The Modes and Intentions of Biography
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Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Graham Hassall, The Modes and Intentions of Biography, bahai-library.com.
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Methodology
Baha’i Studies Review, Volume 14 © Intellect Ltd 2008
Methodology. English language. doi: 10.1386/bsr.14.71/7

The Modes and Intentions of Biography
Graham Hassall

Abstract                                                                                  Keywords
This paper explores a range of modes, intentions and problems of Baha’i biogra-           Baha’i
phy, in order to offer some initial observations on the ways in which biographical        biography and
literatures frame understandings of the individual in the context of community. It           religion
distinguishes between documentary, hagiological and critical modes of biography           documentary
as these have emerged in the diverse literature of the world’s religious traditions, as      biography
well as in the secular literature of the modern period. It suggests that much Baha’i      hagiography
biography has continued the traditions of remembrance and exempla, although               exemplum and
more critical works have also begun to appear. The quest to write ‘spiritual biogra-         anti-exemplum
phies’ that explore a subject’s inner life and journey remains difficult, due mostly to   critical biography
limitations on sources, since few subjects give adequate exposure to their inner
thoughts. Rather than privilege one tradition above any other, Baha’i biographies
have to date drawn on the skills of the craft elaborated across generations, reli-
gions and cultures, while beginning to draw also on Baha’i scripture for inspiration
productive of new insights into how lived lives can be depicted in literature.

This paper seeks to explore some of the ‘moral implications’ for writing                  1.   The author would like
biography from a Baha’i perspective.1 It proceeds by searching out the                         to thank Katayoun
Hassall, Will C. van
modes, intentions and problems of Baha’i biography in order to ground its                      den Hoonaard, Jack
theoretical observations empirically and to point to some issues of method                     McLean, and several
associated with biographical practice. A related purpose is to offer some                      anonymous reviewers
for their comments
initial observations on the ways in which biographical literatures frame                       on earlier drafts of
understandings of the individual in the context of community.                                  this paper. W. P.
Biography, as distinguished from all other texts, places the life experience of            Collins’s Bibliography
of English-Language
an individual (or individuals) at the centre of investigation. The Encyclopaedia               Works on the Bābı̄
Britannica describes a biography as a ‘narrative which seeks, consciously and                  and Baahā’ ı̄ Faiths
artistically, to record the actions and recreate the personality of an individual life         1844–1985 (Oxford:
George Ronald, 1990,
…’2 Other works such as histories and other types of commentary may well                       505) has just over two
consider the same person or people, but without placing them at the centre of                  hundred references to
the investigation. There are, for instance, descriptions of Horace Holley in Gayle             ‘biography’ as a
subject and advises
Morrison’s study of Louis Gregory,3 but the latter is at the centre of focus.                  the reader to look
Similarly, Robert Stockman’s survey of the Baha’i Faith in America describes a                 also under ‘history’.
great number of individuals, without seeking to write a biography of any one of                This paper, even
though examining a
them.4 A further distinction can be made between biographies written about                     comparatively small
oneself (autobiographies) rather than about others. The noblest goal of an auto-               and recently
biography is to examine one’s life and to share the results of this examination                commenced tradition,

BSR 14 pp. 71–86. © Intellect Ltd 2008                                              71
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can only refer in brief       with others. It requires the capacity to observe oneself at a distance.
to the range of titles        Autobiographies may also be written for other purposes, whether for the
available.
instruction of others or simply to record the times one has lived through and
2.   Quoted in H. H. E.            the events one has witnessed or participated in.
Loofs, ‘Biographies
in Stone: The                      Not all biographies intend to explore their subject in similar depth.
Significance of               Those that are essentially chronological and descriptive intend to document
Changing Perceptions          a life ‘for the record’. They seek, that is, to preserve or to record information
of the Buddha Image
in Mainland Southeast         of interest about a person, and they seek remembrance (tadhkira) of a subject
Asia for the                  without exploring the relationship between his or her values and actions,
Understanding of              and without placing these actions in some specific historical or sociocultural
the Individual’s Place
in Some Buddhist              context. In the case of religious biographies, they offer an assurance that a
Societies’, in Self and       subject possessed the qualities of the spiritual and the virtues of the holy,
Biography: Essays on          but do not necessarily bring the reader any closer to an understanding of
the Individual and
Society in Asia               the struggles and achievements of their actual existence.
(ed. Wang Gungwu,                  A more complex biographical exercise presents relevant events in some
Sydney: Sydney                actual context, and examines the progression of the biographical subject
University Press for
the Australian                through the conditions of their life. It takes the step of seeking the significance
Academy of the                of the subject’s existence, of extracting the essential from the myriad events
Humanities, 1976), 9.         and happenings in their life. For example, biographies of George Townshend5
3.   G. Morrison, To Move          and Louis Gregory seek to position their subjects in the context of their times.
the World: Louis G.
Gregory and the
Advancement of Racial         Biographic traditions
Unity in America              Traditions of biography and autobiography have evolved in each of the world
(Wilmette: Bahā’ı̄           religions. Devoted at first to depicting the life of the prophet and the lives of
Publishing Trust, 1982).
the first disciples, they have expanded to include accounts of martyrs, saints
4.   R. H. Stockman, The           and holy men and women. The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary defines this
Bah ā’ ı̄ Faith in America
Vol. II: Early Expansion,     literature as ‘Hagiology’ – ‘literature that treats of the lives and legends of
1900–1912 (Oxford:            saints’. But this literature in its original form was not as concerned with the
George Ronald, 1995).         details of an individualized life as with the generalized moral story that it
5.   D. Hofman, George             could be called on to tell. Such idealized biographies of saints that were the
Townshend (Oxford:
George Ronald, 1983).
focus of medieval hagiographies, explain Averill and Nunley:
6. J. R. Averill and E. P.              … were little concerned with the idiosyncrasies of individual lives. Their
Nunley, Voyages of the               purpose was to further Christian ideals, and medieval biographers felt free to
Heart: Living an
Emotionally Creative                 borrow anecdotes from one saint’s life to embellish the life of another. To the
Life (New York: The                  extent that differences among people were accorded significance, such differ-
Free Press, 1992), 12.               ences were based on pre-established regional, class, and gender expectations.
7.   Godzich continues:                 A person was born into a certain social station (a nobleman, say, or a serf),
‘The mechanism of
and that station determined the meaning of his or her life.6
exemplum is simple: a
singular happenstance
is related so that it can     The ‘exemplary’ purpose of such texts has recently been elaborated by
serve as an instance of       studies of the ‘broad injunctions’ found in Christian texts, in contrast to the
a universal principle,        ‘specific regulations’ found in Judaism:
which can now be
imposed as a moral
imperative on the                  Inevitably, there arose a need to identify models of proper, and improper,
recipient of the story.            behaviour to compensate for the excessive laconism of the New Testament on
The universal principle
may have been                      this topic. Lives of saints were written and accounts of the lives of famous
explicitly stated in               pagans were scrutinized to extract from them the models that would guaran-
revelation, but, more              tee the moral uplifting of righteous Christians. We know these models under
often than not, it is
enough that it be                  the name of exempla, narratives of others’ lives, or of events in others’ lives,
derived from the                   admitting of a moral lesson.7

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The Buddhist tradition offers a slightly different approach to biography,                           exemplum in such a
which yields a somewhat similar result. According to Gungwu, the practice                           way that it is consistent
with the rest of
of biography was inhibited by the attempt to limit the ‘aggrandizement of                           revelation. There
the self’ through placing little emphasis on ‘any individual self’ at any par-                      occurred thus a subtle
ticular point or place in time: ‘Self was knowable but specific selves were                         shift in authority from
revelation itself,
not worth knowing except where they might show a capacity to merge with                             though it remains
the universal, with the infinite and the eternal. There was, therefore, no                          unchallenged, to
meaningful biography except where it might demonstrate how a few extra-                             experience, the past
experience of the
ordinary men conquered their selves.’8                                                              exemplar. Moreover,
China’s Confucian tradition elaborated Shih Chi, biographies exemplify-                         since the signifying
ing a ‘Confucian moralism whose ultimate aim was to guide the conduct of                            economy of the
exemplum follows
statecraft’.9 In Japan such literary figures as Mori Ógai developed a ‘typol-                       the rule of logical
ogy of virtue’ to describe a vast corpus of biographical literature.10 A similar                    abduction, in which a
hagiographic intention also informs Islamic biography. Biographies of the                           law is derived from a
singular instance to
Prophet Muhammad were given the name sira, and the tradition of rijāl in                           then be generalized
Shi‘a Islam focused on the study of the lives of the transmitters of the traditions                 to all instances, past
of Islam.11 Eventually clergy and caliphs, saints and missionaries, were equally                    experience, as the law
that is derived from it
subject to written remembrance. In some parts of the Islamic world these are                        is given the status of
known as tarjama, an Arabic term referring to both biography and autobiog-                          universal or general
raphy.12 Tarjama marshalled the particulars of the lives of learned men into                        law (the distinction
between universal
settled categories:                                                                                 and general is not
material in this case).’
The components include a genealogy, an account of formal education and                           W. Godzich, ‘Figuring
out what matters; or,
Qur’anic memorization, a list of teachers (often including close relatives,                      the microphysics of
which indicates family support for religious learning), the books and sub-                       history’, in Making
jects studied, and selections from the subject’s poetry, aphorisms, or other                     Sense in Life and
Literature (ed. H. U.
contributions to learning. Dates are provided whenever possible, since the                       Gumbrecht,
ability to date events distinguishes the traditionally educated from the                         Minneapolis: University
unlearned.13                                                                                     of Minnesota Press,
1992), vii–xvi.

