Proofread by Paula Bidwell and Jonah Winters;
scanned and formatted by Jonah Winters;
Note: Arabic and Persian terms are not fully
proofread, and some diacritics are missing.
published in In Iran: Studies in Bábí and Bahá'í
History vol. 3,
ed. Peter Smith (Los Angeles: Kalimat Press, 1986)
pages 95-141
In recent years, the history of the early development of the
Bábí movement has undergone extensive and often trenchant
rewriting at the hands of several scholars, including the present
writer.
[1] There is still
much work to be done, but there can be no doubt that a great deal of light has
already been shed on areas not long ago regarded as impossibly dark. Problems
have been usefully identified in topics long considered settled beyond any need
for discussion. We now possess clear pictures, for example, of the main
features in the transition from Shaykhism to early Babism, of the Báb's
early career and claims, of the progress of the Bábí uprisings
after 1848, or of the writing and dissemination of the Bábí
scriptural canon. Advances have been made not only in the realm of factual
data, which has been greatly expanded by numerous discoveries, but, more
importantly, in the field of interpretative historiography, with the fresh
analysis of both familiar and unfamiliar material.
There can be little doubt, however, that one period of Bábí
history continues to stand out as unrelievedly obscure, namely
[page 96]
the years between the execution of the Báb in 1850, and
the emergence of distinct Bahá'í and Azali factions within the
Bábí exile community in Edirne about 1866, and subsequently in
Iran. This period has for a long time been all but passed over by historians as
a time of confusion, anarchy, and deep doctrinal division within Babism for
which virtually no documentary evidence exists that might enable us to
reconstruct its essential details. Between 1848 and 1852, the
Bábí community of Iran had suffered serious losses in the course
of clashes between adherents of the sect and the population at large. Between
two and three thousand
Bábís
[2] died
violently in this period, including the Báb himself and all but a
handful of the intellectual leadership of the movement. After the abortive
attempt on Nasiri'd-Din Shah's life in August 1852, the survivors (a small
number in terms of active affiliation with the movement) either recanted, went
underground, practiced dissimulation (
taqiyya)
, or chose to go
into exile outside Iran.
The effects of this rapid disintegration of an already little-organized
community (if community it can be called) were, from the point of view of the
later historian, quite devastating. Numerous documents, particularly letters,
were lost, destroyed, or
stolen.
[3] Among the most
serious casualties were undoubtedly works by the leading figures of the
Bábí hierarchy who perished in the uprisings at Shaykh Tabarsi,
Nayriz, and Zanjan. To make matters worse, fear of discovery led the
Bábís of this period to adopt a deliberately enigmatic and
idiosyncratic style that now requires considerable effort and ingenuity to
decipher, with the result that many materials that have survived the
tribulations of those years may often present as many obfuscation as they do
glimmers of light.
And yet this is without question a period of the most extreme importance, both
as a postscript to the short-lived experiment of primitive Babism and as a
preamble to the later reconstructions of the movement in its Azali and
Bahá'í versions. Unfortunately, it is precisely the emergence of
Azali and Bahá'í Babism
[page 97]
that renders the task of the historian unusually arduous and
confronts him with serious problems of research and interpretation. Both
parties to the later dispute looked back to the earlier period, particularly
the years immediately following the death of the Báb and the transfer of
the headquarters of the sect to Baghdad, with visions much clouded by the
demands of contemporary polemic or ex-post facto justification of current
theological positions and concepts of authority. The polarization of Azalis and
Bahá'ís resulted in the rapid displacement of any serious
alternative definitions of Bábí orthodoxy. And, since we possess
very few manuscript materials from the intermediate period, we are forced to
rely almost exclusively on documents reflecting, usually quite strongly, the
sectarian biases of the two opposing groups. It is, quite frankly, often
impossible for the historian to choose between one or the other version of the
same events. Very little corroboratory evidence is ever produced by either
side, and there are almost no independent sources to which one may have
recourse.
Nevertheless, it seems to me that the main outline of events and, to a lesser
extent, doctrines may be reconstructed without serious prejudice to either side
of the dispute. If we are willing to ignore such questions as "who was right?"
or "who was wrong?" we can, I think, state what happened during this period
and, as far as is possible, suggest why.
Before the main features of this period can be studied, however, there is a
pressing need for a survey of certain doctrinal issues from the early years of
the movement. It is the aim of this paper to provide such a survey, both for
its own interest and as preparation for a future study of the later period.
EARLY THEOPHANIC AND QUASI-THEOPHANIC CLAIMS TO AUTHORITY
It will be useful to begin our investigations with a brief examination of the
nature of religious claims in the early period and a survey of the later
theories of the Báb that can be shown to
[page 98]
have influenced the tone and direction of subsequent speculations.
Doctrinally speaking, Babism is a notoriously difficult movement to define.
There were important shifts in belief and practice within the space of very few
years, coupled with significant differences in the doctrines promulgated by
various sections of the Bábí leadership, not to mention the
innumerable obscurities and vagueness of even the most reliable texts. I have
discussed in detail
elsewhere
[4] the early claims
of Sayyid Ali Muhammad, the Báb himself and will not return to that
question here. Suffice to say that there is ample evidence that for several
years he regarded himself and was regarded by his followers as the
báb, or representative on earth of the hidden Twelfth
Imám, whose appearance in 1845 was imminently expected by all the first
Bábís. Exactly how his claims developed after that is not
entirely clear. Even at the earliest period, there is evidence that the
Báb claimed for himself and his writings a level of inspirational
authority well above that normally associated with the role of
babu'l-Imám. This is not to suggest that he entertained notions
of a more exalted status for himself at this point, merely that the function of
babiyya (or
niyába)
as he understood and expressed
it involved the ability to reveal inspired verses and to possess innate
knowledge. As I have indicated
elsewhere,
[5] it was the
Báb's status as a source of pure knowledge more than anything else that
attracted followers to him at this time.
A Bahá'í writer, Sayyid Mahdi Dahají, basing his remarks
somewhat loosely on an important passage of the
Dala'il-i-Sab'a (seven
proofs), has put forward the idea that, in the first year, Sayyid Ali Muhammad
referred to himself as "the gate of God" (
baba'lláh)
, in
the second year as "the remembrance" (
dhikr)
, in the third as
"the proof" (
hujja)
, in the fourth as another name, and in the
fifth as the Qá'im in
person.
[6] Although based on
the Báb's own application of part of a tradition of the Imám Ali
(
hadith Kumayl)
to each of the first five years of his career,
[page 99]
such a picture of a gradual "unfoldment" of the Báb's
claims is, however, based largely on polemical
considerations.
[7] The
simultaneous use of terms such as
báb, dhikr, and
hujja is
well attested from the earliest
period,
[8] and there is no
evidence of major changes in emphasis (apart from a period of dissimulation
[
taqiyyih] in 1845, when he renounced all claims) during the first five
years of the Báb's career.
The Báb himself refers more than once to the radical shift that took
place at the end of this period. In several passages of the
Kitáb-i
panj sha'n (Book of five proofs), he states that he revealed himself (or
God revealed him) in the station of "gate-hood"
(
bábíyya)
(
fi 'l-abwáb; bi-ismi
abwábiyyatika, [sic]) for four years, whereupon he appeared as the
promised Qá'im (
bi-ismi Qá'imiyyatika;
bi-ismi'i-maqsúdiyya
al-maw'údiyya).
[9]
We possess no exact date for the initial proclamation of
qá'imiyya
by the Báb, but there is sufficient evidence to place this event
(which was marked by the issue of a letter sent to Mullá Shaykh
'Alí Turshizi,
'Azím)
[10] in the
later part of the Báb's confinement in the fortress of
Mákú, that is in the early months of
1848.
[11] In the Persian
Bayan, the Báb states that when the return of all that had been
created in the Qur'an and the beginning of the creation of all things in the
Bayán occurred, his dwelling-place was Mákú (
ard-i
ism-i
básit).
[12]
The Báb's claim to be the
Qá'im was not, however,
restricted to the adoption of the simple messianic role outlined for the
Twelfth Imám in Shi'i prophetic literature, but also involved the
assumption of theophanic status coupled with prophetic office as the
inaugurator of a new religious dispensation abrogatory of
Islam.
[13]
In developing the elaborate theory of theophanies and religious cycles around
which all of his later thinking revolves, the Báb made use of a series
of metaphysical concepts common to the main Shi'i sects. But while many of his
ideas and the forms in which they are cast find important and sometimes
detailed parallels in Isma'ili and Hurúfí thought in particular,
it is not, I
[page 100]
think, necessary to look for direct influences from these sources. The
main themes and terms are all to be found in Twelver Shi'i literature,
including, of course, the works of Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsá'í and
Zayn al-Abidin. The root of the Báb's doctrine lies in the belief that
the divine or eternal essence (
dhát-i iláhi, dhát-i
azal)
is wholly unknowable and inaccessible to
humans
[14] but since the
purpose of the creation is for men to know and love
God,
[15] it is necessary for
the creator to reveal himself to them in a form appropriate to their condition:
"in every dispensation, he makes himself known through his own
creation."
[16] Although the
Báb employs the conventional Islamic terminology of prophet and
messenger (
nabi; rasul [frequently];
payghámbar)
[17]
and adopts a schema of regularly-spaced prophetic revelations (among which
those of Moses, David, Jesus, and Muhammad stand
out),
[18] he is less
concerned with the role of the prophets as divinely-inspired legislators
(
shari'ah)
than with their function as theophanic representations
of the divinity on earth.
The Báb's doctrine of theophanies is expressed chiefly through the
Arabic root
zuhúr (to become visible, manifest), which appears in
a number of related technical
terms.
[19] Zuhúr
(manifestation) is the self-revelation of God to his creation and also the
period during which he is thus manifest. It is contrasted with
batín
(concealment), the state of God's invisibility to men and the period
between one prophet and the next, during which he is hidden to men.
Mazhar
is the term most often used to describe the place of this revelation, the
created being in whom the Divinity manifests himself to other created beings.
This
mazhar is in one sense the locus in which God himself is manifested
to men: "the hidden reality of the divine unity (
ghaybatu' l-tawhid)
is only affirmed through that which is revealed in the outward aspect
(
zahir)
of the
messenger";
[20] "know that in
each
zuhúr, he has been and is the representative
(
qá'im maqám)
of the eternal and hidden essence
(
dhát-i ghayb-i
azal)";
[21] "bear
[page 101]
witness that God, may his praise be glorified, makes himself known to his
creation in the place of manifestation (
mazhar)
of his own self,
for whenever men have recognized God, their Lord, their recognition of him has
only been attained through what their prophet caused them to
know."
[22] In the Persian
Bayán, the appearance of the Báb (as the
Nuqta, Point) is
thus equated with the revelation of God himself: "the self-revelation of God
(
zuhúru'lláh)
, which is the self-revelation of the
Point of the
Bayán;
[23] "the seat
of the Point, who is the place of manifestation of
Lordship."
[24]
It is emphasized by the Báb, however, that the divine essence as such
is not manifested directly to
men.
[25] What appears in the
manifestations (
mazáhir)
is the Primal Will
(
al-mashi'yya al-awaliya)
, itself created by God
ex nihilo:
That command (i.e., the place of manifestation) is not the eternal and
hidden essence, but is a Will that was created through and for himself out of
nothing.
[26] In the Persian
Bayán, the Báb writes that "there has never been nor will there
ever be either revelation or concealment for the eternal Essence in himself,
nor can any other thing either manifest or conceal him. . . instead, he created
the Primal Will in the same way that he created all things by himself, creating
it likewise by himself and all things (other than it) by it, and he related it
to himself in its exaltation and sublimity. ... From the beginning that has no
beginning to the end that has no end, there has ever been but a single Will
which has shone forth in every age in a manifestation
(
zuhúr)
."
[27]
Although the Primal Will is single, it appears in each age in a different
person, whose physical form is variously expressed as its "throne"
(
'arsh),
[28] "seat"
(
kursi),
[29] "temple"
(
haykal),
[30] "mirror"
(
mir'at [the Will being described as the sun appearing in
it],
[31] or simple place of
manifestation (
mazhar),
[32]. The Will itself in its
manifest form is referred to by a variety of titles, including the Tree of
Reality
(
shajaratu'l-haqíqa),
[33]
or, most commonly, Primal Point (
nuqtay-i
úlá).
[36]
[sic: footnotes skip 34-35 in original, though these two notes
do exist
at the end, in between endnotes #33 and 36. -J.W.] It is from this Point
that
[page 102]
all things have been
originated
[37] and all the
prophets and revealed books sent
down.
[38]
As in the case of the Imáms in Shi'i Islam, the exact status of the
manifestation (
mazhar)
is often blurred. Just as the Imáms
are referred to as God's "outward form amidst his creation" (
záhiruhu
fí khalqihi)
," so the Báb speaks of the
mazhar
as the "throne of God's revelation" (
'arsh
zuhúri'lláh),
[40]
the "representative of the divine
essence,"
[41] or the "locus
of the manifestation of his self" (
mazhar
nafsihi).
[42] In the same
way that knowledge of the Imáms is knowledge of
God
[43] (the latter being
impossible without the former) the
mazáhir are, for the
Báb, the only means whereby men may know their creator." God has made
the manifestation "the mirror of his self. . . , in which nothing is seen but
God."
[45]
The human locus of God's appearance is, therefore, an essentially ambivalent
creature. Outwardly, he is merely a mortal man: "what your eyes behold of the
outward form of the thrones is but a handful of clay. . . . If you did not look
at what is (manifested) in them, there would be nothing (to see) but earth in
its own place."
[46] Inwardly,
however, these beings are divine: "Do not behold the thrones in respect of what
they are in themselves, for I have shown you that they originate as a drop of
sperm and return as a handful of clay. Instead, look within them, inasmuch as
God has manifested himself (
tajalli)
to them and through
them."
[47] Expressed
differently, "the inward aspect (
bátin)
of the prophets is
the words 'no god is there but God,' while their outward aspect
(
zahir)
is the mention of their own selves in each
zuhúr through what is manifested from
them."
[48] It is because of
this difference that the statements of the prophets differ one from the other,
itself the main cause of religious
disunity.
[49] Otherwise, they
are all one,
[50] being
compared frequently to a single sun that appears on different days or in
different mirrors.
[51] The
number of these places of manifestation is
incalculable,
[52] nor can
they be said to have any beginning or
end.
[53]
[page 103]
This much is, I think, relatively straightforward. But the Báb's
doctrine is, in fact, rather more complex than this and involves several
important elements that were to influence markedly the development of the
religion after his death. The existence of a problem can already be seen in the
Shi'i doctrine of the Imáms. Not only are the Imáms regarded as
identical one with
another,
[14] they are also
identical in essence with the maj or prophet figures of the past: "I," says
'Alí in one tradition, "am Adam, I am Noah, I am Abraham, I am Moses, I
am Jesus, I am Muhammad; I move through the forms as I wish whoso has seen
me has seen them, and whoso has seen them has seen
me."
[55] I do not wish to
enter here into a discussion of what became a subtle problem for later Shi'i
doctrine, namely the relationship between Imám and prophet, merely to
draw attention to an apparent dichotomy between the status of the Imáms
as successors of the prophet Muhammad and their identification with the
prophets of the past. This dichotomy is to some extent resolved through the
doctrine of
hujjiyya, whereby it is maintained that there must always be
on earth a proof (
Hujja)
from God to men, be it a prophet or
Imám.
[57]
Nevertheless something of a problem remains, for it is, on the one
hand, an established Shi'i doctrine that the pleroma of Muhammad and the twelve
Imáms was created before and is superior to all other beings, including
earlier prophets, who were indeed created after them from the residue of their
light
[58] and who can only
approach God through them. They are often described in terms that make them
responsible for the inspiration and instruction of even the major prophets of
the past: "The Commander of the Faithful said to Salmán and Abu Dharr:
'I am al-Khidr the teacher of Moses: I am the teacher of David
and"
[60] or in terms that
place them in a relationship to former prophets comparable to that of God: "He
('Alí) said: 'I am the one who carried Noah in the Ark at the command of
my Lord; I am the one who brought Jonah out of the belly of the fish by the
permission of my Lord; I am the one
[page 104]
who caused Moses the son of 'Imran to pass (over the Red Sea) at the
command of my Lord; I am the one who brought Abraham from the fire by the
permission of my Lord.
