'Persia. Handbooks prepared under the direction of the Historical Section of the Foreign Office - no 80' [‎34r] (74/164)

Persia]
RELIGIOUS
61
Cyprus respectively. Baha'u'llah died in May 1890,
and was succeeded by his son, 'Abbas Effendi 'Abdu'l-
Baha,who now holds the allegiance of the great majority
of the Babis, or Baha'fs as they now prefer to call them
selves. Subh-i-Azal, who lived a very secluded life and
had but a small following, died on April 29, 1912,
and it ^ is not clear who, if anyone, has succeeded
him. Ihe Baha'is, on the other hand, have carried on
an active and successful propaganda not only in
Persia but in Europe, and especially in the United
States of America, and constitute a considerable
power. Their numbers, though greatly exaggerated by
their partisans, are, nevertheless, considerable in
Persia, and they belong in large proportion to the
better educated and more prosperous classes, especially
Sayyids (see p. 65), merchants, and employees of the
Post Office and Telegraphs.
lo return to the orthodox Shi'a. To superficial
observers the difference between them and the Sunnfs
appears to hinge merely on the rival claims to
supremacy of persons who have been dead for nearly
thirteen hundred years; but, in reality, there is a vital
difference of principle; the Shf'a representing the
Persian doctrine of Divine Right, the Sunnis the
more democratic idea of the Arabs. To compare these
two great divisions of Islam to Roman Catholics and
Protestants in Christendom is in some respects mis
leading, for if, on the one hand, the doctrine of
the Imamate presents analogies to that of the Papacy,
in other respects the Shi'a doctrine, with its greater
emphasis of Free Will, and its assertion of Ijtihdd, or
the progressive discovery of great religious truths, is
the more liberal and progressive. In some respects the
Shi'a are more liberal than the Sunnis, in others less;
thus they do not hesitate to give and return the same
salutation to non-Muslims as to fellow-believers; while,
on the other hand, they tend to regard unbelievers as
definitely unclean (najis) to a much greater degree
than do the Sunnis. Moreover, the Persian 'ulamd,
or doctors of theology, do in practice resemble a clergy