CONTENTS <br> <br>FOREWORD, by J.A. McLean xiii <br>PREFACE TO THE GERMAN EDITION (1995) xxi <br>PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH EDITION (2000) xxiii <br>INTRODUCTION 1 <br> <br>PART I: METHODOLOGY <br> <br>CHAPTER 1 OVERVIEW 15 <br>I. The limits of religious knowledge 15 <br>II. ‘Critical literature’ 18 <br>III. The renegade as researcher 27 <br>IV. The origins of the conflict 30 <br> <br>CHAPTER 2 ON FICICCHIA’S METHODOLOGY 36 <br>I. Opportunism—the supreme principle of the Bahá’í Faith? 37 <br>II. Ficicchia’s standpoint 40 <br>III. Ficicchia’s portraits of the founding figures 56 <br>1. The Báb 56 <br>2. Bahá’u’lláh 58 <br>IV. Ficicchia’s portrait of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá 73 <br>V. The portrait of Shoghi Effendi 90 <br>VI. Ficicchia’s distorted image of the Bahá’í community 102 <br>VII. Ficicchia’s semantics 119 <br>VIII. The Bahá’ís—sectarian escapists and dangerous extremists?126 <br>1. On the charge of ‘unworldly isolation’ 126 <br>2. On the charge of subversion 135 <br> <br>PART II: COMMUNITY AND DOCTRINE <br> <br>CHAPTER 3 FICICCHIA’S PORTRAIT OF THE COMMUNITY <br>AND ITS ORDER 141 <br>I. The background: the Protestant concept of law 142 <br>II. Ficicchia’s critique of the order of the Bahá’í community and its foundations 149 <br>1. The Universal House of Justice — not foreseen by Bahá’u’lláh? 149 <br>2. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s testament—disputed? 152 <br>3. The Guardianship—a dictatorship? 154 <br>4. On the alleged ‘doctrinal legislation’ by the Universal House of Justice 158 <br>5. The community: a ‘steward of the grace’? 160 <br>6. Shoghi Effendi charged with having prevented the establishment of the Universal House of Justice 164 <br>7. On the subject of infallibility 166 <br>8. Freedom to teach—teaching authority 194 <br>9. Prepublication review—a censorship? 209 <br>10. Forbidden books? 213 <br>11. Freedom of expression prohibited? 214 <br>12. Criticism prohibited? 219 <br>13. Covenant-breaking and excommunication 224 <br>14. ‘Tricks’ and ‘the pressure of the plan’ <br>in missionary activities? 238 <br>15. ‘Complete renunciation of Christian beliefs’? 243 <br>16. The community—anti-democratic, centralist, secular? 245 <br>17. Ficicchia’s (mis)judgement of the Bahá’í community 254 <br> <br>CHAPTER 4 FICICCHIA’S PRESENTATION OF BAHÁ’Í DOCTRINE 260 <br>I. On the concept of revelation 260 <br>II. On the station of Bahá’u’lláh 262 <br>III. On the Bahá’í doctrine of grace 267 <br>IV. On the Bahá’í concept of human nature 273 <br>V. On claims to absoluteness and exclusiveness 276 <br>VI. Emphatically rationalist, hostile to science, and esoteric, all at once? 289 <br>VII. On the concept of liberty 301 <br> <br>CHAPTER 5 FICICCHIA’S PORTRAYAL OF BAHÁ’Í LAW 317 <br>I. The Law: A provocation 317 <br>II. Suppression and dissimulation of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas? 322 <br>III. Difficulties of publication 329 <br>1. Previous publications and translations 331 <br>2. On the Royal Asiatic Society’s English-language edition of 1961 334 <br>3. Problems of producing an authentic translation 337 <br>4. On the nature of divine legislation 338 <br>IV. Specific issues 352 <br>1. Taqíyya—a law of Bahá’u’lláh? 352 <br>2. The Kitáb-i-Aqdas—a sketchy ‘framework’? 362 <br>3. The sacred texts—falsified, interpolated? 369 <br>V. Some corrections regarding the content of particular laws 385 <br>1. On ritual daily prayer 385 <br>2. On the cut of the hair 390 <br>3. Bahá’í holy days and the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár 393 <br>VI. Corrections of other distortions 396 <br>1. On the dogmatic foundation of the law 396 <br>2. On the balance between justice and love 398 <br>3. A casuist system of ethics? 