The Baha'i Studies Listserv Society for Shaykhi, Babi, and Baha'i Studies (SSBBS) Middle East Studies Association, Annual Meeting in Conjunction
Saturday, November 21, 2009, 7-9:30pm Boston Marriott Copley Palace, 3rd Floor-Northeastern Contact: Negar Mottahedeh - [email protected] Iranian Islam and the Baha'i Question Chair: Negar Mottahedeh, Associate Professor of Literature and Women's Studies, Duke University Recent vaguely worded accusations to justify the arrest and imprisonment of seven Baha'is in Tehran have reawakened smoldering worldwide debates around the legal standing of Iranian Baha'is and the relationship between Iranian Islam and the Baha'i Faith. Accused of being "spies for Israel," of "insulting religious sanctities" and for spreading "propaganda against the Islamic Republic," Baha'is have been held in prison for years without any access to a lawyer and without evidence in support of the charges held against them. This panel on Iranian Islam and the Baha'i question includes three scholars: a historian, a cultural theorist and a student of Islamic thought. It covers the history of Babi and Baha'is claims in relation to the eschatological tensions regarding the occultation of the Hidden Imam, a consideration of the full complement of cultural practices and assumptions inherited and transformed by the Baha'i Faith, an overview of the anti Baha'i underpinnings of Islamic ecumenism and reform in 20th Century Iran, and a historical consideration of these accusations within the context of Islamic Heresiography. The panel serves to articulate the historical basis for the current human rights crisis in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Accusations against Baha'is within the context of Islamic Heresiography Susan Maneck, Professor of History, Jackson State University In countries like Iran where Baha'is face severe persecution fantastic charges are made against Baha'is many of which are reminiscent of the kinds of tales told about the Jewish people not so long ago. Chief among these charges is the notion that the Baha'i Faith constitutes a foreign conspiracy to destroy the unity of Islam. Other charges center around accusations of sexual promiscuity, the most scurrilous among them involving incest. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the background and significance of such stories as they have appeared in relationship to other 'heresies' within Islamic heresiography. Because Muslims could not accept the legitimacy of any religion appearing after Islam, heresy, religious dissidence had to be explained away as primarily political in nature. Likewise accusations of incest have long been applied to those religions which were deemed 'beyond the pale' and unworthy of protection within an Islamic polity. The Anti-Baha'i Underpinnings of Islamic Ecumenism and Reform in Early Twentieth Century in Iran Mina Yazdani, PhD Candidate, University of Toronto The decades that immediately followed the Iranian Constitutional Revolution witnessed the emergence of a number of reformist ulama who are usually perceived as having been influenced by the Egyptian Salafi movement of the late 19th /early 20th century. The main proponents of this influential, but now marginalized and largely forgotten current were Sayyid Asad Allah Kharghani and Shari'at Sanglaji. Whereas the Salafi nexus and the influence of Wahhabism have been highlighted by contemporary Iranian historians like Rasul Ja'farian, another factor that helped shape and develop the thought of these reformist Islamists has been ignored. This paper will advance the thesis that anti-Baha'ism played a major role in the formation of the ideologies of both Kharghani and Shari'at, central to which was Islamic ecumenism. Based on a close study of the writings of these authors, I will argue that while the primary force behind the ecumenical objectives of their Salafi forerunners of (such as Sayyid Jamal al-Din Asad Abadi and Muhammad Abduh) was anti-imperialism, the call of these Iranian reformists for Islamic unity was largely motivated by a perceived duty to form a united front against the Baha'i religion. While some western scholars have argued that their Salafi predecessors were influenced by Protestantism, these Iranian reformist 'ulama' shaped their theology by condemning ghuluw (exaggeration in religious matters) and rejecting the doctrine of raj'a (return to life of some of the dead prior to the Resurrection), at times in direct attacks against the Babi and Baha'i religions. In other areas - such as the harmony of science and religion - principles pronounced in the Baha'i writings were appropriated. Arresting the Eschaton: Mirza Husayn Nuri (d. 1902) and Shi'i Messianism in the Late 19th Century Omid Ghaemmaghami, PhD Candidate, University of Toronto A recurring and salient motif in many of the works dedicated to the Shi'i savior known as the Twelfth Imam is the phenomenon of encounters between this figure and privileged devotees (mostly from the ranks of the ulama) during the period of his occultation. This controversial topic is one that scholars of Shi'ism have only begun to properly explore, a surprising fact given the noticeable role these narratives occupy in Shi'i hagiographies. The present study will test the thesis that the revivification of this phenomenon during the second part of the nineteenth century at the hands of the prolific Shi'i scholar Mirza Husayn Nuri (d. 1902) - known as 'The Seal of the Traditionists' (khatam al-muhaddithin) - played a significant role in sanctifying the Shi'i ulama as the Imam's true representatives, advancing and strengthening their religious influence, further fortifying the doctrine of the occultation, freezing the eschatological tension within the tradition and refuting the claims of any and all self-proclaimed Mahdis. Nuri lived at a time in which many of the messianic and eschatological tensions apropos the Hidden Imam - tensions that had remained unresolved since the period of the Lesser Occultation - exploded onto the religious landscape, due in most part to the birth of the Babi movement in southwestern Persia and its later metamorphosis into the Baha'i religion, founded by an altogether different Mirza Husayn Nuri (d. 1309/1892), known as Baha'u'llah. This paper will give special attention to Nuri's relationship with the Babi and Baha'i movements in an effort to understand his own motives for being drawn to the phenomenon of encounters with the Hidden Imam. __________________________________________________ You are subscribed to Baha'i Studies as: mailto:[email protected] Unsubscribe: send a blank email to mailto:[email protected] Subscribe: send subscribe bahai-st in the message body to [email protected] Or subscribe: http://list.jccc.edu:8080/read/all_forums/subscribe?name=bahai-st Baha'i Studies is available through the following: Mail - mailto:[email protected] Web - http://list.jccc.edu:8080/read/?forum=bahai-st News (on-campus only) - news://list.jccc.edu/bahai-st Old Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] New Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]
