The writings of Sayyid `Alī Muhammad Shīrāzī, the Bāb (1817-1850 CE).

        Over the last 25 years or more I have been able to consult ms. versions of most of the major and minor writings of the Bāb which largely remain in unedited, uncritical and unstudied mss. scattered in libraries and private collections all over Iran and the Middle East as well as a good many University and private Libraries elsewhere in the rest of the world. Here the abbreviation INBA will indicate mss. forming part of the Iran National Bahā’ī Archives, photocopies of a number of mss. from which have become available to me over the last several decades. INBMC (= Iran National Bahā’ī Manuscript Collection, 100+ vols. [Tehran] mid. 1970s.) indicates volumes of bound photocopies of Arabic and Persian manuscripts mostly of the writings of the Bāb and BA* as well as some letters (alwāḥ, `Tablets’) of AB* and select Bābī-Bahā’ī secondary sources. A few INBMC items are Shi`I Islamic texts pertainijng to early Shaykhī leaders such as Shaykh Aḥmad al-Aḥsā’ī and Sayyid Kāẓim Rashtī (see bib. Pt. II).
        Over the years a very large quantity of the writings of the Arabic and Persian writings of the Bāb have become available to me, some through the generosity of individuals others through university collections and Bahā’ī archives. Among the mss I have consulted are the many works of the Bāb found in seventeen volumes of the INBMC series which were privately published in bound photocopies in Iran in the mid. 1970s.2 ¬Other Bābī mss. within other collections have also been consulted, including several from the E.G. Browne Collection of the University of Cambridge3. Other Arabic and Persian mss. of the Bāb’s writings acquired by the British [Museum] Library, the Bibliothèque Nationale (Paris) and the International Bahā'ī archives in Haifa, Israel were also consulted. The Bahā’ī World Centre (BWC) in Haifa, Israel were ind enough to provide me with copies (some in typescript, some in electronic form) of generally inaccessible Bābī-Bahā’ī mss. They are abbreviated Haifa: BWC. ms. An invaluable source of reference, has been Denis MacEoin’s, The Sources for Early Bābī Doctrine and History, A Survey (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1992; abbreviated here as Sources).

Published and unpublished writings of the Bāb. 4

• Ar. Bayan = al-Bayān al-`arabī = The Arabic Bayān

[1] Ḥusaynī, al-Bābiyyūn, 82-107;

[2] INBMC 43:1-68;

• Ar. Dala’il = Dalā'il-i sab`ih. np.nd.

        [Azalī ed. Tehran, 196?] [pp.](alif-nūn ); IBA (? = Nicolas ms.106), 102a-104b.

Haykal al‑dīn  (1266/ early-mid 1850)

Kitab-Kutub : Books

• K. Asmā’ = Kitāb al-asmā' . INBMC 29. [2] Uncat. mss. Marzieh Gail Coll. Bosch Bahā’ī Library (USA).
• K. Fihrist = Kitāb al-fihrist INBA. Ms 6007C:339-348.
• K. Panj = Kitāb-i panj sha'n. np.nd. [Tehran Azali ed. 196?]
• K. Haykal = Haykal al-dīn. np.nd [Tehran, Azalī ed. 196?]
• K. `Ulamā’ = Kitāb al-`ulamā' INBMC 67:206-16; Afnan 2000:107-111.
• K. Rūḥ = Kitāb al-rūḥ [incomplete]. Haifa mss.

 

Khutbas : Homilies, Sermons...

• Kh. Ḥuruf = Khuṭba on `ilm al-ḥurūf INBA 91; INBA6004C: 209-213.
• Kh. Jidda = Khuṭba at Jeddah. INBA 91: 61-81
• Kh. Qahriyya = Khuṭba-yi qahriyya. INBMC 64:127-150.
• P. Bayan = Bayān-i farsī, np. nd. [Tihran, Azali ed.]
• P. Dala’il = Dalā'il-i sab`ih. IBA (ii) (? = Nicolas ms.106),104bff. + n.p. n.d (Azalī edition [Tehran,196?]) 1-72.
• QA = Qayyūm al-asmā’ Afnān Lib. ms.5
• Q. Mahfuz = Su`āl `an al-lawḥ al-maḥfūẓ. (Q. 85:22) ,TBA. ms. 6006C:79-80.
• Q. Zavarih = Reply to the three questions of Mīrzā Muhammad Sa`īd Zavārih on Basīṭ al-ḥaqīqa and other matters INBMC 69:419-437.

