l"^ ABBAS CFFEN HIS LIFE AND TEACHINGS PHELPS ABBAS EFFENDI Photo by Boissonnas & Taponier, Paris LIFE AND TEACHINGS OF ABBAS EFFENDI A STUDY OF THE RELIGION OF THE BASIS, OR BEHA'IS FOUNDED BY THE PERSIAN BAB AND BY HIS SUC- CESSORS, BEHA ULLAH AND ABBAS EFFENDI BY MYRON H. PHELPS of the New Y(j/k Bar WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY EDWARD GRANVILLE BROWNE, M.A., M.R.A.S. Fellow of Pembroke College, Sir Thomas Adams' Professor of Arabic and some time Lecturer in Persian in the University of Cambridge, Author of " A Traveller's Narrative " 11 The New History of Mirza 'All Muhammad the Bab," etc. SECOND, G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS NEW YORK AND LONDON Umfcfeerbocfeer press 1912 l\t( COPYRIGHT, 1903 BY MYRON H. PHELPS COPYRIGHT, 1912 BY MYRON H. PHELPS FOR SECOND, REVISED, EDITION Ube fmfcfeerbocfter press, Hew $orft To THE COUNTESS M. A. DE S. CANAVARRO TO WHOM I SHALL ALWAYS FEEL A DEEP OBLIGATION FOR HAVING DIRECTED MY ATTENTION TO THE REAL CHARACTER AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE BEHA'l MOVE- MENT, AND TO THE ASSISTANCE OF WHOSE CLEAR INSIGHT SUCH SUCCESS AS I MAY HAVE HAD IN REACHING A CORRECT APPRECIATION AND UNDER- STANDING OF THE TEACHINGS OF ABBAS EFFENDI IS VERY LARGELY DUE, THIS BOOK IS GRATEFULLY DEDICATED PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION TN the first edition of this book a chapter * was given to the philosophy and psychology of the religion. It was there stated that a conditional after-life only was taught an after- life dependent upon the good use made of present-life opportunities. This portion of the book elicited a good deal of discussion and was thought by many to be an inaccurate statement of the teachings of the faith. While much pains had been taken to reach a correct under- standing of this matter, translations and re- translations having been repeatedly made, I was aware that the abstruse nature of the sub- ject and the consequent difficulties of trans- lation had made errors only too possible, and I accordingly availed myself of the first op- portunity to revisit Syria and lay the question before Abbas Effendi or, as he prefers to be called, Abdul Beha himself. This I was able to do in December, 1909. just seven years after my first visit to those hospitable shores. vi PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION I found the great Teacher at Haifa, hardly, if at all, older in appearance and as genial, cordial, and inspiring as before. My stay was necessarily brief, but I had a number of inter- views with him and thoroughly satisfied myself that in the particular referred to I had indeed mistaken the meaning of his words and that the expressions which I had interpreted to indicate the annihilation of unworthy individu- alities meant only the entry into states of aloofness from God, and consequent gloom, termed " death " in comparison with the radi- ant bliss of the " friends " in the immediate presence of the " Beloved." At the time of this visit to Haifa I proposed to make soon the necessary changes for a corrected edition of the book, but since then I have been travelling continuously and have not had sufficient leisure to accomplish this. I am now informed that the first edition is about exhausted, and that if the book is to be kept in print another edition must be issued at once. Meanwhile, my notes of the Haifa conversations have become separated from me in the course of my travels and will not again be accessible for a considerable time, hence the only course left open to me, if an edition is to be issued now, is to omit entirely the chapter PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION vii containing the erroneous statement, trusting to the occasion of a future edition to re-write it or supply its place with the Haifa discourses. On consideration, I have decided to pursue this course, the more readily, as I believe that the book as it stands, when taken in connection with these prefatory remarks, contains a fairly comprehensive, though of course not a minutely detailed, exposition of the principles of the faith. M. H. P. CALCUTTA INDIA, January 6, 1912. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE INTRODUCTION BY PROF. E. G. BROWNE . xi INTRODUCTORY xxxi I. THE MASTER OF AKKA i II. THE STORY OF HIS LIFE: TEHERAN AND BAGHDAD n III. THE STORY OF HIS LIFE (Continued}-. CON- STANTINOPLE AND ADRIANOPLE . 27 IV. THE STORY OF HIS LIFE (Continued}'. AKKA 55 V. THE STORY OF HIS LIFE (Concluded}: AKKA 73 VI. CHARACTERISTICS AND INCIDENTS . . 95 VII. ETHICS AND CONDUCT . . . .114 VIII. ATTITUDE TOWARDS OTHER RELIGIONS: ESSENTIAL NATURE OF BEHA'ISM . 127 IX. DISCOURSES 149 THE STANDARDS OE TRUTH NATURE OF GOD AND THE UNIVERSE PERSISTENCE OF NATURAL QUALITIES DIVINE AND EARTHLY NATURE SPIRIT ix x CONTENTS :HAPTER FAGB THE PERCEIVING SOUL STATES OF THE PERCEIVING SOUL THE HOLY SPIRIT X. DISCOURSES (Continued) . . . . 177 PARABLE OF THE SEED REINCARNATION THE WORLDS OF DARKNESS AND LIGHT THE WORLDS OF GOD THE PERCEPTION OF TRUTH How THE EYES OF MAN ARE VEILED THE PROOF OF A DIVINE TEACHER THE HEAVENLY WISDOM THE MEANING OF SUFFERING XI. DISCOURSES (Conti?med) .... 205 HEAVEN AND HELL THE Two SORTS OF HAPPINESS LOVE LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP LOVE AND CONCORD TALK TO CHILDREN THE POOR PRAYER FROM THE WRITINGS OF BEHA ULLAH XII. CONCLUSION 234 INDEX 241 INTRODUCTION NOT by my own seeking, but only at the request of my old friend, Mr. G. H. Putnam, the publisher of this book, and, as Mr. Putnam informs me, by the wish of the author, Mr. Myron Phelps, whose acquaintance I had the pleasure of making in the early part of this year in Cairo, do_ I write these intro- ductory words to a work which I have read with equal pleasure and satisfaction, and which I regard as a faithful and trustworthy exposition of the views of 'Abbas Effendi, " the Master of 'Akkd," and his followers. So faithfully, indeed, does it represent their stand- point that, notwithstanding the fact that Mr. Phelps was not sufficiently conversant with Persian or Arabic to enable him to commu- nicate directly with him whose life and teach- ing he here describes, but was dependent on the offices of interpreters, the whole book is to me full of familiar echoes of the voices to which I so eagerly listened when I visited 'Akka thirteen years ago, in the days when xi xii INTRODUCTION Behd'u'llah himself still dwelt amongst man- kind. To the study of the Babi religion I was irresistibly attracted, even before I undertook my journey to Persia in 1887-88, by the vivid and masterly narrative of its birth and baptism of blood contained in the Comte de Gobi- neau's Religions et Philosophies dans I ' Asie Centrale a narrative which no one interested in the Babi (or, if the term be preferred, Beha'i) faith, or indeed in the history of relig- ion in general, should on any account omit to read with careful attention. My enthusiasm was still further increased by what I saw of the Babis in Persia, and by my subsequent visits to Beha'u'llah at 'Akka and to his rival, Subh-i-Ezel, at Famagusta in Cyprus. It was under the influence of this enthusiasm that I penned the Introduction (several times cited by Mr. Phelps in the following pages) to my translation of the Traveller s Narrative, a book which has been much more eagerly and widely read in America than in this coun- try, where, at the time of its publication, the very name of the Babis, now grown familiar even to readers of the daily press, was hardly known to the general public. This enthu- siasm, condoned, if not shared, by many kindly INTRODUCTION xiii critics and reviewers, exposed me to a some- what savage attack in the Oxford Magazine, an attack concluding with the assertion that my Introduction displayed " a personal atti- tude almost inconceivable in a rational Euro- pean, and a style unpardonable in a University teacher." 