Arabic Bayán
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The Arabic Bayán (Arabic: البيان العربي, romanized: al-Bayān al-ʿarabī, lit. 'declaration, elucidation') is a book in Arabic written by the Báb around 1848.[1]
Etymology
[edit]The word Bayán literally means declaration or elucidation.[1] In the context of Bábism, this term is used to refer to the writings of the Bāb in general, but usually is applied to two specific works, including Arabic Bayán.[1] Its larger sister book is in Persian, called the Persian Bayán.[1]
History
[edit]Exact date of the book's composition has been subject to disagreements. However, internal evidence indicates that it was composed while the Báb was imprisoned in Maku, Iran, at the end of 1848.[1]
External structure
[edit]
The book was intended to comprise nineteen chapters (wāḥeds), each containing nineteen abwāb.[1] Nonetheless it is incomplete, and contains only eleven chapters.[1] The number nineteen was arranged for the sake of symbolism[2] and according to Abjad numerals.[3] Other Bábi sources imply that the rest of chapters were to be written by Báb's successor, Subh-i-Azal.[2] Each of the abwāb is slightly longer than a verse, which leads to a high degree of compression in the wāḥeds and results in "little or no logic in the sequence of subjects".[1]
Translations
[edit]The book has been translated into French twice.[1] Arthur de Gobineau first published an incomplete and inaccurate translation of the work in his Les religions et les philosophies dans l'Asie centrale (1865), as part of the appendix "Ketab-è Hukkam".[1] The second translation was made by A. L. M. Nicolas, published under the title Le Beyan arabe in 1905.[1] This work was of the earliest sources that enabled the Western world to understand Bábism.[4]
Citations
[edit]- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k MacEoin 1988.
- ^ a b Wilson 1915, pp. 641–642.
- ^ Wilson 1915, pp. 647–648.
- ^ Wilson 1915, p. 633.
References
[edit]- MacEoin, D. M. (December 15, 1988). "BAYĀN". In Yarshater, Ehsan (ed.). Encyclopædia Iranica (Online ed.).
- Wilson, Samuel G. (1915). "Bayan of the Bab" (PDF). The Princeton Theological Review. XIII. Princeton University Press: 633–654.
External links
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