(2) Mirza Husayn Ali Baha'u'llah, AL-KITAB AL-AQDAS OR THE MOST HOLY BOOK (London: The Royal Asiatic Society, 1961): an English translation of Baha'u'llah's Kitab-i-Aqdas with an introduction by W.M. Miller.
(3) Miller, BAHA'I FAITH, pp. 349-50.
(4) Miller, BAHAISM, p. 9.
(5) Miller, BAHA'I FAITH, p. xi.
(6) Ibid., p. 358.
(7) E.G. Browne provides a valuable bibliography on the Babi and Baha'i Faiths prior to 1917 in two of his works: A TRAVELLER'S NARRATIVE WRITTEN TO ILLUSTRATE THE EPISODE OF THE BAB, trans. Edward G. Browne (Cambridge, England: The Univ. Press, 1918), pp. 175-243.
(8) Miller, BAHA'I FAITH, p. xvi. Except where otherwise indicated, further references to Rev. Millers work are taken from THE BAHA'I FAITH: ITS HISTORY AND TEACHINGS.
(9) Mirza Yahya was the younger half-brother of Baha'u'llah and like Him a follower of the Bab. The central theme of the Bab's Teachings was that He had come to prepare the way for a Universal Messenger of God, "He Whom God Will Make Manifest." The time of the advent of this figure was known to God alone, but the Babis were commanded to await it eagerly. At the height of the persecutions of the Babis in the late 1840s the Bab named Yahya as titular head of the community and commanded him to set an example of fidelity. Instead, Yahya fled in disguise as soon as the persecution of the Babi community began. When Baha'u'llah publicly proclaimed Himself to be the Promised Messenger, Yahya at first temporized and then refused to submit. He was promptly abandoned by virtually the entire Babi community. His subsequent attempts on Baha'u'llah's life failed and deepened the abhorrence in which his former coreligionists had come to hold him. In 1867 the Ottoman government exiled Yahya and his immediate family to Cyprus where he died in 1912, abandoned even by those few Babis who had originally followed him. Yahya named one of his surviving sons, Ahmad, as his successor, but the latter eventually repudiated his father, sought Abdu'l-Baha's forgiveness for his part in the family's misdeeds, and lived the remainder of his life as a steadfast Baha'i. Rev. Miller seems unaware of this aspect of the Azal's family story, as he is under the impression that Yahya did not name a successor (Miller, p. 107). Jelal Azal was a younger brother of Ahmad. apparently resenting the circumstances in which he found himself, he began a lifelong effort to reverse the verdict of history by reviving the Azali charges against Baha'u'llah and attempting to interpret events in a fashion which would restore his father's reputation. The notes and documents which he gave to Rev. Miller are the fruit of this campaign. The subject has been dealt with in detail by Shoghi Effendi in GOD PASSES BY (Wilmette, Ill.: Baha'i Pub. Trust, 1944), Chapters VII-XII passim, and by Browne in TRAVELLER'S NARRATIVE, Introduction and Notes U, V, and W; in MATERIALS, Introduction and Sections I, VIII, IX; and in Mirza Huseyn of Hamadan, TARIKH-I-JADID OR NEW HISTORY OF MIRZA ALI MUHAMMAD THE BAB, trans. Edward G. Browne (Cambridge, England: The Univ. Press, 1893), passim.
(10) Rev. Miller states: "While engaged int he task of rewriting a book which was published many years ago [BAHA'ISM] ..., the author was most fortunate i becoming acquainted through correspondence with another scholar [Mr. Azal] who was uniquely qualified to supply new historical material and to throw fresh light on many of the doctrines and the events of the Babi-Baha'i movement. ...Mr. Azal most generously made available to the author the results of his scholarly research, having supplied more than 1100 pages [of notes and documents] ..." (p. xvi). In fact (so far as the first century of Baha'i history is concerned), it is not exaggerating the case to say that the bulk of the new primary material which distinguishes this book from Rev. Miller's earlier effort can be credited to Mr. Azal.
