The Work of A.L.M. Nicolas (1864-1937)
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Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: bahai-library.com/author/nicolas, The Work of A.L.M. Nicolas (1864-1937), bahai-library.com.
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The Work of A.L.M. Nicolas (1864-1937)

Moojan Momen
published in The Bábí and Bahá'í Religions: Some Contemporary Western Accounts pp. 36-40

Oxford: George Ronald, 1981

No European scholar has contributed so much to our knowledge
of the life and teaching of the Báb as Nicolas. His study of the life
of the Báb and his translations of several of the most important books
of the Báb remain of unsurpassed value.[1]

Nicolas's father, J. B. Nicolas, was in the French Consular
Service in Persia, and Nicolas himself was born at Rasht in Gilan in 1864.
According to his own statement, he could speak Persian and Russian even before
he learnt his native French. Like his father, he joined the French Consular Service
and spent most of his working life in Persia.

Nicolas also derived his inspiration to study the Bábís
from Gobineau, but in a manner almost exactly opposite to Browne. According to
a statement made by Nicolas, his father had clashed with Gobineau:

Gobineau, arriving at the Legation, imbued with diplomatic prejudices,
despising his colleagues, entered into an argument with my father on the subject
of a manuscript bought by the latter from a courtier.[2] My
father made some remarks about this which turned my thoughts towards the idea
of verifying for myself the background of the matter. Among his papers, he left
a critique of Gobineau's book, Les Religions et Les Philosophies dan l'Asie
Centrale, which encouraged me to do some research and refute its errors,
this work having been written without sufficient data with the aid of a Jew that
Gobineau had as a teacher of Persian, who could only teach his pupil the little
that he knew of the sect. I collected my material largely from a native secretary,[3] Mírzá Ibráhím
of Tíhrán, who I discovered to be a Bahá'í and
who put me in touch with the followers of the sect.

Nicolas, in the same statement, goes on to describe how his
interest in the subject grew:
I was helped in my work by a young Persian, and
each day we would go in the afternoon for a walk outside the town, leaving by
the Shimran gate. The purity of the air, the serenity, the mildness of
the temperature, and in certain seasons, the perfume of the acacias, predisposed
my soul to peace and gentleness. My reflections on the strange book [The Seven
Proofs by the Báb] that I had translated, filled me with a kind of
intoxication and I became, little by little, profoundly and uniquely a Bábí.
The more I immersed myself in these reflections, the more I admired the greatness
of the genius of him who, born in Shíraz, had dreamt of uplifting
the Muslim world...

In his early works, Nicolas steered clear of the barren ground
over which Browne was wandering - the claims of Mírzá Yahyá Subh-i-Azál.
In a letter to Browne in March 1902, he wrote concerning the documents which
he had collected:
Only those which are directly related to the Báb interest
me at this time; whether they concern the history or the dogma. I consider that
task sufficient for the moment, and I will concern myself later with the Imamate
of Subh-i-Azál and the second divine Manifestation in the person
of Bahá.

This first phase of Nicolas's work may be considered to have
been completed in 1914 by the publication of the last volume of Le Beyan Persan.
After this there is a hiatus, and when Nicolas began writing again on this subject,
in 1933, his articles were very obviously hostile and bitter towards the Bahá'ís
and, although not strongly advocating the claims of Mírzá Yahyá in
the way that Browne did, Nicolas was obviously not unfavourable to them.

The main reason for Nicolas's hostility to the Bahá'ís
at this time appears to have been twofold. Firstly he seems to have acquired
a profound dislike for 'Abdu'l-Bahá's historical work A Traveller's
Narrative, and he loses no opportunity to attack this. But secondly, and
much more importantly, Nicolas was deeply hurt at the disparagement and neglect
that he felt the Bahá'ís showed towards the Báb. Nicolas
considered that in A Traveller's Narrative and other Bahá'í works,
the Báb's station and importance had been belittled, making him but the
insignificant forerunner, the John the Baptist, of Bahá'u'lláh.

Towards the end of Nicolas' life, however, he was sent copies
of two important works by Shoghi Effendi: a translation of Nabil's Narrative of
the life of the Báb, and The Dispensation of Bahá'u'lláh,
in which the Báb's station as an independent Messenger of God, equal in
essence to Bahá'u'lláh is stated emphatically. Nicolas was, of
course, overjoyed. To the lady who sent him these books, Miss Edith Sanderson,
he wrote:
I do not know how to thank you nor how to express
the joy that floods my heart. So it is necessary not only to admit but to love
and admire the Báb. Poor great Prophet, born in the heart of Persia, without
any means of instruction, and who, alone in the world, encircled by enemies,
succeeds by the force of his genius in creating a universal and wise religion.
That Bahá'u'lláh succeeded Him eventually may be, but I want people
to admire the sublimity of the Báb, who has, moreover, paid with his life,
with his blood, for the reforms he preached. Cite me another similar example.
At last, I can die in peace. Glory be to Shoghi Effendi who has calmed my torment
and my anxieties, glory be to him who recognizes the worth of Siyyid 'Alí-Muhammad,
the Báb. I am so happy that I kiss your hands that have written my address
on the envelope which carried Shoghi's message. Thank you, Mademoiselle; thank
you from the depths of my heart.

