NOTE C.
TEXTS FROM THE PERSIAN BEYÁN GIVING THE
BÁB'S AGE AT THE COMMENCEMENT OF HIS MISSION, AND THE DATE
THEREOF.
The Báb mentions his
age in two passages in the Persian Beyán. The first of these occurs in
Váhid II, ch. 1 and runs as follows in my MS. The variants of the
British Museum codex marked Or. 2819 are here and hereafter given at the foot of
each page. This codex is denoted by the letter B.
[six lines of
Persian/Arabic text, including seven footnotes]
[page 219]
[eight lines of Persian/Arabic
text, including eleven footnotes]
"And if anyone should reflect on the appearance of this
Tree12, he will without doubt admit the loftiness of
God's religion. For in one from whose life [only] twenty-four
years had passed, who was devoid of those sciences wherein all are learned, who
now recites verses after such fashion without thought or hesitation, who in the
course of five hours writes a thousand verses of supplications without pause of
the pen, who produces commentaries and learned treatises of so high a degree of
wisdom and understanding of the Divine Unity that doctors and philosophers
confess their inability to comprehend those passages, there is no doubt that all
this is from God. What pains do these doctors
12 i.e. the Báb, who repeatedly calls himself "the Tree of
Truth."
[page 220]
take who study diligently from the beginning to
the end of their lives when writing a single line of Arabic! Yet after all
[the result] is but words which are unworthy of mention. All
these things are for a proof unto the people; else is the religion of God too
mighty and glorious for one to be able to understand it by aught other than
itself; rather by it is all else understood"
The second passage occurs in Váhid vi, ch. 11, which
prohibits the cruel beating of children and defines the penalties incurred by
schoolmasters and teachers who infringe this injunction. After stating these in
full it continues as follows:-
[five lines of Persian/Arabic
text, including five footnotes]
"The fruit of these ordinances is this, that perchance no sorrow may
befal that Soul from the ocean of whose bounty all are endowed with existence.
For the teacher doth not recognize the Teacher of himself and of all, even as in
the manifestation of the Furkán [i.e. the
Kur'án] none recognized that Sun of Truth till forty years
had passed, and in the [case of the ] Point of Revelation
[i.e. the Báb] for twenty-five years."
In my first paper on the Bábís in the J. R. A. S. (B. i, pp.
509-511), I was disposed to believe that in each of these two passages the Báb
referred to his actual age at
[page 221]
the time of writing, and that this was why he
described himself in one passage as being twenty-four years of age and in the
other as twenty-five. Starting with this hypothesis, I attempted to fix as
nearly as possible the date when the first of these passages was written, and
decided that it must have been about the end of A.D. 1847 or the beginning of
A.D. 1848. From this I concluded that the Báb must have been born not earlier
than A.D. 1824, and that he was consequently only nineteen years old at the
commencement of his mission, as alleged by Gobineau (pp. 142-143) and by some of
the Bábís whom I saw in Kirmán. Further information as to the date of the Báb's
birth, which reached me after the publication of my first paper, compelled me to
abandon this view1. Indeed, had I not been unduly
influenced by the idea that the Báb was nineteen years of age at the
commencement of his mission, and had I more carefully considered the second of
the two passages above quoted, I should have perceived that the Báb speaks of
his own age and that of Muhammad at the beginning of their respective
missions when their prophetic office was first disclosed to mankind. In ~~~
(Seven Proofs) the Báb also describes himself as ~~~ "of an age which
did not exceed five and twenty." When in Cyprus I one day enquired of Mírzá
Yahyá Subh-i-Ezel how old the Báb was at the time of
the 'manifestation.' He replied without hesitation "twenty-four, and entering on
his twenty-fifth year." Now the date of the 'manifestation' is given in the
Persian Beyán (the passages will be quoted immediately) as Jamádí-ul-Úlá
5th A.H. 1260 (May 23rd A.D. 1844). It therefore follows that the Báb, being at
that date, according to his own statement, over twenty-four and under
twenty-five years of age, must have been born on Muharram 1st A.H. 1236
(October 9th, A.D. 1820) rather than on Muharram 1st A.H. 1235 (October
20th, A.D. 1819) as stated at p. 2 of the present work. The
1 This information will be found at p. 993 of my
second paper on the Bábís.
