Mohammed and Islam
Exported from Holy-Writings.com on 2026-06-18 - 1 clipping

Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Ignaz Goldziher, Mohammed and Islam, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1917, bahai-library.com.
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

X. The movement which arose in the Arabian penin­
sula and whose nims and effects we have just been con­
sidering, has its gaze fixed on the past, denying the
justification of the results of historical development, and
recognizing Islam only in the petrified form of the
seventh century. In contrast to this is a more modern
movement within Islam, which recognizes the religious

Digitized by Google
312            MOHAMMED AND ISLAM.
evolution of mankind, in fact has this belief as its start­
ing point and vital idea. This is the Babi movement
which had its rise in Persia.
It arose, it is true, from a form of Shi'ism predomi­
nating in that country. In its historical development,
however, its fundamental ideas are connected with a
principle which we have come to recognize as the guiding
thought of the Isma'ilian sect, namely the self-perfection
of the divine revelation through progressive manifesta­
tion of the great world-intellect.
In the beginning of the nineteenth century a new
branch was grafted on to the Imam doctrine of the Sh!‘-
itic “ Twelvers,’’ the school of Sheikhites whose adher­
ents cherished a zealous worship of the “ hidden Mahdi”
and of the Imams preceding him. In a gnostic manner,
they hold these persons as hypostases of divine attri­
butes, as creative potentialities. They thus give the
Imam mythology of the ordinary Imamiyya a greater
area, and in this respect are in line with the extremists
(ghulat, see above page 233).
In this group grew up the visionary youth Mirza
Muhammed ‘All of Shiraz (born 1820). On account
of his great ability and enthusiasm, he was recognized
by his companions as chosen for the highest calling.
This recognition of his fellow visionaries acted as a
strong suggestion to the spirit of the pensive youth. He
finally came to recognize himself as the embodiment
and manifestation of a supreme superhuman mission
within the development of Islam. From the conscious­
ness of being a Báb, that is “ a door” by which the
infallible will of the hidden Imam, as the highest source
of all truth, reveals itself to the world, he soon came to
believe that in the economy of spiritual development he
was really the organ of the hidden instructor, the Imam
of the age. In other words, he himself was the new
Mahdl, whose coming had been foretold at “ the end of

Digitized by Google
LAT KR I ) KV K1,0PM KNTS.             313
the first millennium,’*after the twelfth Imam (260-12G0)*
after Mohammed. He is Mahdi, however, no longer as
the ordinary ShPite conceives of this dignity, but (and
here he touches Isma'ilitic doctrines) ns a manifestation
of the spirit of the world, as “ the point of manifesta­
tion,“ the highest truth, which, having taken on bodily
form in him, differs only in appearance, but is identical in
being with those previous manifestations of that spiritual
substance proceeding from God. He is the reappearance
on earth of Moses and Jesus, as well as the embodiment
of all other prophets through whose bodily appearance
in former aeons the divine world-spirit had manifested
itself. He preached to his followers opposition to the
Mullahs—in Persia more particularly, the Ulemas are
so-called—to their sanctimoniousness and hypocrisy, and
their worldly strivings. He even went so far as to
raise the revelation of Mohammed, which he interpreted
largely in an allegorical sense, to the highest level. The
practices of Islam, the minute laws on ritualistic purity,
etc., were little considered in his doctrine. Sometimes
others were substituted for them. Divine judgment,
parndise, hell and the resurrection had other meanings.1
In this he had predecessors in earlier spiritualistic
systems. Resurrection is every new periodic manifesta­
tion of the divine spirit in relation to a preceding one.
The latter comes to new life through its successor. This
is the meaning of the “ meeting with God,” as the
future life is designated in the Koran.
It is, however, not only in dogmatic and legal con­
ceptions that the young Persian visionary opposed the
petrified theology of the Mullahs. With his proclama­
tion he attacked the social relationships of his fellow
believers. His sympathetic ethics, the brotherhood of all
men, were offered in place of the wall of separation
between classes. He wished to raise women from the
low position in which actual conditions had placed her
• Of the Mohammedan era.

