A glowing review of Principles for Progress

Alireza Korangi’s review of Principles for Progress has been published in Persica. “..an absolute gem of a work … and a role model of great translation.”

Update: PDF from the Journal (this corrects some mistakes in the pre-publication text version below)

Click to access korangi-review-principles-for-progress-abdul-baha-mcglinn.pdf

A review of Principles of Progress: Essays on Religion and Modernity by Abdul-Bahā, by Sen McGlinn. In the Series Iranian Studies. Leiden: Leiden University Press, 2018.

McGlinn’s work is a welcome introduction to the works of Abdul Baha: a luminary and in many ways a humanist whose scope of engagement far exceeded his time and place. His insistence on educating the elite is a preamble—perhaps not a direct descendant but certainly an influence—to the literary and social events that led up to the Constitutional Revolution of Iran. This work is a translation but translations, as they go, can have a profound impact on their society and time: this work does that and the translations do capture the hermeneutic of Bahar’s original’s time and place. All in all, this reviewer would recommend this book on two fronts: 1) it’s content and the way it can appeal to our society today; and 2) it is a tour de force in translation rigor where the translator quite obviously displays a mastery of philological underpinnings of meaning in the complex process of linguistics transition. The first few subsections of the book give a thorough introduction to the time of Baha and are informative discourses that aid in highlighting the writings of Baha. The general introduction to the work speaks to the many possible influences on Baha such as luminaries alike Tahtāwī and Mohammad Abdu and many other aspects of his life that have had a profound influence on his life: 1) Bābis and Bahā’is; 2) Reformist Writing in Persian; 3) The Religious Intellectuals; 4) Intellectual Position of Azali Authors; 5) Ottoman and Arabic Reformist Writers; 6) Newspapers; and 7) Masonic Lodges and Sufi Orders. Of note was the short section of reformist writing in Iran which traces some of its intellectual impetus to the time of Nāsir al-Din Shah. These are foundationally important snippets of information that allow for a better understanding of Bahā’s discourse in the rest of the book. Of particular importance are McGlinn’s notes that follow the translations. They, along with the semi-long general introduction do allow for a smooth navigation of the primary text. I personally found these notes extremely prudent in delineating the discourse presented by Baha. In his explanations in the early introductory chapters of the book the author highlights the role of freemasonry in the political and social events of the time and how they, as a “stratum”, and regardless of place and social class wanted social and political change. These explanations, I believe, are fundamentally prudent insertions which extend the comprehension of a reader in their approach to the text. The author makes good use of travel diaries of the late eighteenth and nineteenth-century travel diaries and shows how essential they were in fact in creating the road map for the intelligentsia. Their observations of Europe and European governance served as ample inspiration of these intelligentsia to export such manners of approach of rule and ruling to their respective regions in the Middle East. Astutely the author observes,

In addition to the direct observations of Europe in the travel literature in Persian (and in Arabic and Turkish, which I have omitted [the author notes], travel and travel literature are in themselves an important element in the evolution of modernity in East and West. One of the key elements in both modernity and postmodernity is the awareness of Others as persons, and the resulting relativization of traditional authorities and separate cultural and religious identities (p. 28).

Also, in a work that has is comprised of parallel text one would be remiss not to mention the translations in the work. As mentioned they are brilliant, and I include an example of the author (translator’s) hand at translation of Persian text:

Dar quṭb-i amkān-i Sha‘n-i A‘ẓam va maqam-i akbar-i arfa‘-i Afkham ẓāhiran va bāṭinan [,] avvalan va ākharan anbiyā-i Ilāhīrast m ḥāl ānka aktharishān bi ḥasb-i ẓāhīr juz faqr-i ṣirf nadāshta m kadhaalik ‘izzat-i kulliyy-yi awliyā-yi ḥaqq m muqarribān-i dargāh-i aḥadiyyat rā mukhtaṣṣ va ḥāl ān kia badan dar fikr-i ghanā-yi ẓaahir-i khud nabūdand

At the zenith of creation, the highest rank and station, the greatest elevation, outwardly and inwardly, in the beginning and in the end, is that of the Prophets of God, although outwardly most of them have had nothing but pure poverty. In the same way, a pre-eminent glory has been vouchsafed especially to the Holy Ones and those who are nearest to the Threshold of God, although such as these have never for a moment concerned themselves with outward wealth.

The translation moves swiftly through the primary language in order to deliver the message to the target language (target here implying English). The theosophical, theological, and social and culture-linguistic aspects of the text, that may be apparent in Persian to the native speaker are not so easily understood by an inexperienced reader. Here, the translator, in my opinion, has done a praiseworthy job of transferring the meaning by being ever so observant of syntactical difficulties that one may encounter in Persian.

All in all, an absolute gem of a work for the value of its presence in the field as an accessible source and a role model of great translation. Iranian Studies Series at Leiden has been a most welcome venue and a nurturing cradle for niche scholarship in Persian studies. The works are apt, fill vacuums in the field, and inspire. This is an example of a work that needs to be here and its. Kudos to the translator (and author) of this wonderful addition to the series.

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I am chuffed, and very grateful to Prof. Korangy. Writing reviews is work that receives thanks at best. It doesn’t usually count with the tenure committee, or pay the groceries, or motivate the students, but reviewing and indexing are vital parts of the codification of knowledge that makes scholarly progress possible. Reviewing is a selfless service, and yes, I really should do more reviews.