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Writings of Baha'-Allah : Bibliography II -Western and other Translations

Calligraphy of Mishkin Qalam

میرزا حسین علی بهاء الله

(1817-1892)

Bibliography II : A Select Alphabetical and Chronological Bibliography of Western Language Translations and Discussions of the writings of Baha'-Allah. 

Stephen Lambden

In progress - last supplemented  04-04-2016.

This webpage is based on extensive doctoral researches dating back to the 1980s and 1990s when I read, dated and summarized many of the major and some other scriptural Tablets of Bahā’-Allāh. Much of this research material remains in ms. or note form in folders and filing cabinets. In the list below I shall, for the most part, restrict myself to listing major titled scriptural alwah of Bahā’-Allāh. The vast quantity of writings addressed to the thousands of Babi, Baha'i and other recepients of Baha'i sacred writ from the founder of the religion, could not possibly be fully listed here;  let alone full details be given respecting matters of dating contents, translations, recensions and locations, etc. There are likely to be something approaching 20,000 writings of  Baha'-Allah  commonly designed Lawh-i ___. Futher details can be found on the main page regarding such Tablets, addressed to leading Babis, Baha'is and others, many of which are commonly referred to as Lawh-i X.

Select URLs and Electronic Sources :

Abbreviations for the Western Language Printed Sources referred to below :

  • BPC. = Baha'i Publishing Committee.
  • BPT. = Baha'i Publishing Trust.
  • Collins = William P. Collins, A Bibliography of English Language Works on the Babi and Baha'i Faiths, 1844-1985. Oxford: George Ronald, 1990. Sect. I pp. 1-7 = `The Writings of Baha'u'llah', refers to 143 published items.
  • INBA. = Iran National Baha'i Archives, numerous unpublished mss.
  • INBMC. = Iran National Baha'i Archives Manuscript Collection, 100 + 5 vols.
  • L-Hikma. = La'āli' al-ḥikma. 3 vols. (ed. Vahid Behmardi). vol 1.Brasil: Editoria Bahā'ī, 143BE/1987; Vol.2 Brasil: Editoria Bahā'ī, 146 BE/1990. Vol. 3, Brasil: Editoria Bahā'ī, 148 BE/1991.
  • McEoin-Rituals = Denis MacEoin, Rituals in Babism and Bahá'ísm, British Academic Press 1994.
  • MacEoin-Sources = Denis MacEoin, The Sources for Early Babi Doctrine and History. Leiden, Brill, 1992.
  • McGlinn, Sen = `Leiden List: Bibliography to the Tablets of Bahá'u'lláh', 2009-2012 (ongoing on his personal website and the Baha'i Library Online).
  • Proclamation = The Proclamation of Baha'u'llah, Haifa: Baha'i World Centre, 1967.
  • Taherzadeh, The Revelation of Baha'u'llah 4 vols (=RB1-4). Oxford: George Ronald, 19XX-19XX
  • RB1 = The Revelation of Bahá'uʾlláh by Adib Taherzadeh
  • RB2 = The Revelation of Bahá'uʾlláh by Adib Taherzadeh    Oxford : George Ronald, 1977.
  • RB3 = The Revelation of Bahá'uʾlláh by Adib Taherzadeh.ʿAkká, the early years, 1868-77. Oxford : George Ronald, 1983.
  • RB4 = The Revelation of Bahá'uʾlláh by Adib Taherzadeh
     
  • TB = Tablets of Baha'u'llah revealed after the Kitab-i-Aqdas. Compiled by the research dept. of the Universal House of Justice. Haifa: Baha'i World Centre, 1978. vi. 276 pp. Trans. Habib Taherzadeh and others. Contains sixteen major Tablets of Baha'u'llah and excerpts from several others. Also, with corrections and index, Haifa: BWC., 1982. 298pp.
  •  

Writings of Baha'-Allah and their translations into English, European and other languages dating from 1852-1892.

Asl-i kullu al-khayr (`The Foundational Basis for Every Goodness') or "The Source of all Good"). 

This short work of Baha'-Allah is best known today by the paraphrastic title , "The Words of Wisdom", the Perso-Arabic title Asl-i kullu al-khayr  might be more literally rendered `The Foundational Basis (asl) for Every Goodness (al-Khayr)'. It is essentially an Arabic compilation of religious maxims or definitions (cf. the Hidden Words) offering a seletion of succinct expressions of the quintessence of key relgio-spiritual qualities. This wholly Arabic work probably exists in several recensions dating from latter decades of Baha'-Allah's lifetime.

Translations : For details see Collins,    and McGlinn,     .

  • TB : 153-157.

Az Bagh-i Ilahi (From The Divine Garden"). Persian and Arabic. Baghdad. c. 18XX.
See Ganj 66 (partially cited); Taherzadeh, 1: 218-20. Text INBMC

Bi Janan Jan Hami Daryaft (Add), Sulaymaniyya [Baghdad]. A Persian poetical writings dating to the early-mid. 1850s, c. 1855.

L-Bisharat (The Tablet of Glad-Tidings)

Translations : For details see Collins, pp.   and McGlinn. Leiden List...

TB-1978 : 153-157.

Hajj  : Tablets for the performance of the Pilgrimage Rituals).

  • Add
  • Add
  •  

 

The Hidden Words = Kalimat-i makunah (Arabic and Persian, c. 1857-8). Originally entitled Sahifa-yi Fatimiyya (The Fatimid Missive). According to its author this work in 153 succinct ethical maxims and mystical disclosures, is a summary or distillation of all that was revealed to previous prophets or messengers of God; "couched in the garment of brevity".  The first half is in Arabic and the second in Persian. Hence the abbreviations HWA + HWP = The Hidden Words, Arabic or Persian.

