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Daena-Den-Din: The Zoroastrian Heritage of the 'Maid of Heaven' in the Tablets of Baha'u'lla

Daéná-Dén-Dín: The Zoroastrian Heritage of the ‘Maid of Heaven’ in the Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh Kamran Ekbal

Words, like human beings, have a history and a ‘biography’ of their own. This is true for legal terms and ideas but especially for literary and religious similes, images and allegories. Like any other ‘living’ organism they grow up and evolve and undergo in this process of evolution profound transformations, often changing their shape and outward appearance, even receiving and adopting new names. Most important of all, words and ideas possess an ancestry of their own and have their particular heritage. Knowing more about the history of a term or an idea inevitably helps us acquire a deeper and better understanding of its connotations and diminishes the dangers of its misrepresentation. Tracing back terms, ideas and allegories to their origins not only proves to be a most thrilling and fascinating endeavour for the explorer, but will also reveal new insights which would otherwise remain concealed beneath the layers of past centuries and fall into oblivion. Discussing the Quranic backgrounds of a number of legal terms of the Aqdas and the terms relating to the status of women therein is one step in that direction.1 The object of this study is to trace the image of the ‘Maid of Heaven’ as it occurs in a number of Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh to its Zoroastrian origins.

In doing so, this paper will underline the connotations, long forgotten by the majority of Arabs and Iranians, of the term dín (religion) and one of its decisive etymological root in ancient Avesta, Daéná, appearing in the ancient scriptures of Zarathushtra as the personification of a Maiden of Heaven. Zoroastrianism, the ancient religion of Iran established by Zarathushtra around 1000 BCE, has had an enormous impact on the history of thought in general. This is particularly true for humanity’s subsequent religious history. Its monotheistic doctrines—the ‘primary innovation of Zoroastrianism’2—makes it one of the most ancient living religions of humankind. The ancient Greeks, who saw in Zarathushtra the highest representative of ‘alien wisdom’, considered Him to have influenced Pythagoras. Early Christianity, before Zoroastrianism came to be demonized by the church, even viewed Him as a precursor of the Christian faith, having predicted the signs of the coming of Jesus and the supernatural star announcing His birth.3 The popularity of Zoroastrianism continued throughout the Renaissance until the Enlightenment, when Nietzsche regarded the Persian prophet in his Also sprach Zarathustra as the first to have discovered the true motive force underlying all things, namely the struggle between the dualistic forces of good and evil. Zoroastrianism had a particularly great impact on the evolution of religious thought. Judaism, Christianity and Islam display numerous themes and topoi that are basically Zoroastrian. Many such ideas entered Judaism with such force—especially in the post- exilic period, when the Jews were liberated from the Babylonian Exile in 538 BCE by the Achamenid King Cyrus II (585–529 BCE)— that some scholars even speak of the Jews being ‘polluted’ by Zoroastrian ideas.4 Zoroastrian concepts, partly in a Jewish guise, were again transmitted to Christianity and entered Islam, Bábism and the Bahá’í Faith. Henry Corbin, one of the world’s foremost experts on Shí‘ism and the illuminationist

