Materials for the Study of the Babi Religion
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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 Five unpublished contemporary documents, Per-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 Two unpublished contemporary State Papers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.

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