Prepared and delivered by Trevor J Finch on 26th October 2019, to mark the Bicentenary of the birth of The Bab.
When the long sweep of human history is surveyed by historians and philosophers, one thing emerges clearly – that our progress as a race is not a smooth one. Instead we move forward in fits and starts, with long periods of consolidation and stagnation in between.
The greatest progress seems to occur during what the German philosopher Karl Jaspers has dubbed Axial Ages – those periods during which there is an outpouring of all manner of ideas and developments in such areas as Religion, Science, Technology, Art, Architecture, Engineering, Medicine and Philosophy. And, it seems that it is Religion which provides the spiritual and moral inspiration and impetus for these advances.
Perhaps the most famous Axial Age is that of the Ancient world from c800 to 200BC. First there was a flowering of religious thought with the appearance of key figures and sacred writings such as Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism in China, the Upanishads in India, Zoroastrianism in Persia/Iran and the great prophets Elijah, Isaiah and Jeremiah in Israel. Then there was the most extraordinary concentration of cultural advances in Ancient Greece, centred on Athens, which produced foundational works in many fields of human endeavour, such as Ethics, History, Literature, Mathematics, Medicine, Philosophy, Politics and Science. Modern Classicists are still puzzling over the suddenness, variety, impact and depth of this phenomenon.
The reason for beginning this address with the idea of Axial Ages is because there are many who believe that we are living through another such age now. No one can dispute that, in the last 175 years or so, the world has advanced with extraordinary rapidity. We have moved from steam to internal combustion, and from electricity to instant global communication networks. These have transformed the planet and humanity in ways that were impossible to imagine 200 years ago. We even managed to land astronauts on the Moon in 1969 – 50 years ago! The question is – what triggered it all and when? Can we trace it to a major religious event? And the answer is yes…
In 1844, across the Western world, especially in North America, a number of unconnected people, some ministers of the Church, had worked out from prophecies, in Daniel and St. Matthew’s Gospel, that Christ would return in that year. So many tens of thousands of people sold their businesses, settled their debts or gave away their belongings and waited in their churches and houses or on nearby hill-tops for the descent of Christ. Sadly, they were disappointed because they were looking in the wrong part of the world. This millennialist fervour led to the formation of a number of religious organisations such as the Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Seventh Day Adventists.
In 1844, in fulfilment of Old Testament, New Testament, Avestan and Qur’anic prophecies, a young Persian man named Siyyid Ali Muhammad, declared Himself as the The Gate, (Bab in Arabic) or Gateway to God, as the promised Mahdi, as the Qa'im, and as the Twelfth Imam of Shi’ih Islam. Naturally, there was uproar among the Shi’ih clergy when news of this declaration reached them. The Bab had announced that He was the latest of God’s Messengers – come with a new revelation and a new covenant with God.
The Bab was born in 1819 in the city of Shiraz in southern Persia/Iran. He was descended from the Prophet Muhammad on both sides, hence His title ‘Siyyid’. He was a very meek and spiritual child, much given to prayer and devotion. When he reached his teenage years, He became a merchant, like His deceased father before Him, and was known to be scrupulously honest. He married a childhood playmate and then was visited by a series of visions in which God communicated to Him that He was the next Manifestation of God.
Around the Middle East, at the time, a number of religious leaders and scholars had worked out that a new messenger from God was meant to appear, so they set out to find Him or sent their theological students to do so. Accordingly, a young scholar named Mulla Husayn set off with a brother and a friend to seek the promised messenger. He was somehow drawn to Shiraz. As he hesitated at the edge of the city, he observed a figure of such dignity and presence that his curiosity and wonder were aroused. The figure invited him to His house and they proceeded to converse with each other.
Mulla Husayn had been told by his religious teacher that the Promised Messenger would, unbidden, reveal a commentary on the Surah of Joseph – a chapter of the Qur’an that Mulla Husayn was very interested in. To the young scholar’s surprise, his Host began to reveal a commentary on the very chapter he wished to know about. Then his Host asked who he was seeking and what characteristics they possessed. When Mulla Husayn had finished the description, he had been given by his teacher, his Host pronounced: “Behold, these signs are evident in Me!”
Mulla Husayn found himself the first disciple of the Bab. Seventeen others found the Bab independently, some through dreams. The Bab called them ‘Letters of the Living’ and was the first messenger of God to appoint a female disciple – Tahirih. Tahirih never met the Bab, but she dreamed of Him and exchanged letters with Him. In those days it was very difficult for women to travel alone. She was, incidentally, a well-known poet and Persia's first campaigner for women's rights.
Shortly after gathering His disciples and sending them out across Persia and into Iraq and India, the Bab decided to go on pilgrimage to Makkah in order to declare His mission from the Ka’bah in the Grand Mosque. He reached there after several months of travel and stood by the door of the Ka’bah. He called out: “I am that Qai'm whose advent you have been awaiting!” There was a momentary hush in the circumambulating crowd but then the pilgrims moved along, intent on their old prayers.
