Jamál Effendi and the early spread of the Bahá’í Faith in Asia
by
Moojan Momen

1. This paper was presented on 4 December 1999, at a meeting of the Religious Studies Special Interest Group of the Association for Bahá'í Studies (English-Speaking Europe), held at Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
2. Nabíl Zarandí (Nabíl-i-A`zam), Dawn-breakers: Nabíl's Narrative of the Early Days of the Bahá'í Revelation (trans. Shoghi Effendi. Wilmette, Ill.: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1974) 588-90.
3. Hamadání, The Táríkh-i-Jadíd, or, New History of Mírzá 'Alí Muhammad the Báb (trans. E. G. Browne. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1893) 244-47, 388-94.
4. Hamadání, Táríkh-i-Jadíd 241.
5. Roumie, "Baha'i Pioneers", p. 77. Rúmí, "A Short Historical Survey", section A, p. 2; see note.
6. For this account of Jamál Effendi's life I have used several sources: The most important is an account by Sayyid Mustafá Rúmí entitled "A Short Historical Survey of the Bahai [sic] Movement in India, Burma, Java Islands, Siam and Malay Peninsula." I am grateful to Roger Dahl for providing a copy of the manuscript of this work which is in the archives of the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States of America. The manuscript is in several sections which were sent separately, and the numbering of pages is renewed at the beginning of each section. I have, therefore, assigned letters to each section: Section A is undated, 14 pages, section B is undated, 14 pages, section C is dated 6 June 1931, 31 pages; section D, 18 pages; the subsequent sections do not deal with Jamál Effendi's life. The first part of this manuscript was published in a series of articles: Siyyid Mustafa Roumie, "Baha'i Pioneers", Baha'i Magazine, 22.3 (June 1931) 76-9; 22.4 (July 1931) 112-6; 22.7 (Oct. 1931) 208-11; 22.8 (Nov. 1931) 250-3; 22.9 (Dec. 1931) 272-6; 22.10 (Jan. 1932) 313-5; 22.11 (Feb. 1932) 342-4. All information that is not otherwise referenced is from this work. Although Rúmí's account is presumably the most reliable for the period that Rúmí was with Jamál Effendi (mainly 1877-87), there are some probable inaccuracies in Rúmí's information about other periods of Jamál Effendi's life. These are discussed as they occur in this paper. For information to supplement and correct Rúmí's account, the following were consulted: 'Azízu'lláh Sulaymání, article on Jamál Effendi, Masábíh-i Hidáyat (9 vols., Tehran: Mu'assisih Matbú`át Millí, 104-32 B.E./1967-75) 8:125-46; idem, article on Sayyid Mustafá Rúmí, Masábíh-i Hidáyat, 8:231-322. Fadil Mázandarání, Zuhúr al-Haqq, vol. 6 (unpublished manuscript) 453-7. Káim Samandar, Táríkh Samandar (Tehran: Mu'assisih Matbú`át Millí, 131/1974) 213-4. All information is from the account by Rúmí unless otherwise indicated. All further references to the Rúmí account will be given in the format "Rúmí, op. cit., X:Y / Z". X is the section number of the manuscript, Y is page number of manuscript and Z is page number of the published account. Where there is no second number, this refers to the last part of the manuscript which was not published.
7. This statement is based on the fact that he is already described as an old man with a white beard when he arrived in India in about 1876, travelling around India became very difficult for him by the 1890s, and he died in 1898.
8. 'Abdu'l-Bahá, Memorials of the Faithful (trans. Marzieh Gail, Wilmette: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1971) 134.
9. Fadil Mázandarání, Zuhúr al-Haqq 6:454.
10. Samandar, Taríkh 213.

11. Rúmí, op. cit. A: 1/76, see note 6.
12. Samandar, Taríkh 213.
13. Samandar, Taríkh 213.
14. 14. Rúmí, op. cit. A:2/77; W. Garlington appears to follow this dating giving 1872, 'India,' Part 1, Bahá'í News 528 (March 1975) 17-8.
15. Fadil Mazandarání gives 1295 (1878, cited in Sulaymání, Masábíh-i Hidáyat 8:129). Balyuzi follows this dating giving 1878, Eminent Bahá'ís (Oxford: George Ronald, 1985) 122; Taherzadeh also gives 1878, The Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh, vol. 4 (Oxford: George Ronald, 1987) 181.
16. Fadil Mázandarání, Zuhúr al-Haqq 6:454.
17. Rúmí, op. cit. A:4/78; Rúmí in fact gives the date 1876, but although Queen Victoria was proclaimed Empress of India in 1876, the Durbar did not occur until 1 January 1877.
