Marshall, Louis Soucy, Lorie Smith, and Aziz Azizi. As the "black art" of digital typography has played a part in creating this manuscript, I express appreciation to programmer Greg Berry (Symmetry Specialty Type Foundry, Calgary) for the creation, originally for this thesis, of the New World Transliterator (now available commercially). For the Macintosh computer on which this manuscript was written, I am deeply grateful to my brother Carter Buck and my dear parents, George and Sandra Buck. To Kalimát Press, I express my appreciation for continued support of scholarship in the inchoate discipline of Bábí and Bahá'í studies, and for accepting this thesis for publication.

After Professor Rippin, in his dual role as supervisor and thesis examiner, I would like to thank my two other examiners, Professor Eliezer Segal, of the Department of Religious Studies, and Professor Ashraf Rushdy, of the Department of English, for their close reading of this rather lengthy Master's thesis. Professor Rushdy's expertise on Milton integrates the topics of eschatology and figurative discourse. My many conversations with Professor Segal regarding Maimonides have given me insights on the nature of language about God, and on the value of a cross-cultural, phenomenological approach to the study of religion, especially the Western religions of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and the Bahá'í Faith.

Finally, I wish to thank all seven readers of the galley proofs of Symbol and Secret: besides Andrew Rippin,

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Todd Lawson, and Nosratolláh M. Hosseini (acknowledged above), my thanks to Juan R. I. Cole, (Director, Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies, University of Michigan), Shahroakh Monjazeb (Bahá'í scholar, Waterloo, Ontario), Stephen Lambden (Ph.D. candidate, Newcastle upon Tyne), and to a seventh reader who wishes to remain mysterious. My thanks to Steven Scholl of White Cloud Press for the painstaking typesetting and layout of this book. The present writer accepts final responsibility for residual errors.

CHRISTOPHER BUCK

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UNDATED LITHOGRAPH of the Kitáb-i Íqán, 157 pages of 15 lines each. Probably published in 1308 A.H. (1882 C.E.) by Hasani Zivar Press. The copyist is uncertain, but is probably not Mírzá Muhammad-Áli Ghusn-i Akbar, as suggested by Najafí. This volume is indexed as number BP362.K8.1893 at the Bahá'í World Centre. The 1893 number represents the tentative date given the book when it was catalogued. There are only three copies of this edition known to still exist.
(Photo, courtesy of the Bahá'í World Centre.)

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INTRODUCTION

Interpretation creates meaning.

Scriptural interpretation has the power to reverse its own role: ostensible interpretation of the past is, in reality, the past interpreting the present. Particularly susceptible to this process are the non-transparent passages of scripture—parables, figurative speech, and apocalyptic visions—which are in some sense "dark" and require what Kermode calls "completion." In the interpretation of dreams, for instance, "the dream-text, when understood, disappears, consumed by its interpretation."¹

This study explores one interpretive journey into the mysterious landscape of the Qur'an, into its fantastic opacity, its apocalyptic drama, where the heavens burst asunder (Qur'an 84:1), and become as molten brass (70:8), where stars are scattered (82:2) and hurled to earth (81:2), where bedrock quakes (99:1) and mountains move (81:3), crumble (73:14), vaporize (78:20), where the seas boil (81:6), smoke enshrouds (44:10), and all who are on earth fall into a swoon (39:68).

This study will focus on the power of interpretation to produce meaning and to create new truth, as Jabès says: "To discover means, after all, to create."² So powerful is the potential for exegesis to create, that it can become the vehicle for bringing a new religion into being. Exegesis, in the last century, did just that, giving life to a new world religion known as the Bahá'í Faith. The exegete and prophet-founder

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was Mírzá Husayn-'Alí Núrí, known as Bahá'u'lláh (Bahá' Alláh) (1233-1309 A.H./1817-1892 C.E.).

Bahá'u'lláh's Book of Certitude is a work of biblical and quranic exegesis. Works of exegesis, whether academic or pastoral, are usually inconsequential. They proliferate in hermeneutical circles, to die the quiet death of being superseded by yet further commentaries. The Book of Certitude, on the other hand, has succeeded in creating the doctrinal framework for a new religion.

Although overtly Islamic in its approach, the new ethos the text adopts makes it unique in its role as a non-Muslim work of quranic exegesis. There is no conceptual contradiction here. The Book of Certitude constructs an eschatological bridge, on the far side of which stands Bahá'u'lláh, whose worldview is constructed along the lines of a unity paradigm. In his Lawh-i Ittihád (Tablet of Unity), Bahá'u'lláh addresses the world:

O contending peoples and kindreds of the earth! Set your faces towards unity, and let the radiance of its light shine upon you.... This wronged One hath, ever since the early days of His life, cherished ... no wish except this wish. There can be no doubt that the peoples of the world, of whatever race or religion, derive their inspiration from one heavenly Source ... Arise and ... shatter to pieces the gods ... of dissension amongst you.³

Unity is the key to all Bahá'í thought. The Book of Certitude must be seen in this wider light, even though the text was written at an early stage in Bahá'u'lláh's ministry. Bahá'u'lláh's thinking on unity considerably predates the Book of Certitude. Since childhood, Bahá'u'lláh resolved to consecrate his life to the pursuit of world peace. In so saying, no attempt is made in this study to construct a "psycho-history" of the development of Bahá'u'lláh's ideas.⁴ Context, not originist reductionism, is sought here.

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The vision of unity (ittihád) that unfolds in Bahá'u'lláh's writings extends beyond Islam, but originates within it. Reverence for the Qur'an is unflagging, within his view of history and his theory of civilization. He categorically states that "the unfailing testimony of God to both the East and the West is none other than the Qur'an."⁵ The need to produce a commentary on quranic eschatology—a need that occasioned the writing of the Book of Certitude—will become evident to the reader in due course.

