Baron Rosen's Archive Collection of Bábí and Bahá'í Materials

by Youli A. Ioannesyan

Abstract: Baron V. R. Rosen after his death left behind a vast collection of unpublished materials which among other things are of extreme value for the study of the Bábí and Bahá'í Faiths as well as for research on the Bábí and Bahá'í studies in Europe especially for those interested in having an historical perspective. These materials are preserved in the Archives of the Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg, Russia. They comprise Rosen's correspondence with A. G. Tumanski, E. G. Browne (the larger part of the collection), Y. Batyushkov, academic Oldenburg, V. I. Ignatyev, Sebastyan Vuarot, I. Kheyrullah.

Of special importance are manuscripts (and copies of manuscripts), official reports of Russian diplomats from Persia on the Bábís and reports from Adrianople on the Bábís residing there at the same time when Bahá'u'lláh was exiled in Adrianople. It would be relevant to say a few words about the key figures featuring in the given collection of materials.

Baron Victor Romanovich Rosen was an academic, professor of Arabic, founder of the Russian Geographical Society, and the translator of several Bahá'í Writings into Russian. He prepared for publication in the original Arabic and Persian a volume of Epistles by Bahá'u'lláh and left profound descriptions of many Bábí and Bahá'í manuscripts which now belong to the manuscript collection of the St. Petersburg Branch of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Rosen also properly identified some important Epistles such as the Suriy-i-Muluk (The Surih of the Kings) as revealed by Bahá'u'lláh. He encouraged his students A. G. Tumanski and others to collect and study materials related to the Bábí and Bahá'í Faiths.