The Mutilated Body of the Modern Nation: Qurrat al-'Ayn Tahirah's Unveiling and the Iranian Massacre of the Babis

Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East

Volumn 18, Issue 2, 1998, Pages 38-50

  Mottahedeh, Negar ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 0348232820     PISSN: 1089201X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1215/1089201X-18-2-38     Document Type: Review

References (125)

1. For a thorough but succinct discussion of the histories of and differences between the Sunni, Shi'ite and Sufi branches of Islam consult Wadi Haddad, "Islam: A Brief Overview," in Ta'ziyeh: Ritual and Popular Beliefs in Iran, ed. Milla Riggio (Trinity College: Hartford Seminary, 1988), pp. 1-8. On Twelver Shi'ism consult Moojan Momen, An Introduction to Shi'i Islam (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985).
2. For a thorough but succinct discussion of the histories of and differences between the Sunni, Shi'ite and Sufi branches of Islam consult Wadi Haddad, "Islam: A Brief Overview," in Ta'ziyeh: Ritual and Popular Beliefs in Iran, ed. Milla Riggio (Trinity College: Hartford Seminary, 1988), pp. 1-8. On Twelver Shi'ism consult Moojan Momen, An Introduction to Shi'i Islam (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985).
3. Cf. Abbas Amanat, Resurrection and Renewal: The Making of the Babi Movement in Iran 1844-1850 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1989); and Farzaneh Milani, Veils and Words: The Emerging Voices of Iranian Women Writers (New York: Syracuse UP, 1992).
4. Cf. Abbas Amanat, Resurrection and Renewal: The Making of the Babi Movement in Iran 1844-1850 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1989); and Farzaneh Milani, Veils and Words: The Emerging Voices of Iranian Women Writers (New York: Syracuse UP, 1992).
5. Kitab-i Nuqtat al-Kaf reviews these aspects of Shaykhi thought in great detail. Refer to E.G. Browne's version of Nuqtat al-Kaf on-line H-Bahai publications website: http://www.hnet.msu.edu/~bahai/. Also see Juan Cole's three papers on Ahsa'i on-line at http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jrcole/papers.htm. Cole also pursues these themes in some detail in the work of Baha'u'llah in his article, "'I am all the Prophets:' The Poetics of Pluralism in Baha'i Texts," Poetics Today 14:3 (Fall 1993), pp. 447-476. Also consult: Abbas Amanat, Resurrection and Renewal; Denis MacEoin, From Shaykhism to Babism: A Study in Charismatic Renewal in Shi'i Islam MS Ph.D. thesis (Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Cambridge, July 1979); Vahid Rafati, The Development of Shaykh'i Thought in Shi'i Islam, Ph. D. dissertation (University of California, Los Angeles, 1979); and Idris Hamid, The Metaphysics and Cosmology of Process According to Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsa'i Critical Edition, Translation, And Analysis of 'Observations In Wisdom, ' MS Ph. D. dissertation (State University of New York at Buffalo, 1998).
6. Kitab-i Nuqtat al-Kaf reviews these aspects of Shaykhi thought in great detail. Refer to E.G. Browne's version of Nuqtat al-Kaf on-line H-Bahai publications website: http://www.hnet.msu.edu/~bahai/. Also see Juan Cole's three papers on Ahsa'i on-line at http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jrcole/papers.htm. Cole also pursues these themes in some detail in the work of Baha'u'llah in his article, "'I am all the Prophets:' The Poetics of Pluralism in Baha'i Texts," Poetics Today 14:3 (Fall 1993), pp. 447-476. Also consult: Abbas Amanat, Resurrection and Renewal; Denis MacEoin, From Shaykhism to Babism: A Study in Charismatic Renewal in Shi'i Islam MS Ph.D. thesis (Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Cambridge, July 1979); Vahid Rafati, The Development of Shaykh'i Thought in Shi'i Islam, Ph. D. dissertation (University of California, Los Angeles, 1979); and Idris Hamid, The Metaphysics and Cosmology of Process According to Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsa'i Critical Edition, Translation, And Analysis of 'Observations In Wisdom, ' MS Ph. D. dissertation (State University of New York at Buffalo, 1998).
7. Kitab-i Nuqtat al-Kaf reviews these aspects of Shaykhi thought in great detail. Refer to E.G. Browne's version of Nuqtat al-Kaf on-line H-Bahai publications website: http://www.hnet.msu.edu/~bahai/. Also see Juan Cole's three papers on Ahsa'i on-line at http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jrcole/papers.htm. Cole also pursues these themes in some detail in the work of Baha'u'llah in his article, "'I am all the Prophets:' The Poetics of Pluralism in Baha'i Texts," Poetics Today 14:3 (Fall 1993), pp. 447-476. Also consult: Abbas Amanat, Resurrection and Renewal; Denis MacEoin, From Shaykhism to Babism: A Study in Charismatic Renewal in Shi'i Islam MS Ph.D. thesis (Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Cambridge, July 1979); Vahid Rafati, The Development of Shaykh'i Thought in Shi'i Islam, Ph. D. dissertation (University of California, Los Angeles, 1979); and Idris Hamid, The Metaphysics and Cosmology of Process According to Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsa'i Critical Edition, Translation, And Analysis of 'Observations In Wisdom, ' MS Ph. D. dissertation (State University of New York at Buffalo, 1998).
