از طهران تا عکا : بابيان و بهائيان در اسناد دوران قاجار

This book is a collection of Persian documents about the Babis and later the Baha’is of Iran It consists mostly of rare official correspondence covering the period between 1852 and 1872 when the remnant of the leadership of the nascent Babi community resided in exile in the Ottoman Empire first in Baghdad and then in Edirne and eventually in the port of Akka in Palestine Most documents in the collection are from Qasem Ghani Collection at the Sterling Memorial Library in Yale University Others were gleaned from variety of sources

These documents reveal important details about the Qajar state’s treatment of the Babis and its suspicions and fears toward them It documents repeated attempts by officials and diplomats to silence Babi Baha’i voices restrain the ties with coreligionists in Iran and efforts to persuade the Ottoman authorities to relegate them to farther locations away from Iran They also throw important light on the inner dynamics of the Babi leadership the place Mirza Husain ‘Ali Nuri better known as Bahaullah held within the Babi community almost from the outset of the Baghdad period and the painful schism that eventually divided the community into the majority Baha’is and the minority Azali Babis They also reveal the part played by the celebrated statesman Mirza Hosain Khan Moshir al Dowleh then the Iranian ambassador to the Ottoman Sublime Porte Naser al Din Shah Qajar and a number of Iranian and Ottoman officials also prominently appear in these documents

All the correspondence in this volume are annotated so as to provide the necessary historical details The Preface and the Introduction also offer a broader context about the political and cultural history of the period and the nature of the documents The editors hope the publication of this volume contributes to a better understanding of one of the least explored episodes of the Babi Baha’i history and serve as primary material for future historical research They also hope that publication of this volume contribute to greater integration of the Babi Baha’i history into modern Iranian and Ottoman historiographies

The book consists of seven chapters Chapter One covers the Baghdad period to Documents in this chapter show how fears or personal gains of a mid rank Iranian consul in Baghdad could persuade his superiors to take action against the Babis Chapters Two and Three cover years of Istanbul and Edirne when the division between the followers of Bahaullah and his brother was finalized Chapter Four concerns with Bahaullah’s correspondence with Naser al Din Shah in particular and the circumstances leading to his emissary’s fateful end Chapter Five is a case study of Babi community of Egypt and how the Iranian consul in Cairo driven by monetary gains brought misfortune upon the Iranian Baha’is there Chapter Six offers glimpses of Bahaullah’s incarceration in Akka and his correspondence with the French diplomat Arthur Gobineau Chapter Seven offers glimpses into Naser al Din Shah treatment of the Babis and Baha’is The documents of this chapter are gathered from various sources representative of a larger body of correspondence on the subject The editors hope that in due course an English translation of this collection will become available.