# From Sect to Church: A Sociological Interpretation of the Baha'i Movement [excerpt]

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> PhD Dissertation, June, 1954
> 
>  
> Submitted to The Graduate Faculty of Political and Social Science of the New
> School for Social Research in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the
> degree of Doctor of Philosophy.  
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Chapter 1: Proclamation
> 1. Historical Background
> 
>        Bahá'ísm and its predecessor, Babism, grew out of the peculiar religious
> environment of Shi'ite Islam in Persian. As will become clearer later, Bahá'ísm
> cannot be regarded as simply another Shi'ite sect and, indeed, any attempt to
> understand it merely from the point of view of Islamics is bound to
> misrepresent it. It is necessary, however, that we be aware of the environment
> from which this movement sprang. We must consider especially two trends in
> Shi'ite Islam which have an important bearing on the origin of our movement and
> which we shall call the chiliastic and the gnostic motifs. While these motifs
> had merged before in Shi'ite history, they came together with particular power
> in the Babi explosion in the first half of the
> 19th century.
> 
>        Both Sunnite and Shi'ite Islam possess well-developed eschatologies, but the
> chiliastic motif, the urgent expectation of imminent eschatalogical events, is
> much stronger in the latter. Muhammad himself appeared from the beginning as
> the messenger of a coming day of judgement, one whose task, in the words of one
> of the early Meccan suras, was to "arise and warn".[1] It has been held that this warning of approaching judgement
> was perhaps the most powerful new element in Muhammad's message.[2] In the Koran the day of judgement is described with
> terrible details.[3] In contrast with Biblical
> eschatology, however, this day is not advertised by any signs and portents. It
> is always present in terrible nearness, placing each moment of life in the
> shadow of eternal decision.[4]
> 
>        With the worldly victory of Islam after the death of the Prophet the terrible
> simplicity of this message grew into an eschatology both more complicated and
> more comfortably remote. In this period we find the development of the
> conception of the Mahdi.[5] The word itself
> (from the Arabic al-mahdi, "the one who is led") does not occur in this
> form in the Koran. All speculations and doctrines concerning the Mahdi are part
> of the hadith, the sacred tradition containing revealed truth outside
> the Koran. In early times the term was often used without eschatological
> implications in reference to the first four Caliphs and, indeed, was used in
> this way in later times too. Soon, however, it came to refer specifically to
> one from the family of Muhammad who is to appear shortly before that end of the
> world to renew faith and establish the universal empire of Islam with the
> assistance of Isa (Jesus). The hadith attributes to the Prophet himself
> several prophecies concerning the Mahdi. 
> 
>        The conception of the Mahdi remained quite marginal in Sunnite
> hadith.6 It was more important as a figure in the popular
> imagination than as a theological doctrine. In Shi'ite theology, however, the
> doctrine of the Mahdi occupies a central position.[7] Here the coming of the Mahdi is identified with the return
> (raj'a) of the Hidden Imam.[8] According
> to orthodox Shi'ite doctrine the
> 12th Imam, Muhammad ibn
> Hasan, went into concealment (ghaibat) shortly after the death of his
> father Hasan al-Askari, the
> 11th Imam. For a period of
> about 70 years the 12th Imam
> was represented on earth by four consecutive agents (wakils, also known
> as "gates", abwab). This is the period of the "Lesser Concealment",
> during which the Hidden Imam does not communicate with his people at all,
> except through occasional dreams of holy men. This period, during which the
> Hidden Imam is still the "Lord of the Age" (sahibu'l-saman), will come
> to an end with his glorious return as the Imam-Mahdi. At this return he will be
> accompanied not only by Isa but by many others, making it a kind of preliminary
> day of resuurection. Among the returning will be Yazid ibn Muawiyya, the hated
> founder of the 'Ummayyad dynasty, and Husain ibn 'Ala, the Holy Martyr, who
> will now take bloody vengeance on the former. Finally, 'Ali and Muhammad will
> also return to earth and defeat Satan himself in a tremendous battle.
> 
>        The expectation of the Mahdi expressed itself in recurrent chiliastic
> eruptions in the history of Shi'ite Islam. This expectation, as is to be
> expected, was always strongest in periods of great distress, as at the time of
> the Mongel invasions. Madhist traditions, however, were already used
> politically in the 8th
> century by the Abbassids, who wished to rally the support of the strongly
> Shi'ite east of the Arab empire to overthrow the 'Ummayyad Caliphate in
> Damascus. Making use of a prophecy put in the mouth of Muhammad by the
> hadith, the Abbassids advanced towards Syria under the black banners
> signifying the coming of the Mahdi.[9] In the
> 10th century the Shi'ite
> Fatimid Caliphate in Egypt was established by 'Ubejdallah, claiming the title
> of Mahdi.[10]
> 
>        The gnostic motif in Shi'ite Islam is to be traced back largely to the
> Neoplatonist influences under which the Arabs came after their first contact
> with Greek thought.[11] A number of systems of
> theosophy (tawasuf) which were developed within Islam may go back to
> Indian as well as Greek sources. The Neoplatonist influence early found
> expression in Sufism.[12] But the Sufis,
> mystics rather than gnostics, were more interested in the experiences of the
> inner life than in the formation of theosophist systems. The latter became an
> important characteristic of Shi'ite thought, whether strongly oriented towards
> Sufism or not, especially in heterodox groups.
> 
>        The development of the Isma'ili sect is the most important example of the
> gnostic motif in Shi'ite Islam.[13] The
> Isma'ilis built their doctrine around the Neoplatonist idea of periodic
> emanations of the world intellect. The Imams were incorporated in this scheme
> in such a way as to appear as incarnations of the logos. The Mahdi in
> Isma'ili thinking now becomes the coming manifestation of the world intellect,
> exceeding even that of the very foundations of Islam, going as far in some of
> its branches as an explicit understanding of raj'a in terms of
> transmigration. All branches of the Isma'ili sect are characterised by abstruse
> allegorical interpretations of the Koran and complicated numerological
> speculations. 
> 
>        The Isma'ilis are important for our considerations because they represent an
> early combination of chiliastic and gnostic motifs which, like that of the
> Babis, resulted in powerful historical events. The history of the Isma'ili
> origins of the Fatimids, Druzes[14] and
> Assassins[15] afford ample evidence of this.
> The essential characteristic of the Isma'ili heresy is its allegorical approach
> to the historical religions, especially, of course, to the Koran.[16] Distinguishing between the inner meaning
> (batin) and the outer meaning (zahir) of the revealed writings,
> the Isma'ilis increasingly included all historical revelations under the
> latter, that is, interpreted them as temporary constructions for the benefit of
> the uninitiated. In the final step of gnostic initiation the Isma'ili disciple
> learns to transcend Islam itself. The Isma'ilis called their method of
> interpretation and dissolution of the substance of the Koran ta'wil
> al-ta'wil, "the secret interpretation of the secret interpretation",
> leading in a number of steps of initiation to the final gnosis. They
> shared this concept with the Sufis, who, however were largely interested in
> finding Koranic justification for their mystical experiences and were,
> therefore, less dangerous from the point of view of Muslim orthodoxy.
> Interesting to us is an outgrowth of the Isma'ili sect known as the school of
> the Hurufi ("Interpretation of Letters"), who engaged in the most fantastic
> numerological speculations of all Isma'ili groups.[17] It should be pointed out that, in spite of their wide
> departures from Shi'ite orthodoxy, these groups share with the latter two
> psychological traits, a blind faith in religious authority (as already
> expressed in the initial Shi'ite doctrine of the Imamate as against the
> secular-democratic conception of the Sunnite Caliphate) and a fierce
> intolerance towards those of other religious convictions (the fanaticism of the
> fundamental Shi'ite religious experience, the "Weeping for Husain").[18]
> 
>        The trends discussed above found an important expression just before the Babi
> explosion in the Shaikhi sect.[19] This group
> was founded by Shaikh Ahmad Ahsai of Bahrein (1753-1826), a Shi'ite Arab who
> began his teaching career in the pilgrimage cities of Karbala and Najaf. He
> travelled widely, came to Persia on the invitation of the Shah and lived there
> for many years, teaching in Teheran and Yazd. He was, however, publicly
> excommunicated in Persia in his old age because of his heretical doctrines,
> especially his conception of the Imams as causes of creation, their
> pre-existence and return in an Isma'ili sense, and his denial of bodily
> resurrection and of the bodily voyage of the Prophet to heaven, as well as
> other points. It is interesting that both Shaikh Ahmad and his successors
> maintained their orthodoxy before the religious authorities, thus following in
> the Shi'ite tradition, adopted by all the Shi'ite heretical sects as well as by
> Shi'ite orthodoxy, that the true faith may be denied and hidden with a good
> conscience before unbelievers. 
> 
>        Shaikh Ahmad died on a pilgrimage near Medina, shortly after his
> excommunication. He was succeeded by Siyyid Kazim Reshti, a Persian, who
> followed him closely in his doctrine and was also excommunicated by the Shi'ite
> religious authorities. He established his school at Kerbela, where one of his
> students was Mirza 'Ali Muhammad, later known as the Bab.
> 
>        Before we take up the thread of events at this point let us briefly review the
> historical heritage that fell to Babism. It sprang up from within Shi'ite
> Islam, from whose doctrine of the Imamate its conception of religious
> revelation and authority took its color. From Shi'ite Islam Babism also
> received the underlying motifs of expectation and secret, the
> awesome wonder of what is to come and the mystery of what is present but
> hidden. In its chiliastic motif Babism could find its point of contact in
> popular Mahdism, both orthodox and heretical. In its gnostic motif Babism would
> base itself on the rich theosophical lore handed on through centuries by the
> secret heretical groups. It seems to us that the merging of these two motifs in
> the peculiar religious configuration offered by the Shi'ite environment was
> bound to have powerful historical results, as was the case with the Isma'ili
> sect and again with the movement that is here our special concern. 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 2. The Appearance of the Bab
> 
>        The first period of the Bahá'í movement, which we have called
> here the period of proclamation, is clearly divided into two halves, the one
> from 1844 to 1850, from the declaration of the Bab to his execution, and the
> other from 1850 to 1892, from the beginning of the succession struggle after
> the death of the Bab to the death of Baha-u'llah, in whose favor this struggle
> was resolved. Th whole period, however, is characterised by the passionate
> intensity of the proclamation that they expected on has indeed arrived and is
> now living in the midst of men. With the death of Baha-u'llah the content of
> the Bahá'í message found its point of orientation in the past and ceased to be
> that breathless proclamation of the divine wonder to be found here and now with
> which the movement began. In spite of many important contradictions in the
> sources,[20] the main outline of events during
> the period of the Bab is clear. It will now be our task to follow these events
> up to the year 1852, two years after the execution of the Bab, when, as a
> result of bloody suppression, the movement seemed all but destroyed.
> 
>        Siyyid 'Ali Muhammad, later to be known as the Bab, was born in Shiraz on
> March 20, 1821.[21] His father, Siyyid
> Ibrahim, was a merchant of that city, died when 'Ali Muhammad was still a
> child. The maternal uncle of the child, one Siyyid 'Ali, also a merchant, took
> care of his education after the death of his father. As indicated by the title
> siyyid, both the paternal and maternal lines of 'Ali Muhammad's family
> claimed descent from the Prophet Muhammad. 
> 
>        Babi traditions have claimed a number of miraculous events connected with 'Ali
> Muhammad's childhood, supposedly going back to accounts given by his uncle.
> Characteristic of these is the story that upon his birth 'Ali Muhammad
> exclaimed in Arabic, "The Kingdom is God's", and that he was found reading the
> Koran on the day he was to learn the alphabet.[22] It seems clear, however, that the child was serious and
> intelligent, showed an early interest in religious matters, and charmed many of
> the adults around him with his pleasant personality. As an adolescent 'Ali
> Muhammad was sent to work in Bushire for his uncle's business and lived there
> about 5 years before returning to his native Shiraz.