The Book of Certitude is much more than a work of exegesis. The text was written (or "revealed") while Bahá'u'lláh was a professed follower of the Persian prophet known as the Báb (the Gate) (1235-1266 A.H./1819-1850 C.E.) in order to vindicate the latter's prophetic credentials. This book became the preeminent doctrinal work of the Bahá'í Faith, not only by virtue of its content, but also because of its influence over believers in the early days of the Faith. The text exerts a strong influence to this day, especially among Bahá'í's from non-Muslim backgrounds. The Book of Certitude is probably the most widely circulated and influential of all Bahá'í doctrinal works. Evidently, it was the first Bahá'í text to have an authorized printing. The text is a living scripture, but it does not embody all of Bahá'í thought. For this reason, it is necessary to place the Book of Certitude within the range of other Bahá'í sacred writings.

To appreciate the significance the Book of Certitude has for those who regard it as an inspired work, one need only read the interpretation that Shoghi Effendi (d. 1957), great grandson of Bahá'u'lláh and Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith, gave it: "Well may it be claimed that of all the books revealed by the Author of the Bahá'í Revelation, this Book alone, by sweeping away the age-long barriers that have so insurmountably separated the great religions of the world, has laid down a broad and unassailable foundation for the complete and permanent reconciliation of their followers."⁶

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From an academic perspective, the Book of Certitude is foundational to Bahá'í studies.

Although the Bahá'í Faith has yet to become entrenched in Religious Studies curricula, its position as an independent religion has been vindicated by a growing consensus in the academic literature. Statistically, the religion has shown substantial success in its missionary enterprise. Within the past century, the nascent faith has established itself in 205 countries and major territories of the world.⁷ Demographically, the majority of Bahá'í's today are to be found in Third World countries and are from non-Muslim backgrounds. This study will explain how a religion with Islamic roots ended up breaking decisively from Islam, not unlike the doctrinal and ethnic rupture of early Christianity with its parent faith, Judaism.

In a recent reference work, A Handbook of Living Religions, the Bahá'í Faith is treated separately in the final chapter,⁸ by Irish Islamicist Denis MacEoin, whose research has, in general, propelled Bahá'í studies in a text-critical direction. He frames the problem of the typology of the Bahá'í Faith so:

The outsider is faced with a genuine ambiguity in seeking a relatively unbiased approach to Baha'ism. In terms of numbers, influence, social position, voluntariness of membership, and so on, it is most usefully treated as a sect or denomination (with major regional fluctuations), rather than as a wholly independent tradition. But Baha'is themselves emphasize other criteria, such as the lives of the movement's founders and saints, the richness of its scriptural literature, the breadth and rapidity of its geographical expansion, and the ontological assumption of a divine revelation subsequent to and abrogatory of Islam. The scholar must try to shift between these and other approaches as far as possible. Perhaps the central focus of interest lies in the conscious promulgation of an alternative religion, not primarily as an outgrowth of an existing major tradition, but as a potential new tradition.⁹

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As to the fate of this "potential new tradition," MacEoin concludes predictively: "Baha'ism would seem to be the first of the new religious movements that shows signs of developing as an independent tradition."¹⁰

Most New Religious Movements (NRMs) originate within some religious system, there to maintain a denominational or marginal existence. Therefore, MacEoin's classification of the Bahá'í Faith as a New Religious Movement would be somewhat inadequate, had he not admitted the possibility of the Faith evolving into "an independent tradition."

Most scholars have not sufficiently addressed the Faith's revolutionary break from Islam. This rupture has much broader typological implications than can be dealt with within a sectarian paradigm. By self-identification alone, Bahá'í's are not Muslims. No self-professed Christian, historical Jewish origins notwithstanding, would ever claim to be a Jew by religion. Scholarship at times is deficient in adopting a methodology that is commensurate with religious self-definition. In a classroom setting, the very presence of a religious minority might change the complexion of how that tradition is broached academically. Such has often been the case with Bahá'ís. Bausani's typology of monotheisms seems much more attractive, from a phenomenological perspective.¹¹

In the Book of Certitude, Bahá'u'lláh endeavors to prove that the Qur'an actually anticipates a future revelation (and thus another prophet after Muhammad). This is no small exegetical feat. Once the obstacle of revelatory finality is swept aside, Bahá'u'lláh the exegete becomes Bahá'u'lláh the revealer.

It is not that Bahá'u'lláh has or has not "discovered" the true meaning of the Qur'an. Rather, Bahá'u'lláh reveals its truth—that is, its meaning. (Although hermeneutically distinct, truth and meaning are functionally equivalent here.) By use of identifiable exegetical devices, Bahá'u'lláh produces meaning from scripture to legitimize his truth.

Bahá'u'lláh's use of exegetical techniques is controlled

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by the phenomenological "fact" of fresh revelations from God through the person of the Báb and, it will be argued, through Bahá'u'lláh himself. When interpretation serves as a crucial means for recognizing and embracing a post-Islamic revelation, the interpretation functions as part of that revelation. The key is part of the door.

In this study, therefore, the text of the Qur'an will be viewed as dynamic rather than static, in that it produces meaning through the process of interpretation. Methodologically, we will have to dispense with the idea that the text has a fixed meaning and look instead to the power of the Qur'an, as a living scripture, to inspire or generate meaning. While the scripture is preserved, the interpretation itself, rather than the scripture, has doctrinal force.