  • Kalimat-i maknūnih in MAM: 17-32 (Pt.1 Arabic) + 373-398 (Pt. 2 Persian).

Translations :

  • 1905. Les paroles cachées, en persan. Trans.  Hippolyte Dreyfus; Mirza Habib-Ullah Chirazi. Paris: Ernest Leroux, . 116pp. Within the volume are : Kalemate Maknoune farsiye (Les Paroles cachees, en Persan) [Haft Vadi (Les Sept Vallees), Lawhe-Akdas (la Tres Sainte Tablette) and Lawhe-Hekmat (Sur la Sagesse).
  • 1911. Hidden Words. Words of wisdom and communes from "the supreme pen" of Baha'u'llah. Translated by Mirza Ameen U. Fareed. Unity Press: London, 1911. 44pp.
  • 1915. Hidden words / from the Arabic ; from "The Supreme Pen" of Bahaʾuʾllah. 
    London, 1915. Copy in British Library.
  • 1923. The Hidden Words of Baha'u'llah. Early trans. Shoghi Effendi. London : The Baha'i Assembly, 1923. Within `The Hidden Words, Words of Wisdoim, Prayers'.  90pp.
  • 1929. The Hidden Words of Baha'u'llah. Revised trans. Shoghi Effendi "with the assistance some English friends" [= George Townshend, John Esslemont, Ethel Rosenburg]. London : National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of  Great Britian and Northern Ireland. 1929. 55pp. See Collins, XX.
  • 1997. Unveiling the Hidden Words : the norms used by Shoghi Effendi n his translation of the Hidden Words by Diana Lorice Malouf. Oxford : G. Ronald, 1997.
     

Jawāhir al-asrār (The Essences [Gems] of the Mysteries). Arabic, c. 1860-1.

Jawahir =

  • [1] Jawāhir al-asrār. INBMC 46:1ff
  • [2] Jawāhir al-asrār. INBMC 99.
  • [3] Jawāhir al-asrār (The Essences of the Mysteries). AQA 3:4-88

al-Kalimat al-firdawsiyah (The Words of Paradise).

al-Kalimat al-firdawsiyah, majmu'at alwah Baha' Allah - see compilations below.

KINGS, RULERS, RELIGIOUS LEADERS ...

Like the Prophet Muhammad (d.632 CE) and his near contemporary, the Bab (d.1859 CE), Baha'-Allah wrote to several of the kings, rulers or religious leaders of his day, sometimes individually as well as collectively. He called these persons to faith in him as the universal, eschatological saviour and expressed advice for global reform. Baha'-Allah regraded these communications as poweful expressions of divine judgement.

Individually :

Lawḥ-i `Abd al-Azīz wa wukala  ("Tablet to `Abd al-Azīz and his ministers"). TB3. Constantinople, 1863.  Text currently lost, unavailable.

The Tablet to the Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti, Pope Pius IX (born May 13, 1792, Senigallia, Papal States; reigned 16 June 1846 - d. Vatican City, Feb 7th, 1878). Beatified September 3, 2000.

L-Pāp = Lawḥ-i. Pāp (Tablet to the Pope Pius IX) c. 1869.

  • Lawḥ-i. Pāp in A. Muluk:73-90.

L-Vikturyia = The Tablet to Queen [Alexandrina] Victoria (24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901), Queen from 1837 and later Empress of India.

  • Lawḥ-i Vikturiya, A-Muluk:131-141.

 L-Malik R = The Tablet to the Czar of Russia Nicolaevitch Alexander II (b. Moscow, XXXX;  r. 2nd March 1855 – 13th March 1881).

  • Lawḥ-i. Malik-i Rūs. A. Muluk:121-128.

L-Rothschild  [representing Jews and Judaism] Lost ?? A Tablet to a prominent Jew. Apparently to be delivered by a Persian Baha'i of Jewish background to a Paris connected member of the Rosenthal or Rothschild family; perhaps the prominent Jewish benefactor and Zionist Edmund James de Rothschild (1845-1934) who had very close links with Ottoman Palestine. He visited Palestine in 1895 and several times subsequently. Check these details ...

Collectively :

S-Muluk = Sūrat al-mulūk (The Surah of the Kings).

  • Sūrat al-mulūk (The Surah of the Kings). A-Muluk: 3-69.
  •  

S-Haykal = The Surat al-haykal (Surah of the Temple).

A compilation with introduction by Baha'-Allah, who refers to himself as the Haykal ("Temple"), consisting of five of his tablets to the Kings rulers and religious leaders' : [1] Tablet for Pope Pius IX, [2] [Second Tablet to] Napoleon III, [3] Tablet to Queen Victoria [4] Tablet to the Czar of Russia, Alexander II and [5] Tablet to Nasir al-Din Shah Qajar King of Persia in Persian with an Arabic prolegomenon. This faily lengthy composite Tablet exists in multiple, sometimes differing recensions spanning the late Edirne (c.1867-8) and early Acre years (c. 1868-73).

  • Sūrat al-haykal. Lithograph, Bombay, 1891.
  • al-Kitab al-Mubin. Lithograph Bombay :           + Tehran, 120 BE./1963, pp. 2-38,
  • AQA 1:2-38 + AQA 4: 268-300 (Differing recensions).

Translations:

  • 9 Surat 'Ul-Hykl. Translated by Anton F. Haddad. Behais Supply and Publishing Board of Chicago.  Hollister Brothers, Printers and Engravers, Chicago 1900.
  • From Suratul-Heykle, the Book of the Temple, trans. Habib Katibah and L. K. Saleeby, n.p., n.d. [190-?] [4] p. (so Collins 1.36. Apparently widely circulated in mimeo.
  • The above 1900 trans. was partially reprinted in Horace Holley ed. Baha'i Scriptures, Selections from the Utterances of Baha'u'llah and 'Abdu'l-Baha. New York: Brentano's, 1923 + Baha'i Publishing Committee, 1928.
  • See http://bahai-library.com/provisionals/suratul-haykal.html

Compilations of Scriptural Tablets to Kings, Rulers and Religious Leaders.

