The Story of the Bab- Three Versions

The Story of the Báb:

Three Versions

Mary F. Wilson

published in Contemporary Review pp. 808-829

1885-12

1. About

Mary F. Wilson’s “The Story of the Bab” was published in Contemporary Review in December 1885 (pp. 809-29) and republished in Littell’s Living Age, January 16, 1886 (pp. 151-63). Her source was Gobineau, the tone of her article, heroic. She presented the history of the early years of the Bábí Faith as a drama of faith and courage, and reflected in her article the emotion that Gobineau’s work inspired in so many of his European readers. Wilson described Gobineau’s book as presenting “a picture of steadfast adherence to truth (as they held it), of self-denial, of joyful constancy in the face of bitterest suffering, torture and death, as vivid and touching as any that are found in the records of the heroic days of old” (p. 808). Heroism aside, Wilson, like other nineteenth-century Christian writers, ascribed the Báb’s teachings regarding the elevation of women and tenderness to children to his adoption of some Western ideals and Christian principles. Regarding the Báb’s teachings she wrote: “Some of these innovations were probably the result of his study of European books. But the considerate kindness of all his rules for women, and his invariable tenderness in everything that concerned children, must have had a deeper source. One can hardly fail to see that in these respects he had imbibed something of the spirit of the Gospel; and the regret arises irresistibly, that where he had seen and appreciated so much, he had not grasped the whole” (p. 811). Generally, Wilson took Gobineau’s history and recast it in the style of historical fiction. She occasionally drew parallels between the suffering of the Báb and his followers and the suffering of the Christ and his followers, but she was careful to stress that the parallel was with respect to the events only. In commenting on the effect of the martyrdom of the Bábís to the spread of the Bábí Faith, she said toward the end of the article: “Whatever may be the errors and delusions of the system, it has been true in respect to it, as to a purer and more enlightened faith, that the blood of the martyrs was the seed of the Church” (pp. 828-29). (from bahai.works/World_Order/Series2/Volume_12/Issue_4/Text#pg19)

2. The Contemporary Review pp. 808-829 (complete)

online at books.google.com

December 1885

Download: wilson_story_bab_contemporary-review.pdf.

3. The Living Age 53:168, pp. 151–163

see at books.google.com

1886

4. The Library Magazine pp. 137-147 out of ? (missing pages 148+)

online at books.google.com

1886

Download: wilson_story_bab_the-library-magazine.pdf.

5. The Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art pp. 264-273, 275-277, 280 (missing 274, 278-279)

online at books.google.com

1886-02

Download: wilson_story_bab_the-eclectic-magazine-of-foreign-literature-science-and-art.pdf.

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