It is difficult to be certain that the following list represents
the entirety of Nicolas's writing on the subject of the Bábí and
Bahá'í religions, as he makes reference to a few works which the
present author has been unable to trace and therefore assumes were never printed.[4]

Works by A.L.M. Nicolas

HISTORIES[5]

Seyyed Alí Mohammed dit le Báb, Paris 1905. 458
pp.
A history of the Bábí movement up to 1852. Nicolas
gives a list of sources for this book on pp. 48-53. It is interesting to note
that among his oral sources are four of the leading Bahá'ís of
that period, who had been designated by Bahá'u'lláh as 'Hands of
the Cause': Mírzá 'Alí-Muhammad, 'Ibn-i-Asdaq: Mullá 'Al-Akbar-i-Sháhmírzádí, Hají Akhund;
Mírzá Muhammad-Táqíy-i-Abharí, 'Ibn-i-Abhar;
and Mírzá Hasan-i-Adíb.

The other two oral sources named are Siyyid 'Ismu'lláh, who was presumbly
Siyyid Mihdíy-i-Dihají, and Mírzá Yahyá, Subh-i-Azál.

TRANSLATIONS OF THE WRITINGS OF THE BÁB[6]

1. Le Livre des Sept Preuves, Paris 1902. 68 pp. A
translation of the Báb's Dalá'il-i-Sab'ih

2. Le Beyan Arabe, Paris 1905. 235 pp. A translation of the Arabic
Bayán.

3. Le Beyan Persan, 4 vols., Paris 1911-14. A translation of the
Persian Bayán.

MONOGRAPHS[7]

1. Qui est le successeur du Báb?, Paris 1933.
16 pp. Written to demonstrate that Mírzá Yahyá was
the true successor of the Báb.

2. Massacres de Bábís en Perse, Paris
1936. 42 pp. Accounts of several of the most important persecutions and martyrdoms
of the Bábís and Bahá'ís.

ARTICLES[8]

1. “A propos de deux manuscrits 'Bábís' de
la Bibliotheque Nationale” Revue de l'Histoire des Religions,
Vol. 47, Paris 1903, pp. 58-73. Concerning the controversial manuscripts of Nuqtatu'l-Kaf.

2. “Sur la Volonte Primitive et l'Essence Divine d'apres le Báb” Revue
de l'Histoire des Religions, Vol. 55, Paris 1907, pp. 208-12. Abridged version
of a lengthy note by Nicolas explaining some of the terms in the Bábí writings.

3. “Le Club de la fraternite” Revue du Monde Musulman,
Vol. 13, Paris 1911, pp. 180-184. Translation of an article by Atrpet in the
Armenian periodical Sourhandag refuting the suggestion that the Bahá'ís played
an important part in the constitutional upheavals.

4. “Le Dossier russo-anglais de Seyyed Ali Mohammed dit le Báb” Revue
du Monde Musulman, Vol. 14, Paris: 1911, pp. 357-63. Documents found in the
British and Russian Consulates in Tabríz relating to the episode of the
Báb: frequently quoted in the present work.

5. “Abdoul-Beha et la situation” Revue du Monde Musulman Vol.
21, Paris 1912, pp. 261-7. Translation of an article in the Persian periodical Fikr that
contained an alleged exchange of letters between 'Abdu'l-Bahá and Mírzáá Ghaffar
Zanuzí. Published under pseudonym 'Ghilan’.

6. “Le Behahis et le Báb”; Journal Asiatique,
Vol. 222, Paris 1933, pp. 257-64.

7. “Quelque Documents relatifs au Bábisme”. Journal
Asiatique, Vol. 224, Paris 1934, pp. 107-42. Some extracts from the works
of the Báb, as well as some Persian Government correspondence.

8. “Le Báb astronome” Revue de l'Histoire des Religions,
Vol. 114, Paris 1936, pp. 99-101.

NOTES

[1] Taken
from The Bábí and Bahá'í Religions: Some Contemporary
Western Accounts. Edited by Moojan Momen (Oxford : George Ronald, 1981),
pages 36-40. Captured from the International Bahá'í Library site
(http://library.bahai.org/sc/nic1.htm - nic4.htm) on Thursday, December 7, 2000.
(MW's Note)

[2] Gobineau
describes J. B. Nicolas as 'un drole' - a rascal (letter to his sister,
see Hytier, Les Depeches Diplomatiques p. 148n) (Momen's Note).

[3] Presumbly
at the French Legation (Momen's Note).

[4] Nicolas
apparently published an article entitled
"Une Causerie sur le Báb", which the editor has been
unable to trace. There is also a reference in “Quelque Documents relatif
au Bábisme” (see the following list) to a work that Nicolas
had prepared for publication entitled “La voie doloureuse de Seyyed
'Alí Mohammad, dit le Báb, which he describes as 'crammed with
numerous unedited documents', but which no editor had accepted. The article “Quelque
Documents” therefore consists of some extracts from this longer work,
which presumably was never published (Momen's Note).

[5] Taken
from The Bábí and Bahá'í Religions: Some Contemporary
Western Accounts. Edited by Moojan Momen (Oxford : George Ronald, 1981),
pages 36-40. Captured from the International Bahá'í Library site
(http://library.bahai.org/sc/nichis.html) on Thursday, December 7, 2000. (MW's
Note)

[6] Ibid.
(MW's Note)

[7] Ibid.
(MW's Note)

[8] Ibid.
(MW's Note)

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-- The Work of A.L.M. Nicolas (1864-1937) (Used by permission of the curator)