# The Reconciliation of Races and Religions

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> Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Thomas Kelly Cheyne, The Reconciliation of Races and Religions, bahai-library.com.
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> 
> The Reconciliation of Races and Religions
> 
> Thomas Kelly Cheyne
> 
> London: Adam and Charles Black, 1914
> 
> PREFACE
> 
> The primary aim of this work is twofold. It would fain contribute to
> the cause of universal peace, and promote the better understanding of
> the various religions which really are but one religion. The union of
> religions must necessarily precede the union of races, which at
> present is so lamentably incomplete. It appears to me that none of the
> men or women of good-will is justified in withholding any suggestions
> which may have occurred to him. For the crisis, both political and
> religious, is alarming.
> 
> The question being ultimately a religious one, the author may be
> pardoned if he devotes most of his space to the most important of its
> religious aspects. He leaves it open to students of Christian politics
> to make known what is the actual state of things, and how this is to
> be remedied. He has, however, tried to help the reader by reprinting
> the very noble Manifesto of the Society of Friends, called forth by
> the declaration of war against Germany by England on the fourth day of
> August 1914.
> 
> In some respects I should have preferred a Manifesto representing the
> lofty views of the present Head of another Society of Friends — the
> Bahai Fraternity. Peace on earth has been the ideal of the Bābīs
> and Bahais since the Bāb's time, and Professor E. G. Browne has
> perpetuated Baha'ullah's noble declaration of the imminent setting up
> of the kingdom of God, based upon universal peace. But there is such a
> thrilling actuality in the Manifesto of the Disciples of George Fox
> that I could not help availing myself of Mr. Isaac Sharp's kind
> permission to me to reprint it. It is indeed an opportune setting
> forth of the eternal riches, which will commend itself, now as never
> before, to those who can say, with the Grandfather in Tagore's poem,
> 'I am a jolly pilgrim to the land of losing everything.' The rulers of
> this world certainly do not cherish this ideal; but the imminent
> reconstruction of international relations will have to be founded upon
> it if we are not to sink back into the gulf of militarism.
> 
> I have endeavoured to study the various races and religions on their
> best side, and not to fetter myself to any individual teacher or
> party, for 'out of His fulness have all we received.' Max Müller was
> hardly right in advising the Brahmists to call themselves Christians,
> and it is a pity that we so habitually speak of Buddhists and
> Mohammedans. I venture to remark that the favourite name of the Bahais
> among themselves is 'Friends.' The ordinary name Bahai comes from the
> divine name Baha, 'Glory (of God),' so that Abdu'l Baha means 'Servant
> of the Glory (of God).' One remembers the beautiful words of the Latin
> collect, 'Cui servire regnare est.'
> 
> Abdu'l Baha (when in Oxford) graciously gave me a 'new name.'
> [Footnote: Ruḥani ('spiritual').] Evidently he thought that my work
> was not entirely done, and would have me be ever looking for help to
> the Spirit, whose 'strength is made perfect in weakness.' Since then
> he has written me a Tablet (letter), from which I quote the following
> lines: —
> 
> 'O thou, my spiritual philosopher,
> 
> 'Thy letter was received. In reality its contents were eloquent, for
> it was an evidence of thy literary fairness and of thy investigation
> of Reality.... There were many Doctors amongst the Jews, but they were
> all earthly, but St. Paul became heavenly because he could fly
> upwards. In his own time no one duly recognized him; nay, rather, he
> spent his days amidst difficulties and contempt. Afterwards it became
> known that he was not an earthly bird, he was a celestial one; he was
> not a natural philosopher, but a divine philosopher.
> 
> 'It is likewise my hope that in the future the East and the West may
> become conscious that thou wert a divine philosopher and a herald to
> the Kingdom.'
> 
> I have no wish to write my autobiography, but may mention here that I
> sympathize largely with Vambéry, a letter from whom to Abdu'l Baha
> will be found farther on; though I should express my own adhesion to
> the Bahai leader in more glowing terms. Wishing to get nearer to a
> 'human-catholic' religion I have sought the privilege of simultaneous
> membership of several brotherhoods of Friends of God. It is my wish to
> show that both these and other homes of spiritual life are, when
> studied from the inside, essentially one, and that religions
> necessarily issue in racial and world-wide unity.
> 
> RUḤANI.
> 
> OXFORD, August 1914.
> 
> CONTENTS
> 
> PREFACE
> 
> INTRODUCTION
> 
> I. THE JEWELS OF THE FAITHS
> 
> II. BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL
> 
> III. BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL (continued)
> 
> IV. BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL; AMBASSADOR TO HUMANITY
> 
> V. A SERIES OF ILLUSTRATIVE STUDIES BEARING ON COMPARATIVE RELIGION
> 
> BAHAI BIBLIOGRAPHY
> 
> INTRODUCTION
> 
> TO MEN AND WOMEN OF GOODWILL IN THE BRITISH EMPIRE
> 
> A Message (reprinted by permission) from the Religious Society of
> Friends
> 
> We find ourselves to-day in the midst of what may prove to be the
> fiercest conflict in the history of the human race. Whatever may be
> our view of the processes which have led to its inception, we have now
> to face the fact that war is proceeding upon a terrific scale and that
> our own country is involved in it.
> 
> We recognize that our Government has made most strenuous efforts to
> preserve peace, and has entered into the war under a grave sense of
> duty to a smaller State, towards which we had moral and treaty
> obligations. While, as a Society, we stand firmly to the belief that
> the method of force is no solution of any question, we hold that the
> present moment is not one for criticism, but for devoted service to
> our nation.
> 
> What is to be the attitude of Christian men and women and of all who
> believe in the brotherhood of humanity? In the distress and perplexity
> of this new situation, many are so stunned as scarcely to be able to
> discern the path of duty. In the sight of God we should seek to get
> back to first principles, and to determine on a course of action which
> shall prove us to be worthy citizens of His Kingdom. In making this
> effort let us remember those groups of men and women, in all the other
> nations concerned, who will be animated by a similar spirit, and who
> believe with us that the fundamental unity of men in the family of God
> is the one enduring reality, even when we are forced into an apparent
> denial of it. Although it would be premature to make any
> pronouncement upon many aspects of the situation on which we have no
> sufficient data for a reliable judgment, we can, and do, call
> ourselves and you to a consideration of certain principles which may
> safely be enunciated.
> 
> 1. The conditions which have made this catastrophe possible must be
> regarded by us as essentially unchristian. This war spells the
> bankruptcy of much that we too lightly call Christian. No nation, no
> Church, no individual can be wholly exonerated. We have all
> participated to some extent in these conditions. We have been content,
> or too little discontented, with them. If we apportion blame, let us
> not fail first to blame ourselves, and to seek the forgiveness of
> Almighty God.
> 
> 2. In the hour of darkest night it is not for us to lose heart. Never
> was there greater need for men of faith. To many will come the
> temptation to deny God, and to turn away with despair from the
> Christianity which seems to be identified with bloodshed on so
> gigantic a scale. Christ is crucified afresh to-day. If some forsake
> Him and flee, let it be more clear that there are others who take
> their stand with Him, come what may.
> 
> 3. This we may do by continuing to show the spirit of love to all. For
> those whose conscience forbids them to take up arms there are other
> ways of serving, and definite plans are already being made to enable
> them to take their full share in helping their country at this
> crisis. In pity and helpfulness towards the suffering and stricken in
> our own country we shall all share. If we stop at this, 'what do we
> more than others?' Our Master bids us pray for and love our enemies.
> May we be saved from forgetting that they too are the children of our
> Father. May we think of them with love and pity. May we banish
> thoughts of bitterness, harsh judgments, the revengeful spirit. To do
> this is in no sense unpatriotic. We may find ourselves the subjects
> of misunderstanding. But our duty is clear — to be courageous in the
> cause of love and in the hate of hate. May we prepare ourselves even
> now for the day when once more we shall stand shoulder to shoulder
> with those with whom we are now at war, in seeking to bring in the
> Kingdom of God.
> 
> 4. It is not too soon to begin to think out the new situation which
> will arise at the close of the war. We are being compelled to face the
> fact that the human race has been guilty of a gigantic folly. We have
> built up a culture, a civilization, and even a religious life,
> surpassing in many respects that of any previous age, and we have been
> content to rest it all upon a foundation of sand. Such a state of
> society cannot endure so long as the last word in human affairs is
> brute force. Sooner or later it was bound to crumble. At the close of
> this war we shall be faced with a stupendous task of reconstruction.
> In some ways it will be rendered supremely difficult by the legacy of
> ill-will, by the destruction of human life, by the tax upon all in
> meeting the barest wants of the millions who will have suffered
> through the war. But in other ways it will be easier. We shall be able
> to make a new start, and to make it all together. From this point of
> view we may even see a ground of comfort in the fact that our own
> nation is involved. No country will be in a position which will compel
> others to struggle again to achieve the inflated standard of military
> power existing before the war. We shall have an opportunity of
> reconstructing European culture upon the only possible permanent
> foundation — mutual trust and good-will. Such a reconstruction would
> not only secure the future of European civilization, but would save
> the world from the threatened catastrophe of seeing the great nations
> of the East building their new social order also upon the sand, and
> thus turning the thought and wealth needed for their education and
> development into that which could only be a fetter to themselves and a
> menace to the West. Is it too much to hope for that we shall, when
> the time comes, be able as brethren together to lay down far-reaching
> principles for the future of mankind such as will ensure us for ever
> against a repetition of this gigantic folly? If this is to be
> accomplished it will need the united and persistent pressure of all
> who believe in such a future for mankind. There will still be
> multitudes who can see no good in the culture of other nations, and
> who are unable to believe in any genuine brotherhood among those of
> different races. Already those who think otherwise must begin to think
> and plan for such a future if the supreme opportunity of the final
> peace is not to be lost, and if we are to be saved from being again
> sucked down into the whirlpool of military aggrandizement and
> rivalry. In time of peace all the nations have been preparing for
> war. In the time of war let all men of good-will prepare for
> peace. The Christian conscience must be awakened to the magnitude of
> the issues. The great friendly democracies in each country must be
> ready to make their influence felt. Now is the time to speak of this
> thing, to work for it, to pray for it.
> 
> 5. If this is to happen, it seems to us of vital importance that the
> war should not be carried on in any vindictive spirit, and that it
> should be brought to a close at the earliest possible moment. We
> should have it clearly before our minds from the beginning that we are
> not going into it in order to crush and humiliate any nation. The
> conduct of negotiations has taught us the necessity of prompt action
> in international affairs. Should the opportunity offer, we, in this
> nation, should be ready to act with promptitude in demanding that the
> terms suggested are of a kind which it will be possible for all
> parties to accept, and that the negotiations be entered upon in the
> right spirit.
> 
> 6. We believe in God. Human free will gives us power to hinder the
> fulfilment of His loving purposes. It also means that we may actively
> co-operate with Him. If it is given to us to see something of a
> glorious possible future, after all the desolation and sorrow that lie
> before us, let us be sure that sight has been given us by Him. No day
> should close without our putting up our prayer to Him that He will
> lead His family into a new and better day. At a time when so severe a
> blow is being struck at the great causes of moral, social, and
> religious reform for which so many have struggled, we need to look
> with expectation and confidence to Him, whose cause they are, and find
> a fresh inspiration in the certainty of His victory.
> 
> August 7, 1914.
> 
> 'In time of war let all men of good-will prepare for peace.' German,
> French, and English scholars and investigators have done much to show
> that the search for truth is one of the most powerful links between
> the different races and nations. It is absurd to speak — as many
> Germans do habitually speak — of 'deutsche Wissenschaft,' as if the
> glorious tree of scientific and historical knowledge were a purely
> German production. Many wars like that which closed at Sedan and that
> which is still, most unhappily, in progress will soon drive lovers of
> science and culture to the peaceful regions of North America!
> 
> The active pursuit of truth is, therefore, one of those things which
> make for peace. But can we say this of moral and religious truth? In
> this domain are we not compelled to be partisans and particularists?
> And has not liberal criticism shown that the religious traditions of
> all races and nations are to be relegated to the least cultured
> classes? That is the question to the treatment of which I (as a
> Christian student) offer some contributions in the present volume. But
> I would first of all express my hearty sympathy with the friends of
> God in the noble Russian Church, which has appointed the following
> prayer among others for use at the present crisis: [Footnote:
> Church Times, Sept. 4, 1914.]
> 
> 'Deacon. Stretch forth Thine hand, O Lord, from on high, and
> touch the hearts of our enemies, that they may turn unto Thee, the God
> of peace Who lovest Thy creatures: and for Thy Name's sake strengthen
> us who put our trust in Thee by Thy might, we beseech Thee. Hear us
> and have mercy.'
> 
> Certainly it is hardness of heart which strikes us most painfully in
> our (we hope) temporary enemies. The only excuse is that in the Book
> which Christian nations agree to consider as in some sense and degree
> religiously authoritative, the establishment of the rule of the Most
> High is represented as coincident with extreme severities, or — as we
> might well say — cruelties. I do not, however, think that the excuse,
> if offered, would be valid. The Gospels must overbear any inconsistent
> statement of the Old Testament.
> 
> But the greatest utterances of human morality are to be found in the
> Buddhist Scriptures, and it is a shame to the European peoples that
> the Buddhist Indian king Asoka should be more Christian than the
> leaders of 'German culture.' I for my part love the old Germany far
> better than the new, and its high ideals would I hand on, filling up
> its omissions and correcting its errors. 'O house of Israel, come ye,
> let us walk in the light of the Lord.' Thou art 'the God of peace Who
> lovest Thy creatures.'
> 
> PART I
> 
> THE JEWELS OF THE FAITHS
> 
> A STUDY OF THE CHIEF RELIGIONS ON THEIR BEST SIDE WITH A VIEW TO THEIR
> EXPANSION AND ENRICHMENT AND TO AN ULTIMATE SYNTHESIS AND TO THE FINAL
> UNION OF RACES AND NATIONS ON A SPIRITUAL BASIS
> 
> The crisis in the Christian Church is now so acute that we may well
> seek for some mode of escape from its pressure. The Old Broad Church
> position is no longer adequate to English circumstances, and there is
> not yet in existence a thoroughly satisfactory new and original
> position for a Broad Church student to occupy. Shall we, then, desert
> the old historic Church in which we were christened and educated? It
> would certainly be a loss, and not only to ourselves. Or shall we wait
> with drooping head to be driven out of the Church? Such a cowardly
> solution may be at once dismissed. Happily we have in the Anglican
> Church virtually no excommunication. Our only course as students is
> to go forward, and endeavour to expand our too narrow Church
> boundaries. Modernists we are; modernists we will remain; let our only
> object be to be worthy of this noble name.
> 
> But we cannot be surprised that our Church rulers are perplexed. For
> consider the embarrassing state of critical investigation. Critical
> study of the Gospels has shown that very little of the traditional
> material can be regarded as historical; it is even very uncertain
> whether the Galilean prophet really paid the supreme penalty as a
> supposed enemy of Rome on the shameful cross. Even apart from the
> problem referred to, it is more than doubtful whether critics have
> left us enough stones standing in the life of Jesus to serve as the
> basis of a christology or doctrine of the divine Redeemer. And yet one
> feels that a theology without a theophany is both dry and difficult to
> defend. We want an avatâr, i.e. a 'descent' of God in human
> form; indeed, we seem to need several such 'descents,' appropriate to
> the changing circumstances of the ages. Did not the author of the
> Fourth Gospel recognize this? Certainly his portrait of Jesus is so
> widely different from that of the Synoptists that a genuine
> reconciliation seems impossible. I would not infer from this that the
> Jesus of the Fourth Gospel belonged to a different age from the Jesus
> of the Synoptists, but I would venture to say that the Fourth
> Evangelist would be easier to defend if he held this theory. The
> Johannine Jesus ought to have belonged to a different aeon.
> 
> ANOTHER IMAGE OF GOD
> 
> Well, then, it is reasonable to turn for guidance and help to the
> East. There was living quite lately a human being of such consummate
> excellence that many think it is both permissible and inevitable even
> to identify him mystically with the invisible Godhead. Let us admit,
> such persons say, that Jesus was the very image of God. But he lived
> for his own age and his own people; the Jesus of the critics has but
> little to say, and no redemptive virtue issues from him to us. But the
> 'Blessed Perfection,' as Baha'ullah used to be called, lives for our
> age, and offers his spiritual feast to men of all peoples. His story,
> too, is liable to no diminution at the hands of the critics, simply
> because the facts of his life are certain. He has now passed from
> sight, but he is still in the ideal world, a true image of God and a
> true lover of man, and helps forward the reform of all those manifold
> abuses which hinder the firm establishment of the kingdom of God. I
> shall return to this presently. Meanwhile, suffice it to say that
> though I entertain the highest reverence and love for Baha'ullah's
> son, Abdul Baha, whom I regard as a Mahatma — 'a great-souled one' — and
> look up to as one of the highest examples in the spiritual firmament,
> I hold no brief for the Bahai community, and can be as impartial in
> dealing with facts relating to the Bahais as with facts which happen
> to concern my own beloved mother-church, the Church of England.
> 
> I shall first of all ask, how it came to pass that so many of us are
> now seeking help and guidance from the East, some from India, some
> from Persia, some (which is my own case) from India and from Persia.
> 
> BAHA'ULLAH'S PRECURSORS, e.g. THE BĀB, ṢUFISM, AND SHEYKH
> AḤMAD
> 
> So far as Persia is concerned, the reason is that its religious
> experience has been no less varied than ancient. Zoroaster, Manes,
> Christ, Muḥammad, Dh'u-Nun (the introducer of Ṣufism), Sheykh
> Aḥmad (the forerunner of Babism), the Bāb himself and Baha'ullah
> (the two Manifestations), have all left an ineffaceable mark on the
> national life. The Bāb, it is true, again and again expresses his
> repugnance to the 'lies' of the Ṣufis, and the Bābīs are not
> behind him; but there are traces enough of the influence of Ṣufism
> on the new Prophet and his followers. The passion for martyrdom seems
> of itself to presuppose a tincture of Ṣufism, for it is the most
> extreme form of the passion for God, and to love God fervently but
> steadily in preference to all the pleasures of the phenomenal world,
> is characteristically Ṣufite.
> 
> What is it, then, in Ṣufism that excites the Bāb's indignation? It
> is not the doctrine of the soul's oneness with God as the One Absolute
> Being, and the reality of the soul's ecstatic communion with Him.
> Several passages are quoted by Mons. Nicolas [Footnote: Beyan
> arabe, pp. 3-18.] on the attitude of the Bāb towards Ṣufism;
> suffice it here to quote one of them.
> 
> 'Others (i.e. those who claim, as being identified with God, to
> possess absolute truth) are known by the name of Ṣufis, and believe
> themselves to possess the internal sense of the Shari'at [Footnote:
> The orthodox Law of Islam, which many Muslims seek to allegorize.]
> when they are in ignorance alike of its apparent and of its inward
> meaning, and have fallen far, very far from it! One may perhaps say of
> them that those people who have no understanding have chosen the route
> which is entirely of darkness and of doubt.'
> 
> Ignorance, then, is, according to the Bāb, the great fault of the
> Ṣufis [Footnote: Yet the title Ṣufi connotes knowledge. It means
> probably 'one who (like the Buddha on his statues) has a heavenly
> eye.' Prajnāparamitā (Divine Wisdom) has the same third
> eye (Havell, Indian Sculpture and Painting, illustr. XLV.).]
> whom he censures, and we may gather that that ignorance was thought to
> be especially shown in a crude pantheism and a doctrine of incarnation
> which, according to the Bāb, amounts to sheer polytheism. [Footnote
> 4: The technical term is 'association.'] God in Himself, says the
> Bāb, cannot be known, though a reflected image of Him is attainable
> by taking heed to His manifestations or perfect portraitures.
> 
> Some variety of Ṣufism, however, sweetly and strongly permeates the
> teaching of the Bāb. It is a Ṣufism which consists, not in
> affiliation to any Ṣufi order, but in the knowledge and love of the
> Source of the Eternal Ideals. Through detachment from this perishable
> world and earnest seeking for the Eternal, a glimpse of the unseen
> Reality can be attained. The form of this only true knowledge is
> subject to change; fresh 'mirrors' or 'portraits' are provided at the
> end of each recurring cosmic cycle or aeon. But the substance is
> unchanged and unchangeable. As Prof. Browne remarks, 'the prophet of a
> cycle is naught but a reflexion of the Primal Will, — the same sun with
> a new horizon.' [Footnote: NH, p. 335.]
> 
> THE BĀB
> 
> Such a prophet was the Bāb; we call him 'prophet' for want of a
> better name; 'yea, I say unto you, a prophet and more than a prophet.'
> His combination of mildness and power is so rare that we have to place
> him in a line with super-normal men. But he was also a great mystic
> and an eminent theosophic speculator. We learn that, at great points
> in his career, after he had been in an ecstasy, such radiance of might
> and majesty streamed from his countenance that none could bear to look
> upon the effulgence of his glory and beauty. Nor was it an uncommon
> occurrence for unbelievers involuntarily to bow down in lowly
> obeisance on beholding His Holiness; while the inmates of the castle,
> though for the most part Christians and Sunnis, reverently prostrated
> themselves whenever they saw the visage of His Holiness. [Footnote:
> NH, pp. 241, 242.] Such transfiguration is well known to the
> saints. It was regarded as the affixing of the heavenly seal to the
> reality and completeness of Bāb's detachment. And from the Master we
> learn [Footnote: Mirza Jani (NH, p. 242).] that it passed to
> his disciples in proportion to the degree of their renunciation. But
> these experiences were surely characteristic, not only of Bābism,
> but of Ṣufism. Ecstatic joy is the dominant note of Ṣufism, a joy
> which was of other-worldly origin, and compatible with the deepest
> tranquillity, and by which we are made like to the Ever-rejoicing
> One. The mystic poet Far'idu'd-din writes thus, —
> 
> Joy! joy! I triumph now; no more I know
> 
> Myself as simply me. I burn with love.
> 
> The centre is within me, and its wonder
> 
> Lies as a circle everywhere about me. [a]
> 
> [Footnote a: Hughes, Dict. of Islam, p. 618 b.]
> 
> And of another celebrated Ṣufi Sheykh (Ibnu'l Far'id) his son writes
> as follows: 'When moved to ecstasy by listening [to devotional
> recitations and chants] his face would increase in beauty and
> radiance, while the perspiration dripped from all his body until it
> ran under his feet into the ground.' [Footnote: Browne, Literary
> History of Persia, ii. 503.]
> 
> EFFECT OF ṢUFISM
> 
> Ṣufism, however, which in the outset was a spiritual pantheism,
> combined with quietism, developed in a way that was by no means so
> satisfactory. The saintly mystic poet Abu Sa'id had defined it thus:
> 'To lay aside what thou hast in thy head (desires and ambitions), and
> to give away what thou hast in thy hand, and not to flinch from
> whatever befalls thee.' [Footnote: Ibid. ii. 208.] This is,
> of course, not intended as a complete description, but shows that the
> spirit of the earlier Ṣufism was profoundly ethical. Count Gobineau,
> however, assures us that the Ṣufism which he knew was both
> enervating and immoral. Certainly the later Ṣufi poets were inclined
> to overpress symbolism, and the luscious sweetness of the poetry may
> have been unwholesome for some — both for poets and for readers. Still
> I question whether, for properly trained readers, this evil result
> should follow. The doctrine of the impermanence of all that is not God
> and that love between two human hearts is but a type of the love
> between God and His human creatures, and that the supreme happiness is
> that of identification with God, has never been more alluringly
> expressed than by the Ṣufi poets.
> 
> The Ṣufis, then, are true forerunners of the Bāb and his
> successors. There are also two men, Muslims but no Ṣufis, who have a
> claim to the same title. But I must first of all do honour to an
> Indian Ṣufi.
> 
> INAYAT KHAN
> 
> The message of this noble company has been lately brought to the West.
> [Footnote: Message Soufi de la Liberté Spirituelle (Paris,
> 1913).] The bearer, who is in the fulness of youthful strength, is
> Inayat Khan, a member of the Ṣufi Order, a practised speaker, and
> also devoted to the traditional sacred music of India. His own teacher
> on his death-bed gave him this affecting charge: 'Goest thou abroad
> into the world, harmonize the East and the West with thy music; spread
> the knowledge of Ṣufism, for thou art gifted by Allah, the Most
> Merciful and Compassionate.' So, then, Vivekananda, Abdu'l Baha, and
> Inayat Khan, not to mention here several Buddhist monks, are all
> missionaries of Eastern religious culture to Western, and two of these
> specially represent Persia. We cannot do otherwise than thank God for
> the concordant voice of Bahaite and Ṣufite. Both announce the
> Evangel of the essential oneness of humanity which will one day — and
> sooner than non-religious politicians expect — be translated into fact,
> and, as the first step towards this 'desire of all nations,' they
> embrace every opportunity of teaching the essential unity of
> religions:
> 
> Pagodas, just as mosques, are homes of prayer,
> 
> 'Tis prayer that church-bells chime unto the air;
> 
> Yea, Church and Ka'ba, Rosary and Cross,
> 
> Are all but divers tongues of world-wide prayer. [a]
> 
> [Footnote a: Whinfield's translation of the quatrains of Omar
> Khayyám, No. 22 (34).]
> 
> So writes a poet (Omar Khayyám) whom Inayat Khan claims as a Ṣufi,
> and who at any rate seems to have had Ṣufi intervals. Unmixed
> spiritual prayer may indeed be uncommon, but we may hope that prayer
> with no spiritual elements at all is still more rare. It is the object
> of prophets to awaken the consciousness of the people to its spiritual
> needs. Of this class of men Inayat Khan speaks thus, —
> 
> 'The prophetic mission was to bring into the world the Divine Wisdom,
> to apportion it to the world according to that world's comprehension,
> to adapt it to its degree of mental evolution as well as to dissimilar
> countries and periods. It is by this adaptability that the many
> religions which have emanated from the same moral principle differ the
> one from the other, and it is by this that they exist. In fact, each
> prophet had for his mission to prepare the world for the teaching of
> the prophet who was to succeed him, and each of them foretold the
> coming of his successor down to Mahomet, the last messenger of the
> divine Wisdom, and as it were the look-out point in which all the
> prophetic cycle was centred. For Mahomet resumed the divine Wisdom in
> this proclamation, "Nothing exists, God alone is," — the final message
> whither the whole line of the prophets tended, and where the
> boundaries of religions and philosophies took their start. With this
> message prophetic interventions are henceforth useless.
> 
> 'The Ṣufi has no prejudice against any prophet, and, contrary to
> those who only love one to hate the other, the Ṣufi regards them all
> as the highest attribute of God, as Wisdom herself, present under the
> appearance of names and forms. He loves them with all his worship,
> for the lover worships the Beloved in all Her garments.... It is thus
> that the Ṣufis contemplate their Well-beloved, Divine Wisdom, in all
> her robes, in her different ages, and under all the names that she
> bears, — Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Mahomet.' [Footnote: Message Soufi
> de la Liberté (Paris, 1913), pp. 34, 35.]
> 
> The idea of the equality of the members of the world-wide prophethood,
> the whole body of prophets being the unique personality of Divine
> Wisdom, is, in my judgment, far superior to the corresponding theory
> of the exclusive Muḥammadan orthodoxy. That theory is that each
> prophet represents an advance on his predecessor, whom he therefore
> supersedes. Now, that Muḥammad as a prophet was well adapted to the
> Arabians, I should be most unwilling to deny. I am also heartily of
> opinion that a Christian may well strengthen his own faith by the
> example of the fervour of many of the Muslims. But to say that the
> Ḳur'an is superior to either the Old Testament or the New is,
> surely, an error, only excusable on the ground of ignorance. It is
> true, neither of Judaism nor of Christianity were the representatives
> in Muḥammad's time such as we should have desired; ignorance on
> Muḥammad's part was unavoidable. But unavoidable also was the
> anti-Islamic reaction, as represented especially by the Order of the
> Ṣufis. One may hope that both action and reaction may one day become
> unnecessary. That will depend largely on the Bahais.
> 
> It is time, however, to pass on to those precursors of Bābism who
> were neither Ṣufites nor Zoroastrians, but who none the less
> continued the line of the national religious development. The majority
> of Persians were Shi'ites; they regarded Ali and the 'Imāms' as
> virtually divine manifestations. This at least was their point of
> union; otherwise they fell into two great divisions, known as the
> 'Sect of the Seven' and the 'Sect of the Twelve' respectively. Mirza
> Ali Muḥammad belonged by birth to the latter, which now forms the
> State-religion of Persia, but there are several points in his doctrine
> which he held in common with the former (i.e. the Ishma'ilis).
> These are — 'the successive incarnations of the Universal Reason, the
> allegorical interpretation of Scripture, and the symbolism of every
> ritual form and every natural phenomenon. [Footnote: NH,
> introd. p. xiii.] The doctrine of the impermanence of all that is
> not God, and that love between two human hearts is but a type of the
> love between God and his human creatures, and the bliss of
> self-annihilation, had long been inculcated in the most winning manner
> by the Ṣufis.
> 
> SHEYKH AḤMAD
> 
> Yet they were no Ṣufis, but precursors of Bābism in a more
> thorough and special sense, and both were Muslims. The first was
> Sheykh Aḥmad of Aḥsa, in the province of Baḥrein. He knew full
> well that he was chosen of God to prepare men's hearts for the
> reception of the more complete truth shortly to be revealed, and that
> through him the way of access to the hidden twelfth Imām Mahdi was
> reopened. But he did not set this forth in clear and unmistakable
> terms, lest 'the unregenerate' should turn again and rend him.
> According to a Shi'ite authority he paid two visits to Persia, in one
> of which he was in high favour with the Court, and received as a
> yearly subsidy from the Shah's son the sum of 700 tumans, and in the
> other, owing chiefly to a malicious colleague, his theological
> doctrines brought him into much disrepute. Yet he lived as a pious
> Muslim, and died in the odour of sanctity, as a pilgrim to Mecca.
> [Footnote: See AMB (Nicolas), pp. 264-272; NH, pp. 235,
> 236.]
> 
> One of his opponents (Mullā 'Ali) said of him that he was 'an
> ignorant man with a pure heart.' Well, ignorant we dare not call him,
> except with a big qualification, for his aim required great knowledge;
> it was nothing less than the reconciliation of all truth, both
> metaphysical and scientific. Now he had certainly taken much trouble
> about truth, and had written many books on philosophy and the sciences
> as understood in Islamic countries. We can only qualify our eulogy by
> admitting that he was unaware of the limitations of human nature, and
> of the weakness of Persian science. Pure in heart, however, he was;
> no qualification is needed here, except it be one which Mullā 'Ali
> would not have regarded as requiring any excuse. For purity he (like
> many others) understood in a large sense. It was the reward of
> courageous 'buffeting' and enslaving of the body; he was an austere
> ascetic.
> 
> He had a special devotion to Ja'far-i-Ṣadiḳ, [Footnote: TN,
> p. 297.] the sixth Imām, whose guidance he believed himself to
> enjoy in dreams, and whose words he delighted to quote. Of course,
> 'Ali was the director of the council of the Imāms, but the
> councillors were not much less, and were equally faithful as mirrors
> of the Supreme. This remains true, even if 'Ali be regarded as himself
> the Supreme God [Footnote: The Sheykh certainly tended in the
> direction of the sect of the 'Ali-Ilabis (NH, p. 142; Kremer,
> Herrschende Ideen des Islams, p. 31), who belonged to the ghulat
> or extreme Shi'ites (Browne, Lit. Hist. of Persia, p. 310).]
> identical with Allah or with the Ormazd (Ahura-Mazda) of the
> Zoroastrians. For the twelve Imāms were all of the rank of
> divinities. Not that they were 'partners' with God; they were simply
> manifestations of the Invisible God. But they were utterly veracious
> Manifestations; in speaking of Allah (as the Sheykh taught) we may
> venture to intend 'Ali. [Footnote: The Sheykh held that in reciting
> the opening sura of the Ḳur'an the worshipper should think of
> 'Ali, should intend 'Ali, as his God.]
> 
> This explains how the Sheykh can have taught that the Imāms took
> part in creation and are agents in the government of the world. In
> support of this he quoted Ḳur'an, Sur. xxiii. 14, 'God the best of
> Creators,' and, had he been a broader and more scientific theologian,
> might have mentioned how the Amshaspands (Ameshaspentas) are grouped
> with Ormazd in the creation-story of Zoroastrianism, and how, in that
> of Gen. i., the Director of the Heavenly Council says, 'Let us
> make man.' [Footnote: Genesis i. 22.]
> 
> The Sheykh also believed strongly in the existence of a subtle body
> which survives the dissolution of the palpable, material body,
> [Footnote: TN, p. 236.] and will alone be visible at the
> Resurrection. Nothing almost gave more offence than this; it seemed to
> be only a few degrees better than the absolute denial of the
> resurrection-body ventured upon by the Akhbaris. [Footnote: Gobineau,
> pp. 39, 40.] And yet the notion of a subtle, internal body, a notion
> which is Indian as well as Persian, has been felt even by many
> Westerns to be for them the only way to reconcile reason and faith.