8. Kitab-i Nuqtat al-Kaf reviews these aspects of Shaykhi thought in great detail. Refer to E.G. Browne's version of Nuqtat al-Kaf on-line H-Bahai publications website: http://www.hnet.msu.edu/~bahai/. Also see Juan Cole's three papers on Ahsa'i on-line at http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jrcole/papers.htm. Cole also pursues these themes in some detail in the work of Baha'u'llah in his article, "'I am all the Prophets:' The Poetics of Pluralism in Baha'i Texts," Poetics Today 14:3 (Fall 1993), pp. 447-476. Also consult: Abbas Amanat, Resurrection and Renewal; Denis MacEoin, From Shaykhism to Babism: A Study in Charismatic Renewal in Shi'i Islam MS Ph.D. thesis (Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Cambridge, July 1979); Vahid Rafati, The Development of Shaykh'i Thought in Shi'i Islam, Ph. D. dissertation (University of California, Los Angeles, 1979); and Idris Hamid, The Metaphysics and Cosmology of Process According to Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsa'i Critical Edition, Translation, And Analysis of 'Observations In Wisdom, ' MS Ph. D. dissertation (State University of New York at Buffalo, 1998).
9. Kitab-i Nuqtat al-Kaf reviews these aspects of Shaykhi thought in great detail. Refer to E.G. Browne's version of Nuqtat al-Kaf on-line H-Bahai publications website: http://www.hnet.msu.edu/~bahai/. Also see Juan Cole's three papers on Ahsa'i on-line at http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jrcole/papers.htm. Cole also pursues these themes in some detail in the work of Baha'u'llah in his article, "'I am all the Prophets:' The Poetics of Pluralism in Baha'i Texts," Poetics Today 14:3 (Fall 1993), pp. 447-476. Also consult: Abbas Amanat, Resurrection and Renewal; Denis MacEoin, From Shaykhism to Babism: A Study in Charismatic Renewal in Shi'i Islam MS Ph.D. thesis (Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Cambridge, July 1979); Vahid Rafati, The Development of Shaykh'i Thought in Shi'i Islam, Ph. D. dissertation (University of California, Los Angeles, 1979); and Idris Hamid, The Metaphysics and Cosmology of Process According to Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsa'i Critical Edition, Translation, And Analysis of 'Observations In Wisdom, ' MS Ph. D. dissertation (State University of New York at Buffalo, 1998).
10. Kitab-i Nuqtat al-Kaf reviews these aspects of Shaykhi thought in great detail. Refer to E.G. Browne's version of Nuqtat al-Kaf on-line H-Bahai publications website: http://www.hnet.msu.edu/~bahai/. Also see Juan Cole's three papers on Ahsa'i on-line at http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jrcole/papers.htm. Cole also pursues these themes in some detail in the work of Baha'u'llah in his article, "'I am all the Prophets:' The Poetics of Pluralism in Baha'i Texts," Poetics Today 14:3 (Fall 1993), pp. 447-476. Also consult: Abbas Amanat, Resurrection and Renewal; Denis MacEoin, From Shaykhism to Babism: A Study in Charismatic Renewal in Shi'i Islam MS Ph.D. thesis (Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Cambridge, July 1979); Vahid Rafati, The Development of Shaykh'i Thought in Shi'i Islam, Ph. D. dissertation (University of California, Los Angeles, 1979); and Idris Hamid, The Metaphysics and Cosmology of Process According to Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsa'i Critical Edition, Translation, And Analysis of 'Observations In Wisdom, ' MS Ph. D. dissertation (State University of New York at Buffalo, 1998).
11. Kitab-i Nuqtat al-Kaf reviews these aspects of Shaykhi thought in great detail. Refer to E.G. Browne's version of Nuqtat al-Kaf on-line H-Bahai publications website: http://www.hnet.msu.edu/~bahai/. Also see Juan Cole's three papers on Ahsa'i on-line at http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jrcole/papers.htm. Cole also pursues these themes in some detail in the work of Baha'u'llah in his article, "'I am all the Prophets:' The Poetics of Pluralism in Baha'i Texts," Poetics Today 14:3 (Fall 1993), pp. 447-476. Also consult: Abbas Amanat, Resurrection and Renewal; Denis MacEoin, From Shaykhism to Babism: A Study in Charismatic Renewal in Shi'i Islam MS Ph.D. thesis (Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Cambridge, July 1979); Vahid Rafati, The Development of Shaykh'i Thought in Shi'i Islam, Ph. D. dissertation (University of California, Los Angeles, 1979); and Idris Hamid, The Metaphysics and Cosmology of Process According to Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsa'i Critical Edition, Translation, And Analysis of 'Observations In Wisdom, ' MS Ph. D. dissertation (State University of New York at Buffalo, 1998).
12. Cf. Denis MacEoin, From Shaykhism to Babism and Abbas Amanat, Resurrection and Renewal.
13. Cf. Denis MacEoin, From Shaykhism to Babism and Abbas Amanat, Resurrection and Renewal.
14. For a detailed account of the life and writings of Baha'u'llah consult H. M. Balyuzi, Baha'u'llah, the King of Glory (Oxford: George Ronald, 1980) and Juan Cole, Modernity and the Millennium: The Genesis of the Baha'i Faith in the Nineteenth-Century Middle East (New York: Columbia University Press, 1998).
15. For a detailed account of the life and writings of Baha'u'llah consult H. M. Balyuzi, Baha'u'llah, the King of Glory (Oxford: George Ronald, 1980) and Juan Cole, Modernity and the Millennium: The Genesis of the Baha'i Faith in the Nineteenth-Century Middle East (New York: Columbia University Press, 1998).
16. Of course Akhundzadah was not promoting the work to save Islam from Babism, but to save the civil state from "the Babi threat." He represented the Babis as just more Islam-type fanaticism.
17. Letter to Shaykh Muhsin Khan dated February 1879, quoted in Maryam Sanjabi, "Rereading the Enlightenment: Akhundzada and His Voltaire," Iranian Studies 28:1-2 (Winter/Spring 1995), p. 50.
18. Sanjabi, "Rereading the Enlightenment," p. 50.
19. For an able discussion of this historical process, see Afsaneh Najmabadi, "The Erotic Vatan [Homeland] as Beloved and Mother: To Love, To Possess, and To Protect," Comparative Studies in Society and History 39: 3 (July 1997), pp. 442-467.
20. Mohamad Tavakoli-Targhi, "Imagining Western Women: Occidentalism and Euro-Eroticism," Radical America 24:3 (July-September 1990), p. 80.