> 
>        Shortly after his stay in Bushire the young 'Ali Muhammad set out on a
> pilgrimage to Kerbala.[23] This in itself
> would have been a very ordinary thing to do for a young Shi'ite Persian, but
> while on this pilgrimage, 'Ali Muhammad attended the Shaikhi school in Kerbela.
> According to Babi sources, 'Ali Muhammad personally met Siyyid Kazim, then head
> of the Shaikhi sect, who was greatly impressed by him and, according to one
> source, secretly but explicitly designated him as the bearer of the new divine
> manifestation which the Shaikhis were expecting.[24] In view of the later events, however, this is highly
> improbable. It is certain that 'Ali Muhammad spent several months in Kerbela,
> became a member of the Shaikhi sect, then returned to Shiraz. Also, it seems
> very likely that shortly before his death Siyyid Kazim prophesied that the
> "Lord of the Age" would soon appear and would be a young man, a descendent of
> Muhammad and un-instructed in formal learning.[25] After Siyyid Kazim's death in 1843 a number of Shaikhi
> leaders, among them one Mulla Husain, a Persian, set out to search for this
> "Lord of the Age" in different parts of the Muslim world.[26]
> 
>        While 'Ali Muhammad's personality and learning had impressed many people both
> in Kerbela and in Shiraz, there had as yet been no indication on his part that
> he claimed any supernatural station for himself. We can only guess about the
> inner process which led him to such conviction. The outward proclamation of his
> claim was sudden and dramatic. On June 11, 1844 (5 Djemadi el-Akher 1260 A.H.)
> 'Ali Muhammad publicly declared himself to be the Bab ("Gate") and began to
> preach a number of highly exciting sermons in the mosques of his native city.[27]
> 
>        There has been considerable disagreement on the precise meaning intended by
> 'Ali Muhammad when he adopted the title of the Bab. The term itself has a long
> history.[28] The term has no Koranic
> significance. On the Shi'ite hadith it is put into the mouth of Muhammad
> to refer to 'Ali, the first Imam: "I am the city of knowledge and 'Ali is its
> gate (bab)". Also, as we have pointed out above, the term in its plural
> form (abwab) is used by the Shi'ites to refer tot he four agents of the
> Hidden Imam. In Sufi tradition the term was used to denote the means through
> which it is possible to enter the world of mystic illumination. The Isma'ilis
> gave the title of bab to the spiritual leader (shaikh) who
> instructs the initiates in the secrets of the sect. It seems that the Shaikhis
> thought of the term mainly in terms of the idea of return (raj'a), that
> is, the return not only of the Hidden Imam as the Mahdi, but also of the
> abwab and perhaps other historical figures preceding the next
> manifestation of the divine world intellect. There is little doubt that the
> masses who first heard the Bab's preaching in Shiraz, and those among them that
> became his first followers, understood his claim in an orthodox Shi'ite sense,
> that is, in connection with the coming of the Imam-Mahdi. When, soon later, the
> Bab acknowledged the ascription to him of the honors of the Imam-Mahdi himself,
> and bestowed the title of Bab to one of his followers, this was still
> understandable in a Shi'ite sense. Indeed, at his final trial in Tabriz the Bab
> reiterated his claim to be the Mahdi before the religious tribunal and
> explained his title in terms of the hadith concerning 'Ali. It is
> obvious, however, that in the Bab's own mind the meaning of the title far
> transcended any Shi'ite or even Islamic context. The only question is whether
> this was so from the beginning or its adoption or only a result of further
> developments. There is a progression of claims on the part of the Bab to be
> Zikr ("Reminder" - a term associated with the Mahdi),  Qa'im
> (Mahdi) and finally Nuqta (Point). The last of these terms probably
> reflects the Bab's own thinking most accurately. It is a gnostic concept,
> derived from the Isma'ili and Shaikhi traditions, and means that center of a
> divine manifestation. The matter is further confused by the fact that the title
> Nuqta was claimed by several people in succession, if not
> simultaneously, in the course of the following years, with the Bab agreeing to
> the claim in at least one case, that of Kuddus (we shall have occasion to come
> back to this peculiarity later). Muslim sources claim that the Bab made this
> claims [sic] in succession, carried along, as it were, by the dynamic of the
> movement he had started. Babi sources, on the other hand, claim that the full
> meaning of Nuqta was intended by the Bab from the beginning, and was
> only hidden from the masses and the religious authorities in harmony with the
> traditional Shi'ite usage of ketman - the hiding and disguising of the
> true faith from hostile unbelievers. The Babi interpretation of this matter is
> much more probable, in view of the Bab's Shaikhi connections, his acceptance by
> important Shaikhi leaders as the coming divine manifestation prophesied by
> Siyyid Kazim, and the fact that, as we shall see, an inner circle of his
> followers actually proclaimed his full claim, in the sense of Nuqta, at
> the so-called Council of Bedesht. It may be added here, incidentally, that the
> later Bahá'í claim that the Bab adopted his title because he understood himself
> as merely the forerunner of Baha-u'llah, that is, as the "Gate" to Baha-u'llah,
> lacks any foundation in the facts.
> 
>        Even in the Shi'ite sense, however, the claim was a stupendous one. The
> religious implication of the statement that a bab had re-appeared meant
> that the gate of revelation, closed since the disappearance of the
> 12th Imam and the death of
> his last agent, was re-opened. The Mahdi was near, and was already
> communicating with the world. The actual claim to be the Mahdi himself was, of
> course, even more stupendous. Its political implication was nothing less than
> the establishment of theocracy, as, according to Shi'ite doctrine, all Islamic
> secular rulers, including the Kajar dynasty then ruling Persia, were only
> ruling as trustees of the Hidden Imam, the true "Lord of the Age". It is no
> wonder, then, that the declaration of 'Ali Muhammad to be the Bab immediately
> aroused widespread attention. 
> 
>        The Bab's early sermons in Shiraz must have been extremely impressive events.
> It seems that the impact of his preaching and his personality was stunning.[29] The religious teachers of the city were
> deeply disturbed by the appearance of this 23-year old preacher, but completely
> unable to do anything against him. He easily countered all arguments, silenced
> all who would oppose him. Shortly after the Bab's declaration Mulla Husain
> arrived in Shiraz, pursuing his mission of searching for the new "Lord of the
> Age" expected by the Shaikhis. After an interrogation of the Bab, Mulla Husain
> became fully convinced of his identity and thus became the Bab's "First
> Believer". The Bab bestowed upon him the title of Bab-ul-Bab ("Gate of the
> Gate")[30] and sent him to preach in Iraq and
> Khorasan. At Isfahan Mulla Husain openly proclaimed the Bab as the
> Imam-Mahdi: "Il faut dire ici, pour preventir joute erreur,
> qu'en assimilant le Bab au douziene Imam, le missionaire cherchait a se faire
> comprendre de la foule et a gagner ses sympathies, absolument comme Saint Parul
> lorsqu'il revelait aux. Atheniends que le Dieu qu'il leur annoncait etait ce
> Dieu inconnu auquel ils avaient deja eleve unautel. C'etait des deux parts une
> facon de parler, et on verra plus tard qu'il n'y a aucun rapport entre l'idee
> que les Babys se font du Point, et ce que les musulmans pensent au sujet di
> l'Imam Mehdy."[31]  
>        The Bab himself, shortly after Mulla Husain's departure, set out on a
> pilgrimage to Mecca.[32] Muslim sources claim
> that there he drew a sword and proclaimed himself Mahdi in front of the Ka'aba,
> but this is to be doubted. It seems that the pilgrimage took place without
> outward excitement and that at its conclusion the Bab returned to Shiraz, where
> he resumed his preaching and began to write verses and commentaries. 
> 
>        The first serious clash between Babis and Muslims occurred during the Bab's
> absence from Shiraz.[33] His followers, led by
> Mulla Muhammad 'Ali of Barfurush, whom the Bab had given the title Kuddus,
> changed the kibla (the direction in which Muslims turn for prayer) from
> Mecca to the Bab's house in Shiraz, changed the azzen (the Muslim call
> to prayer), and recited verses written by the Bab instead of the Koran in the
> mosque. From the Muslim point of view, this was equivalent to blasphemy and
> apostasy.  Kuddus and another Babi missionary by the name of Moqaddes were
> brought before Husain Khan, the governor of Shiraz, who ordered them to be
> whipped and tortured. The two missionaries thereupon left Shiraz and went on a
> preaching tour including Yezd and Kirman, meeting with mounting violence on the
> part of the religious authorities and fanatical Muslim mobs. An angry meeting
> took place during this trip between Moqaddes and Kerin Khan, who had become
> head of the Shaikhis after the death of Siyyid Kazim. Kerim Khan refused to
> recognise the claims of the Bab and, following this meeting, the majority of
> the Shaikhi sect held aloof from the Babi movement, in some instances even
> became active against it. 
> 
>        The Bab himself was brought before the religious authorities in Shiraz.[34] When he declared his mission there, the
> leader of the religious teachers ('ulamas), Shaikh Abu Tarab, beat him
> with a stick. The Bab was sent to his uncle's house with orders to cease public
> activity. As, however, attention was growing and people from different parts of
> the country came to Shiraz to see the Bab, he was taken to the great mosque and
> ordered to recant. According to Babi sources, he preached a powerful sermon
> instead, even further confusing his enemies and drawing upon himself the
> attention of the country.[35]
> 
>        Finally, the attention of the court was drawn to the situation in Shiraz and
> one Siyyid Yahya Darabi was sent by the Shah to deal with the Bab personally.
> Siyyid Yahya arrived in Shiraz and went to see the Bab. When the latter again
> asserted his divine mission, Siyyid Yahya, probably in mockery, asked him to
> write on the spot a commentary on an obscure sura of the Koran. The Bab did so
> at once. Moreoever, the contents of the commentary struck Siyyid Yahya greatly,
> as they referred to certain thoughts he had himself had concerning this
> passage. Greatly disturbed, Siyyid Yahya requested another interview with the
> Bab, openly recognised his claim and was ordered by him to go out and preach
> his message.[36] This incident is typical of
> the effect the personality of the Bab had upon many people who met him.
> 
>        The opposition to the Bab was mounting in Shiraz and several plots were made
> to assassinate him. In 1846 he left Shiraz for Isfahan.[37] The governor of that city, a tolerant and curious man,
> assigned him a house there. However, he was unable to prevent the Bab from
> further violent disputes with the 'ulamas, leading to mounting feeling
> against the Bab in Isfahan too. As a result, the Bab left the city under guard
> and with much ostentation, was brought back secretly and went into hiding. 
> 
>        From Isfahan the Bab addressed a letter to the Shah, asking that the latter
> reach a decision about his position and claims, and, if possible, permit him to
> come to Tehran to present his case.[38] The
> Shah replied that the Bab should go to Maku, a royal fortress, and stay there
> quietly for a while. Under virtual arrest, the Bab was brought there by
> military escort. On the way to Maku he had yet another dispute with an assembly
> of 'ulamas, who made fun of him by asking him questions in Arabic
> grammar and astronomy, to make him admit his ignorance.[39] The Bab arrived in Maku and stayed there for nine months
> in relative freedom. According to Babi tradition he converted 'Ali Khan, the
> commander of the fortress. 
> 
>        While the Bab was staying in Maku, his missionaries carried his message
> throughout practically all of Persia. Especially Mulla Husain was responsible
> for large numbers of converts in different parts of the country.[40] In Kashan he converted Mirza Jani, who later was to write
> the most important history of the movement,[41] and in Teheran he converted the two half-brothers Mirza
> Yahya Nuri (Sobh-al-Azal - "Dawn of Eternity") and Mirza Husain 'Ali Nuri
> (Baha-u'llah - "Glory of God"), later to be the two protagonists in the
> struggle for succession following the death of the Bab.
