# The First Recorded Baha'i Fireside

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> Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Christopher Buck, The First Recorded Baha'i Fireside, bahai-library.com.
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> 
> The First Recorded Bahá’í Fireside
> Christopher Buck
> 
> ABSTRACT
> This article presents an episode recounted by Cambridge orientalist, Edward
> Granville Browne (7 February 1862–5 January 1926), as narrated in his travel classic, A
> Year Amongst the Persians, first published in 1893 (second edition published by
> Cambridge in 1926), in what may be characterized, with some poetic license, as the
> first recorded “fireside” in Bahá’í history, i.e. the firsthand account given in the course
> of his historic contacts with the Bahá’ís in Persia (present-day Iran), during his stay in
> Shíráz, from Thursday, 22 March 1888 to Saturday, 6 April 1888—at which time
> Browne, at long last, succeeded in his quest to discover further information on the Bábí
> religion which, by this time, had evolved into what is today known as the “Bahá’í
> Faith,” now an independent world religion established in all countries except for North
> Korea and the Vatican. Special focus is devoted to a meeting that took place in Shiraz
> on “Friday, March 30th,” 1888—and which here is characterized as “the first recorded
> Bahá’í fireside.” Browne’s account—closely compared, in the present study, to his
> original diary entries, digital scans of which are now made available by at Pembroke as
> part of the “Browne Archive Project”—is energized by his intense curiosity, which may
> fairly be described as a “passion” for his research interest as a scholar. To ascertain the
> degree to which Browne’s narrative is a composite, reworked account—and not strictly
> sequential and chronological—it makes sense to draw some correspondences between
> Browne’s diary entries, and the Shíráz narrative in Chapter XI in A Year Amongst the
> Persians, as to both topics and dates. Browne’s corresponding diary entries, where
> “SHÍRÁZ” appears as the heading at the top of each page. Briefly, the present article
> highlights Browne’s diary entries, folio by folio (page by page), from Vols. II and III of
> Browne’s diary, and offers some observations on corresponding passages in A Year
> Amongst the Persians.
> 
> Keywords: Edward Granville Browne; Persians; Shiraz; diary; Baha’i; Bábí;
> fireside.
> Christopher Buck                          “The First Recorded Bahá’í Fireside”                         Page 2 of 39
> 
> This article presents an episode that took place in Shiraz, Persia (present-day
> Iran) on “Friday, March 30th,” 1888, as recounted by Cambridge orientalist, Edward
> Granville Browne (7 February 1862–5 January 1926), as narrated in his travel classic, A
> Year Amongst the Persians, first published in 1893 (second edition published by
> Cambridge in 1926), in what may be characterized, with some poetic license, as the
> first recorded “fireside” in Bahá’í history,1 i.e. as part of Browne’s firsthand account of
> his contacts with the Bahá’ís in Persia (present-day Iran), during his stay in Shíráz,
> from Thursday, 22 March 1888 to Saturday, 6 April 1888—at which time Browne, at
> long last, succeeded in his quest to discover further information on the Bábí religion
> which, by this time, had evolved into what is today known as the “Bahá’í Faith,” now
> an independent world religion established in all countries except for North Korea and
> the Vatican. Of course, Browne already had extensive knowledge of the Bábí and Baha’i
> religions, which he acquired during the course of his research. During the 1880s,
> moreover, Browne was a personal friend of an Iranian Baha’i in London.2 Throughout
> the present article, Browne’s account is compared to his original diary entries, digital
> scans of which are now made available by at Pembroke as part of the “Browne Archive
> Project.” Browne’s record of this event is energized by his intense curiosity, which may
> fairly be described as a “passion” for his research interest as a scholar. A sense of
> discovery pervades the narrative, which recreates and memorializes Browne’s
> encounters with the Bahá’ís of Shíráz, during a time in which they had to carry on a
> rather subterranean, secretive existence, in order to avoid further acts of violent
> persecution perpetrated by state and clerical authorities which, although abated,
> continues to this day.
> 
> Here, by “recorded” is meant a published, historical narrative—to the extent
> that an autobiographical account may function as history. “History” is largely, if not
> primarily, based on such primary sources as eyewitness accounts, personal memoirs,
> diaries, contemporaneous notes, autobiographies, documents of various kinds, and so
> forth. To the extent that an autobiography may function as a primary source of history,
> the narrative of interest here is Edward Granville Browne’s autobiographical A Year
> Amongst the Persians: Impressions as to the Life, Character, & Thought of the People of Persia
> 
> Baha’i Studies Review 21 (2015): 57–85.      [Vol. 21 published Nov. 2019.]      Author’s manuscript (pages differ).
> Christopher Buck                          “The First Recorded Bahá’í Fireside”                         Page 3 of 39
> 
> Received During Twelve Months’ Residence in That Country in the Years 1887–8,3 acclaimed as
> one of the most notable travel classics set in the Middle East, and which Bahá’í
> historian, Hasan M. Balyuzi (1908–1980, and appointed a “Hand of the Cause of God”
> by Shoghi Effendi) praised as an “imperishable book.”4
> 
> In the present article, reference will also be made to Browne’s travel diary (on
> which A Year Amongst the Persians is based). The Cambridge Shahnama Centre for
> Persian Studies, established in 2010 at Pembroke, launched the Browne Archive
> Project. Thanks to this project, Browne’s diary is now available online, courtesy of
> Pembroke College, Cambridge University, which has uploaded high-resolution, digital
> scans. The scans of interest here are contained in Vols. II5 and III.6 Of particular
> interest, as previously stated, is Browne’s account of his meetings with various
> “Bábís” (i.e. Bahá’ís) in the city of Shíráz, Persia (present-day Iran), as Moojan Momen
> notes: “Browne relates the story of his stay in Shíráz in two chapters. In the tenth
> chapter of the book, Browne gives a general account of what happened to him in Shíráz
> while he devotes the whole of the eleventh chapter to describing his contacts with the
> Bahá’ís of Shíráz.” 7
> 
> As previously noted, the term “fireside”—here used in a specifically Bahá’í
> context—is for purely descriptive purposes only, since this term is admittedly
> anachronistic, having gained currency considerably later in Bahá’í history—in Montreal,
> not Persia, as William Hatcher and Douglas Martin note.8 A Bahá’í “fireside” is an
> informal informational meeting in which the teachings of the Bahá’í Faith are
> introduced to one or more interested individuals. The term “fireside” “originated with
> the early Bahá’í group in Montreal, Canada” and “describes small study groups held at
> regular intervals in private homes, to which friends and acquaintances are invited.”
> This “informal activity” has been “a prolific source of new members,” as it “allows
> inquirers to explore the Bahá’í concepts, laws, and teachings at their own pace” and
> “free from the concern that their private spiritual search may be ‘on display,’ as might
> be the case in an open meeting.9 This venerable Bahá’í teaching activity was much
> vaunted and valorized by Shoghi Effendi, Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith from 1921–
> 1957.10
> 
> Baha’i Studies Review 21 (2015): 57–85.      [Vol. 21 published Nov. 2019.]      Author’s manuscript (pages differ).
> Christopher Buck                          “The First Recorded Bahá’í Fireside”                         Page 4 of 39
> 
> As applied to Professor Browne, his encounters with the Bahá’ís in Shíráz had
> the advantage of remaining personal and private, so as to not attract attention, which
> would otherwise have placed Browne, and his Bahá’í contacts, in some peril, if not in
> mortal danger, given the volatile situation at that time. In a sense, therefore, Browne,
> in furtherance of his original research, was engaged in a risky pursuit, fraught with
> potential, although not imminent danger. As to his diary, which Browne paginated in
> red ink, Browne notes (also in red ink), at the top of p. 338:
> 
> This is the 3rd volume of my journal. The first contains from Trebizonde to
> Teherán (p. 1–128): The second from Teherán to Shíráz (p. 129–337). This
> volume, the 3rd, contains Shíráz, Yezd, & part of Kermán: & the fourth & last
> vol. the rest of Kirmán, & the return thence to Teherán and Mázandarán,—
> thence home.11
> 
> A Year Amongst the Persians does not fit neatly into any single category. Browne’s
> narrative is a tapestry, a woven, colorful and rich account of his experiences throughout
> his year in Persia, documenting his journey by way of a chronological travel narrative,
> recording, at every step of the way, his sundry impressions of Persia itself (with an
> emphasis on the Persians as a people), providing scenic details about Persian flora12
> and fauna, with close attention to the surrounding landscapes through which he
> traversed, interspersing, if not spicing his narrative with quotations from Persian
> poetry (with English translations followed by transliterations of the original Persian),
> setting down observations that read like an incipient anthropology notes of his field-
> work, all the while memorializing autobiographical accounts of his experiences in
> impressive detail, replete with extended conversations—given verbatim (whether real or
> imagined, or a mix of both)—to which Browne superadds amusing anecdotes, offers
> occasional social critique, muses by way of personal and philosophical reflections,
> while offering an abundance of information on the history, literature and beliefs of the
> Bahá’í Faith, consistently referred to as the “Bábí” religion, acquired firsthand—all of
> which is based on his diary accounts.
> 
> Baha’i Studies Review 21 (2015): 57–85.      [Vol. 21 published Nov. 2019.]      Author’s manuscript (pages differ).
> Christopher Buck                          “The First Recorded Bahá’í Fireside”                         Page 5 of 39
> 
> To ascertain the degree to which Browne’s narrative is a composite, reworked
> account—and not strictly sequential and chronological—it makes sense to draw some
> correspondences between Browne’s diary entries, and the Shíráz narrative in Chapter
> XI in A Year Amongst the Persians, as to both topics and dates. Browne’s corresponding
> diary entries, where “SHÍRÁZ” appears as the heading at the top of each page, runs
> from Vol. II, p. 302 (referring to the handwritten page number marked in red ink at the
> top of each page and corresponding to p. 212 of the online pagination13—to p. 329 (p.
> 247 of the online) inclusive,14 and, in Vol. III, from p. 338 to p. 349, inclusive. 15 Briefly,
> the present article highlights Browne’s diary entries, folio by folio (page by page), from
> Vols. II and III of Browne’s diary, and offers some observations on corresponding
> passages in A Year Amongst the Persians.
> 
> A natural place to begin is Wednesday, March 21, 1888, when Browne caught his
> first glimpse of Shíráz, and, with a sudden surge of surprise and delight, exclaimed:
> 
> Rode on full of expectancy, till after a sudden turn to the right, I suddenly came
> in view of Shíráz, lying green & beautiful almost at my feet. I shall never as long
> as I live forget the thrill of ecstasy which I experienced as at last the long
> expected sight burst upon me. Yes, after so many weary miles march, there at
> last was beautiful Shíráz, the goal of my long pilgrimage—I almost wept for joy.
> No illusion—no disappointment here—: more beautiful than I had dreamed of
> or hoped for—smiling fair amidst its lovely gardens of cypresses & plane trees—
> its green domes standing in the pure air—was Shíráz, the darling city of [p. 213]
> Hafiz and Sa‘di.16
> 
> Here, the corresponding passage in A Year Amongst the Persians, expands this
> episode in the following narrative, offering a fuller account of Browne’s experience in
> seeing Shíráz for the very first time:
> 
> Baha’i Studies Review 21 (2015): 57–85.      [Vol. 21 published Nov. 2019.]      Author’s manuscript (pages differ).
> Christopher Buck                          “The First Recorded Bahá’í Fireside”                         Page 6 of 39
> 
> We were, I gathered, quite close to it now, and I was so full of expectancy
> that I had but little inclination to talk. Suddenly we turned a corner, and in that
> moment—a moment of which the recollection will never fad from my mind—
> there burst upon my delighted gaze a view the like of which (in its way) I never
> saw.
> 
> We were now at that point, known to all students of Ḥáfiz, called Tang-i-
> Alláhu Akbar, because whoever first beholds Shíráz hence is constrained by the
> exceeding beauty of the sight to cry out in admiration “Alláhu Akbar”—“God is
> most great!” At our very feet, in a grassy, fertile plain girt with purple hills (on
> the loftier summits of which the snow still lingered), and half concealed amidst
> gardens of dark stately cypresses, wherein the rose and the judas-tree in
> luxuriant abundance struggled with a host of other flowers for the mastery of
> colour, sweet and beautiful in its garb of spring verdure which clothed the very
> roofs of the bazaars, studded with many a slender minaret, and many a
> turquoise-hued dome, lay the home of Persian culture, the mother of Persian
> genius, the sanctuary of poetry and philosophy, Shíráz.
> 
> Riveted on this, and this alone, with an awe such as that wherewith the
> pilgrim approaches the shrine, with a delight such as that wherewith the exile
> again beholds his native land, my eyes scarcely marked the remoter beauties of
> the scene—the glittering azure of Lake Mahálú to the east, the interminable
> gardens of Masjid-Bardí to the west. Words cannot describe the rapture which
> overcame me as, after many a weary march, I gazed at length on the reality of
> that whereof I had so long dreamed, and found the reality not merely equal to,
> but far surpassing, the ideal which I had conceived. It is seldom enough in one’s
> life that this occurs. When it does, one’s innermost being is stirred with an
> emotion which baffles description, and which the most eloquent words can but
> dimly shadow forth.17
> 
> Baha’i Studies Review 21 (2015): 57–85.      [Vol. 21 published Nov. 2019.]      Author’s manuscript (pages differ).
> Christopher Buck                          “The First Recorded Bahá’í Fireside”                         Page 7 of 39
> 
> Here, British orientalist, Arthur John Arberry (better known as “A. J. Arberry),
> comments: “This brief extract may be taken as a fair illustration of how the printed
> record differs from the written journal.”18 To be fair, one would expect an author to
> expand upon incomplete, sketchy diary entries to render a complete, full-fledged
> narrative. In the process, some poetic license may be permitted to enhance and vivify
> the retelling, which is in evidence here. The authenticity of this experience is not in
> question. It is a dramatic moment which Browne brings alive with narrative skill.