As explained by Renard, the significance of the depiction of religious heroes                  8.   Wang Gungwu,
‘Introduction’, in
in literature lies in that they ‘live and move in a world ordered according to                      Wang (ed.), Self and
a divine plan’, and that they exist ‘only to reflect and point out God’s signs                      Biography, 2.
and presence in creation’:                                                                     9. ‘Indeed, the shiden
project in its entirety
When they conquer they do so by God’s leave and power; and even when they                      may be interpreted
as a biographical
lose in time, as rejected prophets or martyrs for justice, they win in eternity.               exploration of the
Religious heroes function as custodians of hope against terrible odds, testify-                following exemplary
ing to the virtual certainty of ultimate victory. Their life stories bear witness to           traits: self-sacrifice
(kenshin); martial spirit
the reality of a transcendent dimension in human experience. Most of all,                      (vuahi no awiahin); for-
prophets and Friends of God represent the best of religious and cultural                       bearance, magnanimity,
ideals in accessible form, perhaps too far away to attain fully but not so far as              and generosity (kekku
no michi); learning
to discourage an attempt.14                                                                    (gakumon) self-
reliance and inner
Religious biography, of course, exists within a larger practice of biography,                     strength (Zuchi ni
tanomu tokoro); and
which in the modern period has become dominated by studies from popular                           indifference to material
culture – cinema, literature, music and war. In the twentieth century biograph-                   or utilitarian standards
ical endeavour came to include accounts of previously silenced voices – of                        (muyó).’ M. Marcus,
Paragons of the
‘common’ people, of women and of the oppressed and marginalized, who                              Ordinary: The
are now ‘writing back’ to their oppressors. In finding these voices, the practice                 Biographical Literature

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of Mori Ógai (Honolulu:     of autobiography (i.e. writing one’s own story) has also burgeoned. With the
University of Hawaii        emergence of secularism in western society, the hagiographic function elabo-
Press 1993), 10.
rated within the religious traditions has been modified rather than com-
10. ibid 178.
pletely rejected. Modern biographies generally avoid questions of ‘ultimate
11. A. Amanat, Resurrection     purpose’,15 but proceed in the knowledge that ‘each human life recapitu-
and Renewal: The
Making of the Babi
lates common human experience’.16
Movement in Iran,
1844–1850 (Ithaca:          Biography in the Baha’i writings
Cornell University
Press, 1989), 35.
There seems little need to defend the practice of either history or biography
in Baha’i discourse. The writings of Baha’u’llah are replete with references
12. D. F. Eickelman,
‘Traditional Islamic
to history; those of ‘Abdu’l-Baha and Shoghi Effendi similarly draw on past
Learning and Ideas of       events and persons when referring to present and even future concerns.
the Person in the           Baha’u’llah immortalized the lives of those devoted to his cause and he
Twentieth Century’, in
Middle Eastern Lives:
referred to the lives of the past prophets and sages as being lives worthy of
The Practice of             emulation. Furthermore, Baha’u’llah described his own experiences in his
Biography and Self-         Tablets.17 Autobiographical references by him point to the worth of his expe-
Narrative (ed. M. S.
Kramer, Syracuse, NY:
rience, and allow the reader to compare the records of that experience with
Syracuse University         those of the lives of previous prophets.18
Press, 1991) 35–9.              ‘Abdu’l-Baha recalled the lives of kings, rulers and learned in The Secret
13. ibid 39. An exemplary       of Divine Civilization and extolled sincere Babi and Baha’i believers in
study of the                Memorials of the Faithful.19 He suggested that contemplation of the lives of
relationship between
religious training and      heroic Baha’is in Persia would set an example that others might aspire to
power is found in R.        follow, once advising that time be taken at the Nineteen Day Feast to:
Mottahedeh, Mantle of
the Prophet: Religion
and Politics in Iran             … recount the high deeds and sacrifices of the lovers of God in Persia, and
(New York: Simon &               tell of the martyrs’ detachment from the world, and their ecstasy, and of how
Schuster, 1985).                 the believers there stood by one another and gave up everything they had.20
14. J. Renard, Seven Doors
to Islam: Spirituality      Thus we see that the intention of a work such as Memorials of the Faithful
and the Religious Life of
Muslims (Berkeley:          is to depict ‘ordinary’ people who, through their faith, do extraordinary
University of California    things. Such stories inspire because they show the effect of faith on ordi-
Press, 1996), 77.           nary people.
15. Increasingly, for               Shoghi Effendi valued those who had served the Baha’i cause and referred
instance, critical          to them in the most admiring and loving language. He frequently sent epi-
studies are taking into
account psychological       taphs when notified of the passing of individuals whose efforts to promote
dimensions, as part of      the Baha’i cause he cherished, and he instigated an ‘In Memoriam’ section
an exploration of the       from the fourth volume of The Bah ā’ ı̄ World, a tradition that continued through
inner life.
the remaining volumes of The Bahā’ı̄ World (vols. 4–20).21 The brief biogra-
16. R. B. Schwartz,             phies that appear in official records, however, were never intended to set lim-
‘Johnson’s Johnson’,
in James Boswell’s          its as to the treatment of individual life stories. To the contrary, Shoghi
Life of Samuel              Effendi on several occasions referred to the need for further elaboration, which
Johnson: Modern             the pressure of his more compelling responsibilities as Guardian of the Baha’i
Critical Interpretations
(ed. H. Bloom, New          Faith prevented him from exploring.
York: Chelsea House,            One feature that begins to emerge from a reading of Baha’i biographies
1986), 74.                  is the diversity of personalities depicted, and the seeming lack of limita-
17. A number of these           tions on culture or social class represented. In what may be an unconscious
appear in Epistle to        evolution, the literature has, in the first 150 years of its tradition, produced
the Son of the Wolf
(Wilmette, IL: Bahā’ı̄     studies ranging from the twin ‘Great Souls’ (the Bab and Baha’u’llah) to
Publishing Trust, 1988).    their followers of stations high and low alike, and even those who worked
His Tablet of the           as servants and slaves.22
Holy Mariner (Bahā’ ı̄