> 
> SEYYID KAẒIM — ISLAM — PARSIISM — BUDDHISM
> 
> On Aḥmad's death the unanimous choice of the members of the school
> fell on Seyyid (Sayyid) Kaẓim of Resht, who had been already
> nominated by the Sheykh. He pursued the same course as his
> predecessor, and attracted many inquirers and disciples. Among the
> latter was the lady Kurratu'l 'Ayn, born in a town where the Sheykhi
> sect was strong, and of a family accustomed to religious controversy.
> He was not fifty when he died, but his career was a distinguished one.
> Himself a Gate, he discerned the successor by whom he was to be
> overshadowed, and he was the teacher of the famous lady referred
> to. To what extent 'Ali Muḥammad (the subsequent Bāb) was
> instructed by him is uncertain. It was long enough no doubt to make
> him a Sheykhite and to justify 'Ali Muḥammad in his own eyes for
> raising Sheykh Aḥmad and the Seyyid Kaẓim to the dignity of Bāb.
> [Footnote: AMB, pp. 91, 95; cp. NH, p. 342.]
> 
> There seems to be conclusive evidence that Seyyid Kaẓim adverted
> often near the close of life to the divine Manifestation which he
> believed to be at hand. He was fond of saying, 'I see him as the
> rising sun.' He was also wont to declare that the 'Proof' would be a
> youth of the race of Hashim, i.e. a kinsman of Muḥammad,
> untaught in the learning of men. Of a dream which he heard from an
> Arab (when in Turkish Arabia), he said, 'This dream signifies that my
> departure from the world is near at hand'; and when his friends wept
> at this, he remonstrated with them, saying, 'Why are ye troubled in
> mind? Desire ye not that I should depart, and that the truth [in
> person] should appear?' [Footnote: NH, p. 31.]
> 
> I leave it an open question whether Seyyid Kaẓim had actually fixed
> on the person who was to be his successor, and to reflect the Supreme
> Wisdom far more brilliantly than himself. But there is no reason to
> doubt that he regarded his own life and labours as transitional, and
> it is possible that by the rising sun of which he loved to speak he
> meant that strange youth of Shiraz who had been an irregular attendant
> at his lectures. Very different, it is true, is the Muḥammadan
> legend. It states that 'Ali Muḥammad was present at Karbala from
> the death of the Master, that he came to an understanding with members
> of the school, and that after starting certain miracle-stories, all of
> them proceeded to Mecca, to fulfil the predictions which connected the
> Prophet-Messiah with that Holy City, where, with bared sabre, he would
> summon the peoples to the true God.
> 
> This will, I hope, suffice to convince the reader that both the Ṣufi
> Order and the Sheykhite Sect were true forerunners of Bābism and
> Bahaism. He will also readily admit that, for the Ṣufis especially,
> the connexion with a church of so weak a historic sense was most
> unfortunate. It would be the best for all parties if Muslims both
> within and without the Ṣufi Order accepted a second home in a church
> (that of Abha) whose historical credentials are unexceptionable,
> retaining membership of the old home, so as to be able to reform from
> within, but superadding membership of the new. Whether this is
> possible on a large scale, the future must determine. It will not be
> possible if those who combine the old home with a new one become
> themselves thereby liable to persecution. It will not even be
> desirable unless the new-comers bring with them doctrinal (I do not
> say dogmatic) contributions to the common stock of Bahai
> truths — contributions of those things for which alone in their hearts
> the immigrant Muslim brothers infinitely care.
> 
> It will be asked, What are, to a Muslim, and especially to a Shi'ite
> Muslim, infinitely precious things? I will try to answer this
> question. First of all, in time of trouble, the Muslim certainly
> values as a 'pearl of great price' the Mercifulness and Compassion of
> God. Those who believingly read the Ḳur'an or recite the opening
> prayer, and above all, those who pass through deep waters, cannot do
> otherwise. No doubt the strict justice of God, corresponding to and
> limited by His compassion, is also a true jewel. We may admit that the
> judicial severity of Allah has received rather too much stress; still
> there must be occasions on which, from earthly caricatures of justice
> pious Muslims flee for refuge in their thoughts to the One Just
> Judge. Indeed, the great final Judgment is, to a good Muslim, a much
> stronger incentive to holiness than the sensuous descriptions of
> Paradise, which indeed he will probably interpret symbolically.
> 
> The true Muslim will be charitable even to the lower animals.
> [Footnote: Nicholson, The Mystics of Islam, p. 108.] Neither
> poor-law nor Society for the Protection of Animals is required in
> Muslim countries. How soon organizations arose for the care of the
> sick, and, in war-time, of the wounded, it would be difficult to say;
> for Buddhists and Hindus were of course earlier in the field than
> Muslims, inheriting as they did an older moral culture. In the Muslim
> world, however, the twelfth century saw the rise of the Kadirite
> Order, with its philanthropic procedure. [Footnote: D. S.
> Margoliouth, Mohammedanism, pp. 211-212.] Into the ideal of man, as
> conceived by our Muslim brothers, there must therefore enter the
> feature of mercifulness. We cannot help sympathizing with this, even
> though we think Abdul Baha's ideal richer and nobler than any as yet
> conceived by any Muslim saint.
> 
> There is also the idea — the realized idea — of brotherhood, a
> brotherhood which is simply an extension of the equality of Arabian
> tribesmen. There is no caste in Islam; each believer stands in the
> same relation to the Divine Sovereign. There may be poor, but it is
> the rich man's merit to relieve them. There may be slaves, but slaves
> and masters are religiously one, and though there are exceptions to
> the general kindliness of masters and mistresses, it is in East Africa
> that these lamentable inconsistencies are mostly found. The Muslim
> brothers who may join the Bahais will not find it hard to shake off
> their moral weaknesses, and own themselves brothers of their servants.
> Are we not all (they will say) sons of Adam? Lastly, there is the
> character of Muḥammad. Perfect he was not, but Baha'ullah was
> hardly quite fair to Muḥammad when (if we may trust a tradition) he
> referred to the Arabian prophet as a camel-driver. It is a most
> inadequate description. He had a 'rare beauty and sweetness of
> nature' to which he joined a 'social and political genius' and
> 'towering manhood.' [Footnote: Sister Nivedita, The Web of Indian
> Life, pp. 242, 243.]
> 
> These are the chief contributions which Muslim friends and lovers will
> be able to make; these, the beliefs which we shall hold more firmly
> through our brothers' faith. Will Muslims accept as well as proffer
> gifts? Speaking of a Southern Morocco Christian mission, S. L.
> Bensusan admits that it does not make Christians out of Moors, but
> claims that it 'teaches the Moors to live finer lives within the
> limits of their own faith.' [Footnote: Morocco (A. & C. Black),
> p. 164.]
> 
> I should like to say something here about the sweetness of
> Muḥammad. It appears not only in his love for his first wife and
> benefactress, Khadijah, but in his affection for his daughter,
> Fatima. This affection has passed over to the Muslims, who call her
> very beautifully 'the Salutation of all Muslims.' The Bābis affirm
> that Fatima returned to life in their own great heroine.
> 
> There is yet another form of religion that I must not neglect — the
> Zoroastrian or Parsi faith. Far as this faith may have travelled from
> its original spirituality, it still preserved in the Bāb's time some
> elements of truth which were bound to become a beneficial leaven. This
> high and holy faith (as represented in the Gathas) was still the
> religion of the splendour or glory of God, still the champion of the
> Good Principle against the Evil. As if to show his respectful
> sympathy for an ancient and persecuted religion the Bāb borrowed
> some minor points of detail from his Parsi neighbours. Not on these,
> however, would I venture to lay any great stress, but rather on the
> doctrines and beliefs in which a Parsi connexion may plausibly be
> held. For instance, how can we help tracing a parallel between 'Ali
> and the Imams on the one hand and Ahura-Mazda (Ormazd) and his council
> of Amshaspands (Amesha-spentas) on the other? The founders of both
> religions conceived it to be implied in the doctrine of the Divine
> Omnipresence that God should be represented in every place by His
> celestial councillors, who would counteract the machinations of the
> Evil Ones. For Evil Ones there are; so at least Islam holds. Their
> efforts are foredoomed to failure, because their kingdom has no unity
> or cohesion. But strange mystic potencies they have, as all pious
> Muslims think, and we must remember that 'Ali Muḥammad (the Bāb)
> was bred up in the faith of Islam.
> 
> Well, then, we can now proceed further and say that our Parsi friends
> can offer us gifts worth the having. When they rise in the morning
> they know that they have a great warfare to wage, and that they are
> not alone, but have heavenly helpers. This form of representation is
> not indeed the only one, but who shall say that we can dispense with
> it? Even if evil be but the shadow of good, a M̬aya, an appearance,
> yet must we not act as if it had a real existence, and combat it with
> all our might?
> 
> May we also venture to include Buddhism among the religions which may
> directly or indirectly have prepared the way for Bahaism? We may; the
> evidence is as follows. Manes, or Mani, the founder of the
> widely-spread sect of the Manichaeans, who lived in the third century
> of our era, writes thus in the opening of one of his books, —
> [Footnote: Literary History of Persia, i. 103.]
> 
> 'Wisdom and deeds have always from time to time been brought to
> mankind by the messengers of God. So in one age they have been brought
> by the messenger of God called Buddha to India, in another by
> Zoroaster to Persia, in another by Jesus to the West. Thereafter this
> revelation has come down, this prophecy in this last age, through me,
> Mani, the Messenger of the God of Truth to Babylonia' ('Irak).
> 
> This is valid evidence for at least the period before that of Mani. We
> have also adequate proofs of the continued existence of Buddhism in
> Persia in the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries; indeed, we
> may even assert this for Bactria and E. Persia with reference to
> nearly 1000 years before the Muḥammadan conquest. [Footnote:
> R. A. Nicholson, The Mystics, p. 18. Cp. E. G. Browne,
> Lit. Hist. of Persia, ii. 440 ff.]
> 
> Buddhism, then, battled for leave to do the world good in its own way,
> though the intolerance of Islam too soon effaced its footprints. There
> is still some chance, however, that Ṣufism may be a record of its
> activity; in fact, this great religious upgrowth may be of Indian
> rather than of Neoplatonic origin, so that the only question is
> whether Ṣufism developed out of the Vedanta or out of the religious
> philosophy of Buddhism. That, however, is too complex a question to
> be discussed here.
> 
> All honour to Buddhism for its noble effort. In some undiscoverable
> way Buddhists acted as pioneers for the destined Deliverer. Let us,
> then, consider what precious spiritual jewels its sons and daughters
> can bring to the new Fraternity. There are many most inadequate
> statements about Buddhism. Personally, I wish that such expressions as
> 'the cold metaphysic of Buddhism' might be abandoned; surely
> metaphysicians, too, have religious needs and may have warm hearts.
> At the same time I will not deny that I prefer the northern variety of
> Buddhism, because I seem to myself to detect in the southern Buddhism
> a touch of a highly-refined egoism. Self-culture may or may not be
> combined with self-sacrifice. In the case of the Buddha it was no
> doubt so combined, as the following passage, indited by him, shows —
> 
> 'All the means that can be used as bases for doing right are not worth
> one sixteenth part of the emancipation of the heart through love. That
> takes all those up into itself, outshining them in radiance and in
> glory.' [Footnote: Mrs. Rhys Davids, Buddhism, p. 229.]
> 
> What, then, are the jewels of the Buddhist which he would fain see in
> the world's spiritual treasury?
> 
> He will tell you that he has many jewels, but that three of them stand
> out conspicuously — the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. Of these
> the first is 'Sakya Muni, called the Buddha (the Awakened One).' His
> life is full of legend and mythology, but how it takes hold of the
> reader! Must we not pronounce it the finest of religious narratives,
> and thank the scholars who made the Lalita Vistara known to us?
> The Buddha was indeed a supernormal man; morally and physically he
> must have had singular gifts. To an extraordinary intellect he joined
> the enthusiasm of love, and a thirst for service.
> 
> The second of the Buddhist brother's jewels is the Dharma, i.e.
> the Law or Essential Rightness revealed by the Buddha. That the Master
> laid a firm practical foundation for his religion cannot be denied,
> and if Jews and Christians reverence the Ten Words given through
> 'Moses,' much more may Buddhists reverence the ten moral precepts of
> Sakya Muni. Those, however, whose aim is Buddhaship (i.e. those
> who propose to themselves the more richly developed ideal of northern
> Buddhists) claim the right to modify those precepts just as Jesus
> modified the Law of Moses. While, therefore, we recognize that good
> has sometimes come even out of evil, we should also acknowledge the
> superiority of Buddhist countries and of India in the treatment both
> of other human beings and of the lower animals.
> 
> The Sangha, or Monastic Community, is the third treasure of Buddhism,
> and the satisfaction of the Buddhist laity with the monastic body is
> said to be very great. At any rate, the cause of education in Burma
> owes much to the monks, but it is hard to realize how the Monastic
> Community can be in the same sense a 'refuge' from the miseries of the
> world as the Buddha or Dharmakâya.
> 
> The name Dharmakâya [Footnote: Johnston, Buddhist China,
> p. 77.] (Body of Dharma, or system of rightness) may strike strangely
> upon our ears, but northern Buddhism makes much of it, and even though
> it may not go back to Sakya Muni himself, it is a development of germs
> latent in his teaching; and to my own mind there is no more wonderful
> conception in the great religions than that of Dharmakâya. If any one
> attacks our Buddhist friends for atheism, they have only to refer (if
> they can admit a synthesis of northern and southern doctrines) to the
> conception of Dharmakâya, of Him who is 'for ever Divine and
> Eternal,' who is 'the One, devoid of all determinations.' 'This Body
> of Dharma,' we are told, 'has no boundary, no quarters, but is
> embodied in all bodies.... All forms of corporeality are involved
> therein; it is able to create all things. Assuming any concrete
> material form, as required by the nature and condition of karma, it
> illuminates all creations.... There is no place in the universe where
> this Body does not prevail. The universe becomes dust; this Body for
> ever remains. It is free from all opposites and contraries, yet it is
> working in all things to lead them to Nirvana.' [Footnote: Suzuki,
> Outlines, pp. 223-24.]
> 
> In fact, this Dharmakâya is the ultimate principle of cosmic energy.
> We may call it principle, but it is not, like Brahman, absolutely
> impersonal. Often it assumes personality, when it receives the name
> of Tathagata. It has neither passions nor prejudices, but works for
> the salvation of all sentient beings universally. Love (karunâ) and
> intelligence (bodhi) are equally its characteristics. It is only
> the veil of illusion (maya) which prevents us from seeing
> Dharmakâya in its magnificence. When this veil is lifted, individual
> existences as such will lose their significance; they will become
> sublimated and ennobled in the oneness of Dharmakâya. [Footnote:
> Ibid. p. 179.]
> 
> Will the reader forgive me if I mention some other jewels of the
> Buddhist faith? One is the Buddha Ami'tābha, and the other Kuanyin
> or Kwannon, his son or daughter; others will be noted presently. The
> latter is especially popular in China and Japan, and is generally
> spoken of by Europeans as the 'Goddess of Mercy.' 'Goddess,' however,
> is incorrect, [Footnote: Johnston, Buddhist China, p. 123.]
> just as 'God' would be incorrect in the case of Ami'tābha. Sakya
> Muni was considered greater than any of the gods. All such Beings
> were saviours and helpers to man, just as Jesus is looked up to by
> Christian believers as a saviour and deliverer, and perhaps I might
> add, just as there are, according to the seer-poet Dante, three
> compassionate women (donne) in heaven. [Footnote: Dante,
> D.C., Inf. ii. 124 f. The 'blessed women' seem to be
> Mary (the mother of Christ), Beatrice, and Lucia.] Kwannon and her
> Father may surely be retained by Chinese and Japanese, not as gods,
> but as gracious bodhisatts (i.e. Beings whose essence is
> intelligence).
> 
> I would also mention here as 'jewels' of the Buddhists (1) their
> tenderness for all living creatures. Legend tells of Sakya Muni that
> in a previous state of existence he saved the life of a doe and her
> young one by offering his own life as a substitute. In one of the
> priceless panels of Bôrôbudûr in Java this legend is beautifully
> used. [Footnote: Havell, Indian Sculpture and Painting,
> p. 123.] It must indeed have been almost more impressive to the
> Buddhists even than Buddha's precept.
> 
> E'en as a mother watcheth o'er her child,
> 
> Her only child, as long as life doth last,
> 
> So let us, for all creatures great or small,
> 
> Develop such a boundless heart and mind,
> 
> Ay, let us practise love for all the world,
> 
> Upward and downward, yonder, thence,
> 
> Uncramped, free from ill-will and enmity.[a]
> 
> [Footnote a: Mrs. Rhys Davids, Buddhism, p. 219.]
> 
> (2 and 3) Faith in the universality of inspiration and a hearty
> admission that spiritual pre-eminence is open to women. As to the
> former, Suzuki has well pointed out that Christ is conceived of by
> Buddhists quite as the Buddha himself. [Footnote: Suzuki, Outlines
> of the Mahâyâna Buddhism.] 'The Dharmakâya revealed itself as
> Sakya Muni to the Indian mind, because that was in harmony with its
> needs. The Dharmakâya appeared in the person of Christ on the Semitic
> stage, because it suited their taste best in this way.' As to the
> latter, there were women in the ranks of the Arahats in early times;
> and, as the Psalms of the Brethren show, there were even
> child-Arahats, and, so one may presume, girl-Arahats. And if it is
> objected that this refers to the earlier and more flourishing period
> of the Buddhist religion, yet it is in a perfectly modern summary of
> doctrine that we find these suggestive words, [Footnote: Omoro in
> Oxford Congress of Religions, Transactions, i. 152.] 'With this
> desire even a maiden of seven summers [Footnote: 'The age of seven is
> assigned to all at their ordination' (Psalms of the Brethren,
> p. xxx.) The reference is to child-Arahats.] may be a leader of the
> four multitudes of beings.' That spirituality has nothing to do with
> the sexes is the most wonderful law in the teachings of the Buddhas.'
> 
> India being the home of philosophy, it is not surprising either that
> Indian religion should take a predominantly philosophical form, or
> that there should be a great variety of forms of Indian religion. This
> is not to say that the feelings were neglected by the framers of
> Indian theory, or that there is any essential difference between the
> forms of Indian religion. On the contrary, love and intelligence are
> inseparably connected in that religion and there are fundamental ideas
> which impart a unity to all the forms of Hindu religion. That form of
> religion, however, in which love (karunâ) receives the highest
> place, and becomes the centre conjointly with intelligence of a theory
> of emancipation and of perfect Buddhahood, is neither Vedantism nor
> primitive Buddhism, but that later development known as the
> Mahâyâna. Germs indeed there are of the later theory; and how
> should there not be, considering the wisdom and goodness of those who
> framed those systems? How beautiful is that ancient description of
> him who would win the joy of living in Brahma (Tagore, Sadhanâ,
> p. 106), and not much behind it is the following passage of the
> Bhagavad-Gita, 'He who hates no single being, who is friendly and
> compassionate to all ... whose thought and reason are directed to Me,
> he who is [thus] devoted to Me is dear to Me' (Discourse xii. 13, 14).
> This is a fine utterance, and there are others as fine.
> 
> One may therefore expect that most Indian Vedantists will, on entering
> the Bahai Society, make known as widely as they can the beauties of
> the Bhagavad-Gita. I cannot myself profess that I admire the contents
> as much as some Western readers, but much is doubtless lost to me
> through my ignorance of Sanskrit. Prof. Garbe and Prof. Hopkins,
> however, confirm me in my view that there is often a falling off in
> the immediateness of the inspiration, and that many passages have been
> interpolated. It is important to mention this here because it is
> highly probable that in future the Scriptures of the various churches
> and sects will be honoured by being read, not less devotionally but
> more critically. Not the Bibles as they stand at present are
> revealed, but the immanent Divine Wisdom. Many things in the outward
> form of the Scriptures are, for us, obsolete. It devolves upon us, in
> the spirit of filial respect, to criticize them, and so help to clear
> the ground for a new prophet.
> 
> A few more quotations from the fine Indian Scriptures shall be
> given. Their number could be easily increased, and one cannot blame
> those Western admirers of the Gita who display almost as fervent an
> enthusiasm for the unknown author of the Gita as Dante had for his
> savio duca in his fearsome pilgrimage.
> 
> THE BHAGAVAD-GITA AND THE UPANISHADS
> 
> Such criticism was hardly possible in England, even ten or twenty
> years ago, except for the Old Testament. Some scholars, indeed, had
> had their eyes opened, but even highly cultured persons in the
> lay-world read the Bhagavad-Gita with enthusiastic admiration but
> quite uncritically. Much as I sympathize with Margaret Noble (Sister
> Nivedita), Jane Hay (of St. Abb's, Berwickshire, N.B.), and Rose
> R. Anthon, I cannot desire that their excessive love for the Gita
> should find followers. I have it on the best authority that the
> apparent superiority of the Indian Scriptures to those of the
> Christian world influenced Margaret Noble to become 'Sister
> Nivedita' — a great result from a comparatively small cause. And Miss
> Anthon shows an excess of enthusiasm when she puts these words
> (without note or comment) into the mouth of an Indian student: —
> 
> 'But now, O sire, I have found all the wealth and treasure and honour
> of the universe in these words that were uttered by the King of Kings,
> the Lover of Love, the Giver of Heritages. There is nothing I ask
> for; no need is there in my being, no want in my life that this Gita
> does not fill to overflowing.' [Footnote: Stories of India,
> 1914, p. 138.]
> 
> There are in fact numerous passages in the Gita which, united, would
> form a Holy Living and a Holy Dying, if we were at the
> pains to add to the number of the passages a few taken from the
> Upanishads. Vivekananda and Rabindranath Tagore have already studded
> their lectures with jewels from the Indian Scriptures. The Hindus
> themselves delight in their holy writings, but if these writings are
> to become known in the West, the grain must first be sifted. In other
> words, there must be literary and perhaps also (I say it humbly) moral
> criticism.
> 
> I will venture to add a few quotations: —
> 
> 'Whenever there is a decay of religion, O Bhâratas, and an ascendency
> of irreligion, then I manifest myself.
> 
> 'For the protection of the good, for the destruction of evildoers, for
> the firm establishment of religion, I am born in every age.'
> 
> The other passages are not less noble.
> 
> 'They also who worship other gods and make offering to them with
> faith, O son of Kunti, do verily make offering to me, though not
> according to ordinance.'
> 
> 'Never have I not been, never hast thou, and never shall time yet come
> when we shall not all be. That which pervades this universe is
> imperishable; there is none can make to perish that changeless
> being. This never is born, and never dies, nor may it after being come
> again to be not; this unborn, everlasting, abiding, Ancient, is not
> slain when the body is slain. Knowing This to be imperishable,
> everlasting, unborn, changeless, how and whom can a man make to be
> slain or slay? As a man lays aside outworn garments, and takes others
> that are new, so the Body-Dweller puts away outworn bodies and goes to
> others that are new. Everlasting is This, dwelling in all things,
> firm, motionless, ancient of days.'
> 
> JUDAISM
> 
> Judaism, too, is so rich in spiritual treasures that I hesitate to
> single out more than a very few jewels. It is plain, however, that it
> needs to be reformed, and that this need is present in many of the
> traditional forms which enshrine so noble a spiritual experience. The
> Sabbath, for instance, is as the apple of his eye to every
> true-hearted Jew; he addresses it in his spiritual songs as a
> Princess. And he does well; the title Princess belongs of right to
> 'Shabbath.' For the name — be it said in passing — is probably a
> corruption of a title of the Mother-goddess Ashtart, and it would, I
> think, have been no blameworthy act if the religious transformers of
> Israelite myths had made a special myth, representing Shabbath as a
> man. When the Messiah comes, I trust that He will do this. For
> 'the Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath.'
> 
> The faith of the Messiah is another of Israel's treasures. Or rather,
> perhaps I should say, the faith in the Messiahs, for one Messiah will
> not meet the wants of Israel or the world. The Messiah, or the
> Being-like-a-man (Dan. vii. 13), is a supernatural Being, who appears
> on earth when he is wanted, like the Logos. We want Messiah badly now;
> specially, I should say, we Christians want 'great-souled ones'
> (Mahatmas), who can 'guide us into all the truth' (John xvi. 13). That
> they have come in the past, I doubt not. God could not have left his
> human children in the lurch for all these centuries. One thousand
> Jews of Tihran are said to have accepted Baha'ullah as the expected
> Messiah. They were right in what they affirmed, and only wrong in
> what they denied. And are we not all wrong in virtually denying the
> Messiahship of women-leaders like Kurratu'l 'Ayn; at least, I have
> only met with this noble idea in a work of Fiona Macleod.
> 
> CHRISTIANITY
> 
> And what of our own religion?
> 
> What precious jewels are there which we can share with our Oriental
> brethren? First of all one may mention that wonderful picture of the
> divine-human Saviour, which, full of mystery as it is, is capable of
> attracting to its Hero a fervent and loving loyalty, and melting the
> hardest heart. We have also a portrait (implicit in the Synoptic
> Gospels) — the product of nineteenth century criticism — of the same
> Jesus Christ, and yet who could venture to affirm that He really was
> the same, or that a subtle aroma had not passed away from the Life of
> lives? In this re-painted portrait we have, no longer a divine man,
> but simply a great and good Teacher and a noble Reformer. This
> portrait too is in its way impressive, and capable of lifting men
> above their baser selves, but it would obviously be impossible to take
> this great Teacher and Reformer for the Saviour and Redeemer of
> mankind.
> 
> We have further a pearl of great price in the mysticism of Paul, which
> presupposes, not the Jesus of modern critics, nor yet the Jesus of the
> Synoptics, but a splendid heart-uplifting Jesus in the colours of
> mythology. In this Jesus Paul lived, and had a constant ecstatic joy
> in the everlasting divine work of creation. He was 'crucified with
> Christ,' and it was no longer Paul that lived, but Christ that lived
> in him. And the universe — which was Paul's, inasmuch as it was
> Christ's — was transformed by the same mysticism. 'It was,' says
> Evelyn Underhill, [Footnote: The Mystic Way, p. 194 (chap. iii.
> 'St. Paul and the Mystic Way').] 'a universe soaked through and
> through by the Presence of God: that transcendent-immanent Reality,
> "above all, and through all, and in you all" as fontal "Father,"
> energising "Son," indwelling "Spirit," in whom every mystic, Christian
> or non-Christian, is sharply aware that "we live and move and have our
> being." To his extended consciousness, as first to that of Jesus, this
> Reality was more actual than anything else — "God is all in all."'
> 
> It is true, this view of the Universe as God-filled is probably not
> Paul's, for the Epistles to the Ephesians and Colossians are hardly
> that great teacher's work. But it is none the less authentic, 'God is
> all and in all'; the whole Universe is temporarily a symbol by which
> God is at once manifested and veiled. I fear we have largely lost
> this. It were therefore better to reconquer this truth by India's
> help. Probably indeed the initial realization of the divinity of the
> universe (including man) is due to an increased acquaintance with the
> East and especially with Persia and India.
> 
> And I venture to think that Catholic Christians have conferred a boon
> on their Protestant brethren by emphasizing the truth of the feminine
> element (see pp. 31, 37) in the manifestation of the Deity, just as
> the Chinese and Japanese Buddhists have done for China and Japan, and
> the modern reformers of Indian religion have done for India. This too
> is a 'gem of purest ray.'
> 
> PART II
> 
> BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL
> 
> SEYYID 'ALI MUḤAMMAD (THE BĀB)
> 
> Seyyid 'Ali Muḥammad was born at Hafiz' city. It was not his lot,
> however, to rival that great lyric poet; God had far other designs for
> him. Like St. Francis, he had a merchant for his father, but this too
> was widely apart from 'Alí Muḥammad's destiny, which was neither more
> nor less than to be a manifestation of the Most High. His birthday was
> on the 1st Muḥarrem, A.H. 1236 (March 26, A.D. 1821). His maternal
> uncle, [Footnote: This relative of the Bāb is mentioned in
> Baha-'ullah's Book of Ighan, among the men of culture who
> visited Baha-'ullah at Baghdad and laid their difficulties before
> him. His name was Seyyid 'Ali Muḥammad (the same name as the
> Bāb's).] however, had to step in to take a father's place; he was
> early left an orphan. When eighteen or nineteen years of age he was
> sent, for commercial reasons, to Bushire, a place with a villainous
> climate on the Persian Gulf, and there he wrote his first book, still
> in the spirit of Shi'ite orthodoxy.
> 
> It was in A.D. 1844 that a great change took place, not so much in
> doctrine as in the outward framework of Ali Muḥammad's life. That
> the twelfth Imam should reappear to set up God's beneficent kingdom,
> that his 'Gate' should be born just when tradition would have him to
> be born, was perhaps not really surprising; but that an ordinary lad
> of Shiraz should be chosen for this high honour was exciting, and
> would make May 23rd a day memorable for ever. [Footnote: TN,
> pp. 3 (n.1), 220 f.; cp. AMB, p. 204.]
> 
> It was, in fact, on this day (at 2.5 A.M.) that, having turned to God
> for help, he cried out, 'God created me to instruct these ignorant
> ones, and to save them from the error into which they are plunged.'
> And from this time we cannot doubt that the purifying west wind
> breathed over the old Persian land which needed it so sadly.
> 
> It is probable, however, that the reformer had different ideas of
> discipleship. In one of his early letters he bids his correspondent
> take care to conceal his religion until he can reveal it without
> fear. Among his chief disciples were that gallant knight called the
> 'Gate's Gate,' Ḳuddus, and his kind uncle. Like most religious
> leaders he attached great worth to pilgrimages. He began by journeying
> to the Shi'ite holy places, consecrated by the events of the Persian
> Passion-play. Then he embarked at Bushire, accompanied (probably) by
> Ḳuddus. The winds, however, were contrary, and he was glad to rest a
> few days at Mascat. It is probable that at Mecca (the goal of his
> journey) he became completely detached from the Muḥammadan form of
> Islam. There too he made arrangements for propaganda. Unfavourable
> as the times seemed, his disciples were expected to have the courage
> of their convictions, and even his uncle, who was no longer young,
> became a fisher of men. This, it appears to me, is the true
> explanation of an otherwise obscure direction to the uncle to return
> to Persia by the overland route, via Baghdad, 'with the verses
> which have come down from God.'
> 
> The overland route would take the uncle by the holy places of 'Irak;
> 'Ali Muhammad's meaning therefore really is that his kinsman is to
> have the honour of evangelizing the important city of Baghdad, and of
> course the pilgrims who may chance to be at Karbala and Nejef. These
> were, to Shi'ites, the holiest of cities, and yet the reformer had the
> consciousness that there was no need of searching for a
> kibla. God was everywhere, but if one place was holier than
> another, it was neither Jerusalem nor Mecca, but Shiraz. To this
> beautiful city he returned, nothing loth, for indeed the manners of
> the pilgrims were the reverse of seemly. His own work was purely
> spiritual: it was to organize an attack on a foe who should have been,
> but was no longer, spiritual.
> 
> Among his first steps was sending the 'First to Believe' to Isfahan to
> make a conquest of the learned Mullā Muḳaddas. His expectation was
> fully realized. Muḳaddas was converted, and hastened to Shiraz,
> eager to prove his zeal. His orders were (according to one tradition)
> to introduce the name of 'Ali Muḥammad into the call to prayer
> (azan) and to explain a passage in the commentary on the Sura
> of Joseph. This was done, and the penalty could not be delayed. After
> suffering insults, which to us are barely credible, Muḳaddas and his
> friend found shelter for three days in Shiraz in the Bāb's house.
> 
> It should be noted that I here employ the symbolic name 'the Bāb.'
> There is a traditional saying of the prophet Muḥammad, 'I am the
> city of knowledge, and 'Ali is its Gate.' It seems, however, that
> there is little, if any, difference between 'Gate' (Bāb) and
> 'Point' (nukta), or between either of these and 'he who shall
> arise' (ka'im) and 'the Imām Mahdi.' But to this we shall
> return presently.
> 
> But safety was not long to be had by the Bāb or by his disciples
> either in Shiraz or in Bushire (where the Bāb then was). A fortnight
> afterwards twelve horsemen were sent by the governor of Fars to
> Bushire to arrest the Bāb and bring him back to Shiraz. Such at
> least is one tradition, [Footnote: AMB, p. 226.] but some
> Bābīs, according to Nicolas, energetically deny it. Certainly it
> is not improbable that the governor, who had already taken action
> against the Bābī missionaries, should wish to observe the Bāb
> within a nearer range, and inflict a blow on his growing
> popularity. Unwisely enough, the governor left the field open to the
> mullás, who thought by placing the pulpit of the great mosque at his
> disposal to be able to find material for ecclesiastical censure. But
> they had left one thing out of their account — the ardour of the
> Bāb's temperament and the depth of his conviction. And so great was
> the impression produced by the Bāb's sermon that the Shah
> Muḥammad, who heard of it, sent a royal commissioner to study the
> circumstances on the spot. This step, however, was a complete
> failure. One may doubt indeed whether the Sayyid Yaḥya was ever a
> politician or a courtier. See below, p. 90.
