CHAPTER II STUDIES ON THE BABI-BAHA’I MOVEMENT

to in the present work. Since these studies are written from differing

standpoints and since their relative value to the subjects under discus-

sion must be judged in part by the perspectives from which they are

written, the reader from the outset should have some orientation to them.
GOBINEAU’S HISTORY
The first significant book by a European scholar to deal

extensively with the Persian Babi movement is Joseph Arthur Gobineau’s

in 1855.1 Gobineau served in the French Legation in Tihran, the capital

of Persia, from 1856 to 1858 as secretary, and from 1862 to 1863 as

minister plenipotentiary.2 Count Gobineau while in Persia had taken

a keen interest in the Babi movement, which was then in early stages

of its development, and collected a number of early Babi manuscripts,

of which some of the more significant were acquired after his death

at auction by the British Museum and the National Library in Paris.3

only part of a larger discussion, it occupies more than half of his

volume. While having a significance in its own right, the book is

also significant for being the volume which inspired Professor Edward

and to begin his extensive research into the Babi-Baha’i cause. Browne

speaks of the volume as the work
which first inspired my interest in and enthusiasm for the Babis,

and which contains what must still be regarded as one of the best,

most picturesque and most original accounts of the Bab and his

disciples yet written.4

Persia, since to it, not less than to an equally fortunate and

fortuitous meeting in Isfahan, I am indebted for that unravelling

of Babi doctrine and history which first won for me a reputation

in Oriental scholarship.5
As highly as Browne praises Gobineau’s work, he was nevertheless

conscious that the volume, which traces Babi history to A.D. 1852, needed

to be supplemented by an appendix detailing more recent events.6 That

observation is even more applicable today in the light of developments

since Browne’s time, but rather than an appendix a major study is

required to outline the major transformations in the religion since

Gobineau’s work.
The history by Gobineau deals with the earliest stage of the

Babi religion, before Baha’u’llah declared his mission, and therefore

reflects a situation which was radically changed even by the time Browne

began his travels in Persia and which caused him no little distress in

attempting to study the movement. Browse relates in the book which

describes his travels in Persia in 1887-88:

works I desired to obtain and peruse, yet of him no account

appeared to be taken. I questioned my friend about this, and

learned (what I had already begun to suspect at Isfahan) that

which Gobineau’s vivid and sympathetic record had so strangely

moved me. That record was written while Mirza Yahya, Subh-i-Ezel

(“the Morning of Eternity”) was undisputed vicegerent of the Bab,

and before the great schism occurred which convulsed the Babi

community.7

an account of the earliest phase of the Babi-Baha’i movement as that

movement made its impression upon an objective non-Baha’i. Baha’is

have some reservations regarding Gobineau’s account from the standpoint

of what they believe was the actual state of affairs within the movement,

but Gobineau’s work reveals how the religion was seen by an outsider in

Persia at that early stage in its development.
HISTORIES EDITED BY E. G. BROWNE
The Babi-Baha’i histories translated and/or edited by the Cam-

bridge Orientalist Edward Granville Browne are in a class by themselves.

Both Baha’is and non-Baha’is studying the faith acknowledge their debt

to this distinguished scholar, who was the only Western historian to

attain the presence of Baha’u’llah, founder of the Baha’i religion, and

who in later years carried on a correspondence with Baha’u’llah’s son

and successor in the religion, ‘Abdu’l-Baha, and with other leading

Baha’is.
Robert P. Richardson, an outspoken critic of the Baha’i

religion, refers to Browne as “the highest authority on the history

of Babism and Baha’ism, and one who errs, if at all, only by a too

sympathetic treatment of Baha.”8 Praise of Browne’s works is repeated

in succeeding non-Baha’i studies of the religion, and dependence

upon him is freely acknowledged and clearly evident in these studies.
Correspondingly, H. M. Balyuzi, an eminent Baha’i, in his volume Edward

Granville Browne and the Baha’i Faith writes:
No Western scholar has ever equalled the effort of Edward