> 
> In A Year Amongst the Persians, Chapter XI, “Shíráz (continued),” from a purely
> literary perspective, represents a significant departure from Browne’s preceding
> narrative, as he explains in the opening of this chapter:
> 
> In attempting to convey a correct impression of past events, it is often difficult
> to decide how far their true sequence may be disregarded for the sake of
> grouping together things naturally related. To set down all occurrences day by
> day, as they actually took place, is undoubtedly the easiest, and, in some ways,
> the most natural plan. On the other hand, it often necessitates the separation of
> matters intimately connected with one another, while the mind is distracted
> rather than refreshed by the continual succession of topics presented to it. For
> this reason I have thought it best to include in a separate chapter all that I have
> to say concerning my intercourse with the Bábís in Shíráz. . . . As it was, it was a
> thing apart; a separate life in a different sphere; a drama, complete in itself, with
> its own scenes and its own actors.19
> 
> Browne’s first few diary entries in Shíráz have no significant mention of
> anything related to Bahá’í topics or personal encounters.20 The situation soon changes.
> The very first “Bábí” (i.e. Bahá’í) whom Browne recounts in this chapter is “Mírzá
> Muḥammad”:
> 
> Those who have followed me thus far on my journey will remember how, after
> long and fruitless search, a fortunate chance at length brought me into contact
> with the Bábís at Iṣfahán. They will remember also that the Bábí apostle to
> whom I was introduced promised to notify my desire for fuller instruction to his
> 
> Baha’i Studies Review 21 (2015): 57–85.      [Vol. 21 published Nov. 2019.]      Author’s manuscript (pages differ).
> Christopher Buck                          “The First Recorded Bahá’í Fireside”                         Page 8 of 39
> 
> fellow-believers at Shíráz, and that he further communicated to me the name of
> one whose house formed one of their principal resorts. I had no sooner reached
> Shíráz than I began to consider how I should, without attracting attention or
> arousing comment, put myself in communication with the person so designated,
> who occupied a post of some importance in the public service which I will not
> more clearly specify. His name, too, I suppress for obvious reasons. Whenever I
> have occasion to allude to him, I shall speak of him as Mírzá Muḥammad.21
> 
> Momen identifies this individual, to wit: “Mírzá Muḥammad-i-Báqir-i-Dihqán,
> son of Ḥájí Abu’l-Ḥasan-i-Bazzáz, and head of the Post Office in Shiraz, was one of the
> mainstays of the Shíráz Bahá’í community.”22 Nothing specific is said about him at this
> point in the narrative.
> 
> In his entry for “Sunday, March 25th,” 1888, a certain “Mírzá ‘Alí Áḳá” paid
> Browne a visit, promised to obtain for Browne a copy of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, and “agreed
> to collaborate in translating their book called Lawḥ-i-Aḳdas” (sic, i.e. the Kitáb-i-Aḳdas,
> i.e. the Kitáb-i-Aqdas in Bahá’í transliteration).23 This agrees with Momen’s brief note to
> the same effect, and who discloses his identity as follows:
> 
> Mírzá ‘Alí Áqá, later known as ‘Alí-Muḥammad Khán, Muvaqqaru’d-Dawlih
> father of the Hand of the Cause Mr. Hasan M. Balyuzi. Mírzá ‘Alí Áqá had met
> Browne while studying in England. The date of this first meeting of theirs in
> Shíráz was Saturday, 24 March. Some of what Browne attributes to him was,
> however, said on 5 April. Mr. Balyuzi has kindly allowed me to publish some
> extracts from his father’s diary which describe Browne’s stay in Shíráz.
> Concerning this first meeting, Mírzá ‘Alí Áqá writes: ‘I stayed about two hours.
> We talked a great deal. He had stopped in Teheran [Tehran] for some months.
> His purpose is touring the country.’ Mírzá ‘Alí Áqá was an Afnán (family of the
> Báb on the maternal side) on his mother’s side, and was in later years to become
> Governor of the Gulf Ports and Minister for Public Works before his death in
> 1921.24
> 
> Baha’i Studies Review 21 (2015): 57–85.      [Vol. 21 published Nov. 2019.]      Author’s manuscript (pages differ).
> Christopher Buck                          “The First Recorded Bahá’í Fireside”                         Page 9 of 39
> 
> So “Mírzá ‘Alí” (i.e. Mírzá ‘Alí Áqá, later known as ‘Alí-Muḥammad Khán,
> Muvaqqaru’d-Dawlih, and also known as Mírzá ‘Alí-Muḥammad Afnán Shírází) was the
> father of Bahá’í historian, Hasan M. Balyuzi (1908–1980, and appointed a “Hand of the
> Cause of God” by Shoghi Effendi). Balyuzi writes that his “father knew Edward Browne
> intimately in London in the eighties of the last century, was featured as Mírzá ‘Alí in
> Browne’s A Year Amongst the Persians, corresponded with him for some years, and more
> significant, he was instrumental in facilitating Browne’s visit to ‘Akká and to
> Bahá’u’lláh.” 25 Of his Sunday, 25 March 1888, meeting with Mírzá ‘Alí Áqá, Browne
> recounts:
> 
> I withdrew my eyes from the tablet and turned them on Mírzá ‘Alí, who
> had been attentively watching my scrutiny. Our glances met, and I knew at once
> that my conjecture was right.
> 
> “Do you know Mírzá Muḥammad?” I asked presently.
> 
> “I know him well”, he replied; “it was he who informed me that you were
> coming. You have not seen him yet? Then I will take you there one day soon,
> and you shall meet other friends. I must find out when he will be disengaged,
> and arrange a time.“
> 
> “I did not know”, said I, “that you. . . . Tell me what you really think . . .”
> 
> “I confess I am puzzled”, he answered. “Such eloquence, such conviction,
> such lofty, soul-stirring words, such devotion and enthusiasm! If I could believe
> any religion it would be that.”
> 
> Before I left he had shown me some of the books which he possessed.
> One of these was a small work called Muduniyyat [sic] (“Civilisation”),
> lithographed in Bombay, one of the few secular writings of the Bábís. Another
> was the Kitáb-i-Aḳdas [sic] (“Most Holy Book”), which contains the codified
> prescriptions of the sect in a brief compass. The latter my friend particularly
> commended to my attention.
> 
> Baha’i Studies Review 21 (2015): 57–85.      [Vol. 21 published Nov. 2019.]      Author’s manuscript (pages differ).
> Christopher Buck                          “The First Recorded Bahá’í Fireside”                       Page 10 of 39
> 
> “You must study this carefully if you desire to understand the matter”, he
> said; “I will get a copy made for you by our scribe, whom you will also see at
> Mírzá Muḥammad’s. You should read it while you are here, so that any
> difficulties which arise may be explained. I am acquainted with a young Siyyid
> well versed in philosophy, who would perhaps come regularly to you while you
> are here. This would excite no suspicion, for it is known that you have come
> here to study.”26
> 
> Of this Sunday, 25 March 1888, episode, Momen comments:
> 
> In Browne’s diary, there is none of the excitement of discovering that his friend
> is a ‘Bábí’ that is evident in this passage. The diary states, however, that the two
> of them agreed to collaborate in translating the Kitáb-i-Aqdas. In Mírzá ‘Alí Áqá’s
> diary there is the following entry: ‘In the afternoon Dr. Browne came as
> promised . . . [He] was here for as much as three hours. We were sitting in my
> room.’27
> 
> At this juncture, Browne came to a sudden realization—a moment of truth—that
> the religion of the Báb had undergone a fairly sudden and decisive development, i.e. the
> ascendancy of Bahá’u’lláh (‘Glory of God,’ a spiritual title by which Mírzá Ḥusayn-‘Alí
> Núrí Mázandarání was known) and the decline of his meantime rival, Mírzá Yaḥyá
> (Ṣubḥ-i-Azal, ‘Morn of Eternity’):
> 
> Rejoiced as I was at the unexpected facilities which appeared to be opening out
> to me, there was one thing which somewhat distressed me. It was the Báb
> whom I had learned to regard as a hero, and whose works I desired to obtain
> and peruse, yet of him no account appeared to be taken. I questioned my friend
> about this, and learned (what I had already begun to suspect at Iṣfahán) that
> much had taken place amongst the Bábís since those events of which Gobineau's
> vivid and sympathetic record had so strangely moved me. . . . Of Mírzá Yaḥyá,
> whom I had expected to find in the place of authority, I could learn little. He
> lived, he was in Cyprus, he wrote nothing, he had hardly any followers . . . . At
> any rate I had found the Bábís, and I should be able to talk with those who bore
> 
> Baha’i Studies Review 21 (2015): 57–85.      [Vol. 21 published Nov. 2019.]      Author’s manuscript (pages differ).
> Christopher Buck                          “The First Recorded Bahá’í Fireside”                       Page 11 of 39
> 
> the name and revered the memory of one [the Báb] whom I had hitherto
> admired in silence—one whose name had been, since I entered Persia, a word
> almost forbidden. For the rest, I should soon learn about Behá, and understand
> the reasons which had led to his recognition as the inaugurator of a new
> dispensation.28
> 
> Browne’s entry for “Wednesday, March 28th,” 1888 states, in part: “In the
> morning, I went & saw Mírzá ‘Alí Áḳá. I had a long talk with him. He promised to take
> me to see Mírzá Muḥammad Báḳir, & others of the proscribed sect, and to bring a
> Seyyid of the same to read the to me, so that I might translate it into English.” 29 This
> agrees with Momen’s note:
> 
> Browne called again on Wednesday, 28 March and it was on this occasion that
> Mírzá ‘Alí Áqá promised to bring along a young Sayyid who would assist Browne
> in his study of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas. The young Sayyid’s name, which Browne never
> discovered, was Áqá Sayyid Muḥammad-‘Alí. He was a theological student at this
> time, and in later years he taught logic and philosophy in Shíráz.30
> 
> The entry for “Thursday, March 29th,” 1888, documents this significant event:
> 
> Woke about 8 [8:00 a.m.]. Ar [Around] 10 [10:00 a.m.] Mírzá ‘Alí Áḳá came,
> accompanied by the Seyyid he spoke of yesterday, a young but sharp-looking
> man. They stayed till 11:30, & the Seyyid talked much, and asked endless
> questions about Natural Sciences—Anatomy, Physiology, Chemistry, etc. He
> talked little of his peculiar ideas till the end—then he promised to come
> repeatedly [?], & read the Lawḥ-i-Aḳdas to me. It was arranged that we should go
> tomorrow afternoon to see Mírzá Muḥammad Báḳir, as he is busy this afternoon
> at the post office. The scribe of the Law is to be there: & one of ‘Alí Áḳá’s uncles,
> a great man . . . .31
> 
> Baha’i Studies Review 21 (2015): 57–85.      [Vol. 21 published Nov. 2019.]      Author’s manuscript (pages differ).
> Christopher Buck                          “The First Recorded Bahá’í Fireside”                       Page 12 of 39
> 
> Bearing in mind that A Year Amongst the Persians spans 650 pages, the present
> article simply cannot do justice to the entire work itself, but seeks to give a fair
> impression of Browne’s masterful narrative by focusing on what is characterized here
> (with poetic license) as “the first recorded Bahá’í fireside,” which is the focus to the
> next section.
> 
> The First Recorded Bahá’í Fireside: Friday, 30 March 1888
> At the Home of Mírzá Muḥammad-i-Báqir
> 
> Whoever is familiar with Browne’s life and work knows that he had a deep and
> abiding interest in the Báb and his religion. It was his passion. Driven by the desire to
> know more, Browne’s journey throughout Persia took on the added dimension of a
> spiritual quest which ultimately led, in April 1890, to Browne’s several audiences with
> Bahá’u’lláh himself, in Acre (‘Akká) in Ottoman Palestine, now Israel.32
> 
> During his year-long (1887–1888) sojourn, little did Browne suspect the degree
> to which the Bábí had undergone profound changes and irreversible developments in
> the course of its evolution into what is now known as the Bahá’í Faith—information
> regarding which Browne documents in considerable detail—with an accuracy actuated
> by curiosity and the passion with which pursued his investigation into all things
> “Bábí”—yet with a certain begrudging air of disappointment in discovering that the Báb
> was no longer the sole, or even central, focus of the “Bábí” religion, with primary
> attention having shifted to Bahá’u’lláh, whose writings eclipsed those of the Báb. In A
> Year Amongst the Persians, Browne resumes his narrative as follows:
> 
> On the following afternoon I sallied forth to the house of Mírzá ‘Alí,
> accompanied by my servant, Ḥájí Ṣafar, whom I would rather have left behind
> had I been able to find the way by myself. I met Mírzá ‘Alí at the door of his
> house, and we proceeded at once to the abode of Mírzá Muḥammad. He was not
> in when we arrived, but appeared shortly, and welcomed me very cordially. After
> a brief interval we were joined by another guest, whose open countenance and
> frank greeting greatly predisposed me in his favour. This was the scribe and
> 
> Baha’i Studies Review 21 (2015): 57–85.      [Vol. 21 published Nov. 2019.]      Author’s manuscript (pages differ).