theosophy (ishráq) of medieval Iran, has furnished sufficient evidence of the tremendous impact Zoroastrian ideas had on Shí‘í: thought until the period of Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsá’í (1753–1826) and his Shaykhí followers.5 A few examples may suffice here to demonstrate the Zoroastrian influence on religious thought. A principal element in the formation of the Messianic idea was the soteriological concept of Saoshyant in Zoroastrianism, of the saviour whose advent at the ‘end of time’ would redeem mankind and bring peace, justice and tranquillity into the world. The concept of the future Maitrea Buddha may be traced back in a similar manner to this same origin. 6 The notion of a future saviour entered Judaism and shaped particularly Jewish eschatology primarily in consequence of the cross-cultural relations between Persians and Jews in the post-exile period. Similarly, concepts of a cyclical flow of time in aeons, in periods of one thousand years (millennia), of the Day of God, the Day of Judgement, the resurrection of the dead and many more main elements of eschatological thought were basically introduced from Zoroastrianism into the religious conceptions of the other great religions.7 Without wishing to exclude other cultural backgrounds, one may point out the fact that an eminent role is generally attributed in comparative religious studies to Zoroastrianism and its impact on the evolution of religious thought.8 Angelology has been greatly influenced by Zoroastrian cosmology and cosmogony with their rich and innumerable primordial images, apparitions and archetypes constituting a celestial pleroma of light. The development of an elaborate angelology in Judaism and the perception of God as the ‘Lord of Hosts’ surrounded by His angelic armies was a consequence of Zoroastrian influence. Whereas in early Judaism God appears and speaks directly to man (Gen. 3:8, Ex. 12:1), later angels bridge the cosmic gap separating man from God. 9 It may suffice to mention one more example of the

extraordinary impact of Zoroastrianism. The halo, the aureole of divinity, familiar from the iconographies of Jesus and other Christian saints, is based on the idea of Khvarenah, the luminous and radiant force that is not only characteristic of Zarathushtra as a prophet of God and of Yima, the mythological first king, but also of the future Saoshyants. Khvarenah, the Avestan term for ‘splendour’ (Old Persian farnah, Middle Persian khwarr, New Persian khurrah or farr), who appears on coins as early as the Kushan period (c. 1st–2nd century) as a standing man with flames emanating from his back, is derived from khvar, ‘to shine, to illuminate’, and was translated into Greek as doxa, ‘glory’, and entered Arabic as núr, ‘light’.10 We shall later refer to the connotations arising from the term Bahá, ‘splendour’, ‘glory’, ‘radiant light’ and from Núr, ‘Light’, which curiously enough was also the birthplace of Bahá’u’lláh in the province of Mázandarán, and from khvarenah, the ‘Light of Glory’, as Corbin calls it.11 In addition to the numerous yazátas (izads) of Mazdean cosmology, there exist multitudes of fravartis (fravashi), the heavenly archetypes of beings and their tutelary ‘guardian angels’. Among these Spenta Mainyu (Beneficent Spirit) constitutes, together with six other Entities of Light, the Heptad, the Zoroastrian Archangels designated as Amasha Spenta (Amahraspands), the Incremental Immortals, who also behave like aspects or organs of God, Ahura Mazdá (the Wise Lord or Lord Wisdom). 12 Emanating from Ahura Mazdá, they are considered to be his children, much in the same manner as benē‘elim, (lit. sons of gods) in Psalms 29:1—this Hebrew phrase is somewhat distorted in the Authorized (King James) English translation which has (unlike more recent versions) ‘O ye mighty’. The dualism represented in Zoroastrianism in the struggle between Spenta Mainyu (the Incremental Spirit) and Angra Mainyu (the Fiendish Spirit) or between Asha (Truth) and Drug (Falsehood) is tempered by a monotheism centred in Ahura Mazdá. And the Heptad represents a sort of unio mystica