403 <br>4. A rigorous religious law? 409 <br>VII. On the nature of the law of God 411 <br> <br>CHAPTER 6 BAHÁ’Í POLITICAL THOUGHT 418 <br>I. The Bahá’í community: authoritarian and antidemocratic? 420 <br>1. The Bahá’í Faith—‘political Mahdism’? 421 <br>2. A ‘claim to total power’ or fulfilment of <br>eschatological prophecy? 424 <br>3. The need for peace 427 <br>4. A centralist global state? 432 <br>5. The eschatological realm of peace 435 <br>6. Claim to power or service to humanity? 440 <br>7. ‘Total possession taken of the individual’? 444 <br>II. Bahá’u’lláh—royalist and hostile to liberty? 446 <br>1. Bahá’u’lláh’s statements concerning kingship 448 <br>2. A power political alliance between church and state? 451 <br>3. Non-violent neutrality or partisanship? 453 <br>4. Universalism versus nationalism 454 <br>5. Justified ‘opposition’ or persecution of a non-violent religious minority? 457 <br>III. On the way to a new type of politics 464 <br>1. The concept of politics in Bahá’í scripture 465 <br>2. Loyalty to state authority 468 <br>3. Bahá’í elections: a non-partisan form of democratic appointment of government 470 <br>4. A new model for political decision-making 473 <br>5. Responsibility for the world we live in 476 <br> <br>PART III: HISTORICAL ISSUES <br> <br>CHAPTER 7 PROBLEMS OF RESEARCH IN THE FIELD OF RELIGIOUS HISTORY 481 <br> <br>CHAPTER 8 FICICCHIA’S SOURCES 492 <br>I. Kitáb-i-Nuqt.atu’l-Káf and Táríkh-i-Jadíd 496 <br>1. Kitáb-i-Nuqt.atu’l-Káf 500 <br>2. Táríkh-i-Jadíd 513 <br>II. Hasht Bihisht 522 <br> <br>CHAPTER 9 FICICCHIA’S EUROPEAN SOURCES 529 <br>I. The orientalist Edward Granville Browne 529 <br>II. The Protestant minister Hermann Römer 546 <br>1. Römer’s presentation: its structure and influence on later works 551 <br>2. Römer’s portrayal of Bábí and Bahá’í history 554 <br>3. Römer’s interpretation of Bábí/Bahá’í doctrine 559 <br> <br>CHAPTER 10 SOME ASPECTS OF BÁBÍ AND BAHÁ’Í HISTORY 571 <br>I. Mahdi claim and messianic secret 571 <br>1. Ficicchia’s sources 572 <br>2. The messianic secret 579 <br>3. The religious and political background 579 <br>4. The eschatological expectations of heterodox Shí‘a Islam 583 <br>5. The Báb’s claim 586 <br>II. Bahá’u’lláh’s claims 598 <br>1. The prophecy concerning the advent of Man yuz.hiruhu’lláh 601 <br>2. Two alleged proofs of the supremacy of Mírzá Yahyá in Baghdád 605 <br>3. On the dating of Bahá’u’lláh’s declaration 610 <br>III. Mírzá Yahyá Azal 618 <br>IV. Mírzá Yahyá as head of the Bábís and opponent of Bahá’u’lláh 631 <br>V. The cases of murder and attempted murder 650 <br>1. The murder of Dayyán 652 <br>2. The murder of three Azalís in ‘Akká 657 <br>3. The attempted murders committed by Mírzá Yahyá in Edirne 667 <br>VI. On the question of schism 671 <br> <br>CHAPTER 11 THE WILL AND TESTAMENT OF ‘ABDU’L-BAHÁ 674 <br>I. The forgery theory 678 <br>II. The religious and historical background 680 <br>III. On the content of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Will and Testament 687 <br>IV. The appointment of Shoghi Effendi as ‘Guardian of the Faith’—a historical overview 705 <br>V. The inventor of the forgery theory and her epigones 724 <br>VI. The arguments concerning style and content 735 <br>VII. The graphological assessment 744 <br>VIII. The ideological reasons for rejecting the Will and Testament 753 <br>IX. On the logical structure and stringency of the arguments 763 <br>X. Conclusion 774 <br> <br>CONCLUSION 777 <br> <br>APPENDIX 785 <br> <br>BIBLIOGRAPHY 794 <br> <br>INDEX OF NAMES 827 <br> <br>GENERAL INDEX 836 <br>