Granville Browne in seeking and preserving for generations to

come the story of the birth and the rise of a Faith which was

destined, as he foresaw at the onset of his distinguished career,

to have a significance comparable to that of the other great reli-

gions of the world. The Comte de Gobineau’s classical work was

gathering dust when Edward Browne took up his pen to write of a

dawning Faith with zest and admiration. Many, there must have been,

particularly in academic circles, on both sides of the Atlantic,

who made their first acquaintance with that thrilling story in the

writings of Edward Browne.
Baha’is undoubtedly owe to Edward Granville Browne a deep debt

of gratitude. … Despite some mistaken views, his well-merited

fame is enduring.9
Browne’s writings manifest a curious mixture of glowing praise

and stringent criticisms of the Babi-Baha’i movement. Baha’is is are fond

of quoting his words of praise and appreciation and Christian apologists

his comments which put the faith in questionable light. Balyuzi’s study

of Browne attempts from the Baha’i standpoint to deal with some of the

problems raised in Browne’s works concerning the faith. Balyuzi thus

introduced Baha’is who had not read widely in Browne’s works to some of

Browne’s more critical statements and opinions regarding the faith.

Farhang Jahanpur, in a review of Balyuzi’s book, comments that “there

are few Baha’is is who have not heard” of Edward Browne but that “what is

not widely realized [among Baha’is],10 however, is that some of Browne’s

writings were uncomplimentary to the Baha’i Faith.”11 This statement

reflects the previous Baha’i focus only on Browne’s favorable references

to the faith.

non-Baha’is likewise have often avoided his tributes to the religion.

Part of the reason for this mixture of praise and criticism in Browne’s
writings is the fact that he was uncompromising in searching for truth

and fearless in recording all points of view which he felt were perti-

nent to the subjects of his study.12 This aspect of Browne’s writings

invests them with a special value for the objective student of the

Baha’i religion.
The first three histories translated and/or edited by Edward

G. Browne are called by him “the three chief histories composed in

Persian by members of the sect.”13 They will be discussed in the order

in which they were published by Browne.

the Persian text and Volume II the English translation and notes. Browne

was given a copy of the Traveller’s Narrative during his second journey

to Persia in the spring of 1890 by the Baha’is at Bahji, where Browne

had interviewed the founder of the faith, Baha’u’llah.14
Browne’s Reasons for Publishing the “Traveller’s Narrative”
As a scholar of Persian literature, Browne was conscious that

many important Persian works remained unpublished, in the East as well

as in Europe, and thus felt constrained to offer some explanation as

to why he would publish so recent a Persian work, especially when the

author was not even known. Browne felt that these reasons against the

book’s publication were inherent in the book’s very nature and character.

It was recent in origin because it dealt with an important new movement

in Persia, and it was anonymous because of the persecution directed

against the movement.15
Browne also saw the movement as having an importance to

various disciplines of study:

must be interesting in different ways to others besides those

who are directly engaged in the study of Persian. To the student

of religious thought it will afford no little matter for reflec-

tion; for here he may contemplate such personalities as by lapse

of time pass into heroes and demi-gods still unobscured by myth

and fable; he may examine by the light of concurrent and indepen-

dent testimony one of those strange outbursts of enthusiasm,

faith, fervent devotion, and indomitable heroism---or fanaticism,

if you will—which we are accustomed to associate with the earlier

history of the human race; he may witness, in a word, the birth of

a faith which may not impossibly win a place amidst the great

religions of the world. To the ethnologist also it may yield

food for thought as to the character of a people, who, stigmatized

as they often have been as selfish, mercenary, avaricious, ego-

tistical, sordid, and cowardly, are yet capable of exhibiting

under the influence of a strong religious impulse a degree of

devotion, disinterestedness, generosity, unselfishness, nobility,

and courage which may be paralleled in history, but can scarcely

be surpassed. To the politician, too, the matter is not devoid

of importance; for what changes may not be effected in a country

now reckoned almost as a cypher in the balance of national forces

by a religion capable of evoking so mighty a spirit? Let those

who know what Muhammad made the Arabs, consider well what the Bab

may yet make the Persians.16
The “paramount interest” which Browne had in the movement, however,

and which he thought would be true of most others, lies, he said, in

this:
that here is something, whether wise or unwise, whether tending

towards the amelioration of mankind or the reverse, which seems

to many hundreds, if not thousands, of our fellow-creatures

worth suffering and dying for, and which on this ground alone,

must be accounted worthy of our most attentive study.17
Author of the Traveller’s Narrative
The Traveller’s Narrative is written anonymously, and at the

time of its publication Browne did not know who the author was, but he

learned later that the author was Baha’u’llah’s eldest son, ‘Abdu’l-Baha,

who became Baha’u’llah’s successor after his death in 1892.18 Baha’is

acknowledge that ‘Abdu’l-Baha is the author.19
Date of the Traveller’s Narrative
Because of a statement in the Traveller’s Narrative that “for

