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.<\/p>\n
In expressing his research objectives, Herman Roemer points out that \u201cI witnessed the establishment of the Stuttgart\u2019s Baha\u2019i Association in 1907, feeling always the need for a scientific research for responding the propaganda of Baha\u2019ism in Germany.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thus, Roemer authored his book under the heading \u201cBabism and Baha\u2019ism, a Research in History of Islamic Denominations\u201d (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\u2019ism; in 1908, he wrote an article criticizing Baha\u2019ism. Following research regarding history of religious propaganda in Germany, he also wrote an article entitled \u201cPropaganda of Islamic Religions in Western Lands\u201d. In 1012, a similar book by Roemer titled \u201cBabism and Baha\u2019ism, the Last Sects Separated from Islam\u201d was published.<\/p>\n
Roemer\u2019s works were the first main ones about Babism and Baha\u2019ism published in Germany; in addition to historical studies, they contained vast research in criticizing and reviewing Babi and Baha\u2019i teachings.<\/p>\n
The book\u00a0\u201cBabism and Baha\u2019ism, a Research in History of Islamic Denominations\u201d\u00a0mainly reviews fundamental principles of the Babi ad Baha\u2019i teachings in recognizing God, manifestation, status of human and salvation. In criticizing and reviewing the teachings of Babism and\u00a0Baha\u2019ism<\/a>\u00a0philosophically and verbally, his works had been mainly influenced by the style and thinking of \u201cIgn\u00e1c Goldziher\u201d (Hungarian scholar).<\/p>\n Among the research resources of Roemer\u2019s book are the works of\u00a0 Gubino, Brown, Goyard, Noldekeh, Howart, Oenhiem, Goldziher, Nicola, Nickelson, Kebler, Kremer, Tichter, Oldenberg, Zibold, Schreiner, Ziller as well as the works of Baha\u2019i writers and the reports of religious missionaries from Iran. The Roemer\u2019s book has also been used and cited by many researchers largely including Rosencrantz, Falasha, Paul Verlain, Richard Shaffer, and Ficicchia. In her book \u201cDER information als method\u201d, Nicola Tawfiq an outstanding Baha\u2019i researcher from Germany says that the Roemer\u2019s 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\u2019i studies.<\/p>\n Hermann Roemer\u2019s 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\u2019s 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\u2019s second chapter reviews the role of Mirza HHossein Ali Nouri<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n The book\u2019s third chapter is devoted to the formation of the Baha\u2019ism in Acre and the criticism of some Baha\u2019i rulings and topics such as the formation of the Most Holy Book, criminal law in the Baha\u2019ism, the study of Hossein Ali Nouri\u2019s works in Acre, the formation and developments of the sect in Iran and the relations of the Baha\u2019is in Iran. The writer in the fourth chapter deals with the leadership of Abdu\u2019l-Baha till 1908 and political-historical debates of Baha\u2019ism under the titles such as Abbas Effendi, the sect\u2019s leader and his role in development of Baha\u2019ism, Abbas Effendi and sectarian teachings, the Baha\u2019i propaganda in Europe and America, the performance of Abdu\u2019l-Baha in Iran\u2019s Constitutional Revolution .<\/p>\n In the book\u2019s 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\u2019ism. 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\u2019ism.<\/p>\n In his work, Roemer refers to the quasi-mystical and Sufi tendencies of the Baha\u2019ism and believes that the Baha\u2019ism is a marine plant that has grown in the swamp of the Sufi world. He believes that the Baha\u2019is have made another idol of Abdu\u2019l-Baha with their Sufi inclinations, which is reflected in modern clothing. He believes that Baha\u2019ism 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\u2019ism to be very profound and broad, and believes that the Baha\u2019u\u2019llah\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n Roemer considers Babism and Baha\u2019ism 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\u2019i teachings toward recognition of God, manifestation, the levels of bounty band blessing have been influenced by a kind of Neo-Plato and gnosis beliefs.<\/p>\n In examining Abdu\u2019l-Baha\u2019s propaganda trip to the United States, Romer identifies Baha\u2019ism 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\u2019is in France have Jewish origins, so that the Jewish Dreyfus played a very important role in Abdu\u2019l-Baha\u2019s visit to Paris, and that the global organization of \u201cAlliance-Israelite\u201d turned into a bridge for the Baha\u2019i 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\u2019i sect as their ally and considered their confederate.<\/p>\nA glance at the book\u2019s content<\/span><\/h2>\n