(11) See, for example, Hasan Balyuzi's discussion of three Azali contributions in EDWARD GRANVILLE BROWNE AND THE BAHA'I FAITH (London: George Ronald, 1970): the "Hasht Bihisht," pp. 19-21, 33-34, 80-84; the NUQTATU'L-KAF, PP. 70-88; and the Persian Introduction to the latter, pp. 70, 73-88. Mr. Balyuzi mentions various errors of fact in Azali manuscripts, whose authorship had been concealed and which had earlier been pointed out by Mirza Abu'l-Fadl. Rev. Miller takes note of at least one of these flaws, although he fails to identify the source of the insights. (Cf. Balyuzi, pp. 72-73; Miller, p. 73). Re. Miller also blandly notes the Azali authorship of the "Hasht-Bihisht" (Miller, p. 102) without a suggestion of recognition that the Azalis had attempted to pass it off as the work of one of the Bab's leading disciples, Haji Siyyid Javad. (Cf. Balyuzi, p. 20, citing Browne, J.R.A.S., n.s., vol. xxiv, p. 684.)
(12) The kind of distortion which this influence produced in Rev. Miller's narrative is particularly apparent in those sections where he attempts to discuss Baha'u'llah's claim to be "He Whom God Will Manifest." The Bab had repeatedly stated that the central purpose of His own mission was the preparation of mankind for the advent of this universal divine Messenger. He had stated that the time of the advent was known to God alone but had assured a number of His close disciples that they would in their own lifetimes recognize and serve "Him Whom God Will Manifest." (Shoghi Effendi, GOD PASSES BY, p. 28). Rev. Miller notes the reports of both Professor Browne and the Comte de Gobineau that in the anarchy which followed the martyrdom of the Bab and the massacres of many thousands of His followers, several of the more excitable Babis had come to believe that they were the Promised Deliverer (see Miller, pp. 75-77). Indeed, the unknown authors of the NUQTATU'L-KAF sought to claim the title for Mirza Yahya (see Miller, p. 73). The Bab, however, had assured His followers emphatically in the Bayan (see Miller, p. 54) that no one could falsely claim to be "He Whom God Will Make Manifest," and succeed in such a claim. Baha'u'llah's complete triumph, therefore, and the humiliating collapse of Yahya's pretensions (see Miller, p. 98) were extremely embarrassing to the Azali apologists. Their efforts to escape the dilemma centered on an attempt to argue that a cryptic reference in the Bayan to the word "Ghiyath," whose numerical equivalent according to one method of reckoning is 1511, indicated that the Promised One was not to appear until at least fifteen hundred and eleven years had passed. Much more explicit references by the Bab to "the year nine" and "the year nineteen" were entirely ignored.
Rev. Miller takes up this arcane argument and makes it the organizing principle of his discussion of the relationship between the Babi and Baha'i Revelations. The entire presentation is far removed from the methods and purposes of historiography.
(13) See notes (7) and (9) above. Browne's A YEAR AMONGST THE PERSIANS (Cambridge, England: The Univ. Press, 1893) is also extremely valuable as are a number of papers published under the auspices of the Royal Asiatic Society. Interested readers are also referred to Browne's Introduction to Myron Phelps' LIFE AND TEACHINGS OF ABBAS EFFENDI (New York: G.P. Putnam's, 1903) and the text of a lengthy address delivered in 1889 at the South Place Institute under the title "Babism" and published in THE RELIGIOUS SYSTEMS OF THE WORLD: A CONTRIBUTION TO THE STUDY OF COMPARATIVE RELIGIONS, ed. Wm. Sheowring and Conrad W. Thies (London: Swann Sonnenschien & Co., Limited, 1902), pp. 333-53.
(14) Miller, p. 113, n. 44
(15) Browne, "Babism," in RELIGIOUS SYSTEMS, p. 351, TARIKH-I- JADID. p. xxiv; TRAVELLER'S NARRATIVE, p. xvii, MATERIALS, pp. xv-xvii.
(16) Browne, THE PERSIAN REVOLUTION OF 1905-1909 (Cambridge, England: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1910) and THE PERSIAN CONSTITUTIONAL MOVEMENT (London, 1918). Both works reflect the hopes which Browne placed in the Babis, and the latter especially reflects his disappointment, as does MATERIALS, pp. xv-xx.
(17) I am also indebted for these insights into the nationalistic aspects of Professor Browne's motivations to Professor Firuz Kazemzadeh. See his RUSSIA AND BRITAIN IN PERSIA, 1864-1914: A STUDY IN IMPERIALISM (New Haven, Ct.: Yale Univ. Press, 1968), p. 247, n. 16.