[61] On
the other hand, they are identified, not only with these prophets, but also
with their successors: "Whoso wishes to behold Adam and Seth, behold I am Adam
and Seth; whoso wishes to behold Noah and his son Shem, behold I am Noah and
Shem; whoso wishes to behold Abraham and Ishmael, behold I am Abraham and
Ishmael; whoso wishes to behold Moses and Joshua, behold I am Moses and Joshua;
whoso wishes to behold Jesus and Simon, behold I am Jesus and
Simon."
[62] To turn this
equation around, Seth, Shem, Ishmael, Joshua, and Simon are (in this instance)
the Twelfth Imám, who is, in turn, the teacher of the prophets and a
locus of the Primal Will.
Now this problem, like any other of its kind, can be and has been solved by
the ingenuity of theologians, but I do not wish to enter into an account of
that here. What is of interest in terms of the present paper is that the
paradoxes involved in these concepts retained their basic dynamism throughout
the early Bábí period and became critical causes of uncertainty
in the Baghdad years. To begin with, there were the numerous tensions implicit
in the varying statements of the Báb, not only with respect to his
changing status from "a servant" chosen to be the gate and representative of
the hidden Imám, to the Qá'im, to the place of manifestation of
the divinity and the promulgator of a new
shari'a after that of Islam,
but also with respect to each one of these roles in its different modes and
emphases. Secondly, the Báb sought to endow his immediate followers,
primarily the eighteen "Letters of the Living" (
Huruf-i-Hayy)
or
"precursors" (
sábiqún)
, with a status that made
them more than mere saints or intercessors between him and other believers. The
Letters of the Living were "precursors," not only in the literal sense of their
being the first believers in the Báb, but more importantly in their
having been the first of
[page 105]
mankind to respond to God's pre-eternal covenant in the "world of the first
atom," that is, before the creation of the
world.
[63] Shi'i tradition
identifies these
sábiqún with Muhammad and the
Imáms (and often
Fatima),
[64] and in his later
works the Báb describes the Letters of the Living explicitly as the
return of the Prophet, the twelve Imáms, the four gates
(
abwáb)
who succeeded the Twelfth Imám (later
rejected in Bahá'í theory), and
Fatima.
[65]
The question of the status of the Letters of the Living became a crucial one
for early Babism and produced considerable controversy. In 1848, the central
Bábí community of Karbala in Iraq was split down the middle by a
fierce argument between two factions centered on the persons of Qurratu'l-'Ayn
Tahirih and Mullá Ahmad Khurasani
respectively.
[66] Khurasani's
supporters objected particularly to the status accorded Mullá Husayn
Bushru'i and the Letters of the Living in general. Their opponents defended
their position largely by extensive quotations from the Báb's writings,
in which the
Huruf-i-Hayy were
extolled.
[67] The details of
this highly interesting but little-known debate cannot be entered into here: it
is enough for our purpose to note that the pro-
sábiqún
faction, with its emphasis on hierarchy and obedience to charismatic
authority, succeeded in forcing its opponents into the background, not only in
Karbala, but throughout Iran as well.
As time went on, not only the original Letters of the Living, but later
converts also were accorded exalted stations by the Báb. As his own
claims became more elevated, those given to his followers rose accordingly.
This development is not easy to trace with any precision, but fortunately that
is not essential for our present course of inquiry. According to Muhammad
'Alí Zunúzi, when the Báb abandoned the rank of
Bábiyya to take that of
dhikru'lláh (which on
Dahájí's reckoning would have been in the second year of his
career), he gave the title of
báb to his earliest convert,
Mullá Muhammad Husayn
Bushru'i,
[68] who
[page 106]
had already been identified by him as the return to earth of the prophet
Muhammad. This transfer of station is corroborated by the earliest
Bábí history, the
Nuqtatu'l-káf
.
[69] The latter
work also refers with what degree of accuracy it is difficult to establish
to other shifts of status ascription between individual members of the
Bábí hierarchy. Thus, the station of
Bábiyya was
passed on Bushru'i's death to his brother Muhammad Hasan, also a Letter of the
Living;
[70] at Badasht,
Mullá Muhammad 'Alí Barfuru'shi, Quddus, claimed to be the return
of the prophet Muhammad, adducing in evidence of this his ability to produce
verses, prayers, and
homilies;
[71] later, at the
shrine of Shaykh Tabarsi, Quddus is said to have referred to Bushru'i
(originally understood to be the return of Muhammad) as the Imám
Husayn.
[72] More
controversially, the
Nuqtatu'l-káf maintains that when, in the
year 5, the Báb laid claim to the rank of Qá'im, "the Point of
Qá'imiyya manifested itself in the temple of his holiness the
Remembrance [i.e., the Bib], who became the heaven of the (Primal) Will
(
samá'-i mashi'ati)
, while the earth of illumination and
volition (
ardi-i ishráq wa iráda)
was his holiness
Azal (i.e., Mírzá Yahyá Nuri,
Subh-i-Azal)."
[73] In
apparent but not, as will be shown, necessarily real contradiction to
this, the same source elsewhere maintains that Quddus was himself the
Qá'im and 'Alí Muhammad his
báb,[74]
the former having advanced his claims in the fourth year after the period
during which the latter had summoned men to
God.
[75] Quddus, it is said,
made his claims independently and became the heaven of will, with the
Báb the earth of
volition.
[76] Similarly,
Quddus is described as "the origin of the point" (
asl-i nuqta)
,
'Alí Muhammad again being his
báb. And, more
confusingly, it is stated that the Báb and Quddus were both the
Qá'im, in the same way that the Shi'i Imáms may all be referred
to by this title.
[77]
Lest these statements seem wholly idiosyncratic and be attributed
[page 107]
to the unreliability of the
Nuqtatu'l-káf as a source (or indeed,
be adduced as evidence of that work's unreliability), it will be worthwhile to
note that there is independent corroboration of the fact that Quddus was
regarded by some at least as the Qá'im (either independently of the
Báb or in tandem with him and/or Mullá Husayn Bushru'i) and that
he himself advanced claims of a messianic and theophanic nature. An important
early history of the Shaykh Tabarsi siege, the
Waqáyi'-i mimiyya
(Events of the letter
mím)
, consistently refers to
Quddus as "the Qá'im of
Jílán"
[78] and
cites a sermon by Mullá Husayn in which he refers to Quddus as "the one
whose advent you have awaited for one thousand two hundred and sixty [sic]
years,"
[79] a claim the
latter is said to have advanced in his own
behalf.
[80] Another early
account of the events at Shaykh Tabarsi, Lutf 'Alí Mírzá
Shirází's untitled history, notes, for example, that the
Bábís at the shrine regarded Quddus as the point towards which
prayers were to be directed and turned to him when they performed their
devotions.
[81]
The
Nuqtatu'l-káf (and, following it, the later
Bahá'í
Táríkh-i Jadíd)
applies
a number of Shi'i traditions to Quddus in connection with his identification as
Qá'im. Among these are 'Alí's reference to events between the
months Jumada and Rajab,
[82]
and the prophecy that the Qá'im would be killed by a bearded Jewish
woman named Sa'ida (who is identified with Quddus's executioner, the
Sa'ídu'l-'Ulamá'
Bárfurúshí)
[83]
The early attribution of this latter prophecy to Quddus and
Sa'idu'l-'Ulamá' is confirmed by its use in the same context in the
Waqáyi'-i
mimiyya.[84] Even a much
later Bahá'í history, the
Táríkh-i Nabil,
relates Quddus's arrival at the shrine of Shaykh Tabarsi to a well-known
tradition concerning the Qá'im's arrival in Mecca and his leaning his
back against the Ka'ba,
[85]
(a tradition which is not, curiously enough, related by Nabil or other
Bahá'í writers, as far as I know, to the Báb's pilgrimage
to Mecca in
[page 108]
1844-5), while the number of Bábí participants in the
Mazandaran conflict is given as exactly 313, the number of the companions of
the Qá'im.
[86]
Apart from Quddus, of course, other members of the Bábí
hierarchy continued to be accorded important positions, including even that of
Qá'imiyya. Mullá Husayn, as we have seen, was referred to
by Quddus as the Imám Husayn, an identification supported by
Nabil,
[87] but is also
described throughout the
Waqayi'-i mimiyya as the "Qá'im of
Khurasan, "
[88] a messianic
role much enhanced in several accounts by his bearing of a black banner from
Mashhad.
[89] The Báb
himself made it quite explicit that not only had the Prophet, the Imáms,
and the
na
wwáb (
abwáb)
returned to
earth in the persons of the Letters of the Living, but other prophets and
saints had reappeared in other of his followers: "The first to swear allegiance
to me was Muhammad the Prophet of God, then 'Alí, then those who were
witnesses after him [i.e., the next eleven Imáms], then the Gates of
Guidance, then those to whom God had accorded such grace of the prophets and
holy ones and witnesses and those who believed in God and his
verses."
[90] This same view
is expressed in a letter written by Mullá Shaykh 'Alí Turshizi,
'Azím (to whom the letter from which the above quotation is taken was
addressed): "The Letters of the Living are true and are the tombs in which they
[Muhammad, the Imáms, and the four Bábs] have returned (
hum
maráqid rujú'ihim)
, and certain of the believers are
the tombs of some of the prophets and saints and witnesses and holy ones; all
have returned to the first
life."
[91] In the course of
the Shaykh Tabarsi struggle, Quddus is said to have written a number of letters
addressed to his followers in which he identified each one of them with a
prophet or saint of the past. One of them, for example, is described as the
return of Shaykh Ahmad ibn Abi Talib Tabarsi, the saint buried at the shrine
itself.
[92] Similarly,
Zawára'í refers to the 313 companions
[page 109]
of Quddús as
nuqabá',
[93]
evidently a reference to the "directors" who were expected to return with the
Qá'im.
[94]
LATER CLAIMS OF DIVINITY
Nor was the extension of hierarchical status limited to the identification of
individuals as the "return" (
raj'a)
of a particular holy figure
of the past. In the last years of his career, the Báb bestowed on large
numbers of his followers individual names of God numerologically equivalent to
their original names. Thus, Mullá Muhammad 'Alí Barfuru'shi was
called "Quddus," Shaykh 'Alí Turshizi was "Azím," Sayyid
Yahyá Dárábí and Mírzá Yahyá
Núri both "Wahid" (the former being known as "Wahid-i A'zam," the
"greater unity," the latter also being named "Azal"), Mírzá
Asadu'lláh Khu'i "Dayyán," Mullá Rajab 'Alí
Isfahani "Qahir," and so
on.
[95] Each such individual
seems in some sense to have been understood as a manifestation of the
particular attribute of God indicated by his name. It is in this sense, but
with possibly wider implications, that Muhammad 'Alí
Bárfurúshí, Quddus, was called by the Báb "the last
name of
God"(
ismu'lláh'l-akhir).
[96]
Beyond this, certain individuals were seen as manifestations of the divinity
in a broader and more explicit sense. One of the most compelling examples of
this is the following statement of the Báb concerning Mullá
Husayn Bushru'i: "And make mention of the first to believe, for if you should
travel upon the Sea of Names, you will behold him to be the Primal Will, and if
you should travel on the Sea of the first creation, you will behold the one who
was the first to believe in him; and know that he has ever been and always will
be alive. Whoever possesses might in the Bayán has become powerful
through him, and whoever possesses knowledge in the Bayán has become
knowledgeable through
him...."
[97]
[page 110]
In an interesting passage of his "Lawh-i Siraj", Mírzá
Husayn 'Alí Nuri, Bahá'u'lláh, quotes in part and
paraphrases in part words of the Báb concerning Haji Sayyid Javad
Karbala'i, in which he describes the latter as "the primal Mirror which has
from all eternity reflected and will for all eternity reflect God," as "the
Primal Cause" (
'illat-i awwaliyya)
, and as "a prophet unto all
the worlds." Bahá'u'lláh himself comments on the reference to
Sayyid Javad as the Primal Cause, saying that "this station is above all names,
be they of the Essence of God (
dhátu'lláh)
, or the
Reality of God (
kaynú-natu'lláh)
, or the
Remembrance of God (
dhikru'lláh)
, or the Mirror of God
(
mir'átu'lláh)
, for previously anyone who
attributed such a station to the Prophet of God would have been declared an
unbeliever, inasmuch as men believed the Primal Cause to be God
Himself."
[99]
As in the case of claims of
qá'imiyya, it seem to have been
Muhammad 'Alí Barfuru'shi, Quddus, who was the Báb's chief rival
in respect of claims to some form of divinity. Abbas Effendi,
'Abdu'l-Bahá, maintains that Quddus's commentary on the letter
sád of the word
al-samad (Qur'an 112:2) which he
"revealed" (
názil farmúdand)
at Shaykh Tabarsi, was
"from beginning to end . . . (filled with the words) "Verily, I am
God."
[100] There certainly
appears to be confirmatory evidence that, in the course of the Shaykh Tabarsi
siege, Quddus did, in fact, make claims of this kind. Zawára'í
refers to him as a "place of God's manifestation" (
mazhar-i
khudli)
[101] while a
Bábí apostate who encountered him in Bárfurúsh
after the end of the siege is said to have rebuked him with the words: "You
claimed . . . that your voice was the voice of
God."
[102] Quddus's own
claims to divine status for himself are reinforced by many of the Báb's
statements about him. In a Tablet of visitation (
ziarat)
written
at some point after Quddus's death in 1849, the Báb writes:
"from all eternity you have existed in the exaltation of holiness and majesty,
and unto all eternity you shall exist in the exaltation
[page 111]
of holiness and majesty. You are the one who is manifested through the
manifestation of your Lord (
anta 'l-záhir bi-zuhúri
rabbika)
and the one who is concealed through the concealment of
your Lord. In the beginning when there was no beginning but you, and in the end
when there will be no end save you; you ascended through all creation to a
horizon unto which none preceded
you."
[103] In a section of
the
Kitáb-i Panj sha'n written for Mullá Shaykh Ali
Turshizi, the Báb explicitly declares that "the last name of God has
shone forth and flashed and gleamed and become manifest; well is it with him
who sees in him nothing but
God."
[104]
Within the context of such statements, it may be possible to suggest a fresh
dimension to our understanding of the events which occurred at the
Bábí assembly at Badasht in 1848, which is generally associated
with the abrogation of the Islamic laws (
shari'a)
, the
proclamation of the inauguration of a new age of inner truth (though not, I am
inclined to think, at this stage the implementation of a Bábí
shari'a)
, and the announcement of the imminent appearance of the
Qá'im. (A secondary objective of the meeting was to draw up plans for
the release of the Báb from prison in Azerbaijan.) In what is in some
respects a curious letter, Abdu'l-Bahá states that "many have manifested
divinity (
ullihiyyat)
and lordship (
rububiyyat)
. .
. . At Badasht, her excellency Tahirih raised to the highest heaven the cry of
"Verily, I am God," as did many of the friends at
Badasht."
[105] Brief as it is
and lacking in direct evidence, this theologically uncharacteristic statement
is nonetheless extremely suggestive and may prove an important starting point
for fresh inquiries into the significance of the Badasht gathering. It may well
be the case, for example, that the recorded divisions between the participants
in the meeting, in particular that between Qurratu'l-'Ayn and Quddús,
relate in some way to the advancement of competing claims of this kind.
Certainly a number of Bábí texts of the post-Badasht period
[page 112]
contain what would only a few years previously have been regarded as
pure blasphemy. Some of the Báb's later writings, including numerous
sections of the
Kitáb-i Panj sha'n, contain exordia such as "this
is a letter from God, the Protector, the Self-subsisting, to God, the
Protector, the
Self-Subsisting,"
[106] or
'this is a letter from God to him whom God shall
manifest."
