Two years ago, in the course of a paper on Persian Literature,
which I had the honour of reading before this Society, I made an
observation which seemed to me almost a platitude but which caused apparently,
some amusement and surprise amongst my audience, and was, I think the only
point in the lecture which was noticed in almost all the reports in the Press.
I said that in Persia, if not in other countries, the best poetry was produced
in he most troubled times, while eras of comparative prosperity and peace were
relatively poor in poetical talent. Encouraged by the success of this
generalisation, I will venture on another similar one in connection with the
large and interesting topic which Ia am to discuss to-day, and that is, that
religious emotion and metaphysical speculation are generally most active when
political and social pessimism are most prevalent. Perhaps this is only true of
people like the Persians, who have a strong religious bent; if it were
universally true we ought to expect with some confidence a widely spread
religious revival in this country at no distant date, for few of us, I imagine,
can recall a period of political pessimism comparable to that through which we
are now passing, though this is a topic on which it is not (p. 58) permissible
for me to enlarge here. Exception must also be made of some at least of the
great national religions of ancient times, such as those of the old Greeks,
indians, Jews, and Persians, and perhaps of primitive Islam, where a certain
note of triumph, or a certain joie de vivre is
discernible. Buddhism, on the other hand, is wholly pessimistic in its outlook
on life both here and hereafter, seeing no escape from suffering save in the
annihilation or quasi annihilation of Nirvana; while, so far as this world is
concerned, primitive Christianity can hardly be regarded as optimistic, still
less the remarkable and once widely diffuse Manichæan faith which arose
first in Persia in the third century of our era, and of which I shall more to
say presently. It is noteworthy also that the form of Islam which always had
its chief stronghold in Persia, and ultimately prevailed there, is the one
which emphasizes its more tragic side, to wit, the sufferings of the Prophets
and Imams and more particularly the tragic fate of the grandson of the Prophet
Muhammad and third of the twelve Imams, al Husayn, in whose memory the
'Ashuru, or tenth day of the month of Muharram, is celebrated
every year in so remarkable a manner wherever a Persian community is to be
found.
When I visited Persia twenty six years ago nothing impressed me more than the
complete absorption of all thinking men in religious and philosophical
speculation, and their entire detachment from all political and social
questions; and I came to the conclusion that to these old nations, which have
suffered so much and passed through so many vicissitudes, the saying of the
pessimistic Arabian poet Abu'l 'Ala al-Ma'arri, that the history of mankind is
like a poem in which the words change but the rhyme always recurs, appears as a
self-evident and incontestable truth. It was for this reason chiefly that I was
at first so little disposed to attach much importance to the Revolution, or
Constitutional Movement, which began at the end of 1905, and with the heroic
course and tragic end of which at the end of 1911 you are all familiar. It
needed not only the emphatic and reiterated testimony (p. 59) of friends who
witnessed these phenomena on the spot, and were competent to appreciate and
interpret them, but personal acquaintance with and experience of, the leading
dramatis personae and the literature which enshrined their ideas
and recorded their deeds to convince me that, whatever the result may be, and
however the movement may end, in the six years defined above will ever remain a
unique and momentous epoch in the history of Persia, in which for the first and
possibly for the last time in the that history, hope was transferred from the
spiritual to the material plane, and an advance towards happiness in this world
seemed not only worth striving for but attainable. This new spirit and these
new hopes are wonderfully reflected not only in the ephemeral literature but in
the poetry of this period which ended prematurely in the destruction of these
new born legitimate hopes, and the re-enthronement of Despair in
the place where for too brief a period Hope had held precarious sway. The
bruised reed was broken and the smoking flax was quenched.
Pessimism, then, has been one of the chief influences in the evolution of most
of the religions and philosophies of Persia, and it is, I think, significant
that hardly anywhere has so much thought been devoted to the problem of the
nature and origin of Evil in the universe. The old dilemma that the Creator, if
he could have prevented the appearance of Evil in the universe, and did not do
so, cannot be All-Good, while, if He wished to prevent it, but could not, He
cannot be All-Powerful, has troubled the Persian more than it troubles the
European mind, and almost every possible solution has been attempted by one or
other school of religious or philosophical thought. I will mention four of the
chief theories associated with three of the great religions and one of the most
notable religious philosophies which has arisen or prevailed in Persia. Of
these four theories the two older ones depend on a dualistic and the two later
on a monistic or unitarian theory of the universe. Let us consider first the
two dualistic theories, which, though superficially similar, differ vitally in
their essence. These two theories (p.60) are the Zoroastrian and the
Manichæan, and they agree in recognizing two independent and hostile
Powers in the universe, but differ in their views as to the relative strength
and activity of those Powers, and as for the ultimate result of the
struggle.
