# Materials for the Study of the Babi Religion

*Exported from [Holy-Writings.com](https://www.holy-writings.com/) on 2026-06-20 — 1 clipping.*

---

> Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: E. G. Browne, Materials for the Study of the Babi Religion, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1918/1961/2013, bahai-library.com.
> ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
> 
> Materials for the Study of the Babi Religion
> 
> E. G. Browne, compiler and translator
> 
> Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1918/1961/2013
> 
> single page
> 
> chapter 1
> 
> CONTENTS PAGE
> 
> INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
> I. An epitome of Bábí and Bahá'í history to A.D. 1898,
> translated from the original Arabic of Mírzá
> Muhammad Jawád of Qazvín . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
> II. Ibráhím George Khayru'llah and the Bahá'í Propa-
> ganda in America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
> III. Further Notes on the Bábí, Azali and Bahá'í Litera-
> ture, Oriental and Occidental, printed, litho-
> graphed and manuscript . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
> IV. Five unpublished contemporary documents, Per-
> sian and English, relating to the Báb's exami-
> nation at Tabríz in 1848 . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
> V. An Austrian Officer's account of the cruelties
> practized on the Bábís who suffered in the
> great Persecution of 1852. . . . . . . . . . . . 265
> VI. Two unpublished contemporary State Papers
> bearing on the removal of the Bábís from
> Baghdád to Turkey in Europe, dated May 10,
> 1862 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
> VII. Persecutions of Bábís in 1888-1891 at Isfahán
> and Yazd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
> VIII. Account of the Death and Burial of Mírzá Yahyá
> Subh-i-Azal on April 29,1912 . . . . . . . . . . 309
> IX. List of the Descendants of Mírzá Buzurg of Nur,
> and Father both of Bahá'u'lláh and of Subh-i-
> Azal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
> X. Thirty heretical doctrines ascribed to the Bábís
> in the Ihqaqu'l-Haqq of Áqá Muhammad Taqí
> of Hamadán . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
> XI. Selected poems by Qurratu'l-'Ayn and Nabíl
> 
> INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359
> 
> LIST OF OTHER WORKS BY THE AUTHOR OF THIS BOOK . . . . . . 381
> 
> LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
> 
> 'Abbás Efendi 'Abdu'l-Bahá . . . . . . . . . . . . Frontispiece
> To face p.
> Invitation to centenary of Bahá'u'lláh's birth to be cele- xxiv
> brated at Chicago on November 10-12, 1917 . . . . . .
> Mushkín Qalam the Bábí calligraphist . . . . . . . . . . . 44
> Portraits of ten notable Bábís . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
> The North American of Feb. 16, 1902. . . . . . . . . . . . 151
> The New York Times of Dec. 18, 1904. . . . . . . . . . . . 152
> The Bahá'í News of Aug. 1, 1910. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
> Fac-simile of document A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
> " " B . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
> " " B1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
> " " A.6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
> " " A.7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
> Funeral of Mírzá Yahyá Subh-i-Azal . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
> Subh-i-Azal and three of his sons. . . . . . . . . . . . . 322
> Fac-simile of alleged autograph poem by Qurratu'l-'Ayn . . 344
> 
> ERRATA
> 
> The descriptions of Sections VIII and XI should stand as
> given in the Table of Contes on the preceding page, and not
> as in their respective titles on pp. 309 and 341.
> 
> INTRODUCTION
> 
> Nearly thirty years have elapsed since I first established direct
> relations with the Bábís in Persia, having already become deeply interested in
> their history and doctrines through the lively and graphic narrative of the Comte de Gobineau in
> his classical work Les Religions et les Philosophies dans l'Asie Centrale. Subsequently
> (in the spring of 1890) I visited Mírzá Yahyá
> Subhi-i-Azal ("The Dawn of Eternity") and Mírzá
> Husayn `Alí Bahá'u'lláh ("the Splendour of God"), the
> respective heads of the two rival parties into which the original community had split, at
> Famagusta in Cyprus and at `Akká (St Jean d'Acre) in Syria; and from that time until
> now I have maintained more or less continuous relations with both parties through various
> channels. Fresh and fuller materials for the study of Bábí history and doctrine
> have continued to flow into my hands through these channels, until, apart from what I had
> utilized fully or in part in previous publications,1 a considerable
> 
> 1 The more important of these publications, arranged in chronological
> order, as as follows. (1) The Bábís of Persia: 1. Sketch of their History
> and Personal Experiences amongst them: ii. Their Literature and Doctrines (J.R.A.S.,
> Vol.xxi, 1889). (2) A Traveller's Narrative etc., Persian text and English translation, 2
> vols. (Camb. Univ. Press, 1891). (3) Some Remarks on the Bábí Text edited
> by Baron V. Rosen (J.R.A.S., Vol. xxiv, 1892). (4) Catalogue and Description of
> 27 Bábí Manuscripts (J.R.A.S., Vol. xxiv, 1892). (5) A Year
> amongst
> 
> viiiINTRODUCTION
> 
> amount of new and unpublished matter had accumulated in my hands. Much of this matter,
> consisting of manuscript and printed documents in various Eastern and Western languages, could
> only be interpreted in connection with the correspondence relating to it, and would inevitably, I
> felt, be lost if I did not myself endeavour to record it in an intelligible form, capable of being
> used by future students of this subject. Hence the origin of this book, which, if somewhat
> lacking in coherence and uniformity, will, I believe, be of value to anyone who shall in the
> future desire to study more profoundly a movement which, even if its practical and political
> importance should prove to be less than I had once thought, will always be profoundly
> interesting to students of Comparative Religion and the history of religious Evolution.
