Encyclopaedia of Islam: Baha'i Selections
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1.
BAHADUR SHAH GUDJARATl — BAHA'IS                                            
   915

December 1534, however, in return for a promise to          judiced evidence
of his rival Karadelebizade, he was
aid Bahadur Shah against the Mughals, the Portu-            chosen because he
was so enfeebled by excessive
guese obtained Bassein and in Rablc I I/October 1535        indulgence in
narcotics that the Grand Vezir and
the right to build -a fort at Diw where Bahadur             the SultanWalide
thought they would be able to
Shah himself had taken refuge. The nominal Portu-           do as they pleased
with him. His subsequent vigour,
guese assistance to the Gudjarat sultan did not             and his firmness
in resisting certain of their demands,
prevent Humayun from capturing Bahadur Shah's               give the lie to
this accusation. The favour which
capital of Ahmadabad.                                       he showed to the
Mewlew! and Khalwati orders soon
Humayun's withdrawal from Gudjarat in 942/1536           brought hiir into
conflict with the orthodox religious
to face the threat from Sher Khan enabled Bahadur           party, which also
objected to his approval of tobacco
Shah to recover most of his dominions from the              and coffee and his
toleration of the dervish use of
now disunited, dispersed and disaffected Mughal             music and dancing.
His fall, however, was due not
forces.                                                     to their efforts
but to other causes. In Djum. I
Bahadur Shah then turned to recover the rights           io6i/April-May 1651,
in the course of a dispute
surrendered to the Portuguese at Diw. In an                 which arose out of
a question of jurisdiction involving
atmosphere fraught with mutual suspicion of bad             the British Consul
and the KacJI of Izmir, Bahacl
faith, Bahadur Shah rashly visited Nuno da Cunha            Efendi placed the
British ambassador in Istanbul
on his flagship at Diw and, hurriedly returning to          under house
arrest. For this breach of diplomatic
the shore after sensing treachery, was slain by the         usage he was
dismissed and exiLd to Midilli. He
following Portuguese forces. His death occurred on          remained, however,
at Gelibolu and Lampsaca, and
3 Ramadan 943/13 February 1537.                             was reinstated in
Ram. io62/Aug. 1653; he continued
Bibliography: Firishta, ii, 203-11, 416-7,            in office until his
death, of a quinsy, on 13 Safar
420-43; Abu '1-Fadl, Akbar-ndma, i, 126-46; cAbd         1064/3 Jan. 1654. He
was buried in Fatilj.
Allah Muhammad b. c Umar al-Makkl al-Asafi                  Bahacl was known
both as a poet and as a scholar,
Ulugh Khani, Zafar al-Walih bi muzaffar wa               and left a number of
poems and fetwas. His best-
Alih, 3 Vols. ed. E. D. Ross, London, 1910-1928,         known ruling was that
in which he pronounced smokiii, index, xxxiv; Sikandar b. Muhammad Man-       
     ing lawful, thus ending the prohibitions and red[hu, Mirdt-Sikandari,
Bombay (lith.) 1890,              pressions of the early i7th century. He was
himself
188-259; Mir Abu Turab Wall, Ta>rikh-i Gujarat,          a heavy smoker, and
his contemporary HadjdjI
ed. E. D. Ross, Calcutta 1909, 1-35; Nizam al-DIn        Khalifa remarks of
him that had it not been for this
Ahmad, Taba^dt-i Akbari, iii, Calcutta 1935,             self-indulgence he
might have become one of the
193-234; 'All b. cAziz Allah Tabataba, Burhdn-i          most eminent scholars
of the country. BahacFs
Ma'dthir, Haydarabad (Delhi printed) 1936,               authorisation of
smoking, however, was due, ac-
270-281; Hadjdii Khalifa, Tuttfat al-Kibdr fi Asfdr      cording to Fladjdii
Khalifa, not to his own addiction
al~Bifrdr, trans. J. Mitchell, London, 1831, 65-66;      but-to a concern for
what was best suited to the
Caspar Correa, Lendas da India, 4 vols., Lisbon          condition of the
people, and to a belief in the legal
1858-1864, index, 10 under Badur (Sultao, rei de         principle that the
basic rule of law is licitness (Ibafra
Cambaya); Fernao Lopez de Castanheda, Historia           asliyya).
da descombrimento e conquista da India pelos                   Bibliography:
Na c ima, years 1059, 1061, 1062,
Portuguezes, Lisbon 1833, Bk. viii, Chs. xxix-              1064. HadidjI
Khalifa, Mlzdn al-Habk, Istanbul
xxxiii, 69-85, Ixxii, 180, Ixxxiiii, 204, xciii-cii,        1290, 42-3 (—
The Balance of Truth, tr. G. L.
