THIS IS UNCORRECTED OCR, IT NEEDS TO BE PROOFREAD. -J.W.
Five Years in a Persian Town. Napier Malcolm. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1907. Pages 86-96.
not proofread
[page 86]
There are in Persia sects which are only
nominally Mussulman, and which largely owe
their origin to non-Mohammedan sources. The
Safis, for instance, are only half Mohammedan,
and their philosophy is really pantheistic. Sufis
are to be found in Yezd, but there are not very
many serious ones, and the sect has largely lost
its direct influence in the country. But the Babis,
of whom the Beha! branch is rapidly spreading
everywhere throughout the Persian towns, have
been influenced by Sufi ideas to a much greater
extent than have the orthodox Shiahs, who, we
agreed, are not - pantheistic. Perhaps some
professing Behdis are really very near to the
Sufis in ideas, but this is not the case with the
more orthodox, who, though they have modified
the fundamental doctrines of Mohammedanism
in such a way as to remove the gulf between
God and the prophet, have not produced a
theology which is free from the obvious defects
of that of Islam. The Belid! appears to hold
that the superior prophet, that is, the book-
bearer, is in every case an incarnation of the
Deity, but lie goes on to say that there is an
absolute distinction between the prophet and his
people; for the book-bearer is God, and the
[page 87]
people are not God; nor are they, so far as I
can understand, capable of receiving the Spirit of
God, either from the prophet or directly from
God Himself. They can only be impressed by
the prophet as wax is impressed by a seal.
Whether this doctrine is really Behau'llah's or
not, it was certainly given to me by men who
ought to have known the truth about the Belia!
faith.
The adherents of this sect in Persia are now
exceedingly numerous, and many people believe
that in the end the whole country will become
Behmi; so the question whether the Beh57is are
more reliable than the orthodox Shiahs has
become an important one. Certainly they teach
a cleaner and purer doctrine on points of ethics;
but what Persia needs is not so much a higher
moral teaching, but rather a higher basis for
morality. A religion that puts the command-
ment not to steal on the same level as the
direction not to stew your dates but to fry them,
will never produce the high characters that are
to be found in such communities as the Parsi. It
would be irreverent to compare such a faith
with the religion given to us by the Saviour.
During the late BehO massacre, I had the
[page 88]
opportunity of discussing what was going on
with a Behai muballigh, that is, an authorised
Beh-a-1 teacher and missionary. I have no in-
tention of unnecessarily dwelling on the ghastly
horrors that were then being perpetrated, but
a few details are unavoidable. The Belidi sec-
taries were not at that time being executed
before the mujtahids, but were being torn in
pieces by the crowd. What had excited the
people was not simply religious feeling, but it
was very largely the statement by the clerical
authorities that the goods of the Belidis were
"lawful," that is, that any one might plunder
them who cared to do so. The attacks were
often made by men who had lived for a long
while in close companioDship with the Behais.
knowing them all the time to be members of
the sect, and yet consorting and eating with
them freely. Holes were bored in the heads
of some of these poor wretches with awls, oil
was then poured into the hole and lighted. Other
forms of torture were used about which one
cannot write. Women and children were very
seldom actually killed, but were fearfully ill-
treated, and sometimes left to die of starvation.
It was reported that in one of the villages-Babi
[page 89]
children died within full sight of the villagers,
after waiting for days' under the trees where
their murdered parents had left them.
The Behd! muballigh with whom I was talking
was certainly well aware, in a general way, of
what was going on; yet I could not get him to
see that these things, done in the name of religion
to his own sect, were in themselves wrong, and
that man's eyes had been opened, or could be
opened, to their essential wrongness. Of course
he maintained that the action of the Mussulmans
was evil, but his reason was that, in the first
place, those persecuted- were spiritually right,
and, in the second place, even had they not been
so, the last book-bearer~ the Behau'llah, had
promulgated a Divine commandment that there
was to be -no religious persecution. I then asked
him if such persecution could again become lawful
if another book-bearer appeared and promulgated
a different commandment. He answered that it
was impossible for another book-bearer to appear
for a long period. I then asked him if he would
accept a new book-bearer, who, besides satisfying
the other conditions, exhibited a text in one
of the previously received Scriptures, stating
that one day in God's sight is - as a thousand
[page 90]
years. He replied that, if such a verse could
be shown, and the other conditions were satisfied,
such a man might be accepted to-morrow, even
although he taught a doctrine similar to that
of Mohammed about religious persecution and
other matters of the same sort.
Now there are three points to be noted by
those who expect great things of the Beha! move-
ment. First of all, the Behdis accept the whole
of the Jewish and Christian Scriptures, which,
of course, include a verse of the kind above
mentioned. Secondly, they have already had
three book-bearers'; the Bab, who was the original
founder of the Babi sects, and who not only
exhibited a Divine book, but also claimed to be
the resurrection of Mohammed in the same way
that Mohammed was the resurrection of Jesus;
Subhi Azal, whom for some years they recognised
as the Bab's successor; and lastly, Behau'llah,
whom the Behdis now hold to be the only major
prophet of the three. Thirdly, the BebYis, in
attempting to prove that the Bab was a lesser
prophet and a mere forerunner of the Behau'llah,
and also that Subhi Azal was never a really
great personage, have seriously falsified their
records. The reader who desires further informa-
[page 91]
tion on this subject cannot do better than consult
Professor E. G. Browne's admirable introduction
to his translation of the Tdr~khi Jad0.
