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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