Almost everyone is familiar with the late Professor Max Muller's division of
the great religions of the world into two classes--those intended for one
particular nation or race, such as Hinduism, Judaism, and Zoroastrianism, and
those--the "missionary religions" which claimed to be universal in their scope
and appeal, such as Buddhism; Christianity, and Islam. To the latter class we
must add two other religions which arose in Persia, one in he third century
after Christ and the other within the memory of people still living, to wit,
Manichæanism and Babism with its later development Bahá'ísm, of all
modern religions one of the most actively propagandist.
The old national religions were not propagandist, and aimed at meeting the
spiritual needs of one particular race, which regarded itself as a "Chosen
People" Broadly speaking, and with certain well defined reservations, no one
who is not so born can become a Hindu, a Jew, or a Zoroastrian, and the chief
concern of the Brahmin, the Rabbi, and the Dastur or Mubad is to
avoid, repel, or repress the Mlechch, the Gentile, and the "Worshipper
of the Daevas" respectively. In the opening chapter of the Vendidad
which forms part of the sacred book of the Zoroastrians known as the
Avesta, an account is given of the creation, not of the world, but of
the Iranian or Persian lands. Sixteen "good lands and countries", all of which
are named and most of which can be identified in Northern and North-Eastern
Persia, were successively created by Ahura Mazda or
Ormazd, the Good Spirit; besides other "lands and countries beautiful
and deep, desirable and bright and thriving"; but as each good land is created,
the Evil Spirit, Angra Mainyu or Ahriman, "who is all
death," creates as a counterpoise some evil thing, such as winter, witchcraft,
poisonous flies, sinful desires, pride, unbelief, and the like. Thus the whole
universe, according (p. 61) to the Zoroastrian conception was divided, if I may
so express it, by a vertical line bisecting both the spiritual and the material
worlds into two antagonistic realms, the one good; the other evil. At the apex
of the former stood Ahura Mazda; the Amshaspands or archangels,
the Firishtagan or angels, the prophets, teachers, and followers oft he Good
Religion" (Rihdin), the "beautiful, desirable, bright and thriving)
provinces of Persia and the animals useful to mankind, such as the cow, the
sheep, and the dog, all these together constituting the Good Creation. At he
apex of the Evil Creation, on the other hand stood Angra Mainyu or
Ahriman, the Daevas or fiends, Drujes or lying spirits,
the Yatus or witches and warlocks, the "worshippers of the
Daevas" or unbelievers, and the khrafstars, or noxious animals.
These two worlds were constantly at war with varying results, all along the
line. The advent of spring, the birth of a believing child, a good harvest, the
destruction of "worshippers of the Daevas" or of noxious animals
(khrafstars)--all these were, in their different degrees, triumphs oft
he hosts of Ormazd over those of Ahriman; while; on the other
hand, the advent of winter; with what the Pahlavi books all the "cold stinking
wind out of the North," the death of a believer, dearth and famine, and the
multiplication of vermin were all victories of Ahriman over
Ormazd. In spite of its dualism; however, the Zoroastrian religion did
not conduce to a passive pessimism, and the humblest believer bore his part in
the great struggle, were it only in the killing of a snake, the extirpation of
a wasp's nest, or the crushing of a slug or a cockroach. Strange conclusions
logically followed from this primary concept, such, for example, as the idea
that the corpse of a believer was more impure than that of an unbeliever, and
that its impurity was greatest immediately after death and diminished with the
advance of decomposition, because the triumph of the Powers of Evil is
proportionate to the injury they inflict on the Subjects of the Good World and
is greatest at the moment of their victory. Amongst other salient points of the
Zoroastrian faith are the beliefs
(pages 62-69 are not part of the scanned material)
(p. 70)
All-Beautiful and All-Good by declaring Evil to be a mere negation and
not a real entity at all, but simply an inevitable condition or incident of
Creation or
Self-Manifestation.
