Saturday, April 16, 2022

April 15. On this date in 1890, Edward Granville Brown arrived at the Mansion of Bahjí, where he would stay for five days. During his visit he interviewed Bahá'u'lláh four times and visited with 'Abdu'l-Bahá.

 


April 15. On this date in 1890, Edward Granville Brown arrived at the Mansion of Bahjí, where he would stay for five days. During his visit he interviewed Bahá'u'lláh four times and visited with 'Abdu'l-Bahá. 

From the Encyclopædia Iranica article titled BROWNE, EDWARD GRANVILLE...


BROWNE, EDWARD GRANVILLE, eminent British Iranologist, born on the family estate Gloucestershire, 7 February 1862, died near Cambridge, 5 January 1926.

i. Browne’s life and academic career.

ii. Browne on Babism and Bahaism.

iii. Browne and the Persian Constitutional movement.

 

Browne’s Life and Academic Career

E. G. Browne came of a wealthy family engaged in shipbuilding. He was at first strongly dominated by his father, Sir Benjamin Browne, who sent him to the preparatory school at Glenalmond, to Eton College, and finally to Cambridge University, where he was to study engineering or, as an ultimate compromise, science and medicine. The boy followed his father’s wishes and eventually qualified, and for a short time practiced, as a doctor. But at the age of only fifteen, in 1877, his interest in the Middle East had been aroused by the Russo-Turkish War, in which characteristically his sympathy lay with the side that was unpopular in Britain, the Turks. At this point his “Oriental” studies began, with Turkish, to which Persian and Arabic were soon added. He had (and continued to have) little or no interest in philology as such, and his methods seem to have been entirely pragmatic: the autodidactic use of any manuals and texts he could find, consultation with real and pretended experts, and the genial exploitation of various native speakers, who could nearly always be found in England in the great days of empire. The results, to judge by the reports of his contemporaries and his own published work, were stupendously successful.

Upon his graduation in the Cambridge Natural Sciences Tripos in 1882, he was “bribed” by his father to persevere in his medical studies with the gift of a summer trip to Istanbul (or, as it was still known in Europe, Constantinople). In 1884, on his own initiative, he also took the so-called “Indian” Languages (in fact, languages of the Islamic world) Tripos at Cambridge. There followed three years of further medical study, internship, and practice, interrupted, whenever the occasion allowed, for pursuit of his private, “Oriental” interests. In 1887 be achieved both his final medical qualifications and a fellowship from his Cambridge college (Pembroke), which enabled him to spend his celebrated year in Iran—for it was by then unquestionably Persian studies that were claiming his main atten­tion. It was this visit that generated the remarkable book, A Year Amongst the Persians, which, despite its romantic and archaic title, approach, and style, remains a classic source. It was first published in 1893, after being more than once turned down, and has since been reprinted several times under various auspices (chiefly A. C. Black and Cambridge University Press).

After his return to Britain in 1888, Browne’s life was spent almost wholly in Cambridge, remaining outwardly quite unspectacular. He was first University Lecturer in Persian and then, from 1902 until his death, Sir Thomas Adams’s Professor of Arabic; the latter post was one of two prestigious but ill-paid chairs nominally in the field of Arabic studies then maintained in the university. Until 1906 he lived a vigorous, if somewhat self-centered, social life as a bachelor in his college; in that year he married Alice Blackburne-Daniell, a well­-to-do and influential Roman Catholic, who enlisted his vague but generous sympathies both for Roman Ca­tholicism and for the cause of an independent Ireland. They had two sons, neither of whom followed his father’s interests, though later both lent them moral and financial support. Browne suffered a massive heart attack in November, 1924; his wife died in June, 1925, six months before his own death. The last year or so of his life was little more than a gallant holding action.

To appreciate Browne’s remarkable academic achievements (as well as some of his peculiar shortcom­ings) at their proper evaluation, it is necessary to understand something of his personal position and the world in which he lived and worked. He was bred to wealth and status and was (particularly in his mature years) a very rich man in his own right. This meant that his time was largely his own (his statutory duties were minimal) and that he could please himself in virtually everything he did and said. He could choose his own projects, pay for them and their publication if necessary (as it often was), and personally employ such colleagues and helpers (several Iranians among them) as the university would not hire. But this situation carried its disadvantage as well. If he was generous and clever and often charming, he was also egotistical (several tributes bear witness to his fascinating but nearly always one-­sided discourse); and, as frequently happens in such cases, his judgment could be willful and erratic and the self-discipline necessary for the finest academic work very difficult to achieve. His almost continuous antagonism to his own government and the establish­ment (related to general Middle Eastern diplomacy and the Persian “Question,” Ireland, South Africa­—liberals in those days were pro-Boer—anti-Germanism and concomitant pro-Russian and pro-French policy, inadequate educational measures, and so on) largely does him credit, no doubt; it certainly cost him deserved public recognition and influence. It also, however, sometimes contained elements of the arbitrary and the cranky, and anyone less privileged might well have had cause to be more circumspect. As with most of his contemporaries, all his ways seem to have been firmly set before he reached the age of thirty. He had, too, something in him of upper-class Victorian-Edwardian philistinism: Early in life he engaged in tennis, squash, and rowing, and later he took up fishing, but he had no time for art, music, religion, or indeed for languages or cultures outside his chosen field. His early enthusiasm for Turkish studies soon waned, while for “Indian” culture he seemed to cherish a marked antipathy most of his life, considering it to represent a debased version of all that he loved in Iran. He was no sybarite: Given endless cigarettes and tea, he could apparently easily dispense (for himself and his guests) with good food or wine.

Browne’s work in promoting Persian studies was epoch-making, for it must be remembered that in his lifetime (and sometimes still) Islamic studies were conceived, as the title of his chair suggests, primarily in terms of Arabic. His long-time friend, colleague, and successor R. A. Nicholson, a Persianist of almost equal note, included in his introduction to posthumous A Descriptive Catalogue of the Oriental MSS belonging to the late E. G. Browne (Cambridge, 1932) a memoir and almost complete classified bibliography of fifty-five major items that Browne had published. Although these works cannot all be listed here, some of the largest or most important demand comment.

