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Key Issues in Baha’i History and Textual Study

Submitted to Program Units
1: Baha’i Studies Unit

Julia Berger, Montclair State University, Presiding

Abstract for Online Program Book (maximum 150 words)

This panel examines three key issues in the contemporary study of Baha'i history and scripture.  The first looks at the issue of the untranslateability of scripture in Islam and discusses the Baha'i departure from this norm. The author examines early Baha'i translations of Baha'i scripture and argues for a distinctive Baha'i view that meaning can be separated from form.  The second paper also examines issues related to scripture, language and form, looking in particular at the ways characteristic prayers are structured.  The author contrasts this stucture with Islamic and Christian prayers.  The third paper takes up an important issue in Baha'i history and scripture, racial harmony, and discusses the important roles played by Black Baha'is in this faith's earliest historical moments.   

Papers

  • Omid Ghaemmaghami, State University of New York

    Bahá’u’lláh and the (Un)Translatability of Scripture

    Abstract

    The writings of Bahá’u’lláh (d. 1892) open many new vistas for students of religion. Scholars have observed that a phenomenon common to the world’s religions is the dogma that scripture cannot be translated from its original language, which alone, it has been believed, carries the exact meaning and sound of the sacred. This paper will explicate how Bahá’u’lláh challenged and ultimately rejected both the notion that scripture cannot be translated and the belief that knowledge of a particular language is a prerequisite of true faith. Special attention will be given to the history of the earliest attempts to translate the central book of the Bahá’í canon, Bahá’u’lláh’s Kitáb-i-Aqdas, from its original Arabic into Persian, Russian, and English, foreshadowing thereby its official translation into nearly forty languages, to date.

  • Daniel Pschaida,

    Baha’i Prayers: Structure and Interiority

    Abstract

    Analyzing the language of prayer in the compilation *The Prayers and Meditations of Baha'u'llah*, side-by-side in English and the original Arabic/Persian, a common structure is found in which a prayer begins with almost always the same opening praise of God *ṣubḥanika* (Glory be to Thee / Magnified by Thy name / Praised be Thou), followed by affirming the means (e.g., the Manifestation of God, blood of martyers, sighs of true lovers of God) by which one is empowered to make requests of God.  Then a request stated and there is an affirmation of God's power to do His will and a listing of some of His names and attributes. The author compares this basic structure to Islamic prayers from different traditions. He then reflects upon what this basic structure may convey about the nature of one's internal life as well as how prayer might become shared in interfaith devotional gatherings.  

  • Anthony Lee, Independent Scholar

    The African at the Genesis of the Baha'i Faith

    Abstract

    Abstract

    The African Presence at the Genesis of Baha’i History

     

    One of the facts that has been unappreciated and understudied by historians is the presence of Africans at the genesis of Baha’i history.  These early black Babis and Baha’is are sometimes mentioned in passing in Baha’i histories.  But their lives have not been taken seriously, nor has their influence on Babi and Baha’i history been appreciated.  This presentation will focus on two Africans in the household of the Bab who were present from the first days of the Revelation, Haji Mubarak and Fezzeh Khanum.  These two servants, who were profoundly important in the lives of the Bab and his wife, Khadijih Bagum, have been largely ignored in Baha’i sacred history.  While it is understandable, and even forgivable,  that the nineteenth-century Iranian men who were the early chroniclers of Baha’i history would overlook the crucial parts played by women and slaves, it is no longer acceptable for contemporary Baha’i historians to do so.  This presentation will attempt to restore them to their rightful place.

     

     

Business Meeting
Julia Berger, Montclair State University, Presiding
Christopher Glen White, Vassar College, Presiding
Audiovisual Requirements

Resources

LCD Projector and Screen

Full Papers Available

No
Program Unit Options

Session Length

90 Minutes

Schedule Preference

Saturday, 5:00 PM - 6:30 PM
Schedule Info

Saturday, 5:00 PM - 6:30 PM

Tags

Baha'i

Session Identifier

A23-403