{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_7995/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_7995","id":"gutenberg_7995","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/7995","summary":null,"tags":["Bahais","Category: History - Modern (1750+)","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Politics","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Category: Sociology"],"text":"Produced by David Starner, Dave Maddock, Charles Franks\nand the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration:\n_Lafayette, Manchester._\nTHE REV. T. K. CHEYNE, D. LITT, D. D.]\n\n\n\nTHE RECONCILIATION OF RACES AND RELIGIONS\n\nBY\n\nTHOMAS KELLY CHEYNE, D. LITT., D. D.\n\nFELLOW OF THE BRITISH ACADEMY, MEMBER OF THE NAVA VIDHAN (LAHORE), THE\nBAHAI COMMUNITY, ETC.  RU\u1e24ANI; PRIEST OF THE PRINCE OF PEACE\n\n\nTo my dear wife in whose poems are combined an ardent faith, an\nuniversal charity, and a simplicity of style which sometimes reminds\nme of the poet seer William Blake may she accept and enjoy the\noffering and may a like happiness be my lot when the little volume\nreaches the hands of the ambassador of peace.\n\n\n\nPREFACE\n\n\nThe primary aim of this work is twofold. It would fain contribute to\nthe cause of universal peace, and promote the better understanding of\nthe various religions which really are but one religion. The union of\nreligions must necessarily precede the union of races, which at\npresent is so lamentably incomplete. It appears to me that none of the\nmen or women of good-will is justified in withholding any suggestions\nwhich may have occurred to him. For the crisis, both political and\nreligious, is alarming.\n\nThe question being ultimately a religious one, the author may be\npardoned if he devotes most of his space to the most important of its\nreligious aspects. He leaves it open to students of Christian politics\nto make known what is the actual state of things, and how this is to\nbe remedied. He has, however, tried to help the reader by reprinting\nthe very noble Manifesto of the Society of Friends, called forth by\nthe declaration of war against Germany by England on the fourth day of\nAugust 1914.\n\nIn some respects I should have preferred a Manifesto representing the\nlofty views of the present Head of another Society of Friends--the\nBahai Fraternity. Peace on earth has been the ideal of the B\u0101b\u012bs\nand Bahais since the B\u0101bs time, and Professor E. G. Browne has\nperpetuated Baha-'ullah's noble declaration of the imminent setting up\nof the kingdom of God, based upon universal peace. But there is such a\nthrilling actuality in the Manifesto of the Disciples of George Fox\nthat I could not help availing myself of Mr. Isaac Sharp's kind\npermission to me to reprint it. It is indeed an opportune setting\nforth of the eternal riches, which will commend itself, now as never\nbefore, to those who can say, with the Grandfather in Tagore's poem,\n'I am a jolly pilgrim to the land of losing everything.' The rulers of\nthis world certainly do not cherish this ideal; but the imminent\nreconstruction of international relations will have to be founded upon\nit if we are not to sink back into the gulf of militarism.\n\nI have endeavoured to study the various races and religions on their\nbest side, and not to fetter myself to any individual teacher or\nparty, for 'out of His fulness have all we received.' Max M\u00fcller was\nhardly right in advising the Brahmists to call themselves Christians,\nand it is a pity that we so habitually speak of Buddhists and\nMohammedans. I venture to remark that the favourite name of the Bahais\namong themselves is 'Friends.' The ordinary name Bahai comes from the\ndivine name Baha, 'Glory (of God),' so that Abdu'l Baha means 'Servant\nof the Glory (of God).' One remembers the beautiful words of the Latin\ncollect, 'Cui servire regnare est.'\n\nAbdu'l Baha (when in Oxford) graciously gave me a 'new name.'\n[Footnote: Ru\u1e25ani ('spiritual').]  Evidently he thought that my work\nwas not entirely done, and would have me be ever looking for help to\nthe Spirit, whose 'strength is made perfect in weakness.' Since then\nhe has written me a Tablet (letter), from which I quote the following\nlines:--\n\n_'O thou, my spiritual philosopher,_\n\n'Thy letter was received. In reality its contents were eloquent, for\nit was an evidence of thy literary fairness and of thy investigation\nof Reality.... There were many Doctors amongst the Jews, but they were\nall earthly, but St. Paul became heavenly because he could fly\nupwards. In his own time no one duly recognized him; nay, rather, he\nspent his days amidst difficulties and contempt. Afterwards it became\nknown that he was not an earthly bird, he was a celestial one; he was\nnot a natural philosopher, but a divine philosopher.\n\n'It is likewise my hope that in the future the East and the West may\nbecome conscious that thou wert a divine philosopher and a herald to\nthe Kingdom.'\n\nI have no wish to write my autobiography, but may mention here that I\nsympathize largely with Vamb\u00e9ry, a letter from whom to Abdu'l Baha\nwill be found farther on; though I should express my own adhesion to\nthe Bahai leader in more glowing terms. Wishing to get nearer to a\n'human-catholic' religion I have sought the privilege of simultaneous\nmembership of several brotherhoods of Friends of God. It is my wish to\nshow that both these and other homes of spiritual life are, when\nstudied from the inside, essentially one, and that religions\nnecessarily issue in racial and world-wide unity.\n\nRU\u1e24ANI.\nOXFORD, _August_ 1914.\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n     PREFACE\n\n     INTRODUCTION\n\n  I. THE JEWELS OF THE FAITHS\n\n II. BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL\n\nIII. BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL (continued)\n\n IV. BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL; AMBASSADOR TO HUMANITY\n\n  V. A SERIES OF ILLUSTRATIVE STUDIES BEARING ON COMPARATIVE RELIGION\n\n     BAHAI BIBLIOGRAPHY\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTION\n\n\nTO MEN AND WOMEN OF GOODWILL IN THE BRITISH EMPIRE\n\n_A Message (reprinted by permission) from the Religious Society of\nFriends_\n\nWe find ourselves to-day in the midst of what may prove to be the\nfiercest conflict in the history of the human race. Whatever may be\nour view of the processes which have led to its inception, we have now\nto face the fact that war is proceeding upon a terrific scale and that\nour own country is involved in it.\n\nWe recognize that our Government has made most strenuous efforts to\npreserve peace, and has entered into the war under a grave sense of\nduty to a smaller State, towards which we had moral and treaty\nobligations. While, as a Society, we stand firmly to the belief that\nthe method of force is no solution of any question, we hold that the\npresent moment is not one for criticism, but for devoted service to\nour nation.\n\nWhat is to be the attitude of Christian men and women and of all who\nbelieve in the brotherhood of humanity? In the distress and perplexity\nof this new situation, many are so stunned as scarcely to be able to\ndiscern the path of duty.  In the sight of God we should seek to get\nback to first principles, and to determine on a course of action which\nshall prove us to be worthy citizens of His Kingdom. In making this\neffort let us remember those groups of men and women, in all the other\nnations concerned, who will be animated by a similar spirit, and who\nbelieve with us that the fundamental unity of men in the family of God\nis the one enduring reality, even when we are forced into an apparent\ndenial of it.  Although it would be premature to make any\npronouncement upon many aspects of the situation on which we have no\nsufficient data for a reliable judgment, we can, and do, call\nourselves and you to a consideration of certain principles which may\nsafely be enunciated.\n\n1. The conditions which have made this catastrophe possible must be\nregarded by us as essentially unchristian. This war spells the\nbankruptcy of much that we too lightly call Christian. No nation, no\nChurch, no individual can be wholly exonerated. We have all\nparticipated to some extent in these conditions. We have been content,\nor too little discontented, with them. If we apportion blame, let us\nnot fail first to blame ourselves, and to seek the forgiveness of\nAlmighty God.\n\n2. In the hour of darkest night it is not for us to lose heart. Never\nwas there greater need for men of faith. To many will come the\ntemptation to deny God, and to turn away with despair from the\nChristianity which seems to be identified with bloodshed on so\ngigantic a scale.  Christ is crucified afresh to-day. If some forsake\nHim and flee, let it be more clear that there are others who take\ntheir stand with Him, come what may.\n\n3. This we may do by continuing to show the spirit of love to all. For\nthose whose conscience forbids them to take up arms there are other\nways of serving, and definite plans are already being made to enable\nthem to take their full share in helping their country at this\ncrisis. In pity and helpfulness towards the suffering and stricken in\nour own country we shall all share.  If we stop at this, 'what do we\nmore than others?'  Our Master bids us pray for and love our enemies.\nMay we be saved from forgetting that they too are the children of our\nFather. May we think of them with love and pity. May we banish\nthoughts of bitterness, harsh judgments, the revengeful spirit. To do\nthis is in no sense unpatriotic.  We may find ourselves the subjects\nof misunderstanding. But our duty is clear--to be courageous in the\ncause of love and in the hate of hate. May we prepare ourselves even\nnow for the day when once more we shall stand shoulder to shoulder\nwith those with whom we are now at war, in seeking to bring in the\nKingdom of God.\n\n4. It is not too soon to begin to think out the new situation which\nwill arise at the close of the war. We are being compelled to face the\nfact that the human race has been guilty of a gigantic folly. We have\nbuilt up a culture, a civilization, and even a religious life,\nsurpassing in many respects that of any previous age, and we have been\ncontent to rest it all upon a foundation of sand. Such a state of\nsociety cannot endure so long as the last word in human affairs is\nbrute force. Sooner or later it was bound to crumble.  At the close of\nthis war we shall be faced with a stupendous task of reconstruction.\nIn some ways it will be rendered supremely difficult by the legacy of\nill-will, by the destruction of human life, by the tax upon all in\nmeeting the barest wants of the millions who will have suffered\nthrough the war. But in other ways it will be easier. We shall be able\nto make a new start, and to make it all together. From this point of\nview we may even see a ground of comfort in the fact that our own\nnation is involved. No country will be in a position which will compel\nothers to struggle again to achieve the inflated standard of military\npower existing before the war. We shall have an opportunity of\nreconstructing European culture upon the only possible permanent\nfoundation--mutual trust and good-will. Such a reconstruction would\nnot only secure the future of European civilization, but would save\nthe world from the threatened catastrophe of seeing the great nations\nof the East building their new social order also upon the sand, and\nthus turning the thought and wealth needed for their education and\ndevelopment into that which could only be a fetter to themselves and a\nmenace to the West.  Is it too much to hope for that we shall, when\nthe time comes, be able as brethren together to lay down far-reaching\nprinciples for the future of mankind such as will ensure us for ever\nagainst a repetition of this gigantic folly? If this is to be\naccomplished it will need the united and persistent pressure of all\nwho believe in such a future for mankind.  There will still be\nmultitudes who can see no good in the culture of other nations, and\nwho are unable to believe in any genuine brotherhood among those of\ndifferent races. Already those who think otherwise must begin to think\nand plan for such a future if the supreme opportunity of the final\npeace is not to be lost, and if we are to be saved from being again\nsucked down into the whirlpool of military aggrandizement and\nrivalry. In time of peace all the nations have been preparing for\nwar. In the time of war let all men of good-will prepare for\npeace. The Christian conscience must be awakened to the magnitude of\nthe issues. The great friendly democracies in each country must be\nready to make their influence felt. Now is the time to speak of this\nthing, to work for it, to pray for it.\n\n5. If this is to happen, it seems to us of vital importance that the\nwar should not be carried on in any vindictive spirit, and that it\nshould be brought to a close at the earliest possible moment.  We\nshould have it clearly before our minds from the beginning that we are\nnot going into it in order to crush and humiliate any nation. The\nconduct of negotiations has taught us the necessity of prompt action\nin international affairs. Should the opportunity offer, we, in this\nnation, should be ready to act with promptitude in demanding that the\nterms suggested are of a kind which it will be possible for all\nparties to accept, and that the negotiations be entered upon in the\nright spirit.\n\n6. We believe in God. Human free will gives us power to hinder the\nfulfilment of His loving purposes. It also means that we may actively\nco-operate with Him. If it is given to us to see something of a\nglorious possible future, after all the desolation and sorrow that lie\nbefore us, let us be sure that sight has been given us by Him.  No day\nshould close without our putting up our prayer to Him that He will\nlead His family into a new and better day. At a time when so severe a\nblow is being struck at the great causes of moral, social, and\nreligious reform for which so many have struggled, we need to look\nwith expectation and confidence to Him, whose cause they are, and find\na fresh inspiration in the certainty of His victory.\n\n_August 7, 1914._\n\n'In time of war let all men of good-will prepare for peace.' German,\nFrench, and English scholars and investigators have done much to show\nthat the search for truth is one of the most powerful links between\nthe different races and nations. It is absurd to speak--as many\nGermans do habitually speak--of 'deutsche Wissenschaft,' as if the\nglorious tree of scientific and historical knowledge were a purely\nGerman production.  Many wars like that which closed at Sedan and that\nwhich is still, most unhappily, in progress will soon drive lovers of\nscience and culture to the peaceful regions of North America!\n\nThe active pursuit of truth is, therefore, one of those things which\nmake for peace. But can we say this of moral and religious truth? In\nthis domain are we not compelled to be partisans and particularists?\nAnd has not liberal criticism shown that the religious traditions of\nall races and nations are to be relegated to the least cultured\nclasses? That is the question to the treatment of which I (as a\nChristian student) offer some contributions in the present volume. But\nI would first of all express my hearty sympathy with the friends of\nGod in the noble Russian Church, which has appointed the following\nprayer among others for use at the present crisis: [Footnote:\n_Church Times_, Sept. 4, 1914.]\n\n'_Deacon_. Stretch forth Thine hand, O Lord, from on high, and\ntouch the hearts of our enemies, that they may turn unto Thee, the God\nof peace Who lovest Thy creatures: and for Thy Name's sake strengthen\nus who put our trust in Thee by Thy might, we beseech Thee. Hear us\nand have mercy.'\n\nCertainly it is hardness of heart which strikes us most painfully in\nour (we hope) temporary enemies. The only excuse is that in the Book\nwhich Christian nations agree to consider as in some sense and degree\nreligiously authoritative, the establishment of the rule of the Most\nHigh is represented as coincident with extreme severities, or--as we\nmight well say--cruelties. I do not, however, think that the excuse,\nif offered, would be valid. The Gospels must overbear any inconsistent\nstatement of the Old Testament.\n\nBut the greatest utterances of human morality are to be found in the\nBuddhist Scriptures, and it is a shame to the European peoples that\nthe Buddhist Indian king Asoka should be more Christian than the\nleaders of 'German culture.'  I for my part love the old Germany far\nbetter than the new, and its high ideals would I hand on, filling up\nits omissions and correcting its errors. 'O house of Israel, come ye,\nlet us walk in the light of the Lord.' Thou art 'the God of peace Who\nlovest Thy creatures.'\n\n\n\nPART I\n\nTHE JEWELS OF THE FAITHS\n\n\nA STUDY OF THE CHIEF RELIGIONS ON THEIR BEST SIDE WITH A VIEW TO THEIR\nEXPANSION AND ENRICHMENT AND TO AN ULTIMATE SYNTHESIS AND TO THE FINAL\nUNION OF RACES AND NATIONS ON A SPIRITUAL BASIS\n\nThe crisis in the Christian Church is now so acute that we may well\nseek for some mode of escape from its pressure. The Old Broad Church\nposition is no longer adequate to English circumstances, and there is\nnot yet in existence a thoroughly satisfactory new and original\nposition for a Broad Church student to occupy. Shall we, then, desert\nthe old historic Church in which we were christened and educated? It\nwould certainly be a loss, and not only to ourselves. Or shall we wait\nwith drooping head to be driven out of the Church? Such a cowardly\nsolution may be at once dismissed. Happily we have in the Anglican\nChurch virtually no excommunication.  Our only course as students is\nto go forward, and endeavour to expand our too narrow Church\nboundaries. Modernists we are; modernists we will remain; let our only\nobject be to be worthy of this noble name.\n\nBut we cannot be surprised that our Church rulers are perplexed. For\nconsider the embarrassing state of critical investigation. Critical\nstudy of the Gospels has shown that very little of the traditional\nmaterial can be regarded as historical; it is even very uncertain\nwhether the Galilean prophet really paid the supreme penalty as a\nsupposed enemy of Rome on the shameful cross. Even apart from the\nproblem referred to, it is more than doubtful whether critics have\nleft us enough stones standing in the life of Jesus to serve as the\nbasis of a christology or doctrine of the divine Redeemer. And yet one\nfeels that a theology without a theophany is both dry and difficult to\ndefend. We want an avat\u00e2r, i.e. a 'descent' of God in human\nform; indeed, we seem to need several such 'descents,' appropriate to\nthe changing circumstances of the ages. Did not the author of the\nFourth Gospel recognize this? Certainly his portrait of Jesus is so\nwidely different from that of the Synoptists that a genuine\nreconciliation seems impossible. I would not infer from this that the\nJesus of the Fourth Gospel belonged to a different age from the Jesus\nof the Synoptists, but I would venture to say that the Fourth\nEvangelist would be easier to defend if he held this theory. The\nJohannine Jesus ought to have belonged to a different aeon.\n\n\nANOTHER IMAGE OF GOD\n\nWell, then, it is reasonable to turn for guidance and help to the\nEast. There was living quite lately a human being of such consummate\nexcellence that many think it is both permissible and inevitable even\nto identify him mystically with the invisible Godhead. Let us admit,\nsuch persons say, that Jesus was the very image of God. But he lived\nfor his own age and his own people; the Jesus of the critics has but\nlittle to say, and no redemptive virtue issues from him to us. But the\n'Blessed Perfection,' as Baha'ullah used to be called, lives for our\nage, and offers his spiritual feast to men of all peoples. His story,\ntoo, is liable to no diminution at the hands of the critics, simply\nbecause the facts of his life are certain. He has now passed from\nsight, but he is still in the ideal world, a true image of God and a\ntrue lover of man, and helps forward the reform of all those manifold\nabuses which hinder the firm establishment of the kingdom of God.  I\nshall return to this presently. Meanwhile, suffice it to say that\nthough I entertain the highest reverence and love for Baha'ullah's\nson, Abdul Baha, whom I regard as a Mahatma--'a great-souled one'--and\nlook up to as one of the highest examples in the spiritual firmament,\nI hold no brief for the Bahai community, and can be as impartial in\ndealing with facts relating to the Bahais as with facts which happen\nto concern my own beloved mother-church, the Church of England.\n\nI shall first of all ask, how it came to pass that so many of us are\nnow seeking help and guidance from the East, some from India, some\nfrom Persia, some (which is my own case) from India and from Persia.\n\n\nBAHA'ULLAH'S PRECURSORS, _e.g._ THE B\u0100B, \u1e62UFISM, AND SHEYKH\nA\u1e24MAD\n\nSo far as Persia is concerned, the reason is that its religious\nexperience has been no less varied than ancient. Zoroaster, Manes,\nChrist, Mu\u1e25ammad, Dh'u-Nun (the introducer of \u1e62ufism), Sheykh\nA\u1e25mad (the forerunner of Babism), the B\u0101b himself and Baha'ullah\n(the two Manifestations), have all left an ineffaceable mark on the\nnational life. The B\u0101b, it is true, again and again expresses his\nrepugnance to the 'lies' of the \u1e62ufis, and the B\u0101b\u012bs are not\nbehind him; but there are traces enough of the influence of \u1e62ufism\non the new Prophet and his followers.  The passion for martyrdom seems\nof itself to presuppose a tincture of \u1e62ufism, for it is the most\nextreme form of the passion for God, and to love God fervently but\nsteadily in preference to all the pleasures of the phenomenal world,\nis characteristically \u1e62ufite.\n\nWhat is it, then, in \u1e62ufism that excites the B\u0101b's indignation? It\nis not the doctrine of the soul's oneness with God as the One Absolute\nBeing, and the reality of the soul's ecstatic communion with Him.\nSeveral passages are quoted by Mons. Nicolas [Footnote: _Beyan\narabe_, pp. 3-18.]  on the attitude of the B\u0101b towards \u1e62ufism;\nsuffice it here to quote one of them.\n\n'Others (i.e. those who claim, as being identified with God, to\npossess absolute truth) are known by the name of \u1e62ufis, and believe\nthemselves to possess the internal sense of the Shari'at [Footnote:\nThe orthodox Law of Islam, which many Muslims seek to allegorize.]\nwhen they are in ignorance alike of its apparent and of its inward\nmeaning, and have fallen far, very far from it! One may perhaps say of\nthem that those people who have no understanding have chosen the route\nwhich is entirely of darkness and of doubt.'\n\nIgnorance, then, is, according to the B\u0101b, the great fault of the\n\u1e62ufis [Footnote: Yet the title \u1e62ufi connotes knowledge. It means\nprobably 'one who (like the Buddha on his statues) has a heavenly\neye.'  Prajn\u0101paramit\u0101 (_Divine Wisdom_) has the same third\neye (Havell, _Indian Sculpture and Painting_, illustr. XLV.).]\nwhom he censures, and we may gather that that ignorance was thought to\nbe especially shown in a crude pantheism and a doctrine of incarnation\nwhich, according to the B\u0101b, amounts to sheer polytheism.  [Footnote\n4: The technical term is 'association.']  God in Himself, says the\nB\u0101b, cannot be known, though a reflected image of Him is attainable\nby taking heed to His manifestations or perfect portraitures.\n\nSome variety of \u1e62ufism, however, sweetly and strongly permeates the\nteaching of the B\u0101b.  It is a \u1e62ufism which consists, not in\naffiliation to any \u1e62ufi order, but in the knowledge and love of the\nSource of the Eternal Ideals. Through detachment from this perishable\nworld and earnest seeking for the Eternal, a glimpse of the unseen\nReality can be attained. The form of this only true knowledge is\nsubject to change; fresh 'mirrors' or 'portraits' are provided at the\nend of each recurring cosmic cycle or aeon. But the substance is\nunchanged and unchangeable. As Prof. Browne remarks, 'the prophet of a\ncycle is naught but a reflexion of the Primal Will,--the same sun with\na new horizon.'  [Footnote: _NH_, p. 335.]\n\n\nTHE B\u0100B\n\nSuch a prophet was the B\u0101b; we call him 'prophet' for want of a\nbetter name; 'yea, I say unto you, a prophet and more than a prophet.'\nHis combination of mildness and power is so rare that we have to place\nhim in a line with super-normal men. But he was also a great mystic\nand an eminent theosophic speculator. We learn that, at great points\nin his career, after he had been in an ecstasy, such radiance of might\nand majesty streamed from his countenance that none could bear to look\nupon the effulgence of his glory and beauty. Nor was it an uncommon\noccurrence for unbelievers involuntarily to bow down in lowly\nobeisance on beholding His Holiness; while the inmates of the castle,\nthough for the most part Christians and Sunnis, reverently prostrated\nthemselves whenever they saw the visage of His Holiness.  [Footnote:\n_NH_, pp. 241, 242.]  Such transfiguration is well known to the\nsaints. It was regarded as the affixing of the heavenly seal to the\nreality and completeness of B\u0101b's detachment. And from the Master we\nlearn [Footnote: Mirza Jani (_NH_, p. 242).]  that it passed to\nhis disciples in proportion to the degree of their renunciation. But\nthese experiences were surely characteristic, not only of B\u0101bism,\nbut of \u1e62ufism. Ecstatic joy is the dominant note of \u1e62ufism, a joy\nwhich was of other-worldly origin, and compatible with the deepest\ntranquillity, and by which we are made like to the Ever-rejoicing\nOne. The mystic poet Far'idu'd-din writes thus,--\n\n  Joy! joy! I triumph now; no more I know\n  Myself as simply me. I burn with love.\n  The centre is within me, and its wonder\n  Lies as a circle everywhere about me. [a]\n\n  [Footnote a: Hughes, _Dict. of Islam_, p. 618 _b_.]\n\nAnd of another celebrated \u1e62ufi Sheykh (Ibnu'l Far'id) his son writes\nas follows: 'When moved to ecstasy by listening [to devotional\nrecitations and chants] his face would increase in beauty and\nradiance, while the perspiration dripped from all his body until it\nran under his feet into the ground.'  [Footnote: Browne, _Literary\nHistory of Persia_, ii. 503.]\n\n\nEFFECT OF \u1e62UFISM\n\n\u1e62ufism, however, which in the outset was a spiritual pantheism,\ncombined with quietism, developed in a way that was by no means so\nsatisfactory.  The saintly mystic poet Abu Sa'id had defined it thus:\n'To lay aside what thou hast in thy head (desires and ambitions), and\nto give away what thou hast in thy hand, and not to flinch from\nwhatever befalls thee.'  [Footnote: _Ibid_. ii. 208.]  This is,\nof course, not intended as a complete description, but shows that the\nspirit of the earlier \u1e62ufism was profoundly ethical. Count Gobineau,\nhowever, assures us that the \u1e62ufism which he knew was both\nenervating and immoral. Certainly the later \u1e62ufi poets were inclined\nto overpress symbolism, and the luscious sweetness of the poetry may\nhave been unwholesome for some--both for poets and for readers. Still\nI question whether, for properly trained readers, this evil result\nshould follow. The doctrine of the impermanence of all that is not God\nand that love between two human hearts is but a type of the love\nbetween God and His human creatures, and that the supreme happiness is\nthat of identification with God, has never been more alluringly\nexpressed than by the \u1e62ufi poets.\n\nThe \u1e62ufis, then, are true forerunners of the B\u0101b and his\nsuccessors. There are also two men, Muslims but no \u1e62ufis, who have a\nclaim to the same title. But I must first of all do honour to an\nIndian \u1e62ufi.\n\n\nINAYAT KHAN\n\nThe message of this noble company has been lately brought to the West.\n[Footnote: _Message Soufi de la Libert\u00e9 Spirituelle_ (Paris,\n1913).]  The bearer, who is in the fulness of youthful strength, is\nInayat Khan, a member of the \u1e62ufi Order, a practised speaker, and\nalso devoted to the traditional sacred music of India. His own teacher\non his death-bed gave him this affecting charge: 'Goest thou abroad\ninto the world, harmonize the East and the West with thy music; spread\nthe knowledge of \u1e62ufism, for thou art gifted by Allah, the Most\nMerciful and Compassionate.' So, then, Vivekananda, Abdu'l Baha, and\nInayat Khan, not to mention here several Buddhist monks, are all\nmissionaries of Eastern religious culture to Western, and two of these\nspecially represent Persia. We cannot do otherwise than thank God for\nthe concordant voice of Bahaite and \u1e62ufite. Both announce the\nEvangel of the essential oneness of humanity which will one day--and\nsooner than non-religious politicians expect--be translated into fact,\nand, as the first step towards this 'desire of all nations,' they\nembrace every opportunity of teaching the essential unity of\nreligions:\n\n  Pagodas, just as mosques, are homes of prayer,\n  'Tis prayer that church-bells chime unto the air;\n  Yea, Church and Ka'ba, Rosary and Cross,\n  Are all but divers tongues of world-wide prayer. [a]\n\n  [Footnote a: Whinfield's translation of the quatrains of Omar\n  Khayy\u00e1m, No. 22 (34).]\n\nSo writes a poet (Omar Khayy\u00e1m) whom Inayat Khan claims as a \u1e62ufi,\nand who at any rate seems to have had \u1e62ufi intervals. Unmixed\nspiritual prayer may indeed be uncommon, but we may hope that prayer\nwith no spiritual elements at all is still more rare. It is the object\nof prophets to awaken the consciousness of the people to its spiritual\nneeds. Of this class of men Inayat Khan speaks thus,--\n\n'The prophetic mission was to bring into the world the Divine Wisdom,\nto apportion it to the world according to that world's comprehension,\nto adapt it to its degree of mental evolution as well as to dissimilar\ncountries and periods. It is by this adaptability that the many\nreligions which have emanated from the same moral principle differ the\none from the other, and it is by this that they exist. In fact, each\nprophet had for his mission to prepare the world for the teaching of\nthe prophet who was to succeed him, and each of them foretold the\ncoming of his successor down to Mahomet, the last messenger of the\ndivine Wisdom, and as it were the look-out point in which all the\nprophetic cycle was centred. For Mahomet resumed the divine Wisdom in\nthis proclamation, \"Nothing exists, God alone is,\"--the final message\nwhither the whole line of the prophets tended, and where the\nboundaries of religions and philosophies took their start.  With this\nmessage prophetic interventions are henceforth useless.\n\n'The \u1e62ufi has no prejudice against any prophet, and, contrary to\nthose who only love one to hate the other, the \u1e62ufi regards them all\nas the highest attribute of God, as Wisdom herself, present under the\nappearance of names and forms.  He loves them with all his worship,\nfor the lover worships the Beloved in all Her garments....  It is thus\nthat the \u1e62ufis contemplate their Well-beloved, Divine Wisdom, in all\nher robes, in her different ages, and under all the names that she\nbears,--Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Mahomet.'  [Footnote: _Message Soufi\nde la Libert\u00e9_ (Paris, 1913), pp. 34, 35.]\n\nThe idea of the equality of the members of the world-wide prophethood,\nthe whole body of prophets being the unique personality of Divine\nWisdom, is, in my judgment, far superior to the corresponding theory\nof the exclusive Mu\u1e25ammadan orthodoxy. That theory is that each\nprophet represents an advance on his predecessor, whom he therefore\nsupersedes. Now, that Mu\u1e25ammad as a prophet was well adapted to the\nArabians, I should be most unwilling to deny. I am also heartily of\nopinion that a Christian may well strengthen his own faith by the\nexample of the fervour of many of the Muslims. But to say that the\n\u1e32ur'an is superior to either the Old Testament or the New is,\nsurely, an error, only excusable on the ground of ignorance. It is\ntrue, neither of Judaism nor of Christianity were the representatives\nin Mu\u1e25ammad's time such as we should have desired; ignorance on\nMu\u1e25ammad's part was unavoidable. But unavoidable also was the\nanti-Islamic reaction, as represented especially by the Order of the\n\u1e62ufis. One may hope that both action and reaction may one day become\nunnecessary. _That_ will depend largely on the Bahais.\n\nIt is time, however, to pass on to those precursors of B\u0101bism who\nwere neither \u1e62ufites nor Zoroastrians, but who none the less\ncontinued the line of the national religious development. The majority\nof Persians were Shi'ites; they regarded Ali and the 'Im\u0101ms' as\nvirtually divine manifestations.  This at least was their point of\nunion; otherwise they fell into two great divisions, known as the\n'Sect of the Seven' and the 'Sect of the Twelve' respectively. Mirza\nAli Mu\u1e25ammad belonged by birth to the latter, which now forms the\nState-religion of Persia, but there are several points in his doctrine\nwhich he held in common with the former (i.e. the Ishma'ilis).\nThese are--'the successive incarnations of the Universal Reason, the\nallegorical interpretation of Scripture, and the symbolism of every\nritual form and every natural phenomenon.  [Footnote: _NH_,\nintrod.  p. xiii.]  The doctrine of the impermanence of all that is\nnot God, and that love between two human hearts is but a type of the\nlove between God and his human creatures, and the bliss of\nself-annihilation, had long been inculcated in the most winning manner\nby the \u1e62ufis.\n\n\nSHEYKH A\u1e24MAD\n\nYet they were no \u1e62ufis, but precursors of B\u0101bism in a more\nthorough and special sense, and both were Muslims. The first was\nSheykh A\u1e25mad of A\u1e25sa, in the province of Ba\u1e25rein. He knew full\nwell that he was chosen of God to prepare men's hearts for the\nreception of the more complete truth shortly to be revealed, and that\nthrough him the way of access to the hidden twelfth Im\u0101m Mahdi was\nreopened. But he did not set this forth in clear and unmistakable\nterms, lest 'the unregenerate' should turn again and rend him.\nAccording to a Shi'ite authority he paid two visits to Persia, in one\nof which he was in high favour with the Court, and received as a\nyearly subsidy from the Shah's son the sum of 700 tumans, and in the\nother, owing chiefly to a malicious colleague, his theological\ndoctrines brought him into much disrepute. Yet he lived as a pious\nMuslim, and died in the odour of sanctity, as a pilgrim to Mecca.\n[Footnote: See _AMB_ (Nicolas), pp. 264-272; _NH_, pp. 235,\n236.]\n\nOne of his opponents (Mull\u0101 'Ali) said of him that he was 'an\nignorant man with a pure heart.'  Well, ignorant we dare not call him,\nexcept with a big qualification, for his aim required great knowledge;\nit was nothing less than the reconciliation of all truth, both\nmetaphysical and scientific.  Now he had certainly taken much trouble\nabout truth, and had written many books on philosophy and the sciences\nas understood in Islamic countries.  We can only qualify our eulogy by\nadmitting that he was unaware of the limitations of human nature, and\nof the weakness of Persian science.  Pure in heart, however, he was;\nno qualification is needed here, except it be one which Mull\u0101 'Ali\nwould not have regarded as requiring any excuse.  For purity he (like\nmany others) understood in a large sense. It was the reward of\ncourageous 'buffeting' and enslaving of the body; he was an austere\nascetic.\n\nHe had a special devotion to Ja'far-i-\u1e62adi\u1e33, [Footnote: _TN_,\np. 297.]  the sixth Im\u0101m, whose guidance he believed himself to\nenjoy in dreams, and whose words he delighted to quote. Of course,\n'Ali was the director of the council of the Im\u0101ms, but the\ncouncillors were not much less, and were equally faithful as mirrors\nof the Supreme. This remains true, even if 'Ali be regarded as himself\nthe Supreme God [Footnote: The Sheykh certainly tended in the\ndirection of the sect of the 'Ali-Ilabis (_NH_, p. 142; Kremer,\n_Herrschende Ideen des Islams_, p. 31), who belonged to the _ghulat_\nor extreme Shi'ites (Browne, _Lit. Hist. of Persia_, p. 310).]\nidentical with Allah or with the Ormazd (Ahura-Mazda) of the\nZoroastrians.  For the twelve Im\u0101ms were all of the rank of\ndivinities. Not that they were 'partners' with God; they were simply\nmanifestations of the Invisible God. But they were utterly veracious\nManifestations; in speaking of Allah (as the Sheykh taught) wer may\nventure to intend 'Ali.  [Footnote: The Sheykh held that in reciting\nthe opening _sura_ of the \u1e32ur'an the worshipper should think of\n'Ali, should intend 'Ali, as his God.]\n\nThis explains how the Sheykh can have taught that the Im\u0101ms took\npart in creation and are agents in the government of the world. In\nsupport of this he quoted \u1e32ur'an, Sur. xxiii. 