First, unquestionably, is the monumental Literary History of Persia, the four volumes of which appeared in 1902, 1906, 1920, and 1924. It is a work that fully displays Browne’s strengths and weaknesses: broad in scope (and ranging far beyond literature as such), dense with nearly always accurate detail, and based almost entirely on original sources (many of which were at that time accessible only to Browne himself) but also diffuse and at times irrelevant (volume I, for example, consists largely of prolegomena, though originally intended to comprise the entire work). It also abounds in examples of Browne’s and his society’s prejudices, as well as reflecting some unfortunate Iranian cultural attitudes of the time (volume IV, for example, though packed with valuable material, does scant justice to the literature, art, and general high culture of the whole period 1500-1900). Volumes II and III, though now dated in information and approach and selective in interest, are fine pieces of work. The copyright to the whole enter­prise, which initially had a checkered publishing history, has long been vested in Cambridge University Press, and reprints have been frequent.

Two of Browne’s special concerns gave rise to a considerable number of publications from about 1890 to 1920. These concerns were respectively Babism/Bahaism and what he perceived to be the rise of true liberal democracy in Iran (see ii and iii below, with bibliographies). He also edited, translated, and encouraged others to work on a number of important classical texts that had come to his notice during the preparation of his Literary History. Among the most important of his own contributions are editions of Tadhkiratuʾsh-Shuʿará of Dawlatšāh (1901), Lubábu’l-­Albábof ʿAwfī (with Mīrzā Moḥammad Qazvīnī; 2 vols., 1903, 1906), and in the Gibb Memorial Series An Abridged Translation of the History of Ṭabaristán of Ebn Esfandīār (1905), Taʾríkh-i-Guzīda of Mostawfī (2 vols., 1910, 1913), and the revised translation of Čahār maqāla of Neẓāmī ʿArūżī (Cahár Maqála, 1921). Browne’s own interest in such works was not always strictly literary, but his use of them was to prove in the long run most fortunate, for they include fine and often rare examples of medieval Persian prose. One anomalous work, Arabian Medicine (1921), the publication of his Fitz­patrick lectures before the Royal College of Physicians, represents a marriage of his enforced earlier studies with his own chosen field of endeavor.

Much of Browne’s time and phenomenal energy were channeled into helping individuals and causes or carry­ing out “chores.” He gave personal (including financial) assistance to a great variety of students and to Iranian and other émigrés. His role on the Persia Committee, which endeavored for some years (particularly between 1908 and 1912) to influence the British government and public opinion, was crucial—though the ultimate re­sults were disappointing (see iii below). It did, however, win him high regard in Iran, in addition to the respect he already enjoyed among educated Iranians for his dedi­cated scholarship. He promoted “Oriental” studies at Cambridge in various ways, especially by encouraging academic training for candidates in the Levant Con­sular Service and the Egyptian, Sudanese, and Indian civil services. Many academic or quasi-academic figures emerged from this unofficial nursery of talent, among them the late Sir Reader Bullard, Laurence Lockhart, and Sir Ronald Storrs. After the early death of the Turcologist E. J. W. Gibb in 1901, Browne took re­sponsibility for putting a large part of Gibb’s History of Ottoman Poetry into final form and seeing it through the press. He was the leading executive and academic figure in publishing the invaluable Gibb Memorial Series, from a fund established by Gibb’s family in 1904. Finally, it should be mentioned that he did a great deal of cataloguing work on the rich Islamic collections housed in Cambridge, which culminated in his Handlist of the Muḥammadan Manuscripts in the Library of the University of Cambridge (Cambridge, 1900); a supple­mentary list published in 1922 also included manu­scripts located in the individual colleges.

Mention has already been made of the significant failure of British (and indeed foreign) public and academic authorities to honor Browne as fully as might have been expected in the light of his achievements. The following list includes virtually all the significant marks of recognition that came his way: 1903, Fellow of the British Academy; 1911, Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians; 1922, Vice-President of the Royal Asiatic Society; 1921, on his fifty-ninth birthday, an address and presentations from admirers in Iran (where he was also made a member of the Order of the Lion and the Sun); on his sixtieth birthday a festschrift entitled A Volume of Oriental Essays Presented to E. G. Browne . . . (ed. Sir T. W. Arnold and R. A. Nicholson, Cambridge, 1922) but nicknamed ʿAjab-nāma (Book of wonders), as a play on his initials. (Typically, this book drew a sour review or two, which, though aimed at the mediocre quality of some of the articles, must inevitably have spoiled Browne’s pleasure in the gesture.) Also on this occasion Browne received further letters and addresses from Iran and a number of Western countries. Ironi­cally, his death gave rise to a host of notices conferring upon him the most extravagant praises.

Bibliography:

Browne’s significant scholarly books have been mentioned in the article. Most of his numerous articles can be found listed in Index Islam­icus. Three further biographical sources (all rather hagiographical in tone) are the entry by Sir Denison Ross in Dictionary of [British] National Biography (1922-30), Oxford, 1937, pp. 123-25; Ross’s prefatory note to later editions of A Year Amongst the Persians, which largely duplicates and enlarges on his entry in DNB; and A. J. Arberry, Oriental Essays, London, 1960, pp. 160-96, which draws heavily on Ross’s notices, as well as on the autobiographical parts of A Yeaṛ . . . . See also bibliographies to ii and iii below.

(G. Michael Wickens)

 

ii. Browne on Babism and Bahaism

Browne first developed an intense curiosity about Babism when he read Gobineau’s account in the summer of 1886, and one of his pursuits during his subsequent year-long sojourn in Iran (1887-88) was making contact with the Babis and gaining access to their manuscripts. Browne deeply admired the heroism of the Babis in the revolutionary period 1848-52, found a “sublime beauty” even in the Bab’s more ungrammat­ical writings, and was impressed by Gobineau’s account of the Babi leader Ṣobḥ-e Azal. He was thus rather taken aback to discover, upon making contact with “Babis” in Iran, that almost all had become Bahais, followers of Azal’s older half-brother Bahāʾ-Allāh, who had replaced the Bayān with the Aqdas (Browne, 1889, pp. 486-87, 901, 933; idem, 1893, repr. 1926, pp. 328-29).