21. Tavakoli-Targhi, "Imagining Western Women," p. 81.
22. Mirza Fattah Garmrudi, "Shab Namah," in Safar namah-'i Mirza Fattah Garmrudi, ed. Fath al-Din Fattahi (Tehran: Bank-i Bazarganii Iran, 1347/1968), p. 982. Quoted in Tavakoli-Targhi, "Imagining Western Women," p. 81.
23. Mirza Fattah Garmrudi, "Shab Namah," in Safar namah-'i Mirza Fattah Garmrudi, ed. Fath al-Din Fattahi (Tehran: Bank-i Bazarganii Iran, 1347/1968), p. 982. Quoted in Tavakoli-Targhi, "Imagining Western Women," p. 81.
24. I use this shorthand to indicate that the stereotype, though pictorial in form and content, holds an abridged history or memory that at once joins the two spaces of the self and the other and the two times of the past and present in relations to itself.
25. Houchang Chehabi, "Staging the Emperor's New Clothes: Dress Codes and Nation Building under Reza Shah," Iranian Studies 26 (Fall 1993), p. 210.
26. The discussion of these concepts are most prominent in Frantz Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks, trans. Charles L. Markmann (New York: Grove Press, 1967) and Homi Bhabha, "The Other Question: Stereotype, Discrimination and the Discourse of Colonialism," The Location of Culture (London: Routledge, 1994).
27. The discussion of these concepts are most prominent in Frantz Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks, trans. Charles L. Markmann (New York: Grove Press, 1967) and Homi Bhabha, "The Other Question: Stereotype, Discrimination and the Discourse of Colonialism," The Location of Culture (London: Routledge, 1994).
28. This paper is part of a larger project that reconsiders the historiographic representation of the Babi movement in early orientalist works, as well as contemporary academic literatures. I argue there that early orientalists, such as Edward Granville Browne, misrecognized Babism's own understanding of its role in the project of national reform. Browne's study of the movement focused instead on establishing the disciplinary credentials of his field of research by ripping the movement out of its grounding in the historical, cultural and literary conditions of its time. Later historians following Browne's footsteps have continued to pursue his line of inquiry in a way that dislodges the field from the general field of Iranian Studies, and thus dismantles a rigorous understanding Babism's fundamental role in the constitution of Iran's modern national identity and cultural production. For one contemporary example of the genealogy and focus of such projects see Denis MacEoin, Sources For Early Babi Doctrine and History: A Survey (Leiden, Netherlands: E. J. Brill, 1992). What is particularly disturbing in these contemporary works is that the narrowly focused attempts to legitimize Babi Studies as a discipline, obscure the anti-disciplinary nature of the movement itself and the startling possibilities that the movement's own anti-disciplinary approach to Islam and the Muslim world provides for the student of the modern Middle East.
29. I will argue that the history of the Babis informs a repressed historical national memory which brings together, in abridged form, the shock as well as the pleasure of Iran's relation to modernity. The abridged memory is at once grounded in the historical and the phantasmagoric, because of the systematic operation of psychic national repression that informed the nation's collective massacre of the Babis.
30. Edward G. Browne, A Year Amongst the Persians 1887-1888, Second edition (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1926), p. 452.
31. Taj al-Saltanah, Crowning Anguish: Memoirs of a Persian Princess from the Harem to Modernity, ed. Abbas Amanat. (Washington D.C: Mage Publishers, 1993), p. 309; Khatirat-i Taj al-Saltanah (San Jose, CA: Intisharat-i Tuka, 1990).
32. Taj al-Saltanah, Crowning Anguish: Memoirs of a Persian Princess from the Harem to Modernity, ed. Abbas Amanat. (Washington D.C: Mage Publishers, 1993), p. 309; Khatirat-i Taj al-Saltanah (San Jose, CA: Intisharat-i Tuka, 1990).
33. My reading of this novel is drawn from Afsaneh Najmabadi, "The Erotic Vatan," pp. 442-467. The original, Yahya Mirza Iskandari, "'Arusi-i Mihrangiz," is serialized in the constitutionalist paper Iran-i Naw from October 24, 1910 to February 18, 1911.
34. My reading of this novel is drawn from Afsaneh Najmabadi, "The Erotic Vatan," pp. 442-467. The original, Yahya Mirza Iskandari, "'Arusi-i Mihrangiz," is serialized in the constitutionalist paper Iran-i Naw from October 24, 1910 to February 18, 1911.
35. Najmabadi, "The Erotic Vatan," p. 457; my interpretations in brackets; Iran-i Naw 2:9 (October, 1920), p. 3.
36. Najmabadi, "The Erotic Vatan," p. 457; my interpretations in brackets; Iran-i Naw 2:9 (October, 1920), p. 3.
37. I draw here from Najmabadi's unpublished manuscript.
38. Najmabadi maintains that the final death is a death on behalf of the love Hushang holds for the nation, and that Mihrangiz's sacrifice must be characterized as a woman's sacrifice for the love of her beloved man (p. 458). The convergence that the novelette creates between the two loves in Hushang's soliloquy on his letters to his beloveds does the contrary of this gendered distinction. Much less than a distinction, the loves are conflated - a conflation which Najmabadi ably points out (in the context of another discussion in the same article) is possible because the beloveds are both gendered female. Hence, the sacrifice here, is not of the nationalist, but of "the Babi," whose love in popular discourse seems to be weighed on the side of a gendered nation and an eroticized female. This dual love is produced as the evidence of "the Babis" belief in the ideals of European modernity, antinomism, and anti-disciplinary ideology. John Walbridge's history of the Babi uprising in Zanjan in the Fall-Winter 1996 issue of Iranian Studies includes several longer passages from Tarikh-i Vaqayi-i Zanjan by Mirza Husayn Zanjani (1880). These passages illustrate my point regarding the stereotypization of the Babis' excess in love. One of these passages relates to the activity of the women during a Babi siege in Zanjan against the government. Zanjani reports the following: "The government officials and the ulama together wrote to the Shah in this wise [giving a list of excuses for their failure to defeat the Babis]; Fourth, there is a regiment of Babi virgin girls. The Babis fight for love of them.' They wrote a great deal in this vein and sent it to the king." While this letter claims that the Babis fought because of their infatuation with the Babi virgins, Zanjani argues that the truth of the matter is essentially different. He portrays the Babi women as strong and active participants of (i.e. not distractions to) the Babi defense. He also describes the activities of one such woman associated with the Babi faction. John Walbridge, "The Babi Uprising in Zanjan: Causes and Issues," Iranian Studies (Fall-Winter 1996), pp. 339-362. See also Walbridge, "Document and Narrative Sources for the History of the Battle of Zanjan," Occasional Papers in Shaykhi, Babi and Baha'i Studies, 2:4 (May, 1998) on the H-Bahai publications website given above.
