The earlier antecedent of Baha’i studies is originated from Bab’s tradition. The first loop of Babi studies is related to “Hayy letters”. Hayy letters were of the pupils of Seyyed Kazem Rashti [1]. The mentioned people compiled epistle to prove Bab’s claim which can be considered as the first sources of Babi studies.
Most epistles written by Hayy letters have been destroyed, but it is claimed that the method of studying these epistles is mainly controversial and has obeyed the reasoning common logic in Shia knowledge. The reason for primary wanting in Babi studies goes back Ali Muhammad Bab’s encourages; as if Bab ordered 40 people of his followers to write epistles to prove his claim when the had been imprisoned in Chehrigh.
After Bab and the dependence of Bahaism from Babism, the Baha’i studies were done first by people such as “Mirza Abul Fadhl Golpaygani”, Meantime, Mohammad Qaeni entitled “the greatest Nabil”, “Muhammad Ali Qaeni” and “Mirza Asadullah Fadhel Mazandarani” developed the Baha’i studies,
The remarkable note is that although the Baha’i intellectuals tried hard to introduce Baha’ism as a new religion, but the method of their studies had been formed based on the common Shia sciences and wasn’t scientifically independent. So, their method of posed debates was controversial and was not attractive. This fact had caused the Baha’ism scientific policymaking are revolutionized during the second half of 20th century.
In the second half of 19th century and beyond Iranian borders, some studies were done in this regard. The first report of Babi movement was published in 1851 A.D. in German orientation association (ZDMG) by an American missionary called “Dr. Asteen Right” and in 1865 AD.
Bernhard Dorn published some notes about several handwriting copies of Babism in Russia [2].
Publishing a book in 1865 A.D. French language entitled religions and philosophies in Central Asia by Arthur de Gobineau played a key role in the familiarity of the west with the Babis. De Gobineau traveled to Iran as the head of minister of foreign affairs office of France. After learning the Persian language, he collected much data about the Babis and published them.
At that year, “Mirza Kazem Beig Rousi” published a book about the Babis which was first published in 1865 A.D. in Saint Petersburg and a year later, it was translated into French language and published in Asiatic magazine. The mentioned researches were important; because the reports which had been published before were introducing to Babis as revolutionary communists and Anarchist forces and Arthur De Gobineau was the first person who show that there are remarkable notes in Babi teachings. His speech was so influential that several open-minded Europeans were propelled to study about Babism.
After the first generation of studying about the Babis, “Edward Browne” was first academic character who who focused on the project of new religion. At First in 1887-1888 A.D., he went to Iran and then to Cyprus in 1890 A.D. to visit Sobhi Azal. Then, he went to Acre to visit Bahaullah. He was the first researcher who studied about the process of changing (Bab movement) into Baha’i faith.
Evidence show that the 19th century wasn’t satisfactory for Babi and Baha’i studies. The important note about the analysis of orientalists’ studies in 19th century is that the case of Babi and Baha’i studies has been attractive for the Russian, French and English researches.
In the first days of the 20th century, the French people were active in Baha’i studies. “Nicolas” who was one the employees of French console and had been born in Iran was focusing on Baha’i studies and wrote a work in Bab history which was published in 1905 A.D. in Paris and translated some of the most important Bab’s works.
In the next step, he was of the fest the people who did extensive researches in the field of Sheikism and published the result of his studies in 4 volumes entitled “a research about Sheikism” during the years 1910-1914 A.D. in Paris. He was to some extent against Azalis.
Contrary to Browne and Nicolas who were interested in Babi studies, several researchers from Russia concentrated on Baha’i studies. “Baron Victor Rosen” became interested in Baha’ism very much while he was writing contents for handwriting Arabic and Persian copy collections in Saint Petersburg, wrote articles in this regard and published a collection of Bahaullah writings.
“Alexander Tumansky “who was one of the high-ranking Russian officers and an orientalist and was dominant on many languages had close social intercourses with the Baha’is and was in touch with the Baha’i community of Ashgabat. Eventually, he published the text and translation of the book Aghdas along with several articles.
It is claimed that several other orientalists wrote important articles about the emergence of new religion at that time: Zhukovsky (died in 1918 A.D.), the Russian orientalist in Saint Petersburg. Clement Huart (died in 1926 A.D.), the French orientalist who was continually admired by Edward Browne due to his dominance on Persian language and its dialects. “Goldziker” (died in 1921 A.D.), the orientalist from Hungary and “Arthur Christensen” (died in 1945 A.D.) from Copenhagen.
As used by the mentioned reports, searching about Babism or Bahaism have been generally done by orientalists not by religion researchers and the Russian intellectuals were at the top in this regard.
The important note is that during these periods of time, less independent and useful researches have been published by the Baha’is themselves and probably the Baha’is have more concentrated on quantitative development of the Baha’i community.
The second half of the 20th century and remarkable development of the Baha’i studies:
Although the onset of academic Baha’i studies in the field of producing scientific content is related to Abdul Baha’s trip to America, but it was distinctly along with Shogi Effendi’s (died in 1957 AD.) suggestion. During his leadership periods of time as the guardian of God’s faith, nearly less scientific works were produced because the Baha’is were disable to produce discourse and ideology.
Although several Baha’is who were aware of the western philosophy tried to publish article and create new approach such as Abbas Alavi, Ali Morad Davoudi, Badiullah Farid and Kamaluddin Bakhtavar and in the west John Esslement wrote Bahaullah and the new era and published it in 1923 A.D.
Shogi Effendi’s death on Nov. 4, 1957 A.D. caused his ambitious project to be aborted for a decade. Indeed, after Browne ‘s death in 1926 A.D. there weren’t any scientific studies in western academic institutes in the field of Babism and Bahaism.
Mikhail Ivanov’s epistle about Bab which was published in 1939 A.D. in Moscow and Alessandro Bausani’s one and in Italy and “Adalbert Muhlschlegel” and “Hermann Grossman” in Germany provided the requirements of the Baha’i community.
This Condition continued to 1970s A.D., but 1970s A.D. were good days for the modern Baha’i studies because the Baha’i community could invest on the new studies.
The round of new studies was started by Hassan Baluzi’s writings and the researchers of this period of time were the Baha’i youth who were studying their beliefs in M.S. level. During these years, important epistles were written about Sheikism, Babism and Bahaism.
Since 1970s, the meaningful concentration has been done by the Baha’is on the expansion of academic studies and its result ended in holding annual seminars about Baha’i recognition during the years 1977 to 1980 A.D. in Lancaster university and holding important seminars in Baha’i studies on Sep. 30, 1978 A.D. in Cambridge university.
After Baha’i studies association, nearly seventeen Baha’i recognition associations were established across the world.
The aim for establishing associations is improvement in various levels of educational scholarship and advanced studies in the Baha’i community. They desire to concentrate on the development of controversial knowledge and what is called applied scholarship of applying Baha’i social teachings in the world problems.
However, the fact is that because Bahaism is in lack of proving thought, it is disable to enter into thoughtfulness domains. It tries to enter into the domains which don’t need to present proving and strong Sheng intellectual resources such as social and economic problems.
Source: The book “Bahaism in transition periods of time”, pp. 17-23.
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