Risala (pl. Rasa'il) : Trestises...

• R. Dhahbiyya = Risāla Dhahabiyya. (cf. Afnān, 2000:449). INBMC 86:70-98.
• R.Jasad = Risāla fī’l- jasad al-nabī (= Sharḥ kayfiyyat al-mi`rāj) INBMC 69:416-418.
• R. Nubuwwa = Risāla fī'l-nubuwwa al-khāṣṣa. INBMC 14:385.
• R. Sulūk = Risāla fī'l-sulūk. TBA., Ms. 6006C: 73-74..
• Haramayn = Ṣaḥīfa bayn al-ḥaramayn. CUL, Browne Or. Ms. F 7(9):1-125; TBA. ms. 6007C, 348-413.
• S. Ja`far = Sāḥīfa-yi Ja`fariyya. INBMC 98:48-108; INBMC 60:57-154.
• Shu'un-K = Shu`ūn-I khamsa al-fārsī (= Persian K.Panj ) INBMC 82:78-133.

 

Tafsir pl. Tafasir : Commentaries

• T.Akhi = Tafsīr ḥadīth `allamanī akhī rasūl-Allāh. INBAMC 14:410-417.
• T. `Ama’ = Tafsīr, ḥadīth al-`amā’. TBA. Ms 6007C:1-16..
• T. `Asr = Tafsīr sūra wa'l-`aṣr. (Q. 110) INBMC 69:21-119
• T. Baqara = Tafsīr sūrat al-baqara (Q. 2 ) INBMC 69: (1ff) 157-294+377-410.
• T. Basmala = Tafsīr (ḥurūf ) al-basmala. TBA ms. 6014C: f. 301-370..
• T. Ha’ (1) = Tafsīr al-Hā’ (1) INBMC 14:221-283; INBMC 67:4-52.
• T. Ha’ (2) = Tafsīr al-Hā’ (2) INBMC 14:284-320. INBMC 67:53-85
• T. Hamd = Tafsīr Sūrat al-ḥamd (Q.1). INBMC 69:120-153.
• T. Kawthar = Tafsīr Sūrat al-kawthar. EGB Coll. Ms. Or. F10 [7].
• T. LaylatQ. = Tafsīr Laylat al-qadr, (Q.97) INBMC 69:14--21.
• T. Kumayl=Tafsīr Ḥadīth Kumayl ibn Ziyād al-Nakhā’ī. INBMC 53:63-8.
• T. Man T. M-`arafa = Tafsīr ḥadīth man `arafa nafsahu.. INBAMC 14:468-477; [2] INBMC 40:46-53.

• T. Wajh = Tafsīr Naḥnu wajh Allāh. TBA 6006C: f.69-70; INBMC 53:56-8.

• Wasiyya = Waṣiyyat-nāma.

INBA 64:95-102;

BWC: Haifa Ms. (unpaginated)

Azalī editions of writings of the Bāb.

• P.Bay. = Bayān-i Fārsī. Tehran, n.d.
• P.Dalā’il = Dalā’il-i Sab`ah. Tehran: n.d.
• Qismati = Qismati az alwāḥ-i khaṭṭ-i nuqṭa-yi ūlā wa Sayyid Ḥusayn Kātib (n.p.)[Iran] n.d.).

Translations of A. L. M. Nicholas (d.1864-1939)

• P-Béyan = Le Béyan Persan, trans. A. L. M. Nicolas, 4 vols. Paris: Librarie Paul Geuthner, 1911-14
• Ar-Béyan = Le Béyan Arabe, Le Livre Sacré Bábyse. Paris: Ernest Leroux, 1905
• S-Prev. = Le Livre des Sept Preuves de la mission du Bab. Paris: Maisonneuvre, 1902

Translations of the Bahā’ī World Centre (Haifa, Israel).

SWB = Selections from the Writings of the Bāb, trans. by Habib Taherzadeh (et al.). Haifa: BWC,1976.
SWB* = Muntakhabātī az āthār-i ḥaḍrat-i Nuqṭih-i ūlā. Wilmette, Illinois: BPT, 1978.