BAHÁ'U'LLÁH, AUTHOR OF THE BOOK OF CERTITUDE

Bahá'u'lláh is the charismatic founder of the Bahá'í Faith, transformed out of the nineteenth-century reformist Bábí movement to emerge as a new world religion, after a decisive break from Islam.¹² The most complete biography of this understudied religious figure is that by Hasan M. Balyuzi. As the only full-length biography of Bahá'u'lláh in a Western language, this masterwork is anchored in original sources, some unpublished. But, it has not escaped the charge of hagiographical tendency.¹³ Other sources provide supplemental data.¹⁴

Bahá'u'lláh was a scion of nobility, descended from the pre-Islamic monarchs of Iran. His ancestoral home was the remote village of Tákur, in the district of Núr, in the province of Mázandarán, a forested region bordering on the Caspian Sea. Born in 1817 in Tehran into a family of wealthy landowners, Bahá'u'lláh was raised in luxury in courtly circles. His father, 'Abbas Buzurg, titled Mírzá Buzurg, and known as Vazír-i Núrí, was a master calligrapher, a skill

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which won royal approbation and facilitated his appointment as vazír (chief administrator) to the commander-in-chief of the imperial guard.¹⁵

Two significant events in Bahá'u'lláh's youth predisposed him toward both a religious and reformist vocation. In 1868, from the prison-city of 'Akká, Bahá'u'lláh addressed a letter (known as Lawh-i Ra'ís) to the Ottoman Grand Vizier, in which he relates a childhood memory. Bahá'u'lláh recalls how as a child he watched a grand puppet show which held him spellbound. Based on an episode of history, the performance was elaborate. Bahá'u'lláh recounts the puppet representation of Sultán Salím in considerable and vivid detail.

When the show was over, the child asked the puppeteer what had become of the king and all his men. The puppeteer answered that they were all in the box he was carrying. The child was deeply struck by this answer. In this rare autobiographical disclosure, Bahá'u'lláh recalls that from that day forward all of the trappings of the transient world had no significance whatsoever for him.¹⁶

At another point in his early life, Bahá'u'lláh read Mullá Muhammad Báqir Majlisí's (d. 1700 C.E.) traditional account of the massacre of all males of the Jewish tribe of Banú Qurayza by order of the Prophet Muhammad (cf. Qur'an 33:26) on grounds of treason. MacEoin's account of the impact this had on the child's psyche is based on Bahá'u'lláh's own description of this psychological turning point. MacEoin writes that "the effect of this was to plunge him [Bahá'u'lláh] into a state of acute depression for some time, despite his recognition that 'what occurred had been the decree of God.'"¹⁷ A sense of horror and remorse moved the child to cry to God to change the world, that the tragedy never be reenacted.

Apparently, this youthful wish later matured into a sense of resolve. From his reminiscence, it is clear that Bahá'u'lláh traces his predisposition toward social and moral

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reform to a precocious sensitivity. Taherzadeh paraphrases Bahá'u'lláh's account:

He [Bahá'u'lláh] then describes how suddenly on a certain day before dawn, He was overcome by a condition which completely affected His manners, His thoughts and His words. It was a transfiguration which gave Him the tidings of ascendancy and exaltation, and which continued for twelve days. After this He testifies that the ocean of His utterance began to surge, and the Sun of Assurance shone forth and He continued in this state until He manifested Himself to man. He further testifies in the same Tablet that in this Dispensation, He has, on the one hand, removed from religion anything which could become the cause of suffering and disunity and, on the other, ordained those teachings which would bring about the unity of the human race.¹⁸

The development of Bahá'u'lláh's religious consciousness took later turns which must be understood in the context of the Bábí movement, within which his first religious reform activity took place.

Bahá'u'lláh's life has been divided into four stages by Shoghi Effendi: (1) the first twenty-seven years of his life, spent in wealth and ease and "solicitude for the interests of the poor" (1817-44); (2) conversion to and "discipleship" within the Bábí movement (1844-52); (3) imprisonment (of four months' duration), when mystical raptures awakened within Bahá'u'lláh a powerful sense of mission (1852); and (4) a ministry of nearly forty years as a prolific and charismatic figure (1853-1892).¹⁹ Bahá'u'lláh's forty-year ministry may be divided further into three periods, corresponding to his successive exiles as a prisoner of the Ottoman regime: (1) the Baghdad period (1853-63); (2) the Constantinople/ Adrianople period (1863-68); (3) the 'Akká period (1868-92).

During this time, Bahá'u'lláh penned or dictated in excess of fifteen thousand "Tablets" (alwáh) in Persian and

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Arabic.²⁰ Though the majority of these were composed in Arabic, the Book of Certitude was written in Persian, as were some of Bahá'u'lláh's other important works. It is estimated that Bahá'u'lláh's writings if bound together would comprise around a hundred volumes.²¹ Afnán and Hatcher inform us that: "Indeed, even though the works of Bahá'u'lláh currently published in English comprise about two thousand pages, there are at least forty thousand manuscript pages of his writings which have not yet been translated or published in any Western language."²² All of these writings are taken by Bahá'ís as revelation.

To a certain extent, Bahá'u'lláh's writings during the Baghdad period may be thought of, in paradoxical terms, as covert revelation. If we accept Bahá'u'lláh's autobiographical remarks, a tension develops between Bahá'u'lláh's 1852 prophetic call and the messianic secrecy he maintained for over a decade. There also seems to have been some reluctance on Bahá'u'lláh's part to assume a prophetic office: "Whenever I chose to hold My peace and be still, lo, the Voice of the Holy Spirit, standing on My right hand, aroused Me, and the Most Great Spirit appeared before My face, and Gabriel overshadowed Me, and the Spirit of Glory stirred within My bosom, bidding Me arise and break My silence."²³ Bahá'u'lláh broke this silence on April 22, 1863 (1279 A.H.).

