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An innovative analysis of modernity and Orientalist discourses in Iranian millenarian movements Religion, Orientalism and Modernity explores the emergence in Iran of the revolutionary Babis and reformist Baha'is and their conflict with mainstream Shi'a Muslims, and of the parallel Ahmadi movement in North India. It gives fresh insights into the writings that defined these innovatory movements, penned on the one hand by their proponents, and on the other by western interpreters. Comparison of these movements shows that, together, they define important aspects of Islamic modernity. A focus on two case studies (Babis and Baha'is in Iran, and Ahmadis in India) reveals similarities and differences in their responses to a perceived need for change and renewal of religious authority.
Contents
1. Introduction
Transmission to and reception in the West
Proselytism and Polemic
Orientalism and Modernity: key motifs
2. Contexts and Issues
Orientalism and Inter-Cultural Exchange
Mahdiya movements in the Colonial/Post-colonial Middle East and South Asia
Baha'is and Ahmadis on Government and Politics
Mahdi movements: religious communities in a modern world
3. Race and Religion in Gobineau's Persia
The taint of racism
Gobineau's Persia: creation of an Orientalist image
Gobineau and the Messiah of Shiraz
Witnesses for the Baha'i faith: the role and function of Gobineau and other orientalists in Baha'i narratives
Interpolation, rewriting and narrative intent: Shoghi Effendi's Christianising of Dawn-Breakers
Conclusion: Gobineau's Persian master narrative
4. Ernest Renan's search for a Religion of Modernity
Race and Philology
Judaism, Islam and 'Le sémitisme'
Aryanism and a Persian Revelation
Revitalising Religion: Arnold's programme in 'A Persian Passion Play'
Modern Refractions: Renan, Science, Rationalist method, and the Baha'i faith
5. Edward Granville Browne and the writing of Babi Narratives
A peculiar style of Orientalism
Appropriating Orientalism: Browne and Curzon's place in Baha'i literature
Ahmadi schism, western conversions, and anti-Baha'i polemic
More Ahmadi positions: Orientalism, modernism, and in-betweenness
Conclusion: Browne's Babi-Baha'i legacy and the scope of mahdiya
6. Empire and Orient: Baha'is in Russian Transcaspia and Palestine
Russian Orientalism and the Baha'is of Transcaspia and the Caucasus
Ashkhabad's Baha'i community: an oasis of modern religion?
The Baha'is, Palestine and Great Britain
Zionism, Israel and the Baha'i faith
Ahmadi colonial and post-colonial orientations
7. Orientalism and Modernity in Baha'i and Ahmadi writings
Revisionist applications of Orientalism in the context of eastern voices
Hidden intertextualities: Aqa Khan Kermani's orientalism and Baha'i pre-Islamic panegyric
Orientalism in writings of early western Baha'is
Baha'i World and the civilising of Persia
From the periphery
'Returning to the Orient as Orientalist, but not as an Oriental'
Keith Ransom-Kehler and Reza Shah Pahlavi
The end of Colonialism and a New World Order
Another World Order and an Ahmadi 'gift' to Edward, Prince of Wales
8. Muslim responses and a future for Mahdi Movements
Muhammad Iqbal on Ahmadism and Babi-Baha'ism - and the category of 'non-Muslim'
Muslims, Mahdi movements, and Postcolonial critique
Some Twentieth Century Shi'a and Baha'i configurations Conclusion - Baha'i and Ahmadi futures
Notes BibliographyIndex