(18) English Introduction to NUQTATU'L-KAF, cited by Balyuzi, EDWARD GRANVILLE BROWNE, p. 88.
(19) THE DAWN-BREAKERS: NABIL'S NARRATIVE OF THE EARLY DAYS OF THE BAHA'I REVELATION, trans. and ed. Shoghi Effendi (Wilmette, Ill.: Baha'i Pub. Trust, 1932). This massively documented tome runs 668 pages and is supplemented by over two hundred photographs, maps, sketches, and charts, as well as an Appendix, a Glossary, and an index.
(20) Miller, p. 303.
(21) The title means literally "The Point of Kaf," (that is, the letter "K"). It is no longer possible to determine the reason why this strange title was given to the manuscript.
(22) In his TARIKH-I-JADID, published in 1893, Professor Browne had included a translation of excerpts from the writings of the noted Persian scholar Mirza Abu'l-Fadl, who had studied an original copy of the memoirs of Mirza Jani. Mr. Balyuzi now published the further statement of Mirza Abu'l-Fadl that the manuscript which appeared in an English translation in 1910 under the title KITAB-I-NUQTATU'L-KAF was a forgery (Balyuzi, EDWARD GRANVILLE BROWNE, pp. 70-73).
(23) Miller, pp. 111-13, n. 44. The note includes the extraordinary statement: "Whether, therefore, the book published by Browne [i.e., the NUQTATU'L-KAF] was written entirely by Mirza Jani before his death in 1852, or whether others wrote the book after the death of Mirza Jani and gave his name to it, the NUQTATU'L-KAF is by far the earliest account in our possession.
(24) Miller, p. 21.
(25) Ruhiyyih Rabbani, THE PRICELESS PEARL (London: Baha'i Pub. Trust, 1969).
(26) Miller, pp. 295-99.
(27) Miller, pp. 311-23.
(28) Mr. Remey was honored by the Guardian of the Baha'i Cause by appointment as a Hand of the Cause of God in 1951. Subsequently, in preparation for the eventual election of the Universal House of Justice Shoghi Effendi created an advisory body to assist him in his work, to which he gave the name the International Baha'i Council. Mr. Remey was appointed President of the Council, although what may be considered to be the ranking position, "liaison with the Guardian of the Faith," was assigned to Ruhiyyih Khanum. Mr. Remey later stated that the Council's role was purely honorary (Miller, p. 292), although he subsequently attempted to use his position in it to advance his bizarre claim to be the "hereditary Guardian" of the Faith.
(29) Miller, p. 318.
(30) The position of the Hand of the Cause of God was created by Baha'u'llah to distinguish certain believers who possessed unusual capacity in the field of Baha'i service. Abdu'l-Baha defines their role in his WILL AND TESTAMENT (Wilmette, Ill.: Baha'i Pub. Trust, 1944), and Shoghi Effendi relied heavily on them to assist him with delicate and important missions and as formal representatives of the Faith at major functions. He also named them "Stewards" of the Faith, thus enabling them to make the necessary preparations for the election of the Universal House of Justice, following Shoghi Effendi's death in 1957.
(31) Miller, p. 327.
(32) Ibid., p. 62.
(33) Ibid., p. 80.
(34) Ibid., p. 81.
(35) Ibid., pp. 2-4.
(36) Nabil, DAWN-BREAKERS, p. 293.
(37) Ibid., p. 505.
(38) Miller, p. 120. As is the case so often throughout his book Rev. Miller advances an alternative explanation, without any attempt to resolve the contradiction or indeed even any clear indication that he recognizes the problem it creates for his argument. In the case of Baha'u'llah's title, Tahirih is alleged (p. 119) to have given it to Him "to comfort him." Baha'u'llah is pictured as "hurt" because alone of all the participants at Badasht He had been ignored by the Bab.
(39) Ibid., p. 298.
(40) "Je n'ai jamais entendu personne parmi les musulmans mettre en doute la vertu d'une personne si singuliere." Joseph Arthur Comte de Gobineau, LES RELIGIONS ET PHILOSOPHIES DANS L'ASIE CENTRALE (Paris: Perrin, 1865), p. 155.
(41) Miller, p. 31.
(42) Ibid.
(43) Howard Colby Ives, PORTALS TO FREEDOM, rev. ed. (London: George Ronald, 1962), p. 135.