1 1 The review in question appeared in the Oxford Magazine of May 25, 1892, p. 394. Amongst many other egregious observations, the reviewer, " speaking candidly as a layman," considers that " the his- tory of a recent sect which has affected the least important part of the Moslem world (nor that part very deeply) and is founded on a personal claim which will not bear investigation for a moment " is "quite unworthy of the learning and labour which" (he was kind enough to say) "the author has brought to bear upon it"; while, in the closing sentence, he " records his belief that the prominence given to the ' Bab ' in this book is an absurd violation of historical perspec- tive ; and the translation of the Traveller 's Narrative a waste of the powers and opportunities of a Persian scholar." I am well aware that it is generally considered undignified and improper for an author to take any notice of his critics, or even to admit that their strictures have caused him more than a moment- ary vexation ; and towards the more irresponsible reviewers of jour- nals which do not profess to represent the opinions of a cultivated circle such indifference is undoubtedly the correct attitude. But the Oxford Magazine at any rate outside Oxford is supposed to be a serious exponent of the ideas and judgments of that University ; and one has the right to expect that a work treating of an Oriental religious movement shall not be judged by one who, however great an authority he may be on classical archaeology, knows so little even of Islam that he can speak of the originator of the Wahhabi movement as " Wahhab " (and even this he incorrectly writes, " Wahab ") ; a blunder comparable to that of the Turkish journalist who, desirous of making display of his proficiency in French, employed the remarkable word " top jet" (hardly recognised as standing for " numfro d'objet"} in the sense of "catalogue number"; or xiv INTRODUCTION Increasing age and experience, (more 's the pity !) are apt enough, even without the assist- ance of the Oxford Magazine, to modify our enthusiasms ; but in this case at least time has so far vindicated my judgment against that of my Oxford reviewer that he could scarcely now maintain, as he formerly asserted, that the Babi religion " had affected the least im- portant part of the Moslem world, and that not deeply." Every one who is in the slight- est degree conversant with the actual state of things in Persia now recognises that the num- ber and influence of the Babis in that country is immensely greater than it was fifteen years ago, and the conviction which I heard contin- ually expressed this year in Babi circles at Cairo, that in the course of a very short time their religion would reign paramount in their own country, and break down once and for all the power of the Shi'ite Muhammadan mujtahids and mullds, is seriously discussed as a possi- bility by European diplomatists and consular officers. But without doubt the most remarkable tri- of the English bard who talks of "Abdul the Damned." The veriest tyro in Arabic would know that only God could be spoken of as al-Wahhab, " the All-Giver," and that 'Abd (servant) must stand before it to make it a possible name for a man 'Abdu'l-Wahhab, " the Servant of the All-Giver." INTRODUCTION xv umph of the Beha"'i religion (for the older Babi doctrine out of which this has grown, now pre- served in its primitive form only amongst the followers of Subh-i-Ezel, has been little studied or appreciated across the Atlantic) is the mar- vellous success achieved in recent years by its missionaries in the United States of America, where, as I understand, the number of believers may now be counted by thousands, not con- fined to one State or city, but represented in almost all the more important towns. Once again in the world's history has the East vindi- cated her claim to teach religion to the West, and to hold in the Spiritual World that pre- eminence which the Western nations hold in the Material. I have often heard wonder expressed by Christian ministers at the extraordinary suc- cess of Babi missionaries, as contrasted with the almost complete failure of their own. " How is it," they say, " that the Christian Doctrine, the highest and noblest which the world has ever known, though supported by all the resources of Western civilisation, can only count its converts in Muhammadan lands by twos and threes, while Babiism can reckon them by thousands?" The answer, to my mind, is plain as the sun at midday. Western xvi INTRODUCTION Christianity, save in the rarest cases, is more Western than Christian, more racial than re- ligious ; and, by dallying with doctrines plainly incompatible with the obvious meaning of its Founder's words, such as the theories of "racial supremacy," " imperial destiny," " survival of the fittest," and the like, grows steadily more rather than less material. Did Christ belong to a " dominant race," or even to a European or " white " race ? Nay, the " dominant race " was represented by Pontius Pilate, the gov- ernor, who was compelled to abandon his personal leanings towards clemency under constraint of " political necessities " arising out of Rome's " imperial destiny." Did Christ wish to encourage the racial pride of the Jews when He told them that God was " able of these stones to raise up children unto Abra- ham " ? or did He seek to emphasise the strength of blood-relationship when He de- clared that " whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother " ? Who of- fered Him " all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them," and how was that offer received ? Was it the proud in spirit to whom He promised the kingdom of heaven ? or those who said unto Him : " Lord, Lord," and prophe- INTRODUCTION xvii sied in His name ? Or, to pass to the teach- ings of His apostles, did Paul declare that there was a wide difference between the Jew and the Greek ? Was it he who proclaimed that " East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet " ? Or did he assert with the Darwinians that " God hath chosen the mighty things of the world to confound the things which are weak " ? I am not here arguing that the Christian re- ligion is true, but merely that it is in manifest conflict with several other theories of life which practically regulate the coaduct of all States and most individuals in the Western world, a world which, on the whole, judges of all things, including religions, mainly by material, or, to use the more popular term, " practical " stand- ards. Mr. Phelps goes, perhaps, rather too far when he says (p. 252 infra) that " God and religion are but names and shadows to the Western world," and I would even hesitate to assert that anything equal to the rare and beautiful types of Christian character occa- sionally met with can be produced by any other religion or philosophy ; but that ideas about the Unseen Spiritual World count for much more, and material standards and quali- ties for much less, in Asia than in the West, xviii INTRODUCTION is to me quite certain. Even Muhammadan- ism, though in theory more exclusive than Christianity (since