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The question as to whether accounts of the prophets are biographies or                       Prayers, Wilmette:
some other form of literature is left aside in this essay – except to say that                   Bahā’ı̄ Publishing
Trust, 1991, 220–8)
any attempt to place them ‘outside’ risks dilution of scrutiny. The biographies                  can be regarded as
of the central figures by Balyuzi combine the approaches of meticulous                           ‘metaphorical
western scholarship and religious attachment to produce studies that are at                      autobiography’. David
Ruhe has included
once faithful to and somehow detached from their subjects.23 David S. Ruhe                       ‘every crumb of autobi-
acknowledges the hagiographic element in his biography of Baha’u’llah,                           ographical material’ by
Robe of Light, and suggests also that a cold objectivity is neither possible                     Baha’u’llah in Robe of
Light: The Persian Years
nor desirable:                                                                                   of the Supreme Prophet
Bahā’u’llāh 1817–1853
A natural tendency to reflect a feeling for Bahā’u’llāh well beyond hagiography             (Oxford: George
Ronald, 1994).
must be moderated through such objectivity as is possible so soon after the life-
time of the Prophet. Nevertheless, the author’s subjective emotional conviction          18. This, for instance, was
one of the devices used
has been sustained by a steadily deepening appreciation of the Great Soul.24                 by the Bab to prove
his own prophetic
Ruhe points to a shift in perspective that is gaining ground in the ‘post-                      statement; see Amanat,
Resurrection and
modern period’. Consisting of many ungathered strands, it is a perspective                      Renewal, 193–8.
that questions the certainties of much modern thought, particularly the                         Whatever difficulties
idea that knowledge can be produced ‘objectively’, and in a way that deter-                     practitioners of Baha’i
history may face, they
mines some ‘absolute’ or ‘scientific’ truth. This new perspective is prepared                   do not equal those
to admit its own boundaries, and to seek validity through disclosure of its                     facing anyone who
own limited capacities to find meanings. Such a perspective finds many                          searches, for instance,
for the ‘historical Jesus’.
parallels that are useful in approaching Baha’i biographical literature.
At this early stage in a new tradition, the lives of the central figures of             19. ‘Abdu’l-Baha, The
Secret of Divine
the Baha’i Faith have been presented anecdotally more than through com-                         Civilization (Wilmette,
prehensive narrative.25 The life story of ‘Abdu’l-Baha has been told in such                    IL: Bahā’ ı̄ Publishing
early studies as Myron Phelps’s The Life and Teachings of Abbas Effendi (New                    Trust, 1990); ‘Abdu’l-
Baha, Memorials of the
York: G. P. Putnam’s Son, 1903), and more recently in Balyuzi’s ‘Abdu’l-                        Faithful (Wilmette, IL:
Bahā: Centre of the Covenant of Bahā’u’llāh (1971). ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s sister,                   Bahā’ ı̄ Publishing
Bahiyyih Khanum, has only recently become the subject of close biographi-                       Trust, 1971). This latter
book contains short
cal observation.26 Shoghi Effendi has been the subject of an initial biogra-                    sketches of the lives
phy by his widow, Ruhiyyih Rabbani,27 and of numerous memoirs by early                          of 73 followers of
Baha’is.                                                                                        Baha’u’llah, including
two women. ‘Abdu’l-
Of the more than 50 individuals appointed ‘Hands of the Cause’ by                           Baha’s essays were
Baha’u’llah and Shoghi Effendi, only a handful have to date been the subject                    written in 1915 and
of serious (English-language) biographies. Accounts of Rahmatu’llah Muhajir                     published in Persian
in Haifa in 1924.
and Zikrullah Khadem have been written by family members, primarily
using personal notebooks and diaries, with later revision and supplementa-                  20. ‘Abdu’l-Baha, from a
Tablet to an individual
tion. Iran Muhajir considers the biography of her husband Rahmatu’llah                          Baha’i – translated
Muhajir an incomplete record of the life of this man who ‘lived only to serve                   from the Persian,
Bahā’u’llāh and who tried to carry out the instructions of the beloved                        Compilation of
Compilations (Mona
Guardian to the best of his ability’.28 The life story of Dorothy Baker has                     Vale: Bahā’ ı̄
been written by her granddaughter, Dorothy Gilstrap,29 that of Leroy Ioas by                    Publications Australia,
his insightful daughter A. Chapman.30 Other Hands of the Cause who have                         1991), vol. 1, 428.
been the subject of biographical treatment include Martha Root,31 George                    21. The Bahā’ ı̄ World (vols.
1–12, 1925–54, rpt.
Townshend,32 Louis Gregory,33 William Sears,34 and John Esslemont.35                            Wilmette, IL: Bahā’ ı̄
Barron Harper has produced a volume of essays on all Hands of the Cause                         Publishing Trust, 1980;
in Lights of Fortitude.36 The majority of other Baha’i biographies focus on the                 vols. 13–14, Haifa: The
Universal House of
first adherents of the Baha’i Faith in particular countries, and on pioneering                  Justice, 1970–74; vol.
activities.37                                                                                   15–20, Haifa: Bahā’ ı̄

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World Centre,                 Biography as exemplum
1976–98).                     The traditions of hagiography in both Islamic and Christian literature have
22. See for example,               undoubtedly and quite understandably influenced much of early Baha’i bio-
A. Q. Afnan, Black             graphical literature. Elements of tarjama (Islamic hagiography) are clearly
Pearls: Servants in the
Households of the              evident, for instance, in Nabil-i-A‘zam’s account of the Babis, The Dawn-
Bā b and Bahā’u’llāh        Breakers. So too is Mirza Abu’l-Fadl’s Short Sketch of the History and Lives of
(Los Angeles: Kalimāt                                               ˙
the Leaders of This Religion reflective of this style.38 Typical of scholarship in
Press, 1988).
both East and West at the time, Abu’l-Fadl does not detail his sources, but
23. H. M. Balyuzi,                 does show that he has considered the evidence  ˙        of writers who were sup-
Baha’u’llah (London:
Baha’i Publishing              portive of his subjects, as well as those who were not, and he supports only
Trust, 1938);’Abdu’l-          those facts he is confident of.
Bahā: The Centre of               More recent Baha’i literature also draws on the hagiographic and docu-
the Covenant of
Bahā’u’llāh (Oxford:         mentary Islamic and Christian traditions. This includes many biographies
George Ronald, 1972);          that appear in the ‘In Memoriam’ section of volumes of The Bahā’ ı̄ World.
The Bāb: Herald of the        These are mostly based on the recollections of relatives or acquaintances
Day of Days (Oxford:
George Ronald, 1973);          and seldom rely on extensive use of documentary sources. They intend to
Bahā’u’llāh: a brief life,   honour the memory of their subjects and to acknowledge their contribution
followed by an essay on        to the progress of the Baha’i Faith rather than to explore their individual con-
the Manifestation of
God entitled The Word          tribution in detail. In fulfilling these functions, they encourage and inspire
Made Flesh (Oxford:            their readers and locate contemporary Baha’i activities against a background
George Ronald, 1974);          of worthy tradition. Furthermore, they establish a record of the past, which
Bahā’u’llāh, The King
of Glory (Oxford:              acts as an essential collective memory – a consciousness of the past – that
George Ronald, 1980).          strengthens individuals and communities as they operate in the present.39
24. Ruhe, Robe of Light:               Baha’i literature also includes several valuable collections of what might
The Persian Years of the       be termed ‘biographical essays’. Some of these are by a single author, such
Supreme Prophet
Bahā’u’llāh 1817–1853
as O. Z. Whitehead’s Some Early Bahā’¯ı s of the West, Some Bahā’¯ı s to Remember,
(Oxford: George                and Portraits of Some Bahā’ ı̄ Women;40 and Dipchand Khianra’s Immortals.41
Ronald, 1994), 180.            Multi-authored collections of this genre include And The Trees Clapped Their
25. Some of these are              Hands, edited by Claire Vreeland, Why They Became Bahā’ı̄ s, compiled by
listed in G. Faizi,            Annamarie Honnold, and S. Sundrum’s portraits of Malaysian Baha’is in
Stories about Baha’i
Funds (New Delhi:
Mystic Connections.42
Bahā’ ı̄ Publishing               These volumes of biographical essays each cohere around a specific
Trust, 1993).                  theme. Whitehead’s first volume (Some Early Bah ā’ ı̄ s) narrates the lives of
26. The life of Bahiyyih           23 individuals who met ‘Abdu’l-Baha.43 The volume edited by Vreeland
Khanum is currently            includes both biographical and autobiographical accounts of pioneers,
remembered in
numerous histories
while that compiled by Honnold presents 34 autobiographies and 101
and in the compilation         biographies of ‘first generation Bahā’ı̄ s by 1963’. Khianra presents stories of
of letters to and from         Baha’is from the Indian subcontinent. Numerous essays from among these
her, Bahı̄ yyih Khānum,
The Greatest Holy Leaf:
four sets of biographical essays rely on existing secondary sources and on
A Compilation from the         primary materials offered by subjects’ relatives and acquaintances; not one
Bahā’ı̄ Sacred Texts and      among them suggests any reliance on formally archived materials.44
Writings of the Guardian
of the Faith and
Baha’i biographical and autobiographical literature also includes an
Bahı̄ yyih Khānum’s           increasing number of works privately printed, or otherwise printed in small
Own Letters (Haifa:            numbers, by family members or Baha’i communities and institutions.45
Bahā’ı̄ World Centre
1982). J. A. Khan,
Some works written in Arabic and Persian have been published in English
Prophet’s Daughter:            translation.46
The Life and Legacy                For the most part these biographical essays are vehicles for exempla – for
of Bahı̄ yyih Khānum:
Outstanding Heroine
inspiration and the consolidation of tradition. Such exemplary biogra-
of the Bahā’ı̄ Faith          phies are not inherently problematic, but they may become so when
(Wilmette, IL: Bahā’ı̄        tension results from differences between a writer’s intentions and readers’