> 
> The state of things had now become so threatening that a peremptory
> order to the governor was sent from the court to put an end to such a
> display of impotence. It is said that the aid of assassins was not to
> be refused; the death of the Bāb might then be described as 'a
> deplorable accident.' The Bāb himself was liable at any moment to be
> called into a conference of mullás and high state-officers, and asked
> absurd questions. He got tired of this and thought he would change his
> residence, especially as the cholera came and scattered the
> population. Six miserable months he had spent in Shiraz, and it was
> time for him to strengthen and enlighten the believers elsewhere. The
> goal of his present journey was Isfahan, but he was not without hopes
> of soon reaching Tihran and disabusing the mind of the Shah of the
> false notions which had become lodged in it. So, after bidding
> farewell to his relatives, he and his secretary and another well-tried
> companion turned their backs on the petty tyrant of Shiraz.
> [Footnote: AMB, p. 370.] The Bāb, however, took a very wise
> precaution. At the last posting station before Isfahan he wrote to
> Minuchihr Khan, the governor (a Georgian by origin), announcing his
> approach and invoking the governor's protection.
> 
> Minuchihr Khan, who was religiously openminded though not scrupulous
> enough in the getting of money, [Footnote: NH, p. 346.]
> granted this request, and sent word to the leading mullā (the
> Imām-Jam'a) that he should proffer hospitality to this eminent
> new-comer. This the Imām did, and so respectful was he for 'forty
> days' that he used to bring the basin for his guest to wash his hands
> at mealtimes. [Footnote: Ibid. p. 372.] The rapidity with
> which the Bāb indited (or revealed) a commentary on a sura of
> the Ḳur'an greatly impressed him, but afterwards he gave way to the
> persecuting tendencies of his colleagues, who had already learned to
> dread the presence of Bābite missionaries. At the bidding of the
> governor, however, who had some faith in the Bāb and hoped for the
> best, a conference was arranged between the mullās and the Bāb
> (poor man!) at the governor's house. The result was that Minuchihr
> Khan declared that the mullās had by no means proved the reformer to
> be an impostor, but that for the sake of peace he would at once send
> the Bāb with an escort of horsemen to the capital. This was to all
> appearance carried out. The streets were crowded as the band of
> mounted men set forth, some of the Isfahanites (especially the
> mullās) rejoicing, but a minority inwardly lamenting. This, however,
> was only a blind. The governor cunningly sent a trusty horseman with
> orders to overtake the travellers a short distance out of Isfahan, and
> bring them by nightfall to the governor's secret apartments or (as
> others say) to one of the royal palaces. There the Bāb had still to
> spend a little more than four untroubled halcyon months.
> 
> But a storm-cloud came up from the sea, no bigger than a man's hand,
> and it spread, and the destruction wrought by it was great. On March
> 4, 1847, the French ambassador wrote home stating that the governor of
> Isfahan had died, leaving a fortune of 40 million francs. [Footnote:
> AMB, p. 242.] He could not be expected to add what the
> Bābite tradition affirms, that the governor offered the Bāb all
> his riches and even the rings on his fingers, [Footnote: TN,
> pp. 12, 13, 264-8; NH, p. 402 (Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel's narrative),
> cp. pp. 211, 346.] to which the prophet refers in the following
> passage of his famous letter to Muḥammad Shah, written from Maku:
> 
> 'The other question is an affair of this lower world. The late
> Meu'timed [a title of Minuchihr Khan], one night, made all the
> bystanders withdraw, ... then he said to me, "I know full well that
> all that I have gained I have gotten by violence, and that belongs to
> the Lord of the Age. I give it therefore entirely to thee, for thou
> art the Master of Truth, and I ask thy permission to become its
> possessor." He even took off a ring which he had on his finger, and
> gave it to me. I took the ring and restored it to him, and sent him
> away in possession of all his goods.... I will not have a dinar of
> those goods, but it is for you to ordain as shall seem good to
> you.... [As witnesses] send for Sayyid Yaḥya [Footnote: See above,
> p. 47.] and Mullā Abdu'l-Khalik.... [Footnote: A disciple of
> Sheykh Aḥmad. He became a Bābī, but grew lukewarm in the faith
> (NH, pp. 231, 342 n.1).] The one became acquainted with me
> before the Manifestation, the other after. Both know me right well;
> this is why I have chosen them.' [Footnote: AMB, pp. 372,
> 373.]
> 
> It was not likely, however, that the legal heir would waive his claim,
> nor yet that the Shah or his minister would be prepared with a scheme
> for distributing the ill-gotten riches of the governor among the poor,
> which was probably what the Bāb himself wished. It should be added
> (but not, of course, from this letter) that Minuchihr Khan also
> offered the Bāb more than 5000 horsemen and footmen of the tribes
> devoted to his interests, with whom he said that he would with all
> speed march upon the capital, to enforce the Shah's acceptance of the
> Bāb's mission. This offer, too, the Bāb rejected, observing that
> the diffusion of God's truth could not be effected by such means. But
> he was truly grateful to the governor who so often saved him from the
> wrath of the mullās. 'God reward him,' he would say, 'for what he
> did for me.'
> 
> Of the governor's legal heir and successor, Gurgin Khan, the Bāb
> preserved a much less favourable recollection. In the same letter
> which has been quoted from already he says: 'Finally, Gurgin made me
> travel during seven nights without any of the necessaries of a
> journey, and with a thousand lies and a thousand acts of violence.'
> [Footnote: AMB, p. 371.] In fact, after trying to impose upon
> the Bāb by crooked talk, Gurgin, as soon as he found out where the
> Bāb had taken refuge, made him start that same night, just as he
> was, and without bidding farewell to his newly-married wife, for the
> capital. 'So incensed was he [the Bāb] at this treatment that he
> determined to eat nothing till he arrived at Kashan [a journey of five
> stages], and in this resolution he persisted... till he reached the
> second stage, Murchi-Khur. There, however, he met Mullā Sheykh
> Ali... and another of his missionaries, whom he had commissioned two
> days previously to proceed to Tihran; and then, on learning from his
> guards how matters stood, succeeded in prevailing on him to take some
> food.' [Footnote: NH, pp. 348, 349.]
> 
> Certainly it was a notable journey, diversified by happy meetings with
> friends and inquirers at Kashan, Khanliḳ, Zanjan, Milan, and Tabriz.
> At Kashan the Bāb saw for the first time that fervent disciple, who
> afterwards wrote the history of early Bābism, and his equally
> true-hearted brother — merchants both of them. In fact, Mirza Jani
> bribed the chief of the escort, to allow him for two days the felicity
> of entertaining God's Messenger. [Footnote: Ibid. pp. 213, 214.]
> Khanliḳ has also — though a mere village — its honourable record, for
> there the Bāb was first seen by two splendid youthful heroes
> [Footnote: Ibid. pp. 96-101.] — Riza Khan (best hated of all the
> Bābis) and Mirza Ḥuseyn 'Ali (better known as Baha-'ullah). At
> Milan (which the Bāb calls 'one of the regions of Paradise'), as
> Mirza Jani states, 'two hundred persons believed and underwent a true
> and sincere conversion.' [Footnote: Ibid. p. 221. Surely these
> conversions were due, not to a supposed act of miraculous healing, but
> to the 'majesty and dignity' of God's Messenger. The people were
> expecting a Messiah, and here was a Personage who came up to the ideal
> they had formed.]What meetings took place at Zanjan and Tabriz, the
> early Bābi historian does not report; later on, Zanjan was a focus
> of Bābite propagandism, but just then the apostle of the Zanjan
> movement was summoned to Tihran. From Tabriz a remarkable cure is
> reported, [Footnote: NH, p. 226.] and as a natural consequence we
> hear of many conversions.
> 
> The Bāb was specially favoured in the chief of his escort, who, in
> the course of the journey, was fascinated by the combined majesty and
> gentleness of his prisoner. His name was Muḥammad Beg, and his moral
> portrait is thus limned by Mirza Jani: 'He was a man of kindly nature
> and amiable character, and [became] so sincere and devoted a believer
> that whenever the name of His Holiness was mentioned he would
> incontinently burst into tears, saying,
> 
> I scarcely reckon as life the days when to me thou wert all unknown,
> But by faithful service for what remains I may still for the past
> atone.'
> 
> It was the wish, both of the Bāb and of this devoted servant, that
> the Master should be allowed to take up his residence (under
> surveillance) at Tabriz, where there were already many Friends of
> God. But such was not the will of the Shah and his vizier, who sent
> word to Khanliḳ [Footnote: Khanliḳ is situated 'about six
> parasangs' from Tihran (NH, p. 216). It is in the province of
> Azarbaijan.] that the governor of Tabriz (Prince Bahman Mirza) should
> send the Bāb in charge of a fresh escort to the remote
> mountain-fortress of Maku. The faithful Muḥammad Beg made two
> attempts to overcome the opposition of the governor, but in vain; how,
> indeed, could it be otherwise? All that he could obtain was leave to
> entertain the Bāb in his own house, where some days of rest were
> enjoyed. 'I wept much at his departure,' says Muḥammad. No doubt the
> Bāb often missed his respectful escort; he had made a change for the
> worse, and when he came to the village at the foot of the steep hill
> of Maku, he found the inhabitants 'ignorant and coarse.'
> 
> It may, however, be reasonably surmised that before long the Point of
> Wisdom changed his tone, and even thanked God for his sojourn at
> Maku. For though strict orders had come from the vizier that no one
> was to be permitted to see the Bāb, any one whom the illustrious
> captive wished to converse with had free access to him. Most of the
> time which remained was occupied with writing (his secretary was with
> him); more than 100,000 'verses' are said to have come from that
> Supreme Pen.
> 
> By miracles the Bāb set little store; in fact, the only supernatural
> gift which he much valued was that of inditing 'signs or verses, which
> appear to have produced a similar thrilling effect to those of the
> great Arabian Prophet. But in the second rank he must have valued a
> power to soothe and strengthen the nervous system which we may well
> assign to him, and we can easily believe that the lower animals were
> within the range of this beneficent faculty. Let me mention one of the
> horse-stories which have gathered round the gentle form of the Bāb.
> [Footnote: AMB, p. 371.]
> 
> It is given neither in the Bābī nor in the Muslim histories of
> this period. But it forms a part of a good oral tradition, and it may
> supply the key to those words of the Bāb in his letter to Muḥammad
> Shah: [Footnote: Ibid. pp. 249, 250.] 'Finally, the Sultan
> [i.e. the Shah] ordered that I should journey towards Maku without
> giving me a horse that I could ride.' We learn from the legend that an
> officer of the Shah did call upon the Bāb to ride a horse which was
> too vicious for any ordinary person to mount. Whether this officer was
> really (as the legend states) 'Ali Khan, the warden of Maku, who
> wished to test the claims of 'Ali Muḥammad by offering him a vicious
> young horse and watching to see whether 'Ali Muḥammad or the horse
> would be victorious, is not of supreme importance. What does concern
> us is that many of the people believed that by a virtue which resided
> in the Bāb it was possible for him to soothe the sensitive nerves of
> a horse, so that it could be ridden without injury to the rider.
> 
> There is no doubt, however, that 'Ali Khan, the warden of the
> fortress, was one of that multitude of persons who were so thrilled by
> the Bāb's countenance and bearing that they were almost prompted
> thereby to become disciples. It is highly probable, too, that just now
> there was a heightening of the divine expression on that unworldly
> face, derived from an intensification of the inner life. In earlier
> times 'Ali Muḥammad had avoided claiming Mahdiship (Messiahship)
> publicly; to the people at large he was not represented as the
> manifested Twelfth Imâm, but only as the Gate, or means of access to
> that more than human, still existent being. To disciples of a higher
> order 'Ali Muḥammad no doubt disclosed himself as he really was,
> but, like a heavenly statesman, he avoided inopportune self-revelations.
> Now, however, the religious conditions were becoming different. Owing
> in some cases to the indiscretion of disciples, in others to a craving
> for the revolution of which the Twelfth Imâm was the traditional
> instrument, there was a growing popular tendency to regard Mirza 'Ali
> Muḥammad as a 'return' of the Twelfth Imâm, who was, by force of
> arms, to set up the divine kingdom upon earth. It was this, indeed,
> which specially promoted the early Bābī propagandism, and which
> probably came up for discussion at the Badasht conference.
> 
> In short, it had become a pressing duty to enlighten the multitude on
> the true objects of the Bāb. Even we can see this — we who know that
> not much more than three years were remaining to him. The Bāb, too,
> had probably a presentiment of his end; this was why he was so eager
> to avoid a continuance of the great misunderstanding. He was indeed
> the Twelfth Imâm, who had returned to the world of men for a short
> time. But he was not a Mahdi of the Islamic type.
> 
> A constant stream of Tablets (letters) flowed from his pen. In this
> way he kept himself in touch with those who could not see him in the
> flesh. But there were many who could not rest without seeing the
> divine Manifestation. Pilgrims seemed never to cease; and it made the
> Bāb still happier to receive them.
> 
> This stream of Tablets and of pilgrims could not however be
> exhilarating to the Shah and his Minister. They complained to the
> castle-warden, and bade him be a stricter gaoler, but 'Ali Khan, too,
> was under the spell of the Gate of Knowledge; or — as one should rather
> say now — the Point or Climax of Prophetic Revelation, for so the Word
> of Prophecy directed that he should be called. So the order went
> forth that 'Ali Muḥammad should be transferred to another
> castle — that of Chihriḳ. [Footnote: Strictly, six or eight months
> (Feb. or April to Dec. 1847) at Maku, and two-and-a-half years at
> Chihriḳ (Dec. 1847 to July 1850).]
> 
> At this point a digression seems necessary.
> 
> The Bāb was well aware that a primary need of the new fraternity was
> a new Ḳur'an. This he produced in the shape of a book called The
> Bayan (Exposition). Unfortunately he adopted from the Muslims the
> unworkable idea of a sacred language, and his first contributions to
> the new Divine Library (for the new Ḳur'an ultimately became this)
> were in Arabic. These were a Commentary on the Sura of Yusuf (Joseph)
> and the Arabic Bayan. The language of these, however, was a barrier to
> the laity, and so the 'first believer' wrote a letter to the Bāb,
> enforcing the necessity of making himself intelligible to all. This
> seems to be the true origin of the Persian Bayan.
> 
> A more difficult matter is 'Ali Muḥammad's very peculiar
> consciousness, which reminds us of that which the Fourth Gospel
> ascribes to Jesus Christ. In other words, 'Ali Muḥammad claims for
> himself the highest spiritual rank. 'As for Me,' he said, 'I am that
> Point from which all that exists has found existence. I am that Face
> of God which dieth not. I am that Light which doth not go out. He that
> knoweth Me is accompanied by all good; he that repulseth Me hath
> behind him all evil.' [Footnote: AMB, p. 369.] It is also certain
> that in comparatively early writings, intended for stedfast disciples,
> 'Ali Muḥammad already claims the title of Point, i.e. Point of
> Truth, or of Divine Wisdom, or of the Divine Mercy. [Footnote: Beyan
> Arabe, p. 206.]
> 
> It is noteworthy that just here we have a very old contact with
> Babylonian mythology. 'Point' is, in fact, a mythological term. It
> springs from an endeavour to minimize the materialism of the myth of
> the Divine Dwelling-place. That ancient myth asserted that the
> earth-mountain was the Divine Throne. Not so, said an early school of
> Theosophy, God, i.e. the God who has a bodily form and manifests the
> hidden glory, dwells on a point in the extreme north, called by the
> Babylonians 'the heaven of Anu.'
> 
> The Point, however, i.e. the God of the Point, may also be
> entitled 'The Gate,' i.e. the Avenue to God in all His various
> aspects. To be the Point, therefore, is also to be the Gate. 'Ali, the
> cousin and son-in-law of Muḥammad, was not only the Gate of the City
> of Knowledge, but, according to words assigned to him in a
> ḥadith, 'the guardian of the treasures of secrets and of the
> purposes of God.' [Footnote: AMB, p. 142.]
> 
> It is also in a book written at Maku — the Persian Bayan — that the
> Bāb constantly refers to a subsequent far greater Person, called 'He
> whom God will make manifest.' Altogether the harvest of sacred
> literature at this mountain-fortress was a rich one. But let us now
> pass on with the Bāb to Chihriḳ — a miserable spot, but not so
> remote as Maku (it was two days' journey from Urumiyya). As
> Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel tells us, 'The place of his captivity was a house
> without windows and with a doorway of bare bricks,' and adds that 'at
> night they would leave him without a lamp, treating him with the
> utmost lack of respect.' [Footnote: NH, p. 403.] In the
> Persian manner the Bāb himself indicated this by calling Maku 'the
> Open Mountain,' and Chihriḳ 'the Grievous Mountain.' [Footnote:
> Cp. TN, p. 276.] Stringent orders were issued making it
> difficult for friends of the Beloved Master to see him; and it may be
> that in the latter part of his sojourn the royal orders were more
> effectually carried out — a change which was possibly the result of a
> change in the warden. Certainly Yaḥya Khan was guilty of no such
> coarseness as Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel imputes to the warden of Chihriḳ. And
> this view is confirmed by the peculiar language of Mirza Jani,
> 'Yaḥya Khan, so long as he was warden, maintained towards him an
> attitude of unvarying respect and deference.'
> 
> This 'respect and deference' was largely owing to a dream which the
> warden had on the night before the day of the Bāb's arrival. The
> central figure of the dream was a bright shining saint. He said in
> the morning that 'if, when he saw His Holiness, he found appearance
> and visage to correspond with what he beheld in his dream, he would be
> convinced that He was in truth the promised Proof.' And this came
> literally true. At the first glance Yaḥya Khan recognized in the
> so-called Bāb the lineaments of the saint whom he had beheld in his
> dream. 'Involuntarily he bent down in obeisance and kissed the knee of
> His Holiness.' [Footnote: NH, p. 240. A slight alteration has
> been made to draw out the meaning.]
> 
> It has already been remarked that such 'transfiguration' is not wholly
> supernatural. Persons who have experienced those wonderful phenomena
> which are known as ecstatic, often exhibit what seems like a
> triumphant and angelic irradiation. So — to keep near home — it was
> among the Welsh in their last great revival. Such, too, was the
> brightness which, Yaḥya Khan and other eye-witnesses agree, suffused
> the Bāb's countenance more than ever in this period. Many adverse
> things might happen, but the 'Point' of Divine Wisdom could not be
> torn from His moorings. In that miserable dark brick chamber He was
> 'in Paradise.' The horrid warfare at Sheykh Tabarsi and elsewhere,
> which robbed him of Bābu'l Bāb and of Ḳuddus, forced human tears
> from him for a time; but one who dwelt in the 'Heaven of
> Pre-existence' knew that 'Returns' could be counted upon, and was
> fully assured that the gifts and graces of Ḳuddus had passed into
> Mirza Yaḥya (Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel). For himself he was free from
> anxiety. His work would be carried on by another and a greater
> Manifestation. He did not therefore favour schemes for his own
> forcible deliverance.
> 
> We have no direct evidence that Yaḥya Khan was dismissed from his
> office as a mark of the royal displeasure at his gentleness. But he
> must have been already removed and imprisoned, [Footnote: NH,
> p. 353.] when the vizier wrote to the Crown Prince (Nasiru'd-Din,
> afterwards Shah) and governor of Azarbaijan directing him to summon
> the Bāb to Tabriz and convene an assembly of clergy and laity to
> discuss in the Bāb's presence the validity of his claims.
> [Footnote: Ibid. p. 284.] The Bāb was therefore sent, and
> the meeting held, but there is (as Browne has shown) no trustworthy
> account of the deliberations. [Footnote: TN, Note M, 'Bāb
> Examined at Tabriz.'] Of course, the Bāb had something better to do
> than to record the often trivial questions put to him from anything
> but a simple desire for truth, so that unless the great Accused had
> some friend to accompany him (which does not appear to have been the
> case) there could hardly be an authentic Bābī narrative. And as
> for the Muslim accounts, those which we have before us do not bear the
> stamp of truth: they seem to be forgeries. Knowing what we do of the
> Bāb, it is probable that he had the best of the argument, and that
> the doctors and functionaries who attended the meeting were unwilling
> to put upon record their own fiasco.
> 
> The result, however, is known, and it is not precisely what
> might have been expected, i.e. it is not a capital sentence for
> this troublesome person. The punishment now allotted to him was one
> which marked him out, most unfairly, as guilty of a common
> misdemeanour — some act which would rightly disgust every educated
> person. How, indeed, could any one adopt as his teacher one who had
> actually been disgraced by the infliction of stripes? [Footnote:
> Cp. Isaiah liii. 5.] If the Bāb had been captured in battle,
> bravely fighting, it might have been possible to admire him, but, as
> Court politicians kept on saying, he was but 'a vulgar charlatan, a
> timid dreamer.' [Footnote: Gobineau, p. 257.] According to Mirza
> Jani, it was the Crown Prince who gave the order for stripes, but his
> 'farrashes declared that they would rather throw themselves
> down from the roof of the palace than carry it out.' [Footnote:
> NH, p. 290.] Therefore the Sheykhu'l Islam charged a certain
> Sayyid with the 'baleful task,' by whom the Messenger of God was
> bastinadoed.
> 
> It seems clear, however, that there must have been a difference of
> opinion among the advisers of the Shah, for shortly before Shah
> Muḥammad's death (which was impending when the Bāb was in Tabriz)
> we are told that Prince Mahdi-Kuli dreamed that he saw the Sayyid
> shoot the Shah at a levee. [Footnote: Ibid. p. 355.]
> Evidently there were some Court politicians who held that the Bāb
> was dangerous. Probably Shah Muḥammad's vizier took the disparaging
> view mentioned above (i.e. that the Bāb was a mere mystic
> dreamer), but Shah Muḥammad's successor dismissed Mirza Aḳasi, and
> appointed Mirza Taḳi Khan in his place. It was Mirza Taḳi Khan to
> whom the Great Catastrophe is owing. When the Bāb returned to his
> confinement, now really rigorous, at Chihriḳ, he was still under the
> control of the old, capricious, and now doubly anxious grand vizier,
> but it was not the will of Providence that this should continue much
> longer. A release was at hand.
> 
> It was the insurrection of Zanjan which changed the tone of the
> courtiers and brought near to the Bāb a glorious departure. Not, be
> it observed, except indirectly, his theosophical novelties; the
> penalty of death for deviations from the True Faith had long fallen
> into desuetude in Persia, if indeed it had ever taken root there.
> [Footnote: Gobineau, p. 262.] Only if the Kingdom of Righteousness
> were to be brought in by the Bāb by material weapons would this
> heresiarch be politically dangerous; mere religious innovations did
> not disturb high Court functionaries. But could the political leaders
> any longer indulge the fancy that the Bāb was a mere mystic dreamer?
> Such was probably the mental state of Mirza Taḳi Khan when he wrote
> from Tihran, directing the governor to summon the Bāb to come once
> more for examination to Tabriz. The governor of Azarbaijan at this
> time was Prince Hamzé Mirza.
> 
> The end of the Bāb's earthly Manifestation is now close upon us. He
> knew it himself before the event, [Footnote: NH, pp. 235,
> 309-311, 418 (Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel).] and was not displeased at the
> presentiment. He had already 'set his house in order,' as regards the
> spiritual affairs of the Bābī community, which he had, if I
> mistake not, confided to the intuitive wisdom of Baha-'ullah. His
> literary executorship he now committed to the same competent hands.
> This is what the Bahá'ís History (The Travellers Narrative)
> relates, —
> 
> 'Now the Sayyid Bāb ... had placed his writings, and even his ring
> and pen-case, in a specially prepared box, put the key of the box in
> an envelope, and sent it by means of Mullā Baḳir, who was one of
> his first associates, to Mullā 'Abdu'l Karim of Kazwin. This trust
> Mullā Baḳir delivered over to Mullā 'Abdu'l Karim at Ḳum in
> presence of a numerous company.... Then Mullā 'Abdu'l Karim conveyed
> the trust to its destination.' [Footnote: TN, pp. 41, 42.]
> 
> The destination was Baha-'ullah, as Mullā Baḳir expressly told the
> 'numerous company.' It also appears that the Bāb sent another letter
> to the same trusted personage respecting the disposal of his remains.
> 
> It is impossible not to feel that this is far more probable than the
> view which makes Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel the custodian of the sacred writings
> and the arranger of a resting-place for the sacred remains. I much
> fear that the Ezelites have manipulated tradition in the interest of
> their party.
> 
> To return to our narrative. From the first no indignity was spared to
> the holy prisoner. With night-cap instead of seemly turban, and clad
> only in an under-coat, [Footnote: NH, p. 294.] he reached
> Tabriz. It is true, his first experience was favourable. A man of
> probity, the confidential friend of Prince Hamzé Mirza, the governor,
> summoned the Bāb to a first non-ecclesiastical examination. The tone
> of the inquiry seems to have been quite respectful, though the accused
> frankly stated that he was 'that promised deliverer for whom ye have
> waited 1260 years, to wit the Ḳa'im.' Next morning, however, all
> this was reversed. The 'man of probity' gave way to the mullās and
> the populace, [Footnote: See New History, pp. 296 f., a
> graphic narration.] who dragged the Bāb, with every circumstance of
> indignity, to the houses of two or three well-known members of the
> clergy. 'These reviled him; but to all who questioned him he declared,
> without any attempt at denial, that he was the Ḳa'im [ = he that
> ariseth]. At length Mullā Muḥammad Mama-ghuri, one of the Sheykhi
> party, and sundry others, assembled together in the porch of a house
> belonging to one of their number, questioned him fiercely and
> insultingly, and when he had answered them explicitly, condemned him
> to death.
> 
> 'So they imprisoned him who was athirst for the draught of martyrdom
> for three days, along with Aḳa Sayyid Ḥuseyn of Yezd, the
> amanuensis, and Aḳa Sayyid Ḥasan, which twain were brothers, wont
> to pass their time for the most part in the Bāb's presence....
> 
> 'On the night before the day whereon was consummated the martyrdom
> ... he [the Bāb] said to his companions, "To-morrow they will slay
> me shamefully. Let one of you now arise and kill me, that I may not
> have to endure this ignominy and shame from my enemies; for it is
> pleasanter to me to die by the hands of friends." His companions,
> with expressions of grief and sorrow, sought to excuse themselves with
> the exception of Mirza Muḥammad 'Ali, who at once made as though he
> would obey the command. His comrades, however, anxiously seized his
> hand, crying, "Such rash presumption ill accords with the attitude of
> devoted service." "This act of mine," replied he, "is not prompted by
> presumption, but by unstinted obedience, and desire to fulfil my
> Master's behest. After giving effect to the command of His Holiness, I
> will assuredly pour forth my life also at His feet."
> 
> 'His Holiness smiled, and, applauding his faithful devotion and
> sincere belief, said, "To-morrow, when you are questioned, repudiate
> me, and renounce my doctrines, for thus is the command of God now laid
> upon you...." The Bāb's companions agreed, with the exception of
> Mirza Muḥammad 'Ali, who fell at the feet of His Holiness and began
> to entreat and implore.... So earnestly did he urge his entreaties
> that His Holiness, though (at first) he strove to dissuade him, at
> length graciously acceded.
> 
> 'Now when a little while had elapsed after the rising of the sun, they
> brought them, without cloak or coat, and clad only in their undercoats
> and nightcaps, to the Government House, where they were sentenced to
> be shot. Aḳa Sayyid Ḥuseyn, the amanuensis, and his brother, Aḳa
> Sayyid Ḥasan, recanted, as they had been bidden to do, and were set
> at liberty; and Aḳa Sayyid Ḥuseyn bestowed the gems of wisdom
> treasured in his bosom upon such as sought for and were worthy of
> them, and, agreeably to his instructions, communicated certain secrets
> of the faith to those for whom they were intended. He (subsequently)
> attained to the rank of martyrdom in the Catastrophe of Tihran.
> 
> 'But since Mirza Muḥammad 'Ali, athirst for the draught of
> martyrdom, declared (himself) in the most explicit manner, they
> dragged him along with that (Central) Point of the Universal Circle
> [Footnote: i.e. the Supreme Wisdom.] to the barrack, situated
> by the citadel, and, opposite to the cells on one side of the barrack,
> suspended him from one of the stone gutters erected under the eaves of
> the cells. Though his relations and friends cried, "Our son is gone
> mad; his confession is but the outcome of his distemper and the raving
> of lunacy, and it is unlawful to inflict on him the death penalty," he
> continued to exclaim, "I am in my right mind, perfect in service and
> sacrifice." .... Now he had a sweet young child; and they, hoping to
> work upon his parental love, brought the boy to him that he might
> renounce his faith. But he only said, —
> 
> "Begone, and bait your snares for other quarry;
> 
> The 'Anka's nest is hard to reach and high."
> 
> So they shot him in the presence of his Master, and laid his faithful
> and upright form in the dust, while his pure and victorious spirit,
> freed from the prison of earth and the cage of the body, soared to the
> branches of the Lote-tree beyond which there is no passing. [And the
> Bab cried out with a loud voice, "Verily thou shalt be with me in
> Paradise."]
> 
> 'Now after this, when they had suspended His Holiness in like manner,
> the Shaḳaḳi regiment received orders to fire, and discharged their
> pieces in a single volley. But of all the shots fired none took
> effect, save two bullets, which respectively struck the two ropes by
> which His Holiness was suspended on either side, and severed them. The
> Bāb fell to the ground, and took refuge in the adjacent room. As
> soon as the smoke and dust of the powder had somewhat cleared, the
> spectators looked for, but did not find, that Jesus of the age on the
> cross.
> 
> 'So, notwithstanding this miraculous escape, they again suspended His
> Holiness, and gave orders to fire another volley. The Musulman
> soldiers, however, made their excuses and refused. Thereupon a
> Christian regiment [Footnote: Why a Christian regiment? The reason is
> evident. Christians were outside the Bābī movement, whereas the
> Musulman population had been profoundly affected by the preaching of
> the Bābī, and could not be implicitly relied upon.] was ordered
> to fire the volley.... And at the third volley three bullets struck
> him, and that holy spirit, escaping from its gentle frame, ascended to
> the Supreme Horizon.' It was in July 1850.
> 
> It remained for Holy Night to hush the clamour of the crowd. The great
> square of Tabriz was purified from unholy sights and sounds. What, we
> ask, was done then to the holy bodies — that of Bāb himself and that
> of his faithful follower? The enemies of the Bāb, and even Count
> Gobineau, assert that the dead body of the Bāb was cast out into the
> moat and devoured by the wild beasts. [Footnote: A similar fate is
> asserted by tradition for the dead body of the heroic Mullā
> Muḥammad 'Ali of Zanjan.] We may be sure, however, that if the holy
> body were exposed at night, the loyal Bābīs of Tabriz would lose
> no time in rescuing it. The New History makes this statement, —
> 
> 'To be brief, two nights later, when they cast the most sacred body
> and that of Mirza Muḥammad 'Ali into the moat, and set three
> sentries over them, Haji Suleyman Khan and three others, having
> provided themselves with arms, came to the sentries and said, "We will
> ungrudgingly give you any sum of money you ask, if you will not oppose
> our carrying away these bodies; but if you attempt to hinder us, we
> will kill you." The sentinels, fearing for their lives, and greedy for
> gain, consulted, and as the price of their complaisance received a
> large sum of money.
> 
> 'So Haji Suleyman Khan bore those holy bodies to his house, shrouded
> them in white silk, placed them in a chest, and, after a while,
> transported them to Tihran, where they remained in trust till such
> time as instructions for their interment in a particular spot were
> issued by the Sources of the will of the Eternal Beauty. Now the
> believers who were entrusted with the duty of transporting the holy
> bodies were Mullā Ḥuseyn of Khurasan and Aḳa Muḥammad of
> Isfahan, [Footnote: TN, p. 110, n. 3; NH, p. 312, n. 1.] and the
> instructions were given by Baha-'ullah.' So far our authority.
> Different names, however, are given by Nicolas, AMB, p. 381.
> 
> The account here given from the New History is in accordance
> with a letter purporting to be written by the Bāb to Haji Suleyman
> Khan exactly six months before his martyrdom; and preserved in the
> New History, pp. 310, 311.
> 
> 'Two nights after my martyrdom thou must go and, by some means or
> other, buy my body and the body of Mirza Muḥammad 'Ali from the
> sentinels for 400 tumāns, and keep them in thy house for six
> months. Afterwards lay Aḳa Muḥammad 'Ali with his face upon my
> face the two (dead) bodies in a strong chest, and send it with a
> letter to Jenab-i-Baha (great is his majesty!). [Footnote: TN,
> p. 46, n. 1] Baha is, of course, the short for Baha-'ullah, and, as
> Prof. Browne remarks, the modest title Jenab-i-Baha was, even after
> the presumed date of this letter, the title commonly given to this
> personage.
> 
> The instructions, however, given by the Bāb elsewhere are widely
> different in tendency. He directs that his remains should be placed
> near the shrine of Shah 'Abdu'l-'Azim, which 'is a good land, by
> reason of the proximity of Wahid (i.e. Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel).'
> [Footnote: The spot is said to be five miles south of Tihran.] One
> might naturally infer from this that Baha-'ullah's rival was the
> guardian of the relics of the Bāb. This does not appear to have any
> warrant of testimony. But, according to Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel himself, there
> was a time when he had in his hands the destiny of the bodies. He says
> that when the coffin (there was but one) came into his hands, he
> thought it unsafe to attempt a separation or discrimination of the
> bodies, so that they remained together 'until [both] were stolen.'