(44) Miller, p. 204.
(45) Ibid., p. 285.
(46) The full text of most of these letters can be found in Volume 8 (Wilmette, Ill.: Baha'i Pub. Committee, 1942), pp. 595- 98, including those printed at Queen Marie's request in the TORONTO STAR (May 4 and Sept. 28, 1926) and the PHILADELPHIA EVENING BULLETIN (Sept. 27, 1926). In addition to her several public declarations of faith, Queen Marie arrived in Haifa in March of 1930 to make a pilgrimage to the Shrines of the Bab and Abdu'l-Baha. She was prevented from doing so by intense political pressure, and subsequently wrote (June 28,1931) to Martha Root: "Both Ileana [her daughter] and I were cruelly disappointed at having been prevented going to the holy shrines and of meeting Shoghi Effendi, but at that time we were going through a cruel crisis and every movement I made was being turned against me and being exploited politically in an unkind way." (cited in PRICELESS PEARL, p. 115). Ruhiyyih Khanum quotes the full texts of most of the letters in Chapter IV of THE PRICELESS PEARL.
(47) Miller, pp. 304-05, n. 41.
(48) Ibid, pp. 71, 75, 82.
(49) Shoghi Effendi, GOD PASSES BY, Chapter X; Browne TARIKH-I- JADID, p. xxii.
(50) Miller, p. 98.
(51) Interested readers are referred to Shoghi Effendi's THE WORLD ORDER OF BAHA'U'LLAH: SELECTED LETTERS, 2d rev. ed. (Wilmette, Ill.: Baha'i Pub. Trust, 1974) and THE PROMISED DAY IS COME, rev. ed. (Wilmette, Ill.: Baha'i Pub. Trust, 1961) for a complete development of the theme. Both works quote extensively >from the Writings of Baha'u'llah and Abdu'l-Baha.
(52) Miller. p. ???
(53) Ibid., pp. ???
(54) Ibid., p. ???
(55) For a complete discussion of the subject see Shoghi Effendi, WORLD ORDER OF BAHA'U'LLAH, pp. 143-57.
(56) Miller, p. 229.
(57) Ibid.
(58) See, for example, H.M. Balyuzi, ABDU'L-BAHA: THE CENTRE OF THE COVENANT OF BAHA'U'LLAH (London: George Ronald, 1971), Chapters IV and V, Ruhiyyih Khanum, PRICELESS PEARL, Chapters V and VI; Phelps, LIFE AND TEACHINGS OF ABBAS EFFENDI, passim; Adib Taherzadeh, THE REVELATION OF BAHA'U'LLAH: BAGHDAD, Vol. I (Oxford: George Ronald, 1974), Appendix I, Shoghi Effendi, GOD PASSES BY, Chapters IV, XVII, XXIII.
(59) Miller, p. 126.
(60) Ibid., p. 127, quoted from TRAVELLER'S NARRATIVE, p. xiii and MATERIALS, p. 4, n. 1.
(61) The charges may be found in the writings of such Christian ecclesiastics as Samuel Graham Wilson, BAHAISM AND ITS CLAIMS: A STUDY OF THE RELIGION PROMULGATED BY BAHA ULLAH AND ABDUL BAHA (New York: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1915); John Richards Richards, THE RELIGION OF THE BAHA'IS, the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (London: The Macmillan Co., 1932); William M. Miller, BAHA'ISM; Robert P. Richardson, various articles published in OPEN COURT: "The Persian Rival to Jesus, and His American Disciples," 29 (Aug. 1915), 460-83; "The Precursor, the Prophet, and the Pope," 30 (Oct. 1916), 617-37; "The Rise and Fall of the Parliament of Religions at Greenacre," 46 (Mar. 1931), 129-66.
(62) "My captivity can bring on Me no shame. Nay, by My life, it conferreth on Me glory. This which can make Me ashamed is the conduct of such of My followers as profess to love Me, yet in fact follow the Evil One.": Baha'u'llah, cited by Shoghi Effendi, GOD PASSES BY, p. 190.
(63) Ibid., pp. 189-90.
(64) See, for example, TARIKH-I-JADID, p. xxiii. Browne, however attributes the "murders" to the actions of "too zealous Beha'is" and exempts the Founders of the Faith from complicity, though he reports the Azali charges on the latter point.