[107] Even more
direct is the following passage from a letter of the Báb to Mullá
Ibráhim Qazvini, Rahim: "Ali before Nabil [i.e., 'Alí Muhammad,
the Báb] is the Self of God (
nafsu'lláh)
. . . and
the name of Al-Azal, al-Wahid [i.e., Mírzá Yahyá Nuri,
Subh-i Azal] is the Essence of God
(
dhátu'lláh)."
[108]
In a letter also written to Qazvini after the Báb's death, the latter's
former amanuensis, Sayyid Husayn Yazdi, declares "were it not for the existence
of God in my beloved, the Eternal, the Ancient (
al-azal al-aqdam)
[i.e., Qazvini],
[109] I
should not have addressed these words to you, my beloved," and goes on to refer
to the Báb's death as "the disappearance of God"
(
ghaybatu'lláh)
and "the ascension of God"
(
su'údu'lláh)."
[110]
I am of necessity selecting passages in order to get across a rather neglected
point, and I would not wish to suggest that I have exhausted the possibilities
of late Bábí theophanic doctrine or that I have necessarily
offered the most reliable picture of it. What I wish to do is to lay a basis
for the study of subsequent developments by showing that there was general
acceptance in the Bábí community of widespread claims to
theophanic status and authority and that no very systematic or consistent
doctrine had been either developed or promulgated to resolve the issues such
claims inevitably brought to the surface. It is, I think, important to do this
in order to balance somewhat the view put forward by the Bahá'í
writer Balyuzi and others to the effect that the doctrines contained in the
Nuqtatu'l-káf are merely "a reflection of the anarchy of the
darkest days of the Bábí Faith" and that early Bábí
leaders such as Darabi, Zanjani, Mullá Husayn, Quddús, and
Qurratu'l-'Ayn could not possibly have held such
opinions.
[111]
[page 113]
I am willing to accept the view that the doctrinal situation following the
death of the Báb and the core of the Bábí leadership was
confused. But I think I have shown that the roots of later speculation lay
incontrovertibly in theories and events close to the heart of the
Bábí movement throughout its most coherent period. The notion of
a united, doctrinally unobjectionable "Bábí Faith" is merely a
reflection of the retrospective systematizing tendencies of modern
Bahá'ís.
THE BABI HIERARCHICAL SYSTEM
Of paramount importance for our understanding of subsequent events, among
which the Bahá'í/Azali split is the most significant, is the
hierarchical system of "mirrors" (
mir'at)
, "glasses"
(
bulúriyát)
, "guides" (
adillá')
,
and "witnesses" (
shuhadá')
developed by the Báb
in his later writings. This is not, in the strict sense, an organized system of
hierarchical grades since the terms involved are, to a large degree, mutually
interchangeable and imprecisely used in the texts. Nevertheless, hierarchy is
certainly involved in the concept, and there are indications that definite
roles were envisaged for individuals exercising the functions associated with
the titles. In this respect, Bábí doctrine offers a clear
continuation of the Shi'i theory of
Hujiyya, which is extended, not only
to the prophet and the Imáms or their equivalents, but to other grades
of a loose hierarchy as well.
In discussing the meaning of the term
nujabá', applied to the
saints who will accompany the Qá'im on his return, Shaykh Ahmad
al-Ahsá'í refers to variants on the well-known Súfí
hierarchy which includes, according to one version, a single "pole"
(
qutb)
, four "pillars" (
arkán)
, forty
"replacements" (
abdal)
, seventy "nobles"
(
nuwubá)
, and three hundred and sixty "righteous"
(
salihún)
[112]
Such an arrangement, al-Ahsá'í says, is not to be found in
the works of Shi'i tradition, except for a
[page 114]
statement by the Imám 'Alí ibn al-Husayn referring to "the
recognition of the meanings (
al-ma'ání)
in the
second, the recognition of the gates (
al-abwáb)
in the
third, the recognition of the Imám in the fourth, the recognition of the
pillars (
al-arkán)
in the fifth, the recognition of the
directors (
al-nuqabá')
in the sixth, and the recognition
of the nobles (
al-nuwuba')
in the
seventh."
[113] The first four
of these (
al-tawhid)
[in a common variant,
al-bayan]
,
al-ma'áni, al-abwáb, and
al-imáma)
are
generally regarded as referring to the Imáms: as the stations
(
al-maqámát)
in which God is known to men; as the
"meanings" of God's acts; as his knowledge, power, wisdom, and so forth; as the
"gates of God"; and as Imáms in the visible
realm.
[114] In
Al-Ahsá'í's opinion, the four
arkán are equivalent
to the four
nuwwúb of the Twelfth Imám, the
nujabá' (whom he equates with the
abdal)
are the
first ranks of the righteous in Shi'i Islam (
khiyár al-shi'a),
and the
nujabá' are the second rank of
these.
[115]
This hierarchical grading is linked by al-Ahsá'í to the degree
of spiritual knowledge available to each of its ranks. The
nuqabá'
(or
khasísún, "special ones"), for example, can know
the Imáms in their highest stations of
máqámát,
ma'áni, and
abwáb; whereas the
nujabá'
are capable only of knowing them in the rank of
imáma.[116]
From a different angle, it is said that the believers receive their
knowledge of God from the prophets, who in turn receive theirs from Muhammad
and the Imáms, who are the first beings to whom God made himself known
a process which is compared to that of a series of mirrors reflecting the
same original image in descending degrees (an analogy of importance in the
present context).
[117]
Implicit in this hierarchical system is the notion of intermediacy. The
Imáms are, in the first place, the primary intermediaries between men
and God, being the "gates" or "paths" that link the creation with the
Creator.
[118] There must, at
the same
[page 115]
time, be further intermediaries between the Imáms and the
believers in general, since not all the latter possess the same capacity.
Al-Ahsá'í speaks of these latter intermediaries in the context of
a much-commented quranic verse: "And we appointed, between them and the towns
we blessed, manifest towns, and we measured the journey between them. Travel in
them by night and by day securely." (34:18) According to a tradition related
from the Imám Báqir, the "towns we blessed" are the Imáms,
while the "manifest towns" (
quran záhira)
are the
messengers and transmitters from the Imáms to the believers
(
shi'a)
and the scholars
(
fuqahá')
[119]
of Shi'i Islam.
[120]
The Bábí leader Qurratu'l-Ayn Tahirih also makes use of this
quranic verse, referring to an alternative interpretation which identifies the
"manifestations" with Shi'is in general and the four "gates
(
abwáb)
in
particular.
[121] She makes
this identification in the course of a broader account of the continuing
process of divine guidance through the ages, according to which God has sent a
mazhar and
zuhúr in every age and period. Thus prophets
were dispatched until the coming of Muhammad (who is, of course, their seal).
After Muhammad, men were tested through the Imáms until the
disappearance of the last of them, after which the "gates" were appointed so
that humanity should not be left without guidance. Following the "gates", pious
ulamá guided the
Shi'is
[122] until the
appearance of wicked scholars who made exalted claims for themselves and
corrupted the faith. Since, however, the Hidden Imám wished to
distinguish the good from the wicked, he chose a perfect man to whom he taught
his inner knowledge and whom he preserved from sin and
error.
[123] Although she does
not give his name, it is clear from subsequent references that Qurratu'l-'Ayn
is here referring to Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsá'í. On his death, she
says, God appointed Sayyid Kazim Rashti to be the sign
(
al-áya)
and proof (
al-hujja)
on behalf of
the Imám to all men. After Rashti,
[page 116]
'Alí Muhammad Shirází was made the
Báb
and
hujja.[124]
The Báb himself, she concludes, will be followed in his turn by the open
appearance of the Imám in
person.
[125]
In another treatise, Qurratu'l-'Ayn links the concept of the "manifest towns"
to the Shaykhi theory of the "fourth support" (
al-rukn
al-rábi')
. This later theory is fairly complex, and I do not
propose to discuss it in detail here. Suffice it to say that, where traditional
Shi'i theology speaks of five "bases" (
usul)
of religion (i.e.,
the oneness of God, prophethood, resurrection, the justice of God, and
Imámate), Shaykhi doctrine reduces these to three: knowledge of God,
prophethood, and Imámate. Added to these is a "fourth support," which is
knowledge of the "friends" (
awliya')
of the Imáms, a term
which includes the
nuqaba' and
nujabai', together with
mujtahids and the ulamá in
general.
[126] In the course
of a defense of the concept of four supports, Qurratu'l-'Ayn states that the
"fourth support" may be identified with the "manifest
towns."
[127] She further
argues that the meaning of the messenger (
rasúl)
in every
age is the "bearer of the hidden sign," a branch of the tree that gives the
fruit of true knowledge. This fruit is renewed in every age in order to put men
to the test. This bearer of God's hidden knowledge is revealed at whatever time
the will of God deems it
proper.
[128] In this age, she
says, God has revealed the "fourth support" and sent a messenger
(
rasul)
, who is the remembrance of the Imám in other
words, the Báb. This individual she then identifies as "the manifest
town,"
[129] later describing
him as the "special
shi'a (
shi'ay-i khasís . . .
az
máqám-i ikhtisás)
and one of the
nuqaba'
or (echoing al-Ahsá'í) "special
Shi'a."
[130] She also defends
the Báb's use of the words "I am he who manifested himself to Moses on
Sinai" (
man-am mutajalliy-i Músá dar Túr)
by
referring to a well-known Shi'i tradition to the effect that the one who
appeared to Moses was a man from behind the throne of God, one of the
shi'a
of the Imáms.
[131]
More widely, she states that, in this age, the
nuqaba' are shining forth
from the glory of
[page 117]
the Imáms,
[132]
probably a reference to the Letters of the Living or other members of the
Bábí
hierarchy.
[133] The
Báb himself makes use of the sevenfold concept of
tahid,
ma'áni, abwáb, Imáma, arkan, nuqaba', and
nujaba'.
Although he does not identify them with any specific individuals, he does
indicate that these last two groups exist on earth and go unrecognized by
men.
[134] He does, however,
identify the Letters of the Living as the "manifest
towns,"
[135] an
identification also made by Qurratu'l-Ayn in a commentary on one of the
Báb's letters.
[136]
Qurratu'l-Ayn significantly precedes her own reference to the
sábiqún as the "manifest towns" by describing them as "the
paths and gates of the Remembrance" (
subul al-dhikr wa
abwábuhu),
[137]
epithets which draw attention to the role of the
sábiqún
as intermediaries between the primary manifestation of the Will and the
rest of mankind.
Curiously enough, the Báb makes little use of the terms
nuqabá' and
nujaba', preferring instead to employ the
terms already mentioned (
maráyá' adillá', and
shuhadá')
. In the
Panj sha'n, however, there occurs
an important reference to the
nuqabá' and
nujabá';
in the context of an explanation of the Báb's theory of secondary
mirrors. We have already noted that he often refers to the place of
manifestation of the Will as a mirror, in which the sun of God (or of the Will)
may be seen.
[138] But this
original mirror, as the representative of the hidden Essence, marks only the
inception of a descending hierarchy, the grades of which are themselves
described as mirrors reflecting it in a manner identical to that outlined by
al-Ahsá'í in his account of the hierarchy of
knowledge.
[139] "If," says
the Báb, "unnumbered mirrors were to be placed before him [i.e., the
mazhar]
and he were to decree prophethood [for them], they would
be prophets (
rasul)
; and if unnumbered mirrors were to stand in
front of them and he were to decree guardianship [for them], they would be
guardians (
awliya')
; and if unnumbered mirrors were to stand
before them and he were to decree directorship, they
[page 118]
would be directors (
naqíb)
; and if unnumbered
mirrors were to stand before them and he were to decree nobility, they would be
nobles (
najíb)
; and likewise for every goodly
name."
[140]
This sequence of primary, secondary, tertiary, and other mirrors is, according
to the Báb, an actual characteristic of every revelationary cycle, not
only in the lifetime of the prophet (who is the primary mirror) but throughout
the subsequent period, leading up to the reappearance of the Primal Will in
another prophet. "Consider," he says, "the revelation of the prophet Muhammad,
how many mirrors appeared up until the time when God manifested the Point of
the Bayán. . . . Similarly, behold in the Bayán, from the first
moment that God sent it down upon the Primal Point until the time of the next
resurrection, wherein God shall manifest him whom God shall manifest. . . all
the pure glasses that have appeared, all the untouchable mirrors that have
reflected..."
[141] In a
lengthier passage, he describes the relationship between the primary and the
other mirrors: God, he says, "has singled out from his creation a mirror
indicating his firstness and his lastness, his appearance and his concealment,
and has established it as his Will, inasmuch as it has only wished for that
which he has wished. . . . In this mirror there is seen nothing but his most
holy essence. . . . This mirror has appeared from the beginning that has no
beginning in every revelation (
zuhúr)
with a (different)
name, and in every period of concealment (
butún)
it has
manifested itself on (different) thrones.
"
[142] Although they are
innumerable, these mirrors are but a single mirror in which God alone can be
seen.
[143] All other mirrors
exist in the shadow of this single mirror and are all manifestations
(
tajalliyyát)
of
it.
[144] This, however,
raises the question of how there can be a multiplicity of mirrors in any one
dispensation to which the Báb replies that in each revelation the
"speaker" (
nátiq, the primary manifestation of the divine
Will),
[145] which is a mirror
showing the "manifest exaltation" of the
zuhúr, summons men
[page 119]
to the revelation, while all the secondary mirrors to be illumined in that
zuhúr summon others to the primary
mirror.
[146] God, indeed,
wishes to see innumerable secondary mirrors placed beneath the shadow of the
first, all of them remaining entirely dependent on
it.
[147]
This hierarchical principle is precisely observed in the Bábí
dispensation. God, says the Báb, created him and made him the mirror of
his self, after which unlimited secondary mirrors were created from him. Out of
these latter, God again selected a single mirror to be a mirror for himself,
causing it to speak on his behalf and to act as a locus
(
maqám)
for his revelation and concealment. From this
secondary mirror in turn other mirrors are to be brought into existence, all of
them calling men to God, informing them about him and guiding them to
him.
[148] This sequence is
described in detail in a subsequent passage:
God, praised be he, has singled out in this revelation an untouchable mirror
and an exalted glass in which the sun of reality is reflected, upon which the
point of divinity has shone, and in which the real being of eternity is
displayed. . . . This mirror shall be reflected in (another) mirror, which
mirror shall be reflected in (another) mirror, which mirror shall be reflected
in (another) mirror, which mirror shall be reflected in (another) mirror. Even
were it to make mention (of these mirrors) to the end that has no end, the
accounting of my heart would not be free of those shining reflections, those
ascending manifestations. But until now only that (original) mirror has
appeared with pure innate capacity (
fitra mahda)
."
[149]
This series of reflecting mirrors parallels and is in some ways closely linked
to the better-known hierarchical system of Babism composed of "letters"
(
huruf)
, "unities" (
wahid)
, and "all things"
(
kullu shay')
. Together with the Báb himself, the eighteen
"Letters of the Living" formed the "first unity" (
al-wahíd
al-awwal)
[150] of
the Bayán. It seems to have been the
[page 120]
Báb's intention to establish a complete and identifiable
hierarchy based on the multiplication of "unities" (
wáhid)
,
beginning with the Letters of the Living. According to Nabil, the
Báb instructed his first disciples to record the names of those whom
they converted, lists of which were to be forwarded to him via his uncle in
Shiraz. These lists were to be classified by the Báb into "eighteen sets
of nineteen names each," each set constituting a single "unity" and the total,
together with the first "unity" coming to 361, the number of "all things"
(i.e., the numerical equivalent of the phrase
kullu
shay')
.[151]
Although the Báb's later writings continue to contain complex
references to this overall concept, there is no evidence that his original
object was ever attained or that the classification of "unities" proceeded as
planned. Nevertheless, there are references to a "second unity" (
al-wahid
al-tháni)
, which included the Bábí leader
Sayyid Yahyá Darabi,
Vahid,
[152] and to "unities"
other than the first,
[153]
and it seems likely that the Báb retained hopes of ultimately organizing
his followers according to this scheme.
A related but more complex concept, which I cannot claim to understand or be
able to explain fully at this point, is that of mirrors reflecting the letters
of the unities or the unities in general. This idea is expressed simply (but
unfortunately without any reference) by the Bahá'í writer
Ishráq-Khavari, who states that the Báb "established eighteen
mirrors beneath the shadow of each of the Letters of the Living, in order that
they might form the number of
wahíd (19) together with the
Letters of the Living."
