Edward Granville Browne: The Only European Historian Who Met Bahaullah

You should appreciate this, that of all the historians of Europe none attained the holy Threshold but you. This bounty was specified unto you.[1]

These words Abdul-Baha wrote to Edward Granville Browne about his interviews with Bahaullah in 1890. From one of these interviews emanated the description of meeting Bahaullah famous in the Bahai community, which you can listen to here .

Foment in the Middle Eastthe Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78pulled Browne away from the course his family had set for him. Born in 1862 in Gloucestershire, England, Browne was the eldest son among nine children. His father hoped he would pursue the family business of shipbuilding and civil engineering. But Brownes calling lay elsewhere. In college he studied Turkish, Arabic, and Persian, and in 1882, he ventured eastward, visiting Turkey for several months to pursue his research.[2]

On 30 July 1886, Browne discovered a movement that would absorb his attention for the decades to come: the Babi Faith.[3] He stumbled upon an account of the revolutionary religion in Count Gobineaus 1865 Religions et philosophies dans lAsie Centrale. In the words of scholars Sir Edward Denison Ross and John Gurney, He was spellbound by the story of the courage and devotion shown by the Bab and his faithful followers, and at once resolved to make a special study of this movement.[4] He wrote admiringly of the Babs gentleness and patience, the cruel fate which had overtaken him, and the unflinching courage wherewith he and his followers, from the greatest to the least, had endured the merciless torments inflicted on them by their enemies.[5] In the Babs Revelation, he recognized, as he put it, the birth of a faith which may not impossibly win a place amidst the great religions of the world.[6] Browne resolved to extend Gobineaus account, which ended with the 1852 massacre of Babis.[7]

Brownes new passion whetted his eagerness to visit Persia. In 1887, he embarked on a yearlong sojourn there, during which he visited sites significant to the history of the Babi Faith: Tabriz, Zanjan, Isfahan, Shiraz, and the Fort of Shaykh Tabarsi.[8] In Shiraz, he learned of Bahaullahs Revelation.

After his visit, he returned to England, where he generally remained until his death in 1926, excepting returns to the Middle East in 1890, 1896, and 1903.[9] Yet, the year in Persia lasted him throughout all the remaining years of his life; the fire which Persia kindled in his heart would prove inextinguishable, as scholar A. J. Arberry puts it.[10] He collected and translated works on the Babi Faith including A Travellers Narrative, Written to Illustrate the Episode of the Bab, The New History of Mirza Ali Muhammad, the Bab, and Materials for the Study of the Babi Religion.

Scholars of the Bahai Faith concur on the value of Brownes research. H. M. Balyuzi, author of Edward Granville Browne and the Bahai Faith, asserts that Bahais undoubtedly owe to Edward Granville Browne a deep debt of gratitude.[11] According to Moojan Momen, his record of his interview with Bahaullah remains one of the few pen-portraits ever made of the Blessed Beauty.[12] In reviewing Momens 1987 book, Selections from the Writings of E. G. Browne on the Babi and Bahai Religions, John Danesh comments that Brownes insights and contributions about Iran and the Babi and Bahai religions remain relevant and important. Perhaps apart from the writings of the French scholar A. L. M. Nicolas, no Western works exist which equal Brownes in preserving the early history and doctrines of the Twin Revelations.[13]

Beyond the Bahai Faith, Browne is recognized for his progressive contributions to the study of the Middle East. At the time E.G. Browne embarked on Persian studies, it was an almost virgin field in the West, according to scholar John R. Perry, who also comments that as a scholar and an activist, he did much to present a sympathetic picture of Irans people and culture to a Western public, whose view of the Middle East was already being shaped chiefly by the dictates of geopolitics, and petroleum.[14] His books such as A Year amongst the Persians, A Literary History of Persia , The Persian Revolution of 19051909, and The Press and Poetry of Modern Persia furnished a windowwith exceptionally little distortion by the prejudice then common amongst Westernersinto Persian culture and politics for English speakers.[15] His work attracted fellow intellectuals to the field; he elevated the status of Middle Eastern studies at the University of Cambridge, where he was a professor, and he coordinated a wider network of European orientalists, managing the publication of 44 volumes in the discipline.[16]

But perhaps the surest evidence of Brownes efforts to forge bonds between the West and Near East comes in the accolades paid him by Persians. In 1900, the government honored him with the Imperial Order of the Lion and Sun; around 1910, his Persian Revolution was serialized in Iran; and in his elderly years, Persian notables sent him tributes.[17][18] In Tehran, Edward Browne Street still testifies to his renown.[19][20]

This article was originally published on Bahai Blog .

References

[1] H. M. Balyuzi, Edward Granville Browne and the Bah' Faith (1970), p. 122: site

[2] E. D. Ross, Browne, Edward Granville (18621926), revised by John Gurney, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004): site

[3] Moojan Momen, Browne, Edward Granville (1995): site

[4] E. D. Ross, Browne, Edward Granville (18621926), revised by John Gurney, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004): site

[5] Edward G. Browne, A Year Amongst the Persians (1893): site

[6] Edward G. Browne, Introduction to A Travellers Narrative: Written to Illustrate the Episode of the Bb (1891): site

[7] E. D. Ross, Browne, Edward Granville (18621926), revised by John Gurney, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004): site

[8] Geoffrey P. Nash, From Empire to Orient: Travellers to the Middle East 1830-1926 (2005), pp. 145-46.

[9] Moojan Momen, Browne, Edward Granville (1995): site

[10] Quoted in Geoffrey P. Nash, From Empire to Orient: Travellers to the Middle East 1830-1926 (2005), p. 141.

[11] H. M. Balyuzi, Edward Granville Browne and the Bah' Faith (1970), pp. 121-22: site

[12] Moojan Momen, Browne, Edward Granville (1995): site

[13] John Danesh, Review of Selections from the Writings of E. G. Browne on the Bb and Bah' Religions by Moojan Momen and E. G. Browne, Religious Studies (1989), p. 544: site

[14] John R. Perry, Browne, Edward Granville [18621926], Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North Africa (2004) pp. 539-540: site

[15] E. D. Ross, Browne, Edward Granville (18621926), revised by John Gurney, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004): site

[16] E. D. Ross, Browne, Edward Granville (18621926), revised by John Gurney, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004): site

[17] Geoffrey P. Nash, From Empire to Orient: Travellers to the Middle East 1830-1926 (2005), p. 140.

[18] E. D. Ross, Browne, Edward Granville (18621926), revised by John Gurney, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004): site

[19] Google Maps, Map of Tehran

[20] E. D. Ross, Browne, Edward Granville (18621926), revised by John Gurney, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004): site