> 
> The book, in the form which it has finally assumed, comprises eleven more or
> less independent sections, about each of which something must be said.
> 
> Section I (pp.3—112) is a translation into English of a short
> historical and biographical sketch of the Bábí movement, of the life of
> Bahá'u'lláh, of the further schism which succeeded his death, and of the
> Bahá'í propaganda in America, written in Arabic by Mírzá
> Muhammad Jawád of Qazwín, by whom the original, and, I believe,
> unpublished manuscript was transmitted to me. I was not personally
> 
> the Persians (A. and C. Black, 1893). (6) The Ta'ríkh-i-
> Jadíd or New History of...the Báb, translation (Camb. Univ. Press, 1893).
> (7) Personal Reminiscences of the Bábí Insurrection at Zanján in
> 1850, translated from the Persian (J.R.A.S., Vol. xxix, 1897). (8) The
> Kitáb-i-Nuqtatu'l-Káf, being the earliest history of the
> Bábís, compiled by Hájji Mírzá
> Jání of Káshán: Persian text with Introduction in English (E. J.
> W. Gibb Memorial Series, Vol. xv, 1910). Also articles on Bábís in the
> Supplement to the Encyclopaedia Britannica and Hastings' Dictionary of
> Religions.
> 
> INTRODUCTIONix
> 
> acquainted with the author, but his son Mírzá Ghulámu'lláh, paid
> me a visit of several days at Cambridge in January, 1901, on his way to the United States. Both
> belong to that section of the Bahá'ís, called by themselves "Unitarians"
> (Ahlu't-Tawhíd, Muwahhidún) and by their
> opponents "Covenant-breakers" (Náqizún), who reject the claims
> of `Abbás Efendi `Abdu'l-Bahá (whom the majority of the Bahá'ís
> recognize as their head) and follow his half-brother, Mírzá Muhammad
> `Alí. From incidental remarks in the narrative we learn that the author, Mírza
> Muhammad Jawád, was at Baghdád (p.15) about 1862 or a little earlier,
> shortly before the removal of the leading Bábís thence to Adrianople; that he was
> with them at Adrianople (pp.25, 27, 28) for rather more than a year before
> Bahá'u'lláh was transferred thence to `Akká in August, 1868; that he was
> Bahá'u'lláh's fellow-passenger on the steamer which conveyed him from
> Gallipoli to Hayfá (p.32); that he was at `Akká in January, 1872 when
> Sayyid Muhammad of Isfahán and the other Azalís were
> assassinated (pp.54-5) and also at the time of, or soon after, Bahá'u'lláh's death
> on May 28, 1892, when he was one of the nine Companions chosen by `Abbás Efendi to
> hear the reading of the "Testament" or "Covenant,", (p.75). We also learn (pp.35-6) that he
> was one of several Bábís arrested at Tabríz about the end of 1866 or
> beginning of 1867, when, more fortunate than some of his companions, he escaped with a fine.
> This is the only mention he makes of being in Persia, and it is probable that from this date
> onwards he was always with Bahá'u'lláh, first at Adrianople and then at
> `Akká, where, so far as I know, he is still living, and where his son
> Mírzá Ghulámu'lláh was born and brought up. Since the entry of
> Turkey into the European War in November, 1914, it has, of course, been impossible to
> communicate with `Akká, or to obtain news from thence.
> 
> xINTRODUCTION
> 
> Mírzá Jawád's narrative is valuable on account of the
> numerous dates which it gives, and because it comes down to so late a date as March, 1908
> (p.90), while Nabíl's chronological poem (see p.357) stops short at the end of 1869.
