The Arabic and Persian writings of the Iranian born messianic claimant Mirza Husayn Ali Nuri (born in Tehran in 1817; died in Acre in 1892), self-designated 'janab-i baha' and subsequently Baha'Allah (= Baha'u'llah, "The Splendor of God") are extensive. They perhaps number between 15,000 and 20,000 items of varying length, from letters of a few lines to weighty books. Regarded by Baha'is as expressions of 'wahy' (divine revelation), many texts within this massive canon of Baha'i sacred scripture are identified by their author as 'alwah' (scriptural "Tablets"), sometimes also further designated after such time-honored (Abrahamic) Islamic literary forms as 'kitab' (communication, letter, book), 'sura' (portion, "chapter"), 'sahifa' (paper, scroll), 'risala' (tract, epistle) and 'ziyarat-namah' (commemorative visitation texts).
This Baha'i sacred literature has been only inadequately and very selectively surveyed, dated, and studied by believing adherents and trained academics. Most nineteenth- and early twentieth-century scholars and orientalists, including E. G. Browne (d. 1926), A. L. M. Nicholas (d.1937) and more recently Denis MacEoin, concentrated on Babi history and scripture, largely bypassing the writings of Baha'u'llah. Much work thus needs to be done to establish the precise Sitz im Leben of these numerous alwah penned and dictated by Baha'u'llah over a more than forty-year period...
-Stephen N. Lambden
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