Baha'is/Babis in Iran after Baha'u'llah's banishment

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otownsend
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Baha'is/Babis in Iran after Baha'u'llah's banishment

Postby otownsend » Sun Apr 27, 2008 9:22 pm

Hi everyone,

I was wondering where to look to find out more about the Bábís and later the Baha'is from the time of Bahá'u'lláh’s banishment until he leaves Baghdad. Most of the books follow them to Baghdad and onward, but I find very little information about what happened to the friends in Iran during the time period. How did the movement spread? What was there main form of communication? How were they organized? etc...

Any and all information would be helpful.

brettz9
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Re: Baha'is/Babis in Iran after Baha'u'llah's banishment

Postby brettz9 » Mon Apr 28, 2008 6:42 am

In case you hadn't checked it first, God Passes By, Chapter 8 makes reference to the practically destroyed community at that time, as well as the multiple claims made by some persons to the station of "Him Whom God shall make manifest".

otownsend
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Re: Baha'is/Babis in Iran after Baha'u'llah's banishment

Postby otownsend » Mon Apr 28, 2008 3:58 pm

Hi Brett,

Yes, I have read that, but is it safe to say that the faith didn't grow at all? from 1852 to 1863 it was still the Babi religion with Yahya as its figurative head...no wonder it was in decline, or on the other hand, under the wise hand of Baha'u'llah did it grow strategically in Iran? Any ideas?

brettz9
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Re: Baha'is/Babis in Iran after Baha'u'llah's banishment

Postby brettz9 » Tue Apr 29, 2008 10:17 am

I'm no expert on the history, so I can't quantify or refer to specifics beyond those I'm familiar with from God Passes by and the Dawn-Breakers. However, these books do offer a good glimpse of the general state of affairs in Persia at that time, and I will cite them below for the sake of others if not yourself.

The Foreword and Retrospect and Prospect of God Passes By and the Introduction and Epilogue of the Dawn-Breakers each allude to how this period was indeed a great crisis (as one would expect after the Life of the Faith's Prophet-Founder had been extinguished as well as those of His main followers, besides Baha'u'llah Who had been exiled) and was testament to the Faith's progression from crisis to victory. If it might help, I offer a few outlines I prepared a while back if it might help to draw to our attention not only the significance of the ebb of the Faith at this time, but also how the period was used by Shoghi Effendi toward making his main points emphasized at both the beginning and end of each of these great works:

Outlines for:
* Dawn-Breakers Introduction
* Dawn-Breakers Epilogue
* God Passes By Foreword (esp. sec. IV)
* God Passes By Retrospect and Prospect (esp. sec. VIII)

I believe you will find that all of the above, either directly or indirectly point to the process of crisis and victory and how this particular period very significantly fits in to it.

Whatever resistance the Babis offered, here or elsewhere, proved ineffective. They were overwhelmed by numbers. The Bab Himself was taken from His cell and executed. Of His chief disciples who avowed their belief in Him, not one soul was left alive save Baha'u'llah, who with His family and a handful of devoted followers was driven destitute into exile and prison in a foreign land.

But the fire, though smothered, was not quenched. It burned in the hearts of the exiles who carried it from country to country as they travelled. Even in the homeland of Persia it had penetrated too deeply to be extinguished by physical violence, and still smouldered in the people's hearts, needing only a breath from the spirit to be fanned into an all-consuming conflagration.

(Dawn-Breakers, p. xxxv)