> Christopher Buck                          “The First Recorded Bahá’í Fireside”                       Page 13 of 39
> 
> missionary, Ḥájí Mírzá Ḥasan, to whose inopportune meeting with Murshid in
> my room I have already alluded. He was shortly followed by the young Siyyid
> who had visited me on the previous day, and another much older Seyyid of very
> quiet, gentle appearance, who, as I afterwards learned, was related to the Báb,
> and was therefore one of the Afnán (“Branches”)—a title given by the Bábís to
> all related, within certain degrees of affinity, to the founder of their faith. One or
> two of my host’s colleagues completed the assembly.33
> 
> Momen reveals the identity of a a “Bábí” (Bahá’í) who is given the pseudonym,
> “Ḥájí Mírzá Ḥasan,” to protect this individual’s identity, whose life might be placed in
> danger if his true identity were publicly disclosed:
> 
> This was Ḥájí Mírzá Ḥusayn of Shíráz known as Kharṭúmí on account of his
> having been exiled to Khartoum with Ḥájí Mírzá Haydar-‘Alí. . . . He was one of
> the leading Bahá’ís of Shíráz and the fine calligrapher. . . . After the passing of
> Bahá’u’lláh, however, he sided with the supporters of Mírzá Muḥammad-‘Alí and
> was expelled from the Bahá’í community.34
> 
> Hasan M. Balyuzi adds that “Muḥammad-Ḥusayn Kharṭúmí” joined two other
> Bahá’í calligraphers in Bombay, where “the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh were printed for the
> first time.”35 As for the “much older Siyyid,” Momen identifies this gentleman so:
> “This was Áqá Sayyid Ḥusayn Afnán, a merchant resident in Shíráz and Mírzá ‘Alí Áqá’s
> maternal uncle. He was the son of Ḥájí Mírzá Abu’l-Qásim and grandfather of Shoghi
> Effendi. He died about 1929.”
> 
> This particular meeting appears to have taken place on “Friday, March 30th,”
> 1888, in which Browne, in his diary, writes: “Woke at 2.15 [p.m.], but again slept till
> 3.15 [p.m.], When I hastily had tea, & set off with Ḥájí Safar to Mírzá ‘Alí Áḳá’s. We
> met him at the door, & went . . . on to Mírzá Muḥammad Báḳir’s.”36 And further: “He
> was out when we arrived, but came soon. The scribe & propagandist, Ḥájí Mírzá
> Ḥuseyn, was the first to arrive: a nice genuine looking man: my friend the Seyyid who
> came yesterday, & another very quiet-looking Seyyid, an uncle of Mírzá ‘Alí Áḳá’s, were
> there, & later on another employe of the post-office came.”37
> 
> Baha’i Studies Review 21 (2015): 57–85.      [Vol. 21 published Nov. 2019.]      Author’s manuscript (pages differ).
> Christopher Buck                          “The First Recorded Bahá’í Fireside”                       Page 14 of 39
> 
> As to the extended discussion on Bahá’í theophanology, however, that took place
> in the afternoon and early evening of “Friday, March 30th,” 1888, Browne’s narration is
> somewhat of a variation on, and elaboration of, the corresponding diary account found
> on pages 213–214 of the diary. In A Year amongst the Persians, the heart of this discussion
> begins so: “Then began a discussion between myself on the one hand, and the young
> Seyyid and Ḥájí Mírzá Ḥasan on the other, of which I can only attempt to give a general
> outline.”38 This is somewhat of an understatement, as Browne’s narration extends over
> the next several pages, ending on page 345, which ends so:
> 
> It was now past sunset, and dusk was drawing on, so I was reluctantly
> compelled to depart homewards. On the whole, I was well satisfied with my first
> meeting with the Bábís of Shíráz, and looked forward to many similar
> conferences during my stay in Persia. They had talked freely and without
> restraint, had received me with every kindness, and appeared desirous of
> affording me every facility for comprehending their doctrines; and although
> some of my enquiries had not met with answers as clear as I could have desired,
> I was agreeably impressed with the fairness, courtesy, and freedom from
> prejudice of my new acquaintances. Especially it struck me that their knowledge
> of Christ’s teaching and the gospels was much greater than that commonly
> possessed by the Musulmans, and I observed with pleasure that they regarded
> the Christians with a friendliness very gratifying to behold. 39
> 
> Since this “first recorded Bahá’í fireside” (as the present writer has characterized
> it) is easily accessible on the Internet (and easily readable, since it is printed, rather
> than handwritten, considering that Browne’s cursive, though fairly clear in its own way,
> is not always easily decipherable), the reader may appreciate an extended citation of
> Browne’s original diary account of the discussion surrounding the relationship of
> Bahá’u’lláh to Christ especially as to their respective claims to divinity and as to
> Bahá’u’lláh’s claims to prophecy fulfillment:
> 
> Baha’i Studies Review 21 (2015): 57–85.      [Vol. 21 published Nov. 2019.]      Author’s manuscript (pages differ).
> Christopher Buck                          “The First Recorded Bahá’í Fireside”                       Page 15 of 39
> 
> At first the conversation was very fitful—I not being sure whether it would do to
> talk before the servants, but on my telling ‘Alí Aḳá this, he spoke to Mírzá Báḳir,
> who dismissed them. Then we began talking on religious matters, my
> conversation being chiefly with the scribe, Ḥájí Mírzá Ḥuseyn, & the Seyyid,
> who however became very silent towards the end, I having rather worsened him
> in an argument about the nufús-i-sayf [in Persian script, i.e. “influence of the
> sword”] in Islám. I found it very difficult to get satisfactory answers out of them,
> as they shifted their ground continually. For instance they began arguing with
> me on the basis of their religion using the perfecting of the law of Christ, &
> likened the ahḳám [“precepts”] to his commands – e.g. “prefer rather that you
> should be killed than that you should kill.” They said Behá was Christ come
> back “as a thief in the night” according to his promise—nay, even “the Father”
> himself. I asked them what they meant by this: whether they meant that Behá
> was God.
> 
> They asked me what I understood by Christ’s divinity, & they said—“As if
> in the present company, there were one present much more learned than all the
> rest, he might be said spiritually speaking, to be the Father of the rest, so might
> Behá be said to be the Father of Christ.” I then asked them, if their religion were
> the perfecting of Christ’s Law, what they thought of Islám, which would then
> appear an interpolation. This they would not admit, but avoiding discussing the
> question, saying it would take up too much time. The Seyyid & I then differed as
> to the right any “prophet” had to use force to propagate his religion. He talked
> about qahr [wrath] & luṭf [grace] [in Persian script], but I declined to admit the
> latter as [p. 228] an attribute of God. All along I was more & more struck with
> the insight which Gobineau had obtained with the matter.40
> 
> Baha’i Studies Review 21 (2015): 57–85.      [Vol. 21 published Nov. 2019.]      Author’s manuscript (pages differ).
> Christopher Buck                          “The First Recorded Bahá’í Fireside”                       Page 16 of 39
> 
> In the corresponding passage in A Year Amongst the Persians, this very same
> conversation is amplified and elaborated, in nearly ten full pages (from the last two
> words on p. 343, through to the middle of p. 343) and quoted, in full, below, in order
> to demonstrate the degree to which Browne expanded the narrative from the diary
> notes provided above, with a few comments by the present writer interspersed
> throughout:
> 
> [Browne] “Secondly, though I admit that your religion possesses these proofs in
> a remarkable degree (at least so far as regards the rapidity with which it spread
> in spite of all opposition), I cannot altogether agree that the triumph of Islám
> was an instance of the influence of the prophetic word only. The influence of the
> sword was certainly a factor in its wide diffusion. If the Arabs had not invaded
> Persia, slaying, plundering, and compelling, do you think that the religion of
> Muḥammad would have displaced the religion of Zoroaster? To us the great
> proof of the truth of Christ’s teaching is that it steadily advanced in spite of the
> sword, not by the sword: the great reproach on Islám, that its diffusion was in so
> large a measure due to the force of arms rather than the force of argument. I
> sympathise with your religion, and desire to know more of it, chiefly because the
> history of its origin, the cruel fate of its founder, the tortures joyfully endured
> with heroic fortitude by its votaries, all remind me of the triumph of Christ,
> rather than the triumph of Muḥammad.”41
> 
> [Comment] Browne’s criticism of Islam being spread by the “influence of the
> sword” rather than by the “influence of the prophetic word only” is a common
> objection raised by Westerners who are asked to accept the divine origin and nature of
> the Qur’an, the holy book of Islam—or of the sui generis (i.e. unique) nature of Islam
> itself as a divine religion—whatever that means, whether in terms of Islamic origins, or
> the rise of Islamic civilization itself, and or of Islam in its totality in the grand scheme
> of things. Browne’s reference to “slaying, plundering, and compelling” is fair objection
> based on history, rather than scripture per se. Objectively speaking, the Qur’an is
> arguably the most influential book in history, next to the Bible.42 “Spiritual literacy”—
> one of the justifications for teaching world religions at public universities—naturally
> 
> Baha’i Studies Review 21 (2015): 57–85.      [Vol. 21 published Nov. 2019.]      Author’s manuscript (pages differ).
> Christopher Buck                          “The First Recorded Bahá’í Fireside”                       Page 17 of 39
> 
> includes (or should include) a kind of “music appreciation” of the Qur’an as
> revelation.43 But the Qur’an is not even mentioned in Browne’s account of this intense
> —and very tense—dialogue, in which Browne reiterates his objection—actually, his
> rejection—of the claim that Islam is a divine religion:
> 
> “As to your first observation,” rejoined the Bábí spokesman, “it is true, and we
> do recognise Zoroaster, and others whom the Musulmans reject, as prophets.
> For though falsehood may appear to flourish for a while, it cannot do so for
> long. God will not permit an utterly false religion to be the sole guide of
> thousands. The question for you is whether another prophet has come since
> Christ: for us, whether another has come since Muḥammad.” 44
> 
> [Comment] Here, the Bahá’í teacher tries his best to shift the focus away from
> Muḥammad to to refocus on Bahá’u’lláh, as the discussion, in Browne’s words, was
> getting rather “fitful.” While persuading Browne of the divine origin of Islam—
> including the divine mission of the prophet Muḥammad and the status of the Quran as
> divine revelation—was a worthy goal, it was not the primary goal of the discussion. But
> Browne does not relent, which is why he interrupts and raises his objection once again:
> 
> “Well,” I interrupted, “what about the propagation of Islám by the sword? For
> you cannot deny that in many countries it was so propagated. What right had
> Muḥammad—what right has any prophet—to slay where he cannot convince?
> Can such a thing be acceptable to God, who is Absolute Good?”45
> 
> [Comment] At this point, the discussion is going around in circles, with Browne
> now confounding the actions of Muḥammad with later Islamic history, such as the
> invasion and conquest of Persia. The “young Seyyid” then gives an answer that,
> although cogent and well-made in its own way, fails to persuade Browne:
> 
> “A prophet has the right to slay if he knows that it is necessary,” answered the
> young Seyyid, “for he knows what is hidden from us; and if he sees that the
> slaughter of a few will prevent many from going astray, he is justified in
> commanding such slaughter. The prophet is the spiritual physician, and as no
> 
> Baha’i Studies Review 21 (2015): 57–85.      [Vol. 21 published Nov. 2019.]      Author’s manuscript (pages differ).
> Christopher Buck                          “The First Recorded Bahá’í Fireside”                       Page 18 of 39
> 
> one would blame a physician for sacrificing a limb to save the body, so no one
> can question the right of a prophet to destroy the bodies of a few, that the souls
> of many may live. As to what you say, that God is Absolute Good, it is
> undeniably true; yet God has not only Attributes of Grace but also Attributes of
> Wrath—He is Al-Ḳahhár (the Compeller) as well as Al-Laṭif (the Kind); Al-
> Muntaḳim (the Avenger) as well as Al-Ghafúr (the Pardoner). And these
> Attributes as well as those must be manifested in the prophet who is the God-
> revealing mirror.”46
> 
> Comment: At this point, the Bahá’í teacher offers more of of an Islamic
> perspective rather than a Bahá’í position on the so-called “wrath” of God. In the
> Qur’an—and in the most widely known version of the list of ninety-nine “most
> beautiful names of God”—among God’s names are: “the Subduer” (al-Qahhár) (Q.
> 12:39; 13:16; 14:48; 38:65; 39:4); “the Compeller” (al-Jabbár) (Q. 59:23); “the
> Avenger” (al-Muntaqim) (see Q. 44:16, although derived from the active participle,
> muntaqimúna); “the Humiliator” (al-Mudhill) (Q. 3:26, although derived from the
> imperfect verb, watudhillu), such that some of the various names that appear in the
> most popular list of ninety-nine are not taken verbatim from the Quran.47 Browne takes
> issue with this argument which, in any case, is predicated on a classical Islamic
> perspective, and does not do justice to the Bahá’í understanding of God’s “wrath” as an
> experiential metaphor for the natural and foreseeable (and sometimes unforeseeable)
> consequences and ramifications of unjust acts and omissions.
> 
> Both Browne and Áqá Sayyid Muḥammad-‘Alí (“the young Seyyid”), moreover,
> failed to distinguish between “defensive jihád” (jihád al-daf‘, as instanced by
> Muḥammad’s defensive and preemptive military actions)48 and “offensive jihád” (jihád
> al-ṭalab, i.e. militarized missionary campaigns, as in the Arab invasion and conquest of
> Persia). Either way, Browne cannot accept defensive jihád as a “just war”:
> 
> Baha’i Studies Review 21 (2015): 57–85.      [Vol. 21 published Nov. 2019.]      Author’s manuscript (pages differ).
