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Abstract: Annotated translation of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's history of the Bábí and early Bahá'í movements, dated 1886; includes many historical appendices by Browne. Notes: Note that this is the original E.G. Browne edition of Traveler's Narrative, which includes over 250 pages of Browne's own notes and other translations. Pages 1-172 were republished as an authorized edition. This online version is an exact replica of the original, except underscore is used to indicate subdot. Persian and Arabic are indicated by ~~~ or "[Persian text]. |
A Traveller's Narrative Written to Illustrate the Episode of the Báb
by E. G. Browne and Abdu'l-Bahá
translated by E.G. Browne1891/1975
original written in English and Persian.
(MAKÁLA-I-SHAKHSÍ SAYYÁH)
COMPOSED A.D. 1886 BY 'ABBÁS EFENDÍ, SON OF
BEHÁ'U'LLÁH,
BEING AN AUTHENTIC DESCRIPTION
OF THE PERSIAN BÁBÍ MOVEMENT, BABISM, c. 1844-1886
PERSIAN TEXT, REPRODUCED
AFTER THE MANUSCRIPT AND TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH,
WITH A CRITICAL INTRODUCTION,
EXTENSIVE EXPLANATORY NOTES AND OTHER TEXTS AND
DOCUMENTS,
AND AN INDEX
WITH A BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE BY MICHAEL BROWNE
PHILO PRESS
AMSTERDAM
[page ii]
Reprinted 1975, in one volume,
with a biographical note by Michael Browne,
by arrangement with
Cambridge University Press, London
ISBN 90 6022 316 0
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
[page iii]
E. G. BROWNE:
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE.
Edward Granville Browne was born in Gloucestershire in 1862 and passed his youth in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. He was educated at Eton (where he found the classical curriculum then in force boring and impossible), Glenalmond and Pembroke College Cambridge. His interest in Oriental matters was first aroused by the Russo-Turkish war of 1877 and at Cambridge he read Oriental languages as well as medicine. His father, a successful engineer, insisted that Oriental languages was too hazardous as a profession and that he must qualify as a doctor; this he did between going down from Cambridge in 1884 and undertaking his only long visit to Persia in 1887-8.
It is this visit which was the subject of A Year amongst the Persians and, as appears from that book, one of his main purposes was to make contact with the Bábís and to obtain any of their books which he could; the present volume is one of those he obtained.
He returned to Cambridge to take up a fellowship at Pembroke and, except for comparatively short visits to Turkey, Egypt and North Africa, never left Cambridge again.
[page iv]
However, he remained in very close touch with Persia through a host of friends and correspondents, and not only produced the Literary History of Persia but was also closely concerned in the events following the Persian revolution of 1905. There was a real threat that Persia might be partitioned between Great Britain and Russia, and it was widely believed that his Persian Committee was the decisive factor in the preservation of Persian independence. His private fortune enabled him to help many Persian and other political exiles.
He married in 1906 and died in 1926, leaving two sons. His memory is still green in Persia, and within the last decade one of his granddaughters who spent a year there received much kindness, not only from his old friends and pupils, but also from strangers who felt for him the same kind of affection that the Greeks feel (or till recently felt) for Lord Byron. His statue in Teheran is said to have been the only statue of a European which was spared during the rule of Dr Mossadeg.
[page v]
PAGE
INTRODUCTION..................................................vii
ADDENDA.......................................................liv
CORRIGENDA.....................................................lv
TRANSLATION.....................................................1
NOTE A. Persian and European accounts of the
Báb and his religion...........................173
NOTE B. The Seven Martyrs...................................211
NOTE C. Proofs of the Báb's age from the Persian Beyán......218
NOTE D. The meaning of the title "Báb"......................226
NOTE E. The Sheykhís, and their doctrine of the
"Fourth Support"...............................234
NOTE F. Supplementary notices of certain persons
mentioned in the text..........................245
NOTE G. The Báb's Pilgrimage to Mecca and return to Shíráz..249
NOTE H. Seyyid Yahyá of Dáráb and the Níríz Insurrection....253
NOTE I. The Báb's escape from Shíráz to Isfahán.............262
NOTE J. The Conference at Isfahán...........................264
NOTE K. Mullá Sadrá and his Philosophy......................268
NOTE L. The Báb at Mákú and Chihrík.........................271
NOTE M. The first examination of the Báb at Tabríz..........277
NOTE N. The Báb's claim to be the Imám Mahdí................290
NOTE O. Certain points of Shi'ite doctrine referred
to in the text.................................296
NOTE P. The Execution of Mullá Muhammad 'Alí of Bárfurúsh...306
NOTE Q. Kurratu'l-'Ayn......................................309
NOTE R. Derivative Attributes...............................317
NOTE S. The Báb's last moments..............................319
NOTE T. The attempt on the Sháh's life and the
Massacre of Teherán............................323
[page vi]
PAGE
NOTE U. Writings of the Báb and Subh-i-Ezel.................335
NOTE V. Texts from the Persian Beyán concerning the high
estate of "Him whom God shall manifest"........347
NOTE W. Mírzá Yahyá "Subh-i-Ezel" and the Cyprus exiles.....349
NOTE X. Translation of the Superscription and Exordium
of Behá'u'lláh's Epistle to the King of Persia.390
NOTE Y. The Martyrs of Isfahán, the martyrdom of Áuá
Mírzá Ashraf of Ábádé, and the persecutions
of Si-dih and Najafábád........................400
NOTE Z. Zeynu'l-Mukarrabín the Scribe, and the light thrown
by his colophons on the Bábí calendar..........412
INDEX ....................................................427
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