Footnotes
For the author of The Dawn-Breakers, see Nabíl-i-Zarandí.
Cf. Nabíl, The Dawn-Breakers, p. 395, note 1.
Cf. Qur’án 19:98.
Qur’án 3:91.
Qur’án 54:55.
1849–1850.
1853; 1892.
Áqá Ján. Cf. Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, p. 189.
Siyyid Muḥammad, the Antichrist of the Bahá’í Revelation. Cf. Ibid., pp. 164 and 189.
The Afnán are the kindred of the Báb. Ibid., pp. 239; 328.
Herald of the Prophet Muḥammad.
Qur’án 68:4.
This wine, Rúmí says elsewhere, comes from the jar of “Yea verily.” That is, it symbolizes the Primal Covenant established between God and man on the day of “Am I not your Lord?” On that day, the Creator summoned posterity out of the loins of Adam and said to the generations unborn, “Am I not your Lord?” Whereupon they answered, “Yea, verily, Thou art.” Cf. Qur’án 7:171.
The Turkish para was one-ninth of a cent. Cf. Webster, New International Dictionary.
Nabíl, author of The Dawn-Breakers, is Bahá’u’lláh’s “Poet-Laureate, His chronicler and His indefatigable disciple.” Cf. God Passes By, p. 130.
Mírzá Yaḥyá, the community’s “nominal head,” was the “center provisionally appointed pending the manifestation of the Promised One.” Ibid., p. 127–28.
A reference to Islámic symbolism, according to which good is protected from evil: the angels repel such evil spirits as attempt to spy on Paradise, by hurling shooting stars at them. Cf. Qur’án 15:18, 37:10 and 67:5.
A reference to the declaration of Bahá’u’lláh’s advent in 1863, as the Promised One of the Báb. The Báb’s own advent had taken place in the “year sixty”—1844.
Bahá’í writings emphasize that the “divinity attributed to so great a Being and the complete incarnation of the names and attributes of God in so exalted a Person should, under no circumstances, be misconceived or misinterpreted ... that invisible yet rational God ... however much we extol the divinity of His Manifestations on earth, can in no wise incarnate His infinite, His unknowable, His incorruptible and all-embracing Reality in ... a mortal being.” Cf. Shoghi Effendi, The Dispensation of Bahá’u’lláh.
According to the abjad reckoning, the letters of “shidád” total 309. 1892, the date of Bahá’u’lláh’s ascension, was 1309 A.H.
Gharíq. The letters composing this word total 1310, which Hijra year began July 26, 1892.
Terms used by the Súfís.
Ṣidq, truth.
Qur’án 54:55.
This word has a number of meanings, including truthful, loyal and just.
Yá Sháfí.
Qur’án 76:5.
Nabíl of Qá’in was his title.
Qur’án 5:59.
The kran was 20 sháhís, or almost 8 cents. Cf. Webster, op. cit.
Mírzá Mihdí, the son of Bahá’u’lláh who, praying one evening on the barracks roof, fell to his death. Cf. God Passes By, p. 188.
Cf. Qur’án 13:28; 2:99; 3:67.
Yazíd (son of Mu’ávíyyih), Ummayad Caliph by whose order the Imám Ḥusayn was martyred. Proverbial for cruelty. Cf. S. Haím, New Persian-English Dictionary, s.v.
The rebellion of Mírzá Yaḥyá, who had been named provisional chief of the Bábí community. The Báb had never appointed a successor or viceregent, instead referring His disciples to the imminent advent of His Promised One. In the interim a virtual unknown was, for security reasons, made the ostensible leader. Following His declaration in 1863 as the Promised One of the Báb, Bahá’u’lláh withdrew for a time, in Adrianople, to allow the exiles a free choice as between Him and this unworthy half brother, whose crimes and follies had threatened to destroy the infant Faith. Terrified at being challenged to face Bahá’u’lláh in a public debate, Mírzá Yaḥyá refused, and was completely discredited. As Bahá’í history has repeatedly demonstrated, this crisis too, however grievous, resulted in still greater victories for the Faith—including the rallying of prominent disciples to Bahá’u’lláh, and the global proclamation of Bahá’u’lláh’s mission, in His Tablets to the Pope and Kings. Cf. God Passes By, p. 28, Chapter X and passim.
Mírzá Yaḥyá had not been banished from Persia. Now, however, he was being exiled from Adrianople to Cyprus, and ‘Abdu’l-Ghaffár was one of the four companions condemned to go with him. Cf. Bahá’u’lláh’s Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, p. 166, and God Passes By, p. 182.
Cf. Qur’án 11:101; 11:100; 76:5; 76:22; 17:20.
Cf. God Passes By, p. 108.
Cf. God Passes By, pp. 186; 193; 196.
Qur’án 54:55.
This reference to two worlds, du jihán, may indicate the saying: Iṣfáhán is half the world—Isfahan nisf-i-jihán.
For this definition of the Manifestation of God, see God Passes By, p. 119.
