The Bab's Stay in Kashan: A Historiographical Analysis of the Kitab-i-Nuqtatu'l-Kaf Based on the Kashan Pericope
KAVIAN MILANI
TheKitáb-i Nuqtat al-Káfhas been at the centre of many debates in Babi and Bahai history and historiography since it was first brought to public attention in 1893. Even to this date most exposés and attacks on the Bahai Faith rely heavily on this book. Therefore the authenticity, authorship, historical reliability of the text and its relevance are of both academic and apologetic importance for contemporary Bahai scholarship. This article seeks to challenge the historically unnecessary tie to the martyred Haji Mirza Jání through an examination of the stay of the Bab in Kashan as gleaned from the primary data provided by different sources. The synoptic examination of such a small episode is a useful way of bringing out some of the hidden traits of each manuscript author or manuscript tradition. The Babi texts developed out of, and responded to, the apologetic needs of the community of faith. A study of the Kashan event shows that neither Haji Mirza Jani nor Dhabih (his brother) could have been involved in the writing of theNuqtat al-Kaf,given its highly deficient treatment of the one significant episode in which they would have been most directly involved. The provenance and authenticity of the book can then be better assessed. A great deal of the material in theNuqtat al-Kafis indeed early and useful, and it may have been part of an earlier Babi oral tradition, developing alongside the changing theological and apologetic needs of the early Babi community. Until recently, the absence of a properly identifiable manuscript tradition has further limited the search for the earlier versions of the narrative, adding to the uncertainty of the accuracy of the published version. Given the limitations in available manuscripts of theNuqtat al-Kaf,all conclusions must be regarded as speculative, pending further research and the detailed examination of discovered manuscripts.
Symbolism in the Badi` Calendar
ROBIN MIHRSHAHI
This paper examines cosmological, ontological and theological concepts of the Babi and Bahai religions that find symbolic expression in the structure and organization of the Badi` calendar. It traces the Shaykhi origins of the Babs cosmology and ontology, their development in the Babi scripture and finally their expression in and through the Badi` calendar. It also explores how the Bab used this new calendar to express the relationship between his own religious mission and the revelation of `Him Whom God shall make manifest, the promised future Manifestation of God (`Manifestations is Bahai terminology for the founders of the worlds religions) repeatedly referred to in his writings.
Mark Tobey, His Art, and the Seattle Bahai Community
ROBERT G. WILSON
Mark Tobey achieved international recognition as one of the foremost artists of the 20th century. Born in Wisconsin, he attended classes at the Chicago Art Institute and then moved to New York, where he worked as an illustrator for McCalls Magazine and did freelance illustrations. In 1918 Mark Tobey became a member of the Bahai Faith. He moved to Seattle in 1923, 16 years after the establishment of the Bahai community in Seattle. Over the next 40 years he considered Seattle his home and between frequent travels, Mark Tobey participated in Seattle Bahai activities. He attended meetings, spoke at events, played the piano at the Nineteen Day Feast and gave firesides (introductory Bahai meetings) at his home in Seattles university district. He served on committees and on the Seattle Spiritual Assembly. He invited artist friends to attend Bahai events. His years of service, friendliness and active participation in Bahai activities endeared him to the Seattle Bahais.
Mark Tobey quickly aligned himself with young Northwest artists. A school of art consisting of common ideas resulting in a unique style grew around these younger artists. It was sometimes called the `Pacific Northwest School of Mystics, or `The Northwest School. Mark Tobey brought a vision of the world into this school. He was the first, if not the only, Seattle artist from the Pacific Northwest to have visited Europe, the Middle East, China and Japan. His impressions of cities, the people he saw and the art, both contemporary and historical, found their way into his paintings, not as objective statements but often as symbols. In Seattle, Tobey gained an appreciation of Asian calligraphy. In 1934, on a trip to China and Japan with the English potter Bernard Leach, Tobey lived in a Zen temple in Kyoto where he studied calligraphy and Buddhism. The abstract expressionist movement flourishing in New York was influenced by Tobeys work through his exhibitions in New York at the Willard Gallery, and in the 1940s and 1950s at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum. Mark Tobey received international recognition through major exhibitions of his work, most notably the Venice XXIV Biennale and the Musée des Arts Décoratifs at the Louvre Museum in Paris, France.