14, 'God the best of\nCreators,' and, had he been a broader and more scientific theologian,\nmight have mentioned how the Amshaspands (Ameshaspentas) are grouped\nwith Ormazd in the creation-story of Zoroastrianism, and how, in that\nof Gen. i., the Director of the Heavenly Council says, 'Let _us_\nmake man.'  [Footnote: Genesis i. 22.]\n\nThe Sheykh also believed strongly in the existence of a subtle body\nwhich survives the dissolution of the palpable, material body,\n[Footnote: _TN_, p. 236.]  and will alone be visible at the\nResurrection. Nothing almost gave more offence than this; it seemed to\nbe only a few degrees better than the absolute denial of the\nresurrection-body ventured upon by the Akhbaris.  [Footnote: Gobineau,\npp. 39, 40.]  And yet the notion of a subtle, internal body, a notion\nwhich is Indian as well as Persian, has been felt even by many\nWesterns to be for them the only way to reconcile reason and faith.\n\n\nSEYYID KA\u1e92IM--ISLAM--PARSIISM--BUDDHISM\n\nOn A\u1e25mad's death the unanimous choice of the members of the school\nfell on Seyyid (Sayyid) Ka\u1e93im of Resht, who had been already\nnominated by the Sheykh. He pursued the same course as his\npredecessor, and attracted many inquirers and disciples. Among the\nlatter was the lady Kurratu'l 'Ayn, born in a town where the Sheykhi\nsect was strong, and of a family accustomed to religious controversy.\nHe was not fifty when he died, but his career was a distinguished one.\nHimself a Gate, he discerned the successor by whom he was to be\novershadowed, and he was the teacher of the famous lady referred\nto. To what extent 'Ali Mu\u1e25ammad (the subsequent B\u0101b) was\ninstructed by him is uncertain. It was long enough no doubt to make\nhim a Sheykhite and to justify 'Ali Mu\u1e25ammad in his own eyes for\nraising Sheykh A\u1e25mad and the Seyyid Ka\u1e93im to the dignity of B\u0101b.\n[Footnote: _AMB_, pp. 91, 95; cp. _NH_, p. 342.]\n\nThere seems to be conclusive evidence that Seyyid Ka\u1e93im adverted\noften near the close of life to the divine Manifestation which he\nbelieved to be at hand. He was fond of saying, 'I see him as the\nrising sun.' He was also wont to declare that the 'Proof' would be a\nyouth of the race of Hashim, i.e. a kinsman of Mu\u1e25ammad,\nuntaught in the learning of men. Of a dream which he heard from an\nArab (when in Turkish Arabia), he said, 'This dream signifies that my\ndeparture from the world is near at hand'; and when his friends wept\nat this, he remonstrated with them, saying, 'Why are ye troubled in\nmind?  Desire ye not that I should depart, and that the truth [in\nperson] should appear?'  [Footnote: _NH_, p. 31.]\n\nI leave it an open question whether Seyyid Ka\u1e93im had actually fixed\non the person who was to be his successor, and to reflect the Supreme\nWisdom far more brilliantly than himself. But there is no reason to\ndoubt that he regarded his own life and labours as transitional, and\nit is possible that by the rising sun of which he loved to speak he\nmeant that strange youth of Shiraz who had been an irregular attendant\nat his lectures. Very different, it is true, is the Mu\u1e25ammadan\nlegend.  It states that 'Ali Mu\u1e25ammad was present at Karbala from\nthe death of the Master, that he came to an understanding with members\nof the school, and that after starting certain miracle-stories, all of\nthem proceeded to Mecca, to fulfil the predictions which connected the\nProphet-Messiah with that Holy City, where, with bared sabre, he would\nsummon the peoples to the true God.\n\nThis will, I hope, suffice to convince the reader that both the \u1e62ufi\nOrder and the Sheykhite Sect were true forerunners of B\u0101bism and\nBahaism.  He will also readily admit that, for the \u1e62ufis especially,\nthe connexion with a church of so weak a historic sense was most\nunfortunate. It would be the best for all parties if Muslims both\nwithin and without the \u1e62ufi Order accepted a second home in a church\n(that of Abha) whose historical credentials are unexceptionable,\nretaining membership of the old home, so as to be able to reform from\nwithin, but superadding membership of the new. Whether this is\npossible on a large scale, the future must determine. It will not be\npossible if those who combine the old home with a new one become\nthemselves thereby liable to persecution. It will not even be\ndesirable unless the new-comers bring with them doctrinal (I do not\nsay dogmatic) contributions to the common stock of Bahai\ntruths--contributions of those things for which alone in their hearts\nthe immigrant Muslim brothers infinitely care.\n\nIt will be asked, What are, to a Muslim, and especially to a Shi'ite\nMuslim, infinitely precious things? I will try to answer this\nquestion.  First of all, in time of trouble, the Muslim certainly\nvalues as a 'pearl of great price' the Mercifulness and Compassion of\nGod. Those who believingly read the \u1e32ur'an or recite the opening\nprayer, and above all, those who pass through deep waters, cannot do\notherwise. No doubt the strict justice of God, corresponding to and\nlimited by His compassion, is also a true jewel. We may admit that the\njudicial severity of Allah has received rather too much stress; still\nthere must be occasions on which, from earthly caricatures of justice\npious Muslims flee for refuge in their thoughts to the One Just\nJudge. Indeed, the great final Judgment is, to a good Muslim, a much\nstronger incentive to holiness than the sensuous descriptions of\nParadise, which indeed he will probably interpret symbolically.\n\nThe true Muslim will be charitable even to the lower animals.\n[Footnote: Nicholson, _The Mystics of Islam_, p. 108.]  Neither\npoor-law nor Society for the Protection of Animals is required in\nMuslim countries. How soon organizations arose for the care of the\nsick, and, in war-time, of the wounded, it would be difficult to say;\nfor Buddhists and Hindus were of course earlier in the field than\nMuslims, inheriting as they did an older moral culture. In the Muslim\nworld, however, the twelfth century saw the rise of the Kadirite\nOrder, with its philanthropic procedure.  [Footnote: D. S.\nMargoliouth, _Mohammedanism_, pp. 211-212.]  Into the ideal of man, as\nconceived by our Muslim brothers, there must therefore enter the\nfeature of mercifulness.  We cannot help sympathizing with this, even\nthough we think Abdul Baha's ideal richer and nobler than any as yet\nconceived by any Muslim saint.\n\nThere is also the idea--the realized idea--of brotherhood, a\nbrotherhood which is simply an extension of the equality of Arabian\ntribesmen.  There is no caste in Islam; each believer stands in the\nsame relation to the Divine Sovereign.  There may be poor, but it is\nthe rich man's merit to relieve them. There may be slaves, but slaves\nand masters are religiously one, and though there are exceptions to\nthe general kindliness of masters and mistresses, it is in East Africa\nthat these lamentable inconsistencies are mostly found. The Muslim\nbrothers who may join the Bahais will not find it hard to shake off\ntheir moral weaknesses, and own themselves brothers of their servants.\nAre we not all (they will say) sons of Adam?  Lastly, there is the\ncharacter of Mu\u1e25ammad.  Perfect he was not, but Baha'ullah was\nhardly quite fair to Mu\u1e25ammad when (if we may trust a tradition) he\nreferred to the Arabian prophet as a camel-driver. It is a most\ninadequate description.  He had a 'rare beauty and sweetness of\nnature' to which he joined a 'social and political genius' and\n'towering manhood.'  [Footnote: Sister Nivedita, _The Web of Indian\nLife_, pp. 242, 243.]\n\nThese are the chief contributions which Muslim friends and lovers will\nbe able to make; these, the beliefs which we shall hold more firmly\nthrough our brothers' faith. Will Muslims accept as well as proffer\ngifts? Speaking of a Southern Morocco Christian mission, S. L.\nBensusan admits that it does not make Christians out of Moors, but\nclaims that it 'teaches the Moors to live finer lives within the\nlimits of their own faith.'  [Footnote: _Morocco_ (A. & C. Black),\np. 164.]\n\nI should like to say something here about the sweetness of\nMu\u1e25ammad. It appears not only in his love for his first wife and\nbenefactress, Khadijah, but in his affection for his daughter,\nFatima. This affection has passed over to the Muslims, who call her\nvery beautifully 'the Salutation of all Muslims.' The B\u0101bis affirm\nthat Fatima returned to life in their own great heroine.\n\nThere is yet another form of religion that I must not neglect--the\nZoroastrian or Parsi faith.  Far as this faith may have travelled from\nits original spirituality, it still preserved in the B\u0101b's time some\nelements of truth which were bound to become a beneficial leaven. This\nhigh and holy faith (as represented in the Gathas) was still the\nreligion of the splendour or glory of God, still the champion of the\nGood Principle against the Evil.  As if to show his respectful\nsympathy for an ancient and persecuted religion the B\u0101b borrowed\nsome minor points of detail from his Parsi neighbours. Not on these,\nhowever, would I venture to lay any great stress, but rather on the\ndoctrines and beliefs in which a Parsi connexion may plausibly be\nheld. For instance, how can we help tracing a parallel between 'Ali\nand the Imams on the one hand and Ahura-Mazda (Ormazd) and his council\nof Amshaspands (Amesha-spentas) on the other? The founders of both\nreligions conceived it to be implied in the doctrine of the Divine\nOmnipresence that God should be represented in every place by His\ncelestial councillors, who would counteract the machinations of the\nEvil Ones.  For Evil Ones there are; so at least Islam holds.  Their\nefforts are foredoomed to failure, because their kingdom has no unity\nor cohesion. But strange mystic potencies they have, as all pious\nMuslims think, and we must remember that 'Ali Mu\u1e25ammad (the B\u0101b)\nwas bred up in the faith of Islam.\n\nWell, then, we can now proceed further and say that our Parsi friends\ncan offer us gifts worth the having. When they rise in the morning\nthey know that they have a great warfare to wage, and that they are\nnot alone, but have heavenly helpers.  This form of representation is\nnot indeed the only one, but who shall say that we can dispense with\nit? Even if evil be but the shadow of good, a _M\u032caya_, an appearance,\nyet must we not act as if it had a real existence, and combat it with\nall our might?\n\nMay we also venture to include Buddhism among the religions which may\ndirectly or indirectly have prepared the way for Bahaism?  We may; the\nevidence is as follows. Manes, or Mani, the founder of the\nwidely-spread sect of the Manichaeans, who lived in the third century\nof our era, writes thus in the opening of one of his books,--\n[Footnote: _Literary History of Persia_, i. 103.]\n\n'Wisdom and deeds have always from time to time been brought to\nmankind by the messengers of God. So in one age they have been brought\nby the messenger of God called Buddha to India, in another by\nZoroaster to Persia, in another by Jesus to the West. Thereafter this\nrevelation has come down, this prophecy in this last age, through me,\nMani, the Messenger of the God of Truth to Babylonia' ('Irak).\n\nThis is valid evidence for at least the period before that of Mani. We\nhave also adequate proofs of the continued existence of Buddhism in\nPersia in the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries; indeed, we\nmay even assert this for Bactria and E. Persia with reference to\nnearly 1000 years before the Mu\u1e25ammadan conquest.  [Footnote:\nR. A. Nicholson, _The Mystics_, p. 18. Cp. E. G. Browne,\n_Lit. Hist. of Persia_, ii. 440 _ff_.]\n\nBuddhism, then, battled for leave to do the world good in its own way,\nthough the intolerance of Islam too soon effaced its footprints. There\nis still some chance, however, that \u1e62ufism may be a record of its\nactivity; in fact, this great religious upgrowth may be of Indian\nrather than of Neoplatonic origin, so that the only question is\nwhether \u1e62ufism developed out of the Vedanta or out of the religious\nphilosophy of Buddhism.  That, however, is too complex a question to\nbe discussed here.\n\nAll honour to Buddhism for its noble effort.  In some undiscoverable\nway Buddhists acted as pioneers for the destined Deliverer. Let us,\nthen, consider what precious spiritual jewels its sons and daughters\ncan bring to the new Fraternity.  There are many most inadequate\nstatements about Buddhism. Personally, I wish that such expressions as\n'the cold metaphysic of Buddhism' might be abandoned; surely\nmetaphysicians, too, have religious needs and may have warm hearts.\nAt the same time I will not deny that I prefer the northern variety of\nBuddhism, because I seem to myself to detect in the southern Buddhism\na touch of a highly-refined egoism. Self-culture may or may not be\ncombined with self-sacrifice.  In the case of the Buddha it was no\ndoubt so combined, as the following passage, indited by him, shows--\n\n'All the means that can be used as bases for doing right are not worth\none sixteenth part of the emancipation of the heart through love. That\ntakes all those up into itself, outshining them in radiance and in\nglory.'  [Footnote: Mrs. Rhys Davids, _Buddhism_, p. 229.]\n\nWhat, then, are the jewels of the Buddhist which he would fain see in\nthe world's spiritual treasury?\n\nHe will tell you that he has many jewels, but that three of them stand\nout conspicuously--the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. Of these\nthe first is 'Sakya Muni, called the Buddha (the Awakened One).' His\nlife is full of legend and mythology, but how it takes hold of the\nreader! Must we not pronounce it the finest of religious narratives,\nand thank the scholars who made the _Lalita Vistara_ known to us?\nThe Buddha was indeed a supernormal man; morally and physically he\nmust have had singular gifts.  To an extraordinary intellect he joined\nthe enthusiasm of love, and a thirst for service.\n\nThe second of the Buddhist brother's jewels is the Dharma, i.e.\nthe Law or Essential Rightness revealed by the Buddha. That the Master\nlaid a firm practical foundation for his religion cannot be denied,\nand if Jews and Christians reverence the Ten Words given through\n'Moses,' much more may Buddhists reverence the ten moral precepts of\nSakya Muni. Those, however, whose aim is Buddhaship (i.e. those\nwho propose to themselves the more richly developed ideal of northern\nBuddhists) claim the right to modify those precepts just as Jesus\nmodified the Law of Moses. While, therefore, we recognize that good\nhas sometimes come even out of evil, we should also acknowledge the\nsuperiority of Buddhist countries and of India in the treatment both\nof other human beings and of the lower animals.\n\nThe Sangha, or Monastic Community, is the third treasure of Buddhism,\nand the satisfaction of the Buddhist laity with the monastic body is\nsaid to be very great. At any rate, the cause of education in Burma\nowes much to the monks, but it is hard to realize how the Monastic\nCommunity can be in the same sense a 'refuge' from the miseries of the\nworld as the Buddha or Dharmak\u00e2ya.\n\nThe name Dharmak\u00e2ya [Footnote: Johnston, _Buddhist China_,\np. 77.]  (Body of Dharma, or system of rightness) may strike strangely\nupon our ears, but northern Buddhism makes much of it, and even though\nit may not go back to Sakya Muni himself, it is a development of germs\nlatent in his teaching; and to my own mind there is no more wonderful\nconception in the great religions than that of Dharmak\u00e2ya. If any one\nattacks our Buddhist friends for atheism, they have only to refer (if\nthey can admit a synthesis of northern and southern doctrines) to the\nconception of Dharmak\u00e2ya, of Him who is 'for ever Divine and\nEternal,' who is 'the One, devoid of all determinations.' 'This Body\nof Dharma,' we are told, 'has no boundary, no quarters, but is\nembodied in all bodies.... All forms of corporeality are involved\ntherein; it is able to create all things. Assuming any concrete\nmaterial form, as required by the nature and condition of karma, it\nilluminates all creations.... There is no place in the universe where\nthis Body does not prevail.  The universe becomes dust; this Body for\never remains. It is free from all opposites and contraries, yet it is\nworking in all things to lead them to Nirvana.'  [Footnote: Suzuki,\n_Outlines_, pp. 223-24.]\n\nIn fact, this Dharmak\u00e2ya is the ultimate principle of cosmic energy.\nWe may call it principle, but it is not, like Brahman, absolutely\nimpersonal.  Often it assumes personality, when it receives the name\nof Tathagata. It has neither passions nor prejudices, but works for\nthe salvation of all sentient beings universally. Love (_karun\u00e2_) and\nintelligence (_bodhi_) are equally its characteristics.  It is only\nthe veil of illusion (_maya_) which prevents us from seeing\nDharmak\u00e2ya in its magnificence.  When this veil is lifted, individual\nexistences as such will lose their significance; they will become\nsublimated and ennobled in the oneness of Dharmak\u00e2ya.  [Footnote:\n_Ibid_. p. 179.]\n\nWill the reader forgive me if I mention some other jewels of the\nBuddhist faith? One is the Buddha Ami't\u0101bha, and the other Kuanyin\nor Kwannon, his son or daughter; others will be noted presently. The\nlatter is especially popular in China and Japan, and is generally\nspoken of by Europeans as the 'Goddess of Mercy.' 'Goddess,' however,\nis incorrect, [Footnote: Johnston, _Buddhist China_, p. 123.]\njust as 'God' would be incorrect in the case of Ami't\u0101bha. Sakya\nMuni was considered greater than any of the gods.  All such Beings\nwere saviours and helpers to man, just as Jesus is looked up to by\nChristian believers as a saviour and deliverer, and perhaps I might\nadd, just as there are, according to the seer-poet Dante, three\ncompassionate women (_donne_) in heaven.  [Footnote: Dante,\n_D.C., Inf._ ii. 124 _f_. The 'blessed women' seem to be\nMary (the mother of Christ), Beatrice, and Lucia.]  Kwannon and her\nFather may surely be retained by Chinese and Japanese, not as gods,\nbut as gracious _bodhisatts_ (i.e. Beings whose essence is\nintelligence).\n\nI would also mention here as 'jewels' of the Buddhists (1) their\ntenderness for all living creatures. Legend tells of Sakya Muni that\nin a previous state of existence he saved the life of a doe and her\nyoung one by offering his own life as a substitute. In one of the\npriceless panels of B\u00f4r\u00f4bud\u00fbr in Java this legend is beautifully\nused.  [Footnote: Havell, _Indian Sculpture and Painting_,\np. 123.]  It must indeed have been almost more impressive to the\nBuddhists even than Buddha's precept.\n\n  E'en as a mother watcheth o'er her child,\n  Her only child, as long as life doth last,\n  So let us, for all creatures great or small,\n  Develop such a boundless heart and mind,\n  Ay, let us practise love for all the world,\n  Upward and downward, yonder, thence,\n  Uncramped, free from ill-will and enmity.[a]\n\n  [Footnote a: Mrs. Rhys Davids, _Buddhism_, p. 219.]\n\n(2 and 3) Faith in the universality of inspiration and a hearty\nadmission that spiritual pre-eminence is open to women. As to the\nformer, Suzuki has well pointed out that Christ is conceived of by\nBuddhists quite as the Buddha himself. [Footnote: Suzuki, _Outlines\nof the Mah\u00e2y\u00e2na Buddhism_.] 'The Dharmak\u00e2ya revealed itself as\nSakya Muni to the Indian mind, because that was in harmony with its\nneeds. The Dharmak\u00e2ya appeared in the person of Christ on the Semitic\nstage, because it suited their taste best in this way.' As to the\nlatter, there were women in the ranks of the Arahats in early times;\nand, as the _Psalms of the Brethren_ show, there were even\nchild-Arahats, and, so one may presume, girl-Arahats.  And if it is\nobjected that this refers to the earlier and more flourishing period\nof the Buddhist religion, yet it is in a perfectly modern summary of\ndoctrine that we find these suggestive words, [Footnote: Omoro in\n_Oxford Congress of Religions, Transactions_, i. 152.] 'With this\ndesire even a maiden of seven summers [Footnote: 'The age of seven is\nassigned to all at their ordination' (_Psalms of the Brethren_,\np. xxx.) The reference is to child-Arahats.] may be a leader of the\nfour multitudes of beings.' That spirituality has nothing to do with\nthe sexes is the most wonderful law in the teachings of the Buddhas.'\n\nIndia being the home of philosophy, it is not surprising either that\nIndian religion should take a predominantly philosophical form, or\nthat there should be a great variety of forms of Indian religion. This\nis not to say that the feelings were neglected by the framers of\nIndian theory, or that there is any essential difference between the\nforms of Indian religion. On the contrary, love and intelligence are\ninseparably connected in that religion and there are fundamental ideas\nwhich impart a unity to all the forms of Hindu religion.  That form of\nreligion, however, in which love (_karun\u00e2_) receives the highest\nplace, and becomes the centre conjointly with intelligence of a theory\nof emancipation and of perfect Buddhahood, is neither Vedantism nor\nprimitive Buddhism, but that later development known as the\nMah\u00e2y\u00e2na.  Germs indeed there are of the later theory; and how\nshould there not be, considering the wisdom and goodness of those who\nframed those systems?  How beautiful is that ancient description of\nhim who would win the joy of living in Brahma (Tagore, _Sadhan\u00e2_,\np. 106), and not much behind it is the following passage of the\nBhagavad-Gita, 'He who hates no single being, who is friendly and\ncompassionate to all ... whose thought and reason are directed to Me,\nhe who is [thus] devoted to Me is dear to Me' (Discourse xii. 13, 14).\nThis is a fine utterance, and there are others as fine.\n\nOne may therefore expect that most Indian Vedantists will, on entering\nthe Bahai Society, make known as widely as they can the beauties of\nthe Bhagavad-Gita. I cannot myself profess that I admire the contents\nas much as some Western readers, but much is doubtless lost to me\nthrough my ignorance of Sanskrit. Prof.  Garbe and Prof. Hopkins,\nhowever, confirm me in my view that there is often a falling off in\nthe immediateness of the inspiration, and that many passages have been\ninterpolated. It is important to mention this here because it is\nhighly probable that in future the Scriptures of the various churches\nand sects will be honoured by being read, not less devotionally but\nmore critically.  Not the Bibles as they stand at present are\nrevealed, but the immanent Divine Wisdom. Many things in the outward\nform of the Scriptures are, for us, obsolete. It devolves upon us, in\nthe spirit of filial respect, to criticize them, and so help to clear\nthe ground for a new prophet.\n\nA few more quotations from the fine Indian Scriptures shall be\ngiven. Their number could be easily increased, and one cannot blame\nthose Western admirers of the Gita who display almost as fervent an\nenthusiasm for the unknown author of the Gita as Dante had for his\n_savio duca_ in his fearsome pilgrimage.\n\n\nTHE BHAGAVAD-GITA AND THE UPANISHADS\n\nSuch criticism was hardly possible in England, even ten or twenty\nyears ago, except for the Old Testament. Some scholars, indeed, had\nhad their eyes opened, but even highly cultured persons in the\nlay-world read the Bhagavad-Gita with enthusiastic admiration but\nquite uncritically.  Much as I sympathize with Margaret Noble (Sister\nNivedita), Jane Hay (of St. Abb's, Berwickshire, N.B.), and Rose\nR. Anthon, I cannot desire that their excessive love for the Gita\nshould find followers. I have it on the best authority that the\napparent superiority of the Indian Scriptures to those of the\nChristian world influenced Margaret Noble to become 'Sister\nNivedita'--a great result from a comparatively small cause. And Miss\nAnthon shows an excess of enthusiasm when she puts these words\n(without note or comment) into the mouth of an Indian student:--\n\n'But now, O sire, I have found all the wealth and treasure and honour\nof the universe in these words that were uttered by the King of Kings,\nthe Lover of Love, the Giver of Heritages.  There is nothing I ask\nfor; no need is there in my being, no want in my life that this Gita\ndoes not fill to overflowing.'  [Footnote: _Stories of India_,\n1914, p. 138.]\n\nThere are in fact numerous passages in the Gita which, united, would\nform a _Holy Living_ and a _Holy Dying_, if we were at the\npains to add to the number of the passages a few taken from the\nUpanishads. Vivekananda and Rabindranath Tagore have already studded\ntheir lectures with jewels from the Indian Scriptures.  The Hindus\nthemselves delight in their holy writings, but if these writings are\nto become known in the West, the grain must first be sifted.  In other\nwords, there must be literary and perhaps also (I say it humbly) moral\ncriticism.\n\nI will venture to add a few quotations:--\n\n'Whenever there is a decay of religion, O Bh\u00e2ratas, and an ascendency\nof irreligion, then I manifest myself.\n\n'For the protection of the good, for the destruction of evildoers, for\nthe firm establishment of religion, I am born in every age.'\n\nThe other passages are not less noble.\n\n'They also who worship other gods and make offering to them with\nfaith, O son of Kunti, do verily make offering to me, though not\naccording to ordinance.'\n\n'Never have I not been, never hast thou, and never shall time yet come\nwhen we shall not all be. That which pervades this universe is\nimperishable; there is none can make to perish that changeless\nbeing. This never is born, and never dies, nor may it after being come\nagain to be not; this unborn, everlasting, abiding, Ancient, is not\nslain when the body is slain.  Knowing This to be imperishable,\neverlasting, unborn, changeless, how and whom can a man make to be\nslain or slay? As a man lays aside outworn garments, and takes others\nthat are new, so the Body-Dweller puts away outworn bodies and goes to\nothers that are new. Everlasting is This, dwelling in all things,\nfirm, motionless, ancient of days.'\n\n\nJUDAISM\n\nJudaism, too, is so rich in spiritual treasures that I hesitate to\nsingle out more than a very few jewels. It is plain, however, that it\nneeds to be reformed, and that this need is present in many of the\ntraditional forms which enshrine so noble a spiritual experience. The\nSabbath, for instance, is as the apple of his eye to every\ntrue-hearted Jew; he addresses it in his spiritual songs as a\nPrincess.  And he does well; the title Princess belongs of right to\n'Shabbath.' For the name--be it said in passing--is probably a\ncorruption of a title of the Mother-goddess Ashtart, and it would, I\nthink, have been no blameworthy act if the religious transformers of\nIsraelite myths had made a special myth, representing Shabbath as a\nman. When the Messiah comes, I trust that _He_ will do this.  For\n'the Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath.'\n\nThe faith of the Messiah is another of Israel's treasures. Or rather,\nperhaps I should say, the faith in the Messiahs, for one Messiah will\nnot meet the wants of Israel or the world. The Messiah, or the\nBeing-like-a-man (Dan. vii. 13), is a supernatural Being, who appears\non earth when he is wanted, like the Logos. We want Messiah badly now;\nspecially, I should say, we Christians want 'great-souled ones'\n(Mahatmas), who can 'guide us into all the truth' (John xvi. 13). That\nthey have come in the past, I doubt not. God could not have left his\nhuman children in the lurch for all these centuries.  One thousand\nJews of Tihran are said to have accepted Baha'ullah as the expected\nMessiah.  They were right in what they affirmed, and only wrong in\nwhat they denied. And are we not all wrong in virtually denying the\nMessiahship of women-leaders like Kurratu'l 'Ayn; at least, I have\nonly met with this noble idea in a work of Fiona Macleod.\n\n\nCHRISTIANITY\n\n\nAnd what of our own religion?\n\nWhat precious jewels are there which we can share with our Oriental\nbrethren? First of all one may mention that wonderful picture of the\ndivine-human Saviour, which, full of mystery as it is, is capable of\nattracting to its Hero a fervent and loving loyalty, and melting the\nhardest heart.  We have also a portrait (implicit in the Synoptic\nGospels)--the product of nineteenth century criticism--of the same\nJesus Christ, and yet who could venture to affirm that He really was\nthe same, or that a subtle aroma had not passed away from the Life of\nlives? In this re-painted portrait we have, no longer a divine man,\nbut simply a great and good Teacher and a noble Reformer.  This\nportrait too is in its way impressive, and capable of lifting men\nabove their baser selves, but it would obviously be impossible to take\nthis great Teacher and Reformer for the Saviour and Redeemer of\nmankind.\n\nWe have further a pearl of great price in the mysticism of Paul, which\npresupposes, not the Jesus of modern critics, nor yet the Jesus of the\nSynoptics, but a splendid heart-uplifting Jesus in the colours of\nmythology. In this Jesus Paul lived, and had a constant ecstatic joy\nin the everlasting divine work of creation. He was 'crucified with\nChrist,' and it was no longer Paul that lived, but Christ that lived\nin him. And the universe--which was Paul's, inasmuch as it was\nChrist's--was transformed by the same mysticism.  'It was,' says\nEvelyn Underhill, [Footnote: _The Mystic Way_, p. 194 (chap. iii.\n'St. Paul and the Mystic Way').]  'a universe soaked through and\nthrough by the Presence of God: that transcendent-immanent Reality,\n\"above all, and through all, and in you all\" as fontal \"Father,\"\nenergising \"Son,\" indwelling \"Spirit,\" in whom every mystic, Christian\nor non-Christian, is sharply aware that \"we live and move and have our\nbeing.\" To his extended consciousness, as first to that of Jesus, this\nReality was more actual than anything else--\"God is all in all.\"'\n\nIt is true, this view of the Universe as God-filled is probably not\nPaul's, for the Epistles to the Ephesians and Colossians are hardly\nthat great teacher's work. But it is none the less authentic, 'God is\nall and in all'; the whole Universe is temporarily a symbol by which\nGod is at once manifested and veiled. I fear we have largely lost\nthis. It were therefore better to reconquer this truth by India's\nhelp. Probably indeed the initial realization of the divinity of the\nuniverse (including man) is due to an increased acquaintance with the\nEast and especially with Persia and India.\n\nAnd I venture to think that Catholic Christians have conferred a boon\non their Protestant brethren by emphasizing the truth of the feminine\nelement (see pp. 31, 37) in the manifestation of the Deity, just as\nthe Chinese and Japanese Buddhists have done for China and Japan, and\nthe modern reformers of Indian religion have done for India.  This too\nis a 'gem of purest ray.'\n\n\n\nPART II\n\nBIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL\n\n\nSEYYID 'ALI MU\u1e24AMMAD (THE B\u0100B)\n\nSeyyid 'Ali Mu\u1e25ammad was born at Hafiz' city.  It was not his lot,\nhowever, to rival that great lyric poet; God had far other designs for\nhim.  Like St. Francis, he had a merchant for his father, but this too\nwas widely apart from 'AH Mu\u1e25ammad's destiny, which was neither more\nnor less than to be a manifestation of the Most High. His birthday was\non the 1st Mu\u1e25arrem, A.H. 1236 (March 26, A.D. 1821). His maternal\nuncle, [Footnote: This relative of the B\u0101b is mentioned in\nBaha-'ullah's _Book of Ighan_, among the men of culture who\nvisited Baha-'ullah at Baghdad and laid their difficulties before\nhim. His name was Seyyid 'Ali Mu\u1e25ammad (the same name as the\nB\u0101b's).]  however, had to step in to take a father's place; he was\nearly left an orphan. When eighteen or nineteen years of age he was\nsent, for commercial reasons, to Bushire, a place with a villainous\nclimate on the Persian Gulf, and there he wrote his first book, still\nin the spirit of Shi'ite orthodoxy.\n\nIt was in A.D. 1844 that a great change took place, not so much in\ndoctrine as in the outward framework of Ali Mu\u1e25ammad's life. That\nthe twelfth Imam should reappear to set up God's beneficent kingdom,\nthat his 'Gate' should be born just when tradition would have him to\nbe born, was perhaps not really surprising; but that an ordinary lad\nof Shiraz should be chosen for this high honour was exciting, and\nwould make May 23rd a day memorable for ever.  [Footnote: _TN_,\npp. 3 (n.1), 220 _f_.; cp. _AMB_, p. 204.]\n\nIt was, in fact, on this day (at 2.5 A.M.) that, having turned to God\nfor help, he cried out, 'God created me to instruct these ignorant\nones, and to save them from the error into which they are plunged.'\nAnd from this time we cannot doubt that the purifying west wind\nbreathed over the old Persian land which needed it so sadly.\n\nIt is probable, however, that the reformer had different ideas of\ndiscipleship. In one of his early letters he bids his correspondent\ntake care to conceal his religion until he can reveal it without\nfear. Among his chief disciples were that gallant knight called the\n'Gate's Gate,' \u1e32uddus, and his kind uncle. Like most religious\nleaders he attached great worth to pilgrimages. He began by journeying\nto the Shi'ite holy places, consecrated by the events of the Persian\nPassion-play.  Then he embarked at Bushire, accompanied (probably) by\n\u1e32uddus. The winds, however, were contrary, and he was glad to rest a\nfew days at Mascat. It is probable that at Mecca (the goal of his\njourney) he became completely detached from the Mu\u1e25ammadan form of\nIslam.  There too he made arrangements for propaganda.  Unfavourable\nas the times seemed, his disciples were expected to have the courage\nof their convictions, and even his uncle, who was no longer young,\nbecame a fisher of men. This, it appears to me, is the true\nexplanation of an otherwise obscure direction to the uncle to return\nto Persia by the overland route, _via_ Baghdad, 'with the verses\nwhich have come down from God.'\n\nThe overland route would take the uncle by the holy places of 'Irak;\n'Ali [Muh.]ammad's meaning therefore really is that his kinsman is to\nhave the honour of evangelizing the important city of Baghdad, and of\ncourse the pilgrims who may chance to be at Karbala and Nejef. These\nwere, to Shi'ites, the holiest of cities, and yet the reformer had the\nconsciousness that there was no need of searching for a\n_kibla_. God was everywhere, but if one place was holier than\nanother, it was neither Jerusalem nor Mecca, but Shiraz.  To this\nbeautiful city he returned, nothing loth, for indeed the manners of\nthe pilgrims were the reverse of seemly. His own work was purely\nspiritual: it was to organize an attack on a foe who should have been,\nbut was no longer, spiritual.\n\nAmong his first steps was sending the 'First to Believe' to Isfahan to\nmake a conquest of the learned Mull\u0101 Mu\u1e33addas. His expectation was\nfully realized. Mu\u1e33addas was converted, and hastened to Shiraz,\neager to prove his zeal. His orders were (according to one tradition)\nto introduce the name of 'Ali Mu\u1e25ammad into the call to prayer\n(_azan_) and to explain a passage in the commentary on the Sura\nof Joseph. This was done, and the penalty could not be delayed.  After\nsuffering insults, which to us are barely credible, Mu\u1e33addas and his\nfriend found shelter for three days in Shiraz in the B\u0101b's house.\n\nIt should be noted that I here employ the symbolic name 'the B\u0101b.'\nThere is a traditional saying of the prophet Mu\u1e25ammad, 'I am the\ncity of knowledge, and 'Ali is its Gate.' It seems, however, that\nthere is little, if any, difference between 'Gate' (_B\u0101b_) and\n'Point' (_nukta_), or between either of these and 'he who shall\narise' (_ka'im_) and 'the Im\u0101m Mahdi.' But to this we shall\nreturn presently.\n\nBut safety was not long to be had by the B\u0101b or by his disciples\neither in Shiraz or in Bushire (where the B\u0101b then was). A fortnight\nafterwards twelve horsemen were sent by the governor of Fars to\nBushire to arrest the B\u0101b and bring him back to Shiraz. Such at\nleast is one tradition, [Footnote: _AMB_, p. 226.]  but some\nB\u0101b\u012bs, according to Nicolas, energetically deny it. Certainly it\nis not improbable that the governor, who had already taken action\nagainst the B\u0101b\u012b missionaries, should wish to observe the B\u0101b\nwithin a nearer range, and inflict a blow on his growing\npopularity. Unwisely enough, the governor left the field open to the\nmullas, who thought by placing the pulpit of the great mosque at his\ndisposal to be able to find material for ecclesiastical censure. But\nthey had left one thing out of their account--the ardour of the\nB\u0101b's temperament and the depth of his conviction.  And so great was\nthe impression produced by the B\u0101b's sermon that the Shah\nMu\u1e25ammad, who heard of it, sent a royal commissioner to study the\ncircumstances on the spot. This step, however, was a complete\nfailure. One may doubt indeed whether the Sayyid Ya\u1e25ya was ever a\npolitician or a courtier. See below, p. 90.