nigh upon thirty-five years no action opposed to the government or

prejudicial to the nation has .emanated from this sect,”20 Browne dates

the work as having been written probably in the year 1886.21 Elsewhere,

he gives the date of writing as “in or about the year A.D. 1886.”22

Browne counts thirty-five years from Shavval, A.H. 1268 (Muslim date

corresponding to August, A.D. 1852), when a few Babis made a notorious

and unsuccessful attempt on the life of the Persian shah, which action

plunged the Babis into dire persecution. Thirty-five years from that

date began in July, 1886.23 The year 1886 may be accepted as the

approximate date for the writing of the Traveller’s Narrative.
Characteristics of the Traveller’s Narrative
The Traveller’s Narrative is the first Baha’i history to give

prominence to Baha’u’llah and to the events connected with his dispen-

sation as over against the Bab and his epoch, which are the focus of

the earlier written Kitab-i Nuqtatu’l-Kaf and the New History, to be

discussed below. Although the Traveller’s Narrative acknowledges that

the Bab advanced the claim of being the Mihdi (or Mahdi), the Muslim

expected deliverer,24 it emphasizes his role as the Bab (“Gate”), the

title he had earlier assumed and by which he is generally known today.

It, moreover, presents his “Bab-hood” as meaning that “he was the channel

of grace from some great Person still behind the veil of glory, who was

the possessor of countless and boundless perfections,”25 evidently meant

by the writer to refer to Baha’u’llah, though unnamed. The writer sees

Muhammad had received the Qur’an from the angel Gabriel. Whether

intentional or not, no mention is made of the Bab’s Bayan, his book

of laws to govern his dispensation as the Qur’an had governed Muhammad’s.

The Bab is presented, therefore, as a kind of John the Baptist, a fore-

runner preparing the way for the great revelation to come.

and who became Baha’u’llah’s rival, is portrayed in contrast to Baha’u’-

llah’s courage, judgment, and leadership ability.
A conciliatory attitude is taken toward the shah of Persia,

who is exonerated from complicity in the persecutions against the

Babis, and the Babi resistance to the government is explained on the

basis of self-defense and ignorance of the Bab’s true teachings by his

followsrs.28
In the fashion of the earlier New History, the author, whom

Baha’is acknowledge is ‘Abdu’l-Baba, describes himself as a “traveller”

(hence the title, A Traveller’s Narrative) in all parts of Persia, who

has sought out from those within and without the movement, from friend

and strangers, the facts of the case regarding the Bab and his religion

and who proposes to set forth briefly those points of the story upon

which the disputants are agreed.29 Actually, the history is a Baha’i

apology setting out the new state of affairs in the Babi community

after Baha’u’llah’s declaration, defending his claims, and presenting

the present policy regarding the Persian government, as against the

prevailing attitude toward the movement by the government and by those

outside the Baha’i division.

have varied. Baha’is, of course, highly esteem the Traveller’s Narra-

than Baha’u’llah’s own son and successor. Non-Baha’is have tended to

approach the volume with some caution, taking into account its evident

purpose of establishing the Baha’i claims as over against the

original Babi position and against Mirza Yahya, the Bab’s own nominee

for the leadership in the movement after his death. The importance of

the Traveller’s Narrative, however, as reflecting Baha’i doctrine and

outlook at the time of its composition by one at the forefront of the

movement cannot be overstressed.
The New History
The first Baha’i history written by a member of the religion

after Baha’u’llah’s declaration of his mission is the Tarikh-i-Jadid,

or New History, of which Browne published an English translation in

1893. The New History, however, focuses on the Bab and his dispensa-

tion rather than on Baha’u’llah, and this is one reason which necessi-

tated the writing of the later Baha’i history, the Traveller’s Narra-

as a traveller going to “all parts of Europe and India and observing

the races and religions of those regions” and having “chanced to visit

Persia,”30 where he met some members of the persecuted Babi sect. He

a Persian.32 He speaks of Europeans as “my compatriots”33 and refers

to the French language as “my own language.”34 He portrays himself as

being neither a Muslim nor a member of the Babi religion and in one

place refers to some acquaintances who “invited me to exchange the

Christian faith for the religion of Muhammad.”35

of the Babis,” during his travels in Persia, the author says he felt

“impelled by sympathy and common humanity to compose this book”36 to

dispel misconceptions about the Babis so that persecution of them might

cease.37
Edward Browne, not knowing for sure who the author was, wrote

in 1891:
Whoever the author or authors may have been the information set

forth is so detailed and so minute that it must have been derived

for the most part from persons who had conversed with actual eye-

witnesses of the events described, if not from eye-witnesses them-

selves.38

and when he asked for the author’s name, Haji Mirza Hasan replied:

divulge, though, as the writer is dead now, it could make little

matter even were it generally known. I may tell you this much,

that he was one of the secretaries of Manakji Sahib of Teheran.