The ideas of universality and oneness expressed in the Bahai Faith, with its emphasis on the unity of humanity, the oneness of religion and that the earth is one country, formed the philosophical basis of Tobeys work. This belief played out in a lifetime of paintings that explored symbolism using calligraphic loops of light breaking form into a symbolic personal language, religious symbolism, Zen Sumi painting and masterful drawings of the human figure.
Biographical Zoning and Bahai Biographical Writing: The Case of Rose Henderson
WILL C. VAN DEN HOONAARD
This paper explores biographical zoning as a phenomenon of Bahai biographical writing. It draws on a number of Bahai vignettes and, in particular, on the life of an early Canadian Bahai, Rose Henderson, to illustrate the phenomenon. Biographical zoning refers to the process whereby the individual or the affiliated group claims exclusive privilege of particular biographical information at the expense of other biographical data. Although autobiographical accounts understandably undergo biographical zoning, the process also applies to other biographical writing and brief biographies in particular.
The act of biographical zoning seems to be particularly prevalent when the individual shares memberships, informal or formal, with a variety of groups. In that case, the individual chooses which membership activities to highlight, or the biographer, by dint of partisan enthusiasm, stresses the subjects total involvement in merely one group. If the biographers context of membership is the same as that of the subject, there is often an unwitting urge to follow the groups claim on that person and the groups disavowal of that persons affiliation with other groups.
The paper also explores the existence of four Bahai world views that may account for the practice of biographical zoning. The four world views can be described as the embryonic view, the integrative view, the oasis view, and the composite view. Each of these views underscores a particular relationship to the world at large; some views are more likely to engage in biographical zoning than others.
`Abdul-Bahas Commentary on the Quranic Verses concerning the Overthrow of the Byzantines: the Stages of the Soul
MOOJAN MOMEN
This paper is a provisional translation and commentary upon a work of `Abdul-Baha in which he gives a mystical commentary upon the first few words of the 30th Surah of the Quran, the Surah of Rúm. These words refer to the overthrow of the Byzantines. `Abdul-Baha gives the standard Muslim commentary upon these verses. Despite the fact that these verses have an obvious outward meaning, `Abdul-Baha goes on to give nine esoteric or mystical interpretations of the word `al-Rúm and of the phrase `The Byzantines have been overthrown. In the last of these interpretations, `Abdul-Baha delineates the different types of soul: mineral, vegetable, animal, human and the Soul of Láhút, the realm of the Primal Manifestation. With regard to the human soul, `Abdul-Baha also lists the nine stages in its ascent. These consist of the commanding soul, the blaming soul, the inspired soul, the assured soul, the accepting soul, the accepted soul, the perfect soul, the soul of the Kingdom of God (Malakút) and the soul of the Realm of Divine Command (Jabarút). This last is the ultimate goal in the world of creation. `Abdul-Baha describes these stages in the ascent of the human soul and how progress may be made from one to the other. This work of `Abdul-Baha thus performs two functions. It confirms the principle that the Word of God has many meanings, some of which are external and obvious, while others are hidden and mystical. It is also a manual or guide to Bahai mysticism in that it lays out the pathway or stages for the ascent of the soul from its lowest state of abasement and preoccupation with the things of the world to its highest state, where the human qualities are effaced and only the divine attributes are manifest in the individual, the state where it becomes aware of the secrets of hidden and invisible realities.
The Bab in Shiraz: An account by Mirza Habibullah Afnan
AHANG RABBANI
Sayyid `Ali-Muhammad, known to history as the Bab, was born in 1819 in Shiraz and in 1844 declared himself the Promised One of Islam, thereby inaugurating a new religious movement in Iran. This is a translation of an important document written by Mirza Habib Afnan — a relative of the Bab — comprising family recollections of the early days of the Bab. It relates the story of the early years of the Bab in Shiraz, Bushihr and Karbala, including his marriage, and leading up to the declaration of his mission in 1844. It then tells the story of the arrival of the Letters of the Living and the departure of the Bab for his pilgrimage to Mecca. It continues with events after his return from pilgrimage and the conversion of Sayyid Yahya Vahid Darabi, a leading cleric of the period, as well as recounting the persecution that the Bab suffered at the hands of the governor of Shiraz. Some of the details given in this account vary from those given in Nabils Narrative.
