The Baha'i Studies Listserv Nowhere in the canonical Zoroastrian scriptures is there any reference to the prophets of Mahabad. Instead these prophets are associated with two texts written in India during the Mughal, period namely the Dabistan-i Mazahib1 and the Desatir2. To understand the background of these two book some knowledge of Mughal history is necessary. The Mughal Dynasty was established by the by the Timurid prince Babur in 1504 who came to power by defeating various Turkish and Afghan factions who had previously ruled northern India. After Babur’s death these factions were able to reassert themselves do to the incompetence of Babur’s son Humayun who was forced to seek refuge in Safavid Iran. While residing in Iran Humayun fained conversion to Shi’ism. When he was able to regain his kingdom in 1555 he returned to India with a number of Shi’ite courtiers. For this reason, unlike the Safavid and Ottoman Empires which become strictly divided along religious lines, the Mughals maintained a policy of religious pluralism, both in regards to inter-islamic disputes and in regards to non-islamic religious communities. When Akbar later became emperor he utilized the Hindu rajput militias to offset the power of the Turkish and Afghan factions who had proven themselves dangerous to the throne. As the Safavid Dynasty in Iran became increasingly more intolerant, India witnessed a steady stream of Persian immigrants, both of Muslim and Zoroastrian background. Many of them were heavily influenced by Ishraqi philosophy which eventually provided the basis for Akbar’s own spirituality. The Ishraqi school was founded by Shihab al-Din Suhardi Maqtul (d. 1191) and flourished in both Isfahan and Shiraz. The Isfahan developed a specifically Shi’ite form of Ishraqi philosophy during the seventeenth century but a century previous to this immigrants from Shiraz, bearing both Muslim and Zoroastrian names, produced an Ishraqi school which became influential in the ruling circles of India and was suited to its requirements. Among those bearing Zoroastrian names was Azar Kaivan, a Shirazi mystic who appeared during Akbar’s reign. The cult he promoted presumed esoteric doctrines virtually identical to those held by Muslim Ishraqi philosophers. Accompanying Azar Kaivan were a number of Shirazi disciples, both Zoroastrian and Muslim. At that time, however, he did not appear to have attracted many Parsi followers. Ishraqi philosophy sought, in the words of Hossein Nasr, to integrate “Platonic and Aristotelian philosophy with Zoroastrian angelology and Hermetic” ideas within the contedt of Sufism.” Suhwardi himself identified his beliefs with those of ancient Persian sages. The school shared with Neo-platonism a cosmology based on emnations, but Suhrawardi personalized those emnations by identifying them Zoroastrian angels or dieties, or even with historical personages. Suhrawardi considered Hermes, whom he identified as the Prophet Enoch (Idris) as the father of true philosophy. Hermes was followed by a chain of sages both in pre-Socratic Greece and Ancient Persia and finally in Islam.7 Those personages whom Suhwardi identified are remembered in Zoroastrian history as kings rather than as religious leaders. However, kings in the Zoroastrian texts were regarded as the manifestations of God's glory; Divine light rested upon them. The Ishraqi school denied neither the prophethood of Muhammad nor the revelational character of the Qur'an. Yet to a large extent, the legitimacy of Ishraqi doctrines rested upon their claim to antiquity. This implied that older revelations took precedence over newer ones, hence destroying the ultimacy of the Qur'anic revelation. Furthermore, since the Ishraqiyan equated revelation with the illuminative wisdom of the sages, the finality of prophethood became meaningless. This is in part the assumption that lays behind Manakji’s question. Both Manakji and Baha’u’llah are at some level willing to accept the oneness of religion. But for Manakji religion is perennial and therefore the oldest is the best whereas for Baha’u’llah religion is progressive and it is therefore necessary to respond to God’s latest Messenger, not uncover the esoteric secrets of the oldest one as Ishraqi philosophy sought to do. In Iran Ishraqi philosophy attracted Muslim intellectuals dissatisfied with the confines of Islamic orthodoxy as defined by the legalistically minded `ulama. Less is known about non-Muslim Iranians who embraced Ishraqi beliefs, but apparently it allowed them to come to terms with their status as followers of a tradition regarded as superseded by the dominant religion.9 Those participating in the Persian culture of India found Ishraqi doctrines all the more attractive since they presented a means by which elements of the Hindu religion could be appreciated and integrated. 