In true nineteenth-century style, Browne was after the pristine origins of the movement, considering later developments to be departures. He thus considered the Azalīs more reliable than the Bahais in putting him in touch with the Babi past and regretted the rivalry between the two groups. He seems early on to have taken the Azalī side in the struggle; when Iranian Bahais reproached him for inclining to Azal, he did not deny it and blamed Bahai violence toward Azalīs (1893, repr. 1926, pp. 578-79). In his 1889 papers for the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society he set out for the first time in English a detailed account of the evolution of Babism and the rise of Bahaism after 1850. He entered into frequent correspondence with Azal and his followers and in the spring of 1890 voyaged to Cyprus, where he spent two weeks with Azal, then to ʿAkkā (Acre), where he spent a week with the Bahais.

Among Browne’s Azalī contacts in Istanbul was Shaikh Aḥmad Rūḥī, who told him late in 1890 about a manuscript entitled Hašt behešt, a polemic against Bahaism. Although this book had just been written by Rūḥī himself and Āqā Khan Kermānī, both sons­-in-law of Azal, Rūḥī misrepresented it as the work of Āqā Javād Karbalāʾī, an eyewitness to events of early Babism. Karbalāʾī had become a Bahai, but Rūḥī told Browne that he had been an Azalī. Browne was at first excited by Hašt behešt, wrongly considering it a primary source for early Babi history and a vindication of Azal’s right to head Babism after the Bab’s death (1892, pp. 680-84, reporting Rūḥī’s correspondence); he much later came to realize the true authorship of Hašt behešt (idem, 1932, p. 76, para. 1; for more recent scholarship on this work and on Kermānī, see Bayat, pp. 160-61).

At ʿAkkā Browne had acquired a copy of the account of Babi and Bahai history by Bahāʾ-Allāh’s son ʿAbd-al-Bahāʾ, which he published with a trans­lation and extensive annotation, as A Traveller’s Narra­tive in 1891. Browne spoke highly of Bahāʾ-Allāh and ʿAbd-al-Bahāʾ in his introduction to this work, but the notes (II, pp. 356-73), written later, show a willingness to believe charges that Bahāʾ-Allāh had ordered some of his enemies assassinated; this later attitude was much influenced by the anti-Bahai calumnies of Hašt-behešt.

In 1893 Browne published an English translation of Mīrzā Ḥosayn Hamadānī’s Tārīḵ-ejadīd, a late pro-­Bahai account of the Babi period. Again his notes to this work betray an implicit belief that even late Azalī accounts of Babi history are somehow more authentic than Bahai accounts, whereas in fact both represent evolution away from the original ideas of pristine Babism. But Browne’s interest in this subject was fading, and he turned later in the 1890s to his literary history of Iran, to which he devoted the rest of his life. His enthusiasm for the study of Babism waned for several reasons. An Oxford Magazine review (25 May 1892, p. 394) attacking his work on this topic as a waste of time stung him deeply. In addition, the constant polemics between Azalīs and Bahais pained him, as did those between partisans of ʿAbd-al-Bahāʾ and those of his brothers after Bahāʾ-Allāh’s death.

When Browne became caught up in the Consti­tutional Revolution in 1905-11, he showed some peri­pheral interest in whether or not the small minority of Azalī’s and Bahais were participants. He concluded, however, that the Bahais, with their emphasis on world unity, were too cosmopolitan to be good nationalists, and he thought Iran needed nationalists at that point (Browne, 1910, pp. 424-29). In 1910 he published, at the urging and with the cooperation of the Shiʿite scholar Mīrzā Moḥammad Khan Qazvīnī, the manuscript of Ketāb-e noqṭat al-kāf, which they attributed to Ḥājī Mīrzā Jānī, an early Babi who had perished in 1852. Qazvīnī wrote the Persian introduction, and Browne wrote an English preface, in which he attacked the Bahais for attempting to rewrite history (in Tārīḵ-ejadīd) in order to lessen the importance of the Bab in favor of Bahāʾ-Allah and accused them of suppressing Noqṭat al-kāf. Although it is true that this manuscript probably circulated infrequently among Bahais, the many copies of it in Bahai collections in Iran and in Haifa demonstrate that they hardly suppressed it. Furthermore, some material and attitudes expressed in Noqṭat al-kāf certainly postdate 1852. The work should probably be recognized, therefore, not as the “original” history, which the Tārīḵ-ejadīd was meant to supplant, but as an alternative tradition about early Babism, containing primary material but redacted from an Azalī point of view before the final break between Azal and Bahāʾ-Allāh. Mīrzā Abu’l-Fażl Golpāyegānī and other Bahai scholars replied to Browne that they had seen Ḥājī Mīrzā Jānī’s early chronicle of Babism and that Noqṭat al-kāf was not it. A number of Azalīs and Bahais wrote or published important memoirs or chronicles in response to this publication of Noqṭat al-kāf; Browne deposited those sent to him in his collection but wrote nothing about them (Balyuzi, pp. 70, 72-73; Browne Coll., Cambridge University, F. 57[9] “Resāla-ye Sayyed Mehdī Dahajī”; Mīrzā Abu’l-Fażl Golpāyegānī and Mehdī Golpāyegānī, Kašf al-ḡeṭāʾ, Tashkent, 1919).

Browne’s last substantial work on Babism was the publication of a miscellany of essentially unedited materials, some of them translations, entitled Materials for the Study of the Babi Religion (1918). He also included a few specimens of Babi and Bahai poetry in the fourth volume of his Literary History of Persia (1924) and remarked favorably on the crisp style of Bahāʾ-Allāh’s Ketāb-e īqān. His obituary of ʿAbd-al-Bahāʾ, written in 1921, was, in contrast to the rather tense communications of a decade earlier, warm and appreciative and showed admiration for his promotion of racial unity in the segregated United States.

 

Bibliography:

ʿAbd-al-Bahāʾ, A Traveller’s Narrative Written to Illustrate the Episode of the Báb, ed. and tr. E. G. Browne, 2 vols., Cambridge, 1891.

H. M. Balyuzi, Edward Granville Browne and the Baháʾí Faith, Oxford, 1970 (a full evaluation from a committed Bahai point of view).

M. Bayat, Mysticism and Dissent, Syracuse, 1982 (for issues related to Rūḥī, Kermānī, and Hašt behešt).

E. G. Browne, “The Bábís of Persia,” JRAS, N.S. 21, 1889, pp. 485-526, 881-1009.

Idem, “Catalogue and Description of 27 Babi Manuscripts,” JRAS, N.S. 24, 1892, pp. 433-99, 637-710.