uniting the Seven, of whom Yasht 19 states that ‘all Seven … have the same thought, the same word, the same action … in meditating thoughts of righteousness, in meditating words of righteousness, in meditating the Abode of Hymns’. From the same Yasht we then learn that the Holy Immortals, the Seven Powers of Light, ‘have paths of light by which to travel to the liturgies (celebrated in their honour)’.13 In many of His Tablets Bahá’u’lláh alludes to the descent of the Holy Spirit (rúh al-quds) upon Him in the shape of a ‘Maid of Heaven’ (generally, huriyya).14 In fact Bahá’u’lláh refers to this allegorical figure in His very first Tablet Rashh-i ‘Amá (Sprinklings of a Raincloud), known to have been revealed as a poem in the Síyáh- Chál (the Black Pit), the subterranean dungeon in Tehran where He was imprisoned in 1852 and where He received His initiation through the Maid of Heaven, who proclaimed His mission to Him there.15 The Maid of Heaven has thus, for the first time, gained in Bahá’í scriptures the same significance that the Burning Bush has for Judaism, the Dove descending on Jesus has in Christianity and the Angel Gabriel as the transmitter of the Qur’án has in Islam. In some of these Tablets revealed in the language of imagery, the Maid of Heaven seems to be a homologue of one of the attributes of God. For example, in Ishráqát 8:44, she seems to be a symbol of Trustworthiness: We will now mention unto thee Trustworthiness and the station thereof in the estimation of God, thy Lord, the Lord of the Mighty Throne. One day of days We repaired unto Our Green Island. Upon Our arrival, We beheld its streams flowing, and its trees luxuriant, and the sunlight playing in their midst. Turning Our face to the right, We beheld what the pen is powerless to describe; nor can it se forth that which the eye of the Lord of Mankind witnessed in that most sanctified, that most sublime, that blest, and most exalted Spot. Turning, then, to the left We gazed on

one of the Beauties of the Most Sublime Paradise, standing on a pillar of light, and calling aloud saying: ‘O inmate of earth and heaven! Behold ye My beauty, and My radiance, and My revelation, and My effulgence. By God, the True One! I am Trustworthiness and the revelation thereof, and the beauty thereof. I will recompense whosoever will cleave unto Me, and recognize My rank and station, and hold fast unto My hem. I am the most great ornament of the people of Bahá, and the vesture of glory unto all who are in the kingdom of creation. I am the supreme instrument for the prosperity of the world, and the horizon of assurance unto all beings.’16 Different meanings of the Maiden other than this symbol of Trustworthiness are found in other Tablets. In many of His Tablets Bahá’u’lláh provides detailed and thorough descriptions of the Maiden. In the particular passage quoted above He even gives us the exact location where He had the vision, giving His portrayal a flavour of historical authenticity. ‘Our Green Island’, mentioned in this Tablet refers to the Garden of Na‘mayn in ‘Akká, called by Him the ‘Garden of Ridván’ (Paradise, in commemoration of the garden of the same name in Baghdad, where, according to Bahá’í historiography, Bahá’u’lláh made His proclamation in April 1863 prior to His exile to Constantinople). Bahá’u’lláh often spent time here, relaxing after His release from the prison of ‘Akká.17 A comparative study of such Tablets with the sacred texts of Zoroastrianism will provide the ontological means of tracing this primordial figure and its accessories to their ancient Iranian origins. These scriptures include the Gáthás (Songs), which are the most ancient part of the Avestan Yasna (Acts of Worship), and the Yashts (Hymns of Praise) as well as the younger Pahlavi texts of the Sassanid period (3rd—7th century CE) mostly compiled in the 9th century CE. As a start we may recollect that in the passage quoted from Ishráqát, the Maiden appears standing on a columna