> 
> It will be seen that Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel takes credit (1) for carrying out
> the Bāb's last wishes, and (2) leaving the bodies as they were. To
> remove the relics to another place was tantamount to stealing. It was
> Baha-'ullah who ordered this removal for a good reason, viz., that the
> cemetery, in which the niche containing the coffin was, seemed so
> ruinous as to be unsafe.
> 
> There is, however, another version of Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel's tradition; it
> has been preserved to us by Mons. Nicolas, and contains very strange
> statements. The Bāb, it is said, ordered Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel to place
> his dead body, if possible, in a coffin of diamonds, and to inter it
> opposite to Shah 'Abdu'l-'Azim, in a spot described in such a way that
> only the recipient of the letter could interpret it. 'So I put the
> mingled remains of the two bodies in a crystal coffin, diamonds being
> beyond me, and I interred it exactly where the Bāb had directed
> me. The place remained secret for thirty years. The Bahá'ís in
> particular knew nothing of it, but a traitor revealed it to
> them. Those blasphemers disinterred the corpse and destroyed it. Or if
> not, and if they point out a new burying-place, really containing the
> crystal coffin of the body of the Bāb which they have purloined, we
> [Ezelites] could not consider this new place of sepulture to be
> sacred.'
> 
> The story of the crystal coffin (really suggested by the Bayan) is too
> fantastic to deserve credence. But that the sacred remains had many
> resting-places can easily be believed; also that the place of burial
> remained secret for many years. Baha-'ullah, however, knew where it
> was, and, when circumstances favoured, transported the remains to the
> neighbourhood of Ḥaifa in Palestine. The mausoleum is worthy, and
> numerous pilgrims from many countries resort to it.
> 
> EULOGIUM ON THE MASTER
> 
> The gentle spirit of the Bāb is surely high up in the cycles of
> eternity. Who can fail, as Prof. Browne says, to be attracted by him?
> 'His sorrowful and persecuted life; his purity of conduct and youth;
> his courage and uncomplaining patience under misfortune; his complete
> self-negation; the dim ideal of a better state of things which can be
> discerned through the obscure mystic utterances of the Bayán; but
> most of all his tragic death, all serve to enlist our sympathies on
> behalf of the young prophet of Shiraz.'
> 
> 'Il sentait le besoin d'une réforme profonde à introduire dans les
> moeurs publiques.... Il s'est sacrifié pour l'humanité; pour elle il
> a donné son corps et son âme, pour elle il a subi les privations,
> les affronts, les injures, la torture et le martyre.' (Mons. Nicolas.)
> 
> In an old Persian song, applied to the Bāb by his followers, it is
> written: —
> 
> In what sect is this lawful? In what religion is this lawful?
> 
> That they should kill a charmer of hearts! Why art thou a stealer of
> hearts?
> 
> MULLĀ ḤUSEYN OF BUSHRAWEYH
> 
> Mullā Ḥuseyn of Bushraweyh (in the province of Mazarandan) was the
> embodied ideal of a Bābī chief such as the primitive period of the
> faith produced — I mean, that he distinguished himself equally in
> profound theosophic speculation and in warlike prowess. This
> combination may seem to us strange, but Mirza Jani assures us that
> many students who had left cloistered ease for the sake of God and the
> Bāb developed an unsuspected warlike energy under the pressure of
> persecution. And so that ardour, which in the case of the Bāb was
> confined to the sphere of religious thought and speculation and to the
> unlocking of metaphorical prison-gates, was displayed in the case of
> Mullā Ḥuseyn both in voyages on the ocean of Truth, and in
> warfare. Yes, the Mullā's fragile form might suggest the student,
> but he had also the precious faculty of generalship, and a happy
> perfection of fearlessness.
> 
> Like the Bāb himself in his preparation-period, he gave his adhesion
> to the Sheykhi school of theology, and on the decease of the former
> leader (Sayyid Kaẓim) he went, like other members of the school, to
> seek for a new spiritual head. Now it so happened that Sayyid Kaẓim
> had already turned the eyes of Ḥuseyn towards 'Ali Muḥammad;
> already this eminent theosophist had a presentiment that wonderful
> things were in store for the young visitor from Shiraz. It was
> natural, therefore, that Ḥuseyn should seek further information and
> guidance from 'Ali Muḥammad himself. No trouble could be too great;
> the object could not be attained in a single interview, and as 'Ali
> Muḥammad was forbidden to leave his house at Shiraz, secrecy was
> indispensable. Ḥuseyn, therefore, was compelled to spend the
> greater part of the day in his new teacher's house.
> 
> The concentration of thought to which the constant nearness of a great
> prophet (and 'more than a prophet') naturally gave birth had the only
> possible result. All barriers were completely broken down, and
> Ḥuseyn recognized in his heaven-sent teacher the Gate (Bāb)
> which opened on to the secret abode of the vanished Imām, and one
> charged with a commission to bring into existence the world-wide
> Kingdom of Righteousness. To seal his approval of this thorough
> conversion, which was hitherto without a parallel, the Bāb conferred
> on his new adherent the title of 'The First to Believe.'
> 
> This honourable title, however, is not the only one used by this Hero
> of God. Still more frequently he was called 'The Gate of the Gate,'
> i.e. the Introducer to Him through Whom all true wisdom comes;
> or, we may venture to say, the Bāb's Deputy. Two other titles maybe
> mentioned. One is 'The Gate.' Those who regarded 'Ali Muḥammad of
> Shiraz as the 'Point' of prophecy and the returned Imâm (the Ḳa'im)
> would naturally ascribe to his representative the vacant dignity of
> 'The Gate.' Indeed, it is one indication of this that the
> Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel designates Mullā Ḥuseyn not as the Gate's Gate,
> but simply as the Gate.
> 
> And now the 'good fight of faith' begins in earnest. First of all, the
> Bāb's Deputy (or perhaps 'the Bāb' [Footnote: Some Bābī
> writers (including Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel) certainly call MullāḤuseyn
> 'the Bāb.'] — but this might confuse the reader) is sent to Khurasan,
> [Footnote: NH, p. 44.] taking Isfahan and Tihran in his way. I need
> not catalogue the names of his chief converts and their places of
> residence. [Footnote: See Nicolas, AMB.] Suffice it to mention
> here that among the converts were Baha-'ullah, Muḥammad 'Ali of
> Zanjan, and Haji Mirza Jani, the same who has left us a much
> 'overworked' history of Bābism (down to the time of his
> martyrdom). Also that among the places visited was Omar Khayyám's
> Nishapur, and that two attempts were made by the 'Gate's Gate' to
> carry the Evangel into the Shi'ite Holy Land (Mash-had).
> 
> But it was time to reopen communications with the 'lord from Shiraz'
> (the Bāb). So his Deputy resolved to make for the castle of Maku,
> where the Bāb was confined. On the Deputy's arrival the Bāb
> foretold to him his own (the Bāb's) approaching martyrdom and the
> cruel afflictions which were impending. At the same time the Bāb
> directed him to return to Khurasan, adding that he should 'go thither
> by way of Mazandaran, for there the doctrine had not yet been rightly
> preached.' So the Deputy went first of all to Mazandaran, and there
> joined another eminent convert, best known by his Bābī name
> Ḳuddus (sacred).
> 
> I pause here to notice how intimate were the relations between the two
> friends — the 'Gate's Gate' and 'Sacred.' Originally the former was
> considered distinctly the greater man. People may have reasoned
> somewhat thus: — It was no doubt true that Ḳuddus had been privileged
> to accompany the Bāb to Mecca, [Footnote: For the divergent
> tradition in Nicolas, see AMB, p. 206.] but was not the Bāb's
> Deputy the more consummate master of spiritual lore? [Footnote: NH,
> p. 43, cp. p. 404.]
> 
> It was at any rate the latter Hero of God who (according to one
> tradition) opened the eyes of the majority of inquirers to the
> truth. It is also said that on the morning after the meeting of the
> friends the chief seat was occupied by Ḳuddus, while the Gate's
> Deputy stood humbly and reverentially before him. This is certainly
> true to the spirit of the brother-champions, one of whom was
> conspicuous for his humility, the other for his soaring spiritual
> ambition.
> 
> But let us return to the evangelistic journey. The first signs of the
> approach of Ḳuddus were a letter from him to the Bāb's Deputy (the
> letter is commonly called 'The Eternal Witness'), together with a
> white robe [Footnote: White was the Bābite colour. See NH, p. 189;
> TN, p. xxxi, n. 1.] and a turban. In the letter, it was announced
> that he and seventy other believers would shortly win the crown of
> martyrdom. This may possibly be true, not only because circumstantial
> details were added, but because the chief leaders of the Bābīs do
> really appear to have had extraordinary spiritual gifts, especially
> that of prophecy. One may ask, Did Ḳuddus also foresee the death of
> his friend? He did not tell him so in the letter, but he did direct
> him to leave Khurasan, in spite of the encyclical letter of the Bāb,
> bidding believers concentrate, if possible, on Khurasan.
> 
> So, then, we see our Bābī apostles and their followers, with
> changed route, proceeding to the province of Mazandaran, where
> Ḳuddus resided. On reaching Miyami they found about thirty
> believers ready to join them — the first-fruits of the preaching of the
> Kingdom. Unfortunately opposition was stirred up by the appearance of
> the apostles. There was an encounter with the populace, and the
> Bābīs were defeated. The Bābīs, however, went on steadily till
> they arrived at Badasht, much perturbed by the inauspicious news of
> the death of Muḥammad Shah, 4th September 1848. We are told that the
> 'Gate's Gate' had already foretold this event, [Footnote: NH,
> p. 45.] which involved increased harshness in the treatment of the
> Bāb. We cannot greatly wonder that, according to the Bābīs,
> Muḥammad Shah's journey was to the infernal regions.
> 
> Another consequence of the Shah's death was the calling of the Council
> of Badasht. It has been suggested that the true cause of the summoning
> of that assembly was anxiety for the Bāb, and a desire to carry him
> off to a place of safety. But the more accepted view — that the subject
> before the Council was the relation of the Bābīs to the Islamic
> laws — is also the more probable. The abrogation of those laws is
> expressly taught by Ḳurratu'l 'Ayn, according to Mirza Jani.
> 
> How many Bābīs took part in the Meeting? That depends on whether
> the ordinary Bābīs were welcomed to the Meeting or only the
> leaders. If the former were admitted, the number of Bābīs must
> have been considerable, for the 'Gate's Gate' is said to have gathered
> a band of 230 men, and Ḳuddus a band of 300, many of them men of
> wealth and position, and yet ready to give the supreme proof of their
> absolute sincerity. The notice at the end of Mirza Jani's account,
> which glances at the antinomian tendencies of some who attended the
> Meeting, seems to be in favour of a large estimate. Elsewhere Mirza
> Jani speaks of the 'troubles of Badasht,' at which the gallant Riẓa
> Khan performed 'most valuable services.' Nothing is said, however, of
> the part taken in the quieting of these troubles either by the 'Gate's
> Gate' or by Ḳuddus. Greater troubles, however, were at hand; it is
> the beginning of the Mazandaran insurrection (A.D. 1848-1849).
> 
> The place of most interest in this exciting episode is the fortified
> tomb of Sheykh Tabarsi, twelve or fourteen miles south of
> Barfurush. The Bābīs under the 'Gate's Gate' made this their
> headquarters, and we have abundant information, both Bābite and
> Muslim, respecting their doings. The 'Gate's Gate' preached to them
> every day, and warned them that their only safety lay in detachment
> from the world. He also (probably as Bāb, 'Ali Muḥammad
> having assumed the rank of Nuḳṭa, Point) conferred new
> names (those of prophets and saints) on the worthiest of the
> Bābīs, [Footnote: This is a Muslim account. See NH,
> p. 303.] which suggests that this Hero of God had felt his way to the
> doctrine of the equality of the saints in the Divine Bosom. Of course,
> this great truth was very liable to misconstruction, just as much as
> when the having all things in common was perverted into the most
> objectionable kind of communism. [Footnote: NH, p. 55.]
> 
> 'Thus,' the moralist remarks, 'did they live happily together in
> content and gladness, free from all grief and care, as though
> resignation and contentment formed a part of their very nature.'
> 
> Of course, the new names were given with a full consciousness of the
> inwardness of names. There was a spirit behind each new name; the
> revival of a name by a divine representative meant the return of the
> spirit. Each Bābī who received the name of a prophet or an Imām
> knew that his life was raised to a higher plane, and that he was to
> restore that heavenly Being to the present age. These re-named
> Bābīs needed no other recompense than that of being used in the
> Cause of God. They became capable of far higher things than before,
> and if within a short space of time the Bāb, or his Deputy, was to
> conquer the whole world and bring it under the beneficent yoke of the
> Law of God, much miraculously heightened courage would be needed. I am
> therefore able to accept the Muslim authority's statement. The
> conferring of new names was not to add fuel to human vanity, but
> sacramentally to heighten spiritual vitality.
> 
> Not all Bābīs, it is true, were capable of such insight. From the
> Bābī account of the night-action, ordered on his arrival at Sheykh
> Tabarsi by Ḳuddus, we learn that some Bābīs, including those of
> Mazandaran, took the first opportunity of plundering the enemy's
> camp. For this, the Deputy reproved them, but they persisted, and the
> whole army was punished (as we are told) by a wound dealt to Ḳuddus,
> which shattered one side of his face. [Footnote: NH, 68
> f.] It was with reference to this that the Deputy said at last
> to his disfigured friend, 'I can no longer bear to look upon the wound
> which mars your glorious visage. Suffer me, I pray you, to lay down my
> life this night, that I may be delivered alike from my shame and my
> anxiety.' So there was another night-encounter, and the Deputy knew
> full well that it would be his last battle. And he 'said to one who
> was beside him, "Mount behind me on my horse, and when I say, 'Bear me
> to the Castle,' turn back with all speed." So now, overcome with
> faintness, he said, "Bear me to the Castle." Thereupon his companion
> turned the horse's head, and brought him back to the entrance of the
> Castle; and there he straightway yielded up his spirit to the Lord and
> Giver of life.' Frail of form, but a gallant soldier and an
> impassioned lover of God, he combined qualities and characteristics
> which even in the spiritual aristocracy of Persia are seldom found
> united in the same person.
> 
> MULLĀ MUḤAMMAD 'ALI OF BARFURUSH
> 
> He was a man of Mazandaran, but was converted at Shiraz. He was one of
> the earliest to cast in his lot with God's prophet. No sooner had he
> beheld and conversed with the Bāb, than, 'because of the purity of
> his heart, he at once believed without seeking further sign or proof.'
> [Footnote: NH, p. 39.] After the Council of Badasht he received
> among the Bābīs the title of Jenāb-i-Ḳuddus, i.e. 'His
> Highness the Sacred,' by which it was meant that he was, for this age,
> what the sacred prophet Muḥammad was to an earlier age, or, speaking
> loosely, that holy prophet's 're-incarnation.' It is interesting to
> learn that that heroic woman Ḳurratu'l 'Ayn was regarded as the
> 'reincarnation' of Fatima, daughter of the prophet Muḥammad.
> Certainly Ḳuddus had enormous influence with small as well as
> great. Certainly, too, both he and his greatest friend had prophetic
> gifts and a sense of oneness with God, which go far to excuse the
> extravagant form of their claims, or at least the claims of others on
> their behalf. Extravagance of form, at any rate, lies on the surface
> of their titles. There must be a large element of fancy when
> Muḥammad 'Ali of Barfurush (i.e. Ḳuddus) claims to be a 'return'
> of the great Arabian prophet and even to be the Ḳa'im (i.e. the
> Imām Mahdi), who was expected to bring in the Kingdom of
> Righteousness. There is no exaggeration, however, in saying that,
> together with the Bāb, Ḳuddus ranked highest (or equal to the
> highest) in the new community. [Footnote: In NH, pp. 359, 399,
> Kuddus is represented as the 'last to enter,' and as 'the name of the
> last.']
> 
> We call him here Ḳuddus, i.e. holy, sacred, because this was his
> Bābī name, and his Bābī period was to him the only part of his
> life that was worth living. True, in his youth, he (like 'the Deputy')
> had Sheykhite instruction, [Footnote: We may infer this from the
> inclusion of both persons in the list of those who went through the
> same spiritual exercises in the sacred city of Kufa (NH, p. 33).]
> but as long as he was nourished on this imperfect food, he must have
> had the sense of not having yet 'attained.' He was also like his
> colleague 'the Deputy' in that he came to know the Bāb before the
> young Shirazite made his Arabian pilgrimage; indeed (according to our
> best information), it was he who was selected by 'Ali Muḥammad to
> accompany him to the Arabian Holy City, the 'Gate's Gate,' we may
> suppose, being too important as a representative of the 'Gate' to be
> removed from Persia. The Bāb, however, who had a gift of insight,
> was doubtless more than satisfied with his compensation. For Ḳuddus
> had a noble soul.
> 
> The name Ḳuddus is somewhat difficult to account for, and yet it
> must be understood, because it involves a claim. It must be observed,
> then, first of all, that, as the early Bābīs believed, the last of
> the twelve Imāms (cp. the Zoroastrian Amshaspands) still lived on
> invisibly (like the Jewish Messiah), and communicated with his
> followers by means of personages called Bābs (i.e. Gates), whom the
> Imām had appointed as intermediaries. As the time for a new divine
> manifestation approached, these personages 'returned,' i.e. were
> virtually re-incarnated, in order to prepare mankind for the coming
> great epiphany. Such a 'Gate' in the Christian cycle would be John
> the Baptist; [Footnote: John the Baptist, to the Israelites, was the
> last Imām before Jesus.] such 'Gates' in the Muḥammadan cycle
> would be Waraḳa ibn Nawfal and the other Ḥanīfs, and in the
> Bābī cycle Sheikh Aḥmad of Aḥsa, Sayyid Kaẓim of Resht,
> Muḥammad 'Ali of Shiraz, and Mullā Ḥuseyn of Bushraweyh, who was
> followed by his brother Muḥammad Ḥasan. 'Ali Muḥammad, however,
> whom we call the Bāb, did not always put forward exactly the same
> claim. Sometimes he assumed the title of Zikr [Footnote: And when God
> wills He will explain by the mediation of His Zikr (the Bāb) that
> which has been decreed for him in the Book. — Early Letter to the
> Bāb's uncle (AMB, p. 223).] (i.e. Commemoration, or perhaps
> Reminder); sometimes (p. 81) that of Nuḳṭa, i.e. Point (= Climax
> of prophetic revelation). Humility may have prevented him from always
> assuming the highest of these titles (Nuḳṭa). He knew that there
> was one whose fervent energy enabled him to fight for the Cause as he
> himself could not. He can hardly, I think, have gone so far as to
> 'abdicate' in favour of Ḳuddus, or as to affirm with Mirza Jani
> [Footnote: NH, p. 336.] that 'in this (the present) cycle the
> original "Point" was Ḥazrat-i-Ḳuddus.' He may, however, have
> sanctioned Muḥammad 'Ali's assumption of the title of 'Point' on
> some particular occasion, such as the Assembly of Badasht. It is true,
> Muḥammad 'Ali's usual title was Ḳuddus, but Muḥammad 'Ali
> himself, we know, considered this title to imply that in himself there
> was virtually a 'return' of the great prophet Muḥammad. [Footnote:
> Ibid. p. 359.] We may also, perhaps, believe on the authority of
> Mirza Jani that the Bāb 'refrained from writing or circulating
> anything during the period of the "Manifestation" of Ḥazrat-i-Ḳuddus,
> and only after his death claimed to be himself the Ḳa'im.'
> [Footnote: Ibid. p. 368.] It is further stated that, in the list of
> the nineteen (?) Letters of the Living, Ḳuddus stood next to the
> Bāb himself, and the reader has seen how, in the defence of Tabarsi,
> Ḳuddus took precedence even of that gallant knight, known among the
> Bābīs as 'the Gate's Gate.'
> 
> On the whole, there can hardly be a doubt that Muḥammad 'Ali, called
> Ḳuddus, was (as I have suggested already) the most conspicuous
> Bābī next to the Bāb himself, however hard we may find it to
> understand him on certain occasions indicated by Prof. Browne. He
> seems, for instance, to have lacked that tender sense of life
> characteristic of the Buddhists, and to have indulged a spiritual
> ambition which Jesus would not have approved. But it is unimportant to
> pick holes in such a genuine saint. I would rather lay stress on his
> unwillingness to think evil even of his worst foes. And how abominable
> was the return he met with! Weary of fighting, the Bābīs yielded
> themselves up to the royal troops. As Prof. Browne says, 'they were
> received with an apparent friendliness and even respect which served
> to lull them into a false security and to render easy the perfidious
> massacre wherein all but a few of them perished on the morrow of their
> surrender.'
> 
> The same historian tells us that Ḳuddus, loyal as ever, requested
> the Prince to send him to Tihran, there to undergo judgment before the
> Shah. The Prince was at first disposed to grant this request, thinking
> perhaps that to bring so notable a captive into the Royal Presence
> might serve to obliterate in some measure the record of those repeated
> failures to which his unparalleled incapacity had given rise. But when
> the Sa'idu'l-'Ulama heard of this plan, and saw a possibility of his
> hated foe escaping from his clutches, he went at once to the Prince,
> and strongly represented to him the danger of allowing one so eloquent
> and so plausible to plead his cause before the King. These arguments
> were backed up by an offer to pay the Prince a sum of 400 (or, as
> others say, of 1000) tumāns on condition that Jenāb-i-Ḳuddus
> should be surrendered unconditionally into his hands. To this
> arrangement the Prince, whether moved by the arguments or the
> tumāns of the Sa'idu'l-'Ulama, eventually consented, and
> Jenāb-i-Ḳuddus was delivered over to his inveterate enemy.
> 
> 'The execution took place in the meydan, or public square, of Barfurush.
> The Sa'idu'l-'Ulama first cut off the ears of Jenāb-i-Ḳuddus, and
> tortured him in other ways, and then killed him with the blow of an
> axe. One of the Sa'idu'l-'Ulama's disciples then severed the head from
> the lifeless body, and others poured naphtha over the corpse and set
> fire to it. The fire, however, as the Bābīs relate (for
> Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel corroborates the Parikh-i-Jadid in this particular),
> refused to burn the holy remains; and so the Sa'idu'l-'Ulama gave
> orders that the body should be cut in pieces, and these pieces cast
> far and wide. This was done, but, as Haji Mirza Jani relates, certain
> Bābīs not known as such to their fellow-townsmen came at night,
> collected the scattered fragments, and buried them in an old ruined
> madrasa or college hard by. By this madrasa, as the Bābī
> historian relates, had Jenāb-i-Ḳuddus once passed in the company
> of a friend with whom he was conversing on the transitoriness of this
> world, and to it he had pointed to illustrate his words, saying, "This
> college, for instance, was once frequented, and is now deserted and
> neglected; a little while hence they will bury here some great man,
> and many will come to visit his grave, and again it will be frequented
> and thronged with people."' When the Bahá'ís are more conscious of
> the preciousness of their own history, this prophecy may be fulfilled,
> and Ḳuddus be duly honoured.
> 
> SAYYID YAḤYA DARABI
> 
> Sayyid Yaḥya derived his surname Darabi from his birthplace Darab,
> near Shiraz. His father was Sayyid Ja'far, surnamed Kashfi, i.e.
> discloser (of the divine secrets). Neither father nor son, however,
> was resident at Darab at the period of this narrative. The father was
> at Buzurg, and the son, probably, at Tihran. So great was the
> excitement caused by the appearance of the Bāb that Muḥammad Shah
> and his minister thought it desirable to send an expert to inquire
> into the new Teacher's claims. They selected Sayyid Yaḥya, 'one of
> the best known of doctors and Sayyids, as well as an object of
> veneration and confidence,' even in the highest quarters. The mission
> was a failure, however, for the royal commissioner, instead of
> devising some practical compromise, actually went over to the Bāb,
> in other words, gave official sanction to the innovating party.
> [Footnote: TN, pp. 7, 854; Nicolas, AMB, pp. 233, 388.]
> 
> The tale is an interesting one. The Bāb at first treated the
> commissioner rather cavalierly. A Bābī theologian was told off to
> educate him; the Bāb himself did not grant him an audience. To this
> Bābī representative Yaḥya confided that he had some inclination
> towards Bābism, and that a miracle performed by the Bāb in his
> presence would make assurance doubly sure. To this the Bābī is
> said to have answered, 'For such as have like us beheld a thousand
> marvels stranger than the fabled cleaving of the moon to demand a
> miracle or sign from that Perfect Truth would be as though we should
> seek light from a candle in the full blaze of the radiant sun.'
> [Footnote: NH, p. 122.] Indeed, what marvel could be greater
> than that of raising the spiritually dead, which the Bāb and his
> followers were constantly performing? [Footnote: Accounts of miracles
> were spiritualized by the Bāb.]
> 
> It was already much to have read the inspired "signs," or verses,
> communicated by the Bāb, but how much more would it be to see his
> Countenance! The time came for the Sayyid's first interview with the
> Master. There was still, however, in his mind a remainder of the
> besetting sin of mullās' — arrogance, — and the Bāb's answers to the
> questions of his guest failed to produce entire conviction. The Sayyid
> was almost returning home, but the most learned of the disciples bade
> him wait a little longer, till he too, like themselves, would see
> clearly. [Footnote: NH, p. 114.] The truth is that the Bāb
> committed the first part of the Sayyid's conversion to his disciples.
> The would-be disciple had, like any novice, to be educated, and the
> Bāb, in his first two interviews with the Sayyid, was content to
> observe how far this process had gone.
> 
> It was in the third interview that the two souls really met. The
> Sayyid had by this time found courage to put deep theological
> questions, and received correspondingly deep answers. The Bāb then
> wrote on the spot a commentary on the 108th Sura of the Ḳur'an.
> [Footnote: Nicolas, p. 233.] In this commentary what was the Sayyid's
> surprise to find an explanation which he had supposed to be his own
> original property! He now submitted entirely to the power of
> attraction and influence [Footnote: NH, p. 115.] exercised so
> constantly, when He willed, by the Master. He took the Bāb for his
> glorious model, and obtained the martyr's crown in the second Niriz
> war.
> 
> MULLĀ MUḤAMMAD 'ALI OF ZANJAN
> 
> He was a native of Mazandaran, and a disciple of a celebrated teacher
> at the holy city of Karbala, decorated with the title Sharifu-'l Ulama
> ('noblest of the Ulama'). He became a mujtah[ī]d ('an authority on
> hard religious questions') at Zanjan, the capital of the small
> province of Khamsa, which lay between Iraḳ and Azarbaijan. Muslim
> writers affirm that in his functions of mujtahād he displayed a
> restless and intolerant spirit, [Footnote: Gobineau; Nicolas.] and he
> himself confesses to having been 'proud and masterful.' We can,
> however, partly excuse one who had no congeniality with the narrow
> Shi'ite system prevalent in Persia. It is clear, too, that his
> teaching (which was that of the sect of the Akhbaris), [Footnote:
> NH, pp. 138, 349.] was attractive to many. He declares that two or
> three thousand families in Khamsa were wholly devoted to him.
> [Footnote: Ibid. p. 350.]
> 
> At the point at which this brief sketch begins, our mullā was
> anxiously looking out for the return of his messenger Mash-hadi
> Aḥmad from Shiraz with authentic news of the reported Divine
> Manifestation. When the messenger returned he found Mullā Muḥammad
> 'Ali in the mosque about to give a theological lecture. He handed over
> the letter to his Master, who, after reading it, at once turned to his
> disciples, and uttered these words: 'To search for a roof after one
> has arrived at one's destination is a shameful thing. To search for
> knowledge when one is in possession of one's object is supererogatory.
> Close your lips [in surprise], for the Master has arisen; apprehend
> the news thereof. The sun which points out to us the way we should go,
> has appeared; the night of error and of ignorance is brought to
> nothing.' With a loud voice he then recited the prayer of Friday,
> which is to replace the daily prayer when the Imām appears.
> 
> The conversion [Footnote: For Muḥammad 'Ali's own account, see
> Nicolas, AMB, pp. 349, 350.] of Mullā Muḥammad 'Ali had
> important results, though the rescue of the Bāb was not permitted to
> be one of them. The same night on which the Bāb arrived at Zanjan on
> his way to Tabriz and Maku, Mullā Muḥammad 'Ali was secretly
> conveyed to Tihran. In this way one dangerous influence, much dreaded
> at court, was removed. And in Tihran he remained till the death of
> Muḥammad Shah, and the accession of Nasiru'd-din Shah. The new Shah
> received him graciously, and expressed satisfaction that the Mullā
> had not left Tihran without leave. He now gave him express permission
> to return to Zanjan, which accordingly the Mullā lost no time in
> doing. The hostile mullās, however, were stirred up to jealousy
> because of the great popularity which Muḥammad 'Ali had
> acquired. Such was the beginning of the famous episode of Zanjan.
> 
> ḲURRATU'L 'AYN
> 
> Among the Heroes of God was another glorious saint and martyr of the
> new society, originally called Zarrin Taj ('Golden Crown'), but
> afterwards better known as Ḳurratu'l 'Ayn ('Refreshment of the
> Eyes') or Jenab-i-Tahira ('Her Excellency the Pure, Immaculate'). She
> was the daughter of the 'sage of Kazwin,' Haji Mullā Salih, an
> eminent jurist, who (as we shall see) eventually married her to her
> cousin Mullā Muḥammad. Her father-in-law and uncle was also a
> mullā, and also called Muḥammad; he was conspicuous for his bitter
> hostility to the Sheykhi and the Bābī sects. Ḳurratu'l 'Ayn
> herself had a flexible and progressive mind, and shrank from no
> theological problem, old or new. She absorbed with avidity the latest
> religious novelties, which were those of the Bāb, and though not
> much sympathy could be expected from most of her family, yet there was
> one of her cousins who was favourable like herself to the claims of
> the Bāb. Her father, too, though he upbraided his daughter for her
> wilful adhesion to 'this Shiraz lad,' confessed that he had not taken
> offence at any claim which she advanced for herself, whether to be the
> Bāb or even more than that.
> 
> Now I cannot indeed exonerate the 'sage of Kazwin' from all
> responsibility for connecting his daughter so closely with a bitter
> enemy of the Bāb, but I welcome his testimony to the manifold
> capacities of his daughter, and his admission that there were not only
> extraordinary men but extraordinary women qualified even to represent
> God, and to lead their less gifted fellow-men or fellow-women up the
> heights of sanctity. The idea of a woman-Bāb is so original that it
> almost takes one's breath away, and still more perhaps does the
> view — modestly veiled by the Haji — that certain men and even women are
> of divine nature scandalize a Western till it becomes clear that the
> two views are mutually complementary. Indeed, the only difference in
> human beings is that some realize more, and some less, or even not at
> all, the fact of the divine spark in their composition. Ḳurratu'l
> 'Ayn certainly did realize her divinity. On one occasion she even
> reproved one of her companions for not at once discerning that she was
> the Ḳibla towards which he ought to pray. This is no poetical
> conceit; it is meant as seriously as the phrase, 'the Gate,' is meant
> when applied to Mirza 'Ali Muḥammad. We may compare it with another
> honorific title of this great woman — 'The Mother of the World.'
> 
> The love of God and the love of man were in fact equally prominent in
> the character of Ḳurratu'l 'Ayn, and the Glorious One (el-Abha) had
> endowed her not only with moral but with high intellectual gifts. It
> was from the head of the Sheykhi sect (Haji Sayyid Kaẓim) that she
> received her best-known title, and after the Sayyid's death it was she
> who (see below) instructed his most advanced disciples; she herself,
> indeed, was more advanced than any, and was essentially, like Symeon
> in St. Luke's Gospel, a waiting soul. As yet, it appears, the young
> Shiraz Reformer had not heard of her. It was a letter which she wrote
> after the death of the Sayyid to Mullā Ḥuseyn of Bushraweyh which
> brought her rare gifts to the knowledge of the Bāb. Ḥuseyn himself
> was not commissioned to offer Ḳurratu'l 'Ayn as a member of the new
> society, but the Bāb 'knew what was in man,' and divined what the
> gifted woman was desiring. Shortly afterwards she had opportunities of
> perusing theological and devotional works of the Bāb, by which, says
> Mirza Jani, 'her conversion was definitely effected.' This was at
> Karbala, a place beyond the limits of Persia, but dear to all Shi'ites
> from its associations. It appears that Ḳurratu'l 'Ayn had gone
> thither chiefly to make the acquaintance of the great Sheykhite
> teacher, Sayyid Kaẓim.
> 
> Great was the scandal of both clergy and laity when this fateful step
> of Ḳurratu'l 'Ayn became known at Kazwin. Greater still must it have
> been if (as Gobineau states) she actually appeared in public without a
> veil. Is this true? No, it is not true, said Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel, when
> questioned on this point by Browne. Now and then, when carried away by
> her eloquence, she would allow the veil to slip down off her face, but
> she would always replace it. The tradition handed on in Baha-'ullah's
> family is different, and considering how close was the bond between
> Bāhāa and Ḳurratu'l 'Ayn, I think it safer to follow the family
> of Bāhā, which in this case involves agreeing with Gobineau. This
> noble woman, therefore, has the credit of opening the catalogue of
> social reforms in Persia. Presently I shall have occasion to refer to
> this again.