These “twin shining lights” were two brothers, famous merchants of Iṣfáhán. Because he owed them a large sum of money, the leading priest—Imam Jum’ih—of the city brought about their martyrdom. See Bahá’u’lláh’s Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, and God Passes By, pp. 200–201 and 219.
Qur’án 89:27–30.
Qur’án 24:35.
Qur’án 89:27–30.
Cf. Qur’án 13:28: “Truly in the remembrance of God are the hearts set at rest.”
Qur’án 76:5.
Qur’án 13:28.
Qur’án 3:91.
Qur’án 29:19; 53:48; 56:62.
Mírzá Músá.
Cf. God Passes By, p. 186.
Some four hundred miles northwest of Baghdád.
Shikastih—broken—a cursive or half-shorthand script, is thought to have been invented at the close of the seventeenth century, in Hirát.
Gawhar Khánum’s marriage to Bahá’u’lláh took place in Baghdád. She remained with her brother in that city when Bahá’u’lláh left ‘Iráq and later proceeded to Akká at His instruction. While traveling from Baghdád to Mosul, she was made captive together with other believers, among them Zaynu’l-Muqarrabín. Bahá’u’lláh makes reference to this captivity in His Tablet to the Sháh.
Gawhar Khánum broke the Covenant of Bahá’u’lláh following His passing. She passed away during the ministry of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.
Qur’án 76:9.
A famed calligrapher who lived and wrote at the court of Sháh-‘Abbás, the Safaví (1557–1628).
Mishk is musk. Mishkín-Qalam means either musk-scented pen, or jet black pen.
Qur’án 61:4.
In some of this artist’s productions, the writing was so arranged as to take the forms of birds. When E. G. Browne was in Persia, he was told that “these would be eagerly sought after by Persians of all classes, were it not that they all bore, as the signature of the penman, the following verse:
Dar díyár-i-khaṭṭ sháh-i-sáhib-‘álam
Bandiy-i-báb-i-Bahá, Mishkín-Qalam.”
Cf. A Year Amongst the Persians, p. 227. The verse might be translated:
Lord of calligraphy, my banner goes before;
But to Bahá’u’lláh, a bondsman at the door,
Naught else I am,
Mishkín-Qalam.
Note the wordplay on door, which makes possible the inclusion of the Báb’s name as well as Bahá’u’lláh’s.
Ustád is a master, one who is skilled in an art or profession.
Qur’án 6:127.
Qur’án 3:28.
Qur’án 2:266, 267.
For some of these Arabic phrases, see Qur’án 3:170; 4:12, 175; 5:16, 17; 11:100, 101; 28:79; 41:35.
The Baghdád period in Bahá’í history was from April 8, 1853 to May 3, 1863. According to various estimates the túman of the day ranged from $1.08 to $1.60.
This was in accord with the law of Islám. Cf. Qur’án 4:12.
Qur’án 7:171.
For the tribulations following Bahá’u’lláh’s departure see God Passes By, chapter XV.
Persia’s Hercules.
Qur’án 89:27.
Qur’án 4:71.
Cf. God Passes By, p. 180.
Qur’án 89:27–30.
The Afnán are the Báb’s kindred.
Qur’án 7:171.
Qur’án 39:69.
The Promised One of the Báb.
Islámic symbolism: Satan is the “stoned one”; with shooting stars for stones, the angels repel demons from Paradise. Qur’án 3:31, 15:17, 34; 37:7; 67:5.
Qur’án 2:17.
Qur’án 4:71.
The Prime Minister.
Qum is the shrine city of Fátimih, “the Immaculate.” Sister of the eighth Imám, Imám Riḍá, she was buried here in 816 A.D.
The remainder of the verse is: “Let us split the roof of Heaven and draw a new design.”
Qur’án 52:4.
Cf. Qur’án 13:28.
Qur’án 3:190.
Cf. Qur’án 39:68.
Qur’án 7:171.
Manqúl va ma’qúl: “desumed” versus “excogitated” knowledge.
Qur’án 3:190.
Bahá’u’lláh was accompanied by members of His family and twenty-six disciples. The convoy included a mounted guard of ten soldiers with their officer, a train of fifty mules, and seven pairs of howdahs, each pair surmounted by four parasols. The journey to Constantinople lasted from May 3, 1863 to August 16. Cf. God Passes By, p. 156.
Qur’án 26:119; 36:41.
Cf. Qur’án 5:59.
Qur’án 39:68–69: “And there shall be a blast on the trumpet, and all who are in the heavens and all who are in the earth shall swoon away, save those whom God shall vouchsafe to live. Then shall there be another blast on it, and lo! arising they shall gaze around them: and the earth shall shine with the light of her Lord...”
In Shaykhí terminology, the Fourth Support or Fourth Pillar was the perfect man or channel of grace, always to be sought. Ḥájí Muḥammad-Karím Khán regarded himself as such. Cf. Bahá’u’lláh, Kitáb-i-Íqán (The Book of Certitude), p. 184, and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, A Traveller’s Narrative, p. 4.