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expectations, or else through the selective (non-)use of biographical evidence,                  Publishing Trust,
leading in some instances to ‘biographies of denial’.                                            2005); M. Momen,
‘The family and early
The life story of Fatimah Zarin Taj Baraghani (also known as T ahirih =                     life of Tahirih Qurrat
˙ is one
‘The pure one’, and Quratu’l-‘Ayn = ‘Solace of the eyes’), for instance,                         al-‘Ayn’, Bahā’ ı̄ Studies
still to be imagined from within its prism of both eastern and western bio-                      Review 11 (2003),
35–52.
graphic traditions. Being female, her learning did not satisfy the criteria of
tarjama, and only her individual brilliance has saved her from being                         27. R. Rabbani, The
Priceless Pearl (London:
silenced like so many of her sister believers, as lamented in Bahiyyih                           Bahā’ ı̄ Publishing
Nakhjavani’s insightful Asking Questions:                                                        Trust, 1969).
28. I. F. Muhājir,
The pages of Nabil’s Dawn-Breakers are filled with countless women. They ride                 Dr Muhā jir, Hand of the
beside their husbands and sacrifice their children. They are humiliated, beaten               Cause of God, Knight of
Bahā’u’llāh (London:
and raped. They are paraded on horseback as the heads of their sons and                       Bahā’ı̄ Publishing
husbands are held aloft on pikes. They carry stones and build forts; they cut off             Trust, 1992), xvi. This
their hair and use it to bind together the fracturing guns at Nayriz. They were no            biography takes a
straightforward
doubt among those who helped grind the bones of dead horses and who rushed                    approach to the genre
out under cannon fire to gather the new grass to eat at Fort Shaykh Tabarsi. But              of biography, and many
they have no names and Nabil does not go out of his way to mention them …47                   details noted in haste
by Dr Muhajir while on
his travels appear to
As a martyr for her Faith, her persona as ‘heroine’ is more familiar than her                    have been transferred
individuality. An instance of difference between author’s intention and reader’s                 directly into the book
without verification.
expectation on the subject of T ahirih occurred in a critic’s response to Martha
˙
Root’s biography, Tahirih the Pure:   Iran’s Greatest Woman.48 F. W. Ebner, who              29. D. F. Gilstrap, From
Copper to Gold: The
received a copy of Miss Root’s book at the time of her visit to China in 1938,                   Life of Dorothy Baker
wrote in the North-China Daily News:                                                             (Wilmette, IL: Bahā’ ı̄
Publishing Trust, 1999).
Were this book written primarily to show the life and influence of a nineteenth-          30. A. I. Chapman, Leroy
Ioas: Hand of the
century Persian woman who suffered martyrdom in her attempt to emancipate
Cause of God (Oxford:
women, it would have resulted in a unique contribution to oriental biography.                 George Ronald, 1998).
However, the author’s interest in her subject, Hadrat-i-Tahirih, Her Highness
31. M. Garis, Martha
the Pure One, has been secondary to her interest in the promotion of the                      Root: Lioness at the
Bahā’ı̄ Faith. The review does not take exception to the purpose of the book as              Threshold (Wilmette,
IL: Bahā’ı̄ Publishing
conceived by the author. He merely states that the ostensible purpose of the
Trust, 1983).
book seems to be of secondary concern.49
32. D. Hofman, George
Townshend (Oxford:
While Miss Root gathered much of her material first hand, in Iran, her treat-                    George Ronald, 1983).
ment of the life story of Quratu’l-‘Ayn emphasized her role as champion of                   33. G. Morrison, To Move
women’s emancipation and Babi heroine rather than her individuality.                             the World: Louis G.
Ebner, on the other hand, was evidently more interested in T ahirih’s indi-                      Gregory and the
viduality as poetess and religious reformer.50                     ˙                             Advancements of Racial
Unity in America
Another instance of tension between biography as exemplum and narra-                         (Wilmette, IL: Bahā’ ı̄
tion of a unique life is related by anthropologist Michael Fischer. During                       Publishing Trust, 1982).
extensive fieldwork in Yazd, Iran, Fischer befriended Nurū’llah Akhtar-Khāvar ı̄ ,         34. M. R. Sears, Bill: A
a Baha’i employed to handle international affairs at the Kerakhshan wool-                        Biography of Hand of
the Cause of God
spinning and weaving mill. Akhtar-Khavari was a courageous advocate of his                       William Sears (Eloy,
Faith, who was executed by the Khomeini government in 1980. In re-presenting                     AZ: Desert Rose
the story of his life, Fischer recognized that ‘two stories’ could be told:                      Publishing, 2003).
35. M. Momen, Dr. J. E.
The more powerful one is of the exemplary figure, the modern man who had                      Esslemont (London:
Bahā’ ı̄ Publishing
decided to operate in a very conservative society, not to badger or embarrass                 Trust, 1975).

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36. B. Harper, Lights of                   it, but to show a new and open mode of behaviour. The challenge here is to
Fortitude: Glimpses                    show how one operates in such a society: it is almost an ethnographic chal-
into the Lives of the
Hands of the Cause of                  lenge, the kind of challenge that requires the eye of a novelist for local colour
God (Oxford: George                    and knowledge of local detail. It is a challenge to describe how a society
Ronald, 1997).                         changes, sometimes moving in reactionary self-destructive directions, but
37. See, for example,                      nonetheless irrevocably changes, in ways involving considerable internal conflict.
R. Weinberg, Ethel                     The exemplary individual as well as all other individuals have to make choices,
Jenner Rosenberg: The
Life and Times of                      have to negotiate pragmatic as well as moral decisions.
England’s Outstanding                       The other narrative that can be told – by far the weaker story, I think – is to
Baha’i Pioneer Worker                  turn Akhtar-Khavari into a standard Bahā’ı̄ martyr. It is this that I fear will be
(Oxford: George
Ronald, 1995).                         his fate. I fear it not only because I will no longer recognize my friend, but also
L. Rowden, Hidden                      because he was larger than such stereo-typing allows. His personality (like
Bounties: Memories of                  every human being’s) was unique: it was also graceful, informed, and forceful,
Pioneering on the
Magdalen Archipelago                   and thus worth preserving.51
(Ontario: Nine Pines
Publishing, 1994).                Fischer’s understandable concern is that hagiographic treatment of Akhtar-
38. Abu’l-Fadl                        Khavari would have a moulding effect, which would ‘disembody’ the
˙
[Gulpaygani],  The                authentic self. He sees the ‘typing’ of an individual as ‘martyr’ as a reduc-
Baha’i Proofs (Hujaja’l-
Bahiyyih) and A Short             tion of the subject, a shrinking of personhood into a brave but futile heroism.
Sketch of the History             He regards the legacy of Nuru’llah Akhtar-Khavari not as ‘a dialogue of
and Lives of the Leaders          martyrdom with Shi’ism’ but ‘the possibility of living in Yazd as if it were the
of This Religion
(Wilmette, IL: Baha’i             twentieth century, as if one could live without fear of religious fanaticism, as
Publishing Trust, 1983).          if people could live and let live each by his or her own lights’.52 His purpose
39. Other examples                    is not to ‘denigrate the suffering or the heroism of Bahā’ı̄ martyrs’ but to
include M. Gooljar,               ‘raise for discussion the possibilities for more effective ways of countering
The Teachers of the
Baha’i Faith: The World
the genocidal atrocities of the Khomeini regime’.
is One Country and                    A survey of Baha’i biographical literature suggests that Fischer’s fear
Mankind its Citizens              has not been realized. In the first place, despite the many deaths of
(New York: Vantage
Press, 1986).
Babis and Baha’is in the nineteenth century and the continued martyr-
dom of Baha’is in both pre- and post-revolutionary Iran, these martyr-
40. O. Z. Whitehead,
Some Early Bahā’ ı̄ s of
doms have not necessarily led to biographies of hagiographic intent and
the West (Oxford:                 ‘martyrdom’ trope.53 Second, the appearance of such literature, when it
George Ronald, 1976);             does eventually emerge, need not betray the individuality of the subject
Some Bahā’ ı̄ s to
Remember (Oxford:
in the way that Fischer fears. For sacrifice of self is regarded as hon-
George Ronald, 1983);             ourable in the Baha’i tradition as in those of the past, and lives that have
Portraits of Some                 been offered with the purest of motives will be remembered among the
Bahā’ ı̄ Women
(Oxford: George
exemplary.
Ronald, 1996).
41. Immortals (New Delhi:
Anti-exemplum
Baha’i Publishing Trust,          If there exists a ‘true path’ for human endeavour and the refinement of
1988) recounts the                character, there also exists a path of ‘waywardness’. Where one is a path of
lives of 16 outstanding
Indian Baha’is. Many
faithfulness, the other is that of deceit, and one role of biography is to clar-
of these brief                    ify the distinction between the two. Thus the central figures of the Baha’i
biographies draw on               Faith exalted the character and actions of the praiseworthy and noted the
the author’s personal
acquaintance with the
condition of its opponents for the purpose of instructing others in right
subjects, in addition to          conduct.
drawing on previously                 The extent to which accounts can vary in their evaluation of an individ-
published sources.
Some outstanding
ual’s place in Babi and Baha’i history is illustrated in studies of the life of
Baha’is, such as                  the Persian activist Jamālu’d-D ı̄ n ‘al-Afghā n ı̄ ’ (1838/9–1897). Afghani was
Isfandı̄ yār Bakhtı̄ yār ı̄ ,   an Iranian of considerable intellectual and political capacity who wove