THE BREAK FROM ISLAM
AND FROM THE BÁBÍ RELIGION

The Book of Certitude provided an eschatological bridge into a new religious worldview. It began at the shore of Islam, crossing reformist currents through the gate of Babism, progressively distancing itself from Islam. Already, the Bábí movement had mediated the formal break from Islam by means of a "new Qur'an" and a new code of law, although the latter was scarcely implemented. All of the

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initial elements of Bábí thought and praxis were Islamic in nature, though often heterodox, and much that was Bábí became Bahá'í.²⁴ The Bábí movement was not only transitional, it was formative.

It is a historical truism that the Bábí and Bahá'í religions exhibit obvious continuities with Islam, as well as profound discontinuities. The writings of the Báb and Bahá'u'lláh employ a predominantly Islamic terminology, representing the extension of certain Islamic concepts. There are also certain specific Bábí and Bahá'í technical terms which, though drawn from existing Arabic or Persian vocabulary, are invested with specific Bábí or Bahá'í symbolism.

Beyond these points of continuity, discontinuities became far more important. It is by these discontinuities that the Bahá'í worldview is best defined. Such differences were, on an ideological level, revolutionary enough to precipitate a distinct genesis from Islam. Bahá'u'lláh's claim to a postquranic prophetic office and his legislation of an extraquranic rival system of law were definitive distinctions. Extensive, even persuasive, Islamic influences are insufficient to account for the major paradigm shift from the Islamic ideal of surrender to the central Bahá'í ideal of world unity.

The Bábí religion was an indigenous reform movement born on Persian soil. The Báb presented an ideology that sought to effect religious renewal without reversion to the ossified Shí'í past. Through a new messianic paradigm employing the old symbols of Shiism, the Hidden Imám appeared in the person of the Báb as the locus of fresh authority. The importance of such authority cannot be overestimated.

Authority was all-important, for no change in Shiism was possible without it. In theory, at least, such authority had to be divine before there could be any real possibility of legislative creativity and/or adaptation to new historical circumstances. The appearance of the Báb put a theoretical

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end to the age-old confusion over the simultaneous presence and absence of the Hidden Imám. The Báb claimed to be that Hidden Imám.

The self-ascribed authority of the Usúlí mujtahids (doctors of law) was challenged by the appearance of a rival authority figure. The Báb's legislative innovations were perceived as a real threat to the Shí'í establishment. As Arjomand points out, the ulama "dreaded" the Bábí movement, "whose success would have eliminated them and the orthodox Shiism they represented."²⁵ But the Bábí movement collapsed after suffering charismatic and collective martyrdom, through the execution of the Báb and the subsequent Bábí holocaust. Out of these historical ashes, the Bahá'í Faith emerged.

The establishment of Bahá'u'lláh's prophetic status within Bábí circles was a gradual process marked by several developmental stages. I have mentioned his youthful spiritual inclinations, which for a time found fulfillment in his conversion to Bábí spirituality. Bahá'u'lláh converted to the Bábí religion at the age of twenty-seven, presumably in late August 1844, when a special envoy (Mullá Husayn Bushrú'í) dispatched by the Báb arrived in Tehran.²⁶ It was this movement which mediated Bahá'u'lláh's break from Islam, preparing the way for his vocation as a legislator of universal laws for a new dispensation.

In 1844, the Báb had implicitly advanced the messianic claim that he was the Resurrector (Qá'im) of the Day of Resurrection (Qiyáma). After 1847, this claim became increasingly explicit. Contrary to the prevailing Shí'í notion that the Qá'im would secure the ascendancy of the Islamic sharí'a (legal system) through holy war, the Báb spoke of the wholesale abrogation of Islam.²⁷ In 1847-48, the Báb revealed the Persian Bayán, his most important doctrinal work and his own code of laws meant to supplant the whole of Islamic law.

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"The birth of the Bábí movement should thus be seen," according to Amanat, as "an attempt to employ the sanctified ideals of the past-almost a mythological rather than historical past ™ to interpret a changing age."²⁸ By 1853, the Bábí movement was forced to go underground because of external repression. This repression was largely precipitated by a series of militant Bábí-Qájár clashes that had erupted at the shrine of Shaykh Tabarsí (1848-1849), Nayríz (May/June 1850), and Zanján (1850-1851)."This militarism, although defensive, gravely imperiled the Bábí community. In the aftermath of the execution of the Báb in 1850, and the subsequent attempt on the life of the shah in 1852 by a small group of Bábís (moved to avenge the execution of the Báb and the recent massacres of their coreligionists), there ensued a reign of terror against Bábís throughout Iran.

The Bábí community was subjected to a bloodbath of persecution that shocked European observers, who wrote eyewitness accounts of the atrocities. Bahá'u'lláh was arrested, along with scores of other Bábís, and imprisoned in the notorious Síyáh-Chál (Black Pit), a subterranean dungeon in Tehran.³⁰ It was in this pestilential pit that Bahá'u'lláh underwent a transformation through a series of mystical experiences in the form of visions. Of these mystical transports, Bahá'u'lláh later recalls:

During the days I lay in the prison of Tihrán, though the galling weight of the chains and the stench-filled air allowed Me but little sleep, still in those infrequent moments of slumber I felt as if something flowed from the crown of My head over My breast, even as a mighty torrent that precipitateth itself upon the earth from the summit of a lofty mountain. Every limb of My body would, as a result, be set afire. At such moments My tongue recited what no man could bear to hear.³¹

In his Sura of the Temple (Súratu'l-haykal), Bahá'u'lláh describes the first of a series of visions of a celestial maiden,

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who reappeared to him throughout the years. This intimation of divine mission, according to Bahá'u'lláh, occurred a full decade prior to the revelation of the Book of Certitude. In Bahá'í metaphysics, the "Maid of Heaven" is the Holy Spirit personified. Bahá'u'lláh has left this record of his first mystical encounter with the maiden:

While engulfed in tribulations I heard a most wondrous, a most sweet voice, calling above My head. Turning My face, I beheld a Maiden—the embodiment of the remembrance of the name of My Lord—suspended in the air before Me. So rejoiced was she in her very soul, that her countenance shone with the ornament of the good-pleasure of God, and her cheeks glowed with the brightness of the All-Merciful. Betwixt earth and heaven she was raising a call which captivated the hearts and minds of men. She was imparting to both My inward and outer being tidings which rejoiced My soul, and the souls of God's honored servants. Pointing her finger unto My head, she addressed all who are in heaven and all who are on earth, saying:

"By God! This is the Best-Beloved of the worlds, and yet ye comprehend not. This is the Beauty of God amongst you, and the power of His sovereignty within you, could ye but understand. This is the Mystery of God and His Treasure, the Cause of God and His glory unto all who are in the kingdoms of Revelation and of creation, if ye be of them that perceive."³²

For more than a decade after his imprisonment in the Síyáh-Chál, Bahá'u'lláh was reticent about these visions. His messianic election was kept secret until April 22, 1863 in Baghdad, when, on the eve of his exile to Constantinople, Bahá'u'lláh declared himself to be "He Whom God Shall Make Manifest" (man yuzhiruhu'lláh) as foretold by the Báb.³³ It is the development of Bahá'u'lláh's sense of his own mission which is so problematic during the Baghdad period of his ministry (1853-1863), especially as it relates to the interpretation of the Kitáb-i Íqán.

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Bahá'u'lláh and the Bábí exiles reached Istanbul (Constantinople) in August of 1863, remaining there for several months. They were exiled again in December to Edirne (Adrianople) in Turkey. A leadership crisis between Bahá'u'lláh and his half-brother Mírzá Yahya—known by his spiritual title Subh-i Azal (Morn of Eternity)—led Bahá'u'lláh to dissociate himself and his followers from Azal on March 10, 1866.³⁴ This split gave birth to the Bahá'í religion as a distinct community. The Bábí dissidents became known as Azalís, or Azalí Bábís.³⁵ Certain incidents precipitated by this crisis impelled the Ottoman authorities to banish most of those who henceforth called themselves Bahá'ís to 'Akká, in Palestine, and most of the Azalís to Cyprus (1868). The Azalí community has since dissipated, although a few Azalí families remain.

During the latter years of the Adrianople period, Bahá'u'lláh openly proclaimed his prophetic mission in epistles to the reigning sovereigns of Europe and the Middle East, inviting them to support his cause. Because of his longstanding leadership of the Bábí community and his personal charisma, the great majority of Bábís accepted Bahá'u'lláh's proclamation. It is important to have a sense of the force of Bahá'u'lláh's charisma, as it not only plays an essential role in Bahá'u'lláh's assertion of authority, but determines the doctrinal associations the Book of Certitude would inevitably take on. We would expect hagiographical accounts to lionize Bahá'u'lláh. For this reason, two independent sources will be cited.

In 1890, Cambridge Orientalist Edward Granville Browne (1862-1926) became one of the few Westerners to be granted an audience with Bahá'u'lláh. Browne's record of his encounter shows how deeply impressed he was by the prisoner he came to see. He describes Bahá'u'lláh as "a wondrous and venerable figure," whose "piercing eyes seemed to read one's very soul." "Power and authority sat on that

[page xxxiii]

ample brow," Browne observed, "while the deep lines on the forehead and face implied an age which the jet-black hair and beard flowing down in indistinguishable luxuriance seemed to belie." Bahá'u'lláh's charisma was obvious. Browne continues: "No need to ask in whose presence I stood, as I bowed myself before one who is the object of a devotion and love which kings might envy and emperors sigh for in vain!"³⁶

Though this experience did not convert him, Browne's pen portrait documents the power of Bahá'u'lláh's charisma on a Western psyche. The essential elements of Bahá'u'lláh's teachings are reflected in his words addressed to Browne on that occasion:

We desire but the good of the world and the happiness of the nations.... That all nations should become one in faith and all men as brothers; that the bonds of affection and unity between the sons of men should be strengthened; that diversity of religion should cease, and differences of race be annulled—what harm is there in this? ... Yet so it shall be; these fruitless strifes, these ruinous wars shall pass away, and the "Most Great Peace" shall come.... Let not a man glory in this, that he loves his country; let him rather glory in this, that he loves his kind....³⁷

Another description of Bahá'u'lláh was published in a leading French periodical by Lebanese Druze journalist Amír Amín Arslan:

I have had the honour of catching a glimpse of him who is the incarnation of "the Word of God" in the eyes of the Persians, during a journey that I made to St Jean d'Acre ['Akká]. I was eager to pay a visit to 'Abbás Effendi, the eldest son of "the Word" who was in charge of the external relations of the community.... Naturally, I solicited from him the honour of an audience with his holy father. He explained to me, in a very kindly manner, that it was not the custom of the Divinity to admit to his presence unbelieving mortals. Since I

[page xxxiv]

insisted, he promised to make every possible effort to bring about the realization of my wish.