39. Najmabadi maintains that the final death is a death on behalf of the love Hushang holds for the nation, and that Mihrangiz's sacrifice must be characterized as a woman's sacrifice for the love of her beloved man (p. 458). The convergence that the novelette creates between the two loves in Hushang's soliloquy on his letters to his beloveds does the contrary of this gendered distinction. Much less than a distinction, the loves are conflated - a conflation which Najmabadi ably points out (in the context of another discussion in the same article) is possible because the beloveds are both gendered female. Hence, the sacrifice here, is not of the nationalist, but of "the Babi," whose love in popular discourse seems to be weighed on the side of a gendered nation and an eroticized female. This dual love is produced as the evidence of "the Babis" belief in the ideals of European modernity, antinomism, and anti-disciplinary ideology. John Walbridge's history of the Babi uprising in Zanjan in the Fall-Winter 1996 issue of Iranian Studies includes several longer passages from Tarikh-i Vaqayi-i Zanjan by Mirza Husayn Zanjani (1880). These passages illustrate my point regarding the stereotypization of the Babis' excess in love. One of these passages relates to the activity of the women during a Babi siege in Zanjan against the government. Zanjani reports the following: "The government officials and the ulama together wrote to the Shah in this wise [giving a list of excuses for their failure to defeat the Babis]; Fourth, there is a regiment of Babi virgin girls. The Babis fight for love of them.' They wrote a great deal in this vein and sent it to the king." While this letter claims that the Babis fought because of their infatuation with the Babi virgins, Zanjani argues that the truth of the matter is essentially different. He portrays the Babi women as strong and active participants of (i.e. not distractions to) the Babi defense. He also describes the activities of one such woman associated with the Babi faction. John Walbridge, "The Babi Uprising in Zanjan: Causes and Issues," Iranian Studies (Fall-Winter 1996), pp. 339-362. See also Walbridge, "Document and Narrative Sources for the History of the Battle of Zanjan," Occasional Papers in Shaykhi, Babi and Baha'i Studies, 2:4 (May, 1998) on the H-Bahai publications website given above.
40. Najmabadi maintains that the final death is a death on behalf of the love Hushang holds for the nation, and that Mihrangiz's sacrifice must be characterized as a woman's sacrifice for the love of her beloved man (p. 458). The convergence that the novelette creates between the two loves in Hushang's soliloquy on his letters to his beloveds does the contrary of this gendered distinction. Much less than a distinction, the loves are conflated - a conflation which Najmabadi ably points out (in the context of another discussion in the same article) is possible because the beloveds are both gendered female. Hence, the sacrifice here, is not of the nationalist, but of "the Babi," whose love in popular discourse seems to be weighed on the side of a gendered nation and an eroticized female. This dual love is produced as the evidence of "the Babis" belief in the ideals of European modernity, antinomism, and anti-disciplinary ideology. John Walbridge's history of the Babi uprising in Zanjan in the Fall-Winter 1996 issue of Iranian Studies includes several longer passages from Tarikh-i Vaqayi-i Zanjan by Mirza Husayn Zanjani (1880). These passages illustrate my point regarding the stereotypization of the Babis' excess in love. One of these passages relates to the activity of the women during a Babi siege in Zanjan against the government. Zanjani reports the following: "The government officials and the ulama together wrote to the Shah in this wise [giving a list of excuses for their failure to defeat the Babis]; Fourth, there is a regiment of Babi virgin girls. The Babis fight for love of them.' They wrote a great deal in this vein and sent it to the king." While this letter claims that the Babis fought because of their infatuation with the Babi virgins, Zanjani argues that the truth of the matter is essentially different. He portrays the Babi women as strong and active participants of (i.e. not distractions to) the Babi defense. He also describes the activities of one such woman associated with the Babi faction. John Walbridge, "The Babi Uprising in Zanjan: Causes and Issues," Iranian Studies (Fall-Winter 1996), pp. 339-362. See also Walbridge, "Document and Narrative Sources for the History of the Battle of Zanjan," Occasional Papers in Shaykhi, Babi and Baha'i Studies, 2:4 (May, 1998) on the H-Bahai publications website given above.