> Christopher Buck                          “The First Recorded Bahá’í Fireside”                       Page 19 of 39
> 
> “I do not agree with you there,” I answered. “I know very well that men
> have often attributed, and do attribute, such qualities as these to God, and it
> appears to me that in so doing they have been led into all manner of evil and
> cruelty, whereby they have brought shame on the name of their religion. I
> believe what one of your own poets has said:
> 
> ‘Az Khayr-i-Maḥz juz nikú’í náyad,’
> ‘Naught but good comes from Absolute Good,’
> 
> and we cannot falsify the meaning of words in such wise as to say that qualities
> which we universally condemn in man are good in God. To say that revenge in
> man is bad, while revenge in God is good, is to confound reason, stultify speech,
> and juggle with paradoxes. But, passing by this question altogether, you can
> hardly imagine that a prophet in whom the ‘Attributes of Wrath’ were
> manifested could attract to himself such as have believed in a prophet in whom
> were reflected the ‘Attributes of Grace.’ Admitting even that a prophet sent to a
> very rude, ignorant, or froward people may be justified in using coercion to
> prepare the way for a better state of things, and admitting that Muḥammad was
> so justified by the circumstances under which he was placed, still you cannot
> expect those who have learned the gentle teaching of Christ to revert to the
> harsher doctrines of Muḥammad, for though the latter was subsequent as
> regards time, his religion was certainly not a higher development of the religion
> of Christ. I do not say that Muḥammad was not a prophet; I do not even assert
> that he could or should have dealt otherwise with his people; but, granting all
> this, it is still impossible for anyone who has understood the teaching of Christ
> to prefer the teaching of Muḥammad.”49
> 
> Comment: In the Bahá’í conception of this expression, God’s “wrath” is
> metaphorical, refers to the “justice” of God, as Shoghi Effendi explains: “As regards the
> passages in the sacred writings indicating the wrath of God, . . . [t]he wrath of God is
> in the administration of His justice, both in this world and in the world to come.”50
> Otherwise—as Browne reasonably points out—wrath and anger are primal and base
> 
> Baha’i Studies Review 21 (2015): 57–85.      [Vol. 21 published Nov. 2019.]      Author’s manuscript (pages differ).
> Christopher Buck                          “The First Recorded Bahá’í Fireside”                       Page 20 of 39
> 
> emotions that are unworthy of human beings, how much more so of God. So this
> Islamic argument simply does not work, since Browne does not share these classical
> Islamic assumptions about the nature of God. So Áqá Sayyid Muḥammad-‘Alí missed
> this golden opportunity to distinguish between the classical Islamic and the later Bahá’í
> conceptions of the so-called “Attributes of Wrath.” This exchange may be characterized
> as a reflection of the religious understanding that one Baha’i had at the time of his
> encounter with Browne. Browne continues his lengthy and substantive objections:
> 
> You have said that the God-given message is addressed to the people of each
> epoch of time in such language as they can comprehend, in such measure as
> they can receive. Should we consider time only, and not place? May it not be that
> since the stages of development at which different peoples living at the same
> time have arrived are diverse, they may require different prophets and different
> religions? The child, as you have said, must be taught differently as he grows
> older, and the teacher accordingly employs different methods of instruction as
> his pupil waxes in years and understanding, though the knowledge he strives to
> impart remains always the same. But in the same school are to be found at one
> time pupils of many different ages and capacities. What is suitable to one class is
> not suitable to another. May it not be the same in the spiritual world?”51
> 
> Comment: Here, Browne offers a sophisticated and perhaps more realistic
> proposal that the Bahá’í doctrine of “Progressive Revelation” might recognize what
> may be described as uneven and asynchronous “stages of development” in various
> parts of the world, that simply do not, phenomenologically and historically speaking,
> neatly and uniformly “progress” in as sequential and straightforward a way as “the
> young Seyyid” had abstractly articulated. Browne continues:
> 
> At this point there was some dissension in the assembly; the young
> Seyyid shook his head, and relapsed into silence; Mírzá ‘Alí signified approval of
> what I had said; Ḥájí Mírzá Ḥasan strove to avoid the point at issue, and
> proceeded thus:
> 
> Baha’i Studies Review 21 (2015): 57–85.      [Vol. 21 published Nov. 2019.]      Author’s manuscript (pages differ).
> Christopher Buck                          “The First Recorded Bahá’í Fireside”                       Page 21 of 39
> 
> “I have already said that what is incumbent on every man is that he
> should believe in the ‘manifestation’ of his own age. It is not required of him
> that he should discuss and compare all previous ‘manifestations.’ You have been
> brought up a follower of Christ. We have believed in this ‘manifestation’ which
> has taken place in these days. Let us not waste time in disputing about
> intermediate ‘manifestations.’ We do not desire to make you believe in
> Muḥammad but in Behá. If you should be convinced of the truth of Behá’s
> teaching you have passed over the stage of Islám altogether. The last
> ‘manifestation’ includes and sums up all preceding ones. You say that you could
> not accept Islám because its laws and ordinances are harsher, and, in your eyes,
> less perfect than those laid down by Christ. Very well, we do not ask you to
> accept Islám; we ask you to consider whether you should not accept Behá. To do
> so you need not go back from a gentle to a severe dispensation.”52
> 
> Comment: Browne had confounded Áqá Sayyid Muḥammad-‘Alí (“the young
> Seyyid”), who “shook his head, and relapsed into silence.” Mírzá ‘Alí Áḳá (“Mírzá ‘Alí”)
> actually took sides with Browne in this argument (i.e. “signified approval of what I had
> said”), at which point, Ḥájí Mírzá Ḥusayn Shírází, “Kharṭúmí” (“Ḥájí Mírzá Ḥasan”)
> diverted and presented some Bahá’í “proofs” that Bahá’u’lláh was foretold by Christ:
> 
> “Behá has come for the perfecting of the law of Christ, and his
> injunctions are in all respects similar; for instance, we are commanded to prefer
> rather that we should be killed than that we should kill. It is the same throughout, and,
> indeed, could not be otherwise, for Behá is Christ returned again, even as He
> promised, to perfect that which He had begun. Your own books tell you that
> Christ shall come ‘like a thief in the night,’ at a time when you are not expecting
> Him.”
> 
> “True,” I replied, “but those same books tell us also that His coming shall
> be ‘as the lightning, that lighteneth out of the one part under heaven and shineth unto the
> other part under heaven.’”53
> 
> Baha’i Studies Review 21 (2015): 57–85.      [Vol. 21 published Nov. 2019.]      Author’s manuscript (pages differ).
> Christopher Buck                          “The First Recorded Bahá’í Fireside”                       Page 22 of 39
> 
> Comment: Here, in stating that “we are commanded to prefer rather that we should
> be killed than that we should kill,” Kharṭúmí is referring to this well known passage by
> Bahá’u’lláh:
> 
> It followeth, therefore, that rendering assistance unto God, in this day,
> doth not and shall never consist in contending or disputing with any soul; nay
> rather, what is preferable in the sight of God is that the cities of men’s hearts,
> which are ruled by the hosts of self and passion, should be subdued by the
> sword of utterance, of wisdom and of understanding. Thus, whoso seeketh to
> assist God must, before all else, conquer, with the sword of inner meaning
> and explanation, the city of his own heart and guard it from the remembrance of
> all save God, and only then set out to subdue the cities of the hearts of others.
> 
> Such is the true meaning of rendering assistance unto God. Sedition hath
> never been pleasing unto God, nor were the acts committed in the past by
> certain foolish ones acceptable in His sight. Know ye that to be killed in the path of
> His good pleasure is better for you than to kill. The beloved of the Lord must, in this
> day, behave in such wise amidst His servants that they may by their very deeds
> and actions guide all men unto the paradise of the All-Glorious.54
> 
> Kharṭúmí adroitly shifts his focus from arguing that Bahá’u’lláh has perfected
> the laws of Christ to the argument that Bahá’u’lláh fulfills the prophecies of Christ
> (under the rationale that “Behá has come for the perfecting of the law of Christ, . . . for
> Behá is Christ returned again”), and goes on to explain that these predictions must be
> understood figuratively, not literally:
> 
> [Kharṭúmí] “There can be no contradiction between these two similes,”
> answered the Bábí; “and since the phrase ‘like a thief in the night’ evidently
> signifies that when Christ returns it will be in a place where you do not expect
> Him, and at a time when you do not expect Him—that is, suddenly and secretly
> —it is clear that the comparison in the other passage which you quoted is to the
> suddenness and swiftness of the lightning, not to its universal vividness. If, as
> the Christians for the most part expect, Christ should come riding upon the
> 
> Baha’i Studies Review 21 (2015): 57–85.      [Vol. 21 published Nov. 2019.]      Author’s manuscript (pages differ).
> Christopher Buck                          “The First Recorded Bahá’í Fireside”                       Page 23 of 39
> 
> clouds surrounded by angels, how could He be said in any sense to come ‘like a
> thief in the night’? Everyone would see him, and, seeing, would be compelled to
> believe.”55
> 
> Comment: Kharṭúmí’s response to Browne’s questions about Christ’s well-known
> prophecies is a classic “appeal to absurdity,” i.e. demonstrating that their literal
> occurrence is highly unlikely, if not impossible. Moreover, such predictions demand
> consistency, when read together. So two hermeneutical principles are advanced here:
> (1) such prophecies must be read figuratively; and (2) such prophecies must be read
> together consistently. Such views are grounded in Bahá’u’lláh’s most important
> doctrinal work, the Kitáb-i Íqán (“The Book of Certitude,” revealed in January, 1861).
> Browne does not reject Kharṭúmí’s argument, as stated. 56
> 
> Kharṭúmí then goes on to explain that, as a general rule, popular messianic
> expectations are typically at variance with the way that the prophetic claimant actually
> fulfills (or is said to fulfill) the prophecies at issue. Such “realized eschatology” (as
> academics would say) is proclaimed by the messianic claimant (and understood by
> followers) as spiritual in nature—and therefore figurative as to discourse itself—
> inviting metaphorical and symbolic interpretations, which can be consistent with the
> natural laws of the universe, while allowing for a major spiritual event in the course of
> history to occur, but without the literal fulfillment of prophecies that would contravene
> the laws of nature:
> 
> [Kharṭúmí] It has always been through such considerations as these that men
> have rejected the prophet whose advent they professed to be expecting, because
> He did not come in some unnatural and impossible manner which they had
> vainly imagined. Christ was indeed the promised Messiah, yet the Jews, who had
> waited, and prayed, and longed for the coming of the Messiah, rejected Him
> when He did come for just such reasons. Ask a Jew now why he does not believe
> in Christ, and he will tell you that the signs whereby the Messiah was to be
> known were not manifest at His coming. Yet, had he understood what was
> intended by those signs, instead of being led away by vain traditions, he would
> 
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> Christopher Buck                          “The First Recorded Bahá’í Fireside”                       Page 24 of 39
> 
> know that the promised Messiah had come and gone and come again. So with
> the Christians. On a mountain* [*Mount Carmel] close by Acre is a monastery
> peopled by Christian priests and monks, assembled there to await the arrival of
> Christ on that spot as foretold. And they continue to gaze upwards into heaven,
> whence they suppose that He will descend, while only a few miles off in Acre He
> has returned, and is dwelling amongst men as before.57
> 
> Comment: Kharṭúmí refers to the Templers (also spelled “Templars”) to whose
> leader, Georg David Hardegg (1812–1879), Bahá’u’lláh addressed a special
> “Tablet” (epistle), which proclaimed Bahá’u’lláh’s eschatological advent, albeit in a very
> oblique and opaque way.58 Kharṭúmí resumes his discourse, as follows:
> 
> O be not blinded by those very misapprehensions which you condemn so
> strongly in the Jews! The Jews would not believe in Christ because He was not
> accompanied by a host of angels; you blame the Jews for their obstinacy and
> frowardness, and you do rightly. But beware lest you condemn yourselves by
> alleging the very same reason as an excuse for rejecting this ‘manifestation.’
> Christ came to the Jews accompanied by angels—angels none the less because
> they were in the guise of fishermen. Christ returns to you as Behá with angels,
> with clouds, with the sound of trumpets. His angels are His messengers; the
> clouds are the doubts which prevent you from recognising Him; the sound of
> trumpets is the sound of the proclamation which you now hear, announcing that
> He has come once more from heaven, even as He came before, not as a human
> form descending visibly from the sky, but as the Spirit of God entering into a
> man, and abiding there.”59
> 
> Comment: Here, Kharṭúmí defines heavenly “angels” as human “messengers,”
> who proclaim, with the metaphorical “sound of trumpets,” the very “proclamation
> which you now hear”—which implies, of course, that Browne is in the presence of
> these very angels, with Kharṭúmí being among them. Browne rejoins that to assert is
> not to prove, and demands more evidence that Bahá’u’lláh is indeed the return of
> Christ:
> 
> Baha’i Studies Review 21 (2015): 57–85.      [Vol. 21 published Nov. 2019.]      Author’s manuscript (pages differ).
> Christopher Buck                          “The First Recorded Bahá’í Fireside”                       Page 25 of 39
> 
> “Well,” I replied, “your arguments are strong, and certainly deserve
> consideration. But, even supposing that you are right in principle, it does not
> follow that they hold good in this particular case. If I grant that the return of
> Christ may be in such wise as you indicate, nevertheless mere assertion will not
> prove that Behá is Christ. Indeed, we are told by Christ Himself that many will
> arise in His name, saying, ‘See here,’ or ‘See there,’ and are warned not to follow
> them.”
> 
> “Many have arisen falsely claiming to be Christ,” he answered, “but the
> injunction laid on you to beware of these does not mean that you are to refuse
> to accept Christ when He does return. The very fact that there are pretenders is
> a proof that there is a reality. You demand proofs, and you are right to do so.
> What proofs would suffice for you?”60
> 
> Comment: Inviting Browne to be more specific (by asking, “What proofs would
> suffice for you?”) is a sign of a skilled Bahá’í teacher (at this time in history, since
> Kharṭúmí, after Bahá’u’lláh’s death on 29 May 1892, became a schismatic “Covenant-
> breaker”). Browne readily offers “three signs” for consideration:
> 
> “The chief proofs which occur to me at this moment,” I replied, “are as follows:
> —You admit, so far as I understand, that in each ‘manifestation’ a promise has
> been given of a succeeding ‘manifestation,’ and that certain signs have always
> been laid down whereby that ‘manifestation’ may be recognised. It is therefore
> incumbent on you to show that the signs foretold by Christ as heralding His
> return have been accomplished in the coming of Behá. Furthermore, since each
> ‘manifestation’ must be fuller, completer, and more perfect than the last, you
> must prove that the doctrines taught by Behá are superior to the teaching of
> Christ—a thing which I confess seems to me almost impossible, for I cannot
> imagine a doctrine purer or more elevated than that of Christ. Lastly, quite apart
> from miracles in the ordinary sense, there is one sign which we regard as the
> especial characteristic of a prophet, to wit, that he should have knowledge of
> events which have not yet come to pass. No sign can be more appropriate or
> 
> Baha’i Studies Review 21 (2015): 57–85.      [Vol. 21 published Nov. 2019.]      Author’s manuscript (pages differ).