[154]
This seems to be related to the progressive development of the Báb's
claims, as he himself indicates in the
Panj sha'n: "I revealed myself in
the gates for four years, and it is necessary that a mirror be found for each
letter, that it may be a place of manifestation (
mazhar)
for
those letters.
[155] This
sense of progression is emphasized in the following passage:
[page 121]
"You revealed me in the name of your gates for that number [i.e., the number
of years corresponding to them], 4; wherefore, create, O my God, for each unity
an untouchable mirror that may reflect your essence, and an exalted glass that
may guide (men) to your oneness. Then you removed the honor of that garment and
raised me up from that inaccessible horizon and revealed me in the guides to
your guardianship (
fi adillá' wiláyatika)
and the
names of your unity. Wherefore, create 0 my God, in each year for each unity an
untouchable mirror and an exalted glass that will reflect from my self in all
the grades of your power and the manifestations of your
glory,"
[156]
Or again:
"I bear witness that God manifested me in the gates for the number of [the
letter]
dál [i.e., 4], in which we remained speaking; and since
my self has recognized all things, it is necessary that that mirror be
reflected by (another) mirror. . . , indeed it is necessary that there be found
in each year a mirror for each manifestation of the guides of the unity
(
adillá
al-wáhid)
."
[157]
What this appears to mean is that the Báb hoped a fresh mirror would be
found to reflect each of the original Letters of the Living every year, in this
way creating new unities, leading ultimately to the creation of one or more
kullu shay'. It would, however, take a total of three hundred and
sixty-one years to reach the first
kullu shay' in this way. If, on the
other hand, we think of an exponential progression, with each new unity
generating subsidiary unities every year, numerous
kullu shay' would
rapidly come into being.
Possibly related to the above concept is that of the regular appearance
throughout the Bábí dispensation of temples (
haykals)
,
apparently manifestations of each of the members of the first unity:
"Nurture, 0 God, the tree of the Bayán until the
[page 122]
day of him you will manifest; and cause to appear, 0 God, at the
beginning of every (period of) sixty-six years a temple belonging to the
temples of the unity, that they may raise up your paths in the Bayán
[i.e., promulgate the Bábí laws] and take hold of what you
decreed from your horizons in the Bayán until the day your heaven, your
earth, and all that is between them shall be illumined by the appearance of him
whom you will manifest "
[158]
The significance of this is somewhat clearer than that of the foregoing. In the
course of his lengthy and complex discussion of the significance of "temples"
in the last sections of the
Panj
sha'n,[159] the
Báb says that every sixty-six years of the qur'anic era passed about one
letter of the first
"unity".
[160] Significantly,
the Báb compares the first temple (the locus of the Primal Will) and the
eighteen temples beneath it to the sun and the mirrors reflecting
it.
[161] It is unclear what
the relationship between the two ideas must be, but in the
Haykal al-din
(Temple of religion), the Báb orders the renewal of all books every
sixty-six years.
[162] Perhaps
the idea is that fresh knowledge will be revealed every sixty-six years and
that, therefore, all previous books will become worthless.
It is far from clear to what extent the Báb wished to formalize this
system. Many of the references to
adillá' ,
shuhadá',
and
maráyá seem quite general and open-ended. At the
same time, there are hints that some sort of organization was to be introduced.
In the Arabic Bayán and the
Haykal al-din, for example, the
Báb describes the division of the spoils of war to various groups,
including "the first letters" (
al-hurúf úlá)
and "the witnesses" (
al-shuhadá').
[163] In the Persian and
Arabic Bayáns the Báb lays down general rules for the
distribution of tax revenue to the members of the unities, as well as the
descendants of the Letters of the
Living.
[164] In one place, he
instructs future Bábí kings to select twenty-five individuals
from the ulamá who are "horizons of the letters" (
matáli'
al-hurúf)
to teach the
people.
[165]
[page 123]
LONG-TERM ESCHATOLOGICAL EXPECTATIONS
Whether organized or not, the concept of guides and witnesses is closely
linked to the Báb's anticipation of the eschatological events related to
the appearance of the next locus of the Primal Will, generally referred to in
his writings as "he whom God shall manifest" (
man
yuzhiruhu'lláh)
. The Báb expected his laws and
teachings to be preserved and promulgated in the long term by a succession of
guides who would eventually lead men to the recognition of the next prophet. It
is, as we have noted previously, a basic Shi'i principle that there must always
be a divine proof (
hujja)
for creation. The Báb himself
emphasizes this doctrine in a highly important passage of the
Panj sha'n,
which I shall quote almost in full:
Know that [it is the case in each manifestation (
zuhúr)
that, until the creation of that manifestation has reached the limits of
perfection, the divine Will and eternal Volition of the Living One will not
return to men. From the beginning of each manifestation to the day of the next
manifestation, all the guides that appear always have affirmed and always will
affirm the acceptance of that revelation; and they have been and will be the
ornaments embellishing that period of concealment [
butún; i.e.,
between revelations]. They are all mirrors reflecting the sun of oneness
belonging to that manifestation and shining glasses displaying the Countenance
of that concealment.
And know that there has always been and always will be a proof on the part of
the God unto his creation, for all things exist through the Will of God;
indeed, it cannot be imagined that there should at any time be a thing and the
proof for it on the part of God not be complete. . . . Just as the Living One
has always existed, so there has ever been established the existence of the
throne of reality among created beings. Throughout eternity his station has
always existed, except that in the day of resurrection (
yawm-i
qiyámat)
he
[page 124]
is manifest and shining above the horizon (
mashriq)
, while
in the days of his setting (
ghurúb)
he is knowing and
hidden.
Yet during the period of his concealment, there have been and shall
be guides to his cause in each manifestation who have preserved and shall
preserve his religion. And there have been and shall be witnesses to creation
on his part. These are the lights of guidance in the night of nights, through
whom all (others) are
guided.
[166]
Referring to the questions of how long a period will elapse between his
revelation and that of him whom God shall manifest, the Báb states that,
in every manifestation God chooses for the locus of manifestation guides,
witnesses, preservers (
huffáz)
, and forerunners
(
ruwwád)
[167]
who preserve God's laws from manifestation to manifestation and summon men to
God from concealment to
concealment.
[168] It is men's
duty to recognize the "throne of revelation" in each manifestation and cling,
in each concealment, "to the guides of the one veiled in that
manifestation."
[169]
It is clear that this principle is also to obtain in the period between the
manifestation of the Báb and that of him whom God shall manifest. "In
the days of God," the Báb writes, "every glass that rises up will be a
guide to him whom God shall manifest and all shall reflect
him."
[170] "While the sun is
shining [i.e., while the Báb still lives], let you all obtain
illumination from its light. But after that, he who
recites
[171] the verses of
God in their true nature (
bi-fitratihá)
, may you obtain
illumination from their [the verses] light. And if after that there should
shine forth one like him, then you shall be guided by one like him and shall
shine with the light of God, until such time as the unity is complete,
whereupon the affair shall return to
God."
[172]
This last passage seems to be made even clearer in the following lines from a
letter of the Báb's to Mírzá Ibráhim Qazvini, to
whom he writes: "The cause shall reach the Name
al-Wahid
[page 125]
[i.e., Mírzá Yahyá Subh-i Azal], for his appearance in
himself is a proof; and after him, should God reveal one like him possessed of
proof, it [the cause] shall reach him; otherwise the cause is in the hands of
the witnesses in the Bayán, until the day of him whom God shall manifest
in the next
resurrection."
[173] It seems
evident, then, that the Báb anticipated some form of continuing
hujjiyya, mediated at first through single individuals and then, if
necessary, through the "witnesses" in general. That this was so is emphasized
by his statement to the effect that "the creation shall be in the night of
nights just as it was after Muhammad, until you [God] show beneficence towards
them through the manifestation of your self in the day of
resurrection."
[174]
A crucial question, of course, was that of how long the period of concealment
between the Báb's death and the appearance of him whom God shall
manifest would be. Although it cannot be proved, I am of the opinion that this
did not actually become an issue until the mid-1860s, when conflicting Azali
and Bahá'í claims about the length or brevity of this period
raised it to a central position in the debate between these two factions. The
Báb's own writings, as we have seen, imply an interval similar to that
between any two previous prophets. The reference to temples appearing every
sixty-six years would seem to preclude any manifestation before at least one
such period. More telling are the numerous passages that anticipate the
appearance of Bábí
kings,
[175] ministers,
governors, and
ulamá;
[176] or the
conquest of the entire earth by the
Bábís;
[177] or
the general application of Bábí laws, including that of
pilgrimage; or the construction of mosques and tombs; or the levying of taxes;
or the regulation of trade all of which necessitate the existence of a
developed and stable Bábí state.
Indeed, some of the Báb's laws, such as the regulations that books must
be renewed every 66 or 202
years
[178] or that furniture
must be replaced every 19
years,
[179] of themselves
imply a long-term outlook on his part. But perhaps the clearest indication
[page 126]
of the minimum time-scale anticipated by the Báb is to be found
in a passage of the
Haykal al-din which, in spite of its obscurities, is
quite explicit as to the number of years involved.
If he [God] wished, he could decree more than a "unity"; and if he desires he
is capable [of revealing] until the day of resurrection thrones of the living
(
a'rásh hayy, [sic]); and if he wishes he will command you (to
obey/follow?) one whose knowledge encompasses the laws of the Bayán
after the sun has set. After six hundred and sixty-two years have elapsed of
the Bayán, present yourselves before your ruler (
malikikum, God?)
every eleven years (?,
fi ihá'ashar sana, [sic]), then praise
[him?], that you may thus present yourselves before him whom God shall
manifest.
[180]
It is worth referring, even if only in passing, to the vexed question of the
terms
aghyath (of
ghiyath)
and
mustaghath, which
are used by the Báb in the Persian
Bayán in connection
with the appearance of him whom God shall
manifest.
[181] The most
important passage in which the terms are used is in the sixteenth
báb
of the second
wahid:
I promise the people of the Bayán that if, at the time of the
appearance of him whom God shall manifest, you should all attain to that
mightier paradise [i.e., belief in him] and that greater meeting, you shall be
blessed, you shall be blessed, you shall be blessed. Otherwise, should you hear
that a revelation has appeared with the signs of the former (revelation), in
the number of God the Most Succouring (
al-ghiyath = 1511), let you all
enter in. If that should not take place and it has reached the number of the
name of God the Beseeched (
aI-mustagháth = 2001), and if you
should hear that a Point has appeared yet you have not all been convinced, have
mercy on yourselves and all in your entirety enter beneath the shadow of that
manifest Point. . . . If you do not hear [that he has appeared], then abase
yourself and offer up supplications that the grace of God may not be cut off
from you until [the time of]
mustagháth. And if you hear between
now and
mustagháth that he
[page 127]
who is my beloved and your beloved, my sovereign and your sovereign, has
appeared, do not hesitate even for a single second, but enter you all together
beneath God's shadow. ... 0 People of the Bayán, if anyone should
hesitate even to take one breath after two thousand and one years, he shall
without question no longer belong to the religion of the Bayán and shall
enter hell.
[182]
Bahá'í writers have, I think, been correct in pointing out that
the two figures of 1511 and 2001 years represent the latest date at which the
next manifestation was to appear, and in stressing that the Báb himself
held that only God knew the time of the revelation'" and that, whatever the
date, all were obliged to recognize him whom God shall manifest when he came.
At the same time, whatever later interpretations of these passages may suggest,
it is highly unlikely that much or any early Bábí opinion
anticipated the next manifestation before the passage of a considerable period
of time, and certainly not as soon as the ninth or nineteenth year after the
Báb's own
appearance.
[184]
It is also, I think, obvious that it is impossible to maintain that the
Báb clearly foretold the year of the appearance of him whom God shall
manifest or identified him with a living individual, and at the same time to
hold that he set no time at all or, indeed, that he felt some need to refer to
the latest date of the manifestation as 1511 or 2001 years in the future.
Early Bábí opinion as to the probable lateness of the next
manifestation would have been reinforced by numerous statements of the
Báb, particularly in the
Panj sha'n, to the effect that, unless
the creation begun under one manifestation has reached a state of completion
(or perfection), the next manifestation will not
arrive.
[185] Such statements
are almost without exception accompanied by references to the guides or mirrors
who will appear to preserve the faith throughout the time of concealment. This
principle of completeness preceding the recreation of all things in a new
revelation
[186] is stated
explicitly to apply to the Bábí dispensation: "Unless the
creation of the Bayán
[page 128]
reaches perfection, God shall not manifest him do you not see? All
who shall appear before his appearance are guides to the fact that there is no
God but him and that all are his
servants."
[187] "God knows
the period (that will elapse) between the Point of the Bayán and him
whom he shall manifest; but if the creation in any given manifestation does not
reach perfection, God will not manifest the locus of the revelation of himself
in the next
manifestation.
[188] "Today,"
he says, "the Bayán is in a state of seed; but at the beginning of the
revelation of him whom God shall manifest, there will be the final perfection
of the Bayán."
[189]
Related in some way to this notion of increased perfection (which has
important analogies in other aspects of Bábí
doctrine)
[190] is the concept
that, as a revelation progresses, time becomes increasingly thin or subtle to
the point that a fresh locus of manifestation has to appear. This idea may have
been derived by the Báb from Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsá'í, who
employs it in relation to the appearance of the Twelfth Imám. According
to al-Ahsá'í, the beginning and end of time are both subtle
(
latíf)
, while its middle is dense. As men draw closer to
the time of the Imám's appearance, time becomes increasingly subtle
until he finally
returns.
[191] This appears to
be linked to the theory that the heavens move quickly during a time of
injustice and slowly during a period of justice, so that, when the Qá'im
appears, a year will equal ten normal
years.
[192]
Al-Ahsá'í also believed that, when the Qá'im appeared, the
heavens would return to their original position and commence their second
revolution.
[193] It certainly
seems that al-Ahsá'í conceived of time as essentially single,
beginning with the creation and culminating in the appearance of the Hidden
Imám. The Báb, however, while borrowing the idea that time
becomes increasingly fine, sees this as a process that recommences with every
fresh revelation of the Primal Will. "In every manifestation, when the era
(
kúr)
has reached the extremity of fineness and the
[page 129]
cycle (
túr)
[has reached] the utmost degree of thinness,
he [God] has manifested himself to his creation in the throne he has chosen
from among men, the seat he has selected from among his
servants."
[194] Thus, time
became increasingly subtle through the 1,270 years of the Islamic era until God
revealed the Báb,
[195]
so that time is now in a state of
subtlety.
[196] Since the
Báb elsewhere states that God nurtured men for 1,270
years,
[197] it seems evident
that the processes of temporal refinement and gradual perfecting are assumed to
go hand in hand during the period of concealment.
Finally, it is worth noting in passing that the Báb hinted more than
once that the time of the appearance of him whom God shall manifest could, in
fact, be calculated in advance: "The length of time from this revelation to the
revelation of him whom God shall manifest is known to God. But it is possible
for men to know it from what they deduce through the science of letters
[gematria]. Should God give anyone that knowledge in its entirety, he will make
his deduction just as those who deduced [the time of] the revelation of the
Point of the Bayán from
poems."
[198] "The period
separating one manifestation from another," he says, "is known only to God or
to those to whom God has given the science of letters in its entirety
."
[199] Among other things,
the final sections of the
Panj sha'n are devoted to the revelation of
the science of letters, with the aim of enabling men to recognize him whom God
was to manifest on his appearance. And it seems to be the case that speculation
employing gematria was used by many Bábís in an attempt to
"decipher" the rather abstruse statements found in these
passages.
[200]
SHORT-TERM ESCHATOLOGICAL EXPECTATIONS
If, as I think is correct, the vast majority (if not all) of the
Bábís in the period after the Báb's death regarded the
next
[page 130]
manifestation as an event that would occur in the distant future,
possibly as much as 2001 years away, what did they expect to happen in the
immediate future in the next ten or twenty years, let us say? I should like
to look at one or two indications that there was some kind of messianic
expectation in primitive Babism, even after the Báb's own claims had
reached their highest point. This was, as I propose to demonstrate, largely
rooted in Shi'i eschatological theory and in various allusions in the writings
of the Báb himself. But I think it can also be attributed in part to the
actual conditions of Babism in the 1850s.