18. Bahá'í Newsletter of India, 31 (May 1944) 1-2, cited in Garlington, op. cit. 18.
19. Rúmí, op. cit. A:3-4/77-8.
20. Rúmí, op. cit. A:4/78.
21. Rúmí, op. cit. E:10.
22. Fadil Mazandarání cited in Sulaymání, Masábíh-i Hidáyat 8:130.
23. Rúmí, op. cit. A:11.
24. Rúmí, op. cit. A:11.
25. Rúmí, op. cit. B:7-8.
26. Rúmí, op. cit. B:12.
27. Sayyid Mustafá Rúmí cited in Sulaymání, Masábíh-i Hidáyat 8:131.
28. This date is given in a letter of Rúmí cited in Sulaymání, Masábíh-i Hidáyat 8:233. It also corresponds to the information (see later) that while they were away on this trip, the British took over Upper Burma, an event that occurred in November 1885.
29. Roumie, "Baha'i Pioneers" 274.
30. Rúmí, op. cit. C:4.
31. Rúmí, op. cit. C:5.
32. This is not in fact stated in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas but in other tablets of Bahá'u'lláh, see The Kitab-i-Aqdas (Haifa: Bahá'í World Centre,1992) n. 57, p. 193.
33. Rúmí, op. cit. C:4-6.
34. Rúmí, op. cit. C:6/p. 274.
35. Rúmí, op. cit. C:7/p. 274.
36. Rúmí, op. cit. C:13-15/313-5.
37. Rúmí, op. cit. C:16-17/342-3. It not clear from where Jamál Effendi obtained his medical knowledge, but his use of carbolic soap to treat psoriasis and his use of scabs from cases of small-pox with the active virus neutralised by antibodies from the milk of a nursing mother to inoculate children shows the workings of a knowledgeable and resourceful mind.
38. Rúmí, op. cit. C:17-20/343-4.
39. Rúmí, op. cit. C:20-23.
40. Rúmí, op. cit. C:24-5.

41. Rúmí, op. cit. C:26-7.
42. In a letter of Rúmí cited in Sulaymání, Masábíh-i Hidáyat 8:233.
43. Rúmí, op. cit. C:28-30.
44. It is presumably this boy who can be seen in one of the photographs of Jamál Effendi, see Balyuzi, Eminent Bahá'ís 123.
45. There are some problems regarding the identity of Háí Faraju'lláh Tafrishí. Fádil Mázandarání (Zuhúr al-Haqq 6:451-2) writes that this man was a brother of Mírzá Naru'lláh, who died in Edirne (see Balyuzi, King of Glory 236-7), Mírzá Ridá-Qulí, who was killed in Akka, (Balyuzi, King of Glory 323, 325) and Badrí-Ján, the wife of Azal. He states that he was married to a sister of Jamál Effendi, but that he died in 1276 (1859-60), leaving a son who became a well-known Bahá'í physician Dr 'Atá'u'lláh Khan. On the other hand, there was a Hájí Faraju'lláh Tafrishí who was a companion of Bahá'u'lláh in Akka (see Balyuzi, King of Glory 279, 331). It seems most likely that these are both the same person, that Mázandarání is wrong about his date of death, that he migrated to Edirne at about the same time as his brothers, was exiled to Akka, and then chosen by Bahá'u'lláh to accompany Jamál Effendi on account of his close relationship to him.
46. Rúmí, op. cit. D:1.
47. Rúmí, op. cit. D:1.
48. It appears from the files in the national archives of the Government of India that Nawab Safdar Ali Khan and Jamál Effendi had a falling out shortly before the former's death in 1893 since he registered a complaint against Jamál Effendi with the foreign department of the government of India alleging that Jamál Effendi had obtained money from him under the false pretense of having influence with the British authorities. See file Foreign: Secret E, Sept. 1898, no. 102, pp. 14-15; national archives of the government of India, New Delhi.
49. Rúmí, op. cit. D:2.
50. Letter of Rúmí, cited in Sulaymání, Masábíh-i Hidáyat 8:134-6. Some of the details of this account, such as the six month stay in Yarqand, are also recorded in Fadil Mázandarání, Zuhúr al-Haqq 6:456.

51. Rúmí, op. cit. D:3-4.
52. Fadil Mázandarání, Zuhúr al-Haqq 6:456.
53. For an account Sayyid Jamálu'd-Dín 'al-Afghani', see Nikki Keddie, Sayyid Jamál ad-Dín 'al-Afghání' (Berkeley: University of California Press 1972). On accusations that he was a Bábí, see p. 411. On his close association with Azalís, see pp. 275, 377-82.
