Edward Granville Browne (1279/1344 A.H./1862-1926 A.D.), was the English orientalist, the son of the owner and the head of a ship making factory in Newcastle, north of England. He headed off towards Iran to recognize this country. He has been of those who have written extensively about Bahaism [1].
Edward Brown tries to fallow two aims stating fables about Babis’ oppression and exaggeration. 1) He perks their resistance as a reason for righteousness. 2) He opens another gate to show Muslims’ violence which has been continually paid attention by the English.
Browne writes: “These executions were quite false and caused them to intrigue and encourage them instead of making them fearful.”
Being aware of this fact that Bab hasn’t expressed a single belief, but he caused deviation in Shia beliefs by a false claim and writing a book called “Bayan” and also caused deadly riots in Zanjan, Mazandaran and Qazvin which ended in the massacre of thousands of people, Browne tried to create an innocent figure for Seyyed Ali Muhammad Shirazi and evaded this fact that Bab tried and convicted confronting the scholars of Qarvin and even he repented of his false claim and claimed once again and considered his execution without trial.
In several lines, Browne is hiding the truth and portrayed the oppressed Bab confronting ruthless Naser Al-Din Shah in such an extent that he causes each unaware reader to sympathy with him.
He expresses the issues of Babis courage and his interest in them several times and writes: “The more I become aware of the Babis, the more I become interested in visiting them. I had been also astonished by their courage and resistance against kinds of horrible tortures and thought they have become aware of something they have resisted.
Brown knew that the story of brave resistance and the steadfastness of the executed are the best advertisements applied by their leaders to prove the righteousness of religion [2].
To confront Shiites against the Babis, he even turns to a literature which is similar to Ashoora’s and tries to influence on his addressees using false stories by an ordinary person:
“… The governmental troops took the women and kids captive and made them sit naked on camels and donkeys and marched towards Shiraz with heads the dead who were their husbands, brothers and fathers or sons.”
Browne narrates the stories of the Babis’ courage and resistance in details in such a way that it can be said he has been influenced by Comte de Gobineau.
The investigation of writings of foreign travelers who have traveled to Iran indicates that the most westerners who have come to Iran having special mission have humiliated the Iranian people in their writings which has been one of the aims of the west Colonialism in Iran. Browne writes about the Iranian as follows: “The Iranian servants have been described as the greediest and avaricious people and I think so.”
He also writes: “The guests sit on their knees. The high-ranking and respectful people sit at the top of the expander in front of the entrance on and the musicians and singers sit at the bottom of the expander. All attack the food immediately after sitting down.”
Generally speaking; in analyzing Browne’s travelogue, it may be possible to initially imagine that Browne loved the Iranians, but the image described by him of the first Iranians around him is similar to the first presence of Christopher Columbus among the savage tribes of America. He writes:
“It didn’t take long for a group of Iranians to surround me and they were astonished that I was speaking Farsi with my European build. Some of them were touching my cloths with their fingers to see what they look like and what kind of fabric they were made of? The crowd gradually got me troubled. I went to a barbershop to escape and I ask the barber to shave my head and face, but the crowd had gathered in front of the shop and some of them accompanied me to the house.”
He writes elsewhere: “The night whose next day we should leave Trabozan, a Belgian miner made familiar with us in the guesthouse. He was coming from Iran and the things he said about Iran made me discouraged; including: I have traveled to many countries and found fault in each nation, but there wasn’t any nation that didn’t have its own merits in return for its faults. However, I didn’t find any good quality in Iranian nation.”
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