Volume 11, 2003
Womens education: How does it matter?
Geeta Gandhi-Kingdon
While there is consensus in the social science literature that womens education matters very much to a range of social and economic development outcomes — such as productivity and economic growth, fertility and child mortality rates, and child health and education — there is less agreement about the mechanisms through which womens education has its impact on these outcomes. This paper considers how womens education matters to their fertility and to their childrens education, taking into account both economic and non-economic pathways. It evaluates the so-called bargaining power mechanism in the light of Bahai teachings about the purpose of womens education. It considers whether education has to raise womens earnings in order for its benefits to accrue, and examines the trade-off between the economic and non-economic mechanisms through which womens education acts.
A survey of the Bahai Faith in Africa from its earliest days to 1986
Will. C. van den Hoonaard
This paper presents an initial overview of the history of the development of the Bahai Faith in Africa from its beginnings in about 1866 until 1986. It deals in particular with the systematic spread of the Bahai Faith in Africa that occurred under the plans launched by Shoghi Effendi and the Universal House of Justice from 1951 onwards. The paper describes the development and extension of the Bahai institutions at the national and local level as well as those areas where there were large numbers of conversions. It explores the opposition to the Bahai Faith in both the Islamic countries of North Africa and the colonial and post-colonial governments in sub-Saharan Africa as well as the problems caused by apartheid in South Africa. It surveys some of the social and economic projects initiated by the Bahais. The paper starts with sections on references to Africa in the authoritative Bahai texts and on some African slaves who played a part in early Babi and Bahai history. There is an appendix giving the date and names of the first Bahais to move to each country as well as the names of the first indigenous Bahais of each country.
The family and early life of
Tahirih Qurrat al-`Ayn
Moojan Momen
This paper is an attempt to bring together a large amount of information about the ancestry and immediate family of the Babi heroine, poetess, and martyr, Tahirih Qurrat al-`Ayn, that has become available in Persian and Arabic, mainly in biographical dictionaries of Shi`i religious scholars and from family sources. Among the interesting points that emerge is the fact that Tahirih, whom the Babis regarded as the return of Fatimih, the daughter of the prophet Muhammad, was also descended from this lady on her mothers side. The paper also tries to sketch out what these sources say about the early life of Tahirih, her education, her marriage and her introduction to the teachings of Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsai, up to the time that she first heard of the Bab and became a Babi. The paper describes some of the tensions in the paternal family of Tahirih, which must have affected her as she grew up.
`Abdul-Bahas commentary on the Islamic tradition: `God doth give victory to this religion by means of a wicked man — a provisional translation and notes
Necati Alkan
This paper presents a provisional translation of a short exegesis (tafsir) by `Abdul-Baha in Ottoman Turkish. There are many tablets of `Abdul-Baha in various Turkic dialects. The original text of this tablet appears in a collection of Turkish tablets and prayers of `Abdul-Baha, Majmu`ih-yi Alwa? wa Munajatha-yi Turki in the Arabic-Persian script, first published in 1948—9. It is probable that this tablet was written in `Akka since at least one tablet in this collection is dated 1894, and at that time `Abdul-Baha was living there. He moved to Haifa after his liberation in 1908. As in the case of some other tablets, it was probably addressed to a Sunni Ottoman official or a cleric.
Towards a definition of Bahai theology and mystical philosophy
Julio Savi
Theology is not one of those `sciences ... which begin with words and end with words. On the contrary, the Bahai writings teach a theology, which is usually defined as `divine philosophy, and which has nothing to do with past, divisive, metaphysical hair-splitting. Its main objects are listed. Divine philosophy is not a mere intellectual knowledge of abstract ideas, but a conscious knowledge of spiritual reality, which every Bahai is invited to achieve, so that his life may be renewed. Three fruits of divine philosophy are described: inner knowledge, spiritual progress, and an enhanced capacity of loving. These fruits are vital means for the attainment of the object of the Bahai Faith: the oneness of humankind. Studying theology is not dangerous for the unity of the Bahais, because the Bahai writings provide sufficient means of security: the infallibility of the Universal House of Justice, as the head of the Bahai Faith, and the interdiction to utter authoritative statements unless specifically authorized by the writings themselves. Since Bahai theology is quite different from the theologies of the past, it is suggested that it be called `divine philosophy, according to the terminology used in the writings.
