Mysteries within Mysteries : an Introduction to some Theological, Mystical and Esoteric dimensions of the Kitāb-i Panj Sha`n (Book of the Five Modes) of the Sayyid `Alī Muhammad, the Bāb (d. Tabriz, 1850 CE).

Stephen Lambden

   کتاب پنج شأن  

 

 

The first page of the Azalī-Bābī printed edition of the Kitāb-i Panj Sha`n

which has sometimes questionable orthography and is is without voweling

(like many autograph and other mss. of the writings of the Bāb)

 

THIS IS CURRENTLY UNDER REVISION AND COMPLETION

 

Last updated 5/01/06

 

Provisional translation of the Arabic opening lines of the Kitāb-i Panj Sha`n (I /1:1-5) :

 

Revelation Mode (sha`n) 1 =  Āyāt (Arabic verses)

 

1/1

 

[1]

 

بسم الله الاءله الاٍٍءله 

 

اننی انا الله لا اله الا انا الاءله الاءله

 

In the Name of God, the Deity Most Divine (al-a'lah), the Supreme Deity (al-a'lah).

I, verily am God, no God is there except Me, the Deity Most Divine (al-a'lah), the Supreme Godhead (al-a'lah).

 

[2]

 

 بسم الله الا له الا له بالله الله الاءله الاءله

In the Name of God,

the Deity Most Divine (al-a'lah), the Supreme Deity (al-a'lah).

Through God is God (bi-Allāh Allāh), the Deity Most Divine (al-a'lah), the Supreme Godhead (al-a'lah).

 

[3]

بسم الله المؤٍله المؤله الله لا اله الا هو الاءله الاءله

 

In the Name of God, the Deified, the Deified. 

God, no God is there except Him, the Deity Most Divine, the Supreme Deity.

 

[4]

 

الله لا اله الا هو المؤِِله المؤِِله

 الله لا اله الا هو المؤِِتله الالهان

       

God, no God is there except Him, the Deified, the Deified

 

God, no God is there except Him, the Deity Generative of the twin Deities (al-ilāhān)

 

            [5]

الله لا اله الا هو المؤِِتله المتال

ولله اليه الهان السموات والارض وما بينهما

 

God, no God is there except Him, the Deity Generative of the Deity Generated.

Unto God indeed, unto Him [alone]  are these dual Deities of the heavens and of the earth and what lieth between them. 

 

________________________________________________

 

 

The Kitāb-i Panj Sha`n (= KPS) (The Book of the Five Modes [ or Grades]) is a fairly lengthy major work of the Bāb largely written largely in Arabic but with some (heavily Arabized) Persian sections making up 1/5th of the work. It is a very rich work existing in a large number of mss. copies dating from the 1850s. Its subject matter is representative of the last phrase of the thought and meditative devotional style of the Bāb.

As is well-known, the Bāb divided his writings into categories, modes, grades or types (sha`n,  pl. shu`ūn).  He often spoke of a five-fold division (cf. the word Bāb has an abjad numerical value of 5) which, though it sometimes varies a little, often includes the following categories of revealed verses :

·         (1) Āyāt  = Qur’anic style verses;

·         (2) Munājāt = Devotional pieces, prayers, supplications;

·         (3) Khuṭbah = Sermons, Orations, Homilies /   

          or alternatively,  Suwar-i `ilmiyya = "Surahs expressive of divine knowledge”;

·         (4) Tafāsīr [sing. Tafsīr] = “Commentaries”, and

·         (5) Fārsī  =  Persian language revelations.

 

This pentadic (five-fold) configuration is clear from the Persian Bayān and other writings, especially Persian Bayan   III:17;  VI:1 and IX:2.  It is on account of this five-fold division of the Bāb’s writings that the Kitāb-i Panj Sha`n gets its name. Panj means “five” and  sha`n  (pl.  shu`ūn) means “mode”, “category”, “grade”, etc. The KPS and related works and compilations are sometimes also referred to by the slightly abbreviated Persian equivalent Shu'ūn-i khamsa  (= “Five Modes”). Volumes of works with this title can be found in mss. collections of the Bāb's writings existing in the British Museum [Library] ( Or. 5612 and Or. 6680), the Cambridge University Library (Browne Collection) and elsewhere (e.g. BBF.2 etc).