Digitized by Google
314            MOHAMMED AND ISLAM.
in the name of tradition, to one of equality with man. He
begins this task by doing away with the obligatory veil,
and by rejecting the coarse conception of marriage as
it had developed in Moslem communities, as this develop­
ment was not a necessary result of religious principles.
He connected the nobler conception of the marriage
relation with thoughts on the function of the family and
the reform of education.
The religious reforms of Bub, therefore, included in
their aim the fundamentals of community life. He is a
social as well as a religious reformer, but as at the
beginning he started with gnostic and mystic views, the
latter element permeates his entire system by which he
builds up his view of the world. He combines a dis­
tinctively modern point of view with Pythagorian sub­
tleties; like the Hurüfïs (page 268) he toys with com­
binations of the letters of the alphabet, and assigns a
numerical value to them. The number 19 possesses the
greatest importance and serves him as the point of
departure for “ Gemutria” (i. e., combinations of letters
according to their numerical value), which play a great
part in his speculation.
In regard to his own person he teaches his identity
with the prophets which preceded him, a conception
which has its roots in gnosticism, and even found an
expression in earlier schismatic movements in Islam.
Similarly he announces for the future a constantly
renewing manifestation of the divine spirit, embodied
for his days in his own person.2 Divine rovelatioq is not
concluded either with Mohammed or with him. The
divine spirit reveals itself in a progressive chain of
periodical manifestations, which proclaim the divine
will in a steadily increasing maturity, according to the
progress of the times. Through such teachings Mirza
Muhammed ‘All paved the way for the transformation
which took place in his community soon after his death.

Digitized by Google
LATKH DKVKLOl’MENTS.                   :J15
lie has embodied the substance of his teachings in a
religious work regarded as sacred, and known as Bayan,
i. e., Interpretation. His doctrine, naturally, appeared
exceedingly dangerous from a political as well as from
a religious point of view. The founder and his followers
who gathered around him, among whom the heroine
K uřat al-'Ain (comfort of the eye) arouses our sym­
pathy, were unsparingly persecuted and proscribed,
pursued and turned over to the executioner. Mohammed
‘All himself was put to death in July, 1850. Those of
his followers who escaped the m artyr’s death, whose
enthusiasm was increased by the persecutions which they
suffered, found an asylum on Turkish soil.
Soon after the death of the founder a split occurred
within the community, according as the followers recog­
nized the one or the other of two pupils singled out by
the Bfib, as the authentic interpreter of the will of the
late leader. The minority gathered around Subh-i-ezcl
(dawn of eternity) with headquarters in Famagusta
(Cyprus), who proposed to sanction the work of the
Bäb in the form given to it by the master. They are
the conservative Bäbists. The others supported the
contention of the other apostle, Bella-Allah (splendor of
God), who in the beginning of the sixties, during the
stay of the Bub-exiles in Adrianople, declared himself
on the basis of a cyclic system, to be the more perfect
manifestation proclaimed by the master, through which
the latter’s own work would be raised to a higher level.
Mohammed ‘All was his precursor, his John, as it were.
The divine spirit had appeared in him to fulfill the
preparation made by the precursor. Behä is greater
than Bab. The latter was the Kä‘im (the one who rises
up), Behä is Kayyüm (the permanent one); “ He who
will appear,” the expression used by Bäb with regard
to his successor, “ is greater than the one who has
already appeared.”3 By preference he calls himself