gloriae, a ‘pillar of light’ (‘amud min al-núr), as Bahá’u’lláh perceives it. Furthermore, she converses in clear, audible language, praising among other things her own ‘beauty’ (jamál), ‘radiance’ (núr) and ‘effulgence’ (ishráq). References to the Maid of Heaven are found in numerous Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh. Apart from a very few Tablets such as Surat al-Haykal (the Súra of the Temple),” Lawh-i-Ru’yá (the Tablet of Vision)19 and the passage quoted from Ishráqát which were revealed during the ‘Akká period (1868–92), the majority emerged in the Baghdad period (1853-63), during which Bahá’u’lláh spent nearly two years in seclusion in the mountains of Sulaymáníyyih. His only contact in this period was with Muslim mystics and members of Sufi orders, such as the Kurdish community of the Yaresan (Ahl-i Haqq), who, in a most profound manner, preserved the ancient Iranian and Zoroastrian elements of angelology in their religious doctrines, adhering strictly to the belief in the successive manifestations of the divinity, symbolically called ‘garments’ (jám, jámih, libás, dann).20 Most of Bahá’u’lláh’s mystical writings such as The Seven Valleys and The Four Valleys21 or the Hidden Words22 originate in this early period when the proclamation of His mission had not yet been made in public and He, in general, took recourse to an allegorical and allusive language in which the message of His revelation was enveloped. Besides Qasída-i ‘Izz-i Warqá’iyya (The Dove-like Ode of Grandeur), which was revealed in the mountains of Kurdistan, 23 these include the Hidden Words,24 Lawh-i Huriyya (Tablet of the Maiden of Heaven),25 Subhána Rabbí al-A‘lá (Praise to My Lord, the All-High),26 Lawh Ghulám al-Khuld (Tablet of the Youth of Eternity),27 Húr-i ‘Ujáb (The Wondrous Maiden)28 and Hála Hála Yá Bishárát (Rejoice O ye Glad Tidings).29 Not only do the prayers of Bahá’u’lláh include references to the Maid of Heaven, 30 many more Tablets which are unpublished, untranslated or scattered in different publications do so as well.31 In one celebrated passage of Súrat al-Haykal translated

by Shoghi Effendi, Bahá’u’lláh gives a vivid description of the Maid of Heaven as she appeared to Him ‘suspended in the air’ (mu‘allaqa fí al-hawá’). The passage is so important for comparison with its Zoroastrian predecessor that it is quoted here in full: While engulfed in tribulations I heard a most wondrous, a most sweet voice, calling above My head. Turning My face, I beheld a Maiden—the embodiment of the remembrance of the name of My Lord—suspended in the air before Me. So rejoiced was she in her very soul that her countenance shone with the ornament of the good-pleasure of God, and her cheeks glowed with the brightness of the All-Merciful. Betwixt earth and heaven she was raising a call which captivated the hearts and minds of men. She was imparting to both My inward and outer being tidings which rejoiced My soul, and the souls of God’s honoured servants. Pointing with her finger unto My head, she addressed all who are in heaven and all who are on earth, saying: ‘By God! This is the Best-Beloved of the worlds, and yet ye comprehend not. This is the Beauty of God amongst you, and the power of His sovereignty within you, could ye but understand. This is the Mystery of God and His Treasure, the Cause of God and His glory unto all who are in the kingdoms of Revelation and of creation, if ye be of them that perceive. 32 Striking similarities exist between this passage and Yasht 22, which constitutes one of the most ancient parts of the Avesta attributed to Zarathushtra: Four glorious Dawns had risen, And with the wakening loveliness of day Came breezes whispering from the southern sky, Laden with fragrant sweetness. I beheld, And floating lightly on the enamoured winds A Presence sped and hovered over me, A maiden, roseate as the blush of morn, Stately and pure as heaven, and on her face

The freshness of a bloom untouched of Time. Amazed I cried, ‘Who art thou, Maiden fair, Fairer than aught on earth these eyes have seen?’ And she in answer spake, ‘I am Thyself, Thy thoughts, thy words, thy actions, glorified By every conquest over base desire, By every offering of a holy prayer To the Wise Lord in Heaven, every deed Of kindly help done to the good and pure. By these I come thus lovely, come to guide Thy steps to the dread Bridge where waits for thee The Prophet, charged with judgement.’33 Yasht 22 refers to Daéná, the personification of the ‘Self’, the ‘Conscience’ and the ‘Spiritual Ego’ but also ‘Religion’ and especially ‘Divine Law’. On some occasions Daéná seems also to operate as the transmitter of the law, for example in Yasna 51:19, where Maidyoimaongha Spitama, a cousin of the Prophet and His earliest convert, is mentioned to have conceived the divine law through Daéná, or in Yasna 53:5, where Zarathushtra exhorts His adherents to lay His teachings to their heart and learn them through Daéná. 34 Apart from the analogy between the Maiden who appears ‘suspended in the air’ in Bahá’u’lláh’s Tablet and ‘floating lightly on the enamoured winds’ in its Avestan counterpart, the latter embodies another significant element very often encountered in the writings of Bahá’u’lláh. It is the ‘breeze … laden with fragrant sweetness’ accompanying Daéná, the personification of Zarathushtra’s laws, reminding one of this paragraph from the Kitab-i-Aqdas which refers to Bahá’u’lláh’s laws: Say: From My laws the sweet-smelling savour of My garment can be smelled … Happy is the lover that hath inhaled the divine fragrance of his Best-Beloved, from these words, laden with the perfume of a grace which no tongue can describe. 35