> Christopher Buck                          “The First Recorded Bahá’í Fireside”                       Page 26 of 39
> 
> more convincing than this. For a prophet claims to be inspired by God, and to
> speak of the mysteries of the Unseen. If he has knowledge of the Unseen he may
> well be expected to have knowledge of the Future. That we may know that what
> he tells us about other matters beyond our ken is true, we must be convinced
> that he has knowledge surpassing ours in some matter which we can verify. This
> is afforded most readily by the foretelling of events which have not yet
> happened, and which we cannot foresee. These three signs appear to me both
> sufficient and requisite to establish such a claim as that which you advance for
> Behá.”61
> 
> Comment: Here, Browne sets forth “three signs” which, if conclusively
> substantiated, may demonstrably prove Bahá’u’lláh’s theophanic claims: (1) specific
> “signs foretold by Christ as heralding His return” that Bahá’u’lláh has fulfilled; (2)
> such “doctrines taught” by Bahá’u’lláh that “are superior to the teaching of Christ”;
> and (3) “the foretelling of events which have not yet happened” that Bahá’u’lláh has
> foretold and which in fact, came true. Since the first two signs were previously
> discussed, Kharṭúmí (“Ḥájí Mírzá Ḥasan”) addresses the third sign for Browne’s
> consideration:
> 
> “As regards knowledge of the future,” replied Ḥájí Mírzá Ḥasan, “I could tell you
> of many occasions on which Behá has given proof of such. Not only I myself, but
> almost all who have been at Acre, and stood in his presence, have received
> warnings of impending dangers, or information concerning forthcoming events.
> Some of these I will, if it please God, relate to you at some future time. As
> regards the superiority of Behá’s doctrines to those of Christ, you can judge for
> yourself if you will read his words. As regards the news of this ‘manifestation’
> given to you by Christ, is it not the case that He promised to return? Did He not
> declare that one should come to comfort His followers, and perfect what He had
> begun? Did He not signify that after the Son should come the Father?”62
> 
> Baha’i Studies Review 21 (2015): 57–85.      [Vol. 21 published Nov. 2019.]      Author’s manuscript (pages differ).
> Christopher Buck                          “The First Recorded Bahá’í Fireside”                       Page 27 of 39
> 
> Comment: At this juncture, Browne is taken aback—astounded by the sheer
> audacity what sounded like an incredible and perhaps heretical claim—that Bahá’u’lláh
> is somehow to be understood as having the station of “the Father”:
> 
> “Do you mean,” I demanded in astonishment, “that you regard Behá as
> the Father? What do you intend by this expression? You cannot surely mean that
> you consider Behá to be God Himself?”
> 
> “What do you mean by the expression ‘Son of God’?” returned the Bábí.
> 
> “Our learned men explain it in different ways,” I answered; “but let us
> take the explanation which Christ Himself gave in answer to the same question
> —‘As many as do the will of God are the sons of God.’ Christ perfectly fulfilled
> the will of God; He had—as I understand it—reached the stage which your Ṣúfís
> call ‘annihilation in God’ (fená fi’lláh); He had become merged in God in thought,
> in will, in being, and could say truly, ‘I am God.’ Higher than this can no one
> pass; how then can you call Behá ‘the Father,’ since ‘the Father’ is Infinite,
> Invisible, Omnipresent, Omnipotent?”63
> 
> Comment: It was now Kharṭúmí’s turn to respond, who answers:
> 
> “Suppose that in this assembly,” replied the other, “there were one wiser
> than all the rest, and containing in himself all, and more than all, the knowledge
> which the others possessed collectively. That one would be, in knowledge, the
> Father of all the others. So may Behá be called ‘the Father’ of Christ and of all
> preceding prophets.”
> 
> “Well,” I answered, by no means satisfied with this explanation, “apart
> from this, which I will pass by for the present, it appears to me that you confuse
> and confound different things. The coming of the Comforter is not the same
> thing, as we understand it, as the return of Christ, yet both of these you declare
> to be fulfilled in the coming of Behá. And whereas you spoke of Behá a little
> while ago as Christ returned, you now call him ‘the Father’.” 64
> 
> Baha’i Studies Review 21 (2015): 57–85.      [Vol. 21 published Nov. 2019.]      Author’s manuscript (pages differ).
> Christopher Buck                          “The First Recorded Bahá’í Fireside”                       Page 28 of 39
> 
> Comment: Kharṭúmí’s answer fails to persuade Browne, who might have
> considered the Kharṭúmí’s response on the issue of “the Father” to be somewhat
> evasive—and perhaps far-fetched as to its reasoning. In any case, Kharṭúmí’s
> explanation also fails to distinguish between what appear to be two distinctive uses of
> the term “Father” in the Bahá’í Writings: (1) God, “the Father,” as a transcendent and
> unmanifest; and (2) God, “the Father,” as imminent and manifest, Who
> eschatologically and theophanically “appears” in a “God-revealing mirror” (what
> Bahá’ís refer to a the “Manifestation of God”) as Kharṭúmí has previously indicated.
> 
> As for the first meaning (i.e. God as “the Father”), the following Bahá’í text
> discusses “God, the Father” in the received, traditional Christian understanding—and
> what therefore informed Browne’s own conception of what is meant by “the Father”:
> 
> Remind them of these words and say unto them: ‘Verily did the Pharisees
> rise up against Messiah, despite the bright beauty of His face and all His
> comeliness, and they cried out that He was not Messiah [Masíh] but a monster
> [Masíkh], because He had claimed to be Almighty God, the sovereign Lord of
> all, and told them, ‘I am God’s Son, and verily in the inmost being of His only
> Son, His mighty Ward, clearly revealed with all His attributes, all His perfections,
> standeth the Father.’ This, they said, was open blasphemy and slander against the
> Lord according to the clear and irrefutable texts of the Old Testament. Therefore
> they passed the sentence upon Him, decreeing that His blood be shed, and they
> hanged Him on the cross. . . .65
> 
> Comment: As for the second meaning (i.e. Bahá’u’lláh as “the Father”), this harks
> back to the so-called “Yuletide prophecy” of Isaiah 9:6, in which the advent of the
> “Everlasting Father” is foretold, which Bahá’u’lláh claimed to fulfill: “This is the Father
> foretold by Isaiah, and the Comforter [Jesus] concerning Whom the Spirit had
> covenanted with you. Open your eyes, O concourse of bishops, that ye may behold
> your Lord seated upon the Throne of might and glory.”66
> 
> Baha’i Studies Review 21 (2015): 57–85.      [Vol. 21 published Nov. 2019.]      Author’s manuscript (pages differ).
> Christopher Buck                          “The First Recorded Bahá’í Fireside”                       Page 29 of 39
> 
> Kharṭúmí, moreover, also fell short in failing to disambiguate between
> (“Behá . . . as Christ returned” and as “. . . ‘the Father.’” Browne was confused by the
> claims that was Bahá’u’lláh was, at one and the same time, “Christ returned” and as
> “The Father.” One can easily understand why Browne was perplexed and strenuously
> objected to these dual claims, for if God is the “the Father,” and Christ is “the
> Son” (which, after all, is the traditional Christian understanding), then how could
> Bahá’u’lláh be the eschatological advent of both “the Father” and “the Son”? Such a
> claim must have struck Browne as every bit as untenable (i.e. contradictory) as
> improbable (i.e. against the received Christian expectations of the signs that would
> herald Christ’s return). On the issue of “the Comforter,” Browne states:
> 
> “As regards the Comforter, we believe that he entered as the Holy Spirit into the
> hearts of the disciples soon after the Jews had put Christ to death. I know that
> the Muḥammadans assert that the prophecies which we apply to this descent of
> the Holy Spirit were intended to refer to Muḥammad; that for the word
> παράκλητός [parāklētos] they would substitute περικλυτος [pariklutos] which is
> in meaning nearly equivalent to Aḥmad or Muḥammad, signifying one ‘praised,’
> or ‘illustrious.’ But if you, as I suppose, follow the Muḥammadans in this, you
> cannot apply the same prophecy to Behá. If the promise concerning the advent
> of the Comforter was fulfilled in the coming of Muḥammad, then it clearly
> cannot apply to the coming of Behá.”67
> 
> Comment: At this point in the dialogue, Browne explains to Kharṭúmí the
> traditional Christian understanding (i.e. “we believe”) that the Comforter was the Holy
> Spirit. That said, Browne, of course, is equally aware of the traditional Muslim
> understanding of Muḥammad as the “Comforter” as well. So one can appreciate
> Browne’s objection here, when he remonstrates: “If the promise concerning the advent
> of the Comforter was fulfilled in the coming of Muḥammad, then it clearly cannot apply
> to the coming of Behá.” Stephen Lambden has provided the most extensive discussion
> and analysis of Bahá’u’lláh’s eschatological claim to be the Christ-promised
> “Comforter.”68 Browne goes on to say:
> 
> Baha’i Studies Review 21 (2015): 57–85.      [Vol. 21 published Nov. 2019.]      Author’s manuscript (pages differ).
> Christopher Buck                          “The First Recorded Bahá’í Fireside”                       Page 30 of 39
> 
> “And, indeed, I still fail to understand in what light you regard Islám, and must
> return once more to the question concerning its relation to Christianity and to
> your religion which I put some time ago, and which I do not think you answered
> clearly. If news of the succeeding ‘manifestation’ is given by every messenger of
> God, surely it is confined to the ‘manifestation’ immediately succeeding that
> wherein it is given, and does not extend to others which lie beyond it. Assuming
> that you are right in regarding Islám as the completion and fulfilment of
> Christianity, your religion must be regarded as the completion and fulfilment of
> Islám, and the prophecies concerning it must then be sought in the Ḳur’án and
> Traditions rather than in the Gospel. It is therefore incumbent on you, if you
> desire to convince me, first of all to prove that Muḥammad was the promised
> Comforter, and that his religion was the fulfilment of Christianity; then to prove
> that the coming of the Báb was foretold and signified by Muḥammad; and only
> after this has been done, to prove that Behá is he whom the Báb foretold. For it
> is possible to believe in Muḥammad and not to believe in the Báb, or to believe
> in the Báb and not to believe in Behá, while the converse is impossible. If a Jew
> becomes a Muḥammadan he must necessarily accept Christ; so if a
> Muḥammadan becomes a believer in Behá he must necessarily believe in the
> Báb.”69
> 
> Comment: Browne’s further demand for demonstrable proofs of Bahá’í claims is
> formidable. Browne was highly intelligent, and could readily perceive inconsistencies
> (whether actual or not) in Kharṭúmí’s discourse. This, of course, puts Kharṭúmí on the
> spot, and so he rejoins by deftly pointing out prophetic patterns, in the grand scheme
> of salvation history, by which repeated or recurring eschatological motifs may be
> appreciated as consistent, rather than contradictory:
> 
> Baha’i Studies Review 21 (2015): 57–85.      [Vol. 21 published Nov. 2019.]      Author’s manuscript (pages differ).
> Christopher Buck                          “The First Recorded Bahá’í Fireside”                       Page 31 of 39
> 
> [Kharṭúmí] “To explain the relations of Islám to Christianity on the one hand,
> and to this manifestation on the other, would require a longer time than we have
> at our disposal at present,” replied the Bábí apologist; “but, in brief, know that
> the signs laid down by each prophet as characteristic of the next manifestation
> apply also to all future manifestations. In the books of each prophet whose
> followers still exist are recorded signs sufficient to convince them of the truth of
> the manifestation of their own age. There is no necessity for them to follow the
> chain link by link.” 70
> 
> Comment: Kharṭúmí’s assertion that there is “no necessity for them to follow the
> chain link by link” is perhaps somewhat disingenuous, but clearly was intended to
> concede to one of Browne’s objections, and to then argue around it. Kharṭúmí resumes:
> 
> “Each prophet is complete in himself, and his evidence is conclusive unto all
> men. God does not suffer His proof to be incomplete, or make it dependent on
> knowledge and erudition, for it has been seen in all manifestations that those
> who have believed were men whom the world accounted ignorant, while those
> who were held learned in religion were the most violent and bitter opponents
> and persecutors. Thus it was in the time of Christ, when fishermen believed in
> Him and became His disciples, while the Jewish doctors mocked Him,
> persecuted Him, and slew Him. Thus it was also in the time of Muḥammad,
> when the mighty and learned among his people did most furiously revile and
> reproach him. And although in this manifestation—the last and the most
> complete—many learned men have believed, because the proofs were such as no
> fair-minded man could resist, still, as you know, the Muḥammadan doctors have
> ever shown themselves our most irreconcilable enemies, and our most
> strenuous opposers and persecutors.”71
> 
> Comment: Here, Kharṭúmí skillfully sketches out a pattern of rejection and
> persecution that occurs each time a new messenger of God appears. The implication is
> that the converse may also hold true, i.e that the followers of each succeeding prophet
> have believed, notwithstanding the objections of contemporary detractors. In other
> 
> Baha’i Studies Review 21 (2015): 57–85.      [Vol. 21 published Nov. 2019.]      Author’s manuscript (pages differ).