Idem, ed., Kitáb-i Nuqṭatul-Káf, Being the Earliest History of the Bábis, GMS 15, Cambridge, 1910.

Idem, ed., Materials for the Study of the Bábí Religion, Cambridge, 1918.

Idem, The Persian Revo­lution of 1905-1909, Cambridge, 1910.

Idem, ed. and tr., The Táríkh-i-Jadíd, or New History of Mírzá Alí Muḥammad, the Bab, by Mírzá Ḥuseyn of Hamadan, Cambridge, 1893.

Idem, A Year Amongst the Per­sians, London, 1893, repr. Cambridge, 1926.

D. E. MacEoin, “A Revised Survey of the Sources for Early Bābī Doctrine and History,” King’s College Cambridge fellowship dissertation, 1977 (for discussion of philological issues related to Browne’s approach to Bahai manuscripts, as well as the problem of Noqṭat al-kāf).

M. Momen, Selections from the Writings of E. G. Browne on the Bábí and Baháʾí Religions, Oxford, 1987 (with scholarly pre­faces and notes making use of Browne’s notebooks to identify individuals whose real names Browne had suppressed).

R. A. Nicholson, ed., A Descriptive Catalogue of the Oriental Manuscripts Belonging to the Late E. G. Browne, Cambridge, 1932.

Browne’s notebooks and correspondence, both at Cambridge and in private hands, shed further light on this subject.

(Juan Cole)

 

iii. Browne and the Persian Constitutional Movement

E. G. Browne was incomparably more sympathetic and devoted to the Persian Constitutional movement than was any other European. Through his numerous publications, his lectures, and the letters he published in daily newspapers, he took an active part in organizing and influencing British opinion. The Persia Committee, founded in October, 1908, by Browne and H. F. B. Lynch and composed of prominent members of both houses of Parliament, as well as writers and journalists, functioned as an active and influential pressure group both inside and outside England.

Browne’s deep interest in politics had begun in the early years of his life. His admiration for the Turks in their losing struggle against Russia in the war of 1877-78 first attracted his attention to the East. It was this political commitment to weaker nations struggling against political and military penetration by the European powers that led him to begin learning Turkish, followed by Arabic and Persian, and thus laid the foundations for his brilliant academic career (see i above). Nevertheless, Persia soon supplanted Turkey as the focus of his interest and came to dominate not only his scholarly but also his political activities. He admired the “stability of national type, and power of national recovery” of Persia throughout its long history and was fascinated by such ideals as the “interdependence of all mankind” and the “obligation of tolerance towards those of other religions” that he discovered in the classical Persian epics (Browne, 1917-18, pp. 312, 313).

His own profound and humane yearning for a “universal brotherhood of mankind” (Nicholson, p. viii) corresponded to the basic principles of the Babi and Bahai religions (see ii above). It was this same deep-­rooted humanitarianism, rather than any reasoned theory of nationalism, that led Browne to identify himself with popular movements striving for liberty. Independent in forming his views and fearless in expressing them, he generally found himself in oppo­sition to the official policy of his government (see i above). His belief in a plurality of nations, each preserving its distinctive character, all coexisting freely and aiding one another, was decisive in his special dedication to the Persian cause. His manifold writings on the Constitutional movement, as well as his publi­cation of its authentic documents, were aimed at arous­ing sympathy for the Persian reformers (Browne, 1909, p. 5). He asserted the Persians’ right of self-determination (1917-18, p. 320) and consistently de­plored the means employed by England and Russia to crush the movement, especially revealing the atrocities committed by the Russians in Persia (1912a, pp. 6, 15; 1912b). A vehement opponent of the Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907, which had established Russian and British zones of influence in Persia, Browne demanded complete abolition of these zones (1917-18, p. 329), comparing partition of Persia with that of Poland (1912a, p. 17). He perceived the Constitutional move­ment as essentially a nationalist, rather than a demo­cratic (1917-18, p. 323), cause, and the Persians thus fighting for their very existence as a nation (1910, p. xix).

Browne was able to obtain valuable information for his publications from the best sources available. He was not only acquainted with Jamāl-al-Dīn Afḡānī and Mīrzā Malkom Khan but also knew many of the national leaders who had been exiled to France and England after the bombardment of Parliament by Moḥammad-ʿAlī Shah in 1908, among whom Sayyed Ḥasan Taqīzāda, ʿAlī-Akbar Dehḵodā, and Moḥammad-ʿAlī Tarbīat were the most prominent. Browne was also kept well informed by correspondents in St. Petersburg and some of his former students who had entered the British consular service.

The events in Persia were of such importance to Browne that he even discontinued work on his monumental Literary History of Persia, the second volume of which had just been published (1906), in order to dedicate himself fully to organizing support and as­sistance. Indignant with the manner in which the British foreign minister, Edward Grey, was conducting affairs in Iran, the Persia Committee, with Browne as its vice-­chairman, published resolutions, staged large public meetings, and pressed for Russian withdrawal from Persia. By 1911 the executive committee consisted of forty-six members, among them thirty-three Radical members of Parliament, who subjected the House of Commons to sustained debates on Persian affairs. During 1911-12 Persia was the central issue in a general “Grey must go” campaign. To all such activities pamphlets published by Browne were fundamental.

In addition to his political work, Browne did not neglect the literary aspects of the Constitutional movement, which were attractively presented in The Press and Poetry of Modern Persia. This account of the flourishing of a free press, as well as the large quantity of excellent patriotic and political verse included, was aimed at counterbalancing the “reactionary and obscurantist policy” of The Times, which had criticized the “mischievous and dangerous” character of the free press in Iran (Browne, 1914, p. xii), and at refuting those who sought for political reasons to represent the Persians as decadent and incapable of governing them­selves (Browne, 1910, p. xii; idem, 1914, p. xv; idem, 1909, p. 6). In particular, he emphasized the work of the secret and semisecret societies (anjomans) es­tablished during the revolutionary period, which pro­vided free education in night schools, arranged for medical treatment, and organized lectures on the duties of citizenship (1909, pp. 13, 21; 1910, pp. 244-46).