It is significant that the Bāb included Persian as one of the specific languages of revelation as, of course, did Baha'u'llah himself. Within Islam the only language of qur'anic revelation is Arabic. Although some foreign language items of vocabulary such as the Persian words  firdaws (Paradise) are found in the Qur'an,  many if not most Islamic scholars tended to play down the existence and/or importance of such loan words or items of non-Arabic qur'anic vocabulary. It was argued by Muslims in the light of authoritative hadith that Arabic is supreme and that it is the language of God most fit for the revelation of the Word of God.  The Bāb and Baha'u'llah added Persian to the Islamic Arabic language of revelation. An Indo-European language (Persian) was added to the Semitic (Arabic) language, rather like the Christian Bible which includes scripture in a Semitic (Hebrew-Aramaic) language (the Hebrew Bible, Tanakh) and an Indo-European language (Greek),  the Greek New Testament. 

 The Kitāb-i Panj Sha`n is a work that the Bāb began writing at  a very auspicious time,  at the beginning of the Bābī year seven  which falls in the spring  of the year 1850 CE.  More precisely he commenced  this work on the 1st of Bahā’  of the Badī` or Bābī (-Bahā’ī  ) year 7 (= 1850 )  which (in the Christian Gregorian calendar ) corresponds to the 19th of March 1850 CE  (= in the Islamic calendar to the 5th of Jumāda I  in the year 1266 AH). From this date onwards the Bāb wrote five Arabic-Persian grades daily in the name of specific  leading Bābī disciples (to whom specific groups were sent out) until 21st Jumada I (1266),  about 4 months before the martyrdom of the Bāb in Tabrīz (NW Iran) on July 9th 1850.  In communicating these daily revelations   for 17 days the result was 17x5 or 85 grades constituting a lengthy book of   over 500  pages. The  Kitāb-i Panj Sha`n was thus fairly  speedily  completed on the 4th of April 1850  or  21 Jumādā 1st 1266 AH,  about 4 months before the martyrdom of the Bāb in Tabrīz (NW Iran) on July 9th 1850. 

Though many unpublished often incomplete mss. of the Kitāb-i Panj Sha`n are known to exist, no compete critical edition has to date been produced.  Important   mss.  have not yet been collected together and compared with one another in order to obtain a  reliable or critical edition. The Azalī Bābī, only barely semi-critical printed edition dating to the 1960s, is not complete according to the Bāb’s own mss. description of  his planned  `Book of the Five Grades’. It contains twelve five-fold sections constituting (5 x12 = ) sixty  divisions and thus lacks twenty-five grades or modes (5X5) which he apparently actually revealed.  Something like a third of the KPS is absent from the Azali printed edition which is in part a pastiche from a variety of mss. 

The Kitāb-i Panj Sha`n  fast became a much beloved compendium of deep at tinmes devotional or Dhikr-type revelations. It is full of richly meditative and rhythmic paragraphs as well as highly evocate theological materials. It is meant to be chanted and heard as well as intellectually experienced, being both meditative and rhapsodic as well as intellectually challenging  for the Bābi or Muslim and other readers. The KPS includes many theologically challenging paragraphs as well as bewilderingly complex mystical details. It also messianic contains a large number of cryptic messianic references to the Bābī messiah man yuẓhir-uhu Allāh  (Him whom God shall make manifest”).

 The Possible recepients of the Pentadic Divions of the KPS

Several though  not all  (?) of the seventeen major pentadic or five-fold sections of the KPS appear to be most centrally related to a particular disciple of the Bāb. This was often someone who held a leading position in the Bābi religion in the period immediately prior its times of writing (1850). The Names of God focused upon in the five-fold sections of the KPS often relate closely to the theological identity of a given Bābī leader as is indicated by the abjad or numerical value of that persons name or title. It is not currently known with any certainty which specific Bābī disciples are alluded or addressed in each of  the 17 divisions of the KPS, the identity of only a proportion of them is tentatively known : exactly which persons are allusively indicated is not as yet known or is disputed. The following are among the individuals currently believed to be significant figures focused upon or allusively addressed in the Kitab-i Panj Sha`n with some indication of their identity (where known) and in a few cases a line or two addressed to them:

[1]

Pentad I.  KPS:1ff. Unknown .

