Towards a Complete Alphabetical and Annotated Listing of the Arabic and Persian Writings of Sayyid `Ali Muhammad Shirazi, the Bāb (1819-1850).
Stephen N. Lambden UCMerced.
In progress 2019
Registered below is an alphabetical arranged and annotated listing of select Arabic and Persian Writings of Sayyid `Ali Muhammad Shirazi, the Bāb (1819-1859). The opening line or lines will be registered from select manuscripts (= Mss.) as will the final words or colophon. PDfs to select ms. and translations will also occasionally be made available.
Over the last 30 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 Baha'-Allah as well as some letters (alwāḥ, `Tablets’) of `Abd al-Baha' (d. 1921) and select Bābī-Bahā’ī secondary sources. A few INBMC items are Shi`I Islamic texts pertaining to early Shaykhī leaders such as Shaykh Aḥmad al-Aḥsā’ī and Sayyid Kāẓim Rashtī (see bib. Pt. II).
Among the mss., the contents of which will be registered here 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. Other Bābī mss. within other collections have also been consulted, including, for example,
- Arabic and Persian mss. of the Bāb’s writings within the E. G. Browne Collection of the University of Cambridge.
- Arabic and Persian mss. of the Bāb’s writings acquired by the British [Museum] Library.
- Arabic and Persian mss. of the Bāb’s writings acquired by the Bibliothèque Nationale (Paris)
- Arabic and Persian mss. of the Bāb’s writings within the International Bahā'ī archives in Haifa, (Israel)
- Arabic and Persian mss. of the Bāb’s writings in various Azali or neo-Azali collections.
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).
The Persian and Arabic Bayans (Expositions).
al-Bayān al-`arabī = The Arabic Bayān
- [1] Ḥusaynī, al-Bābiyyūn, 82-107;
- [2] INBMC 43:1-68;
Bayān-i Fārsī (The Persian Bayan).
- Bayān-i Fārsī. Tehran, n.d.
The Persian and Arabic Dala'il-i sab`a (The Seven Proofs).
Arabic al- Dala’il al-Sab`a
The Persian Dalā'il-i sab`ah.
Dalā’il-i Sab`ah. Tehran: n.d. [ Azali Babi printed edition].
- [Azalī ed. Tehran, 196?] [pp.](alif-nūn ); IBA (? = Nicolas ms.106), 102a-104b.
Haykal al‑dīn (The Temple of Religion) (1266/ early-mid 1850)
- Haykal al-din, Azali Babi printing.
Kitab-Kutub : Books
The Kitāb al-asmā'
- INBMC 29. [2] Uncat. ms. Marzieh Gail Coll. Bosch Bahā’ī Library (USA).
The Kitab al-Fihrist (The Book of the Index).
- Kitāb al-fihrist INBA. Ms 6007C:339-348.
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...
Khuṭba on `ilm al-ḥurūf INBA 91; INBA6004C: 209-213.
Khuṭba at Jeddah. INBA 91: 61-81
Khuṭba-yi qahriyya. INBMC 64:127-150.
Qayyūm al-asmā’ Afnān Lib. ms.5
Lawh (pl. alwah) Tablets or Scriptural Writings, Letters of the Bab.
Qismati az alwāḥ-i khaṭṭ-i nuqṭa-yi ūlā wa Sayyid Ḥusayn Kātib (n.p.)[Iran] n.d.).
Responses of various Questions
Su`āl `an al-lawḥ al-maḥfūẓ. (Q. 85:22).
- TBA. ms. 6006C:79-80.
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...
Risāla Dhahabiyya. (cf. Afnān, 2000:449). INBMC 86:70-98.
Risāla fī’l- jasad al-nabī (= Sharḥ kayfiyyat al-mi`rāj) INBMC 69:416-418.
Risāla fī'l-nubuwwa al-khāṣṣa. INBMC 14:385.
Risāla fī'l-sulūk. TBA., Ms. 6006C: 73-74..
Ṣaḥīfa bayn al-ḥaramayn. CUL, Browne Or. Ms. F 7(9):1-125; TBA. ms. 6007C, 348-413.
Sāḥīfa-yi Ja`fariyya. INBMC 98:48-108; INBMC 60:57-154.
Shu`ūn-I khamsa al-fārsī (= Persian K.Panj ) INBMC 82:78-133.
Tafsir pl. Tafasir : Commentaries
Tafsīr ḥadīth `allamanī akhī rasūl-Allāh. INBAMC 14:410-417.
Tafsīr, ḥadīth al-`amā’. TBA. Ms 6007C:1-16..
Tafsīr sūra wa'l-`aṣr. (Q. 110) INBMC 69:21-119
Tafsīr sūrat al-baqara (Q. 2 ) INBMC 69: (1ff) 157-294+377-410.
Tafsīr (ḥurūf ) al-basmala. TBA ms. 6014C: f. 301-370..
Tafsīr al-Hā’ (1) INBMC 14:221-283; INBMC 67:4-52.
Tafsīr al-Hā’ (2) INBMC 14:284-320. INBMC 67:53-85
Tafsīr Sūrat al-ḥamd (Q.1). INBMC 69:120-153.
Tafsīr Sūrat al-kawthar. EGB Coll. Ms. Or. F10 [7].
Tafsīr Laylat al-qadr, (Q.97) INBMC 69:14--21.
Tafsīr Ḥadīth Kumayl ibn Ziyād al-Nakhā’ī. INBMC 53:63-8.
Tafsīr ḥadīth man `arafa nafsahu.. INBAMC 14:468-477; [2] INBMC 40:46-53.
Tafsīr Naḥnu wajh Allāh. TBA 6006C: f.69-70; INBMC 53:56-8.
Waṣiyyat-nāma ("The Will and Testament" of the Bab).
- Waṣiyyat-nāma in INBA 64:95-102;
- BWC: Haifa Ms. (unpaginated)
