First comprehensive study of the Baha’i community of Iran Wide range of topics covered, including the role of women, schools and literature Includes many chapters authored by leading academics in Iranian Studies Fills a gap in the study of modern Iran
For almost two centuries, followers of the Baha'i faith, Iran's largest religious minority, have been persecuted by the state. They have been made scapegoats for the nation's ills, branded enemies of Islam and denounced as foreign agents. Since the Islamic Revolution of 1979 Baha'is have been barred from entering the nation's universities, more than two hundred have been executed, and hundreds more imprisoned and tortured. Now, however, Iran is at a turning point. A new generation has begun to question how the Baha'is have been portrayed by the government and the clergy, and called for them to be given equal rights as fellow citizens. In documenting, for the first time, the plight of this religious community in Iran since its inception, Fereydun Vahman also reveals the greater plight of a nation aspiring to develop a modern identity built on respect for diversity rather than hatred and self-deception.
By the end of the nineteenth century it became evident to Iran's ruling Qajar elite that the state's contribution to the promotion of modern education in the country was unable to meet the growing expectations set by Iranian society. Muzaffar al-Din Shah sought to remedy this situation by permitting the entry of the private sector into the field of modern education and in 1899 the first Baha'i school was established in Tehran. By the 1930s there were dozens of Baha'i schools. Their high standards of education drew many non-Baha'i students, from all sections of society.Here Soli Shahvar assesses these 'forgotten schools' and investigates why they proved so popular not only with Baha'is, but Zoroastrians, Jews and especially Muslims. Shahvar explains why they were closed by the reformist Reza Shah in the late 1930s and the subsequent fragility of the Baha'is position in Iran.
The Baha'i Faith is one of the world's newest religions. Founded in the mid-19th Century, its early followers faced persecution at the hands of state authorities. Over the next century the Baha'i Faith grew both inside and outside its Iranian homeland and presently there are over five million Baha'is worldwide. The 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran has resulted in severe repression of members of the Baha'i community, although the Baha'is have never, individually or collectively, advocated violence. They are enjoined by their own ordinance not to participate in politics. Persecution reached its height in the early 1980s with attacks and executions of individual Baha'is and the destruction of shrines, cemeteries, homes and businesses. In the 1990s persecution has abated somewhat, but the Baha'is still face enormous problems. The Baha'is of Iran, outlines the history and evolution of the Baha'i community and its present perilous position in Iran. It provides detailed evidence of the policies being followed by the Islamic government. Written with precision and clarity it is essential reading for all those interested in religion, the Middle East or human rights, as well as followers and sympathizers of the Baha'i Faith. Please note that the terminology in the fields of minority rights and indigenous peoples’ rights has changed over time. MRG strives to reflect these changes as well as respect the right to self-identification on the part of minorities and indigenous peoples. At the same time, after over 50 years’ work, we know that our archive is of considerable interest to activists and researchers. Therefore, we make available as much of our back catalogue as possible, while being aware that the language used may not reflect current thinking on these issues.
In 1844, a young merchant from Shiraz called Sayyid ‘Ali-Muhammad declared himself the ‘gate’ (the Bab) to the Truth and, shortly afterwards, the initiator of a new prophetic cycle. His messianic call attracted a significant following across Iran and Iraq. Regarded as a threat by state and religious authorities, the Babis were subject to intense persecution and the Bab himself was executed in 1850. In this volume, leading scholars of Islam, Baha’i studies and Iranian history come together to examine the life and legacy of the Bab, from his childhood to the founding of the Baha’i faith and beyond. Among other subjects, they cover the Bab’s writings, his Qur’an commentaries, the societal conditions that underlay the Babi upheavals, the works of Babi martyr Tahirih Qurratu’l-‘Ayn, and Orientalist Edward Granville Browne’s encounters with Babi and Baha’i texts.
Adapted from the Persian by Bahiyyih Nakhjavani based on translations by Violette and Ali Nakhjavani, these poems testify to the courage and the despair, the misery and the hopes of thousands of Iranians struggling to survive conditions of extreme oppression.
Eliz Sanasarian's book explores the political and ideological relationship between non-Muslim religious minorities in Iran and the state during the formative years of the Islamic Republic to the present day. Her analysis is based on a detailed examination of the history and experiences of the Armenians, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Jews, Zoroastrians, Bahais and Iranian Christians, and describes how these communities have responded to state policies regarding minorities. Many of her findings are constructed out of personal interviews with members of these communities. While the book is essentially an empirical study, it also highlights more general questions associated with exclusion and marginalization and the role of the state in defining these boundaries. This is an important and original book which will make a significant contribution to the literature on minorities and to the workings of the Islamic Republic.
The nineteenth century was a time of significant global socioeconomic change, and Persian Jews, like other Iranians, were deeply affected by its challenges. For minority faith groups living in nineteenth-century Iran, religious conversion to Islam - both voluntary and involuntary - was the primary means of social integration and assimilation. However, why was it that some Persian Jews, who had for centuries resisted the relative security of Islam, instead embraced the Baha'i Faith - which was subject to harsher persecution that Judaism? Baha'ism emerged from the messianic Babi movement in the mid-nineteenth century and attracted large numbers of mostly Muslim converts, and its ecumenical message appealed to many Iranian Jews. Many converts adopted fluid, multiple religious identities, revealing an alternative to the widely accepted notion of religious experience as an oppressive, rigidly dogmatic and consistently divisive social force. Mehrdad Amanat explores the conversion experiences of Jewish families during this time. Many converted sporadically to Islam, although not always voluntarily. The most notorious case of forced mass-conversion in modern times occurred in Mashhad in 1839 when, in response to an organized attack, the entire Jewish community converted to Shi'i Islam. A contrast is offered by a Tehran Jewish family of court physicians who nominally converted to Islam and yet continued to openly observe Jewish rituals while also remaining intellectually sympathetic to Baha'ism. Many petty merchants and pedlars, in a position to benefit from Iran's expanding market, migrated from ancient communities to thriving trade centres which proved fertile grounds for the spread of new ideas and, often, conversion to Christianity or Baha'ism. This is an important scholarly contribution which also provides a fascinating insight into the personal experiences of Jewish families living in nineteenth-century Iran.