PAPERS AND NOTES

WITHIN BIBLICAL, ISLAMIC & BĀBĪ-BAHĀ'Ī STUDIES

IN PROGRESS 2009-10

Mīrzā Abū'l-Faḍl Gulpaygānī (1844-1914 CE).

 Sharḥ āyāt-i muvarrikih  ("Commentary upon the Chronological Testimonia")  Hamadan (Iran), 1305/1887-8.

  trans. Stephen  Lambden (1982).  

Thomas K. Cheyne (1841-1915) Biblical Scholar and Bahā'ī

  خطبة  الطتنجية 

[I]

INTRODUCTION

The Khuṭbat al-ṭutunjiyya [taṭanjiyya] ("The Sermon of the Gulf" attributed to Imam `Ali (d. 40/661).

[II]

TEXT AND ANNOTATED TRANSLATION

The Khuṭbat al-ṭutunjiyya [taṭanjiyya] ("Sermon of the Gulf")

كثيب الاحمر

Some Notes on the Islamic Background and Bābī-Baha’i  use of the phrase Arḍ kathīb al-aḥmar ("The Land of the Red Sand-Dune"). 

 παρακλητος

Prophecy in the Johannine Farewell Discourse : The Advents of the Paraclete , Aḥmad and Conforter (al-Mu`azzi).

The Sinaitic Mysteries

PDF =   1988 > Revised Web edition 2007

Notes on Moses/Sinai Motifs in Babi and Baha'i Scripture

Studies and Notes on the Jawāhir al-asrār  (Gems of the Mysteries) and Kitāb-i īqān  (The Book of Certitude) of Mirza Ḥusayn `Alī Nūrī, Bahā'-Allāh (1817-1892).

The texts of the Biblical citations in the Jawāhir al-asrār (Gems of the Mysteries) and Kitāb-i īqān (Book of Certitude).

قائم و قيوم 

Qā'im (Ariser) and Qayyūm (Deity Self-Subsistent) : the background and significance of  twin messianic advents in Bābī-Bahā’ī  scripture.

The Bābī-Baha’i Demythologization of Shī`ī messianism: On the question of the reality of the twelfth Imam, Muhammad al-Mahdi, the  alleged son of  the 11th Imam, Ḥasan al-`Askarī   (d. 260/874) and Narjis Khanum.

أَصْحَابَ الْكَهْفِ

Some Notes upon the Bābī and Bahā'ī Interpretations of portions of the Qur'ānic Sūrat al-Kahf (Surah of the Cave), Q. 18.

دعاء البهاء

اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي أَسْأَلُكَ مِنْ بَهَائِكَ بِأَبْهَاهُ

 ...وَكُلُّ بَهَائِكَ بَهِيٌّ، اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي أَسْأَلُكَ بِبَهَائِكَ كُلِّهِ

The Du`ā  saḥar [al-bahā'] (Ramadan Dawn Prayer) of Muhammad al-Bāqir.

The Background and Centrality of Apophatic Theology in Bābī-Bahā'ī Scripture

The Du`ā' yawm al-mubāhala  ("Supplication for the Day of Mutual Execration"): 

Sidrat al-Muntaha

سِدْرَةِ الْمُنْتَهَى

IN PROGRESS 2009-10

Part One

Some aspects of their Islamic and Bābī-Bahā'ī Interpretations

The Sidrat al-Muntahā in Islamic Mi`raj and related writings.

Muhammad ibn Jarīr al-Tabarī (d. 310/922)

The Sidrat al-Muntahā in the Tafsīr of Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī (d. 606/1209).

 Muḥyī al-Dīn Ibn al-'Arabī (d. 638/1240) and his "School"

`Abd al-Karim al-Jilī on the Sidrat al-Munahā

The Shaykhī  and  Bābī-Bahā'ī Interpretations

The Lote Tree and Sidrat al-Muntahā in the early Shaykhism.

The Shaykhī and Bābī Interpretations of the Lote-Tree Motif

The Sidrah (Lote-Tree) and Sidrat al-muntahā (The Lote-Tree of the Extremity):

The Lote-Tree and Sidrat al-Muntahā in the the writings of the Bāb.

The Lote-Tree and Sidrat al-Muntahā in the writings of the Baha'-Allah and his successors.

The modern Bahā'ī interpretations of the Lote-Tree and Sidrat al-Muntahā .

Select bibliography Sidra (Lote-Tree) and Sidrat al-Muntahā .

The Isolated Letters of the Qur'an

الم-المر

A Note upon the year 1844/1260 and the Bābī-Bahā'ī interpretation of The isolated letters of the Qur'ān.

The Mightiest or Greatest Name of God

Three Essays  and other Notes and Translations relating to the motif of eschatological divine splendor and the Mightiest or Greatest Name of God

IN PROGRESS AND REVISION  2009-10

(o)

Bibliographical Notes on the Islamic Concept of the Mightiest or Greatest Name of God.