Styles of piety —
Notes on the relationship between Bahai scholars and the Bahai institutions with reference to academic methodology
Todd Lawson
This paper addresses very broadly a number of issues in contemporary Bahai scholarship. The approach here is allusive rather than categorical. Starting from the denigration of `blind faith by Bahaullah, the intellectual heritage of the Islamic world is held up as both mirror and example (both positive and negative) for approaching current problems and questions arising from an encounter between scholarship and administrative authority. Some thoughts are expressed touching upon the role of the scholar in the community. The phenomenon of the Internet is briefly discussed. The article ends with some reflection on the idea or institution of the Covenant.
Efforts to preserve the remains of the Bab: Four historical accounts
Ahang Rabbani
The execution of the Bab and his companion, Mirza Muhammad `Ali Zunuzi (Anis), took place at noon on Tuesday, 9 July 1850, but it was not until 21 March 1909 that their mangled bodies were entombed in their permanent shrine on Mount Carmel, Haifa. During this interval of 59 years, fearing destruction by entrenched enemies, these remains were concealed in a number of places, often unknown to the generality of Bahais. The object of this article is to outline the background of this episode of Bahai history based on early documents. Even though these accounts occasionally overlap in their descriptions of the events, yet each contains an important perspective that has warranted its inclusion. Four accounts are here translated for the first time into English.
The Holy Land 1918—1922: Some Historical Letters
Four letters written from the Holy Land in the period 1918—22. The first three deal with the efforts that were made to save `Abdul-Baha at the end of World War I, when his life was threatened by Jamal Pasha, the Ottoman military commander of Palestine.1 The last letter relates to the period immediately after the passing of `Abdul-Baha and records Lady Blomfields impression of being in Haifa during the opening days of Shoghi Effendis Guardianship. These letters were found among Lady Blomfields papers (held in the Archives of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahais of the United Kingdom) as copies of the original letters and are reproduced exactly as they exist in the archives.
Volume 10, 2001/2002
Alain Locke: Bahá'í Philosopher
Christopher Buck
African American philosopher Alain Locke is arguably the most profound and important western Bahá'í philosopher to date. Except for Ernest Masons 1979 World Order article, scholarship on Locke has neither seriously taken into account his Bahá'í identity nor its influence on his work. The present study, based largely on archival sources, will contribute to research on this "missing" dimension of Lockes complex life and thought. This study examines Lockes worldview as a Bahá'í, his secular perspective as a philosopher, and the synergy between his confessional and professional essays. This study also argues that Locke had a fluid hierarchy of valuesof loyalty, tolerance, reciprocity, cultural relativism and pluralism (the philosophical equivalent of "unity in diversity")and that this hierarchy represents a progression and application of quintessentially Bahá'í ideals. Lockes distinction as a "Bahá'í philosopher" may therefore be justified on ideological as well as historical grounds. Locke "translated" Bahá'í ideals "into more secular terms" so that "a greater practical range will be opened up for the application and final vindication of the Bahá'í principles" in order to achieve "a positive multiplication of spiritual power."
"First we must speak of logical proofs": discourses of knowledge in the Bahá'í writings
Franklin Lewis
This paper first suggests that many statements in the Bahá'í writings are couched in the terms of a particular discourse, or intellectual tradition, of the texts immediate audience. As such, these statements may assume some of the premises of the addressee, passing over them without necessarily seeking to challenge or affirm those premises in an absolute sense, in order to make an argument which the addressee can accept. Such premises may sometimes be factually true, in an empirical sense, while sometimes they may not be propositionally true, but may rather be true in a metaphoric and symbolic sense. This being the case, recovering the nature of the discourse being employed, or the intellectual context of the statement, can help to evaluate whether a given statement is meant to convey a propositional fact or a rhetorical truth. `Abdul-Bahá often adopted the particular parameters of western modernist discourse about knowledge, specifically in terms of the debate of science versus religion, and his statements are germane to contemporary questions about academic, or materialist, methodologies and the Bahá'í view toward these modes of knowledge. `Abdul-Bahá often appears to give precedence to logical proofs and scientific method over traditional religious modes or explanations of reality, particularly in questions of fact and information, though not necessarily where ethics and morality are concerned. He would therefore seem to assert the validity of western academic, or materialist, methodologies.
