Momen constitutional movement bahais
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- The Constitutional Movement and the Bahais of Iran: The Creation of an ‘Enemy Within’
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| British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, Volume 39, Issue 3, (2012), pages 328-346
Published online: 23 Nov 2012 This article was originally published with errors. This version has been corrected. Please see Erratum ( http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13530194.2013.828530 ).
The Constitutional Movement and the Baha'is of Iran: The Creation of an ‘Enemy Within’
Moojan Momen ∗
Abstract This article looks at the role of the Baha'is in the Constitutional Revolution of Iran, 1906–1911. It propounds three major theses. First, that when the royalists and anti-constitutionalist clerics accused the Constitutionalists of being “Babis”, it was the Baha'i community that they were referring to rather than the Azali Babis. Second, that the Baha'is had a complex relationship with the Constitutionalist Movement, sometimes supporting it and sometimes abstaining from involvement in politics, but that in any case, the impact of the Baha'is on the reformers and on the Revolution has been underestimated by most writers. Third, that, despite their closeness in terms of ideas about social reform, the enmity of the Azalis and clerics caused the Baha'is to be excluded from the reform legislation resulting from the Constitutional Revolution and effectively to be excluded from Iranian society. It resulted in the creation of an “enemy within”. Some of the consequences of this both for the Baha'is and for Iran are discussed.
• Who Were ‘the Babis’? • The Azali Babi Role in the Constitutional Revolution • The Role of the Baha'is in the Emergence of.the Constitutional Revolution • The Role of the Baha'is in the Constitutional Revolution • The Creation of an ‘Enemy Within’ • The Results of the Constitutional Revolution
This article looks at the role of the Baha'is in the Constitutional Revolution of Iran, 1906–1911. It propounds three major theses. First, that when the royalists and anti-constitutionalist clerics accused the Constitutionalists of being “Babis”, it was the Baha'i community that they were referring to rather than the Azali Babis. Second, that the Baha'is had a complex relationship with the Constitutionalist Movement, sometimes supporting it and sometimes abstaining from involvement in politics, but that
∗
This paper was presented at the conference ‘The Iranian Constitutional Revolution 1906–1911’, Oxford, 30 July–2 August 2006. The author is grateful to Dr Houshang Chehabi, Dr Peter Smith, Sen McGlinn, Ismael Velasco and Peter Terry for their helpful comments on this article.
in any case, the impact of the Baha'is on the reformers and on the Revolution has been underestimated by most writers. Third, that, despite their closeness in terms of ideas about social reform, the enmity of the Azalis and clerics caused the Baha'is to be excluded from the reform legislation resulting from the Constitutional Revolution and effectively to be excluded from Iranian society. It resulted in the creation of an “enemy within”. Some of the consequences of this both for the Baha'is and for Iran are discussed. Several books have appeared in recent years on the Constitutional Revolution in Iran. 1 One
area that has been largely neglected in these studies, however, is the role of the Baha'i community. Janet Afary has noted the role of two Baha'is, Shaykh al-Ra'is (c.1848–1918) and Tayirih Khanum (c.1872–1911), in the discourse in this period on constitutionalism and the modernisation of Iran. 2
Mangol Bayat, while paying particular attention to the large role played by the Azali Babis in the Constitutional Revolution itself, says very little about the Baha'is, apart from noting Shaykh al-Ra'is's role. 3
played a ‘quietist’ or ‘apolitical’ role in the Revolution. 4 A few have gone further and perpetuated the idea that the Baha'is supported Muhammad Ali Shah and the anti-constitutionalists. 55 Authors from Iran have either remained silent on the Baha'is or, perhaps mindful of their positions and careers, have repeated unproved conspiracy theories and forged evidence. 6
Who Were ‘the Babis’?
1 See in particular: Vanessa Martin, Islam and Modernism: the Iranian Revolution of 1906, (London: I B Tauris, 1989); Janet Afary, The Iranian Constitutional Revolution, 1906-1911: Grassroots Democracy, Social
1991). In Persian, there have been a number of offerings. Those of particular interest include: Masha'ullah Ajudani, Mashrutih-yi Irani (Tehran: Nashr Akhtaran, 1382/2003) and Husayn Abadiyan, Buhran-i Mashrutiyat
Chehabi, Dr Peter Smith, Sen McGlinn, Ismael Velasco and Peter Terry for their helpful comments on this paper. 2
Cole, 'Autobiography and Silence: The Early Career of Shaykh al-Ra'īs Qājār', in Christoph Bürgel and Isabel Schayani (eds.), Iran im 19.Jahrhundert und die Entstehung der Baha'i Religion (Hildesheim: George Olms, 1998), pp. 91-126 and idem, 'The Provincial Politics of Heresy and Reform in Qajar Iran: Shaykh al-Rais in Shiraz, 1895-1902', Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, vol. 22, nos. 1-2 (2002), pp. 119-26. For more on Tayirih Khanum, see Tayirih, 'Namih-ha va Nivishtih-ha va Ash‘ar', Nimih-ye Digar, 2nd series, no. 3 (Winter 1375/1996), pp. 146-195. The most detailed study of the Baha'is in the period of the Constitutional Revolution is Mina Yazdani, Awza‘-yi Ijtima‘i-yi Iran dar Ahd Qajar az Khilal Athar
Columbia University Press, 1998) deals mainly with an earlier period and has little about the Constitutional Revolution. See also Kavian Milani, 'Baha'i discourses on the Constitutional Revolution', in Dominic Parviz Brookshaw and Seena B. Fazel (eds.), The Baha'is of Iran, (London: Routledge, 2008), pp. 141-155 3 Bayat, Iran's First Revolution, pp. 68-9. 4 Martin, Islam and Modernism, p. 22; Bayat, Iran's First Revolution, p. 54. 5
modernism, 1926–1979 (London: Macmillan, 1981), p. 70n; Afary, Iranian Constitutional Revolution, p. 47; and Hamid Dabashi, ‘The End of Islamic Ideology’, Social Research, 67(2) (2000), pp. 475–518.
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Mashrutih-yi Irani; for an example of a book that creates and perpetuates erroneous material, see Abadiyan, Buhran-i Mashrutiyyat, see esp. pp. 208-228. Yüklə 318,37 Kb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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