> 
>        One of the most interesting converts to the Bab was a woman, Qurat'ul-Ain of
> Kazvin, whom the Bab called Tahirih ("The Pure One").[42] Tahirih must have been a woman of unusual beauty and
> learning. After an early marriage, she went on a pilgrimage to Karbela and
> attended the Shaikhi school there, an enterprise sufficiently unusual for a
> Muslim woman so as to require great will power and determination. In 1848 she
> wrote to the Bab, whom she apparently was never to meet in person,[43] and declared herself this disciple. Muslim
> sources claim that she showed herself in public without a veil, which is denied
> by Babi sources for this period. Muslim sources also credit her with
> extravagant claims concerning her own person, assert that that she claimed to
> be the Nuqta of the new revelation at one time and told her followers
> that she was the kibla towards whom they must turn in prayer.[44] Be this as it may, her behaviour created a
> great scandal in her city, especially as she went out to preach in several
> provinces, on orders of the Bab. Her uncle, a fervent Muslim by the name of
> Muhammad Taghi, was brutally assassinated while praying in the mosque by one of
> Tahirih's followers.[45] Tahirih was accused
> of having ordered this murder and was forced to flee Kasvin. Many Babis were
> arrested in that city.
> 
>        There followed a large meeting of the several Babi missionaries and their
> followers which has come to be known as the Council of Bedesht.[46] It marks a turning point in the history of the movement.
> The three main characters of the meeting were Mulla Husain, Kuddus and Tahirih.
> Bahá'u'lláh was also present. The meeting was one of tremendous excitement,
> heightened by the extravagant claims put forward by Kuddus and Tahirih. The
> position of Kuddus is especially interesting. It seems that Mulla Husain was
> accepted for a while as the leader of the group of Babis with whom Kuddus
> travelled, and that Kuddus replaced him in one night, which he spent reciting
> new verses, an event regarded by both Shi'ites and Babis as a clear sign of
> divine revelation.[47] It is quite clear from
> the sources that Kuddus at one time claimed to be the Nuqta of the new
> divine manifestation, apparently without incurring opposition from the
> Bab: "It is abundantly clear from Haji Mirza Jani's history
> that Hazrat-I-Kuddus advanced the most extravagant claims, and that many of the
> Babis were disposed to regard him as superior to the Bab. He not only developed
> himself to be Christ come back to earth, but even went so far as to say,
> 'Whosoever hath known me is become a polytheist, and whosoever hath not known
> me is become an infidel, and whosoever asketh 'why' or 'wherefore' or 'how'
> concerning me is become a reprobate."[48] 
>        The original aim of the meeting was to arrange a great pilgrimage to Maku,
> where the Bab was then staying, probably with the intention of liberating him
> by force. The meeting soon, however, arrived at a discussion of the new
> doctrine. Tahirih made the suggestion to the other leaders that the time had
> come to tell all the Babis that the time of a new divine manifestation
> transcending Islam had come and that it was not just a question of recognising
> the Bab as Mahdi. The other leaders, however, argued against such an open break
> with Islam. Tahirih then suggested a stratagem, which was agreed to by the
> others. Shi'ite law prescribes death for the apostate, even if he later
> repents, but not if the apostate is a woman. Tahirih, therefore, suggested that
> she announce the real nature of the Babi manifestation to a mass meeting in the
> absence of Kuddus; if the people accepted her message, Kuddus was to join her;
> if they rejected it, Kuddus was to reproach her for her apostacy and
> "re-convert" her to Islam, and the leaders would continue to practice
> ketman in regard to their real convictions, not only against the
> Shi'ites but against the mass of their own followers. The event must have been
> one of great dramatic power. As usual, Tahirih sat behind a curtain and began
> to address the assembled people: "Elle commençe
> aussitôt sa conférence: l'aventure qu'elle tentait, l'emotion bien
> naturelle qu'elle en ressentait, l'espoir de la réusseite, la crainte
> d'un échec l'excitèrent à tel point que jamais elle
> n'avait été aussi eloquente ni aussi persuasive. Les auditeurs,
> charmés par sa voix et par son talent, l'écoutaient avec une
> attention profonde, pas un ne remuait. Au moment ou elle prononça ces
> paroles, 'Vous devez aujourd'hui tous savoir que Dieu s'est manifesté et
> que le Qoran est abregé: un livre nouveau nous est descendu du ciel, une
> lei nouvelle nous est donnée', elle fis le signe convenu: les servantes
> obéirent, le rideau tomba et splendide elle apparut aux yeux des
> auditeurs. Elle se tourna une seconde vers ses servantes comme pour leur
> demander compte de ce qui venait de se passer, mais faisant
> immédiatement face à la foule: 'Qu'importe cet accident dit-elle,
> cela n'a aucune importance: ne suis-je pas votre soeur et n'êtes-vous
> point mes frères. Or quelle soeur a jamais cache son visage à son
> frère.'"[49]  
> There must have been a tremendous turmoil on the meeting place after this
> event. It is not hard to imagine the emotions of these men, as they heard this
> open rejection of Islam and saw the curtain fall before the proclaimer of the
> new manifestation appearing in the figure of this beautiful, passionate woman.
> The men ran about, shouting, many of them hiding their faces so as not to see
> Tahirih. Distressed by the confusion, Tahirih stepped down and walked among the
> men, trying to convince them, until Baha-u'llah threw his coat over her and led
> her away to one of the tents. The mob broke into two factions, one seeking out
> Kuddus and telling him of the event, the other following Tahirih. Kuddus would
> not openly accept or reject Tahirih's announcement, appeared pensive, said that
> she had put herself outside the pale of Islam by her statement concerning the
> Koran, but that perhaps there was some hidden meaning to her actions. Tahirih
> meanwhile instructed those who had followed her in the new faith, then sent two
> men, who had expressed readiness to die, to invite Kuddus to a "discussion" at
> the point of a sword. Kuddus accepted the invitation, was "convinced" by her
> argumentation and openly submitted to her. The meeting then ended with several
> days of festivities. Apparently no more thought was given to the original
> purpose of the meeting, the pilgrimage to Maku. After the festivities, Mulla
> Husain left for the interior of Khorasan, Kuddus left for Mazindaran,
> accompanied for a while by Tahirih, who then returned to Kazvin.[50]
> 
>        The Council of Bedesht was followed by the bloodiest episode in early Babi
> history, the Mazindaran insurrection.[51] As
> we have seen, the Babi leaders separated after the Council of Bedesht, with
> Kuddus and his group going on into Mazindaran, his native province. After
> travelling through the province and encountering much opposition from the
> Muslims, Kuddus issued a call to Mulla Husain to join him with his men in
> Mazindaran. It is difficult to establish the exact meaning of this call. Babi
> historians have claimed that the Babis took up arms in self-defense and knew
> that they were going to their martyrdom. Muslim historians, on the other hand,
> assert that the Mazindaran insurrection was the first step in what was to be
> the establishment by the sword of a Babi theocracy in all Persia, with the
> overthrow of both Shi'ite Islam and the Kajar dynasty. The Muslim
> interpretation appears more adequate to the facts as we know them, especially
> since the earliest Babi history, that of Mirza Jani of Kashan, tends to agree
> with the Muslim interpretation that the Mazindaran events constituted an open
> insurrection planned and led by Kuddus.[52] It
> is interesting to note that the Mazindaran episode happened in the period
> immediately following the death of Muhammad Shah and before the accession of
> the new Shah, in that period of interregnum during which successful rebellions
> have often broken out in oriental countries. Also, this was the period during
> which Kuddus wrote verses, thereby laying claim to immediate revelation from
> God and, possibly, a station in the new divine manifestation even superior to
> that of the Bab. The coming together of the several Babi groups, the
> establishment of a powerful fortress and the fanaticism with which the Muslims
> were attacked hardly seem explainable in terms of self-defense.
> 
>        Mulla Husain heeded the call and set out for Mazindaran with about 200 men and
> their dependents. According to the Babi historians, Mulla Husain made a speech
> to his men, telling them that they were going to their martyrdom and that any
> wishing to leave the group should do so, after which only 30 men are supposed
> to have left for their homes. Mulla Husain's journey was not unopposed and
> there were repeated armed clashes with Muslims. In the Babi sources Mulla
> Husain is extolled as a great hero and fighter. His sword stroke was to have
> been so powerful that he usually split his opponent in two down to the waist,
> once did this not only to a Muslim but also split in two the big tree behind
> which that Muslim was hiding. One incident, which we have no reason to
> disbelieve, is to have taken place in a caravanserai in which Mulla Husain's
> band was besieged. Mulla Husain told a man to go on a terrace and chant the
> assan, the Muslim call to prayer. Before he could finish the
> azzan, the man was shot by the Muslim outside the caravanserai. Mulla
> Husain, to show the Muslims how the Babis respected God's commandments, sent a
> second and a third man to the terrace, both of whom were also killed by Muslim
> shots, but the third man was able to finish the azzan. 
> 
>        Kuddus and Mulla Husain met at the tomb of Shaikh Tabarsi, a local Shi'ite
> shrine. They immediately set out to build a fortress around the shrine.
> Apparently, this fortress was well constructed and greatly impressed the
> Muslims who came to take it. Shaikh Tabarsi was occupied by about 2,000 Babi
> men, in addition to the families which many had brought along. Over this
> community Kuddus was the undisputed ruler, received visitors from behind a
> curtain. Mulla Husain acted as his lieutenant and as military commander. 
> 
>        In trying to understand the emotions which animated these men as they built
> their fortress and awaited the coming of their enemies, we may look at two
> descriptions of the situation at Shaikh Tabarsi, one based on a Muslim source,
> and other from a Babi source:  "Du haut de leur
> château, ils parlèrent presque exclusivement de politique, de
> politique bâby sans doute, mais enfin de politique. Ils
> announcèrent que tous ceux qui voulaient vivre heureux dans ce monde, en
> attendant l'autre avaient désormais peu de temps pour se dècider.
> Une année encore, une année sans plus, et son Altesse le
> Bâb, envoyé de Dieu, allait s'emparer de tous les climats de
> l'univers. La fuite était impossible, la résistance
> puérile. Tout ce qui serait bâby posséderait le monde, tout
> ce qui serait infidèle servirait. Il fallait se háter d'ouvrir
> les yeux, de fair soumission à Moulla Houssein, sans quoi, tout à
> l'heure il allair être trop tard."[53]
>  
> "They knew for a surety that in a little while that devoted band would to a man
> fall before the guns of the foe, and stain the earth with their life-blood. In
> spite of this knowledge, however, they eagerly set out from the most distant
> provinces to share the martyrdom of those already assembled in that fatal spot.
> I know not what these people had seen or apprehended that they thus readily
> cast aside all that men do most prize, and thus eagerly hastened to imperil
> their lives. Surely their conduct was such as to leave no room for doubt of
> their sincerity and devotion in any unprejudiced mind; and in truth what they
> did and suffered was little short of miraculous, being beyond mere human
> capacity."[54]
> 
>        It is characteristic of the exalted state of mind prevailing at Shaikh Tabarsi
> that the provisions to sustain the fortress and its large garrison in case of
> siege were completely inadequate. Mulla Husain distributed among his men the
> titles of prophets and Imams, and governorships of distant lands. Also, he
> promised that any of those killed in battle would rise again in 40 days, a
> statement that he might have understood in the Babi sense of "return", but
> which was certainly taken in the literal sense by his men.[55]
> 
>        The battle around Shaikh Tabarsi lasted for over four months and ended in the
> complete destruction of the Babi fortress. At first, however, success was all
> on the side of the Babis. The first royal troops sent to Shaikh Tabarsi with
> the express order from the Shah to destroy the Babi uprising were routed by the
> fanatic Babis. Their battle cry "Oh, Lord of the Age" ("Ya
> sahibu'l-zaman") struck terror into the hearts of the Muslim soldiers.[56] The Babis completely destroyed and massacred
> a village that had given assistance to the royal troops and terror of their
> ferocity spread through the whole province. Other Babi groups, among them one
> led by Baha-u'llah, tried to get through to Shaikh Tabarsi, but were unable to
> get through the cordon thrown around the fortress. 