> The value of his account of the propaganda carried on in the United States of America by Dr. I. G.
> Khayru'lláh has been somewhat discounted by this gentleman's recent publication of his
> autobiography in his book O Christians! why do ye believe not in Christ? ( p. 181),
> which reached me only after this portion of my book was already in type.
> 
> Section II (pp.115-171) deals more fully with the Bahá'í
> propaganda carried on in America since 1893 by Dr. I. G. Khayru'lláh and his converts
> with remarkable success. Of the methods employed an illuminating account
> (pp.116—142) is given by an American lady of enquiring mind who attended the classes
> of instruction in a sympathetic but critical spirit. Her notes show very clearly the adaptation
> of the Bahá'í doctrine to its new environment in a manner which can hardly fail
> to remind the Orientalist of the old Isma`ilí propaganda, still further recalled by the
> form of allegiance (p.121) which the neophyte is obliged to sign before he is fully initiated into
> the details of the new doctrine. Extracts from the American Press in the years 1902—4
> are cited to show how much attention, and even in some quarters alarm, was aroused by the
> success of the new doctrines. Khayru'lláh's narrative (pp.154—5) of the threats
> addressed to him on account of his apostasy from `Abbás Efendi `Abdu'l-Bahá by
> Mírzá Hasani-i-Khurásáni, and the history of the sad fate
> of Mírzá Yahyá at Jedda (pp.156—167) read like extracts
> from the history of the Assassins of Alamút and "the Old Man of the Mountain."
> 
> Section III (pp.175—243) contains a bibliography
> 
> INTRODUCTIONxi
> 
> of everything written by or about the Bábís and Bahá'ís in eastern
> or western languages which has come under my notice since the publication of the bibliography
> in Vol. II of my Traveller's Narrative in 1891, and of my Catalogue and Description of
> 27 Bábí Manuscripts in the J.R.A.S. for 1892. This supplementary
> bibliography contains descriptions of 49 printed works in European languages (English,
> French, German and Russian), 18 printed and lithographed works in Arabic and Persian, and
> between 30 and 40 Bábí, Azalí and Bahá'í books which
> exist only in manuscript. Nearly all of these are in my own library, and in many cases were
> presented to me by their authors or by kind friends who knew of the interest I felt in the
> subject, but in the case of the manuscripts I have included brief descriptions of a number of
> books (mostly obtained from Cyprus through the late Mr Claude Delaval Cobham, for whom they
> were copied by Subh-i-Azal's son Rizwán `Alí,
> alias "Constantine the Persian") belonging to the British Museum, which were examined
> and described for me by my friend and former colleague Dr Ahmad Khán. For
> several rare manuscript works I am indebted to an old Bábí scribe of
> Isfahán, resident at Tihrán, with whom I was put in
> communication by Dr Sa`id Khán of Hamadán, who, though coming of a family of
> mullás, is a fervent Christian, while preserving in true Persian fashion a keen
> interest in other religious beliefs. This old scribe, a follower of Subhi-i-Azal,
> seems to have been in close touch with many Bábís in all parts of Persia, and on
> several occasions when persecutions threatened or broke out to have been entrusted by them
> with the custody of books which they feared to keep in their own houses, and which in some cases
> they failed to reclaim, so that he had access to a large number of rare Bábí
> works, any of which he was willing to copy for me at a very moderate charge.
> 
> xiiINTRODUCTION
> 
> Section IV (pp.247—264) contains the text and translation, with
> photographic fac-similes, of three original Persian documents connected with the
> examination and condemnation of the Báb for heresy, one of which appears to show that
> he formally abjured all his claims, and begged for mercy and forgiveness. These are followed by
> two English documents penned by the late Dr Cormick of Tabríz, one of which gives the
> impression produced on him by the Báb, whom he was called into see professionally. I do
> not know of any other European who saw and conversed with the Báb, or, if such there
> were, who has recorded his impressions.
> 
> Section V (pp.267—271) contains a moving account by an
> Austrian officer, Captain von Goumoens, who was in the service of Násiru'd-
> Dín Sháh in the summer of 1852, of the horrible cruelties inflicted on the
> Bábís in the great persecution of that period which resulted from the attempt by
> three Bábís on the Sháh's life; cruelties so revolting that he felt himself
> unable to continue any longer in the service of a ruler who sanctioned them.
> 
> Section VI (pp.275—287) contains the fac-similes, texts
> and translations of two Persian State papers bearing on the negotiations between the Persian and
> Turkish Governments as to the removal of the Bábí leaders from Baghdád
> to a part of the Ottoman Empire more remote from the Persian frontier. These documents were
> kindly communicated to me by M. A.-L.-M. Nicolas, a French diplomatist who has devoted much
> attention to the history and doctrine of the Bábís, and whose father is well known
> to Persian students as the first to introduce to Europe the now celebrated quatrains of `Umar-i-
> Khayyám.