... I had to content myself with a glimpse of the illustrious Bahá'u'lláh at the moment when he came out to take his daily walk... in the evening, a time when he could better elude the prying attention of outsiders. But 'Abbás Effendi had carefully positioned me behind a part of the wall, along his path, in such a manner that I could easily contemplate him for a short while.... His [Bahá'u'lláh's] appearance struck my imagination in such a way that I cannot better represent it than by evoking the image of God the Father, commanding, in his majesty, the elements of nature, in the middle of clouds (Dieu le Père, commandant dans sa majesté, au milieu des nuées, aux éléments de la nature).³⁸

Seen within the wider context of Bahá'u'lláh's ministry, intimation preceded proclamation which, in turn, preceded legislation. Bahá'u'lláh chose to consolidate the Bábí community in Baghdad before embarking on any further enterprise. The fragmentation and demoralization of the community following the near extermination of the Bábí movement by the Qájár sword would scarcely have predisposed it to any sudden assertion of charismatic authority, whether from Bahá'u'lláh or other claimants. Before the tiny religious enclave could even conceive of the salvation of others, its own welfare had to be secured.

Amanat characterizes Bahá'u'lláh's premessianic leadership of the Bábí community in terms of its gradual disencumberment from the political burden of Shí'í utopia:

Bahá'u'lláh's later rediversion of the course of militant Babism after 1852 (and more noticeably after 1864) toward moderation was in sharp contrast to the policies of the radical wing of the movement, headed, at least nominally, by his own brother, Mírzá Yahya Núrí Subh-i Azal. The politically pacifist current founded by Bahá'u'lláh, which eventually evolved into the Bahá'í religion, was no doubt affected by his frustration

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with the disastrous outcome of the Bábí experience. Unlike many of his co-religionists, who were preoccupied with the Shí'íte vision of a utopian political order under the aegis of the Imam of the Age, Bahá'u'lláh focused his efforts on disentangling moral ideals from political claims; a Sufi legacy that he stretched to new frontiers in order to resolve an eternal problem of Islamic faith. By forging a new source of loyalty on a largely moral basis, Bahá'u'lláh envisioned a suprareligious ecumen free from the political claims of the Islamic community (umma).³⁹

The Book of Certitude addressed itself primarily to eschatological concerns. It is important to note that Bahá'u'lláh made moral reform a precondition to the realization of the eschaton, the anticipated apocalypse. In so doing, he was better able to present the eschaton within a moral, rather than political, framework. Moral and doctrinal reform of the Bábí exile and native communities, effected under Bahá'u'lláh's leadership (particularly between the years 1856-63), prepared the Bábís for a messianic figure who would fulfill a radically redefined eschaton.

Characteristic of nearly all of his writings during the Baghdad period were Bahá'u'lláh's veiled allusions to his long-contemplated messianic office. If the Book of Certitude is read in this light, it is clear such messianic secrecy was necessary until the Bábí community was ripe for charismatic renewal, an eventuality which, in the post-Baghdad period, saw the allegiance of most Bábís carry over to Bahá'u'lláh.

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NOTES

^1. F. Kermode, The Genesis of Secrecy, p. 24.
^2. E. Jabès, "The Key," in Midrash and Literature, p. 350.
^3. Bahá'u'lláh, Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh, p. 217; Múntakhabátí az Áthár-i Hadrat-i Bahá'u'lláh, pp. 141-42. With few exceptions, Tablets of Bahá'u'lláh were not titled, and so have come to be known by certain associations in literary or popular usage. In the case of Lawh-i Ittihád, more than one Tablet is known by this name. The more common reference for Lawh-i Ittihád is to a Tablet described by A.Taherzadeh in The Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh, Vol. III, pp. 191-95. Both Tablets are printed consecutively in Adi"yyih-i Hadrat-i Mahbúb (Prayers of Bahá'u'lláh), pp. 388-406 and 407-409 (containing the passage quoted). See Vahid Rafati, "Ma'ákhidh Kitáb-i Múntakhabáti az Athár-i Hadrat-i Bahá'u'lláh," 'Andalíb, Vol. 5 (Winter 1984-85) p. 67, who refers to the Tablet cited also as Lawh-i Ittihád.
The equivalence drawn here between divisive ideology and idolatry is interesting to note, since idolatry is conceptually rarefied to the level of principle. This finds its Islamic counterpart in twentieth-century Islamic reformism. See E. Sirriyeh, "Modern Muslim Interpretation of Shirk," Religion, Vol. 20 (1990) p. 145.
^4. See Chapter 4, note No. 77, p. 223, below.
^5. Bahá'u'lláh, The Book of Certitude, p. 210.
^6. Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, p. 139. This sentiment is borne out by egalitarian fraternity of the Bahá'ís as individuals, and as a community, which Bahá'ís see as a model for a society of "unity in diversity."
^7. See D. Barrett, "World Religious Statistics," in 1988 Britannica Book of the Year, p. 303: "Over 14 major religious systems are each now found in over 80 countries. Christianity, Islam, and the Bahá'í World Faith are the most global."
^8. Denis MacEoin, "Baha'ism," in A Handbook of Living Religions, pp. 475-98.
^9. Ibid., p. 476.
^10. Ibid., p. 494.
^11. A. Bausani, "Can Monotheism Be Taught?" Numen, Vol. 10 (1963) p. 168, in which monotheisms are ordered along a triple