it is almost inextricably as- sociated with a recognition of the superiority of the Arabian race and language over all other peoples and tongues) is in practice much less so. To give one instance only ; the Asi- atic, no less than the European or American, looks down on the African negro as vastly in- ferior to himself, and has the same aversion towards his physical attributes ; yet the negro Muhammadan enjoys a far better social posi- tion amongst his co-religionists in the East than does his Christian kinsman in the West. He is not even debarred from intermarriage with his fellow-believers of the superior race, much less from sitting at meat with them or mixing in their society ; whilst many even of the most excellent and earnest Christian mis- sionaries not to speak of laymen whom Eu- rope and America send to Asia and Africa would be far less shocked at the idea of receiv- ing on terms of intimacy in their house or at their table a white-skinned atheist than a dark- skinned believer. The dark-skinned races to whom the Christian missionaries go are not fools, and have no object in practising that curious self-deception wherewith so many ex- INTRODUCTION xix cellent and well-meaning European and Ameri- can Christians blind themselves to the obvious fact that they attach much more importance to race than religion ; they clearly see the incon- sistency of those who, while professing to be- lieve that the God they worship incarnated Himself in the form of an Asiatic man, for this is what it comes to, do nevertheless ha- bitually and almost instinctively express, both in speech and action, contempt for the " native" of Asia. Yet surely some sentiment surrounds, even to the least imaginative, the tenement, were it the humblest, which has been inhabited by one we love. There is, of course, another factor in the success of the Babi propagandist, as compared with the Christian missionary, in the conver- sion of Muhammadans to his faith : namely, that the former admits, while the latter re- jects, the divine inspiration of the Qur'an and the prophetic function of Muhammad. The Christian missionary must begin by at- tacking, explicitly or by implication, both these beliefs ; too often forgetting that if (as hap- pens but rarely) he succeeds in destroying them, he destroys with them that recognition of former prophetic dispensations (including the Jewish and the Christian) which Muhammad xx INTRODUCTION and the Qur'an proclaim, and converts his Muslim antagonist not to Christianity but to Scepticism or Atheism. What indeed could be more illogical on the part of Christian mis- sionaries to Muhammadan lands than to de- vote much time and labour to the composition of controversial works which endeavour to prove, in one and the same breath, first, that the Qur'an is a lying imposture, and, secondly, that it bears witness to the truth of Christ's mission, as though any value attached to the testimony of one proved a liar ! The Babi (or Beha'i) propagandist, on the other hand, admits that Muhammad was the Prophet of God and that the Qur'an is the Word of God, denies nothing but their finality, and does not discredit his own witness when he draws from that source arguments to prove his faith. To the Western observer, however, it is the complete sincerity of the Babis, their fearless disregard of death and torture undergone for the sake of their religion, their certain convic- tion as to the truth of their faith, their gener- ally admirable conduct towards mankind, and especially towards their fellow-believers, which constitute their strongest claim on his atten- tion. Their doctrine, as even Mr. Phelps ad- INTRODUCTION xxi mits (p. 144 infra), is at most a new synthesis of old ideas ; ideas with which the Eastern mind has for centuries been familiar, and which have ere now, as I think, been more clearly and logically systematised by older schools of thought, though perhaps without a certain tincture of modern Western notions (or more correctly, perhaps, of modern Western termin- ology) which is perceptible in these pages. At every turn we are face to face with some familiar echo of a past more or less remote : now of the Manichaeans (as on p. 85), now of the Isma'ili propagandists (as on p. 154), now of the early Sufis (as on p. 233). Here we are reminded of a line of Sa'di (p. 132), there, of Jalalu'd-Din Rumi (pp. 135 and 226), there, of Faridu'd-Din 'Attar (pp. 174 and 180), there, of Shams-i-Tabriz (pp. 224 and 255), there, of Hafiz (p. 227). Nothing more strongly testifies to the fidelity of Mr. Phelps's presentation of his subject than the clearness of these echoes from a literature with which, to the best of my knowledge, he is unacquainted: Throughout his book the voice is Persian, though the words are English. So far I am at one with the author as to the weakening hold of the Christian idea on the Western nations, the increasing materialism xxii INTRODUCTION of their ethical, social, and political stand- ards, and the need of some fresh spiritual impulse amongst them. Such impulse, Mr. Phelps is disposed to think, if I understand him aright, may be supplied by the teachings of Beha'u'llah and his son and spiritual suc- cessor, 'Abbas Effendi. Here, I confess, so far, at least, as the West is concerned, I am much more doubtful. The system in question appears to me to contain enough of the mys- terious and the transcendental to make its intellectual acceptance at least as difficult as the theology of most Christian churches to the European sceptic ; and not enough assur- ance of personal immortality to satisfy such Western minds as are repelled by the barren and jejune ethical systems of agnostics, posi- tivists, and humanitarians, who would give us rules to regulate a life which they have ren- dered meaningless. Mr. Phelps emphasises the high ethical standard inculcated by Beha'u'llah and 'Abbas Effendi on their followers, and ad- mires, as all who have associated on terms of intimacy with the Babis (or Behd'is) must ad- mire, the strong influence which this standard actually exerts on their conduct. Here again I am entirely with him, for, though I do not admit that the Beha'i or any other religion INTRODUCTION xxiii can supply a rule of life higher than that which Christ has given us, I freely allow that the average Babi or Beha'i is very much more consistent than the average Christian. But in making such comparison it must be remem- bered that the Beha'i religion enjoys two great advantages, so far as this point of view is concerned, over Christianity, Muhammadan- ism, or any other of the older world-religions : namely, its freedom from those lukewarm ad- herents who are born, or gravitate from mere indifference, into whatever established faith dominates their environment, and its freedom from the power, and hence from the temptation, to persecute. Almost every Babi or Beha'i is in earnest because still, little more than half a century after the Bab's martyrdom, the number of those born into this faith is less than the num- ber of those who have voluntarily and deliber- ately adopted it ; while the great majority of Jews, Christians, and Muhammadans are what they are simply by reason of the circumstances of their birth. And though Mr. Phelps (pp. xxxvii and 154-155) insists strongly on the tol- erance of the new faith as at present formulated (for the early Ba"bis were frankly intolerant, especially towards their Shi'ite persecutors, as most abundantly appears from the Persian xxiv INTRODUCTION Baydn, written by the