 Perhaps to be associated with the supremely Divine Bābī messiah man yuẓhiru-hu-Allāh  (Him whom God shall make Manifest)

بسم الله الاءله الاٍٍءله اننی انا الله لا اله الا انا الاءله الاءله

 

In the Name of God, the Deity Most Divine (al-a'lah), the Supreme Deity (al-a'lah).

I, verily am God, no God is there except Me, the Deity Most Divine (al-a'lah), the Supreme Godhead (al-a'lah).

[2]

Pentad II.  KPS:37ff. Unknown .

بسم الله الاوحد الاوحد  بسم الله الوحد الوحد بسم الله الموجد الموتحد...

  In the Name of God, the Supremely Unique (al-awḥad), the Supremely Unique (al-awḥad)... 

 

[3]

Pentad III.  KPS: 67ff.

 

Sayyid Asad (= abjad 65) -Allāh Khū’ī  (d. 1856) through the Name of God Dayyān (= “Judge”, abjad  65).

بسم الله الاءِحد الاءِحد بسم الله الاحد الاحد بالله الله الاحد الاحد لا اله الا هو الاءِحدالاءِحد ...

  In the Name of God, the Supremely One (al-awḥad), the Supremely One (al-awḥad)

In God is God, the One, the One, no God is there except Him, the Supremely One, the Supremely One ,...

[4]

Pentad IV.  KPS:106ff. 

Mīrzā Yaḥyā (= abjad 28) Nūrī,  Subḥ-i Azal (The Morn of Eternity) (d. Famagusta, Cyprus 1912) known through the Name of God the Wāḥid (Unique) (= abjad 28 like Yaḥyā). This pentad begins with the basmala incorporating a superlative derived from the root Ḥ-Y-Y / Ḥ-W-Y having connotations of = "to live", "to be alive", be quickened" etc from which the proper Name يحيى  Yaḥyā  derives. This name is actually an unusual Arabic form of "Yohannan" perhaps related to this Christian Syriac form of the name "John". (KPS:106f)

بسم الله الاحيی الاحيی

الله لا اله الا هو الاحيی الاحيی بالله الله الحيی الحيی  لله لا اله الا هو المحيی المحيی

 In the Name of God,the Supremely Alive, the Most Living.God, no God is there except Him, the Supremely Alive, the Most Living.

 In God is God, the Living One the One Alive.God, no God is there except Him, the Enlivener (al-muḥyi), the Regenerator (al-muḥyi).

[5]

Pentad V.  KPS: 138ff.

Mullā `Abd al-Karīm Qazvīnī (d. 1852) known as Mirza Aḥmad Kāṭib (the Scribe). He was a key secretary of the Bab and a teacher of Muhammad Nabil-i Zarandi (d. 1892) who was imprisoned in the Siyah Chal with Baha'u'llah  and executed in 1852 CE.

بسم الله الاقوم الاقوم

بسم الله القوم القوم بالله الله القوم القوم الله لا اله الا هو الاقوم الاقوم ...

In the Name of God, the Supremely Powerful, the Most Powerful. God, no God is there except Him, the Supremely Alive, the Most Living.  In the Name of God, the Powerful, the Powerful. In God is God, the Powerful, the Powerful. God, no God is there except Him, the Supremely Powerful, the Most Powerful. 

[6]

Pentad VI.  KPS: 172ff.

Mīrzā Ḥusayn `Alī Nūrī  Bahā’u’llāh (d. Acre, Palestine, 1892 CE) known through the Name of God Bahā’  (= “Glory-Beauty”,  abjad = 9)  or (Azali-Bābis assert) Fāṭima Baraghānī  (d. 1852) known as Ṭāhirah  also allegedly known through the Name of God Bahā’.  Below are the opening verses of the Kitāb-i Panj Sha`n believed to have been dedicated to Baha'-Allah, section VI mode 1:

 بسم الله الابهی الابهی

بالله الله البهی البهی الله لا اله الا هو الابهی الابهی  الله لا اله الا هو البهی البهی الله لا اله الا هو المبتهی المبتهی الله لا اله الا هوالمبهی المبهی

الله لا اله الا هو الواحد البهيان ولله بهی بهيان بهاءِ السموات والارض وما بينهما والله بهاءِ باهی بهی

In the Name of God,

the All-Glorious (al-abha), the Most Beautiful (al-abha).