  • A-Muluk = Alwāḥ-i nāzilh khiṭāb bi- mulūk wa ru'asā-yi arḍ, Tehran: MMMA, 1968/124 BE.
  • Alváḥ-i názilih khaṭáb bi Saláṭín va Umará-yi arḍ : Tablets of Bahá'u'lláh addressed to the kings of the Earth and the world's religious leaders. ed. Hushang Goharriz, [Madrid] Fundación Nehal D.L. 2011.  510pp.

Translations:

  • The proclamation of Baháulláh to the kings and leaders of the world. Baháʾuʾlláh, 1817-1892. Haifa: : Bahá í World Centre, 1972

                  ♦

KITAB = Book(s).

K-`Ahdi = `The Book of My Covenant', The Will and Testament of Baha'-Allah in which he appoints his eldest son  `Abd al-Baha' to be his successor. Persian + Ar.  Acre-Bahji, c. 1891.

  • Kitab al-Ahdi (Ar.) Kitab-i ahd (Per.), The Book of the Covenant).
  • MAM : 399-403.

Translations :

  • Kitab-El-Ah'd, Book of the Covenant, the Will and Testament of Baha'o'llah . Chicago:
    Bahai Publishing Society, 1913. [3) pp. Collins 1.76, p.4.
  • The Covenant of Baha'u'llah. London :     pp.
  • 'Kitab-i-`Ahd (Book of the Covenant). TB: Item 15. Trans. Shoghi Effendi, Taherzadeh, etc., pp. 217-223[4].
     

The Kitab-i iqan (`The Book of Certitude', Baghdad, c. 1861-2).

K- īqān* [Egypt, 1934]

  • Add

 K-iqan [Germany, 1980]

  • Kitāb-i īqān, Hofheim-Langenhain: Bahā'ī-Verlag, 1980/ 136 BE (= rep.

Translations: French.

  • 1904. Le livre de la certitude [Kitab-el-Ikan], un des livres sacrés du béhaïsme Hippolyte Dreyfus; Mirza Ḥabib Allah Kaani Chirazi Paris : E. Leroux, 1904. [In Series: Bibliothèque orientale elzévirienne, LXXIX.] 1 vol. VII-212 pp. 
  • L'Oeuvre de Bahâou'llâh. [3], Le Livre de la certitude (Kitabou'l Iqan). Paris : Ernest Leroux, 1928.
  •  1965. Le livre de la certitude (Kitāb-i-Iqān). Traduction française par Hippolyte Dreyfus. Paris, Presse Universitaires de France, 1965. 145pp.

Kitāb-i īqān. English translations.

  • 1904. The Book of Ighan revealed by Baha Ullah. Translated by Ali Kuli Khan assisted by Howard Mac Nutt. `9'. New York: Geo V. Blackburne Co. 114 Fifth Avenue, 1904. Green cover with gold symbol of the `Greatest Name' on front. Prefaced with a brief extract from a Tablet of `Abdu'l-Baha Abbas. A two page introduction follows by Ali Kuli Khan (Ish'te'al Ebn Kalantar (= pp.vii-viii). The translation occupies pp. 1-185 and is followed by a four page glossary on pages 187-190. This is the first American printed edition.
  • 1907 [2nd ed.] The book of ighan. Revealed by Baha 'U'llah. Translated by Ali Kuli Khan, assisted by Howard MacNutt. Chicago, Ill., U.S.A. : Bahai Pub. Society, 1907.viii.190 pp.
  • 1915 [3rd ed.] The book of Ighan Revealed by Baha 'U'llah. Translated by Ali Kuli Khan, assisted by Howard MacNutt. Chicago, Bahai Publishing Society, 1915. vi+190 pp. Available at HathiTrust Digital Library, 2010 : ADD.
  • [1924] [n.d.] The Book of Assurance (The Book of Ighan), revealed by Baha'U'llah. Translated by Ali Kuli Khan assisted by Howard Mac Nutt.  Black cover with title `The Book of Assurance' (in capital letters) embossed in gold with a different (Mishkin Qalam designed) form of the `Greatest Name' (= Calligraphic Ya Baha' al-Abha) again printed in gold. The translation again occupies pp. 1-185 and is also followed by a four page glossary on pages 187-190. The front page has a red-printed lozenge shaped marking with an oak tree with Latin inscription followed by the words `For the Baha'i Publishing Committee' then New York: Brentano's Publishers. The edition is undated.  vi+190pp.
  • 1929. The Book of Ighan, The Book of Assurance. New York, N.Y., Baha'i Publishing committee, 1929. 3 preliminary leaves, [v]-vi, 190 pp. 
  • 1931. The Kitáb - I - Íqán : The book of certitude. New York : Bahá'í Publishing Committe, 1931. First ed. of the Shoghi Effendi translation. Numerous subsequent editions and trans. into European and other languages.
  • 1946. The Kitáb-i-íqán: the book of certitude. Revealed by Bahá'u'lláh. National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the British Isles (Great Britain), 1946.
  • 1950. The Kitáb-i-íqán, the Book of certitude.  Wilmette, Ill. Baháʼí Pub. Committee. 1950. xii+276 pp.
  • 1961. Kitáb-i-Iqán: The Book of Certitude (trans. Shoghi Effendi). London: BPT.,1961. 167pp.
  •  
  • 2003. The Kitáb-i-iqán = The book of certitude. by Baháʼuʼlláh ; translated by Shoghi Effendi. Pocket-sized ed. Wilmette, Ill. : Baháʼí Pub. Trust, 2003. 274pp. 17 cm.

