BĀBĪ-BAHĀ'Ī SCHOLARSHIP:
SOME NOTES ON ITS
GENESIS AND HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT
I
PRIMARY FIGURES IN
THE HISTORY OF BAHĀ'Ī SCHOLARSHIP
Mirza Ḥusayn `Alī Nurī , Bahā'-Allāh
(1817-1892)
Bahā'-Allāh founded the Bahā'ī religion in several stages towards the middle of the 19th century (1852+1863-6). As a
leading Bābī or follower of Sayyid `Alī Muhanmmad Shīrāzī
(entitled the Bāb, 1817-1850 CE), he had a mystical experience in the Siyah Chāl ("Black
Pit") dungeon in Tehran in late 1852 where he had been imprisoned as a Bābī suspected of religious heresy and insurrection.
In 1863 he was exiled to Ottoman Iraq and lived in Baghdad for most of the
decade 1852-1863.
ADD
`Abd al-Bahā'
(1844-1921)
There are certain
pillars which have been established as the unshakeable supports of the Faith of
God. The mightiest of these is learning and the use of the mind, the expansion
of consciousness, and insight into the realities of the universe and the hidden
mysteries of Almighty God. To promote knowledge is thus an inescapable duty
imposed on every one of the friends of God. . . ('Abdu'l-Bahá, Selections 126)
`Abd al-Bahā `Abbās was the eldest
son of Bahā'-Allāh
and his appointed successor, head of the Baha'i religion for 29 years
(1892-1921).
ADD
Shoghi Effendi (Shawqī Rabbānī, c. 1896-1957).
SELECT EARLY IRANIAN, MIDDLE-EASTERN AND OTHER FIGURES ASSOCIATED WITH THE EVOLUTION OF BĀBĪ-BAHĀ'Ī
SCHOLARSHIP IN THE ORIENT
SELECT WESTERN FIGURES
ASSOCIATED WITH THE EVOLUTION OF BĀBĪ-BAHĀ'Ī
SCHOLARSHIP IN THE WEST
Joseph A. Comte de Gobineau (d. 1888)
It is a curious twist of
history that Comte de Gobineau, a French diplomat, amateur orientalist and
racist propagandist (he has been dubbed the `Father of Racism') played a
part in making known the Babi-Baha'i religions. This most notably through
the publication in 1865 (and through numerous subsequent editions) of his
influential
Les Religiones..
Vambéry, Armin (19 March 1832- 15 Sept. 1913)
Ignaz Goldziher
( 1850-1921)
Edward Granville Browne (d. 1926)
http://www.hurqalya.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/BIBLIOGRAPHY-HYP/edward_granville_browne.htm
THE EVOLUTION OF BĀBĪ-BAHĀ'Ī SCHOLARSHIP IN THE WEST
Pt. 1
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
ORIGINS:
IBRAHAM KHEIRALLA,
THE FIRST CONVERTS AND THEIR ORIENTAL
TEACHERS.
THE EVOLUTION OF BĀBĪ-BAHĀ'Ī SCHOLARSHIP IN THE WEST
Pt. 2b
THE UNITED KINGDOM.
THE EVOLUTION OF BĀBĪ-BAHĀ'Ī SCHOLARSHIP
IN THE UK
SELECT PAPERS
PRESENTED AT UK., ACADEMIC BAHĀ'Ī SEMINARS:
INCLUDING THOSE HELD AT
LANCASTER AND CAMBRIDGE
UNIVERSITIES (c.1977-80), AT THE UNIVERSITY OF NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE
OR AT THE NEWCASTLE BAHĀ'Ī CENTRE (1978-2003).
Academically
oriented Baha'i Studies seminars were loosely and sporadically organized
in England (UK) from the early-mid. 1970s. Small groups of Baha'i
intellectuals met to discuss (for the most part) issues of Babi-Baha'i
history. They were to some degree inspired by (among others) the
publications of the Cambridge Orientalist E. G. Browne (d. 1926).
Certain persons including Moojan Momen, Denis MacEoin and Peter
Smith, were directly or indirectly encouraged by the personal and
literary example of Hasan Balyuzi (1908-1980).
http://www.bci.org/reno/hasan_balyizi.htm.
As a 'Hand of the Cause of God' (appointed
by Shoghi Effendi in 1957), he resided in Hampstead, London. In
1979 he invited those involved in academic scholarship (about 7-8
persons = Abbas Amanat, Stephen Lambden, Moojan Momen, Viva Perdu
[Tomlin], Peter Smith, etc. ) to meet with him at his home where he gave
kindly advice and encouragement. Among other things he responded to a
few questions and told everyone there is much to be studied and learned.
Matters in Babi-Baha'i studies are embryonic, the sources are
massive and there is much to be clarified and learned.
Between c. 1977 and 1984 academically oriented Baha'i
Studies seminars took place at the University of Lancaster (England,
UK.,) or at the then home of the British scholar Peter Smith in Lancaster (now at Univ. Mahidol, Thailand). Informal Baha'i groups studying the Baha'i
religion at varying academic levels
have subsequently been meeting in Britain since the early-mid. 1970s until
today. For the last 25 years many (often bi-annual) seminars have
been organized in Baha'i Centre or the University of Newcastle upon Tyne by
Stephen N. Lambden, often with the assistance of Moojan Momen and
others.