The original Arabic term nafha, which has been rendered here as ‘perfume’, is usually translated as ‘a fragrant breeze or wind. The combination of ‘law’ and ‘fragrance’ is evident in other passages of the Aqdas as well: Say: Turn ye, O people, unto that which hath proceeded from My Most Exalted Pen. Should ye inhale therefrom the fragrance of God, set not yourselves against Him …36 Just as the ‘sweet fragrant breeze’ seems to be an inseparable accessory of Daéná/Law and her distinctive mark, so does the ‘sweet- smelling fragrance’ in Bahá’u’lláh’s Most Holy Book seem to be a distinctive mark of His laws. The ancient collection of Zoroastrian scriptures in the Avestan language was subjected in the course of its development to major changes. With regard to the early period some scholars even refer to two distinct religions: Zarathushtrianism and Zoroastrianism. Zarathushtrianism is considered to be developed from the authentic scriptures of Zarathushtra, comprising the Gáthás or the 17 songs in the praise of Ahura Mazdá. These are generally written in the first person and are considered to be the words of Zarathushtra. 37 Written in the Gáthic dialect of Avesta they are easily distinguishable from the texts written in the so-called Young Avestan idiom from the second half of the 5th century BCE onwards, thus rendering Zoroastrianism distinctive from its predecessor. 38 The concept of Fravashis, or guardian angels, extant in Young Avesta but never mentioned by Zarathushtra, may serve as an illustration of this kind of interpolation. Zarathushtra seems even to have declined this concept which was based on cults venerating the ancestors and the spirits of the deceased. The deep-rooted popular practice nevertheless penetrated the religion of Young Avesta and constitutes today an integral part of Zoroastrian doctrine. The tendency to reabsorb elements of the ‘pagan’ Indo-Iranian rituals now even included

animal sacrifices and the cult of haoma, the ingestation of a hallucinogenic drink, both of which were initially condemned and shunned by Zarathushtra.39 Still other significant changes were introduced later when the Pahlavi sacred writings were compiled during the Islamic 9th century. These sources are written in the Middle Persian idiom (Pahlavi) and consist of the Books of Bundahishn (Creation), Dénkart (Acts of Religion), Bahman Yasht (Hymn of Praise to Bahman), Dádistán í Ménóg í Khrád (Book of Judgements of the Spirit of Wisdom), Dádistán í Deník (Religious Judgements) and Ardá Wíráz Námag (Book of Ardá Wíráz).40 The concept of Daéná similarly underwent a profound transformation in conceptional, semantical, as well as in idiomatic terms. Daéná is regarded as one of Zarathushtra’s most fundamental doctrines and a keynote to His eschatological teachings as early as the Gáthás.41 It is viewed as ‘a theologico-philosophical concept, the totality of the psychic and religious characteristics of a person, his psychic and religious individuality. It lives on after his death as an independent being (fravasay) so as finally to accompany the one who has risen again (or his soul) to Paradise or Hell, after it had appeared to him (or to his soul) in the form of a beautiful or a hideous maiden, as a reflection, so to speak, of his inner being.’ 42 As well as doubts about Daéná being homogenous to the Fravashis indicated in this definition, one should point out that scholars have generally adhered to different approaches in defining Daéná. Wolff, for example, defines her as the ‘essence of being (Wesenheit), ego (Ich) and the entire spiritual and religious qualities of man’;43 Lommel, in conformity with Bartholomae’s definition of ‘inner being, spiritual ego, individuality (inneres Wesen, geistiges Ich, Individualität)’,44 defines Daéná as ‘spiritual ego (geistige Ich), spiritual personality (geistige Persönlichkeit), something like the spiritual substance of man (etwas wie ‘geistliches Wesen’ des Menschen)’ and states that he feels incapable of