Digitized by Google
31G             MOIIAMMED AND ISLAM.
mazhar or mangar, the revelation of God in which the
beauty of God is to be seen as in a mirror. lie himself
is “ the beauty of Allah,” whose face shines between
the heavens and the earth as a precious polished pearl.*
Through him alone the being of God can be known, whoso
emanation he himself is.0 His followers actually invest
him with divine attributes, as illustrated in the extrava­
gant hymns addressed to him which have been published
by E. G. Browne.0
On account of the quarrel which broke out between
his followers and the conservative Bäbists, Beba and
his community were transferred to Akka, where he per­
fected his doctrine into a complete system in opposition
not only to the m ild al furkân, the congregation of the
Koran, but also to the m ild al hayan, i. e., the old Bäbists
who would not accept his reform, who declined to pass
beyond the Bayun.
His teachings have been embodied in a number of
books and epistles in Arabic and Persian, of which the
Kitäb akdas (Sacred Book) is the most important.7 For
his written declarations he claims divine origin. “ Even
this tablet (referred to in one of his epistles), is a hid­
den waiting which has been guarded from eternity among
the treasures of divine exemption, and whose characters
are written with the fingers of divine power, if you
would but know it.” Thus he conveys the impression
as though he did not reveal the whole wealth of his doc­
trine of salvation, reserving apparently some esoteric
thoughts for the innermost circle. He maintains also
that certain teachings ought to be kept secret from
opponents. In a certain passage he declares : “ We must
not discuss this stage in detail, for the ears of our
opponents are directed toward us in order to over-hear,
while offering opposition to the true and everlasting
God. For they do not attain to the mystery of knowledge

Digitized by Google
LÁTEK DEVELOPMENTS.                    317
and of wisdom of the one who arises from the horizon
of the splendor of divine unity.”
This manifestation of the universal spirit in Behä, as
the fulfilment of the announcement of the original
founder, resulted in the abrogation of the revelation to
the Bab in some essential points. While the latter is
at bottom only a reform of Islam, Behä advanced
to the larger conception of a world religion which was
to unite mankind in a religious brotherhood. As in his
political teachings he professes cosmopolitanism—em­
phasizing that there is ‘‘no preference to be given to
him who loves his country, but to him who loves the
world,” 8 his religion in this matter was stripped of all
narrow sectarianism.
He regards himself as the manifestation of the world
spirit to a l l mankind. With this in view he sends his
epistles, which form a portion of his book of revelations,
to the nations and rulers of Europe and Asia; and he
extends his horizon even to ‘‘the kings of America, and
to the chiefs of the republic” ; he proclaims ‘‘what the
dove coos on the branches of constancy.” In the eyes
of his followers he becomes a divine man filled with the
prophetic spirit, when in his epistle to Napoleon H I
he announced, four years before Sedan, the Empire’s
approaching downfall.
With his cosmopolitan aims in view, he commanded
his followers to prepare themselves, by the study of
foreign languages, for the mission of apostles of the
world religion which was to unite all mankind and all
nations ‘‘in order that the interpreter of God’s cause
reaching the east and the west should announce it to the
states and nations of the world in such a way, that the
minds of men should be drawn to it, and mouldering
bones should be brought to life.” “ By this means, unity
is to be brought about and the highest task of civiliza-

Digitized by Google
318             MOHAMMED AND ISLAM.
tion accomplished.”0 The ideal means by which the
understanding of the world is to be won is a common
world language. He wishes that kings and ministers
might unite in recognizing one of the existing languages,
or else create a new one as the universal language which
should be taught in all the schools of the world.10
He threw aside all limitations both of Islam and of
Babism. With regard to the latter, it is true, he did
not free his proclamation from all mystical speculations,
tricks of letters and numbers, which had gathered around
early Babism. His main interest, nevertheless, is
directed toward the building up of the ethical and social
factors. W ar is strictly forbidden, only “ in case of
need” is the use of weapons allowed ; slavery also is for­
bidden, and equality of all men is taught as the nucleus
of the new gospel.11 In a revelation entitled Sürat al-
Muliik (Sura of the Kings) he severely reproached the
Sultan of Turkey for allowing such great differences in
power to exist among his people.12 In a reforming
spirit, he takes up the question of marriage relations
already considered by Bab. His ideal is monogamy, but
he makes concessions to bigamy, which, however, is to
be regarded as the limit of polygamy. Divorce is
recognized, but modified in a humane spirit. The reunit­
ing of those who have separated is allowed, provided
they have not married again; in direct contrast there­
fore to the custom of Islam. The law of Islam is
regarded as completely superseded ; new forms for
prayer and ritual are introduced, public prayer with its
liturgical forms (salat al-jama‘) is done away with.
Each individual prays alone (furädä). Common prayer
• is retained only for prayers over the dead. The kibla
(the direction of prayer) is not toward Mecca but toward
the place where the one is whom God has sent down
“ as his manifestation.” When he wanders the kibla
wanders, until he takes up an abode somewhere. Bodily