[page xxxvii]

scheme: (1) Monotheisms proper (Judaism and Islam [primary]); Christianity and the Bahá'í Faith [secondary]); (2) Failed monotheisms (Zoroastrianism [primary]; Manichaeanism [secondary]; Akhenaton's reform [archaic]); and (3) Para-monotheisms (Sikhism and various mysticisms).
^12. On this point, MacEoin's analysis is apt: "Apart from their undoubted intrinsic interest, Babism and Baha'ism seem to me to be significant in the present context for a number of reasons. It is, first of all, worth noting that, although nineteenth-century Islam witnessed the emergence of several messianic movements, such as the Mahdiyya of Sudan or the Ahmadiyya in India, all of these remained within the bounds of Islam, from their own point of view, at least. It was only in Shi'i Iran that a movement appeared which broke entirely from Islam and, in the end, successfully established itself as a new and, in some areas, even a rival religion." MacEoin, "The Shi'i Establishment in Modern Iran," in Islam in the Modern World, p. 95.)
^13. H. M. Balyuzi, Bahá'u'lláh, The King of Glory, which MacEoin discounts as "emphatically hagiographical" ("From Babism to Baha'ism," p. 244). The only other full-length biography of Bahá'u'lláh is in Persian: M. A. Faydí, Hayát-i Hadrat-i Bahá'u'lláh. See also A. Bausani, q.v. "Bahá'Alláh," in Encyclopedia of Islam (2nd Edition).
^14. Certain of these supplemental primary sources are cited by Amanat: "M. A. Malik Khusraví's Iqlím-i Núr (Tehran, 118 Badí/1962) contains new material on Bahá'u'lláh's family background and early life. Beside Bábí-Bahá'í primary accounts, including Nabíl, which covers Bahá'u'lláh's life in some detail, three other accounts are of special importance: Sayyid Mahdí Dahají, Browne Or. MSS no. F.57(9); Mírzá Jawád Qazvíní, Browne Or. MSS. no. F.26, trans. E. G. Browne in MSBR 3-112; and 'Izzíya Khánum, Tanbíh al-Náimín, Browne Or. MSS no. F.60(8) and F.61(9)." (Amanat, Resurrection and Renewal: The Making of the Bábí Movement in Iran, 1844-1850, p. 361, n. 156.)
As to the last source cited, MacEoin is a little more circumspect as to the authenticity of the texts ascribed to Bahá'u'lláh in stating: "If these are authentic..." (Studia Iranica, Vol. 18 [1989] p. 115). Descriptions of Browne Or. MSS. F.57(9), F.26,

[page xxxviii]

F.60(8) and F.61(9) are given in Browne, A Descriptive Catalogue, pp. 78, 65, and 79, respectively.
^15. The principle duty of this office was the collection of taxes. Cf. Balyuzi, Bahá'u'lláh, p. 16, note.
On Mírzá Buzurg's calligraphy and administrative career, see P. Soucek, s.v. "'Abbas," Encyclopedia of Islam (2nd Edition). See also H. M. Balyuzi, Eminent Bahá'ís, Appendix, "The Village of Quch-Hisár," pp. 339-45. His marriage to a daughter of Fath 'Ali Sháh, and his forced divorce from her later, sealed his sudden ruination (Amanat, Resurrection and Renewal, p. 362).
^16. "From that day all the [material] instruments of this world in the eye of this slave [himself] resembled that performance, and had no significance whatsoever [for me], even as much as a grain of mustard. The people of insight can see with the eye of certainty beyond the pomp of possessors of material power its decline. Like those puppets, soon the superficial instruments [of power], the apparent treasures, the worldly ornaments, the military ranks, the luxurious clothes, and their arrogant possessors will proceed toward the grave chest. In the eyes of the people of insight, all those conflicts, struggles, and arrogance resemble children's toys." (Translated by Amanat, Resurrection and Renewal, pp. 363-64.)
For a full translation of the Tablet, see Bahá'í Scriptures, pp. 81-88. Cf. the Persian text of Lawh-i Ra'ís (Bahá'u'lláh's second Tablet to 'Ali Páshá) in Majmúiy-i Alwáh-i Mubáraka, pp. 107-111.
^17. MacEoin, "From Babism to Baha'ism," p. 223, citing Bahá'u'lláh, Má'iday-i Ásmání, 9 vols. (hereinafter referred to as Má'ida) vol. 7, p. 136. Cf. Bahá'u'lláh, Alwáh-i Mubárakay-i Hadrat-i Bahá'u'lláh Shámil-i Ishráqát wa Chand Lawh Dígar (hereafter referred to as Ishráqát), 34. See also a Tablet of Bahá'u'lláh addressed to a certain "Mahdi" in Iqtidárát, pp. 116ff.
^18. Taherzadeh, The Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh, Vol. II, pp. 348-49, citing Fádil-i Mázandarání, Asrár al-Athár. A glossary of Bahá'í terms, Vol. 2, pp. 17-18.
^19. Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, pp. 106-107.
^20. S. Lambden, "The Sinaitic Mysteries: Notes on Moses/Sinai Motifs in Bábí and Bahá'í Scripture," in Studies in Honor of the Late Hasan M. Balyuzi, p. 109.
^21. Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, p. 220.

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^22. M. Afnán and W. Hatcher, "Western Islamic Scholarship and Bahá'í Origins," Religion, Vol. 15 (1985) p. 47, n. 6.
^23. Cited by Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, p. 102.
^24. Goldziher perhaps understates the phenomenology of the Bábí religion by saying: "the Báb's revelation ... had been, in reality, no more than a reform of Islam." (Introduction to Islamic Theology and Law, 249). Evidently, for Goldziher the Bahá'í Faith outstrips this reductionism. See further, G. Lèderer, "Goldziher's 'Bahá'í correspondence,'" in The Arabist. Budapest Studies in Arabic, Vol. 1, pp. 103-119, and Goldziher, "Verhältnis des Báb zu früheren Súfí-Lehrern," Der Islam, Vol. 11 (1921) pp. 252-54. The definitive academic history of the Bábí religion is now Amanat, Resurrection and Renewal. For a sociological approach to the emergence of the Bahá'í Faith, see P. Smith, The Bábí and Bahá'í Religions: From messianic Shí'ísm to a world religion.
^25. S. A. Arjomand, The Turban for the Crown, p. 233, n. 9.
^26. Amanat, Resurrection, p. 261, regarding the date of Mullá Husayn's visit to Tehran.
^27. The Báb's early writings do speak of holy war to a considerable degree, while his later writings do not. This fact has given rise to a controversy over how to interpret the Bábí movement as a whole. See MacEoin, "The Bábí Concept of Holy War," Religion, Vol. 12 (1982) pp. 93-129; and "From Babism to Baha'ism: Problems of Militancy, Quietism, and Conflation in the Construction of a Religion," Religion, Vol. 13 (1983) pp. 219-55. The results of MacEoin's analyses in the former article are challenged by M. Afnán and W. Hatcher, "Western Islamic Scholarship and Bahá'í Origins," Religion, Vol. 15 (1985) pp. 29-51. MacEoin's rejoinder appears in the same journal, "Bahá'í Fundamentalism and the Academic Study of the Bábí Movement," Religion, Vol. 16 (1986) pp. 57-84. All three neglected to consider the views of R. Mehrabkhani, "Some Notes on Fundamental Principles: Western Scholarship and the Religion of the Báb," Bahá'í Studies Bulletin, Vol. 2, no. 4 (March 1984) pp. 22-43, esp. 29-35.
^28. Amanat, Resurrection and Renewal, p. 207.
^29. Momen, "The Social Basis of the Bábí Upheavals in Iran (1848-53)," International Jouranal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 15 (1983) pp.157-83.