54. Baluzi, Eminent Bahá'ís 93-4.
55. N.W.P.S.B., 29-8-91 [North West Province Special Branch, 29 August 1891].
56. Report of D.E. McCracken, dated 14 August 1897, in file Foreign: Secret E, Sept. 1898, no. 100, pp. 13-14; national archives of the government of India, New Delhi. Words in rounded parantheses are in the original document. Comments in square parantheses have been added by the present author.
57. Ibid., citing a memorandum of the central special branch, no. 102, pp. 14-15.
58. Ibid., p. 4.
59. 'Abdu'l-Bahá, Memorials of the Faithful 137-8.
60. 24 Jamada II 1316, from a letter of Rúmí, cited in Sulaymání, Masábíh-i Hidáyat 8:140. Balyuzi gives the date 20 August 1898 without indicating his source; Eminent Bahá'ís 128.
61. A poor translation of this may be found in Rúmí, op. cit. D:11-12.
62. Provisional translation of text given in Sulaymání, Masábíh-i Hidáyat 8:140. Immediately before the date at the end, there is the word "al-Fátihah", which is a reference to the opening súrah of the Qur'án, traditional for tombstones, and not translatable.
63. Rúmí, op. cit. A:11.
64. Fádil Mazandarání cited in Sulaymání, Masábíh-i Hidáyat 8:129.
65. See Rúmí comments in op. cit. A:11.
66. Roumie, "Baha'i Pioneers", p. 76. The British secret reports also refer to him as "Saiyid Jamal-ud-din Shah."
67. Fádil Mazandarání cited in Sulaymání, Masábíh-i Hidáyat 8:130.
68. Fádil Mazandarání cited in Sulaymání, Masábíh-i Hidáyat 8:137-8. Sydney Sprague relates the story of Mírzá Maram's troubles but without mentioning Jamál Effendi's previous involvement. See A Year with the Bahá'ís of India and Burma (London, 1908) 34-5.
69. This is taken from an account of the Bahá'í history of India by Zarqání that is to be found among Esslemont's papers in the archives of the National Spiritual Assembly of the United Kingdom.
70. Cited in Fádil Mázandarání, Zuhúr al-Haqq, vol. 8, pt.2, (Tehran, 132/1975), p. 1154 footnote.
71. Personal communication from Dr Jianping Wang of the Institute for World Religions, Beijing, derived from researches carried out by Prof. Ma Tong of the Institute of Nationalities in Gansu. Ma Tong, Zhongguo Yisilan jiaopai menhuan suyuan (Studies of the Origins of Islamic Factions and Sufi Orders in China) (Yinchuan: Ningxia People's Publishing House, 1986).
72. Bahá'u'lláh, Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh (Wilmette: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1976) no. 10, pp. 13-14; no. 97, pp. 196-7; no. 136, p. 296; no. 164, pp. 343-4. See also Susan Stiles Maneck, "Wisdom and Dissimulation: the use and meaning of Hikmat in Bahá'í writings and history," Bahá'í Studies Review 6 (1996): 11-23.
73. On Kheiralla, see Robert Stockman, The Bahá'í Faith in America, vol. 1: Origins 1892-1900 (Wilmette.: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1985); Richard Hollinger, "Ibrahim George Kheiralla and the Bahá'í Faith in America," in Juan R. Cole and Moojan Momen ed., From Iran East and West, Studies in Babi and Bahá'í History, vol. 2 (Los Angeles: Kalimat Press, 1984) 95-133; Peter Smith, "The American Bahá'í Community, 1894-1917: A Preliminary Survey," in Moojan Momen (ed.), Studies in Babi and Bahá'í History vol. 1 (Los Angeles: Kalimat Press, 1982) 85-223.
74. See one person's notes on thirteen lectures in Browne, Materials for the Study of the Bábí Religion (Cambridge: University Press, 1918) 128-42.
75. William Garlington, "Bahá'í Bhajans," World Order 16.2 (Winter 1982): 43-49. Idem, "The Bahá'í Faith in Malwa," in G. A. Oddie (ed.), Religion in South Asia (New Delhi: Manohar, 1977). Idem, "Bahá'í Conversions in Malwa," in J. R. Cole and M. Momen (eds.), From Iran East and West 157-185. Idem, "The Bahá'í Faith in Malwa: A Study of a Contemporary Religious Movement," unpublished Ph. D. dissertation, Australian National University, 1975. Steven Garrigues, "The Bahá'í Faith in Malwa: Identity and Change Among the Urban Bahá'ís of Central India," unpublished Ph. D. dissertation, University of Lucknow, 1975.
76. On Martha Root, see M. R. Garis, Martha Root, Lioness at the Threshold (Wilmette: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1983)