> 
> Mirza Jani confirms this view. He tells us that after being converted,
> our heroine 'set herself to proclaim and establish the doctrine,' and
> that this she did 'seated behind a curtain.' We are no doubt meant to
> suppose that those of her hearers who were women were gathered round
> the lecturer behind the curtain. It was not in accordance with
> conventions that men and women should be instructed together, and
> that — horrible to say — by a woman. The governor of Karbala determined
> to arrest her, but, though without a passport, she made good her
> escape to Baghdad. There she defended her religious position before
> the chief mufti. The secular authorities, however, ordered her to
> quit Turkish territory and not return.
> 
> The road which she took was that by Kirmanshah and Hamadan (both in
> Iraḳ; the latter, the humiliated representative of Ecbatana). Of
> course, Ḳurratu'l 'Ayn took the opportunity of preaching her Gospel,
> which was not a scheme of salvation or redemption, but 'certain subtle
> mysteries of the divine' to which but few had yet been privileged to
> listen. The names of some of her hearers are given; we are to suppose
> that some friendly theologians had gathered round her, partly as an
> escort, and partly attracted by her remarkable eloquence. Two of them
> we shall meet with presently in another connection. It must not, of
> course, be supposed that all minds were equally open. There were some
> who raised objections to Ḳurratu'l 'Ayn, and wrote a letter to the
> Bāb, complaining of her. The Bāb returned discriminating answers,
> the upshot of which was that her homilies were to be considered as
> inspired. We are told that these same objectors repented, which
> implies apparently that the Bāb's spiritual influence was effectual
> at a distance.
> 
> Other converts were made at the same places, and the idea actually
> occurred to her that she might put the true doctrine before the
> Shah. It was a romantic idea (Muḥammad Shah was anything thing but a
> devout and believing Muslim), not destined to be realized. Her father
> took the alarm and sent for her to come home, and, much to her credit,
> she gave filial obedience to his summons. It will be observed that it
> is the father who issues his orders; no husband is mentioned. Was it
> not, then, most probably on this return of Ḳurratu'l 'Ayn
> that the maiden was married to Mullā Muḥammad, the eldest son of
> Haji Mullā Muḥammad Taḳi. Mirza Jani does not mention this, but
> unless our heroine made two journeys to Karbala, is it not the easiest
> way of understanding the facts? The object of the 'sage of Kazwin'
> was, of course, to prevent his daughter from traversing the country as
> an itinerant teacher. That object was attained. I will quote from an
> account which claims to be from Haji Muḥammad Hamami, who had been
> charged with this delicate mission by the family.
> 
> 'I conducted Ḳurratu'l 'Ayn into the house of her father, to whom I
> rendered an account of what I had seen. Haji Mullā Taḳi, who was
> present at the interview, showed great irritation, and recommended all
> the servants to prevent "this woman" from going out of the house under
> any pretext whatsoever, and not to permit any one to visit her without
> his authority. Thereupon he betook himself to the traveller's room,
> and tried to convince her of the error in which she was entangled. He
> entirely failed, however, and, furious before that settled calm and
> earnestness, was led to curse the Bāb and to load him with
> insults. Then Ḳurratu'l 'Ayn looked into his face, and said to him,
> "Woe unto thee, for I see thy mouth filling with blood."'
> 
> Such is the oral tradition which our informant reproduces. In
> criticizing it, we may admit that the gift of second sight was
> possessed by the Bābī and Bahai leaders. But this particular
> anecdote respecting our heroine is (may I not say?) very
> improbable. To curse the Bāb was not the way for an uncle to
> convince his erring niece. One may, with more reason, suppose that
> her father and uncle trusted to the effect of matrimony, and committed
> the transformation of the lady to her cousin Mullā Muḥammad. True,
> this could not last long, and the murder of Taḳi in the mosque of
> Kazwin must have precipitated Ḳurratu'l 'Ayn's resolution to divorce
> her husband (as by Muḥammadan law she was entitled to do) and leave
> home for ever. It might, however, have gone hardly with her if she
> had really uttered the prophecy related above. Evidently her husband,
> who had accused her of complicity in the crime, had not heard of
> it. So she was acquitted. The Bāb, too, favoured the suggestion of
> her leaving home, and taking her place among his missionaries.
> [Footnote: Nicolas, AMB, p. 277.] At the dead of night, with
> an escort of Bābīs, she set out ostensibly for Khurasan. The route
> which she really adopted, however, took her by the forest-country of
> Mazandaran, where she had the leisure necessary for pondering the
> religious situation.
> 
> The sequel was dramatic. After some days and nights of quietude, she
> suddenly made her appearance in the hamlet of Badasht, to which place
> a representative conference of Bābīs had been summoned.
> 
> The object of the conference was to correct a widespread
> misunderstanding. There were many who thought that the new leader
> came, in the most literal sense, to fulfil the Islamic Law. They
> realized, indeed, that the object of Muḥammad was to bring about an
> universal kingdom of righteousness and peace, but they thought this
> was to be effected by wading through streams of blood, and with the
> help of the divine judgments. The Bāb, on the other hand, though not
> always consistent, was moving, with some of his disciples, in the
> direction of moral suasion; his only weapon was 'the sword of the
> Spirit, which is the word of God.' When the Ḳa'im appeared all
> things would be renewed. But the Ḳa'im was on the point of
> appearing, and all that remained was to prepare for his Coming. No
> more should there be any distinction between higher and lower races,
> or between male and female. No more should the long, enveloping veil
> be the badge of woman's inferiority.
> 
> The gifted woman before us had her own characteristic solution of the
> problem. So, doubtless, had the other Bābī leaders who were
> present, such as Ḳuddus and Baha-'ullah, the one against, the other
> in favour of social reforms.
> 
> It is said, in one form of tradition, that Ḳurratu'l 'Ayn herself
> attended the conference with a veil on. If so, she lost no time in
> discarding it, and broke out (we are told) into the fervid
> exclamation, 'I am the blast of the trumpet, I am the call of the
> bugle,' i.e. 'Like Gabriel, I would awaken sleeping souls.' It
> is said, too, that this short speech of the brave woman was followed
> by the recitation by Baha-'ullah of the Sura of the Resurrection
> (lxxv.). Such recitations often have an overpowering effect.
> 
> The inner meaning of this was that mankind was about to pass into a
> new cosmic cycle, for which a new set of laws and customs would be
> indispensable.
> 
> There is also a somewhat fuller tradition. Ḳurratu'l 'Ayn was in
> Mazandaran, and so was also Baha'ullah. The latter was taken ill, and
> Ḳurratu'l 'Ayn, who was an intimate friend of his, was greatly
> concerned at this. For two days she saw nothing of him, and on the
> third sent a message to him to the effect that she could keep away no
> longer, but must come to see him, not, however, as hitherto, but with
> her head uncovered. If her friend disapproved of this, let him
> censure her conduct. He did not disapprove, and on the way to see him,
> she proclaimed herself the trumpet blast.
> 
> At any rate, it was this bold act of Ḳurratu'l 'Ayn which shook the
> foundations of a literal belief in Islamic doctrines among the
> Persians. It may be added that the first-fruits of Ḳurratu'l 'Ayn's
> teaching was no one less than the heroic Ḳuddus, and that the
> eloquent teacher herself owed her insight probably to Baha-'ullah. Of
> course, the supposition that her greatest friend might censure her is
> merely a delightful piece of irony. [Footnote: NH, pp. 357-358.]
> 
> I have not yet mentioned the long address assigned to our heroine by
> Mirza Jani. It seems to me, in its present form, improbable, and yet
> the leading ideas may have been among those expressed by the
> prophetess. If so, she stated that the laws of the previous
> dispensation were abrogated, and that laws in general were only
> necessary till men had learnt to comprehend the Perfection of the
> Doctrine of the Unity. 'And should men not be able to receive the
> Doctrine of the Unity at the beginning of the Manifestation,
> ordinances and restrictions will again be prescribed for them.' It is
> not wonderful that the declaration of an impending abrogation of Law
> was misinterpreted, and converted into a licence for Antinomianism.
> Mirza Jani mentions, but with some reticence, the unseemly conduct of
> some of the Bābīs.
> 
> There must, however, have been some who felt the spell of the great
> orator, and such an one is portrayed by Mme. H. Dreyfus, in her
> dramatic poem God's Heroes, under the name of 'Ali. I will
> quote here a little speech of 'Ali's, and also a speech of Ḳurratu'l
> 'Ayn, because they seem to me to give a more vivid idea of the scene
> than is possible for a mere narrator. [Footnote: God's Heroes,
> by Laura Clifford Barney [Paris, 1909], p. 64, Act III.]
> 
> 'ALI
> 
> 'Soon we shall leave Badasht: let us leave it filled with the Gospel
> of life! Let our lives show what we, sincere Muḥammadans, have
> become through our acceptance of the Bāb, the Mahdi, who has
> awakened us to the esoteric meaning of the Resurrection Day. Let us
> fill the souls of men with the glory of the revealed word. Let us
> advance with arms extended to the stranger. Let us emancipate our
> women, reform our society. Let us arise out of our graves of
> superstition and of self, and pronounce that the Day of Judgment is at
> hand; then shall the whole earth respond to the quickening power of
> regeneration!'
> 
> QURRATU'L-'AIN
> 
> (Deeply moved and half to herself.)
> 
> 'I feel impelled to help unveil the Truth to these men assembled. If
> my act be good the result will be good; if bad, may it affect me
> alone!
> 
> '(Advances majestically with face unveiled, and as she walks
> towards Baha-'ullah's tent, addresses the men.) That sound of the
> trumpet which ushers in the Day of Judgment is my call to you now!
> Rise, brothers! The Quran is completed, the new era has begun. Know me
> as your sister, and let all barriers of the past fall down before our
> advancing steps. We teach freedom, action, and love. That sound of the
> trumpet, it is I! That blast of the trumpet, it is I!
> 
> (Exit Qurratu'l 'Ain.)'
> 
> On the breaking up of the Council our heroine joined a large party of
> Bābīs led by her great friend Ḳuddus. On their arrival in Nūr,
> however, they separated, she herself staying in that district. There
> she met Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel, who is said to have rendered her many
> services. But before long the people of Mazandaran surrendered the
> gifted servant of truth to the Government.
> 
> We next meet with her in confinement at Tihran. There she was treated
> at first with the utmost gentleness, her personal charm being felt
> alike by her host, Maḥmūd the Kalantar, and by the most frigid of
> Persian sovereigns. The former tried hard to save her. Doubtless by
> using Ketman (i.e. by pretending to be a good Muslim) she might
> have escaped. But her view of truth was too austere for this.
> 
> So the days — the well-filled days — wore on. Her success with
> inquirers was marvellous; wedding-feasts were not half so bright as
> her religious soirées. But she herself had a bridegroom, and longed
> to see him. It was the attempt by a Bābī on the Shah's life on
> August 15, 1852, which brought her nearer to the desire of her
> heart. One of the servants of the house has described her last evening
> on earth. I quote a paragraph from the account.
> 
> 'While she was in prison, the marriage of the Kalantar's son took
> place. As was natural, all the women-folk of the great personages were
> invited. But although large sums had been expended on the
> entertainments usual at such a time, all the ladies called loudly for
> Ḳurratu'l 'Ayn. She came accordingly, and hardly had she begun to
> speak when the musicians and dancing-girls were dismissed, and,
> despite the counter attractions of sweet delicacies, the guests had no
> eyes and ears save for Ḳurratu'l 'Ayn.
> 
> 'At last, a night came when something strange and sad happened. I had
> just waked up, and saw her go down into the courtyard. After washing
> from head to foot she went back into her room, where she dressed
> herself altogether in white. She perfumed herself, and as she did
> this she sang, and never had I seen her so contented and joyous as in
> this song. Then she turned to the women of the house, and begged them
> to pardon the disagreeables which might have been occasioned by her
> presence, and the faults which she might have committed towards them;
> in a word, she acted exactly like some one who is about to undertake a
> long journey. We were all surprised, asking ourselves what that could
> mean. In the evening, she wrapped herself in a chadour, which she
> fixed about her waist, making a band of her chargud, then she put on
> again her chagchour. Her joy as she acted thus was so strange that
> we burst into tears, for her goodness and inexhaustible friendliness
> made us love her. But she smiled on us and said, "This evening I am
> going to take a great, a very great journey." At this moment there
> was a knock at the street door. "Run and open," she said, "for they
> will be looking for me."
> 
> 'It was the Kalantar who entered. He went in, as far as her room, and
> said to her, "Come, Madam, for they are asking for you." "Yes," said
> she, "I know it. I know, too, whither I am to be taken; I know how I
> shall be treated. But, ponder it well, a day will come when thy
> Master will give thee like treatment." Then she went out dressed as
> she was with the Kalantar; we had no idea whither she was being taken,
> and only on the following day did we learn that she was executed.'
> 
> One of the nephews of the Kalantar, who was in the police, has given
> an account of the closing scene, from which I quote the following:
> 
> 'Four hours after sunset the Kalantar asked me if all my measures were
> taken, and upon the assurances which I gave him he conducted me into
> his house. He went in alone into the enderūn, but soon
> returned, accompanied by Ḳurratu'l 'Ayn, and gave me a folded paper,
> saying to me, "You will conduct this woman to the garden of Ilkhaní,
> and will give her into the charge of Aziz Khan the Serdar."
> 
> 'A horse was brought, and I helped Ḳurratu'l 'Ayn to mount. I was
> afraid, however, that the Bābīs would find out what was
> passing. So I threw my cloak upon her, so that she was taken for a
> man. With an armed escort we set out to traverse the streets. I feel
> sure, however, that if a rescue had been attempted my people would
> have run away. I heaved a sigh of relief on entering the garden. I put
> my prisoner in a room under the entrance, ordered my soldiers to guard
> the door well, and went up to the third story to find the Serdar.
> 
> 'He expected me. I gave him the letter, and he asked me if no one had
> understood whom I had in charge. "No one," I replied, "and now that I
> have performed my duty, give me a receipt for my prisoner." "Not yet,"
> he said; "you have to attend at the execution; afterwards I will give
> you your receipt."
> 
> 'He called a handsome young Turk whom he had in his service, and tried
> to win him over by flatteries and a bribe. He further said, "I will
> look out for some good berth for you. But you must do something for
> me. Take this silk handkerchief, and go downstairs with this
> officer. He will conduct you into a room where you will find a young
> woman who does much harm to believers, turning their feet from the way
> of Muḥammad. Strangle her with this handkerchief. By so doing you
> will render an immense service to God, and I will give you a large
> reward."
> 
> 'The valet bowed and went out with me. I conducted him to the room
> where I had left my prisoner. I found her prostrate and praying. The
> young man approached her with the view of executing his orders. Then
> she raised her head, looked fixedly at him and said, "Oh, young man,
> it would ill beseem you to soil your hand with this murder."
> 
> 'I cannot tell what passed in this young man's soul. But it is a fact
> that he fled like a madman. I ran too, and we came together to the
> serdar, to whom he declared that it was impossible for him to do what
> was required. "I shall lose your patronage," he said. "I am, indeed,
> no longer my own master; do what you will with me, but I will not
> touch this woman."
> 
> 'Aziz Khan packed him off, and reflected for some minutes. He then
> sent for one of his horsemen whom, as a punishment for misconduct, he
> had put to serve in the kitchens. When he came in, the serdar gave him
> a friendly scolding: "Well, son of a dog, bandit that you are, has
> your punishment been a lesson to you? and will you be worthy to regain
> my affection? I think so. Here, take this large glass of brandy,
> swallow it down, and make up for going so long without it." Then he
> gave him a fresh handkerchief, and repeated the order which he had
> already given to the young Turk.
> 
> 'We entered the chamber together, and immediately the man rushed upon
> Ḳurratu'l 'Ayn, and tied the handkerchief several times round her
> neck. Unable to breathe, she fell to the ground in a faint; he then
> knelt with one knee on her back, and drew the handkerchief with might
> and main. As his feelings were stirred and he was afraid, he did not
> leave her time to breathe her last. He took her up in his arms, and
> carried her out to a dry well, into which he threw her still
> alive. There was no time to lose, for daybreak was at hand. So we
> called some men to help us fill up the well.'
> 
> Mons. Nicolas, formerly interpreter of the French Legation at Tihran,
> to whom we are indebted for this narrative, adds that a pious hand
> planted five or six solitary trees to mark the spot where the heroine
> gave up this life for a better one. It is doubtful whether the
> ruthless modern builder has spared them.
> 
> The internal evidence in favour of this story is very strong; there is
> a striking verisimilitude about it. The execution of a woman to whom
> so much romantic interest attached cannot have been in the royal
> square; that would have been to court unpopularity for the
> Government. Moreover, there is a want of definite evidence that women
> were among the public victims of the 'reign of Terror' which followed
> the attempt on the Shah's life (cp. TN, p. 334). That Ḳurratu'l
> 'Ayn was put to death is certain, but this can hardly have been in
> public. It is true, a European doctor, quoted by Prof. Browne (TN,
> p. 313), declares that he witnessed the heroic death of the 'beautiful
> woman.' He seems to imply that the death was accompanied by slow
> tortures. But why does not this doctor give details? Is he not
> drawing upon his fancy? Let us not make the persecutors worse than
> they were.
> 
> Count Gobineau's informant appears to me too imaginative, but I will
> give his statements in a somewhat shortened form.
> 
> 'The beauty, eloquence, and enthusiasm of Ḳurratu'l 'Ayn exercised a
> fascination even upon her gaoler. One morning, returning from the
> royal camp, he went into the enderūn, and told his prisoner that
> he brought her good news. "I know it," she answered gaily; "you need
> not be at the pains to tell me." "You cannot possibly know my news,"
> said the Ḳalantar; "it is a request from the Prime Minister. You
> will be conducted to Niyavaran, and asked, 'Ḳurratu'l 'Ayn, are you
> a Bābī?' You will simply answer, 'No.' You will live alone for
> some time, and avoid giving people anything to talk about. The Prime
> Minister will keep his own opinion about you, but he will not exact
> more of you than this."'
> 
> The words of the prophetess came true. She was taken to Niyavaran, and
> publicly but gently asked, 'Are you a Bābī?' She answered what she
> had said that she would answer in such a case. She was taken back to
> Tihran. Her martyrdom took place in the citadel. She was placed upon a
> heap of that coarse straw which is used to increase the bulk of
> woollen and felt carpets. But before setting fire to this, the
> executioners stifled her with rags, so that the flames only devoured
> her dead body.
> 
> An account is also given in the London manuscript of the New
> History, but as the Mirza suffered in the same persecution as the
> heroine, we must suppose that it was inserted by the editor. It is
> very short.
> 
> 'For some while she was in the house of Maḥmūd Khan, the Kalantar,
> where she exhorted and counselled the women of the household, till one
> day she went to the bath, whence she returned in white garments,
> saying, "To-morrow they will kill me." Next day the executioner came
> and took her to the Nigaristan. As she would not suffer them to remove
> the veil from her face (though they repeatedly sought to do so) they
> applied the bow-string, and thus compassed her martyrdom. Then they
> cast her holy body into a well in the garden. [Footnote: NH,
> pp. 283 f.]
> 
> My own impression is that a legend early began to gather round the
> sacred form of Her Highness the Pure. Retracing his recollections even
> Dr. Polak mixes up truth and fiction, and has in his mind's eye
> something like the scene conjured up by Count Gobineau in his
> description of the persecution of Tihran: —
> 
> 'On vit s'avancer, entre les bourreaux, des enfants et des femmes, les
> chairs ouvertes sur tout le corps, avec des mèches allumées
> flambantes fichées dans les blessures.'
> 
> Looking back on the short career of Ḳurratu'l 'Ayn, one is chiefly
> struck by her fiery enthusiasm and by her absolute unworldliness. This
> world was, in fact, to her, as it was said to be to Ḳuddus, a mere
> handful of dust. She was also an eloquent speaker and experienced in
> the intricate measures of Persian poetry. One of her few poems which
> have thus far been made known is of special interest, because of the
> belief which it expresses in the divine-human character of some one
> (here called Lord), whose claims, when once adduced, would receive
> general recognition. Who was this Personage? It appears that
> Ḳurratu'l 'Ayn thought Him slow in bringing forward these claims. Is
> there any one who can be thought of but Baha-'ullah?
> 
> The Bahaite tradition confidently answers in the negative.
> Baha-'ullah, it declares, exercised great influence on the second
> stage of the heroine's development, and Ḳurratu'l 'Ayn was one of
> those who had pressed forward into the innermost sanctum of the
> Bāb's disclosures. She was aware that 'The Splendour of God' was 'He
> whom God would manifest.' The words of the poem, in Prof. Browne's
> translation, refer, not to Ezel, but to his brother Baha-'ullah. They
> are in TN, p. 315.
> 
> 'Why lags the word, "Am I not your Lord"?
> 
> "Yea, that thou art," let us make reply.'
> 
> The poetess was a true Bahaite. More than this; the harvest sown in
> Islamic lands by Ḳurratu'l 'Ayn is now beginning to appear. A letter
> addressed to the Christian Commonwealth last June informs us
> that forty Turkish suffragettes are being deported from Constantinople
> to Akka (so long the prison of Baha-'ullah):
> 
> '"During the last few years suffrage ideas have been spreading quietly
> behind in the harems. The men were ignorant of it; everybody was
> ignorant of it; and now suddenly the floodgate is opened and the men
> of Constantinople have thought it necessary to resort to drastic
> measures. Suffrage clubs have been organized, intelligent memorials
> incorporating the women's demands have been drafted and circulated;
> women's journals and magazines have sprung up, publishing excellent
> articles; and public meetings were held. Then one day the members of
> these clubs — four hundred of them — cast away their veils. The
> staid, fossilized class of society were shocked, the good Mussulmans
> were alarmed, and the Government forced into action. These four
> hundred liberty-loving women were divided into several groups. One
> group composed of forty have been exiled to Akka, and will arrive in a
> few days. Everybody is talking about it, and it is really surprising
> to see how numerous are those in favour of removing the veils from the
> faces of the women. Many men with whom I have talked think the custom
> not only archaic, but thought-stifling. The Turkish authorities,
> thinking to extinguish this light of liberty, have greatly added to
> its flame, and their high-handed action has materially assisted the
> creation of a wider public opinion and a better understanding of this
> crucial problem." The other question exercising opinion in Ḥaifa is
> the formation of a military and strategic quarter out of Akka, which
> in this is resuming its bygone importance. Six regiments of soldiers
> are to be quartered there. Many officers have already arrived and are
> hunting for houses, and as a result rents are trebled. It is
> interesting to reflect, as our Baha correspondent suggests, on the
> possible consequence of this projection of militarism into the very
> centre fount of the Bahai faith in universal peace.'
> 
> BAHA-'ULLAH (MIRZA ḤUSEYN ALI OF NŪR)
> 
> According to Count Gobineau, the martyrdom of the Bāb at Tabriz was
> followed by a Council of the Bābī chiefs at Teheran (Tihran). What
> authority he has for this statement is unknown, but it is in itself
> not improbable. Formerly the members of the Two Unities must have
> desired to make their policy as far as possible uniform. We have
> already heard of the Council of Badasht (from which, however, the
> Bāb, or, the Point, was absent); we now have to make room in our
> mind for the possibilities of a Council of Tihran. It was an
> important occasion of which Gobineau reminds us, well worthy to be
> marked by a Council, being nothing less than the decision of the
> succession to the Pontificate.
> 
> At such a Council who would as a matter of course be present? One may
> mention in the first instance Mirza Ḥuseyn 'Ali, titled as
> Baha-'ullah, and his half-brother, Mirza Yaḥya, otherwise known as
> Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel, also Jenāb-i-'Azim, Jenāb-i-Bazir, Mirza
> Asadu'llah [Footnote: Gobineau, however, thinks that Mirza Asadu'llah
> was not present at the (assumed) Council.] (Dayyan), Sayyid Yaḥya
> (of Darab), and others similarly honoured by the original Bāb. And
> who were the candidates for this terribly responsible post? Several
> may have wished to be brought forward, but one candidate, according to
> the scholar mentioned, overshadowed the rest. This was Mirza Yaḥya
> (of Nūr), better known as Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel.
> 
> The claims of this young man were based on a nomination-document now
> in the possession of Prof. Browne, and have been supported by a letter
> given in a French version by Mons. Nicolas. Forgery, however, has
> played such a great part in written documents of the East that I
> hesitate to recognize the genuineness of this nomination. And I think
> it very improbable that any company of intensely earnest men should
> have accepted the document in preference to the evidence of their own
> knowledge respecting the inadequate endowments of Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel.
> 
> No doubt the responsibilities of the pontificate would be shared.
> There would be a 'Gate' and there would be a 'Point.' The deficiencies
> of the 'Gate' might be made good by the 'Point.' Moreover, the
> 'Letters of the Living' were important personages; their advice could
> hardly be rejected. Still the gravity and variety of the duties
> devolving upon the 'Gate' and the 'Point' give us an uneasy sense that
> Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel was not adequate to either of these posts, and cannot
> have been appointed to either of them by the Council. The probability
> is that the arrangement already made was further sanctioned, viz. that
> Baha-'ullah was for the present to take the private direction of
> affairs and exercise his great gifts as a teacher, while
> Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel (a vain young man) gave his name as ostensible head,
> especially with a view to outsiders and to agents of the government.
> 
> It may be this to which allusion is made in a tradition preserved by
> Behîah Khanum, sister of Abbas Effendi Abdul Baha, that
> Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel claimed to be equal to his half-brother, and that he
> rested this claim on a vision. The implication is that Baha-'ullah was
> virtually the head of the Bābī community, and that Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel
> was wrapt up in dreams, and was really only a figurehead. In fact,
> from whatever point of view we compare the brothers (half-brothers),
> we are struck by the all-round competence of the elder and the
> incompetence of the younger. As leader, as teacher, and as writer he
> was alike unsurpassed. It may be mentioned in passing that, not only
> the Hidden Words and the Seven Valleys, but the fine
> though unconvincing apologetic arguments of the Book of Ighan
> flowed from Baha-'ullah's pen at the Baghdad period. But we must now
> make good a great omission. Let us turn back to our hero's origin and
> childhood.
> 
> Ḥuseyn 'Ali was half-brother of Yaḥya, i.e. they had the
> same father but different mothers. The former was the elder, being
> born in A.D. 1817, whereas the latter only entered on his melancholy
> life in A.D. 1830. [Footnote: It is a singular fact that an Ezelite
> source claims the name Baha-'ullah for Mirza Yaḥya. But one can
> hardly venture to credit this. See TN, p. 373 n. 1.] Both
> embraced the Bābī faith, and were called respectively Baha-'ullah
> (Splendour of God) and Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel (Dawn of Eternity). Their
> father was known as Buzurg (or, Abbas), of the district of Nūr in
> Mazandaran. The family was distinguished; Mirza Buzurg held a high
> post under government.
> 
> Like many men of his class, Mirza Ḥuseyn 'Ali had a turn for
> mysticism, but combined this — like so many other mystics — with much
> practical ability. He became a Bābī early in life, and did much to
> lay the foundations of the faith both in his native place and in the
> capital. His speech was like a 'rushing torrent,' and his clearness in
> exposition brought the most learned divines to his feet. Like his
> half-brother, he attended the important Council of Badasht, where,
> with God's Heroine — Ḳurratu'l 'Ayn — he defended the cause of
> progress and averted a fiasco. The Bāb — 'an ambassador in bonds' — he
> never met, but he corresponded with him, using (as it appears) the
> name of his half-brother as a protecting pseudonym. [Footnote:
> TN, p. 373 n. 1.]
> 
> The Bāb was 'taken up into heaven' in 1850 upon which (according to
> a Tradition which I am compelled to reject) Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel succeeded
> to the Supreme Headship. The appointment would have been very
> unsuitable, but the truth is (pace Gobineau) that it was never
> made, or rather, God did not will to put such a strain upon our faith.
> It was, in fact, too trying a time for any new teacher, and we can now
> see the wisdom of Baha-'ullah in waiting for the call of events. The
> Bābī community was too much divided to yield a new Head a frank
> and loyal obedience. Many Bābīs rose against the government, and
> one even made an attempt on the Shah's life. Baha-'ullah (to use the
> name given to Ḥuseyn 'Ali of Nūr by the Bāb) was arrested near
> Tihran on a charge of complicity. He was imprisoned for four months,
> but finally acquitted and released. No wonder that Baha-'ullah and
> his family were anxious to put as large a space as possible between
> themselves and Tihran.
> 
> Together with several Bābī families, and, of course, his own
> nearest and dearest, Baha-'ullah set out for Baghdad. It was a
> terrible journey in rough mountain country and the travellers suffered
> greatly from exposure. On their arrival fresh misery stared the ladies
> in the face, unaccustomed as they were to such rough life. They were
> aided, however, by the devotion of some of their fellow-believers, who
> rendered many voluntary services; indeed, their affectionate zeal
> needed to be restrained, as St. Paul doubtless found in like
> circumstances. Baha-'ullah himself was intensely, divinely happy, and
> the little band of refugees — thirsty for truth — rejoiced in their
> untrammelled intercourse with their Teacher. Unfortunately religious
> dissensions began to arise. In the Bābī colony at Baghdad there
> were some who were not thoroughly devoted to Baha-'ullah. The Teacher
> was rather too radical, too progressive for them. They had not been
> introduced to the simpler and more spiritual form of religion taught
> by Baha-'ullah, and probably they had had positive teaching of quite
> another order from some one authorized by Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel.
> 
> The strife went on increasing in bitterness, until at length it became
> clear that either Baha-'ullah or Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel must for a time
> vanish from the scene. For Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel (or, for shortness, Ezel)
> to disappear would be suicidal; he knew how weak his personal claims
> to the pontificate really were. But Baha-'ullah's disappearance would
> be in the general interest; it would enable the Bābīs to realize
> how totally dependent they were, in practical matters, on
> Baha-'ullah. 'Accordingly, taking a change of clothes, but no money,
> and against the entreaties of all the family, he set out. Many months
> passed; he did not return, nor had we any word from him or about him.
> 
> 'There was an old physician at Baghdad who had been called upon to
> attend the family, and who had become our friend. He sympathized much
> with us, and undertook on his own account to make inquiries for my
> father. These inquiries were long without definite result, but at
> length a certain traveller to whom he had described my father said
> that he had heard of a man answering to that description, evidently of
> high rank, but calling himself a dervish, living in caves in the
> mountains. He was, he said, reputed to be so wise and wonderful in his
> speech on religious things that when people heard him they would
> follow him; whereupon, wishing to be alone, he would change his
> residence to a cave in some other locality. When we heard these
> things, we were convinced that this dervish was in truth our beloved
> one. But having no means to send him any word, or to hear further of
> him, we were very sad.
> 
> 'There was also then in Baghdad an earnest Bābī, formerly a pupil
> of Ḳurratu'l 'Ayn. This man said to us that as he had no ties and
> did not care for his life, he desired no greater happiness than to be
> allowed to seek for him all loved so much, and that he would not
> return without him. He was, however, very poor, not being able even to
> provide an ass for the journey; and he was besides not very strong,
> and therefore not able to go on foot. We had no money for the purpose,
> nor anything of value by the sale of which money could be procured,
> with the exception of a single rug, upon which we all slept. This we
> sold and with the proceeds bought an ass for this friend, who
> thereupon set out upon the search.
> 
> 'Time passed; we heard nothing, and fell into the deepest dejection
> and despair. Finally, four months having elapsed since our friend had
> departed, a message was one day received from him saying that he would
> bring my father home on the next day. The absence of my father had
> covered a little more than two years. After his return the fame which
> he had acquired in the mountains reached Baghdad. His followers became
> numerous; many of them even the fierce and untutored Arabs of Irak. He
> was visited also by many Bābīs from Persia.'
> 
> This is the account of the sister of our beloved and venerated Abdul
> Baha. There are, however, two other accounts which ought to be
> mentioned. According to the Traveller's Narrative, the refuge
> of Baha-'ullah was generally in a place called Sarkalu in the
> mountains of Turkish Kurdistan; more seldom he used to stay in
> Suleymaniyya, the headquarters of the Sunnites. Before long, however,
> 'the most eminent doctors of those regions got some inkling of his
> circumstances and conditions, and conversed with him on the solution
> of certain difficult questions connected with the most abstruse points
> of theology. In consequence of this, fragmentary accounts of this were
> circulated in all quarters. Several persons therefore hastened
> thither, and began to entreat and implore.' [Footnote: TN,
> pp. 64, 65.]
> 
> If this is correct, Baha-'ullah was more widely known in Turkish
> Kurdistan than his family was aware, and debated high questions of
> theology as frequently as if he were in Baghdad or at the Supreme
> Shrine. Nor was it only the old physician and the poor Bābī
> disciple who were on the track of Baha-'ullah, but 'several
> persons' — no doubt persons of weight, who were anxious for a
> settlement of the points at issue in the Bābī community. A further
> contribution is made by the Ezeli historian, who states that
> Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel himself wrote a letter to his brother, inviting him to
> return. [Footnote: TN, p. 359.] One wishes that letter could
> be recovered. It would presumably throw much light on the relations
> between the brothers at this critical period.