> 
> Section VII (pp.291—308) contains accounts received at the time
> from various correspondents as to the persecutions of Bábís at
> Isfahán and the neighbouring villages of Si-dih
> 
> INTRODUCTIONxii
> 
> and Najafábád in 1888—9, and at Yazd in May, 1891. For these accounts I
> am indebted to the late Dr Robert Bruce, Mr Sidney Churchill, Mr (now Sir) Walter Townley,
> `Abbás Efendi `Abdu'l-Bahá, his brother Mírzá
> Badí`u'lláh, and two other Bahá'ís, one actually resident at Yazd at
> the time of the persecution. To another horrible persecution of Bábís in the
> same town in the summer of 1903 some references will be found in the Rev. Napier Malcolm's
> illuminating work Five Years in a Persian Town (pp.155—6, 186 etc.).
> 
> Section VIII (pp.311—315) contains the translation of an account
> of the death and burial of Mírzá Yahyá Subh-i-
> Azal on Monday, April 29, 1912, written in Persian by his son Rizwán
> `Alí alias "Constantine the Persian," and also some further information on
> matters connected with the succession kindly furnished to me by Mr H. C. Lukach, to whom I am
> further indebted for permission to reproduce here two photographs of the funeral which he
> published in his book The Fringe of the East; for which permission I desire to express my
> sincere gratitude both to him and his publishers, Messrs Macmillan.
> 
> Section IX (pp.319—322) contains a list of the descendants of
> Mírzá Buzurg of Núr in Mázandarán, the father of both
> Bahá'u'lláh and Subhi-i-Azal, of which the original Persian,
> drawn up by a yonger member of the family, was sent to me by the Bábí scribe
> already mentioned (p.xi supra). This is followed by lists of the children of
> Bahá'u'lláh and Subh-i-Azal compiled from other trustworthy
> sources.
> 
> Section X (pp.325—339) contains a condensed summary in
> English of a portion of the polemical work Ihqáqu'l-Haqq dealing
> with the principal doctrines of the Bábís and Bahá'ís deemed
> heretical by the Shí`a Muhammadans. I have sometimes been reproached with
> having written so much more about the history of the Bábís than about their
> doctrines,
> 
> xivINTRODUCTION
> 
> though I hope that the Introduction to my edition of Hájji Mírzá
> Jání's Nuqtatu'l-Káf has in some degree removed this
> reproach. But the fact is that, though the synthesis may be original, almost every single
> doctrine held by the Bábís and Bahá'ís (and their doctrine, even
> on such important matters as the Future Life, is by no means fixed and uniform) was previously
> held and elaborated by one or another of the earlier cognate sects grouped together under the
> general title of Ghulát, whereof the Isma`ilís are the most notable
> representative. The Ihqáqu'l-Haqq, which shows a much better
> knowledge of the opinions which it aspires to refute than most polemical works directed against
> the Bábís, summarizes in a convenient form the most salient points of doctrine
> in which the Bábís differ from the Shí`a Muhammadans.
> 
> Section XI (pp.343—358), which concludes the volume, contains
> the texts, accompanied in some cases by translations, of one unpublished and two already
> published poems by Qurratu'l-`Ayn and of two poems by Nabíl of Zarand. I should like to
> have enlarged this section by the addition of other Bábí poems in my possession,
> especially of the Qasída-i-Alifiyya of Mírzá Aslam of
> Núr (see pp.228—9), but the book had already considerably exceeded the limits
> which I had assigned to it, and I regretfully postponed their publication to some future
> occasion.
> 
> As regards the illustrations, the originals from which they are taken have in
> several cases been in my possession for many years, but I desire here to express my thanks to
> Dr Ignaz Goldziher for the two American newspapers partly reproduced on the plates facing
> pp.151 and 152; to M. Hippolyte Dreyfus for the three documents (A., B., and B1.) bearing on
> the
> 
> 1 Vol. xv of the E. J. W. Gibb Memorial Series.
> 
> INTRODUCTIONxv
> 
> examination of the Báb; to M. A.-L.-M. Nicolas for the two Persian State papers dealing
> with the expulsion of the Bábís from Baghdád; to Mr H. C. Lukach and his
> publishers Messrs Macmillan for their kind permission to reproduce the two illustrations
> mentioned above (p. xiii), and to my old friend and colleague Mr Ellis H. Minns, who has given
> me valuable help in connection with the Russian books mentioned in the bibliography.
