Bibliography 2: #BIB38354

Key	BIB38354
Reference type	Electronic Book Section
Title	Nazif, Süleyman
Book title	Encyclopaedia Iranica Online
Author	Alkan, Necati
Editor	Daniel, Elton L.
Year	2021
Publisher	Brill
Place published	Leiden
Abstract	"He is noted for his writings on the Babis (Bahais) in Iran and the Ottoman Empire...." "In Nasıruddin Şah ve Babiler, Solaymān Nazif places the development of the Babi and Bahai religions (see BABISM and BAHAISM) in the context of Iranian and Ottoman history. Throughout his book, Nazif speaks negatively about Nāṣir-al-Din Shāh and states that the escalation of uprisings, destruction, the killing and plundering of people, and the obstruction of progress and independence in Iran characterized his reign (Nazif, 1923, p. 16). "A special concern of Nazif’s book is his admiration of the Babi disciple Ṭāhera Qorrat-al-ʿAyn (Fātema Ḵanom Baraḡāni Qazvini; d. 1852). He praises her personality, her beauty, and her virtues with magnificent words intended to perpetuate her memory (Nazif, 1923, pp. 35, 44-49). "A main focus of Nasıruddin Şah ve Babiler is the Bahai leader ʿAbd-al-Bahāʾ ʿAbbās Effendi (q.v.; 1844-1921), whom Nazif had met in Haifa in 1917. Nazif states that ʿAbd-al-Bahāʾ had renounced Babism and established the Bahai tarikat (ṭariqat)after he had moved from Akka to Haifa following the Young Turk Revolution. He moreover relates that ʿAbd-al-Bahāʾ was acquainted with the famous Ottoman poet Ziya (Żiā) Pasha, who had supposedly laid the foundations for the contacts between the Young Ottomans and the Babis and had communicated with him and Namık Kemal (Nāmiq Kamāl), another reform-minded figure among the Ottoman literati of the Tanẓimāt (“reform”) era, who was exiled to Cyprus. The Bahai leader had also told Nazif that he had an extensive correspondence with Namık Kemal, but that out of worry over investigation and persecution in the time of Abdülhamid, he had burnt those letters (Nazif, 1923, pp. 52-53; Alkan, 2008a, pp. 100-103). "In a letter written to Nazif in Turkish and appended to his book (Nazif, 1923, p. 91), ʿAbd-al-Bahāʾ complains about some articles about him that had been published in the newspaper Tasvir-i Efkâr (Taṣwir-e afkār) from 5 to 28 January 1920. He says that Nazif received his information about the Babi-Bahai religions from Westerners, who in turn took it from certain persons in Istanbul who outwardly appeared to be Babis. Nazif, ʿAbd-al-Bahāʾ states, who was a lover of truth and had studied the writings of Bahāʾ-Allāh (q.v.; 1817-92), should free himself from various kinds of prejudices. Nazif assures the reader that he wrote down what he read about ʿAbd-al-Bahāʾ and had witnessed himself without alteration, and that, after studying the letter and the newspapers ʿAbd-al-Bahāʾ had sent to him, it was not his place to write in favor of or against ʿAbd-al-Bahāʾ or the Bahai tarikat. "Although Solaymān Nazif’s work had some factual errors, it can be regarded as an important primary source with regard to first-hand information that was not accessible before to Western readers. Like other Ottoman sources from the 1910s and 1920s on the Babi and Bahai religions, Nazif’s book was also unbiased, something that modern Turkish “academic” literature about the Babis and Bahais fails to achieve, since such works are mostly written by students of Islamic theology. The use of the word tarikat by ʿAbd-al-Bahāʾ for the Bahai faith, as recorded by Nazif and the Bahai leader himself, shows that the religion was not presented as a new religion but as part of and congruent with Islam, in accordance with the Bahai principle of the unity of religions, in order to avoid persecution by the Ottomans (Alkan, 2008a, pp. 221-22; idem, 2011)."
Language	English
Keywords	NAZIF, SULEYMAN; 'ABDU'L-BAHA; BIOGRAPHY
URL	https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-iranica-online/nazif-suleyman-COM_337692?s.num=33&s.rows=20&s.start=30
Section	10.
File attachments	internal-pdf://2965454328/Alkan - Nazif_Suleyman - E_Iranica_online.pdf

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