I have taken one out of many points of doctrine out of four of the many
religious and philosophical systems which have prevailed or do prevail in
Persia, and I have indicated very briefly the wide influence which these four
systems have exercised in the world; but one lecture would not suffice for the
full discussion of any one of these four topics, viz. the influence of
Zoroastrianism on Judaism and Muhammadanism; the influence of
Manichæanism on Christianity and Muhammadanism, the Muhammadan theology
and philosophy, or the Sufi mysticism, with the sources whence it arose, the
influence which it exercised, and the developments to which it gave birth.
The Persians and other Muhammadans constantly speak of the "seventy-two" sects
of Islam, and the actual rather exceeds rather than falls short of this number.
When one comes to study them in detail, it is surprising to find how large a
proportion of them were founded by Persians or influenced by Persian thought.
Many of these sects and their founders, even some like the
Khurram-dinan
and their prophet Babak, who made a great stir in their own day and were not
suppressed without much bloodshed, are now almost forgotten. Others though of
less note in their own time, are remembered through some accidental
circumstance which caught the imagination, as, for instance;
al-Muqanna,
called by the Persians "`the Moon-Maker" (
Mah-sazanda), and immortalised
in this country by Thomas Moore as "the Veiled Prophet of Khurasan. Earlier
than these in the days of the Sasannian kings arose the communist Mazdak who
converted King Qubad to his doctrines and was finally destroyed, together with
many of his followers by Nushirwan, the son and successor of Qubad, called "the
Just". One of the most romantic chapters in the history of religion was again
afforded by the history of the Isma'ili Sect, with its esoteric doctrines, its
secret organisation, its degrees of initia-(p. 71)tion and its elaborately
developed system of propaganda. Of this also the actual founder was a Persian,
though the activities of the sect extended from Tunis to Chitral and were
greatest in North Africa and Egypt and under the Isma'ili anti-caliphs of the
Fatimid Dynasty, enjoyed until the time of Saladin a period of unexampled
prosperity, of which the Persian poet and traveller Nasir i-Khusraw, himself a
notable adherent of the sect, has left us a vivid contemporary narrative. Out
of the Isma'ilis in turn developed many sects, such as the celebrated Assassins
of Syria and Persia with their modern representatives the Mullas and Khwajas;
the Druzes, the Nusayris, and others which either exist at the present day or
have left an indelible imprint on the pages of history. All these and many
others I must pass over this afternoon for lack of time.
I must however refer briefly to the latest Persian religion not yet seventy
years old, which already sends its missionaries eastwards as far as China and
westwards as far as San Francisco; I mean Babism and its later and now almost
more famous development Bahá'ísm whose living representative, Abbas Effendi,
better known as `Abdu'l-Bahá, visited London a year or two ago and preached in
the City Temple as well as in Edinburgh and other places. Already tis new faith
counts many adherents in America and some in England, France, and other
European countries, while in Persia its numbers probably exceed by a good deal
Lord Curzon's estimate of half a million. Time does not permit me to discuss
its dramatic history, or the earlier part of which the Comte de Gobineau has
given so graphic an account in his
Religions et Philosophies dans l'Asie
Central or its doctrines, which have undergone so strange an evolution; but
it must be noted that nothing has so greatly conduced to its prestige as the
heroic devotion of its many martyrs, which has aroused the admiration even of
missionaries like the Reverend Napier Malcolm, who had little liking or
sympathy for the doctrines for which these martyrs were so ready to lay down
their lives. At least 2500 years have elapsed since (p. 71) Zoroaster preached
"the Good Religion," and still Persia may reckon religious ideas amongst her
chief exports, not only to Asia and the East, but to a remote West of which
Zoroaster never dreamed.
Some time ago it was my privilege to hear Mr. G. Bernard Shaw hold forth on
Religion at Cambridge. He was very modern, very sceptical, and very European
and in the course of his lecture he declared that we should no longer be
contented to clothe ourselves in the discarded rags of Oriental creeds. He then
proceeded to sketch in broad outline the brand new Western religion which
should take the place of these rags and I was surprised and somewhat amused to
find that he had merely restated in somewhat modern terms what is at once the
most recent and one of the most ancient Persian heresies; and that his system
in its essence merely reiterated in a more explicit form the doctrine of Mirza
Husayn `Ali, the Persian, better known as Bahá'u'lláh. Whatever may be the
political future of Persia, I reflected it does not seem probable that, so long
as she anticipates the speculations of advanced European thought, she will
cease to be what she has so long continued to be, the source and inspiration of
the religious and philosophical ideas of the world.
