Secrets Veiled in Secrets: A Seminar on the Báb's Qayyúm al-Asmá'
Invitation to Join an Upcoming Seminar on the Báb's 'First, Greatest and Mightiest' Book.
Dear readers,
As part of this publications’ continuing efforts to support accessible, public scholarship in Baha’i Studies and to contribute to enriching intellectual life in the community, I am offering (free!) for the first time an 8-week online seminar, starting end of August or early September.
This weekly reading and discussion group will study one of the most important texts within the Babi and Baha’i corpus: the Báb's “Qayyúm al-Asmá”, also known as the “Commentary on the Surih of Joseph”, and described by Baha’u’llah as the "First, the Greatest and Mightiest of all books". This incredible text revolutionized religious life in 19th c. Persia and ignited a widespread social and spiritual movement that crystallized into a new world religion. It was the work begun by Báb on that fateful night, in May 1844, the first words of Revelation heard by the ears of Mullá Husayn Bushru’i, the Báb’s first disciple. It soon ignited a firestorm throughout the land of Persia. Yet, despite this importance, it has gone understudied outside the original context.
In this seminar, we will study a privately produced and provisional compilation of the Qayyúm al-Asmá that combines the authorized translations from Selection of the Writings of the Báb (~3-4% of the text) with all available provisional translations by reputable and reliable scholars. With these additions, the compilation represents about 20% or more of the original, and is currently 80+ pages in length.
For more details, follow this link to submit your interest in joining. You are welcome to forward the following link to others who may be interested in this seminar.
https://forms.gle/yc86MbSs3Mz9pTA19