\n\nThe state of things had now become so threatening that a peremptory\norder to the governor was sent from the court to put an end to such a\ndisplay of impotence. It is said that the aid of assassins was not to\nbe refused; the death of the B\u0101b might then be described as 'a\ndeplorable accident.' The B\u0101b himself was liable at any moment to be\ncalled into a conference of mullas and high state-officers, and asked\nabsurd questions. He got tired of this and thought he would change his\nresidence, especially as the cholera came and scattered the\npopulation. Six miserable months he had spent in Shiraz, and it was\ntime for him to strengthen and enlighten the believers elsewhere. The\ngoal of his present journey was Isfahan, but he was not without hopes\nof soon reaching Tihran and disabusing the mind of the Shah of the\nfalse notions which had become lodged in it. So, after bidding\nfarewell to his relatives, he and his secretary and another well-tried\ncompanion turned their backs on the petty tyrant of Shiraz.\n[Footnote: _AMB_, p. 370.]  The B\u0101b, however, took a very wise\nprecaution. At the last posting station before Isfahan he wrote to\nMinuchihr Khan, the governor (a Georgian by origin), announcing his\napproach and invoking the governor's protection.\n\nMinuchihr Khan, who was religiously openminded though not scrupulous\nenough in the getting of money, [Footnote: _NH_, p. 346.]\ngranted this request, and sent word to the leading mull\u0101 (the\nIm\u0101m-Jam'a) that he should proffer hospitality to this eminent\nnew-comer. This the Im\u0101m did, and so respectful was he for 'forty\ndays' that he used to bring the basin for his guest to wash his hands\nat mealtimes.  [Footnote: _Ibid_. p. 372.]  The rapidity with\nwhich the B\u0101b indited (or revealed) a commentary on a _sura_ of\nthe \u1e32ur'an greatly impressed him, but afterwards he gave way to the\npersecuting tendencies of his colleagues, who had already learned to\ndread the presence of B\u0101bite missionaries. At the bidding of the\ngovernor, however, who had some faith in the B\u0101b and hoped for the\nbest, a conference was arranged between the mull\u0101s and the B\u0101b\n(poor man!) at the governor's house. The result was that Minuchihr\nKhan declared that the mull\u0101s had by no means proved the reformer to\nbe an impostor, but that for the sake of peace he would at once send\nthe B\u0101b with an escort of horsemen to the capital. This was to all\nappearance carried out. The streets were crowded as the band of\nmounted men set forth, some of the Isfahanites (especially the\nmull\u0101s) rejoicing, but a minority inwardly lamenting. This, however,\nwas only a blind. The governor cunningly sent a trusty horseman with\norders to overtake the travellers a short distance out of Isfahan, and\nbring them by nightfall to the governor's secret apartments or (as\nothers say) to one of the royal palaces.  There the B\u0101b had still to\nspend a little more than four untroubled halcyon months.\n\nBut a storm-cloud came up from the sea, no bigger than a man's hand,\nand it spread, and the destruction wrought by it was great. On March\n4, 1847, the French ambassador wrote home stating that the governor of\nIsfahan had died, leaving a fortune of 40 million francs.  [Footnote:\n_AMB_, p. 242.]  He could not be expected to add what the\nB\u0101bite tradition affirms, that the governor offered the B\u0101b all\nhis riches and even the rings on his fingers, [Footnote: _TN_,\npp. 12, 13, 264-8; _NH_, p. 402 (\u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel's narrative),\ncp. pp. 211, 346.]  to which the prophet refers in the following\npassage of his famous letter to Mu\u1e25ammad Shah, written from Maku:\n\n'The other question is an affair of this lower world. The late\nMeu'timed [a title of Minuchihr Khan], one night, made all the\nbystanders withdraw, ... then he said to me, \"I know full well that\nall that I have gained I have gotten by violence, and that belongs to\nthe Lord of the Age.  I give it therefore entirely to thee, for thou\nart the Master of Truth, and I ask thy permission to become its\npossessor.\" He even took off a ring which he had on his finger, and\ngave it to me. I took the ring and restored it to him, and sent him\naway in possession of all his goods.... I will not have a dinar of\nthose goods, but it is for you to ordain as shall seem good to\nyou.... [As witnesses] send for Sayyid Ya\u1e25ya [Footnote: See above,\np. 47.]  and Mull\u0101 Abdu'l-Khalik....  [Footnote: A disciple of\nSheykh A\u1e25mad. He became a B\u0101b\u012b, but grew lukewarm in the faith\n(_NH_, pp. 231, 342 n.1).]  The one became acquainted with me\nbefore the Manifestation, the other after.  Both know me right well;\nthis is why I have chosen them.'  [Footnote: _AMB_, pp. 372,\n373.]\n\nIt was not likely, however, that the legal heir would waive his claim,\nnor yet that the Shah or his minister would be prepared with a scheme\nfor distributing the ill-gotten riches of the governor among the poor,\nwhich was probably what the B\u0101b himself wished. It should be added\n(but not, of course, from this letter) that Minuchihr Khan also\noffered the B\u0101b more than 5000 horsemen and footmen of the tribes\ndevoted to his interests, with whom he said that he would with all\nspeed march upon the capital, to enforce the Shah's acceptance of the\nB\u0101b's mission. This offer, too, the B\u0101b rejected, observing that\nthe diffusion of God's truth could not be effected by such means. But\nhe was truly grateful to the governor who so often saved him from the\nwrath of the mull\u0101s. 'God reward him,' he would say, 'for what he\ndid for me.'\n\nOf the governor's legal heir and successor, Gurgin Khan, the B\u0101b\npreserved a much less favourable recollection. In the same letter\nwhich has been quoted from already he says: 'Finally, Gurgin made me\ntravel during seven nights without any of the necessaries of a\njourney, and with a thousand lies and a thousand acts of violence.'\n[Footnote: _AMB_, p. 371.]  In fact, after trying to impose upon\nthe B\u0101b by crooked talk, Gurgin, as soon as he found out where the\nB\u0101b had taken refuge, made him start that same night, just as he\nwas, and without bidding farewell to his newly-married wife, for the\ncapital. 'So incensed was he [the B\u0101b] at this treatment that he\ndetermined to eat nothing till he arrived at Kashan [a journey of five\nstages], and in this resolution he persisted... till he reached the\nsecond stage, Murchi-Khur. There, however, he met Mull\u0101 Sheykh\nAli... and another of his missionaries, whom he had commissioned two\ndays previously to proceed to Tihran; and then, on learning from his\nguards how matters stood, succeeded in prevailing on him to take some\nfood.'  [Footnote: _NH_, pp. 348, 349.]\n\nCertainly it was a notable journey, diversified by happy meetings with\nfriends and inquirers at Kashan, Khanli\u1e33, Zanjan, Milan, and Tabriz.\nAt Kashan the B\u0101b saw for the first time that fervent disciple, who\nafterwards wrote the history of early B\u0101bism, and his equally\ntrue-hearted brother--merchants both of them. In fact, Mirza Jani\nbribed the chief of the escort, to allow him for two days the felicity\nof entertaining God's Messenger.  [Footnote: _Ibid_. pp. 213, 214.]\nKhanli\u1e33 has also--though a mere village--its honourable record, for\nthere the B\u0101b was first seen by two splendid youthful heroes\n[Footnote: _Ibid_. pp. 96-101.]--Riza Khan (best hated of all the\nB\u0101bis) and Mirza \u1e24useyn 'Ali (better known as Baha-'ullah). At\nMilan (which the B\u0101b calls 'one of the regions of Paradise'), as\nMirza Jani states, 'two hundred persons believed and underwent a true\nand sincere conversion.'  [Footnote: _Ibid_. p. 221. Surely these\nconversions were due, not to a supposed act of miraculous healing, but\nto the 'majesty and dignity' of God's Messenger. The people were\nexpecting a Messiah, and here was a Personage who came up to the ideal\nthey had formed.]What meetings took place at Zanjan and Tabriz, the\nearly B\u0101bi historian does not report; later on, Zanjan was a focus\nof B\u0101bite propagandism, but just then the apostle of the Zanjan\nmovement was summoned to Tihran. From Tabriz a remarkable cure is\nreported, [Footnote: _NH_, p. 226.]  and as a natural consequence we\nhear of many conversions.\n\nThe B\u0101b was specially favoured in the chief of his escort, who, in\nthe course of the journey, was fascinated by the combined majesty and\ngentleness of his prisoner. His name was Mu\u1e25ammad Beg, and his moral\nportrait is thus limned by Mirza Jani: 'He was a man of kindly nature\nand amiable character, and [became] so sincere and devoted a believer\nthat whenever the name of His Holiness was mentioned he would\nincontinently burst into tears, saying,\n\n  I scarcely reckon as life the days when to me thou wert all unknown,\n  But by faithful service for what remains I may still for the past\n    atone.'\n\nIt was the wish, both of the B\u0101b and of this devoted servant, that\nthe Master should be allowed to take up his residence (under\nsurveillance) at Tabriz, where there were already many Friends of\nGod. But such was not the will of the Shah and his vizier, who sent\nword to Khanli\u1e33 [Footnote: Khanli\u1e33 is situated 'about six\nparasangs' from Tihran (_NH_, p. 216).  It is in the province of\nAzarbaijan.]  that the governor of Tabriz (Prince Bahman Mirza) should\nsend the B\u0101b in charge of a fresh escort to the remote\nmountain-fortress of Maku. The faithful Mu\u1e25ammad Beg made two\nattempts to overcome the opposition of the governor, but in vain; how,\nindeed, could it be otherwise? All that he could obtain was leave to\nentertain the B\u0101b in his own house, where some days of rest were\nenjoyed. 'I wept much at his departure,' says Mu\u1e25ammad. No doubt the\nB\u0101b often missed his respectful escort; he had made a change for the\nworse, and when he came to the village at the foot of the steep hill\nof Maku, he found the inhabitants 'ignorant and coarse.'\n\nIt may, however, be reasonably surmised that before long the Point of\nWisdom changed his tone, and even thanked God for his sojourn at\nMaku. For though strict orders had come from the vizier that no one\nwas to be permitted to see the B\u0101b, any one whom the illustrious\ncaptive wished to converse with had free access to him.  Most of the\ntime which remained was occupied with writing (his secretary was with\nhim); more than 100,000 'verses' are said to have come from that\nSupreme Pen.\n\nBy miracles the B\u0101b set little store; in fact, the only supernatural\ngift which he much valued was that of inditing 'signs or verses, which\nappear to have produced a similar thrilling effect to those of the\ngreat Arabian Prophet. But in the second rank he must have valued a\npower to soothe and strengthen the nervous system which we may well\nassign to him, and we can easily believe that the lower animals were\nwithin the range of this beneficent faculty. Let me mention one of the\nhorse-stories which have gathered round the gentle form of the B\u0101b.\n[Footnote: _AMB_, p. 371.]\n\nIt is given neither in the B\u0101b\u012b nor in the Muslim histories of\nthis period. But it forms a part of a good oral tradition, and it may\nsupply the key to those words of the B\u0101b in his letter to Mu\u1e25ammad\nShah: [Footnote: Ibid. pp. 249, 250.]  'Finally, the Sultan\n[i.e. the Shah] ordered that I should journey towards Maku without\ngiving me a horse that I could ride.' We learn from the legend that an\nofficer of the Shah did call upon the B\u0101b to ride a horse which was\ntoo vicious for any ordinary person to mount. Whether this officer was\nreally (as the legend states) 'Ali Khan, the warden of Maku, who\nwished to test the claims of 'Ali Mu\u1e25ammad by offering him a vicious\nyoung horse and watching to see whether 'Ali Mu\u1e25ammad or the horse\nwould be victorious, is not of supreme importance.  What does concern\nus is that many of the people believed that by a virtue which resided\nin the B\u0101b it was possible for him to soothe the sensitive nerves of\na horse, so that it could be ridden without injury to the rider.\n\nThere is no doubt, however, that 'Ali Khan, the warden of the\nfortress, was one of that multitude of persons who were so thrilled by\nthe B\u0101b's countenance and bearing that they were almost prompted\nthereby to become disciples. It is highly probable, too, that just now\nthere was a heightening of the divine expression on that unworldly\nface, derived from an intensification of the inner life. In earlier\ntimes 'Ali Mu\u1e25ammad had avoided claiming Mahdiship (Messiahship)\npublicly; to the people at large he was not represented as the\nmanifested Twelfth Im\u00e2m, but only as the Gate, or means of access to\nthat more than human, still existent being. To disciples of a higher\norder 'Ali Mu\u1e25ammad no doubt disclosed himself as he really was,\nbut, like a heavenly statesman, he avoided inopportune self-revelations.\nNow, however, the religious conditions were becoming different. Owing\nin some cases to the indiscretion of disciples, in others to a craving\nfor the revolution of which the Twelfth Im\u00e2m was the traditional\ninstrument, there was a growing popular tendency to regard Mirza 'Ali\nMu\u1e25ammad as a 'return' of the Twelfth Im\u00e2m, who was, by force of\narms, to set up the divine kingdom upon earth. It was this, indeed,\nwhich specially promoted the early B\u0101b\u012b propagandism, and which\nprobably came up for discussion at the Badasht conference.\n\nIn short, it had become a pressing duty to enlighten the multitude on\nthe true objects of the B\u0101b. Even we can see this--we who know that\nnot much more than three years were remaining to him. The B\u0101b, too,\nhad probably a presentiment of his end; this was why he was so eager\nto avoid a continuance of the great misunderstanding.  He was indeed\nthe Twelfth Im\u00e2m, who had returned to the world of men for a short\ntime.  But he was not a Mahdi of the Islamic type.\n\nA constant stream of Tablets (letters) flowed from his pen. In this\nway he kept himself in touch with those who could not see him in the\nflesh. But there were many who could not rest without seeing the\ndivine Manifestation. Pilgrims seemed never to cease; and it made the\nB\u0101b still happier to receive them.\n\nThis stream of Tablets and of pilgrims could not however be\nexhilarating to the Shah and his Minister. They complained to the\ncastle-warden, and bade him be a stricter gaoler, but 'Ali Khan, too,\nwas under the spell of the Gate of Knowledge; or--as one should rather\nsay now--the Point or Climax of Prophetic Revelation, for so the Word\nof Prophecy directed that he should be called.  So the order went\nforth that 'Ali Mu\u1e25ammad should be transferred to another\ncastle--that of Chihri\u1e33.  [Footnote: Strictly, six or eight months\n(Feb. or April to Dec. 1847) at Maku, and two-and-a-half years at\nChihri\u1e33 (Dec. 1847 to July 1850).]\n\nAt this point a digression seems necessary.\n\nThe B\u0101b was well aware that a primary need of the new fraternity was\na new \u1e32ur'an. This he produced in the shape of a book called _The\nBayan_ (Exposition). Unfortunately he adopted from the Muslims the\nunworkable idea of a sacred language, and his first contributions to\nthe new Divine Library (for the new \u1e32ur'an ultimately became this)\nwere in Arabic. These were a Commentary on the Sura of Yusuf (Joseph)\nand the Arabic Bayan. The language of these, however, was a barrier to\nthe laity, and so the 'first believer' wrote a letter to the B\u0101b,\nenforcing the necessity of making himself intelligible to all. This\nseems to be the true origin of the Persian Bayan.\n\nA more difficult matter is 'Ali Mu\u1e25ammad's very peculiar\nconsciousness, which reminds us of that which the Fourth Gospel\nascribes to Jesus Christ. In other words, 'Ali Mu\u1e25ammad claims for\nhimself the highest spiritual rank. 'As for Me,' he said, 'I am that\nPoint from which all that exists has found existence. I am that Face\nof God which dieth not. I am that Light which doth not go out. He that\nknoweth Me is accompanied by all good; he that repulseth Me hath\nbehind him all evil.'  [Footnote: _AMB_, p. 369.]  It is also certain\nthat in comparatively early writings, intended for stedfast disciples,\n'Ali Mu\u1e25ammad already claims the title of Point, i.e. Point of\nTruth, or of Divine Wisdom, or of the Divine Mercy.  [Footnote: _Beyan\nArabe_, p. 206.]\n\nIt is noteworthy that just here we have a very old contact with\nBabylonian mythology. 'Point' is, in fact, a mythological term. It\nsprings from an endeavour to minimize the materialism of the myth of\nthe Divine Dwelling-place. That ancient myth asserted that the\nearth-mountain was the Divine Throne. Not so, said an early school of\nTheosophy, God, i.e. the God who has a bodily form and manifests the\nhidden glory, dwells on a point in the extreme north, called by the\nBabylonians 'the heaven of Anu.'\n\nThe Point, however, i.e. the God of the Point, may also be\nentitled 'The Gate,' i.e. the Avenue to God in all His various\naspects. To be the Point, therefore, is also to be the Gate. 'Ali, the\ncousin and son-in-law of Mu\u1e25ammad, was not only the Gate of the City\nof Knowledge, but, according to words assigned to him in a\n_\u1e25adith_, 'the guardian of the treasures of secrets and of the\npurposes of God.'  [Footnote: _AMB_, p. 142.]\n\nIt is also in a book written at Maku--the Persian Bayan--that the\nB\u0101b constantly refers to a subsequent far greater Person, called 'He\nwhom God will make manifest.' Altogether the harvest of sacred\nliterature at this mountain-fortress was a rich one. But let us now\npass on with the B\u0101b to Chihri\u1e33--a miserable spot, but not so\nremote as Maku (it was two days' journey from Urumiyya).  As\n\u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel tells us, 'The place of his captivity was a house\nwithout windows and with a doorway of bare bricks,' and adds that 'at\nnight they would leave him without a lamp, treating him with the\nutmost lack of respect.'  [Footnote: _NH_, p. 403.]  In the\nPersian manner the B\u0101b himself indicated this by calling Maku 'the\nOpen Mountain,' and Chihri\u1e33 'the Grievous Mountain.'  [Footnote:\nCp. _TN_, p. 276.]  Stringent orders were issued making it\ndifficult for friends of the Beloved Master to see him; and it may be\nthat in the latter part of his sojourn the royal orders were more\neffectually carried out--a change which was possibly the result of a\nchange in the warden. Certainly Ya\u1e25ya Khan was guilty of no such\ncoarseness as \u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel imputes to the warden of Chihri\u1e33.  And\nthis view is confirmed by the peculiar language of Mirza Jani,\n'Ya\u1e25ya Khan, so long as he was warden, maintained towards him an\nattitude of unvarying respect and deference.'\n\nThis 'respect and deference' was largely owing to a dream which the\nwarden had on the night before the day of the B\u0101b's arrival. The\ncentral figure of the dream was a bright shining saint.  He said in\nthe morning that 'if, when he saw His Holiness, he found appearance\nand visage to correspond with what he beheld in his dream, he would be\nconvinced that He was in truth the promised Proof.' And this came\nliterally true.  At the first glance Ya\u1e25ya Khan recognized in the\nso-called B\u0101b the lineaments of the saint whom he had beheld in his\ndream. 'Involuntarily he bent down in obeisance and kissed the knee of\nHis Holiness.'  [Footnote: _NH_, p. 240. A slight alteration has\nbeen made to draw out the meaning.]\n\nIt has already been remarked that such 'transfiguration' is not wholly\nsupernatural.  Persons who have experienced those wonderful phenomena\nwhich are known as ecstatic, often exhibit what seems like a\ntriumphant and angelic irradiation. So--to keep near home--it was\namong the Welsh in their last great revival. Such, too, was the\nbrightness which, Ya\u1e25ya Khan and other eye-witnesses agree, suffused\nthe B\u0101b's countenance more than ever in this period. Many adverse\nthings might happen, but the 'Point' of Divine Wisdom could not be\ntorn from His moorings.  In that miserable dark brick chamber He was\n'in Paradise.' The horrid warfare at Sheykh Tabarsi and elsewhere,\nwhich robbed him of B\u0101bu'l B\u0101b and of \u1e32uddus, forced human tears\nfrom him for a time; but one who dwelt in the 'Heaven of\nPre-existence' knew that 'Returns' could be counted upon, and was\nfully assured that the gifts and graces of \u1e32uddus had passed into\nMirza Ya\u1e25ya (\u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel). For himself he was free from\nanxiety. His work would be carried on by another and a greater\nManifestation. He did not therefore favour schemes for his own\nforcible deliverance.\n\nWe have no direct evidence that Ya\u1e25ya Khan was dismissed from his\noffice as a mark of the royal displeasure at his gentleness. But he\nmust have been already removed and imprisoned, [Footnote: _NH_,\np. 353.]  when the vizier wrote to the Crown Prince (Nasiru'd-Din,\nafterwards Shah) and governor of Azarbaijan directing him to summon\nthe B\u0101b to Tabriz and convene an assembly of clergy and laity to\ndiscuss in the B\u0101b's presence the validity of his claims.\n[Footnote: _Ibid_. p. 284.]  The B\u0101b was therefore sent, and\nthe meeting held, but there is (as Browne has shown) no trustworthy\naccount of the deliberations.  [Footnote: _TN_, Note M, 'B\u0101b\nExamined at Tabriz.']  Of course, the B\u0101b had something better to do\nthan to record the often trivial questions put to him from anything\nbut a simple desire for truth, so that unless the great Accused had\nsome friend to accompany him (which does not appear to have been the\ncase) there could hardly be an authentic B\u0101b\u012b narrative. And as\nfor the Muslim accounts, those which we have before us do not bear the\nstamp of truth: they seem to be forgeries.  Knowing what we do of the\nB\u0101b, it is probable that he had the best of the argument, and that\nthe doctors and functionaries who attended the meeting were unwilling\nto put upon record their own fiasco.\n\nThe result, however, _is_ known, and it is not precisely what\nmight have been expected, i.e. it is not a capital sentence for\nthis troublesome person. The punishment now allotted to him was one\nwhich marked him out, most unfairly, as guilty of a common\nmisdemeanour--some act which would rightly disgust every educated\nperson.  How, indeed, could any one adopt as his teacher one who had\nactually been disgraced by the infliction of stripes?  [Footnote:\nCp. Isaiah liii. 5.]  If the B\u0101b had been captured in battle,\nbravely fighting, it might have been possible to admire him, but, as\nCourt politicians kept on saying, he was but 'a vulgar charlatan, a\ntimid dreamer.'  [Footnote: Gobineau, p. 257.]  According to Mirza\nJani, it was the Crown Prince who gave the order for stripes, but his\n'_farrashes_ declared that they would rather throw themselves\ndown from the roof of the palace than carry it out.'  [Footnote:\n_NH_, p. 290.]  Therefore the Sheykhu'l Islam charged a certain\nSayyid with the 'baleful task,' by whom the Messenger of God was\nbastinadoed.\n\nIt seems clear, however, that there must have been a difference of\nopinion among the advisers of the Shah, for shortly before Shah\nMu\u1e25ammad's death (which was impending when the B\u0101b was in Tabriz)\nwe are told that Prince Mahdi-Kuli dreamed that he saw the Sayyid\nshoot the Shah at a levee.  [Footnote: _Ibid_. p. 355.]\nEvidently there were some Court politicians who held that the B\u0101b\nwas dangerous.  Probably Shah Mu\u1e25ammad's vizier took the disparaging\nview mentioned above (i.e. that the B\u0101b was a mere mystic\ndreamer), but Shah Mu\u1e25ammad's successor dismissed Mirza A\u1e33asi, and\nappointed Mirza Ta\u1e33i Khan in his place. It was Mirza Ta\u1e33i Khan to\nwhom the Great Catastrophe is owing. When the B\u0101b returned to his\nconfinement, now really rigorous, at Chihri\u1e33, he was still under the\ncontrol of the old, capricious, and now doubly anxious grand vizier,\nbut it was not the will of Providence that this should continue much\nlonger. A release was at hand.\n\nIt was the insurrection of Zanjan which changed the tone of the\ncourtiers and brought near to the B\u0101b a glorious departure. Not, be\nit observed, except indirectly, his theosophical novelties; the\npenalty of death for deviations from the True Faith had long fallen\ninto desuetude in Persia, if indeed it had ever taken root there.\n[Footnote: Gobineau, p. 262.]  Only if the Kingdom of Righteousness\nwere to be brought in by the B\u0101b by material weapons would this\nheresiarch be politically dangerous; mere religious innovations did\nnot disturb high Court functionaries. But could the political leaders\nany longer indulge the fancy that the B\u0101b was a mere mystic dreamer?\nSuch was probably the mental state of Mirza Ta\u1e33i Khan when he wrote\nfrom Tihran, directing the governor to summon the B\u0101b to come once\nmore for examination to Tabriz. The governor of Azarbaijan at this\ntime was Prince Hamz\u00e9 Mirza.\n\nThe end of the B\u0101b's earthly Manifestation is now close upon us. He\nknew it himself before the event, [Footnote: _NH_, pp. 235,\n309-311, 418 (\u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel).]  and was not displeased at the\npresentiment.  He had already 'set his house in order,' as regards the\nspiritual affairs of the B\u0101b\u012b community, which he had, if I\nmistake not, confided to the intuitive wisdom of Baha-'ullah. His\nliterary executorship he now committed to the same competent hands.\nThis is what the Baha'is History (_The Travellers Narrative_)\nrelates,--\n\n'Now the Sayyid B\u0101b ... had placed his writings, and even his ring\nand pen-case, in a specially prepared box, put the key of the box in\nan envelope, and sent it by means of Mull\u0101 Ba\u1e33ir, who was one of\nhis first associates, to Mull\u0101 'Abdu'l Karim of Kazwin. This trust\nMull\u0101 Ba\u1e33ir delivered over to Mull\u0101 'Abdu'l Karim at \u1e32um in\npresence of a numerous company.... Then Mull\u0101 'Abdu'l Karim conveyed\nthe trust to its destination.'  [Footnote: _TN_, pp. 41, 42.]\n\nThe destination was Baha-'ullah, as Mull\u0101 Ba\u1e33ir expressly told the\n'numerous company.' It also appears that the B\u0101b sent another letter\nto the same trusted personage respecting the disposal of his remains.\n\nIt is impossible not to feel that this is far more probable than the\nview which makes \u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel the custodian of the sacred writings\nand the arranger of a resting-place for the sacred remains.  I much\nfear that the Ezelites have manipulated tradition in the interest of\ntheir party.\n\nTo return to our narrative. From the first no indignity was spared to\nthe holy prisoner. With night-cap instead of seemly turban, and clad\nonly in an under-coat, [Footnote: _NH_, p. 294.]  he reached\nTabriz. It is true, his first experience was favourable. A man of\nprobity, the confidential friend of Prince Hamz\u00e9 Mirza, the governor,\nsummoned the B\u0101b to a first non-ecclesiastical examination. The tone\nof the inquiry seems to have been quite respectful, though the accused\nfrankly stated that he was 'that promised deliverer for whom ye have\nwaited 1260 years, to wit the \u1e32a'im.' Next morning, however, all\nthis was reversed. The 'man of probity' gave way to the mull\u0101s and\nthe populace, [Footnote: See _New History_, pp. 296 _f._, a\ngraphic narration.]  who dragged the B\u0101b, with every circumstance of\nindignity, to the houses of two or three well-known members of the\nclergy. 'These reviled him; but to all who questioned him he declared,\nwithout any attempt at denial, that he was the \u1e32a'im [ = he that\nariseth]. At length Mull\u0101 Mu\u1e25ammad Mama-ghuri, one of the Sheykhi\nparty, and sundry others, assembled together in the porch of a house\nbelonging to one of their number, questioned him fiercely and\ninsultingly, and when he had answered them explicitly, condemned him\nto death.\n\n'So they imprisoned him who was athirst for the draught of martyrdom\nfor three days, along with A\u1e33a Sayyid \u1e24useyn of Yezd, the\namanuensis, and A\u1e33a Sayyid \u1e24asan, which twain were brothers, wont\nto pass their time for the most part in the B\u0101b's presence....\n\n'On the night before the day whereon was consummated the martyrdom\n... he [the B\u0101b] said to his companions, \"To-morrow they will slay\nme shamefully. Let one of you now arise and kill me, that I may not\nhave to endure this ignominy and shame from my enemies; for it is\npleasanter to me to die by the hands of friends.\"  His companions,\nwith expressions of grief and sorrow, sought to excuse themselves with\nthe exception of Mirza Mu\u1e25ammad 'Ali, who at once made as though he\nwould obey the command.  His comrades, however, anxiously seized his\nhand, crying, \"Such rash presumption ill accords with the attitude of\ndevoted service.\" \"This act of mine,\" replied he, \"is not prompted by\npresumption, but by unstinted obedience, and desire to fulfil my\nMaster's behest. After giving effect to the command of His Holiness, I\nwill assuredly pour forth my life also at His feet.\"\n\n'His Holiness smiled, and, applauding his faithful devotion and\nsincere belief, said, \"To-morrow, when you are questioned, repudiate\nme, and renounce my doctrines, for thus is the command of God now laid\nupon you....\" The B\u0101b's companions agreed, with the exception of\nMirza Mu\u1e25ammad 'Ali, who fell at the feet of His Holiness and began\nto entreat and implore....  So earnestly did he urge his entreaties\nthat His Holiness, though (at first) he strove to dissuade him, at\nlength graciously acceded.\n\n'Now when a little while had elapsed after the rising of the sun, they\nbrought them, without cloak or coat, and clad only in their undercoats\nand nightcaps, to the Government House, where they were sentenced to\nbe shot. A\u1e33a Sayyid \u1e24useyn, the amanuensis, and his brother, A\u1e33a\nSayyid \u1e24asan, recanted, as they had been bidden to do, and were set\nat liberty; and A\u1e33a Sayyid \u1e24useyn bestowed the gems of wisdom\ntreasured in his bosom upon such as sought for and were worthy of\nthem, and, agreeably to his instructions, communicated certain secrets\nof the faith to those for whom they were intended.  He (subsequently)\nattained to the rank of martyrdom in the Catastrophe of Tihran.\n\n'But since Mirza Mu\u1e25ammad 'Ali, athirst for the draught of\nmartyrdom, declared (himself) in the most explicit manner, they\ndragged him along with that (Central) Point of the Universal Circle\n[Footnote: i.e. the Supreme Wisdom.]  to the barrack, situated\nby the citadel, and, opposite to the cells on one side of the barrack,\nsuspended him from one of the stone gutters erected under the eaves of\nthe cells. Though his relations and friends cried, \"Our son is gone\nmad; his confession is but the outcome of his distemper and the raving\nof lunacy, and it is unlawful to inflict on him the death penalty,\" he\ncontinued to exclaim, \"I am in my right mind, perfect in service and\nsacrifice.\"  .... Now he had a sweet young child; and they, hoping to\nwork upon his parental love, brought the boy to him that he might\nrenounce his faith.  But he only said,--\n\n  \"Begone, and bait your snares for other quarry;\n  The 'Anka's nest is hard to reach and high.\"\n\nSo they shot him in the presence of his Master, and laid his faithful\nand upright form in the dust, while his pure and victorious spirit,\nfreed from the prison of earth and the cage of the body, soared to the\nbranches of the Lote-tree beyond which there is no passing. [And the\nBab cried out with a loud voice, \"Verily thou shalt be with me in\nParadise.\"]\n\n'Now after this, when they had suspended His Holiness in like manner,\nthe Sha\u1e33a\u1e33i regiment received orders to fire, and discharged their\npieces in a single volley. But of all the shots fired none took\neffect, save two bullets, which respectively struck the two ropes by\nwhich His Holiness was suspended on either side, and severed them. The\nB\u0101b fell to the ground, and took refuge in the adjacent room. As\nsoon as the smoke and dust of the powder had somewhat cleared, the\nspectators looked for, but did not find, that Jesus of the age on the\ncross.\n\n'So, notwithstanding this miraculous escape, they again suspended His\nHoliness, and gave orders to fire another volley. The Musulman\nsoldiers, however, made their excuses and refused.  Thereupon a\nChristian regiment [Footnote: Why a Christian regiment? The reason is\nevident.  Christians were outside the B\u0101b\u012b movement, whereas the\nMusulman population had been profoundly affected by the preaching of\nthe B\u0101b\u012b, and could not be implicitly relied upon.]  was ordered\nto fire the volley.... And at the third volley three bullets struck\nhim, and that holy spirit, escaping from its gentle frame, ascended to\nthe Supreme Horizon.' It was in July 1850.\n\nIt remained for Holy Night to hush the clamour of the crowd. The great\nsquare of Tabriz was purified from unholy sights and sounds. What, we\nask, was done then to the holy bodies--that of B\u0101b himself and that\nof his faithful follower?  The enemies of the B\u0101b, and even Count\nGobineau, assert that the dead body of the B\u0101b was cast out into the\nmoat and devoured by the wild beasts.  [Footnote: A similar fate is\nasserted by tradition for the dead body of the heroic Mull\u0101\nMu\u1e25ammad 'Ali of Zanjan.]  We may be sure, however, that if the holy\nbody were exposed at night, the loyal B\u0101b\u012bs of Tabriz would lose\nno time in rescuing it. The _New History_ makes this statement,--\n\n'To be brief, two nights later, when they cast the most sacred body\nand that of Mirza Mu\u1e25ammad 'Ali into the moat, and set three\nsentries over them, Haji Suleyman Khan and three others, having\nprovided themselves with arms, came to the sentries and said, \"We will\nungrudgingly give you any sum of money you ask, if you will not oppose\nour carrying away these bodies; but if you attempt to hinder us, we\nwill kill you.\" The sentinels, fearing for their lives, and greedy for\ngain, consulted, and as the price of their complaisance received a\nlarge sum of money.\n\n'So Haji Suleyman Khan bore those holy bodies to his house, shrouded\nthem in white silk, placed them in a chest, and, after a while,\ntransported them to Tihran, where they remained in trust till such\ntime as instructions for their interment in a particular spot were\nissued by the Sources of the will of the Eternal Beauty.  Now the\nbelievers who were entrusted with the duty of transporting the holy\nbodies were Mull\u0101 \u1e24useyn of Khurasan and A\u1e33a Mu\u1e25ammad of\nIsfahan, [Footnote: _TN_, p. 110, n. 3; _NH_, p. 312, n. 1.]  and the\ninstructions were given by Baha-'ullah.' So far our authority.\nDifferent names, however, are given by Nicolas, _AMB_, p. 381.\n\nThe account here given from the _New History_ is in accordance\nwith a letter purporting to be written by the B\u0101b to Haji Suleyman\nKhan exactly six months before his martyrdom; and preserved in the\n_New History_, pp. 310, 311.\n\n'Two nights after my martyrdom thou must go and, by some means or\nother, buy my body and the body of Mirza Mu\u1e25ammad 'Ali from the\nsentinels for 400 tum\u0101ns, and keep them in thy house for six\nmonths. Afterwards lay A\u1e33a Mu\u1e25ammad 'Ali with his face upon my\nface the two (dead) bodies in a strong chest, and send it with a\nletter to Jenab-i-Baha (great is his majesty!).  [Footnote: _TN_,\np. 46, n. 1] Baha is, of course, the short for Baha-'ullah, and, as\nProf. Browne remarks, the modest title Jenab-i-Baha was, even after\nthe presumed date of this letter, the title commonly given to this\npersonage.\n\nThe instructions, however, given by the B\u0101b elsewhere are widely\ndifferent in tendency. He directs that his remains should be placed\nnear the shrine of Shah 'Abdu'l-'Azim, which 'is a good land, by\nreason of the proximity of Wahid (i.e. \u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel).'\n[Footnote: The spot is said to be five miles south of Tihran.]  One\nmight naturally infer from this that Baha-'ullah's rival was the\nguardian of the relics of the B\u0101b. This does not appear to have any\nwarrant of testimony. But, according to \u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel himself, there\nwas a time when he had in his hands the destiny of the bodies. He says\nthat when the coffin (there was but one) came into his hands, he\nthought it unsafe to attempt a separation or discrimination of the\nbodies, so that they remained together 'until [both] were stolen.'\n\nIt will be seen that \u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel takes credit (1) for carrying out\nthe B\u0101b's last wishes, and (2) leaving the bodies as they were. To\nremove the relics to another place was tantamount to stealing.  