> Christopher Buck                          “The First Recorded Bahá’í Fireside”                       Page 32 of 39
> 
> words, Kharṭúmí succeeds in demonstrating that an historical and paradigmatic pattern
> can be seen when each prophet, in a series of prophets, is rejected (by opponents), yet
> accepted (by proponents). Kharṭúmí concludes his argument so:
> 
> “But those who are pure in heart and free from prejudice will not fail to
> recognise the manifestation of God, whenever and wherever it appears, even as
> Mawlaná Jalálu’d-Dín Rúmí says in the Masnaví—
> 
> ‘Díde’í báyad ki báshad sháh-shinás
> Tá shinásad Sháh-rá dar har libás.’
> 
> ‘One needs an eye which is king recognising
> To recognise the King under every disguise.’”72
> 
> Comment: This is an exquisite climax in his presentation, whereby Kharṭúmí
> quotes Rúmí, just as Browne earlier quoted Persian poetry to register one of his points.
> The foregoing dialogue between Browne and Kharṭúmí is poignant, erudite, and
> sophisticated—albeit inconclusive. Although Browne was not persuaded, he must have
> been impressed. For his part, Browne’s intellect and curiosity were checked by his
> religious assumptions and intellectual obstinacy. In several profound ways, Browne was
> a captive of his own biases—although, to be fair, Browne went on to gain several
> audiences with Bahá’u’lláh in Acre, Palestine (now Israel) in April, 1890, of which
> Browne left a memorable account.73 In retrospect, Browne would have done well to pay
> far greater attention to the scholarship of his contemporaries, Russian orientalists,
> Baron Viktor Rosen (1849–1908)74 and Aleksandr Grigor’evich Tumanski (1861–
> 1920).75
> 
> While Browne took some liberties in expanding the discussion above in his
> retelling in A Year amongst the Persians, the next part of the discussion—which shifted to
> the writings of the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh—adheres more faithfully (i.e. more literally) to
> the actual diary entry itself:
> 
> Baha’i Studies Review 21 (2015): 57–85.      [Vol. 21 published Nov. 2019.]      Author’s manuscript (pages differ).
> Christopher Buck                          “The First Recorded Bahá’í Fireside”                       Page 33 of 39
> 
> Finally, abandoning discussion, I asked them about their books. . . . They told
> me that Mírzá ‘Alí Muḥammad [i.e. the Báb] had written 100, all called
> “Biyán” [i.e. Bayán], that translated by Gobineau being the Kitábu’l-Ahkám. The
> present “Masdar” [sic: maṣdar, “source”] has also produced the like number, so
> that the literature of the sect is very extensive. . . . The most well-known (those
> that look on all which have emanated from the “maṣdar” as of equal value) they
> mentioned the following: (1) The Lawḥ-i-Aḳdas: (2) The Íḳán (which I
> have). . . .76
> 
> Comment: This entry perfectly corresponds to Browne’s narrative in A Year
> Amongst the Persians, in this particular account:
> 
> As it was growing late, and I desired to make use of the present occasion
> to learn further particulars about the literature of the Bábís, I allowed the
> discussion to stand at this point, and proceeded to make enquiries about the
> books which they prized most highly. In reply to these enquiries they informed
> me that Mírzá ‘Alí-Muḥammad the Báb had composed in all about a hundred
> separate treatises of different sizes; that the name Beyán was applied generally to
> all of them; and that the book which I described as having been translated into
> French by Gobineau must be that specially designated as the Kitábu’l-Ahkam
> (“Book of Precepts”). Behá, they added, had composed about the same number
> of separate books and letters. . . .
> 
> “If that be so,” I remarked, “I suppose that some few works of greater
> value than the others are to be found in every community of believers; and I
> should be glad to know which these are, so that I may endeavour to obtain
> them.”
> 
> “All that emanates from the Source (masḍar) is equal in importance,” they
> answered, “but some books are more systematic, more easily understood, and
> therefore more widely read than others. Of these the chief are:—(1) The Kitáb-i-
> Aḳdas (‘Most Holy Book’), which sums up all the commands and ordinances
> 
> Baha’i Studies Review 21 (2015): 57–85.      [Vol. 21 published Nov. 2019.]      Author’s manuscript (pages differ).
> Christopher Buck                          “The First Recorded Bahá’í Fireside”                       Page 34 of 39
> 
> enjoined on us; (2) The Íḳán (‘Assurance’), which sets forth the proofs of our
> religion; . . . .”77
> 
> After the meeting, Browne writes: “I left about 6:30 [p.m.] with Mírzá ‘Alí
> Áḳá . . . .”78 So ends this historic evening, which has been documented both by way of
> Browne’s original diary notes, followed by his polished published account in A Year
> amongst the Persians. A lengthy work (650 pages) in the Cambridge (i.e. second) edition,
> A Year amongst the Persians, is based on an even longer, and far more detailed, diary
> account. If the present study stimulates further research into Browne’s 1887–1888
> Persia diary, then one of its objectives will have been achieved.
> 
> Aftermath and Epilogue
> 
> Browne’s remaining stay in Shiraz lasted until “Sunday, April 13th” [sic: read
> “Sunday, April 14th”], 1888, when it was cut short by a medical emergency, whereupon
> Browne was called upon to render his services as a trained medical physician, obliging
> him to leave Shiraz, never to return again.79 One of his great disappointments was not
> being able to visit the house of the Báb, which had previously been arranged, and
> which, for Browne personally, would have served as a spiritual pilgrimage, as it were.
> As stated earlier, Browne did go on to make another spiritual pilgrimage, by way of
> attaining several audiences with Bahá’u’lláh himself, a fuller account of which has been
> made possible by Browne’s diary notes of his visit to Acre (‘Akká) in Ottoman
> Palestine, now Israel.80 Given the limitations of space, an account of the rest of Edward
> Granville Browne’s remaining stay in Shiraz cannot be recounted at length here, but
> remains for a subsequent article, if invited.
> 
> For the rest of Browne’s memorable visit to Shiraz—particularly as it relates to
> his further remarkable encounters with illustrious “Bábís” (i.e. Bahá’ís)—the reader is
> referred to the remainder of Chapter XI of Browne’s A Year amongst the Persians. To give a
> preview of some of the interesting encounters in Shiraz that Browne documents in his
> diary, however, mention may be made of one of Browne’s diary entries for “Saturday,
> April 6th,” 1888, in which the Bahá’í interpretation of the Prophet Muḥammad’s
> 
> Baha’i Studies Review 21 (2015): 57–85.      [Vol. 21 published Nov. 2019.]      Author’s manuscript (pages differ).
> Christopher Buck                          “The First Recorded Bahá’í Fireside”                       Page 35 of 39
> 
> designation as the “Seal of the Prophets” (Q. 33:40) was discussed, and in which the
> Bahá’í teacher, this time, was not Kharṭúmí, but rather Mullá ‘Abdu’lláh, known as
> Fáḍil-i-Zarqání (d. circa 1915), and described by Momen as “a scholar, Particularly in
> the fields of logic and philosophy.” In A Year Amongst the Persians, however, Browne
> discretely protects Fáḍil’s identity by calling him “Kámil.” 81 Browne goes one to say:
> 
> I finally asked him a question which I thought would puzzle him: I said
> “if the references to Christ’s coming in the Gospel refer to this manifestation,
> then they cannot be applied (as the Muslims will) to Muḥammad & Islám is
> thus false: & vice versa?” To this he replied that in each manifestation news was
> given of future manifestations in general, & that what Christ saw was both to
> Muḥammad & this zuhúr.
> 
> He also explained the expression Khátam al-Anbiyá’ [in Arabic script, i.e.
> “Seal of the Prophets”; see Qur’an 33:40] as meaning the perfection of the
> prophets who had come up to that time” (emphasis in the original), not as the
> last of the prophets, & quoted in demonstration thereof a prayer used at Kerbala
> & Nejef, where Muḥammad is called ‘the seal of the prophets who have come
> before, & the key of those to come’.”
> 
> I asked him as to their opinion and Zoroaster, & he said they regarded
> him as a prophet, for he said all religions which had obtained currency &
> permanence must have been in a measure true, however corrupted they may
> have become now.82
> 
> Comment: Browne’s published account of this conversation closely tracks with
> his diary entry:
> 
> [Browne] I now put to Kámil the following question, which I had already
> propounded in my first meeting with the Bábís of Shíráz:—“If the references to
> Christ’s coming which occur in the Gospel refer to this manifestation, then they
> cannot be applied, as they are by the Muslims, to Muḥammad; in which case
> Muḥammad’s coming was not foretold by Christ, and Islam loses a proof which,
> 
> Baha’i Studies Review 21 (2015): 57–85.      [Vol. 21 published Nov. 2019.]      Author’s manuscript (pages differ).
> Christopher Buck                          “The First Recorded Bahá’í Fireside”                       Page 36 of 39
> 
> as I understand, you regard as essential to every dispensation, viz. that it shall
> have been foreshadowed by the bearer of the last dispensation.”
> 
> To this he [Kámil] replied that in each dispensation announcement was
> made of future manifestations in general, and that what Christ said concerning
> His return applied equally to the advent of Muḥammad, and of the Bab, and of
> Beha. Muḥammad’s title, Khátamu’l-Anbiyá (“Seal of the Prophets”), did not, he
> explained, signify, as the Muḥammadans generally suppose, “the last of the
> Prophets,” as is proved by a passage occurring in one of the prayers used by
> pilgrims to Kerbela and Nejef, wherein Muḥammad is called “the Seal of the
> prophets who have gone before, and the Key of those who are to come.”83
> 
> Comment: The passage referred to here invites further comment: In the Sura of
> Patience (Súriy-i-Ṣabr)—revealed on April 22, 1863 in Baghdad on Riḍván, the first day
> of the Bahá’í Festival of Paradise—Bahá’u’lláh wrote:
> 
> Recite then unto them that which the celestial Dove of the Spirit hath
> warbled in the holy Riḍván of the Beloved, that perchance they may examine
> that which hath been elucidated concerning “sealing” by the tongue of him he
> who is well-grounded in knowledge in the prayer of visitation for the name of
> God, ‘Alí [Imám ‘Alí]. He hath said—and his word is the truth!—:
> 
> “[He (Muḥammad) is] the seal of what came before Him and the
> harbinger of what will appear after Him.”
> 
> In such wise hath the meaning of “sealing” been mentioned by the tongue
> of inaccessible holiness. Thus hath God designated His Friend [Muḥammad] to
> be a seal for the Prophets who preceded Him and a harbinger of the Messengers
> who will appear after Him (limá ya’tí mina’l-mursalín min ba‘du).84
> 
> Comment: Here, Bahá’u’lláh quotes from a “visitation” prayer to be recited in
> commemoration of Imám ‘Alí, Muḥammad’s first male follower. This prayer is
> universally recognized and used by Shia Muslims, and is variously ascribed to the Sixth
> and Tenth Imáms. In his book entitled, in Persian, Sayrí dar Bústán-i Madínatu’ṣ-Ṣabr—a
> 
> Baha’i Studies Review 21 (2015): 57–85.      [Vol. 21 published Nov. 2019.]      Author’s manuscript (pages differ).
> Christopher Buck                          “The First Recorded Bahá’í Fireside”                       Page 37 of 39
> 
> monograph on Bahá’u’lláh’s Sura of Patience—Dr. Foad Seddigh has located and
> validated this visitation prayer in several authoritative sources.85
> 
> This exchange between Browne and Fáḍil-i-Zarqání (“Kámil”) includes a brief
> discussion of Zoroaster as well:
> 
> [Browne] “Do you,” I asked, “regard Zoroaster as a true prophet?”
> 
> [Kámil] “Assuredly,” he replied, “inasmuch as every religion which has
> become current in the world, and has endured the test of time, must have
> contained at least some measure of truth, however much it may have been
> subsequently corrupted. Only a Divine Word can strongly affect and
> continuously control men’s hearts: spurious coin will not pass, and the
> uninterrupted currency of a coin is the proof of its genuineness.”86
> 
> Concluding Observations
> 
> In the present study, special focus has been devoted to an historic meeting that
> took place in Shiraz on “Friday, March 30th,” 1888—here characterized as “the first
> recorded Bahá’í fireside.” Browne’s account‚ as set forth in both his original diary
> entries (of March–April, 1888) and in his published (and polished) account in A Year
> Amongst the Persians (1893)—is energized by Browne’s intense curiosity, which may
> fairly be described as a “passion” for his research interest as a scholar. To ascertain the
> degree to which Browne’s narrative is a composite, reworked account—and not strictly
> sequential and chronological—it made sense to draw some correspondences between
> Browne’s diary entries, and the Shíráz narrative in Chapter XI in A Year Amongst the
> Persians, as to both topics and dates.
> 
> Whether or not this episode may be regarded—poetically albeit anachronistically
> —as “the first recorded Bahá’í fireside”—is up to the reader to judge. Howsoever
> characterized, this episode is historic in nature, to the extent that it offers an
> eyewitness account—in which the observer [Browne] is also a participant—of a
> meeting in which information was sought—and therefore gladly given by Browne’s
> 
> Baha’i Studies Review 21 (2015): 57–85.      [Vol. 21 published Nov. 2019.]      Author’s manuscript (pages differ).
> Christopher Buck                          “The First Recorded Bahá’í Fireside”                       Page 38 of 39
> 
> Bahá’i informants—on what Browne consistently (although anachronistically) refers to
> as the “Bábí” religion.
> 
> When read Browne’s conversations in the present tense, the discourse is
> dynamic. The exchanges are sometimes tense—and suspenseful. Yet the tone remains
> respectful and cordial throughout. The Bahá’í proofs offered—cogent in their own way,
> given their faith-based presuppositions—ultimately fail to persuade Browne, who, as a
> Westerner and Christian, comes to the discussion with his own assumptions and
> biases. Curiosity, driven by both the personal as well as professional interest, animates
> the exchanges throughout, energized still further by the enthusiasm of Browne’s Bahá’í
> teachers themselves. Browne’s accounts are generally faithful to his original diary
> entries, with some embellishments (extensive, at times), in the published narrative in
> A Year Amongst the Persians.