225-246, cxxi, 285, cli-cliiii, 349-357, clxiiii-clxv,      Lewis, London
1957, 56-7); Ahmed Rif c at, Dawfrat
384-390; Joao de Barros, Decadas da Sua Asia,               al-MashdHkh,
Istanbul n.d., 55-7; 'Ilmiyye Salna-
Lisbon 1777-8, index under Badur Chan ou                    mesi, Istanbul
1334, 458 (with specimens of his
Soltao Badur, 26; Diogo de Couto, Da Asia,                  handwriting;
'Othmdnlt Mu'ellifleri         ii, 101;
Lisbon 1779-1788, index under Badur (Soltao), 47;           Sidjill-i
'Othmdni, ii, 29; Hammer-Purgstall, in-
Bombay Gazetteer, (Gudjarat) I, i, Bombay,                  dex; I. H.
Uzuncarsllf, Osmanli Tarihi, iii/i,
1896, 347 ff.; M. S. Commissariat, History of               Ankara 1951,
index; Gibb, Ottoman Poetry, iii,
Gujarat, i, 1938. On the embassy which he sent in           294-7. A rumber of
his rulings are included in the
1536 to Istanbul, accombanied by the Lodi prince            Ottoman kdnuns
published in MTM i.
Burhan Beg, see Hammer-Purgstall2, ii, 156-7.                                 
                     (B. LEWIS)
(P. HARDY)             AL-BAHA'I [see AL-CAMIL!].
BAHA'l MEtfMED EFENDI, Ottoman jurist                       BAHA'IS, adherents
of the new religion which
and theologian. Born in Istanbul in 1004/1595-6,            was founded by
Baha* Allah [q.v.], and of which
he was the son of cAbd al-cAziz Efendi, a Kadl-             the forerunner,
according to Bahal doctrine, was
c
asker of Rumelia, and the grandson of the historian        the Bab [q.v.]. The
foremost authority on the Baha5!
Sacd al-DIn. Entering upon the cursus honorum of            religion, and its
disseminator in Europe and America,
the religious institution, he became mudarris and           was c Abbas
Efendi, the eldest son of the founder,
molla and was appointed kadi first in Salonica and          better known among
the Baha'is as cAbd al-Baha*
then, in 1043/1633-4, in Aleppo. A heavy smoker,            (Servant of
Baha?). Born on 23 May 1844 at Tehran,
he was reported by the Beylerbey Ahmed Pasha,               he accompanied his
father on his journeys and in
with whom he was on bad terms, and in 1044/1634-5           his exile, and at
his death was recognised by the
was dismissed and exiled to Cyprus as a punishment          great majority of
the Bahals as the authorised
for what was then regarded as a serious offence.            exponent and
interpreter of his father's writings
Towards the end of 1045 (early 1636) he was par-            Centre of the
Covenaut and "Model of Baha*! Life",
doned and in Muh. iO48/May-June 1638 appointed              in accordance with
Baha3 Allah's will (Kitdb <Ahdi)\
Molla of Syria; in Safar io54/April 1644 he was             this will,
however, was contested by cAbd al-Baha''s
transferred to Edirne, and in Rab. I loss/May 1645          brother Muhammad
CAH, who s* t up a rival group
became Kacjl of Istanbul. After brief terms as              within the Baha*!