> 
>        The tide turned late in 1848, after Mulla Husain was killed in open battle.
> The Babis were deeply struck by the death of their beloved military leader.
> Hunger began to undermine the fortress from within. Soon the situation was such
> that Mulla Husain's half-putrified dead horse was disinterred and eaten. New
> royal troops were brought against the fortress and a holy war (jihad)
> was proclaimed in all the mosques of Mazindaran. The Muslim sources report that
> some Babis were beginning to desert and even join the other camp.
> 
>        The royal commander offered a truce and free passage to Kuddus. A Muslim
> source claims that the condition for the truce was return to Islam, but the
> Babi sources deny this, claim that Kuddus knew that the Muslims were going to
> kill him, but, when the royal commander sent him the guarantee of free passage
> written on a page of the Koran, he accepted, knowing the other's intent but
> wishing the show him respect for God's book.[57] However this may have been, the 214 Babis who surrendered
> with Kuddus were brutally massacred, their women raped and carried away by
> soldiers. A Muslim source recounts how the soldiers cut open the bellies of
> their Babi prisoners to find undigested grass, the diet of Shaikh Tabarsi in
> the last days of the seige. Kuddus himself was taken to Barfurush, his native
> city, and there tortured to death. The fortress of Shaikh Tabarsi was levelled
> to the ground.
> 
>        The Mazindaran uprising was not the only occasion in which the Babis took up
> arms against the Shah. Shortly after the conclusion of the Mazindaran uprising
> there was an insurrection in Zendjan, capital of the Turkish-speaking province
> of Khamsah.[58] The Babis there were led by
> one Mulla Muhammad 'Ali, who proved himself highly adept in street fighting.
> And for many months mountain warfare went on in Niriz between Babi bands and
> royal troops.[59] Both the Zendjan and the
> Niriz episodes, like that of Mazindaran, ended in bloody defeat for the Babis.
> In terms of worldly success, the fall of Shaikh Tabarsi marked the defeat of
> the Babi movement in Persia. There followed a period of cruel persecution and
> extermination.
> 
>        The suppression of the Mazindaran uprising also ushered in the final chapter
> in the life of the Bab himself.[60] In 1848 a
> royal envoy was sent to transfer the Bab from Maku, where he had lived in
> relative freedom and received many pilgrims from all parts of the country, to
> the fortress of Chihriq. There too, however, he exercised as much influence
> around himself as at Maku:  "Nor was it an uncommon
> occurrence even 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 or Sunnis[61] revently
> prostrated themselves whenever they saw the visage of His Holiness appear
> resplendent over the walls of the building. In short, at no previous time had
> the serene and awful beauty of that noble countenance exercised so irresistible
> an attraction over all who came within the sphere of its influence. No sooner,
> then, did the 'Indian believer', as he approached the building, catch sight of
> the face of His Holiness, than he involuntarily exclaimed, 'This is my Lord!'[62] and fell swooning to the ground. On coming
> to his senses he wept much, and, the glory of that divine apparition
> irradiating a heart, clear and receptive as a mirror, began to chant the words,
> 'I am the Ka'im become manifest', and, like Mansur,[63] to cry out, 'I am the Truth!'"[64] 
> From Chihriq the Bab was brought to Tabriz, where he was imprisoned rigidly for
> several months, awaiting his trial for heresy before the religious authorities
> of the city.
> 
>        The interrogation of the Bab was conducted by the 'ulemas with the same
> contempt and mockery that had marked the previous disputes of the young
> preacher with the religious authorities of Shi'ite Islam:
> 
> "'We have heard,' continued they, 'that you claim to be the Bab.'
> 
> 'Yes,' replied he.
> 
> 'What,' demanded Mulla Muhammad with a scornful smile, 'does 'Bab' mean?'
> 
> 'The same,' answered His Holiness, 'as in the holy saying of the Prophet, 'I am
> the City of Knowledge, and 'Ali is its Gate.''
> 
> 'On what night,' continued the other, 'wert thou thus favoured, and who
> assigned this name to thee?'
> 
> His Holiness answered, 'I am He whose advent you have been expecting for one
> thousand two hundred and sixty years,[65] and
> whom ye now deny.'
> 
> They said, 'We are expecting Him who is to arise of the kindred of Muhammad, to
> wit, Muhammad ibnu'l-Hasan, whose mother is Narjis Khatun, and who is of the
> Arabs; thy birthplace is Fars, thou art of the Persians, and thy father and
> mother, too, are known.'
> 
> 'By just such nominal considerations was it,' he replied, 'that all former
> peoples were veiled from knowledge of the prophet of their time; you too are
> veiled, else I am indeed He.'
> 
> 'Whence,' asked they, 'shall we recognize you?'
> 
> He answered, 'By the evidence of the verses revealed through me.'"[66]
> 
>        This constituted an open claim to the title of Mahdi, but more than that, the
> open assertion that, as the Koran, the Bab's Bayan was an immediate revelation
> of God. This alone would be enough, under Shi'ite law, to merit death. It
> appears that after the interrogation the Bab was cruelly beaten and tortured.
> Muslim sources claim that after receiving a bastinado the Bab recanted and
> renounced all his supernatural claims.[67]
> This fact is doubtful, but, in view of the evidence, it cannot be dismissed
> entirely. In any case, such recantation could not have saved the Bab's life, as
> under Shi'ite law an apostate must die even if he recants. A doctrinal opinion
> (fatwa) was issued against the Bab, pronouncing him worthy of death and
> asserting that he would already have been executed, if there had not been some
> doubt concerning his sanity.[68]
> 
>        The Bab and two of his closest disciples, Mulla Muhammad 'Ali of Tabriz and
> Siyyid Husain of Yazd were paraded through streets, after their condemnation,
> and cruelly tortured in front of a growing mob. The two disciples were urged to
> deny their master and save their lives thereby. Siyyid Husain finally succumbed
> to the torture and cursed the Bab. The officer in charge of the procedure told
> him that he would be immediately released if he also spat in the Bab's face. He
> did what was asked of him and was released.[69] Mulla Muhammad 'Ali remained faithful to death, even when
> he was confronted with his weeping wife and children, who lived in the city.
> 
>        The execution of the Bab took place on the same day as his condemnation and
> torture, apparently in the late afternoon, on July 8, 1850.[70] The authorities wished the execution to be as public as
> possible, so that no legends might arise of a "hidden" Bab. It was, therefore,
> carried out on a large square in Tabriz, strangely enough known as the Square
> of Sahibu'l Zaman. The two men were suspended by cords from a wooden structure
> erected on the square and a company of Armenian Christian soldiers was prepared
> to shoot them.[71] The men were hanging is
> such a way that Mulla Muhammad 'Ali's head rested on the Bab's shoulder and he
> is reported to have said, just before the volley, "Are you satisfied with me
> now, master?" When the volley rang out and the smoke cleared, only one man was
> hanging dead by the cords, Mulla Muhammad 'Ali. The Bab's cords had merely been
> cut by the shots and he had fallen unhurt to the ground. There was great
> confusion on the square in face of this apparent miracle. It appears that the
> soldiers, stricken with terror, refused to fire again. The Bab, dazed and
> apparently not knowing what he was doing, ran from the square and tried to hide
> in a guardhouse. He was followed there by an officer, who struck him with his
> sword. When the soldiers saw that the Bab drew blood, was, therefore
> vulnerable, they suspended him again and this time killed him with their
> shots.[72] The dead body of the Bab was
> paraded through streets and thrown outside the gates to be eaten by dogs.
> According to the Babi sources, the body was recovered by faithful believers,
> hidden, and eventually brought to Palestine on the order of Baha-u'llah. It is
> now supposed to be buried in the Baha'I shrine known as the Persian Gardens on
> the slopes of Mount Carmel in Haifa.
> 
>        It is interesting to reflect what might have happened if the Bab, after the
> failure of the first volley, had had the presence of mind to appeal to the mob
> as the Imam-Mahdi. Even the Muslim sources admit that no soldiers could then
> have been found to carry through the execution and that the whole history of
> the Babi movement might have been changed.[73]
> 
>        The persecution continued after the execution of the Bab. The civil and
> religious authorities were determined to eradicate the heresy once and for all.
> Mirza Yahya, son of Mirza Buzurg Nuri, was chosen as the successor of the
> Bab.[74] Mirza Yahya was then 16 years old. He
> secretly travelled around the country, forbidding the Babis to engage in
> useless rebellions. He took refuge in Bagdad, then part of the Turkish
> Empire.
> 
>        In 1852 two Babis attempted the murder the Shah, Nasr-al-Din.[75] The Babi sources present considerable evidence that the
> assassination was part of a plot, possibly to prepare a Babi insurrection in
> the capital itself.[76] According to Muslim
> sources, the assassins could easily have killed the Shah with the pistols they
> used on his entourage, but that the attempt failed because instead they tried
> to drag him from his horse, literally obeying the orders given them by the Babi
> leaders to cut his throat. 
> 
>        The attempt on the life of the Shah was followed not only by the cruel
> execution of the assassins but by a massacre of 40 of the leading Babis of
> Teheran. The different departments of the government were assigned one victim
> each and the executions took place amid terrible tortures before large mobs.
> All the reports agree on the great heroism shown by the Babis as they went to
> their death.[77] As they were led through the
> streets, they chanted, "Truly, we come from God and to God we return." It is
> certain that many secret converts were gained by this heroism. It is reported
> that one man who came to watch the execution of a Babi was so moved with the
> victim's heroism that he rushed out, shouting, "Kill me! I am a Babi too!"
> Another story reports that a Babi was to be beheaded, but the executioner
> failed to cut off his head with the first stroke but only knocked off his
> turban, whereupon the Babi lifted his head and recited the verse of Hafiz:
> "Happy the man who knows not whether it is head or turban that falls at the
> feet of the Beloved!"
> 
>        Among those who died were Mirza Jani of Kashan, the author of the earliest
> Babi history, and Siyyid Husain of Yezd, who had betrayed the Bab at Tabriz and
> whose conscience had led him to seek martyrdom at Teheran. The most famous of
> the victims of this massacre was Tahirih, who had been arrested at Kazvin and
> brought to the capital for trial. There are different reports of her death, but
> all stress her complete fearlessness and dignity to the last moment.[78] Baha-u'llah was thrown in jail, but his life
> was spared.
> 
>        In this way the Babi movement was drowned in blood. In 1852 it might have
> seemed as if the movement was permanently destroyed. The Babis were in hiding.
> European travellers, writing more than a decade after the Teheran massacre,
> were unable to come across any who would dare admit that they were Babis.
> 
> 
> 
> 3.       Babi Doctrine
> 
>        We have characterised Babism as a meeting point of gnostic and chiliastic
> motifs in Shi'ite Islam. If we may anticipate for a moment, it will be our task
> to show how the former motif was gradually eliminated almost completely in the
> development of the Baha'I movement, while the latter underwent a profound
> transformation, with important effects on the social structure of the movement.
> Also, it must be realised that the gnostic doctrine taught by the Bab and his
> followers remained the property of a small circle of initiates within the large
> Babi movement, whose driving forces were chiliastic, not gnostic. The gnostic
> motif was significant within the large movement not so much through its
> content, but because it gave the authority of superior wisdom to the Babi
> leaders who possessed it, that is, it satisfied an essential requirement of the
> Imam in popular Shi'ite consciousness. As this study is concerned with the
> development of the social-religious structure of the movement, rather than with
> its doctrinal history, we shall devote considerably less space to matters of
> doctrine than to the course of historical events. In the next few pages we
> shall look briefly at the gnostic and chiliastic motifs as they expressed
> themselves in Babi doctrine as it has come down to us,[79] and then look briefly at the kind of life which was
> envisaged by this doctrine for its followers.
