Qurrat al-ʿAyn

Qurrat al-ʿAyn ( Arabic قرة العين 'Comfort of the eyes'; Persian قره‌العین) and Tahere or Tahiri ( Arabic طاهرة 'Die Reine') (* 1814 in Qazvin , Iran ; † 1852 in Tehran , Iran) are the religious designations of honor by Fatima Baraghani (also Zarrín Táj Baragháni ). She was a leading figure in Babism , a champion of women's rights in Iran, a Persian poet and an Islamic and Babist religious scholar. She represented a consistent interpretation of Babism, which emphasized its messianic character and led to the young religious movement separating from Islam. Qurrat al-ʿAyn is also particularly well-known for her unveiled and charismatic appearance in public, which was a taboo in Iranian society in the mid-19th century .

Life

House of Qurrat al-ʿAyn in Qazvin

Prison in Tehran where Qurrat al-ʿAyn was incarcerated

Qurrat al-ʿAin came from a family of Islamic religious scholars . Her father was the respected Mujtahid Hādj Mullā Muḥammad Ṣāliḥ Baraghānī. Qurrat al-ʿAin was betrothed to a mujtahid at an early age, but married her paternal cousin Mullā Muḥammad. With him she had two sons and a daughter named Salmā. Qurrat al-ʿAyn was praised for her beauty, intelligence and integrity.

She studied in Karbala and joined Sheikhism there. She received the honorary title Qurrat al-ʿAin from Sayyid Qāzim Rashtī , the chief disciple and successor of Ahmad al-Ahsā'ī , the founder of Sheikhism. Her commitment to the Sheikhi movement led to her divorce. After the death of her teacher in 1844, she joined Babism, to which she was particularly drawn because of the idea of ​​gender equality. Because of a letter that deeply impressed the Bab , she was named one of the 18 Ḥurūf al-Ḥayy ("Letters of the Living"). However, as the only one of the Ḥurūf al-Ḥayy, she never met the Bab personally.

Much to the displeasure of her family, Qurrat al-ʿAyn began active missionary work in her homeland and gathered a large following. Qazvin was split into two camps. At times it claimed to be the “place” ( mazhar ) of the manifestation of the Prophet's daughter Fatima .

During a pilgrimage to Karbala , the Ottoman authorities were alarmed, had them arrested in 1846 and sent them into exile in Iran. She returned to her homeland. After the murder of her uncle and father-in-law in October 1847, who had publicly cursed the Babis, she had to leave Qazvin after hostility and speculation about her alleged complicity. She went on various trips, preached and took part in a meeting of leading Babis in Māzandarān , where she was partly unveiled.

After a local uprising, Qurrat al-ʿAin was arrested in 1850 and taken to Tehran . There Naser al-Din Shah was deeply impressed by her and decreed that she should not be harmed. However, she remained under arrest in the home of the Tehran police chief. After Babis tried to assassinate the Shah in 1852, Qurrat al-ʿAyn was cruelly executed along with 27 other Babis. The eyewitness Jakob Eduard Polak reported that she had endured her destined fate with superhuman courage.

The English orientalist Edward Granville Browne described Qurrat al-ʿAin's work as follows:

"The appearance of such a woman as Qurratu'l-'Ayn is in any country and any age a rare phenomenon, but in such a country as Persia it is a prodigy-nay, almost a miracle. Alike in virtue of her marvelous beauty, her rare intellectual gifts, her fervid eloquence, her fearless devotion and her glorious martyrdom, she stands forth incomparable and immortal amidst her country-women. Had the Bábí religion no other claim to greatness, this were sufficient-that it produced a heroine like Qurratu'l-'Ayn. "

- Edward Granville Browne :

Individual evidence

1. ↑ EJ Brill's First Encyclopaedia of Islam 1913-1916. Volume IX, Supplement, sv Qurrat al-ʿAin
2. ^ Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition. sv Bābīs
3. ^ JE Polak: Persia. Leipzig 1865, p. 353.
4. ↑ Abdu'l Baha: A Traveller's Narrative: Written to illustrate the episode of the Bab . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK 1891 ( online ).

literature

• Abdul-Baha : Role Models of Faithfulness : Memories of Early Believers . Bahá'í-Verlag, Hofheim-Langenhain 1987, ISBN 3-87037-195-1 , p. 232-245 .
• Hasan Balyuzi : The Báb: The Herald of the Day of Days . Ed .: George Ronald. Oxford, UK 1973, ISBN 0-85398-048-9 .
• Amin Banani: Tahirih: A Portrait in Poetry, Selected Poems of Qurratu'l-'Ayn . Kalimat Press, Los Angeles, USA 2004, ISBN 1-890688-36-3 ( online ).
• John S. Hatcher, Amrollah Hemmat: Adam's Wish: Táhirih's Unknown Poems . Ed .: Baha'i Publishing Trust. Wilmette, USA, ISBN 1-931847-61-4 ( online ).
• Susan Stiles Maneck: Sacred Táhirih: A Religious Paradigm of Womanhood . In: Journal of Bahá'í Studies . No. 2 , 1989, pp. 39–54 ( online; PDF file; 128 kB ).
• Bahiyyih Nakhjavani: La femme qui lisait trop . Ed .: Actes Sud. Arles 2007, ISBN 978-2-7427-7036-6 .
• Isma Forghani: à la hauteur . L´Harmattan, Paris 2019, ISBN 978-2-343-17990-2 .
• Martha Root : Tahirih the Pure . Kálimat Press, Los Angeles 2000, ISBN 1-890688-04-5 ( online ).
• Afaqi Sabir: Tahirih in History, Studies in the Bábí and Bahá'í Religions, Vol. 16: Perspectives on Qurratu'l-'Ayn From East and West . Kalimat Press, Los Angeles, USA 2004, ISBN 1-890688-35-5 ( online ).
• Nabil-i-Zarandi: The Dawn-Breakers: Nabíl's Narrative . Ed .: Bahá'í Publishing Trust. Wilmette, Illinois, USA 1932, ISBN 0-900125-22-5 ( online ).

Web links

Commons : Qurrat al-ʿAin  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Tahirih. h-net.org, accessed February 9, 2012 (English, Arabic and Persian writings from Qurrat al-ʿAyn). 
• Tahirih: Babi and Women's Right's Martyr. Rozaneh Magazine, accessed February 9, 2012 (Persian poem from Qurrat al-ʿAin, translated into Englishby Martha Root ). 
• Abdul-Baha: Shamsu'd-Duhá. Bahá'í Reference Library, accessed February 9, 2012 (English, biographical entry on Qurrat al-ʿAyn by Abdu'l-Bahá). 
• Tahirih. Edinburgh Baha'i Community UK, accessed on February 9, 2012 (compilation on Qurrat al-ʿAin's life).