Ba*b, and from the history composed by Hajji Mirza Jam, his contempo- rary disciple), I cannot wholly share his confi- dence as to how the Beha'is would treat either the Shi'ite Muhammadans, the Sufis, or the Ezelis (against all of whom they have, for dif- ferent reasons, a special grudge) if they should one day, as is within the range of possibility, become paramount in Persia. Towards other religions, especially Christianity, they would, I believe, be more tolerant than are the Mu- hammadans, not because they are at all more disposed than the latter to be converted by them, but because they regard them as afford- ing material more apt for their own endeav- ours to proselytise. But though, in the event of their succeeding in making their religion dominant in Persia, they, might, as I think, prove scarcely more tolerant than the present mujtahids and mullds, especially in the particu- lar cases above indicated, they would, I am convinced, prove infinitely more progressive, and Persia as a country might not improbably gain enormously both in wealth and power by the change. There are many other points raised by Mr. Phelps's interesting pages on which I should like to touch, but which the limits assigned INTRODUCTION X xv to me compel me to leave unnoticed. He has done more than collect, arrange, and interpret the philosophical and ethical ideas of the Be- ha'i Babis ; he has in many cases educed from their leaders, by his own patient enquiries, doctrines now probably for the first time form- ulated by them in writing. Three observations made amongst the Babis in Persia caused me great surprise, being quite contrary to my pre- conceptions, though perhaps natural enough in the light of the comparative history of re- ligions. The first was the generally prevail- 1 ing uncertainty as to the authorship of many of their own religious books, especially those of the earlier period (from the Manifestation of the Bab in 1844 till the Manifestation of Be- ha'u'llah about 1863), or, in other words, the complete absence of a Canon of Scripture. The second was the varying and unfixed char-j acter of their doctrine on many points (such as the Immortality of the Soul) which we should deem of capital importance. The third was \ their readiness to ignore or suppress facts, writings, or views (undoubtedly historical) which they regarded as useless or hurtful to their present aims. The only essentials in Beha i eyes are the love of Beha u'llah and his accredited successor, the belief in their Divine xxvi INTRODUCTION character, and the eager desire to hearken to the reading of their words, contained in countless epistles or " tablets " (alwdti), which are for the most part rhapsodies interspersed with ethical maxims, most rarely touching on questions of Metaphysics, Ontology, or Eschat- ology. This (which had also, as I found, struck Mr. Phelps, who, like myself, was chiefly anxious to learn how the new religion dealt with the subjects last mentioned) is, I fancy, part of a deliberate purpose on the part of Beha u'llah and 'Abbas Effendi to discour- age that essentially Persian passion for specu- lative Metaphysics which threatened, especially during the two or three years succeeding the Bab's martyrdom (1850-1853), to destroy all order and discipline in the young church by suffering each member to become a law unto himself, and by producing as many " Manifesta- tions " as there were Babis. In the study of a religion we may, according to our standpoint, look chiefly either at the Process by which it was formed or the Result at which it arrives, and these two points of view differ as widely as Embryology differs from Ethics. Mr. Phelps has written chiefly from the latter point of view, while I have perhaps inclined to the former. Some time ago I had INTRODUCTION xxvii the pleasure of meeting an English diplomatist freshly returned from Persia, who had held repeated and intimate conversations with many of the Persian Babis, and who possessed an insight into the Persian mind which I have hardly seen equalled in my experience, save, perhaps, by that displayed by the late Comte de Gobineau in his Religions et Philosophies dans I'Asie Centrale, to which I have already had occasion to refer in this Introduction. Three of his remarks, especially, have re- mained in my memory, and since they bear on matters discussed in this Introduction, I may perhaps be permitted to conclude with them, since to me they have afforded much food for reflection. Speaking first of my own writings about the Babis, especially my translation of the New History, he observed that several of his Ba*bi friends greatly disliked my attempts to trace the evolution of Babi doctrine from that of the Shi'a sect of Muhammadans, through that of the Shaykhi school (in which the Bab and many of his earliest disciples were educated), to the forms which it successively assumed in the hands of the Bab and his followers. " They regard you," he concluded, "as one who, hav- ing before his eyes a beautiful flower, is not xxviii INTRODUCTION content to enjoy its beauty and fragrance, but must needs grub at its roots to ascertain from what foul manure it derived its sustenance. As for the History of Hajji Mirza Jam, which you regard as of such incomparable interest on account of the light which it throws on va- rious conflicting tendencies and rash deeds and doctrines which agitated the young Babi church, I do not doubt, from what they said, that they would, if possible, compass the destruction of the one surviving copy of the book, to which, unfortunately as they consider, you obtained access." Speaking next of my visits to Subh-i-Ezel, and my endeavours fairly to state and fully to discuss his version of the schism which first rent asunder the Babi church (since Beha'- u'llah's death again divided by another schism, to which Mr. Phelps briefly alludes on pp. 80- 82 infra), he remarked : " The question here was not a mere question of historical rights or documentary evidence, but the much greater question as to whether Babiism was to become an independent world-religion, or remain a mere sect of Islam. In the struggle between Subh-i-Ezel and Beha'u'llah we see a repeti- tion of the similar conflict which took place in the early Christian Church between Peter and INTRODUCTION xxix Paul. The former was in closer personal relations with Christ than the latter; but it is owing to the victory of the latter that Christianity is now the religion of the civilised West, instead of being an obscure sect of Judaism." Lastly, replying to an expression of wonder on my part that, with no fixed or prominent idea of personal immortality, or of rewards in a future life, the Babis should, with hardly a single exception, meet the martyr's death, when occasion arose, not merely with equanimity, but with exultation, he said : " Is it possible for you to wonder at this ? If so, you must surely have lost touch with the Persian mind, and have forgotten what is meant in its language of metaphor by ' the Loved One,' ' the Wine,' 'the Cup-bearer,' and 'Intoxication." And even as he spoke a dimness cleared, as it were, from my mental vision, nurtured latterly too much on dead Persian books and too little on the words of living Persian men, and I seemed to see (and to understand in the seeing) Sulay- man KMn, one of the Ba*bi martyrs of 1852, as, pierced with deep wounds, in each of which burned a lighted wick, he hastened, as a bride- groom to his bride, to the place of execution, singing with exultation : xxx