Shaykhism is "something very close to a Shi'ite Sufi order".

His [Shaykh Ahmad's] essentially Sufi metaphysics and his emphasis on experiential religion, on dreams and visions and meditations, created space for popular involvement in the Shaykhi order - which became something very close to a Shi'ite Sufi order.

(Juan R. I. Cole, The World as Text: Cosmologies of Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsa'i, Studia Islamica No. 80 (1994), pp. 145-163 Published By Brill)

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Shaykh Ahmad's mystical cosmology and Kabbalah

The close parallels between Shaykh Ahmad's mystical cosmology of the letters and the gematria of the Kabbalah is striking. Moses Cordovera of the sixteenth-century Safed school in Ottoman Palestine saw the Pentateuch or Torah as made up of divine letters, themselves manifestations of the divine light, which go on to form the names of God and ultimately worlds and worldly beings, as the letters undergo a "fall" or materialization. The gnostic motif of the material universe as "fallen" or evil is missing in Shaykhism, though gross matter is seen as inferior to subtle spirituality. But similarities between the two movements clearly exist, and they derive in part from a common Mediterranean heritage of ancient Jewish conceptions, Neoplatonism, and Gnosticism, which percolated into the Shi'ism of the eighth century and into medieval Judaism. The possibility that Muslim mystics and Kabbalists in places such as Muslim Spain, Isma'ili Yemen, and Ottoman Palestine influenced one another also cannot be dismissed. Beyond such a shared legacy of ideas, Kabbalism and Shaykhism developed some of their resemblance because the masters of both employed a similar spiritual logic in reworking this heritage.

(Juan R. I. Cole, The World as Text: Cosmologies of Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsa'i, Studia Islamica No. 80 (1994), pp. 145-163 Published By Brill)

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Shaykh Ahmad's attitude towards Ibn Arabi and Mulla Sadra

The radical aspect of Shaykh Ahmad's thought is apparent in its revisionism and its dynamism. On the one hand, he clearly was motivated by what Harold Bloom called the "anxiety of influence", the desire of creative thinkers to somehow escape the conceptual and literary structures erected by their forebears where these are perceived as limiting. Shaykh Ahmad's acceptance of much in Ibn 'Arabi's metaphysics while sharply criticizing the Andalusian Sufi himself, and his love-hate relationship with previous Shi'ite theosophers such as Mulla Sadra and Mulla Muhsin Fayz Kashani demonstrate this anxiety no less than do his doctrinal innovativeness and his idiosyncratic scripture commentary.

(Juan R. I. Cole, The World as Text: Cosmologies of Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsa'i, Studia Islamica No. 80 (1994), pp. 145-163 Published By Brill)

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Shaykh Ahmad's cosmology

Shaykh Ahmad creates his poetic and imaginative cosmology by juxtaposing the idea that the world is like an organism with the notion that the world resembles a language. Like an organism, it develops over time, growing from a simple seed into an ever more complex being, putting out ramifying branches. Like a language, it is a system made up of a finite number of discrete units that are combined and recombined according to regular laws.

By appealing to both symbols in the same treatise, indeed, Shaykh Ahmad powerfully transcends the dichotomy between nature and culture. If the natural world is spelled out by primal, divine letters, then nature is cultural. If humans are microcosms of the world-tree's leaf, then culture is natural. Nature is cultural insofar as it, like an orthographic system, "makes sense", and letter symbolism thus acts powerfully to reject an understanding of the universe as random and meaningless. It was argued by the great anthropologist, Claude Levi-Strauss, that myths in primitive culture were often about the transition from nature to culture, and that the contradiction between the two was expressed symbolically, so that nature is represented by fresh food that spoils whereas in culture raw food is cooked. In contrast, Shaykh Ahmad's cosmologies, the product of a highly sophisticated and literate intellectual tradition, deny the nature/culture contradiction by challenging the validity of this binary opposition and showing how each of these opposing concepts demonstrates characteristics of the other. The identification of the microcosm, the human soul, with the macrocosm of the primal leaf even undermines the distinction between the self and the world. In transcending these contradictions, Shaykh Ahmad forcefully underscores the sacredness of the universe, which reflects in its orthographic and organic meaningfulness the creative design of the divine Mind.

