Bahaism and Its Claims: A Study of the Religion Promulgated by Baha Ullah and Abdul BahaWilson, Samuel Graham
Religion
Bahaism and Its Claims: A Study of the Religion Promulgated by Baha Ullah and Abdul Baha
Wilson, Samuel Graham
Bahai Faith -- Controversial literature
As to other races and countries, let us see. Abul Fazl claims[13] that
"Jews, Zoroastrians, and Nusaireyah by thousands" are Bahais. M. Haidar
Ali[14] says: "The majority of Zoroastrians are recognized as Bahais in
all sincerity." On the contrary Professor Browne writes:[15] "I had been
informed that Zoroastrians were accepting Bahaism. However after much
intercourse with the Zoroastrians of Yezd and Kerman for the space of
three and a half months, I came to the conclusion that few, if any, had
adopted the Bahai creed." In India the proportion of Parsee-Bahais is
very small.
As to Jews:--Remey says: "In Hamadan there is a large Israelitish
following of Baha." A census made by a European Jew showed exactly 59
parents and with their children 194 persons out of a population of 6,000
Jews. As to the United States, I give some particulars in the closing
chapter. The census of 1906 reported 1,280 Bahais, which may have
increased to two or three thousand. In the Turkish empire they are few,
for Sunni Moslems are utterly indifferent to Bahaism. The Egyptian
_Gazette_ says of Egypt where Abdul Baha resided for two years, "The new
religion has made little perceptible progress; Islam remained
indifferent, and the Christian community was ignorant of his presence."
Of Syria, Mr. Phelps wrote:[16] "All the Bahais in Acca are Persians. No
other nationalities are among them." The inference is plain that no
native of Acca had become Bahai through forty years of contact with Baha
and his seventy followers. Bahais outside of Persia are probably all
told not more than 15,000 and one-third of these are Persians in Russia.
Abdul Baha gave the impression that many of the Christians of Persia are
converts to Baha. Dr. J. H. Shedd wrote, 1894, "I have heard of no case
of a Christian conversion to Bahaism." Dr. G. W. Holmes wrote, 1903, "I
do not know of a single Christian in Persia, who has been converted to
Bahaism. Some Bahais who made a profession of Christianity turned back
to Baha." Rev. J. W. Hawkes declares that in his observation none of the
members of the Syrian (Nestorian) or Armenian churches in Persia have
become Bahais.[17] I have known of one Armenian family in Resht and two
men in Maraga, one of whom was a notorious ne'er-do-well, who kept up
his opium using as before.
FOOTNOTES:
[2] Prof. E. G. Browne says ("A Literary History of Persia," p. 311),
"The resemblance between these numerous sects, whose history can be
traced through the last eleven centuries and a half, is most remarkable
and extends even to the minute details of terminology." "The doctrines
appear to be endemic in Persia, and in our own days appeared again in
the Babi movement."
[3] At that very time the chief of the Vashratis, who held that Sheikh
Ali Nur-i-Din, of Tunis, was a Manifestation of Mohammed, and his
essence divine, was in exile in Acca. He was in friendly relations with
Baha.
[4] _Star of the West_, April 9, 1913, p. 35.
[5] Phelps' "Life of Abbas Effendi," p. 227.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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