> 
> About 1862 representations were made to the Shah that the Bābī
> preaching at Baghdad was injurious to the true Faith in Persia. The
> Turkish Government, therefore, when approached on the subject by the
> Shah, consented to transfer the Bābīs from Baghdad to
> Constantinople. An interval of two weeks was accorded, and before this
> grace-time was over a great event happened — his declaration of himself
> to be the expected Messiah (Him whom God should manifest). As yet it
> was only in the presence of his son (now best known as Abdul Baha) and
> four other specially chosen disciples that this momentous declaration
> was made. There were reasons why Baha-'ullah should no longer keep his
> knowledge of the will of God entirely secret, and also reasons why he
> should not make the declaration absolutely public.
> 
> The caravan took four months to reach Constantinople. At this capital
> of the Muḥammadan world their stay was brief, as they were 'packed
> off' the same year to Adrianople. Again they suffered greatly. But who
> would find fault with the Great Compassion for arranging it so? And
> who would deny that there are more important events at this period
> which claim our interest? These are (1) the repeated attempts on the
> life of Baha-'ullah (or, as the Ezelis say, of Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel) by the
> machinations of Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel (or, as the Ezelis say, of
> Baha-'ullah), and (2) the public declaration on the part of
> Baha-'ullah that he, and no one else, was the Promised Manifestation
> of Deity.
> 
> There is some obscurity in the chronological relation of these events,
> i.e. as to whether the public declaration of Baha-'ullah was in
> definite opposition, not only to the claims of Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel, but to
> those of Zabiḥ, related by Mirza Jani, [Footnote: See NH,
> pp. 385, 394; TN, p. 357. The Ezelite historian includes Dayyan
> (see above).] and of others, or whether the reverse is the case. At
> any rate Baha-'ullah believed that his brother was an assassin and a
> liar. This is what he says, — 'Neither was the belly of the glutton
> sated till that he desired to eat my flesh and drink my blood.... And
> herein he took counsel with one of my attendants, tempting him unto
> this.... But he, when he became aware that the matter had become
> publicly known, took the pen of falsehood, and wrote unto the people,
> and attributed all that he had done to my peerless and wronged
> Beauty.' [Footnote: TN, pp. 368, 369.]
> 
> These words are either a meaningless extravagance, or they are a
> deliberate assertion that Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel had sought to destroy his
> brother, and had then circulated a written declaration that it was
> Baha-'ullah who had sought to destroy Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel. It is, I fear,
> certain that Baha-'ullah is correct, and that Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel did
> attempt to poison his brother, who was desperately ill for twenty-two
> days.
> 
> Another attempt on the life of the much-loved Master was prevented, it
> is said, by the faithfulness of the bath-servant. 'One day while in
> the bath Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel remarked to the servant (who was a believer)
> that the Blessed Perfection had enemies and that in the bath he was
> much exposed.... Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel then asked him whether, if God should
> lay upon him the command to do this, he would obey it. The servant
> understood this question, coming from Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel, to be a
> suggestion of such a command, and was so petrified by it that he
> rushed screaming from the room. He first met Abbas Effendi and
> reported to him Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel's words.... Abbas Effendi,
> accordingly, accompanied him to my father, who listened to his story
> and then enjoined absolute silence upon him.' [Footnote: Phelps,
> pp. 38, 39.]
> 
> Such is the story as given by one who from her youthful age is likely
> to have remembered with precision. She adds that the occurrence 'was
> ignored by my father and brother,' and that 'our relations with
> Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel continued to be cordial.' How extremely fine this is!
> It may remind us of 'Father, forgive them,' and seems to justify the
> title given to Baha-'ullah by his followers, 'Blessed Perfection.'
> 
> The Ezelite historian, however, gives a different version of the
> story. [Footnote: TN, pp. 359, 360.] According to him, it was
> Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel whose life was threatened. 'It was arranged that
> Muḥammad Ali the barber should cut his throat while shaving him in
> the bath. On the approach of the barber, however, Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel
> divined his design, refused to allow him to come near, and, on leaving
> the bath, instantly took another lodging in Adrianople, and separated
> himself from Mirza Ḥuseyn 'Ali and his followers.'
> 
> Evidently there was great animosity between the parties, but, in spite
> of the Eight Paradises, it appears to me that the Ezelites were
> chiefly in fault. Who can believe that Baha-'ullah spread abroad his
> brother's offences? [Footnote: Ibid.] On the other hand,
> Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel and his advisers were capable of almost anything from
> poisoning and assassination to the forging of spurious letters. I do
> not mean to say that they were by any means the first persons in
> Persian history to venture on these abnormal actions.
> 
> It is again Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel who is responsible for the disturbance of
> the community.
> 
> It was represented — no doubt by this bitter foe — to the Turkish
> Government that Baha-'ullah and his followers were plotting against
> the existing order of things, and that when their efforts had been
> crowned with success, Baha-'ullah would be designated king.
> [Footnote: For another form of the story, see Phelps, Abbas
> Effendi, p. 46.] This may really have been a dream of the
> Ezelites (we must substitute Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel for Baha-'ullah); the
> Bahaites were of course horrified at the idea. But how should the
> Sultan discriminate? So the punishment fell on the innocent as well as
> the guilty, on the Bahaites as well as the Ezelites.
> 
> The punishment was the removal of Baha-'ullah and his party and
> Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel and his handful of followers, the former to Akka
> (Acre) on the coast of Syria, the latter to Famagusta in Cyprus. The
> Bahaites were put on board ship at Gallipoli. A full account is given
> by Abbas Effendi's sister of the preceding events. It gives one a most
> touching idea of the deep devotion attracted by the magnetic
> personalities of the Leader and his son.
> 
> I have used the expression 'Leader,' but in the course of his stay at
> Adrianople Baha-'ullah had risen to a much higher rank than that of
> 'Leader.' We have seen that at an earlier period of his exile
> Baha-'ullah had made known to five of his disciples that he was in
> very deed the personage whom the Bāb had enigmatically promised. At
> that time, however, Baha-'ullah had pledged those five disciples to
> secrecy. But now the reasons for concealment did not exist, and
> Baha-'ullah saw (in 1863) that the time had come for a public
> declaration. This is what is stated by Abbas Effendi's sister: —
> [Footnote: Phelps, pp. 44-46.]
> 
> 'He then wrote a tablet, longer than any he had before written,
> [which] he directed to be read to every Bābī, but first of all to
> Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel. He assigned to one of his followers the duty of
> taking it to Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel, reading it to him, and returning with
> Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel's reply. When Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel had heard the tablet he
> did not attempt to refute it; on the contrary he accepted it, and said
> that it was true. But he went on to maintain that he himself was
> co-equal with the Blessed Perfection, [Footnote: See p. 128.]
> affirming that he had a vision on the previous night in which he had
> received this assurance.
> 
> 'When this statement of Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel was reported to the Blessed
> Perfection, the latter directed that every Bābī should be informed
> of it at the time when he heard his own tablet read. This was done,
> and much uncertainty resulted among the believers. They generally
> applied to the Blessed Perfection for advice, which, however, he
> declined to give. At length he told them that he would seclude himself
> from them for four months, and that during this time they must decide
> the question for themselves. At the end of that period, all the
> Bābīs in Adrianople, with the exception of Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel and
> five or six others, came to the Blessed Perfection and declared that
> they accepted him as the Divine Manifestation whose coming the Bāb
> had foretold. The Bābīs of Persia, Syria, Egypt, and other
> countries also in due time accepted the Blessed Perfection with
> substantial unanimity.
> 
> Baha-'ullah, then, landed in Syria not merely as the leader of the
> greater part of the Bābīs at Baghdad, but as the representative of
> a wellnigh perfect humanity. He did not indeed assume the title 'The
> Point,' but 'The Point' and 'Perfection' are equivalent terms. He was,
> indeed, 'Fairer than the sons of men,' [Footnote: Ps. xlv. 2.] and no
> sorrow was spared to him that belonged to what the Jews and Jewish
> Christians called 'the pangs of the Messiah.' It is true, crucifixion
> does not appear among Baha-'ullah's pains, but he was at any rate
> within an ace of martyrdom. This is what Baha-'ullah wrote at the end
> of his stay at Adrianople: — [Footnote: Browne, A Year among the
> Persians, p. 518.]
> 
> 'By God, my head longeth for the spears for the love of its Lord, and
> I never pass by a tree but my heart addresseth it [saying], 'Oh would
> that thou wert cut down in my name, and my body were crucified
> upon thee in the way of my Lord!'
> 
> The sorrows of his later years were largely connected with the
> confinement of the Bahaites at Acre (Akka). From the same source I
> quote the following.
> 
> 'We are about to shift from this most remote place of banishment
> (Adrianople) unto the prison of Acre. And, according to what they say,
> it is assuredly the most desolate of the cities of the world, the most
> unsightly of them in appearance, the most detestable in climate, and
> the foulest in water.'
> 
> It is true, the sanitary condition of the city improved, so that
> Bahaites from all parts visited Akka as a holy city. Similar
> associations belong to Ḥaifa, so long the residence of the saintly
> son of a saintly father.
> 
> If there has been any prophet in recent times, it is to Baha-'ullah
> that we must go. Pretenders like Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel and Muḥammad are
> quickly unmasked. Character is the final judge. Baha-'ullah was a man
> of the highest class — that of prophets. But he was free from the last
> infirmity of noble minds, and would certainly not have separated
> himself from others. He would have understood the saying, 'Would God
> all the Lord's people were prophets.' What he does say, however, is
> just as fine, 'I do not desire lordship over others; I desire all men
> to be even as I am.'
> 
> He spent his later years in delivering his message, and setting forth
> the ideals and laws of the New Jerusalem. In 1892 he passed within the
> veil.
> 
> PART III
> 
> BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL (continued)
> 
> ṢUBḤ-I-EZEL (OR AZAL)
> 
> 'He is a scion of one of the noble families of Persia. His father was
> accomplished, wealthy, and much respected, and enjoyed the high
> consideration of the King and nobles of Persia. His mother died when
> he was a child. His father thereupon entrusted him to the keeping of
> his honourable spouse, [Footnote: NH, pp. 374 ff.] saying, "Do
> you take care of this child, and see that your handmaids attend to him
> properly."' This 'honourable spouse' is, in the context, called 'the
> concubine' — apparently a second wife is meant. At any rate her son was
> no less honoured than if he had been the son of the chief or favourite
> wife; he was named Ḥuseyn 'Ali, and his young half-brother was named
> Yaḥya.
> 
> According to Mirza Jani, the account which the history contains was
> given him by Mirza Ḥuseyn 'Ali's half-brother, who represents that
> the later kindness of his own mother to the young child Yaḥya was
> owing to a prophetic dream which she had, and in which the Apostle of
> God and the King of Saintship figured as the child's protectors.
> Evidently this part of the narrative is imaginative, and possibly it
> is the work of Mirza Jani. But there is no reason to doubt that what
> follows is based more or less on facts derived from Mirza Ḥuseyn
> 'Ali. 'I busied myself,' says the latter, 'with the instruction of
> [Yaḥya]. The signs of his natural excellence and goodness of
> disposition were apparent in the mirror of his being. He ever loved
> gravity of demeanour, silence, courtesy, and modesty, avoiding the
> society of other children and their behaviour. I did not, however,
> know that he would become the possessor of [so high] a station. He
> studied Persian, but made little progress in Arabic. He wrote a good
> nasta'lik hand, and was very fond of the poems of the mystics.'
> The facts may be decked out.
> 
> Mirza Jani himself only met Mirza Yaḥya once. He describes him as
> 'an amiable child.' [Footnote: NH, p. 376.] Certainly, we can
> easily suppose that he retained a childlike appearance longer than
> most, for he early became a mystic, and a mystic is one whose
> countenance is radiant with joy. This, indeed, may be the reason why
> they conferred on him the name, 'Dawn of Eternity.' He never saw the
> Bāb, but when his 'honoured brother' would read the Master's
> writings in a circle of friends, Mirza Yaḥya used to listen, and
> conceived a fervent love for the inspired author. At the time of the
> Manifestation of the Bāb he was only fourteen, but very soon after,
> he, like his brother, took the momentous step of becoming a Bābī,
> and resolved to obey the order of the Bāb for his followers to
> proceed to Khurasan. So, 'having made for himself a knapsack, and got
> together a few necessaries,' he set out as an evangelist, 'with
> perfect trust in his Beloved,' somewhat as S. Teresa started from her
> home at Avila to evangelize the Moors. 'But when his brother was
> informed of this, he sent and prevented him.' [Footnote: NH,
> p. 44.]
> 
> Compensation, however, was not denied him. Some time after, Yaḥya
> made an expedition in company with some of his relations, making
> congenial friends, and helping to strengthen the Bābī cause. He
> was now not far off the turning-point in his life.
> 
> Not long after occurred a lamentable set-back to the cause — the
> persecution and massacre which followed the attempt on the Shah's life
> by an unruly Bābī in August 1852. He himself was in great danger,
> but felt no call to martyrdom, and set out in the disguise of a
> dervish [Footnote: TN, p. 374.] in the same direction as his
> elder brother, reaching Baghdad somewhat later. There, among the
> Bābī refugees, he found new and old friends who adhered closely to
> the original type of theosophic doctrine; an increasing majority,
> however, were fascinated by a much more progressive teacher. The
> Ezelite history known as Hasht Bihisht ('Eight Paradises')
> gives the names of the chief members of the former school, [Footnote:
> TN, p. 356.] including Sayyid Muḥammad of Isfahan, and
> states that, perceiving Mirza Ḥuseyn 'Ali's innovating tendencies,
> they addressed to him a vigorous remonstrance.
> 
> It was, in fact, an ecclesiastical crisis, as the authors of the
> Traveller's Narrative, as well as the Ezelite historian,
> distinctly recognize. Baha-'ullah, too, — to give him his nobler
> name — endorses this view when he says, 'Then, in secret, the Sayyid of
> Isfahan circumvented him, and together they did that which caused a
> great calamity.' It was, therefore, indeed a crisis, and the chief
> blame is laid on Sayyid Muḥammad. [Footnote: TN, p. 94. 'He
> (i.e. Sayyid Muḥammad) commenced a secret intrigue, and fell
> to tempting Mirza Yaḥya, saying, "The fame of this sect hath risen
> high in the world; neither dread nor danger remaineth, nor is there
> any fear or need for caution before you."'] Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel is still
> a mere youth and easily imposed upon; the Sayyid ought to have known
> better than to tempt him, for a stronger teacher was needed in this
> period of disorganization than the Ezelites could produce. Mirza
> Yaḥya was not up to the leadership, nor was he entitled to place
> himself above his much older brother, especially when he was bound by
> the tie of gratitude. 'Remember,' says Baha-'ullah, 'the favour of thy
> master, when we brought thee up during the nights and days for the
> service of the Religion. Fear God, and be of those who repent. Grant
> that thine affair is dubious unto me; is it dubious unto thyself?' How
> gentle is this fraternal reproof!
> 
> There is but little more to relate that has not been already told in
> the sketch of Baha-'ullah. He was, at any rate, harmless in Cyprus,
> and had no further opportunity for religious assassination. One
> cannot help regretting that his sun went down so stormily. I return
> therefore to the question of the honorific names of Mirza Yaḥya,
> after which I shall refer to the singular point of the crystal coffin
> and to the moral character of Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel.
> 
> Among the names and titles which the Ezelite book called Eight
> Paradises declares to have been conferred by the Bāb on his
> young disciple are Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel (or Azal), Baha-'ullah, and the
> strange title Mir'at (Mirror). The two former — 'Dawn of
> Eternity' and 'Splendour of God' — are referred to elsewhere. The third
> properly belongs to a class of persons inferior to the 'Letters of the
> Living,' and to this class Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel, by his own admission,
> belongs. The title Mir'at, therefore, involves some limitation of
> Ezel's dignity, and its object apparently is to prevent
> Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel from claiming to be 'He whom God will make manifest.'
> That is, the Bāb in his last years had an intuition that the eternal
> day would not be ushered into existence by this impractical nature.
> 
> How, then, came the Bāb to give Mirza Yaḥya such a name? Purely
> from cabbalistic reasons which do not concern us here. It was a
> mistake which only shows that the Bāb was not infallible. Mirza
> Yaḥya had no great part to play in the ushering-in of the new
> cycle. Elsewhere the Bāb is at the pains to recommend the elder of
> the half-brothers to attend to his junior's writing and spelling.
> [Footnote: The Tablets (letters) are in the British Museum collection,
> in four books of Ezel, who wrote the copies at Baha-'ullah's
> dictation. The references are — I., No. 6251, p. 162; II., No. 5111,
> p. 253, to which copy Rizwan Ali, son of Ezel, has appended 'The
> brother of the Fruit' (Ezel); III., No. 6254, p. 236; IV., No. 6257,
> p. 158.] Now it was, of course, worth while to educate Mirza Yaḥya,
> whose feebleness in Arabic grammar was scandalous, but can we imagine
> Baha-'ullah and all the other 'letters' being passed over by the Bāb
> in favour of such an imperfectly educated young man? The so-called
> 'nomination' is a bare-faced forgery.
> 
> The statement of Gobineau that Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel belonged to the
> 'Letters of the Living' of the First Unity is untrustworthy.
> [Footnote: Fils du Loup, p. 156 n.3.] M. Hippolyte Dreyfus has
> favoured me with a reliable list of the members of the First Unity,
> which I have given elsewhere, and which does not contain the name of
> Mirza Yaḥya. At the same time, the Bāb may have admitted him into
> the second hierarchy of 18[19]. [Footnote: Fils du Loup,
> p. 163 n.1. 'The eighteen Letters of Life had each a mirror
> which represented it, and which was called upon to replace it if it
> disappeared. There are, therefore, 18 Letters of Life and 18 Mirrors,
> which constituted two distinct Unities.'] Considering that Mirza
> Yaḥya was regarded as a 'return' of Ḳuddus, some preferment may
> conceivably have found its way to him. It was no contemptible
> distinction to be a member of the Second Unity, i.e. to be one
> of those who reflected the excellences of the older 'Letters of the
> Living.' As a member of the Second Unity and the accepted reflexion
> of Ḳuddus, Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel may have been thought of as a director of
> affairs together with the obviously marked-out agent (wali),
> Baha-'ullah. We are not told, however, that Mirza Yaḥya assumed
> either the title of Bāb (Gate) or that of Nuḳṭa (Point).
> [Footnote: Others, however, give it him (TN, p. 353).]
> 
> I must confess that Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel's account of the fortune of the
> Bāb's relics appears to me, as well as to M. Nicolas, [Footnote:
> AMB, p. 380 n.] unsatisfactory and (in one point) contradictory.
> How, for instance, did he get possession of the relics? And, is there
> any independent evidence for the intermingling of the parts of the two
> corpses? How did he procure a crystal coffin to receive the relics?
> How comes it that there were Bahaites at the time of the Bāb's
> death, and how was Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel able to conceal the crystal coffin,
> etc., from his brother Baha-'ullah?
> 
> Evidently Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel has changed greatly since the time when both
> the brothers (half-brothers) were devoted, heart and soul, to the
> service of the Bāb. It is this moral transformation which vitiates
> Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel's assertions. Can any one doubt this? Surely the best
> authorities are agreed that the sense of historical truth is very
> deficient among the Persians. Now Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel was in some respects
> a typical Persian; that is how I would explain his deviations from
> strict truth. It may be added that the detail of the crystal coffin
> can be accounted for. In the Arabic Bayan, among other injunctions
> concerning the dead, [Footnote: Le Beyan Arabi (Nicolas),
> p. 252; similarly, p. 54.] it is said: 'As for your dead, inter them
> in crystal, or in cut and polished stones. It is possible that this
> may become a peace for your heart.' This precept suggested to
> Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel his extraordinary statement.
> 
> Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel had an imaginative and possibly a partly mystic
> nature. As a Manifestation of God he may have thought himself entitled
> to remove harmful people, even his own brother. He did not ask himself
> whether he might not be in error in attaching such importance to his
> own personality, and whether any vision could override plain
> morality. He was mistaken, and I hold that the Bāb was
> mistaken in appointing (if he really did so) Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel as a
> nominal head of the Bābīs when the true, although temporary
> vice-gerent was Baha-'ullah. For Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel was a consummate
> failure; it is too plain that the Bab did not always, like Jesus and
> like the Buddha, know what was in man.
> 
> SUBSEQUENT DISCOVERIES
> 
> The historical work of the Ezelite party, called The Eight
> Paradises, makes Ezel nineteen years of age when he came forward
> as an expounder of religious mysteries and wrote letters to the Bāb.
> On receiving the first letter, we are told that the Bāb (or, as we
> should rather now call him, the Point) instantly prostrated himself in
> thankfulness, testifying that he was a mighty Luminary, and spoke by
> the Self-shining Light, by revelation. Imprisoned as he was at Maku,
> the Point of Knowledge could not take counsel with all his
> fellow-workers or disciples, but he sent the writings of this
> brilliant novice (if he really was so brilliant) to each of the
> 'Letters of the Living,' and to the chief believers, at the same time
> conferring on him a number of titles, including Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel ('Dawn
> of Eternity') and Baha-'ullah ('Splendour of God ').
> 
> If this statement be correct, we may plausibly hold with Professor
> E. G. Browne that Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel (Mirza Yaḥya) was advanced to the
> rank of a 'Letter of the Living,' and even that he was nominated by
> the Point as his successor. It has also become much more credible that
> the thoughts of the Point were so much centred on Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel
> that, as Ezelites say, twenty thousand of the words of the Bayan refer
> to Ezel, and that a number of precious relics of the Point were
> entrusted to his would-be successor.
> 
> But how can we venture to say that it is correct? Since Professor
> Browne wrote, much work has been done on the (real or supposed)
> written remains of Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel, and the result has been (I think)
> that the literary reputation of Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel is a mere bubble. It
> is true, the Bāb himself was not masterly, but the confusion of
> ideas and language in Ezel's literary records beggars all
> comparison. A friend of mine confirms this view which I had already
> derived from Mirza Ali Akbar. He tells me that he has acquired a
> number of letters mostly purporting to be by Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel. There is
> also, however, a letter of Baha-'ullah relative to these letters,
> addressed to the Muḥammadan mullā, the original possessor of the
> letters. In this letter Baha-'ullah repeats again and again the
> warning: 'When you consider and reflect on these letters, you will
> understand who is in truth the writer.'
> 
> I greatly fear that Lord Curzon's description of Persian
> untruthfulness may be illustrated by the career of the Great
> Pretender. The Ezelites must, of course, share the blame with their
> leader, and not the least of their disgraceful misstatements is the
> assertion that the Bāb assigned the name Baha-'ullah to the younger
> of the two half-brothers, and that Ezel had also the [non-existent]
> dignity of 'Second Point.'
> 
> This being so, I am strongly of opinion that so far from confirming
> the Ezelite view of subsequent events, the Ezelite account of
> Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel's first appearance appreciably weakens it. Something,
> however, we may admit as not improbable. It may well have gratified
> the Bāb that two representatives of an important family in
> Mazandaran had taken up his cause, and the character of these new
> adherents may have been more congenial to him than the more martial
> character of Ḳuddus.
> 
> DAYYAN
> 
> We have already been introduced to a prominent Bābī, variously
> called Asadu'llah and Dayyan; he was also a member of the hierarchy
> called 'the Letters of the Living.' He may have been a man of
> capacity, but I must confess that the event to which his name is
> specially attached indisposes me to admit that he took part in the
> so-called 'Council of Tihran.' To me he appears to have been one of
> those Bābīs who, even in critical periods, acted without
> consultation with others, and who imagined that they were absolutely
> infallible. Certainly he could never have promoted the claims of
> Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel, whose defects he had learned from that personage's
> secretary. He was well aware that Ezel was ambitious, and he thought
> that he had a better claim to the supremacy himself.
> 
> It would have been wiser, however, to have consulted Baha-'ullah, and
> to have remembered the prophecy of the Bāb, in which it was
> expressly foretold that Dayyan would believe on 'Him whom God would
> make manifest.' Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel was not slow to detect the weak point
> in Dayyan's position, who could not be at once the Expected One and a
> believer in the Expected One. [Footnote: See Ezel's own words in
> Mustaikaz, p. 6.] Dayyan, however, made up as well as he could
> for his inconsistency. He went at last to Baha-'ullah, and discussed
> the matter in all its bearings with him. The result was that with
> great public spirit he retired in favour of Baha.
> 
> The news was soon spread abroad; it was not helpful to the cause of
> Ezel. Some of the Ezelites, who had read the Christian Gospels
> (translated by Henry Martyn), surnamed Dayyan 'the Judas Iscariot of
> this people.' [Footnote: TN, p. 357.] Others, instigated
> probably by their leaders, thought it best to nip the flower in the
> bud. So by Ezelite hands Dayyan was foully slain.
> 
> It was on this occasion that Ezel vented curses and abusive language
> on his rival. The proof is only too cogent, though the two books which
> contain it are not as yet printed. [Footnote: They are both in the
> British Museum, and are called respectively Mustaikaz
> (No. 6256) and Asar-el-Ghulam (No. 6256). I am indebted for
> facts (partly) and references to MSS. to my friend Mirza 'Ali Akbar.]
> 
> MIRZA HAYDAR 'ALI
> 
> A delightful Bahai disciple — the Fra Angelico of the brethren,
> as we may call him, — Mirza Haydar 'Ali was especially interesting to
> younger visitors to Abdul Baha. One of them writes thus: 'He was a
> venerable, smiling old man, with long Persian robes and a spotlessly
> white turban. As we had travelled along, the Persian ladies had
> laughingly spoken of a beautiful young man, who, they were sure, would
> captivate me. They would make a match between us, they said.
> 
> 'This now proved to be the aged Mirza, whose kindly, humorous old eyes
> twinkled merrily as he heard what they had prophesied, and joined in
> their laughter. They did not cover before him. Afterwards the ladies
> told me something of his history. He was imprisoned for fourteen years
> during the time of the persecution. At one time, when he was being
> transferred from one prison to another, many days' journey away, he
> and his fellow-prisoner, another Bahai, were carried on donkeys, head
> downwards, with their feet and hands secured. Haydar 'Ali laughed and
> sang gaily. So they beat him unmercifully, and said, "Now, will you
> sing?" But he answered them that he was more glad than before, since
> he had been given the pleasure of enduring something for the sake of
> God.
> 
> 'He never married, and in Akka was one of the most constant and loved
> companions of Baha-'ullah. I remarked upon his cheerful appearance,
> and added, "But all you Bahais look happy." Mirza Haydar 'Ali said:
> "Sometimes we have surface troubles, but that cannot touch our
> happiness. The heart of those who belong to the Malekoot (Kingdom of
> God) is like the sea: when the wind is rough it troubles the surface
> of the water, but two metres down there is perfect calm and
> clearness."'
> 
> The preceding passage is by Miss E. S. Stevens (Fortnightly
> Review, June 1911). A friend, who has also been a guest in Abdul
> Baha's house, tells me that Haydar 'Ali is known at Akka as 'the
> Angel.'
> 
> ABDUL BAHA (ABBAS EFFENDI)
> 
> The eldest son of Baha-'ullah is our dear and venerated Abdul Baha
> ('Servant of the Splendour'), otherwise known as Abbas Effendi. He
> was born at the midnight following the day on which the Bāb made his
> declaration. He was therefore eight years old, and the sister who
> writes her recollections five, when, in August 1852, an attempt was
> made on the life of the Shah by a young Bābī, disaffected to the
> ruling dynasty. The future Abdul Baha was already conspicuous for his
> fearlessness and for his passionate devotion to his father. The
> gamins of Tihran (Teheran) might visit him as he paced to and fro,
> waiting for news from his father, but he did not mind — not he. One day
> his sister — a mere child — was returning home under her mother's care,
> and found him surrounded by a band of boys. 'He was standing in their
> midst as straight as an arrow — a little fellow, the youngest and
> smallest of the group — firmly but quietly commanding them not to lay
> their hands upon him, which, strange to say, they seemed unable to
> do.' [Footnote: Phelps, pp. 14, 15.]
> 
> This love to his father was strikingly shown during the absence of
> Baha-'ullah in the mountains, when this affectionate youth fell a prey
> to inconsolable paroxysms of grief. [Footnote: Ibid. p. 20.] At a
> later time — on the journey from Baghdad to Constantinople — Abdul Baha
> seemed to constitute himself the special attendant of his father. 'In
> order to get a little rest, he adopted the plan of riding swiftly a
> considerable distance ahead of the caravan, when, dismounting and
> causing his horse to lie down, he would throw himself on the ground
> and place his head on his horse's neck. So he would sleep until the
> cavalcade came up, when his horse would awake him by a kick, and he
> would remount.' [Footnote: Phelps, pp. 31, 32.]
> 
> In fact, in his youth he was fond of riding, and there was a time when
> he thought that he would like hunting, but 'when I saw them killing
> birds and animals, I thought that this could not be right. Then it
> occurred to me that better than hunting for animals, to kill them, was
> hunting for the souls of men to bring them to God. I then resolved
> that I would be a hunter of this sort. This was my first and last
> experience in the chase.'
> 
> 'A seeker of the souls of men.' This is, indeed, a good description of
> both father and son. Neither the one nor the other had much of what
> we call technical education, but both understood how to cast a spell
> on the soul, awakening its dormant powers. Abdul Baha had the courage
> to frequent the mosques and argue with the mullās; he used to be
> called 'the Master' par excellence, and the governor of Adrianople
> became his friend, and proved his friendship in the difficult
> negotiations connected with the removal of the Bahaites to Akka.
> [Footnote: Ibid. p. 20, n.2.]
> 
> But no one was such a friend to the unfortunate Bahaites as Abdul
> Baha. The conditions under which they lived on their arrival at Akka
> were so unsanitary that 'every one in our company fell sick excepting
> my brother, my mother, an aunt, and two others of the believers.'
> [Footnote: Phelps, pp. 47-51.] Happily Abdul Baha had in his baggage
> some quinine and bismuth. With these drugs, and his tireless nursing,
> he brought the rest through, but then collapsed himself. He was seized
> with dysentery, and was long in great danger. But even in this
> prison-city he was to find a friend. A Turkish officer had been struck
> by his unselfish conduct, and when he saw Abdul Baha brought so low he
> pleaded with the governor that a ḥakîm might be called in. This
> was permitted with the happiest result.
> 
> It was now the physician's turn. In visiting his patient he became so
> fond of him that he asked if there was nothing else he could do.
> Abdul Baha begged him to take a tablet (i.e. letter) to the Persian
> believers. Thus for two years an intercourse with the friends outside
> was maintained; the physician prudently concealed the tablets in the
> lining of his hat!
> 
> It ought to be mentioned here that the hardships of the prison-city
> were mitigated later. During the years 1895-1900 he was often allowed
> to visit Ḥaifa. Observing this the American friends built
> Baha-'ullah a house in Ḥaifa, and this led to a hardening of the
> conditions of his life. But upon the whole we may apply to him those
> ancient words:
> 
> 'He maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.'
> 
> In 1914 Abdul Baha visited Akka, living in the house of Baha-'ullah,
> near where his father was brought with wife and children and seventy
> Persian exiles forty-six years ago. But his permanent home is in
> Ḥaifa, a very simple home where, however, the call for hospitality
> never passes unheeded. 'From sunrise often till midnight he works, in
> spite of broken health, never sparing himself if there is a wrong to
> be righted, or a suffering to be relieved. His is indeed a selfless
> life, and to have passed beneath its shadow is to have been won for
> ever to the Cause of Peace and Love.'
> 
> Since 1908 Abdul Baha has been free to travel; the political victory
> of the Young Turks opened the doors of Akka, as well as of other
> political 'houses of restraint.' America, England, France, and even
> Germany have shared the benefit of his presence. It may be that he
> spoke too much; it may be that even in England his most important work
> was done in personal interviews. Educationally valuable, therefore,
> as Some Answered Questions (1908) may be, we cannot attach so much
> importance to it as to the story — the true story — of the converted
> Muḥammadan. When at home, Abdul Baha only discusses Western
> problems with visitors from the West.
> 
> The Legacy left by Baha-'ullah to his son was, it must be admitted, an
> onerous educational duty. It was contested by Muḥammad Effendi — by
> means which remind us unpleasantly of Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel, but
> unsuccessfully. Undeniably Baha-'ullah conferred on Abbas Effendi
> (Abdul Baha) the title of Centre of the Covenant, with the special
> duty annexed of the 'Expounder of the Book.' I venture to hope that
> this 'expounding' may not, in the future, extend to philosophic,
> philological, scientific, and exegetical details. Just as Jesus made
> mistakes about Moses and David, so may Baha-'ullah and Abdul Baha fall
> into error on secular problems, among which it is obvious to include
> Biblical and Ḳuranic exegesis.
> 
> It appears to me that the essence of Bahaism is not dogma, but the
> unification of peoples and religions in a certain high-minded and far
> from unpractical mysticism. I think that Abdul Baha is just as much
> devoted to mystic and yet practical religion as his father. In one of
> the reports of his talks or monologues he is introduced as saying:
> 
> 'A moth loves the light though his wings are burnt. Though his wings
> are singed, he throws himself against the flame. He does not love the
> light because it has conferred some benefits upon him. Therefore he
> hovers round the light, though he sacrifice his wings. This is the
> highest degree of love. Without this abandonment, this ecstasy, love
> is imperfect. The Lover of God loves Him for Himself, not for his own
> sake.' — From 'Abbas Effendi,' by E. S. Stevens, Fortnightly
> Review, June 1911, p. 1067.