(Juan R. I. Cole, The World as Text: Cosmologies of Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsa'i, Studia Islamica No. 80 (1994), pp. 145-163 Published By Brill)

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Shaykh Ahmad about the creation of Mohammed and his other myths

Shaykh Ahmad in his mystical and theological anthology quotes a passage from "one of the learned", about how God created the Tree of Certainty (shajarat al-yaqin), from which he in turn made the light of Muhammad bloom from one of its branches in the shape of a peacock, which praised God for seventy thousand years. After this time, God created a mirror in which it could see itself, and the cosmic peacock then bowed to God five times, thus originating the five daily prayers of Islam. God created from the light of Muhammad the spirits of the believers, and their station in life was determined by which part of the Prophet's body of light they first saw upon coming to consciousness. The origins of this cosmological myth may plausibly be seen to lie in ancient Iranian mythology, with the Saena tree as the Tree of Certainty, the Saena bird or Simurgh as the peacock, and the five Zoroastrian daily prayers as the bird's five prostrations.

(Juan R. I. Cole, The World as Text: Cosmologies of Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsa'i, Studia Islamica No. 80 (1994), pp. 145-163 Published By Brill)

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Shaykh Ahmad was influenced by mythologies

The other symbol to which Shaykh Ahmad appeals in this treatise is more obviously a "cosmic reality", a natural phenomenon that, as Ricoeur has said, both manifests and signifies higher realities. The world-tree, a powerful mythological image in many cultures, has especial resonances for mystics in the world religions, for it immediately suggests the spanning of earth and sky; more, it speaks of development, of the growth of a towering complex being from a tiny kernel. The Indo-European root deru is the origin of both the English word "tree" and the word "true". "Druid", the name for holy men in Celtic Europe, means the "knower of the tree (or the true)" (deru-wid). In ancient Iranian mythology, preserved in Zoroastrian texts, the Saena tree that stood in the midst of the cosmic Lake Vourukasha was said to be the source of all seeds. In this fabulous Tree of Healing (vispobish) nested the Saena bird, with the head of a dog and the body of a fowl, which from time to time flapped its enormous wings, sending the multifarious seeds of the Saena tree flying over the earth, upon which they landed and from which they grew into the vegetation that covered it. In Islamic mysticism, many elements of this myth were taken over. The Saena bird, for instance, became for Suhrawardi and Faridu'd-Din 'Attar (d. ca. 1230) the "Simurgh" (a contraction of Saena meregh), and they see it as symbol of the soul's mystical unity with God. It is said that its haunt is the mystical mountain of Qaf (a transformation of an Iranian mythic geographical symbol) beyond the world-sea (i.e. Vourukasha). Kazem Tehrani has pointed out that for Suhrawardi, the tree of all seeds is associated with a return of the soul to the "first form" (shakl-i avval), identified with the nest of the Simurgh, a conception that differs slightly from 'Attar's notion of the mythical bird as a mirror in which the soul sees itself. The Iranian idea of the Saena tree was probably mediated to Shaykh Ahmad through writings of such Iranian mystics, and it has for him, as well, connotations of the soul's return to its primal, pure estate.

(Juan R. I. Cole, The World as Text: Cosmologies of Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsa'i, Studia Islamica No. 80 (1994), pp. 145-163 Published By Brill)

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Shaykh Ahmad's belief about the creation of the universe.