When he began to write he was quite impartial, but as he went on

be became convinced by his investigations of the truth of the

matter, and this change in his opinions is manifest in the

later portion of the work. …”39

production of the New History. In responding to a number of questions

asked by Browne, Mirza Abu’l-Fadl composed a treatise entitled Risaliy-
i-Iskandariyyih (the Epistle of Alexander, or the Alexandrine Tract),40

named in honor of a long time friend to whom it is dedicated, Alexander

Toumansky of the Russian Artillery, a noted Orientalist, author, and

the translator of Baha’u’llah’s Kitab-i-Aqdas into Russian. Four copies

were written in Abu’l-Fadl’s hand—one the author kept himself; one he

sent to Toumansky; one to Baha’u’llah; and one to Browne. Abu’l-Fadl,

in answering the question concerning the authorship of the New History,

relates.
The writer and author of the Tarikh-i-Jadid was the late Mirza

Huseyn of Hamadan. … The aforesaid author, in consequence of

the calligraphic and epistolary skill which he showed in drafting

letters, was at first secretary to one of the ministers of the

Persian Government. At the time of His Majesty Nasiru’d-Din

Shah’s first journey to Europe he too visited those countries in

the Royal Suite. … After his return to Persia, he was amongst

those imprisoned in consequence of the troubles of the year A.H.

1291 (A.D. 1874). …

employment in the office of Manakji the Zoroastrian, well known

as an author and writer. Manakji treated him with great respect,

for had he not become notorious an a Babi, he would never have

engaged in this work.41
Manakji, zealous in collecting books, would urge his acquaintances

who were capable of writing books or treatises to compose works on

suggested subjects. One night he, according to Abu’l-Fadl, “begged Mirza

Huseyn to compile a history of the Babis.42 Abu’l-Fadl continues:

Tract] and asked his assistance, saying, ‘Since hitherto no full

and correct history has been written treating of the events of

this Theophany, to collect and compile the various episodes thereof

in a fitting manner is a very difficult matter. …
To this I replied, ‘There is in the hands of the Friends a

history by the late Haji Mirza Jani of Kashan, who was one of the

martyrs of Teheran, and one of the best men of that time. But he

was a man engaged in business and without skill in historiography,

neither did he record the dates of the years and months. At most

he, being a God-fearing man. truthfully set down the record of

take the episodes from it, and the dates of the years and months

from the Nasikhu’t-Tawarikh and the appendices of the Rawzatu’s-

Safa; and, having incorporated these in your rough draft, read

over each sheet to His Reverence Haji Seyyid Jawad of Kerbela

(whose name has been repeatedly mentioned in these pages, for

he, from the beginning of the Manifestation of the First Point

[i.e. the Bab] until the arrival of His Holiness Baha’u’llah in

Acre, accompanied the Friends everywhere in person, and is

thoroughly informed and cognizant of all events. Thus diligently

correct the history, in order that this book may, by the will of

God, be well finished, and may win the approbation of the learned

throughout the world.”43
Abu’l-Fadl indicates that Musa Husayn asked him to write the introduc-

tory preface and thus open for him the path of composition, so Abu’l-

Fadl, agreeing to this, wrote two pages at the beginning of the work,

containing exhortations to strive after the truth.44 Mirza Husayn

intended to write two volumes, but his death in A.H. 1299 (A.D. 1881-

1882)45 prevented his writing the second volume. Mirza Husayn’s

first volume, according to Abu’l-Fadl’s testimony, was not completed

in the manner suggested by Abu’l-Fadl but was subjected to revision

by Manakji:
Manakji’s custom was to bid his secretary write down some matter

and afterwards read the rough draft over to him. So first of all

the secretary used to read over to him the rough draft which he

had made in accordance with his own taste and agreeably to the

canons of good style; and then, after Manakji had made additions