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deception into every phase of his eventful life. Renowned Persianist Nikkie               Narayenrao Vakil and
Keddie suggests that Afghani saw himself as a ‘kind of prophet or messiah,                Pritam Singh are to an
extent already known
destined to reform, reawaken, and reunite the Muslim world and free it                    outside India; accounts
from its infidel conquerors’.54 While there is no doubt that Afghani knew                 of the lives of others,
much about the teachings of the Bab, his association was with Azali Babis –               such as Knight of
Baha’u’llah to Daman,
principally Shaykh Ahmad Rūh ı̄ and Mı̄ rz ā Āqā Khān Kirmānı̄ .55 Kedourie         Ghulām-’Alı̄ Ibrāhı̄ mjı̄
has suggested that during˙        ˙
his last years in Istanbul Afghani associated with          Kurlawala, are a signifi-
‘Persian Bāb ı̄ s prominent in the dissemination of heterodoxy, and active in            cant contribution. As
men were considerably
subverting the authority of the Persian Government’,56 and suggests that an               freer than women in
anti-Babi article attributed to Afghani in the fifth volume of Butrus al-                 Indian society, only four
Bustānı̄ ’s encyclopaedia Dā’irat al-Ma‘ārif published in Beirut in 1881 was           women are described
in Immortals, although
written by Bustani himself.57 Shoghi Effendi, however, is clear in his assess-            several other chapters
ment of Afghani’s relationship to the early Baha’is, and describes Afghani                include mention of
as one of those ‘enemies who have sedulously sought to extinguish the                     work achieved by men
in partnership with
light of Bahā’u’llāh’s Covenant’:                                                       their wives.
42. C. Vreeland, And The
The scheming Jamālu’d-Dı̄n Afghani, whose relentless hostility and powerful           Trees Clapped Their
influence had been so gravely detrimental to the progress of the Faith in Near         Hands (Oxford:
Eastern countries, was, after a chequered career filled with vicissitudes,             George Ronald, 1994);
A. Honnold, Why They
stricken with cancer, and having had a major part of his tongue cut away in an         Became Bahā’ ı̄ s (New
unsuccessful operation perished in misery.58                                           Delhi: Bahā’ ı̄
Publishing Trust,
1994); S. Sundrum,
In this passage Shoghi Effendi combines judgement of character (‘the                      Mystic Connections:
scheming Jamālu’d-D ı̄ n’) with matters of historical fact relating to his polit-        Stories of Some Early
ical and physical decline. While few biographies have been written to date                Bahā’ ı̄ s of Malaysia
(Kuala Lumpur: Bahā’ı̄
about those who occupied themselves in active opposition to the central                   Publishing Trust of
Baha’i figures and to the Baha’i community itself, the references to their                Malaysia, 2003.)
actions in such works as Shoghi Effendi’s God Passes By suggests that such            43. The volume also
studies will in time be required in the ongoing search for historical under-              includes the story of
Queen Marie of
standing of past events.59 Studies of the life of Mason Remey, for instance,              Romania.
will be required to understand the positive contributions made in his earlier
44. I make this observation
life and the circumstances leading to his tragic defection following the                  cautiously, for an essay
passing of Shoghi Effendi, and also to correct the inaccuracies in both fact              by this writer about
and interpretation offered in works such as that by Spataro.60                            Florence and Harold
Fitzner that appears
in And The Trees
Partial biographies                                                                       Clapped Their Hands
There are many individuals whose lives as Baha’is are only partially uncov-               relied greatly on
archived materials, but
ered in the biographical literature. These include the famous film actress                footnotes to the essay
Carole Lombard, who did not live long after becoming a Baha’i; Queen                      were removed in
Marie of Romania, whose allegiance to Baha’i principles is only marginally                keeping with the style
and format of the
explored in the otherwise masterful study by Pakula,61 even if more fully                 volume; other essays
developed by Marcus;62 and August Forel, world-renowned Swiss scientist,                  in these works may
whose life is partially explored by Vader.63                                              have followed a similar
path from research
Roy Wilhelm (1875–1951), the trusted servant of ‘Abdu’l-Baha designated              to publication.
a ‘herald of Bahā’u’llāh’s Covenant’ and later a Hand of the Cause by
45. Some recent examples
Shoghi Effendi, is known to Baha’is for his service on the Baha’i Temple                  include H. Falahi-
Unity Board (from 1909) and the North American National Assembly (from                    Skuce, A Radiant Gem:
its inception in 1922 until 1946, when he retired at the age of 71); and especially       A Biography of Jinab-i
Fadil-i Shirazi (Victoria,
for the property in New Jersey which became the East Coast Baha’i commu-                  BC: Trafford Publishing,
nity’s first summer school. Less well known is the fact that Wilhelm rose                 2004); B. Fitzpatrick-

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Moore, My African                from being a high-school drop-out to become one of the largest coffee
Heart (Johannesburg:             brokers in North America, a story better told in the pages of the New York
Bahā’ı̄ Publishing
Trust, 1999); T. K.              Times.64 Perhaps even less well known are the troubled formative years that
Foroughi (ed.), My               prepared Wilhelm for a life of service. As recalled by Wilhelm’s butler,
Love is My Stronghold            Walter Blakely:
(New Delhi: Bahā’ı̄
Publishing Trust, 1995);
F. Mayberry, The Great                Roy was born in Zainsville, Ohio. He went to school; when he got to high
Adventure (Manotick,                  school he didn’t like it so he ran away. His people found him and brought him
Ontario: Nine Pines
Publishing, 1994);                    back, then he ran again the second time, and he told me he covered his tracks
P. Matchett, Down                     thoroughly. He got a job as a pottery salesman on the road, what they called a
Memory Lane: The                      ‘drummer’ in those days, and he used to go all over the US selling pottery,
Autobiography of an
Irish Baha’i (Bangor,                 and finally he told me he saved up $750. It was like $7,500 now, and a confi-
Co. Down: privately                   dence man came and cheated him out of it, which he said was a good thing,
published, 1999). B.                  because he never got cheated again.
Sims, In the Light of the
Rising Sun: Memoirs of                    Roy Wilhelm used to write to the Guardian every day. I used to mail them
a Baha’i Pioneer to                   for him, and he used to get a letter back about once a week. He sent the
Japan (Tokyo: Bahā’ı̄                Guardian an automobile, a brand new Buick, the best ever made. I picked it
Publishing Trust, 2002).
out, because Roy said ‘you pick it out Walter, and pick out all the parts he will
46. Haydar Ali, Stories                    need for a number of years, 10 years’.65
from The Delight of
Hearts: The Memoirs of
Hā j ı̄ Mı̄ rzā Haydar-‘Al ı̄   Two valuable studies of recent times treat the lives of John Birks ‘Dizzie’
(trans. A. Q. Faizı̄ , Los        Gillespie and Bernard Leach.66 Leach’s Baha’i affiliation is widely known,
Angeles: Kalimāt
Press, 1980); A.                  but his struggles with religious ideas and values are only revealed through
‘Al ı̄ zād, Years of             the meticulous scholarship of Cooper, an author principally concerned with
Silence: The Bahā’ ı̄ s in       Leach as potter but aware of the significance of the potter’s Baha’i commit-
the USSR, 1938–1946:
The Memoirs of                    ments.67 While Shipton’s study of Gillespie similarly focuses his subject
Asadu’llāh ‘Al ı̄ zād           from an artistic rather than religious point of view, his treatment of Gillespie’s
(trans. B. R. Ma‘ani,             Baha’i commitments leaves the reader keen to know more.68
Oxford: George
Ronald, 1999).                        The black American philosopher Alain Locke (1886–1954) is another
whose activities within the Baha’i community have only recently been
47. B. Nakhjavani, Asking
Questions: A Challenge            assessed, with most biographies focusing on his achievements as philoso-
to Fundamentalism                 pher and writer.69 The Baha’i literature, conversely, notes Locke’s involve-
(Oxford: George                   ment in race amity conferences in the 1920s without examining in any detail
Ronald, 1990).
his work in philosophy.70 Will van den Hoonaard has recently explored the
48. M. Root, Tahirih the              notion of partial biography.71 In the Australian context, the life of ‘Burnam
Pure: Iran’s Greatest
Woman (New York:                  Burnam’, who gained fame for his upholding of Aboriginal rights (in 1988
Bahā’ı̄ Publishing               he marked the bicentenary of Australia’s ‘founding’ by claiming the White
Committee, 1938).                 Cliffs of Dover on behalf of Australia – mocking Captain Cook’s act two
49. North-China Daily                 hundred years earlier claiming the Australian continent on behalf of the
News, 13 September
1938.
British crown) and documentation of Aboriginal culture, as depicted by
Norst,72 could almost be mistaken as the story of a person other than Harry
50. Ebner: ‘A modern
biographer might well
Penrith (1933?–1997), by which name this individual was known within the
find in Tahirih all the           Baha’i community from the time of his first association with it in 1956 until
qualities which build a           his passing.
fascinating story. Miss
Root has suggested
Not all biographical subjects were in the public eye, and another source
these – a medieval                of ‘partiality’ in accounts is the obscurity of the subject, generally through
society in the                    lack of documentation. Thus Hellaby’s account of Sarah Ann Ridgway
nineteenth century,
the daughter of a
admits after 90 pages exploring the life of the first Baha’i in the north of
Mohammedan priest                 England that ‘We have really very little to go on in trying to find out what
who has cast aside the            kind of a personality Sarah Ann Ridgway was and of what kind of character.