The sharp contrast between Shi'i messianic expectations relating to the
earthly triumph of the Qá'im and the rapid establishment of a reign of
justice under his government, on the one hand, and the physical destruction of
the Báb and his leading followers, on the other, must have been a
tremendous shock to the large numbers who had put their faith in the Báb
as their messiah. In such a situation, the failure of prophecy will provoke a
variety of responses: the abandonment of belief, more intense faith, or
readjustment or rationalization of the content of the prophecy that has been
deemed to have failed. Rather than simply resign themselves to the failure of
their immediate hopes and patiently await the coming of him whom God shall
manifest, it is probable that a large part of the Bábí community
would have looked for further eschatological events and personages in the
present. Shi'i prophecy relating to the events surrounding the appearance of
the Qá'im, Muhammad, and the other Imáms is extremely flexible
and open to varying interpretation. Even such a devout believer in the validity
of Shi'i traditions as Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsá'í was forced to admit
that the prophetic traditions were full of irreconcilable
contradictions.
[201] It is,
therefore, possible to create a variety of scenarios for events to come, each
of which can be justified by reference to different
[page 131]
prophecies. I do not wish to enter into a detailed discussion of these
prophecies here the interested reader may find adequate information in the
standard works
[202] but
instead to draw attention to one or two that may be particularly relevant to
our present discussion.
According to a number of traditions, the Qá'im will be the first of the
Imáms to return to
earth,
[203] after which he
will rule for seven or nine years, each of which will be the equivalent of ten
normal years.
[204]
Al-Ahsá'í expresses a definite preference for the figure seven
(seventy).
[205] After
fifty-nine years of the Qá'im's rule have passed, the Imám Husayn
will come forth; he will remain silent (
sámit)
for eleven
years (i.e., until the year seventy), whereupon the Qá'im will be killed
and his place taken by Husayn for nineteen years until the appearance of
'Alí.
[206]
Now, it was true that the Qá'im (i.e., the Báb) had been put to
death in the sixth (thus, sixtieth) year of his "reign." The logical conclusion
must, therefore, have been that the Imám Husayn would now appear to take
over the task he had begun. However, this did not tally very well with strict
Bábí theory. The Báb had, as we have seen, stated
categorically that the Imám Husayn had already returned to earth along
with Muhammad, Fatima, the other Imáms, and the four Gates. In at least
one place, moreover, he had gone on to say that "whoever awaits, after this,
the appearance of the Mahdi or the return (
raj'a)
of Muhammad or
one of those who have believed in God or his verses, is of those who possess no
knowledge this shall be so until the day when God causes me and those who
have believed in me to return. That shall be the day of resurrection, when all
shall be in a new
creation."
[207] Since the
letter in which this passage occurs is known to have been widely spread among
the Bábis, we must assume that this clear rejection of further "returns"
was reasonably well known within the community.
[page 132]
And yet it must have been tempting to ignore it or interpret it away,
for the Shi'i prophecies did not speak of all the sacred figures of Islam
returning at once, and it was well known that Ali in particular was expected to
have "two returns."
[208]
There were, moreover, hints in the Báb's writings that further
eschatological events could after all be anticipated in the very near future.
These hints are far from easy to disentangle, but I shall attempt to give some
idea of what they involved.
Let me begin by looking at a passage of the
Dala'il-i sab'a where the
Báb commences by quoting part of the well-known Shi'i tradition, the
"Hádíth Kumayl," interspersing his citations with references to
each of the first five years of his prophetic mission. Thus, in the first year
there occurred "the uncovering of the veils of glory, without any indication,"
in the second "the extinction of what was doubtful and the clarification of
what was known," in the third "the rending of the veil through the overcoming
of the mystery," in the fourth "the attraction of oneness to the attribute of
singleness," and in the fifth "a light shone out of the morning of eternity
(
subh al-azal)
upon the tabernacles of
oneness."
[209] He concludes
by telling his correspondent that he will indeed see the light from the morning
of eternity if he does not
despair.
[210]
Immediately after this, the Báb turns to examine a phrase in a morning
prayer (
du'a al-sabar)
written by the Imám Báqir,
which begins with the well-known words "0 God, I beseech you by your beauty
(
bahá'ika)
in its most beautiful [aspect], and by all your
resplendent beauty. 0 God, I beseech you by all of your
beauty."
[211] According to
the Báb's interpretation, this first section of the prayer refers to
Muhammad, the next to 'Alí, up to the fifth section (which begins, "I
beseech you, 0 my God, by your light [
núrika]
in its most
luminous aspect"), is a reference to the Imám
Husayn.
[212] Identification
of the word light (
núr)
with Husayn occurs elsewhere in
the Báb's
writings
[213] and can,
therefore, be regarded as entirely normal in the
[page 133]
present context. Although he does not say so explicitly, it is clear that he is
linking the light that occurs in the fifth phrase of the "Hadith Kumayl" (and
hence in the fifth year of his mission) with the light that is mentioned in the
du'a al-sabar and which is identified with the Imám Husayn. In
other words, the Imám Husayn is the light that "shone out of the morning
of eternity."
Following this, the Báb quotes a short passage from a letter written by
Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsá'í to Sayyid Kazim Rashti, ending with the
words: "You shall know his call after a time (
ba'da
hin)."
[214] This is not
the first time the phrase
ba'da hin occurs in the
Dala'il-i sab'a:
several pages earlier, the Báb cites two passages from the
Khutba
al-tutunjiyya attributed to the Imám 'Alí, in the second of
which the following words occur:
"After a time you shall possess a new thing (
turfa)
through which
you shall know part of the explanation. Thereupon the regions shall be
tongue-tied through men summoning others to every vanity. Beware, beware, and
expect the appearance of the greatest
relief."
[215]
In spite of its obvious meaning of "after a while,"
ba'da hin has been,
interpreted numerologically, the word
hin being taken as a reference to
the year 1268 A.H.
[216] In
other words,
ba'da hin may be read as "after 68," namely the year 69 or,
within the context of the Bábí dispensation beginning in 1260,
the year 9. In order to get a little closer to what the Báb is trying to
say in the
Dalá'il-i sab'a, let us look at a number of passages
in the
Panj sha'n. Here, he refers to the year 9 and to what will
precede and follow it. Thus, for example, he says: "This is what we promised
you a time ago (
min qabli bin [lit. "from before a time"]), when we
replied to you: "Wait until nine has elapsed of the Bayán, then say
"blessed be God, the best of
creators."
[217] Immediately
after this, he says (again, it appears, referring to an earlier reply) that
"before nine (
al-tá')
, there must appear in six
(
al-wáw)
two signs from God in the book from the early
ones
(
al-awwalín)."
[218]
I shall come back to these two signs in
[page 134]
a moment, but first let me quote a later section of the
Panj sha'n
addressed, like the first, to Mullá Shaykh 'Alí Turshizi
'Azim: "Before the maturity (
bulúgh)
of the Primal Point
in the wombs of existence 'before nine' (
qabla 'l-tis'a)
, [which
is] the equivalent of 'before a time' (
qabla hin)
, it is
necessary that two mirrors reflect
God."
[219]
It would seem that the 'two signs' and the 'two mirrors' mentioned in these
passages are to be regarded as identical. But what are they references to?
After the first of the passages quoted, the Báb continues as follows:
"Say: the first of them [i.e., the two signs] is Yahyá the prophet
[i.e., John the Baptist], and the other is the son of
'Alí."
[220] After the
second, he goes on: "for from the beginning of creation (
min badi'
al-awwal)
until this time, no one was born after the passage of six
months except Yahyá the prophet and Husayn the son of
'Alí."
[221]
Both the second passages from the
Panj sha'n and a similar passage
quoted by Bahá'u'lláh in his
Lawh-i
Shaykh[222] speak in
terms of "maturing" or of the development of an embryo (a common Islamic and
Bábí image). The lines just quoted explicitly bring in the notion
of an embryo reaching maturity in the brief period of six months. Could,
therefore, the appearance of the "two signs" (or "two mirrors") in the year 6
(1266 A.H./1849-50A.D.) be intended to indicate the actual birth of the
Bábí revelation, which had previously been in a state of
gestation? The Báb may have anticipated that "before nine," which seems
to mean "in the year six" (nine months being, of course, the normal period of
gestation), the Bayán would reach maturity in the appearance of two
mirrors representing Husayn and John the Baptist. As far as Husayn is
concerned, this would certainly correspond to the prophecies referring to his
appearance in the sixtieth (thus, the sixth) year of the reign of the
Qá'im.
But what of the "year nine" itself? There are clear references to it in some
of the Báb's writings. In the Arabic
Bayan, for example, he
writes: "When you hear the mention of the one we
[page 135]
shall manifest in the name of the Qá'im, anticipate the difference
between
al-qá'im and
al-qayyúm. Then you shall
attain to all good in the year
nine."
[223] This statement is
echoed in somewhat different words in the
Haykal al-din: "Rise
up
[224] when you hear the
name of the Qá'im and when you mention [it]. And you shall witness all
good between the difference of
al-Qá'im and
al-qayyúm.
numerically (
'adadan)
in nine
years."
[225] One of the
problems posed by the use of the terms
al- qayyúm. (meaning
something like "self-sufficient") in these passages is that it is not a normal
eschatological term in Shi'i literature and cannot readily be identified with
an expected eschatological figure. Normally, in fact, the word occurs as a
title of the divinity. In a letter to his uncle, Hájí
Mírzá Sayyid 'Alí Shirází, the Báb
identifies it numerically with the name Yúsuf (=156) and says that "it
means the Qá'im of the family of Muhammad," which is, of course,
himself.
[226] Nor is the
numerical difference between
al-Qá'im and
al-qayyúm.
of much help, since this may amount to 5, 9, or 14, depending on the value
given to the third letter (either
yá' or
hamza)
of
qá'im.
The reader if he has persevered this far will by now have reached the
conclusion that none of this is very clear. I suspect that many early
Bábís may have felt the same way. Nevertheless, it is apparent
that references of this kind must have encouraged interest in the years around
1268, 1269, and 1270 A.H. (1851-54 A.D.) and suggested the possibility of the
initial appearance of John the Baptist and Husayn in 1266/1848-49, possibly
followed by their later activity in 1269/1852-53. And the question of
Husayniyya the claim to be the return of Husayn did indeed come to
be of more than passing interest around this period
.
NOTES
This paper is an expanded version of a paper written for the Second Annual Los
Angeles Bahá'í History Conference, August 1984. It is
[page 136]
only part of a larger study of authority claims in middle Babism (c.
1850-1866) that I have undertaken. The purchase of many of the materials used
in the preparation of this paper was made possible through a grant from the
Research Committee of Newcastle University, to whom I wish to express my
thanks.
1. The following are among the more important recent studies of the subject: D.
MacEoin, "From Shaykhism to Babism: A Study in Charismatic Renewal in Shi'i
Islam" (Ph.D. thesis, Cambridge University, 1979); idem., "Early Shaykhi
Reactions to the Báb and His Claims," in M. Momen (ed.),
Studies in
Bábí and Bahá'í History Vol. I (Los Angeles:
Kalimát Press, 1983); idem, "The Bábí Concept of Holy
War,"
Religion (1982) 12: 93-129; M. Momen (ed.),
The
Bábí and Bahá'í Religions, 1844-1944: Some
Contemporary Western Accounts (Oxford: George Ronald, 1981); idem, "The
Trial of Mullá 'Alí Bastámí: A Combined Sunni-Shi'i
Fatwa against the Báb,"
Iran (1982) 20: 113-43; idem, "The Social
Basis of the Bábí Upheavals in Iran (1848-53): A Preliminary
Analysis" in
lJMES (1953) 15:157-83; A. Amanat, "The Early Years of the
Bábí Movement: Background and Development" (Ph.D. thesis, Oxford
University 1981); P. Smith, "Millenarianism in the Bábí and
Bahá'í Religions," in R. Wallis (ed.),
Millennialism and
Charisma (Belfast: Queen's University, 1982); idem, "A Sociological Study
of the Bábí and Bahá'í Religions" (Ph.D. thesis,
Lancaster University, 1982); Mangol Bayat,
Mysticism and Dissent:
Socioreligious Thought in Qajar Iran (Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University
Press, 1982) ch. 4 "The Politicization of Dissent in Shia Thought: Babism."
2. On this figure, much lower than that generally given in Bahá'í
sources, see D. MacEoin, "From Babism to Bahá'ism: Problems of
Militancy, Quietism, and Conflation in the Construction of a Religion,"
Religion (1983) 13: 219-55, p. 236.
3. See letter of Sayyid Husayn Yazdi to Mullá 'Abdu'l-Karim Qazvini
(dated possibly late 1850 or 1851) in [Sayyid 'Ali Muhammad
Shirází, the Báb and Sayyid Husayn Yazdi]
Qismati az
alwáh-i khatt-i Nuqfay-i Úlá wa Aqá Sayyid Husayn
Yazdi (n.p. [Tehran], n.d.) p. 39; Mírzá Husayn 'Ali Nuri,
Bahá'u'lláh, "Lawh-i warqá," in Abdu'l-Hamid
Ishráq-Khávarí (ed.),
Ma'idih-i asmani, 10 vols.
(Tehran, 1971-72-1972-73) vol. 4, p. 150; idem,
Kitáb-i iqan
(Cairo, 1352/
[page 137]
1933) pp. 168-69; Shoghi Effendi [Rabbani,
God Passes By
(Wilmette, Ill.: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1944) pp. 90-91.
4. MacEoin, "Early Shaykhi Reactions"; idem, "From Shaykhism to Babism." ch.
5.
5. See idem, "Nineteenth-century Bábí Talismans," paper delivered
at the annual conference of the British Society for Middle East Studies,
Cambridge, 1983, published in
Studia Iranica (1985) 14:1, pp. 77-98.
6. Sayyid Mahdi Dahájí,
Risálay-i Sayyid Mahdi
Dahájí, MS F57. E. G. Browne Or. MSS, Cambridge University
Library, p. 38.
7. Dahájí is at this point attempting to prove that the phrase
"the light that dawns from the morn of eternity upon the temples of unity"
(
núr ashraqa min subhb al-azal 'alá hayákil
al-tawhíd)
refers to the Báb's appearance as the
Qá'im and not to the emergence of Subh-i Azal in the fifth year. There
is in existence, however, a statement by the Báb's contemporary,
Mírzá Muhammad 'Alí Zunaizi, to the effect that, in the
beginning, the Báb claimed to have been sent by the Hidden Imám
and that his words were below those of the Imám but superior to those of
al-Ahsá'í and Rashti; after that he adopted the title
dhikru'lláh, then Qá'im, and finally the station of
rububiyyat (lordship, divinity) see text quoted Mírzá
Asadu'lláh Fadil-i Mazandarani,
Kitáb-i Zuhúr al-haqq,
vol. 3 (n.p. [Tehran 7], nd.) pp. 31-33. On the later claim to
rububiyyat, see the Báb,
Bayán-i
fársí (n.p. [Tehran], n.d.) exordium, p. 4.
8. See, for example, idem,
Qayyumu'l-asma', MS Fli, E. G. Browne Or.
MSS, Cambridge University Library, ff.2a, 19a, 32b, 36a, 69, 96a, 103b, 114a.
In this and other early works, the term
hujja is generally reserved for
the Twelfth Imám and for the writings of his
báb, Sayyid
'Ali Muhammad. But for an apparently early description of the Báb as
al-hujja al-kubrá (the greatest proof), see Qurratu'l-'Ayn,
risaila printed in Mírzá Abu'l-Fadl
Gulpáyání and Mirza Mahdi Gulpáygání,
Kashf al-ghita 'an hiyal al-a'dá' (Ashkhabad, n.d.) appendix, p.