[page 222]
correctness of the former date is further
corroborated by the enquiries kindly undertaken by a friend of mine at Shíráz
who is himself connected with the Báb's family (see B. ii, p. 993), and I think
there can be little doubt that it is the true one.
The first passage in the Persian Beyán where the date of the
'manifestation' is given occurs in Váhid II, ch. 7, which treats
of the real meaning of the Resurrection. It commences as follows:-
[nine lines of Persian/Arabic text, including 12
footnotes]
[page 223]
[11 lines of Persian/Arabic
text, including 14 footnotes]
[page 224]
[six lines of Persian/Arabic
text, including 7 footnotes]
"The seventh chapter of the second Váhid. In explanation of
the Day of Resurrection. The quintessence of this chapter is this, that what is
intended by the Day of Resurrection is the day of the appearance of the Tree of
Truth: but it is not seen that any one of the Shi'ites hath understood the Day
of Resurrection; rather have they fancifully imagined a thing which with God
hath no reality. [And that which hath no reality with God hath no
reality.] But what is meant by God and by those who are wise amongst the
people of truth by the Day of Resurrection is this, that from the time of the
appearance of the Tree of Truth, at whatever period, and under whatever name
[or form] (it be), until the moment of its disappearance is the
Day of Resurrection. For example, from the (first) day of the mission of Jesus
till the day of His ascension was the Resurrection of Moses, for during that
period the manifestation of God [appeared in the form of that Truth, who
rewarded by His word everyone who believed in Moses, and punished by His word
everyone who did not believe. For what God regarded at that time] was
what God beheld in the Gospel. And after the (first) day of the mission of the
Prophet of God
[page 225]
till the day of his ascension was the
Resurrection of Jesus, wherein the Tree of Truth appeared in the form of
Muhammad, rewarding by his word every one who was a believer in Jesus,
and tormenting by his word every one who was not a believer in Him. And from the
moment when the Tree of the Beyán appeared until it disappeareth is the
Resurrection of the Prophet of God which God hath promised in the Kur'án;
of which appearance the beginning was when two hours and fifteen minutes
(had passed) from the eve of [Friday the fifth
of] Jamádí-ul-Úlá (A.H.) 1260, which is the year 1270 of the
mission (of Muhammad). (This) was the beginning of the Day of
Resurrection of the Kur'án. And until the disappearance of the Tree of
Truth1 is the Resurrection of the Kur'án. For
of no thing doth the Resurrection occur till it reacheth the stage of
perfection. The perfection of the religion of Islám was consummated ere the
beginning of this Manifestation, and from the beginning of this Manifestation
till the moment of disappearance the fruits of the Tree of Islám, whatever they
are, will become apparent. And the Resurrection of the Beyán is from the (first)
appearance of Him whom God shall manifest; for to day the Beyán is in the stage
of seed, but at the beginning of the manifestation of Him whom God shall
manifest the ultimate perfection of the Beyán will become apparent, when He
shall gather the fruits of the trees which have been planted."
The second passage giving the date of the 'manifestation'
occurs on Váhid vi, ch. 13 and runs as
follows:-
[three lines of Persian/Arabic text, with
seven footnotes]
1 See note 12 at the foot
of p. 219.
[page 226]
"And after the
planting of the Tree of the Kur'án the perfection thereof was attained in
one thousand two hundred and seventy years. Had the maturity thereof been
(attained) at two o'clock on the night of [Thursday] the fifth of
Jamádí-ul-Úlá, it (i.e. the new manifestation) would not have appeared five
minutes later."
The above quotations also
illustrate what I have had occasion to notice in my first Paper on the Bábís (B.
i, p. 507), viz. that the Báb prefers to date not from the flight
of Muhammad but from the beginning of his mission, which he places
ten years earlier. Hence he usually states the beginning of his own mission as
having occurred not in the year 1260 A.H., but "1270 years after the mission
of Muhammad." Cf. Persian Beyán, Váhid ii, ch.
7; iv, 14; iv. 16; iv, 18; vi, 7; vi, 8; vi, 13 (bis).
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