Kitāb-i īqān. Russian translations.

  • 192-?. کتاب ايقان = Kitāb-i īqān = Книга иган : открытая Баха'у'лла. Kitāb-i īqān = Kniga igan : otkrytai︠a︡ Bakha'u'lla. Rīgā, Grāmatrūpnieks, [192-?]. There are a few copies of this translation in USA Libraries. World Cat.

 

IUlii Arkadevich Ioannesian. 

  • 2001. Kitab-i iqan (Pami︠a︡tniki kulʹtury Vostoka, 14.; Pami︠a︡tniki kulʹtury Vostoka). Sankt-Peterburg : Peterburgskoe Vostokovedenie, 2001. 264pp.  Translated direct from the Persian. 171pp.

 

Further Selected translations and commentaries, etc.

`Abd al-Hamid Ishraq Khavari, Qamus-i iqan.

Hooper C Dunbar, A companion to the study of the Kitáb-i-Íqán. Oxford : George Ronald, 1998.

al-Kitab al-aqdas = (Per.) Kitab-i aqdas (`The Most Holy Book', Acre-Bahji, c. 1873).  Arabic.

كتاب اقدس

  • Kitab-i aqdas. Lithograph, 187?
  • Kitab-i aqdas. Bombay : Maṭbaʿ al-nāṣirī, 1896. Compy in British Library.

Russian trans. A. G.Tumanskiǐ (d. Istanbul 1920; see below).

  • 1899. Kitabe Akdes, “Svyashchenneǐshaya kniga” sovremennykh babidov (Ketāb-e Aqdas, the most sacred book of contemporary Babis), text, tr., introd., and indexes by A. G.Tumanskiǐ, St.Petersburg, 1899 (Zapiski Imperatorskoǐ Akademii Nauk, 8th Ser., Istoriko-filologicheskoe otdelenie, vol. 3, No. 6).
  • Aleksandr Grigor’evich Tumanskiy (1861-1891). Text and Russian trans. along with other alwah and miscellany. See http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/tumanski-aleksandr-grigorevich
  • Kitabe Akdes, in Zapiski Imperatorskoy Academii Nauk St. Petersburg, 8th series, vol. 3, no. 6, 1899.
  •  Kitāb-i aqdas  translated by Sayyid Muḥammad Varith Hamdānī.  Ist ed. Pakistan : Bahāʾī Publishing Trust, 1997.

Translations into European languages.

Anton Haddad

  • 1899?. Perhaps the earliest English translation. Privately circulated in the USA from the 1890s (never printed).

Earl Elder and William Miller  - A Christian missionary edition and trans. which is sometimes inelegant and inaccurate.

  • Al-Kitāb al-Aqdas or The most Holy Book. Ed and trans. Earl Edgar Elder; William MacE Miller, (In the Series: Oriental Translation Fund. N.S, vol. 38). London : The Royal Asiatic society, 1961. 74pp.

Baha'i World Centre, Haifa, Israel.

  • The Kitáb-i-Aqdas. The Most Holy Book. Haifa: BWC, 1992/5.
  •   كتاب اقدس  .  Kitāb-i-aqdas / [Baháʾuʾlláh].Haifa : Baháʾí World Centre, 1995. Israel Haifa.

K-Badi`(The New-Wondrous-Revolutionary Book) (Edirne, c. 1867). Persian with numerous Arabic citations.

  • Kitāb-i badī`nazil az sama'-i mashiyyat Hadrat-i Baha'-Allah. Printed from a facsimile edition/ copy of ms. in the hand of Zayn al-Muqarrabin [dated  13th of Rabi` al-Awwal, 1286 = 23rd June, 1869]. Reprint, Prague: Zero Palm Press, 148 BE/1992. 419 + viii pp.
  • Complete Persian ms. in the possession of the XXX and Mary Koucheckzadeh Baha'i family.
  • Kitab-i badi` nazil az qalam-i hadrat-i Baha'u'llah. Mu'assah-' Matbú'át-i Amrí Almān.  Hofheim-Langenheim : Bahāʼī-Verlag, 165 BE/2008.  200pp. + Index, 201-213 + 8pp. 1st. German printing of the Persian primarily based on a ms. in the hand of Zayn al-Muqarrabin

♦

LAWH  (Pl.) ALWAH = SELECT SCRIPTURAL TABLETS, EPISTLES OR LETTERS.

L- : Lawḥ (pl. alwāḥ) ("Scriptural Tablet”).

L-Aqdas = Lawḥ-i aqdas. (The Most Holy Tablet). c. 1875? Arabic. Also popularly known in the west as the 'Tablet to the Christians'.

  • Lawḥ-i aqdas in

Translations :

  • Lawḥ-i-Aqdas.
  • Lawḥ-i-Aqdas.
  • Lawḥ-i-Aqdas.

Michael W Sours, A Study of Bahá'u'lláh's Tablet to the Christians Oxford : Oneworld, 1990. 212pp.  A study of the Lawḥ-i-Aqdas.

L-`Ayyūb = The Tablet of Job or Sūrat al-ṣabr (The Surah of Patience ).

  • Lawḥ-i `Ayyūb or Sūrat al-ṣabr. in  Ma’ida IV: 282-313.
  •  

 L-Baha’ =

  • Lawḥ-i Bahā’ (The Tabet of Baha', Glory-Splendor-Beauty). Haifa mss. INBMC 35:70-81.

L-Khaliq (the Creator). TB4? =

  • `O Thou Creator!’ ms. (trans. Hebrew University, Jerusalem).

L-Banu Qurayza (Contains comments upon the slaughter of  this Jewish tribe at the time of Muhammad). TB4 = Acre period. 1870s ?