It was\nBaha-'ullah who ordered this removal for a good reason, viz., that the\ncemetery, in which the niche containing the coffin was, seemed so\nruinous as to be unsafe.\n\nThere is, however, another version of \u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel's tradition; it\nhas been preserved to us by Mons. Nicolas, and contains very strange\nstatements.  The B\u0101b, it is said, ordered \u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel to place\nhis dead body, if possible, in a coffin of diamonds, and to inter it\nopposite to Shah 'Abdu'l-'Azim, in a spot described in such a way that\nonly the recipient of the letter could interpret it. 'So I put the\nmingled remains of the two bodies in a crystal coffin, diamonds being\nbeyond me, and I interred it exactly where the B\u0101b had directed\nme. The place remained secret for thirty years.  The Baha'is in\nparticular knew nothing of it, but a traitor revealed it to\nthem. Those blasphemers disinterred the corpse and destroyed it. Or if\nnot, and if they point out a new burying-place, really containing the\ncrystal coffin of the body of the B\u0101b which they have purloined, we\n[Ezelites] could not consider this new place of sepulture to be\nsacred.'\n\nThe story of the crystal coffin (really suggested by the Bayan) is too\nfantastic to deserve credence.  But that the sacred remains had many\nresting-places can easily be believed; also that the place of burial\nremained secret for many years. Baha-'ullah, however, knew where it\nwas, and, when circumstances favoured, transported the remains to the\nneighbourhood of \u1e24aifa in Palestine. The mausoleum is worthy, and\nnumerous pilgrims from many countries resort to it.\n\n\nEULOGIUM ON THE MASTER\n\nThe gentle spirit of the B\u0101b is surely high up in the cycles of\neternity. Who can fail, as Prof.  Browne says, to be attracted by him?\n'His sorrowful and persecuted life; his purity of conduct and youth;\nhis courage and uncomplaining patience under misfortune; his complete\nself-negation; the dim ideal of a better state of things which can be\ndiscerned through the obscure mystic utterances of the Bay\u00e1n; but\nmost of all his tragic death, all serve to enlist our sympathies on\nbehalf of the young prophet of Shiraz.'\n\n'Il sentait le besoin d'une r\u00e9forme profonde \u00e0 introduire dans les\nmoeurs publiques.... Il s'est sacrifi\u00e9 pour l'humanit\u00e9; pour elle il\na donn\u00e9 son corps et son \u00e2me, pour elle il a subi les privations,\nles affronts, les injures, la torture et le martyre.' (Mons. Nicolas.)\n\n_In an old Persian song, applied to the B\u0101b by his followers, it is\nwritten_:--\n\n  In what sect is this lawful? In what religion is this lawful?\n  That they should kill a charmer of hearts! Why art thou a stealer of\n    hearts?\n\n\nMULL\u0100 \u1e24USEYN OF BUSHRAWEYH\n\nMull\u0101 \u1e24useyn of Bushraweyh (in the province of Mazarandan) was the\nembodied ideal of a B\u0101b\u012b chief such as the primitive period of the\nfaith produced--I mean, that he distinguished himself equally in\nprofound theosophic speculation and in warlike prowess. This\ncombination may seem to us strange, but Mirza Jani assures us that\nmany students who had left cloistered ease for the sake of God and the\nB\u0101b developed an unsuspected warlike energy under the pressure of\npersecution. And so that ardour, which in the case of the B\u0101b was\nconfined to the sphere of religious thought and speculation and to the\nunlocking of metaphorical prison-gates, was displayed in the case of\nMull\u0101 \u1e24useyn both in voyages on the ocean of Truth, and in\nwarfare. Yes, the Mull\u0101's fragile form might suggest the student,\nbut he had also the precious faculty of generalship, and a happy\nperfection of fearlessness.\n\nLike the B\u0101b himself in his preparation-period, he gave his adhesion\nto the Sheykhi school of theology, and on the decease of the former\nleader (Sayyid Ka\u1e93im) he went, like other members of the school, to\nseek for a new spiritual head.  Now it so happened that Sayyid Ka\u1e93im\nhad already turned the eyes of \u1e24useyn towards 'Ali Mu\u1e25ammad;\nalready this eminent theosophist had a presentiment that wonderful\nthings were in store for the young visitor from Shiraz. It was\nnatural, therefore, that \u1e24useyn should seek further information and\nguidance from 'Ali Mu\u1e25ammad himself. No trouble could be too great;\nthe object could not be attained in a single interview, and as 'Ali\nMu\u1e25ammad was forbidden to leave his house at Shiraz, secrecy was\nindispensable.  \u1e24useyn, therefore, was compelled to spend the\ngreater part of the day in his new teacher's house.\n\nThe concentration of thought to which the constant nearness of a great\nprophet (and 'more than a prophet') naturally gave birth had the only\npossible result. All barriers were completely broken down, and\n\u1e24useyn recognized in his heaven-sent teacher the Gate (_B\u0101b_)\nwhich opened on to the secret abode of the vanished Im\u0101m, and one\ncharged with a commission to bring into existence the world-wide\nKingdom of Righteousness.  To seal his approval of this thorough\nconversion, which was hitherto without a parallel, the B\u0101b conferred\non his new adherent the title of 'The First to Believe.'\n\nThis honourable title, however, is not the only one used by this Hero\nof God. Still more frequently he was called 'The Gate of the Gate,'\ni.e. the Introducer to Him through Whom all true wisdom comes;\nor, we may venture to say, the B\u0101b's Deputy. Two other titles maybe\nmentioned.  One is 'The Gate.' Those who regarded 'Ali Mu\u1e25ammad of\nShiraz as the 'Point' of prophecy and the returned Im\u00e2m (the \u1e32a'im)\nwould naturally ascribe to his representative the vacant dignity of\n'The Gate.' Indeed, it is one indication of this that the\n\u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel designates Mull\u0101 \u1e24useyn not as the Gate's Gate,\nbut simply as the Gate.\n\nAnd now the 'good fight of faith' begins in earnest. First of all, the\nB\u0101b's Deputy (or perhaps 'the B\u0101b' [Footnote: Some B\u0101b\u012b\nwriters (including \u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel) certainly call Mull\u0101\u1e24useyn\n'the B\u0101b.']--but this might confuse the reader) is sent to Khurasan,\n[Footnote: _NH_, p. 44.]  taking Isfahan and Tihran in his way. I need\nnot catalogue the names of his chief converts and their places of\nresidence.  [Footnote: See Nicolas, _AMB_.]  Suffice it to mention\nhere that among the converts were Baha-'ullah, Mu\u1e25ammad 'Ali of\nZanjan, and Haji Mirza Jani, the same who has left us a much\n'overworked' history of B\u0101bism (down to the time of his\nmartyrdom). Also that among the places visited was Omar Khayy\u00e1m's\nNishapur, and that two attempts were made by the 'Gate's Gate' to\ncarry the Evangel into the Shi'ite Holy Land (Mash-had).\n\nBut it was time to reopen communications with the 'lord from Shiraz'\n(the B\u0101b). So his Deputy resolved to make for the castle of Maku,\nwhere the B\u0101b was confined. On the Deputy's arrival the B\u0101b\nforetold to him his own (the B\u0101b's) approaching martyrdom and the\ncruel afflictions which were impending. At the same time the B\u0101b\ndirected him to return to Khurasan, adding that he should 'go thither\nby way of Mazandaran, for there the doctrine had not yet been rightly\npreached.' So the Deputy went first of all to Mazandaran, and there\njoined another eminent convert, best known by his B\u0101b\u012b name\n\u1e32uddus (sacred).\n\nI pause here to notice how intimate were the relations between the two\nfriends--the 'Gate's Gate' and 'Sacred.' Originally the former was\nconsidered distinctly the greater man. People may have reasoned\nsomewhat thus:--It was no doubt true that \u1e32uddus had been privileged\nto accompany the B\u0101b to Mecca, [Footnote: For the divergent\ntradition in Nicolas, see _AMB_, p. 206.]  but was not the B\u0101b's\nDeputy the more consummate master of spiritual lore?  [Footnote: _NH_,\np. 43, cp. p. 404.]\n\nIt was at any rate the latter Hero of God who (according to one\ntradition) opened the eyes of the majority of inquirers to the\ntruth. It is also said that on the morning after the meeting of the\nfriends the chief seat was occupied by \u1e32uddus, while the Gate's\nDeputy stood humbly and reverentially before him. This is certainly\ntrue to the spirit of the brother-champions, one of whom was\nconspicuous for his humility, the other for his soaring spiritual\nambition.\n\nBut let us return to the evangelistic journey.  The first signs of the\napproach of \u1e32uddus were a letter from him to the B\u0101b's Deputy (the\nletter is commonly called 'The Eternal Witness'), together with a\nwhite robe [Footnote: White was the B\u0101bite colour. See _NH_, p. 189;\n_TN_, p. xxxi, n. 1.]  and a turban. In the letter, it was announced\nthat he and seventy other believers would shortly win the crown of\nmartyrdom. This may possibly be true, not only because circumstantial\ndetails were added, but because the chief leaders of the B\u0101b\u012bs do\nreally appear to have had extraordinary spiritual gifts, especially\nthat of prophecy. One may ask, Did \u1e32uddus also foresee the death of\nhis friend? He did not tell him so in the letter, but he did direct\nhim to leave Khurasan, in spite of the encyclical letter of the B\u0101b,\nbidding believers concentrate, if possible, on Khurasan.\n\nSo, then, we see our B\u0101b\u012b apostles and their followers, with\nchanged route, proceeding to the province of Mazandaran, where\n\u1e32uddus resided.  On reaching Miyami they found about thirty\nbelievers ready to join them--the first-fruits of the preaching of the\nKingdom. Unfortunately opposition was stirred up by the appearance of\nthe apostles.  There was an encounter with the populace, and the\nB\u0101b\u012bs were defeated. The B\u0101b\u012bs, however, went on steadily till\nthey arrived at Badasht, much perturbed by the inauspicious news of\nthe death of Mu\u1e25ammad Shah, 4th September 1848. We are told that the\n'Gate's Gate' had already foretold this event, [Footnote: _NH_,\np. 45.]  which involved increased harshness in the treatment of the\nB\u0101b. We cannot greatly wonder that, according to the B\u0101b\u012bs,\nMu\u1e25ammad Shah's journey was to the infernal regions.\n\nAnother consequence of the Shah's death was the calling of the Council\nof Badasht. It has been suggested that the true cause of the summoning\nof that assembly was anxiety for the B\u0101b, and a desire to carry him\noff to a place of safety. But the more accepted view--that the subject\nbefore the Council was the relation of the B\u0101b\u012bs to the Islamic\nlaws--is also the more probable. The abrogation of those laws is\nexpressly taught by \u1e32urratu'l 'Ayn, according to Mirza Jani.\n\nHow many B\u0101b\u012bs took part in the Meeting?  That depends on whether\nthe ordinary B\u0101b\u012bs were welcomed to the Meeting or only the\nleaders. If the former were admitted, the number of B\u0101b\u012bs must\nhave been considerable, for the 'Gate's Gate' is said to have gathered\na band of 230 men, and \u1e32uddus a band of 300, many of them men of\nwealth and position, and yet ready to give the supreme proof of their\nabsolute sincerity.  The notice at the end of Mirza Jani's account,\nwhich glances at the antinomian tendencies of some who attended the\nMeeting, seems to be in favour of a large estimate. Elsewhere Mirza\nJani speaks of the 'troubles of Badasht,' at which the gallant Ri\u1e93a\nKhan performed 'most valuable services.' Nothing is said, however, of\nthe part taken in the quieting of these troubles either by the 'Gate's\nGate' or by \u1e32uddus. Greater troubles, however, were at hand; it is\nthe beginning of the Mazandaran insurrection (A.D. 1848-1849).\n\nThe place of most interest in this exciting episode is the fortified\ntomb of Sheykh Tabarsi, twelve or fourteen miles south of\nBarfurush. The B\u0101b\u012bs under the 'Gate's Gate' made this their\nheadquarters, and we have abundant information, both B\u0101bite and\nMuslim, respecting their doings.  The 'Gate's Gate' preached to them\nevery day, and warned them that their only safety lay in detachment\nfrom the world. He also (probably as _B\u0101b_, 'Ali Mu\u1e25ammad\nhaving assumed the rank of _Nu\u1e33\u1e6da_, Point) conferred new\nnames (those of prophets and saints) on the worthiest of the\nB\u0101b\u012bs, [Footnote: This is a Muslim account. See _NH_,\np. 303.]  which suggests that this Hero of God had felt his way to the\ndoctrine of the equality of the saints in the Divine Bosom. Of course,\nthis great truth was very liable to misconstruction, just as much as\nwhen the having all things in common was perverted into the most\nobjectionable kind of communism.  [Footnote: _NH_, p. 55.]\n\n'Thus,' the moralist remarks, 'did they live happily together in\ncontent and gladness, free from all grief and care, as though\nresignation and contentment formed a part of their very nature.'\n\nOf course, the new names were given with a full consciousness of the\ninwardness of names.  There was a spirit behind each new name; the\nrevival of a name by a divine representative meant the return of the\nspirit. Each B\u0101b\u012b who received the name of a prophet or an Im\u0101m\nknew that his life was raised to a higher plane, and that he was to\nrestore that heavenly Being to the present age.  These re-named\nB\u0101b\u012bs needed no other recompense than that of being used in the\nCause of God.  They became capable of far higher things than before,\nand if within a short space of time the B\u0101b, or his Deputy, was to\nconquer the whole world and bring it under the beneficent yoke of the\nLaw of God, much miraculously heightened courage would be needed. I am\ntherefore able to accept the Muslim authority's statement. The\nconferring of new names was not to add fuel to human vanity, but\nsacramentally to heighten spiritual vitality.\n\nNot all B\u0101b\u012bs, it is true, were capable of such insight. From the\nB\u0101b\u012b account of the night-action, ordered on his arrival at Sheykh\nTabarsi by \u1e32uddus, we learn that some B\u0101b\u012bs, including those of\nMazandaran, took the first opportunity of plundering the enemy's\ncamp. For this, the Deputy reproved them, but they persisted, and the\nwhole army was punished (as we are told) by a wound dealt to \u1e32uddus,\nwhich shattered one side of his face.  [Footnote: _NH_, 68\n_f_.]  It was with reference to this that the Deputy said at last\nto his disfigured friend, 'I can no longer bear to look upon the wound\nwhich mars your glorious visage. Suffer me, I pray you, to lay down my\nlife this night, that I may be delivered alike from my shame and my\nanxiety.' So there was another night-encounter, and the Deputy knew\nfull well that it would be his last battle. And he 'said to one who\nwas beside him, \"Mount behind me on my horse, and when I say, 'Bear me\nto the Castle,' turn back with all speed.\" So now, overcome with\nfaintness, he said, \"Bear me to the Castle.\" Thereupon his companion\nturned the horse's head, and brought him back to the entrance of the\nCastle; and there he straightway yielded up his spirit to the Lord and\nGiver of life.' Frail of form, but a gallant soldier and an\nimpassioned lover of God, he combined qualities and characteristics\nwhich even in the spiritual aristocracy of Persia are seldom found\nunited in the same person.\n\n\nMULL\u0100 MU\u1e24AMMAD 'ALI OF BARFURUSH\n\nHe was a man of Mazandaran, but was converted at Shiraz. He was one of\nthe earliest to cast in his lot with God's prophet. No sooner had he\nbeheld and conversed with the B\u0101b, than, 'because of the purity of\nhis heart, he at once believed without seeking further sign or proof.'\n[Footnote: _NH_, p. 39.]  After the Council of Badasht he received\namong the B\u0101b\u012bs the title of Jen\u0101b-i-\u1e32uddus, i.e. 'His\nHighness the Sacred,' by which it was meant that he was, for this age,\nwhat the sacred prophet Mu\u1e25ammad was to an earlier age, or, speaking\nloosely, that holy prophet's 're-incarnation.'  It is interesting to\nlearn that that heroic woman \u1e32urratu'l 'Ayn was regarded as the\n'reincarnation' of Fatima, daughter of the prophet Mu\u1e25ammad.\nCertainly \u1e32uddus had enormous influence with small as well as\ngreat. Certainly, too, both he and his greatest friend had prophetic\ngifts and a sense of oneness with God, which go far to excuse the\nextravagant form of their claims, or at least the claims of others on\ntheir behalf. Extravagance of form, at any rate, lies on the surface\nof their titles. There must be a large element of fancy when\nMu\u1e25ammad 'Ali of Barfurush (i.e.  \u1e32uddus) claims to be a 'return'\nof the great Arabian prophet and even to be the \u1e32a'im (i.e. the\nIm\u0101m Mahdi), who was expected to bring in the Kingdom of\nRighteousness. There is no exaggeration, however, in saying that,\ntogether with the B\u0101b, \u1e32uddus ranked highest (or equal to the\nhighest) in the new community.  [Footnote: In _NH_, pp. 359, 399,\nKuddus is represented as the 'last to enter,' and as 'the name of the\nlast.']\n\nWe call him here \u1e32uddus, i.e. holy, sacred, because this was his\nB\u0101b\u012b name, and his B\u0101b\u012b period was to him the only part of his\nlife that was worth living. True, in his youth, he (like 'the Deputy')\nhad Sheykhite instruction, [Footnote: We may infer this from the\ninclusion of both persons in the list of those who went through the\nsame spiritual exercises in the sacred city of Kufa (_NH_, p. 33).]\nbut as long as he was nourished on this imperfect food, he must have\nhad the sense of not having yet 'attained.' He was also like his\ncolleague 'the Deputy' in that he came to know the B\u0101b before the\nyoung Shirazite made his Arabian pilgrimage; indeed (according to our\nbest information), it was he who was selected by 'Ali Mu\u1e25ammad to\naccompany him to the Arabian Holy City, the 'Gate's Gate,' we may\nsuppose, being too important as a representative of the 'Gate' to be\nremoved from Persia. The B\u0101b, however, who had a gift of insight,\nwas doubtless more than satisfied with his compensation. For \u1e32uddus\nhad a noble soul.\n\nThe name \u1e32uddus is somewhat difficult to account for, and yet it\nmust be understood, because it involves a claim. It must be observed,\nthen, first of all, that, as the early B\u0101b\u012bs believed, the last of\nthe twelve Im\u0101ms (cp. the Zoroastrian Amshaspands) still lived on\ninvisibly (like the Jewish Messiah), and communicated with his\nfollowers by means of personages called B\u0101bs (i.e. Gates), whom the\nIm\u0101m had appointed as intermediaries. As the time for a new divine\nmanifestation approached, these personages 'returned,' i.e. were\nvirtually re-incarnated, in order to prepare mankind for the coming\ngreat epiphany.  Such a 'Gate' in the Christian cycle would be John\nthe Baptist; [Footnote: John the Baptist, to the Israelites, was the\nlast Im\u0101m before Jesus.]  such 'Gates' in the Mu\u1e25ammadan cycle\nwould be Wara\u1e33a ibn Nawfal and the other \u1e24an\u012bfs, and in the\nB\u0101b\u012b cycle Sheikh A\u1e25mad of A\u1e25sa, Sayyid Ka\u1e93im of Resht,\nMu\u1e25ammad 'Ali of Shiraz, and Mull\u0101 \u1e24useyn of Bushraweyh, who was\nfollowed by his brother Mu\u1e25ammad \u1e24asan. 'Ali Mu\u1e25ammad, however,\nwhom we call the B\u0101b, did not always put forward exactly the same\nclaim. Sometimes he assumed the title of Zikr [Footnote: And when God\nwills He will explain by the mediation of His Zikr (the B\u0101b) that\nwhich has been decreed for him in the Book.--Early Letter to the\nB\u0101b's uncle (_AMB_, p. 223).]  (i.e. Commemoration, or perhaps\nReminder); sometimes (p. 81) that of Nu\u1e33\u1e6da, i.e. Point (= Climax\nof prophetic revelation). Humility may have prevented him from always\nassuming the highest of these titles (Nu\u1e33\u1e6da). He knew that there\nwas one whose fervent energy enabled him to fight for the Cause as he\nhimself could not.  He can hardly, I think, have gone so far as to\n'abdicate' in favour of \u1e32uddus, or as to affirm with Mirza Jani\n[Footnote: _NH_, p. 336.]  that 'in this (the present) cycle the\noriginal \"Point\" was \u1e24azrat-i-\u1e32uddus.' He may, however, have\nsanctioned Mu\u1e25ammad 'Ali's assumption of the title of 'Point' on\nsome particular occasion, such as the Assembly of Badasht. It is true,\nMu\u1e25ammad 'Ali's usual title was \u1e32uddus, but Mu\u1e25ammad 'Ali\nhimself, we know, considered this title to imply that in himself there\nwas virtually a 'return' of the great prophet Mu\u1e25ammad.  [Footnote:\n_Ibid_. p. 359.]  We may also, perhaps, believe on the authority of\nMirza Jani that the B\u0101b 'refrained from writing or circulating\nanything during the period of the \"Manifestation\" of \u1e24azrat-i-\u1e32uddus,\nand only after his death claimed to be himself the \u1e32a'im.'\n[Footnote: _Ibid_. p. 368.]  It is further stated that, in the list of\nthe nineteen (?) Letters of the Living, \u1e32uddus stood next to the\nB\u0101b himself, and the reader has seen how, in the defence of Tabarsi,\n\u1e32uddus took precedence even of that gallant knight, known among the\nB\u0101b\u012bs as 'the Gate's Gate.'\n\nOn the whole, there can hardly be a doubt that Mu\u1e25ammad 'Ali, called\n\u1e32uddus, was (as I have suggested already) the most conspicuous\nB\u0101b\u012b next to the B\u0101b himself, however hard we may find it to\nunderstand him on certain occasions indicated by Prof. Browne. He\nseems, for instance, to have lacked that tender sense of life\ncharacteristic of the Buddhists, and to have indulged a spiritual\nambition which Jesus would not have approved. But it is unimportant to\npick holes in such a genuine saint. I would rather lay stress on his\nunwillingness to think evil even of his worst foes. And how abominable\nwas the return he met with! Weary of fighting, the B\u0101b\u012bs yielded\nthemselves up to the royal troops. As Prof. Browne says, 'they were\nreceived with an apparent friendliness and even respect which served\nto lull them into a false security and to render easy the perfidious\nmassacre wherein all but a few of them perished on the morrow of their\nsurrender.'\n\nThe same historian tells us that \u1e32uddus, loyal as ever, requested\nthe Prince to send him to Tihran, there to undergo judgment before the\nShah. The Prince was at first disposed to grant this request, thinking\nperhaps that to bring so notable a captive into the Royal Presence\nmight serve to obliterate in some measure the record of those repeated\nfailures to which his unparalleled incapacity had given rise. But when\nthe Sa'idu'l-'Ulama heard of this plan, and saw a possibility of his\nhated foe escaping from his clutches, he went at once to the Prince,\nand strongly represented to him the danger of allowing one so eloquent\nand so plausible to plead his cause before the King. These arguments\nwere backed up by an offer to pay the Prince a sum of 400 (or, as\nothers say, of 1000) _tum\u0101ns_ on condition that Jen\u0101b-i-\u1e32uddus\nshould be surrendered unconditionally into his hands. To this\narrangement the Prince, whether moved by the arguments or the\n_tum\u0101ns_ of the Sa'idu'l-'Ulama, eventually consented, and\nJen\u0101b-i-\u1e32uddus was delivered over to his inveterate enemy.\n\n'The execution took place in the _meydan_, or public square, of Barfurush.\nThe Sa'idu'l-'Ulama first cut off the ears of Jen\u0101b-i-\u1e32uddus, and\ntortured him in other ways, and then killed him with the blow of an\naxe. One of the Sa'idu'l-'Ulama's disciples then severed the head from\nthe lifeless body, and others poured naphtha over the corpse and set\nfire to it. The fire, however, as the B\u0101b\u012bs relate (for\n\u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel corroborates the _Parikh-i-Jadid_ in this particular),\nrefused to burn the holy remains; and so the Sa'idu'l-'Ulama gave\norders that the body should be cut in pieces, and these pieces cast\nfar and wide. This was done, but, as Haji Mirza Jani relates, certain\nB\u0101b\u012bs not known as such to their fellow-townsmen came at night,\ncollected the scattered fragments, and buried them in an old ruined\n_madrasa_ or college hard by. By this _madrasa_, as the B\u0101b\u012b\nhistorian relates, had Jen\u0101b-i-\u1e32uddus once passed in the company\nof a friend with whom he was conversing on the transitoriness of this\nworld, and to it he had pointed to illustrate his words, saying, \"This\ncollege, for instance, was once frequented, and is now deserted and\nneglected; a little while hence they will bury here some great man,\nand many will come to visit his grave, and again it will be frequented\nand thronged with people.\"'  When the Baha'is are more conscious of\nthe preciousness of their own history, this prophecy may be fulfilled,\nand \u1e32uddus be duly honoured.\n\n\nSAYYID YA\u1e24YA DARABI\n\nSayyid Ya\u1e25ya derived his surname Darabi from his birthplace Darab,\nnear Shiraz. His father was Sayyid Ja'far, surnamed Kashfi, i.e.\ndiscloser (of the divine secrets). Neither father nor son, however,\nwas resident at Darab at the period of this narrative. The father was\nat Buzurg, and the son, probably, at Tihran. So great was the\nexcitement caused by the appearance of the B\u0101b that Mu\u1e25ammad Shah\nand his minister thought it desirable to send an expert to inquire\ninto the new Teacher's claims. They selected Sayyid Ya\u1e25ya, 'one of\nthe best known of doctors and Sayyids, as well as an object of\nveneration and confidence,' even in the highest quarters. The mission\nwas a failure, however, for the royal commissioner, instead of\ndevising some practical compromise, actually went over to the B\u0101b,\nin other words, gave official sanction to the innovating party.\n[Footnote: _TN_, pp. 7, 854; Nicolas, _AMB_, pp. 233, 388.]\n\nThe tale is an interesting one. The B\u0101b at first treated the\ncommissioner rather cavalierly. A B\u0101b\u012b theologian was told off to\neducate him; the B\u0101b himself did not grant him an audience. To this\nB\u0101b\u012b representative Ya\u1e25ya confided that he had some inclination\ntowards B\u0101bism, and that a miracle performed by the B\u0101b in his\npresence would make assurance doubly sure. To this the B\u0101b\u012b is\nsaid to have answered, 'For such as have like us beheld a thousand\nmarvels stranger than the fabled cleaving of the moon to demand a\nmiracle or sign from that Perfect Truth would be as though we should\nseek light from a candle in the full blaze of the radiant sun.'\n[Footnote: _NH_, p. 122.]  Indeed, what marvel could be greater\nthan that of raising the spiritually dead, which the B\u0101b and his\nfollowers were constantly performing?  [Footnote: Accounts of miracles\nwere spiritualized by the B\u0101b.]\n\nIt was already much to have read the inspired \"signs,\" or verses,\ncommunicated by the B\u0101b, but how much more would it be to see his\nCountenance! The time came for the Sayyid's first interview with the\nMaster. There was still, however, in his mind a remainder of the\nbesetting sin of mull\u0101s'--arrogance,--and the B\u0101b's answers to the\nquestions of his guest failed to produce entire conviction. The Sayyid\nwas almost returning home, but the most learned of the disciples bade\nhim wait a little longer, till he too, like themselves, would see\nclearly.  [Footnote: _NH_, p. 114.]  The truth is that the B\u0101b\ncommitted the first part of the Sayyid's conversion to his disciples.\nThe would-be disciple had, like any novice, to be educated, and the\nB\u0101b, in his first two interviews with the Sayyid, was content to\nobserve how far this process had gone.\n\nIt was in the third interview that the two souls really met. The\nSayyid had by this time found courage to put deep theological\nquestions, and received correspondingly deep answers. The B\u0101b then\nwrote on the spot a commentary on the 108th Sura of the \u1e32ur'an.\n[Footnote: Nicolas, p. 233.]  In this commentary what was the Sayyid's\nsurprise to find an explanation which he had supposed to be his own\noriginal property! He now submitted entirely to the power of\nattraction and influence [Footnote: _NH_, p. 115.]  exercised so\nconstantly, when He willed, by the Master. He took the B\u0101b for his\nglorious model, and obtained the martyr's crown in the second Niriz\nwar.\n\n\nMULL\u0100 MU\u1e24AMMAD 'ALI OF ZANJAN\n\nHe was a native of Mazandaran, and a disciple of a celebrated teacher\nat the holy city of Karbala, decorated with the title Sharifu-'l Ulama\n('noblest of the Ulama'). He became a _mujtah[\u012b]d_ ('an authority on\nhard religious questions') at Zanjan, the capital of the small\nprovince of Khamsa, which lay between Ira\u1e33 and Azarbaijan.  Muslim\nwriters affirm that in his functions of _mujtah\u0101d_ he displayed a\nrestless and intolerant spirit, [Footnote: Gobineau; Nicolas.]  and he\nhimself confesses to having been 'proud and masterful.' We can,\nhowever, partly excuse one who had no congeniality with the narrow\nShi'ite system prevalent in Persia. It is clear, too, that his\nteaching (which was that of the sect of the Akhbaris), [Footnote:\n_NH_, pp. 138, 349.]  was attractive to many. He declares that two or\nthree thousand families in Khamsa were wholly devoted to him.\n[Footnote: _Ibid_. p. 350.]\n\nAt the point at which this brief sketch begins, our mull\u0101 was\nanxiously looking out for the return of his messenger Mash-hadi\nA\u1e25mad from Shiraz with authentic news of the reported Divine\nManifestation. When the messenger returned he found Mull\u0101 Mu\u1e25ammad\n'Ali in the mosque about to give a theological lecture. He handed over\nthe letter to his Master, who, after reading it, at once turned to his\ndisciples, and uttered these words: 'To search for a roof after one\nhas arrived at one's destination is a shameful thing.  To search for\nknowledge when one is in possession of one's object is supererogatory.\nClose your lips [in surprise], for the Master has arisen; apprehend\nthe news thereof. The sun which points out to us the way we should go,\nhas appeared; the night of error and of ignorance is brought to\nnothing.' With a loud voice he then recited the prayer of Friday,\nwhich is to replace the daily prayer when the Im\u0101m appears.\n\nThe conversion [Footnote: For Mu\u1e25ammad 'Ali's own account, see\nNicolas, _AMB_, pp. 349, 350.]  of Mull\u0101 Mu\u1e25ammad 'Ali had\nimportant results, though the rescue of the B\u0101b was not permitted to\nbe one of them. The same night on which the B\u0101b arrived at Zanjan on\nhis way to Tabriz and Maku, Mull\u0101 Mu\u1e25ammad 'Ali was secretly\nconveyed to Tihran. In this way one dangerous influence, much dreaded\nat court, was removed. And in Tihran he remained till the death of\nMu\u1e25ammad Shah, and the accession of Nasiru'd-din Shah. The new Shah\nreceived him graciously, and expressed satisfaction that the Mull\u0101\nhad not left Tihran without leave. He now gave him express permission\nto return to Zanjan, which accordingly the Mull\u0101 lost no time in\ndoing. The hostile mull\u0101s, however, were stirred up to jealousy\nbecause of the great popularity which Mu\u1e25ammad 'Ali had\nacquired. Such was the beginning of the famous episode of Zanjan.\n\n\n\u1e32URRATU'L 'AYN\n\nAmong the Heroes of God was another glorious saint and martyr of the\nnew society, originally called Zarrin Taj ('Golden Crown'), but\nafterwards better known as \u1e32urratu'l 'Ayn ('Refreshment of the\nEyes') or Jenab-i-Tahira ('Her Excellency the Pure, Immaculate'). She\nwas the daughter of the 'sage of Kazwin,' Haji Mull\u0101 Salih, an\neminent jurist, who (as we shall see) eventually married her to her\ncousin Mull\u0101 Mu\u1e25ammad. Her father-in-law and uncle was also a\nmull\u0101, and also called Mu\u1e25ammad; he was conspicuous for his bitter\nhostility to the Sheykhi and the B\u0101b\u012b sects. \u1e32urratu'l 'Ayn\nherself had a flexible and progressive mind, and shrank from no\ntheological problem, old or new. She absorbed with avidity the latest\nreligious novelties, which were those of the B\u0101b, and though not\nmuch sympathy could be expected from most of her family, yet there was\none of her cousins who was favourable like herself to the claims of\nthe B\u0101b. Her father, too, though he upbraided his daughter for her\nwilful adhesion to 'this Shiraz lad,' confessed that he had not taken\noffence at any claim which she advanced for herself, whether to be the\nB\u0101b or _even more than that_.\n\nNow I cannot indeed exonerate the 'sage of Kazwin' from all\nresponsibility for connecting his daughter so closely with a bitter\nenemy of the B\u0101b, but I welcome his testimony to the manifold\ncapacities of his daughter, and his admission that there were not only\nextraordinary men but extraordinary women qualified even to represent\nGod, and to lead their less gifted fellow-men or fellow-women up the\nheights of sanctity.  The idea of a woman-B\u0101b is so original that it\nalmost takes one's breath away, and still more perhaps does the\nview--modestly veiled by the Haji--that certain men and even women are\nof divine nature scandalize a Western till it becomes clear that the\ntwo views are mutually complementary. Indeed, the only difference in\nhuman beings is that some realize more, and some less, or even not at\nall, the fact of the divine spark in their composition. \u1e32urratu'l\n'Ayn certainly did realize her divinity. On one occasion she even\nreproved one of her companions for not at once discerning that she was\nthe _\u1e32ibla_ towards which he ought to pray. This is no poetical\nconceit; it is meant as seriously as the phrase, 'the Gate,' is meant\nwhen applied to Mirza 'Ali Mu\u1e25ammad. We may compare it with another\nhonorific title of this great woman--'The Mother of the World.'\n\nThe love of God and the love of man were in fact equally prominent in\nthe character of \u1e32urratu'l 'Ayn, and the Glorious One (el-Abha) had\nendowed her not only with moral but with high intellectual gifts. It\nwas from the head of the Sheykhi sect (Haji Sayyid Ka\u1e93im) that she\nreceived her best-known title, and after the Sayyid's death it was she\nwho (see below) instructed his most advanced disciples; she herself,\nindeed, was more advanced than any, and was essentially, like Symeon\nin St. Luke's Gospel, a waiting soul. As yet, it appears, the young\nShiraz Reformer had not heard of her.  It was a letter which she wrote\nafter the death of the Sayyid to Mull\u0101 \u1e24useyn of Bushraweyh which\nbrought her rare gifts to the knowledge of the B\u0101b. \u1e24useyn himself\nwas not commissioned to offer \u1e32urratu'l 'Ayn as a member of the new\nsociety, but the B\u0101b 'knew what was in man,' and divined what the\ngifted woman was desiring. Shortly afterwards she had opportunities of\nperusing theological and devotional works of the B\u0101b, by which, says\nMirza Jani, 'her conversion was definitely effected.' This was at\nKarbala, a place beyond the limits of Persia, but dear to all Shi'ites\nfrom its associations. It appears that \u1e32urratu'l 'Ayn had gone\nthither chiefly to make the acquaintance of the great Sheykhite\nteacher, Sayyid Ka\u1e93im.\n\nGreat was the scandal of both clergy and laity when this fateful step\nof \u1e32urratu'l 'Ayn became known at Kazwin. Greater still must it have\nbeen if (as Gobineau states) she actually appeared in public without a\nveil. Is this true?  No, it is not true, said \u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel, when\nquestioned on this point by Browne. Now and then, when carried away by\nher eloquence, she would allow the veil to slip down off her face, but\nshe would always replace it. The tradition handed on in Baha-'ullah's\nfamily is different, and considering how close was the bond between\nB\u0101h\u0101a and \u1e32urratu'l 'Ayn, I think it safer to follow the family\nof B\u0101h\u0101, which in this case involves agreeing with Gobineau. This\nnoble woman, therefore, has the credit of opening the catalogue of\nsocial reforms in Persia. Presently I shall have occasion to refer to\nthis again.\n\nMirza Jani confirms this view. He tells us that after being converted,\nour heroine 'set herself to proclaim and establish the doctrine,' and\nthat this she did 'seated behind a curtain.' We are no doubt meant to\nsuppose that those of her hearers who were women were gathered round\nthe lecturer behind the curtain. It was not in accordance with\nconventions that men and women should be instructed together, and\nthat--horrible to say--by a woman. The governor of Karbala determined\nto arrest her, but, though without a passport, she made good her\nescape to Baghdad. There she defended her religious position before\nthe chief mufti.  The secular authorities, however, ordered her to\nquit Turkish territory and not return.