Back in 1999 when I first started writing my “online diary” (I’ve put up the first few posts, but never got around to importing the rest) there were lots of us that poo-poohed blogs because online diaries were memoirs, and blogs were merely lists of links and things online.  These days no-one keeps online diarys, they journal in their blogs.

Dervish manifest as a blog is a sort of catch-all place for putting posts about my life, about my thoughts, about religion and anything and everything else.  I’ve decided to separate the content out a bit, and have Dervish as my online journal and a new blog as an Islam blog where I can post interesting tidbits, news, highlight other blogs on Islamic topics etc.  So stay-tuned dear readers!

It sometimes shocks Baha’is to learn that early Babis committed aggressive military incursions against local Muslims and the Iranian state, and not just defensive jihad. It is part of the re-visioning of earlier religions to which all successor faith historians seem to fall prey. (1)

Unlike modern-day pacifist Baha’is, the Babis formed a millennialist movement that believed the Qajar state would be militarily overthrown to establish the Babi reign in keeping with fulfillment of Shi’i eschatology.

In reviewing the Babi concept of jihad, Jonah Winters writes:

The early Babis wholly accepted the imminence of the launching of jihad. First, there was no doubt for them that they were following the arisen Qa’im and fighting for him would have been not only sanctioned by religion but even required. … To this end they manufactured weapons and traveled armed, even in cases where it would have seemed a clear provocation.[292] When they met at Badasht in 1848 many sources agree that their intent may likely have been to organize and launch the jihad.[293] The Babis are consistently depicted as impatient, passionately motivated to prosecute the cause of the Bab.[294] The Bab, though still not launching the jihad, was not shy about encouraging militancy, at one point calling for a battle in a “glorious sea of blood,”[295] and writing to the Shah that “my intention is to take revenge, as it is destined in the Book of God, from those who slew the true martyred Imam [Husayn]; their descendants too will join them in the sufferings of Hell.”[296] (2)

Examples of the Babi jihad from source materials include:

During this revolt the Babis took up a fortified position 10 or 12 miles from Barfurush, at the shrine of Shaykh Tabarsi, near the river Talar; they were few in number, but determined and fanatic, and after putting several envoys of the authorities to death, they prepared for a siege by collecting provisions from the neighbouring country; whenever the villagers hesitated or refused to give what they required, their houses were burnt about their ears.(3)

The most important analyses of Babi violence are included in:

Denis MacEoin, “The Babi Concept of Holy War,” in Religion vol. 12 (April 1982)

Amanat, Abbas, Resurrection and Renewal: The Making of the Babi Movement in Iran, 1844-1850, USA: Cornell University Press, 1989.

Effendi, Abbas (’Abd al-Baha’), A Traveller’s Narrative: Written to Illustrate the Episode of the Bab, transl. Edward G. Browne, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1891.
(1) See the section “The reinterpretation of Baha’ism in the West” in MacEoin, Denis, “From Babism to Baha’ism: Problems of Militancy, Quietism, and Conflation in the Construction of a Religion” in Religion vol. 13 (1983): 219-55.

(2) Winters, Jonah, “Dying for God: Martyrdom in the Shii and Babi Religions,” unpublished thesis, University of Toronto, 1997, p114.
(3) “Further notes on Babi, Azali and Baha’i literature, Oriental and Occidental, Printed, Lithographed and Manuscript” in Edward G. Browne, Materials for the Study of the Babi Religion, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1918) p241.

I am absolutely fascinated by photos of this poor chap’s hands and feet.  There is something primordial in me that probably dates back to our primate ancestors who picked lice off each other - I just have a desperate urge to peel, pick, pull and generally get at at the growths on his hands and feet.  Kind of like pulling off burnt skin, or popping pimples.  

We may be entering a whole new stage in our life as a family - only daughter going to kindy. For a while we’ve been fiddling with the idea of putting Yasmin into some form of kindergarten or 3yr-old daycare, but haven’t made much progress. Then Umm Aisha rang with a suggestion for a local Muslim school that has a pre-school program.

To be honest, it had never crossed my mind to look at pre-school programs in Muslim schools. Mostly because I didn’t know there was such a thing (pre-school programs that is). This one, on the surface, looks really good so we are cautiously optimistic. I really like the idea of Qur’an and Arabic being taught alongside painting, sand-pit play and singing songs. Read the rest of this entry »

Subhanallah! Is all I can say to this beautiful account of humility among the learned of Islam.