> 
> In conclusion I desire to add a few words as to what I conceive to be the special
> interest and importance of the study of the Bábí and Bahá'í
> movements. This interest is in the main threefold, to wit, political, ethical and historical, and I
> shall arrange what I have to say under these three headings.
> 
> 1. Political interest.
> 
> The original Bábís who fought so desperately against the Persian
> Government at Shaykh Tabarsí, Zanján, Nayríz and elsewhere in
> 1848—50 aimed at a Bábí theocracy and a reign of the saints on earth;
> they were irreconcilably hostile to the existing government and Royal Family, and were only
> interested for the most part in the triumph of their faith, not in any projects of social or
> political reform.
> 
> Of their attitude during the Baghdád and Adrianople periods
> (1852—63 and 1863—68) we know little, and the anxiety of the Persian Foreign
> Office as to their activities in the former place is sufficiently explained by fear of the
> propaganda which they were so easily able to carry on amongst the innumerable Persians who
> passed through it on their way to and from the Holy Shrines of Najaf and Karbalá.
> 
> After the schism and the banishment of Subhi-i-Azal to
> Famagusta in Cyprus, and of Bahá'u'lláh to `Akká in Syria,
> 
> xviINTRODUCTION
> 
> we have to distinguish between the activities of the two rival parties. The Azalís, from
> the first a minority, were much more cut off from external activity than the
> Bahá'ís. They represented what may be called the conservative party, and
> experience shows that with such religious bodies as the Bábís fresh
> manifestations of activity and developments of doctrine are essential to maintain and increase
> their vitality. The same phenomenon was witnessed again in the further schism which took
> place after the death of Bahá'u'lláh in 1892; the conservative tendencies
> represented by Muhammad `Ali could not hold their own against the innovations of his
> more able and energetic half-brother `Abbás Efendi `Abdu'l-Bahá, who since the
> beginning of this century commands the allegiance of the vast majority of the
> Bahá'ís both in the East and in the West.
> 
> That the Bahá'ís constituted a great potential political force in
> Persia when I was there in 1887—8 was to me self-evident. Their actual numbers were
> considerable (Lord Curzon estimated them at the time he wrote1 at nearer a million than half a
> million souls), their intelligence and social position were above the average, they were
> particularly well represented in the postal and telegraph services, they were well disciplined
> and accustomed to yield a ready devotion and obedience to their spiritual leaders, and their
> attitude towards the secular and ecclesiastical rulers of Persia was hostile or at least
> indifferent. Any Power which, by conciliating their supreme Pontiff at `Akká, could
> have made use of this organization in Persia might have established an enormous influence in
> that country, and though the valuable researches of the late Baron Victor Rosen and Captain
> Tumanskiy were no doubt chiefly inspired by scientific curiosity, there may have been, at any
> rate in the
> 
> 1 Persia (London, 1892), Vol. i, p.499.
> 
> INTRODUCTIONxvii
> 
> case of the latter gentleman, some arrière-pensée of a political
> character. At any rate the Russian Government showed a good deal of civility to the
> Bahá'ís1 of `Ishqabad (Askabad), where they allowed or encouraged them to build a
> Mashriqu'l-Adhkár, or place of worship, which was, I believe, the first of its
> kind ever erected; and when a leading Bahá'í was murdered there by fanatics
> from Mashhad, the Russian authorities condemned the assassins to death, though subsequently,
> at the intercession of the Bahá'ís, their sentence was commuted to hard labour in
> the Siberian mines. That Bahá'u'lláh was not insensible to these amenities is
> clearly apparent from two letters filled with praises of the Russian Government which he
> addressed to his followers shortly afterwards, and which were published by Baron Rosen,
> together with an account of the circumstances above referred to, in Vol. vi of the Collections
> Scientifiques2. If the statement (on p. 11 infra) that Colonel (afterwards Sir) Arnold
> Burrows Kemball, when British Consul-General at Baghdád about 1859, offered British
> protection to Bahá'u'lláh be true, this would account for the laudatory tone
> adopted by him in the epistle which he addressed to Queen Victoria. None of the other rulers
> addressed in the "Epistles to the Kings" come off so well, and for Napoleon III in particular
> disaster is clearly foretold. Germany fares no better than France, being thus apostrophized in
> the Kitáb-i-Aqdas:
> 
> "O banks of the river Rhine, we have see you drenched in gore for that the
> swords of the foes are drawn against you;
> 
> 1 Already in 1852 the Russian Minister at Tihrán had
> intervened in Bahá'u'lláh's favour (see pp.6—7 infra), for which
> intervention Bahá'u'lláh expresses his gratitude in the Epistle to the Tsar of
> Russia (J.R.A.S. for 1889, p.969).