41. Najmabadi maintains that the final death is a death on behalf of the love Hushang holds for the nation, and that Mihrangiz's sacrifice must be characterized as a woman's sacrifice for the love of her beloved man (p. 458). The convergence that the novelette creates between the two loves in Hushang's soliloquy on his letters to his beloveds does the contrary of this gendered distinction. Much less than a distinction, the loves are conflated - a conflation which Najmabadi ably points out (in the context of another discussion in the same article) is possible because the beloveds are both gendered female. Hence, the sacrifice here, is not of the nationalist, but of "the Babi," whose love in popular discourse seems to be weighed on the side of a gendered nation and an eroticized female. This dual love is produced as the evidence of "the Babis" belief in the ideals of European modernity, antinomism, and anti-disciplinary ideology. John Walbridge's history of the Babi uprising in Zanjan in the Fall-Winter 1996 issue of Iranian Studies includes several longer passages from Tarikh-i Vaqayi-i Zanjan by Mirza Husayn Zanjani (1880). These passages illustrate my point regarding the stereotypization of the Babis' excess in love. One of these passages relates to the activity of the women during a Babi siege in Zanjan against the government. Zanjani reports the following: "The government officials and the ulama together wrote to the Shah in this wise [giving a list of excuses for their failure to defeat the Babis]; Fourth, there is a regiment of Babi virgin girls. The Babis fight for love of them.' They wrote a great deal in this vein and sent it to the king." While this letter claims that the Babis fought because of their infatuation with the Babi virgins, Zanjani argues that the truth of the matter is essentially different. He portrays the Babi women as strong and active participants of (i.e. not distractions to) the Babi defense. He also describes the activities of one such woman associated with the Babi faction. John Walbridge, "The Babi Uprising in Zanjan: Causes and Issues," Iranian Studies (Fall-Winter 1996), pp. 339-362. See also Walbridge, "Document and Narrative Sources for the History of the Battle of Zanjan," Occasional Papers in Shaykhi, Babi and Baha'i Studies, 2:4 (May, 1998) on the H-Bahai publications website given above.
42. Haji Muhammad Karim Khan Kirmani, Risalah-i Nasiriyah, 388-389; Quoted in Tavakoli-Targhi, "Imagining Western Women," p. 82.
43. Haji Muhammad Karim Khan Kirmani, Risalah-i Nasiriyah, 388-389; Quoted in Tavakoli-Targhi, "Imagining Western Women," p. 82.
44. Chehabi, "Staging the Emperor's New Clothes," pp. 212 and 215.
45. Quoted in Chehabi, "Staging the Emperor's New Clothes," p. 230.
46. See William O. Beeman, Language Status and Power in Iran (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986) and Farzaneh Milani, Veils and Words: The Emerging Voices of Iranian Women Writers (New York: Syracuse UP, 1992), for a thorough discussion of the distinction between outside appearance and personal identity in Iranian culture and language.
47. See William O. Beeman, Language Status and Power in Iran (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986) and Farzaneh Milani, Veils and Words: The Emerging Voices of Iranian Women Writers (New York: Syracuse UP, 1992), for a thorough discussion of the distinction between outside appearance and personal identity in Iranian culture and language.
48. Chehabi remarks that despite the efforts to elucidate the intentions of the policy, "traditional Iranians saw it as an attempt to turn a virtue into a vice." "Staging the Emperor's New Clothes," p. 219.
49. For further elaboration on my use of the concept refer to endnotes 33 and 76 in this paper. Emily Apter and William Pietz, Fetishism as Cultural Discourse (Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press, 1993) provides some useful sources on the concept.
50. For an elaboration on this notion (i.e. the dynamics of zahir and batin) see William Beeman, Language, Status and Power, Chapter IV: "The Marking of Parameters."
51. Homi Bhabha, "The Other Question," p. 75.
52. For a review of the latter's position see Michel Foucault's "Panopticism," in Discipline and Punish: The Birth of The Prison, trans. Alan Sheridan (New York: Vintage, 1979) and "The Confession of the Flesh," in Power/Knowledge (Brighton: Harvester Press, 1980).
53. For a review of the latter's position see Michel Foucault's "Panopticism," in Discipline and Punish: The Birth of The Prison, trans. Alan Sheridan (New York: Vintage, 1979) and "The Confession of the Flesh," in Power/Knowledge (Brighton: Harvester Press, 1980).
54. Bhabha's more recent works, "Signs Taken For Wonders" and "Of Mimicry and Man," bear out this claim on the ambivalence and the spatial status of the fetish. See Homi Bhabha, The Location of Culture (London: Routledge, 1994).
55. John Mowitt, "Algerian Nation: Fanon's Fetish," Cultural Critique (Fall 1992), p. 173.
56. Fatima Mernissi, Beyond the Veil: Male Female Dynamics in Modern Muslim Society (New York: Wiley & Sons, 1975), p. 81.
57. The issue of women's incapability to secure the identity of the Muslim community is complicated and related to the early history of Islam and the context of the events that led to the Muslim Prophet's decision to veil the female members of his household. For a more elaborate discussion of the subject see: Negar Mottahedeh, "Ruptured Spaces and Effective Histories: The Unveiling of the Babi Poetess Qurrat al-'Ayn-Tahirah in the Gardens of Badasht," UCLA Historical Journal #17 (1997), pp. 59-81.
58. For an excellent discussion of these issues consult Fatima Mernissi's discussion of unveiling in Beyond the Veil, p. 85.
59. Farzaneh Milani discusses the perception of recent unveilings by female poets in these terms. Cf. Veils and Words, pp. 7-9.
60. "Three Essays," Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud vol. 17 trans. James Strachey (London: Hogarth Press, 1971), p. 154.
61. Joan Copjec's discussion of Clérambault in chapter 4 of Read My Desire supplies a sustained reading of some of the issues that I raise here with respect to the fetishism of the veil. Read My Desire: Lacan Against the Historicists (Cambridge: October/MIT Press, 1995).
62. Joan Copjec's discussion of Clérambault in chapter 4 of Read My Desire supplies a sustained reading of some of the issues that I raise here with respect to the fetishism of the veil. Read My Desire: Lacan Against the Historicists (Cambridge: October/MIT Press, 1995).