2. The same writer refers to the Báb as "the Proof of God." (
Risala
printed in Mazandarani,
Zuhar al-haqq, vol. 3, p. 361)
9. See the Bab,
Kitáb-i panj Sha'n (np. [Tehran], n.d.) pp. 11,
184, 256, 280. See also idem,
Dala'il-i sab'a (n.p. Tehran], n.d.) p.
29.
[page 138]
10. A passage quoted from this letter in the
Kitáb-i
nuqtatu'l-káf identifies it with that printed in the Báb and
Yazdi,
Qismati az alwah-i, p. 14 (transcription pp. 13-12 [sic]); see
Hájí Mírzá Jani Kashani,
Kitáb-i-Nutqatu'l-Káf, ed. by E. G. Browne (Leyden and
London, 1910) p. 209. The text is also printed in Mazandarani,
Zuhúr
al-haqq, vol. 3, pp. 164-66.
11. Two main facts point to this date: the first is the Báb's own
references to a period of four years elapsing before his elevation to the rank
of Qá'im, the second his explicit announcement of Qá'imiyya
in the pages of the
Dala'il-i sab'a, a book certainly written in
Mákú (see the Báb,
Dala'il, pp. 25, 29, 30). The
Báb left Mákú on 9 April 1848 (see Mullá Muhammad
Nabil Zarandi,
The Dawn-Breakers, ed. and trans. by Shoghi Effendi
[Wilmette, Ill.: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1932] p. 259).
12. The Báb,
Bayán-i fársí, exordium, p. 4
(
básit =72= Máh-kú [a variant of
Mákú]; the Báb himself gives, the spelling
"Mákú"; ibid., 4:12, p. 136; idem,
Dala'il, p. 67).
13. The link between
qá'imiyya and the inauguration of a new
dispensation (and not merely a new era) is to some extent indicated by a number
of messianic traditions that state the Qá'im will appear with a new day,
a new religion, and a new creation," or "a new book" given to him by Muhammad
and 'Ali, of "a new cause, a new book, a new
sunna, and a new heaven."
(See texts quoted by Shaykh Ahmad ibn Zayn al-Din al-Ahsá'í in
"Risala fi 'l-'isma wa 'l-raj'a," in idem,
Jawámi' al-kilam, 2
vols. [Tabriz, 1856, 1860], vol. 1, part 1, pp. 62, 64, 66.)
14. The Báb,
Bayán-i fársí, exordium, p. 1;
3:7, p. 81; 4:1, p. 105; 4:2, p. 110, and passim; idem,
Panj sha'n, pp.
31-32, 62, 114, 125-26, 155, 165-66, and passim; idem,
Dala'il, pp. 1,
31; idem,
al-Bayan al-'arabi (n.p. [Tehran], n.d.), section 1, p. 3;
3:7, p. 10.
15. The Báb,
Panj sha'n, p. 92.
16. Ibid., p. 245.
17. See ibid., pp. 23, 40, 102, 125, 161, 277; idem,
Dalá'il, pp.
2, 3, 20 (
payghambar)
; idem,
Bayán-i
fársí 2:1, p. 12 and passim.
18. In an important passage of the
Kitáb-i panj sha'n, the
Báb states that "this revelation [
zuhúr]
is the
fifth revelation in two thousand seven hundred and seventy (years)." (
Panj
sha'n, p. 289) Elsewhere,
[page 139]
he breaks this figure down into portions, as follows: from Moses to
David: 500 years; from David to Jesus: 500 years; from Jesus to Muhammad: 500
years more or less; and from Muhammad to himself 1270 (Or 1271) years. (See
ibid., pp. 66, 199, 315, and cf. passage quoted by Mulla Rajab 'Alí
Qahir Isfahání,
Risálay-i Mulla Rajab Ali, MS F24,
E. G. Browne Or. MSS, Cambridge University Library, f78a-f78b.)
This calculation seems to be based largely on a tradition from the
Tafsir
(Qur'án commentary) of 'Ali ibn Ibráhim [ibn Háshim
al-Qummi], in which it is stated that five hundred years passed between Moses
and David, and one thousand between David and Jesus (quoted by Shaykh Ahmad ibn
Zayn al-Din al-Ahsá'í,
Sharh al-ziyára al-jámi'a
al-kabira, 4th. ed., 4 vols. [Kerman, 1355 sh./1976-77], vol. 1, p.
195).
The Báb was not, however, wholly consistent in his use of this schema.
In the passage just referred to as quoted in Rajab 'Alí Qahir's
risala, for example, he places David before Moses. There is a well-known
contradiction in the
Dala'il-i sab'a which at one point places Moses one
thousand years before David, with the space between David and the Báb as
2,270 years (p. 18), and at another puts Moses 2,270 years in the past, as in
the
Panj sha'n (p. 38). In one passage of the
Panj sha'n,
however, the Báb speaks of Moses, Jesus, Muhammad, and himself as
coming together in a single succession without David (p. 335).
Elsewhere, the Báb returns to a schema closer to that found in the
Qur'án, referring to the revelation of God in Noah, Abraham, Moses,
Jesus, and Muhammad. (See
Panj sha'n, pp. 384, 396-97;
Dala'il,
p. 66.) In one passage he speaks of prophets prior to Adam. (
Panj sha'n,
p. 241) The notion of five dispensations seems, however, to be related
(albeit idiosyncratically) to the well-known Islamic theory of five major
prophets, the
ulu'l- 'azm or "possessors of constancy," namely Noah,
Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad. (See al-Ahsá'í,
Sharh
al-ziyára, vol. 2, p. 155.)
19. The related verb
tajalli (to become clear, manifest) and its
derivatives (especially
tajalli)
, with strong echoes of the
theories of Ibn al-'Arabi, are frequently used by the Báb. (See, for
example,
Panj sha'n pp. 31, 54, 195.) On Ibn al-'Arabi's use of this
term, see Muhyí
[page 140]
'l-Din ibn al-Arabi,
Fusús al-hikam, ed. by
Abu'l-Alá 'Afífí (Cairo, 1946) pp. 12-21; idem,
The
Bezels of Wisdom, trans. by R. W. J. Austin (London, 1980) pp. 149-50; T.
Izutzu,
A comparative study of the Key Philosophical Concepts in Sufism and
Taoism: Ibn al-Arabi and Lao-Tzu, Chuang-Tzu (Tokyo, 1966) pp. 37-38.
It is impossible to tell how far, if at all, the Báb may have been
directly influenced by the ideas of Ibn al-Arabi. There is no evidence that he
had read any of the latter's works, although we do know that Shaykh Ahmad
al-Ahsá'í was familiar with some of them, even though he strongly
disapproved of Ibn al-'Arabi (see Shaykh Ahmad ibn Zayn al-Din
al-Ahsá'í,
Sharh al-Arshiyya, 2nd. ed., vol. 1 [Kerman,
1361/1982]. pp. 26-27; idem,
Sharh al-ziyara, vol. 1, pp. 71, 219, vol.
3, p. 219).
20. The Báb,
Panj shan, p. 40.
21. Ibid., p. 102.
22. Ibid., p. 125.
23. Idem.,
Bayán-i fársí, exordium, p. 3.
24. Ibid., p. 4.
25. On the notion that God's
zuhúr to his creation can only take
place metaphorically, see al-Ahsá'í,
Sharh al-Arshiyya,
vol. 1, p. 61.
26. The Báb,
Panj sha'n, p. 31; cf. ibid., p. 390; idem,
Dalá'il, p. 2. On the Imáms as loci of the Primal Will,
see al-Ahsá'í,
Sharh al-ziyára, vol. 2, p. 192.
27. The Báb,
Bayan-i fársí 4:6, pp. 120-21.
28. Idem,
Panj sha'n, p. 23 ("the
rusul are the thrones of his
manifestation"). For "thrones," see passim.
'Arsh al-haqíqa, "the
throne of reality," is often used (e.g., ibid., pp. 21, 31). On the primary
application of 'arsh to the "Reality of Muhammad" (
al-haqíqa
al-muhammadiyya)
and 'Absolute Guardianship" (
al-wiláya
al-mutlaqa)
, of which the Imáms are the loci, see
al-Ahsá'í
Sharh al-ziyára , vol. 4, p. 245. On
Bábí usage, see further, 'Abdu'l-Hamid
Ishráq-Khávarí,
Rabiq-i makhtúm, 2 vols.
(Tehran, 130-131
Badi'/1974-
76)
vol. 2, pp. 157-60.
29. The Báb,
Panj sha'n, p. 24 and passim.
30. Ibid., p. 423 and passim. This
haykal is particularly described as
"the temple of man": "The Will is in the temple of man ('alá haykal
al-insán) from the beginning that has no beginning to the end that
has
[page 141]
no end" (ibid., p. 388) and, more interestingly: "For the Will has
always been in the temple of God ('ala haykal alláh, which is the temple
of man, and all things have been created from it" (ibid., p. 389). On the
Imáms appearing in different
hayákil, see
al-Ahsá'í
Sharh al-ziyára , vol. 2, p. 160. On the
wider implications of the term
haykal and its relationship to talismans
and the science of letters, see my paper "Nineteenth-century Bábí
talismans."
31. The Báb,
Panj sha'n, pp. 34, 132-33, 149-50, and passim. On
the concept of the Imáms appearing in their bodies like images in
mirrors, see al-Ahsá'í,
Sharh al-ziyára, vol. 3, p.
128.
32. The Báb,
Panj sha'n, p. 23 and passim. On the Imáms as
mazáhir, see al-Ahsá'í,
Sharh al-ziyára ,
vol. 2, p. 48.
33. The Báb,
Bayán-i fársí, 2:8, p. 37 and
passim.
Shajarat al-zuhúr also occurs (
Panj sha'n, p.
42).
34. Ibid., p. 104 and passim. In this context, the
mazhar of the Will is
often referred to as the "horizon" (
mashriq)
or "dawning-point"
(
matla')
see ibid., p. 51.
35. Idem.,
Bayán-i fársí, 3:7, p. 81 and passim.
36. Ibid., 1:1, p. 4 and passim. On the use of the titles "first point" and
"last point" for the legendary saint Khidr by Abdu'l-Karim Jili, see H. Corbin,
Terre celeste et corps de resurrection (Paris, 1960) p. 244. For some
other terms used for the Primal Will, see the Báb,
Panj sha'n
37. Idem,
Bayán-i fársí 1:1, p. 4; 3:8, p.
84.
38. Ibid., 2:8, p. 37.
39. Al-Ahsá'í,
Sharh al-ziyára, vol. 4, p. 269. Cf.
ibid., vol. 2, p. 316.
40. The Báb,
Panj sha'n, p. 423.
41. Ibid., p. 102.
42. Ibid., p. 23.
43. See al-Ahsá'í,
Sharh al-ziyára , vol.2, pp. 108
233; vol. 3, pp. 29, 242.
44. See the Báb,
Panj sha'n, p. 195: "If he did not reveal
himself to the prophets in their own selves, how could God be known?"; ibid.,
p. 313: "Bear witness that the knowledge of God is not made manifest save by
the knowledge of the place in which his self is manifested."
[page 142]
45. Ibid., p. 54; cf. idem,
Dalá'il, p. 65.
46. Idem,
Panj sha'n, p. 242.
47. Ibid. On the Imáms as both human and divine, see al-Ahsá'i,
Sharh al-ziyára, vol. 2, P. 200.
48. The Báb,
Panj sha'n, p. 40; cf. p. 314: "His inward aspect is
the words "no god is there but God," while his outward aspect in the
Qur'án was Muhammad, the messenger of God, and in the Bayán the
Essence of the Seven Letters [i.e., 'Alí Muhammad], and in the Gospel
Jesus, the Spirit of God, and in the Psalms David, the Friend of God, and in
the Torah Moses, the Interlocutor of God, and after the Bayán he whom
God shall manifest."
49. Ibid., p. 391.
50. Ibid., p. 31.
51. See ibid., pp. 24, 31. 59, 63-64, 156, 162, 314, 320; cf. idem,
Dalá'il, p. 3.
52. Idem.
Panj sha'n, p. 133.
53. Ibid., pp. 141, 228, and passim. The idea that a single spirit manifests
itself in an ever-changing variety of human forms is fundamental to
Ismá'ílí and Twelver (Imámi) Shiism. For the
Ismá'ílis, the Imáms "are like one and the same person,
only appearing in different bodies and states although being in spirit one and
the same all through the ages." (W. Ivanow,
Studies in Early Persian
Ismailism [London, 1948], p. 2) Al-Ahsá'í says of the
Imáms that "although they have appeared in numerous forms
(
hayákil)
, despite their being a single entity, there is
no multiplicity in this other than from the point of view of an alteration of
place, time, direction, and station." (
Sharh al-ziyára, vol. 2,
p. 160)
54. See previous note.
55.
Hadith al-Sabába, quoted al-Ahsá'í, ibid., vol.
2, p. 54. Cf. ibid., p. 115, where the Imáms are said to have spread all
the revealed religious systems (
shani'i')
. Al-Ahsá'i
comments that, although the Imáms were created after Muhammad, they are
like him in their essences. Ibid., vol. 4, p. 173)
56. For discussion of this complex problem, see Henri Corbin,
En Islam
iranien, 4 vols. (Paris, 1971-72), vol. 1, chapter VI; idem,
Histoire de
Ia philosophie islamique, vol. 1 (Paris, 1964), pp. 62-79. See comments of
al-Ahsá'í,
Sharáz al-ziyára, vol. 4, p.
64.
[page 143]
57. See A. A. Sachedina,
Islamic Messianism (Albany, N.Y., 1981) p. 68
and passim.
58. See, for example, al-Ahsá'í,
Sharh al-ziyára,
vol. 2, pp. 41, 56-57, 114, 200 ("God created one thousand thousand worlds
and one thousand thousand Adams; in each one of these worlds he caused the
Prophet of God [i.e., Muhammad] to rise up, together with his offspring
'Alí'), 279; vol. 3, pp. 243, 257, 301-02, 361-62; vol. 4, pp. 173,
174.
59. Ibid., vol. 4, p. 188.
60. Ibid., vol. 2, p. 115; cf. ibid., p. 54.
61. Ibid., p. 54.
62.
Hadith from Imám Ja'far Al-Sádiq relating to the
Twelfth Imám, quoted in al-Ahsá'í, "Risála fi
`l-'Isma wa `l-raj'a," in
Jawámi', vol. 1, part 1, p. 85; also
quoted idem,
Sharh al-ziyára, vol. 3, p. 92, and the Báb,
Dalá'il, pp. 3-4.
63. For the use of
Sábiqún in this context, see Sayyid
Kázim Rashti,
Usúl al-'aqá'id (Iran
Bahá'í Archives, xerox collection, 4) pp. 57, 58.
64. See ibid., pp. 90-91; Háji Muhammad Khán Kirmáni,
al-Kitáb al-mubin, 2nd. ed., 2 vols. (Kerman, n.d.), vol. 1, pp.
304-05; al-Ahsá'í,
Sharh al-ziyára, vol. 2, pp. 53,
305 (pre-creation).
65. The Báb,
Bayán-i fársi, 1:2, pp. 6-7; 1:3, pp.
8-10; idem, letter to Háji Sayyid `All Shirází, quoted
Mázandarání,
Zuhúr al-haqq, vol. 3, pp.
223-24; idem, letter to `All [Mullá Shaykh `All Turshizi'fí, in
the Báb and Yazdi,
Qismati az alwáh, p. 14 (transcription,
pp. 13-12 [sic]); idem, letter in ibid., p. 18 (transcription, p. 17); idem.
Panj sha'n, p. 88 (where Mullá Husayn is identified as the
"throne of the Point of the Qur'án [i.e., Muhammad]"). At a later
period, the Báb, while retaining this identification, stated that the
Letters of the Living (
Hurúf-i wáhid)
possess two
stations: that in which they themselves are seen, in which they are but
creatures of God, and that in which only God can be seen, in which they are the
"letters of truth." (
Bayán-i fársi, 5:17, p. 180)
66. For a discussion of the main details of this dispute, see MacEoin, "From
Shaykhism to Babism," chapter 6, section "Division within the
Bábí community," pp. 203-07.