\n\nThe road which she took was that by Kirmanshah and Hamadan (both in\nIra\u1e33; the latter, the humiliated representative of Ecbatana). Of\ncourse, \u1e32urratu'l 'Ayn took the opportunity of preaching her Gospel,\nwhich was not a scheme of salvation or redemption, but 'certain subtle\nmysteries of the divine' to which but few had yet been privileged to\nlisten. The names of some of her hearers are given; we are to suppose\nthat some friendly theologians had gathered round her, partly as an\nescort, and partly attracted by her remarkable eloquence. Two of them\nwe shall meet with presently in another connection. It must not, of\ncourse, be supposed that all minds were equally open. There were some\nwho raised objections to \u1e32urratu'l 'Ayn, and wrote a letter to the\nB\u0101b, complaining of her. The B\u0101b returned discriminating answers,\nthe upshot of which was that her homilies were to be considered as\ninspired. We are told that these same objectors repented, which\nimplies apparently that the B\u0101b's spiritual influence was effectual\nat a distance.\n\nOther converts were made at the same places, and the idea actually\noccurred to her that she might put the true doctrine before the\nShah. It was a romantic idea (Mu\u1e25ammad Shah was anything thing but a\ndevout and believing Muslim), not destined to be realized. Her father\ntook the alarm and sent for her to come home, and, much to her credit,\nshe gave filial obedience to his summons. It will be observed that it\nis the father who issues his orders; no husband is mentioned. Was it\nnot, then, most probably on _this_ return of \u1e32urratu'l 'Ayn\nthat the maiden was married to Mull\u0101 Mu\u1e25ammad, the eldest son of\nHaji Mull\u0101 Mu\u1e25ammad Ta\u1e33i. Mirza Jani does not mention this, but\nunless our heroine made two journeys to Karbala, is it not the easiest\nway of understanding the facts? The object of the 'sage of Kazwin'\nwas, of course, to prevent his daughter from traversing the country as\nan itinerant teacher. That object was attained.  I will quote from an\naccount which claims to be from Haji Mu\u1e25ammad Hamami, who had been\ncharged with this delicate mission by the family.\n\n'I conducted \u1e32urratu'l 'Ayn into the house of her father, to whom I\nrendered an account of what I had seen. Haji Mull\u0101 Ta\u1e33i, who was\npresent at the interview, showed great irritation, and recommended all\nthe servants to prevent \"this woman\" from going out of the house under\nany pretext whatsoever, and not to permit any one to visit her without\nhis authority. Thereupon he betook himself to the traveller's room,\nand tried to convince her of the error in which she was entangled. He\nentirely failed, however, and, furious before that settled calm and\nearnestness, was led to curse the B\u0101b and to load him with\ninsults. Then \u1e32urratu'l 'Ayn looked into his face, and said to him,\n\"Woe unto thee, for I see thy mouth filling with blood.\"'\n\nSuch is the oral tradition which our informant reproduces. In\ncriticizing it, we may admit that the gift of second sight was\npossessed by the B\u0101b\u012b and Bahai leaders. But this particular\nanecdote respecting our heroine is (may I not say?)  very\nimprobable. To curse the B\u0101b was not the way for an uncle to\nconvince his erring niece.  One may, with more reason, suppose that\nher father and uncle trusted to the effect of matrimony, and committed\nthe transformation of the lady to her cousin Mull\u0101 Mu\u1e25ammad. True,\nthis could not last long, and the murder of Ta\u1e33i in the mosque of\nKazwin must have precipitated \u1e32urratu'l 'Ayn's resolution to divorce\nher husband (as by Mu\u1e25ammadan law she was entitled to do) and leave\nhome for ever.  It might, however, have gone hardly with her if she\nhad really uttered the prophecy related above. Evidently her husband,\nwho had accused her of complicity in the crime, had not heard of\nit. So she was acquitted. The B\u0101b, too, favoured the suggestion of\nher leaving home, and taking her place among his missionaries.\n[Footnote: Nicolas, _AMB_, p. 277.]  At the dead of night, with\nan escort of B\u0101b\u012bs, she set out ostensibly for Khurasan. The route\nwhich she really adopted, however, took her by the forest-country of\nMazandaran, where she had the leisure necessary for pondering the\nreligious situation.\n\nThe sequel was dramatic. After some days and nights of quietude, she\nsuddenly made her appearance in the hamlet of Badasht, to which place\na representative conference of B\u0101b\u012bs had been summoned.\n\nThe object of the conference was to correct a widespread\nmisunderstanding. There were many who thought that the new leader\ncame, in the most literal sense, to fulfil the Islamic Law. They\nrealized, indeed, that the object of Mu\u1e25ammad was to bring about an\nuniversal kingdom of righteousness and peace, but they thought this\nwas to be effected by wading through streams of blood, and with the\nhelp of the divine judgments. The B\u0101b, on the other hand, though not\nalways consistent, was moving, with some of his disciples, in the\ndirection of moral suasion; his only weapon was 'the sword of the\nSpirit, which is the word of God.' When the \u1e32a'im appeared all\nthings would be renewed.  But the \u1e32a'im was on the point of\nappearing, and all that remained was to prepare for his Coming. No\nmore should there be any distinction between higher and lower races,\nor between male and female. No more should the long, enveloping veil\nbe the badge of woman's inferiority.\n\nThe gifted woman before us had her own characteristic solution of the\nproblem. So, doubtless, had the other B\u0101b\u012b leaders who were\npresent, such as \u1e32uddus and Baha-'ullah, the one against, the other\nin favour of social reforms.\n\nIt is said, in one form of tradition, that \u1e32urratu'l 'Ayn herself\nattended the conference with a veil on. If so, she lost no time in\ndiscarding it, and broke out (we are told) into the fervid\nexclamation, 'I am the blast of the trumpet, I am the call of the\nbugle,' i.e. 'Like Gabriel, I would awaken sleeping souls.' It\nis said, too, that this short speech of the brave woman was followed\nby the recitation by Baha-'ullah of the Sura of the Resurrection\n(lxxv.). Such recitations often have an overpowering effect.\n\nThe inner meaning of this was that mankind was about to pass into a\nnew cosmic cycle, for which a new set of laws and customs would be\nindispensable.\n\nThere is also a somewhat fuller tradition.  \u1e32urratu'l 'Ayn was in\nMazandaran, and so was also Baha'ullah. The latter was taken ill, and\n\u1e32urratu'l 'Ayn, who was an intimate friend of his, was greatly\nconcerned at this. For two days she saw nothing of him, and on the\nthird sent a message to him to the effect that she could keep away no\nlonger, but must come to see him, not, however, as hitherto, but with\nher head uncovered.  If her friend disapproved of this, let him\ncensure her conduct. He did not disapprove, and on the way to see him,\nshe proclaimed herself the trumpet blast.\n\nAt any rate, it was this bold act of \u1e32urratu'l 'Ayn which shook the\nfoundations of a literal belief in Islamic doctrines among the\nPersians.  It may be added that the first-fruits of \u1e32urratu'l 'Ayn's\nteaching was no one less than the heroic \u1e32uddus, and that the\neloquent teacher herself owed her insight probably to Baha-'ullah. Of\ncourse, the supposition that her greatest friend might censure her is\nmerely a delightful piece of irony.  [Footnote: _NH_, pp. 357-358.]\n\nI have not yet mentioned the long address assigned to our heroine by\nMirza Jani. It seems to me, in its present form, improbable, and yet\nthe leading ideas may have been among those expressed by the\nprophetess. If so, she stated that the laws of the previous\ndispensation were abrogated, and that laws in general were only\nnecessary till men had learnt to comprehend the Perfection of the\nDoctrine of the Unity. 'And should men not be able to receive the\nDoctrine of the Unity at the beginning of the Manifestation,\nordinances and restrictions will again be prescribed for them.' It is\nnot wonderful that the declaration of an impending abrogation of Law\nwas misinterpreted, and converted into a licence for Antinomianism.\nMirza Jani mentions, but with some reticence, the unseemly conduct of\nsome of the B\u0101b\u012bs.\n\nThere must, however, have been some who felt the spell of the great\norator, and such an one is portrayed by Mme. H. Dreyfus, in her\ndramatic poem _God's Heroes_, under the name of 'Ali. I will\nquote here a little speech of 'Ali's, and also a speech of \u1e32urratu'l\n'Ayn, because they seem to me to give a more vivid idea of the scene\nthan is possible for a mere narrator.  [Footnote: _God's Heroes_,\nby Laura Clifford Barney [Paris, 1909], p. 64, Act III.]\n\n'ALI\n\n'Soon we shall leave Badasht: let us leave it filled with the Gospel\nof life! Let our lives show what we, sincere Mu\u1e25ammadans, have\nbecome through our acceptance of the B\u0101b, the Mahdi, who has\nawakened us to the esoteric meaning of the Resurrection Day. Let us\nfill the souls of men with the glory of the revealed word. Let us\nadvance with arms extended to the stranger.  Let us emancipate our\nwomen, reform our society.  Let us arise out of our graves of\nsuperstition and of self, and pronounce that the Day of Judgment is at\nhand; then shall the whole earth respond to the quickening power of\nregeneration!'\n\nQURRATU'L-'AIN\n\n(_Deeply moved and half to herself._)\n\n'I feel impelled to help unveil the Truth to these men assembled. If\nmy act be good the result will be good; if bad, may it affect me\nalone!\n\n'(_Advances majestically with face unveiled, and as she walks\ntowards Baha-'ullah's tent, addresses the men._) That sound of the\ntrumpet which ushers in the Day of Judgment is my call to you now!\nRise, brothers! The Quran is completed, the new era has begun. Know me\nas your sister, and let all barriers of the past fall down before our\nadvancing steps. We teach freedom, action, and love. That sound of the\ntrumpet, it is I!  That blast of the trumpet, it is I!\n\n(_Exit_ Qurratu'l 'Ain.)'\n\nOn the breaking up of the Council our heroine joined a large party of\nB\u0101b\u012bs led by her great friend \u1e32uddus. On their arrival in N\u016br,\nhowever, they separated, she herself staying in that district. There\nshe met \u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel, who is said to have rendered her many\nservices. But before long the people of Mazandaran surrendered the\ngifted servant of truth to the Government.\n\nWe next meet with her in confinement at Tihran. There she was treated\nat first with the utmost gentleness, her personal charm being felt\nalike by her host, Ma\u1e25m\u016bd the Kalantar, and by the most frigid of\nPersian sovereigns. The former tried hard to save her. Doubtless by\nusing Ketman (i.e. by pretending to be a good Muslim) she might\nhave escaped. But her view of truth was too austere for this.\n\nSo the days--the well-filled days--wore on.  Her success with\ninquirers was marvellous; wedding-feasts were not half so bright as\nher religious soir\u00e9es. But she herself had a bridegroom, and longed\nto see him. It was the attempt by a B\u0101b\u012b on the Shah's life on\nAugust 15, 1852, which brought her nearer to the desire of her\nheart. One of the servants of the house has described her last evening\non earth. I quote a paragraph from the account.\n\n'While she was in prison, the marriage of the Kalantar's son took\nplace. As was natural, all the women-folk of the great personages were\ninvited.  But although large sums had been expended on the\nentertainments usual at such a time, all the ladies called loudly for\n\u1e32urratu'l 'Ayn. She came accordingly, and hardly had she begun to\nspeak when the musicians and dancing-girls were dismissed, and,\ndespite the counter attractions of sweet delicacies, the guests had no\neyes and ears save for \u1e32urratu'l 'Ayn.\n\n'At last, a night came when something strange and sad happened. I had\njust waked up, and saw her go down into the courtyard. After washing\nfrom head to foot she went back into her room, where she dressed\nherself altogether in white.  She perfumed herself, and as she did\nthis she sang, and never had I seen her so contented and joyous as in\nthis song. Then she turned to the women of the house, and begged them\nto pardon the disagreeables which might have been occasioned by her\npresence, and the faults which she might have committed towards them;\nin a word, she acted exactly like some one who is about to undertake a\nlong journey. We were all surprised, asking ourselves what that could\nmean. In the evening, she wrapped herself in a _chadour_, which she\nfixed about her waist, making a band of her _chargud_, then she put on\nagain her _chagchour_.  Her joy as she acted thus was so strange that\nwe burst into tears, for her goodness and inexhaustible friendliness\nmade us love her. But she smiled on us and said, \"This evening I am\ngoing to take a great, a very great journey.\"  At this moment there\nwas a knock at the street door.  \"Run and open,\" she said, \"for they\nwill be looking for me.\"\n\n'It was the Kalantar who entered. He went in, as far as her room, and\nsaid to her, \"Come, Madam, for they are asking for you.\" \"Yes,\" said\nshe, \"I know it. I know, too, whither I am to be taken; I know how I\nshall be treated.  But, ponder it well, a day will come when thy\nMaster will give thee like treatment.\" Then she went out dressed as\nshe was with the Kalantar; we had no idea whither she was being taken,\nand only on the following day did we learn that she was executed.'\n\nOne of the nephews of the Kalantar, who was in the police, has given\nan account of the closing scene, from which I quote the following:\n\n'Four hours after sunset the Kalantar asked me if all my measures were\ntaken, and upon the assurances which I gave him he conducted me into\nhis house. He went in alone into the _ender\u016bn_, but soon\nreturned, accompanied by \u1e32urratu'l 'Ayn, and gave me a folded paper,\nsaying to me, \"You will conduct this woman to the garden of Ilkhan\u00ed,\nand will give her into the charge of Aziz Khan the Serdar.\"\n\n'A horse was brought, and I helped \u1e32urratu'l 'Ayn to mount. I was\nafraid, however, that the B\u0101b\u012bs would find out what was\npassing. So I threw my cloak upon her, so that she was taken for a\nman. With an armed escort we set out to traverse the streets. I feel\nsure, however, that if a rescue had been attempted my people would\nhave run away. I heaved a sigh of relief on entering the garden. I put\nmy prisoner in a room under the entrance, ordered my soldiers to guard\nthe door well, and went up to the third story to find the Serdar.\n\n'He expected me. I gave him the letter, and he asked me if no one had\nunderstood whom I had in charge. \"No one,\" I replied, \"and now that I\nhave performed my duty, give me a receipt for my prisoner.\" \"Not yet,\"\nhe said; \"you have to attend at the execution; afterwards I will give\nyou your receipt.\"\n\n'He called a handsome young Turk whom he had in his service, and tried\nto win him over by flatteries and a bribe. He further said, \"I will\nlook out for some good berth for you. But you must do something for\nme. Take this silk handkerchief, and go downstairs with this\nofficer. He will conduct you into a room where you will find a young\nwoman who does much harm to believers, turning their feet from the way\nof Mu\u1e25ammad.  Strangle her with this handkerchief. By so doing you\nwill render an immense service to God, and I will give you a large\nreward.\"\n\n'The valet bowed and went out with me. I conducted him to the room\nwhere I had left my prisoner. I found her prostrate and praying.  The\nyoung man approached her with the view of executing his orders. Then\nshe raised her head, looked fixedly at him and said, \"Oh, young man,\nit would ill beseem you to soil your hand with this murder.\"\n\n'I cannot tell what passed in this young man's soul. But it is a fact\nthat he fled like a madman.  I ran too, and we came together to the\nserdar, to whom he declared that it was impossible for him to do what\nwas required. \"I shall lose your patronage,\" he said. \"I am, indeed,\nno longer my own master; do what you will with me, but I will not\ntouch this woman.\"\n\n'Aziz Khan packed him off, and reflected for some minutes. He then\nsent for one of his horsemen whom, as a punishment for misconduct, he\nhad put to serve in the kitchens. When he came in, the serdar gave him\na friendly scolding: \"Well, son of a dog, bandit that you are, has\nyour punishment been a lesson to you? and will you be worthy to regain\nmy affection? I think so. Here, take this large glass of brandy,\nswallow it down, and make up for going so long without it.\" Then he\ngave him a fresh handkerchief, and repeated the order which he had\nalready given to the young Turk.\n\n'We entered the chamber together, and immediately the man rushed upon\n\u1e32urratu'l 'Ayn, and tied the handkerchief several times round her\nneck. Unable to breathe, she fell to the ground in a faint; he then\nknelt with one knee on her back, and drew the handkerchief with might\nand main. As his feelings were stirred and he was afraid, he did not\nleave her time to breathe her last. He took her up in his arms, and\ncarried her out to a dry well, into which he threw her still\nalive. There was no time to lose, for daybreak was at hand. So we\ncalled some men to help us fill up the well.'\n\nMons. Nicolas, formerly interpreter of the French Legation at Tihran,\nto whom we are indebted for this narrative, adds that a pious hand\nplanted five or six solitary trees to mark the spot where the heroine\ngave up this life for a better one. It is doubtful whether the\nruthless modern builder has spared them.\n\nThe internal evidence in favour of this story is very strong; there is\na striking verisimilitude about it. The execution of a woman to whom\nso much romantic interest attached cannot have been in the royal\nsquare; that would have been to court unpopularity for the\nGovernment. Moreover, there is a want of definite evidence that women\nwere among the public victims of the 'reign of Terror' which followed\nthe attempt on the Shah's life (cp. _TN,_ p. 334). That \u1e32urratu'l\n'Ayn was put to death is certain, but this can hardly have been in\npublic. It is true, a European doctor, quoted by Prof. Browne (_TN,_\np. 313), declares that he witnessed the heroic death of the 'beautiful\nwoman.' He seems to imply that the death was accompanied by slow\ntortures.  But why does not this doctor give details? Is he not\ndrawing upon his fancy? Let us not make the persecutors worse than\nthey were.\n\nCount Gobineau's informant appears to me too imaginative, but I will\ngive his statements in a somewhat shortened form.\n\n'The beauty, eloquence, and enthusiasm of \u1e32urratu'l 'Ayn exercised a\nfascination even upon her gaoler. One morning, returning from the\nroyal camp, he went into the _ender\u016bn,_ and told his prisoner that\nhe brought her good news. \"I know it,\" she answered gaily; \"you need\nnot be at the pains to tell me.\" \"You cannot possibly know my news,\"\nsaid the \u1e32alantar; \"it is a request from the Prime Minister. You\nwill be conducted to Niyavaran, and asked, '\u1e32urratu'l 'Ayn, are you\na B\u0101b\u012b?' You will simply answer, 'No.' You will live alone for\nsome time, and avoid giving people anything to talk about. The Prime\nMinister will keep his own opinion about you, but he will not exact\nmore of you than this.\"'\n\nThe words of the prophetess came true. She was taken to Niyavaran, and\npublicly but gently asked, 'Are you a B\u0101b\u012b?' She answered what she\nhad said that she would answer in such a case.  She was taken back to\nTihran. Her martyrdom took place in the citadel. She was placed upon a\nheap of that coarse straw which is used to increase the bulk of\nwoollen and felt carpets.  But before setting fire to this, the\nexecutioners stifled her with rags, so that the flames only devoured\nher dead body.\n\nAn account is also given in the London manuscript of the _New\nHistory_, but as the Mirza suffered in the same persecution as the\nheroine, we must suppose that it was inserted by the editor. It is\nvery short.\n\n'For some while she was in the house of Ma\u1e25m\u016bd Khan, the Kalantar,\nwhere she exhorted and counselled the women of the household, till one\nday she went to the bath, whence she returned in white garments,\nsaying, \"To-morrow they will kill me.\" Next day the executioner came\nand took her to the Nigaristan. As she would not suffer them to remove\nthe veil from her face (though they repeatedly sought to do so) they\napplied the bow-string, and thus compassed her martyrdom. Then they\ncast her holy body into a well in the garden.  [Footnote: _NH_,\npp. 283 _f_.]\n\nMy own impression is that a legend early began to gather round the\nsacred form of Her Highness the Pure. Retracing his recollections even\nDr. Polak mixes up truth and fiction, and has in his mind's eye\nsomething like the scene conjured up by Count Gobineau in his\ndescription of the persecution of Tihran:--\n\n'On vit s'avancer, entre les bourreaux, des enfants et des femmes, les\nchairs ouvertes sur tout le corps, avec des m\u00e8ches allum\u00e9es\nflambantes fich\u00e9es dans les blessures.'\n\nLooking back on the short career of \u1e32urratu'l 'Ayn, one is chiefly\nstruck by her fiery enthusiasm and by her absolute unworldliness. This\nworld was, in fact, to her, as it was said to be to \u1e32uddus, a mere\nhandful of dust. She was also an eloquent speaker and experienced in\nthe intricate measures of Persian poetry. One of her few poems which\nhave thus far been made known is of special interest, because of the\nbelief which it expresses in the divine-human character of some one\n(here called Lord), whose claims, when once adduced, would receive\ngeneral recognition. Who was this Personage? It appears that\n\u1e32urratu'l 'Ayn thought Him slow in bringing forward these claims. Is\nthere any one who can be thought of but Baha-'ullah?\n\nThe Bahaite tradition confidently answers in the negative.\nBaha-'ullah, it declares, exercised great influence on the second\nstage of the heroine's development, and \u1e32urratu'l 'Ayn was one of\nthose who had pressed forward into the innermost sanctum of the\nB\u0101b's disclosures. She was aware that 'The Splendour of God' was 'He\nwhom God would manifest.' The words of the poem, in Prof.  Browne's\ntranslation, refer, not to Ezel, but to his brother Baha-'ullah. They\nare in _TN_, p. 315.\n\n  'Why lags the word, \"_Am I not your Lord_\"?\n  \"_Yea, that thou art_,\" let us make reply.'\n\nThe poetess was a true Bahaite. More than this; the harvest sown in\nIslamic lands by \u1e32urratu'l 'Ayn is now beginning to appear. A letter\naddressed to the _Christian Commonwealth_ last June informs us\nthat forty Turkish suffragettes are being deported from Constantinople\nto Akka (so long the prison of Baha-'ullah):\n\n'\"During the last few years suffrage ideas have been spreading quietly\nbehind in the harems.  The men were ignorant of it; everybody was\nignorant of it; and now suddenly the floodgate is opened and the men\nof Constantinople have thought it necessary to resort to drastic\nmeasures.  Suffrage clubs have been organized, intelligent memorials\nincorporating the women's demands have been drafted and circulated;\nwomen's journals and magazines have sprung up, publishing excellent\narticles; and public meetings were held. Then one day the members of\nthese clubs--four hundred of them--_cast away their veils._ The\nstaid, fossilized class of society were shocked, the good Mussulmans\nwere alarmed, and the Government forced into action. These four\nhundred liberty-loving women were divided into several groups. One\ngroup composed of forty have been exiled to Akka, and will arrive in a\nfew days. Everybody is talking about it, and it is really surprising\nto see how numerous are those in favour of removing the veils from the\nfaces of the women. Many men with whom I have talked think the custom\nnot only archaic, but thought-stifling. The Turkish authorities,\nthinking to extinguish this light of liberty, have greatly added to\nits flame, and their high-handed action has materially assisted the\ncreation of a wider public opinion and a better understanding of this\ncrucial problem.\" The other question exercising opinion in \u1e24aifa is\nthe formation of a military and strategic quarter out of Akka, which\nin this is resuming its bygone importance. Six regiments of soldiers\nare to be quartered there.  Many officers have already arrived and are\nhunting for houses, and as a result rents are trebled.  It is\ninteresting to reflect, as our Baha correspondent suggests, on the\npossible consequence of this projection of militarism into the very\ncentre fount of the Bahai faith in universal peace.'\n\n\nBAHA-'ULLAH (MIRZA \u1e24USEYN ALI OF N\u016aR)\n\nAccording to Count Gobineau, the martyrdom of the B\u0101b at Tabriz was\nfollowed by a Council of the B\u0101b\u012b chiefs at Teheran (Tihran). What\nauthority he has for this statement is unknown, but it is in itself\nnot improbable. Formerly the members of the Two Unities must have\ndesired to make their policy as far as possible uniform.  We have\nalready heard of the Council of Badasht (from which, however, the\nB\u0101b, or, the Point, was absent); we now have to make room in our\nmind for the possibilities of a Council of Tihran.  It was an\nimportant occasion of which Gobineau reminds us, well worthy to be\nmarked by a Council, being nothing less than the decision of the\nsuccession to the Pontificate.\n\nAt such a Council who would as a matter of course be present? One may\nmention in the first instance Mirza \u1e24useyn 'Ali, titled as\nBaha-'ullah, and his half-brother, Mirza Ya\u1e25ya, otherwise known as\n\u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel, also Jen\u0101b-i-'Azim, Jen\u0101b-i-Bazir, Mirza\nAsadu'llah [Footnote: Gobineau, however, thinks that Mirza Asadu'llah\nwas not present at the (assumed) Council.]  (Dayyan), Sayyid Ya\u1e25ya\n(of Darab), and others similarly honoured by the original B\u0101b. And\nwho were the candidates for this terribly responsible post? Several\nmay have wished to be brought forward, but one candidate, according to\nthe scholar mentioned, overshadowed the rest. This was Mirza Ya\u1e25ya\n(of N\u016br), better known as \u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel.\n\nThe claims of this young man were based on a nomination-document now\nin the possession of Prof. Browne, and have been supported by a letter\ngiven in a French version by Mons. Nicolas.  Forgery, however, has\nplayed such a great part in written documents of the East that I\nhesitate to recognize the genuineness of this nomination.  And I think\nit very improbable that any company of intensely earnest men should\nhave accepted the document in preference to the evidence of their own\nknowledge respecting the inadequate endowments of \u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel.\n\nNo doubt the responsibilities of the pontificate would be shared.\nThere would be a 'Gate' and there would be a 'Point.' The deficiencies\nof the 'Gate' might be made good by the 'Point.'  Moreover, the\n'Letters of the Living' were important personages; their advice could\nhardly be rejected.  Still the gravity and variety of the duties\ndevolving upon the 'Gate' and the 'Point' give us an uneasy sense that\n\u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel was not adequate to either of these posts, and cannot\nhave been appointed to either of them by the Council. The probability\nis that the arrangement already made was further sanctioned, viz. that\nBaha-'ullah was for the present to take the private direction of\naffairs and exercise his great gifts as a teacher, while\n\u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel (a vain young man) gave his name as ostensible head,\nespecially with a view to outsiders and to agents of the government.\n\nIt may be this to which allusion is made in a tradition preserved by\nBeh\u00eeah Khanum, sister of Abbas Effendi Abdul Baha, that\n\u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel claimed to be equal to his half-brother, and that he\nrested this claim on a vision. The implication is that Baha-'ullah was\nvirtually the head of the B\u0101b\u012b community, and that \u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel\nwas wrapt up in dreams, and was really only a figurehead. In fact,\nfrom whatever point of view we compare the brothers (half-brothers),\nwe are struck by the all-round competence of the elder and the\nincompetence of the younger. As leader, as teacher, and as writer he\nwas alike unsurpassed. It may be mentioned in passing that, not only\nthe _Hidden Words_ and the _Seven Valleys_, but the fine\nthough unconvincing apologetic arguments of the _Book of Ighan_\nflowed from Baha-'ullah's pen at the Baghdad period. But we must now\nmake good a great omission. Let us turn back to our hero's origin and\nchildhood.\n\n\u1e24useyn 'Ali was half-brother of Ya\u1e25ya, i.e. they had the\nsame father but different mothers.  The former was the elder, being\nborn in A.D.  1817, whereas the latter only entered on his melancholy\nlife in A.D. 1830.  [Footnote: It is a singular fact that an Ezelite\nsource claims the name Baha-'ullah for Mirza Ya\u1e25ya. But one can\nhardly venture to credit this. See _TN_, p. 373 n. 1.]  Both\nembraced the B\u0101b\u012b faith, and were called respectively Baha-'ullah\n(Splendour of God) and \u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel (Dawn of Eternity). Their\nfather was known as Buzurg (or, Abbas), of the district of N\u016br in\nMazandaran. The family was distinguished; Mirza Buzurg held a high\npost under government.\n\nLike many men of his class, Mirza \u1e24useyn 'Ali had a turn for\nmysticism, but combined this--like so many other mystics--with much\npractical ability. He became a B\u0101b\u012b early in life, and did much to\nlay the foundations of the faith both in his native place and in the\ncapital. His speech was like a 'rushing torrent,' and his clearness in\nexposition brought the most learned divines to his feet. Like his\nhalf-brother, he attended the important Council of Badasht, where,\nwith God's Heroine--\u1e32urratu'l 'Ayn--he defended the cause of\nprogress and averted a fiasco. The B\u0101b--'an ambassador in bonds'--he\nnever met, but he corresponded with him, using (as it appears) the\nname of his half-brother as a protecting pseudonym.  [Footnote:\n_TN_, p. 373 n. 1.]\n\nThe B\u0101b was 'taken up into heaven' in 1850 upon which (according to\na Tradition which I am compelled to reject) \u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel succeeded\nto the Supreme Headship. The appointment would have been very\nunsuitable, but the truth is (_pace_ Gobineau) that it was never\nmade, or rather, God did not will to put such a strain upon our faith.\nIt was, in fact, too trying a time for any new teacher, and we can now\nsee the wisdom of Baha-'ullah in waiting for the call of events. The\nB\u0101b\u012b community was too much divided to yield a new Head a frank\nand loyal obedience. Many B\u0101b\u012bs rose against the government, and\none even made an attempt on the Shah's life. Baha-'ullah (to use the\nname given to \u1e24useyn 'Ali of N\u016br by the B\u0101b) was arrested near\nTihran on a charge of complicity. He was imprisoned for four months,\nbut finally acquitted and released.  No wonder that Baha-'ullah and\nhis family were anxious to put as large a space as possible between\nthemselves and Tihran.\n\nTogether with several B\u0101b\u012b families, and, of course, his own\nnearest and dearest, Baha-'ullah set out for Baghdad. It was a\nterrible journey in rough mountain country and the travellers suffered\ngreatly from exposure. On their arrival fresh misery stared the ladies\nin the face, unaccustomed as they were to such rough life. They were\naided, however, by the devotion of some of their fellow-believers, who\nrendered many voluntary services; indeed, their affectionate zeal\nneeded to be restrained, as St. Paul doubtless found in like\ncircumstances. Baha-'ullah himself was intensely, divinely happy, and\nthe little band of refugees--thirsty for truth--rejoiced in their\nuntrammelled intercourse with their Teacher.  Unfortunately religious\ndissensions began to arise.  In the B\u0101b\u012b colony at Baghdad there\nwere some who were not thoroughly devoted to Baha-'ullah.  The Teacher\nwas rather too radical, too progressive for them. They had not been\nintroduced to the simpler and more spiritual form of religion taught\nby Baha-'ullah, and probably they had had positive teaching of quite\nanother order from some one authorized by \u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel.\n\nThe strife went on increasing in bitterness, until at length it became\nclear that either Baha-'ullah or \u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel must for a time\nvanish from the scene. For \u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel (or, for shortness, Ezel)\nto disappear would be suicidal; he knew how weak his personal claims\nto the pontificate really were. But Baha-'ullah's disappearance would\nbe in the general interest; it would enable the B\u0101b\u012bs to realize\nhow totally dependent they were, in practical matters, on\nBaha-'ullah. 'Accordingly, taking a change of clothes, but no money,\nand against the entreaties of all the family, he set out. Many months\npassed; he did not return, nor had we any word from him or about him.\n\n'There was an old physician at Baghdad who had been called upon to\nattend the family, and who had become our friend. He sympathized much\nwith us, and undertook on his own account to make inquiries for my\nfather. These inquiries were long without definite result, but at\nlength a certain traveller to whom he had described my father said\nthat he had heard of a man answering to that description, evidently of\nhigh rank, but calling himself a dervish, living in caves in the\nmountains. He was, he said, reputed to be so wise and wonderful in his\nspeech on religious things that when people heard him they would\nfollow him; whereupon, wishing to be alone, he would change his\nresidence to a cave in some other locality. When we heard these\nthings, we were convinced that this dervish was in truth our beloved\none. But having no means to send him any word, or to hear further of\nhim, we were very sad.\n\n'There was also then in Baghdad an earnest B\u0101b\u012b, formerly a pupil\nof \u1e32urratu'l 'Ayn. This man said to us that as he had no ties and\ndid not care for his life, he desired no greater happiness than to be\nallowed to seek for him all loved so much, and that he would not\nreturn without him. He was, however, very poor, not being able even to\nprovide an ass for the journey; and he was besides not very strong,\nand therefore not able to go on foot. We had no money for the purpose,\nnor anything of value by the sale of which money could be procured,\nwith the exception of a single rug, upon which we all slept. This we\nsold and with the proceeds bought an ass for this friend, who\nthereupon set out upon the search.\n\n'Time passed; we heard nothing, and fell into the deepest dejection\nand despair. Finally, four months having elapsed since our friend had\ndeparted, a message was one day received from him saying that he would\nbring my father home on the next day. The absence of my father had\ncovered a little more than two years. After his return the fame which\nhe had acquired in the mountains reached Baghdad. His followers became\nnumerous; many of them even the fierce and untutored Arabs of Irak. He\nwas visited also by many B\u0101b\u012bs from Persia.'\n\nThis is the account of the sister of our beloved and venerated Abdul\nBaha. There are, however, two other accounts which ought to be\nmentioned.  According to the _Traveller's Narrative_, the refuge\nof Baha-'ullah was generally in a place called Sarkalu in the\nmountains of Turkish Kurdistan; more seldom he used to stay in\nSuleymaniyya, the headquarters of the Sunnites. Before long, however,\n'the most eminent doctors of those regions got some inkling of his\ncircumstances and conditions, and conversed with him on the solution\nof certain difficult questions connected with the most abstruse points\nof theology. In consequence of this, fragmentary accounts of this were\ncirculated in all quarters. Several persons therefore hastened\nthither, and began to entreat and implore.'  [Footnote: _TN_,\npp. 64, 65.]\n\nIf this is correct, Baha-'ullah was more widely known in Turkish\nKurdistan than his family was aware, and debated high questions of\ntheology as frequently as if he were in Baghdad or at the Supreme\nShrine. Nor was it only the old physician and the poor B\u0101b\u012b\ndisciple who were on the track of Baha-'ullah, but 'several\npersons'--no doubt persons of weight, who were anxious for a\nsettlement of the points at issue in the B\u0101b\u012b community. A further\ncontribution is made by the Ezeli historian, who states that\n\u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel himself wrote a letter to his brother, inviting him to\nreturn.  [Footnote: _TN_, p. 359.]  