The crisis in Babi and Baha'i studies: part of a wider crisis in academic freedom?

Abstract

Bad reviews, like death and taxes, come to us all. But whereas we can hire undertakers to box up our mortal remains and accountants to plead with the faceless minions at Cumbernauld, it falls to ourselves to respond to the bad reviews. Good manners and, indeed, self-interest-for which of us has not written our share?-suggest that it is better, on the whole, to ignore them: there are better things to do with one's time. But sometimes the bad reviews are just a bit too unfair or misleading to be left alone. For someone like myself, working in an apparently esoteric but increasingly important field, the dilemma is particularly sharp. The bulk of my academic work has been concerned with two religious movements originating in IranBabism and Baha'ism. Not vastly important topics in themselves, I hear you say. But with the recent burgeoning of interest in Iranian Shi'ism, they seem likely to attract more and more attention from Islamicists. Baha'ism in particular is a growing movement, whose size and paradigmatic qualities recommend it as a fruitful field of study for sociologists of religion and scholars in religious studies generally. The biggest problem with BabT/Baha'I studies at the moment is that the entire field is dominated by practising adherents of the Baha'i movement. All the big names-Momen, Smith, Amanat, Cole, Lambden-are Baha'is of long standing. Not that that is a bad thing in itself: the work of all these individuals is, broadly speaking, of a very high standard. Where the problem comes in is that, myself excepted, there are no non-Baha'Ts writing seriously on the subject. This means that there are few balances or objective criteria operating within the field. More narrowly, it means that there is no-one out there capable of making intelligent and informed estimates of the accuracy, originality, controversiality, or significance of the work that is being produced. Unconscious (and conscious) distortions, diplomatic silences, woolly generalizations, plain exaggerations, misstatements of fact, significant omissions-all can (and often do) pass unobserved and uncommented. This can be particularly frustrating for the lone wolf like myself on whose shoulders falls the responsibility to challenge received opinion. The field of Babi and Baha'i historical and textual studies is one in which controversies abound. Inevitably, the non-Baha'i researcher will disagree with at least some Baha'i accounts or interpretations of the movement's history and doctrine (otherwise, he would, presumably, join the movement). If there were dozens of non-Bahia's working in the field, some sort of broad consensus would no doubt emerge. But, as a solitary worker, I cannot create a consensus of one. My fellow-workers in the field-the Baha'is, that is-by virtue of their allegiance to a single ideology, have their own ways of arriving at a consensus. And it takes little imagination to see what sort of problems that may lead to.