> 
>        Babism took over the gnostic corpus of doctrine of the Shaiki sect, which in
> turn had received it as the result of a long historical tradition the outline
> of which we have traced above. At the heart of this corpus lies a gnostic
> doctrine of God and revelation.[80]
> 
>        Any gnostic conception of God has always been grounded in the originally
> Neoplatonist distinction between His pure being (proten hen) and His
> attributes (protologen hen). The latter constitute the realm of the
> logos, that intermediary being between God and world which constitutes
> especially God's creative activity. In the Islamic tradition this logos
> became the 'akl, which, under the influence of Jewish gnosticism (Philo:
> the logos as doxa; Ibn-Gabirol: kavod), is seen
> particularly under the aspect of light. In Babi doctrine too there is much
> imagery associated with light, the fraction and mirroring of light.
> 
>        Following the Shaikis, the Bab calls the logos God's primal will. This
> primal will is the source of all revelation and religion. It appears in the
> world through the cycles of revelation, but is never dissolved in the world
> (Sufi ittihad, henosis, against which Babi doctrine repreatedly
> protests as leading to pantheism). 
> 
>        In the Bayan we are told that nothing exists but God, and His names and
> attributes.[81] His pure being, or essence,
> never changes; all of His works are performed by the primal will, which
> emanates from His pure being.[82] Again in
> protest against Sufi mysticism, the Bayan stresses that God's essence is
> unknowable and is only manifested in the world in His primal will:
>  "L'Essence éternelle ne se peut comprendre en
> essence, ne se peut décrire, ne se peut qualifier, ne se peut leuer, ne
> se peut voir, quoique tout se comprenné per Elle, se qualifie par Elle,
> se loue par Elle, se voit par Elle.
> 
> Dans les livres célestes chaque fois qu'il est question qu'on Le verra,
> cela veut dire qu'on verra Celui qui est manifesté dans Sa
> manifestation, c'est-à-dire qu'on verra le Point de Verite qui est etait
> la Volonte Primitive."[83] 
> 
> That is, God's primal will, His activity in the world, is known through the
> prophet who becomes the "point" (nuqta) at which the primal will reveals
> itself in a particular age.
> 
>        The Babi doctrine of revelation is a complicated gnostic system of cycles of
> prophetic manifestations. Each prophet is a "mirror" of the light emanated by
> the primal will.[84] The  Bab is at pains to
> point out that the prophet is not to be understand as an "incarnation"
> (hullul) of the primal will, but this distinction appears technical in
> view of his own claims and was probably motivated by considerations of
> ketman, as Muslim orthodoxy, in its polemic against Christianity, has
> always abhorred any conception of hullul. In any case, the prophet, as
> Nuqta, speaks of himself as one with the primal will and, through it,
> with God himself. The Bab frequently refers to himself as God, in this way,
> despite his doctrinal differentiations from them, reminding of the extreme Sufi
> saints.[85]
> 
>        The term Nuqta, the crucial term in the Bab's own understanding of the
> prophet's station, is found in Shi'ite hadith, where it is connected
> with the belief that the Prophet Muhammad gave to 'Ali a secret revelation of
> the hidden meaning of the Koran:  "Alles was in Koran its,
> ist in der Fatiha (l.Sure) und alles was in der Fatiha ist, ist in Bismillah
> (ihrem ersten ort) und alles was in Bismillah ist, ist im ba (seinem
> Anfangsbuchstaben) und alles was im ba ist, ist im Punkt unter dem ba (seinem
> kleinsten Teil) und ich ('Ali) bin der Puntk unter dem ba".[86] 
> The prophet, as the "mirror" of the world of the primal will, becomes the
> demiurg who creates, by the emanation of his prophecy, a new world on
> earth: "Der Prophet erweist als der Demiurg... seine
> Schoepferkraft in der Hervorbringung eines Buches, dessen Buchstaben ein
> Widerspiel der transzendenten Wirklichkeit darstellen, die somit mit Hilfe der
> geheimen, von logos selbat geoffenbarten Buchstabenwissenschaft erfasst werden
> kann. Entweder eird dann aus der ueberlieferten H. Schrift (A.T. bezw. Koran)
> diese Wissenschaft ohne weiteres erhoben oder es verbindet sich damit ein neuer
> prophetischer Anspruch mnit Darbietung eines neues neuen Kanons. Das letztere
> ist in Babissmus der Fall."[87]
>  
> We might add that the choosing of the second alternative marks the decisive
> division between Shaikhism and Babism, as it was dramatically demonstrated at
> the Council of Bedesht.
> 
> The new world, as it were, which the prophet establishes on earth must
> correspond in inner structure to the world of the primal will, that is, the two
> stand in a relationship of microcosm and macrocosm. This inner structure is
> understood primarily in terms of kabbalistic numerology.[88] The Sufi philosopher Ibnu'l-'Arabi had asserted that the
> opening sura of the Koran, Bismillah al-rahman al-rahim ("In the name of
> God the Most Merciful") corresponds numerologically to the number 19. This
> number has ever since played an important role in Islamic numerology, but
> probably never to the extent it did in the Bayan.[89] According to the Bayan, the universe is patterned in
> structures 19. Consequently, the microcosm of the "people of the Bayan" on
> earth must also be built around this structure. As there are 19 attributes of
> God, so there are 19 "Letters of the Living" in each prophetic manifestation.
> These 19 "Letters", which in the Babi manifestation were believed to be the Bab
> and 18 of his closest followers, were created before all time by the primal
> will and "return" with each manifestation. It is easily seen how this
> conception could lead to something closely resembling polytheism:
>  "Personne ne saurait se laisser aveugler par le dogma
> unitaire au point de croire que le polythéism n'est pas là en
> germe, et en germe patent."[90]
>  
> This helps us to understand not only the hate which the Babis aroused in the
> Muslims, but also the ease with which different leaders of the movement claimed
> the title of Nuqta at different times of the history. Moreover, despite
> the vigorous denials of the Babis, this "return" of the "Letters of the Living"
> borders so closely on a doctrine of transmigration that the distinctions,
> again, appear very technical and are perhaps to be understood in terms of
> ketman.91 The Bayan, in its final form, is to contain 19
> units.[92] The Bayan also establishes a new
> calendar based on 19 months, still used by the Bahá'ís. Social life is also to
> follow the structure of 19, down to the number of days a school teacher must
> withdraw from his wife as a punishment for beating a child. As often happens
> when numerological doctrine is popularised, the Babis used many talismans
> consisting of different numerological combinations of words, to which great
> magical powers were ascribed. Some of these talismans seem to go back to the
> Bab himself, and there is no reason to believe that he did not share the belief
> in their magic. 
> 
> A prophet is recognised by two signs: his ability to write verses and the sheer
> force of his personality:  "De pa part de Dieu pour tous les
> hommes, il y a deux témoins: l'un, les versets, l'autre, la personne sur
> qui descendent les versets."[93]
>  
> The first of these, of course, would be particularly close to the thinking of
> Muslims, for whom "the miracle of the Koran", from the point of view of the
> Arabic language, is the most important sign of the prophetic dignity of
> Muhammad. There are five elements of this sign:[94] fluent diction; rapid composition; direct as opposed to
> acquired knowledge; claim to divine inspiration; absolute power over men. We
> have seen what role these played in the actual life of the Bab.
> 
> Following in the Ismaili tradition, the Bab understands revelation as being
> progressive.[95] In each prophet the primal
> will manifests itself more fully to the world. Thus the Bab sees himself in the
> line of the prophets recognised in the Koran, including Moses, Jesus and
> Muhammad. Progressive revelation is still held as a cardinal doctrine by the
> Bahá'ís to this day, though the catalog of prophets has been changed or left
> vague in the course of the history. Each divine manifestation follows a certain
> cycle. Each manifestation has a rising and a setting, the "day" when it is at
> full blaze, surrounded by the "minor manifestation" or "dawn", the period of
> the "forerunners" (according to the Bab, that of the Shaikhi saints), and the
> "minor occultation" or "evening", when the followers of the prophet are still
> living, and then the "occultation" or "night", occupying the period of time
> between the manifestations. The high point of the "theophanic day",[96] or zuhur-I-zubra, is, of course, the period
> of the Bab, in this case:  "This day is separated from the
> night of the Gheybat-i-Kubra or 'Major Occultation' by the twilight of
> the Ghaybat-i-Sughra or 'Minor Occultation', during which the last Saint
> or Imam of the cycle, though invisible to his followers, still leaves amongst
> them in concealment, and communicates with them by means of the 'Gates' or
> 'Babs' (abwab) whom he appoints to act as intermediaries between himself
> and his church. When the faithful have become accustomed to receiving the
> commands of the Imam thus indirectly, and to being debarred from seeing him,
> the series of 'Gates' is terminated, and the full night of the 'Major
> Occultation' supervenes. As, however, the time for a new 'Manifestation'
> approaches, one or more of the 'Gates' reappears or 'returns' to prepare
> mankind for the fuller light which is soon to burst upon them. The period of
> these precursors or harbingers of the Theophany is called
> Zuhur-i-Sughra, 'The Minor Manifestation', corresponding to the 'True
> Dawn' (Subh-i-Sadik), when, though the sun has not yet risen, its light
> is apparent in the sky. The 'Minor Manifestation' of the Christian cycle was
> John the Baptist, of the Muhammadan, Waraka ibn Nawfal and the other Kanifs, of
> the Babi or Beyanic, Sheykh Ahmad of Ahsa and Seyyid Kazim of Resht."[97]  
> At the end of time, all emanations return to God, who will then again fill all
> with His pure being as it was before the emanation of the primal will.
> 
> It is easily seen how such a conception of revelation leads to the dissolution
> of any historical religion within which it arises. Following Isma'ili practice,
> the Bab uses an allegorical method to explain the Koran and, by implications,
> all other historical religions:  "Dans chaque manifestation,
> le refuge en Dieu est le refuge dans cette manifestation. Pendant que (le
> soleil de verité) est caché, le refuge est le refuge dans ses
> ordres, jusqu'a la manifestation suivante. A ce moment la manifestation
> precedente et ses ordres ne donnent plus de refuge, si n'est par la
> manifestation suivante et ses ordres."[98]
>  
>        That is, the Koran, and all other historical revelations, must be understood
> from the point of view of the Bayan:  "A l'époque de
> la descente du Quoran, la goire de tous résidait dans l'éloquence
> de la parole; c'est pourquoi Dieu a fait descendre le Qoran empreint de la plus
> sublime eloquence, et il en a fait (ainsi) le miracle de Muhammad. Dans cette
> periode-ci le Dieu du monde a donné au Point du Beyan ses versets es ses
> téxoignages; il an a fait sone témoin inacessible sur toutes
> choses. Si tous ceux qui sont sur la terre s'unissaint ils ne pourraiant
> apparter un seul verset semblable aux versets que Dieu a fait couler de sa
> langue .... Du moment de la descente du Qoran jusqu'au moment de celle du
> Beuan, 1270 ans out passés; comment quelqu'un n'a-t-il pas produit, de
> ersets? Et sependant, de toutes leurs forces, tons ont voulu étouffer la
> parole de Dieu, mais tous ont été impuissants et sucun n'a pu le
> faire."[99] 
> 
>        If we now turn to the chiliastic motif as expressed in Babi doctrine, we can
> see more clearly, after the above discussion, how the Bab understood himself as
> a fulfilment of the prophecies concerning the Mahdi, but also as much more than
> that, and, ultimately, as something different from that.[100] But specifically we must devote a few words to a very
> curious doctrine of the Bayan which was later to lead to the great schism
> between the Bahá'ís and Azalis, namely, the doctrine of "Him whom God shall
> manifest" (M.Y.H. - Man yuz-hiruhu'llah).