1977
Baha'i
Studies Seminar, Lancaster University, 1977
1977
Baha'i
Studies Seminar, Lancaster University, 1977
1978
Bahā'ī
Studies Seminar, Lancaster/ Cambridge University, 1978
1979
Bahā'ī
Studies Seminar, Cambridge University, 1979
`Preface
to the working out of an hermeneutical paradigm for Bahā'ī Studies', Stephen
N. Lambden (unpublished)
ABSTRACT
1980
1981
1982
1983
UK
University Bahā'ī Societies Conference on the Academic Study of
Religion
February
19th-20th (University of Warwick, Coventry, UK).
Report in BSB 1/4 98-110.
Todd Lawson ADD
Stephen Lambden,
" Bahā'ī deepening and the Academic Study of Baha'i
Doctrine"
Moojan Momen ADD
1983
17th-18
September, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.
1984
A Brief Note on the Baha'i
Studies Seminar held in Borwick (Lancashire, UK)
31 MARCH - 2 APRIL 1984.
As several
would-be participants were unable to attend, it was a small group that
gathered for the Borwick Seminar. Nevertheless, a constructive meeting was
held. Todd Lawson read from his annotated translation of the Bab's Tafsīr sūrat al-baqara and two papers were presented. The first,
Richard Hollinger's Ibrahim George Kheiralla and the Bahā'ī Movement in
America (which was read on the author's behalf), utilized family
archives, to provide a detailed account of Kheiralla's life and Bahā'ī
activities. The contrast between Kheiralla's successful missionary endeavour
prior to 1900 and his lack of success after the American schism was remarked
upon and accounted for by a combination of factors, to wit: Kheiralla's loss
of access to the original social networks by which his teachings had been
promulgated; the greater charismatic appeal of `Abdu'l-Baha as a religious
leader; and the ideological inflexibility of Kheiralla's post-1900 missionary
activity. Hollinger's paper will be appearing in a forthcom-ing volume of
Studies in Bábí and Bahá'i History (Kalimat Press).
The second
paper, Peter Smith's The Pattern of Baha'i Expansion and Distribution in
Europe (which represented part of a larger work in progress) sought to
explain the variations in European Bahā'ī distribution; primarily by
means of the quotient of Local Assembly numbers per million population.
Although at present necessarily speculative, some attempt was also made to
identify such major factors as might account for the variations in
distribution. In the smaller national communities endogenous factors --the
movement of pioneers; the presence of consensus or initiative within the
Bahā'ī community-- were held likely to predominate, whilst in the larger
communities, exogenous factors--religious and ethnic divisions; the influence
of "cultural" secularization--were held to be increasingly important.
There was also
some discussion of the desirability of greater contact between academic Bahā'ī
scholars and the British Bahā'ī Community, and it was resolved to
suggest to the British Bahā'ī National Assembly that they might wish to
arrange for annual conferences to encourage academic scholarship within the
Bahā'ī community.
Peter Smith in BSB 3:2 1984).
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
Select participants in the first Irfān Colloqium, Newcastle upon Tyne
(UK), December 3rd->5th 1993.
Back Row
(L->R)
John Coates, Robert
Parry, Kathleen Coates, Moojan Momen, Kamran Iqbal, Iraj Ayman,
Ian Holland, Seena Fazel, Semira Manaseki, Mozheh Zamiri, Fariba
Hedayati, Robert Stockman.
Front Row (L->R)
= Stephen Lambden, Barbara Lawson, Todd Lawson, Gillian Bell, Wendi Momen.
Sitting = Sen McGlinn and
Khazeh Fananapazir.
SCRIPTURE AND REVELATION:
THE
FIRST HAJ MEHDI ARJMAND FELLOWSHIP CONFERENCE,
Newcastle-upon-Tyne,
U.K., December 3-5, 1993 (= 1st Irfān Colloquium)
"Thomas Kelly Cheyne, Biblical scholar
and Baha'i"
Stephen Lambden.
In this paper attention was
focused upon Thomas Kelly Cheyne (d. 1915), an Oxford University lecturer and pioneer of modern
biblical scholarship and its "hallowing". In part as a result of
corresponding with and meeting `Abd al-Bahā'
(in Oxford 1912) he became a Bahā'ī. In his old age he wrote the Bahā'ī volume
of historical sketches, `The Reconciliation of Races and Religions'.
"Prophecy in the Johannine Farewell
Discourse: Paraclete, Aḥmad, Comforter (mu'azzī )."
Stephen N. Lambden.
In this paper it was noted that
Muslims traditionally argue that the Greek NT term parakletos (Paraclete,
"Comforter") in John's gospel should be read as periklutos,
"illustrious," which could be translated into Arabic as "Ahmad," a variant on
the name "Muhammad." Bahā'-Allāh has stated that Jesus did refer to Muhammad
the "illustrious," Aḥmad but stated that the reference was not preserved in
the canonical New Testament. Additionally, Bahā'-Allāh interpreted the
NT paraclete passages ( in the Gospel of John) to himself.
A expanded version of this paper is now
published in M. Momen, ed. Scripture and Revelation, (= Baha'i
Studies vol. III), Oxford: George Ronald 1997, pp. 69-124.