Browne was held in the highest esteem by Persians. Although he had at first been disliked in Iran because of his sympathies for the persecuted Babis, he soon evoked gratitude for having taken Persia and its literature as his own and for supporting the Persian people as few others had done. To all Persians living in exile he was of infinite help and utmost generosity. When Tabrīz was occupied by the Russians in 1911, the Constitutionalists sent telegrams asking for his assistance. As for his services to Persian literature, a contemporary Persian newspaper article compared them to the Ghaznavid Sultan Maḥmūd’s patronage of Ferdowsī (quoted by E. D. Ross in his introduction to the 1926 edition of Browne’s A Year Amongst the Persians, pp. xix-xx). Browne was awarded the Persian order of the Lion and the Sun, and on his sixtieth birthday he received Persian representatives who presented him with a moving illuminated address from his admirers in Iran (Arberry, p. 189). Persians today still remember Browne as one of the great men devoted to their country and its people.

Bibliography:

See also the bibliographies to i and ii above. A. J. Arberry, Oriental Essays, London, 1960.

H. M. Balyuzi, Edward Granville Browne on the Baháʾí Faith, Oxford, 1970.

A. Bausani, “The Qajar Period: An Epoch of Decadence?” in E. Bosworth and C. Hillenbrand, eds., Qajar Iran. Political, Social and Cultural Change 1800-1925, Edinburgh, 1983, pp. 255-60.

E. G. Browne, A Brief Narrative of Recent Events in Persia (with a translation of “The Four Pillars of the Persian Constitution” appended), Lon­don, 1909.

Idem, “The Persian Constitutional Movement,” Proceedings of the British Academy 8, 1917­-18, London, 1921, pp. 311-30.

Idem, The Persian Crisis of December, 1911 (compiled for the use of the Persia Committee), Cambridge, 1912a. Idem, The Persian Revolution of 1905-1909, Cambridge, 1910, repr. 1966.

Idem, The Press and Poetry of Modern Persia (partly based on the manuscript work of Mīrzā Moḥammad ʿAlī Khan “Tarbīat” of Tabrīz), Cam­bridge, 1914.

Idem, The Reign of Terror at Tabriz. England’s Responsibility (with photographs and a brief narrative of the events of December, 1911, and January, 1912, compiled for the use of the Persia Committee), Manchester, 1912b.

Idem, A Year Amongst the Persians, 3rd ed., with a memoir by E. D. Ross and foreword by E. H. Minns, London, 1950.

H. Javadi, “E. G. Browne and the Persian Constitutional Movement,” Iran 14, 1976, pp. 133-40.

Idem, ed. and tr., Nāmahā-ī az Tabrīz, nevešta-ye Edward Browne (Eng. title: Letters from Tabriz by Edward G. Browne), 2nd ed., Tehran, 1361 Š./1982.

D. McLean, “English Radicals, Russia and the Fate of Persia 1907-1913,” The English Historical Review 93, 1978, pp. 338-52.

R. A. Nicholson, ed., A Descriptive Catalogue of the Oriental MSS Belonging to the Late E. G. Browne, Cambridge, 1932.

E. D. Ross, ed., A Persian Anthology, Being Translations from the Persian by Edward Granville Browne, London, 1927.

H. Weinroth, “Radicalism and Nationalism. An Increasingly Unstable Equation,” in A. J. A. Morris, ed., Edwardian Radicalism 1900-14, London and Boston, 1974, pp. 218-33.

ʿA. Zaryāb and Ī. Afšār, eds., Nāmahā-ye Edward Browne be Sayyed Ḥasan Taqīzāda, Tehran, 1354 Š./1975.

(G. Michael Wickens, Juan Cole, Kamran Ekbal)

Originally Published: December 15, 1989

Last Updated: December 15, 1989

This article is available in print.
Vol. IV, Fasc. 5, pp. 483-488

April 15. On this date in 1945, Shoghi Effendi sent a cablegram announcing "Faithless brother Husayn, after long period of dishonourable conduct, has abandoned the Master's home to consort with his sister and other Covenant-breakers." Shoghi Effendi would later chide Husayn for marrying a "lowborn Christian girl." In March 1950, Shoghi Effendi would send a further cable: "Faithless brother Hussein, already abased through dishonorable conduct over period (of) years followed by association with Covenant-breakers (in) Holy Land and efforts (to) undermine Guardian's position, recently further demeaned himself through marriage under obscure circumstances with lowborn Christian girl (in) Europe." Shoghi Effendi would later defend the use of the term "lowborn Christian girl" as follows: "Regarding his cable concerning Hussein: he has been very surprised to note that the terms 'low-born Christian girl ' and 'disgraceful alliance' should arouse any question; it seems to him that the friends should realize it is not befitting for the Guardian's own brother, the grandchild of the Master, an Afnán and Aghsán mentioned in the Will and Testament of the Master, and of whom so much was expected because of his relation to the family of the Prophet, to marry an unknown girl, according to goodness knows what rite, who is not a believer at all."

 


April 15. On this date in 1945, Shoghi Effendi sent a cablegram announcing "Faithless brother Husayn, after long period of dishonourable conduct, has abandoned the Master's home to consort with his sister and other Covenant-breakers." Shoghi Effendi would later chide Husayn for marrying a "lowborn Christian girl."

In March 1950, Shoghi Effendi would send a further cable: "Faithless brother Hussein, already abased through dishonorable conduct over period (of) years followed by association with Covenant-breakers (in) Holy Land and efforts (to) undermine Guardian's position, recently further demeaned himself through marriage under obscure circumstances with lowborn Christian girl (in) Europe." Shoghi Effendi would later defend the use of the term "lowborn Christian girl" as follows: "Regarding his cable concerning Hussein: he has been very surprised to note that the terms 'low-born Christian girl ' and 'disgraceful alliance' should arouse any question; it seems to him that the friends should realize it is not befitting for the Guardian's own brother, the grandchild of the Master, an Afnán and Aghsán mentioned in the Will and Testament of the Master, and of whom so much was expected because of his relation to the family of the Prophet, to marry an unknown girl, according to goodness knows what rite, who is not a believer at all."

Friday, April 15, 2022

April 14. On this date in 1994, Carmen de Burafato died Celaya, Guanajuato, Mexico. Along with her husband Samuel Burafato, she pioneered to Mexico in 1957 and the two were elected to the inaugural NSA of Mexico in 1961. She also served as a Counsellor on the Continental Boards of Central America and the Americas.