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^30. On the circumstances of his imprisonment, see F. Kazemzadeh and K. Kazemzadeh, "Bahá'u'lláh's Prison Sentence: The Official Account," World Order, Vol. 13, no. 2 (Winter 1978-79) pp. 11-14.
^31. Translated by Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, p. 101.
^32. Ibid., 101-102.
^33. In a discourse on the topic of Christian symbolism, 'Abdu'l-Bahá adduces a passage in Bahá'u'lláh's Tablet to the Shah, in which Bahá'u'lláh looks back at the commencement of his revelatory visions: "O King! I was but a man like others, asleep on My couch, when lo, the breezes of the All-Glorious wafted over Me, and taught Me the knowledge of all that hath been." Interpreting this statement, 'Abdu'l-Bahá remarks:

This is the state of Manifestation (tajallí): it is not sensible; it is an intellectual reality, exempt and freed from time, from past, present and future; it is an explanation (ta'bír), a simile (tamthíl), a metaphor (majáz) and is not to be accepted literally; it is not a state to be comprehended by man... For example, it is a Persian and Arabic expression to say that the earth was asleep, and the spring came, and it awoke; or the earth was dead, and the spring came, and it revived.
These expressions are metaphors (tabir-i tamthili), allegories (tashbíh), mystic explanations (ta'wíl) in the world of signification ('alam-i ma'ání). Briefly, the Holy Manifestations have ever been, and ever will be, Luminous Realities . . . Before declaring Their manifestation, They are silent and quiet like a sleeper, and after Their manifestation, They speak and are illuminated, like one who is awake.

Literally, 'Abdu'l-Bahá's statement is: ín tábír wa tamthíl ast majáz ast, nah haqíqat "This is an explanation and comparison; it is figuration, not [literal] reality." ('Abdu'l-Bahá, Some Answered Questions, p. 85; Persian text in Mufávadát, p. 63.) The reason this statement was made is that, in Bahá'í theophanology, Bahá'u'lláh had a pre-existence (unlike other men) and was from that time forward destined to become a Manifestation of God. The same ideology does concede, however, that Bahá'u'lláh's personal consciousness of his destiny did progress through stages of increasing self-awareness of his mission.

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^34. Balyuzi, Bahá'u'lláh, p. 230. This schism at the leadership level of the Bábí exile community is known in Bahá'í history as the "Most Great Separation."
^35. The Azali faction continued to be known as the "people of the Bayán" and the followers of Bahá'u'lláh became known as the "people of Bahá" (ahl al-Bahá').
^36. Cited by M. Momen, The Bábí and Bahá'í Religions, pp. 229-230.
^37. Ibid., p. 230. Browne was granted four successive interviews with Bahá'u'lláh during the five days he was a guest at Bahjí (April 15-20, 1890). Evidently, Bahá'u'lláh's only reference to that historic encounter is in a Tablet in which reference to Browne is oblique: "The youth mentioned ... attained Our presence. Although this Wronged One had not consorted for many years past with people from foreign lands, We received him on several occasions. Portents of sincerity could be discerned on his visage. We beseech God to aid him in such undertakings which would be conducive to ... the betterment of the world." (Translation and facsimile of original Tablet in H. M. Balyuzi, Edward Granville Browne and the Bahá'í Faith, 52 and frontispiece). Bahá'u'lláh sent Browne a pair of spectacles imported from China, a photograph of which appears in Browne, Selections, Figure 3.
^38. Cited in Momen, The Bábí and Bahá'í Religions, pp. 224-25. A similar reaction is recorded of the Christian watchmaker, Constantine, who on August 28, 1868, on behalf of Dr. Fáris Effendi—the first known Christian convert to the Bahá'í Faith—delivered a letter to Bahá'u'lláh aboard the steamship en route to the prison-city of 'Akká. After catching up with the steamer just as it was leaving the Port of Alexandria, Constantine caught a glimpse of Bahá'u'lláh, and exclaimed to Fáris on returning: "By God! I saw the Father of Christ!" See Balyuzi's translation of Nabíl's unpublished history of Bahá'u'lláh in Bahá'u'lláh, The King of Glory, pp. 265-68. See also K. Beveridge, "From Adrianople to 'Akká, the Austrian Lloyd," Bahá'í Studies Bulletin, Vol. 4, no. 1 (March 1986) pp. 8-32; and A. Faizi, From Adrianople to 'Akká (1969/1974) pp. 21-25.
^39. Amanat, Resurrection and Renewal, p. 365.

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