One wishes that letter could\nbe recovered.  It would presumably throw much light on the relations\nbetween the brothers at this critical period.\n\nAbout 1862 representations were made to the Shah that the B\u0101b\u012b\npreaching at Baghdad was injurious to the true Faith in Persia. The\nTurkish Government, therefore, when approached on the subject by the\nShah, consented to transfer the B\u0101b\u012bs from Baghdad to\nConstantinople. An interval of two weeks was accorded, and before this\ngrace-time was over a great event happened--his declaration of himself\nto be the expected Messiah (Him whom God should manifest). As yet it\nwas only in the presence of his son (now best known as Abdul Baha) and\nfour other specially chosen disciples that this momentous declaration\nwas made. There were reasons why Baha-'ullah should no longer keep his\nknowledge of the will of God entirely secret, and also reasons why he\nshould not make the declaration absolutely public.\n\nThe caravan took four months to reach Constantinople. At this capital\nof the Mu\u1e25ammadan world their stay was brief, as they were 'packed\noff' the same year to Adrianople. Again they suffered greatly. But who\nwould find fault with the Great Compassion for arranging it so? And\nwho would deny that there are more important events at this period\nwhich claim our interest? These are (1) the repeated attempts on the\nlife of Baha-'ullah (or, as the Ezelis say, of \u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel) by the\nmachinations of \u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel (or, as the Ezelis say, of\nBaha-'ullah), and (2) the public declaration on the part of\nBaha-'ullah that he, and no one else, was the Promised Manifestation\nof Deity.\n\nThere is some obscurity in the chronological relation of these events,\ni.e. as to whether the public declaration of Baha-'ullah was in\ndefinite opposition, not only to the claims of \u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel, but to\nthose of Zabi\u1e25, related by Mirza Jani, [Footnote: See _NH_,\npp. 385, 394; _TN_, p. 357. The Ezelite historian includes Dayyan\n(see above).]  and of others, or whether the reverse is the case. At\nany rate Baha-'ullah believed that his brother was an assassin and a\nliar. This is what he says,--'Neither was the belly of the glutton\nsated till that he desired to eat my flesh and drink my blood.... And\nherein he took counsel with one of my attendants, tempting him unto\nthis.... But he, when he became aware that the matter had become\npublicly known, took the pen of falsehood, and wrote unto the people,\nand attributed all that he had done to my peerless and wronged\nBeauty.'  [Footnote: _TN_, pp. 368, 369.]\n\nThese words are either a meaningless extravagance, or they are a\ndeliberate assertion that \u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel had sought to destroy his\nbrother, and had then circulated a written declaration that it was\nBaha-'ullah who had sought to destroy \u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel.  It is, I fear,\ncertain that Baha-'ullah is correct, and that \u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel did\nattempt to poison his brother, who was desperately ill for twenty-two\ndays.\n\nAnother attempt on the life of the much-loved Master was prevented, it\nis said, by the faithfulness of the bath-servant. 'One day while in\nthe bath \u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel remarked to the servant (who was a believer)\nthat the Blessed Perfection had enemies and that in the bath he was\nmuch exposed.... \u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel then asked him whether, if God should\nlay upon him the command to do this, he would obey it. The servant\nunderstood this question, coming from \u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel, to be a\nsuggestion of such a command, and was so petrified by it that he\nrushed screaming from the room. He first met Abbas Effendi and\nreported to him \u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel's words.... Abbas Effendi,\naccordingly, accompanied him to my father, who listened to his story\nand then enjoined absolute silence upon him.'  [Footnote: Phelps,\npp. 38, 39.]\n\nSuch is the story as given by one who from her youthful age is likely\nto have remembered with precision. She adds that the occurrence 'was\nignored by my father and brother,' and that 'our relations with\n\u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel continued to be cordial.' How extremely fine this is!\nIt may remind us of 'Father, forgive them,' and seems to justify the\ntitle given to Baha-'ullah by his followers, 'Blessed Perfection.'\n\nThe Ezelite historian, however, gives a different version of the\nstory.  [Footnote: _TN_, pp. 359, 360.]  According to him, it was\n\u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel whose life was threatened.  'It was arranged that\nMu\u1e25ammad Ali the barber should cut his throat while shaving him in\nthe bath. On the approach of the barber, however, \u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel\ndivined his design, refused to allow him to come near, and, on leaving\nthe bath, instantly took another lodging in Adrianople, and separated\nhimself from Mirza \u1e24useyn 'Ali and his followers.'\n\nEvidently there was great animosity between the parties, but, in spite\nof the _Eight Paradises_, it appears to me that the Ezelites were\nchiefly in fault. Who can believe that Baha-'ullah spread abroad his\nbrother's offences?  [Footnote: _Ibid_.]  On the other hand,\n\u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel and his advisers were capable of almost anything from\npoisoning and assassination to the forging of spurious letters. I do\nnot mean to say that they were by any means the first persons in\nPersian history to venture on these abnormal actions.\n\nIt is again \u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel who is responsible for the disturbance of\nthe community.\n\nIt was represented--no doubt by this bitter foe--to the Turkish\nGovernment that Baha-'ullah and his followers were plotting against\nthe existing order of things, and that when their efforts had been\ncrowned with success, Baha-'ullah would be designated king.\n[Footnote: For another form of the story, see Phelps, _Abbas\nEffendi_, p. 46.]  This may really have been a dream of the\nEzelites (we must substitute \u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel for Baha-'ullah); the\nBahaites were of course horrified at the idea.  But how should the\nSultan discriminate? So the punishment fell on the innocent as well as\nthe guilty, on the Bahaites as well as the Ezelites.\n\nThe punishment was the removal of Baha-'ullah and his party and\n\u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel and his handful of followers, the former to Akka\n(Acre) on the coast of Syria, the latter to Famagusta in Cyprus. The\nBahaites were put on board ship at Gallipoli. A full account is given\nby Abbas Effendi's sister of the preceding events. It gives one a most\ntouching idea of the deep devotion attracted by the magnetic\npersonalities of the Leader and his son.\n\nI have used the expression 'Leader,' but in the course of his stay at\nAdrianople Baha-'ullah had risen to a much higher rank than that of\n'Leader.' We have seen that at an earlier period of his exile\nBaha-'ullah had made known to five of his disciples that he was in\nvery deed the personage whom the B\u0101b had enigmatically promised. At\nthat time, however, Baha-'ullah had pledged those five disciples to\nsecrecy. But now the reasons for concealment did not exist, and\nBaha-'ullah saw (in 1863) that the time had come for a public\ndeclaration. This is what is stated by Abbas Effendi's sister:--\n[Footnote: Phelps, pp. 44-46.]\n\n'He then wrote a tablet, longer than any he had before written,\n[which] he directed to be read to every B\u0101b\u012b, but first of all to\n\u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel.  He assigned to one of his followers the duty of\ntaking it to \u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel, reading it to him, and returning with\n\u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel's reply. When \u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel had heard the tablet he\ndid not attempt to refute it; on the contrary he accepted it, and said\nthat it was true. But he went on to maintain that he himself was\nco-equal with the Blessed Perfection, [Footnote: See p. 128.]\naffirming that he had a vision on the previous night in which he had\nreceived this assurance.\n\n'When this statement of \u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel was reported to the Blessed\nPerfection, the latter directed that every B\u0101b\u012b should be informed\nof it at the time when he heard his own tablet read.  This was done,\nand much uncertainty resulted among the believers. They generally\napplied to the Blessed Perfection for advice, which, however, he\ndeclined to give. At length he told them that he would seclude himself\nfrom them for four months, and that during this time they must decide\nthe question for themselves. At the end of that period, all the\nB\u0101b\u012bs in Adrianople, with the exception of \u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel and\nfive or six others, came to the Blessed Perfection and declared that\nthey accepted him as the Divine Manifestation whose coming the B\u0101b\nhad foretold.  The B\u0101b\u012bs of Persia, Syria, Egypt, and other\ncountries also in due time accepted the Blessed Perfection with\nsubstantial unanimity.\n\nBaha-'ullah, then, landed in Syria not merely as the leader of the\ngreater part of the B\u0101b\u012bs at Baghdad, but as the representative of\na wellnigh perfect humanity. He did not indeed assume the title 'The\nPoint,' but 'The Point' and 'Perfection' are equivalent terms. He was,\nindeed, 'Fairer than the sons of men,' [Footnote: Ps. xlv. 2.]  and no\nsorrow was spared to him that belonged to what the Jews and Jewish\nChristians called 'the pangs of the Messiah.' It is true, crucifixion\ndoes not appear among Baha-'ullah's pains, but he was at any rate\nwithin an ace of martyrdom. This is what Baha-'ullah wrote at the end\nof his stay at Adrianople:--[Footnote: Browne, _A Year among the\nPersians_, p. 518.]\n\n'By God, my head longeth for the spears for the love of its Lord, and\nI never pass by a tree but my heart addresseth it [saying], 'Oh would\nthat thou wert cut down in my name, and my body were _crucified_\nupon thee in the way of my Lord!'\n\nThe sorrows of his later years were largely connected with the\nconfinement of the Bahaites at Acre (Akka). From the same source I\nquote the following.\n\n'We are about to shift from this most remote place of banishment\n(Adrianople) unto the prison of Acre. And, according to what they say,\nit is assuredly the most desolate of the cities of the world, the most\nunsightly of them in appearance, the most detestable in climate, and\nthe foulest in water.'\n\nIt is true, the sanitary condition of the city improved, so that\nBahaites from all parts visited Akka as a holy city. Similar\nassociations belong to \u1e24aifa, so long the residence of the saintly\nson of a saintly father.\n\nIf there has been any prophet in recent times, it is to Baha-'ullah\nthat we must go. Pretenders like \u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel and Mu\u1e25ammad are\nquickly unmasked. Character is the final judge. Baha-'ullah was a man\nof the highest class--that of prophets. But he was free from the last\ninfirmity of noble minds, and would certainly not have separated\nhimself from others. He would have understood the saying, 'Would God\nall the Lord's people were prophets.' What he does say, however, is\njust as fine, 'I do not desire lordship over others; I desire all men\nto be even as I am.'\n\nHe spent his later years in delivering his message, and setting forth\nthe ideals and laws of the New Jerusalem. In 1892 he passed within the\nveil.\n\n\n\nPART III\n\nBIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL (continued)\n\n\n\u1e62UB\u1e24-I-EZEL (OR AZAL)\n\n'He is a scion of one of the noble families of Persia. His father was\naccomplished, wealthy, and much respected, and enjoyed the high\nconsideration of the King and nobles of Persia. His mother died when\nhe was a child. His father thereupon entrusted him to the keeping of\nhis honourable spouse, [Footnote: _NH_, pp. 374 _ff_.]  saying, \"Do\nyou take care of this child, and see that your handmaids attend to him\nproperly.\"' This 'honourable spouse' is, in the context, called 'the\nconcubine'--apparently a second wife is meant. At any rate her son was\nno less honoured than if he had been the son of the chief or favourite\nwife; he was named \u1e24useyn 'Ali, and his young half-brother was named\nYa\u1e25ya.\n\nAccording to Mirza Jani, the account which the history contains was\ngiven him by Mirza \u1e24useyn 'Ali's half-brother, who represents that\nthe later kindness of his own mother to the young child Ya\u1e25ya was\nowing to a prophetic dream which she had, and in which the Apostle of\nGod and the King of Saintship figured as the child's protectors.\nEvidently this part of the narrative is imaginative, and possibly it\nis the work of Mirza Jani. But there is no reason to doubt that what\nfollows is based more or less on facts derived from Mirza \u1e24useyn\n'Ali. 'I busied myself,' says the latter, 'with the instruction of\n[Ya\u1e25ya]. The signs of his natural excellence and goodness of\ndisposition were apparent in the mirror of his being. He ever loved\ngravity of demeanour, silence, courtesy, and modesty, avoiding the\nsociety of other children and their behaviour. I did not, however,\nknow that he would become the possessor of [so high] a station. He\nstudied Persian, but made little progress in Arabic. He wrote a good\n_nasta'lik_ hand, and was very fond of the poems of the mystics.'\nThe facts may be decked out.\n\nMirza Jani himself only met Mirza Ya\u1e25ya once. He describes him as\n'an amiable child.'  [Footnote: _NH_, p. 376.]  Certainly, we can\neasily suppose that he retained a childlike appearance longer than\nmost, for he early became a mystic, and a mystic is one whose\ncountenance is radiant with joy. This, indeed, may be the reason why\nthey conferred on him the name, 'Dawn of Eternity.' He never saw the\nB\u0101b, but when his 'honoured brother' would read the Master's\nwritings in a circle of friends, Mirza Ya\u1e25ya used to listen, and\nconceived a fervent love for the inspired author. At the time of the\nManifestation of the B\u0101b he was only fourteen, but very soon after,\nhe, like his brother, took the momentous step of becoming a B\u0101b\u012b,\nand resolved to obey the order of the B\u0101b for his followers to\nproceed to Khurasan. So, 'having made for himself a knapsack, and got\ntogether a few necessaries,' he set out as an evangelist, 'with\nperfect trust in his Beloved,' somewhat as S. Teresa started from her\nhome at Avila to evangelize the Moors. 'But when his brother was\ninformed of this, he sent and prevented him.'  [Footnote: _NH_,\np. 44.]\n\nCompensation, however, was not denied him.  Some time after, Ya\u1e25ya\nmade an expedition in company with some of his relations, making\ncongenial friends, and helping to strengthen the B\u0101b\u012b cause. He\nwas now not far off the turning-point in his life.\n\nNot long after occurred a lamentable set-back to the cause--the\npersecution and massacre which followed the attempt on the Shah's life\nby an unruly B\u0101b\u012b in August 1852. He himself was in great danger,\nbut felt no call to martyrdom, and set out in the disguise of a\ndervish [Footnote: _TN_, p. 374.]  in the same direction as his\nelder brother, reaching Baghdad somewhat later. There, among the\nB\u0101b\u012b refugees, he found new and old friends who adhered closely to\nthe original type of theosophic doctrine; an increasing majority,\nhowever, were fascinated by a much more progressive teacher. The\nEzelite history known as _Hasht Bihisht_ ('Eight Paradises')\ngives the names of the chief members of the former school, [Footnote:\n_TN_, p. 356.]  including Sayyid Mu\u1e25ammad of Isfahan, and\nstates that, perceiving Mirza \u1e24useyn 'Ali's innovating tendencies,\nthey addressed to him a vigorous remonstrance.\n\nIt was, in fact, an ecclesiastical crisis, as the authors of the\n_Traveller's Narrative_, as well as the Ezelite historian,\ndistinctly recognize. Baha-'ullah, too,--to give him his nobler\nname--endorses this view when he says, 'Then, in secret, the Sayyid of\nIsfahan circumvented him, and together they did that which caused a\ngreat calamity.' It was, therefore, indeed a crisis, and the chief\nblame is laid on Sayyid Mu\u1e25ammad.  [Footnote: _TN_, p. 94. 'He\n(i.e. Sayyid Mu\u1e25ammad) commenced a secret intrigue, and fell\nto tempting Mirza Ya\u1e25ya, saying, \"The fame of this sect hath risen\nhigh in the world; neither dread nor danger remaineth, nor is there\nany fear or need for caution before you.\"']  \u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel is still\na mere youth and easily imposed upon; the Sayyid ought to have known\nbetter than to tempt him, for a stronger teacher was needed in this\nperiod of disorganization than the Ezelites could produce. Mirza\nYa\u1e25ya was not up to the leadership, nor was he entitled to place\nhimself above his much older brother, especially when he was bound by\nthe tie of gratitude. 'Remember,' says Baha-'ullah, 'the favour of thy\nmaster, when we brought thee up during the nights and days for the\nservice of the Religion. Fear God, and be of those who repent.  Grant\nthat thine affair is dubious unto me; is it dubious unto thyself?' How\ngentle is this fraternal reproof!\n\nThere is but little more to relate that has not been already told in\nthe sketch of Baha-'ullah.  He was, at any rate, harmless in Cyprus,\nand had no further opportunity for religious assassination.  One\ncannot help regretting that his sun went down so stormily. I return\ntherefore to the question of the honorific names of Mirza Ya\u1e25ya,\nafter which I shall refer to the singular point of the crystal coffin\nand to the moral character of \u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel.\n\nAmong the names and titles which the Ezelite book called _Eight\nParadises_ declares to have been conferred by the B\u0101b on his\nyoung disciple are \u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel (or Azal), Baha-'ullah, and the\nstrange title _Mir'at_ (Mirror). The two former--'Dawn of\nEternity' and 'Splendour of God'--are referred to elsewhere. The third\nproperly belongs to a class of persons inferior to the 'Letters of the\nLiving,' and to this class \u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel, by his own admission,\nbelongs. The title Mir'at, therefore, involves some limitation of\nEzel's dignity, and its object apparently is to prevent\n\u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel from claiming to be 'He whom God will make manifest.'\nThat is, the B\u0101b in his last years had an intuition that the eternal\nday would not be ushered into existence by this impractical nature.\n\nHow, then, came the B\u0101b to give Mirza Ya\u1e25ya such a name? Purely\nfrom cabbalistic reasons which do not concern us here. It was a\nmistake which only shows that the B\u0101b was not infallible.  Mirza\nYa\u1e25ya had no great part to play in the ushering-in of the new\ncycle. Elsewhere the B\u0101b is at the pains to recommend the elder of\nthe half-brothers to attend to his junior's writing and spelling.\n[Footnote: The Tablets (letters) are in the British Museum collection,\nin four books of Ezel, who wrote the copies at Baha-'ullah's\ndictation.  The references are--I., No. 6251, p. 162; II., No. 5111,\np.  253, to which copy Rizwan Ali, son of Ezel, has appended 'The\nbrother of the Fruit' (Ezel); III., No. 6254, p. 236; IV., No.  6257,\np. 158.]  Now it was, of course, worth while to educate Mirza Ya\u1e25ya,\nwhose feebleness in Arabic grammar was scandalous, but can we imagine\nBaha-'ullah and all the other 'letters' being passed over by the B\u0101b\nin favour of such an imperfectly educated young man? The so-called\n'nomination' is a bare-faced forgery.\n\nThe statement of Gobineau that \u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel belonged to the\n'Letters of the Living' of the First Unity is untrustworthy.\n[Footnote: _Fils du Loup_, p. 156 n.3.]  M. Hippolyte Dreyfus has\nfavoured me with a reliable list of the members of the First Unity,\nwhich I have given elsewhere, and which does not contain the name of\nMirza Ya\u1e25ya. At the same time, the B\u0101b may have admitted him into\nthe second hierarchy of 18[19].  [Footnote: _Fils du Loup_,\np. 163 n.1. 'The eighteen Letters of Life had each a _mirror_\nwhich represented it, and which was called upon to replace it if it\ndisappeared. There are, therefore, 18 Letters of Life and 18 Mirrors,\nwhich constituted two distinct Unities.']  Considering that Mirza\nYa\u1e25ya was regarded as a 'return' of \u1e32uddus, some preferment may\nconceivably have found its way to him.  It was no contemptible\ndistinction to be a member of the Second Unity, i.e. to be one\nof those who reflected the excellences of the older 'Letters of the\nLiving.'  As a member of the Second Unity and the accepted reflexion\nof \u1e32uddus, \u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel may have been thought of as a director of\naffairs together with the obviously marked-out agent (_wali_),\nBaha-'ullah.  We are not told, however, that Mirza Ya\u1e25ya assumed\neither the title of B\u0101b (Gate) or that of Nu\u1e33\u1e6da (Point).\n[Footnote: Others, however, give it him (_TN_, p. 353).]\n\nI must confess that \u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel's account of the fortune of the\nB\u0101b's relics appears to me, as well as to M. Nicolas, [Footnote:\n_AMB_, p. 380 n.]  unsatisfactory and (in one point) contradictory.\nHow, for instance, did he get possession of the relics?  And, is there\nany independent evidence for the intermingling of the parts of the two\ncorpses? How did he procure a crystal coffin to receive the relics?\nHow comes it that there were Bahaites at the time of the B\u0101b's\ndeath, and how was \u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel able to conceal the crystal coffin,\netc., from his brother Baha-'ullah?\n\nEvidently \u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel has changed greatly since the time when both\nthe brothers (half-brothers) were devoted, heart and soul, to the\nservice of the B\u0101b. It is this moral transformation which vitiates\n\u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel's assertions. Can any one doubt this? Surely the best\nauthorities are agreed that the sense of historical truth is very\ndeficient among the Persians. Now \u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel was in some respects\na typical Persian; that is how I would explain his deviations from\nstrict truth. It may be added that the detail of the crystal coffin\ncan be accounted for. In the Arabic Bayan, among other injunctions\nconcerning the dead, [Footnote: _Le Beyan Arabi_ (Nicolas),\np. 252; similarly, p. 54.]  it is said: 'As for your dead, inter them\nin crystal, or in cut and polished stones. It is possible that this\nmay become a peace for your heart.' This precept suggested to\n\u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel his extraordinary statement.\n\n\u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel had an imaginative and possibly a partly mystic\nnature. As a Manifestation of God he may have thought himself entitled\nto remove harmful people, even his own brother. He did not ask himself\nwhether he might not be in error in attaching such importance to his\nown personality, and whether any vision could override plain\nmorality. He _was_ mistaken, and I hold that the B\u0101b was\nmistaken in appointing (if he really did so) \u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel as a\nnominal head of the B\u0101b\u012bs when the true, although temporary\nvice-gerent was Baha-'ullah. For \u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel was a consummate\nfailure; it is too plain that the Bab did not always, like Jesus and\nlike the Buddha, know what was in man.\n\n\nSUBSEQUENT DISCOVERIES\n\nThe historical work of the Ezelite party, called _The Eight\nParadises_, makes Ezel nineteen years of age when he came forward\nas an expounder of religious mysteries and wrote letters to the B\u0101b.\nOn receiving the first letter, we are told that the B\u0101b (or, as we\nshould rather now call him, the Point) instantly prostrated himself in\nthankfulness, testifying that he was a mighty Luminary, and spoke by\nthe Self-shining Light, by revelation.  Imprisoned as he was at Maku,\nthe Point of Knowledge could not take counsel with all his\nfellow-workers or disciples, but he sent the writings of this\nbrilliant novice (if he really was so brilliant) to each of the\n'Letters of the Living,' and to the chief believers, at the same time\nconferring on him a number of titles, including \u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel ('Dawn\nof Eternity') and Baha-'ullah ('Splendour of God ').\n\nIf this statement be correct, we may plausibly hold with Professor\nE. G. Browne that \u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel (Mirza Ya\u1e25ya) was advanced to the\nrank of a 'Letter of the Living,' and even that he was nominated by\nthe Point as his successor. It has also become much more credible that\nthe thoughts of the Point were so much centred on \u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel\nthat, as Ezelites say, twenty thousand of the words of the Bayan refer\nto Ezel, and that a number of precious relics of the Point were\nentrusted to his would-be successor.\n\nBut how can we venture to say that it is correct? Since Professor\nBrowne wrote, much work has been done on the (real or supposed)\nwritten remains of \u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel, and the result has been (I think)\nthat the literary reputation of \u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel is a mere bubble. It\nis true, the B\u0101b himself was not masterly, but the confusion of\nideas and language in Ezel's literary records beggars all\ncomparison. A friend of mine confirms this view which I had already\nderived from Mirza Ali Akbar. He tells me that he has acquired a\nnumber of letters mostly purporting to be by \u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel. There is\nalso, however, a letter of Baha-'ullah relative to these letters,\naddressed to the Mu\u1e25ammadan mull\u0101, the original possessor of the\nletters. In this letter Baha-'ullah repeats again and again the\nwarning: 'When you consider and reflect on these letters, you will\nunderstand who is in truth the writer.'\n\nI greatly fear that Lord Curzon's description of Persian\nuntruthfulness may be illustrated by the career of the Great\nPretender. The Ezelites must, of course, share the blame with their\nleader, and not the least of their disgraceful misstatements is the\nassertion that the B\u0101b assigned the name Baha-'ullah to the younger\nof the two half-brothers, and that Ezel had also the [non-existent]\ndignity of 'Second Point.'\n\nThis being so, I am strongly of opinion that so far from confirming\nthe Ezelite view of subsequent events, the Ezelite account of\n\u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel's first appearance appreciably weakens it. Something,\nhowever, we may admit as not improbable.  It may well have gratified\nthe B\u0101b that two representatives of an important family in\nMazandaran had taken up his cause, and the character of these new\nadherents may have been more congenial to him than the more martial\ncharacter of \u1e32uddus.\n\n\nDAYYAN\n\nWe have already been introduced to a prominent B\u0101b\u012b, variously\ncalled Asadu'llah and Dayyan; he was also a member of the hierarchy\ncalled 'the Letters of the Living.' He may have been a man of\ncapacity, but I must confess that the event to which his name is\nspecially attached indisposes me to admit that he took part in the\nso-called 'Council of Tihran.'  To me he appears to have been one of\nthose B\u0101b\u012bs who, even in critical periods, acted without\nconsultation with others, and who imagined that they were absolutely\ninfallible. Certainly he could never have promoted the claims of\n\u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel, whose defects he had learned from that personage's\nsecretary. He was well aware that Ezel was ambitious, and he thought\nthat he had a better claim to the supremacy himself.\n\nIt would have been wiser, however, to have consulted Baha-'ullah, and\nto have remembered the prophecy of the B\u0101b, in which it was\nexpressly foretold that Dayyan would believe on 'Him whom God would\nmake manifest.' \u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel was not slow to detect the weak point\nin Dayyan's position, who could not be at once the Expected One and a\nbeliever in the Expected One.  [Footnote: See Ezel's own words in\n_Mustaikaz_, p. 6.]  Dayyan, however, made up as well as he could\nfor his inconsistency. He went at last to Baha-'ullah, and discussed\nthe matter in all its bearings with him. The result was that with\ngreat public spirit he retired in favour of Baha.\n\nThe news was soon spread abroad; it was not helpful to the cause of\nEzel. Some of the Ezelites, who had read the Christian Gospels\n(translated by Henry Martyn), surnamed Dayyan 'the Judas Iscariot of\nthis people.'  [Footnote: _TN_, p. 357.]  Others, instigated\nprobably by their leaders, thought it best to nip the flower in the\nbud. So by Ezelite hands Dayyan was foully slain.\n\nIt was on this occasion that Ezel vented curses and abusive language\non his rival. The proof is only too cogent, though the two books which\ncontain it are not as yet printed.  [Footnote: They are both in the\nBritish Museum, and are called respectively _Mustaikaz_\n(No. 6256) and _Asar-el-Ghulam_ (No. 6256).  I am indebted for\nfacts (partly) and references to MSS. to my friend Mirza 'Ali Akbar.]\n\n\nMIRZA HAYDAR 'ALI\n\nA delightful Bahai disciple--the _Fra Angelico_ of the brethren,\nas we may call him,--Mirza Haydar 'Ali was especially interesting to\nyounger visitors to Abdul Baha. One of them writes thus: 'He was a\nvenerable, smiling old man, with long Persian robes and a spotlessly\nwhite turban.  As we had travelled along, the Persian ladies had\nlaughingly spoken of a beautiful young man, who, they were sure, would\ncaptivate me. They would make a match between us, they said.\n\n'This now proved to be the aged Mirza, whose kindly, humorous old eyes\ntwinkled merrily as he heard what they had prophesied, and joined in\ntheir laughter. They did not cover before him. Afterwards the ladies\ntold me something of his history. He was imprisoned for fourteen years\nduring the time of the persecution. At one time, when he was being\ntransferred from one prison to another, many days' journey away, he\nand his fellow-prisoner, another Bahai, were carried on donkeys, head\ndownwards, with their feet and hands secured. Haydar 'Ali laughed and\nsang gaily. So they beat him unmercifully, and said, \"Now, will you\nsing?\" But he answered them that he was more glad than before, since\nhe had been given the pleasure of enduring something for the sake of\nGod.\n\n'He never married, and in Akka was one of the most constant and loved\ncompanions of Baha-'ullah.  I remarked upon his cheerful appearance,\nand added, \"But all you Bahais look happy.\"  Mirza Haydar 'Ali said:\n\"Sometimes we have surface troubles, but that cannot touch our\nhappiness.  The heart of those who belong to the Malekoot (Kingdom of\nGod) is like the sea: when the wind is rough it troubles the surface\nof the water, but two metres down there is perfect calm and\nclearness.\"'\n\nThe preceding passage is by Miss E. S. Stevens (_Fortnightly\nReview_, June 1911). A friend, who has also been a guest in Abdul\nBaha's house, tells me that Haydar 'Ali is known at Akka as 'the\nAngel.'\n\n\nABDUL BAHA (ABBAS EFFENDI)\n\nThe eldest son of Baha-'ullah is our dear and venerated Abdul Baha\n('Servant of the Splendour'), otherwise known as Abbas Effendi.  He\nwas born at the midnight following the day on which the B\u0101b made his\ndeclaration.  He was therefore eight years old, and the sister who\nwrites her recollections five, when, in August 1852, an attempt was\nmade on the life of the Shah by a young B\u0101b\u012b, disaffected to the\nruling dynasty. The future Abdul Baha was already conspicuous for his\nfearlessness and for his passionate devotion to his father.  The\n_gamins_ of Tihran (Teheran) might visit him as he paced to and fro,\nwaiting for news from his father, but he did not mind--not he. One day\nhis sister--a mere child--was returning home under her mother's care,\nand found him surrounded by a band of boys. 'He was standing in their\nmidst as straight as an arrow--a little fellow, the youngest and\nsmallest of the group--firmly but quietly _commanding_ them not to lay\ntheir hands upon him, which, strange to say, they seemed unable to\ndo.'  [Footnote: Phelps, pp. 14, 15.]\n\nThis love to his father was strikingly shown during the absence of\nBaha-'ullah in the mountains, when this affectionate youth fell a prey\nto inconsolable paroxysms of grief.  [Footnote: Ibid. p. 20.]  At a\nlater time--on the journey from Baghdad to Constantinople--Abdul Baha\nseemed to constitute himself the special attendant of his father. 'In\norder to get a little rest, he adopted the plan of riding swiftly a\nconsiderable distance ahead of the caravan, when, dismounting and\ncausing his horse to lie down, he would throw himself on the ground\nand place his head on his horse's neck. So he would sleep until the\ncavalcade came up, when his horse would awake him by a kick, and he\nwould remount.' [Footnote: Phelps, pp. 31, 32.]\n\nIn fact, in his youth he was fond of riding, and there was a time when\nhe thought that he would like hunting, but 'when I saw them killing\nbirds and animals, I thought that this could not be right. Then it\noccurred to me that better than hunting for animals, to kill them, was\nhunting for the souls of men to bring them to God. I then resolved\nthat I would be a hunter of this sort.  This was my first and last\nexperience in the chase.'\n\n'A seeker of the souls of men.' This is, indeed, a good description of\nboth father and son.  Neither the one nor the other had much of what\nwe call technical education, but both understood how to cast a spell\non the soul, awakening its dormant powers. Abdul Baha had the courage\nto frequent the mosques and argue with the mull\u0101s; he used to be\ncalled 'the Master' _par excellence_, and the governor of Adrianople\nbecame his friend, and proved his friendship in the difficult\nnegotiations connected with the removal of the Bahaites to Akka.\n[Footnote: Ibid. p. 20, n.2.]\n\nBut no one was such a friend to the unfortunate Bahaites as Abdul\nBaha. The conditions under which they lived on their arrival at Akka\nwere so unsanitary that 'every one in our company fell sick excepting\nmy brother, my mother, an aunt, and two others of the believers.'\n[Footnote: Phelps, pp. 47-51.]  Happily Abdul Baha had in his baggage\nsome quinine and bismuth. With these drugs, and his tireless nursing,\nhe brought the rest through, but then collapsed himself. He was seized\nwith dysentery, and was long in great danger. But even in this\nprison-city he was to find a friend. A Turkish officer had been struck\nby his unselfish conduct, and when he saw Abdul Baha brought so low he\npleaded with the governor that a _\u1e25ak\u00eem_ might be called in.  This\nwas permitted with the happiest result.\n\nIt was now the physician's turn. In visiting his patient he became so\nfond of him that he asked if there was nothing else he could do.\nAbdul Baha begged him to take a tablet (i.e. letter) to the Persian\nbelievers. Thus for two years an intercourse with the friends outside\nwas maintained; the physician prudently concealed the tablets in the\nlining of his hat!\n\nIt ought to be mentioned here that the hardships of the prison-city\nwere mitigated later.  During the years 1895-1900 he was often allowed\nto visit \u1e24aifa. Observing this the American friends built\nBaha-'ullah a house in \u1e24aifa, and this led to a hardening of the\nconditions of his life. But upon the whole we may apply to him those\nancient words:\n\n'He maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.'\n\nIn 1914 Abdul Baha visited Akka, living in the house of Baha-'ullah,\nnear where his father was brought with wife and children and seventy\nPersian exiles forty-six years ago. But his permanent home is in\n\u1e24aifa, a very simple home where, however, the call for hospitality\nnever passes unheeded. 'From sunrise often till midnight he works, in\nspite of broken health, never sparing himself if there is a wrong to\nbe righted, or a suffering to be relieved. His is indeed a selfless\nlife, and to have passed beneath its shadow is to have been won for\never to the Cause of Peace and Love.'