Review of The Baha’is of Iran: Socio-Historical Studies edited by Dominic P. Brookshaw and Seena Fazel

Abstract

The Baha'is of Iran: Socio-Historical Studies. Edited by Dominic P. Brookshaw and Seena Fazel. London: Routledge (Routledge Advances in Middle East and Islamic Studies), 2008, xv + 283 pp.Despite the fact that, since its inception in the mid-nineteenth century, the Baha i Faith has been the largest religious minority in Iran, and despite the significant role that members of this community have played in important fields in modern Iranian history (such as education, health, women's advancement, and so on), the historiography on modern Iran, up to a decade ago, was devoid of any serious and thorough study of this community. The main reason for this academic abnormality has been the fact that no Iranian regime or government ever recognized the Baha'i Faith, because recognizing it would mean acknowledging that the same God who sent previous prophets (among whom are Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad) has sent a new prophet. This, in itself, would practically mean pulling down one of the main pillars of the Islamic religion, namely that the Prophet Muhammad is the Seal of the Prophets.Furthermore, for the Shi a (who have comprised the vast majority of the Iranian people since the Safavid period, in the sixteenth century) and especially the Shi'i clerical establishment, it would have meant acknowledging that God has sent down a new order in which there is no necessity for clerics. It is due to this main reason that anything related to the Baha i Faith or to Baha is has become taboo in Iran, and this, obviously, includes any study that sheds light on any constructive and positive role the Baha'is have played in Iran. One should, therefore, welcome this book, which is one of the more serious attempts not only to shed new light on the Baha i community in Iran, but also to analyze its role in the development of modern Iran.The book in question is a collection of eleven articles. The articles concern the latter Qajar, the Pahlavi, and the Islamic Republic periods. Thematically, they concern a range of subjects such as the conversion of other religious minorities in Iran to the Baha'i Faith; Baha'i ideas on, and the role of Baha is in, the promotion of the status of women, the advent of modern education, health, and constitutionalism; the persecution of the Baha is in Iran; and secular and Islamist anti-Baha i discourse in Iran.Apart from converts from the majority Shi'i population in Iran, converts to the Bahai Faith also came from the other two recognized religions. Mehrdad Amanat and Fereydun Vahman, in their articles, try to analyze the reasons that brought Jews and Zoroastrians, respectively-namely, members of two recognized and protected minorities in Iran-to convert to a new religion which not only was not officially recognized by the state and the Shi'i clerical establishment, but which also came out of Shi'i Islam and which had been persecuted in Iran during most of its history since its inception.According to Mehrdad Amanat, the main reasons Iranian Jews converted to the Baha i Faith seemed to be their messianic expectations coupled with the belief that their own religion did not provide the means to meet the challenges posed by the modern world. For those Jewish converts, the Baha i Faith seemed to meet those expectations and challenges. Messianic expectations as a reason explaining conversion to the Baha i Faith seems not to have been limited only to Iranian Jews, but as Vahman explains, also applied to Iranian Zoroastrians. Also, coming from an Iranocentric religion, members of the Zoroastrian community in Iran were attracted to the Baha i Faith because of its Iranian character (that is, its use of Persian as a sacred language alongside Arabic; the adoption of Naw-Ruz, the Iranian New Year, as the Baha i New Year as well; Iran being the birth place of the religion; and so on).Each of the next four articles in the book concerns Baha i perspectives and roles in a major field. The first article in this group could fit into the field of gender studies; in it the author, Dominic Brookshaw (who is also one of the co-editors of the book), surveys some 250 letters sent between 1870 to 1921 by Baha'u'llah and Abdu'1-Baha to Baha'i women from prominent Baha'i families in Iran and India. …