The Bab, who came forward rather less than
a century ago, was a young Shirazi Persian, a
Seyid of the merchant class, whose real name
was Ali Mohammed. The Shaikhi sect were at
that time predicting the appearance of a great
religious leader, and the Bab came forward claim-
ing to be this prophet. He called himself the
Bab, or Gate of Knowledge, and was at first
supposed by his followers to be the Gate of
Access to the Mehdi; but he seems to have used
these terms in a very broad and allegorical fashion,
and to have held the doctrine of the essential
unity of all book-bearers. He later declared
himself to be the - Mehdi, and also to be the Gate
of Access to One Whom God should manifest.
The movement caused a great deal of fighting
in Persia, and though the Babis were acting on
the defensive, there is very little doubt that they
had harboured political designs. The Bab, how-
ever, differs from Mohammed in having been,
so far as we can judge, primarily' a religious
reformer, and having done his best to make the
movement as spiritual as possible. His followers
[page 92]
were treated with the most barbarous severity,
and he himself was after a few years put to
death. Before this be appointed Subhi Azal,
one of his followers, to be his successor, and for
a few years this man was received as " He Whom
God should manifest." Later on, Subhi Azal's
half-brother, the Belidu'llah, managed to get
himself accepted as head of the sect. Many of
the followers of Subhi Azal were assassinated,
and the sect was re-organised with some important
differences. It now purports to be absolutely
non-political, and the teaching has become more
simple and practical. The Belidis are anxious
to retain the use of the Quran, so as to preserve
their claim to toleration, although they imagine
that the law of the Quran no longer stands, its
place having been taken by a later revelation.
Partially to avoid inconsistency in this matter,
and partially to keep before the minds of the
Mussulmans the possibility of one really divine
book being replaced by another, they encourage
the reading of all the Scripture considered divine
by Mohammedans, that is, not only the Quran,
but also the whole of the Christian Bible, nor
do they generally call the authenticity of the
extant version in question,
[page 93]
Behalism is obviously an attempt to adapt
Jlslam to the exigencies of modern circumstances,
taking advantage of the special tenets of the
Shiahs. The North of Persia is being at present
rapidly overrun by Itussia, and even in the South
the Persian feels that he is on the eve of political
changes. The Belidis consider that they have
a creed which enables them to meet the foreigner
without continual jar and offence. In this they
are right, for they do not veil their women, they
do not consider infidels unclean, and they go
further than does the broadest Shiah in the matter
of respect to other forms of faith. Some orthodox
Shiahs accept the Jewish and Christian Scriptures
as they stand, without pressing the story that
the Jews and Christians altered their books to
suit-their own purposes. Almost all Persians are
open to argument on this point, though most will
say that to those possessed of the Qm-an the
perusal of former Scriptures is unnecessary. But
the Behals hold that, unless started by a real
prophet, no religion can possibly survive, and
consequently they allow to even the grossest
forms of idolatry -a divine origin, and the posses-
sion of a certain substratum of truth.
In Persia there can never have been that
[page 94]
almost impenetrable wall of dogmatic assertion
and self-assurance which seems to exist in many
Sunni lands, but something of the kind is to be
found throughout Islam. As the self-satisfaction
of the Beha! is almost as strong as that of the
Sunni, and infinitely stronger than that of the
Shiab, it seems a paradox to say that 13abiism
has given us in Persia a prepared soil for missionary
work. The fact is that the field prepared is not
amongst the Babis themselves, but amongst the
Shiahs who have been in touch with Babis, and
are nevertheless unconvinced. Consequently it
is a field which cannot be expected to last for
ever, but of which advantage ought to be taken
immediately, for it is very seldom that we find
so exceptional an opportunity given to us for
attacking Mohammedanism on its own ground.
In Yezd the Behdis have attached to them-
selves many of the most enlightened Mussulmans.
The teaching of the sect about behaviour and
practice is not bad, though, in matters connected
with women, there is an inclination to adopt
customs that are rather dangerous considering
the low moral atmosphere. - The tendency to
minimise the miraculous element in religion is
not altogether wholesome, and some professing
[page 95]
Babis are inclined to a rather crude rationalism,
the end of which it is difficult to foresee. This
tendency is perhaps fostered by the peculiar
manner of interpreting the sacred books, a method
difficult to describe, as it fluctuates between the
wildest flights of metaphor, and the lowest depths
of puerile literalism, the balance between the
two being decided by a very determined pre-
conception of * what ought to be. To give a
specimen of this, it was seriously urged in a Behaii
pamphlet, reviewed and summarised by the Itev.
W. A. Rice in the Church Missionary Intelligencer,
that Isaiah xxv. 6-9, where God is described as
making " unto all people a feast of fat things, a
feast of wine on the lees, of fat things full of
marrow, of wines on the lees well refined," refers
to the entertaining of visitors by Behau'llah during
his banishment at Acre. The "wines on the lees
well refined " are the tea, which Persians generally
pour through a small strainer. The passage also
refers to the fact that God " will swallow up
death in victory," and will 11 wipe away all tears
from off all faces; and the rebuke of His people
shall He take away from off all the earth." To
this part only a spiritual interpretation is given.
I tried before I left Persia to find out the
[page 96]
impression that the sect had made upon other
Europeans, so as not to give a one-sided opinion
about them. Personally, I came to the conclusion
that, in matters even remotely connected with
religion, they were less truthful than the ordinary
Shiah, but that in the ordinary affairs of life
they were a trifle more reliable. Some other
missionaries had a lower opinion of their truthful-
ness, and most of those who had had business
dealings with them considered that they were
not more trustworthy than ordinary Mussulmans.
My conclusion is that, though they may succeed
in establishing their creed in Persia, and may
even make the Persians more easy to deal with,
they will not greatly alter the moral character
of the people. They have not done so hitherto,
and an examination of their faith shows that
they cling, in the main, to the Mussulman theory
of the paighambari, or at any rate have not
changed it for a doctrine which gives a man more
cogent reasons for adhering to an approved line
of conduct in times of difficulty.