INTRODUCTION " Yak dast jdm-i-bdda, wa yak dast zulf-i- Ydr Raqsi chuntn miydna-i-mayddnam drztist.'" "Grasping in one hand the Wine-cup, clinging to my Darling's hair, Gaily dancing, thus would I confront the scaffold in the square." E. G. BROWNE. CAMBRIDGE, Sept. 27, 1903, INTRODUCTORY rthe student of the development of hu- man thought, there is probably not in the world to-day another place so interesting as the small city of Akka in northern Palestine ; for there may be investigated, still in its youth and under the fostering care of one of its founders, a religious faith which gives promise of becoming, at no very distant time, one of the recognised great religions of the world. Whatever we may think of the pretensions which it makes to divine origin, whatever our opinion as to the validity of the system of morals and social ethics which it advocates, or of the truth or error of the psychological and philosophical views which it advances, we can hardly doubt that we are here in the presence of a great force, destined to have a far-reach- ing influence upon the thought and lives of men. Fascinating indeed are those mysterious and mighty movements which, now and again, with a certain rhythmic sequence and regularity, XXXI xxxii INTRODUCTION have from the earliest days swept over the earth, revivifying spiritual life, changing indi- vidual habits and social customs, and, during many succeeding centuries, moulding the lives of vast masses of mankind. A Confucius, a Zoroaster, a Buddha, a Christ, a Mahomet, is born as other men, lives the ordinary span of human life, and dies as others, but by his brief presence the face of the world is changed. What is the character, what are the daily lives, of those remarkable beings who have such unlimited influence over their fellow-men as the founders of religions ? How do such men act, how do they speak, what do they teach ? What is the apparent nature of the bond which unites to them and to each other the men about them who play the important parts in these history-making epochs ? There are no questions of greater human interest than these. If we have here before us, subject to our inspection, inviting our in- vestigations, and ready to reply to our ques- tions, one who, there is reason to believe, may even possibly be such a man if, moreover, this man advances a philosophy new to us, which assumes to illumine the ever-baffling mystery of existence and is not without per- suasive force, it would be passing strange if we INTRODUCTION xxxiii should let go by the opportunity afforded by his presence of studying his life and character and weighing carefully his words. It is considerations of this sort which, as it seems to me, now invite our attention to Akka. The interest which centres in this city arises from the fact that here have lived for upwards of thirty-four years the leaders of the religion of Babism, or Beha'ism, natives of Persia, who are suffering exile and imprisonment because of their religious innovations. This movement was inaugurated in Persia in 1844 by one Ali Mohammed, a youth of twenty-five years, who in that year announced himself to be the " Bab " (Gate), a term familiar to Moslems, and by which is understood an avenue for the transmission to men of messages from a super- human source. As expressed by one of his followers, Ali Mohammed meant by this term " that he was the channel of grace from some great Person still behind the veil of glory, who was the possessor of countless and boundless perfections, by whose will he moved and to the bond of whose love he clung." The mission which Ali Mohammed asserted for himself was the inauguration of a new Divine Dispensation which should be for mankind a revelation of the Divine Will and xxxiv INTRODUCTION should result in reforming the beliefs and lives of mankind ; in which dispensation he was but the forerunner preparing the way for one greater than he, who would be the direct Manifestation of God who would, when he came, fully reveal the Divine message, and to whom all that he (the Bab) said was to be regarded as subject and subordinate. Ali Mohammed supported his claims by passages from the scriptures, and by the traditions of the Moslem Church, which he interpreted as forecasting the appearance of a Divine Messenger at the very time when he himself had announced his mission, but chiefly by the eloquent and elaborate disquisitions which ever flowed from his lips, seemingly inex- haustible in volume and fertility of reasoning. Whether because of the validity of his appeal to scripture and tradition, the cogency of his reasoning, the force of his eloquence, or be- cause of his spiritual power, all of which re- sources his followers unite in ascribing to him in a high degree, Ali Mohammed found many to accept him. Zealous missionaries went out from him through all Persia, and his following rapidly became considerable. The Moslem priesthood, apprehensive for their influence, united to repress by force the rising tide of the INTRODUCTION xxxv new faith. An era of bloody and relentless persecution followed, which has not, perhaps, been paralleled in history. Singly, and by hundreds, the Babis were hunted down and slaughtered. One's heart thrills with emotion, one's conception of the noble possibilities of human nature expands as one reads of the splendid and unflinching heroism of the Babis in the cause of their faith. Such was their love and loyalty to their leader that during the whole of the terrible time of persecution hardly a single instance of recantation in order to escape death occurred/ though the oppor- tunity was generally offered. Their spirit of absolute and self-forgetting devotion and love is well exemplified in the manner in which Mirza Kurban Ali, one of seven executed to- gether in Teheran in September, 1850, met his death. When he was brought to the foot of the execution pole, the headsman raised his sword and smote him from behind. The blow only wounded the old man's neck, and cast his turban upon the ground. He raised his head and exclaimed : " Oh, happy that intoxicated lover who, at the foot of his Beloved, knoweth not whether it be his head or his turban which he casteth." 1 1 A Traveller's Narrative, by Professor E. G. Browne, p. 214. xxxvi INTRODUCTION The number of martyrdoms which have taken place in Persia has been estimated at ten thousand. 1 Most of these occurred during the early history of the faith, but they have con- tinued with diminishing frequency, even down to the present time. In 1850 the Bab himself was executed at Tabriz. It had been expected that his death would check the spread of the religion, but this expectation was not realised. The Babis con- tinued to increase in numbers ; the persecu- tions became more intense. In 1852 a number of the leaders of the faith fled from Teheran to Baghdad, in the domains of the Sultan of Turkey. They remained here eleven years, were then transported by the Turkish Govern- ment to Adrianople, and five years later to Akka. In this band of exiles was one Mirza Haseyn Ali, belonging to a Persian family of distinction and great wealth, about thirty-five years of age at the time of the flight from Teheran. He had long been regarded by the Babis as a leader, and venerated for his wisdom and character. The Bab had conferred upon him the title of " Beha Ullah " (Glory of God). 