63. For selected historical accounts of Qurrat al-'Ayn Tahirah's unveiling in Badasht, see Aqa Muhammad Mustafi Baghdadi, "Sharh hal-i Hazrat-i Tahirah," and Shaykh Kazim Samandar, "Sharh hal-i hazrat-i Tahirah," in Chahar Rasalih-i-Tarikhi Dar Barah-'i-Tahirah-Qurratu'l-'Ayn, compiled by Abu'l Qasim Afnan (Landegg, Switzerland: Landegg Academy, 1991), pp. 18-45 and dispersed accounts in Asadu'llah Fadil Mazandarani, Tarikh-i Zuhur al-Haqq, vol. 3 (Tehran 1941/42) as well as his Tarikh-i Zuhur al-Haqq Volume 2 MSS (unpublished, in private hands). Also see Mirza Muhammad Taqi Mamqani's essay "Namus-i Nasiri (1306 H)," in Guft va Shunud-i Sayyid Ali Muhammad Bab ba Rauhaniyun-i Tabriz, ed. Kasan Mursalvand (Tehran: Nashr-i Tarikh-i Iran 1374), p. 38. My thanks to Mohamad Tavakoli-Targhi in directing me to this latter text.
64. For selected historical accounts of Qurrat al-'Ayn Tahirah's unveiling in Badasht, see Aqa Muhammad Mustafi Baghdadi, "Sharh hal-i Hazrat-i Tahirah," and Shaykh Kazim Samandar, "Sharh hal-i hazrat-i Tahirah," in Chahar Rasalih-i-Tarikhi Dar Barah-'i-Tahirah-Qurratu'l-'Ayn, compiled by Abu'l Qasim Afnan (Landegg, Switzerland: Landegg Academy, 1991), pp. 18-45 and dispersed accounts in Asadu'llah Fadil Mazandarani, Tarikh-i Zuhur al-Haqq, vol. 3 (Tehran 1941/42) as well as his Tarikh-i Zuhur al-Haqq Volume 2 MSS (unpublished, in private hands). Also see Mirza Muhammad Taqi Mamqani's essay "Namus-i Nasiri (1306 H)," in Guft va Shunud-i Sayyid Ali Muhammad Bab ba Rauhaniyun-i Tabriz, ed. Kasan Mursalvand (Tehran: Nashr-i Tarikh-i Iran 1374), p. 38. My thanks to Mohamad Tavakoli-Targhi in directing me to this latter text.
65. For selected historical accounts of Qurrat al-'Ayn Tahirah's unveiling in Badasht, see Aqa Muhammad Mustafi Baghdadi, "Sharh hal-i Hazrat-i Tahirah," and Shaykh Kazim Samandar, "Sharh hal-i hazrat-i Tahirah," in Chahar Rasalih-i-Tarikhi Dar Barah-'i-Tahirah-Qurratu'l-'Ayn, compiled by Abu'l Qasim Afnan (Landegg, Switzerland: Landegg Academy, 1991), pp. 18-45 and dispersed accounts in Asadu'llah Fadil Mazandarani, Tarikh-i Zuhur al-Haqq, vol. 3 (Tehran 1941/42) as well as his Tarikh-i Zuhur al-Haqq Volume 2 MSS (unpublished, in private hands). Also see Mirza Muhammad Taqi Mamqani's essay "Namus-i Nasiri (1306 H)," in Guft va Shunud-i Sayyid Ali Muhammad Bab ba Rauhaniyun-i Tabriz, ed. Kasan Mursalvand (Tehran: Nashr-i Tarikh-i Iran 1374), p. 38. My thanks to Mohamad Tavakoli-Targhi in directing me to this latter text.
66. For selected historical accounts of Qurrat al-'Ayn Tahirah's unveiling in Badasht, see Aqa Muhammad Mustafi Baghdadi, "Sharh hal-i Hazrat-i Tahirah," and Shaykh Kazim Samandar, "Sharh hal-i hazrat-i Tahirah," in Chahar Rasalih-i-Tarikhi Dar Barah-'i-Tahirah-Qurratu'l-'Ayn, compiled by Abu'l Qasim Afnan (Landegg, Switzerland: Landegg Academy, 1991), pp. 18-45 and dispersed accounts in Asadu'llah Fadil Mazandarani, Tarikh-i Zuhur al-Haqq, vol. 3 (Tehran 1941/42) as well as his Tarikh-i Zuhur al-Haqq Volume 2 MSS (unpublished, in private hands). Also see Mirza Muhammad Taqi Mamqani's essay "Namus-i Nasiri (1306 H)," in Guft va Shunud-i Sayyid Ali Muhammad Bab ba Rauhaniyun-i Tabriz, ed. Kasan Mursalvand (Tehran: Nashr-i Tarikh-i Iran 1374), p. 38. My thanks to Mohamad Tavakoli-Targhi in directing me to this latter text.
67. For selected historical accounts of Qurrat al-'Ayn Tahirah's unveiling in Badasht, see Aqa Muhammad Mustafi Baghdadi, "Sharh hal-i Hazrat-i Tahirah," and Shaykh Kazim Samandar, "Sharh hal-i hazrat-i Tahirah," in Chahar Rasalih-i-Tarikhi Dar Barah-'i-Tahirah-Qurratu'l-'Ayn, compiled by Abu'l Qasim Afnan (Landegg, Switzerland: Landegg Academy, 1991), pp. 18-45 and dispersed accounts in Asadu'llah Fadil Mazandarani, Tarikh-i Zuhur al-Haqq, vol. 3 (Tehran 1941/42) as well as his Tarikh-i Zuhur al-Haqq Volume 2 MSS (unpublished, in private hands). Also see Mirza Muhammad Taqi Mamqani's essay "Namus-i Nasiri (1306 H)," in Guft va Shunud-i Sayyid Ali Muhammad Bab ba Rauhaniyun-i Tabriz, ed. Kasan Mursalvand (Tehran: Nashr-i Tarikh-i Iran 1374), p. 38. My thanks to Mohamad Tavakoli-Targhi in directing me to this latter text.