> 
> 2 See also my Remarks on these texts in the J.R.A.S. for 1892, pp.
> 318-321.
> 
> xviiiINTRODUCTION
> 
> and you shall have another turn! And we hear the wail of Berlin, although it be to-day in
> conspicuous glory!"1
> 
> The occasion of this outburst, according to Roemer2, was the omission of the then
> Crown-Prince of Prussia Friedrich Wilhelm to pay his respects to Bahá'u'lláh
> when he visited Palestine in the autumn of 1869. In the main, however,
> Bahá'u'lláh wisely avoided any political entanglements, and indeed sought rather
> to conciliate the Sháh and the Persian government, and to represent such persecutions of
> his followers as took place in Persia as the work of fanatical theologians whom the government
> were unable to restrain. The Azalís, on the other hand, preserved the old
> Bábí tradition of unconquerable hostility to the Persian throne and
> government.
> 
> In the Persian Constitutional or National Movement dating from the end of 1905
> the Azalís and Bahá'ís were, as usual, in opposite camps. Officially
> `Abbás Efendi `Abdu'l-Bahá commanded his followers to abstain entirely from
> politics, while in private he compared the demand of the Persians for parliamentary
> government to that of unweaned babes for strong meat. Some of the leading
> Bahá'ís in Tihrán, however, were accused, whether justly or not,
> of actually favouring the reaction3. In any case their theocratic and international tendencies can
> hardly have inspired them with any very active sympathy with the Persian Revolution. The
> Azalís, on the other hand, though they cannot be said to have any collective policy, as
> individuals took a very prominent part in the National Movement even before the Revolution,
> and such men as Hájji Shaykh Ahmad
> 
> 1 See J.R.A.S. for 1889, p. 977.
> 
> 2 Die Babi-Beha'i (Potsdam, 1911), p. 108.
> 
> 3 See Roemer, op. cit. pp.153-8, and my Persian Revolution,
> pp.424—9.
> 
> INTRODUCTIONxix
> 
> "Rúhi" of Kirmán, son-in-law to Subh-i-Azal, and his
> friend and fellow-townsman Mírzá Aqá Khán, both of whom
> suffered death at Tabríz in 1896, were the fore-runners of Mírzá
> Jahángír Khán and the Maliku'l-Mutakallimín, who were victims
> of the reactionary coup d'état of June, 1908. Indeed, as one of the most
> prominent and cultivated Azalís admitted to me some six or seven years ago, the ideal of a
> democratic Persia developing on purely national lines seems to have inspired in the minds of no
> few leading Azalís the same fiery enthusiasm as did the idea of a reign of the saints on
> earth in the case of the early Bábís.
> 
> The political ideals of the Bahá'ís have undergone considerable
> evolution since their propaganda achieved such success in America, where they have come into
> more or less close connection with various international, pacifist and feminist movements.
> These tendencies were, however, implicit in Bahá'u'lláh's teachings at a much
> earlier date, as shown by the recommendation of a universal language and script in the
> Kitáb-i-Aqdas, the exaltation of humanitarianism over patriotism, the insistence
> on the brotherhood of all believers, irrespective of race or colour, and the ever-present idea of
> "the Most Great Peace" (Sulh-i-Akbar). In connection with the last it is
> interesting to note that Dr I. G. Khayru'lláh, "the second Columbus" and "Bahá's
> Peter" as he was entitled after his successes in America, definitely stated in his Book
> Behá'u'lláh, originally published at Chicago in 1899 (Vol.ii,
> pp.480—1), that "the Most Great Peace" would come in the year 1335 of the
> Hijra, which began on October 28, 1916 and ended on October 17, 1917. This forecast,
> based on Daniel xii, 12, "Blessed is he that waiteth and cometh to the end of the thousand
> three hundred and five and thirty days," has, unfortunately, not been realized, but the
> paragraph in which Khayru'lláh speaks of the frightful
> 
> xxINTRODUCTION
> 
> war which must precede "the Most Great Peace" is so remarkable, when one remembers that it
> was written fifteen years before the outbreak of the Great War, that I cannot refrain from
> quoting it.
> 
> "In testimony of the fulfilment of His Word, the Spirit of God is impelling
> mankind toward that outcome with mighty speed. As the prophet indicated, the final condition in
> which peace shall be established must be brought about by unparalleled violence of war and
> bloodshed, which any observer of European affairs at the present day can see rapidly
> approaching. History is being written at tremendous speed, human independence is
> precipitating the final scenes in the drama of blood which is shortly destined to drench Europe
> and Asia, after which the world will witness the dawn of millennial peace, the natural, logical
> and prophetical outcome of present human conditions."