67. The main issues of this debate and some of the circumstances
[page 144]
surrounding it have been fortuitously preserved for us in three manuscript
risálas, one by Mullá Alimad (printed in `Ali al-Wardi,
Lamahát ijtimá'iyya min ta'rikh al `Iraq al-hadith, vol. 2
[Baghdad, 19691 pp. 159
ff.)
, another by Shaykh Sultan
al-Karbalá'í (ins. in
Nivishtibadi' nivishta-and [Iran
Bahá'í Archives, xerox collection, 80] pp.
310-32; printed in Mázandarání,
Zuhúr al-Haqq,
vol. 3, pp. 245-59), and one which can, I think, be attributed to
Qurratu'l-'Ayn (ins. in
Nivisháfrit wa sáthiár, pp.
212-82).
68. Text quoted Mázandarání,
Zuhúr aI-Haqq,
vol. 3, p. 32. See also ibid., p. 121 and idem, (Mandarání),
Asrár al-áthár, 5 vols. (Tehran, 1967/8-1972/73),
vol. 2, p. 12.
69. Káshání,
Nuqtatu'I-káf, p. 181. I have
discussed the vexing question of the authorship and authenticity of the
Nuqtatu'l-káf (a point much contested by Bahá'í
authors) in an earlier work ("A Revised Survey of the Sources for Early
Bábí History and Doctrine," unpublished dissertation, Cambridge,
1977, pp. 168-194) and will not return to it here. Suffice to note my
conclusion that, although the bulk of this work is unlikely to be by the hand
of Mírzá Jáni Kásháni, it is undeniably
early and, whatever its theological peculiarities from a later viewpoint,
remarkably reliable. It is certainly not an Azali "forgery." For issues such as
those under discussion in the present paper, it is often much more useful than
many later historical works.
70. Kásháni,
Nuqtatu'I-káf, p. 181.
71. Ibid., p. 152.
72. Ibid., p. 169. This obviously had much to do with Mullá Husayn's
name, as in the case of some later claimants to the station of
busayniyya.
73. Ibid., p. 208. On
inida as the origin of all worlds but itself
created by the
mashi'a, see the Báb,
Bayán-i
fársi, 2:16, p. 57; on the
iráda as a mirror of the
mashi'a, see ibid., 3:7, p. 82.
74. Kásháni,
Nuqtatu'l-káf, p. 202; cf. ibid., p.
208.
75. Ibid., p. 207.
76. Ibid., p. 202.
77. Ibid., p. 207. On this broader use of the term
qá'im, see
al-Ahsá'í,
Shar!i aI-ziyára, vol. 3, p. 75,
Sachedina,
Islamic Messianism, p. 15.
[page 145]
78. Sayyid Muhammad Husayn Zavára'i,
Waqáyi'-i mimiyaya
(Cambridge University Library, E. G. Browne Or. MSS, F.28, item 1) p. 3 and
passim.
79. Ibid., p. 54.
80. Ibid., p. 70.
81. Lutf `All Mírzá Shfrázi, untitled history (Cambridge
University Library, E. G. Browne Or. MSS, F.28, item 3) p. 71.
82. Kásháni,
Nuqtatu'l-káf, p. 208. For the
original
hadith and its relationship to the appearance of the
Qá'im, see al-Ahsá'í,
Sharh al-ziyára, vol.
3, pp. 79, 88, and (in particular) 223.
83. Kásháni,
Nuqtatu'l-káf, pp. 90;
Mírzá Husayn Hamadáni,
The New History
(
Tárikh-i-Jadid)
of Mirzá Ali Muhammad, the
Báb, ed. by E. G. Browne (Cambridge University Press, 1893), p. 91
(where Quddús is incidentally referred to as the "Lord of the
Dispensation"). For the original prophecy, see
Sharh al-ziyára,
vol. 3,
pp. 60, 75.
84. Zavára'i,
Waqáyi', p. 48.
85. Nabil,
Dawn-Breakers, p. 352. For the original prophecy, see
al-Ahsá'í
Sharáz al-ziyára, vol. 3, pp.
84-85.
86. Nabil,
Dawn-Breakers, p. 354. For the original prophecy, see
al-Ahsá'í,
Sharh al-ziyára, vol. 3, p. 48.
87. Nabil,
Dawn-Breakers, p. 344.
88. Zavára'i,
Waqáyi', p. 1 and passim.
89. Nabil,
Dawn-Breakers, pp. 324-25. References in the tradition
literature to various banners are numerous and confused, but the most
significant in this context is undoubtedly to the banner presented by the
Prophet Muhammad to the Qá'im (see al-Mish'i
Sharh al-ziyára,
vol. 3, pp. 81, 82, 83). On the appearance of black banners from Khurasan
(which is, of course, related to the Abbasid revolt of the eighth century), see
ibid., p. 113.
90. The Báb, letter to Mullá Shaykh `All Turshizi, in the
Báb and Yazdi,
Qismati az alwá!i, p. 13. Cf. letter (also
to Turshizi?), ibid., p. 17; the Báb,
Haykal al-din (n.p.
[TehranJ, n.d. [with
al-BayLin al-'arabi])
, pp. 1-2. On the
return of all former prophets and saints in the
raj'a, see
al-Ahsá'í,
Sharái al-ziyára, vol. 3, p. 69.
On various meanings of
raj'a, see Kásháni,
Nuqtatu'l-káf, p. 170. The identification of the first and second
to swear allegiance to the Qá'im as
[page 146]
Muhammad and `All, followed by the other Imáms, is based on
prophetic traditions to this effect (see, for example, text quoted
al-Ahsá'í, "`Isma wa raj'a," in
Jawámi', vol. 1,
part 1, p. 66).
91. Turshizi, letter printed in Mázandarání,
Zuhar
al-haqq, vol. 3, p. 166. Cf. generally letter from Qurratu'l-Ayn to
Turshizi, printed in Hamadáni,
New History, p. 436 (with
facsimile, p. 435; this section of the letter is not translated by Browne). The
"tomb" analogy is used later by Mullá Rajab 'Alí Qahir when he
refers to Turshizi as the tomb of Mullá Ijusayn Bushr(i'i (
marqad-i
awwal man ámana Risála, f. 25a) and to Subh-i Azal as the
tomb of Mullá Muhammad `Ali BarfurCishi, Qudd(is, (
marqad-i harf-i
ákhir ibid., f. 44a).
92. Zavára'i,
Waqdyi', p. 47.
93. Ibid., p. 55.
94. On the
nuqabá', nujabá', etc., see below.
95. See Dahaji,
Risála, pp. 32, 151 52. Cf.
Mírzá Yahyá Núri, Subh-i Azal,
Kitáb-i
mustayqi; (n.p. [Tehranl, nd.) p. 17.
96. Sayyid `All Muhammad Shirázi, the Báb,
Ziyára
for Mulla Muhammad 'Alí Bárfurúishi, in Muhammad `All
Malik Khusravi,
Tdrikh-i shuhadá'-i amr, 3 vols. (Tehran, 1974)
vol. 2, p. 412.
97. The Báb,
Panj sha'n, p. 104.
98. Husayn `Ali Núrí, Bahá'u'lláh, "Lawh-i Sirij,"
in Ishráq-Khávan (ed.),
Má'ida, vol. 7, p. 86.
99. Ibid.
100. Abbás Effendi, `Abdu'l-Bahá',
Makátib-i
Abdu'l-Bahá', vol. 2 (Cairo, 1330/1912), p. 254; cf. P. 252. No copy
of the
tafsir on the á.dd of
al-Samad is, to my knowledge,
extant. According to Nabil, the original, along with other writings, was
entrusted to a certain Mullá Muhammad Hamza [Shari'atmadár
Bárfurúshi, an `alim resident in Bárfurúsh
(
Dawn-Breakers, p. 409). Shari'atmadár (who was sympathetic to
the Bábis and who lived until 1281/1864-65) wrote a work entitled
Asrár al-shaháda in 1272/1856, in which he mentions having
seen a
tafsir by Qudd(is on the
Sújrat al-tawhid,
consisting of five thousand or six thousand verses (see
Mázandarání,
Zuhúr al-Haqq, vol. 3, p. 438).
This does not, of course, necessarily imply that this work remained in
Shari'atmadár's possession, but it may prove a useful starting-point for
the task of locating it. In 1977, I saw briefly what seemed to me to be an
autograph copy of the
Asrár al-shaháda which had recently
come into the possession of the Iranian National
[page 147]
Bahá'í Archives in Tehran, but I have no way of knowing whether
or not other materials belonging to Shari'atmadár also came into their
possession at the same time.
101. Zavára'i,
Waqáyi', p. 48.
102. Nabil,
Dawn-Breakers, p. 412.
103. The Báb,
ziyára for Bárfur6shi, in Malik
Khusravi
Tárikh-i shuhadá', vol. 2, p. 413.
104. Idem,
Panj sha'n, p. 280.
105. Abbás Effendi,
Makátib, vol. 2, pp. 254-55.
Unfortunately, the writer presents no documentary or testimonial evidence for
this statement, although we may assume he had an eye-witness account from his
father, Mírzá Husayn 'Alí, Bahá'u'lláh. What
is interesting and theologically controversial is that Abbás
Effendi goes on to refer to claims to divinity made in his father's
Qasida
`izz warqá `iyya without distinguishing these in any way from those
made by Qurratu'l-Ayn, Quddiis, or other Bábís at Badasht. On the
use of the phrase "Verily, I am God" (
innani and `iláh)
by
the mirrors of the divine Will, see the Báb,
Panj sha'n, pp.
133-34.
106. (
Hádhá Kitáb mm `inda `lláh `l-muhaymini
`l-qayyúm ilá `lláhi `l-muhaymini
`l-qayyúm),
in a letter to Subh-i Azal, in the Báb and
Yazdi,
Qismati az alwáh, p. 1 (facsimile of original on previous
unnumbered page); also printed in [Sayyid `All Muhammad Shirázi, the
Báb and Mírzá Yahyá NCiri, Subh-i Azall
Majmzá'a'i az áthár-i Nuqtay-i Ulá wa
Subáz-i Azal (n.p. ITehranl, n.d.) p. 38, and Hamadáni,
New History, p. 427 (hand of Subh-i Azal).
107. (
Hádhá Kitáb min alláh ilá man
yuzhiruhu `Iláh),
Panj sha'n, pp. 2, 24, 33, 57, 104, 207.
Cf. Dahaji,
Risála, p. 113 ("the Point of the Bayán [i.e.,
the Báb] revealed the words "from God to God" in numerous tablets").
108. The Báb and Subh-i Azal,
Majmzá'a'i az
áthár, p. 37. On the application of the term
dhátu'll'åh to both the Báb and his "mirrors," see
[Mullá Muhammad Ja'far Naraqil,
Tadhkirat al-gháfilln
(Cambridge University Library, E. G. Browne Or. MSS, F.63), p. 32. (On the
authorship of this work, see introduction to `Izziyya Khánum,
Tanbih
al-ná'imin [n.p. (Tehran), n.d.I p. 3.) For the Báb as
dhátu'lláh, see the Báb,
Haykal al-din,
1:18, p. 5.
109. Qazvini is known by a number of names: "Rahim" (numerically equivalent to
"Ibráhím"), "Khalíl" (the epithet of the prophet
[page 148]
Abraham), and the codename "Mírzá Ahmad." The divine name
al-qadim and its derivatives (especially
al-aqdam)
are
used in the section of the
Panj sha'n written for him. (See ibid., pp.
327ff.)
110. Yazdi, letter in the Báb and Yazdi,
Qismati az alwáh,
p. 38.
111. H. M. Balyuzi,
Edward Granville Bowne and the Bahá'í
Faith (London: George Ronald, 1970) p. 73.
112. Al-Ahsá'í, "Isma
wa raj'a," in
Jawámi',
vol. 1, part 1, p. 59. For further details on the Sufi grades of
awliyd,
see J. S. Trimingham,
The Sufi Orders in Islam (Oxford, 1971) pp.
163-65; A. A. Nicholson, "Badal,"
The Encyclopedia of Islam, 1st ed.
113. Al-Ahsá'í,
"`Isma wa raj'a," Jawámi', vol. 1,
part 1, p. 59. This tradition is also quoted by al-Ahsá'í in a
similar context in
Sharh alziyára, vol. 3, p. 215. The Báb
discusses these seven stages of
marifa in his
Sahlfay-i `adliyya
(n.p. [Tehran], n.d.; pp. 18-33), where the
arkán are
identified as the four úlú
`l-'azm before Muhammad (i.e.,
Noah, Abraham, Moses and Jesus) and as four prophets who acted as pillars of
God's grace after Muhammad (Jesus, Khidr, Elias, and Idris).
114. On this central concept, see al-Ahsá'í
Sharh
al-ziyára, vol. 1, pp. 20-27, 121; vol. 2, pp. 353, 363-64 (where he
places
nubuwwa before
ma'áni and
af'ál after
imáma);
vol. 3, pp. 29-30, 38, 144, 149; vol. 4, pp. 171,
250, 269. For a much more detailed exposition, see Hájí
Mullá Muhammad Karim Khán Kirmáni,
Irshád
al-'awámm, 4th ed., 4 vols. in 2 (Kerman, 1380/1960) vol. 3, pp.
96-262.
115. Al-Ahsá'í
Sharh al-ziyára, vol. 3, p. 215.
116. Ibid., p. 216.
117. Ibid., p. 243. The knowledge of God vouchsafed to the Imáms
themselves differs from one to the next, although all possess sufficient
knowledge to perform the function of
hujja, which requires fulfilling
men's needs in respect to knowing God. (See ibid., vol. 2, pp. 311-12)
118. See, for example, ibid., vol. 2, pp. 64, 201, 203, 364; vol. 3, p. 11.
119. Assuming this to be a reasonably early tradition,
fuqahá'
here must be taken in its original wider sense of "scholars" (equivalent to
`ulamá'), rather than "jurisprudents."
120. Ibid., vol. 2, p. 265.
[page 149]
121. Qurratu'l-'Ayn,
Risála in Gulpáygáni and
Gulpáygáni,
Kashf al-ghitd', appendix, pp. 5-6.
122. Qurratu'l-'Ayn here quotes a version of a well-known tradition to the
effect that in every age there is an arbiter (
`adál)
who
rejects from the faith the corruptions of the errant and thus preserves it from
error. For other references, see MacEoin, "From Shaykhism to Babism," p. 14.
123. Qurratu'l-'Ayn,
Risála in Gulpáygáni and
Gulpáygáni,
Kashf al-ghitá', appendix, pp. 3-8.
124. Ibid., pp. 11-14.
125. Ibid., p. 15. This reference indicates that the
Risála must
predate the Báb's claim to
qá'imiyya.
126. For fuller details, see MacEoin, "From Shaykhism to Babism," pp.
168-71.
127. Qurratu'l-'Ayn,
Risála (MS in private hands, Tehran; copy in
possession of author) pp. 8-9.
128. Ibid., p. 12.
129. Ibid., pp. 13-14. On the Báb as the "fourth support," cf. p. 30.
130. Ibid., pp. 18, 19. On the Báb as one of the
nuqabá',
cf. p. 30. The Báb himself refers to al-Ahsá'í as a
"pure Shi'a" (
shi'ay-i khális) in his
Sahífay-i
`adliyya. (p. 33)
131. Qurratu'l-'Ayn,
Risála (in private hands) pp. 30-31. For
details of this tradition, see al-Ahsá'í
Sharhi
al-ziyára, vol. 3, pp. 361-62; vol. 4, pp. 195, 200-201; idem,
Sharh al-Arshiyya, vol. 1, p. 21.
132. Qurratu'l-Ayn,
Risála (in private hands) p. 34.
133. The later Bahá'í writer Mullá Muhammad Zarandi,
Nabil, appears to identify the Letters of the Living as
nuqabá'
under the looser title "Men of the Unseen" (presumably
rijál
al-ghayb ) see
Dawn-Breakers, p. 70.
134. The Báb,
Sahífay-i `adliyya, pp. 20-33, especially
pp. 29-31.
135. Idem, quoted Qurratu'l-'Ayn (1),
Risála, in
Mázandaránl,
Zuhúr al-Haqq, vol. 3, p. 250. (This
Risála is also reproduced in
Nivishtiját, pp.
