Introduction:
A couple of weeks ago, there were some postings [on an internet discussion list] on the Imbrie Affair in
Iran (1924) when an American consul was killed by a mob that accused him
of being a Babi (or Bahá'í). It happens that my
father-in-law was a witness to the Imbrie attack in Tehran, and I thought
that it might be useful to interview him about it. The preliminary results
are posted below. [-A.L.]
My wife's father is Ruhollah Geula. He was born in Tehran in 1910, and he
is now 87 years old. He was born in a Jewish family, though after
twenty-eight years of marriage to his Bahá'í wife, he became a Bahá'í. I
interviewed him informally at a couple of family gatherings that were held
shortly after his wife's passing in July of this year.
When I mentioned the Imbrie affair to him on 7/30/97, he said that he was
thirteen years old at the time of the attack and that he had been an
eyewitness to it. But, unfortunately, too many relatives were around and I
could not pursue the matter.
On 8/2/97, we were in Palm Springs in a condo with other relatives and,
with a lot of interruptions, I was able to get more information. The
interview was conducted with several other people present. Zafar Moghbel,
the husband of my wife's cousin, acted as interpreter.
Since my father-in-law is quite old, his memory may be fuzzy about some
things. Generally, he is in very good health, has not memory
problems--either long-term or short term. But, naturally, he often gets
dates wrong in the distant past. Anyway, on this occasion, he insisted
that the Imbrie murder was not connected to the disturbances in Tehran
concerning the "miracle" at the well when a Babi was supposed to have lost
his sight. Now, if I recall correctly (and I may be wrong here), he had
previously connected to two events. (I should interview him again to get
the story straight.)
Anyway, here is the story:
When asked about the incident at the well, he said that this was known at
the time as the "Miracle of Abu'l-Fadl"--that a Babi had drunk from a
certain well and had gone blind, while a Muslim had drunk from the same
well and had regained his sight. Because of this, there were
demonstrations every day in Tehran. The religious processions were
chanting:
Zi mu'jizih Abu'l-Fadl Kur shudih chasm-i Babi Bina shudih chasm-i
Musulman
The miracles of Abu'l-Fadl, The eyes of a Babi were blinded, The eyes of a
Muslim restored
I asked him who Abu'l-Fadl was, and he said that he didn't know, but
supposed that it was some Muslim Imam or holy man.
He was aware that the distrubances had a political background. He said
that some Europeans had come to the country to negotiate an oil
concession. Therefore, the ulema had roused the people to protest. He
said that the demonstrations were taking place every day, with religious
processions roaming through the city, beating their breasts and chanting.
One day, he left school to go home and the street was full of people. He
came across a band of demonstrators, breast beating and flaggelating
themselves.
He indicated that religious demonstrations of this kind were common. He
related a story that, on another occasion, at the school where he
attended--the Alliance Israelite School (a Jewish school run by French
missionary Jews)--the principal, M. Laredo, called all of the student body
of 1,600 Jewish students together. He addressed the students and
instructed them to go home and to tell their families not to leave their
homes until instructed to do so through the synogoues. When they left the
school, the street was full of soldiers who escorted them to their homes.
Anti-Jewish riots had begun in the city and lasted for seven days. No Jews
could leave their houses safely. Those who had food at home were lucky.
Others had to sneak out to the market at great risk to their lives. During
this pogrom, one Jew was killed and one blinded. The cause of all this
was that the Ayatollah Bahbihani had been riding on the street outside of
the school and had been ordered by the authorities to move out of the way
so that the school children could pass. He was insulted and furious, and
so he ordered an attack on the Jewish community. This took place after
the Imbrie incident, around 1925 or so.
Another attack on the Jews was ordered by Ayatollah Falsafi in 1926-27.
This was a campaign against Jews and Bahá'ís which was ordered at the time
that some foreigners had arrived to negotiate a mineral concession. He
said that the Muslim public was always eager to respond to these calls by
the clergy for campaigns against minorities.
In another incident, Ayatollah Kashani had issued an order of jihad
against all Jews. This was some time before the accession of Reza Shah to
the throne. The order was that all Jews should be killed. The Jews wanted
to approach the ayatollah to bribe him to rescind his order. One of them
owned a diamond ring that was worth 45,000 tumans. Mr. Geula's cousin
(along with some others) took the ring to the home of Ayatollah Kashani.
He presented the ring, and he begged the cleric to accept the gift. He
wanted to place the ring on the ayatollah's finger. But, the mulla refused
to accept anything in his hand. He lifted his foot and instructed them to
put the ring on his toe. That way he could claim that never received
anything in his hand from them. The next day he preached a sermon in
which he said that the Jews living in Iran, since they live under the
house of Islam are in safety, but the Jews of Israel are to be
destroyed.
Anyway, when he was the Abu'l-Fadl demonstrations, he was terrified and
ran away and hid himself. The well that was at the center of the affair
was a ganot that the people depended on for water. No Jew or Bahá'í was
allowed to go near public watering places. People trekked through the city
from the south to the north in processions, chanting their chant. The city
became excited, but after a few days it passed. He was ten or eleven years
old at this time. He was processions going through the streets of the
Jewish quarter to join the main march. They started in Maydan-i Bug-i
Firdaws and passed through the Jewish section of the city on their way to
the main march.
Now, as to the Imbrie affair, which he claimed was quite separate from the
above, he said that the city was quiet before the incident. He was
thirteen years old, and working as an apprentice at a drug store. He had
gone to the bazaar to buy fruit. He noticed that the people were
aggitated. Imbrie had gotten out of his carriage to take a picture of a
well--a Sagha Khanih, actually a shrine over a well. Such places were
off-limits to all non-Muslims. This was a large and ornate structure which
was near the bazaar. Suddenly, while Imbrie was taking the picture, the
mob moved against him and beat him to death on the spot. When he came out
of the fruit shop, he saw the body, which was left for dead. When the mob
left, Mr. Geula fled. He said that the sight of the mob was a fearsome
thing. He knew that anyone killed by the mob would have no recourse.
Everyone feared the mob. In mob actions, fifty or one-hundred people would
fall on a victim and kill him. No one could be legally charged for the
murder. So, at his first chance he escaped. The charge was that Imbrie
had poisoned the well, but there was no evidence of this. Mr. Geula was
unaware that Imbrie had been accused of being a Babi.
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