  • Lawḥ-i  Banu Qurayza : Text in IQ :

  L-Hajji Mirza Hadi Qazvini =

  • Lawh-i Ḥajjī Mullā Hadī Qazvīnī. MAM:346-62.

  L-Hikmat = ("The Tablet of Wisdom"). TB4.

  • Lawḥ-i Ḥikmat (The Tablet of Wisdom). MAM: 37-53.
  • Trans. Taherzadeh+ TB:

L-Howdaj-Samsun =  Tablet of the Howdah or Lawḥ-i Samsun. TB3. Written near Samsun en route to Edirne (Adrianople) at the request of Mīrzā Aqā-Jān, in August 1863.

  • L-Howdaj-Samsun
  • L-Howdaj-Samsun
  • Trans. Lambden on this website.

L-Hurufat =

  • [Tafsīr] Lwah-i Ḥurūfāt-i muqaṭṭa`a (The Commenatry upon the Isolated Letters [of the Qur'an]) Haifa mss. [2] INBMC 36:212-242 ; [3] Mā’ida 4:49-86

 L-Ibn = (The Tablet Regarding the Son of Man [Jesus])

  • Lawh-i Ibn-I Insān. IQ: 93ff.

Lawh-i Ibn-i dhi`b (Epistle to the Son of the Wolf), c.1890. Persian with many Arabic citations.

Leaf from a ms. of the above work in `revelation writing' in the hand of Mirza Aqa Jan Khadim-Allah. 

  • Lawh-i Ibn-i dhi`b or Lawh-i Shaykh
  • Lawḥ-i Khiṭāb bi-Shaykh Muḥammad Taqíī Mujtahid-i Iṣfahānī ma`ruf bi Najafī. Cairo: nd. 1338/1919-20.
  • Lawh-i mubarak khitab bih Shaykh Muhammad Taqi-yi  Mujtahid Isfahani, ma`ruf bih Najafi [= Lawh-i Ibn-i dhi`b]. np. nd. 214 + 1 [Errata] pp.
  • Lawh-i Ibn-i dhi`b
  • Lawḥ- Ibn-i Dhi’b (“Epistle to the son of the Wolf” = ESW L-Sultan = (Nāṣir al Dīn Shāh) in A. Muluk: 145-201.

Translations.

Hippolyte Dreyfus-Barney (1873 -1928).

  • 1913. L'épitre au fils du loup, par Bahâouʼllâh ; traduction française [du persan] par Hippolyte Dreyfus. Paris : Honoré Champion, 1913. xvii, [1], 185 pp.

 Julie Chanler (1882 – 1961) + Mirza Ahmad Sohrab (         ),

  • 1928 . The Epistle to the Son of the Wolf. trans. Julie Chanler. New York City: Baha'i Publishing Committee, 1928.140pp. Introduction by Horace Holley (pp. v-vi). Basically a revised translation of the 1913 French translation by Dreyfus (see above). Mirza Ahmad Sohrab  compared the Dreyfus-Chanler translation with "an authoratative copy of the original Persian text".

Shoghi Effendi (d. 1957).

  • Epistle to the Son of the Wolf (tr. Shoghi Effendi). Wilmette: BPT, rev. ed., 1971(76).
  • Epistle to the Son of the Wolf. trans. Shoghi Effendi.

♦

 L-Khātam =

  • Lawḥ-i Khātam al-nabiyyūn (Tablet on the  significance of the Seal-Acme of the Prophets"). (mss.).

L-Kullu al-Ta`am (The Tablet of All Food). TB2A. c. 1854.

لوح كُلُّ الطَّعَامِ 

Probably written in late 1853 or early 1854 (1270 AH), this wholly Arabic Tablet is essentially a non-literal Bābī inspired commentary upon Qur'ān  3: [87]93. It was  written in response to a question about this qur'anic verse by Ḥajjī Mīrzā Kamāl al-Dīn Narāqī (d. Narāq c.1278-9/1881) which had been inadequately replied to by Mīrzā  Yaḥyā Nūrī (c.1831-1914), the then nominal head of the Bābī  community.

  • Lawh-i Kullu al-Ta`am
  • L-i Kullu al-Ta`am

Translation :

Full Eng. trans. and commentary Stephen Lambden, A Tablet of  Bahā'-Allāh of the early Iraq Period: The Tablet of All Food (Lawḥ-i kull al-ṭa`ām) in Bahá'í Studies Bulletin 3:1 - on this website...

See also : Ishrāq Khāvarī, Ganj. 8-10 ; cf. BW XIV: 622-3;  Rahiq  II: XXXX' Shoghi Effendi, GPB:116-7; Taherzadeh RB I:55-60; Balyuzi BKG: 112-3.

 L-Qabl. =

  • Lawḥ-i qabl-i ādam (Tablet Regarding the pre-Islamic Period). IQ: 68-78 cf. partial tr. SE* GWB: LXXXVII.

L-Mawlūd =

  • Lawḥ- i mawlūd- i ism- I a`ẓam ("Tablet in Celebration of the Birthday of the Greatest Name [Baha;-Allah]. Ayyām- i tis`a, 48-51.

L-Naqus = Lawḥ-i Nāqūs  ("Tablet of the Bell"). TB3. 1863.

Also known as the Subhanaka yā-hū   ("Praised be Thou, O He").  

Text in

  • Ada'iyih-M:141-153;
  • Ayyam-i T.,:100-106.

Translations :

  • Add
  • MacEoin :
  • Lambden :

 L-Sarraj =

  • [1] Lawḥ-i Sarrāj. (Tablet to `Alī Muhammad Sarrāj), Ma’ida 7:4-118.
  • [2] INBA 73:198-231.

L-Mallaḥ al-quds ("Tablet of the Holy Mariner"), TB2C. c. 186X.