In God is God, the Luminous (al-bahiyy), the Splendid (al-bahiyy). God, no God is there except Him, the All-Glorious (al-abha), the Most Beautiful (al-abha).  In God is God, the Luminous (al-bahiyy), the Splendid (al-bahiyy).  God, no God is there except Him, (One) Radiating Splendor (al-mubtaha), (One) Manifesting Glory (al-mubtaha).  God, no God is there except Him, the Beauteous  (al-mubahiyy) the Beauteous (al-mubahiyy). God, no God is there except Him, the One (al-wāḥid), the Glorification (al-buhyān).  And unto God is the Luminosity (al-bahiyy) of the Glorification (al-buhyān) of His Glory (al-bahā') throughout the heavens and the earth and whatsoever lieth between them. And unto God belongs the Splendour (al-bahā') of the Glorification (al-buhyān) of the Glory (al-bahā')  of the heavens and the earth and whatsoever lieth between them. God is [indeed] the Glory of the Glorifying of the Luminous Glory (baha' al-bāhiyy al-bahiyy)....(KPS:138f)

The above translation and transliteration are at times very loose. Words derived from the same Arabic root as the title Bahā' (B-H-A/ [W]-') are colored red and continue for much longer than few lines translated above. The effect of reciting these words allusive of glory-beauty-splendor and light etc., can be spiritually intoxicating or hypnotic in intensity. It is almost act of mystical Dhikr of the kind indulged in by many Islamic mystics.

[7]

Pentad VII.  KPS: 213ff.

Ḥājī Mirza Sayyid `Alī (d. 1850), a merchant and one of the maternal uncles of the Bab, the Khal-i A`ẓam ("Most Great Uncle) who some reckon one of the key disciples, the Ḥurufat al-ḥayy (Letters of the Living). He was also the first of the seven martyrs of Tehran.

بسم الله الاجلل الاجلل

بالله الله الجلل الجلل الله لا اله الا هو الاجلل الاجلل الله لا اله الا هو الجلل الجلل

In the Name of God, the All-Sublime (al-ajlal), the Most Sublime (al-ajlal).

In God is God, the Illustrious, the Illustrious.

God, no God is there except Him, the All-Sublime (al-ajlal), the Most Sublime (al-ajlal).

God, no God is there except Him, the Illustrious, the Illustrious. (KPS:213)

[8]

Pentad VIII.  KPS: 252ff.

Mullā Shaykh `Alī  Turshīzī  (d. 1852) through the Name of God `Aẓīm  (= "Mighty", "Great"). A Shaykhī convert and militant Babi who in 1848 was selected to intimate the Bāb's then more explicit messianic claims. He admitted a role in the attempt on the life of Nasir al-Din Shah (d. 1896) as a result of which he was martyred.

بسم الله الاجمل الاجمل

بالله الله الجمل الجمل ذی الجمالين بسم الله الجمل ذی الجملاءِ

بسم الله المجمل المجمل بالله الله المجمل المجمل بالله الله الجمل ذی الجمالين

In the Name of God,

the Supremely Beautiful (al-ajmal), the Most Beautiful (al-ajmal).

In God is God, the Beautiful, the Beauty possessed of two-fold Beauty (al-jamālayn). In the Name of God, the Beauty possessed of Beauteousness.  In the Name of God, the Beautified, the Beautifying. In God is God, the Beautified, the Beautifying.In God is God, the One Beautiful possessed of twofold Beauty(KPS:252f).

 

[9]

Pentad IX.  KPS: 291ff.

The Scribe (Kāṭib al-Bayān) Sayyid Ḥusayn Yazdī (d. 18XXADD) or Ḥusayn Wahhābī (d. 18ADD?).