The plane of the Universal Intellect, the first emanation from the divine Will, is also called the One (wahid), since it is on this plane that number and specification first appear. On this plane God pronounces nineteen letters, creating the lower nineteen levels of existence: the nine spheres, the four elements, the three kingdoms of nature, man, jinn, and angels. The nineteen letters form the words, bism Allah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim, "In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate", whereby the chapters of the Qur'an begin. This phrase is the universal manifestation of all the levels of contingent being, and for that very reason consists of nineteen letters. When the numerical value of the One (wahid) is added to numerical value of the higher divine plane of Unicity (ahad), the results is equivalent to the letters forming the name kaf, corresponding to the Roman K. The letter kaf, in turn, stands for the Divine Will. It is also the first letter of the Arabic phrase "Be !" (kun) whereby God created the universe. This kaf revolves, and from it emanate all things. A similar discussion occurs in the important treatise of Ibn 'Arabi, The Tree of Being (Shajarat al-Kawn).

...The poetic and dream-like quality of letters as constitutive of the world is immediately apparent, but as cultural constructs they would appear to fail Ricceur's test for the authentic symbol insofar as they lack a cosmic dimension. It is here that the old Greek practice of calling both the elements (earth, air, fire and water) and the letters of the alphabet stoicheia becomes important. For Shaykh Ahmad, as well, the letters are elements, so that letter mysticism in this Greco-Arabic tradition is not only cosmological linguistics but also atomistic physics, and a natural, "cosmic" dimension to the alphabet as symbol can therefore also be discerned.

(Juan R. I. Cole, The World as Text: Cosmologies of Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsa'i, Studia Islamica No. 80 (1994), pp. 145-163 Published By Brill)

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Shaykh Ahmad, Akhbarism and a commentary on a tradition attributed to the Prophet of Islam.

Shaykh Ahmad's short treatise on cosmological symbolism was penned in response to an inquiry from Mirza Muhammad 'Ali Mudarris* (d. 1825) of Yazd, who desired a commentary on a saying attributed to the Prophet : "God wrote a Text (kitabah) two thousand years before He created the universe, on a myrtle leaf that He caused to grow. He placed it upon the Throne, then called out : 'O community of Muhammad - peace be upon him and his House - My compassion transcends My wrath. I have given to you before you even asked, and forgiven you before you sought forgiveness. Whoso among you bears witness that there is no God but Me, and that Muhammad is My servant and messenger, I shall usher him into paradise by reason of my compassion".

*Mudarris was a prominent cleric of the strict constructionist or Akhbari school of jurisprudence in Yazd.

(Juan R. I. Cole, The World as Text: Cosmologies of Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsa'i, Studia Islamica No. 80 (1994), pp. 145-163 Published By Brill)

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Shaykh Ahmad's approach towards Sufi mysticism and Shi'ite gnosis. He was much influenced by Ibn Abi Jumhur al-Ahsa'i

He [Shaykh Ahmad] innovated within, quarrelled with, and pushed to its limits the highly sophisticated heritage of Sufi mysticism and Shi'ite gnosis ('irfan) that had crystallized in the seventeenth-century School of Isfahan. In addition, Shaykh Ahmad tapped into a little-known stream of indigenous Eastern Arabian thought.* His use of symbolic language captured the imagination of tens of thousands in the Arab East, Iran, and India, and the controversial, mystical Shaykhi order came to be established in his name, largely after his death. Out of this matrix later developed the messianic Babi movement and the Baha'i faith, a new world religion, suggesting that al-Ahsa'i's ideas, while they could be taken in a conservative direction as occurred among Kerman Shaykhis, also contained radical potentialities.

*I now have ample textual proof that Shaykh Ahmad is much influenced by theosopher Ibn Abi Jumhur al-Ahsa'i (b. 1434) and the great Bahraini thinkers of the Safarid period (1501-1722); see : Juan R.I. Cole, "Rival Empires of Trade and Imami Shi'ism in Eastern Arabia, 1300-1800", International Journal of Middle East Studies 19 (1987): 177-204.