68. Amanat, Resurrection and Renewal, pp. 295-316.
69. Nuqtat al Kaf which may contain one of the oldest histories of the Bab, for example, renders Qurrat al-'Ayn's physical unveiling only in a metaphorical remark. It regards the days in Badasht as a time in which the fruits of the Bab's revelation had reached their height of ripeness - a ripeness which tore open the fruit's own skin (az shidatt-i risidigi pust ra pari nimudand,) to reveal an exquisite kernel (maghz-i dilkash), (p. 145). Nothing further is said of her role there. Haji Mirza Jani Kashani, Kitab-i Nuqtatu'l-Kaf, ed. E. G. Browne (London & Leiden, 1910). Reprinted on-line on the H-Bahai website given above.
70. Mangol Bayat, Mysticism and Dissent: Socioreligious Thought in Qajar Iran (Syracuse University Press 1982), p. 108.
71. A partial translation of the Persian Bay an by Edward Browne can be found in Moojan Momen, Selections from the Writings of E. G. Browne on the Babi and Baha'i Religions (Oxford: George Ronald, 1987).
72. A partial translation of the Persian Bay an by Edward Browne can be found in Moojan Momen, Selections from the Writings of E. G. Browne on the Babi and Baha'i Religions (Oxford: George Ronald, 1987).
73. F. W. Nietzsche, The Dawn of Day (New York: Gordon Press, 1974), p. 49.
74. In Islamic history, Fatimah is known as the daughter of the Prophet Muhammad, the wife of Ali and the mother of Imam Hasan and Imam Husayn.
75. Amanat, Resurrection and Renewal, p. 321; Sipihr, Muhammad Taqi Lisan al-Mulk, Nasikh at-Tavarikh, 4 vols., eds. Talib Sirahih and Muhammad Baqir Bihbudi (Tehran, 1353), 3:220.
76. Amanat, Resurrection and Renewal, p. 321; Sipihr, Muhammad Taqi Lisan al-Mulk, Nasikh at-Tavarikh, 4 vols., eds. Talib Sirahih and Muhammad Baqir Bihbudi (Tehran, 1353), 3:220.
77. Muhammad Zarandi, The Dawn-Breakers: Nabil's Narrative of the Early Days of the Baha'i Revelation, ed. and trans. Shoghi Effendi Rabbani (Wilmette, IL: Baha'i Publishing Trust, 1996), pp. 293-298. For further reference see Amanat's discussion of the Badasht conference in Resurrection and Renewal, pp. 325-326.
78. Muhammad Zarandi, The Dawn-Breakers: Nabil's Narrative of the Early Days of the Baha'i Revelation, ed. and trans. Shoghi Effendi Rabbani (Wilmette, IL: Baha'i Publishing Trust, 1996), pp. 293-298. For further reference see Amanat's discussion of the Badasht conference in Resurrection and Renewal, pp. 325-326.
79. Slavoj Zizek, Tarrying with the Negative : Kant, Hegel, and the Critique of Ideology (Durham: Duke University Press, 1993), p. 210. Zizek's "Nation qua Thing" is the equivalent of Kbak-i pak-i Iran (the pure soil of Iran). Najmabadi explains that the expression "itself genders vatan (nation) as being female. Though the adjective pak is also used for men, the usage indicates an honest man, not a crook or a charlatan. Used for woman, it is saturated with sexual connotations." (Najmabadi, "The Erotic Vatan," p. 459, my additions in brackets.)
80. Slavoj Zizek, Tarrying with the Negative : Kant, Hegel, and the Critique of Ideology (Durham: Duke University Press, 1993), p. 210. Zizek's "Nation qua Thing" is the equivalent of Kbak-i pak-i Iran (the pure soil of Iran). Najmabadi explains that the expression "itself genders vatan (nation) as being female. Though the adjective pak is also used for men, the usage indicates an honest man, not a crook or a charlatan. Used for woman, it is saturated with sexual connotations." (Najmabadi, "The Erotic Vatan," p. 459, my additions in brackets.)
81. Slavoj Zizek, Tarrying with the Negative : Kant, Hegel, and the Critique of Ideology (Durham: Duke University Press, 1993), p. 210. Zizek's "Nation qua Thing" is the equivalent of Kbak-i pak-i Iran (the pure soil of Iran). Najmabadi explains that the expression "itself genders vatan (nation) as being female. Though the adjective pak is also used for men, the usage indicates an honest man, not a crook or a charlatan. Used for woman, it is saturated with sexual connotations." (Najmabadi, "The Erotic Vatan," p. 459, my additions in brackets.)
82. Zizek, Tarrying with the Negative, p. 202.
83. Walter Benjamin, "The Storyteller," Illuminations, ed. Hannah Arendt (New York: Schocken Books, 1968), pp. 83-109.
84. Benjamin, "The Storyteller," p. 96.
85. Ibid.
86. Ibid.
87. Slavoj Zizek, Looking Awry: an Introduction to Jacques Lacan Through Popular Culture (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1991), p. 160.
88. Moojan Momen, ed., The Babi and Baha'i Religions, 1844-1944: Some Contemporary Western Accounts (Oxford: George Ronald, 1981), p. 95.
89. Momen, The Babi and Baha'i Religions, p. 101.
90. Momen, The Babi and Baha'i Religions, p. 110.
91. Amanat, Resurrection and Renewal, p. 322.
92. Ibid.
93. Amanat, Resurrection and Renewal, p. 324.
94. Edward G. Browne, A Traveller's Narrative, trans. E.G. Browne (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1891), p. 313.
95. Quoted in Milani, Veils and Words, p. 88.
96. Browne, A Traveller's Narrative, p. 187.
97. For foreign accounts of this massacre see Momen, The Babi and Baha'i Religions, pp. 128-146.
98. Browne, A Traveller's Narrative, p. 328. For a contrasting view of the incident see Abbas Amanat, Pivot of the Universe: Nasir al-Din Shah Qajar and the Iranian Monarchy, 1831-1896 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997), Cf. chapters 2 and 5.
99. Browne, A Traveller's Narrative, p. 328. For a contrasting view of the incident see Abbas Amanat, Pivot of the Universe: Nasir al-Din Shah Qajar and the Iranian Monarchy, 1831-1896 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997), Cf. chapters 2 and 5.