بسم الله الانور الانور

بسم الله النور ذی النوارين بسم الله النور ذی النوراءِ بسم الله النور ذی الانوار

بسم الله النور ذی النوار بسم الله النور ذی النوور

In the Name of God,

the Supreme Light, the Most Great Light.

In the Name of God possessed of double Luminosity.

In the Name of God , the Light possessed of  Radiance. In the Name of God, the Light possessed of Lights...(KPS:291f)  

[10]

Pentad VII.  KPS: 327ff.

 

Mullā Ibrāhīm Mahallātī (d. 18XX), a one-time companion of the learned Babi martyr Ṭāhirah...

بسم الله الاقدم الاقدم

بسم الله الواحد القدام بسم الله المقدم المقدم بسم الله المقدم المقدم

In the Name of God,

the Most Ancient (al-aqdam), the Most Pre-Existent (al-aqdam) .

In the Name of God the Unique (al-wāḥid) the Foremost (al-quddām) .

In the Name of God the Antecedent (al-muqaddam),  the Uppermost (al-muqaddam)

In the Name of God the Antecedent (al-muqaddam),  the Uppermost (al-muqaddam)...(KPS:327f)

 

    The persons for whom pentads XI- XVII were dedicated is unknown:

  • Pentad XI.    KPS: 365f - Unknown akmal (The Most Perfect)   Pentad XII.  KPS: XXXf - Unknown aḥkam (The Most Regulated)  Pentad XIII.   KPS:XXXf - Unknown aqdar (The Most Mighty) Pentad XIV.  KPS: 405f - Unknown al-a`lam (The Most Learned)  Pentad XV.    Unknown ?? Pentad XVI.   Unknown ?? Pentad XVII.  Unknown ??

 

￭ The Theology of the opening lines .

These above opening few lines (heading this abstract)  of the Kitāb-i Panj Sha`n ( I-1) of the Bāb  commence with a very bold “Day of God”  basmala  (“In the Name of God”) formula in which the qur’ānic personal Name of  God   الله  Allāh -- itself a contraction of the definite article = al (the) + ilāh (Deity) forming Allāh and meaning literally = the God) seems to be twice expressed in the elative or superlative (af`al). This bearing in mind that the word  اله    ilāh  (= a Deity) if  (ungrammatically) made into a superlative (preceded by the a vowel) prefixed (in line with the style of the Bāb) by the definite article. This (quasi-) superlative form thus also indicates Allah or God  as "a Supreme Deity" hence the translation "the Supreme Deity" as representing a'lah (= a + ’ilāh). As it occurs twice here (and elsewhere) I have (loosely) translated “Deity Most Divine” then "Supreme Godhead" or something similar.

These opening words cannot be taken literally as being indicative of a Deity superior to the Ultimate Godhead  but probably expresses the fact that the Godhead has been `transcendentalized' or set even higher in His-Its Ultimate Essence. This in a manner way beyond any claim to divinity made by the Bāb himself. Hence the Bāb is actually highlighting God’s absolute transcendence not claiming anything but distinctly subordinate divinity. Hence his words bi-Allāh Allāh   or "through God is God". The (quasi-) superlative of God is a fitting way for the Bāb to refer to God since he is  representing the Godhead as being utterly transcendent while himself claiming a subordinate or lesser level of divinity. The Transcendent Unknowable God is known through him as the knowable (lesser) Deity or Divinity. The Bāb implies that God the Transcendent or Unknowable and Ultimate Being, is way beyond even Divinity although He-it is known through (the secondary) "Godhead" or divinity of the Manifestation of God (maẓhar-i ilahī) who is the Bāb. As a divine Messenger of God representative of the eschatological Presence of God Himself, the  liqā’-Allāh or "Encounter with God"  on the Day of God (yawm Allāh), it is fitting that the Bāb both associate  himself with and disassociate  himself from the Ultimate Deity. He represents himself only as “God” in a secondary sense and as the Deity through whom the Deity can be known.

For both the Bāb and Bahā’u’llāh all the great Messengers or Manifestations of God can legitimately claim “divinity” by saying something like (Arabic) innanī anā Allāh, oe "I, verily am God" (see Kitāb-i iqan, XX). In saying this they never mean to claim ontological  identity with the absolute Essence (dhāt or dhāt al-dhāt) of the Godhead. The Manifestation of God never becomes the Absolute Godhead  on the level of Essences but only represents the Godhead  on the level of manifestation. Theologically it is  maẓhar (manifestation) not ḥulūl  (incarnation).