310-332; this reference p. 317.)
136. Quoted al-Karbalá'í,
Risála, in
Mázandarání,
Zuhúr al-haqq, vol. 3, p.
248.
137. Quoted ibid.
138. See note 31. See further Rajab 'Alíi Qahir,
Risála,
f. 30b-31a.
[page 150]
This theory may owe something to the frequent use of the mirror analogy
by Ibn al-'Arabi. See Ibn al-'Arabí,
Bezels, pp. 50-51, 233; cf.
Austin's comments, ibid., p. 48.
139. See note 117.
140. The Báb,
Panj shan, p. 102.
141. Ibid., pp. 162-63.
142. Ibid., p. 133. On God's singling out a mirror from all creation, see
ibid., pp. 120, 132, 141, 149. On the significance of the
butún,
see below.
143. Ibid., p. 133.
144. Ibid., p. 134.
145. The term
náfiq, together with its corollary
al-sámit, ("the silent one"), is, of course, well known in
Ismailism, although it finds a certain usage in Imámi Shiism as well.
Al-Ahsá'i speaks of the appearance of a
náfiq and
sámit in each age (
Sharh al-ziyára, vol. 3, p.
151).
146. The Báb,
Panj sha'n, p. 134.
147. Ibid., p. 135. On the dependence and indirectness of the secondary and
subsequent mirrors, see ibid., p. 217 and idem,
Bayán-i
fársí, 6:7, p. 208.
148. Idem,
Panj shan, pp. 149-50.
149. Ibid., pp. 199-201. It is unclear from the context whether the first
mirror here refers to the Báb himself or to another individual, possibly
Subh-i Azal. There are certainly references elsewhere to the latter's
possession of
fitra.
150. On the use of
al-wáhid at-awwal, see the Báb,
al-Bayán al-arabi, 1:1, p. 3; idem,
Haykal al-din, 1:12,
p. 3.
151. Nabil,
Dawn-Breakers, p. 123. Cf. A. L. M. Nicolas (trans.),
Le
Báyan Persan, 4 vols. (Paris, 1911-1914), vol. 1, pp. 7-9, f.n., 13,
f.n. On the relationship of this system to the Bábí calendar, see
the Báb,
Bayán-i fársí, 5:3, p. 153. There
are parallels to the
kullu shay' total in various Sufi theories,
including Rúzbihán Baqlí Shirázi's concept of 366
saints linked to the hearts of various prophets. (See H. Corbin,
L'homme de
lumiere dans le Soufisme Iranien [Paris, 1971], p. 83.
152. Rajab `All Qahir,
Risála, f.43b.
153. The Báb,
al-Bayán al-'arabi, 8:16, p. 38.
154. `Abdu'l-Hamid Ishráq-Khávarí,
Rahíq-i
makhtúm, 2 vols. (Tehran, 1974-75), vol. 1, p. 338.
[page 151]
155. The Báb,
Panj sha'n, p. 280. The sentence following this
seems to me extremely significant, but it is, I fear, very difficult to
interpret owing to the vagueness of verbs and pronouns in it. A tentative
translation would continue the passage as follows: "for after I stripped off
that garment [i.e.,
Bábiyya I and revealed myself in the name of
messiah-hood (
al-maqsúdiyya)
and the status of the
promised one (
al-maw'údiyya), it was necessary that one of its
temples (
mm hayákilihá [reading
há as a
pronoun, although it is written as if separate "one of the temples of
`hd"'7I) should put it (
al-Bábiyya?] on." Mullá Rajab `Ali
Qahir omits the
há (or
há') in his quotation of
this passage. (
Risála, f. 76b)
156. The Báb,
Panj sha'n, pp. 184-85.
157. Ibid, pp. 256-57. Also quoted Rajab `Ali Qahir,
Risála, f.
76b.
158. The Báb,
Salát-i Hayákil, quoted ibid, f. 58a;
also quoted `Izziyya KMnum,
Tanbih al-nd'imin, p. 50. The number 66
equals the word
alláh. There may be eschatological significance
in the period of sixty-six years. Shi'i tradition refers to the "year 66" in an
eschatological context. (See al-Ahsá'í, "`Isma wa raj'a,"
Jawám', vol. 1, part 1, p. 84.)
159. On which see my paper, "Nineteenth-century Bábí
talismans."
160. The Báb,
Panj sha'n, p. 408. The passage is obscure.
Sixty-six years for each letter comes to only 1254, which does not seem to be a
significant year.
161. Ibid., p. 412. Cf. idem,
al-Bayán al-'arabi, 5:10, p. 11,
where the
hayákil al-hayy (i.e., Letters of the Living) are
described as mirrors before the "sun of the point" (
shams
al-nuqfa).
162. The Báb,
Haykal al-din, 7:1, p. 27.
163. Ibid., 5:6, p. 6; idem,
al-Bayán al-'arabi, 5:6, p. 19.
164. Ibid., 8:16, p. 38; idem,
Bayán-i fársí, 8:16,
p. 300.
165. Idem,
al-Bayán al-'arabi, 11:2, p. 54.
166. Idem,
Panj sha'n, p. 209. On the
buija as single with other
bujal in its shadow, see ibid., p. 136.
167. He also mentions
qunnád (
7)
, the meaning of
which is unclear.
168. The Báb,
Panj sha'n, p. 199. Cf. ibid., p. 247.
169. Ibid., p. 381.
170. Ibid., p. 258. Cf. ibid., p. 176.
171. Reading the
nún of the verb as emphatic, in order to provide
a singular for the imminent pronoun
hu.
[page 152]
172. Passage from untitled word of the Báb, quoted Rajab
`Alí,
Risála, f. 60a.
173. Letter to Mírzá Ibráhim Qazviní, in the
Báb and Núrí,
Majmúá'a'i az
áthár, p.38. On the use of "al-wahid" as a title of Subh-i
Azal, see Browne, "The Babis of Persia. II,"
Journal of the Royal Asiatic
Society 21 (1889) pp. 996-97.
174. The Báb, passage from
Kitáb al-asmá' (7),
quoted Rajab `Ali Qahir,
Risála, f. 20b.
175. See, for example, the Báb,
Bayán-i fársí,
4:5, pp. 119-20; 5:5, pp. 157, 158; 7:16, p. 262; idem,
al-Bayán
al-'arabi, 9:3, p. 41; 11:2, p. 54; 11:13, p.58; 11:16, p.60; idem,
Haykal al-din, 1:16, p.4; 5:19, p. 9; 3:11, p. 11; 4:9, p. 15; 7:9, p.
29; 7:16, p. 31.
176. See, for example, the Báb,
al-Bayán al-'arabi, lO:16,
p. 50; 10:17, p. 51; 11:2, p. 54; idem,
Haykal al-din, 3:11, p. 11;
t:16, p. 31.
177. See, for example, ibid., 5:5, p. 6; 5:19, p. 9; 4:9, p. 15.
178. Ibid., 7:1, p. 27.
179. Idem,
al-Bayán al-'arabi, 9:14, p. 43.
180. Idem,
Haykal al-din, 1:16, p. 4.
181. This topic has been discussed previously by several writers, including E.
G. Browne (
Nuqtat al-káf, pp. XXV-XXVI)
Ishráq-Khávari (
Rabiq, vol. 2, pp. 514-25) and
Mázandarání (
Asrár, vol. 4, pp. 427-28).
182. The Báb,
Bayán-i fársí, 2:16, pp.
61-62. See also ibid., 2:17, p. 71; 3:15, p. 100; 7:10, p. 252.
183. Ibid., 3:15, p. 100; 7:10, p. 252.
184. There is evidence that Bahá'u'lláh himself may have
originally held this view. In the
Lawh kull al-ta'ám he writes "0
Kamál, were I to explain this verse to you from today until the days
reach
al-mustagháth, the day when men shall stand before the face
of the Living, the Creator, I would be able to do so through what God has given
me of his grace and bounty." (In Ishráq Khávarí,
Má'ida, vol.4, pp. 272-73.) The implication seems to be that the
time-span involved is one of great duration.
185. The Báb,
Panj sha'n, pp. 162, 198, 208, 315.
186. "In every
Zuhúr God renews the creation of all things."
(Ibid., p. 352)
187. Ibid., p. 176; cf. p. 194. Cf. idem,
Kitáb al-asmá',
quoted by Rajab `Alí Qahir,
Risála, f. 58b.
[page 153]
188. The Báb,
Pani sha'n, p. 315.
189. Idem,
Bayán-i fársí, 2:7, p. 31.
190. Thus, he states that all things culminate in the form of man and that man
progresses from level to level until he reaches perfection as a prophet
(
Bayán-i fársí, 2:1, pp. 14-15); men are singled
out from the rest of creation and purified by the prophets (
Panj sha'n,
p. 205); the Báb himself has been raised through increasingly
exalted stations (ibid., pp. 184-85); clay will progress to stages of
increasing refinement through the alchemical process (ibid., p. 337); the
inhabitants of hell in a subsequent revelation possess a station higher than
those of paradise in the one before (ibid., p. 426 but cf. p. 403); divine
knowledge is revealed progressively (ibid., p. 100); the words of the
manifestation in each revelation are more exalted than in the previous one
(
Bayán-i fársí, 3:1, p. 79); each revelation is the
same as the one before, but nobler (ibid., 3:1, pp. 79-80; cf. 4:11, p. 136);
the successive manifestations resemble a child at various states of its growth
(ibid., 3:12, p. 95); the paradise of each thing lies in its perfection (ibid.,
5:3, p. 155); each thing has its degree of perfection in which a divine name
may be applied to it (ibid., 5:6, p. 164); as the ages progress, the time will
come when nothing is named save by a divine name (ibid., 5:4, p. 155); if it be
in anyone's power to do a thing to perfection, he must not leave any
shortcomings in it (ibid., 6:3, p. 192.
191. Al-Ahsá'i, "Al-Risála al-Rashtiyya," in
Jawámi',
vol. 1, part 2, p. 103. Al-Ahsá'i states elsewhere that time
(
zamán)
may be subtle (
lafif)
, dense
(
ghali;)
, simple (
basil)
, or compound
(
murakkab)
. (See
Sharh al-ziydrá7vol. 3, p.
305.)
192. Idem, "`Isma wa raj'a," in
Jawámí', vol. 1, part 1,
p. 82. This idea is in itself linked to Ibn Siná's theory that the
measurement of time depends upon motion, time being the quantity or measure of
motion. (See Sayyed Hossein Nasr,
An Introduction to Islamic Cosmological
Doctrines, [Cambridge, Mass., 1864], pp. 224-25.)
193. Al-Ahsá'i, "`Isma wa raj'a," in
Jawámi', vol. 1, part
1, p. 62.
194. The Báb,
Panj sha'n, p. 248.
195. Ibid., p. 319. The Báb consistently dates the Islamic era, not from
the
hijra in 622, but to the prophet's
ba'tha, ten years
previously.
196. Ibid., p. 215.
[page 154]
197. Ibid., p. 311.
198. Ibid., p. 199.
199. Ibid., p. 315. Cf. idem,
Bayán-i fársí, 7:10,
p. 252.
200. See my paper "Nineteenth-century Bábí talismans." For
example of prophetic interpretation of some passages in this part of the
Panj sha'n, see Mírzá Husayn `Ali Núrí,
Bahá'u'lláh, letter to Muballigh-i Shirázi, Iran National
Bahá'í Archives, MS 3003C (incorrectly catalogued as a work of
the Báb).
201. Al-Ahsá'í,
Sharh al-ziyára, vol. 3, pp. 63,
87, 115, 120.
202. See ibid., vol. 3, pp. 54-121; idem., "`Isma wa raj'a," in
Jawámr', vol. 1, part 1, pp. 38-111; Muhammad Báqir
Majlisi,
Bábár al-anwár, 102 vols. (Tehran,
1384/1964), vol. 53; Sachedina,
Islamic
Messianism, chapter 5.
203. Al-Ahsá'í,
Sharh al-ziyára, vol. 3, p. 57.
204. Ibid., pp. 57-58. Other figures are also given, including 203, 309, 19,
and 70.
205. Ibid., pp. 58, 60.
206. Ibid., p. 60.
207. The Báb, letter to Mullá Shaykh `Ali Turshizi, `Azím,
in the Báb and Yazdi,
Qismati az alwáh, p. 13.
208. See, for example, al-Ahsá'í
Sharh al-ziyára,
vol. 3, p. 60.
209. The Báb,
Dalá'il, p. 58.
210. Ibid.
211. Ibid.
212. Ibid. This is explained metaphorically in terms of light as a lamp burning
itself in order to give illumination to others (just as Husayn sacrificed
himself), pp. 58-59. It also appears to be numerologically true, since "Husayn"
(128) when doubled equals
rnár (256). It is conceivable that the
doubling in this case is an allusion to Husayn's return. For the text of the
Du'á al-sabar together with a commentary, see Háji
Muhammad Karim Khán Kirmáni,
Sharh du'á al-sabar
(Kerman, n.d.). Kirmáni identifies the
núr outwardly
with the Fourth Support (
rukn al-rábi')
and inwardly with
the Qá'im. (See ibid., pp. 61, 62)
213. See the Báb,
Panj sha'n, pp. 294, 321.
214. Idem,
Dalá'il, p. 59. Although the text differs slightly,
this is almost certainly the letter quoted in part by Rashti himself in his
Dalil
[page 155]
al-mutahayyirin (np. [Tabrizl], 1276/1859-60), p. 37. The phrase quoted,
with a slight variation, is from the Qur'án (38:88).
215. Quoted in the Báb,
Dalá'il p. 46.
216. See Shoghi Effendi, in Nabil,
Dawn-Breakers, p. 18, f.n. 1.
217. The Báb,
Panj shan, pp. 255-56. A garbled version of this
passage is given by Mírzá Husayn Ali Nári,
Bahá'u'lláh in his
Lawh-i Shaykh (Cairo, 1338/1920) pp.
104-05 (trans. by Shoghi Effendi,
Epistle to the Son of the Wolf
[Wilmette, Ill.: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1941], p. 142); cf.
ibid., pp. 113-14 (trans.
Epistle, p. 152).
218. The Báb,
Panj sha'n, p. 256.
219. Ibid., p. 280. The term
qabla bin occurs frequently in the phrase
"in every time and before a time and after a time' (
fi kulli bin wa wabla
bin wa ba'da bin)
, much used in Bábí writing. See, for
example, passages in Mázandarání,
Zuhúr al-haqq,
vol. 3, pp. 70, 167 (last line), 168 (last two lines);
Kásháni,
Nuqtatu'l-káf, pp. 429-30; the Báb,
Dalá'il, p. 72; idem, letter in the Báb and Yazdí,
Qismati az alwáh, p. 9, 35.
220. Idem,
Panj shan, p. 256.
221. Ibid., p.280.
222. Bahá'u'lláh,
Law b-i Shaykh, pp. 113-14 (trans.
Epistle, p. 152).
223. The Báb,
al-Bayán al-'arabi, 6:15, p. 27.
224. Reading the opening verb as an imperative, by analogy with the
corresponding passage in the
Bayán-i farsi, 6:15, p. 230.
225. The Báb,
Haykal al-din, 6:15, p. 25.
226. Letter quoted in Mázandarání,
Zuhúr
al-haqq, vol. 3, p. 223. Bahá'í doctrine, however, explicitly
identifies
al-qayyúm as a prophetic title of
Bahá'u'lláh. (See Ishráq-Khávarí,
Rabiq,
vol. 2, pp. 316-17; Mázandaráni,
Asrár, vol. 4,
pp. 259-31; Mírzá Husayn `Ali Nári,
Bahá'u'lláh, letter to Shaykh Kázim Qazvini Samandar, in
Alwáh-i hadrat-i Bahá'u'lláh . . .
shámil-i Iqtidárát . . . (n.p., n.d.), p. 61; idem,
letter in Ishráq-Khávarí,
Má'ida, vol. 4,
pp. 173-74.) The term appears to be used for Subh-i Azal in the
Nuqtatu'l-káf, p. 253.