Digitized by Google
LATER DEVELOPMENTS.                     319
cleanliness, washing and bathing, are most emphatically
ordained, as religious duties, together with a warning
against bathing establishments such as those of the
Persians which arc represented as very unclean.
With a stroke of the pen he strikes out the limitations
which Islam had laid upon the believers, without going
into any detail except in the case of certain laws of dress.
You may do anything which is not opposed to common
sense.13 Like his predecessor he is tireless in his war
against the ‘Ulema who twist and check the will of God.
One is, however, to keep clear of disputes with religious
opponents. The Bella religion recognizes no profes­
sional spiritual position. Every member of this uni­
versal church should work toward a productive aim,
useful to the community. Those who have the ability
should be the spiritual teachers of the community with­
out compensation.14 The suppression of the corporate
business of teaching was demonstrated by the abolish­
ment of the pulpit (minbar) in public gathering places.10
We will be disappointed if we expect to find Behä in
the camp of the liberals in political matters. He surprises
us by fighting political freedom—“ We see that many
men desire freedom and boast of it: they are obviously
in error. . . . Freedom brings about confusion whose
fire is not extinguished. Know that the origin and
appearance of freedom is animalic ; man must be under
laws which guard him from his own barbarity, and the
harms which may be done by those who nrc false. Indeed
freedom removes man from the demands of culture and
propriety.”—and so on, in undisguised reactionary lan­
guage.18 The adherents of the Bella do not even favor
the liberal political developments in Turkey and Persia,
but look with disfavor on the dethronement of the sultan
and the shah.17
Tho mission of the Behä Alläh passed after his death
(May 1G, 1892), with only a few objections by the

Digitized by Google
320             MOHAMMED AND ISLAM.
“ friends” (ahbâb), to his son and successor ‘Abbfis
Effendi, called ‘Abd-al Balia, or Ghusn Azam (the Great
Branch).18 He carried the views of his lather to a
comprehensive development. They are made to conform
more and more to the forms and aims of the intellectual
thought of the Occident. The fantastic elements which
had still clung to the previous stage are made as mild as
possible, although not yet completely thrown off. ‘Abbfis
makes a wide use of the writings of the Old and New
Testament which he quotes for his purposes. In this
way he strives to extend the influence to still wider circles
than those to which the followers of his father had
appealed.
Since the appearance of ‘Abd-al Bahfi the propaganda
has attained very remarkable results. A great number
of American ladies (the names of a few can be found
in the notes) made a pilgrimage to the Persian prophet
at the foot of Mount Carmel in order to bring to their
western homes words of healing from his own lips, words
which they had heard directly from the holy man. The
best presentation of the teaching of ‘Abbfis we owe to
Miss Laura Cliford Barney, who, living a long time in
the vicinity of ‘Abbfis, took down his teachings in short­
hand in order to bring them to the western world as
representing an authentic conception of the new Balia
doctrine.10
The movement started by the Bfib is no longer to bear
the name of its founder. There has developed lately a
preference to call this offspring of the doctrine of MIrzâ
Mohammed ‘All which is constantly spreading and leav­
ing its rivals behind, Behďiyya, a name which the faith­
ful give themselves in opposition to the unimportant
remnants of the conservative Bayfin-adherents who are
gathered under other leaders.
The wide universalistic aim which characterizes it has
drawn its adherents not only from mosques, but from