differentiating between Daéná and the soul (urván).45 Pavry, on the other hand, points to the fact that, according to Yasna 45:2, Daéná is expressly distinguished from the soul and that, according to Yasna 31:11 and 46:6, Ahura Mazdá created man’s Daéná at the beginning of his life on earth.46 But whereas Pavry gives preference to the definitions presented by Jackson as ‘the Conscience or Religion personified’47 and Geldner’s ‘Religion or Religious Conscience’, 48 he nevertheless reduces his own definition to ‘Conscience’ and uses this term in his translations of the Zoroastrian texts for ‘Daéná’ 49—a reduction that conceals the other important aspects inherent in Daéná: divine law, spiritual ego, divine self, religious conscience and religion personified. This latter attribute will be discussed in more depth in the next section. In the 11th Gáthá (Yasna 46:11) Daéná, personifying ‘Divine Conscience’ and ‘Self’, appears at the Chinvat Bridge, the eschatological Bridge of Judgement where the decision is taken as to the fate of the soul after death. Hinting at the Karapans and Kavis, the wicked priests who ‘have yoked man up with evil deeds in order to destroy his (future) life’, the passage exclaims that ‘their own soul an their own Conscience (Daéná) will cause them anguish when they come where the Chinvat Bridge is, to be dwellers in the House of the Druj (falsehood, lie) for all eternity’.50 In another passage the Yasna extols: ‘Whoso comes over to the Righteous One (i.e. Zarathushtra), removed afar from his hereafter shall be the long duration of misery, of darkness, foul food and woeful words. To such a life, O ye wicked, shall your Daéná (Conscience) lead you through your own deeds.’51 Whereas the office of Daéná in the Gáthás may still be kept in ambiguity, Daéná clearly refers to ‘Religion’ in the Younger Avesta and more frequently assumes the graphic image of a 15-year-old Celestial Maiden which appears to the soul amidst fragrant breezes at the Chinvat Bridge three days after its departure from the body. In its abstract mean-

ing Daéná is now ‘both the Religion in general and the individual belief each man holds’, as Gershevitch shows in the example of Vendidad 10:18: The best who purifies man’s future birth, is this purifying one, O Zarathustra, who (is) the Mazdáyasnian Religion (Daéná mázdaysnis) (of him) who purifies his individual Religion (Daénám) by means of good thoughts, words and actions (humatáisca huxtáisca hvarstáisca). You (i.e. Zarathustra) should indeed purify the religion (Daénám), for thus takes place the purification of her (who is) truly the individual Religion (Daénáya) (belonging) to each (man) of the material existence who purifies his individual religion (daénam) by means of good thoughts, words and actions.52 Daéná obviously indicates here religion in general, the eternal religion of God which had already existed before Zarathushtra and which He is called upon to ‘purify’. The religion mentioned here is certainly not a religion of which Zarathushtra was the ‘founder’, as Gershevitch erroneously interprets the passage. It is obvious that Zarathushtra is called upon to purify a religion much older than Himself, a religion that had been corrupted by those wicked priests who had ‘yoked man up with evil deeds’.53 The conception entailed in this passage is that of the divine religion of God primordial and eternal in its substance, but in need of ‘purification’ and brought up to date in regular cycles of time (aions) through the Messengers of God. It is the concept of progressive revelation taught by the Bahá’í Faith” and a very early example of the idea of ‘the changeless Faith (dín) of God, eternal in the past, eternal in the future’ (as described by Bahá’u’lláh in His Most Holy Book) which is encountered in this ancient Zoroastrian text. The primordial character of Daéná, religion personified, is also evident in the Gáthás of Zarathushtra: ‘When thou, Mazdah, in the beginning didst create beings and daénás