organisation and contrived to
Kadi-caskcr of Anatolia and of Rumelia, he was              compromise his
brother with the Ottoman authorities,
appointed Shaykh al-Islam for the first time in             who were hostile
to the Bahals. He was released
Radjab IO59/July-Aug. 1649. According to the pre-           frorr prison in
1908 under the amnesty granted by
9i6                                                  BAHA'IS

the new Ottoman Government of the Young Turks,             The Prophet has two
differing conditions: he is a
and in 1910 began his three great missionary journeys.      man, but also a
very clear mirror in which God is
The first was to Egypt (1910), the second to Europe         reflected. Thus in
a certain sense it is not wrong
(Paris and London, 1911), and the third to America         to call him God, by
way of abbreviation. The status
and Europe (1912-1.3). From New York he made                of such a being as
could be called "prophetic" is
his way across the entire United States in eight            radically
different from that of man; it falls between
months to Los Angeles and San Francisco, stopping           man's status and
that of God. According to Baha3!
in the main towns and preaching in evangelical              doctrine no man,
however perfect he may become,
churches, synagogues, masonic halls, etc. In Sep-           will be able to
attain prophetic status (or better,
tember 1912 he returned to Europe, and from Eng-            that of
"manifestation"), just as no animal, perfect
land went again to Paris, then to Germany, Austria          as it may be of
its kind, can aspire to human status.
and Hungary. Finally at the end of 1913 he returned         The manifestation
of God through the Prophets
from Paris to Palestine. The first Baha*! group in          never ceases. The
manifestations of the Divine are
America had formed as early as 1894, and on 10              successive. The
first prophet is Adam, then come
December 1898 the first American Baha5! pilgrims            the traditional
prophets of Judaism, Christianity
arrived at Acre. cAbd al-Baha?'s journey, one of            and Islam.
Zoroaster also is considered a true prothe objects of which had been to
counter the pro-           phet, though the Buddha and Confucius are seen
paganda of his brother's supporters, also notably           rather as great
masters of the spiritual life. After
strengthened the community of American adherents.            Muhammad come the
Bab (considered by the Baha^ls
In addition to this he formed Baha5! groups in the          as a true
independent manifestation of God whose
European countries he passed through. In 1920 the           specific mission
lasted only nine years), and Baha3
British Government appointed him Knight of the              Allah. The Baha3ls
allow that other prophets better
Order of the British Empire. He died on 28 Novem-           adapted to
advanced stages of human progress may
ber at Hayfa and was buried beside the Bab, in              come after him,
but "not before a thousand years"
the great mausoleum which was completed in                  (Afrdas). The
prophetic periods are grouped together
1957. In his will he had appointed Shoghi Efendi           in larger cycles;
with the Bab the cycle begun by
(Shawkl Efendi) RabbanI, the oldest of his grand-           Adam ends and the
Baha3! cycle begins. The latter
sons (the eldest son of bis eldest daughter) as "Guar-      is destined,
according to doctrine, to last at least
dian of the Cause of God" (Wali-yi Amr Allah).               500,000 years. It
is thus inexact to consider the
Shoghi Efendi, who died on 3 Nov., was born at               Baha'I religion
as syncretistic. Although it accepts
Hayfa in the last years of the last century. He stu-       all the prophetic
religions as essentially true, it
died at Oxford and in 1936 married the American             claims that it is
the one best adapted to the present
Mary Maxwell, who took the name Ruhiyyih Kha-               time, and that it
includes in itself all its predecessors.
num. From 1923 onwards he lived in Hayfa in Israel,             4. Man. Baha3l
psychology is somewhat complex.
c
the world administrative centre of the faith.                 Abd al-Baha3
(Mufdwidat) distinguishes five types
The Bah a3! religion, while it claims to be "scienti-   of "spirit": animal
spirit, vegetable spirit, human
fic" and opposed to dogma, has more clearly de-             spirit, the spirit
of faith, and the Holy Spirit. The
fined theological, philosophical, and social doctrines      spirit of faith is
given by God, and alone confers
and forms of worship than some Orientalists have            true "eternal
life" on the human spirit (we are thus
thought. I give them briefly below on the basis of         a long way from a
purely philosophical conception
the sources cited in the bibliography.                     of the immortality
of the soul), "Faith" is essential
Religious doctrines, i. God. A completely trans-        to Baha3! spiritual
life. The text of the first verse
cendent and unknowable entity. "Every road to               of the Afydasruns
as follows: "The first commandment
Him is barred". The Baha^ls are opposed to mystic          of Gocl to his
servants is knowledge of the Dawn
pantheism. Mystics have only given form to their            of His revelation,
and the Dayspring of His Decrte
own imaginings. "Even the loftiest souls and the            (i.e., of the
Prophet), who is his appointed Represenpurest hearts, however high they may
fly in the             tative in the created world (fi 'dlam al-amr wtflrealms
of science and mysticism, can never pass             khalfr). He who has
attained this knowlege has atbeyond that which has been created inside them-  
          tained all good. He who know? it not is of the world
selves" (md khulifca /* anfusihiw bi-anfusihim)             of error, even
though he performs all (good) works".
