Hermann Roemer, a protestant clergyman and prolocutor, was born in Stuttgart Germany on July, 1880. Roemer was studying at theology and philosophy colleges of Tubingen and Hall universities during 1898 to 1902 and was profited by well-known masters and professor such as Haring, Hegler, Koller, Reichle, Schlatter, Sebold. After finishing his education, he became a master of theology there. He was active in protestant seminars about religion recognition in Stuttgart. Suggested by the Theology College of Tubingen, he became the chairman of the specialized and research seminars of the Bible.
In expressing his research objectives, Herman Roemer points out that “I witnessed the establishment of the Stuttgart’s Baha’i Association in 1907, feeling always the need for a scientific research for responding the propaganda of Baha’ism in Germany.”
Thus, Roemer authored his book under the heading “Babism and Baha’ism, a Research in History of Islamic Denominations” (Die Babi- Behai, Eine studie zur religionsgeschichte des Islams). His book was in fact his Ph.D. treatise presented to the Supreme College of Philosophy of Tubingen University. The book was not first one about Babism and Baha’ism; in 1908, he wrote an article criticizing Baha’ism. Following research regarding history of religious propaganda in Germany, he also wrote an article entitled “Propaganda of Islamic Religions in Western Lands”. In 1012, a similar book by Roemer titled “Babism and Baha’ism, the Last Sects Separated from Islam” was published.
Roemer’s works were the first main ones about Babism and Baha’ism published in Germany; in addition to historical studies, they contained vast research in criticizing and reviewing Babi and Baha’i teachings.
The book “Babism and Baha’ism, a Research in History of Islamic Denominations” mainly reviews fundamental principles of the Babi ad Baha’i teachings in recognizing God, manifestation, status of human and salvation. In criticizing and reviewing the teachings of Babism and Baha’ism philosophically and verbally, his works had been mainly influenced by the style and thinking of “Ignác Goldziher” (Hungarian scholar).
Among the research resources of Roemer’s book are the works of Gubino, Brown, Goyard, Noldekeh, Howart, Oenhiem, Goldziher, Nicola, Nickelson, Kebler, Kremer, Tichter, Oldenberg, Zibold, Schreiner, Ziller as well as the works of Baha’i writers and the reports of religious missionaries from Iran. The Roemer’s book has also been used and cited by many researchers largely including Rosencrantz, Falasha, Paul Verlain, Richard Shaffer, and Ficicchia. In her book “DER information als method”, Nicola Tawfiq an outstanding Baha’i researcher from Germany says that the Roemer’s work is a unique document form his period in German-speaking Europe, and undoubtedly, it is of great importance historically and can be used as a direct source for Babi and Baha’i studies.
Hermann Roemer’s book consists of four chapters and two appendices, the first of which is the longest part of the book. The writer in this chapter deals with discussions about the beginning of Babi movement to the issue of the succession of Ali Mohammad Bab. In this chapter, Roemer brings up issues like the foundation of Babism in Shaykhism, description of the Bab’s position as full Shia in Shaykhism votes, historical review of gnostic inclinations in Babism, the penetration of Kabbalism teachings in Babism, reviewing of Babism approach regarding prophecy, the application of Interpretation in Babi works and the political element in that movement. The book’s second chapter reviews the role of Mirza HHossein Ali Nouri in changing the form of the Babi community during his staying in Baghdad and Edirne. In this section, the writer also deal with discussions like examining his works in Baghdad, his influencing from Sofia, his tablets and writings and the internal and external position of the Babi community.
The book’s third chapter is devoted to the formation of the Baha’ism in Acre and the criticism of some Baha’i rulings and topics such as the formation of the Most Holy Book, criminal law in the Baha’ism, the study of Hossein Ali Nouri’s works in Acre, the formation and developments of the sect in Iran and the relations of the Baha’is in Iran. The writer in the fourth chapter deals with the leadership of Abdu’l-Baha till 1908 and political-historical debates of Baha’ism under the titles such as Abbas Effendi, the sect’s leader and his role in development of Baha’ism, Abbas Effendi and sectarian teachings, the Baha’i propaganda in Europe and America, the performance of Abdu’l-Baha in Iran’s Constitutional Revolution .
In the book’s first appendix, the author examines the semantic similarity between sects and religions, emphasizing mainly on the closeness between the Bektashi sect and the Babism and the Baha’ism. Roemer seeks this semantic similarity in topics such as allegorical allusions to religions, the emergence of God in time points, and the question of Holoul or immanence. The second appendix of the book is dedicated to similar currents in the Islamic world and India, and in this regard, the author examines the origin and goals of the sect, the roots of Sufism, the examining of the Ahmadiyya sect and its comparison with the Babism and Baha’ism.
A glance at the book’s content
In his work, Roemer refers to the quasi-mystical and Sufi tendencies of the Baha’ism and believes that the Baha’ism is a marine plant that has grown in the swamp of the Sufi world. He believes that the Baha’is have made another idol of Abdu’l-Baha with their Sufi inclinations, which is reflected in modern clothing. He believes that Baha’ism is a dervish-like faith and it is only thanks to the symmetry with the modernist cultural movements in the Middle East that it has worn a modern dress and tries to hide its connections with other circles of Sufism. Roemer considers the quasi-mystical tendencies of the Baha’ism to be very profound and broad, and believes that the Baha’u’llah’s view in the tablet of wisdom of the philosophers is superficial. Moreover, the term he has used for philosophers (theosophists or mystics) shows that he considered philosophy to be the same with mysticism and did not have a correct understanding of their differences.
Roemer considers Babism and Baha’ism as Gnosis, dualism, and having sectarian and anti-rational structure which has been influenced by the mystical and interpretive sciences of Ismaeeli, Horoufi, Kabbala and Becktashi dervishes. He believes that Baha’i teachings toward recognition of God, manifestation, the levels of bounty band blessing have been influenced by a kind of Neo-Plato and gnosis beliefs.
In examining Abdu’l-Baha’s propaganda trip to the United States, Romer identifies Baha’ism in the United States as apocalyptic Sufism, to whom Hussein Ali Nouri is manifested as the returned Christ or even God himself. He believes that the Baha’is in France have Jewish origins, so that the Jewish Dreyfus played a very important role in Abdu’l-Baha’s visit to Paris, and that the global organization of “Alliance-Israelite” turned into a bridge for the Baha’i infiltration in France through its comprehensive assistance to the Jews in the East. Moreover, Roemer stressed that Iranian Jews inside Iran, in order to challenge Islam, found the Baha’i sect as their ally and considered their confederate.
From Roemer’s viewpoint, during the Iranian Constitutional Revolution, the Baha’ism betrayed the national interests of Iranians with his unrealistic and idealistic slogan. In this regard, Roemer points out that Abbas Effendi hatched a plot against the democratic movement of Iranians, and compromised with Russians and British diplomats in a way that he had intensely recommended the Baha’is in the cities of Tehran and Tabriz to back Mohammad Ali Shah. Furthermore, he barred them from participating in the Iranian Constitutional Movement. Roemer also emphasizes that with the victory of the Constitutional Revolution, the falsity of the claim of Abbas Effendi, who had predicted a long and pleasant government for Mohammad Ali Shah, became clear to everyone. Recalling Russian and British pressure on Iran and the unification of the two powers in dividing its territory into two areas of influence in 1907, Roemer states that Abdu’l-Baha’s relations with foreign armies in Acre and their agents in Iran were nothing more than a great betrayal of the country of Iran.
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