by thy Thought …’ (Yasna 31:11), much as Zarathushtra Himself—or better, the Divine Spirit operating within Him—is also primordial, is alpha and omega: ‘As the holy one I recognized thee, Mazdah Ahura, when I saw thee in the beginning at the birth of life, when thou madest actions and words to have their meed …’ (Yasna 43:5). Before we consider the etymological evolution of Avestan Daéná into Pahlavi Dén and hence into Arabic and New Persian Dín (religion), let us examine the main characteristics of Daéná who not only resembles through her outward appearance the Maiden of Heaven in Bahá’u’lláh’s Tablets but seems, according to one Greek tradition of Porphyry, to have even initiated Zarathushtra into His office, when He, like Bahá’u’lláh, had retired to the peaks of a high mountain to ‘live in the way that was his own’. 56 Another enchanting description of Daéná and the fragrant breezes accompanying her is given in Hadokht Nask (Book of Scriptures), a fragment of the sacred writings of the Young Avesta: At the end of the third night, when the dawn appears, the soul of the righteous man seems to be among plants, and to be inhaling fragrant odours. There seems to blow towards him, from the regions of the south, a wind fragrant, more fragrant than all others. And the soul of this righteous man seems to inhale this wind with the nose, (and reflects): ‘Whence blows the wind, which is the most fragrant wind I ever inhaled with my nostrils?’ At the approach of this wind, there appears to him his own Daéná in the form of a Maiden, beautiful, radiant, white-armed, robust, fair-faced, erect, high-breasted, of stately form, noble- born, of glorious lineage, fifteen year old in appearance (pancadasayá raodaésva), as beautiful in form as the most beautiful of creatures. And the soul of the righteous man addressed her, asking: ‘What damsel art thou, the most beautiful of damsels in form whom I have ever seen?’

Then to him his own Daéná gave answer: ‘O thou youth of Good Thought, Good Word, Good Deed, of Good Daéná, I am the Daéná of thine own self. (The youth speaks:) ‘And who is it that hath loved thee for that majesty, goodness, beauty, fragrance, victorious might, and power to overcome the foe as thou appearest unto me?’ (The Maiden answers:) ‘O youth of good thought, good word, good deed, of good conscience, it is thou that hast loved me for such majesty, goodness, beauty, fragrance, victorious might, and power to overcome the foe as I appear unto thee. When thou sawest another performing burning (i.e. of the dead) and idol- worship, and causing oppression, and cutting down trees, then thou wouldst sit down, chanting the Gáthás, and sacrificing to the good waters and the fire of Ahura Mazdáh, and befriending the pious man coming from near and from afar. So me, being lovable, (thou madest) still more lovable; me, being beautiful, (thou madest) still more beautiful; me, being desirable, (thou madest) still more desirable; me, sitting in a high place, (thou madest) sitting in a still higher place.’57 The consistent character of events in this passage and the aforementioned part of Yasht 22 suggests a functional continuity regarding Daéná, who, as Corbin sees her ‘is in fact the feminine Angel who typifies the transcendent or celestial “I”; she appears to the soul at the dawn following the third night after its departure from this world; she is its Glory and its Destiny, its Aeon. The meaning of this indication, therefore, is that the substance of the celestial “I” or Resurrection Body is engendered and formed from the celestial Earth, that is, from the Earth perceived and meditated in its Angel’. 58 The Maiden perceived in this passage is without doubt an image of the transcendental double of the soul, a reflection of the own self; she is the ‘mirror’ in which the righteous man contemplates his ego, and it is because he was a ‘youth of good thought, good word, good deed’, the