1 This estimate is conservative. Many place the number at from twenty to thirty thousand, and some even higher. INTRODUCTION xxxvii Soon after reaching Baghdad, Beha Ullah withdrew from his family and spent two years alone in the mountains. He then returned to Baghdad and engaged in teaching and ex- pounding Babist doctrines. When the transfer of the exiles from Baghdad was ordered, Beha Ullah made to five of his closest followers the declaration that he himself was the Manifesta- tion of God who had been foretold by the Bab. This declaration was not publicly proclaimed until some four or five years later, from Adrian- ople. It was then accepted with substantial un- animity by the Babis, who have since that time generally styled themselves and been styled by others, " Beha'is." Beha Ullah occupied his remaining years almost entirely with writing, and has left many voluminous works, none of which, with the exception of some disconnected passages, have been translated into a Euro- pean language. He died at Akka in 1892, and was succeeded, at his own designation, by his son, Abbas Effendi, who has since continued to be the leader of the faith. He is styled " Our Master " and " Our Lord " by the Beha'is (by which they mean that he is a man who has reached the understanding and knowledge of God, and, being illumined by His wisdom, is fitted to teach and lead), and is regarded by xxxviii INTRODUCTION them with a veneration and affection second only, if indeed second, to that which they be- stow upon the memory of Beha Ullah. He is classed by them with the Bab and Beha Ullah as the third and last of the Divine Mes- sengers by whom the present Dispensation is introduced. Meanwhile the faith has shown undiminished vitality in Persia, where the number of its ad- herents is now estimated at several millions, 1 and it is said to be steadily increasing. Mis- sionaries have also gone out to various parts of the world, and the religion has already taken root in many countries. While spending the summer of 1902 in Lon- don, it happened that through friends I heard much of Beha'ism, which has adherents in Eng- land, as well as a much larger number in the United States. Having for many years given much attention to the study of philosophic and religious thought, the subject interested me. I took occasion to read up the history of the movement, and learned what I could of the 1 A traveller in Persia, recently writing in the Fortnightly Review, refers to the Beha'is as comprising something like half of the popula- tion of that country. This is no doubt an overestimate. But, on the other hand, published statistics must be taken as erring the other way, since great numbers of Beha'is do not declare themselves pub- licly, on account of the hostility to which they would be exposed. INTRODUCTION xxxix tenets of the religion. As to the former, I found that, chiefly owing to the careful and extended researches of Professor Edward G. Browne of Cambridge University, the results of whose work, so far as published, are con- tained in two volumes of translations, with co- pious note's, entitled respectively A Traveller s Narrative and The New History, and in two papers contributed to the Journal of the Royal] Asiatic Society for 1889, a full record of the 1 ' movement was easily accessible. To these sources I am chiefly indebted for the historical outline which I have given above. It appeared, however, more difficult to as- certain what were the teachings peculiar to the faith. I found much bearing upon the claims of the founders of the religion to divine in- spiration in the way of arguments drawn from the prophecies of the Mohammedan and other scriptures and traditions, and an elaborate code of social ethics ; but nothing of importance further than this. It seemed to me singular that a religion having the vitality and power of assimilation shown by the history of Beha'ism should have no philosophical or psychological basis for its moral precepts, and I felt a strong desire to ascertain by personal investigation whether such a basis did not exist. I accord- xl INTRODUCTION ingly made inquiries as to whether my pre- sence for this purpose would be acceptable at the headquarters of the faith, and after some correspondence, in which my wishes were fur- thered by friends who were known in Akka, I received an invitation to come there. This I ac- cordingly did, and spent in that city the month of December, 1 902. This month was one of the most memorable in my life ; for not only was I able to gain a satisfactory general view of this religion, but I made the acquaintance of Abbas Effendi, who is easily the most remarkable man whom it has ever been my fortune to meet. As I had suspected was the case, I found that Beha'ism possesses a system of philosophy and psychology. This system is logical, and to many minds will seem persuasive. It har- monises in every respect with the discoveries and conclusions of modern science, and makes a strong appeal to intelligent and reasoning thought. More even may be said than this ; for the conceptions of Beha'ism with regard to cosmogenesis, man and his relation to the uni- verse, bear an analogy which is very striking to the views discussed by the most advanced thinkers of the present day, arguing from scien- tific premises. ] On its ethical side, it has as high moral stan- INTRODUCTION xli dards as any of the other great religions ; while the social regulations which it advocates are certainly more enlightened than those which have generally been put forward in the name of religion. Another characteristic of Beha'ism, as re- freshing and attractive as it is striking to the mind accustomed to the dogmatic narrowness of the modern Christian Church, is its mar- vellous spirit of liberality. It recognises every other religion as equally divine in origin with itself. It professes only to renew the message formerly given by the Divine Messengers who founded those religions, and which has been more or less forgotten by men. If revelations have differed it has only been in degree, de- termined in the several cases by the differing capacities of men in different stages of human development to receive them. No man is asked to desert his own faith ; but only to look back to its fountainhead and discern, through the mists and accumulations of time, the true spirit of its founders. Further, I found that this faith does not ex- pend itself in beautiful and unfruitful theo- ries, but has a vital and effective power to mould life towards the very highest ideal of human character, which in the Western world INTRODUCTION is generally agreed, no doubt, to be that of Jesus of Nazareth, as exemplified by the life of its chief representative and the salient char- acteristics of those of his followers with whom I became acquainted. That there was in the world a religion hav- ing this character, and embodied in an actual, living, and strenuous movement, which, al- though new, has already shown great vitality, power of aggression, assimilation, and growth, was to me a revelation. I saw at once that there was in this mere spectacle, which I had had the fortune to see and understand, the potentiality of immense good to other nations of the world by impelling a recognition of the real strength and greatness of the spirit of true religion, under whatever external form it may appear, and stimulating a return to the purity and simplicity which have characterised all religions in their youth. Almost through- out the world to-day religion is stagnant and faith is dead ; but here is a demonstration that it is capable of revival. Such a spectacle as the ideal, Christlike life of Abbas Effendi has in it an immense