At the same time an influx of Persian Bábís, whose sole object was to attain the presence of Bahá'u'lláh, swelled the stream of visitors that poured through His hospitable doors. Carrying back, on their return to their native country, innumerable testimonies, both oral and written, to His steadily rising power and glory, they could not fail to contribute, in a vast measure, to the expansion and progress of a newly-reborn Faith. Four of the Báb's cousins and His maternal uncle, Hájí Mírzá Siyyid Muhammad; a grand-daughter of Fath-`Alí Sháh and fervent admirer of Táhirih, surnamed Varáqatu'r-Ridván; the erudite Mullá Muhammad-i-Qá'iní, surnamed Nabíl-i-Akbar; the already famous Mullá Sádiq-i-Khurasaní, surnamed Ismu'lláhu'l-Asdaq, who with Quddús had been ignominiously persecuted in Shíráz; Mullá Báqir, one of the Letters of the Living; Siyyid Asadu'lláh, surnamed Dayyán; the revered Siyyid Javád-i-Kárbilá'í; Mírzá Muhammad-Hasan and Mírzá Muhammad-Husayn, later immortalized by the titles of Sultanu'sh-Shuhada and Mahbúbu'sh-Shuhadá (King of Martyrs and Beloved of Martyrs) respectively; Mírzá Muhammad-`Alíy-i-Nahrí, whose daughter, at a later date, was joined in wedlock to `Abdu'l-Bahá; the immortal Siyyid Ismá'íl-i-Zavari'í; Hájí Shaykh Muhammad, surnamed Nabíl by the Báb; the accomplished Mírzá Aqáy-i-Munír, surnamed Ismu'lláhu'l-Múníb; the long-suffering Hájí Muhammad-Taqí, surnamed Ayyúb; Mullá Zaynu'l-Ábidín, surnamed Zaynu'l-Muqarrabín, who had ranked as a highly esteemed mujtahid--all these were numbered among the visitors and fellow-disciples who crossed His threshold, caught a glimpse of the splendor of His majesty, and communicated far and wide the creative influences instilled into them through their contact with His spirit. Mullá Muhammad-i-Zarandí, surnamed Nabíl-i-A'zam, who may well rank as His Poet-Laureate, His chronicler and His indefatigable disciple, had already joined the exiles, and had launched out on his long and arduous series of journeys to Persia in furtherance of the Cause of his Beloved.

Even those who, in their folly and temerity had, in Baghdád, in Kárbilá, in Qum, in Káshán, in Tabríz and in Tihrán, arrogated to themselves the rights, and assumed the title of "Him Whom God shall make manifest" were for the most part instinctively led to seek His presence, confess their error and supplicate His forgiveness.

(God Passes By, pp. 130-131)


The Faith of the Báb, as already observed, had, in consequence of the successive and formidable blows it had received, reached the verge of extinction. Nor was the momentous Revelation vouchsafed to Bahá'u'lláh in the Síyáh-Chál productive at once of any tangible results of a nature that would exercise a stabilizing influence on a well-nigh disrupted community. Bahá'u'lláh's unexpected banishment had been a further blow to its members, who had learned to place their reliance upon Him. Mírzá Yahyá's seclusion and inactivity further accelerated the process of disintegration that had set in. Bahá'u'lláh's prolonged retirement to Kurdistán seemed to have set the seal on its complete dissolution.

Now, however, the tide that had ebbed in so alarming a measure was turning, bearing with it, as it rose to flood point, those inestimable benefits that were to herald the announcement of the Revelation already secretly disclosed to Bahá'u'lláh.

During the seven years that elapsed between the resumption of His labors and the declaration of His prophetic mission--years to which we now direct our attention--it would be no exaggeration to say that the Bahá'í community, under the name and in the shape of a re-arisen Bábí community was born and was slowly taking shape, though its Creator still appeared in the guise of, and continued to labor as, one of the foremost disciples of the Báb. It was a period during which the prestige of the community's nominal head steadily faded from the scene, paling before the rising splendor of Him Who was its actual Leader and Deliverer. It was a period in the course of which the first fruits of an exile, endowed with incalculable potentialities, ripened and were garnered. It was a period that will go down in history as one during which the prestige of a recreated community was immensely enhanced, its morals entirely reformed, its recognition of Him who rehabilitated its fortunes enthusiastically affirmed, its literature enormously enriched, and its victories over its new adversaries universally acknowledged.

