# Notes on the Zuhuru'l-Haqq series

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

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> Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: John Walbridge, Notes on the Zuhuru'l-Haqq series, bahai-library.com.
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> 
> Notes on the Zuhuru'l-Haqq series
> 
> John Walbridge
> 
> 1996
> 
> With regard to the suppression of Zuhur al-Haqq and the public disgrace of Fadil, there is an
> ideological side that Ahang Rabbani did not touch on. It has to do with changing attitudes to the Bab and the
> Babis. The nuances of Bahá'í attitudes towards the Babi and the Babi religion have changed over
> time.
> 
> Three interpretations are relevant here: 1) Sympathy with Babism as a revolutionary Shiite
> movement continuous with esoteric and sectarian Shiism. 2) Distancing of the Bahá'í Faith from
> Babism on the grounds that the Bahá'í Faith is a distinct religious movement. 3) Retroactive
> assimilation of the Babi religion to Bahá'í standards. The fact is that in many ways the Babis
> *were* different from Bahá'ís. They were deeply involved in a sort of cabbalistic eschatology
> that goes far back into the esoteric and charismatic roots of Shiism. They did not share the
> Bahá'í rejection of violence. They were, on the whole, a thoroughly Shiite enterprise.
> Bahá'u'lláh, who was trying to preserve the community, stressed the distinctiveness of the
> Bahá'í religion. This is most easily seen in various statements of 'Abdu'l-Bahá where he
> stresses, for example, that violence of the sort practiced by the Babis was contrary to the Bahá'í
> religion.
> 
> This is alternative (2). Alternative (3) stresses the commonality of the Babi and Bahá'í
> religions and minimizes those aspects of the Babis that differed fundamentally from the Bahá'í
> Faith. The two great champions of this approach are Shoghi Effendi's Nabil and the Guardian
> himself. At least in the form we have it, Nabil's history is, among many other things, an attempt
> to justify Babi history as being in conformity with Bahá'í standards. Thus, in the study I did of
> his treatment of the battle of Zanjan, he downplays, reinterprets, or omits anything that
> portrays the Babis as aggressive. Such an approach is very characteristic of the Guardian who
> translated Nabil and who carefully refers to the various battles as "upheavals," rather than
> "Babi revolts," in *God Passes By*. Such a position served to strengthen the quite valid Bahá'í
> claim to be apolitical and law-abiding.
> 
> Probably as a result of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's distancing of the Faith from the Babis, Babi studies were
> generally out of fashion with Iranian Bahá'í scholars in the period between the death of 'Abdu'l-
> Bahá and the Islamic Revolution. Virtually none of the Bab's works were published by the
> Iranian Bahá'ís, and not very much was written about the Bab. The current revival of interest
> in Babi studies arose in the West. The exception was Fadil. Apart from the three volumes of
> Zuhuru'l-Haqq dealing with the Shaykhis and Babis, he is far more likely than his
> contemporary Ishraq-Khavari to cite Babi parallels as explanations for Bahá'í texts and
> teachings. He is also far more likely to cite Islamic parallels. Fadil was thus stressing the
> continuity of the Bahá'í Faith with Babism and Islam and stressing the Shiite and Babi aspects of
> the Bahá'í Faith at a time when the general policy was to stress the distinctiveness, rationality,
> and modernity of the Bahá'í Faith. Moreover, his deep and detailed knowledge of Babi thought and
> history tended to undermine the two rhetorical moves that would distance the Bahá'í Faith from
> the esoteric and sectarian aspects of the Babis.
> 
> In contrast, all three of those responsible for Fadil's fall and the suppression of Zuhur al-Haqq
> were committed to other interpretations of the Faith. xxxx was a Russian-
> trained educationist deeply involved in the modernization of Iranian education and with little
> sympathy for the esoteric Shiite tradition that Fadil recognized in the Babi and Bahá'í Faiths.
> Ishraq- Khavari also was exclusively concerned with Bahá'í topics to the exclusion of Babi
> material. He also translated of Shoghi Effendi's translation of Nabil into Persian (from an
> Arabic translation of the English!). Shoghi Effendi was Western-educated and his views are well
> known. The suppression of Fadil's work can thus be seen as an attempt to preserve the integrity
> of a particular reinterpretation of Bahá'í history--one that portrayed the Babis as (1)
> marginal to current Bahá'í concerns and (2) proto-Bahá'ís--against an intepretation of Babi
> and Bahá'í history that (1) stressed the distinctive features of the Babis and (2) implicitly
> stressed the continuity of Islam, Babism, and the Bahá'í Faith.
> 
> Update on Zuhuru'l-Haqq.
> 
> The Persian Review Panel wrote to the World Centre requesting permission for publication of
> Zuhuru'l-Haqq, vol. 4 (Bahá'u'lláh, 1852-1867 period). I've just received a copy of the World
> Centre's response to the committee and I append a translation.
> 
> 5 Nov 1996
> 
> The Persian Reviewing Panel, 536 Sheridan Road Wilmette, IL 60091 USA
> 
> The letter of 20 June 1996 of that Panel regarding the publication of volume 4 of Zuhuru'l-Haqq was considered by the Supreme Body.
> 
> It instructed us to inform you that the World Centre, when in the future considers such
> enterprises timely, will undertake publication of narratives of the early believers, including
> the Zuhuru'l-Haqq series, which will be accompanied by adequate footnotes and other
> explanations.
> 
> With loving Bahá'í greetings,
> Department of the Secretariat
> 
> cc. Dr. Ahang Rabbani
> 
> METADATA
> 
> Views12797 views since posted 1997; last edit 2012;
> 
> previous at archive.org.../walbridge_notes_zuhurulhaqq_haqq;
> URLs changed in 2010, see archive.org.../bahai-library.org
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> — *Notes on the Zuhuru'l-Haqq series (Used by permission of the curator)*