Since His announcement, a veritable flood of revelation poured from the Bab’s pen. He wrote to the Shah and other Kings. He addressed tablets to prominent clerics and statesmen. He revealed prayers and answers to questions for His followers and to others. He revealed a number of sacred books such as The Bayan (Utterance). He sometimes wrote at such speed that observers were astonished and as His pen moved swiftly across the page He would chant the words in a melodious voice.
The Bab's teachings were a shock to many. He abrogated the laws of Islam and introduced new laws, including a new calendar of nineteen months, each of nineteen days. He taught that the essence of God was unknowable and that God revealed Himself progressively over the millennia through a succession of messengers. He also prophesied the coming of yet another messenger greater than Himself who would appear soon. He was referring to Baha'u'llah, the Glory of God, founder of the Baha'i Faith, Who declared His mission publicly in 1863,19 years after the Bab's announcement.
Of course, however, news spread rapidly to Persia that Siyyid Ali Muhammad had claimed that He was the Qa'im and so the authorities were waiting for Him when He returned. He was arrested in Shiraz and taken as a prisoner via Isfahan toward Tehran, for the Shah wished to meet the Bab and converse with Him. However, the Shah’s chief minister was wholly against this idea as it could easily have meant a loss of power for him, if the Shah fell under the Bab’s influence. So the Bab and His escort were diverted to the remote mountainous region of Adharbayjan. This move was clearly designed to isolate the Bab from the rapidly growing number of His followers, in the hope that, cut off from their 'leader', they would lose heart and disperse. Far from it! Instead there began a steady flow of believers to the prison at Mah Ku eager to see the Bab and to speak with Him.
The religious authorities responded to the rapid and wide expansion of the new faith with a ruthless campaign of persecution. They burned down Babi houses and shops, they tortured and mutilated Babis and murdered them in a variety of cruel ways. They looted their property and destroyed any writings of the Bab that they had in their possession. Altogether, it is estimated that some 20,000 Babi men, women and children were brutally killed, just because they were Babis.
Finally, in a desperate attempt to stamp out the new religion completely, the authorities of the city of Tabriz, in north-west Persia/Iran, put the Bab on trial on charges of apostasy and blasphemy and sentenced Him to death. There was a hadith, a tradition, that the promised Qa'im of Islam would be killed by Muslims, so the religious leaders of Tabriz ordered that the execution be carried out by a Christian Armenian regiment under their colonel, Sam Khan. Sam khan, however, was not at all happy about shooting a good man who appeared to be innocent of any crime in his view. He therefore went to the Bab and confessed his great unease over the matter. The Bab reassured him that if he were sincere in his wish not to cause any harm then he should carry out his orders and leave the matter in God's hands.
Accordingly, on Tuesday 9th July 1850 at noon, in front of a crowd of 10,000 people, Sam Khan drew up his regiment of 750 men in three files in front of the wall of a barracks where the Bab and one of his followers were tied up and suspended by ropes from a nail. The regiment fired their volley and when the thick smoke dispersed the Bab has disappeared. Everyone was shocked at the miracle. Sam Khan took this as a sign from God and marched his men away. Eventually the Bab was found again, inside His cell dictating a last message to His secretary. He was positioned against the wall again with His companion and a Muslim regiment fired a second volley which smashed the two bodies together. The event caused such a stir that it was reported in the Times newspaper in London, and the British plenipotentiary at the court of the Shah wrote an account of the execution to the then Foreign Secretary Lord Palmerston.
The mangled remains of the Bab and His follower were thrown into a ditch outside the city to be eaten by dogs, but were smuggled away by Babis and hidden in a series of secret places until, eventually, they were buried in a shrine on Mount Carmel.
The parallels between the life of the Bab and that of Christ are striking, and a number of Christian commentators, some sceptical and unsympathetic, nevertheless have made the comparison. In 1869 a Boston Unitarian minister, the Revd. Stephen Greenleaf Bulfinch, wrote: “In various respects, the history of Mirza Ali Muhammad, surnamed the Bab, presents a startling resemblance to that of the Saviour.” The new movement attracted the attention of a good number of academics, orientalists and theologians in Europe, America and the Middle East. In 1910 the Principal of Manchester College Oxford, the Revd. Dr. Joseph Estlin Carpenter wrote: “...has Persia, in the midst of her miseries, given birth to a religion which will go round the world?” Even Leo Tolstoy wrote about his admiration for the Bab and His teachings.
It is, perhaps, impossible to measure the effects of the Bab's brief life and mission, but it is probably true to say that the earthquake His impact caused will not finish registering on the seismometer of human development for thousands of years to come. His sacrifice in the barrack square of Tabriz released the impetus for a rapid transformation of humanity in a new Axial Age. We owe a great debt of gratitude to the courteous, gentle, humble merchant of Shiraz that we cannot fathom, much less repay.
Let us, at least, remember the Bab and celebrate the Bicentenary of His birth with thoughtfulness and joy.
Trevor R. J. Finch (c)
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