(God Passes By, 128)


As far as the reasons for the choice of Mirza Yahya as a figurehead, see Traveler's Narrative (by 'Abdu'l-Baha), pp. 37-38


Widespread and still more violent uprisings in the provinces, His own execution, the blood bath which followed it and Bahá'u'lláh's imprisonment in the Síyáh-Chál had been succeeded by the breaking of the dawn of the Bahá'í Revelation in that dungeon. Bahá'u'lláh's banishment to Iraq, His withdrawal to Kurdistán and the confusion and distress that afflicted His fellow-disciples in Baghdád had, in turn, been followed by the resurgence of the Bábí community, culminating in the Declaration of His Mission in the Najíbíyyih Garden.

(God Passes By, Retrospect and Prospect, p. 409)


best wishes,
Brett

Ahsan_al_Hadees
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Re: Baha'is/Babis in Iran after Baha'u'llah's banishment

Postby Ahsan_al_Hadees » Wed May 28, 2008 9:47 am

Hi Brett,

You wrote:

I'm no expert on the history, so I can't quantify or refer to specifics beyond those I'm familiar with from God Passes by and the Dawn-Breakers. However, these books do offer a good glimpse of the general state of affairs in Persia at that time, and I will cite them below for the sake of others if not yourself.


Just for the members information these two books are translated in Urdu and available in Pakistan.

Urdu translation of "God Passes By" is "Qarn-e-Bad'ee".

Urdu translation of "Dawn Breakers" is "Tareekh-e-Nabeel".

You wrote:

In case you hadn't checked it first, God Passes By, Chapter 8 makes reference to the practically destroyed community at that time, as well as the multiple claims made by some persons to the station of "Him Whom God shall make manifest".


Who were those persons? :roll:

Regards,
Ahsan

brettz9
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Re: Baha'is/Babis in Iran after Baha'u'llah's banishment

Postby brettz9 » Wed May 28, 2008 10:51 am

Sorry, I don't know... Someone else?

Brett

Ahsan_al_Hadees
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Re: Baha'is/Babis in Iran after Baha'u'llah's banishment

Postby Ahsan_al_Hadees » Sun Jun 01, 2008 9:33 am

Hi,

According to Muqaddama Nukta-tul-Kaaf Page 4 these were the five Babis who claimed to be ""Him Whom God shall make manifest".

( 1 ) Mirza Assad-ullah Tibrezi

( 2 ) Mirza Abdullah Ghogha

( 3 ) Hussain Milaani

( 4 ) Syed Hussain Hindiyaani

( 5 ) Mirza Muhammad Zarandi

Regards,
Ahsan

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Re: Baha'is/Babis in Iran after Baha'u'llah's banishment

Postby AdibM » Wed Jul 23, 2008 12:47 pm

Aside from Azal and Baha'u'llah, Mirza Asadullah-i-Khuy (often named Dayyán) and Nabil-i-Azam himself also made claims to the station:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/He_Whom_Go ... e_Manifest
"To be a Bahá'í simply means to love all the world; to love humanity and try to serve it; to work for universal peace and universal brotherhood." -- `Abdu'l-Bahá

BruceDLimber
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Re: Baha'is/Babis in Iran after Baha'u'llah's banishment

Postby BruceDLimber » Sat Aug 02, 2008 9:33 am

Greetings!

Ahsan_al_Hadees wrote:According to Muqaddama Nukta-tul-Kaaf . . .


So sorry, but the Nuqtat'ul-Kaf is well known to be, at best, an extrememly questionable source! I quote Udo Schaefer (a member of the German National Spiritual Assembly and a well-known Baha'i author):

"[A certain detractor of the Baha’i Faith chooses to use as his] principal source used for this period (apart from Mr. Azal, [a well-known convenant-breaker]) ... an extraordinary manuscript produced by unknown writers some time between 1852 and 1863, under the title NUQTATU'L KAF. In his study on the work of Professor Browne, [Hand of the Cause] Mr. Balyuzi has demonstrated the unreliability of this strange melange of historical narrative, superstition, nihilistic thought, and naive partisan propaganda."

So I suggest finding a more reliable source for any assertions, and ignoring this one entirely!

Peace,

Bruce


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