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Until she became a Baha’i there is literally no information to be unearthed                    veil, one who contrary
on the matter…’73                                                                              to custom carried on
religious controversies
Apart from the investigation of lives lived in loyalty to the Covenant of                 with men and publicly
Baha’u’llah, there remains too the issue of lives lived outside it, or in wilful               took part in religious
opposition to it. A small number of biographies focus on subjects who                          conferences. The
author has described
were not Baha’is, but whose lives intersected significantly with the Baha’i                    Tahirih as a “poetess
revelation. These include Edward Granville Browne, the Cambridge orien-                        whose work is sought
talist who devoted some three decades to the study of the Babi movement.                       by scholars in every
land”, yet but two of
Balyuzi’s study Edward Granville Browne and the Bahā’ı̄ Faith does not                        her poems are trans-
explore all facets of the scholar’s life and work, but focuses, as the title                   lated in an appendix.
suggests, on his activities and publications in relation to the religion and                   Oriental scholars of
the character of Lord
community of the Bab. More specifically, Balyuzi writes from the perspec-                      Curzon, Valentine
tive of one who has examined Browne’s early and later writings and who is                      Chirol and Sir Francis
puzzled at his increasingly contradictory and oftentimes disapproving con-                     Younghusband have
written of Tahirih with
clusions.74                                                                                    admiration. Abundant
Biography, it seems, cannot aspire to full re-presentation of a subject’s                 testimony of her
life. Its function and purpose is, rather, to select and present facets of that                remarkable personality
and gifts exists. Yet
life which the biographer finds important. In doing so, biography offers                       this book cannot
commentary on the significance of that life, and on the uniqueness of that                     satisfy those who
life. In contemporary terms, one commentator has suggested, ‘The biogra-                       want an unbiased
interpretation of that
pher imposes pattern on experience to declare the comprehensibility of                         personality.’ North-
human existence. Learning of other people, we learn of ourselves.’75 To aid                    China Daily News,
the task of finding and commenting on meaning, biography makes use of                          13 September 1938.
such devices as metaphor and critique.                                                    51. M. M. J. Fischer and
M. Abedi, Debating
Muslims: Cultural
Biography as metaphor                                                                         Dialogues in
St Augustine wrote in his Confessions:                                                        Postmodernity and
Tradition (Madison, WI:
University of Wisconsin
Many things … are done, which seem disallowable to men and yet are                         Press, 1990). See
approved by thy testimony; and many things again are commended by men,                     chapter 4, ‘Social
which by thy testimony are condemned. For the appearance of the act is often               Change and the
Mirrors of Tradition:
different from the intention of him that doth it; and the precise circumstances            Bahā’ı̄ s of Yazd’, 247–8.
of the time, which are hidden from us, must often vary.76                                  Mr Nuru’llah Akhtar-
Khavari was one of
seven Iranian Baha’is
The Christian tradition of biography developed metaphors with which to                        martyred in Yazd on
describe the evolution of the religious life, and against which to compare the                8 September 1980, see
specifics of the life of their subject. Vincent Brummer explains a three-stage                The Bahā’ı̄ World, vol.
18, 1979–1983, 291.
growth process within the Christian tradition of mysticism, commencing
with purification (or purgation), followed by illumination (or enlightenment)             52. ibid 249–50.
and finally ecstasy (or union). In the stage of purification one learns repen-            53. One of the few
tance, self-denial and humility.77 This first stage is one of self-knowledge, a               monographs in
English focusing on
stage in which the ‘spirit of God inflames our will with love. This is a love                 the theme is M. Labib,
that is chaste, holy and ardent.’78 The third level, union, is not possible in the            The Seven Martyrs of
mortal realm, although enlightened mystics may gain glimpses of it.                           Hurmuzak (trans.
M. Momen, Oxford:
If a metaphor such as Brummer’s is accepted, the biographical task                        George Ronald, 1981).
becomes that of making evident the progress of the spirit as it becomes                   54. N. R. Keddie,
refined through the tests it encounters and endures in the material world. The                ‘Sayyid Jamal ad-Din
stages of search, love, knowledge, unity, contentment, wonderment, poverty                    “Al-Afghani”: A Case
of Posthumous
and absolute nothingness explored in Baha’u’llah’s mystical work The                          Charisma?’, in
Seven Valleys refers to stages that souls traverse in life in varying degrees                 Philosophers and Kings:

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Studies in Leadership        of intensity, which relate to varying degrees of capacity. This model has been
(ed. D. A. Rustow,           explored in systematic theologies79 but has seldom provided the foundation
New York: George
Braziller, 1970) p. 170.     for biographical study. The literary subject might render the biographer’s
task easy by depicting his or her spiritual state on paper, but few people
55. I am grateful to Dr
Moojan Momen for             are so inclined, and the interpretation of their interior journey on the basis
pointing out these           of their exterior one remains extremely difficult. The most accessible bio-
associations to me:          graphical subjects are those who themselves engaged in literature. Thus
email 20 May 2005.
biographer Wendy Heller found Lidia Zamenhof a subject at once tragic
56. E. Kedourie, Afghani         and accessible.80 Zamenhof was the daughter of Ludwik Zamenhof, a
and ‘Abduh: An Essay
on Religious Unbelief        Polish Jew who created the language of Esperanto. She devoted herself to
and Political Activism       propagation of the Baha’i teachings through the medium of Esperanto lan-
in Modern Islam              guage and culture, until her life was terminated by the Nazis of Hitler’s
(London: Frank Cass
& Co., 1966), 20.            Germany. Heller’s treatment of Zamenhof’s restless life excels in narrating
her life journey against the backdrop of pre-war Europe, when Baha’i com-
57. ‘All that connects it
with Afghani is the last     munities laboured innocently in the context of a mounting maelstrom.
sentence, which says:
“This is what the well-      The life cycle
known Sayyid Kamal
al-Din al-Afghani and        More frequent use has been made of life cycles – the pilgrimage from child-
others have related          hood, to adolescence, to adulthood. This physical progression provides a
concerning them.” It         metaphor for the spiritual journey that gives meaning to the physical: it
may, of course be true
that, sceptic as he          offers a view on the quest for life – the conquering of self, the overcoming
was, Afghani had little      of desire; it seeks to examine the ways in which periods of crisis and test
use for the involved         contributed to the subject’s growth and development.
and abstruse specula-
tions of the Bāb, but           Various motifs recur in the depiction of the life cycle of an individual
this would not prevent       believer in the Faith of Baha’u’llah. These include the process of conver-
him from collaborating       sion/confirmation of faith, socialization (becoming familiar with the value
with his followers in a
political cause.’            system of the community), conversion encounters (acts of teaching the
58. Shoghi Effendi, God
Faith to others), acts or episodes of service (e.g. participation in adminis-
Passes By (Wilmette,         tration, propagation, scholarship and learning, defence of the Baha’i Faith).
IL: Baha’i Publishing            Among the most successful biographies in exploring the life cycle are
Committee, 1944), 317.
those by Marzieh Gail. In Summon Up Remembrance81 and Arches of the
59. Biographies of those         Years82 Gail graciously introduces the reader to the world as lived in by her
who opposed the
Baha’i central figures
parents, Ali Kuli Khan and Florence Breed, quite possibly the first
include R. Hollinger,        Persian–American marital alliance and certainly a meeting of culture and
‘Ibrahim George              learning on both sides. As a child witness to much that she records, Gail
Kheiralla and the Bahā’ı̄
Faith in America’, in
gives an account that benefits from her intimate association with her char-
From Iran East and           acters, and permits the reader not merely an understanding of the involve-
West, Studies in Babi        ment of Khan and Breed in the affairs of the Baha’i community – whether in
and Baha’i History,
vol. 2 (ed. J. R. Cole
Persia, Palestine, Turkey, France or the United States – but insights into the
and M. Momen, Los            influences that shaped the development of their characters, and the forces
Angeles: Kalimāt Press,     in the world at large that shaped their destinies.
1984), 95–134. Much is
known of the life of
Gail describes the heroic without creating generic heroes or heroines,
Mason Remey, a Hand          and in this she follows Ruhe in instinctively developing another of the
of the Cause who broke       ‘ungathered strands’: the new framework for observation of lived lives does
the Covenant following
the death of Shoghi
not seek to be prescriptive, does not set up ‘personas’ modelling or some-
Effendi, although no         how defining a set of ‘ideal’ behaviours. That modernist effort to standardize
scholarly treatment of       our every action, to stifle difference, to create categories which we can
his life has appeared.
clearly label as ‘the heroic’ teacher or defender of the faith, or the ‘stalwart’
60. F. C. Spataro, Charles       and tragic martyr or saint, has been dismissed. Here instead is an effort to
Mason Remey and the
see subjects in their individuality, to find qualities of humility, of love, of