> 
> The present study has also demonstrates that Browne’s Persia diary is a valuable
> primary source for a study of the origins of the Bahá’í religion in its native land of
> Persia (present-day Iran). Browne’s contemporaneous notes also provide insights as to
> Browne’s own intellectual odyssey. As a well-meaning and sympathetic Orientalist,
> Browne’s interest in the Bábi/Bahá’í religion became as much a personal, spiritual
> quest as it was a professional, scholarly enterprise quest, which Browne pursued with
> extraordinary verve and vigor, passion and perseverance. Browne’s Persia diary
> therefore invites further research, insofar as it offers a treasure trove of fascinating
> details and insights into the life and thought of nineteenth-century Persians—especially
> those of the “Bábí” religion. Fruitful investigation may be undertaken in further
> exploring corresponding accounts in Browne’s enduring A Year Amongst the Persians, and
> the Persia diary entries upon which the entire narrative is based—brought alive and
> vivified by Professor Browne’s masterful account of his yearlong sojourn, as he draws
> the reader into the heart and soul of Persian life, culture, and spirituality.
> 
> Christopher Buck
> 
> Baha’i Studies Review 21 (2015): 57–85.      [Vol. 21 published Nov. 2019.]      Author’s manuscript (pages differ).
> Christopher Buck                          “The First Recorded Bahá’í Fireside”                       Page 39 of 39
> 
> Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
> Submitted, 10 September 2018;
> Revised, 19 January 2019;
> Proofread, 26 November 2019.
> 
> Baha’i Studies Review 21 (2015): 57–85.      [Vol. 21 published Nov. 2019.]      Author’s manuscript (pages differ).
> 1   By way of a disclaimer and caveat, this conceit, i.e. the “first recorded Baha’i fireside,”
> although patently an anachronism, has conceptual value, considering that most, if not all,
> Baha’i readers will quickly understand and appreciate the analogy being drawn here.
> Baha’i firesides are informal meetings wherein teachings of the Baha’i Faith are
> introduced to interested individuals. Here, by the term “recorded” is meant “recorded in
> detail,” i.e. a descriptive and full account of the encounter. As one peer reviewer has
> pointed out during the manuscript stage of this publication, there was at least one prior
> encounter between a Westerner and a Baha’i, during which information on the Baha’i
> Faith was given. See Charles James Wills, In the Land of the Lion and Sun; Or, Modern Persia:
> Being Experiences of Life in Persia from 1866 to 1881 (London: Macmillan and Co., 1891). Dr.
> Wills, a physician who lived and worked in Persia for several years (as a Medical Officer
> for Her Britannic Majesty’s Telegraph Staff in Persia), describes becoming the intimate
> friend of Ḥájí Siyyid Muḥammad Ḥasan and Ḥájí Sayyid Muḥammad-Ḥusayn (the “King
> of Martyrs” and “Beloved of Martyrs,” respectively), in which “they discoursed much on
> the subject of religion, and were very eloquent on the injustices perpetrated in Persia” (p.
> 153). (Qtd. in Moojan Momen (ed.), The Bábí and Bahá’í Religions, 1844–1944: Some
> Contemporary Western Accounts (Oxford: George Ronald, 1981), pp. 274–277. However, the
> details of their discourse are sketchy at best.
> 
> 2   “Mírzá ‘Alí” (i.e. Mírzá ‘Alí Áqá, later known as ‘Alí-Muḥammad Khán, Muvaqqaru’d-
> Dawlih, and also known as Mírzá ‘Alí-Muḥammad Afnán Shírází). See Hasan M. Balyuzi,
> Edward Granville Browne and the Bahá’í Faith (Oxford: George Ronald, 1979), p. 6.
> 
> 3   Edward Granville Browne, A Year Amongst the Persians: Impressions as to the Life, Character, &
> Thought of the People of Persia Received During Twelve Months’ Residence in That Country in the
> Years 1887–8 (London: Adam and Charles Black, 1893; Second Edition: Cambridge:
> Cambridge University Press, 1926; Third edition: With a memoir by E. D. Ross and
> foreword by E. H. Minns, London: A. and C. Black, 1950; New Edition, with introduction
> by Denis MacEoin, London: Century, 1984). For some interesting comments and valuable
> sights regarding this work, see: C. Edmund Bosworth, ‘E. G. Browne and his A Year
> Amongst the Persians,” Iran (British Institute of Persian Studies) 33 (1995): 115–122. See
> also: Geoffrey P. Nash, “Edward Granville Browne and the Persian ‘Awakening’,” From
> Empire to Orient: Travellers to the Middle East, 1830–1926 (London: I. B. Tauris, 2005);
> Christopher Buck, “Edward Granville Browne,” British Writers, Supplement XXI, edited by
> Jay Parini (Farmington Hills, MI: Charles Scribner’s Sons/The Gale Group, 2014), pp. 17–
> 3 3 . A v a i l a b l e o n l i n e a t : h t t p s : / / w w w. a c a d e m i a . e d u / 1 2 3 1 4 8 5 2 /
> _Edward_Granville_Browne._British_Writers._Supplement_XXI_2015_.
> 
> 4   Hasan M. Balyuzi, Eminent Bahá’ís in the Time of Bahá’u’lláh (Oxford: George Ronald, 1985),
> p. 42.
> Christopher Buck                          “The First Recorded Bahá’í Fireside”                          Page 2 of 8
> 
> 5    Description: “E.G. Browne’s diaries 2 (MS LC.II.74). This second volume consists of
> Edward Granville Browne’s diary written on his journey from Teheran to Shiraz 25
> November 1887–6 April 1888, being a continuation of Vol. 1. The volume also contains
> letters, notes, drawings, telegraphs, etc. and samples of plants which he collected locally
> and pressed between pages. . . . Foliation: Red ink pagination in upper corner of every
> page.” Available online at https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-LC-II-00074/1. (Click on
> the hamburger menu, i.e. the icon with three horizontal lines, on the right.) (Accessed 26
> November 2019.)
> 
> 6    Description: “E.G. Browne’s diaries 3 & 4 (MS LC.II.75). The third and fourth volumes
> of Edward Granville Browne’s travel journal written on his journey from Shiraz on 6 April
> 1888 to Yazd and Kirman and back to England on 10 October 1888. In addition to letters,
> notes, drawings, travel documents, etc., the volume also contains a number of indices.”
> Available online at https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-LC-II-00075/1. (Click on the
> hamburger menu, i.e. the icon with three horizontal lines, on the right.) (Accessed 26
> November 2019.)
> 
> 7    Moojan Momen, ed., Selections from the Writings of E.G. Browne on the Bábí and Bahá’í Religions
> (Oxford: George Ronald, 1987), p. 37 (headnote).
> 
> 8    In a footnote, Hatcher and Martin credit their source of information: “The authors are
> indebted for this information to Mrs. Rúḥíyyih Rabbaní, widow of the late Guardian of
> the Bahá’í Faith, whose mother organized the original firesides in Montreal. The
> widespread use of the term no doubt owes much to its incorporation in the Guardian’s
> correspondence.” William S. Hatcher and J. Douglas Martin, The Bahá’í Faith: The Emerging
> Global Religion (New York: Harper & Row, 1985), p. 179 (footnote #256). Thanks to Omid
> Ghaemmaghami for this information. (Tarjuman listserve post, 25 August 2018.)
> 
> 9    Hatcher and Martin, The Bahá’í Faith: The Emerging Global Religion, p. 179.
> 
> 10   Shoghi Effendi, in a letter written on his behalf, states: “I would like to comment that it
> has been found over the entire world that the most effective method of teaching the Faith
> is the fireside meeting in the home.” From a letter written on behalf of the Guardian to
> the Bahá’í Group of Key West, Florida, 31 March 1955, Bahá’í News, No. 292, pp. 9–10.
> Qtd. in Helen Bassett Hornby, compiler, Lights of Guidance: A Bahá’í Reference File (New
> Delhi: Bahá’í Publishing Trust India, 1994), No. 828 (“Firesides More Effective Than
> Publicity.”) http://bahai-library.com/hornby_lights_guidance_2.html&chapter=1#n828.
> (Accessed 26 November 2019.)
> 
> 11   E.G. Browne’s diaries 3 & 4 (MS LC.II.75), p. 338 (online: p. 7 of 392), https://
> cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-LC-II-00075/7.
> 
> Baha’i Studies Review 21 (2015): 57–85.      [Vol. 21 published Nov. 2019.]      Author’s manuscript (pages differ).
> Christopher Buck                          “The First Recorded Bahá’í Fireside”                          Page 3 of 8
> 
> 12   Among Browne’s samples of plants which he collected locally and pressed between pages
> in his diary, see, the image of a pressed plant from Shiraz, with violet flowers (Vol. II, p.
> [no page] (online: p. 217)), https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-LC-II-00074/217; and
> another image of a pressed, flowering plant from Shiraz (Vol. II, p. [no page] (online: p.
> 218)), https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-LC-II-00074/218. See also this plant specimen
> that Browne collected and pressed: https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-LC-II-00074/259.
> 
> 13   The header on this page reads “ZARGÁN – SHÍRÁZ,” apparently as a transitional header.
> E.G. Browne’s diaries 2 (MS LC.II.74), p. 302 (online: p. 212), https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/
> view/MS-LC-II-00074/212.
> 
> 14   E.G. Browne’s diaries 2 (MS LC.II.74), p. 329 (online: p. 247 of 266), https://
> cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-LC-II-00074/247.
> 
> 15   E.G. Browne’s diaries 3 & 4 (MS LC.II.75), p. 349 (online: p. 26 of 392), https://
> cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-LC-II-00075/26, where the header on this page reads,
> transitionally: “SHÍRÁZ – ZARGÁN.”
> 
> 16   E.G. Browne’s diaries 2 (MS LC.II.74), pp. 302–303 (online: pp. 212–213), https://
> cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-LC-II-00074/212 and https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-
> LC-II-00074/213.
> 
> 17   Browne, A Year Amongst the Persians, Second Edition (Cambridge: Cambridge University
> Press, 1926; Reprinted 1927), pp. 283–284 (Chapter IX, “From Iṣfahán to Shíráz”).
> 
> 18   A. J. Arberry, “Edward Granville Browne,” Asian Review, New Series, Vol. LVIII, No. 215
> (July 1962): 168–181 (p. 173). Also separately published as: A. J. Arberry, “Edward
> Granville Browne 1862–1962: A Centenary Address,” The Iran Society Occasional Papers, Vol.
> 6 (London: Iran Society, 1962). (Citation to original paper courtesy of Steven Kolins, 26
> August 2018.)
> 
> 19   Browne, A Year Amongst the Persians (1927), p. 326.
> 
> 20   Brief notes on the next few digital images: Vol. II, p. 303 (online: p. 213): The entry for
> “Thursday, March 22nd,” 1888. Nothing related to Bahá’í topics or encounters. Vol. II, p.
> 304 (online: p. 214): The entry for “Friday, March 23rd,” 1888. Nothing related to Bahá’í
> topics or encounters. Vol. II, p. 305 (online: p. 215): The entry for “Saturday, March
> 24th,” 1888. Nothing related to Bahá’í topics or encounters. Vol. II, p. 306 (online: p.
> 216): A continuation of the same diary entry. Vol. II, p. [no page] (online: p. 217): Image
> of a pressed plant from Shiraz, with violet flowers. Vol. II, p. [no page] (online: p. 218):
> Another image of a pressed, flowering plant from Shiraz. Vol. II, p. 307 (online: p. 219): A
> continuation of the same diary entry. Nothing related to Bahá’í topics or encounters.
> 
> 21   Browne, A Year Amongst the Persians (1927), pp. 326–327.
> 
> Baha’i Studies Review 21 (2015): 57–85.      [Vol. 21 published Nov. 2019.]      Author’s manuscript (pages differ).
> Christopher Buck                          “The First Recorded Bahá’í Fireside”                          Page 4 of 8
> 
> 22   Momen, Selections from the Writings of E.G. Browne on the Bábí and Bahá’í Religions, p. 38
> (footnote).
> 
> 23   E.G. Browne’s diaries 2 (MS LC.II.74), p. 308 (online: p. 220), https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/
> view/MS-LC-II-00074/220. No mention of Bahá’í topics or encounters is found in the
> entry for “Monday, March 26th,” 1888 entry. Same for entry for “Tuesday, March 27th,”
> 1888.
> 
> 24   Momen, Selections from the Writings of E.G. Browne, p. 38 (footnote).
> 
> 25   Hasan M. Balyuzi, Edward Granville Browne and the Bahá’í Faith (Oxford: George Ronald,
> 1979), p. 6.
> 
> 26   Browne, A Year Amongst the Persians (1927), pp. 327–328.
> 
> 27   Momen, Selections from the Writings of E.G. Browne, p. 39 (footnote).
> 
> 28   Browne, A Year Amongst the Persians (1927), pp. 328–329.
> 
> 29   E.G. Browne’s diaries 2 (MS LC.II.74), p. 309 (online: p. 221), https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/
> view/MS-LC-II-00074/221.
> 
> 30   Momen, Selections from the Writings of E.G. Browne, p. 39 (footnote).
> 
> 31   E.G. Browne’s diaries 2 (MS LC.II.74), p. 310 (online: p. 222), https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/
> view/MS-LC-II-00074/222. The next three scans have no Bahá’í content: Vol. II, p. [no
> page] (online: p. 223): A document, in Persian. Vol. II, p. [no page] (online: p. 224):
> Reverse image of the same document. Vol. II, p. 311 (online: p. 225): The entry for
> “Friday, March 30th,” 1888. Nothing related to Bahá’í topics or encounters until Vol. II, p.