(Lawh-i Salman).                                            Faith in God
(which, God being by definition un-
2. Creation. The unknowable essence of God              knowable, can only be
faith in His manifestation,
makes itself manifest and creates that which is not         the Prophet)
confers immortality on the believer,
God. The Bahal idea of the beginning of things              who continues in
the worlds beyond his eternal
falls between that of creation and that of emanation.       journey towards
the unknowable Essence of God
We could speak of eternal creation-, seeing that the        (excessive
interest in these worlds on the p?rt of
Baha5! texts tend to keep the term khalfr (crea-            Baha'is is
discouraged; they are explicitly forbidden
tion), but at the same time maintain that since             to take part in
spiritualist meetings). Paradise and
the attribute of khdlik (creator) is co-eternal with        Hell are symbols,
the first of which stands for the
God, there has never been a time when the                   true believer's
journey towards God, and the second
world did not exist. Thus the world is eternal              the fruitless path
towards annihilation of him who
(Lawb-i tlikmat).                                           knowingly rejects
the Faith and performs evil works.
3. A special form of the manifestation of God is        In the context of this
progressive view of the world
that which features in the Prophets (The Bahal              beyond Baha^s are
allowed, and advised, to pray
technical term is mazdhir-i ildhiyya, divine mani-          for the dead.
Equally, the idea of reincarnation in
festations, rather than rusul or anbiyd). Thus the          this world is
firmly rejected.
concept of bulul (incarnation in the full sense of              On the
phenomenon of man Baha*! doctrine acthe word) is not accepted. In this
connexion the            cepts the theory of evolution, not, however, as
proletter of Baha> Allah to Nasir al-Din Shah (Lawji-i         pounded by
Darwin, but rather in the traditional
Sultdn) is particularly interesting, as is the Kitdb        mystic sense
already present in the matknawl of
al-Shaykh, in which he describes his own mystic             Mawlana Djalal
al-Din RumI [q.v.]. "Man was alexperience in the prison of Siyah Cal at
Tehran.            ways man throughout his evolution", even though
BAHA'IS                                                    917

he may have passed through a series of stages of             of organisation
in the person of the Guardian (Wali~yi
development.                                                 Amr Allah). The
administrative bodies are as follows:
Moral and social principles. The Baha'Is accept           i. The local
spiritual assembly (Bayt al-lAdl-i Mathe ancient formula attributed to CA1I:
"All private         balli). These are formed wherever there are at least
matters belong to the human sphere, all concerns             nine Baha*Is.
They are of nine members elected by
of society to the divine". Hence the great emphasis          universal
suffrage. Election is considered as an
in Baha3! doctrine on the improvement of society,            act of worship,
and the Baha'i concept, unlike
a task which is the charge of the Baha5! world              that underlying
the electoral system of the parliaadministration (see below).                 
                mentary democracies, does not imply responsibility
The moral and social tenets of the Baha'ls are            of the elected
towards their electors, since the latter
classified by cAbd al-Baha3 under the following              are merely
instruments of the will of God. Elections
twelve headings: i. Unity of the human race. 2.              are held each
year during the period from 21 April
Need for an independent search for Truth. 3. Essen-          to 2 May (Ridwan
festival). At the present time there
tial unity of all religions. 4. Need for religion to pro-    are local
assemblies in more than 200 countries
mote unity. 5. Need for science and religion to be           throughout the
world. 2. Where there is a sufficient
in harmony. 6. Equal rights and duties for the two            number of local
assemblies a "Convention" of 19
sexes. 7. Opposition to all kinds of prejudice: national,     members elected
by universal suffrage elects a nareligious, political, economic, etc. 8.