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brilliance, of courage, in their specific locations, rather than in some prede-               Baha’i Faith (New York:
fined categories into which our infinitely diverse characters must somehow                    Carlton Press, 1987).
be put. Instead is the project of finding heroic acts in the ordinary and                 61. H. Pakula, The Last
everyday, of observing the saintly in the common believer, as in the extraor-                 Romantic: A Biography
of Queen Marie of
dinary person of some other time and place. Here is a biography of difference,                Roumania (London:
of identification and examination of that sense of individuality that is to be                Weidenfeld &
achieved in the context of community. Here is celebration of the subject’s                    Nicolson, 1985).
consciousness of individual worth, of being at one with other believers and               62. D. L. Marcus, Her
community rather than of being the same as all other believers.                               Eternal Crown: Queen
Marie of Romania and
the Baha’i Faith
Reformulating the biographical framework                                                      (Oxford: George
Most contemporary biography seeks to convey not merely the facts and                          Ronald, 2000).
example of a subject’s life, but interpretation and even evaluation of it.                63. J. P. Vader, For the
Most importantly, this critical approach has been encouraged by the pre-                      Good of Mankind:
August Forel and the
sumption that an author occupies some superior and objective vantage                          Baha’i Faith (Oxford:
point from which to view, and judge, the subject. ‘In the recent past’, it has                George Ronald, 1984).
been suggested,                                                                           64. 9 July 1921, 8:7 –
criticizes arbitrary reg-
ulations in new tariff
the usefulness of a ‘critical biography’, one that purports to connect life and
bill; 15 March 1925,
work, was thought to consist mainly in giving the work a limiting context …                IX, 18:3 – praises
Today, when the range of critical approaches has widened beyond the nar-                   commercial arbitration;
4 January 1936, 14:7 –
row verities of formal criticism, we are permitted an ampler view of critical
letter on calendar
biography. To understand any literary work requires, to begin with, a grasp                charges; 21 November
of its genre and of its historical context. Equally essential is a personal                1937, IV, 9:7 – letter
on calendar;
context … that biography provides to put the subject’s work in adequate
21 December 1951, 27:5.
perspective. The work never provides sufficient information in itself for
65. Interview with Walter
proper interpretations.83
Blakely, 28 August 1984,
Burbank, Los Angeles.
Exponents of the critical mode of biography suggest its superiority over tra-             66. Mention of Leach
ditional hagiography, and over mere chronologies and purely descriptive                       brings to mind
works. It could be argued, however, that extreme practices of both critical                   Leach’s lifelong friend
Mark Tobey, the Baha’i
biography and hagiography are best avoided, and that the most satisfactory                    artist responsible for
biography emerges from critical examination that constructs and contextu-                     introducing Leach to
alizes more than it merely deconstructs a life story.                                         the Baha’i Faith.
While Tobey’s Baha’i
The Baha’i writings provide immense insight into the nature of man and                    affiliation is well
the purpose of existence and can assist in formulating the criteria upon                      documented in work
which sound biographical enquiry may proceed. They create, on the other                       examining his role in
modern art, it cannot
hand, a dilemma for the writer of biography. We know that humans are                          be said that his life
imperfect; the Baha’i teachings also tell us not to dwell on the faults of oth-               has yet been given
ers. Since we also know that in the discipline of biography the biographer is                 full biographical
consideration. Recent
challenged to reveal the life of the subject, how can such a life be revealed                 academic work
without displaying imperfections, and at the same time avoiding simple                        includes E. R. Kelley,
hagiography? If we are to reveal our subject – and we know subjects are                       ‘Mark Tobey and the
Bahai Faith: New
imperfect – then we will reveal blemishes of character. But if we are true to                 Perspectives on the
the facts as we find them, and reveal blemishes of character, then we are                     Artist and His
exposing the faults of others, and this appears to be contrary to the spirit of               Paintings’, Ph.D.
thesis, University of
the Baha’i teachings.84 If, furthermore, we sift the facts to present a partial               Texas at Austin, 1983.
picture of our subject, dwelling only on those aspects that we think will                     The classic treatments
show our subject in a positive light, we are in danger of distorting the real-                are W. C. Seitz, Mark
Tobey (New York: The
ity of ‘things as they are’: how might the biographer resolve this dilemma?                   Museum of Modern

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Art, 1962), and W.              First, I suggest, the intention of Baha’i biography is not to critique for
Schmied, Mark Tobey        critique’s sake, but to explore the relationship between a subject’s con-
(London: Thames &
Hudson, 1966).             scious purpose and the fruit of the enactment of that purpose. Baha’i
biographies are not stories of selves engaged in rational strategies towards
67. E. Cooper, Bernard
Leach: Life and Work       fixed objectives, but voyages of beings through time and space, being
(New Haven: Yale           tested as they approach stations of spirituality. Baha’i biography, in other
University Press, 2003).   words, attempts the depiction of enlightened ontological states, in which
68. A. Shipton, Groovin’       life meanings constructed in unique and specific circumstances accord with
High: The Life of Dizzy    universal theological foundations; each human being has a specific path to
Gillespie (Oxford:
Oxford University          tread, partly preordained, partly self-defined; each has a rational soul and a
Press, 1999).              physical form, and possesses capacities of spirit, intellect and moral capac-
69. C. Buck, Alain Locke:      ity which the life journey presents with opportunities to either develop or
Faith and Philosophy       ignore, through the voluntary application of will. Interactions with the
(Los Angeles: Kalimāt     worlds of nature, of culture and of the spirit refine the soul for entry to a
Press, 2005). Johnny
Washington, A Journey      future (post-physical) life: such is the journey – should the biographer
into the Philosophy of     attempt to depict it.
Alain Locke (Westport,          Second, since we understand that the highest capacities inherent in the
CT: Greenwood Press,
1994).                     person are to know (to seek knowledge of God), to love and to act, these
70. Locke, who taught at
capacities should emerge in biography, through consideration of an individ-
Howard University,         ual’s spiritual concerns, mental development, relationships with others and
chaired sessions at        use of will. In writing about the mind of an individual, furthermore, such an
the first ‘race amity’
convention in
approach would be informed by the relationship between the spirit and the
Washington in May          intellect as this is explained in the Baha’i writings.
1921 and spoke at sub-          The juxtaposition of scriptural passages, which at one time stress indi-
sequent conferences in
New York and
vidual ‘nothingness’ and at another celebrate individual worth suggests not
Philadelphia (The          contradictory elements within the Baha’i writings but the range of levels
Bahā’ı̄ World, vol. 2,    available for interpreting the worth of the self, and the individual life.
1926–28, 23, 283). His
essay ‘impressions of
Advocacy of self-effacement does not denote lessening of individual value,
Haifa’ appeared in The     just as promotion of universal values does not deny the importance of par-
Bahā’ı̄ Yearbook, 1925,   ticularity. Stories of the self thus find their importance at different levels. We
81–8, and was repeated
in The Bahā’ı̄ World,
must decide on some understanding of the self as the combined effects of
vol. 2, 1926–28, 125–7     physical, spiritual and intellectual selves. A mature biographer may feel
and The Bahā’ı̄ World,    confident to offer an evaluation of a subject’s life; but those who write
vol. 3, 1928–30, 280–2.
An ‘In Memoriam’
within a Baha’i perspective will temper their evaluation of the worth of the
article by Charlotte       life of another human being through consciousness of the biographer’s own
Linfoot appeared in        limited access to a suitable plane from which to judge. Baha’u’llah’s admo-
The Bahā’i World,
vol. 13, 1954–63, 894–5.
nitions to observe the good and to ignore the shortcomings of others dis-
courage the hasty passing of judgement. The more we consider the
71. W. C. van den
Hoonard, ‘Biographical
immensity of the task, however, the less we feel inclined to assume the role
Zoning and Bahai           of ‘judging observer’.
Biographical Writing:           No biography can fully ‘represent’ a life story. It can, at best, provide a
The Case of Rose
Henderson’, Baha’i
well-intentioned ‘re-presentation’ of that story. Furthermore, the qualities of
Studies Review 12          such a re-presentation are determined by several factors, including the
(2004), 50–66.             intentions of the author and the nature of the records disclosed.
72. M. J. Norst, Burnum        Biographies are ‘source-dependent’, in that the extent to which the life of
Burnum: A Warrior for      another may be ‘re-presented’ depends much on the quality and quantity of
Peace (East Roseville:
Kangaroo Press, 1999).
records – written or otherwise – that remain. To textualize lived experience
is to theorize it, to place a grid on it. The tarjama and hagiography are
73. M. Hellaby, Sarah Ann
Ridgway (Oxford:           examples of such grids. They provide conventions and criteria for appraising
George Ronald, 2003).      a subject’s acts. Least accessible are ‘inner motives’, which are rarely exposed,