Methodology in Bahá'í Studies
Moojan Momen
In surveying the academic world, we find that for historic reasons, atheistic, materialistic methodologies are prominent making it a place largely unfavourable to any faith-based approach to scholarship. In this paper I identify the two ways that Bahá'í scholarship can develop, interior (i.e. scholarship that develops within the Bahá'í community and is based on faith) and exterior (i.e. academic scholarship based on the rationalistic, materialistic methodology of academia). I suggest that although the first is not without benefit, we need also, for a number of reasons, to develop the second. I identify several approaches that might be taken by Bahá'í scholars in interacting with the academic world. That of full engagement with the materialistic methodology of the academic world; that of finding academic methodologies that are more favourable to a faith perspective; that of trying to influence the academic world from outside. Lastly I attempt to identify some feature of the Bahá'í teachings that could form the basis in the long run of a Bahá'í methodology: these include such qualities as detachment, justice, being positive and constructive, achieving the balance between reason and faith, consultative processes, the correct attitude towards the institutions of the Faith, and towards the Covenant.
Bahá'í apologetics?
Udo Schaefer
Apologetics is a branch of systematic theology, rather than religious studies. It has an important place in the Bahá'í Faith: in numerous Bahá'í writings, it is stated that "the Cause of God must be protected" and the arguments of its assailants refuted. However, apologetics has a wider purpose than mere defence. It can help explore the teachings of the Faith in the context of prevailing philosophies and standards in a secular society, and to answer critical inquiries in a rational manner. Although critical self-reflection on the fundamentals of the Faith is a prerequisite of this task, apologetics is not possible without commitment to revelation. Given the role of apologetics in Bahá'í history and in the development of its texts and ideas, it is surprising that the Bahá'í community has generally undervalued its importance.
Methodology and Bahá'í studies: the bridge between realities
John Hatcher
In the Kitáb-i-Íqán, Baháulláh describes the resistance on the part of "divines" to accept the new Revelation. History also demonstrates the same resistance to revolutionary advances in the concept of reality that are introduced by enlightened individuals (e.g., Copernicus or Newton).
It is in this context that the contemporary academy is often constrained by archaic notions of scholarship and even more particularly by the rejection of the notion of the interpenetration of the dual aspects of reality: the composite outer expression that is physical reality and the non-composite and unseen expression that is spiritual reality.
However, this resistance is rapidly being overcome by the realization on the part of scholars in a variety of academic fields that the laws and relationships operant in the physical aspect of reality are the exact counterpart of the laws and relationships operant in spiritual aspect of reality.
This paper posits the thesis that it is increasingly the role of the Bahá'í academic to bring to light images of this interpenetration of the dual aspects of reality by showing how the dual methodologies described in the Bahá'í writings demonstrate the integration between these two expressions of reality.
Unfreezing the frame: the promise of inductive research in Bahá'í studies
Will C. van den Hoonaard
This paper explores the suitability of inductive analysis as a method in Bahá'í scholarship. It also looks at a number of stumbling blocks that inhibit the development of a Bahá'í methodology, whether inductive or otherwise. By examining Bahá'í studies from an inductive perspective, we note a reluctance to forge the gap between Bahá'í and non-Bahá'í studies on the Bahá'í community, aspects of Bahá'í studies that limit the participation of women, the tendency among Bahá'í publishing scholarly outlets to reproduce "comfort" methodologies, and the workings of at least seven Bahá'í scholarly clusters that organize and structure discourse on Bahá'í methodologies which inhibit the rise of new perspectives. The paper proposes some six ways to unfreeze the methodological frame that seems to guide current Bahá'í methodological practice and discourse.