probative and stimulating power. As a result of reflections of this kind came the impulse to prepare this book, in order to INTRODUCTION xliii make a permanent record, available to oth- ers, of the things which I have observed and learned. I shall first collect my observations and the information I have received from members of his family and others who were eye-witnesses of, or connected with, the occur- rences referred to, bearing upon the life and character of Abbas Effendi. This I regard as perhaps the most important part of my present undertaking : since nothing could so well serve to make plain the intended application of the doctrines taught, or could be so effective an incentive to aspiration and effort, as the ex- ample of this life. This portion of the book will include a narrative by his sister, Behiah Khanum, of the life of Abbas Effendi and the fortunes of the family of his father, Beha Ullah, from the time when they left Teheran in 1852. As the restrictions of Mohammedan social custom, which the Beha'is in Akka care- fully observe for the sake of peace and har- mony, prevented me from meeting this lady personally, this narrative was given by her in instalments to Madam M. A. de S. Canavarro, who was in Akka at the same time that I was, and by her repeated to me. Each instalment was written down within a few hours after it was received from Behiah Khanum. xliv INTRODUCTION I shall also say something as to the type of character which this faith tends to attract and develop, as indicated by that of those who compose the little band of Beha'is which share the exile of Abbas Effendi in Akka. I shall next give an outline of the philosophy and psychology upon which the ethical injunc- tions of the religion rest. To ascertain the views of Abbas Effendi upon these matters (as to which, as indeed all others, I was as- sured that his teachings are identical in every respect with those of Beha Ullah) was the most serious portion of my task ; such is the great difficulty of grasping the abstract ideas of those whose modes of thought are so differ- ent from ours, especially when expressed in a language so unlike bur own as the Persian. Had it not been for my familiarity with Ori- ental philosophic thought, I should have been quite unable to accomplish it. On this branch of the subject the teachings were not, for the most part, given to me in set discourses ac- companied by a word-for-word interpretation which could be set down in sequence, as was the case with most of the other matter which I received from Abbas Effendi, owing to the difficulty of transferring these abstruse ideas into English by the aid of the interpreters INTRODUCTION xlv available. They were chiefly imparted in informal conversations and as replies to ques- tions, which have been collected and system- atised. Next I shall proceed to a synopsis of the teachings of Beha'ism as to the conduct of life, or its conception of true religion as that term is ordinarily used ; and in order to give a complete view of the subject, I shall add the leading features of the elaborate code of social ethics enjoined by the leaders of the faith. It will, of course, be understood that I do not for a moment conceive that I have arrived at a full understanding of the tenets of the religion and the philosophy underlying it in all their scope and detail. The time which I have thus far given to the investigation is far too short for that ; nor, until the more im- portant of the voluminous writings of Beha Ullah, and those of Abbas Effendi, which are also considerable, shall have been accurately rendered into a European language, can we hope to have an exact and systematic analysis of it. But although it is, of course, possible that I may have been misled in some minor matters by faulty interpreting, I have checked and counterchecked my understanding of the statements made to me with such care that xlvi INTRODUCTION I am satisfied that in its essential points the presentation which I shall give of the salient features of the philosophy and tenets is sub- stantially correct. Nothing is quite so necessary to a just view of Beha'ism as a thorough comprehension of its attitude towards other religions. I have therefore thought it advisable to add a chap- ter dealing with this matter, which, in defining the relations which the faith conceives to exist between itself and the external world, neces- sarily touches upon its most intimate concep- tions of its own essential nature. For a correct understanding of the entire subject this is the most important chapter in the book ; and I would advise that it be read both before those dealing with philosophy and ethics, and also in the order in which it stands. Finally, I shall assemble a number of the dis- courses which I heard from Abbas Effendi during my stay in Akka, and which were, with the exceptions hereafter noted, taken down from the interpreter consecutively and sub- stantially as they appear here ; and to these I shall add one or two other discourses of Abbas Effendi, and a few passages from the writings of Beha Ullah, translations of which have been given to me by friends. INTRODUCTION xlvii I have already said that the narrative of Abbas Effendi's sister was given to me by Madam Canavarro ; further, we have worked together over all parts of the book. It might more properly have been published over our joint names ; but since she does not wish this, I am obliged to content myself with stating the facts. Without her clear insight and in- valuable aid it would never have reached its present form. I am aware that it has many deficiencies, and it is possible that I have fallen into some errors. Such defects as exist I hope to supply or correct in a future edition ; and I shall feel much indebted to my readers if they will call my attention to any which they may discover, addressing me in care of my publishers. M. H. P. CAIRO, March 8, 1903. LIFE AND TEACHINGS OF ABBAS EFFENDI CHAPTER I THE MASTER OF AKKA SMALL as this world is, boast as we may of our means of communication, how little we really know of other lands ; how slowly the actual thoughts, hopes, and aspirations of other peoples, the deep and real things of their lives, reach us, if they indeed ever reach us at all! We of the so-called "Christian" lands think, perhaps, that if Christ were to appear again upon the earth the good news would burden the telegraph, that His words and daily life would be marshalled forth under double headlines for our convenient perusal at breakfast or on the rapid-transit trains, giving us the interesting information without inter- rupting our important occupations. Ah no ! 