(1)

الاسم الاعظم

Shaykh Aḥmad ibn Muhammad ibn Fahd al-Hillī (fl. 9th cent. AH /15th cent CE) on the Mightiest Name of God

Taqi al-Din al-Kaf`ami (d. 900/1494-5) on the Mightiest Name of God

The Names of God and theories of His Mightiest Name (al-ism al-a`ẓam) with special reference to the Miṣbāḥ (Luminary) of Tāqī al-Dīn Kaf`amī (d. 900/1494-5) and Bābī-Bahā’ī theologies of the Eschatological Name.

 

الدر المنتظم في الاسم الأعظم

 "The Well-strung  Pearls on the Mightiest Name [of God]")

The Treatise of Jalāl a-Dīn `Abd al-Raḥman al-Suyūṭī (d. 911/1505) on the Mightiest Name of God

بهاء الدين محمد بن حسين عاملي

 Bahā' al-Dīn al-`Āmilī = Shaykh Bahā'ī

 Muḥammad ibn ʻIzz al-Dīn Ḥusayn ibn ʻAbd al-Ṣamad al-`Āmilī al-Jubā'ī, (b. 953-1030 AH = 1547-1621 CE) on the Mightiest Name of God.

See : http://www.hurqalya.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/BIBLIOGRAPHY-HYP/15-SAFAVID/Shaykh%20Baha'i.htm

 The son of Shaykh Ḥusayn ibn `Abd al-Ṣamad al-`Āmilī (919-984 AH = 1512-1576 CE) who was appointed Shaykh al-Islam at the then Safavid capital Qazvin by Shah Ṭahmasb (930-984 AH =1524-1576 CE). He was born near Baalbek on the 27th Dhu'l-Ḥijja 953 AH = 18th February 1547 CE and died Isfahan 12th Shawwāl 1030 AH = 29th August 1621 CE. A polymathic and widely travelled individual Shaykh Bahā'ī is viewed by some as the Islamic Mujaddid ("Renewer") of the 11th/17th century. The elder Majlisi, Muhammad Taqi Majlisi, described him as follows in his al-Rawdat (22:1),"[He is] al-Shaykh al-A`ẓam ("the Supreme Shaykh"), al-Wālid al-Mu`azzam ("the Venerated Father"), Imam al-`Allāmah ("the Imam of the Most Erudite"), Malik al-Fuḍalā' wa'l-Udabā' wa'l-Muḥaddithīn ("Commander of the Most Eminent Ones, the Cultured Persons and the Masters of Tradition"), Bahā' al-millat wa'l-Ḥaqq wa'l-Dīn ("the Splendor of the Religious Community and of the Real One [God] and of Religion")" (cited introduction to the Miftah al-Falah [1422/2001 ed], 4). Shaykh Baha'i was an accomplished theologian, philosopher, mathematician, Sufi inclined mystic, architect, grammarian and more besides. Bahā' al-Dīn al-`Āmilī was the one-time supremely powerful Shaykh al-Islām under Shāh `Abbās I (r. 996/1588- 1038/1629) at his then Safavid capital Isfahan. Shaykh Baha'i wrote a poem dar rumuz-i ism-i a`zam in which He claimed to disclose yet conceal something of the secret of the ism-i a`zam (see Lambden trans. below).

در رموز اسم اعظم  = Dar rumūz-i ism-i a`ẓam ("On the Secrets of the Mightiest Name [of God]")

• Dar rumūz-i ism-i a`ẓam  ["On the Secrets of the Greatest Name"] in Jawahiri (see above), 93-99.  *

• Dar rumūz-i ism-i a`ẓam- Stephen Lambden translation. *

 

(2)

The Islamo-Biblcal Mightiest Name of God Motif and Bābī-Bahā’ī Concepts of the Ism Allah al-A`zam.

ESCHATOLOGICAL DOXOPHANY:

The Motif of the Divine theophanic Radiance and its Messianic Associations.

(3)

بهاء

[1]

The word Baha' : Quintessence of the Greatest Name of God 1 : Pre-Islamic and Islamic-Shaykhī Literatures.

[2]

The word Baha' : Quintessence of the Greatest Name of God 2  : The writings of the Bāb and leading Bābīs.

[3]

The word Baha' : Quintessence of the Greatest Name of God  3  : The writings of Bahā'-Allāh and his successors.

The Voice of God and the Supreme Pen:  Some Aspects of the `Letters to Kings and Rulers' of  Muhammad, the Bab (d. 1850) and Baha'-Allah (d. 1892).

 

The child Jesus, the Alphabet and the Basmala in the Abrahamic and Babi-Baha'i religions

IMMORTAL HEROINES

A paper delivered at the first UK Gender Studies conference, convened in Newcastle upon Tyne (UK), 1997  

No Veiling Save Light :  Some aspects of Bābī-Bahā'ī theological-aesthetics

KALEIDOSCOPE:

Some Aspects of Angelology, Light, the Divine Throne and Color Mysticism in Bābī and Bahā'ī Scripture

ISLAMO-BIBLICA AND BEYOND: 

Some Biblical and Isrā'īliyyat themes and motifs in Bābī-Bahā'ī primary Sources

IT CAME TO PASS

Biblical and Islamic Prophecy and fulfillment in Babi and Baha'i literatures

Alchemical Gnosis in Bābī-Bahā'ī Scripture

Cherubim, Seraphim and Demythologization:

Babi-Baha'i Angelology