> 
> This is, surely, the essence of mysticism. As a characteristic of the
> Church of 'the Abha' it goes back, as we have seen, to the Bāb. As a
> characteristic of the Brotherhood of the 'New Dispensation' it is
> plainly set forth by Keshab Chandra Sen. It is also Christian, and
> goes back to Paul and John. This is the hidden wisdom — the pearl of
> great price.
> 
> PART IV
> 
> BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL; AMBASSADOR TO HUMANITY
> 
> AMBASSADOR TO HUMANITY
> 
> After the loss of his father the greatest trouble which befell the
> authorized successor was the attempt made independently by
> Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel and the half-brother of Abdul Baha, Mirza Muḥammad
> 'Ali, to produce a schism in the community at Akka. Some little
> success was obtained by the latter, who did not shrink from the
> manipulation of written documents. Badi-'ullah, another half-brother,
> was for a time seduced by these dishonest proceedings, but has since
> made a full confession of his error (see Star of the West).
> 
> It is indeed difficult to imagine how an intimate of the saintly Abdul
> Baha can have 'lifted up his foot' against him, the more so as Abdul
> Baha would never defend himself, but walked straight forward on the
> appointed path. That path must have differed somewhat as the years
> advanced. His public addresses prove that through this or that
> channel he had imbibed something of humanistic and even scientific
> culture; he was a much more complete man than St. Francis of Assisi,
> who despised human knowledge. It is true he interpreted any facts
> which he gathered in the light of revealed religious truth. But he
> distinctly recognized the right of scientific research, and must have
> had some one to guide him in the tracks of modern inquiry.
> 
> The death of his father must have made a great difference to him In
> the disposal of his time. It is to this second period in his life
> that Mr. Phelps refers when he makes this statement:
> 
> 'His general order for the day is prayers and tea at sunrise, and
> dictating letters or "tablets," receiving visitors, and giving alms to
> the poor until dinner in the middle of the day. After this meal he
> takes a half-hour's siesta, spends the afternoon in making visits to
> the sick and others whom he has occasion to see about the city, and
> the evening in talking to the believers or in expounding, to any who
> wish to hear him, the Ḳuran, on which, even among Muslims, he is
> reputed to be one of the highest authorities, learned men of that
> faith frequently coming from great distances to consult him with
> regard to its interpretation.
> 
> 'He then returns to his house and works until about one o'clock over
> his correspondence. This is enormous, and would more than occupy his
> entire time, did he read and reply to all his letters personally. As
> he finds it impossible to do this, but is nevertheless determined that
> they shall all receive careful and impartial attention, he has
> recourse to the assistance of his daughter Ruha, upon whose
> intelligence and conscientious devotion to the work he can rely.
> During the day she reads and makes digests of letters received, which
> she submits to him at night.'
> 
> In his charities he is absolutely impartial; his love is like the
> divine love — it knows no bounds of nation or creed. Most of those who
> benefit by his presence are of course Muslims; many true stories are
> current among his family and intimate friends respecting them. Thus,
> there is the story of the Afghan who for twenty-four years received
> the bounty of the good Master, and greeted him with abusive
> speeches. In the twenty-fifth year, however, his obstinacy broke.
> 
> Many American and English guests have been entertained in the Master's
> house. Sometimes even he has devoted a part of his scanty leisure to
> instructing them. We must remember, however, that of Bahaism as well
> as of true Christianity it may be said that it is not a dogmatic
> system, but a life. No one, so far as my observation reaches, has
> lived the perfect life like Abdul Baha, and he tells us himself that
> he is but the reflexion of Baha-'ullah. We need not, therefore,
> trouble ourselves unduly about the opinions of God's heroes; both
> father and son in the present case have consistently discouraged
> metaphysics and theosophy, except (I presume) for such persons as have
> had an innate turn for this subject.
> 
> Once more, the love of God and the love of humanity — which Abdul Baha
> boldly says is the love of God — is the only thing that greatly
> matters. And if he favours either half of humanity in preference to
> the other, it is women folk. He has a great repugnance to the
> institution of polygamy, and has persistently refused to take a second
> wife himself, though he has only daughters. Baha-'ullah, as we have
> seen, acted differently; apparently he did not consider that the
> Islamic peoples were quite ripe for monogamy. But surely he did not
> choose the better part, as the history of Bahaism sufficiently
> shows. At any rate, the Centre of the Covenant has now spoken with no
> uncertain sound.
> 
> As we have seen, the two schismatic enterprises affected the sensitive
> nature of the true Centre of the Covenant most painfully; one thinks
> of a well-known passage in a Hebrew psalm. But he was more than
> compensated by several most encouraging events. The first was the
> larger scale on which accessions took place to the body of believers;
> from England to the United States, from India to California, in
> surprising numbers, streams of enthusiastic adherents poured in. It
> was, however, for Russia that the high honour was reserved of the
> erection of the first Bahai temple. To this the Russian Government was
> entirely favourable, because the Bahais were strictly forbidden by
> Baha-'ullah and by Abdul Baha to take part in any revolutionary
> enterprises. The temple took some years to build, but was finished at
> last, and two Persian workmen deserve the chief praise for willing
> self-sacrifice in the building. The example thus set will soon be
> followed by our kinsfolk in the United States. A large and beautiful
> site on the shores of Lake Michigan has been acquired, and the
> construction will speedily be proceeded with.
> 
> It is, in fact, the outward sign of a new era. If Baha-'ullah be our
> guide, all religions are essentially one and the same, and all human
> societies are linked By a covenant of brotherhood. Of this the Bahai
> temples — be they few, or be they many — are the symbols. No wonder that
> Abdul Baha is encouraged and consoled thereby. And yet I, as a member
> of a great world-wide historic church, cannot help feeling that our
> (mostly) ancient and beautiful abbeys and cathedrals are finer symbols
> of union in God than any which our modern builders can provide. Our
> London people, without distinction of sect, find a spiritual home in
> St. Paul's Cathedral, though this is no part of our ancient
> inheritance.
> 
> Another comfort was the creation of a mausoleum (on the site of
> Mt. Carmel above Haifa) to receive the sacred relics of the Bāb and
> of Baha-'ullah, and in the appointed time also of Abdul Baha.
> [Footnote: See the description given by Thornton Chase, In Galilee,
> pp. 63 f.] This too must be not only a comfort to the Master, but an
> attestation for all time of the continuous development of the Modern
> Social Religion.
> 
> It is this sense of historical continuity in which the Bahais appear
> to me somewhat deficient. They seem to want a calendar of saints in
> the manner of the Positivist calendar. Bahai teaching will then escape
> the danger of being not quite conscious enough of its debt to the
> past. For we have to reconcile not only divergent races and
> religions, but also antiquity and (if I may use the word) modernity. I
> may mention that the beloved Master has deigned to call me by a new
> name.[Footnote: 'Spiritual Philosopher.'] He will bear with me if I
> venture to interpret that name in a sense favourable to the claims of
> history.
> 
> The day is not far off when the details of Abdul Baha's missionary
> journeys will be admitted to be of historical importance. How gentle
> and wise he was, hundreds could testify from personal knowledge, and I
> too could perhaps say something — I will only, however, give here the
> outward framework of Abdul Baha's life, and of his apostolic journeys,
> with the help of my friend Lotfullah. I may say that it is with
> deference to this friend that in naming the Bahai leaders I use the
> capital H (He, His, Him).
> 
> Abdul Baha was born on the same night in which His Holiness the Bāb
> declared his mission, on May 23, A.D. 1844. The Master, however, eager
> for the glory of the forerunner, wishes that that day (i.e. May
> 23) be kept sacred for the declaration of His Holiness the Bāb, and
> has appointed another day to be kept by Bahais as the Feast of
> Appointment of the CENTRE OF THE COVENANT — Nov. 26. It should be
> mentioned that the great office and dignity of Centre of the Covenant
> was conferred on Abdul Baha Abbas Effendi by His father.
> 
> It will be in the memory of most that the Master was retained a
> prisoner under the Turkish Government at Akka until Sept. 1908, when
> the doors of His prison were opened by the Young Turks. After this He
> stayed in Akka and Haifa for some time, and then went to Egypt, where
> He sojourned for about two years. He then began His great European
> journey. He first visited London. On His way thither He spent some few
> weeks in Geneva. [Footnote: Mr. H. Holley has given a classic
> description of Abdul Baha, whom he met at Thonon on the shores of Lake
> Leman, in his Modern Social Religion, Appendix I.] On Monday,
> Sept. 3, 1911, He arrived in London; the great city was honoured by a
> visit of twenty-six days. During His stay in London He made a visit
> one afternoon to Vanners' in Byfleet on Sept. 9, where He spoke to a
> number of working women.
> 
> He also made a week-end visit to Clifton (Bristol) from Sept. 23,
> 1911, to Sept. 25.
> 
> On Sept. 29, 1911, He started from London and went to Paris and stayed
> there for about two months, and from there He went to Alexandria.
> 
> His second journey consumed much time, but the fragrance of God
> accompanied Him. On March 25, 1912, He embarked from Alexandria for
> America. He made a long tour in almost all the more important cities
> of the United States and Canada.
> 
> On Saturday, Dec. 14, 1912, the Master — Abdul Baha — arrived in
> Liverpool from New York. He stayed there for two days. On the
> following Monday, Dec. 16, 1912, He arrived in London. There He stayed
> till Jan. 21, 1913, when His Holiness went to Paris.
> 
> During His stay in London He visited Oxford (where He and His
> party — of Persians mainly — were the guests of Professor and Mrs.
> Cheyne), Edinburgh, Clifton, and Woking. It is fitting to notice here
> that the audience at Oxford, though highly academic, seemed to be
> deeply interested, and that Dr. Carpenter made an admirable speech.
> 
> On Jan. 6, 1913, Abdul Baha went to Edinburgh, and stayed at
> Mrs. Alexander Whyte's. In the course of these three days He
> addressed the Theosophical Society, the Esperanto Society, and many of
> the students, including representatives of almost all parts of the
> East. He also spoke to two or three other large meetings in the bleak
> but receptive 'northern Athens.' It is pleasant to add that here, as
> elsewhere, many seekers came and had private interviews with Him. It
> was a fruitful season, and He then returned to London.
> 
> On Wednesday, Jan. 15, 1912, He paid another visit to Clifton, and in
> the evening spoke to a large gathering at 8.30 P.M. at Clifton Guest
> House. On the following day He returned to London.
> 
> On Friday, Jan. 17, Abdul Baha went to the Muhammadan Mosque at
> Woking. There, in the Muhammadan Mosque He spoke to a large audience
> of Muhammadans and Christians who gathered there from different parts
> of the world.
> 
> On Jan. 21, 1913, this glorious time had an end. He started by express
> train for Paris from Victoria Station. He stayed at the French capital
> till the middle of June, addressing (by the help of His interpreter)
> 'all sorts and conditions of men.' Once more Paris proved how
> thoroughly it deserved the title of 'city of ideas.' During this time
> He visited Stuttgart, Budapest, and Vienna. At Budapest He had the
> great pleasure of meeting Arminius Vambery, who had become virtually a
> strong adherent of the cause.
> 
> Will the Master be able to visit India? He has said Himself that some
> magnetic personality might draw Him. Will the Brahmaists be pleased to
> see Him? At any rate, our beloved Master has the requisite tact. Could
> Indians and English be really united except by the help of the Bahais?
> The following Tablet (Epistle) was addressed by the Master to the
> Bahais in London, who had sent Him a New Year's greeting on March 21,
> 1914: —
> 
> 'HE IS GOD!
> 
> 'O shining Bahais! Your New Year's greeting brought infinite joy and
> fragrance, and became the cause of our daily rejoicing and gladness.
> 
> 'Thanks be to God! that in that city which is often dark because of
> cloud, mist, and smoke, such bright candles (as you) are glowing,
> whose emanating light is God's guidance, and whose influencing warmth
> is as the burning Fire of the Love of God.
> 
> 'This your social gathering on the Great Feast is like unto a Mother
> who will in future beget many Heavenly Feasts. So that all eyes may be
> amazed as to what effulgence the true Sun of the East has shed on the
> West.
> 
> 'How It has changed the Occidentals into Orientals, and illumined the
> Western Horizon with the Luminary of the East!
> 
> 'Then, in thanksgiving for this great gift, favour, and grace, rejoice
> ye and be exceeding glad, and engage ye in praising and sanctifying
> the Lord of Hosts.
> 
> 'Hearken to the song of the Highest Concourse, and by the melody of
> Abha's Kingdom lift ye up the cry of "Ya Baha-'ul-Abha!"
> 
> 'So that Abdul Baha and all the Eastern Bahais may give themselves to
> praise of the Loving Lord, and cry aloud, "Most Pure and Holy is the
> Lord, Who has changed the West into the East with lights of Guidance!"
> 
> 'Upon you all be the Glory of the Most Glorious One!'
> 
> Alas! the brightness of the day has been darkened for the Bahai
> Brotherhood all over the world. Words fail me for the adequate
> expression of my sorrow at the adjournment of the hope of Peace. Yet
> the idea has been expressed, and cannot return to the Thinker void of
> results. The estrangement of races and religions is only the fruit of
> ignorance, and their reconciliation is only a question of
> time. Sursum corda.
> 
> PART V
> 
> A SERIES OF ILLUSTRATIVE STUDIES BEARING ON COMPARATIVE RELIGION
> 
> EIGHTEEN (OR, WITH THE BĀB, NINETEEN) LETTERS OF THE LIVING OF THE
> FIRST UNITY
> 
> The Letters of the Living were the most faithful and most gifted of
> the disciples of the so-called Gate or Point. See Traveller's
> Narrative, Introd. p. xvi.
> 
> Babu'l Bāb.
> 
> A. Muḥammad Hasan, his brother.
> 
> A. Muḥammad Baghir, his nephew.
> 
> A. Mulla Ali Bustani.
> 
> Janabe Mulla Khodabacksh Qutshani.
> 
> Janabe Hasan Bajastani.
> 
> Janabe A. Sayyid Hussain Yardi.
> 
> Janabe Mirza Muḥammad Ruzi Khan.
> 
> Janabe Sayyïd Hindi.
> 
> Janabe Mulla Maḥmud Khoyï.
> 
> Janabe Mulla Jalil Urumiyi.
> 
> Janabe Mulla Muḥammad Abdul Maraghaï.
> 
> Janabe Mulla Baghir Tabrizi.
> 
> Janabe Mulla Yusif Ardabili.
> 
> Mirza Hadi, son of Mirza Abdu'l Wahab Qazwini.
> 
> Janabe Mirza Muḥammad 'Ali Qazwini.
> 
> Janabi Tahirah.
> 
> Hazrati Quddus.
> 
> TITLES OF THE BĀB, ETC.
> 
> There is a puzzling variation in the claims of 'Ali
> Muḥammad. Originally he represented himself as the Gate of the City
> of Knowledge, or — which is virtually the same thing — as the Gate
> leading to the invisible twelfth Imâm who was also regarded as the
> Essence of Divine Wisdom. It was this Imâm who was destined as
> Ḳa'im (he who is to arise) to bring the whole world by force into
> subjection to the true God. Now there was one person who was obviously
> far better suited than 'Ali Muḥammad (the Bāb) to carry out the
> programme for the Ḳa'im, and that was Hazrat-i'-Ḳuddus (to whom I
> have devoted a separate section). For some time, therefore, before the
> death of Ḳuddus, 'Ali Muḥammad abstained from writing or speaking
> ex cathedra, as the returned Ḳa'im; he was probably called
> 'the Point.' After the death of this heroic personage, however, he
> undoubtedly resumed his previous position.
> 
> On this matter Mr. Leslie Johnston remarks that the alternation of the
> two characters in the same person is as foreign to Christ's thought as
> it is essential to the Bāb's. [Footnote: Some Alternatives to
> Jesus Christ, p. 117.] This is perfectly true. The divine-human
> Being called the Messiah has assumed human form; the only development
> of which he is capable is self-realization. The Imāmate is little
> more than a function, but the Messiahship is held by a person, not as
> a mere function, but as a part of his nature. This is not an unfair
> criticism. The alternation seems to me, as well as to Mr. Johnston,
> psychologically impossible. But all the more importance attaches to
> the sublime figure of Baha-'ullah, who realized his oneness with God,
> and whose forerunner is like unto him (the Bāb).
> 
> The following utterance of the Bāb is deserving of consideration:
> 
> 'Then, verily, if God manifested one like thee, he would inherit the
> cause from God, the One, the Unique. But if he doth not appear, then
> know that verily God hath not willed that he should make himself
> known. Leave the cause, then, to him, the educator of you all, and of
> the whole world.'
> 
> The reference to Baha-'ullah is unmistakable. He is 'one like thee,'
> i.e. Ezel's near kinsman, and is a consummate educator, and
> God's Manifestation.
> 
> Another point is also important. The Bāb expressed a wish that his
> widow should not marry again. Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel, however, who was not,
> even in theory, a monogamist, lost no time in taking the lady for a
> wife. He cannot have been the Bāb's successor.
> 
> LETTER OF ONE EXPECTING MARTYRDOM
> 
> [Footnote: The letter is addressed to a brother.]
> 
> 'He is the Compassionate [superscription]. O thou who art my
> Ḳibla! My condition, thanks to God, has no fault, and "to every
> difficulty succeedeth ease." You have written that this matter has no
> end. What matter, then, has any end? We, at least, have no discontent
> in this matter; nay, rather we are unable sufficiently to express our
> thanks for this favour. The end of this matter is to be slain in the
> way of God, and O! what happiness is this! The will of God will come
> to pass with regard to His servants, neither can human plans avert the
> Divine decree. What God wishes comes to pass, and there is no power
> and no strength, but in God. O thou who art my Ḳibla! the end of the
> world is death: "every soul tastes of death." If the appointed fate
> which God (mighty and glorious is He) hath decreed overtake me, then
> God is the guardian of my family, and thou art mine executor: behave
> in such wise as is pleasing to God, and pardon whatever has proceeded
> from me which may seem lacking in courtesy, or contrary to the respect
> due from juniors: and seek pardon for me from all those of my
> household, and commit me to God. God is my portion, and how good is He
> as a guardian!'
> 
> THE BAHAI VIEW OF RELIGION
> 
> The practical purpose of the Revelation of Baha-'ullah is thus
> described on authority:
> 
> To unite all the races of the world in perfect harmony, which can only
> be done, in my opinion, on a religious basis.
> 
> Warfare must be abolished, and international difficulties be settled
> by a Council of Arbitration. This may require further consideration.
> 
> It is commanded that every one should practise some trade, art, or
> profession. Work done in a faithful spirit of service is accepted as
> an act of worship.
> 
> Mendicity is strictly forbidden, but work must be provided for all. A
> brilliant anticipation!
> 
> There is to be no priesthood apart from the laity. Early Christianity
> and Buddhism both ratify this. Teachers and investigators would, of
> course, always be wanted.
> 
> The practice of Asceticism, living the hermit life or in secluded
> communities, is prohibited.
> 
> Monogamy is enjoined. Baha-'ullah, no doubt, had two wives. This was
> 'for the hardness of men's hearts'; he desired the spread of monogamy.
> 
> Education for all, boys and girls equally, is commanded as a religious
> duty — the childless should educate a child.
> 
> The equality of men and women is asserted.
> 
> A universal language as a means of international communication is to
> be formed. Abdul Baha is much in favour of Esperanto, the noble
> inventor of which sets all other inventors a worthy example of
> unselfishness.
> 
> Gambling, the use of alcoholic liquors as a beverage, the taking of
> opium, cruelty to animals and slavery, are forbidden.
> 
> A certain portion of a man's income must be devoted to charity. The
> administration of charitable funds, the provision for widows and for
> the sick and disabled, the education and care of orphans, will be
> arranged and managed by elected Councils.
> 
> THE NEW DISPENSATION
> 
> The contrast between the Old and the New is well exemplified in the
> contrasting lives of Rammohan Roy, Debendranath Tagore, and Keshab
> Chandra Sen. As an Indian writer says: 'The sweep of the New
> Dispensation is broader than the Brahmo Samaj. The whole religious
> world is in the grasp of a great purpose which, in its fresh unfolding
> of the new age, we call the New Dispensation. The New Dispensation is
> not a local phenomenon; it is not confined to Calcutta or to India;
> our Brotherhood is but one body whose thought it functions to-day; it
> is not topographical, it is operative in all the world-religions.'
> [Footnote: Cp. Auguste Sabatier on the Religion of the Spirit,
> and Mozoomdar's work on the same subject.]
> 
> 'No full account has yet been given to the New Brotherhood's work and
> experiences during that period. Men of various ranks came, drawn
> together by the magnetic personality of the man they loved, knowing he
> loved them all with a larger love; his leadership was one of love, and
> they caught the contagion of his conviction.... And so, if I were to
> write at length, I could cite one illustration after another of
> transformed lives — lives charged with a new spirit shown in the work
> achieved, the sufferings borne, the persecutions accepted, deep
> spiritual gladness experienced in the midst of pain, the fellowship
> with God realized day after day' (Benoyendra Nath Sen, The Spirit
> of the New Dispensation). The test of a religion is its capacity
> for producing noble men and women.
> 
> MANIFESTATION
> 
> God Himself in His inmost essence cannot be either imagined or
> comprehended, cannot be named. But in some measure He can be known by
> His Manifestations, chief among whom is that Heavenly Being known
> variously as Michael, the Son of man, the Logos, and Sofia. These
> names are only concessions to the weakness of the people. This
> Heavenly Being is sometimes spoken of allusively as the Face or Name,
> the Gate and the Point (of Knowledge). See p. 174.
> 
> The Manifestations may also be called Manifesters or Revealers. They
> make God known to the human folk so far as this can be done by
> Mirrors, and especially (as Tagore has most beautifully shown) in His
> inexhaustible love. They need not have the learning of the schools.
> They would mistake their office if they ever interfered with
> discoveries or problems of criticism or of science.
> 
> The Bāb announced that he himself owed nothing to any earthly
> teacher. A heavenly teacher, however, if he touched the subject, would
> surely have taught the Bāb better Arabic. It is a psychological
> problem how the Bāb can lay so much stress on his 'signs' (ayât) or
> verses as decisive of the claims of a prophet. One is tempted to
> surmise that in the Bāb's Arabic work there has been collaboration.
> 
> What constitutes 'signs' or verses? Prof. Browne gives this answer:
> [Footnote: E. G. Browne, JRAS, 1889, p. 155.] 'Eloquence of
> diction, rapidity of utterance, knowledge unacquired by study, claim
> to divine origin, power to affect and control the minds of men.' I do
> not myself see how the possession of an Arabic which some people think
> very poor and others put down to the help of an amanuensis, can be
> brought within the range of Messianic lore. It is spiritual truth that
> we look for from the Bāb. Secular wisdom, including the knowledge of
> languages, we turn over to the company of trained scholars.
> 
> Spiritual truth, then, is the domain of the prophets of Bahaism. A
> prophet who steps aside from the region in which he is at home is
> fallible like other men. Even in the sphere of exposition of sacred
> texts the greatest of prophets is liable to err. In this way I am
> bound to say that Baha-'ullah himself has made mistakes, and can we be
> surprised that the almost equally venerated Abdul Baha has made many
> slips? It is necessary to make this pronouncement, lest possible
> friends should be converted into seeming enemies. The claim of
> infallibility has done harm enough already in the Roman Church!
> 
> Baha-'ullah may no doubt be invoked on the other side. This is the
> absolutely correct statement of his son Abdul Baha. 'He (Baha-'ullah)
> entered into a Covenant and Testament with the people. He appointed a
> Centre of the Covenant, He wrote with his own pen ... appointing him
> the Expounder of the Book.' [Footnote: Star of the West, 1913,
> p. 238.] But Baha-'ullah is as little to be followed on questions of
> philology as Jesus Christ, who is not a manifester of science but of
> heavenly lore. The question of Sinlessness I postpone.
> 
> GREAT MANIFESTATION; WHEN?
> 
> I do not myself think that the interval of nineteen years for the
> Great Manifestation was meant by the Bāb to be taken literally. The
> number 19 may be merely a conventional sacred number and have no
> historical significance. I am therefore not to be shaken by a
> reference to these words of the Bāb, quoted in substance by Mirza
> Abu'l Fazl, that after nine years all good will come to his followers,
> or by the Mirza's comment that it was nine years after the Bāb's
> Declaration that Baha-'ullah gathered together the Bābīs at
> Baghdad, and began to teach them, and that at the end of the
> nineteenth year from the Declaration of the Bāb, Baha-'ullah
> declared his Manifestation.
> 
> Another difficulty arises. The Bāb does not always say the same
> thing. There are passages of the Persian Bayan which imply an interval
> between his own theophany and the next parallel to that which
> separated his own theophany from Muḥammad's. He says, for instance,
> in Waḥid II. Bāb 17, according to Professor Browne,
> 
> 'If he [whom God shall manifest] shall appear in the number of Ghiyath
> (1511) and all shall enter in, not one shall remain in the Fire. If He
> tarry [until the number of] Mustaghath (2001), all shall enter in, not
> one shall remain in the Fire.' [Footnote: History of the
> Bābīs, edited by E. G. Browne; Introd. p. xxvi. Traveller's
> Narrative (Browne), Introd. p. xvii. ]
> 
> I quote next from Waḥid III. Bāb 15: —
> 
> 'None knoweth [the time of] the Manifestation save God: whenever it
> takes place, all must believe and must render thanks to God, although
> it is hoped of His Grace that He will come ere [the number of]
> Mustaghath, and will raise up the Word of God on his part. And the
> Proof is only a sign [or verse], and His very Existence proves Him,
> since all also is known by Him, while He cannot be known by what is
> below Him. Glorious is God above that which they ascribe to Him.'
> [Footnote: History of the Bābīs, Introd. p. xxx.]
> 
> Elsewhere (vii. 9), we are told vaguely that the Advent of the
> Promised One will be sudden, like that of the Point or Bāb (iv. 10);
> it is an element of the great Oriental myth of the winding-up of the
> old cycle and the opening of a new. [Footnote: Cheyne, Mines of
> Isaiah Re-explored, Index, 'Myth.']
> 
> A Bahai scholar furnishes me with another passage —
> 
> 'God knoweth in what age He will manifest him. But from the springing
> (beginning) of the manifestation to its head (perfection) are nineteen
> years.' [Footnote: Bayan, Waḥid, III., chap. iii.]
> 
> This implies a preparation period of nineteen years, and if we take
> this statement with a parallel one, we can, I think, have no doubt
> that the Bāb expected the assumption, not immediate however, of the
> reins of government by the Promised One. The parallel statement is as
> follows, according to the same Bahai scholar.
> 
> 'God only knoweth his age. But the time of his proclamation after mine
> is the number Waḥid (=19, cabbalistically), and whenever he cometh
> during this period, accept him.' [Footnote: Bayan, Brit. Mus. Text,
> p. 151.]
> 
> Another passage may be quoted by the kindness of Mirza 'Ali Akbar. It
> shows that the Bāb has doubts whether the Great Manifestation will
> occur in the lifetime of Baha-'ullah and Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel (one or other
> of whom is addressed by the Bāb in this letter). The following words
> are an extract: —
> 
> 'And if God hath not manifested His greatness in thy days, then act in
> accordance with that which hath descended (i.e. been revealed),
> and never change a word in the verses of God.
> 
> 'This is the order of God in the Sublime Book; ordain in accordance
> with that which hath descended, and never change the orders of God,
> that men may not make variations in God's religion.'
> 
> NON-FINALITY OF REVELATION
> 
> Not less important than the question of the Bāb's appointment of his
> successor is that of his own view of the finality or non-finality of
> his revelation. The Bayan does not leave this in uncertainty. The
> Ḳur'an of the Bābīs expressly states that a new Manifestation
> takes place whenever there is a call for it (ii. 9, vi. 13);
> successive revelations are like the same sun arising day after day
> (iv. 12, vii. 15, viii. 1). The Bāb's believers therefore are not
> confined to a revelation constantly becoming less and less applicable
> to the spiritual wants of the present age. And very large
> discretionary powers are vested in 'Him whom He will make manifest,'
> extending even to the abrogation of the commands of the Bayan
> (iii. 3).
> 
> EARLY CHRISTIANITY AND BAHAISM AND BUDDHISM
> 
> The comparisons sometimes drawn between the history of nascent
> Christianity and that of early Bahaism are somewhat misleading. 'Ali
> Muḥammad of Shiraz was more than a mere forerunner of the Promised
> Saviour; he was not merely John the Baptist — he was the Messiah,
> All-wise and Almighty, himself. True, he was of a humble mind, and
> recognized that what he might ordain would not necessarily be suitable
> for a less transitional age, but the same may be said — if our written
> records may be trusted — of Jesus Christ. For Jesus was partly his own
> forerunner, and antiquated his own words.
> 
> It is no doubt a singular coincidence that both 'Ali Muḥammad and
> Jesus Christ are reported to have addressed these words to a disciple:
> 'To-day thou shalt be with me in Paradise.' But if the Crucifixion is
> unhistorical — and there is, I fear, considerable probability that it
> is — what is the value of this coincidence?
> 
> More important is it that both in early Christianity and in early
> Bahaism we find a conspicuous personage who succeeds in disengaging
> the faith from its particularistic envelope. In neither case is this
> personage a man of high culture or worldly position. [Footnote:
> Leslie Johnston's phraseology (Some Alternatives to Jesus
> Christ, p. 114) appears to need revision.] This, I say, is most
> important. Paul and Baha-'ullah may both be said to have transformed
> their respective religions. Yet there is a difference between
> them. Baha-'ullah and his son Abdul-Baha after him were personal
> centres of the new covenant; Paul was not.
> 
> This may perhaps suffice for the parallels — partly real, partly
> supposed — between early Christianity and early Bahaism. I will now
> refer to an important parallel between the development of Christianity
> and that of Buddhism. It is possible to deny that the Christianity of
> Augustine [Footnote: Professor Anesaki of Tokio regards Augustine as
> the Christian Nagarjuna.] deserves its name, on the ground of the
> wide interval which exists between his religious doctrines and the
> beliefs of Jesus Christ. Similarly, one may venture to deny that the
> Mahâyâna developments of Buddhism are genuine products of the
> religion because they contain some elements derived from other Indian
> systems. In both cases, however, grave injustice would be done by any
> such assumption. It is idle 'to question the historical value of an
> organism which is now full of vitality and active in all its
> functions, and to treat it like an archaeological object, dug out from
> the depths of the earth, or like a piece of bric-à-brac, discovered
> in the ruins of an ancient royal palace. Mahâyânaism is not an
> object of historical curiosity. Its vitality and activity concern us
> in our daily life. It is a great spiritual organism. What does it
> matter, then, whether or not Mahâyânaism is the genuine teaching of
> the Buddha?' [Footnote: Suzuki, Outlines of Mahâyâna
> Buddhism, p. 15.] The parallel between the developments of these
> two great religions is unmistakable. We Christians insist — and rightly
> so — on the 'genuineness' of our own religion in spite of the numerous
> elements unknown to its 'Founder.' The northern Buddhism is equally
> 'genuine,' being equally true to the spirit of the Buddha.
> 
> It is said that Christianity, as a historical religion, contrasts with
> the most advanced Buddhism. But really it is no loss to the Buddhist
> Fraternity if the historical element in the life of the Buddha has
> retired into the background. A cultured Buddhist of the northern
> section could not indeed admit that he has thrust the history of
> Gautama entirely aside, but he would affirm that his religion was more
> philosophical and practically valuable than that of his southern
> brothers, inasmuch as it transcended the boundary of history. In a
> theological treatise called Chin-kuang-ming we read as follows:
> 'It would be easier to count every drop of water in the ocean, or
> every grain of matter that composes a vast mountain than to reckon the
> duration of the life of Buddha.' 'That is to say, Buddha's life does
> not belong to the time-series: Buddha is the "I Am" who is above
> time.' [Footnote: Johnston, Buddhist China, p. 114.] And is
> not the Christ of Christendom above the world of time and space?
> Lastly, must not both Christians and Buddhists admit that among the
> Christs or Buddhas the most godlike are those embodied in narratives
> as Jesus and Gautama?
> 
> WESTERN AND EASTERN RELIGION
> 
> Religion, as conceived by most Christians of the West, is very
> different from the religion of India. Three-quarters of it (as Matthew
> Arnold says) has to do with conduct; it is a code with a very positive
> and keen divine sanction. Few of its adherents, indeed, have any idea
> of the true position of morality, and that the code of Christian
> ethics expresses barely one half of the religious idea. The other half
> (or even more) is expressed in assurances of holy men that God dwells
> within us, or even that we are God. A true morality helps us to
> realize this — morality is not to be tied up and labelled, but is
> identical with the cosmic as well as individual principle of Love.
> Sin (i.e. an unloving disposition) is to be avoided because it
> blurs the outlines of the Divine Form reflected, however dimly, in
> each of us.
> 
> There are, no doubt, a heaven where virtue is rewarded, and a hell
> where vice is punished, for the unphilosophical minds of the
> vulgar. But the only reward worthy of a lover of God is to get nearer
> and nearer to Him. Till the indescribable goal (Nirvana) is reached,
> we must be content with realizing. This is much easier to a Hindu than
> to an Englishman, because the former has a constant sense of that
> unseen power which pervades and transcends the universe. I do not
> understand how Indian seekers after truth can hurry and strive about
> sublunary matters. Surely they ought to feel 'that this tangible
> world, with its chatter of right and wrong, subserves the intangible.'