> 
>        The Bayan is full of references of M.Y.H., indeed, at one place it is stated
> that all the Bayan's glory (baha) lies in M.Y.H..[101] M.Y.H. is the bearer of the coming divine manifestation,
> who will bring to an end and surpass the Bayanic cycle: 
> "Justqu'au jour de Celui que Dieu doit manifester, tous demanderont refuge
> à Dieu et au point du Beyan, mais ce jour-là ceci ne leur servira
> de rien, car alors se se refugier en Lui et se réfugier dans le piont du
> Beyan, c'est se refuier en Lui." 102 
>        It is difficult to say whether the doctrine of M.Y.H. was an important matter
> in the Bab's mind from the beginning, as re-emphasizing his gnostic conception
> of revelation, or whether it was a result of his disappointment in the outward
> failures of his faith. Be this as it may, there can be no question of the
> importance of the doctrine in the Bayan as we now have it.[103] We are told that M.Y.H. will appear before 2001 years
> have passed, but no lower limit is given; the exact date of his coming is only
> known to God. He will appear suddenly and it is impossible that any one should
> falsely claim to be him (!). Like all manifestations of the primal will, he is
> identical with the Nuqta-i-Bayan, but he is to be known by his own authority,
> not that of the Bayan. He will not be the last manifestation of the primal
> Will, but others will follow him. The "people of the Bayan" are urged not to
> repeat the mistake of the "people of the Koran" by rejecting him as the Muslims
> rejected the Bab. Many rules are given to emphasize the Babi community's
> expectation of M.Y.H. - he is to complete the remaining "unities" of the Bayan;
> the first month of the Babi year is called "Baha" and set aside for him (!); a
> vacant place is to be left for him in each Babi assembly; no child may be
> beaten or man insulted, for it may be him.
> 
>        What interests us particularly in view of the later history is whether the Bab
> considered it possible that M.Y.H. would appear within the lifetime of his
> followers, or whether he regarded his coming as an event in the more distant
> future. The issue cannot be decided on the available evidence. Events after the
> death of the Bab, involving rival claims to this and other titles, indicate the
> general nature of Babi "polytheism" rather than the Bab's specific ideas about
> M.Y.H. In view of the Bab's entire gnostic system, however, and the elaborate
> Bayanic "microcosm" instituted by him, it seems unlikely that he regarded the
> coming of M.Y.H. as occurring immediately after his death. He utterances about
> himself are hardly those of one who understood himself as merely a kind of John
> the Baptist:  "Et ce serait pour ce pitcyable résultat
> que cet homme aurait subi le martyre? C'est pour cela qu'il aurait devant les
> balles du peleton d'execution la verite de sa doctrine, et qu'il aurait
> répandu son sang, comme aussi celui de ses compagnons les plus chers? Il
> n'est innutile d'affirmer que cette thèse est essentiellement fausse."[104]  
> This argument is not too convincing, just because of the very example of John
> the Baptist! However, it remains true that the Bayan makes the later Bahá'í
> "forerunner" interpretation very doubtful, to say the least. What the doctrine
> of M.Y.H. did in pratice was to re-shift the chiliastic motif again into the
> future, making possible further expression of the powerful forces at the heart
> of the Babi movement. 
> 
>        Finally, we must ask ourselves briefly what kind of life the Bab envisaged for
> his followers. In the matter of piety, the Babis may be characterised by the
> term logos-mysticism. Their story incorporated certain Sufi features,
> such the "Mansur ecstasy", but it was always an adoration of the manifestation
> of the primal will in the prophet, not that which has been called "infinity
> mysticism" and which finally leads to pantheism.[105] The final fate of the soul, however, is some kind of
> return to God, as all emanations will finally return to God. This was movingly
> expressed in the words of the Babi martyrs of Teheran, "from God we come and to
> God we return".[106] The prayer of the Babi
> is private. There is no public prayer except the prayer for the dead, the
> latter being easily understood in a severely persecuted community. This, of
> course, gives the Babi piety a very pietist, quietist character. 
> 
>        The political ideal of the Bayan is the establishment of a Babi theocracy.[107] The possibility of holy war
> (jihad) is implicitly recognised in the Bab's prohibition of arms except
> in such war.[108] Indeed, there is no
> evidence that the Bab had any objection against the armed uprisings of his
> followers, in spite of his personal withdrawal from practical affairs, which is
> in keeping with the Sufi ideal of sainthood. We have already indicated that
> sometimes minutes regulations for everyday life which the Bab made for his
> followers. (He was particularly concerned with the education of children, but
> is hard to find in the Bayan much that could be called "social reform".[109] While the killing of unbelievers in the
> Babi state is forbidden,[110] they are to be
> driven from the central provinces of Persia, their property is to be
> confiscated, marriage with them is unlawful, and they are to be the virtual
> slaves of the Babis.[111]) It is ambiguous
> whether the Bab envisaged this theocracy as covering all the earth, or only
> Persia and the surrounding countries.
> 
>        The political and social conceptions of the Bayan were never realized, and
> underwent fundamental changes in the later Bahá'í developments. In conclusion,
> we must emphasize again that the driving forces of the Babi eruption were not
> its complicated doctrines, but the violent expectations and passions which the
> appearance of the Bab aroused. It must also be stated clearly that this implies
> no general statement of the relative importance of doctrine and "life" in
> religious history, but is a description of this particular phenomenon.
> 
> 
> 
> 4.       The Appearance of Bahá'u'lláh
> 
>        The period which it is our task to discuss now is the most obscure in
> the entire history of the Bahá'í movement. The information available about it
> is sparse and contradictory,[112] as a
> result of the schism between Bahá'ís and Azalis, and the distortions,
> suppressions and falsifications of the historical sources which resulted from
> it.
> 
>        We must first look at the Babi background of the schism, which, after all, was
> a struggle for succession to the position of the Bab.[113] It is certain that the Bab appointed Sohb-i-Azal to be
> his successor and, as we have seen in our discussion of the period immediately
> after the Bab's death, that Azal was generally recognised as such by the Babi
> community after 1850. What is not clear, however, is the exact meaning to be
> described to this appointment, in the understanding of the Bab, Azal himself,
> and the Babi community, and its relationship to the Babi doctrine of M.Y.H.
> 
>        The document presented by Azal to substantiate his claim is hardly convincing.
> It is a letter from the Bab to Azal, which reads as follows: 
> "God is Most Great with the Uttermost Greatness. This is a letter on the part
> of God, the Protector, the Self-Existent, to God, the Protector, the
> Self-Existent.[114] Say, 'All originate from
> God'. Say, 'All return unto God'. This is a letter from 'Ali before Nabil,[115] God's Reminder unto the Worlds, unto him
> whose name is equivalent to the Name of the One,[116] God's Reminder unto the Worlds. Say, 'Verily all
> originate from the Point of Revelation.' O Name of the One, keep what hath been
> revealed in the Beyan, and what hath been commanded, for verily Thou art a
> Mighty Way of Truth."[117]
>  
>        Whatever may have been the Bab's intent, Azal himself regarded this
> appointment as a legal-political one, that is, in the sense of Caliphate rather
> than Imamate. It was to be his task to lead the Babi community in the difficult
> period of the "Minor Occultation". Certainly Azal did not regard himself as
> M.Y.H. When after the death of the Bab several claims to the station of
> Nuqta were made, Azal appears to have welcomed these as ecstatic
> identifications with the Bab (that is, as manifestations of the "Mansur
> ecstasy"), not as claims to the station of M.Y.H. From the Azali point of view,
> therefore, Baha-u'llah's claim to that station, not in the sense of the "Mansur
> ecstasy" but as abrogating the Bayanic cycle, was outrageous heresy.
> 
>        The Bahá'ís have not been consistent in their interpretation of the Bab's
> intentions concerning Azal. At first, their intention seems to have been to
> claim all of Azal's titles for their own candidate, simply ignoring Azal and
> stating that the Bab appointed Baha-u'llah to be his successor; this is still
> generally done in western Bahá'í publications. To this purpose, the Bahá'ís
> tried to destroy or falsify the early history of the Babi movement, as recorded
> by Mirza Jani of Kashan, and to write new histories which would assert
> Baha-u'llah's claim, as was done in the 1880's from the Bahá'í center in
> Palestine:  "As the Biography of the Prophet Muhummad
> composed by Ibn Is-hak was superseded by the recension of Ibn Hisham, so should
> Mirza Jani's old history of the Bab and his apostles be superseded by a
> revised, expurgated, and amended "New History" (Tarikh-i-Jadid), which, while
> carefully omitting every fact, doctrine and expression calculated to injure the
> policy of Beha, or to give offence to his followers, should preserve, and even
> supplement with new material derived from fresh sources, the substance of the
> earlier chronicle."[118] 
> 
> However, in the history which was written by Abdul Baha and became the official
> Bahá'í version until after the latter's death, the appointment of Azal was
> admitted, but explained in the following manner:  "By the
> assistance and instruction of Bahá'u'lláh, therefore, they made him notorious
> and famous on the tongues of friends and foes, and wrote letters, ostensibly at
> his dictation to the Bab. And since secret correspondence were in process the
> Bab highly approved of this sceme [sic]. So Mirza Yahya was concealed and
> hidden while mention of him was on the tongues and in the mouths of men. And
> this might plan was of wondrous efficacy, for Bahá'u'lláh, though he was known
> and seen, remained safe and secure, and this veil was the cause that no one
> outside (the sect) fathomed the matter or fell into the idea of molestation,
> until Bahá'u'lláh quitted Teheran at the permission of the King and was
> permitted to withdraw to the Supreme Shrines".[119]  
> There is, of course, no substantiating evidence for this explanation. 
> 
>        Mirza Jani himself, the only Babi historian who wrote before the schism and
> whose book we have, regarded the appointment of Azal as a recognition of this
> station as M.Y.H., because, he claims, the Bab ordered Azal to write the
> unfinished part of the Bayan, a task to be performed by M.Y.H.:
>  "He (B.) also wrote a testamentary deposition, explicitly
> nominating him (Ezal) as his successor (Wali), and added, 'Write the
> eight (unwritten) Vahids of the Beyan, and, if 'He whom God shall
> manifest' should appear in His power in thy time, abrogate the Bayan, and put
> into practice that which he shall inspire into thine heart."[120]  
> This proves, if nothing else, that there were Babis immediately after the death
> of the Bab who considered the possibility that M.Y.H. might appear and abrogate
> the Bayanic cycle within their own lifetime. If Mirza Jani is to be trusted in
> his interpretation of the appointment, the Bab himself did not completely
> dismiss this possibility either. 
> 
>        Very little appears certain in this confusion of claims and counterclaims. We
> cannot know clearly what the Bab's own understanding was in the succession
> matter. Azal himself, and his followers, adopted the more moderate,
> conservative interpretation of the appointment. Baha-u'llah, and his followers,
> taking up the chiliastic motif where the Bab had projected it into the future
> in his doctrine of M.Y.H. appeared with a new radical claim, which in the
> course of the struggle won completely over the conservative claim within the
> Babi community. It was Baha-u'llah, therefore, and not his half-brother, who
> was carrying on the dominant motif of the Babi movement. We may say that Azal
> may have been right from a "legal" point of view, but that Baha-u'llah was
> "religiously" right in his claim. 