Volume 9, 1999
Knowledge and the Covenant of Bahá'u'lláh
Ian Semple
The pursuit of knowledge, in addition to ascertaining facts, requires categorization, correlation and deduction and is a process that is influenced culturally by the researcher's understanding of the world. The Bahá'í Revelation presents a new and challenging situation by its principles of the unfettered search for truth, and the harmony of religion and science, by the authenticity of the Writings of its Founder, and by the authority of the Covenant that has been established. This challenge is faced particularly by those Bahá'ís who follow an academic career in religious studies, but also by the generality of the believers, and should lead to enrichment of their understanding.
An Account of the Activities and an Analysis of the Role of Jamál Effendi in the Propagation of the Bahá'í Faith throughout Asia
Moojan Momen
In a period of twenty years, Jamál Effendi travelled throughout India and succeeded in converting many people to the Bahá'í Faith, including some notable figures. Even more than in India, Jamál Effendi can be said to have established the Bahá'í Faith in Burma, where the present Bahá'í community can trace itself back to the sojourn there of Jamál Effendi and his companion Sayyid Mustafá Rúmí. Jamál Effendi also visited other countries in South-East Asia and Central Asia. This paper is an attempt to establish the routes and dates of his journeys, although there continue to remain some details of which it is not yet possible to be certain. There is also some discussion of his techniques for spreading the Bahá'í Faith.
Catastrophe, Armageddon, and Millennium: some aspects of the Babi-Baha'i exegesis of apocalyptic symbolism
Stephen Lambden
A wide range of sometimes disturbing Abrahamic and related religious texts and traditions have warned humankind of an impending eschatological calamity or catastrophe. Additionally the sacred books of the world not only predict global catastrophe but also an ensuing millennial world peace. This paper is a preliminary consideration of select Babi-Baha'i doctrines expository of apocalyptic symbolism associated with major Abrahamic religious prophecies. I will endeavour to show that many of the Baha'i interpretations of end-time catastrophe are best viewed in their evolving historical contexts.
A brief consideration will be made of the war of the last days referred to in the canonical Apocalypse, the Book of Revelation, as the battle of Armageddon (Rev. 16:14). A cursory examination of dimensions of the catastrophe and ensuing millennial peace by the central figures of the Baha'i religion will be set down. For several decades, some Baha'is have been troubled by expectations of concrete global catastrophe. Awareness of the fact that Babi-Baha'i sources anticipate numerous "catastrophes" with aspects that have already been outwardly realized or spiritually interpreted is not widespread in the contemporary Baha'i community. On occasion, both the Bab and Baha'u'llah undertook a courageous demythologization of apocalyptic scenarious anticipated in Biblical and Islamic scripture and tradition. It is the Baha'i belief that the "catastrophe" or the apocalyptic upheaval of the last days has very largely if not completely been realised in the troubled yet brilliant 20th century.
Poetry as revelation
Graham Hassall
Bahá'u'lláh composed several formal poems in rhyme and meter. One of these poems, the
Mathnavíy-i Mubárak, concerns Bahá'u'lláh's disclosure of his station to the Babis and to humanity.
Bahá'u'lláh's Mathnaví alludes to the world-famous Mathnaví of Jalal al-Din Rumi, whose followers
founded the spiritual confraternity known as the "Whirling Dervishes" (Mevleviye or Mawlaviyyah
Order), which was quite active in Istanbul and Edirne during the time of Bahá'u'lláh's exile. This paper
suggests the theological and rhetorical significance of Bahá'u'lláh's use of the discourse of Sufism,
specifically Sunni Persian poetry; discusses the importance of Rumi among 19th century Iranians, in
particular the Bábís and the Baha'is; outlines the date and circumstances of composition of Bahá'u'lláh's
Mathnaví; proposes some of the factors to consider in establishing critical editions of the poems of
Bahá'u'lláh; and finally theorizes about some of the aesthetic factors to consider in translating the poetry
of Bahá'u'lláh. The article accompanies the first provisional translation of the poem to English, an
experimental translation in blank verse.
