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Gnostic Apocalypse and Islam
Of the several works on the rise and development of the Babi movement, especially those dealing with the life and work of its founder, Sayyid Ali Muhammad Shirazi, few deal directly with the compelling and complex web of mysticism, theology and philosophy found in his earliest compositions.
This book examines the Islamic roots of the Babi religion, (and by extension the later Baha'i faith which developed out of it), through the Qur'anic commentaries of the Bab and sheds light on its relationship to the wider religious milieu and its profound debt to esoteric Islam, especially Shi'ism. Todd Lawson places the two earliest writings of the Bab within the diverse contexts necessary to understand them, in order to explain why these writings made sense to and inspired his followers. He delves into the history of the tafsir (Qur'an commentary) genre of Islamic scholarship, situates these early writings in the Akhbari, Sufi and most importantly Shaykhi traditions of Islam. In the process, he identifies both the continuities and discontinuities between these works and earlier works of Shi'i tafsir, helping us appreciate significant elements of the Bab's thought and claims.
Filling an important gap in the existing literature on the Babi movement, this book will be of greatest interest to students and scholars of Qur'an commentary, Mysticism, Shi'ism, the modern history of Iran and messianism.
eBook
Transition, Emulation and Dispute over Authority in the Bábí/Bahá’í Faith
This text attempts to analyze the competition for the leadership role in the young Bábí religious community after the execution of their leader, Báb (1819–1850). With the elimination of many leaders, a small group stood out who were willing to replace the absent leader. Two preferences arose within the Babi community: forceful and pacifist. Motivated by the hunger to settle scores, supporters of the first option wanted to fight and reach the victory predicted in the Shiʻite tradition. The second option’s followers, however, rejected all acts of violence, preferring to look at the Báb’s texts, calling their worshipers to lofty ideals as a method of luring other people to the new religion. Presently, after the sentencing to punishment of the Prophet Báb, several people emerged among the former Shiʻites’ group who made claims to authority in the community. Nevertheless, quite quickly, the main confrontation came down to a conflict between two outstanding personalities. Mírzá Yaḥyá Núrí (1831–1912), representing the radical trend of Babism, nicknamed Ṣubḥ-i Azal, was fighting for leadership with Mírzá Ḥusajn-‘Alí Núrí (1817–1892), his half-brother, belonging to the peaceful Bábí party. This article describing the rivalry between two relatives for the leadership position also allows us to see the process of writing down, codifying and spreading the young Bayán religion.
Journal Article
The Development of the Babi/Baha'i Communities
Baron Rosen’s Babi/Baha’i archives presents private letters and diplomatic correspondence from the nineteenth century, preserved among the prominent Russian scholar Baron Victor Rosen’s materials in the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg branch.
The materials cast light on the first studies of the Babi and Baha’i Faiths, new religious phenomena which, in Baron Rosen’s time, were emerging in Persia. Iran has always been a strategic concern of Russia’s geopolitical interests and the traditional importance which has been given to Persia has manifested itself in hundreds of documents and writings collected by the pre-revolutionary Russian diplomats and scholars. These documents, large parts of which have never been published before, reveal new information on the attitude of the Russian government towards religious and ethnic minorities as well as towards related issues within the Russian Empire and abroad.
Bringing together materials in Russian, English, Persian, Arabic and French related to the Babi and Baha’i Faiths from Rosen’s archive in the original languages with an English translation, this book will be of great interest to students and researchers in the fields of Iranian Studies, Religion and Middle East Studies amongst others.
Introduction 1 From A.G. Tumanski’s Correspondence with V.R. Rosen 2 Report by the Russian Charge d’Affaire in Tehran Mr. Zinovyev to Duke Gorchakov 3 Babis in Adrianople: Reportof Chief of the Consulate Staff in Adrianople 4 Information about the Babis Presented by Persians living in Adrianople 5 Information about the Babis by Yunus Mehdi Effendi, the Qadi in Adrianople 6 Report of the Russian Consul General in Adharbayjan Bezobrazov 7 Anonymous Diplomatic Dispatch Concerning an Episode in Isfahan 8 From G. Batyunshkov’s Correspondence with V.R. Rosen 9 From V.I. Ignatyev’s Correspondence with V.R. Rosen 10 Sebastian Voirot’s Correspondence with V.R. Rosen 11 Some Separate Transcripts in V.R. Rosen’s Archive 12 From E.G. Browne’s Correspondence with Rosen 13 I. Khayru’llah’s letter to V.R. Rosen 14 Abu’l-Fazl Gulpaygani’s Transcript
Youli A. Ioannesyan is Senior Researcher, Institute of the Oriental manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Science. His interests include comparative religious studies and Iranian linguistics. Previous publications include Essays on the Babi and Baha’i Faiths (St.Petersburg, 2003) and Afghan Folktales from Heart (New York, 2009).
