Conduct of The Heads of States
(سلوک رؤسا با مردم)
The contribution of Bayanis to the constitutional movement in Iran at a time when the brutality of the rulers was at peek and their struggle to have governments that treat its citizen with respect and dignity and a tolerant society is acknowledged by Iranian and Western historians.
Unfortunately Bahais have attempted to ignore facts and portray a false impression of Subh-i Azal. This work of Subh-i Azal provides an insight into how people should react in face of heads of government who rule with injustice. The approach recommended by Subh-i Azal is a non violent opposition accompanied with admonishing the unjust ruler. Violence is completely ruled out. In case the unjust ruler does not heed and continues to oppress its citizen, as a last resort people are entitled to remove the unjust ruler but emphasises that it must be non-violent and no bloodshed.
It is important to note that some of the attributes attached by Subh-i Azal to a head of a state applies only to a situation where the religion of Bayan is the religion adopted by the majority of the citizens, the head of the state is a Bayani and that Bayani teachings re implemented. One being that a council of 25 of the witnesses of Bayan acts as a council to the Bayani ruler of a Bayani state.
When Subh-i Azal refers to a divine mandate for a ruler, he refers to the Bayani head of a Bayani state. Subh-i Azal does not consider a particular style of government be a republic or monarchy as a requirement of a just system. Today, we can see regimes that are based on either and provide (relative) justice to their citizens and we see regimes that are based on either whilst their cistisens are subjected to hardship and injustice.
The following introduction to this work of Subh-i Azal is written by Prof. Juan Cole who has also translated this work and entitled it as 'Treatise on Kingship' posted on H-Net of Michigan State University. Whilst the introduction is provided in its fullness, the following must be noted:
Please click here to view Subh-i Azal's Conduct of Heads of States (in Persian).
Please click here to view the English translation.
Introduction to ' Treatise on Kingship '
By
Juan R. I. Cole
Although it has long been known that a network of Azali Babis played a key role in Iran’s Constitutional Revolution of 1905-1911, almost nothing has been written about the ideas on revolution of the movement’s leader, Mirza Yahya Subh-i Azal Nuri. Azal left behind numerous manuscripts, some of which are held in the British Library, the Cambridge University Library, and Princeton University Special Collections. These have not been studied, and most are recondite works of esoteric spirituality.
In 1999, as I was going through the microfilm copies at the University of Michigan from the Browne Collection at Cambridge, I came upon an extremely important treatise by Subh-i Azal. It is described only obliquely in the printed handlist. It was written in August, 1895, for the French scholar of Babism, A. L. M. Nicolas. The treatise combines esoteric (batini) thought on political leadership with modern ideas. Subh-i Azal says he thinks any leader whose power derives from popular selection or election should rule collectively. He praises the French republican leader, Leon Gambetta (1838-1882), who distinguished himself during the Franco-Prussian War and devoted himself to helping create the Third Republic in the 1870s. Gambetta served as prime minister in 1881-1882, just before his death.
In this manuscript, Subh-i Azal says that it is permissible for the people to remove a tyrannical king, though he urges that it be done without bloodshed if possible. He goes so far as to say that where a king has lost popular support and therefore becomes especially brutal in his tactics of rule, it is an obligation for the people to remove him. Azal thus establishes a mandate for republican revolution in the face of despotism, which recalls that of Thomas Jefferson and Tom Paine as much as Gambetta. It surely is this sort of thinking that attracted to him reformist intellectuals such as Jahangir Khan, Malik al-Mutakallimin, Sayyid Jamal-i Isfahani, and other Babi supporters of the Constitutional Revolution in the early twentieth century.
It is important to note, however, that Subh-i Azal does not support republican government under all circumstances. Where a king has a divine mandate and is not dependent on public opinion, he seems to say, absolute monarchy becomes a possibility, though it also requires just rule. He also seems to imply that the best leader would combine in himself both temporal and spiritual leadership, such that he is an Imam. This may be evidence of his own ambitions. During the Constitutional Revolution, some Babis wanted to bring Azal to Tehran and make him king. We are left with a strange amalgam of Isma`ili-like esotericism, approval of monarchy, and radical republicanism. The treatise may be more consistent than it appears in my reading, however. So as to begin the process of gaining a better understanding of it, I offer here my translation of the text.
In 2000, I published the manuscript in facsimile at the H-Bahai web site. Risalih-'i Muluk ("Treatise on Kingship"). University of Michigan, British Manuscript Project, 749 (1) #1. Digitally reprinted. (East Lansing, Mi.: H-Bahai, 2001). Thereafter, the Bayani community kindly typed it up and donated a pdf file of the work to H-Bahai, where it was also published.