> 
>        As we have already pointed out, Azal was generally recognised as the leader of
> the Babi movement after the Bab's death in 1850. Both Babi and non-Babi sources
> agree on this.[121] There were, however, a
> number of other claims in this period, such as that of Jenab-i-Zabih and
> Jenab-i-Basir (the "Indian believers"), all appearing as divine manifestations
> and asserting themselves as Nuqta. Azal did not feel perturbed by these
> claims, accepting them as expressions of the "Mansur ecstasy", only mildly
> reproved the most violent ones. Mirza Jani himself comments on them in a
> tolerant manner:  "We love such as advance claims, provided
> that they be sincere in their claims ... The more branches and leaves a tree
> bears, the greater is its perfection, and the more abundant its
> fruitfulness."[122]  
> 
> A later Azali source comments more caustically:  "The matter
> came to such a pass that everyone on wakening from his first sleep in the
> morning adorned his body with this pretension."[123]  
>        In 1852, at the time of the  Teheran massacre, Azal was in Nur, in the south
> of Persian.[124] He escaped arrest despite a
> price that had been set on this head. Disguised as a dervish, he escaped across
> the border into Iraq, then part of the Turkish Empire. Baha-u'llah was arrested
> in Teheran, apparently released because of his aristocratic background and some
> kind of intervention on the part of the Russian embassy, and was permitted also
> to proceed to Iraq with his family. The two brothers met in Bagdad, where they
> remained for 12 years. The Babi exiles appear to have received a friendly, or
> at least indifferent, reception from the Turkish authorities. The latter were
> not interested in the inner quarrels of the Shi'ite faith, as the Babi episode
> must have appeared to them, and may not have been too averse to welcoming
> people who had created political difficulties in neighboring Persia, with which
> the Turkish Empire was not always on the best of relations.
> 
>        From this time onwards the important events of Bahá'í history take place
> outside Persia. In the period following the flight of the two brothers to Iraq
> the Persian community lived in hiding, under the constant threat of
> persecution. Outside Persia there were established two centers of Babi exiles.
> One was the community in Bagdad, the other was established in Ishqabad, in
> Russian Turkestan, where a number of Babis had taken refuge and had been well
> received by the Russian authorities, who had from the first shown a sympathetic
> attitude towards these victims of persecution. The community in Ishqabad was
> later to erect the first Bahá'í house of worship. It continued, however, in
> relative isolation and played no great part in the subsequent history of the
> movement. The community in Bagdad, however, found itself at the very heart of
> the Shi'ite world. It was able to engage in open missionary activity among the
> many Persian pilgrims who came to the Shi'ite shrines of Kerbela and Najaf.
> Despite the secret character of the movement in Persia, communications between
> Bagdad and Persia were frequent, and the Babi community in the homeland of the
> movement was able to follow in all the details the succession struggle which
> was to break out.
> 
>        The most important problem of the Bagdad period is the growing claims and
> importance of Baha-u'llah.[125] The Bahá'í
> sources assert that Baha declared himself to be M.Y.H. the new prophet of the
> age, in the "Year 9" (after the declaration of the Bab), that is, 1853. This
> date has to this been accepted by Bahá'ís as the beginning of the Bahá'í era,
> following that of the Bab, but the date is very improbable. Other Bahá'í
> sources speak of the "Year 19", that is, 1863, when just before the departure
> of the community from Bagdad Baha made some kind of a declaration in the
> caravansarai of the "Garden of Rizwan", from where the group was to start out
> on its journey to Adrianople. The first, if not both, of these declarations
> were, if made at all, communicated more or less in secret to a small inner
> circle of Baha's followers.[126] We cannot
> know, of course, now the consciousness of his position developed in Baha's own
> mind. We know that Baha spent two years in retirement in the wilderness of
> Kurdistan.[127] The Bahá'í sources have
> described this period as one in which his prophetic consciousness was ripening
> and have compared it to the retreats of Jesus and Muhummad. The Azali source,
> however, claims that Baha left in anger because the community resisted his
> innovations in Babi laws and his pretensions to leadership, and that he
> returned at the invitation of Azal.[128]
> This source also states that Baha did not begin to dispute Azal's supremacy
> until the second part of the Baghdad period, gradually making use of his
> administrative position to increase his power, but that he did not openly
> proclaim himself as M.H.Y., or, as the Azali source falsely claims, as
> incarnation of God, until the transfer of the community to Adrianople.[129]
> 
>        What appears certain is that from the beginning Azal remained in the
> background, living in meditation like a Sufi saint, and like the Bab had done
> before him. Baha was the administrative leader of the community, taking care
> especially of the important communication line with Persia. He also wrote some
> important books in this period, which we shall discuss below. From our sources
> and from the internal evidence of these books, it seems that Baha did not
> openly proclaim himself in the Baghdad period, submitted outwardly to Azal's
> leadership, but gradually began to prepare his followers and wider Babi circles
> in Persia for the coming of a new proclamation. 
> 
>        The community stayed in Baghdad until 1863 or 1864.[130] At that time, the Persian embassy in Constantinople
> made a formal request to the Sultan for the extradition of the Babi exiles,
> who, it was asserted, constituted a political threat to Persia. The request for
> extradition was not granted. Instead the Babis were summoned to Constantinople,
> apparently for an audience with the Sultan. This audience never took place. The
> Babis arrived in Constantinople after an arduous journey through Anatolia, and
> immediately began a vigorous missionary activity in the Turkish capital. This
> aroused the anger of the Sunnite clergy, who influenced the Sultan to remove
> the Babis from the capital. The community was ordered to proceed to Adrianople,
> as far away from Persia as possible and reasonably far from Constantinople.
> They arrived there in 1864.
> 
>        The community of Babi exiles remained in Adrianlople from 1864 to 1868. In
> this period the schism between Azal and Baha reached its culmination. It is
> completely impossible to determine the truth of what happened during these four
> years; all we can do is put the two versions of events side by side, and take
> the story up again at the end of this period. The only thing we know for
> certain, and on which both versions agree, is that Baha openly declared himself
> as M.Y.H. in 1866 and 1867, and at that time appealed to Babis everywhere to
> recognise him as the prophet of the new age predicted by the Bab.[131] 
> 
>        The Bahá'í version of the Adrianople period[132] asserts that Azal openly "rebelled" against Baha and
> claimed the title of M.Y.H. for himself, although he knew that his title
> rightfully belonged to Baha. In this he was to have been inspired largely by
> one Siyyid Muhummad of Isfahan, an Azali who was later assassinated by Bahá'ís
> in Palestine. The Bahá'í version further claims that Azal made two attempts to
> murder Baha, one by trying to poison his food and the other by bribing Baha's
> barber to cut his throat. Baha is supposed to have addressed a letter to all
> Babis, faithfully declaring both his own and Azal's claim, and to have retired
> for a brief period awaiting the result of this appeal. In accordance with the
> Bab's promise that M.Y.H. would be recognizable by the sheer powr of this
> person, Baha was universally recognized by the Babi community.  Thereupon Azal
> is to have denounced Baha to the government, stating that he was planning
> rebellion against the Turkish Empire. As a result of this denunciation both
> Bahá'ís and Azalis are to have been deported from Adrianople. Of this version
> we can only say that the assertion that Azal laid claim to the title of M.Y.H.
> is certainly untrue, as is clear from his subsequent behavior, and that the
> statement that the "rebelled" against Baha makes little sense in view of Azal's
> undisputed leadership prior to Baha's declaration (declarations).
> 
>        The Azali version give us an almost precise reversal of this story.[133] It tells us that Baha, who had already
> begun to subvert Azal's leadership in Baghdad, openly proclaimed himself not
> only as M.Y.H. but as an incarnation of God at Adrianople. It was he who tried
> to murder Azal in the two ways mentioned above. Again, it was he who denounced
> Azal to the Turkish authorities as a rebel leader, going as far as planting
> false letters in government offices in Constantinople, purporting to be calls
> to rebellion from Baha. This denunciation is to have led to the deportation
> from Adrianople. Of this version it can only be said that Baha did not proclaim
> himself as an incarnation of God, as we have already pointed out. In regard to
> both claims of denunciation to the authorities we may doubt their veracity, as
> such a denunciation was likely to harm all Babis, of whatever faction. Our best
> impartial researcher into this period has this to say about it:
>  "It is difficult amidst the conflicting statement of the two
> parties and the silence of disinterested historians to discover precisely what
> were the causes which led to the removal of the Babis from Adrianople. Further
> investigation inclines me to abandon the view ... that overt acts of hostility
> between the two factions made it necessary to separate them, for Mirza Yahya
> appears to have been almost without supporters at Adrianople, so that,
> according to his own account, he and his little boy were compelled to go
> themselves to the market to buy their daily food."[134]  
>        If we are unable to discover the precise causes, we know what the consequences
> were. Both Azal and Bah were arrested by the Turkish authorities and deported
> from Adrianople with their respective followers. The Bahá'í group was
> substantially larger than the Azali one. Azal was sent to Famagusta, on Cyprus,
> with four Bahá'ís to watch him, while Baha was sent to the prison fortress of
> Acre, in Palestine, with four Azalis to watch him. Of these four one was
> already assassinated in Adrianople, the three others in Acre.[135] The greater severity of Baha's fate seems to indicate
> that the Turkish authorities regarded him as the principal culprit. 
> 
>        From this time on we no longer have to concern ourselves with Azal. Baha's
> victory was complete and the history of this followers constitutes from then on
> the history of the movement. Azal continued to live in Famagusta until his
> death in 1912 in increasing isolation and obscurity. The Azali faction ceased
> to exist long before that. [[136] wrong
> footnote]
> 
>        Baha lived in and then near Acre for 1868 to 1892, the date of his death.[137] This period is characterised by the full
> unfolding to his prophetic claim and an extensive literary activity, to be
> discussed below, in which the corpus of the new Bahá'í manifestation was laid
> down.
> 
>        The first two years Baha lived under strict imprisonment in the filthy
> fortress notorious for holding the worst criminals of the Turkish Empire.
> Gradually his conditions were alleviated. He was first permitted to move into a
> private house within the city gates and after nine years, in 1877, into a quiet
> country house at Bahji, outside the city, where he lived until his death.
> 
>        From the first, a stream of pilgrims passed through Acre, Persian Bahá'ís who
> came to see their prophet. While he was in prison, he could only show himself
> through the window, and the pilgrims would wait patiently for hours to catch
> this brief glimpse of him. Baha received now the same passionate worship that
> the Bab had received before him. When he was permitted to live at Bahji he
> lived in the same contemplative islation that had characterized the life of the
> Bab. An audience with him was a privilege granted to only few.[138] The temporal affairs of the Bahá'í movement were
> increasingly administered by Baha's son Abdul-Baha, just as Baha had done at
> Baghdad, and the various "Letters of the Living" in the time of the Bab. Baha
> was constantly surrounded by secretaries, who took down all he said, as far as
> possible. His numerous letters were called "tablets" (alwah), to
> indicate their imperishability, and treated as containers of divine
> revelation.
> 
>        The Bahá'í community in Acre established itself as a fairly respected
> minority. Some Bahá'ís became successful in business there. After the
> assassination of the Azali spies brought along from Adrianople, an act in which
> Baha, at any rate, acquiesced, the community was united under Baha. His
> authority was unquestioned, however, not only in Acre, but in all Bahá'í
> communities in Persia as well.
> 
>        In the homeland of the movement the Bahá'ís continued as a secret group. Baha
> gave strict orders against any form of rebellion or even resistance against
> persecution. As we have seen, the Bahá'í histories of the 1880s tried
> substantially to change the character of the Babi movement, one of these
> changes being the systematic suppression of the rebellious character of the
> movement and the exoneration of the Kajar dynasty from the cruelties inflicted
> on the Babis. In the course of a series of lettes Baha sent to various rulers
> and kings, he also wrote a letter to the Shah. In this letter he assured the
> Shah of the Bahá'ís' loyalty to the Persian throne and urged him to practice
> religious toleration. The letter was delivered in Teheran by a young Bahá'í,
> Mirza Badi, who was immediately executed in cruel fashion. We have every reason
> to believe that Baha really meant this new policy and that he completely
> abandoned any idea of establishing the Bahá'í order by force of arms. 