The promised Twelfth Imám.
Allámíy-i-Hillí, “the Very Erudite Doctor,” title of the famed Shí’ih theologian, Jamálu’d-Dín Ḥasan ibn-i-Yúsúf ibn-i-‘Alí of Hilla (1250–1325 A.D.).
The Turkish ghurúsh or piaster of the time was forty paras, the para one-ninth of a cent. These figures are approximate only.
Accent the first syllable: FÁ-teh-meh
Gibbon writes of the Imám Ḥusayn’s martyrdom and the fate of his Household, that “in a distant age and climate the tragic scene ... will awaken the sympathy of the coldest reader.”
The Sadratu’l-Muntahá, translated inter alia as the Sidrah Tree which marks the boundary, and the Lote-Tree of the extremity. Cf. Qur’án 53:14. It is said to stand at the loftiest point in Paradise, and to mark the place beyond which neither men nor angels can pass. In Bahá’í terminology it refers to the Manifestation of God.
This prayer was revealed by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá for the Consort of the King of Martyrs.
Qur’án 76:5.
Pronounced Shams-oz-Zohá.
A forerunner of the Báb, and co-founder of the Shaykhí School. See glossary.
His daughter, at a later date, became the consort of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. Cf. God Passes By, p. 130, and The Dawn-Breakers, p. 461.
“Gate of the Gate”, a title of Mullá Ḥusayn, the first to believe in the Báb. For an account of his sister, cf. The Dawn-Breakers, p. 383, note.
“Solace of the Eyes.”
Persian women of the day went heavily veiled in public.
Qur’án 7:7; 14:42; 21:48; 57:25, etc
Cf. Nabíl, The Dawn-Breakers, chapter XV.
The reference is to Muḥammad’s daughter, Fátimih, “the bright and fair of face, the Lady of Light.”
Eldest son of the Sháh and ruler over more than two-fifths of the kingdom. He ratified the death sentence. Soon after these events, he fell into disgrace. Cf. God Passes By, p. 200; 232.
The eighth Imám, poisoned by order of the Caliph Ma’múm, A.H. 203, after the Imám had been officially designated as the Caliph’s heir apparent. His shrine, with its golden dome, has been called the glory of the Shí’ih world. “A part of My body is to be buried in Khurásán”, the Prophet traditionally said.
Pronounced TÁ-heh-reh.
Cf. The Dawn-Breakers, p. 81, note 2, and p. 285, note 2. Certain lines, there translated by Shoghi Effendi, are incorporated here.
A forerunner of the Báb, and first of the two founders of the Shaykhí School. See glossary.
Qur’án 17:1; 30:56; 50:19; etc
The sixth Imám.
The “Ahsánu’l-Qisás,” the Báb’s commentary on the Súrih of Joseph, was called the Qur’án of the Bábís, and was translated from Arabic into Persian by Táhirih. Cf. God Passes By, p. 23.
Qur’án 3:54: “Then will we invoke and lay the malison of God on those that lie!” The ordeal was by imprecation.
Qur’án 21:48; 19:37, etc. In Islám the Bridge of Ṣiraṭ, sharp as a sword and finer than a hair, stretches across Hell to Heaven.
Cf. The Dawn-Breakers, p. 276. The murderer was not a Bábí, but a fervent admirer of the Shaykhí leaders, the Twin Luminous Lights.
Cf. The Dawn-Breakers, p. 278.
This refers to the doctrine that there are three ways to God: the Law (sharí’at), the Path (taríqat), and the Truth (haqíqat). That is, the law of the orthodox, the path of the dervish, and the truth. Cf. R. A. Nicholson, Commentary on the Mathnaví of Rúmí, s.v.
The eighteenth Letter of the Living, martyred with unspeakable cruelty in the market place at Barfurúsh, when he was twenty-seven. Bahá’u’lláh conferred on him a station second only to that of the Báb Himself. Cf. The Dawn-Breakers, pp. 408–415.
Cf. Qur’án 74:8 and 6:73. Also Isaiah 27:13 and Zechariah 9:14.
Qur’án, Súrih 56.
A systematic campaign against the new Faith had been launched in Persia by the civil and ecclesiastical authorities combined. The believers, cut down wherever they were isolated, banded together when they could, for protection against the Government, the clergy, and the people. Betrayed and surrounded as they passed through the forest of Mázindarán, some 300 believers, mostly students and recluses, built the Fort of Shaykh Tabarsí and held out against the armies of Persia for eleven months. Cf. The Dawn-Breakers, chapters XIX and XX; God Passes By, p. 37 et seq.
On August 15, 1852, a half-crazed Bábí youth wounded the Sháh with shot from a pistol. The assailant was instantly killed, and the authorities carried out a wholesale massacre of the believers, its climax described by Renan as “a day perhaps unparalleled in the history of the world.” Cf. Lord Curzon, Persia and the Persian Question, pp. 501–2, and God Passes By, p. 62 et seq.