  • Lawḥ-i Mallaḥ al-quds. In

Translations:

  •  
  • The Tablet of the Holy Mariner = Lawh-i-Mallahu'l-Quds...Fire Tablet= Lawh-i-Qad Ihtaraqa'l-Mukhlisin. [Germany] Hofheim-Langenhain: Baha'i-Verlag, 1985.  84 pp. See also Collins :  1.5, 1.30-1.34, r.107-1. 108, 4. 133.
  • The Tablet of the Holy Mariner. The Tablet of Fire . n.p. [Germany: Sa'fd Mu'tamid] n. d.
    [1980]. 80 pp .

The Mathnavi-yi Mubārak (The Blessed Mathnavi), a Persian mathnavi poem in 318 verses probably written in Baghdad around 1863. This work is referred to in the Adrianople-Edirne periopd  1283/1866-7 Persian book, the  Kitab-i badi` of Baha'-Allah (see above). It was apparently written for  Ḥājī Siyyid `Alī Akbar-i Dahajī. TB3.  Constaniople,1963.

Mīrzā  Husayn Isfahani  Mishkīn Qalam

  • Mathnavi-yi mubārak. Ms. in the hand of the Baha'i scribe Zayn al-Muqarrabin dated 8th Ramadan, 1299 or 24th July 1882 CE.
  • 1905. Mathnavi-yi mubārak. Indian ed. in the script of Mīrzā  Husayn Isfahani  Mishkīn Qalam, the Musk-Scented Pen  (b. Isfahan c. 1826-d. Haifa, 1912).
  • 1914 Mathnavi-yi mubārak. Printed with the Haft Vadi (Seven Valleys) and Kalimat-i maknuna (Hidden Words) of Baha'-Allah in Cairo in 1333 AH/1914 CE.
  • 1932 = 89 BE. Mathnavi-yi mubārak. [Tehran?]  Jellygraph ed. with poems of Tahira Qurrat al-`Ayn (d. 1852) and  an Istidlaliyya (Testimony Book) and poems of the Baha'i poet Mirza Na'im of Siddih [Isfahan] (       ).
  • 1953 =110 BE. Mathnavi-yi mubārak. printed in a small 54 page volume in Delhi, India.
  • 1964 =121 BE. Mathnavi-yi mubārak in the Tehran ed. of AQA vol. III.
  • 1992. Mathnavi-yi mubārak. Bahāʼ Allāh; Prologemenon Waḥīd Raʼfī (pp. 1-5) Based on and reproduces a forty or so page calligraphic rendering in the script of Mīrzā Husayn,  Mishkīn Qalam held at the Baha'i World Centre, Haifa, Israel. 1992.  pp. vii+ unpaginated. Contains a useful introduction in Persian by Waḥīd Raʼfī dated May 1992.

Translations :

  • 1997. El poema del bendito = (Masnaví Mubarak). ed. trans. Juan A Guzmán. [Series: 27.'"> Colección de Poesía "Juan Ramón Jimémez", 27.] Huelva : Excma. Diputación Provincial de Huelva, D.L. 1997.  A  "versión literaria y prólogo de, Juan A. Guzmán".  52pp.
  • 19XX. Mathnavi-yi Mubarak. English trans. Frank Lewis (Univ. Chicago).

Qasida  (Ode) =

  • al-Qaṣīdah `izz al-warqa’iyya (The Mighty Ode of the Dove) Ms. Haifa AQA 3:196-213.

Rashh = Rashḥ-i `amā’ (The Sprinking of the Theophanic Cloud). Tehran, c. 1852-3.

Opening hemistich:           رَشْح عَمَاء از جَزب مَا مِيرِزَد

Most Bahā'ī sources regard this 19 or more (20/21) line poetical composition  (qaṣīdih) as the earliest extant piece of divine revelation coming from the person of Bahā'-Allāh at the time of his four month imprisonment (Oct./Nov. 1852--Jan./Feb 1853?) in the Siyāh Chāl (Black Pit) dungeon in Tehran in the (Bābi-Bahā'ī) year nine 9 = 1269 AH (began15th Oct. 1852- ended 4th Oct. 1853). Versions of the (developing) text can be found scattered in various mss. and a few printed sources  including, for example :

  • Rashḥ-i `amā’
  • Rashḥ-i `amā’. Haifa typsescript in the hand of Zayn al-Muqarrabīn
  • Rashḥ-i `amā’ INBMC 36:460-1.
  • Rashḥ-i `amā’. Ma’ida 4:184-6. trans. Lambden. BSB 2/1 (1983): 4-114.
  • Rashḥ-i `amā’. Stephen Lambden, revised translations and commentary on this Website.

Salat (Daily Obligatory Prayers).

For contextual and other details see McEoin, Rituals, 38-40. Synopsis and Cod.,

[Pre-] Kitab-i Aqdas (c. 1873) Salat :  three rak`as three times per day.

Later forms of the Baha'i Salat (now in use globally) :

  • Short. P&M* :         + Tasbih : 21-22.  Trans. P&M :  + Baha'i Prayers (      ).
  • Medium. P&M* :      + Tasbih : 16-21. Trans. P&M :   + Baha'i Prayers (      ).
  • Long. P&M* :          +Tasbih : 11-16.Trans. P&M :     + Baha'i Prayers (      ).

The Seven Valleys = Haft Vadi, Iraqi Kurdistan/ Baghdad, c. 1857. For the Qaditi Sufi thinker and exegete Shaykh `Abd al-Rahman.

Persian mss. and printings :

  •  
  • 1912. Haft Vadi [The Seven Valleys]. Bombay: Bahá'í Illigant Photo Tethu Press, 1912, 61 pp.

 Ali Kuli Kahn; Ish'te-âl, Ebn-Kalânter. Trans.