> 
>        In spite of secrecy and persecution, the movement continued to grow in Persia.
> Ketman was generally observed against the Shi'ites, less so as the
> fierceness of the original opposition began to subside. There were, however,
> intermittent outbreaks of bloody persecution, as at Isfahan and Yezd in
> 1888-1891.[139] Bahá'ísm achieved some
> remarkable successes among Persian Jews and, to a lesser extent, was received
> favorably by Zoroastrians. To both these groups the movement was attractive as
> abandoning the rigid Muslim attitudes towards them. Also at this time the
> movement began to attract some freethinking individuals, who, under western
> influences, were becoming estranged from Islam.
> 
>        Baha died in 1892, at the age of 75. He is buried in the garden of Bahji, a
> place of pilgrimage for Bahá'ís from all over the world and the Bahá'í
> kibla.
> 
> 
> 
> 5.       Doctrinal Developments
> 
>        There are no fundamental differences between the doctrinal systems of
> the Bab and Baha-u'llah. The works of Baha, the most important of which are
> available in translation,[140] constitute an
> elaboration of the Bayanic system in terms of the new claim to divine
> manifestation. There are certain changes and shifts of emphasis, and the
> esoteric gnosticism of the Bayan is considerably pushed into the background. On
> the basis of Baha's works, we can say that the gnostic motif in Babism was
> receding and its chiliastic motif was being increasingly domesticated into an
> ethical-religious program for world peace and betterment. Also, we find in
> Baha's works the signs of the larger audiences the movement was trying to reach
> with its spread beyond the borders of Persia. 
> 
>        Chronologically, we can see, of course, a great difference between the works
> written in Baghdad, when Baha was still recognizing Azal's leadership, and
> those written in Adrianople and Acre, where the new claim was openly
> proclaimed. However, this difference appears to consist in the doctrine of
> Baha's person and the practical consequences, in terms of the new
> manifestation, drawn from it, not in the underlying conceptions of God,
> revelation and the religious life. The most important works from Baghdad period
> are the Haft Vadi ("Seven Valleys") and the Kalimat-i-Maknune
> ("Hidden Words"), both edificational tracts, and the Kitab'ul-Ighan
> ("Book of Certitude"), an apologetic work to defend Babism against its critics.
> From the late Adrianople period dates the Suratu'l-Haikal ("Sura of the
> Temple"), setting forth Baha's claim, and perhaps some of the Alwahi
> Salatin ("Tablets to the Kings"), in which Baha addresses the rulers of
> both east and west. From the Acre period dates above all the Kitab Akdas
> ("Holy Book"), containing the new Bahá'í legislative corpus, as well as a large
> number of "tablets" (alwah) sent to different individuals or groups.
> Translation of the Kitab Akdas were forbidden by Baha until its
> legislative plans could be realized in practice, but summaries of its contents
> have been made.[141]
> 
>        The Bahá'í doctrine of God and revelation is identical with that of the Bayan,
> with the difference that the person of Baha is included in the catalog of
> prophets and that there is less emphasis on the mysterious elements of the
> revelatory process, such as the concept of "return". As in the Bayan, the
> Bahá'í doctrine of God differentiates between His essence and attributes, only
> the latter being knowable to men through the manifestations of the logos
> ('akl). Sufi formulations of man's unity with God are emphatically
> rejected. The world is co-eternal with God, the arena of His emanations and
> manifestations.[142]
> 
>        As in the Bayan, the Bahá'í doctrine speaks of a series of prophets, each
> bearing the message of God to a particular age. There does not appear to be a
> clear idea of the number and identity of these prophets; in one place Baha
> mentions prophets that came before Adam.[143] The signs of the prophet are still the "descent of
> verses" and the power of his personality. As had been done by the Bab, Islamic
> eschatology is interpreted in an allegorical fashion to refer to the coming of
> the next prophet. Baha, however, also showed considerable interest in Christian
> eschatology, interpreting it in the same allegorical fashion as referring to
> himself, as in Jesus' words concerning the Comforter to come and the sign of
> the Son of Man appearing in the sky, to be understood as  referring
> respectively to Baha and the Bab.[144] The
> Bab, in this way, appears in the role of John the Baptist, the "Minor
> Manifestation", in relation to Baha.
> 
>        Baha appears in the full authority of the prophet for the new age. The Bayanic
> manifestation is concluded and the Bahá'í era has begun. In one of this
> polemics against the Azalis, who refuse to accept this claim, Baha says:
>  "Remarquez que certains vergets rèvèlès
> postèrieurement abrogent ceux qui one ètè
> rèvèlès antèrieurement. Peut- être que les
> polyth êtesistes du Bayan n'ont jamais lu le Qoran non plus, sinon
> comment peuvent-ile dire que, le commandement du verset antérieur il
> n'est pas possible de l'abroger par un autre verset? Quant à ceux dent
> nous avons parle en vérité, vous ne trouverez en eux que
> l'infidelité, la rébellion, la néglegence, la perdition.
> Leur et tout ce qui se trouve dans les Ecritures divines, au sujet des
> abrogations et des contradictions du Qoran, ils recommencent les mewes errrurs,
> et de nouveau ils se soulévent contre le Roi de l'invisible et du
> visible."[145] 
> 
> All manifestations are essentially one, so that Baha can speak of himself as
> Jesus returned from heaven:  "En vérité, Il est
> venu Ciel comme Il en vint la première fois; prenex gards de controdire
> ce qu'Il dit, comme l'ont fait les peuples qui vous ont
> précédés! Ainsi Dieu vous instruit, si vous êtes de
> ceux qui savent."[146] 
> 
>        In this spirit of authority Baha addressed his letters not only to the Persian
> Shah and the Turkish Sultan, but to the Pople and the Christian rulers of
> Europe. He wrote to Queen Victoria, Napoleon III and Alexander II, demanding
> that they recognize him as the returned Christ. To Pope Pius IX he wrote:
>  "O Pape! Déchire les voiles, car le Seigneur des
> Seigneurs est venu à l'ombre des nuages, et l'ordre a été
> decreté de la part de Cieu, l'independent, le Tout-Puissant! Ouvre les
> rideux par la puissance de ton Seigneur, puis monte au Royaume des noms et des
> Seigneur, le Fort, le Puissant."[147]
>  
>        Just as the Bab had envisaged a Babi state in which the Bayan would be the
> supreme law, so Baha envisaged a Bahá'í commonwealth. Baha, however, was
> explicit in his expectation that his commonwealth would cover the whole earth.
> Baha explicitly abrogates the "four great barriers" of the Bayan: killing men's
> lives (jihhad); burning books; shunning other nations; and exterminating other
> communities.[148] The purpose of the Bahá'í
> manifestation is the "Promulgation of the Most Great Peace" throughout the
> world:  "O ye people of the world! The virtue of this Most
> Great Manifestation is that we have effaced from the Book whatever was the
> cause of difference, corruption and discord, and recorded therein that which
> leads to Unity, Harmony and Accord."[149]
>  
> In the place of the "four great barriers" of the Bayan are recommended the
> "five greatest foundations" for the government of the nations: the promotion of
> the Most Great Peace by the House of Justice, which we shall discuss below; a
> universal language; the practice by all of love and unity; the levying of taxes
> for universal education; and promotion of agriculture.[150] Other specific recommendations is that Bahá'ís must
> obey all governments, that all clergy and monasticism must be abolished, that
> the sciences "which lead and conduce to the elevation of mankind" be studied,
> and that each man must have an occupation in which to serve God.[151] The last of these is especially
> interesting to us, as it gave the Bahá'ís in the Near East a vocational ethic
> often setting them off visibly from their Muslim neighbors.
> 
>        To carry out the administrative work of the Bahá'í commonwealth, both on the
> local, national and eventually international level, Baha instituted the
> Beitu'l-Adl ("House of Justice"). The idea of the "House of Justice"
> represents a curious blending of theocratic and democratic concepts, the former
> going back to the Bayan, the latter to Baha's great admiration of British
> constitutional monarchy.[152] The Kitab
> Akdas orders the establishment in the future of local "Houses of Justice"
> by election of the local communities (assumed to consist of Bahá'ís), later to
> lead to national "Houses of Justice", and eventually to culminate in a
> "Universal House of Justice", which would constitute a world government. Baha
> ordered that after his death the succession pass to Abbas Effendi (Abdul-Baha),
> his oldest son, and from the latter to the "Universal House of Justice", which
> Baha expected would exist by then. The "Houses of Justice" are to exist side by
> side with existing monarchies, their relationship with the monarchies
> corresponding to that between the British Throne and Parliament. The "Houses of
> Justice" are administrative organs, both religious and political, but they have
> no right to change the fundamental laws as laid down by the prophet.[153]
> 
>        Above all Bahá'ís must cultivate a spirit of tolerance and sympathy towards
> all men, of whatever nation or race:  "Consort with (the
> people of) religions with joy and fragrance; to show forth (in deeds, etc) that
> which is declared by the Speaker of the Mount; and to render justice in
> affairs. The followers of Sincerity and Faithfulness must consort with all the
> people of the world with joy and fragrance; for association (intercourse) is
> always conducive to union and harmony, and union and harmony are the cause of
> the order of the world and the life of nations. Blessed are they who hold fast
> to the rope of compassion and kindness and are detached from animosity and
> hatred!"[154]  
> Baha's commandment of international amity is summed up in the following
> statement, frequently quoted by western Bahá'ís: "Glory is
> not his who loves his native land; but glory is his who loves his kind."[155]  
>        The religious life as laid down by Baha is one of simple worship, mostly
> private (as had been the case with the Babis), warm inner piety, the practice
> of love and active work for the betterment of the world.
> 
>        In describing the experiences of the inner life Baha frequently uses Sufi
> symbolism, especially in his early Haft Vadi. It is a mistake, however,
> to regard even this work as Sufi in inspiration.[156] The terms implying unity and ecstasy never refer, in
> the Sufi sense, to God, but always to the logos as found in the
> prophetic manifestations. Through the logos, however, all creation is
> seen to be filled with the emanations of God's glory:  "Si tu
> cherches à l'interieur de chaque atome, au milieu tu trouves un
> soleil."[157]  
> 
> Sufism is explicitly rejected:  "Those souls (mystic Sufis)
> have affirmed concerning the stages of 'Divine Unity' that which is the
> greatest cause of addicting people to idleness and superstition. They have,
> indeed, removed the distinction and have imagined themselves to be God. The
> True One is sanctified above all; (but) His signs are manifest in all things.
> The signs are from Him - not He Himself - and all of them are recorded
> and visible in the volume of the world. The plan of the world is a great Book;
> everyone endowed with perception can grasp (therefrom) that which shall enable
> him to attain to the Right Path an the 'Great Message'".[158]  
> 
> While clergy and monasticism are abolished, along with the Muslim laws
> concerning ritual uncleanness and purification, and while prayer is to be
> essentially private, Baha ordered the establishment of Bahá'í houses of
> worship, to be called Mashriqu'l-Azkar (literally, "Place of Ascent of
> Prayers"). The first of these was established in Ishqabad, but later closed by
> the Soviet authorities. The only one in existence today is that in Wilmette,
> Ill., whose foundations were laid by Abdul-Baha.
> 
>        In conclusion, we may point out that Baha continued the Bab's concern for the
> humane education of children. In the Near East Bahá'ís are known for the charm
> of their children, as well as the high regard (at least by comparison with the
> Muslims) in which they hold their women.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Notes:
> 
> This is the end of the typed excerpt I possess. Please email me if you can help finish typing or scanning this dissertation. I don't have a copy of it, but it can be obtained in many university libraries.
> 
> The footnote reference numbers were included in the text above by the typist, but the footnotes themselves have not yet been typed.
>
> — *From Sect to Church: A Sociological Interpretation of the Baha'i Movement [excerpt] (Used by permission of the curator)*