Must-read book: a biography of Baha’u'llah

If you haven’t already read it, you should!

Moojan Momen’s Baha’u'llah: A Short Biography (published by Oneworld Publications) is an excellent account of Baha’u'llah’s life. As the publisher’s blurb says:

From his early life in Iran as the son of senior civil servant to his death in exile near Akka, in what is now Israel, this is a carefully constructed account of the eventful life of this influential nineteenth-century religious figure. Drawing on a wide range of primary and secondary sources, some of which have never been used before, Momen offers a comprehensive survey of Baha’u'llah’s life, works and teachings…

Momen writes his account of Baha’u'llah’s life in a neutral style. In other words, he is not trying to persuade the reader of the veracity of the Baha’i Faith nor does he use Baha’i jargon – or if he does, he signposts terms such as “tablet” as language that Baha’is use. He writes as a scholar and a historian (although this is not an academic tome), avoids hyperbole, and tells the story with copious reference to a range of historical sources and the Baha’i scriptures.

Paradoxically, this approach brings out the drama of an extraordinary life and illustrates Baha’u'llah’s spiritual power and his relationships with his family and followers far more effectively than would a hagiography. In reading this book I could feel and see Baha’u'llah as a real person in a real historical context. Momen outlines the trajectory of Baha’u'llah’s life from wealth and respect through imprisonment and torture to perpetual exile. We see Baha’u'llah as a family man who becomes a leading figure in the Babi movement, is arrested, imprisoned, exiled; he loses almost all his worldly wealth; he spends time as a dervish in the Kurdistan mountains of Iraq; he declares his mission as the one the Bab had spoken of, ‘He whom God will make manifest’; he suffers further exiles and is sent, eventually, to Acre (Akka) in the the Ottoman province of Syria, in whose environs he passes away in 1892.

During all of this, despite grief and loss, despite caring for his family and followers, despite constant pressure from the Ottoman authorities and coping with the intrigues of those who opposed him (although he increasingly relies on ‘Abdu’l-Bah