(Juan R. I. Cole, The World as Text: Cosmologies of Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsa'i, Studia Islamica No. 80 (1994), pp. 145-163 Published By Brill)

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Shaykh Ahmad's started to claim when it was a bad time for the Shias

He [Shaykh Ahmad] came to "consciousness" at a tragic time for Shi'ite Islam, which was battered in the eighteenth century by the Sunni Afghan invasion of Shi'ite Iran and dethronement of Shi'ism as the state religion, by the anti-Shi'ite Wahhabi tribes of Arabia, and by growing Russian and British power.

(Juan R. I. Cole, The World as Text: Cosmologies of Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsa'i, Studia Islamica No. 80 (1994), pp. 145-163 Published By Brill)

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Promoting the Baha'i faith in Iran in a semi-clandestine manner.

Nasir al-Din Shah’s successor, Muzaffar al-Din Shah, had a more favourable attitude towards Baha’is. They were able to publish semi-clandestinely through alternative print technologies, such as the lithograph and jellygraph, that proved difficult to regulate.

Baha’is were also active in the early history of Iranian newspapers where, so long as they made no explicit reference to their religious affiliation, they could thrive and prosper. Mirza Mahmud Khan was the editor of the late nineteenth century Isfahan-based newspaper Farhang, a copy of which was regularly sent to ‘Abdu’l-Baha in ‘Akka. Sayyid Faraj Allah Kashani edited the newspaper Surayya in Egypt, Tihran, and Kashan during the 1903–1910 period. With the outbreak of the Constitutional Revolution in 1906, Baha’is continued to play a part in publishing newspapers. In the capital Tehran, Sayyid Ahmad Khavari Kashani published the newspaper Mizan. During these years, the Baha’i female activist Ta’irah published a series of articles in the leftist newspaper Iran-i Naw. Another Baha’i, Muhammad ‘Ali Hidayat, established his own press, Matba‘ah-i Khurasan, and published two newspapers: Bisharat and the constitutional-era Tus.

In the capital Tehran, the Imperial Press (Matba‘ah-i Shahi) sometimes employed Baha’is where they engaged in clandestine Baha’i publishing. Mirza ‘Ali Akbar Rawhani Milani Muhibb al-Sultan was a case in point. Muhibb al-Sultan lived in Central Asia for several years, including in Bukhara and Samarqand, before making a pilgrimage to ‘Akka in 1895 to 1896. He stayed there for six months, copying Baha’i texts, before returning to Ashkabad. Two years later, he once again made pilgrimage to ‘Akka, copied Baha’i texts, but this time he travelled and settled in Iran. Reaching Tehran in 1898/1899 he worked for the Imperial Press. Two Baha’is close to Muzaffar al-Din Shah — Ahmad Khan Sani‘ al-Saltanah and his son Mirza Ibrahim ‘Akkasbashi — had established the press thereby providing Muhibb al-Sultan crucial access to print technology. In addition to his involvement with the Imperial Press, ‘Akkasbashi was Muzaffar al-Din Shah’s court photographer and the first Iranian to record a motion picture. Muhibb al-Sultan was appointed the director and editor of the Imperial Press. In his spare time, he published a great number of Baha’i publications through jellygraph (tab‘-i ‘aksi) in his own handwriting. The fall of the Qajar dynasty and the rise of Riza Shah provided Muhibb al-Sultan the opportunity to use type-set printing for Baha’i Persian publications in Iran for the first time. The life of Muhibb al-Sultan in some ways parallels that of Mirza Mahdi Gulpayigani. Like Mirza Mahdi, he travelled extensively through Central Asia, Iran, and made pilgrimage to Palestine. Both men benefited greatly from being involved in government print operations and utilized their expertise to produce Baha’i publications.

Through the efforts of Muhibb al-Sultan’s clandestine press, the popular Baha’i poet Na‘im was able to publish his apologetic works meant to assist Baha’is in their propagation efforts. ‘Abdu’l-Baha even commissioned the translation of an English apologetic work into Persian with the intention of having it published by Muhibb al-Sultan for the Iranian community.