Attainment of         tional spiritual assembly (Bayt al-*Adl-i Milli or
world peace* 9. Obligation to provide universal edu-         Markazl) also of
nine members, not necessarily from
cation, accessible to all. 10. Solution on a religious       among its own
members but from all adherents of the
basis of the social problem, with the abolition of          faith. There are
at the present time more than twenty
the extremes of excessive wealth and degrading              of these. 3. When
sufficient national assemblies have
poverty, n. Use of an auxiliary international lan-          been formed their
members will elect a universal
guage. 12. Constitution of an International Tribunal.       spiritual assembly
(not necessarily from among
The forms of administration and organisation which        themselves but from
all adherents).
we now describe in brief conduce according to the               This assemblv
will be called Bayt al-'Adl-i 'Umumi,
Baha'ls to the realisation of these aims:                    Universal House
of Justice. Its president will be the
The Baha:I religion has no public ritual, nor any        Guardian, by virtue
of his office, and for the term
sacraments or private rites of a sacred character.           of his life. The
task of the Universal House of Justice
The only religious duties of the Baha5is are: i. To          will be to
function as supreme administrative body
assemble every 19 days on the first day of each Babl         and court, and in
addition to frame in accordance
month (the Bab's calendar was adhered to by                  with the needs of
the time laws not laid down by
Baha> Allah) for a communal celebration, called             the Akdas or the
other writings of the Founder;
by the Western Bahals the "igth day's Feast",               these laws it will
have the power to abrogate should
and by the Persians diydfat-i ruz-i nuzdahum. It             need arise.
consists of readings cf prayers and sacred texts                 The
jurisdiction of the different Assemblies is ab-
(and even of passages from the Bible, the Kur'an,            solute within
their sphere of competence and fully
and other sacred texts if desired), followed by deli-        binding on all
believing Baha'ls, who should in
berations more properly administrative in character,         theory bring
before their Assembly even their priwhen the community's financial affairs are
reviewed,         vate affairs and differences (in the first instance the
important announcements are made, etc. A small               local Assembly
would be concerned, subsequently
meal is then taken together, "even if nothing more           the national if
the question proved insoluble).
than a glass of water", in accordance with the Bab's             Alongside
these elected administrative systems,
decree. 2. To fast 19 days, i.e., the entire Babl month      which are graded
from the bottom up, is the inof cAla>, from 2 to 21 March, the Bahal New
Year's           structional system, graded from the top down and
Day. The fast is of Islamic type, requiring abstention      made up of
appointed members. At its head is the
from all food and drink, etc., from dawn till sunset.        Guardian, whose
powers, however, are interpretative
3. To practise complete abstention from all .alco-           only and not
legislative. He has legislative powers
holic drink. 4. To pray three times a day, morning           only as a lawful
member of the Universal House
noon, arid evening, according to short, set formulae.        of Justice, on
the same basis as the other members.
The obligatory prayers (written in Arabic by Baha5           The Guardian's
position is hereditary, but his eldest
Allah) may be recited in any language. Some are              son is not
necessarily appointed his successor. He
preceded by ablutions, which are much simpler than           names his
successor in his life-time from among the
Islamic ablutions, consisting only of washing the            members of his
family. Immediately below the Guarface and hands and reciting two very short
prayers.          dian in the instructional order come the "Hands
Apart from this the Akdas lays down precise rules         of the Cause of God"
(Ayadi-yi Amr Allah), of
for the division of inheritances (a portion of which         whom he appoints
a varying number. The "Hands
falls to the teachers), levies a tax of 19 per cent on       of the Cause"
elect among themselves a Council
revenues, and prescribes numerous other rules and            of nine members
whose duty is to assist the Guardian
penal, civil and religious laws, which are followed          and confirm his
choice of successor. The Hands of
in part only by the eastern Baha'is. Marriage is             the Cause appoint
their own subsidiaries in their
monogamous: although the Akdas allows bigamy,                turn, who assist
them in their work of instruction
the provision was cancelled by cAbd al-Baha*                 and disiemination
of the doctrine and spirit of the
("Model of Baha5! Life", on the basis of an explicit         Faith ("Auxiliary
Boards").