100. Browne, A Traveller's Narrative, p. 328.
101. As Judith Butler points out in an extended discussion of the historical relevance of the psychoanalytic fable of fetishism in Bodies That Matter: "The failure to submit to castration appears capable of producing only its opposite, the spectral figure of the castrator Holophernes's head in hand. " Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of Sex'(New York: Routledge, 1993), p. 102. For further elaboration on the thematics of "the threat," see her chapter "Phantasmatic Identification and the Assumption of Sex." See also Hélene Cixous, "Castration or Decapitation," Signs 7:11 (1981), pp. 41-55.
102. As Judith Butler points out in an extended discussion of the historical relevance of the psychoanalytic fable of fetishism in Bodies That Matter: "The failure to submit to castration appears capable of producing only its opposite, the spectral figure of the castrator Holophernes's head in hand. " Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of Sex'(New York: Routledge, 1993), p. 102. For further elaboration on the thematics of "the threat," see her chapter "Phantasmatic Identification and the Assumption of Sex." See also Hélene Cixous, "Castration or Decapitation," Signs 7:11 (1981), pp. 41-55.
103. As Judith Butler points out in an extended discussion of the historical relevance of the psychoanalytic fable of fetishism in Bodies That Matter: "The failure to submit to castration appears capable of producing only its opposite, the spectral figure of the castrator Holophernes's head in hand. " Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of Sex'(New York: Routledge, 1993), p. 102. For further elaboration on the thematics of "the threat," see her chapter "Phantasmatic Identification and the Assumption of Sex." See also Hélene Cixous, "Castration or Decapitation," Signs 7:11 (1981), pp. 41-55.
104. Peter Smith, The Babi and Baha'i Religions: From Messianic Shi'ism to a World Religion (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987).
105. Quoted in Momen, The Babi and Baha'i Religions, p. 111.
106. Quoted in Momen, The Babi and Baha'i Religions, p. 112.
107. Ibid.
108. René Girard, The Scapegoat, trans. Yvonne Freccero (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986), p. 16.
109. Ibid.
110. We should be reminded here that Freud links the fetish to objects of clothing (e.g. shoes, pieces of clothing or underwear) which come to stand in for the absent penis ("Three Essays," p. 153). The boy in Freud's analysis does not merely replace the absent maternal penis with a new one. In some cases, Freud maintains, "the re-placement of the object by a fetish is determined by a symbolic connection of thought" ("Three Essays," p. 155). What resides in the fetish nonetheless are the affects of fear and pleasure which situate the encounter with the maternal body.
111. We should be reminded here that Freud links the fetish to objects of clothing (e.g. shoes, pieces of clothing or underwear) which come to stand in for the absent penis ("Three Essays," p. 153). The boy in Freud's analysis does not merely replace the absent maternal penis with a new one. In some cases, Freud maintains, "the re-placement of the object by a fetish is determined by a symbolic connection of thought" ("Three Essays," p. 155). What resides in the fetish nonetheless are the affects of fear and pleasure which situate the encounter with the maternal body.
112. Freud, "Three Essays," p. 155.
113. John Forrester, The Seductions of Psychoanalysis: Freud, Lacan, and Derrida (New York: University of Cambridge, 1990), p. 206.
114. Sigmund Freud, "Neuropsychosis of Defense," Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, vol. 3, trans. James Strachey (London: Hogarth Press, 1971), pp. 45-61.
115. Sigmund Freud, "Recapitulation and Problems," Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, vol. 17, (trans.) James Strachey (London: Hogarth Press, 1971); pp. 104-122; "The Dream and the Primal Scene," ibid. pp. 29-47. and "A Few Discussions," ibid. pp. 48-60. These essays are all drawn from "The History of an Infantile Neurosis (1918[1914])."
116. Sigmund Freud, "Recapitulation and Problems," Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, vol. 17, (trans.) James Strachey (London: Hogarth Press, 1971); pp. 104-122; "The Dream and the Primal Scene," ibid. pp. 29-47. and "A Few Discussions," ibid. pp. 48-60. These essays are all drawn from "The History of an Infantile Neurosis (1918[1914])."
117. Sigmund Freud, "Recapitulation and Problems," Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, vol. 17, (trans.) James Strachey (London: Hogarth Press, 1971); pp. 104-122; "The Dream and the Primal Scene," ibid. pp. 29-47. and "A Few Discussions," ibid. pp. 48-60. These essays are all drawn from "The History of an Infantile Neurosis (1918[1914])."
118. Sigmund Freud, "Recapitulation and Problems," Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, vol. 17, (trans.) James Strachey (London: Hogarth Press, 1971); pp. 104-122; "The Dream and the Primal Scene," ibid. pp. 29-47. and "A Few Discussions," ibid. pp. 48-60. These essays are all drawn from "The History of an Infantile Neurosis (1918[1914])."
119. Mowitt, "Fanon's Fetish," p. 175.
120. Walter Benjamin, "Theses On The Philosophy of History," Illuminations, ed. Hannah Arendt (New York: Schocken Books, 1968), p. 263.
121. In his discussion of the "uncanny" Freud notes that the prefix "un-" must be considered "the token of repression." "The Uncanny," Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, vol. 17, trans. James Strachey (London: Hogarth Press 1971), p. 245.
122. Cf. Sigmund Freud's 1925 paper on "Negation," Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, vol. 19, (trans.) James Strachey (London: Hogarth Press 1971), pp. 235-23.
123. For further elaboration of "history as image," refer to Walter Benjamin's "Theses on the Philosophy of History. "
124. I put forward the conjunction between the two moments in these particular terms, since no other historical document categorically confirms Haji Safar's observation about the Babis' preference for white attire.
125. Mehdi Abedi and Michael Fischer, eds., Debating Muslims: Cultural Dialogues in Postmodernity and Tradition. (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1990), p. 245.