Digitized by Google
LATIÍ It Dlí VJ5L0PM 1ÍNTS.            »21
churches, synagogues, and fire temples. A building for
public worship has lately been erected in Ashkabad near
the Persian boundary in Russian Turkestan. A descrip­
tion of it has been given by an enthusiastic European
interpreter of Bella*ism, Hippolyte Dreyfus.20 On the
other hand, the designation BcluV ism embodies the idea
of religious free-thought, of the laying aside of the posi­
tive doctrine of Islam. As formerly the term Zindik
meant an early Moslem whose religious views were influ­
enced by Parseeism and Manichaeism, and as later the
name Failasüf (Philosopher), lately also Farmasfm
(franc-maçon) without regard to a definite kind of back­
sliding from true Islam generally refers to a free-thinker,
so to-day in Persia, Behfi‘1 is applied not only to this
latest development of the Bábi faith, but as Rev. F. M.
Jordan has remarked, “ many of those who are given
this name are really nothing but ‘irreligious rational­
ists.’ ” 2' Since the adherents of this form of belief in
Persia and also in other Moslem lands still have every
reason to hide their completely anti-Mohammedan con­
victions from publicity and to claim the practice of
takiyya (above page 228), it would be difficult to offer
even approximately correct statistics as to the followers
of Bfibiism in both its forms. The statement of Rev.
Isaac Adams, one of the latest to picture Babi condi­
tions, that their number in Persia reaches three millions,
would seem to be exaggerated. This would mean almost
a third of the whole population of the country. ‘Abbas
Effcndi himself in an interview in New York in July,
1912, said he could not give the number of the followers
of Beim* ism.
Bfibism, passing over into Bella* ism, has undertaken
a serious propaganda. Its teachers and followers have
not hesitated to draw the consequences of their con­
viction that they are not a sect of Islam but the repre­
sentative of a world-wide doctrine. Its propaganda has

Digitized by Google
322            MOHAMMED AND ISLAM.
not only spread far among those of Moslem faith (as far
as Indo-China) but with remarkable success is going
farther and farther beyond the boundaries of Islam. The
prophet of ‘Akka has found in America and in Europe
also, it is claimed, zealous adherents even among Chris­
tians.21 Through the spread of literature the attempt
is made to crystallize American Beha'ism. Its journal­
istic interpreter is a magazine known as the Star of the
West, which has appeared nineteen times every year
since 1910 (19 being the sacred number of the Bab).
With Chicago as its center, it covers a wide area in the
United States, and it is in this very city that plans are
being formed for the erection of a religious gathering
place, mashrak al-Adkat, for the American Behas. A
considerable sum raised by the “ Friends” has assured
the acquisition of a large piece of land on the banks of
Lake Michigan which was dedicated on the first of May,
1912, by ‘Abbas Effendi during his tour in the United
States.23 Jewish visionaries also have picked out from
the books of the Old Testament prophets the foretelling
of the Behfi and ‘Abbas. According to them, whercever the “ glory of Jahweli” is spoken of, the appear­
ance of the Saviour of the world, Bella Allah is meant.
They find support in all the references to Mount Carmel,
in the neighborhood of which the Light of God shone for
all men at the end of the nineteenth century. Nor have
they neglected to ferret out from the visions of the Book
of Daniel24 the foretelling and even the chronology of the
movement beginning with the Bab. The 2300 year-days
(Dan. viii:14) at the end of which “ the sanctuary shall
be cleansed” corresponds, according to their reckoning,
with the year 1844, of our era, the year in which MIrza
Mohammed ‘All proclaimed himself as Bäb, and at which
time the universal spirit (Wclt-geist) entered into a new
phase of its manifestation.

Digitized by Google
LATER DEVELOPMENTS.                    323
With the appearance of ‘Abbas Effendi, the application
of Biblical interpretations went one step farther. Ac­
cording to these he was foretold as “ the child who will
be born to us, the son who will be given to us,” on whose
shoulders lie the responsibilities of a prince, and who is
the bearer of the wonder epithets in Isaiah 9:5. As I
write these pages I listen to these Biblical proofs from
the lips of a Bella visionary who for two years has been
staying in my town. He was formerly a physician in
Teheran, and is endeavoring to find followers for his
faith here. ITc feels in himself a special mission to my
country. This fact is one more proof that it is not on
American soil alone that the extra-Mohammedan prop­
aganda of the new Beim is directed.

Digitized by Google

                                                

                                                     

                             

                                                                      

                        

                                                                

                                                     

                                                  

                                                                    

                                                                      

                                                       

                                     

                                                                       

                                                        

                                                 

                                                        

                                            

                                                 

                                                    

                                                   

                                                           

                                                   
                                                 
-- Mohammed and Islam (Used by permission of the curator)