2 THE MASTER OF AKKA We but deceive ourselves. The Man of Naza- reth might pursue His holy life on the banks of the Jordan and the shores of Gennesaret for a generation of men, but the faintest rumour of Him would not reach our minis- ters or our stockbrokers, our churches, or our exchanges. Imagine that we are in the ancient house of the still more ancient city of Akka, which was for a month my home. The room in which we are faces the opposite wall of a narrow paved street, which an active man might clear at a single bound. Above is the bright sun of Palestine ; to the right a glimpse of the old sea-wall and the blue Mediterranean. As we sit we hear a singular sound rising from the pavement, thirty feet below faint at first, and increasing. It is like the murmur of human voices. We open the window and look down. We see a crowd of human beings with patched and tattered garments. Let us descend to the street and see who these are. It is a noteworthy gathering. Many of these men are blind ; many more are pale, ema- ciated, or aged. Some are on crutches ; some are so feeble that they can barely walk. Most of the women are closely veiled, but enough are uncovered to cause us well to be- THE MASTER OF AKKA 3 lieve that, if the veils were lifted, more pain and misery would be seen. Some of them carry babes with pinched and sallow faces. There are perhaps a hundred in this gather- ing, and besides, many children. They are of all the races one meets in these streets Syrians, Arabs, Ethiopians, and many others. These people are ranged against the walls or seated on the ground, apparently in an atti- tude of expectation ; for what do they wait ? Let us wait with them. We have not to wait long. A door opens and a man comes out. He. is of middle stat- ure, strongly built. He wears flowing light- coloured robes. On his head is a light buff fez with a white cloth wound about it. He is perhaps sixty years of age. His long grey hair rests on his shoulders. His forehead is broad, full, and high, his nose slightly aquil- ine, his moustaches and beard, the latter full though not heavy, nearly white. His eyes are grey and blue, large, and both soft and pene- trating. His bearing is simple, but there is grace, dignity, and even majesty about his movements. He passes through the crowd, and as he goes utters words of salutation. We do not understand them, but we see the benignity and the kindliness of his counte- 4 THE MASTER OF AKKA nance. He stations himself at a narrow angle of the street and motions to the people to come towards him. They crowd up a little too insistently. He pushes them gently back and lets them pass him one by one. As they come they hold their hands extended. In each open palm he places some small coins. He knows them all. He caresses them with his hand on the face, on the shoulders, on the head. Some he stops and questions. An aged negro who hobbles up, he greets with some kindly inquiry ; the old man's broad face breaks into a sunny smile, his white teeth glistening against his ebony skin as he re- plies. He stops a woman with a babe and fondly strokes the child. As they pass, some kiss his hand. To all he says, " Marhabbah, marhabbah " " Well done, well done ! " So they all pass him. The children have been crowding around him with extended hands, but to them he has not given. How- ever, at the end, as he turns to go, he throws a handful of coppers over his shoulder, for which they scramble. During this time this friend of the poor has not been unattended. Several men wearing red fezes, and with earnest and kindly faces, followed him from the house, stood near him THE MASTER OF AKKA 5 and aided in regulating the crowd, and now, with reverent manner and at a respectful dis- tance, follow him away. When they address him they call him " Master." This scene you may see almost any day of the year in the streets of Akka. There are other scenes like it, which come only at the beginning of the winter season. In the cold weather which is approaching, the poor will suffer, for, as in all cities, they are thinly clad. Some day at this season, if you are advised of the place and time, you may see the poor of Akka gathered at one of the shops where clothes are sold, receiving cloaks from the Master. Upon many, especially the most in- firm or crippled, he himself places the gar- ment, adjusts it with his own hands, and strokes it approvingly, as if to say, " There ! Now you will do well." There are five or six hundred poor in Akka, to all of whom he gives a warm garment each year. On feast days he visits the poor at their homes. He chats with them, inquires into their health and comfort, mentions by name those who are absent, and leaves gifts for all. Nor is it the beggars only that he remem- bers. Those respectable poor who cannot beg, but must suffer in silence those whose daily 6 THE MASTER OF AKKA labor will not support their families to these he sends bread secretly. His left hand know- eth not what his right hand doeth. All the people know him and love him the rich and the poor, the young and the old even the babe leaping in its mother's arms. If he hears of any one sick in the city Mos- lem or Christian, or of any other sect, it mat- ters not he is each day at their bedside, or sends a trusty messenger. If a physician is needed, and the patient poor, he brings or sends one, and also the necessary medicine. If he finds a leaking roof or a broken window menacing health, he summons a workman, and waits himself to see the breach repaired. If any one is in trouble, if a son or a brother is thrown into prison, or he is threatened at law, or falls into any difficulty too heavy for him, it is to the Master that he straightway makes appeal for counsel or for aid. Indeed, for counsel all come to him, rich as well as poor. He is the kind father of all the people. This man who gives so freely must be rich, you think ? No, far otherwise. Once his fam- ily was the wealthiest in all Persia. But this friend of the lowly, like the Galilean, has been oppressed by the great. For fifty years he and his family have been exiles and prisoners. THE MASTER OF AKKA 7 Their property has been confiscated and wasted, and but little has been left to him. Now that he has not much he must spend lit- tle for himself that he may give more to the poor. His garments are usually of cotton, and the cheapest that can be bought. Often his friends in Persia for this man is indeed rich in friends, thousands and tens of thou- sands who would eagerly lay down their lives at his word send him costly garments. These he wears once, out of respect for the sender ; then he gives them away. A few months ago this happened. The wife of the Master was about to depart on a journey. Fearing that her husband would give away his cloak and so be left without one for himself, she left a sec- ond cloak with her daughter, charging her not to inform her father of it. Not long after her departure, the Master, suspecting, it would seem, what had been done, said to his daugh- ter, " Have I another cloak ? " The daughter could not deny it, but told her father of her mother's charge. The Master replied, " How could I be happy having two cloaks, knowing that there are those that have none ? " Nor would he be content until he had given the second cloak away. He does not permit his family to have lux- 8 THE MASTER OF AKKA uries. He himself eats but once a day, and then bread, olives, and cheese suffice him. His room is small and bare, with only a mat- ting on the stone floor. His habit is to sleep upon this floor. Not long ago a friend, think- ing that this must be hard for a man of ad- vancing years, presented him with a bed fitted with springs and mattress. So these stand in his room also, but are rarely used. " For how," he says, " can I bear to sleep in luxury when so many of the poor have not even shelter ? " So he lies upon the floor and cov- ers himself only with his cloak. For more than thirty-four years this man has been a prisoner at Akka. But his jailors have become his friends. The Governor of the city, the Commander of the Army Corps, respect and honour him as though he were their brother. No man's opinion or recommenda- tion has greater weight with them. He is the beloved of all the city, high and low. And how could it be otherwise ? For to this man it is the law, as it was to Jesus of Nazareth, to do good to those who injure him. Have we