> 
> Hard as it must be for the adherents of such different principles to
> understand each other, it is not, I venture to think, impossible. And,
> as at once an Anglican Christian and an adopted Brahmaist, I make the
> attempt to bring East and West religiously together.
> 
> RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF THE EAST
> 
> The greatest religious teachers and reformers who have appeared in
> recent times are (if I am not much mistaken) Baha-'ullah the Persian
> and Keshab Chandra Sen the Indian. The one began by being a reformer
> of the Muḥammadan society or church, the other by acting in the same
> capacity for the Indian community and more especially for the Brahmo
> Samaj — a very imperfect and loosely organized religious society or
> church founded by Rammohan Roy. By a natural evolution the objects of
> both reformers were enlarged; both became the founders of
> world-churches, though circumstances prevented the extension of the
> Brotherhood of the New Dispensation beyond the limits of India.
> 
> In both cases a doubt has arisen in the minds of some spectators
> whether the reformers have anything to offer which has not already
> been given by the Hebrew prophets and by the finest efflorescence of
> these — Jesus Christ. I am bound to express the opinion that they have.
> Just as the author of the Fourth Gospel looks forward to results of
> the Dispensation of the Spirit which will outdo those of the Ministry
> of Jesus (John xiv. 12), so we may confidently look forward to
> disclosures of truth and of depths upon depths of character which will
> far surpass anything that could, in the Nearer or Further East, have
> been imagined before the time of Baha-'ullah.
> 
> I do not say that Baha-'ullah is unique or that His revelations are
> final. There will be other Messiahs after Him, nor is the race of the
> prophets extinct. The supposition of finality is treason to the ever
> active, ever creative Spirit of Truth. But till we have already
> entered upon a new aeon, we shall have to look back in a special
> degree to the prophets who introduced our own aeon, Baha-'ullah and
> Keshab Chandra Sen, whose common object is the spiritual unification
> of all peoples. For it is plain that this union of peoples can only be
> obtained through the influence of prophetic personages, those of the
> past as well as those of the present.
> 
> QUALITIES OF THE MEN OF THE COMING RELIGION (Gal. v. 22)
> 
> 1. Love. What is love? Let Rabindranath Tagore tell us.
> 
> 'In love all the contradictions of existence merge themselves and are
> lost. Only in love are unity and duality not at variance. Love must be
> one and two at the same time.
> 
> 'Only love is motion and rest in one. Our heart ever changes its place
> till it finds love, and then it has its rest....
> 
> 'In this wonderful festival of creation, this great ceremony of
> self-sacrifice of God, the lover constantly gives himself up to gain
> himself in love....
> 
> 'In love, at one of its poles you find the personal, and at the other
> the impersonal.' [Footnote: Tagore, Sadhana (1913), p. 114.]
> 
> I do not think this has been excelled by any modern Christian teacher,
> though the vivid originality of the Buddha's and of St. Paul's
> descriptions of love cannot be denied. The subject, however, is too
> many-sided for me to attempt to describe it here. Suffice it to say
> that the men of the coming religion will be distinguished by an
> intelligent and yet intense altruistic affection — the new-born love.
> 
> 2 and 3. Joy and Peace. These are fundamental qualities in religion,
> and especially, it is said, in those forms of religion which appear to
> centre in incarnations. This statement, however, is open to
> criticism. It matters but little how we attain to joy and peace, as
> long as we do attain to them. Christians have not surpassed the joy
> and peace produced by the best and safest methods of the Indian and
> Persian sages.
> 
> I would not belittle the tranquil and serene joy of the Christian
> saint, but I cannot see that this is superior to the same joy as it is
> exhibited in the Psalms of the Brethren or the Sisters in the
> Buddhistic Order. Nothing is more remarkable in these songs than the
> way in which joy and tranquillity are interfused. So it is with God,
> whose creation is the production of tranquillity and utter joy, and so
> it is with godlike men — men such as St. Francis of Assisi in the West
> and the poet-seers of the Upanishads in the East. All these are at
> once joyous and serene. As Tagore says, 'Joy without the play of joy
> is no joy; play without activity is no play.' [Footnote: Tagore,
> Sadhana (1913), p. 131.] And how can he act to advantage who
> is perturbed in mind? In the coming religion all our actions will be
> joyous and tranquil. Meantime, transitionally, we have much need both
> of long-suffering [Footnote: This quality is finely described in
> chap. vi. of The Path of Light (Wisdom of the East series).]
> and of courage; 'quit you like men, be strong.' (I write in August
> 1914.)
> 
> REFORM OF ISLAM
> 
> And what as to Islam? Is any fusion between this and the other great
> religions possible? A fusion between Islam and Christianity can only
> be effected if first of all these two religions (mutually so
> repugnant) are reformed. Thinking Muslims will more and more come to
> see that the position assigned by Muḥammad to himself and to the
> Ḳur'an implies that he had a thoroughly unhistorical mind. In other
> words he made those exclusive and uncompromising claims under a
> misconception. There were true apostles or prophets, both speakers and
> writers, between the generally accepted date of the ministry of Jesus
> and that of the appearance of Muḥammad, and these true prophets were
> men of far greater intellectual grasp than the Arabian merchant.
> 
> Muslim readers ought therefore to feel it no sacrilege if I advocate
> the correction of what has thus been mistakenly said. Muḥammad was
> one of the prophets, not the prophet (who is virtually = the
> Logos), and the Ḳur'an is only adapted for Arabian tribes, not for
> all nations of the world.
> 
> One of the points in the exhibition of which the Arabian Bible is most
> imperfect is the love of God, i.e. the very point in which the
> Ṣufi classical poets are most admirable, though indeed an Arabian
> poetess, who died 135 Hij., expresses herself already in the most
> thrilling tones. [Footnote: Von Kremer's Herrschende Ideen des
> Islams, pp. 64, etc.]
> 
> Perhaps one might be content, so far as the Ḳur'an is concerned,
> with a selection of Suras, supplemented by extracts from other
> religious classics of Islam. I have often thought that we want both a
> Catholic Christian lectionary and a Catholic prayer-book. To compile
> this would be the work not of a prophet, but of a band of
> interpreters. An exacting work which would be its own reward, and
> would promote, more perhaps than anything else, the reformation and
> ultimate blending of the different religions.
> 
> Meantime no persecution should be allowed in the reformed Islamic
> lands. Thankful as we may be for the Christian and Bahaite heroism
> generated by a persecuting fanaticism, we may well wish that it might
> be called forth otherwise. Heroic was the imprisonment and death of
> Captain Conolly (in Bukhara), but heroic also are the lives of many
> who have spent long years in unhealthy climates, to civilize and
> moralize those who need their help.
> 
> SYNTHESIS OF RELIGIONS
> 
> 'There is one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all,
> and in all.'
> 
> These words in the first instance express the synthesis of Judaism and
> Oriental pantheism, but may be applied to the future synthesis of
> Islam and Hinduism, and of both conjointly with Christianity. And the
> subjects to which I shall briefly refer are the exclusiveness of the
> claims of Christ and of Muḥammad, and of Christ's Church and of
> Muḥammad's, the image-worship of the Hindus and the excessive
> development of mythology in Hinduism. With the lamented Sister
> Nivedita I hold that, in India, in proportion as the two faiths pass
> into higher phases, the easier it becomes for the one faith to be
> brought into a synthesis combined with the other.
> 
> Ṣufism, for instance, is, in the opinion of most, 'a Muḥammadan
> sect.' It must, at any rate, be admitted to have passed through
> several stages, but there is, I think, little to add to fully
> developed Ṣufism to make it an ideal synthesis of Islam and
> Hinduism. That little, however, is important. How can the Hindu
> accept the claim either of Christ or of Muḥammad to be the sole gate
> to the mansions of knowledge?
> 
> The most popular of the Hindu Scriptures expressly provides for a
> succession of avatârs; how, indeed, could the Eternal Wisdom
> have limited Himself to raising up a single representative of
> Messiahship. For were not Sakya Muni, Kabir and his disciple Nanak,
> Chaitanya, the Tamil poets (to whom Dr. Pope has devoted himself)
> Messiahs for parts of India, and Nisiran for Japan, not to speak here
> of Islamic countries?
> 
> It is true, the exclusive claim of Christ (I assume that they are
> adequately proved) is not expressly incorporated into the Creeds, so
> that by mentally recasting the Christian can rid himself of his
> burden. And a time must surely come when, by the common consent of the
> Muslim world the reference to Muḥammad in the brief creed of the
> Muslim will be removed. For such a removal would be no disparagement
> to the prophet, who had, of necessity, a thoroughly unhistorical mind
> (p. 193).
> 
> The 'one true Church' corresponds of course with the one true
> God. Hinduism, which would willingly accept the one, would as
> naturally accept the other also, as a great far-spreading caste. There
> are in fact already monotheistic castes in Hinduism.
> 
> As for image-worship, the Muslims should not plume themselves too much
> on their abhorrence of it, considering the immemorial cult of the
> Black Stone at Mecca. If a conference of Vedantists and Muslims could
> be held, it would appear that the former regarded image-worship (not
> idolatry) [Footnote: Idols and images are not the same thing; the
> image is, or should be, symbolic. So, at least, I venture to define
> it.] simply as a provisional concession to the ignorant masses, who
> will not perhaps always remain so ignorant. So, then, Image-worship
> and its attendant Mythology have naturally become intertwined with
> high and holy associations. Thus that delicate poetess Mrs. Naidu (by
> birth a Parsi) writes:
> 
> Who serves her household in fruitful pride,
> 
> And worships the gods at her husband's side.
> 
> I do not see, therefore, why we Christians (who have a good deal of
> myth in our religion) should object to a fusion with Islam and
> Hinduism on the grounds mentioned above. Only I do desire that both
> the Hindu and the Christian myths should be treated symbolically. On
> this (so far as the former are concerned) I agree with Keshab Chandra
> Sen in the last phase of his incomplete religious development. That
> the myths of Hinduism require sifting, cannot, I am sure, be denied.
> 
> From myths to image-worship is an easy step. What is the meaning of
> the latter? The late Sister Nivedita may help us to find an
> answer. She tells us that when travelling ascetics go through the
> villages, and pause to receive alms, they are in the habit of
> conversing on religious matters with the good woman of the house, and
> that thus even a bookless villager comes to understand the truth about
> images. We cannot think, however, that all will be equally receptive,
> calling to mind that even in our own country multitudes of people
> substitute an unrealized doctrine about Christ for Christ Himself
> (i.e. convert Christ into a church doctrine), while others
> invoke Christ, with or without the saints, in place of God.
> 
> Considering that Christendom is to a large extent composed of
> image-worshippers, why should there not be a synthesis between
> Hinduism and Islam on the one hand, and Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, and
> Christianity on the other? The differences between these great
> religions are certainly not slight. But when we get behind the forms,
> may we not hope to find some grains of the truth? I venture,
> therefore, to maintain the position occupied above as that to which
> Indian religious reformers must ultimately come.
> 
> I do not deny that Mr. Farquhar has made a very good fight against
> this view. The process of the production of an image is, to us, a
> strange one. It is enough to mention the existence of a rite of the
> bringing of life into the idol which marks the end of that
> process. But there are many very educated Hindus who reject with scorn
> the view that the idol has really been made divine, and the passage
> quoted by Mr. Farquhar (p. 335) from Vivekananda [Footnote: Sister
> Nivedita's teacher. ] seems to me conclusive in favour of the symbol
> theory.
> 
> It would certainly be an aesthetic loss if these artistic symbols
> disappeared. But the most precious jewel would still remain, the Being
> who is in Himself unknowable, but who is manifested in the Divine
> Logos or Sofia and in a less degree in the prophets and Messiahs.
> 
> INCARNATIONS
> 
> There are some traces both in the Synoptics and in the Fourth Gospel
> of a Docetic view of the Lord's Person, in other words that His
> humanity was illusory, just as, in the Old Testament, the humanity of
> celestial beings is illusory. The Hindus, however, are much more sure
> of this. The reality of an incarnation would be unworthy of a
> God. And, strange as it may appear to us, this Docetic theory involves
> no pain or disappointment for the believer, who does but amuse himself
> with the sports [Footnote: See quotation from the poet Tulsi Das in
> Farquhar, The Crown of Hinduism, p. 431.] of his Patron. At
> the same time he is very careful not to take the God as a moral
> example; the result of this would be disastrous. The avatâr is
> super-moral. [Footnote: See Farquhar, p. 434.]
> 
> What, then, was the object of the avatâr? Not simply to
> amuse. It was, firstly, to win the heart of the worshipper, and
> secondly, to communicate that knowledge in which is eternal life.
> 
> And what is to be done, in the imminent sifting of Scriptures and
> Traditions, with these stories? They must be rewritten, just as, I
> venture to think, the original story of the God-man Jesus was
> rewritten by being blended with the fragments of a biography of a
> great and good early Jewish teacher. The work will be hard, but Sister
> Nivedita and Miss Anthon have begun it. It must be taken as a part of
> the larger undertaking of a selection of rewritten myths.
> 
> Is Baha-'ullah an avatâr? There has no doubt been a tendency
> to worship him. But this tendency need not be harmful to sanity of
> intellect. There are various degrees of divinity. Baha-'ullah's
> degree maybe compared to St. Paul's. Both these spiritual heroes were
> conscious of their superiority to ordinary believers; at the same time
> their highest wish was that their disciples might learn to be as they
> were themselves. Every one is the temple of the holy (divine) Spirit,
> and this Spirit-element must be deserving of worship. It is probable
> that the Western training of the objectors is the cause of the
> opposition in India to some of the forms of honour lavished, in spite
> of his dissuasion, on Keshab Chandra Sen. [Footnote: Life and
> Teachings of Keshub Chunder Sen, pp. 111 ff.]
> 
> IS JESUS UNIQUE?
> 
> One who has 'learned Christ' from his earliest years finds a
> difficulty in treating the subject at the head of this section. 'The
> disciple is not above his Master,' and when the Master is so far
> removed from the ordinary — is, in fact, the regenerator of society and
> of the individual, — such a discussion seems almost more than the human
> mind can undertake. And yet the subject has to be faced, and if Paul
> 'learned' a purely ideal Christ, deeply tinged with the colours of
> mythology, why should not we follow Paul's example, imitating a Christ
> who put on human form, and lived and died for men as their Saviour and
> Redeemer? Why should we not go even beyond Paul, and honour God by
> assuming a number of Christs, among whom — if we approach the subject
> impartially — would be Socrates, Zarathustra, Gautama the Buddha, as
> well as Jesus the Christ?
> 
> Why, indeed, should we not? If we consider that we honour God by
> assuming that every nation contains righteous men, accepted of God,
> why should we not complete our theory by assuming that every nation
> also possesses prophetic (in some cases more than prophetic)
> revealers? Some rather lax historical students may take a different
> view, and insist that we have a trustworthy tradition of the life of
> Jesus, and that 'if in that historical figure I cannot see God, then I
> am without God in the world.' [Footnote: Leslie Johnston, Some
> Alternatives to Jesus Christ, p. 199.] It is, however, abundantly
> established by criticism that most of what is contained even in the
> Synoptic Gospels is liable to the utmost doubt, and that what may
> reasonably be accepted is by no means capable of use as the basis of a
> doctrine of Incarnation. I do not, therefore, see why the Life of
> Jesus should be a barrier to the reconciliation of Christianity and
> Hinduism. Both religions in their incarnation theories are, as we
> shall see (taking Christianity in its primitive form), frankly
> Docetic, both assume a fervent love for the manifesting God on the
> part of the worshipper. I cannot, however, bring myself to believe
> that there was anything, even in the most primitive form of the life
> of the God-man Jesus, comparable to the unmoral story of the
> life of Krishna. Small wonder that many of the Vaishnavas prefer the
> avatâr of Rama.
> 
> It will be seen, therefore, that it is impossible to discuss the
> historical character of the Life of Jesus without soon passing into
> the subject of His uniqueness. It is usual to suppose that Jesus,
> being a historical figure, must also be unique, and an Oxford
> theologian remarks that 'we see the Spirit in the Church always
> turning backwards to the historical revelation and drawing only thence
> the inspiration to reproduce it.' [Footnote: Leslie Johnston,
> op. cit. pp. 200 f.] He thinks that for the Christian
> consciousness there can be only one Christ, and finds this to be
> supported by a critical reading of the text of the Gospels. Only one
> Christ! But was not the Buddha so far above his contemporaries and
> successors that he came to be virtually deified? How is not this
> uniqueness? It is true, Christianity has, thus far, been intolerant of
> other religions, which contrasts with the 'easy tolerance' of Buddhism
> and Hinduism and, as the author may wish to add, of Bahaism. But is
> the Christian intolerance a worthy element of character? Is it
> consistent with the Beatitude pronounced (if it was pronounced) by
> Jesus on the meek? May we not, with Mr. L. Johnston's namesake, fitly
> say, 'Such notions as these are a survival from the bad old days'?
> [Footnote: Johnston, Buddhist China, p. 306.]
> 
> THE SPIRIT OF GOD
> 
> Another very special jewel of Christianity is the doctrine of the
> Spirit. The term, which etymologically means 'wind,' and in
> Gen. i. 2 and Isa. xl. 13 appears to be a fragment of a certain
> divine name, anciently appropriated to the Creator and Preserver of
> the world, was later employed for the God who is immanent in
> believers, and who is continually bringing them into conformity with
> the divine model. With the Brahmaist theologian, P.C. Mozoomdar, I
> venture to think that none of the old divine names is adequately
> suggestive of the functions of the Spirit. The Spirit's work is, in
> fact, nothing short of re-creation; His creative functions are called
> into exercise on the appearance of a new cosmic cycle, which includes
> the regeneration of souls.
> 
> I greatly fear that not enough homage has been rendered to the Spirit
> in this important aspect. And yet the doctrine is uniquely precious
> because of the great results which have already, in the ethical and
> intellectual spheres, proceeded from it, and of the still greater ones
> which faith descries in the future. We have, I fear, not yet done
> justice to the spiritual capacities with which we are endowed. I will
> therefore take leave to add, following Mozoomdar, that no name is so
> fit for the indwelling God as Living Presence. [Footnote: Mozoomdar,
> The Spirit of God (1898), p. 64.] His gift to man is life, and
> He Himself is Fullness of Life. The idea therefore of God, in the myth
> of the Dying and Reviving Saviour, is, from one point of view,
> imperfect. At any rate it is a more constant help to think of God as
> full, not of any more meagre satisfaction at His works, but of the
> most intense joy.
> 
> Let us, then, join our Indian brethren in worshipping God the
> Spirit. In honouring the Spirit we honour Jesus, the mythical and yet
> real incarnate God. The Muḥammadans call Jesus ruḥu'llah,
> 'the Spirit of God,' and the early Bahais followed them. One of the
> latter addressed these striking words to a traveller from Cambridge:
> 'You (i.e. the Christian Church) are to-day the Manifestation
> of Jesus; you are the Incarnation of the Holy Spirit; nay, did you but
> realize it, you are God.' [Footnote: E.G. Browne, A Year among the
> Persians, p. 492.] I fear that this may go too far for some, but
> it is only a step in advance of our Master, St. Paul. If we do not yet
> fully realize our blessedness, let us make it our chief aim to do
> so. How God's Spirit can be dwelling in us and we in Him, is a
> mystery, but we may hope to get nearer and nearer to its meaning, and
> see that it is no Maya, no illusion. As an illustration of the
> mystery I will quote this from one of Vivekananda's lectures.
> [Footnote: Jnana Yoga, p. 154.]
> 
> 'Young men of Lahore, raise once more that wonderful banner of
> Advaita, for on no other ground can you have that all-embracing love,
> until you see that the same Lord is present in the same manner
> everywhere; unfurl that banner of love. "Arise, awake, and stop not
> till the goal is reached." Arise, arise once more, for nothing can be
> done without renunciation. If you want to help others, your own little
> self must go.... At the present time there are men who give up the
> world to help their own salvation. Throw away everything, even your
> own salvation, and go and help others.'
> 
> CHINESE AND JAPANESE RELIGION
> 
> It is much to be wished that Western influence on China may not be
> exerted in the wrong way, i.e. by an indiscriminate destruction
> of religious tradition. Hitherto the three religions of
> China — Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism — have been regarded as
> forming one organism, and as equally necessary to the national
> culture. Now, however, there is a danger that this hereditary union
> may cease, and that, in their disunited state, the three cults may be
> destined in course of time to disappear and perish. Shall they give
> place to dogmatic Christianity or, among the most cultured class, to
> agnosticism? Would it not be better to work for the retention at any
> rate of Buddhism and Confucianism in a purified form? My own wish
> would be that the religious-ethical principles of Buddhism should be
> applied to the details of civic righteousness. The work could only be
> done by a school, but by the co-operation of young and old it could be
> done.
> 
> Taoism, however, is doomed, unless some scientifically trained scholar
> (perhaps a Buddhist) will take the trouble to sift the grain from the
> chaff. As Mr. Johnston tells us, [Footnote: Buddhist China,
> p. 12.] the opening of every new school synchronizes with the closing
> of a Taoist temple, and the priests of the cult are not only despised
> by others, but are coming to despise themselves. Lao-Tze, however, has
> still his students, and accretions can hardly be altogether
> avoided. Chinese Buddhism, too, has accretions, both philosophic and
> religious, and unless cleared of these, we cannot hope that Buddhism
> will take its right place in the China of the future. Suzuki, however,
> in his admirable Outlines of Mahāyāna Buddhism, has
> recognized and expounded (as I at least think) the truest Buddhism,
> and it is upon him I chiefly rely in my statements in the present
> work.
> 
> There is no accretion, however, in the next point which I shall
> mention. The noble altruism of the Buddhism of China and Japan must at
> no price be rejected from the future religion of those countries, but
> rather be adopted as a model by us Western Christians. Now there are
> three respects in which (among others) the Chinese and Japanese may
> set us an example. Firstly, their freedom from self, and even from
> pre-occupying thoughts of personal salvation. Secondly, the
> perception that in the Divine Manifestation there must be a feminine
> element (das ewig-weibliche). And thirdly, the possibility of
> vicarious moral action. On the first, I need only remark that one of
> those legends of Sakya Muni, which are so full of moral meaning, is
> beautified by this selflessness. On the second, that Kuan-yin or
> Kwannon, though formerly a god, [Footnote: 'God' and 'Goddess' are of
> course unsuitable. Read pusa.] the son of the Buddha Amitâbha,
> is now regarded as a goddess, 'the All-compassionate, Uncreated
> Saviour, the Royal Bodhisat, who (like the Madonna) hears the cries of
> the world.' [Footnote: Johnston, Buddhist China, pp. 101,
> 273.]
> 
> But it is the third point which chiefly concerns us here because of
> the great spiritual comfort which it conveys. It is the possibility of
> doing good in the name of some beloved friend or relative and to 'turn
> over' (parimarta) one's karma to this friend. The extent
> to which this idea is pressed may, to some, be bewildering. Even the
> bliss of Nirvana is to be rejected that the moral and physical
> sufferings of the multitude may be relieved. This is one of the many
> ways in which the Living Presence is manifested.
> 
> GOD-MAN
> 
> Tablet of Ishrakat (p. 5). — Praise be to God who manifested the
> Point and sent forth from it the knowledge of what was and is
> (i.e. all things); who made it (the Point) the Herald in His
> Name, the Precursor to His Most Great Manifestation, by which the
> nerves of nations have quivered with fear and the Light has risen from
> the horizon of the world. Verily it is that Point which God hath made
> to be a Sea of Light for the sincere among His servants, and a ball of
> fire for the deniers among His creations and the impious among His
> people. — This shows that Baha-'ullah did not regard the so-called
> Bāb as a mere forerunner.
> 
> The want of a surely attested life, or extract from a life, of a
> God-man will be more and more acutely felt. There is only one such
> life; it is that of Baha-'ullah. Through Him, therefore, let us pray
> in this twentieth century amidst the manifold difficulties which beset
> our social and political reconstructions; let Him be the prince-angel
> who conveys our petitions to the Most High. The standpoint of
> Immanence, however, suggests a higher and a deeper view. Does a friend
> need to ask a favour of a friend? Are we not in Baha'ullah ('the Glory
> of God'), and is not He in God? Therefore, 'ye shall ask what ye will,
> and it shall be done unto you' (John xv. 7). Far be it that we should
> even seem to disparage the Lord Jesus, but the horizon of His early
> worshippers is too narrow for us to follow them, and the critical
> difficulties are insuperable. The mirage of the ideal Christ is all
> that remains, when these obstacles have been allowed for.
> 
> We read much about God-men in the narratives of the Old Testament,
> where the name attached to a manifestation of God in human semblance
> is 'malak Yahwè (Jehovah)' or 'malak Elohim' — a name of uncertain
> meaning which I have endeavoured to explain more correctly elsewhere.
> In the New Testament too there is a large Docetic element. Apparently
> a supernatural Being walks about on earth — His name is Jesus of
> Nazareth, or simply Jesus, or with a deifying prefix 'Lord' and a
> regal appendix 'Christ.' He has doubtless a heavenly message to
> individuals, but He has also one to the great social body. Christ,
> says Mr. Holley, is a perfect revelation for the individual, but not
> for the social organism. This is correct if we lay stress on the
> qualifying word 'perfect,' especially if we hold that St. Paul has the
> credit of having expanded and enriched the somewhat meagre
> representation of Christ in the Synoptic Gospels. It must be conceded
> that Baha-'ullah had a greater opportunity than Christ of lifting both
> His own and other peoples to a higher plane, but the ideal of both was
> the same.
> 
> Baha-'ullah and Christ, therefore, were both 'images of God';
> [Footnote: Bousset, Kyrios-Christos, p. 144. Christ is the
> 'image of God' (2 Cor. iv. 4; Col. i. 15); or simply 'the image'
> (Rom. viii. 29).] God is the God of the human people as well as of
> individual men, so too is the God of whom Baha-'ullah is the
> reflection or image. Only, we must admit that Baha-'ullah had the
> advantage of centuries more of evolution, and that he had also perhaps
> more complex problems to solve.
> 
> And what as to 'Ali Muḥammad of Shiraz? From a heavenly point of
> view, did he play a great rôle in the Persian Reformation? Let
> us listen to Baha-'ullah in the passage quoted above from the Tablet
> of Ishrakat.
> 
> PRAYER TO THE PERPETUAL CREATOR
> 
> O giver of thyself! at the vision of thee as joy let our souls flame
> up to thee as the fire, flow on to thee as the river, permeate thy
> being as the fragrance of the flower. Give us strength to love, to
> love fully, our life in its joys and sorrows, in its gains and losses,
> in its rise and fall. Let us have strength enough fully to see and
> hear thy universe, and to work with full vigour therein. Let us fully
> live the life thou hast given us, let us bravely take and bravely
> give. This is our prayer to thee. Let us once for all dislodge from
> our minds the feeble fancy that would make out thy joy to be a thing
> apart from action, thin, formless and unsustained. Wherever the
> peasant tills the hard earth, there does thy joy gush out in the green
> of the corn; wherever man displaces the entangled forest, smooths the
> stony ground, and clears for himself a homestead, there does thy joy
> enfold it in orderliness and peace.
> 
> O worker of the universe! We would pray to thee to let the
> irresistible current of thy universal energy come like the impetuous
> south wind of spring, let it come rushing over the vast field of the
> life of man, let it bring the scent of many flowers, the murmurings of
> many woodlands, let it make sweet and vocal the lifelessness of our
> dried-up soul-life. Let our newly awakened powers cry out for
> unlimited fulfilment in leaf and flower and fruit! — Tagore,
> Sādhanā (p. 133).
> 
> THE OPPORTUNENESS OF BAHAISM
> 
> The opportuneness of the Baha movement is brought into a bright light
> by the following extract from a letter to the Master from the great
> Orientalist and traveller, Arminius Vambéry. Though born a Jew, he
> tells us that believers in Judaism were no better than any other
> professedly religious persons, and that the only hope for the future
> lay in the success of the efforts of Abdul Baha, whose supreme
> greatness as a prophet he fully recognizes. He was born in Hungary in
> March 1832, and met Abdul Baha at Buda-Pest in April 1913. The letter
> was written shortly after the interview; some may perhaps smile at its
> glowing Oriental phraseology, but there are some Oriental writers who
> really mean what they seem to mean, and one of these (an Oriental by
> adoption) is Vambéry.
> 
> '... The time of the meeting with your excellency, and the memory of
> the benediction of your presence, recurred to the memory of this
> servant, and I am longing for the time when I shall meet you
> again. Although I have travelled through many countries and cities of
> Islam, yet have I never met so lofty a character and so exalted a
> personage as Your Excellency, and I can bear witness that it is not
> possible to find such another. On this account I am hoping that the
> ideals and accomplishments of Your Excellency may be crowned with
> success and yield results under all conditions, because behind these
> ideals and deeds I easily discern the eternal welfare and prosperity
> of the world of humanity.
> 
> 'This servant, in order to gain first-hand information and experience,
> entered into the ranks of various religions; that is, outwardly I
> became a Jew, Christian, Mohammedan, and Zoroastrian. I discovered
> that the devotees of these various religions do nothing else but hate
> and anathematize each other, that all these religions have become the
> instruments of tyranny and oppression in the hands of rulers and
> governors, and that they are the causes of the destruction of the
> world of humanity.
> 
> 'Considering these evil results, every person is forced by necessity
> to enlist himself on the side of Your Excellency and accept with joy
> the prospect of a fundamental basis for a universal religion of God
> being laid through your efforts.
> 
> 'I have seen the father of Your Excellency from afar. I have realized
> the self-sacrifice and noble courage of his son, and I am lost in
> admiration.
> 
> 'For the principles and aims of Your Excellency I express the utmost
> respect and devotion, and if God, the Most High, confers long life, I
> will be able to serve you under all conditions. I pray and supplicate
> this from the depths of my heart. — Your servant, VAMBERY.'
> 
> (Published in the Egyptian Gazette, Sept. 24, 1913, by
> Mrs. J. Stannard.)
> 
> BAHAI BIBLIOGRAPHY
> 
> BROWNE, Prof. E. G. — A Traveller's Narrative. Written to
> illustrate the Episode of the Bāb. Cambridge, 1901.
> 
> ———. The New History. Cambridge, 1893.
> 
> ———. History of the Bábís. Compiled by Hájji Mírzá Jání of
> Káshán between the years A.D. 1850 and 1852. Leyden, 1910.
> 
> ———. 'Babism,' article in Encyclopaedia of Religions.
> Two Papers on Bābīsm in JRAS. 1889.
> 
> CHASE, THORNTON. — In Galilee. Chicago, 1908.
> 
> DREYFUS, HIPPOLYTE. — The Universal Religion; Bahaism. 1909.
> 
> GOBINEAU, M. LE COMTE DE. — Religions et Philosophies dans l'Asie
> Centrale. Paris. 2nd edition, Paris, 1866.
> 
> HAMMOND, ERIC. — The Splendour of God. 1909.
> 
> HOLLEY, HORACE. — The Modern Social Religion. 1913.
> 
> HUART, CLEMENT. — La Religion du Bab. Paris, 1889.
> 
> NICOLAS, A. L. M. — Seyy'ed Ali Mohammed, dit Le Bab. Paris, 1905.
> 
> ———. Le Béyân Arabe. Paris, 1905.
> 
> PHELPS, MYRON H. — Life and Teachings of Abbas Effendi. New
> York, 1914.
> 
> RÖMER, HERMANN. — Die Bābī-Behā'ī, Die jüngste
> muhammedanische Sekte. Potsdam, 1912.
> 
> RICE, W. A. — 'Bahaism from the Christian Standpoint,' East and
> West, January 1913.
> 
> SKRINE, F. H. — Bahaism, the Religion of Brotherhood and its place
> in the Evolution of Creeds. 1912.
> 
> WILSON, S. G. — 'The Claims of Bahaism,' East and West, July
> 1914.
> 
> Works of the BĀB, BAHA-'ULLAH, ABDUL BAHA, and ABU'L FAZL:
> 
> ———. L'Épître au Fils du Loup. Baha-'ullah. Traduction
> française par H. Dreyfus. Paris, 1913.
> 
> ———. Le Beyan arabe. Nicolas. Paris, 1905.
> 
> ———. The Hidden Words. Chicago, 1905.
> 
> ———. The Seven Valleys. Chicago.
> 
> ———. Livre de la Certitude. Dreyfus. Paris, 1904.
> 
> ———. The Book of Ighan. Chicago.
> 
> Works of ABDUL BAHA:
> 
> ———. Some Answered Questions. 1908.
> 
> ———. Tablets. Vol. i. Chicago, 1912.
> 
> Work by MIRZA ABU'L FAZL:
> 
> ———. The Brilliant Proof. Chicago, 1913.
> 
> LAUS DEO
> 
> METADATA
> 
> Views9311 views since posted 2013-06-09; last edit 2025-10-03 02:22 UTC;
> 
> previous at archive.org.../cheyne_reconciliation_races_religions
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> — *The Reconciliation of Races and Religions (Used by permission of the curator)*