God’s transcendence is thus safeguarded in view of the Bāb’s claim to (secondary) Divinity in the opening of the Kitāb-I Panj Sha`n. These kinds of deep theological issues inform many parts of the highly theologically meaningful Kitāb-I Panj Sha`n.  I have only loosely translated this superlative of Allāh (which actually is a contraction of the basically femine al-ilāh  meaning "the God") as  “Deity Most Divine” and “Supreme Deity” though other renderings might also be equally accurate. The references to twin Deities are not intended to be polytheistic but expressive of the Ultimate Deity giving rise to the Deity of His Manifestation. The Divine Oneness (tawḥīd) is maintained in a complex and highly creative and theologically meaningful Arabic. In many of his works the Bāb commenced with a celebration of the sublime transcendence of the Ultimate Godhead. It is of course highly significant that he altered the Muslim basmala  (In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate) formula  by replacing the two words "Merciful" and "Compassionate" with two Arabic the two Arabic superlatives  al-amna`  (the most Inaccessible, ultimately Withdrawn") and  al-aqdas (the Most Sanctified [Holy]): thus, "In the Name of God, the Most Inaccessible, the Most Sanctified".  

 

MESSIANISM 

 

 قل الله اله فوق كل ذی الهه

 لن يقدران يمتنع عن اليه الهان ائتلائه من احد لافی السموات ولا فی الارض ولا ما بينهما

 انه كان الاها موءِتلها اليها هذا كتاب من الله الی من يظهره الله علی انه لا اله الا انا الموءِتله الالهان

 Say: God is a Deity above every possessor of Divinity.

It would prove impossible for anyone to compromise His transcendence above those Doubly Divine (al-ilāhān) among His divinized Ones, whether they be [located] in the heavens or upon the earth; neither [would it be possible] for [those] betwixt these twain, for He, verily, hath  ever been a  Deity generating Godhead.  This is a Book from God unto 'Him Whom God shall make Manifest'   for He, verily, no God is there except I-Myself, the Deity Generated among the Doubly Deified (al-ilāhān)...

 

 واننی انا الله لا اله الا انا

لن يقدر احد ان يحبنی ومن اراد ان يحبنی فليمجدن من يظهره الله يوم ظهوره فان هذا صراط حق مجتمل جميل اننی انا الله لا اله الا انا

 

I, verily, I am God, no God is there except Me.

It is impossible that anyone should befittingly love me. Thus, whoso desireth that he should love me [the Bāb], let him glorify  'Him whom God shall make manifest' on the Day of his Manifestation (ẓuhūr)  for such is indeed the Path of the True One (ṣirat al-ḥaqq) which is Beauteous, Beautiful.  I, verily, am God, no God is there except Me.

        In the above, again (loosely translated) deeply theological extract from the opening page of the Kitāb-i Panj Sha`n (I/1), the Bābi messiah is associated with the Godhead, the Supreme Deity. When the Bāb composed the Kitāb-i Panj Sha`n messianism was very central to his thought. In the second extract also translated above from the opening section of the Kitāb-i Panj Sha`n, the Bāb asks the reader to show his love for him by glofifying ' Him who God shall make manifest' (KPS I/1). Mentions of the future advent of the Bābī messiah    من   يظهره الله  ‘Him who God shall make manifest’ (man yuẓhiru-hu Allāh)  are scattered throughout the Kitāb-i Panj Sha`n as in other latest works such as his Haykal al-Dīn (The Temple of Religion) (1850 CE).