declaration by Baha* Allah). For a marriage to be               The Baha'is
consider such a complex administravalid the onsen t of the couple's parents is
required.       tive system as of divine origin. This system is in
Divorce is allowed, but discouraged.                         fact outlined in
the Afrdas, with additions and im-
The controlling bodies of the Baha'i community            provements by cAbd
al-Baha3, and by the present
are of two kinds, administrative and instructional,          Guardian, Shoghi
Efendi, in the matter of appointing
the first being made up of elected councils and the          assistants for
the Hands of the Cause. For the Baha'Is
second of persons and associations appointed from            such a system is
not merely a means of internal
above. The two types come together at the summit             administration of
the Community's affairs, but the
9i8                                         BAHA'IS — BAHAR

prototype of the ideal world government of the future,     are cyclostyled.
Recently (1955-58) great progress
which will eventually arise after a long process of        has been made in
Africa (especially Uganda) where
peaceful evolution. The Bahals do not accept the           the number of
Bahals exceeds three thousand.
separation of Church and State, but maintain that                Bibliography:
Apart from the works cited
in the absence of priests and sacraments the Bahal            under Baha5
Allah, see; On cAbd al-Baha1: S.
fusion of religion and administration will take on            Lemaitre, Une
grandc figure de l'Un\t6, *Abdu
a different character from that of the traditional            *l-Bahd>, Paris
1952; M. H. Phelps, Life and tea-
Iheocracies. Every Baha5! is thus formally forbidden         ching of Abbas
Kffendi, London 1912 (German
to belong to a political party or to secret societies         trans. Abdu
*l-Baha Abbas, Leben und Lehre,
and obedience to due authority is obligatory. The            Stuttgart 1922);
Lady Blomfield, The Chosen
Baha5! religion having a strong pacifist trend, mem-         Highway, London
1940; M. Hanford Ford, The
bers of the Baha5! community are advised to avoid             Oriental Rose,
or the Teachings of Abdul Baha,
military service, at least in lands where conscientious       New York 1910.
Account of his journey to Europe
objection is recognised by law. We could also speak           and America:
Mahmud Zarfcam, Kitdb BaddW
of a strong trend towards vegetarianism, based on            al-Athdr fi Asfdr
Mawld al-Akhydr . . ., Bombay
a short speech made by cAbd al-Baha5, during his              1914-1921 (2
vols.). His chief works: Makdtib-i
c
stay in America, in which he states that he favours             Abd al-Bahd*,
Cairo 1910-1921 (3 vols.); al-Nur
the creation of a way of life in which it would no           al-Abha fi
Mufdwiddt liadrat <Abd al-Bahd> (relonger be necessary to kill other living
beings for           cords of conversations, collected by Laura Clifford
food; but he would not force others to accept his             Barney in Acre),
Cairo 1920; (English trans, by
view. Likewise he speaks critically of hunting. He            L, Clifford
Barney, Some answered questions, Lonadvises strongly against smoking, without
formally            don 1908; French trans, by I. Dreyfus, Les Lecons
forbidding it.                                                de Saint Jean
d'Acre, Paris 1929); Khi^dbdt-i Mu-
Although the Baha^is have no public form of wor-           bdraka-yi ffadrat-i
*Abd al-Bahd* dar Awriipd
ship the Akdas recommends the erection of Mash-               wa-Amrikd,
Tehran 99 (Baha5! era)/i942; al-Risdla
rib al-Adhkdr (literally "place where the uttering            al-Madaniyya,
Cairo 1329/1911 (a works written by
c
of the name of God arises at dawn"), a kind of temple           Abd al-Baha5
before 1292/1875, English trans,
of circular plan surmounted by a dome cf nine sec-            by Dawud, The
Mysterious forces of civilization,
tions, and open to the faithful of every creed, all           Chicago 1918);
Djavdb-i Professor-i Almdni Dr.
