The Bab and the Babi Community of Iran

The Bab and the Babi Community of Iran  (2020)  edited by Fereydun Vahman

Contents

Biographies
Acknowledgments
A Note on Transliteration
Map
Preface

1 THE BAB: A SUN IN A NIGHT NOT FOLLOWED BY DAWN

Fereydun Vahman

• The Bab Discontinues his Formal Education and Begins his Mercantile Work
• Epiphany, Piety, and Intuition
• The Bab’s Journey to the Sacred Shrine Cities of ‘Iraq
• The Bab’s Return to Shiraz and Marriage
• The Declaration of the Bab’s Cause: The Birth of a New Religion
• After the Declaration of the Bab’s Cause
• Mulla ‘Ali Bastami
• The Bab’s Eventful Journey to Mecca
• The Bab’s Return from Pilgrimage and the Events of Shiraz
• The Bab in Isfahan
• From Isfahan to Azarbaijan
• The Trial of Tabriz
• The Return to Chihriq Prison
• The Execution of the Bab in Tabriz
• Bibliography

2 THE WORLDVIEW OF THE BAB: THE RECONSTRUCTION OF RELIGION AND SOCIETY

Nader Saiedi

• Reconstruction of the Idea of Religion: Dialectical Logic and Historical Consciousness
• Reconstruction of the Idea of the Human Being and Human Identity
• Rationalism and Humanism

  Equality of the Believers and Canceling of the Authority of the Clerics

  Centrality of the Word and the Rejection of Miracles

  Reconstruction of Heaven, Hell, and the Day of Resurrection

  Reconstruction of the Concept of the Occultation and Return of the Imam

• Equal Rights, Social Justice, and Ethics

  Station of Women, Rejection of Patriarchy

  The Ethical Maxim: For the Sake of God

  Culture of Affirmation

  Development and Modernization: Perfection and Refinement

• Conclusion
• Bibliography

3 THE SHAPING OF THE BABI COMMUNITY: MERCHANTS, ARTISANS, AND OTHERS

Abbas Amanat

• The Changing Economy
• The Babi Merchants
• The Babi Artisans
• Converts from the Government Ranks
• The Babi Community: An Assessment
• Selected Bibliography

4 FROM A PRIMAL POINT TO AN ARCHETYPAL BOOK: LITERARY TRAJECTORIES THROUGH SELECT WRITINGS OF THE BAB (1819-50)

Stephen N. Lambden

• The Writings of the Bab, Some Preliminary Observations
• Bayan/Mubin (“Crystal Clear”) yet “Abstruse, Bewilderingly Abstruse (sa‘b mustasa‘b)”: Exegetical Clarity and Esoteric Depth in the Writings of the Bab
• The Shahada (Testimony of Faith) and its Alphabetical Mysteries
• Esoterica, the Abstruse, Sciences of the Unseen (‘ulūm al-ghayb)
• The Style, Grammar, and Syntax of the Bab
• Personal Letters, “Scriptural Tablets” (Lawh, pl. Alwah)

  Letters or Scriptural Tablets

• The Genesis of the New Shari‘a (Laws), the Khasa’il-i Sab‘a (mid. 1845)
• The All-Comprehensive Bayan (Exposition) of the Bab
• The Five Modes of Revelation
• Devotional Writings of the Bab
• Tafsir Sūrat al-Hamd (Praise) or al-Fatiha (“The Opening,” Q.1)
• “We indeed proffered thee al-Kawthar (The Abundance).”
• Hadith Commentary
• Commentaries on Hadith Texts by the Bab
• Sūrat al-Ridwan
• Khutbas, Literary Orations
• The Khutba al-Jidda (Literary Oration Nigh Jeddah)
• The Khutba on ‘ilm al-huruf (On the “Science of the Letters”)
• Select Treatises (Risala, pl. Rasa’il), Epistles (Ṣahifa, pl. Ṣuhuf) and Other Scriptural Communications
• The Risala fi’l-nubuwwa al-khassa (A Treatise on the Specific Prophethood of Muhammad)
• Epistles, Treatises, Booklets (Ṣahifa, pl. Ṣuhuf)
• The Persian Dala’il-i sab‘a (Seven Proofs)
• The Arabic al-dala’il al-sab‘a (Seven Proofs)
• Kitab al-asma’/Kull shay’ (The Book of the Divine Names, the “All Things”)
• Kitab-i panj sha‘n (The Book expressive of Five Modes of Revelation)
• The (Lawh-i) Haykal al-din (“Temple of Religion”) (1266/early-mid-1850)
• The Late Messianism of the Bab
• The Wasiyyat-nama (Will and Testament) Attributed to the Bab
• Concluding Summary Note
• Bibliography