(Farzin Vejdani, Transnational Baha’i Print Culture: Community Formation and Religious Authority, 1890–1921, Journal of Religious History, Vol. 36, No. 4, December 2012)

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Abdul Baha censored the book

In the immediate aftermath of the Bolshevik Revolution, Baha’is increasingly confronted secular modes of thought. As was the case in India, publishing and public debates often went hand-in-hand. In 1919 to 1920, Sayyid Mahdi entered into a public debate with communists on a range of economic and religious issues resulting in the publication of a treatise on socialism and the Baha’i Faith. Sayyid Mahdi’s engagement with secular modes of thinking included Kashf al-Ghita, a posthumous expanded version of his uncle’s refutation of the British scholar E. G. Browne’s works on the Baha’i Faith. ‘Abdu’l-Baha censored the book for its overly polemical tone, once again demonstrating his active monitoring of printed Baha’i books.

(Farzin Vejdani, Transnational Baha’i Print Culture: Community Formation and Religious Authority, 1890–1921, Journal of Religious History, Vol. 36, No. 4, December 2012)

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How Baha'is invaded the Bans?

In 1917, ‘Abdu’l-Baha appointed an association (anjuman) to run the operations of the press and to establish a Baha’i magazine, Khurshid-i Kavar. Mirza Mahdi [Gulpayigani] drew on his previous printing expertise to publish the magazine, using it in part to respond to what Mashhad newspapers would write about the Baha’i Faith. Since the magazine was blocked from being imported into Iran from Khurasan, it was often brought to Gilan — a province in which Baha’is were in charge of customs duties — and circulated from there.

(Farzin Vejdani, Transnational Baha’i Print Culture: Community Formation and Religious Authority, 1890–1921, Journal of Religious History, Vol. 36, No. 4, December 2012)

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Gulpaygani made his livelihood as the editor of the Russian imperial government’s Persian magazine

It was only twenty years later, in the aftermath of the Russian revolution in 1917, that Mirza Abu al-Fazl’s vision for a Baha’i magazine was realized through the efforts of his nephew, Sayyid Mahdi Gulpayigani. Sayyid Mahdi made his livelihood as the editor of the Russian imperial government’s Persian magazine, Majmu‘ah-i Mavara-yi Bahr-i Khizir.

(Farzin Vejdani, Transnational Baha’i Print Culture: Community Formation and Religious Authority, 1890–1921, Journal of Religious History, Vol. 36, No. 4, December 2012)

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In 1920, Muslims and Zoroastrians allied themselves with local Parsis in debating Baha’is.

By the 1920s, the itinerant Baha’i teacher, Mirza Munir Nabilzadah, was at the centre of a number of Iranian propagation efforts in India. As if directly responding to ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s call for the prioritization of oral engagement over the mere textual circulation of scripture, Nabilzadah’s publications were usually the direct outcome of face-to-face encounters. Sometime in the mid-1920s, he published an advertisement in three Bombay newspapers inviting people to a dialogue on the Baha’i Faith. Local journalists covered the ensuing debate between Nabilzadah and his Shi‘i and Zoroastrian interlocutors.

In response, an Iranian Muslim ‘Abd al-Husayn Sipanta and an Iranain Zoroastrian Shah Bahram [Shahrukh], allied themselves with local Parsis in debating Baha’is. They organized a conference at the Zoroastrian Fire Temple (atashkadah) in Bombay aimed at refuting Baha’i messianic claims to being the fulfillment of the Zoroastrian tradition. They enlisted the expertise of the famous Iranian Muslim Iranologist and scholar of Zoroastrianism, Ibrahim Purdavud. A series of articles questioning the validity of the Baha’i claim that Baha’u’llah was the promised Zoroastrian messiah Sayoshant were published in the Indian newspaper Jam. Nabilzadah described his response to these articles as “teeth-shattering” (dandan-shikan) and as leaving his opponents silenced.

(Farzin Vejdani, Transnational Baha’i Print Culture: Community Formation and Religious Authority, 1890–1921, Journal of Religious History, Vol. 36, No. 4, December 2012)

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