\n\nSince 1908 Abdul Baha has been free to travel; the political victory\nof the Young Turks opened the doors of Akka, as well as of other\npolitical 'houses of restraint.' America, England, France, and even\nGermany have shared the benefit of his presence. It may be that he\nspoke too much; it may be that even in England his most important work\nwas done in personal interviews.  Educationally valuable, therefore,\nas _Some Answered Questions_ (1908) may be, we cannot attach so much\nimportance to it as to the story--the true story--of the converted\nMu\u1e25ammadan.  When at home, Abdul Baha only discusses Western\nproblems with visitors from the West.\n\nThe Legacy left by Baha-'ullah to his son was, it must be admitted, an\nonerous educational duty.  It was contested by Mu\u1e25ammad Effendi--by\nmeans which remind us unpleasantly of \u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel, but\nunsuccessfully. Undeniably Baha-'ullah conferred on Abbas Effendi\n(Abdul Baha) the title of Centre of the Covenant, with the special\nduty annexed of the 'Expounder of the Book.'  I venture to hope that\nthis 'expounding' may not, in the future, extend to philosophic,\nphilological, scientific, and exegetical details. Just as Jesus made\nmistakes about Moses and David, so may Baha-'ullah and Abdul Baha fall\ninto error on secular problems, among which it is obvious to include\nBiblical and \u1e32uranic exegesis.\n\nIt appears to me that the essence of Bahaism is not dogma, but the\nunification of peoples and religions in a certain high-minded and far\nfrom unpractical mysticism. I think that Abdul Baha is just as much\ndevoted to mystic and yet practical religion as his father. In one of\nthe reports of his talks or monologues he is introduced as saying:\n\n'A moth loves the light though his wings are burnt. Though his wings\nare singed, he throws himself against the flame. He does not love the\nlight because it has conferred some benefits upon him. Therefore he\nhovers round the light, though he sacrifice his wings. This is the\nhighest degree of love. Without this abandonment, this ecstasy, love\nis imperfect. The Lover of God loves Him for Himself, not for his own\nsake.'--From 'Abbas Effendi,' by E. S. Stevens, _Fortnightly\nReview_, June 1911, p. 1067.\n\nThis is, surely, the essence of mysticism. As a characteristic of the\nChurch of 'the Abha' it goes back, as we have seen, to the B\u0101b. As a\ncharacteristic of the Brotherhood of the 'New Dispensation' it is\nplainly set forth by Keshab Chandra Sen. It is also Christian, and\ngoes back to Paul and John. This is the hidden wisdom--the pearl of\ngreat price.\n\n\n\nPART IV\n\nBIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL; AMBASSADOR TO HUMANITY\n\n\nAMBASSADOR TO HUMANITY\n\nAfter the loss of his father the greatest trouble which befell the\nauthorized successor was the attempt made independently by\n\u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel and the half-brother of Abdul Baha, Mirza Mu\u1e25ammad\n'Ali, to produce a schism in the community at Akka. Some little\nsuccess was obtained by the latter, who did not shrink from the\nmanipulation of written documents. Badi-'ullah, another half-brother,\nwas for a time seduced by these dishonest proceedings, but has since\nmade a full confession of his error (see _Star of the West_).\n\nIt is indeed difficult to imagine how an intimate of the saintly Abdul\nBaha can have 'lifted up his foot' against him, the more so as Abdul\nBaha would never defend himself, but walked straight forward on the\nappointed path. That path must have differed somewhat as the years\nadvanced.  His public addresses prove that through this or that\nchannel he had imbibed something of humanistic and even scientific\nculture; he was a much more complete man than St. Francis of Assisi,\nwho despised human knowledge. It is true he interpreted any facts\nwhich he gathered in the light of revealed religious truth. But he\ndistinctly recognized the right of scientific research, and must have\nhad some one to guide him in the tracks of modern inquiry.\n\nThe death of his father must have made a great difference to him In\nthe disposal of his time.  It is to this second period in his life\nthat Mr.  Phelps refers when he makes this statement:\n\n'His general order for the day is prayers and tea at sunrise, and\ndictating letters or \"tablets,\" receiving visitors, and giving alms to\nthe poor until dinner in the middle of the day. After this meal he\ntakes a half-hour's siesta, spends the afternoon in making visits to\nthe sick and others whom he has occasion to see about the city, and\nthe evening in talking to the believers or in expounding, to any who\nwish to hear him, the \u1e32uran, on which, even among Muslims, he is\nreputed to be one of the highest authorities, learned men of that\nfaith frequently coming from great distances to consult him with\nregard to its interpretation.\n\n'He then returns to his house and works until about one o'clock over\nhis correspondence. This is enormous, and would more than occupy his\nentire time, did he read and reply to all his letters personally. As\nhe finds it impossible to do this, but is nevertheless determined that\nthey shall all receive careful and impartial attention, he has\nrecourse to the assistance of his daughter Ruha, upon whose\nintelligence and conscientious devotion to the work he can rely.\nDuring the day she reads and makes digests of letters received, which\nshe submits to him at night.'\n\nIn his charities he is absolutely impartial; his love is like the\ndivine love--it knows no bounds of nation or creed. Most of those who\nbenefit by his presence are of course Muslims; many true stories are\ncurrent among his family and intimate friends respecting them. Thus,\nthere is the story of the Afghan who for twenty-four years received\nthe bounty of the good Master, and greeted him with abusive\nspeeches. In the twenty-fifth year, however, his obstinacy broke.\n\nMany American and English guests have been entertained in the Master's\nhouse. Sometimes even he has devoted a part of his scanty leisure to\ninstructing them. We must remember, however, that of Bahaism as well\nas of true Christianity it may be said that it is not a dogmatic\nsystem, but a life. No one, so far as my observation reaches, has\nlived the perfect life like Abdul Baha, and he tells us himself that\nhe is but the reflexion of Baha-'ullah. We need not, therefore,\ntrouble ourselves unduly about the opinions of God's heroes; both\nfather and son in the present case have consistently discouraged\nmetaphysics and theosophy, except (I presume) for such persons as have\nhad an innate turn for this subject.\n\nOnce more, the love of God and the love of humanity--which Abdul Baha\nboldly says is the love of God--is the only thing that greatly\nmatters. And if he favours either half of humanity in preference to\nthe other, it is women folk. He has a great repugnance to the\ninstitution of polygamy, and has persistently refused to take a second\nwife himself, though he has only daughters. Baha-'ullah, as we have\nseen, acted differently; apparently he did not consider that the\nIslamic peoples were quite ripe for monogamy.  But surely he did not\nchoose the better part, as the history of Bahaism sufficiently\nshows. At any rate, the Centre of the Covenant has now spoken with no\nuncertain sound.\n\nAs we have seen, the two schismatic enterprises affected the sensitive\nnature of the true Centre of the Covenant most painfully; one thinks\nof a well-known passage in a Hebrew psalm. But he was more than\ncompensated by several most encouraging events. The first was the\nlarger scale on which accessions took place to the body of believers;\nfrom England to the United States, from India to California, in\nsurprising numbers, streams of enthusiastic adherents poured in. It\nwas, however, for Russia that the high honour was reserved of the\nerection of the first Bahai temple. To this the Russian Government was\nentirely favourable, because the Bahais were strictly forbidden by\nBaha-'ullah and by Abdul Baha to take part in any revolutionary\nenterprises. The temple took some years to build, but was finished at\nlast, and two Persian workmen deserve the chief praise for willing\nself-sacrifice in the building. The example thus set will soon be\nfollowed by our kinsfolk in the United States. A large and beautiful\nsite on the shores of Lake Michigan has been acquired, and the\nconstruction will speedily be proceeded with.\n\nIt is, in fact, the outward sign of a new era.  If Baha-'ullah be our\nguide, all religions are essentially one and the same, and all human\nsocieties are linked By a covenant of brotherhood.  Of this the Bahai\ntemples--be they few, or be they many--are the symbols. No wonder that\nAbdul Baha is encouraged and consoled thereby.  And yet I, as a member\nof a great world-wide historic church, cannot help feeling that our\n(mostly) ancient and beautiful abbeys and cathedrals are finer symbols\nof union in God than any which our modern builders can provide.  Our\nLondon people, without distinction of sect, find a spiritual home in\nSt. Paul's Cathedral, though this is no part of our ancient\ninheritance.\n\nAnother comfort was the creation of a mausoleum (on the site of\nMt. Carmel above Haifa) to receive the sacred relics of the B\u0101b and\nof Baha-'ullah, and in the appointed time also of Abdul Baha.\n[Footnote: See the description given by Thornton Chase, _In Galilee_,\npp. 63 f.]  This too must be not only a comfort to the Master, but an\nattestation for all time of the continuous development of the Modern\nSocial Religion.\n\nIt is this sense of historical continuity in which the Bahais appear\nto me somewhat deficient.  They seem to want a calendar of saints in\nthe manner of the Positivist calendar. Bahai teaching will then escape\nthe danger of being not quite conscious enough of its debt to the\npast.  For we have to reconcile not only divergent races and\nreligions, but also antiquity and (if I may use the word) modernity. I\nmay mention that the beloved Master has deigned to call me by a new\nname.[Footnote: 'Spiritual Philosopher.']  He will bear with me if I\nventure to interpret that name in a sense favourable to the claims of\nhistory.\n\nThe day is not far off when the details of Abdul Baha's missionary\njourneys will be admitted to be of historical importance. How gentle\nand wise he was, hundreds could testify from personal knowledge, and I\ntoo could perhaps say something--I will only, however, give here the\noutward framework of Abdul Baha's life, and of his apostolic journeys,\nwith the help of my friend Lotfullah. I may say that it is with\ndeference to this friend that in naming the Bahai leaders I use the\ncapital H (He, His, Him).\n\nAbdul Baha was born on the same night in which His Holiness the B\u0101b\ndeclared his mission, on May 23, A.D. 1844. The Master, however, eager\nfor the glory of the forerunner, wishes that that day (i.e. May\n23) be kept sacred for the declaration of His Holiness the B\u0101b, and\nhas appointed another day to be kept by Bahais as the Feast of\nAppointment of the CENTRE OF THE COVENANT--Nov. 26. It should be\nmentioned that the great office and dignity of Centre of the Covenant\nwas conferred on Abdul Baha Abbas Effendi by His father.\n\nIt will be in the memory of most that the Master was retained a\nprisoner under the Turkish Government at Akka until Sept. 1908, when\nthe doors of His prison were opened by the Young Turks. After this He\nstayed in Akka and Haifa for some time, and then went to Egypt, where\nHe sojourned for about two years. He then began His great European\njourney. He first visited London. On His way thither He spent some few\nweeks in Geneva.  [Footnote: Mr. H. Holley has given a classic\ndescription of Abdul Baha, whom he met at Thonon on the shores of Lake\nLeman, in his _Modern Social Religion_, Appendix I.]  On Monday,\nSept. 3, 1911, He arrived in London; the great city was honoured by a\nvisit of twenty-six days. During His stay in London He made a visit\none afternoon to Vanners' in Byfleet on Sept. 9, where He spoke to a\nnumber of working women.\n\nHe also made a week-end visit to Clifton (Bristol) from Sept. 23,\n1911, to Sept. 25.\n\nOn Sept. 29, 1911, He started from London and went to Paris and stayed\nthere for about two months, and from there He went to Alexandria.\n\nHis second journey consumed much time, but the fragrance of God\naccompanied Him. On March 25, 1912, He embarked from Alexandria for\nAmerica. He made a long tour in almost all the more important cities\nof the United States and Canada.\n\nOn Saturday, Dec. 14, 1912, the Master--Abdul Baha--arrived in\nLiverpool from New York. He stayed there for two days. On the\nfollowing Monday, Dec. 16, 1912, He arrived in London. There He stayed\ntill Jan. 21, 1913, when His Holiness went to Paris.\n\nDuring His stay in London He visited Oxford (where He and His\nparty--of Persians mainly--were the guests of Professor and Mrs.\nCheyne), Edinburgh, Clifton, and Woking. It is fitting to notice here\nthat the audience at Oxford, though highly academic, seemed to be\ndeeply interested, and that Dr. Carpenter made an admirable speech.\n\nOn Jan. 6, 1913, Abdul Baha went to Edinburgh, and stayed at\nMrs. Alexander Whyte's.  In the course of these three days He\naddressed the Theosophical Society, the Esperanto Society, and many of\nthe students, including representatives of almost all parts of the\nEast. He also spoke to two or three other large meetings in the bleak\nbut receptive 'northern Athens.' It is pleasant to add that here, as\nelsewhere, many seekers came and had private interviews with Him. It\nwas a fruitful season, and He then returned to London.\n\nOn Wednesday, Jan. 15, 1912, He paid another visit to Clifton, and in\nthe evening spoke to a large gathering at 8.30 P.M. at Clifton Guest\nHouse. On the following day He returned to London.\n\nOn Friday, Jan. 17, Abdul Baha went to the Muhammadan Mosque at\nWoking. There, in the Muhammadan Mosque He spoke to a large audience\nof Muhammadans and Christians who gathered there from different parts\nof the world.\n\nOn Jan. 21, 1913, this glorious time had an end. He started by express\ntrain for Paris from Victoria Station. He stayed at the French capital\ntill the middle of June, addressing (by the help of His interpreter)\n'all sorts and conditions of men.'  Once more Paris proved how\nthoroughly it deserved the title of 'city of ideas.' During this time\nHe visited Stuttgart, Budapest, and Vienna.  At Budapest He had the\ngreat pleasure of meeting Arminius Vambery, who had become virtually a\nstrong adherent of the cause.\n\nWill the Master be able to visit India? He has said Himself that some\nmagnetic personality might draw Him. Will the Brahmaists be pleased to\nsee Him? At any rate, our beloved Master has the requisite tact. Could\nIndians and English be really united except by the help of the Bahais?\nThe following Tablet (Epistle) was addressed by the Master to the\nBahais in London, who had sent Him a New Year's greeting on March 21,\n1914:--\n\n'HE IS GOD!\n\n'O shining Bahais! Your New Year's greeting brought infinite joy and\nfragrance, and became the cause of our daily rejoicing and gladness.\n\n'Thanks be to God! that in that city which is often dark because of\ncloud, mist, and smoke, such bright candles (as you) are glowing,\nwhose emanating light is God's guidance, and whose influencing warmth\nis as the burning Fire of the Love of God.\n\n'This your social gathering on the Great Feast is like unto a Mother\nwho will in future beget many Heavenly Feasts. So that all eyes may be\namazed as to what effulgence the true Sun of the East has shed on the\nWest.\n\n'How It has changed the Occidentals into Orientals, and illumined the\nWestern Horizon with the Luminary of the East!\n\n'Then, in thanksgiving for this great gift, favour, and grace, rejoice\nye and be exceeding glad, and engage ye in praising and sanctifying\nthe Lord of Hosts.\n\n'Hearken to the song of the Highest Concourse, and by the melody of\nAbha's Kingdom lift ye up the cry of \"Ya Baha-'ul-Abha!\"\n\n'So that Abdul Baha and all the Eastern Bahais may give themselves to\npraise of the Loving Lord, and cry aloud, \"Most Pure and Holy is the\nLord, Who has changed the West into the East with lights of Guidance!\"\n\n'Upon you all be the Glory of the Most Glorious One!'\n\nAlas! the brightness of the day has been darkened for the Bahai\nBrotherhood all over the world. Words fail me for the adequate\nexpression of my sorrow at the adjournment of the hope of Peace. Yet\nthe idea has been expressed, and cannot return to the Thinker void of\nresults.  The estrangement of races and religions is only the fruit of\nignorance, and their reconciliation is only a question of\ntime. _Sursum corda._\n\n\n\nPART V\n\nA SERIES OF ILLUSTRATIVE STUDIES BEARING ON COMPARATIVE RELIGION\n\n\nA SERIES OF ILLUSTRATIVE STUDIES BEARING ON COMPARITIVE RELIGION\n\nEIGHTEEN (OR, WITH THE B\u0100B, NINETEEN) LETTERS OF THE LIVING OF THE\nFIRST UNITY\n\nThe Letters of the Living were the most faithful and most gifted of\nthe disciples of the so-called Gate or Point. See _Traveller's\nNarrative_, Introd. p. xvi.\n\nBabu'l B\u0101b.\nA. Mu\u1e25ammad Hasan, his brother.\nA. Mu\u1e25ammad Baghir, his nephew.\nA. Mulla Ali Bustani.\nJanabe Mulla Khodabacksh Qutshani.\nJanabe Hasan Bajastani.\nJanabe A. Sayyid Hussain Yardi.\nJanabe Mirza Mu\u1e25ammad Ruzi Khan.\nJanabe Sayy\u00efd Hindi.\nJanabe Mulla Ma\u1e25mud Khoy\u00ef.\nJanabe Mulla Jalil Urumiyi.\nJanabe Mulla Mu\u1e25ammad Abdul Maragha\u00ef.\nJanabe Mulla Baghir Tabrizi.\nJanabe Mulla Yusif Ardabili.\nMirza Hadi, son of Mirza Abdu'l Wahab Qazwini.\nJanabe Mirza Mu\u1e25ammad 'Ali Qazwini.\nJanabi Tahirah.\nHazrati Quddus.\n\n\nTITLES OF THE B\u0100B, ETC.\n\nThere is a puzzling variation in the claims of 'Ali\nMu\u1e25ammad. Originally he represented himself as the Gate of the City\nof Knowledge, or--which is virtually the same thing--as the Gate\nleading to the invisible twelfth Im\u00e2m who was also regarded as the\nEssence of Divine Wisdom.  It was this Im\u00e2m who was destined as\n\u1e32a'im (he who is to arise) to bring the whole world by force into\nsubjection to the true God. Now there was one person who was obviously\nfar better suited than 'Ali Mu\u1e25ammad (the B\u0101b) to carry out the\nprogramme for the \u1e32a'im, and that was Hazrat-i'-\u1e32uddus (to whom I\nhave devoted a separate section). For some time, therefore, before the\ndeath of \u1e32uddus, 'Ali Mu\u1e25ammad abstained from writing or speaking\n_ex cathedra_, as the returned \u1e32a'im; he was probably called\n'the Point.' After the death of this heroic personage, however, he\nundoubtedly resumed his previous position.\n\nOn this matter Mr. Leslie Johnston remarks that the alternation of the\ntwo characters in the same person is as foreign to Christ's thought as\nit is essential to the B\u0101b's.  [Footnote: _Some Alternatives to\nJesus Christ_, p. 117.]  This is perfectly true.  The divine-human\nBeing called the Messiah has assumed human form; the only development\nof which he is capable is self-realization. The Im\u0101mate is little\nmore than a function, but the Messiahship is held by a person, not as\na mere function, but as a part of his nature. This is not an unfair\ncriticism. The alternation seems to me, as well as to Mr. Johnston,\npsychologically impossible. But all the more importance attaches to\nthe sublime figure of Baha-'ullah, who realized his oneness with God,\nand whose forerunner is like unto him (the B\u0101b).\n\nThe following utterance of the B\u0101b is deserving of consideration:\n\n'Then, verily, if God manifested one like thee, he would inherit the\ncause from God, the One, the Unique. But if he doth not appear, then\nknow that verily God hath not willed that he should make himself\nknown. Leave the cause, then, to him, the educator of you all, and of\nthe whole world.'\n\nThe reference to Baha-'ullah is unmistakable.  He is 'one like thee,'\ni.e. Ezel's near kinsman, and is a consummate educator, and\nGod's Manifestation.\n\nAnother point is also important. The B\u0101b expressed a wish that his\nwidow should not marry again. \u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel, however, who was not,\neven in theory, a monogamist, lost no time in taking the lady for a\nwife. He cannot have been the B\u0101b's successor.\n\n\nLETTER OF ONE EXPECTING MARTYRDOM\n[Footnote: The letter is addressed to a brother.]\n\n'He is the Compassionate [_superscription_].  O thou who art my\n\u1e32ibla! My condition, thanks to God, has no fault, and \"to every\ndifficulty succeedeth ease.\" You have written that this matter has no\nend. What matter, then, has any end? We, at least, have no discontent\nin this matter; nay, rather we are unable sufficiently to express our\nthanks for this favour. The end of this matter is to be slain in the\nway of God, and O! what happiness is this! The will of God will come\nto pass with regard to His servants, neither can human plans avert the\nDivine decree. What God wishes comes to pass, and there is no power\nand no strength, but in God. O thou who art my \u1e32ibla! the end of the\nworld is death: \"every soul tastes of death.\" If the appointed fate\nwhich God (mighty and glorious is He) hath decreed overtake me, then\nGod is the guardian of my family, and thou art mine executor: behave\nin such wise as is pleasing to God, and pardon whatever has proceeded\nfrom me which may seem lacking in courtesy, or contrary to the respect\ndue from juniors: and seek pardon for me from all those of my\nhousehold, and commit me to God. God is my portion, and how good is He\nas a guardian!'\n\n\nTHE BAHAI VIEW OF RELIGION\n\nThe practical purpose of the Revelation of Baha-'ullah is thus\ndescribed on authority:\n\nTo unite all the races of the world in perfect harmony, which can only\nbe done, in my opinion, on a religious basis.\n\nWarfare must be abolished, and international difficulties be settled\nby a Council of Arbitration.  This may require further consideration.\n\nIt is commanded that every one should practise some trade, art, or\nprofession. Work done in a faithful spirit of service is accepted as\nan act of worship.\n\nMendicity is strictly forbidden, but work must be provided for all. A\nbrilliant anticipation!\n\nThere is to be no priesthood apart from the laity. Early Christianity\nand Buddhism both ratify this. Teachers and investigators would, of\ncourse, always be wanted.\n\nThe practice of Asceticism, living the hermit life or in secluded\ncommunities, is prohibited.\n\nMonogamy is enjoined. Baha-'ullah, no doubt, had two wives. This was\n'for the hardness of men's hearts'; he desired the spread of monogamy.\n\nEducation for all, boys and girls equally, is commanded as a religious\nduty--the childless should educate a child.\n\nThe equality of men and women is asserted.\n\nA universal language as a means of international communication is to\nbe formed. Abdul Baha is much in favour of _Esperanto_, the noble\ninventor of which sets all other inventors a worthy example of\nunselfishness.\n\nGambling, the use of alcoholic liquors as a beverage, the taking of\nopium, cruelty to animals and slavery, are forbidden.\n\nA certain portion of a man's income must be devoted to charity. The\nadministration of charitable funds, the provision for widows and for\nthe sick and disabled, the education and care of orphans, will be\narranged and managed by elected Councils.\n\n\nTHE NEW DISPENSATION\n\nThe contrast between the Old and the New is well exemplified in the\ncontrasting lives of Rammohan Roy, Debendranath Tagore, and Keshab\nChandra Sen. As an Indian writer says: 'The sweep of the New\nDispensation is broader than the Brahmo Samaj. The whole religious\nworld is in the grasp of a great purpose which, in its fresh unfolding\nof the new age, we call the New Dispensation. The New Dispensation is\nnot a local phenomenon; it is not confined to Calcutta or to India;\nour Brotherhood is but one body whose thought it functions to-day; it\nis not topographical, it is operative in all the world-religions.'\n[Footnote: Cp. Auguste Sabatier on the _Religion of the Spirit_,\nand Mozoomdar's work on the same subject.]\n\n'No full account has yet been given to the New Brotherhood's work and\nexperiences during that period. Men of various ranks came, drawn\ntogether by the magnetic personality of the man they loved, knowing he\nloved them all with a larger love; his leadership was one of love, and\nthey caught the contagion of his conviction.... And so, if I were to\nwrite at length, I could cite one illustration after another of\ntransformed lives--lives charged with a new spirit shown in the work\nachieved, the sufferings borne, the persecutions accepted, deep\nspiritual gladness experienced in the midst of pain, the fellowship\nwith God realized day after day' (Benoyendra Nath Sen, _The Spirit\nof the New Dispensation_). The test of a religion is its capacity\nfor producing noble men and women.\n\n\nMANIFESTATION\n\nGod Himself in His inmost essence cannot be either imagined or\ncomprehended, cannot be named. But in some measure He can be known by\nHis Manifestations, chief among whom is that Heavenly Being known\nvariously as Michael, the Son of man, the Logos, and Sofia. These\nnames are only concessions to the weakness of the people. This\nHeavenly Being is sometimes spoken of allusively as the Face or Name,\nthe Gate and the Point (of Knowledge). See p. 174.\n\nThe Manifestations may also be called Manifesters or Revealers. They\nmake God known to the human folk so far as this can be done by\nMirrors, and especially (as Tagore has most beautifully shown) in His\ninexhaustible love.  They need not have the learning of the schools.\nThey would mistake their office if they ever interfered with\ndiscoveries or problems of criticism or of science.\n\nThe B\u0101b announced that he himself owed nothing to any earthly\nteacher. A heavenly teacher, however, if he touched the subject, would\nsurely have taught the B\u0101b better Arabic. It is a psychological\nproblem how the B\u0101b can lay so much stress on his 'signs' (ay\u00e2t) or\nverses as decisive of the claims of a prophet. One is tempted to\nsurmise that in the B\u0101b's Arabic work there has been collaboration.\n\nWhat constitutes 'signs' or verses? Prof.  Browne gives this answer:\n[Footnote: E. G. Browne, _JRAS_, 1889, p. 155.] 'Eloquence of\ndiction, rapidity of utterance, knowledge unacquired by study, claim\nto divine origin, power to affect and control the minds of men.' I do\nnot myself see how the possession of an Arabic which some people think\nvery poor and others put down to the help of an amanuensis, can be\nbrought within the range of Messianic lore. It is spiritual truth that\nwe look for from the B\u0101b. Secular wisdom, including the knowledge of\nlanguages, we turn over to the company of trained scholars.\n\nSpiritual truth, then, is the domain of the prophets of Bahaism. A\nprophet who steps aside from the region in which he is at home is\nfallible like other men. Even in the sphere of exposition of sacred\ntexts the greatest of prophets is liable to err. In this way I am\nbound to say that Baha-'ullah himself has made mistakes, and can we be\nsurprised that the almost equally venerated Abdul Baha has made many\nslips?  It is necessary to make this pronouncement, lest possible\nfriends should be converted into seeming enemies. The claim of\ninfallibility has done harm enough already in the Roman Church!\n\nBaha-'ullah may no doubt be invoked on the other side. This is the\nabsolutely correct statement of his son Abdul Baha. 'He (Baha-'ullah)\nentered into a Covenant and Testament with the people. He appointed a\nCentre of the Covenant, He wrote with his own pen ... appointing him\nthe Expounder of the Book.'  [Footnote: _Star of the West_, 1913,\np. 238.]  But Baha-'ullah is as little to be followed on questions of\nphilology as Jesus Christ, who is not a manifester of science but of\nheavenly lore. The question of Sinlessness I postpone.\n\n\nGREAT MANIFESTATION; WHEN?\n\nI do not myself think that the interval of nineteen years for the\nGreat Manifestation was meant by the B\u0101b to be taken literally. The\nnumber 19 may be merely a conventional sacred number and have no\nhistorical significance. I am therefore not to be shaken by a\nreference to these words of the B\u0101b, quoted in substance by Mirza\nAbu'l Fazl, that after nine years all good will come to his followers,\nor by the Mirza's comment that it was nine years after the B\u0101b's\nDeclaration that Baha-'ullah gathered together the B\u0101b\u012bs at\nBaghdad, and began to teach them, and that at the end of the\nnineteenth year from the Declaration of the B\u0101b, Baha-'ullah\ndeclared his Manifestation.\n\nAnother difficulty arises. The B\u0101b does not always say the same\nthing. There are passages of the Persian Bayan which imply an interval\nbetween his own theophany and the next parallel to that which\nseparated his own theophany from Mu\u1e25ammad's. He says, for instance,\nin _Wa\u1e25id_ II. B\u0101b 17, according to Professor Browne,\n\n'If he [whom God shall manifest] shall appear in the number of Ghiyath\n(1511) and all shall enter in, not one shall remain in the Fire. If He\ntarry [until the number of] Mustaghath (2001), all shall enter in, not\none shall remain in the Fire.'  [Footnote: _History of the\nB\u0101b\u012bs, edited by E. G. Browne; Introd.  p. xxvi.  _Traveller's\nNarrative_ (Browne), Introd. p. xvii. ]\n\nI quote next from _Wa\u1e25id_ III. B\u0101b 15:--\n\n'None knoweth [the time of] the Manifestation save God: whenever it\ntakes place, all must believe and must render thanks to God, although\nit is hoped of His Grace that He will come ere [the number of]\nMustaghath, and will raise up the Word of God on his part. And the\nProof is only a sign [or verse], and His very Existence proves Him,\nsince all also is known by Him, while He cannot be known by what is\nbelow Him.  Glorious is God above that which they ascribe to Him.'\n[Footnote: _History of the B\u0101b\u012bs_, Introd. p. xxx.]\n\nElsewhere (vii. 9), we are told vaguely that the Advent of the\nPromised One will be sudden, like that of the Point or B\u0101b (iv. 10);\nit is an element of the great Oriental myth of the winding-up of the\nold cycle and the opening of a new.  [Footnote: Cheyne, _Mines of\nIsaiah Re-explored_, Index, 'Myth.']\n\nA Bahai scholar furnishes me with another passage--\n\n'God knoweth in what age He will manifest him. But from the springing\n(beginning) of the manifestation to its head (perfection) are nineteen\nyears.'  [Footnote: Bayan, _Wa\u1e25id_, III., chap. iii.]\n\nThis implies a preparation period of nineteen years, and if we take\nthis statement with a parallel one, we can, I think, have no doubt\nthat the B\u0101b expected the assumption, not immediate however, of the\nreins of government by the Promised One. The parallel statement is as\nfollows, according to the same Bahai scholar.\n\n'God only knoweth his age. But the time of his proclamation after mine\nis the number Wa\u1e25id (=19, cabbalistically), and whenever he cometh\nduring this period, accept him.'  [Footnote: Bayan, _Brit. Mus. Text_,\np. 151.]\n\nAnother passage may be quoted by the kindness of Mirza 'Ali Akbar. It\nshows that the B\u0101b has doubts whether the Great Manifestation will\noccur in the lifetime of Baha-'ullah and \u1e62ub\u1e25-i-Ezel (one or other\nof whom is addressed by the B\u0101b in this letter). The following words\nare an extract:--\n\n'And if God hath not manifested His greatness in thy days, then act in\naccordance with that which hath descended (i.e. been revealed),\nand never change a word in the verses of God.\n\n'This is the order of God in the Sublime Book; ordain in accordance\nwith that which hath descended, and never change the orders of God,\nthat men may not make variations in God's religion.'\n\n\nNON-FINALITY OF REVELATION\n\nNot less important than the question of the B\u0101b's appointment of his\nsuccessor is that of his own view of the finality or non-finality of\nhis revelation. The Bayan does not leave this in uncertainty. The\n\u1e32ur'an of the B\u0101b\u012bs expressly states that a new Manifestation\ntakes place whenever there is a call for it (ii. 9, vi. 13);\nsuccessive revelations are like the same sun arising day after day\n(iv. 12, vii. 15, viii. 1). The B\u0101b's believers therefore are not\nconfined to a revelation constantly becoming less and less applicable\nto the spiritual wants of the present age. And very large\ndiscretionary powers are vested in 'Him whom He will make manifest,'\nextending even to the abrogation of the commands of the Bayan\n(iii. 3).\n\n\nEARLY CHRISTIANITY AND BAHAISM AND BUDDHISM\n\nThe comparisons sometimes drawn between the history of nascent\nChristianity and that of early Bahaism are somewhat misleading. 'Ali\nMu\u1e25ammad of Shiraz was more than a mere forerunner of the Promised\nSaviour; he was not merely John the Baptist--he was the Messiah,\nAll-wise and Almighty, himself. True, he was of a humble mind, and\nrecognized that what he might ordain would not necessarily be suitable\nfor a less transitional age, but the same may be said--if our written\nrecords may be trusted--of Jesus Christ. For Jesus was partly his own\nforerunner, and antiquated his own words.\n\nIt is no doubt a singular coincidence that both 'Ali Mu\u1e25ammad and\nJesus Christ are reported to have addressed these words to a disciple:\n'To-day thou shalt be with me in Paradise.'  But if the Crucifixion is\nunhistorical--and there is, I fear, considerable probability that it\nis--what is the value of this coincidence?\n\nMore important is it that both in early Christianity and in early\nBahaism we find a conspicuous personage who succeeds in disengaging\nthe faith from its particularistic envelope. In neither case is this\npersonage a man of high culture or worldly position.  [Footnote:\nLeslie Johnston's phraseology (_Some Alternatives to Jesus\nChrist_, p. 114) appears to need revision.]  This, I say, is most\nimportant. Paul and Baha-'ullah may both be said to have transformed\ntheir respective religions. Yet there is a difference between\nthem. Baha-'ullah and his son Abdul-Baha after him were personal\ncentres of the new covenant; Paul was not.\n\nThis may perhaps suffice for the parallels--partly real, partly\nsupposed--between early Christianity and early Bahaism. I will now\nrefer to an important parallel between the development of Christianity\nand that of Buddhism.  It is possible to deny that the Christianity of\nAugustine [Footnote: Professor Anesaki of Tokio regards Augustine as\nthe Christian Nagarjuna.]  deserves its name, on the ground of the\nwide interval which exists between his religious doctrines and the\nbeliefs of Jesus Christ. Similarly, one may venture to deny that the\nMah\u00e2y\u00e2na developments of Buddhism are genuine products of the\nreligion because they contain some elements derived from other Indian\nsystems. In both cases, however, grave injustice would be done by any\nsuch assumption. It is idle 'to question the historical value of an\norganism which is now full of vitality and active in all its\nfunctions, and to treat it like an archaeological object, dug out from\nthe depths of the earth, or like a piece of bric-\u00e0-brac, discovered\nin the ruins of an ancient royal palace. Mah\u00e2y\u00e2naism is not an\nobject of historical curiosity.  Its vitality and activity concern us\nin our daily life. It is a great spiritual organism. What does it\nmatter, then, whether or not Mah\u00e2y\u00e2naism is the genuine teaching of\nthe Buddha?'  [Footnote: Suzuki, _Outlines of Mah\u00e2y\u00e2na\nBuddhism_, p. 15.]  The parallel between the developments of these\ntwo great religions is unmistakable. We Christians insist--and rightly\nso--on the 'genuineness' of our own religion in spite of the numerous\nelements unknown to its 'Founder.' The northern Buddhism is equally\n'genuine,' being equally true to the spirit of the Buddha.\n\nIt is said that Christianity, as a historical religion, contrasts with\nthe most advanced Buddhism. But really it is no loss to the Buddhist\nFraternity if the historical element in the life of the Buddha has\nretired into the background. A cultured Buddhist of the northern\nsection could not indeed admit that he has thrust the history of\nGautama entirely aside, but he would affirm that his religion was more\nphilosophical and practically valuable than that of his southern\nbrothers, inasmuch as it transcended the boundary of history. In a\ntheological treatise called _Chin-kuang-ming_ we read as follows:\n'It would be easier to count every drop of water in the ocean, or\nevery grain of matter that composes a vast mountain than to reckon the\nduration of the life of Buddha.' 'That is to say, Buddha's life does\nnot belong to the time-series: Buddha is the \"I Am\" who is above\ntime.'  [Footnote: Johnston, _Buddhist China_, p. 114.]  And is\nnot the Christ of Christendom above the world of time and space?\nLastly, must not both Christians and Buddhists admit that among the\nChrists or Buddhas the most godlike are those embodied in narratives\nas Jesus and Gautama?