> 
> And again two pages further on (p. 483) he says:
> 
> "Although the thousand years began with the departure of the Manifestation1 in
> 1892, the commencement of the 'Great Peace" will be in 1917."
> 
> He also quotes Guinness as having written (in 1886)2:
> "The secret things belong to God. It is not for us to say. But there can be no question that those
> who live to see this year 1917 will have reached one of the most important, perhaps the most
> momentous, of these terminal years of crisis."
> 
> 2. Ethical interest.
> 
> While ethical teaching occupies a very subordinate place in the writings of the
> Báb and his disciples, it constitutes the chief part of the Bahá'í teachings.
> Sir Cecil Spring-Rice,
> 
> 1 i.e. the death of Bahá'u'lláh.
> 
> 2 Light for the Last Days (London, Hodder and Stoughton, 1886),
> pp.345—6. The reference (p.224) given by Khayru'lláh is evidently to a
> different edition.
> 
> INTRODUCTIONxxi
> 
> formerly British Minister at Tihrán, who had the most extraordinary insight
> into the Persian mind, made one of the most illuminating remarks I ever heard in this
> connection. He pointed out most truly that the problem which Bahá'u'lláh had to
> solve was a far greater one than any mere question of claims of succession, and was essentially
> the same as that which confronted St Paul, viz. whether the new religion which he
> represented was to become a world religion addressed to all mankind, or whether it was to
> remain a more or less obscure sect of the religion from which it sprang. Mutatis
> mutandis the strife between Bahá'u'lláh and Subh-i-Azal was
> essentially identical with the strife between St Paul and St Peter, though in the former case the
> resulting separation was even greater, and the Bahá'ís regard the Báb as
> a mere fore-runner and harbinger of the greater Manifestation, and his writings and teachings
> as practically abrogated, for which reason they no longer willingly suffer themselves to be
> called Bábís, a name which was still almost universally applied to them in
> Persia by those who were not members of their body at any rate when I was there in
> 1887—8.
> 
> Of the ethical teaching of Bahá'u'lláh numerous specimens are
> given in this volume (pp.64—73 infra) and many more have been published in
> English by the American "Bahá'í Publishing Society1" and elsewhere. These
> teachings are in themselves admirable, though inferior, in my opinion, both in beauty and
> simplicity to the teachings of Christ. Moreover, as it seems to me, ethics is only the application
> to everyday life of religion and metaphysics, and to be effective must be supported by some
> spiritual sanction; and in the case of Bahá'ism, with its rather vague doctrines as to
> 
> 1 Address: 84 Adams Street, Chicago; or, Charles E. Sprague, Publishing
> Agent for the Bahá'ís' Board of Counsel, 191, Williams Street, New
> York.
> 
> xxiiINTRODUCTION
> 
> the nature and destiny of the soul of man, it is a little difficult to see whence the driving-power
> to enforce the ethical maxims can be derived. I once heard Mr. G. Bernard Shaw deliver an
> address to a branch of the Fabian Society on "The Religion of the Future." In this lecture he said
> that he was unwilling that the West should any longer be content to clothe itself in what he called
> "the rags of Oriental systems of religion"; that he wanted a good, healthy Western religion,
> recognizing the highest type of humanity as the Superman, or, if the term was preferred, as
> God; and that, according to this conception, man was ever engaged in "creating God." As I listened
> I was greatly struck by the similarity of his language to that employed by the
> Bahá'ís1, and was diverted by the reflection that, strive as he would, this
> brilliant modern thinker of the West could not evolve a religion which the East had not already
> formulated. Yet it would be an error to regard Bahá'ism merely as an ethical system, as
> is already shown by the opening verse of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas:—"The first
> thing which God hath prescribed unto His servants is the recognition of the Dawning-place of
> His Revelation and the Day-spring of His Dispensation. Whosever attaineth unto Him hath
> attained unto all good, and whosoever is hindered therefrom is in truth of the people of error,
> even though he bring forth all good works."
> 
> 3. Historical interest.
> 
> But the chief interest of the study of the Bábí and
> Bahá'í movements is, as it seems to me, neither political nor ethical, but
> historical, because of the light it throws on the genesis and evolution of other religions. Renan
> emphasized this in
> 
> 1 Cf. p. 346 infra, n.1 ad calc.; and p. 211 of my Year
> amongst the Persians.
> 
> INTRODUCTIONxxiii
> 
> his work Les Apôtres, and it was he, I think, who said that to understand the
> genesis and growth of a new religion one must go to the East where religions still grow. And this
> holds good particularly of Persia, which has ever been the fertile breeding-ground of new
> creeds and philosophies from the time of Zoroaster, Manes and Mazdak to the present day. It
> would be interesting to compute how many of the "seventy-two sects" into which Islam is
> supposed to be divided owe their existence wholly or in part to the theological activity of the
> Persian mind.