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except perhaps in autobiographical accounts, which are in and of them-                  74. H. M. Balyuzi, Edward
selves not a guarantee of authenticity.                                                     Granville Browne and
the Bahā’ ı̄ Faith
A well-crafted biography grounded in Baha’i texts would address the                     (London: George
nature of the individual person, noting his or her elemental qualities and                  Ronald, 1970).
underlying motivations. It would, furthermore, be informed by past tradi-                   Nineteenth- and
twentieth-century Iran
tions. Existing traditions of biography need not be rejected. To the contrary,              yielded a number of
the positive functions of each must necessarily be drawn on in the quest for                individuals who were
more encompassing approaches to life writing. Certain steps are required,                   not Baha’is but whose
relationships with the
however, to transform brief adulatory and uncritical accounts into more                     Baha’i community
substantial biographies. These seek to position a subject in context and,                   await closer investiga-
beyond that, seek to make a judgement, or an evaluation, of the subject’s                   tion. One thinks of the
nationalists Malkam
significance. I have suggested also that a biography should examine                         Khan and Jamalu’d-Din
notions of public and private selves and distinguish between active and                     ‘Al-Afghani’.
passive, or contemplative, facets of individual existence – between the capacity        75. Patricia Meyer Spacks,
to reflect and the will to act. Such ‘spiritual biography’ – if it can be so called –       ‘Gossip’, in Bloom (ed.),
James Boswell’s Life of
must additionally be constructed on the bases of well-considered conceptions                Samuel Johnson, 144.
of the terms ‘person’ and ‘society’. But all of these biographical objectives           76. St Augustine, The
are subject to the availability of evidence and literary devices that can                   Confessions of St
use this evidence to ‘re-present’ their subject. The self is always in some                 Augustine (London:
Collins 1957), 84–5.
relation to an order and biography is text that seeks to represent this
77. V. Brummer, The Model
relationship.                                                                               of Love: A Study in
On the foundation of the arguments laid out in brief above, Baha’i biog-                Philosophical Theology
raphy is essentially the depiction in literature of moral heroism. Its expo-                (Cambridge:
Cambridge University
nents and readers must, therefore, consider deeply what concept of hero                     Press, 1993). It is
they seek to establish. We are most familiar with the hero/heroine whose                    interesting to note that
exploits are apparent in the physical world and in the ‘public’ arena, and                  these conditions are
expressed in the Baha’i
whose travels and exploits are well documented in the source literature. But                Long Obligatory Prayer.
the concept of the heroic conveyed in Baha’i scriptures includes heroes and
78. ibid 62. ‘Chaste love’
heroines whose arenas for victory are the ‘inner life’, or the life at home in              means, to Brummer,
the family – lives far less accessible to the biographical process. The ‘hero’,             love for the sake of love
thus, need not be famous, and what is ‘heroic’ need not be ‘public’.                        itself, not for some
other interest. He gives
Thornton Chase led a significant Baha’i life which examination shows to be                  the example of a
one of daily and for the most part anonymous struggle.85 An integrating and                 servant who may love
unifying personality may not be one that takes the lead, stands out, and                    his master for the
wages he is paid, rather
breaks new ground. Such an integrating personality may make no specific,                    than through any love
outstanding contribution and hence not attract individual attention. But                    invoked by the master’s
such a life is quite an achievement, an outstanding contribution in its own                 personal qualities.
way, worthy of celebration, worthy of examination. In this category we can              79. See, particularly, J. Savi,
The Eternal Quest For
include such works as Douglas’s description of her parents’ mixed-race                      God: An Introduction to
marriage,86 and Szepesi’s account of life as a migrant.87 The life of Thomas                the Divine Philosophy of
Breakwell was short, undocumented, but spiritually potent.88                                ‘Abdu’l-Bahā (Oxford:
George Ronald, 1989);
In this essay I have suggested that the contexts in which Baha’i biogra-                and J. A. McLean,
phy is written include each of the existing cultural and religious traditions.              Dimensions in
The hagiographic traditions of Christianity and Islam have influenced Baha’i                Spirituality (Oxford:
George Ronald, 1994).
biographies toward depictions of subjects as exemplars, as heroes, saints
80. W. Heller, Lidia: The
and martyrs. In the ‘modern’ biography the ‘religious’ or ‘spiritual’ orientation           Life of Lidia Zamenhof,
of life stories has given way to more secular views of the origins, character               Daughter of Esperanto
and motivation of the ‘human spirit’. The modernist tradition has also                      (Oxford: George
Ronald, 1985).
allowed for representations of ‘ordinary’ believers, and for critical accounts
81. M. Gail, Summon Up
that value factual accuracy as much as representations of ‘ideal’ personas.                 Remembrance (Oxford:
George Ronald, 1987).

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82. M. Gail, Arches of the      Rather than privilege one of these traditions above any other, however, this
Years (Oxford: George       paper has suggested that the Baha’i biographical project, in keeping with
Ronald, 1991).
the facility that underlies Baha’i theological and philosophical pursuits,
83. F. Brady, ‘James
Boswell: Theory and         accommodates a range of biographical devices. This flexibility in approach
Practice of Biography’,     will allow Baha’i authors to continue to draw on the skills of the craft elabo-
in Bloom (ed.), James       rated across many generations, divergent cultures and traditions, yet draw
Boswell’s Life of Samuel
Johnson, 99–100.            on the Baha’i scriptures for inspiration productive of new insights into how
84. I am thinking here          lived lives can be depicted in literature.
also of the seeming
impossibility of            Suggested citation
knowing the ‘real’
person, as opposed to       Hassall, G. (2008), ‘The Modes and Intentions of Biography’, Baha’i Studies Review
knowing the ‘façade’           14, pp. 71–86. doi: 10.1386/bsr. 14. 71/7
that a subject presents
to the world. In the
context of Japanese         Contributor details
culture, Takeo Doi, The     Dr Graham Hassall is Professor of Governance at the University of the South Pacific,
Anatomy of Self: The        Suva, Fiji Islands. He is working on biographies of Effie Baker, and Clara and Hyde
Individual in Japanese      Dunn. In 2005 his chapter ‘The Baha’i Faith in the Pacific’, appeared in Vision and
Society (New York:
Kodansha, 1986),
Reality in Pacific Religion: Essays in Honour of Niel Gunson (Pandanus Press, Canberra).
refers to the omote         E-mail: hassall_g@usp.ac.fj
(the ‘face’, or the front
of things) and the ura
(that which is hidden,
for instance, that
which remains secret
in the mind). The
Baha’i writings warn of
the error of cultivating
a public persona that
differs markedly from
the ‘inner life and
private character’
which is only known
to God; contemporary
philosophers speak of
‘authenticity’ in the
construction of
identity.
85. R. H. Stockman,
Thornton Chase: First
American Bahā’ı̄
(Wilmette, IL: Bahā’ı̄
Publishing Trust, 2002).
86. D. Douglas and
B. Douglas, Marriage,
Beyond Black and
White: An Interracial
Family Portrait
(Wilmette, IL: Bahā’ı̄
Publishing Trust, 2002).
87. A. Szepesi, Dreams,
Nightmares and
Dreams Again (New
Liskeard, Ontario:
White Mountain
Publications, 2000).
88. R. Lakshman-Lepain,
The Life of Thomas
Breakwell (London:
Bahā’ı̄ Publishing
Trust, 1998).

86                                                                      Graham Hassall
-- The Modes and Intentions of Biography (Used by permission of the curator)