  • 1906. The seven valleys revealed by BahaʼUʼllah, at Bagdad, in answer to questions asked by Shiek Abdur Rahman ... Chicago: Bahai Pub. Soc., 1906. 55+1 pp.
  • c. 1914. The seven valleys : revealed by Baha'u'llah at Bagdad : in answer to questions asked by Sheik Abdur Rahman, a great Mohammedan mystic Sufi leader. Chicago : Baha'i Publishing Society, 1914. The seven valleys.--Divine illumination, by W. W. Harmon. 56+72pp.

Julie Chanler, trans. from French.

  • 1933. Seven valleys  translted from the French of Hyppolyte Dreyfus. New York : New History Foundation, 1933. 37pp.

Shams-i jamāl-i ilāhī,  [Lawh-i] ("The Beautiful Divine Sun"). Persian, TB3. Constantinople c. 1863?

  • INBMC 32: 31-4.
  • Ottoman Archives ms. ADD. Found by Necati Alkan.
  • Trans. Lambden,

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SURAHS (CHAPTERS, DIVISIONS...)

S- : Sūrat = Surah, A textual unit, loosely “chapter”.

S-Bayan  = The Surah of the Exposition

S-Kifaya

 Sūrat al-kifāya ("The Surah of the Sufficiency) TB2A c. 1853-5 (?)

For the  ḥarf al-jūd  ("the Letter of the Divine Bounty) whose precise  identity (entitled Jawad?)  is uncertain this Arabic Surah begins:  "This is the Sūrat al-kifāya  (Sura of the Sufficiency). It was assuredly sent down on the part of the True One (min al-ḥaqq) regarding the question of knowledge  (fī jawāb al-`ilm)." It is apparently a defense of the leadership role and Bābī authority of Baha'-Allah's half-brother Mīrzā Yaḥyā Nūrī (c. 1834 -Cyprus,1914).

  • Surat al-kifaya in INBMC 36:277-28.
  • Full annotated Lambden translation of this website.

S-Nush =

  • Sūrah-i nuṣḥ (The Surah of Counsel). INBMC 36:242-268.

 S-Qamīṣ = The Surah of the Garment [Robe of the New Joseph]

  • Sūrat al-qamīṣ (The Surah of the Robe). AQA 4:XX-XXX.

S-Sabr (The Surah of Patience) = Lawh-i `Ayyub (Tablet fo Job) > see under L.

ZIYARAT AND DEVOTIONAL WRITINGS

(7) Ziyarat-Nama (Visitation Tablets) and related Tablets for religious worthies and persons of note in Islamic, Babi and Baha'i history.

Ziyarat-Nama (Visitation Tablets) are texts of varying lengh in Persian or Arabic (or both) which commenorate a deceased individual and which are meant to be recited at his or her resting place. There are scores of Ziyara texts of importance in Shi`i Islam  especially those centered upon the twelver imams, from `Ali ibn Abi Talib (d. 40/661) to Imam Muhammad al-Mahdi (d. 260/874), the twelfth Imam who is thought to be in the heavenly world in occultation (al-ghayba). There are also Shi`i Islamic visitation texts for the Prophet Muhamad himself, his daughter Fatima and his descendants the twelve Imams. Some important Ziyara texts suffice for one or more of these Islamic worthies. The Bab and Baha'-Allah wrote many Ziyara writings including some for the twelver Imams and other Islamic and many Babi-Baha'i notables.

S-Ziyara =

  • Ziyarat-Nama for the third Imam, Husayn son of `Ali ibn Abi Talib (d. 40/661) and Fatima daughter of the Prophet Muhammad (d.XX/XXX) :
  • Sūrat al-zīyāra (Surah of the Visitation) for the wife of Mullā Ḥusayn Bushrū’ī, Maidah 8:82-92.
  • Ziyarat-Nama for 
  • Ziyarat-Nama for Tahira, Qurrat al-`ayn (d.1852). TB4.
  • Ziyarat-Nama for   (d. )
  • Ziyarat-Nama for (d. ).

The Tablet of Visitation, comiled by Nabil-i Zarandi (d. 1892).

  • The Tablet of Visitation

Devotional writings:

  • Adʿīyah-ʾi Hadrat-i Maḥbūb : wa-fīhā mā tashtahīh al-anfus az munājāthā-yi sabāḥ va masāʾ va aʿyād va shifāʾ va siyām va amthālihā; fihristŕā dar ākhir mulāḥazah namāʾīd.Hofheim-Langenhain : Baháʾí-Verlag, 1980.

♦

19th-21st Century Compilations of the Writings of Baha'Allah

Rozen, Baron Vīktor Romanovīch (1849-1908).

  • 1908. al-Majmūʻ al-awwal min rasāʼil al-Shaykh al-Bābī. Bahāʼ Allāh... [= Russian title] Beháullach (Babid), Perwyj sbornik poslanij / Izd. W. Rozen. St. Peterburg, 1908. iv+185pp. Copy in Leiden University Library. So W-Cat.
  • [Comp. ] Rasā'il al-Shaykh al-Bābī Bahā Allāh - wa-qad iʿtanī bi-taṣḥīḥahi ūn Vīktūr Rawzin. Sanqṭ Biṭirzbūrgh : [Tip. Imp. akademīi nauk], 1908. Copy in British Library.
  • 1908. al-Majmūʻ al-awwal min rasāʼil al-Shaykh al-Bābī. Bahāʼ Allāh... [= Russian title] Beháullach (Babid), Perwyj sbornik poslanij / Izd. W. Rozen. St. Peterburg, 1908. iv+185pp. Copy in Leiden University Library. So W-Cat.
  • On H-Baha'i site : http://www.h-net.org/~bahai/areprint/baha/M-R/R/rosen/rosen.htm
  • Cf. Edward Granville Browne.`Some Remarks on the Babi Texts edited by Baron Victor Rosen in Vols. I and VI of the Collections Scientifiques de l'Institut des Langues Orientales de Saint-Petersbourg". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Vol. 24 (1892): pages 259-335.