(66) Mirza Yahya was no relation to the Mirza Yahya Subh-i-Azal referred to extensively above. Muhammad Ali was a half-brother of Abdu'l-Baha. Following the death of Baha'u'llah he rebelled against the authority conferred on Abdu'l-Baha in Baha'u'llah's Will and attempted to usurp the leadership of the Baha'i Faith. He briefly enjoyed some success, attracting to his side various members of the household as well as Ibrahim Khayrullah, who had been the leading exponent of the Baha'i Faith in America and who also fretted under the authority of Abdu'l-Baha. The organization which Khayrullah attempted to establish perished with him. Muhammad Ali died in 1936 having failed in his efforts to created a sectarian group of his own.
(67) Browne, MATERIALS, pp. 155-???
(68) Ibid., pp. 165-66.
(69) Miller, p. 184.
(70) Ibid.
(71) Ibid., pp. 183-84.
(72) The Universal House of Justice, governing body of the Baha'i Faith, has continued the codification of the Kitab-i-Aqdas, which was begun by Shoghi Effendi. The first stage of this vast program was the publication of A SYNOPSIS AND CODIFICATION OF THE KITAB-I-AQDAS: THE MOST HOLY BOOK OF BAHA'U'LLAH, Ycomp. Universal House of Justice", (Haifa: Baha'i World Centre, 1973). Contrary to Rev. Miller's suggestions (Miller, pp. 143-44, 323- 26) the Baha'i world has had constant access to the Aqdas through the translations of various sections as well as the extensive interpretations and commentaries provided by Abdu'l-Baha (and after him, Shoghi Effendi). This was the mode of access prescribed by Baha'u'llah. A labored translation which is often misleadingly inaccurate was produced by Rev. E.E. Elder and is now reproduced by Rev. Miller as an Appendix to his present book. It seems unlikely to add anything of value to mankind's appreciation of this unique work. Perhaps in an effort to overcome the lack of interest which has been shown in the Elder translation (in which he himself collaborated) Rev. Miller provides an endorsement by the ubiquitous Mr. Azal: "The translators ... are to be congratulated on their excellent work." (Miller, pp. 326.
(73) Balyuzi, ABDU'L-BAHA, Chapter 24.
(74) Ruhiyyih Khanum, PRICELESS PEARL, Chapters XI and XII.
(75) The details of the expansion can be traced in volumes VII through XIV of THE BAHA'I WORLD, covering the period from 1937 to 1968, and in the several statistical summaries of the successive Plans published by the World Centre of the Baha'i Faith in 1953, 1963 and 1968: THE BAHA'I FAITH: 1844-1952 (Wilmette, Ill.: Baha'i Pub. Committee, 1953); THE BAHA'I FAITH: 1844-1963 (n.p.: n.d.); and the Universal House of Justice; THE BAHA'I FAITH: STATISTICAL INFORMATION (n.p.: 1968).
(76) In the second of these two chapters (pp. 336-41) Rev. Miller publishes the results of what was apparently a personal survey he undertook by correspondence. The burden of his "findings" is that the Baha'i Faith is not as widely known or well established in certain countries as its own publications assert. Rev. Miller opens this strange sequence with the statement: "the author sought information from NON-BAHA'IS [emphasis added] in a dozen different countries..." (Miller, p. 336). These ostensibly independent sources are then introduced one by one: "A correspondent who has...travelled widely, in all the North African countries"; "an authority on the religious situation in Burma"; "A long-time resident of Korea"; "A person well acquainted with East Pakistan"; "long-time residents in Japan, India, Yucatan, Indonesia, Lebanon and other lands" (this latter list of addressees failed to respond). Footnotes give the names of the respondents: "Mr. H.W. Stalley"; "Dr. Paul Clasper"; "Dr. F. Dale Bruner"; "Dr. Samuel Moffett"; "Mr. Waren Webster"; and so on. There is no suggestion as to the professions of these gentlemen or as to the nature of their connection with Rev. Miller. The question inevitably arises as to whether in fact they, too, are Christian missionaries, and if indeed they are, why Rev. Miller did not forthrightly state this fact so that the degree of the disinterestedness of their contributions could be examined by his readers.
(77) Browne, "Babism," in RELIGIOUS SYSTEMS, p. 350.
(78) Ibid., pp. 352-53.