5 INTERPRETATION AS REVELATION: THE QURAN COMMENTARY OF THE BAB, SAYYID ‘ALÍ MUḤAMMAD SHÍRÁZÍ (1819-50)

Todd Lawson

• Life of the Báb
• The Shaykhí School
• Shaykhí Teachings
• Tafsír Works

  Tafsír súrat al-baqara

  Tafsír súrat Yúsuf

• Conclusions
• Bibliography

6 THE SOCIAL BASIS OF THE BĀBĪ UPHEAVALS IN IRAN (1848-53): A PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS

Moojan Momen

• Introduction
• The Shaykh Ṭabarsī Upheaval: 1848-49

  Total Number of Bābīs at Shaykh Ṭabarsī

  Rural/Urban Origin of Bābī Participants at Shaykh Ṭabarsī

• The Nayrīz Upheavals of 1850 and 1853

  Occupations of Bābī Participants in the Two Nayrīz Upheavals

  Origins of Participants at the Two Nayrīz Upheavals

  Total Numbers of Bābī Participants at the Two Nayrīz Upheavals

• The Zanjān Upheaval: 1850-51

  Occupations of Bābī Participants at Zanjān

  Origins of Bābī Participants at Zanjān

  Total Numbers of Bābī Participants at Zanjān

• The Tehran Episodes of 1850 and 1852

  The Seven Martyrs of Tehran, 1850

  The Tehran Executions of 1852

  Occupations of the Bābīs Executed in Tehran in 1852

• Conclusions

  A Comparative Analysis

  The Role of Women

  Other Social Groups

  The Social Basis of Babism

7 THE BABI-STATE CONFLICTS OF 1848-50

Siyamak Zabihi-Moghaddam

• Babi Clashes with the State: Neither Social Protest nor Offensive Holy War
• Review of the Primary Sources of the Babi Upheavals
• An Outline of the Conflict at Shaykh Tabarsi, September 1848—May 1849
• The Objectives of the Babis at Shaykh Tabarsi
• The Calm between Storms: May 1849-May 1850
• The Nayriz Conflict of May—June 1850
• An Analysis of the Objectives of Vahid and the Babis in Nayriz
• Hujjat and the ‘Ulama’ of Zanjan
• The Zanjan Episode of May 1850—January 1851
• An Analysis of the Objectives of Hujjat and the Zanjani Babis
• Conclusion
• Bibliography

8 FROM BABI MOVEMENT TO THE BAHA'I FAITH: SOME OBSERVATIONS ABOUT THE EVOLUTION OF A NEW RELIGION

Armin Eschraghi

• Some General Observations on the Bab’s Sacred Law
• Messianism in the Bab’s Writings
• The Later Development of the Babi Movement
• Baha’u’llah After the Bab’s Martyrdom
• Babi Messianism and the Question of Leadership
• Some General Observations on Baha’u’llah’s Sacred Law
• Some Further Observations on the Baha’i Faith’s Evolution from the Babi Movement

  Messianism

  Ritual Impurity (najasah)

  Holy War and Religious Legitimization of Violence

• Conclusion
• Bibliography

9 “THE HAND OF GOD IS NOT CHAINED UP”: NOTES ON TWO SALIENT THEMES IN THE PROSE WRITINGS OF ṬÁHIRIH QURRATU’L-‘AYN

Omid Ghaemmaghami

• Introduction
• Progressive Revelation
• Love, Friendship, and Forbearance
• Bibliography

10 BABI-BAHA’I BOOKS AND BELIEVERS IN E. G. BROWNE’S A YEAR AMONGST THE PERSIANS

Sholeh A. Quinn

• Introduction
• Terminology and Identifications
• Isfahan
• Shiraz

  Books in Shiraz

  Reading in Shiraz

• Yazd
• Kirman
• Conclusion
• The Texts Browne Encountered in Iran
• Bibliography

Index