10 Ishraqi philosophy, which underpinned the emperor's cult of the Din ilahi, eventually provided the basis for the spirituality favored in Akbar's court. Akbar himself became the ideal priest-king endowed with Divine Light, the apocalyptic figure, at once the Perfect Man and the "Lord of the Age" (Sahib-i Zaman). Much of what we know about the cult of Azar Kaivan is based on Dabistan, a description of various religious sects in India written by what appears to be an Iranian follower of Azar Kaivan. The author of the Dabistan insists that Ishraqi philosophy is virtually identical to that of the ancient Persian sages. He further mentions that one of Azar Kaivan’s disciples translated Suhrawardi’s works from Arabic into Persian. The Dabistan quotes extensively from the Dasatir, a text the author identifies with the ancient religion of the Parsis. The Dasatir professes to be a collection of writings of a series of fifteen different Persian prophets, including Alexander the Great (!), not the twenty-eight Manakji mentions, who were said to have flourished from the time of Mahabad, supposed founder of the primal religion, through the Sasanian dynasty. Although this text was quoted extensively in the first half of the seventeenth century, particularly among followers of Azar Kaivan, no mention of it can be found in pre-Mughal literature. Copies of the Dasatir disappeared from India perhaps with the demise of Azar Kaivan sect. The two copies that are now in existence were discovered in Iran in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Mulla Kaus who had traveled to Iran in search of a resolution to the discrepancy between Parsi and Irani Zoroastrian calendars that were found to be a month off from one another discovered the first copy. This caused much confusion in the Parsi community that became acquainted with this text just as Anquetil Du Perron published the first translation of the Zend-Avesta or Zoroastrian scriptures into a western language. Sir William Jones labeled the Zend-Avesta a forgery but when shown a copy of the Dasatir he pronounced it the authentic Zoroastrian scriptures. Parsis themselves did not seem inclined to take sides in this debate, for the most part they instead cheerfully accepted both texts as scripture and made few attempts to resolve the discrepancies between the two. A second, lesser-known copy was discovered by Manakji himself in 1871. Unfortunately Manakji did not purchase the manuscript but had a copy made which is now in the K. R. Cama Oriental Institute (H.P. ms 131) where I examined it in 1985. Enough differences exist between the two manuscripts to presume they came from separate sources. Strangely, this manuscript contains a notation suggesting it was completed in 358 A.H. Internal evidence, however, suggests a much later date. The original manuscript of the Dasatir consisted of a text written in what purports to be a celestial language, Mahabadian, along with a Persian translation having no admixture of Arabic. The Mahabadian language, found only in the Dasatir, consists of vocabulary found in Indian and Iranian dialects imposed on a Persian grammar. The term Mahabadian is taken from the title given to the first prophet, who in Persian is referred to as Buzurg Abad or the Great Abad. Maha, though, is taken from the Sanskrit term for great. Other Sanskritized words, such as tapas bud for fortification, appear as well. The principles contained in the Dasatir indicate a great deal of influence from the Neo-Platonism associated with the Ishraqi School. The association of God with light and illumination provides a constant theme throughout the work. You will note that Baha’u’llah emphasizes this theme in His first letter to Manakji. Certain Hindu beliefs have been integrated into that system, including transmigration13 and the emphasis on ascetical practices. Every chapter consists of a short revelation ranging from 16 to 70 verses, given to each individual prophet. The chapters begin by taking refuge in God from evil thoughts, then give an invocation of the names of God in a manner reminiscent of the Qur'an,15 and end by foretelling by name the coming of the next prophet by name. The rituals associated with prayer conform to Muslim practices: they are performed in congregation, preceded by abolutions and accompanied by prostrations. The Dasatir describes God as the only self-subsistent being and explicitly denies there can be two such beings. All contingent beings emanate hierchically from the Supreme Being.The final part of the Dasatir foretells the coming of the Islamic invasions. The Arabs are described as greedy, lustful, quarrelsome and violent men "who do not what their great one hath spoken." No explicit criticism is aimed at Muhammad or His revelation; rather, it is foretold that "When their religion shall have lasted a thousand years, it shall be such, in consequence of divisions that, were their Legislator to see it, he would not know it again." This last statement appears to describe the religious situation in India during Akbar's reign, which coincided with the end of the first Muslim millennium and may provide the best evidence for dating the Dasatir's composition to this period. The Dasatir represents a sixteenth century protest against the forms of Islam that existed in India at the time. The evidence of the Dabistan and the Dasatir indicates that Iranians of both Zoroastrian and Muslim background joined in this protest, but they did so by accepting many of the Islamic norms of what a religion should be. Hence the "revelations" of the Dasatir mimic the style of the Qur'an, as the form of sequential revelation mimics Islamic models. Yet purity in religion derives from its closer association with antiquity. It is this perennial conception of religion which Baha’u’llah continually challenges with His repeated insistence that Manakji consider the needs of the age in which he lives.
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