        The Kitāb-i Panj Sha`n very strongly underlines in several paragraphs  the fact that religion will ever be renewed. It is today a central Bābī‑Bahā’ī teaching that future divine messengers (rusul) or maẓhar-i ilāhī  (divine manifestations) will, for many thousands of years, found  and progressively renew  the eternal religion of God (= "Islam"). The Bāb’s claim to be the Shī` ī messiah did not prevent or inhibit his also predicting numerous future messianic advents using the terminology derived from Sufīsm  by referring to man yuẓhiruhu‑Allāh = `Him Whom God shall make manifest’.  The endless advent of this figure seems to be indicated in the following passage from the Kitāb-i Panj  Sha’n : 

 

 ومن بعد

البيان من يظهره الله ومن بعد من يظهره الله من يظهره الله و

ومن بعد من يظهره الله من يظهره الله ومن بعد من يظهره الله من يظهره الله

ومن بعد من يظهره الله من يظهره الله ومن بعد من يظهره الله من يظهره الله ومن بعد من يظهره الله من يظهره الله ...

 

.. And after the [Dispensation of the Bayān] it is [the manifestation of]  [1] man yuẓhiru‑hu Allāh  (Him whom God will make manifest).  And after man yuẓhiru‑hu Allāh [1] man yuẓhiruhu Allāh [2].  And after man yuẓhiru‑hu Allāh [2] man yuẓhiru‑hu Allāh  [3]. And after man yuẓhiru‑hu Allāh,  [3] man yuẓhiru‑hu Allāh [4]  And after man yuẓhiru‑hu Allāh  [4] man yuẓhiru‑hu Allāh  [5] And after man yuẓhiru‑hu Allāh [5] man yuẓhiru‑hu Allāh  [6] And after man yuẓhiru‑hu Allāh  [6]  man yuẓhiru‑hu Allāh [7].  And after man yuẓhiru‑hu Allāh [7] man yuẓhiru‑hu Allāh [8] And after man yuẓhiru‑hu Allāh [8] man yuẓhiru‑hu Allāh [9]... (K. Panj: 314‑5, cf. 397).

         The position of the Bāb indicated here is the exact opposite of the Islamic proponents of the doctrine of the finality of prophethood, who hold that divine revelation will terminate in human history. The mention of nine successive theophanies in the passage translated above most likely indicates the endless future appearance of elevated Prophets.

        

A Talismanic vest of one of the Ottoman Sultans

        In this paper some of the theological, messianic and mystical-esoteric dimensions of the Kitāb-I Panj Sha`n will be tentatively presented including the nature of references to the Bābī messiah    من   يظهره الله    ‘Him who God shall make manifest’ (man yuẓhiru-hu Allāh)  and some aspects of such Islamic rooted “sciences” as  jafr  (gematric prognostication; numerological divination), talismans and the Names and Attributes of God. In approaching these subjects it must be borne in mind that some concepts dealt with in the Kitāb-i Panj Sha`n of the Bāb may seem strange and obscure.  Such, however, was not at all the case for pious Shi`i Muslims living in Persia (Iran) in early Qajar times and   throughout the Islamic world in various other periods and locations. The Qajar Islamic `universe of discourse' in which the Bab lived and operated as a Messenger of God was in many ways very different from the often non-religious, westernized world of today. This must be appreciated, otherwise subjects like alchemy and talismans are difficult to grasp; even though they were much appreciated and widely studied and practiced in earlier centuries. Indeed, the wearing of talismans and charms of diverse kinds was commonplace in Qajar Iran. In the regions around Shiraz, for example, there were groups of Persian Jews who earned their living making and selling talismans and charms. The Ottoman Sultans had for long worn vests or cloaks  embedded with talismanic designs and symbols in order to keep protected from evil and mindful of matters spiritual (cf. the Talismanic garment above).

        As the promised Shi`i messianic Qa'im, the Bāb's was expected to have a knowledge of numerology and the esoteric sciences. He was was expected to have a mastery all kinds of occult sciences as was claimed by the fountainhead of al-Shaykhiyya (Shaykhism) Shaykh Aḥmad al-Ahsa'i (d. 1826) and others. Like the first twelver Imam `Alī (d. 40/661) who is credited with a mastery of all such inner sciences, the Bab as the `Ali  from Shiraz living in eschatological times had to prove a like knowledge. Yet, in this respect the Bab often made knowledge of amulets talismans and the like, serve another purpose. He often made such devices vehicles of messianic mindfulness, items for focusing upon the imminent new era of messianic "resurrection"' and "justice". 

 

 

______________________________________________