> 
> The phenomena actually presented by Bábíism are often such as
> one would not primâ facie expect. In spite of the official denial of the necessity,
> importance or evidential value of miracles in the ordinary sense, numerous miracles are
> recorded in Bábí histories like the Nuqtatu'l-Káf and the
> Ta'ríkh-i-Jadíd, and many more are related by adherents of the faith.
> The most extraordinary diversity of opinion exists as to doctrines which one would be inclined
> to regard as fundamental, such as those connected with the future life. A similar diversity of
> opinion prevails as to the authorship of various Bábí books and poems, though
> the beginnings of Bábí literature only go back to 1844 or 1845. The earliest,
> fullest and most interesting history of the Báb and his immediate disciples (that of
> Hájji Mírzá Jání of Káshán1) was
> almost completely suppressed because it reflected the opinion which prevailed immediately
> after the Báb's martyrdom that his successor was Mírzá
> Yahyá Subhi-i-Azal, and thus came into conflict with the
> Bahá'í contention which arose ten or fifteen years later, and a recension of it was
> prepared (known as "the New History," Ta'ríkh-i-Jadíd) in
> 
> 1 The Nuqtatu'l-Káf, edited by me in the E. J. W.
> Gibb Memorial Series (Vol.xv) from the Paris MS., the only complete one extant in
> Europe.
> 
> xxivINTRODUCTION
> 
> which all references to Subhi-i-Azal were eliminated or altered, and other
> features regarded as undesirable were suppressed or modified. Later a third official history,
> "The Traveller's Narrative," Maqála-i-Shakhsí
> Sayyáh1, in which the Báb was represented as a mere forerunner of
> Bahá'u'lláh, was issued from `Akká, and subsequently lithographed to
> secure its wider diffusion, while the Ta'ríkh-i-Jadíd, of which not more
> than three or four copies exist in Europe, was suffered to remain in manuscript. Certain
> critical Christian theologians have seen in Hájji Mírzá
> Jání's history in its relation to the later narratives a close parallel to the Gospel
> of St Mark in its relation to the synoptic gospels.
> 
> Of the future of Bahá'ism it is difficult to hazard a conjecture, especially
> at the present time, when we are more cut off from any trustworthy knowledge of what is
> happening in the world than at any previous period for many centuries. Less than a month ago
> the centenary of Bahá'u'lláh's birth was celebrated in America, whither his
> teachings have spread only within the last twenty years, but what influence they have attained
> or may in the future attain there or elsewhere it is impossible to conjecture.
> 
> EDWARD G. BROWNE.
> 
> December 10, 1917.
> 
> 1 Edited by me with English translation and notes in 1891.
> 
> single page
> 
> chapter 1
> 
> METADATA
> 
> Views83718 views since posted 2000; last edit 2025-02-13 15:40 UTC;
> 
> previous at archive.org.../browne_materials_study_babi;
> URLs changed in 2010, see archive.org.../bahai-library.org
> Language
> Current
> English
> Language
> First
> English and Arabic and Persian
> Permission
> public domain
> History
> Typed 1999 by Alan Couper; Formatted 2000 by Jonah Winters.
> Share
> 
> Shortlink: bahai-library.com/229
> Citation: ris/229
> 
> select Collection:
> Archives
> Articles
> Articles-unpublished
> Audio
> Bibliographies
> BIC
> Biographies
> Books
> Chronologies
> Compilations
> Compilations-NSA
> Compilations-personal
> Documents
> East-asia
> Encyclopedia
> Essays
> Etc
> Excerpts
> Fiction
> Glossaries
> Guardian
> Histories
> Introductory
> Letters
> Maps
> Music
> Newspapers
> NSA-documents
> NSA-letters
> Personal
> Pilgrims
> Poetry
> Presentations
> Resources
> Reviews
> Scripts
> Software
> Statistics
> Study
> Talks
> Theses
> Transcripts
> Translations
> UHJ-documents
> UHJ-letters
> Video
> Visual
> Writings
> 
> home
> 
> sitemap
> 
> series
> 
> chronology
> 
> search:
> author
> 
> title
> 
> date
> 
> tags
> 
> adv. search
> languages
> 
> inventory
> 
> bibliography
> 
> abbreviations
> 
> links
> 
> about
> 
> contact
> 
> RSS
> 
> new
>
> — *Materials for the Study of the Babi Religion (Used by permission of the curator)*