being free to pray there as and when they wish.               Forel (Reply to
Professor Forel), Cairo 1922; Alc
Abd al-Baha5 emphasises that to every temple                wdfy wa Wasdyd-yi
Mubdraka-yi ffadrat-i 'Abd althere should be attached a high school for giving
            Bahd', Cairo 1342/1924 (important on the questioninstruction in
the different sciences, a hospital, an         of the succession). —
Anthologies: Tablets of
c
orphanage, a dispensary, and other institutions useful          Abdu 'l-Bahd*
ed. Windust, New York 1930 (3
to society. On 10 May 1912 he himself laid the first          vols.); The
wisdom of cAbdu 'l-Bahd>, New York
stone of the Mashrib al-Adhkdr at Wilmette (Illinois),        1924; 'Abdu
'l-Bahd* on Divine Philosophy, ed.
on the shore of Lake Michigan hear Chicago. This              Chamberlain,
Boston 1918; Selected writings of
c
impressive structure cost more than two million                 Abdu 'l-Bahdy,
Wilmette 1942.
dollars and was officially consecrated in the presence           Of the works
of Shoghi Effendi, who writes in
of the Guardian's wife in June 1953. Long previously,         English as well
as in Arabic or Persian, the most
in 1902, another Mashrik al-Adhkdr had been erected           important in
English is God passes by, Wilmette
at c lshkabad in what is now Soviet Turkmenistan              1945. Noteworthy
for its rich and elegant Persobut we have no exact information on the present 
             Arabic style is the Lawh-i Karn, Bombay n.d.,
state of this building. Other Baha5! buildings are the        a letter sent to
the eastern Baha^s on the occasion
Hazirat al-Kuds (literally Enclosures of Holiness),           of the first
centenary of the foundation of the Faith
which are administrative centres of no sacred cha-            (1944).
racter, and finally the tombs of the Founders, all               On Baha5!
doctrine: J. E. Esselmont, Bahd'-
grouped together at the world centre of the Faith             ulldh and the
New Era, London 1923 (with several
near Mount Carmel in Israel. The tomb of Baha5                other enlarged
editions, the last printed at Wil-
Allah is at Bahdji and the bodies of the Bab and              mette in 1946);
R. Jockel, Die Glaubenslehren der
'Abd al-Baha5 rest in the great mausoleum called              Bahd'i-Religion,
Darmstadt 1951 (cyclostyled),
Makdm-i A'ld, on the slopes of Mount Carmel. The             containing a very
large bibliography of eastern
Baha'is also consider as sacred localities the Ridwdn         and occidental
works; Abu 'l-FadaM Gulpayagarden near Baghdad (see Bahd* Allah], and the
house          gani (or Abu 5l-Fadl Diarfadhkan!) has produced
of the Bab at Shiraz, etc. The mausoleum of the               interesting and
stimulating controversial work in
Bab (Makdm-i A'ld), surrounded by splendid gar-               Arabic and
Persian. We may cite from his writings:
dens, is the goal of frequent pilgrimages by European         al-Hudiadi
al-Bahiyya, Cairo 1343/1925 (English
and Eastern Baha^s.                                           trans, by CA1I
Kull Khan, The Bahd>i proofs)-,
It is very difficult to give figures for the numbers      Madjmtfa-yi Rasd*il,
Cairo 1339/1920.
of professing Baha^Is in their communities in the                The Md*ida-yi
Asmdni, Tehran 104 (Baha5!
different countries of the world. The central core is         era/1947, (6
vols.), is a vast anthology of the
in Persia, where different estimates of their nurrber         Founders'
doctrinal writings.
vary from more than a million down to about five                 Miscellaneous
statistics and information on the
hundred thousand. In the c?ty of Tehran there are             life of Baha5!
communities throughout the world
about thirty thousand. The United States of America           are given in the
biennial publications sumptuously
come next (about ten thousand), and in Europe,                edited in
America, The Bahd^i World (12 volumes
Germany (one thousand); Baha^s in other countries             published up to
the present time, from 1925 to
can be counted in hundreds. In Iran even now (1958            1957).          
                     (A. BAUSANI)
they are not a recognised religious minority and              BAHAR [see
KAYL].
often suffer persecutions of varying severity. Among          BAHAR, MUH. TAK!
(1885-22 April 1951),
other things they are forbidden to print books and          Persian poet and
politician, born at Mash had of a
newspapers. All official Baha5! publications in Persia     family originating
from Kashan. In 1904, on the
    — Encyclopaedia of Islam: Baha'i Selections (Used by permission of the curator)