Tumanski, Alexandr Grigoryevich (1861-1920).

See Jahangir Dorri, article,`TUMANSKIǏ, Aleksandr Grigor’evich', 2009. in EIr. : 

  • http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/tumanski-aleksandr-grigorevich
  • 1899. Kitabe Akdes, “Svyashchenneǐshaya kniga” sovremennykh babidov (Ketāb-e Aqdas, the most sacred book of contemporary Babis), text, tr., introd., and indexes by A.G.Tumanskiǐ, St.Petersburg, 1899 (Zapiski Imperatorskoǐ Akademii Nauk, 8th Ser., Istoriko-filologicheskoe otdelenie, vol. 3, No. 6).
  • Add

Hippolyte Dreyfus-Barney (April 12, 1873 - d. Istanbul, December 20, 1928).

French Baha'i from 1901.
Bahaou'llah ; traduction française par Hippolyte Dreyfus.

  • L'oeuvre de Bahaou'llah. 01, La Très sainte tablette. Les paroles cachées, les sept vallées du voyage vers Dieu. La lettre sur le Bayan, traduction française par Hippolyte Dreyfus. Paris : E. Leroux, 1923.  176 pp. French translations of several important alwah of Baha'-Allah.
  • [I:] La Très Sainte Tablette. Les paroles cachées. Les sept vallées du voyage vers Dieu. La lettre sur le Bayan. 1923. --
    [II:] Le temple de Dieu (Souratou'l haykal). Les lettres aux souverains (Alwahi salatin). 1924.
  • Add
  • Add ...

Edward Granville Browne (1852-1926)

 

 

 

A Chronology of further Compilations in Translation.

Yūhannā Dāwūd, comp.

  • 1914. The River of life, a selection from the teachings... [From the writings of Bahā Allāh and ʻAbdul Bahā'].  London, 1914. xvi+62pp.

Ali Kuli Khan, comp. + trans.

  • 1917. Tablets of Baha'o'llah Revealed at Acca, Syria: Tablet of Tarazat, Tablet of the World, Words of Paradise, Tablet of Tajalleyat, The Glad Tidings, The Tablet of lshrekat, Preceded by the Tablet on the Most Great Infallibility. trans. Ali Kuli Khan. Chicago: Bahai Publishing Society, 1917. 137 pp. Refer, Collins 1.133. This is a kind of predecessor of TB and TB* (see above)

Holley, Horace, Comp.

  • 1923. 2nd ed. Baháʻí Scriptures : selections from the utterances of Baháʻuʻlláh and ʻAbduʻl Bahá. Edited by Horace Holley... 2nd edition. New York : Baháʻí publishing committee (printed by J. J. Little and Ives), xii+576 pp.

ADD.

  • 1955.  The Bahá'í revelation : a selection from the Bahá'i holy writings / Bahá U'lláh, Abdu'l-Bahá ; including selections from the Bahá'i Holy Writings and talks by Abdu'l-Bahá. London : Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1955.

George Townshend.

  • 19XX +1975. The glad tidings of Bahá'u'lláh : being extracts from the sacred writings of the Bahá'ís  [translated from the Persian]; with introduction and notes by George Townshend. Oxford : Ronald, 1975.

ADD.

  • 1955.  The Bahá'í revelation : a selection from the Bahá'i holy writings / Bahá U'lláh, Abdu'l-Bahá ; including selections from the Bahá'i Holy Writings and talks by Abdu'l-Bahá. London : Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1955.

The Translations, Compilations of Shoghi Effensi Rabbani (1896-1957).

Shoghi Effendi (b. Acre 1897- d. London,1957), Grandson of Baha'-Allah and Guardian of the Baha'i religion .Comp. and Trans.

 

GWB = 1st ed.

  • Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh, trans. + comp. SE*, London: BPT, 1949 + Wilmette Illinois : BPT, 1978.

GWB* = 1st ed.

  • Mūntakhabātī az āthār-i-ḥarát-i Bahā'u'llāh [= Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh], Hofheim-Langenhain: Bahá'í-Verlag, 1984. 222pp. Original Language version of the item below.

 P&M = 1st ed. 19XX

  • Prayers and Meditations of Bahá'u'lláh [trans. Shoghi Effendi] London: BPT,1957.

P&M* =  1st ed. 1981

  • Munājāt, Majmū`a adhākīr wa ad`iya min āthār ḥaḍrat Bahā' Allāh. Rio de Janeiro: Editora Bahai-Brasil, 138 BE/1981 [= Arab. & Per. text of P&M].

Bahā Allāh; The Research Department of the Universal House of Justice.

TB = Tablets of Baha'u'llah revealed after the Kitab-i-Aqdas. Haifa: Baha'i World Centre, 19XX.

  • Majmūʻahʼī az alvāḥ-i Jamāl-i Aqdas-i Abhá kih baʻd az kitāb-i aqdas nāzil shudah.  Hofheim-Langenheim : Bahāʼī-Verl., 1980. 175-[19] pp.

Bahā Allāh; The Research Department of the Universal House of Justice.

TB = Tablets of Baha'u'llah revealed after the Kitab-i-Aqdas. Haifa: Baha'i World Centre, 19XX.

  • Majmūʻahʼī az alvāḥ-i Jamāl-i Aqdas-i Abhá kih baʻd az kitāb-i aqdas nāzil shudah.  Hofheim-Langenheim : Bahāʼī-Verl., 1980. 175-[19] pp.

 

 

 

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