> 312.
> 
> 32   Christopher Buck and Youli A. Ioannesyan, “Scholar Meets Prophet: Edward Granville
> Browne and Bahá’u’lláh (Acre, 1890),” Baha’i Studies Review 20 (2014 [2018]): 21–38.
> (Published online: January 11, 2018.) Available online at: https://www.academia.edu/
> 3         6          0         1         5           0          1        2         /
> _Scholar_Meets_Prophet_Edward_Granville_Browne_and_Baha_u_llah_Acre_1890_2018_
> .
> 
> 33   Browne, A Year Amongst the Persians (1927), pp. 329–330.
> 
> 34   Momen, Selections from the Writings of E.G. Browne on the Bábí and Bahá’í Religions, p. 41
> (footnote).
> 
> 35   Balyuzi, Eminent Bahá’ís in the Time of Bahá’u’lláh, p. 121. See also Farzin Vejdani,
> “Transnational Baha’i Print Culture: Community Formation and Religious Authority,
> 1890–1921,” Journal of Religious History (Special Issue: Baha’i History) 36.4 (December
> 2012): 499–515.
> 
> Baha’i Studies Review 21 (2015): 57–85.      [Vol. 21 published Nov. 2019.]      Author’s manuscript (pages differ).
> Christopher Buck                          “The First Recorded Bahá’í Fireside”                          Page 5 of 8
> 
> 36   E.G. Browne’s diaries 2 (MS LC.II.74), p. 312 (online: p. 226), https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/
> view/MS-LC-II-00074/226.
> 
> 37   E.G. Browne’s diaries 2 (MS LC.II.74), p. 313 (online: p. 227), https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/
> view/MS-LC-II-00074/227.
> 
> 38   Browne, A Year Amongst the Persians (1927), p. 330.
> 
> 39   Browne, A Year Amongst the Persians (1927), p. 345.
> 
> 40   E.G. Browne’s diaries 2 (MS LC.II.74), pp. 313–314 (online: pp. 227–228), https://
> cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-LC-II-00074/227 and https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-
> LC-II-00074/228.
> 
> 41   Browne, A Year Amongst the Persians (1927), p. 333–334.
> 
> 42   See, e.g., Christopher Buck, “Discovering” [the Qur’an], The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to
> the Qur’an, second edition, edited by Andrew Rippin and Jawid Mojaddedi (Oxford: Wiley-
> Blackwell, 2017), pp. 23–42. Available online at: https://www.academia.edu/36108628/
> _Discovering_the_Qur%CA%BE%C4%81n_._The_Wiley_Blackwell_Companion_to_the_
> Qur%CA%BE%C4%81n_Second_Edition_2017_.
> 
> 43   See, e.g., Todd Lawson, The Quran: Epic and Apocalypse (London: Oneworld Academic,
> 2017).
> 
> 44   Browne, A Year Amongst the Persians (1927), p. 334.
> 
> 45   Browne, A Year Amongst the Persians (1927), p. 334.
> 
> 46   Browne, A Year Amongst the Persians (1927), pp. 334–335.
> 
> 47   Mohammad Hassan Khalil, “Is Hell Truly Everlasting?: An Introduction to Medieval
> Islamic Universalism,” Locating Hell in Islamic Traditions, edited by Christian Lange (Leiden,
> Boston: Brill, 2016), pp. 165–174 [171–172].
> 
> 48   See Q. 2:190 (i.e. the general nature of jihád is defensive, to be waged in response to
> military attacks on the Muslim community); Q. 9:5 (a later verse, justifying offensive
> preemptive strikes, i.e. preventive war, as a strategy against credible threats, but only
> after the enemy is first given advance warning); and Q. 5:33 (specifying punishments for
> “those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger,” Mohsin Khan’s translation).
> 
> 49   Browne, A Year Amongst the Persians (1927), pp. 335–336.
> 
> 50   Shoghi Effendi, Letter, dated 29 April 1933, written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an
> individual believer, Arohanui: Letters from Shoghi Effendi to New Zealand (Suva, Fiji Islands:
> Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1982), pp. 32–33.
> 
> Baha’i Studies Review 21 (2015): 57–85.      [Vol. 21 published Nov. 2019.]      Author’s manuscript (pages differ).
> Christopher Buck                             “The First Recorded Bahá’í Fireside”                                 Page 6 of 8
> 
> 51   Browne, A Year Amongst the Persians (1927), p. 336.
> 
> 52   Browne, A Year Amongst the Persians (1927), pp. 336–337.
> 
> 53   Browne, A Year Amongst the Persians (1927), p. 337.
> 
> 54   Bahá’u’lláh, [Tablet to] “Násiri’d-Dín Sháh,” The Summons of the Lord of Hosts (Haifa: Bahá’í
> World Centre, 2002), pp. 109–110 (emphasis added).
> 
> 55   Browne, A Year Amongst the Persians (1927), p. 337.
> 
> 56   Bahá’u’lláh, The Kitáb-i-Íqán: The Book of Certitude, translated by Shoghi Effendi (). See also:
> Sholeh Quinn and Stephen N. Lambden, “Ketáb-e Iqán,” Encyclopaedia Iranica (2010,
> published online at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/ketab-iqan) (accessed 26
> November 2019); Christopher Buck, Symbol and Secret: Qur’an Commentary in Bahá’u’lláh’s
> Kitáb-i Íqán (Los Angeles: Kalimat Press, 1995/2004), available online at: https://
> w w w . a c a d e m i a . e d u / 4 3 3 3 6 0 3 /
> Symbol_and_Secret_Qur_an_Commentary_in_Baha_u_llah_s_Kitab-i_Iqan_1995_2004_;
> Buck, “Beyond the ‘Seal of the Prophets’: Bahá’u’lláh’s Book of Certitude (Ketáb-e
> Iqán).” Religious Texts in Iranian Languages, edited by Clause Pedersen & Fereydun Vahman
> (København (Copenhagen): Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab, 2007), pp.
> 3 6 9 – 3 7 8 . Av a i l a b l e o n l i n e a t : h t t p s : / / w w w. a c a d e m i a . e d u / 2 0 3 3 9 6 2 9 /
> _Beyond_the_Seal_of_the_Prophets_Baha_u_llah_s_Book_of_Certitude_Ketab-
> e_Iqan_2007_.
> 
> 57   Browne, A Year Amongst the Persians (1927), pp. 337–338.
> 
> 58   This recondite epistle has been translated, in full, by sStephen Lambden, “The Tablet to
> Hardegg (Lawḥ-i-Hirtík): A Tablet of Bahá’u’lláh to the Templer Leader Georg David
> Hardegg.” Lights of ‘Irfán: Papers Presented at the ‘Irfán Colloquia and Seminars, Book IV
> (Evanston, IL: ‘Irfán Colloquia, 2003), pp. 97–110. Online at http://irfancolloquia.org/
> pdf/lights4_lambden_ekbal.pdf. (Accessed 26 November 2019.)
> 
> 59   Browne, A Year Amongst the Persians (1927), p. 338.
> 
> 60   Browne, A Year Amongst the Persians (1927), pp. 338–339.
> 
> 61   Browne, A Year Amongst the Persians (1927), pp. 339–340.
> 
> 62   Browne, A Year Amongst the Persians (1927), p. 340.
> 
> 63   Browne, A Year Amongst the Persians (1927), p. 340.
> 
> 64   Browne, A Year Amongst the Persians (1927), pp. 340–341.
> 
> 65   ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Selections From the Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá (Haifa: Bahá’í World Centre, 1982),
> p. 40 (emphasis added).
> 
> Baha’i Studies Review 21 (2015): 57–85.         [Vol. 21 published Nov. 2019.]             Author’s manuscript (pages differ).
> Christopher Buck                          “The First Recorded Bahá’í Fireside”                          Page 7 of 8
> 
> 66   Bahá’u’lláh, [Tablet to] “Pope Pius IX,” The Summons of the Lord of Hosts, p. 63 (emphasis
> added).
> 
> 67   Browne, A Year Amongst the Persians (1927), p. 341.
> 
> 68   Stephen Lambden, “Prophecy in the Johannine Farewell discourse: The Advents of the
> Paraclete, Aḥmad and the Comforter (Mu‘azzí),” in Scripture and Revelation, ed. Moojan
> Momen (Oxford: George Ronald, 1997), pp. 69–124.
> 
> 69   Browne, A Year Amongst the Persians (1927), pp. 341–342.
> 
> 70   Browne, A Year Amongst the Persians (1927), p. 342.
> 
> 71   Browne, A Year Amongst the Persians (1927), pp. 342–343.
> 
> 72   Browne, A Year Amongst the Persians (1927), pp. 333–343.
> 
> 73   See, e.g., Christopher Buck and Youli A. Ioannesyan, “Scholar Meets Prophet: Edward
> Granville Browne and Bahá’u’lláh (Acre, 1890),” Baha’i Studies Review 20 (2014 [2018]):
> 21–38. (Edited by Steve Cooney.) (Published online: January 11, 2018.) Available online
> at:                         h t t p s : / / w w w. a c a d e m i a . e d u / 3 6 0 1 5 0 1 2 /
> _Scholar_Meets_Prophet_Edward_Granville_Browne_and_Baha_u_llah_Acre_1890_2018_
> .
> 
> 74   See, e.g., Christopher Buck and Youli A. Ioannesyan, “Bahá’u’lláh’s Bishárát (Glad-
> Tidings): A Proclamation to Scholars and Statesmen,” Baha’i Studies Review 16 (2010): 3–
> 28. (Edited by Moojan Momen.) Available online at: https://www.academia.edu/
> 4332824/_Baha_u_llah_s_Bish%C4%81r%C4%81t_Glad-
> Tidings_A_Proclamation_to_Scholars_and_Statesmen_2010_.
> 
> 75   See, e.g., Christopher Buck and Youli A. Ioannesyan, “The 1893 Russian Publication of
> Bahá’u’lláh’s Last Will and Testament: An Academic Attestation of ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s
> Successorship.” Baha’i Studies Review 19 (2013): 3–44. (Edited by Steve Cooney.)
> (Published May 2017.) Available online at: https://www.academia.edu/34197434/
> _The_1893_Russian_Publication_of_Baha_u_llah_s_Last_Will_and_Testament_An_Acade
> mic_Attestation_of_Abdu_l-Baha_s_Successorship_2013_published_in_June_2017_.
> 
> 76   E.G. Browne’s diaries 2 (MS LC.II.74), p. 314 (online: p. 228), https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/
> view/MS-LC-II-00074/228.
> 
> 77   Browne, A Year Amongst the Persians (1927), pp. 343–344.
> 
> 78   E.G. Browne’s diaries 2 (MS LC.II.74), pp. 347–348 (online: pp. 228), https://
> cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-LC-II-00074/228.
> 
> 79   E.G. Browne’s diaries 3 & 4 (MS LC.II.75), p. 348 (online: p. 26), https://
> cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-LC-II-00075/26.
> 
> Baha’i Studies Review 21 (2015): 57–85.      [Vol. 21 published Nov. 2019.]      Author’s manuscript (pages differ).
> Christopher Buck                          “The First Recorded Bahá’í Fireside”                          Page 8 of 8
> 
> 80   Christopher Buck and Youli A. Ioannesyan, “Scholar Meets Prophet: Edward Granville
> Browne and Bahá’u’lláh (Acre, 1890).” Baha’i Studies Review 20 (2014 [2018]): 21–38.
> (Published online: January 11, 2018.) Available online at: https://www.academia.edu/
> 3         6          0         1         5           0          1        2         /
> _Scholar_Meets_Prophet_Edward_Granville_Browne_and_Baha_u_llah_Acre_1890_2018_
> .
> 
> 81   Momen, Selections from the Writings of E.G. Browne, p. 68 (footnote).
> 
> 82   E.G. Browne’s diaries 2 (MS LC.II.74), p. 329 (online: p. 247), https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/
> view/MS-LC-II-00074/247.
> 
> 83   Browne, A Year Amongst the Persians (1927), pp. 357–358.
> 
> 84   Bahá’u’lláh, Sura of Patience (Súriy-i-Ṣabr), provisional translation by Omid
> Ghaemmaghami. Qtd. in Christopher Buck, “Muḥammad: the Last Prophet?” (May 15,
> 2017), http://bahaiteachings.org/last-prophet-muhammad. (Accessed 26 November
> 2019.) 9 September 2018.)
> 
> 85   Dr. Seddigh states that this visitation prayer in commemoration of Imám ‘Ali is found in a
> book called Kámilu’z-Ziyárát, a well-known Muslim collection of prayers of visitation (i.e.
> prayers meant to be read at the graves of the Prophet Muḥammad, the Shia Imáms, and
> other Shia figures). The collection of commemorative prayers was probably compiled by
> the Shia scholar, Ibn Qúlúya (d. 978 or 979 CE). The visitation prayer for Imám ‘Alí’s
> shrine, has the exact words Bahá’u’lláh revealed—verbatim. The eleventh chapter—
> entitled: “Visiting the grave of the Commander of the Faithful [Imám ‘Alí], how the grave
> should be visited, and what to pray at the grave”—begins on page 92, and the statement
> to which Bahá’u’lláh refers is found on p. 97 (and is the second “ḥadíth” (tradition) cited).
> This very same statement is also found in prayers of visitation for the shrine of Imám
> Ḥusayn and in a prayer to be said at the shrines of all of the Imáms. (References courtesy
> of Omid Ghaemmaghami and Dr. Foad Seddigh.)
> 
> 86   Browne, A Year Amongst the Persians (1927), p. 358.
> 
> Baha’i Studies Review 21 (2015): 57–85.      [Vol. 21 published Nov. 2019.]      Author’s manuscript (pages differ).
>
> — *The First Recorded Baha'i Fireside (Used by permission of the curator)*