 


April 14. On this date in 1994, Carmen de Burafato died Celaya, Guanajuato, Mexico. Along with her husband Samuel Burafato, she pioneered to Mexico in 1957 and the two were elected to the inaugural NSA of Mexico in 1961. She also served as a Counsellor on the Continental Boards of Central America and the Americas.

Details of Carmens early life are scarce, other than that she was from Mexico. She became a Bahá'í in the San Francisco Bay area in 1948, and married US veteran Samuel Burafato in 1950. The two pioneered to Mexico in 1957 during the Ten Year Crusade after Carmen wrote a letter to Shoghi Effendi asking how they could serve the Faith and received a reply saying that she should return to Mexico. Sam became a Bahá'í shortly after the move.

In 1961 Carmen and her husband were elected to the inaugural National Spiritual Assembly of Mexico with Samuel serving as Chairman and Carmen serving as recording secretary. When Enoch Olinga visited Mexico in May, 1961, Carmen served as interpreter for him accompanying him to several pastoral villages. In 1964 she was appointed as an Auxiliary Board member for propagation of the Faith assisting Ugo Giachery with his work as Hand of the Cause in Mexico, Central America and the Antilles. In 1967 she assisted in organizing an International Conference in Panama where the cornerstone of the Panama Temple was laid, delivering invitations to embassies and consulates.

In 1968 Carmen was appointed an inaugural Counsellor for Central America by the Universal House of Justice. In 1980 she was appointed for a five year term to the Continental Board of the Americas, formed when the Board for Central America was merged with the Boards for North and South America. She was re-elected to the National Spiritual Assembly of Mexico after her term as Counsellor ended and served on the body until 1992. She served on the Local Spiritual Assembly of San Miguel Allende until passing in 1994.

The Universal House of Justice cabled the following to the National Spiritual Assembly of Mexico following her Assembly:

DEEPLY SADDENED LOSS OUTSTANDING PROMOTER FAITH CARMEN BURAFATO. HER EXTENSIVE TEACHING AND ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES, CROWNED BY HER MANY YEARS AS COUNSELLOR IN THE AMERICAS, ARE UNFORGETTABLE. MAY HER EXAMPLE INSPIRE THE MEXICAN BELIEVERS NEW HEIGHTS OF DEDICATION. ADVISE HOLD MEMORIAL MEETINGS MEXICO. OFFERING FERVENT PRAYERS PROGRESS HER NOBLE SOUL ABHA KINGDOM. KINDLY CONVEY HEARTFELT CONDOLENCES HER HUSBAND, RELATIVES AND FRIENDS.

April 14. On this date in 1995, Owen Battrick died in Tahiti. Originally from England, he pioneered to New Caledonia, served on the Regional Spiritual Assembly of the South Pacific Islands as secretary, on the NSA of New Zealand as treasurer, and as an Auxiliary Board member and Counsellor for Australasia.

 


April 14. On this date in 1995, Owen Battrick died in Tahiti. Originally from England, he pioneered to New Caledonia, served on the Regional Spiritual Assembly of the South Pacific Islands as secretary, on the NSA of New Zealand as treasurer, and as an Auxiliary Board member and Counsellor for Australasia.

April 14. On this date in 1941, Shoghi Effendi "in reply to a question as to whether Brahma is 'to be considered as referring to absolute diety' and Krishna 'as the Prophet of the Hindu Religion', his secretary wrote '. . . such matters, as no reference occurs to them in the Teachings, are left for students of history and religion to resolve and clarify.' "

 


April 14. On this date in 1941, Shoghi Effendi "in reply to a question as to whether Brahma is 'to be considered as referring to absolute diety' and Krishna 'as the Prophet of the Hindu Religion', his secretary wrote '. . . such matters, as no reference occurs to them in the Teachings, are left for students of history and religion to resolve and clarify.' "

From Scriptures of Previous Dispensations, compiled by the Research Department of the Universal House of Justice.,,,

"Concerning Hindu prophecies of the coming of Bahá'u'lláh and the relationship of the Hindu and Bahá'í Faiths, nothing authentic and specific is available at the World Centre, apart from the Guardian's statement in God Passes By that 'To Him the Bhagavad-Gita of the Hindus had referred as the "Most Great Spirit," the "Tenth Avatar", the "Immaculate Manifestation of the Krishna"', (p. 95); and a brief reference to Bahá'u'lláh as 'to the Hindus the reincarnation of Krishna . . .' (p. 94). Bahá'í teachings on progressive revelation do, of course, bear on the relationship of these Faiths. In a letter written on behalf of the beloved Guardian it is also written that 'We cannot be sure of the authenticity of the scriptures of Buddha and Krishna . . . ' (November 25, 1950); and in reply to a question as to whether Brahma is 'to be considered as referring to absolute diety' and Krishna 'as the Prophet of the Hindu Religion', his secretary wrote '. . . such matters, as no reference occurs to them in the Teachings, are left for students of history and religion to resolve and clarify.' (April 14, 1941)"

(From a letter dated September 1, 1977 written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice to an individual believer)

Also here...

1696. Hinduism, Buddhism and Zoroastrianism (Following are some quotations taken from a compilation of extracts from letters written on behalf of the Guardian on these and related subjects, enclosed with a letter to an individual believer on November 30, 1980 from the Universal House of Justice)

Lesser Prophets: "Regarding your questions: We cannot possibly add names of people we (or anyone else) think might be Lesser Prophets to those found in the Qur'an, the Bible and our own Scriptures. For only these can we consider authentic Books."

(March 13, 1950, to an individual believer)

Asiatic Prophets: "Regarding your questions: The only reason there is not more mention of the Asiatic prophets is because their names seem to be lost in the mists of ancient history. Buddha is mentioned and Zoroaster in our scriptures--both non-Jewish prophets or non-semitic prophets. We are taught there always have been Manifestations of God, but we do not have any record of their names."

(October 4, 1950, to an individual believer)

Scriptures of Buddha and Krishna: "We cannot be sure of the authenticity of the scriptures of Buddha and Krishna, so we certainly cannot draw any conclusions about virgin births mentioned in them. There is no reference to this subject in our teachings, so the Guardian cannot pronounce an opinion.

"As our teachings do not state Zoroaster is the connecting link between the Euphrates and the Prophets in India, we cannot assert this.

"Abraham and Krishna are two separate individuals, with no connection that we know of.