\n\n\nWESTERN AND EASTERN RELIGION\n\nReligion, as conceived by most Christians of the West, is very\ndifferent from the religion of India. Three-quarters of it (as Matthew\nArnold says) has to do with conduct; it is a code with a very positive\nand keen divine sanction. Few of its adherents, indeed, have any idea\nof the true position of morality, and that the code of Christian\nethics expresses barely one half of the religious idea. The other half\n(or even more) is expressed in assurances of holy men that God dwells\nwithin us, or even that we are God. A true morality helps us to\nrealize this--morality is not to be tied up and labelled, but is\nidentical with the cosmic as well as individual principle of Love.\nSin (i.e. an unloving disposition) is to be avoided because it\nblurs the outlines of the Divine Form reflected, however dimly, in\neach of us.\n\nThere are, no doubt, a heaven where virtue is rewarded, and a hell\nwhere vice is punished, for the unphilosophical minds of the\nvulgar. But the only reward worthy of a lover of God is to get nearer\nand nearer to Him. Till the indescribable goal (Nirvana) is reached,\nwe must be content with realizing. This is much easier to a Hindu than\nto an Englishman, because the former has a constant sense of that\nunseen power which pervades and transcends the universe. I do not\nunderstand how Indian seekers after truth can hurry and strive about\nsublunary matters. Surely they ought to feel 'that this tangible\nworld, with its chatter of right and wrong, subserves the intangible.'\n\nHard as it must be for the adherents of such different principles to\nunderstand each other, it is not, I venture to think, impossible. And,\nas at once an Anglican Christian and an adopted Brahmaist, I make the\nattempt to bring East and West religiously together.\n\n\nRELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF THE EAST\n\nThe greatest religious teachers and reformers who have appeared in\nrecent times are (if I am not much mistaken) Baha-'ullah the Persian\nand Keshab Chandra Sen the Indian. The one began by being a reformer\nof the Mu\u1e25ammadan society or church, the other by acting in the same\ncapacity for the Indian community and more especially for the Brahmo\nSamaj--a very imperfect and loosely organized religious society or\nchurch founded by Rammohan Roy. By a natural evolution the objects of\nboth reformers were enlarged; both became the founders of\nworld-churches, though circumstances prevented the extension of the\nBrotherhood of the New Dispensation beyond the limits of India.\n\nIn both cases a doubt has arisen in the minds of some spectators\nwhether the reformers have anything to offer which has not already\nbeen given by the Hebrew prophets and by the finest efflorescence of\nthese--Jesus Christ. I am bound to express the opinion that they have.\nJust as the author of the Fourth Gospel looks forward to results of\nthe Dispensation of the Spirit which will outdo those of the Ministry\nof Jesus (John xiv. 12), so we may confidently look forward to\ndisclosures of truth and of depths upon depths of character which will\nfar surpass anything that could, in the Nearer or Further East, have\nbeen imagined before the time of Baha-'ullah.\n\nI do not say that Baha-'ullah is unique or that His revelations are\nfinal. There will be other Messiahs after Him, nor is the race of the\nprophets extinct. The supposition of finality is treason to the ever\nactive, ever creative Spirit of Truth. But till we have already\nentered upon a new aeon, we shall have to look back in a special\ndegree to the prophets who introduced our own aeon, Baha-'ullah and\nKeshab Chandra Sen, whose common object is the spiritual unification\nof all peoples. For it is plain that this union of peoples can only be\nobtained through the influence of prophetic personages, those of the\npast as well as those of the present.\n\n\nQUALITIES OF THE MEN OF THE COMING RELIGION (Gal. v. 22)\n\n1. Love. What is love? Let Rabindranath Tagore tell us.\n\n'In love all the contradictions of existence merge themselves and are\nlost. Only in love are unity and duality not at variance. Love must be\none and two at the same time.\n\n'Only love is motion and rest in one. Our heart ever changes its place\ntill it finds love, and then it has its rest....\n\n'In this wonderful festival of creation, this great ceremony of\nself-sacrifice of God, the lover constantly gives himself up to gain\nhimself in love....\n\n'In love, at one of its poles you find the personal, and at the other\nthe impersonal.'  [Footnote: Tagore, _Sadhana_ (1913), p. 114.]\n\nI do not think this has been excelled by any modern Christian teacher,\nthough the vivid originality of the Buddha's and of St. Paul's\ndescriptions of love cannot be denied. The subject, however, is too\nmany-sided for me to attempt to describe it here. Suffice it to say\nthat the men of the coming religion will be distinguished by an\nintelligent and yet intense altruistic affection--the new-born love.\n\n2 and 3. Joy and Peace. These are fundamental qualities in religion,\nand especially, it is said, in those forms of religion which appear to\ncentre in incarnations. This statement, however, is open to\ncriticism. It matters but little how we attain to joy and peace, as\nlong as we do attain to them. Christians have not surpassed the joy\nand peace produced by the best and safest methods of the Indian and\nPersian sages.\n\nI would not belittle the tranquil and serene joy of the Christian\nsaint, but I cannot see that this is superior to the same joy as it is\nexhibited in the Psalms of the Brethren or the Sisters in the\nBuddhistic Order. Nothing is more remarkable in these songs than the\nway in which joy and tranquillity are interfused. So it is with God,\nwhose creation is the production of tranquillity and utter joy, and so\nit is with godlike men--men such as St. Francis of Assisi in the West\nand the poet-seers of the Upanishads in the East. All these are at\nonce joyous and serene. As Tagore says, 'Joy without the play of joy\nis no joy; play without activity is no play.'  [Footnote: Tagore,\n_Sadhana_ (1913), p. 131.]  And how can he act to advantage who\nis perturbed in mind? In the coming religion all our actions will be\njoyous and tranquil. Meantime, transitionally, we have much need both\nof long-suffering [Footnote: This quality is finely described in\nchap. vi. of _The Path of Light_ (Wisdom of the East series).]\nand of courage; 'quit you like men, be strong.' (I write in August\n1914.)\n\n\nREFORM OF ISLAM\n\nAnd what as to Islam? Is any fusion between this and the other great\nreligions possible? A fusion between Islam and Christianity can only\nbe effected if first of all these two religions (mutually so\nrepugnant) are reformed. Thinking Muslims will more and more come to\nsee that the position assigned by Mu\u1e25ammad to himself and to the\n\u1e32ur'an implies that he had a thoroughly unhistorical mind. In other\nwords he made those exclusive and uncompromising claims under a\nmisconception. There were true apostles or prophets, both speakers and\nwriters, between the generally accepted date of the ministry of Jesus\nand that of the appearance of Mu\u1e25ammad, and these true prophets were\nmen of far greater intellectual grasp than the Arabian merchant.\n\nMuslim readers ought therefore to feel it no sacrilege if I advocate\nthe correction of what has thus been mistakenly said. Mu\u1e25ammad was\none of the prophets, not _the_ prophet (who is virtually = the\nLogos), and the \u1e32ur'an is only adapted for Arabian tribes, not for\nall nations of the world.\n\nOne of the points in the exhibition of which the Arabian Bible is most\nimperfect is the love of God, i.e. the very point in which the\n\u1e62ufi classical poets are most admirable, though indeed an Arabian\npoetess, who died 135 Hij., expresses herself already in the most\nthrilling tones.  [Footnote: Von Kremer's _Herrschende Ideen des\nIslams_, pp. 64, etc.]\n\nPerhaps one might be content, so far as the \u1e32ur'an is concerned,\nwith a selection of Suras, supplemented by extracts from other\nreligious classics of Islam. I have often thought that we want both a\nCatholic Christian lectionary and a Catholic prayer-book. To compile\nthis would be the work not of a prophet, but of a band of\ninterpreters. An exacting work which would be its own reward, and\nwould promote, more perhaps than anything else, the reformation and\nultimate blending of the different religions.\n\nMeantime no persecution should be allowed in the reformed Islamic\nlands. Thankful as we may be for the Christian and Bahaite heroism\ngenerated by a persecuting fanaticism, we may well wish that it might\nbe called forth otherwise.  Heroic was the imprisonment and death of\nCaptain Conolly (in Bukhara), but heroic also are the lives of many\nwho have spent long years in unhealthy climates, to civilize and\nmoralize those who need their help.\n\n\nSYNTHESIS OF RELIGIONS\n\n'There is one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all,\nand in all.'\n\nThese words in the first instance express the synthesis of Judaism and\nOriental pantheism, but may be applied to the future synthesis of\nIslam and Hinduism, and of both conjointly with Christianity. And the\nsubjects to which I shall briefly refer are the exclusiveness of the\nclaims of Christ and of Mu\u1e25ammad, and of Christ's Church and of\nMu\u1e25ammad's, the image-worship of the Hindus and the excessive\ndevelopment of mythology in Hinduism. With the lamented Sister\nNivedita I hold that, in India, in proportion as the two faiths pass\ninto higher phases, the easier it becomes for the one faith to be\nbrought into a synthesis combined with the other.\n\n\u1e62ufism, for instance, is, in the opinion of most, 'a Mu\u1e25ammadan\nsect.' It must, at any rate, be admitted to have passed through\nseveral stages, but there is, I think, little to add to fully\ndeveloped \u1e62ufism to make it an ideal synthesis of Islam and\nHinduism. That little, however, is important.  How can the Hindu\naccept the claim either of Christ or of Mu\u1e25ammad to be the sole gate\nto the mansions of knowledge?\n\nThe most popular of the Hindu Scriptures expressly provides for a\nsuccession of _avat\u00e2rs_; how, indeed, could the Eternal Wisdom\nhave limited Himself to raising up a single representative of\nMessiahship. For were not Sakya Muni, Kabir and his disciple Nanak,\nChaitanya, the Tamil poets (to whom Dr. Pope has devoted himself)\nMessiahs for parts of India, and Nisiran for Japan, not to speak here\nof Islamic countries?\n\nIt is true, the exclusive claim of Christ (I assume that they are\nadequately proved) is not expressly incorporated into the Creeds, so\nthat by mentally recasting the Christian can rid himself of his\nburden. And a time must surely come when, by the common consent of the\nMuslim world the reference to Mu\u1e25ammad in the brief creed of the\nMuslim will be removed.  For such a removal would be no disparagement\nto the prophet, who had, of necessity, a thoroughly unhistorical mind\n(p. 193).\n\nThe 'one true Church' corresponds of course with the one true\nGod. Hinduism, which would willingly accept the one, would as\nnaturally accept the other also, as a great far-spreading caste. There\nare in fact already monotheistic castes in Hinduism.\n\nAs for image-worship, the Muslims should not plume themselves too much\non their abhorrence of it, considering the immemorial cult of the\nBlack Stone at Mecca. If a conference of Vedantists and Muslims could\nbe held, it would appear that the former regarded image-worship (not\nidolatry) [Footnote: Idols and images are not the same thing; the\nimage is, or should be, symbolic. So, at least, I venture to define\nit.] simply as a provisional concession to the ignorant masses, who\nwill not perhaps always remain so ignorant. So, then, Image-worship\nand its attendant Mythology have naturally become intertwined with\nhigh and holy associations. Thus that delicate poetess Mrs. Naidu (by\nbirth a Parsi) writes:\n\n  Who serves her household in fruitful pride,\n  And worships the gods at her husband's side.\n\nI do not see, therefore, why we Christians (who have a good deal of\nmyth in our religion) should object to a fusion with Islam and\nHinduism on the grounds mentioned above. Only I do desire that both\nthe Hindu and the Christian myths should be treated symbolically. On\nthis (so far as the former are concerned) I agree with Keshab Chandra\nSen in the last phase of his incomplete religious development. That\nthe myths of Hinduism require sifting, cannot, I am sure, be denied.\n\nFrom myths to image-worship is an easy step.  What is the meaning of\nthe latter? The late Sister Nivedita may help us to find an\nanswer. She tells us that when travelling ascetics go through the\nvillages, and pause to receive alms, they are in the habit of\nconversing on religious matters with the good woman of the house, and\nthat thus even a bookless villager comes to understand the truth about\nimages. We cannot think, however, that all will be equally receptive,\ncalling to mind that even in our own country multitudes of people\nsubstitute an unrealized doctrine about Christ for Christ Himself\n(i.e. convert Christ into a church doctrine), while others\ninvoke Christ, with or without the saints, in place of God.\n\nConsidering that Christendom is to a large extent composed of\nimage-worshippers, why should there not be a synthesis between\nHinduism and Islam on the one hand, and Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, and\nChristianity on the other? The differences between these great\nreligions are certainly not slight. But when we get behind the forms,\nmay we not hope to find some grains of the truth? I venture,\ntherefore, to maintain the position occupied above as that to which\nIndian religious reformers must ultimately come.\n\nI do not deny that Mr. Farquhar has made a very good fight against\nthis view. The process of the production of an image is, to us, a\nstrange one. It is enough to mention the existence of a rite of the\nbringing of life into the idol which marks the end of that\nprocess. But there are many very educated Hindus who reject with scorn\nthe view that the idol has really been made divine, and the passage\nquoted by Mr.  Farquhar (p. 335) from Vivekananda [Footnote: Sister\nNivedita's teacher. ] seems to me conclusive in favour of the symbol\ntheory.\n\nIt would certainly be an aesthetic loss if these artistic symbols\ndisappeared. But the most precious jewel would still remain, the Being\nwho is in Himself unknowable, but who is manifested in the Divine\nLogos or Sofia and in a less degree in the prophets and Messiahs.\n\n\nINCARNATIONS\n\nThere are some traces both in the Synoptics and in the Fourth Gospel\nof a Docetic view of the Lord's Person, in other words that His\nhumanity was illusory, just as, in the Old Testament, the humanity of\ncelestial beings is illusory.  The Hindus, however, are much more sure\nof this. The reality of an incarnation would be unworthy of a\nGod. And, strange as it may appear to us, this Docetic theory involves\nno pain or disappointment for the believer, who does but amuse himself\nwith the sports [Footnote: See quotation from the poet Tulsi Das in\nFarquhar, _The Crown of Hinduism_, p. 431.]  of his Patron.  At\nthe same time he is very careful not to take the God as a moral\nexample; the result of this would be disastrous. The _avat\u00e2r_ is\nsuper-moral.  [Footnote: See Farquhar, p. 434.]\n\nWhat, then, was the object of the _avat\u00e2r_?  Not simply to\namuse. It was, firstly, to win the heart of the worshipper, and\nsecondly, to communicate that knowledge in which is eternal life.\n\nAnd what is to be done, in the imminent sifting of Scriptures and\nTraditions, with these stories?  They must be rewritten, just as, I\nventure to think, the original story of the God-man Jesus was\nrewritten by being blended with the fragments of a biography of a\ngreat and good early Jewish teacher. The work will be hard, but Sister\nNivedita and Miss Anthon have begun it. It must be taken as a part of\nthe larger undertaking of a selection of rewritten myths.\n\nIs Baha-'ullah an _avat\u00e2r_? There has no doubt been a tendency\nto worship him. But this tendency need not be harmful to sanity of\nintellect.  There are various degrees of divinity.  Baha-'ullah's\ndegree maybe compared to St. Paul's.  Both these spiritual heroes were\nconscious of their superiority to ordinary believers; at the same time\ntheir highest wish was that their disciples might learn to be as they\nwere themselves. Every one is the temple of the holy (divine) Spirit,\nand this Spirit-element must be deserving of worship.  It is probable\nthat the Western training of the objectors is the cause of the\nopposition in India to some of the forms of honour lavished, in spite\nof his dissuasion, on Keshab Chandra Sen.  [Footnote: _Life and\nTeachings of Keshub Chunder Sen_, pp. III ff.]\n\n\nIS JESUS UNIQUE?\n\nOne who has 'learned Christ' from his earliest years finds a\ndifficulty in treating the subject at the head of this section. 'The\ndisciple is not above his Master,' and when the Master is so far\nremoved from the ordinary--is, in fact, the regenerator of society and\nof the individual,--such a discussion seems almost more than the human\nmind can undertake. And yet the subject has to be faced, and if Paul\n'learned' a purely ideal Christ, deeply tinged with the colours of\nmythology, why should not we follow Paul's example, imitating a Christ\nwho put on human form, and lived and died for men as their Saviour and\nRedeemer?  Why should we not go even beyond Paul, and honour God by\nassuming a number of Christs, among whom--if we approach the subject\nimpartially--would be Socrates, Zarathustra, Gautama the Buddha, as\nwell as Jesus the Christ?\n\nWhy, indeed, should we not? If we consider that we honour God by\nassuming that every nation contains righteous men, accepted of God,\nwhy should we not complete our theory by assuming that every nation\nalso possesses prophetic (in some cases more than prophetic)\nrevealers? Some rather lax historical students may take a different\nview, and insist that we have a trustworthy tradition of the life of\nJesus, and that 'if in that historical figure I cannot see God, then I\nam without God in the world.'  [Footnote: Leslie Johnston, _Some\nAlternatives to Jesus Christ_, p. 199.]  It is, however, abundantly\nestablished by criticism that most of what is contained even in the\nSynoptic Gospels is liable to the utmost doubt, and that what may\nreasonably be accepted is by no means capable of use as the basis of a\ndoctrine of Incarnation. I do not, therefore, see why the Life of\nJesus should be a barrier to the reconciliation of Christianity and\nHinduism. Both religions in their incarnation theories are, as we\nshall see (taking Christianity in its primitive form), frankly\nDocetic, both assume a fervent love for the manifesting God on the\npart of the worshipper. I cannot, however, bring myself to believe\nthat there was anything, even in the most primitive form of the life\nof the God-man Jesus, comparable to the _unmoral_ story of the\nlife of Krishna. Small wonder that many of the Vaishnavas prefer the\n_avat\u00e2r_ of Rama.\n\nIt will be seen, therefore, that it is impossible to discuss the\nhistorical character of the Life of Jesus without soon passing into\nthe subject of His uniqueness. It is usual to suppose that Jesus,\nbeing a historical figure, must also be unique, and an Oxford\ntheologian remarks that 'we see the Spirit in the Church always\nturning backwards to the historical revelation and drawing only thence\nthe inspiration to reproduce it.' [Footnote: Leslie Johnston,\n_op. cit._ pp. 200 f.] He thinks that for the Christian\nconsciousness there can be only one Christ, and finds this to be\nsupported by a critical reading of the text of the Gospels. Only one\nChrist! But was not the Buddha so far above his contemporaries and\nsuccessors that he came to be virtually deified? How is not this\nuniqueness? It is true, Christianity has, thus far, been intolerant of\nother religions, which contrasts with the 'easy tolerance' of Buddhism\nand Hinduism and, as the author may wish to add, of Bahaism. But is\nthe Christian intolerance a worthy element of character? Is it\nconsistent with the Beatitude pronounced (if it was pronounced) by\nJesus on the meek? May we not, with Mr. L. Johnston's namesake, fitly\nsay, 'Such notions as these are a survival from the bad old days'?\n[Footnote: Johnston, _Buddhist China_, p. 306.]\n\n\nTHE SPIRIT OF GOD\n\nAnother very special jewel of Christianity is the doctrine of _the\nSpirit_. The term, which etymologically means 'wind,' and in\nGen. i. 2 and Isa.  xl. 13 appears to be a fragment of a certain\ndivine name, anciently appropriated to the Creator and Preserver of\nthe world, was later employed for the God who is immanent in\nbelievers, and who is continually bringing them into conformity with\nthe divine model. With the Brahmaist theologian, P.C. Mozoomdar, I\nventure to think that none of the old divine names is adequately\nsuggestive of the functions of the Spirit. The Spirit's work is, in\nfact, nothing short of re-creation; His creative functions are called\ninto exercise on the appearance of a new cosmic cycle, which includes\nthe regeneration of souls.\n\nI greatly fear that not enough homage has been rendered to the Spirit\nin this important aspect. And yet the doctrine is uniquely precious\nbecause of the great results which have already, in the ethical and\nintellectual spheres, proceeded from it, and of the still greater ones\nwhich faith descries in the future. We have, I fear, not yet done\njustice to the spiritual capacities with which we are endowed. I will\ntherefore take leave to add, following Mozoomdar, that no name is so\nfit for the indwelling God as Living Presence. [Footnote: Mozoomdar,\n_The Spirit of God_ (1898), p. 64.]  His gift to man is life, and\nHe Himself is Fullness of Life. The idea therefore of God, in the myth\nof the Dying and Reviving Saviour, is, from one point of view,\nimperfect. At any rate it is a more constant help to think of God as\nfull, not of any more meagre satisfaction at His works, but of the\nmost intense joy.\n\nLet us, then, join our Indian brethren in worshipping God the\nSpirit. In honouring the Spirit we honour Jesus, the mythical and yet\nreal incarnate God. The Mu\u1e25ammadans call Jesus _ru\u1e25u'llah_,\n'the Spirit of God,' and the early Bahais followed them. One of the\nlatter addressed these striking words to a traveller from Cambridge:\n'You (i.e. the Christian Church) are to-day the Manifestation\nof Jesus; you are the Incarnation of the Holy Spirit; nay, did you but\nrealize it, you are God.'  [Footnote: E.G. Browne, _A Year among the\nPersians_, p. 492.]  I fear that this may go too far for some, but\nit is only a step in advance of our Master, St. Paul. If we do not yet\nfully realize our blessedness, let us make it our chief aim to do\nso. How God's Spirit can be dwelling in us and we in Him, is a\nmystery, but we may hope to get nearer and nearer to its meaning, and\nsee that it is no _Maya_, no illusion.  As an illustration of the\nmystery I will quote this from one of Vivekananda's lectures.\n[Footnote: _Jnana Yoga_, p. 154.]\n\n'Young men of Lahore, raise once more that wonderful banner of\nAdvaita, for on no other ground can you have that all-embracing love,\nuntil you see that the same Lord is present in the same manner\neverywhere; unfurl that banner of love. \"Arise, awake, and stop not\ntill the goal is reached.\" Arise, arise once more, for nothing can be\ndone without renunciation. If you want to help others, your own little\nself must go....  At the present time there are men who give up the\nworld to help their own salvation. Throw away everything, even your\nown salvation, and go and help others.'\n\n\nCHINESE AND JAPANESE RELIGION\n\nIt is much to be wished that Western influence on China may not be\nexerted in the wrong way, i.e. by an indiscriminate destruction\nof religious tradition. Hitherto the three religions of\nChina--Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism--have been regarded as\nforming one organism, and as equally necessary to the national\nculture. Now, however, there is a danger that this hereditary union\nmay cease, and that, in their disunited state, the three cults may be\ndestined in course of time to disappear and perish. Shall they give\nplace to dogmatic Christianity or, among the most cultured class, to\nagnosticism? Would it not be better to work for the retention at any\nrate of Buddhism and Confucianism in a purified form?  My own wish\nwould be that the religious-ethical principles of Buddhism should be\napplied to the details of civic righteousness. The work could only be\ndone by a school, but by the co-operation of young and old it could be\ndone.\n\nTaoism, however, is doomed, unless some scientifically trained scholar\n(perhaps a Buddhist) will take the trouble to sift the grain from the\nchaff. As Mr. Johnston tells us, [Footnote: _Buddhist China_,\np. 12.]  the opening of every new school synchronizes with the closing\nof a Taoist temple, and the priests of the cult are not only despised\nby others, but are coming to despise themselves. Lao-Tze, however, has\nstill his students, and accretions can hardly be altogether\navoided. Chinese Buddhism, too, has accretions, both philosophic and\nreligious, and unless cleared of these, we cannot hope that Buddhism\nwill take its right place in the China of the future. Suzuki, however,\nin his admirable _Outlines of Mah\u0101y\u0101na Buddhism_, has\nrecognized and expounded (as I at least think) the truest Buddhism,\nand it is upon him I chiefly rely in my statements in the present\nwork.\n\nThere is no accretion, however, in the next point which I shall\nmention. The noble altruism of the Buddhism of China and Japan must at\nno price be rejected from the future religion of those countries, but\nrather be adopted as a model by us Western Christians. Now there are\nthree respects in which (among others) the Chinese and Japanese may\nset us an example.  Firstly, their freedom from self, and even from\npre-occupying thoughts of personal salvation.  Secondly, the\nperception that in the Divine Manifestation there must be a feminine\nelement (_das ewig-weibliche_). And thirdly, the possibility of\nvicarious moral action. On the first, I need only remark that one of\nthose legends of Sakya Muni, which are so full of moral meaning, is\nbeautified by this selflessness. On the second, that Kuan-yin or\nKwannon, though formerly a god, [Footnote: 'God' and 'Goddess' are of\ncourse unsuitable. Read _pusa_.] the son of the Buddha Amit\u00e2bha,\nis now regarded as a goddess, 'the All-compassionate, Uncreated\nSaviour, the Royal Bodhisat, who (like the Madonna) hears the cries of\nthe world.'  [Footnote: Johnston, _Buddhist China_, pp. 101,\n273.]\n\nBut it is the third point which chiefly concerns us here because of\nthe great spiritual comfort which it conveys. It is the possibility of\ndoing good in the name of some beloved friend or relative and to 'turn\nover' (_parimarta_) one's _karma_ to this friend. The extent\nto which this idea is pressed may, to some, be bewildering.  Even the\nbliss of Nirvana is to be rejected that the moral and physical\nsufferings of the multitude may be relieved. This is one of the many\nways in which the Living Presence is manifested.\n\n\nGOD-MAN\n\n_Tablet of Ishrakat_ (p. 5).--Praise be to God who manifested the\nPoint and sent forth from it the knowledge of what was and is\n(i.e. all things); who made it (the Point) the Herald in His\nName, the Precursor to His Most Great Manifestation, by which the\nnerves of nations have quivered with fear and the Light has risen from\nthe horizon of the world. Verily it is that Point which God hath made\nto be a Sea of Light for the sincere among His servants, and a ball of\nfire for the deniers among His creations and the impious among His\npeople.--This shows that Baha-'ullah did not regard the so-called\nB\u0101b as a mere forerunner.\n\nThe want of a surely attested life, or extract from a life, of a\nGod-man will be more and more acutely felt. There is only one such\nlife; it is that of Baha-'ullah. Through Him, therefore, let us pray\nin this twentieth century amidst the manifold difficulties which beset\nour social and political reconstructions; let Him be the prince-angel\nwho conveys our petitions to the Most High.  The standpoint of\nImmanence, however, suggests a higher and a deeper view. Does a friend\nneed to ask a favour of a friend? Are we not in Baha'ullah ('the Glory\nof God'), and is not He in God? Therefore, 'ye shall ask what ye will,\nand it shall be done unto you' (John xv. 7). Far be it that we should\neven seem to disparage the Lord Jesus, but the horizon of His early\nworshippers is too narrow for us to follow them, and the critical\ndifficulties are insuperable. The mirage of the ideal Christ is all\nthat remains, when these obstacles have been allowed for.\n\nWe read much about God-men in the narratives of the Old Testament,\nwhere the name attached to a manifestation of God in human semblance\nis 'malak Yahw\u00e8 (Jehovah)' or 'malak Elohim'--a name of uncertain\nmeaning which I have endeavoured to explain more correctly elsewhere.\nIn the New Testament too there is a large Docetic element. Apparently\na supernatural Being walks about on earth--His name is Jesus of\nNazareth, or simply Jesus, or with a deifying prefix 'Lord' and a\nregal appendix 'Christ.' He has doubtless a heavenly message to\nindividuals, but He has also one to the great social body.  Christ,\nsays Mr. Holley, is a perfect revelation for the individual, but not\nfor the social organism.  This is correct if we lay stress on the\nqualifying word 'perfect,' especially if we hold that St. Paul has the\ncredit of having expanded and enriched the somewhat meagre\nrepresentation of Christ in the Synoptic Gospels. It must be conceded\nthat Baha-'ullah had a greater opportunity than Christ of lifting both\nHis own and other peoples to a higher plane, but the ideal of both was\nthe same.\n\nBaha-'ullah and Christ, therefore, were both 'images of God';\n[Footnote: Bousset, _Kyrios-Christos_, p. 144. Christ is the\n'image of God' (2 Cor. iv. 4; Col. i. 15); or simply 'the image'\n(Rom. viii. 29).]  God is the God of the human people as well as of\nindividual men, so too is the God of whom Baha-'ullah is the\nreflection or image. Only, we must admit that Baha-'ullah had the\nadvantage of centuries more of evolution, and that he had also perhaps\nmore complex problems to solve.\n\nAnd what as to 'Ali Mu\u1e25ammad of Shiraz?  From a heavenly point of\nview, did he play a great _r\u00f4le_ in the Persian Reformation? Let\nus listen to Baha-'ullah in the passage quoted above from the Tablet\nof Ishrakat.\n\n\nPRAYER TO THE PERPETUAL CREATOR\n\nO giver of thyself! at the vision of thee as joy let our souls flame\nup to thee as the fire, flow on to thee as the river, permeate thy\nbeing as the fragrance of the flower. Give us strength to love, to\nlove fully, our life in its joys and sorrows, in its gains and losses,\nin its rise and fall. Let us have strength enough fully to see and\nhear thy universe, and to work with full vigour therein.  Let us fully\nlive the life thou hast given us, let us bravely take and bravely\ngive. This is our prayer to thee. Let us once for all dislodge from\nour minds the feeble fancy that would make out thy joy to be a thing\napart from action, thin, formless and unsustained. Wherever the\npeasant tills the hard earth, there does thy joy gush out in the green\nof the corn; wherever man displaces the entangled forest, smooths the\nstony ground, and clears for himself a homestead, there does thy joy\nenfold it in orderliness and peace.\n\nO worker of the universe! We would pray to thee to let the\nirresistible current of thy universal energy come like the impetuous\nsouth wind of spring, let it come rushing over the vast field of the\nlife of man, let it bring the scent of many flowers, the murmurings of\nmany woodlands, let it make sweet and vocal the lifelessness of our\ndried-up soul-life. Let our newly awakened powers cry out for\nunlimited fulfilment in leaf and flower and fruit!--Tagore,\nS\u0101dhan\u0101 (p. 133).\n\n\nTHE OPPORTUNENESS OF BAHAISM\n\nThe opportuneness of the Baha movement is brought into a bright light\nby the following extract from a letter to the Master from the great\nOrientalist and traveller, Arminius Vamb\u00e9ry.  Though born a Jew, he\ntells us that believers in Judaism were no better than any other\nprofessedly religious persons, and that the only hope for the future\nlay in the success of the efforts of Abdul Baha, whose supreme\ngreatness as a prophet he fully recognizes. He was born in Hungary in\nMarch 1832, and met Abdul Baha at Buda-Pest in April 1913. The letter\nwas written shortly after the interview; some may perhaps smile at its\nglowing Oriental phraseology, but there are some Oriental writers who\nreally mean what they seem to mean, and one of these (an Oriental by\nadoption) is Vamb\u00e9ry.\n\n'... The time of the meeting with your excellency, and the memory of\nthe benediction of your presence, recurred to the memory of this\nservant, and I am longing for the time when I shall meet you\nagain. Although I have travelled through many countries and cities of\nIslam, yet have I never met so lofty a character and so exalted a\npersonage as Your Excellency, and I can bear witness that it is not\npossible to find such another. On this account I am hoping that the\nideals and accomplishments of Your Excellency may be crowned with\nsuccess and yield results under all conditions, because behind these\nideals and deeds I easily discern the eternal welfare and prosperity\nof the world of humanity.\n\n'This servant, in order to gain first-hand information and experience,\nentered into the ranks of various religions; that is, outwardly I\nbecame a Jew, Christian, Mohammedan, and Zoroastrian.  I discovered\nthat the devotees of these various religions do nothing else but hate\nand anathematize each other, that all these religions have become the\ninstruments of tyranny and oppression in the hands of rulers and\ngovernors, and that they are the causes of the destruction of the\nworld of humanity.\n\n'Considering these evil results, every person is forced by necessity\nto enlist himself on the side of Your Excellency and accept with joy\nthe prospect of a fundamental basis for a universal religion of God\nbeing laid through your efforts.\n\n'I have seen the father of Your Excellency from afar. I have realized\nthe self-sacrifice and noble courage of his son, and I am lost in\nadmiration.\n\n'For the principles and aims of Your Excellency I express the utmost\nrespect and devotion, and if God, the Most High, confers long life, I\nwill be able to serve you under all conditions.  I pray and supplicate\nthis from the depths of my heart.--Your servant, VAMBERY.'\n\n(Published in the _Egyptian Gazette_, Sept. 24, 1913, by\nMrs. J. Stannard.)\n\n\n\nBAHAI BIBLIOGRAPHY\n\nBROWNE, Prof. E. G.--_A Traveller's Narrative_. Written to\n  illustrate the Episode of the B\u0101b.  Cambridge, 1901.\n\n  _The New History_. Cambridge, 1893.\n\n  _History of the B\u00e1b\u00eds_. Compiled by H\u00e1jji M\u00edrz\u00e1 J\u00e1n\u00ed of\n  K\u00e1sh\u00e1n between the years A.D. 1850 and 1852. Leyden, 1910.\n\n  'Babism,' article in _Encyclopaedia of Religions_.\n  Two Papers on B\u0101b\u012bsm in _JRAS_. 1889.\n\nCHASE, THORNTON.--_In Galilee_. Chicago, 1908.\n\nDREYFUS, HIPPOLYTE.--_The Universal Religion; Bahaism_. 1909.\n\nGOBINEAU, M. LE COMTE DE.--_Religions et Philosophies dans l'Asie\n  Centrale_. Paris. 2nd edition, Paris, 1866.\n\nHAMMOND, ERIC.--_The Splendour of God_. 1909.\n\nHOLLEY, HORACE.--_The Modern Social Religion_. 1913.\n\nHUART, CLEMENT.--_La Religion du Bab_. Paris, 1889.\n\nNICOLAS, A. L. M.--_Seyy'ed Ali Mohammed, dit Le Bab_. Paris, 1905.\n\n  _Le B\u00e9y\u00e2n Arabe_. Paris, 1905.\n\nPHELPS, MYRON H.--_Life and Teachings of Abbas Effendi_. New\n  York, 1914.\n\nR\u00d6MER, HERMANN.--_Die B\u0101b\u012b-Beh\u0101'\u012b, Die j\u00fcngste\n  muhammedanische Sekte._ Potsdam, 1912.\n\nRICE, W. A.--'Bahaism from the Christian Standpoint,' _East and\n  West_, January 1913.\n\nSKRINE, F. H.--_Bahaism, the Religion of Brotherhood and its place\n  in the Evolution of Creeds._ 1912.\n\nWILSON, S. G.--'The Claims of Bahaism,' _East and West_, July\n  1914.\n\nWorks of the B\u0100B, BAHA-'ULLAH, ABDUL BAHA, and ABU'L FAZL:\n\n  _L'\u00c9p\u00eetre au Fils du Loup._ Baha-'ullah. Traduction\n  fran\u00e7aise par H. Dreyfus. Paris, 1913.\n\n  _Le Beyan arabe._ Nicolas. Paris, 1905.\n\n  _The Hidden Words._ Chicago, 1905.\n\n  _The Seven Valleys._ Chicago.\n\n  _Livre de la Certitude._ Dreyfus. Paris, 1904.\n\n  _The Book of Ighan._ Chicago.\n\nWorks of ABDUL BAHA:\n\n  _Some Answered Questions._ 1908.\n\n  _Tablets._ Vol. i. Chicago, 1912.\n\nWork by MIRZA ABU'L FAZL:\n\n  _The Brilliant Proof._ Chicago, 1913.\n\n\nLAUS DEO","title":"The Reconciliation of Races and Religions","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":49463}