eBook
Last Prophet and Last Day: Shaykhī, Bābī and Bahā’ī Exegesis of the “Seal of the Prophets” (Q. 33:40)
The appearance of post-Islamic religions, the Bābī and Bahā’ī Faiths, is a theoretical impossibility from an orthodox Muslim perspective, since the Qur’ān designates the Prophet Muḥammad as the “Seal of the Prophets” (Q. 33:40), widely understood as meaning the “Last of the Prophets”. To overcome this problem, the respective prophet-founders, the Bāb (1819–1850) and Bahā’u’llāh (1817–1892), each presented novel approaches which this article will explore. In short, the Bāb revealed a “new” Qur’ān, i.e., the Qayyūm al-Asmā’ (1844), and Bahā’u’llāh wrote the Kitāb-i Īqān (Book of Certitude) in January 1861. While acknowledging Muḥammad as the last prophet in the “Prophetic Cycle”, the Bāb and Bahā’u’llāh inaugurated the advent of the “Cycle of Fulfillment”. This new era was foretold in the Qur’ān by way of a symbolic code, understood metaphorically and spiritually. A key concept is that of the “divine presence” (liqā’ Allāh), i.e., the encounter/“meeting” with God, whereby Q. 33:44, Q. 83:6, Q. 7:35 (and their respective parallels) effectively transcend Q. 33:40. Recognizing that the Bāb and Bahā’u’llāh each manifests the “divine presence” thereby constitutes a “realized eschatology”. This paper represents the first time that a wide-ranging survey and analysis of the Shaykhī, Bābī, and Bahā’ī viewpoints on the subject of the “Seal of the Prophets” has been made and is the result of a collaboration between two scholars working in the United States and Russia.
Journal Article
Gnostic Apocalypse in Islam: The Literary Beginnings of the Babi Movement
Of the several works on the rise and development of the Babi movement, especially those dealing with the life and work of its founder, Sayyid Ali Muhammad Shirazi, few deal directly with the compelling and complex web of mysticism, theology and philosophy found in his earliest compositions. This book examines the Islamic roots of the Babi religion, (and by extension the later Baha'i faith which developed out of it), through the Qur'anic commentaries of the Bab and sheds light on its relationship to the wider religious milieu and its profound debt to esoteric Islam, especially Shi'ism. Todd Lawson places the two earliest writings of the Bab within the diverse contexts necessary to understand them, in order to explain why these writings made sense to and inspired his followers. He delves into the history of the tafsir (Qur'an commentary) genre of Islamic scholarship, situates these early writings in the Akhbari, Sufi and most importantly Shaykhi traditions of Islam. In the process, he identifies both the continuities and discontinuities between these works and earlier works of Shi'i tafsir, helping us appreciate significant elements of the Bab's thought and claims.Filling an important gap in the existing literature on the Babi movement, this book will be of greatest interest to students and scholars of Qur'an commentary, Mysticism, Shi'ism, the modern history of Iran and messianism.
eBook
Frühe Saihi- und Babi-Theologie
This book is the first general introduction to the theological and philosophical writings of A?mad al-A?sa?i and Ka?im ar-Ra sh ti, the founders of the Sh ay kh iyya, and ?Ali-Mu?ammad Shirazi , the initiator of the Babiyyah.
eBook
ARYAN AND SEMITE IN ERNEST RENAN'S AND MATTHEW ARNOLD'S QUEST FOR THE RELIGION OF MODERNITY
Ernest Renan's and Matthew Arnold's search for a suitable religion for modernity found a focus in Gobineau's writings about Persian Shi'ism. Taking his cue from Gobineau, in his essay \"A Persian Passion Play\" Arnold instances Shi'ism as a blending of strict Semitic monotheism with a more generous, spiritual tenderness characteristic of an Aryanized Christianity. Gobineau's account of Shi'ism's mid-nineteenth-century offshoot Babism exemplified Persia's putative Aryan genius. The quality of sacrifice its followers evinced in the face of fierce opposition and repression especially moved Renan and Arnold as a modern manifestation of the leaven of martyrdom. Gobineau's emphasis fell on the Bab as a messiah in the Christian mode, advancing a claim of a higher order than that of an Imam Mahdi in the Islamic idiom, so producing a variant of the European nineteenth-century penchant for discerning, in Tomoko Masuzawa's phrase: \"universalistic religion, genuinely Aryan in...origin, arising quite independent of Semitic monotheism.\" Renan, Arnold, and Gobineau each descried these manifestations of religious feeling embedded in traditional practices and recent episodes in the Near East as solvents for the agnostic scientism of Europe, even while their observations remained meshed into the Victorian conflation of race and modernity.
Journal Article
Studies in modern religions, religious movements and the Bābī-Bāha'ī faiths
Twelve comprehensive studies dedicated to messianism, millenniarism and eschatological thought in Judaism Christianity and Islam that underlies the birth of Hassidism, \"Mormonism\" and the Bahā'ī Faith introduced by the editor's study of the underlying common source of this religious activity.
eBook