"We know no more about the prophets mentioned in the Iqan than what Bahá'u'lláh states in that Book."

(November 25, 1950, to an individual believer)

Brahma and Krishna: "Your question concerning Brahma and Krishna: Such matters, as no reference occurs to them in the Teachings, are left for students of history and religion to resolve and clarify."

(April 14, 1941, to an individual believer)

April 14. On this date in 1966, Jessie Revell, who had been a member of the International Bahá’í Council, serving as its Treasurer, died in Haifa, Israel.

 


April 14. On this date in 1966, Jessie Revell, who had been a member of the International Bahá’í Council, serving as its Treasurer, died in Haifa, Israel.

Jessie Revell, along with her sister Ethel, became a Bahá’í in Philadelphia around 1906 through Mrs. Annie McKinney, when she attended the firesides of Mrs. Isabella D. Brittingham. On the evening when Jessie first heard Mrs. Brittingham speak on the Faith, Jessie followed her to the door as the speaker departed and said, ‘I cannot remember all you said tonight, but I want what you have!’

Jessie Revell was once addressed by ‘Abdu’l-Baha in these words:

“O thou who art firm in the Covenant! ... Notwithstanding the lack of time, I write thee this letter that thou mayest know how dear thou art to me. As thou art brilliant and pure and hast no wish but to serve the Cause of God and promulgate the divine teachings, I pray and entreat at the threshold of God and beg for thee limitless assistance and bounty. ... Thou must engage in those regions, day and night, in service. ... As to the children with whom thou art speaking, thy pure breath will undoubtedly exert its influence upon them. ...” (‘Abdu’l-Baha, Star of the West, vol. X, p. 317)

Jessie Revell’s brilliant record of service to the Cause of Baha’u’llah, extending from early in the century, came to an end with her passing in Haifa on April 14, 1966. Her story is best told in the words of her devoted sister, Ethel Revell.

“My mother, my sister and I first heard of the Faith in Philadelphia -- it was approximately 1906 -- through Mrs. Annie McKinney, and attended the firesides of Mrs. Isabella D. Brittingham. On the evening when Jessie first heard Mrs. Brittingham speak on the Faith, Jessie followed her to the door as the speaker departed and said, ‘I cannot remember all you said tonight, but I want what you have!’ When she accepted the Faith she wrote to ‘Abdu’l-Baha and mentioned that our father had passed away when we were very young. The Master replied -- I believe in these exact words -- ‘The real fatherhood is the spiritual fatherhood. Therefore rest thou assured that thou art the beloved daughter.’

“In the early days of her Baha’i life, as there was but little literature available to the friends, Jessie, who was then employed in an office, would spend her evenings typing copies of Tablets of ‘Abdu’l-Baha and sharing them with the Baha’is, who in turn would recopy them and pass them along to other believers.

“Jessie’s dearest wish was to be of service to the Cause. ‘Abdu’l-Baha visited Philadelphia in June, 1912. After speaking to the friends on Sunday morning at the Rittenhouse Hotel where He was staying, the Master took a short walk, during which time Jessie and a brother visited the various newspaper offices with material on the Faith which appeared in the papers the following day.

“During the meeting at the hotel, ‘Abdu’l-Baha said to our mother that He would see us at nine o’clock the following morning at our house. Excitedly, everyone spread the news and the humble home was crowded. The Master spoke to the friends most beautifully and touchingly about the life of Baha’u’llah. Afterwards He went upstairs, and each one had a brief interview with him. When Jessie’s turn came, she said ‘I would like to be of service in the Kingdom.’ ‘Abdu’l-Baha replied, ‘You are a smiling angel; you will be of service in the Kingdom.’

“Jessie visited ‘Abdu’l-Baha in New York City a few days before He sailed from America. As she was taking leave the Master said that He would see her again. Jessie always lived in the thought of again seeing Him on this earth. In 1921 she received a Tablet in which He told her she had permission to make her pilgrimage in the winter of that year. Everything was in order: the expense of her voyage was the loving gift of a Baha’i friend; her employer consented to her leave of absence and agreed to hold open her position until she returned; her plans were all made. When the news reached her of the ascension of ‘Abdu’l-Baha she was completely heartbroken. Slowly, painfully she reconciled herself to the realization that her meeting with the Master was not to be on this physical plane. At the suggest ion of Mrs. Brittingham she postponed her pilgrimage for a few years and was very happy she did so, because when she arrived in Haifa she was able to meet the beloved Guardian which would not have been the case had she gone at the time originally planned.

“One day during her pilgrimage Shoghi Effendi invited her to stroll up Mount Carmel with him to visit the Shrine of the Bab. On that walk he said that the Baha’is must make a superhuman effort. Jessie often said there was something about the way the Guardian said ‘superhuman’ that engraved it for all time in her heart.

“Jessie constantly searched for ways of meeting souls who were longing for truth. With this object in view she had just completed a course in public speaking when the invitation came to travel to Haifa to assist the beloved Guardian. When she told of receiving this cable, she said she believed she lost consciousness for a moment, it was so overwhelming.”

A tribute to Jessie Revell by Mr. and Mrs. Lyall Hadden published in the Bulletin of the Spiritual Assembly of Philadelphia at the time of her death describes her early services in that community:

“Jessie’s entire life was one of service to the Faith, first here in Pennsylvania where she served for many years on the Spiritual Assembly of Philadelphia and the regional teaching committee, and later in Haifa where she and Ethel were summoned by the Guardian in 1951.

“Her years of service in Haifa, her many travels throughout the world on behalf of the Faith, are well known to all, but we in Pennsylvania have a deeper knowledge of, and a great love for, this little person who gave of her time and energy so cheerfully and efficiently. No distance was too far for Jessie to travel; no demand upon her time too great in service to Baha’u’llah.

“When we first met the Revells back in 1936 both Jessie and Ethel were carrying out ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s instructions in a most energetic and able manner. We had just arrived in the Philadelphia area from New York where we had been briefly introduced to the Faith. Almost immediately upon our arrival Jessie, Ethel and their mother came to call upon us, and every week thereafter these dear and faithful souls traveled the twenty miles to our home to further our instruction in the Faith of Baha’u’llah. After we declared our faith they, true to the Master’s wish, continued to visit every Saturday morning to instruct our three small sons. So effective were their teaching methods that at one children’s session at Davison Baha’i School our boys were asked to refrain from raising their hands to answer questions and let some of the other children have the opportunity. ‘Thy pure breath will undoubtedly exert its influence upon them. ...’

