- Wendi Momen. 'Abdu'l-Bahá's Encounter with Modernity during His Western Travels (2012). Abdu'l-Bahá's responses to the West's technology and innovations on the one hand, vs. its archaic racist and sexual philosophies on the other.
- Ismael Velasco. Academic Irrelevance or Disciplinary Blind-Spot?: Middle Eastern Studies and the Baha'i Faith Today (2001 Winter). Possible reasons for the lack of attention to the Bahá'í religion in Middle Eastern academic studies. Why is it considered marginal? What are the conceptual boundaries involved and their limitations?
- Anthony Lee. Bahá'í Faith in Africa, The: Establishing a New Religious Movement, 1952-1962 (2011). African presence in early Bábí and Bahá'í history; Bahá'í response to crises in Middle East and West Africa; histories of British Camaroons, Calabar. Studies of Religion in Africa series, vol. 39.
- Ramsey Zeine. Bahá'í Faith in the Arabic Speaking Middle East, The: Part 1 (1753-1863) (2006). Bábí and early Bahá'í links to the Arab world and the Arabic language; the identity of the Faith is a fusion of Persian and Arab origins.
- Moojan Momen. Bahá'í Influence on the Reform Movements of the Islamic World in the 1860s and 1870s (1983-09). Bahá'í influences on the Middle Eastern reform movement in the 1860s and 1870s.
- Robert Stauffer, comp. Bahá'í Studies Bulletin: Index by volume (1998). List of articles in all issues of Bahai Studies Bulletin, 1982-1992.
- Juan Cole. Bahá'u'lláh and Liberation Theology (1997). The idea of liberation and equality is central to Bahá'í theology; the poor in the 19th century Middle East; Bahá'u'lláh and the poor; Tablet to the Kings on wealth and peace; laws of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas and Huququ'lláh; state social welfare.
- Christopher Buck. Baha'u'llah as 'World Reformer' (1991). This article places Bahá'u'lláh in the context of Islamic reform by comparing him to several contemporary Iranian reformers. Bahá'u'lláh prosecuted his proposed reforms in three stages: (1) Bábí reform; (2) Persian reform; and (3) world reform.
- Kamran Ekbal. Colonialism, Nationalism and Jewish Immigration to Palestine: Abdu'l-Baha's Viewpoints Regarding the Middle East (2014). Abdu'l-Bahá was opposed to the cultural and political colonialism of foreign powers and their militaries. In spite of the Bahá'í principle of abstaining from politics, exceptions can be made in the face of tyranny and injustice.
- Kamran Ekbal. Der Messianismus des frühen 19. Jahrhunderts und die Entstehung der Baha'i Religion (1998). On the resurgence of a millenarianistic climate in the 19th century from China through the Middle-East to the USA. It highlights the millenniarist mood in Iran at the time of the beginnings of the Bábí and Bahai religions.
- Necati Alkan. Divide and Rule: The Creation of the Alawi State after World War I (2013-11). Summary of 20th-century history of the Nusayri/Alawi Shi'i movement in Syria and Turkey. (No mention of Bahá'ís.)
- Necati Alkan. Fighting for the Nuṣayrī Soul: State, Protestant Missionaries and the ʿAlawīs in the Late Ottoman Empire (2012). Overview of the Alawites/Nusayris (Syrian Shi'is) in the start of the 19th century, political attitudes in Syria and Istanbul, and the influence of Protestant missionaries.
- Juan Cole. Genesis of the Bahá'í Faith in Middle Eastern Modernity, The (1999-03). Middle Eastern religion is seldom mentioned in the same breath with modernism. The Bahá'í faith, which originated in Iran, poses key conundrums to our understanding of the relationship between modernity and religion in the global South.
- Juan Cole. Ideology, Ethics, and Philosophical Discourse in Eighteenth-Century Iran (1989 Winter). Intellectual biography as a discipline assumes that the life and thought of an individual can shed light on an epoch. This paper examines 1700s Iran via the Shi'i scholar Mohammad Mehdi Niraq (d. 1794). No mention of the Bábí or Bahá'í Faiths.
- Nader Saiedi. Introduction to Abdu'l-Baha's The Secret of Divine Civilization, An (2000). 'Abdu'l-Bahá's The Secret of Divine Civilization in the context of the Iranian social and political situation of the day, and comments on its contribution to ongoing debates on certain religious, social, and political debates.
- Universal House of Justice. Migrants and Refugees in Europe (2015-10-01). Principles to guide the response of the Bahá’í community to the dramatic social changes concerning the 2015 influx into Europe of people fleeing conflict in the Middle East, especially Syria.
- Juan Cole. Modernity and the Millennium: The Genesis of the Bahá'í Faith in the Nineteenth-century Middle East [introduction only] (1998). Introduction and first 4 pages of Chapter One.
- Juan Cole. Muhammad `Abduh and Rashid Rida: A Dialogue on the Bahá'í Faith (1981 Spring). Translation of a dialogue between two influential Sunni thinkers of the early Twentieth Century; contains much of historical interest.
- Fariba Moghadam. Secret of Divine Civilization, The (2021-05). Overview of the history Abdu'l-Bahá's treatise, and its themes presented through a compilation of quotations. Prepared for the Wilmette Institute.
- Denis MacEoin. Still Lives (1993). The nature of private lives and biography in Middle Eastern culture, with brief discussion of Rushdie's Satanic Verses and the lives of Tahirih and Shoghi Effendi.
- Oliver Scharbrodt. Theological Responses to Modernity in the Nineteenth-century Middle East (2002). With their theologies, Bahá'u'lláh and Muhammad 'Abduh both responded to the challenge of modernity and sought change, but while 'Abduh remained on the grounds of the Islamic tradition, Bahá'u'lláh founded a new religion.
- Zia M. Bagdadi. Treasures of the East: The Life of Nine Oriental Countries (1930). Descriptions of nine "Treasures" — Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Iraq, Jijaz (Arabia), Transjordania (Arabia), Persia, India, and Turkey — by an Iraqi physician who traveled to the U.S. and was instrumental in the establishment of several Bahá'í communities.
- Geoffrey Nash. What is Bahá'í Orientalism? (2021). Postcolonial theory can help analyze religious writing; Edward Said and the concept of mutual othering; power and knowledge are linked in the production of Orientalist discourse. Link to article (offsite).
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