“Many times we met the Revell sisters and drove them to Reading where they had engaged a room in order to hold Baha’i meetings. Whether one person attended, or a dozen, or no one at all, those two devoted believers were always there on the designated night, and our own knowledge was strengthened and deepened.”

It is fitting that Jessie Revell’s services in the Holy Land be glimpsed through the eyes of one of the countless pilgrims whose hearts she won. An account of her passing appeared in the Alaskan Baha’i News, September, 1966:

“Late in 1950 two self-effacing little ladies from Philadelphia, Ethel and Jessie Revell, received a cablegram: WELCOME YOUR PRESENCE HAIFA -- SHOGHI. These two lovely souls were overwhelmed and puzzled, but they soon began to pack. ...

“For Jessie, this was a return to the land of her heart’s desire. ... What kind of woman was this ‘little giant’, barely five feet tall, who earned the trust, love and admiration of Shoghi Effendi, and became a loyal companion of Amatu’l-Baha Ruhiyyih Khanum and the friend and counsellor of every pilgrim? The beloved Guardian received many letters from American believers but it was the rare Baha’i who, like Jessie, would write to him, as she did in 1948, to thank him for his peerless translation of Prayers and Meditations.

“En route to Haifa the Revell sisters found an additional opportunity to proclaim the Faith. Three hundred miles east of the Azores, a floating observance of World Religion Day was held on the S.S. LaGuardia by Jessie and Ethel. Fifty people of various nationalities attended in response to the invitation listed in the ship’s calendar.”

Jessie Revell’s services in Haifa were manifold: she was entrusted by the Guardian shortly after her arrival with the task of sending and collecting all his mail; this was a task to which he attached great importance as during his absences from the Holy Land no one had access to him except his “postman” whose integrity must be of the highest order. Even after the Guardian’s passing she continued to collect the mail, in spite of her age, until the election of the Universal House of Justice.

In 1951 she was appointed treasurer of the International Baha’i Council by the Guardian and after its election in 1961 continued to hold the same office. Her services to the Guardian and to the World Center in these and other capacities brought her in contact with many people in Haifa where she was widely known and respected as a Baha’i.

“How Jessie loved to be with the pilgrims,” Ethel Revell testifies. “She loved to look after their comfort and received them with a loving welcome, visiting with them, helping them on their shopping trips. At times the pilgrims arrived very late at night from certain countries. On one occasion a group of dear pilgrims came at about eleven-thirty at night. It was raining heavily. They were shown their rooms and made comfortable by Jessie. The next morning Jessie awakened to find she had slept peacefully all night in a wet raincoat!”

A pilgrim writes, “She won the hearts of all the pilgrims and saw the best, the true Baha’i, in everyone. In her quiet, unassuming way she would seek every avenue to serve her beloved Faith. No task was too great or too small. Pilgrims around the world treasure the picture of ‘Abdu’l-Baha in Philadelphia or some other small token from the Revell sisters. Dearly loved by the people of Haifa, they would voice concern: ‘Please talk Miss Jessie into getting a car -- a little one will do; she goes back and forth so much; I worry for her.’ A friend of ‘Miss Jessie’s’ would get a special price in the souvenir shops. Everyone in Haifa knew her; everyone loved her. Her calm, assured manner, regardless of the turbulence about her, seemed to be in natural setting in Haifa. While the Shrines, of course, stand apart as the very core of pilgrimage, Haifa unfailingly brings to mind Jessie Revell.”

Before his passing Shoghi Effendi had himself announced that Jessie Revell would attend the Intercontinental Conference to be held in the United States in 1958, in addition to the Hand of the Cause he had delegated to represent him on that occasion. In 1961 she accompanied Amatu’l-Baha Ruhiyyih Khanum on her trip to Australia to open the Mother Temple of the Antipodes to public worship. When Amatu’l-Baha was taken ill, Jessie Revell, at her request, visited the New Zealand Baha’i community in her stead, bringing the spirit of the beloved Guardian to all the friends there.

“I trust and pray that some day you may be enabled to visit Persia, and there render a distinct service to the cause,” Shoghi Effendi wrote to her on December 17, 1928. “Wherever you are, the Beloved will watch over you and sustain you, and you must feel encouraged to realize that your services, your faith and constancy, will in time be fully rewarded.”

Ethel’s words describe the joy her sister experienced in realizing this long-held hope:

“Persia and Turkey were the last countries which Jessie visited. She traveled to Iran just seven months before she passed away. To be in the land of Baha’u’llah was such a joy to her, to visit all the Holy Places such a sacred experience. Then too, the believers were so thoughtful, kind and hospitable in a quiet and efficient manner that she really felt at home. It seemed to me that with that accomplished, she in a way relaxed somewhat. A few days before she departed she said to me, ‘Since I went to Persia, I seem to be living there all the time.’”

Jessie Revell died in Haifa on April 14, 1966.

Upon her death the Universal House of Justice cabled the following message:

WITH PROFOUND GRIEF ANNOUNCE PASSING JESSIE REVELL HER TIRELESS STEADFAST DEVOTION FAITH SINCE BEFORE MASTER'S VISIT AMERICAN CONTINENT EARNED LOVE TRUST ADMIRATION SHOGHI EFFENDI CROWNED BY APPOINTMENT INTERNATIONAL BAHA'I COUNCIL DISTINGUISHED BY SERVICE TREASURER BOTH APPOINTED ELECTED COUNCILS. URGE NATIONAL ASSEMBLIES HOLD MEMORIAL GATHERINGS TRIBUTE UNFORGETTABLE EXEMPLARY SERVICES FAITH.


April 14. On this date in 1897, Ethel Revell was born. She was a member of the International Bahá’í Council serving as both an elected and appointed member, and served for a time as the Western Assistant Secretary. Ethel was the daughter of Mary J. Revell, known as Mother Revell for her role in founding the Bahá’í community of Philadelphia.

 


April 14. On this date in 1897, Ethel Revell was born. She was a member of the International Bahá’í Council serving as both an elected and appointed member, and served for a time as the Western Assistant Secretary. Ethel was the daughter of Mary J. Revell, known as Mother Revell for her role in founding the Bahá’í community of Philadelphia.