Maiden tells him, that she now looks so ‘lovable, beautiful, desirable’. In contrast to this radiant and charming Daéná, and in accordance with the ancient Gáthás, where the adherents of the Druj (lie, falsehood) as well as the wicked spirit Angra Mainyu also possess their own Daéná, the image of the wicked man appears to him as an ugly and dreadful hag amidst ‘frosts’ and ‘a wind foul- smelling, more foul-smelling than all others’.59 Man’s own self, the real determiner of his eternal destiny, thus becomes fairer or more foul with every thought and every deed. The image of Daéná underwent significant changes in the Pahlavi sacred literature of the post-Sassanid period. She now greets the soul after and not prior to the Judgement, and besides the ‘fragrant breeze’ which always accompanies her manifestation, there now also appear a fat cow and the image of an enchanting garden (bostán), abundant with water, fertility and fresh fruits. In one passage, two dogs, the ancient Aryan guardians of the Kingdom of Death, were reintroduced as part of her accessories. Clad in white raiments the Maiden now, significantly, displays her new name. Asked to reveal her identity, she answers: ‘I am the righteous Den of thy actions which thou didst perform when thou didst goodness; here was I formed on thy account (such as thou seest me)’. 60 Daéná has now transmuted into Dén but is still in complete possession of her two-thousand-year-old office and functions. Den as a clear denomination for ‘Religion’ now attains a prominent position perceptible in the titles of some of the Pahlavi sacred treatises completed during the early Abbasid period (750–847): Dénkart (Acts of Religion) and Dádistan í Dénik (Religious Ordinances), both of which have also retained the ancient connotation existing between Daéná and Divine Law. And Bundahishn (Book of Creation), an Iranian equivalent to the Book of Genesis, furnishes the narrative of Daéná which has remained basically the same. Operating under her new name, Daéná has

nevertheless preserved all her characteristics and accessories and the soul of the righteous man. When it takes a step over the Chinvat Bridge, there comes to it a fragrant wind from Paradise, which smells of musk and ambergris (‘anbar), and that fragrance is more pleasant to it than any other pleasure. When it reaches the middle of the Bridge, it beholds an apparition (surat) of such beauty that it hath never seen a figure of greater beauty than hers. She approaches it, and (when) it sees that apparition, it is amazed at the purity of that apparition. And when the apparition appears to the soul at the Chinvat Bridge—the apparition with such beauty and purity—it smiles and speaks thus: ‘Who art thou with such beauty that a figure with greater beauty I have never seen? The apparition speaks (thus): ‘I am thy own good actions (kardár i nik). I myself was good, but thy actions have mad me better.’ And she embraces him, and they both depart with complete joy and ease to Paradise.61 Daéná, or Den as she is now designated, retains her office also in Manichaeism. The syncretistic religion established by Mani (216– 277) in Mesopotamia and aiming to reconcile Christianity with Zoroastrianism spread quickly into many parts of the world and gained great influence in the Roman Empire. The Mithras cult was widely practised in Rome and was carried into its Germanic dominions. Although it was later demonized by the Church, which considered it as a main rival, Manichaeism nevertheless had considerable influence on Christianity. Among many other eminent medieval theologians one may recollect that St Augustine was originally an adherent of Manichaeism. 62 Here, too, amidst the rich and abundant symbolism of the Manichaean Hymns in the praise of ‘Jesus the Radiance’ (Jesus der Glanz) with their overwhelming Messianic implications, 63 and amidst the allusions of the Manichaean Psalms to the astrological and planetary significance of the number 1964 which has now gained special prominence in

the Bahá’í calendar, we again meet Daéná, the extraordinarily radiant and beautiful Maiden waiting joyfully for the soul to accompany it into paradise.65 She is the ‘Apparition of Light’ (Lichtgestalt) which meets the soul before it starts the long spiritual journey, its ‘other self’ (zweites Selbst) an the embodiment of its righteousness.66 But here, too, as in Zoroastrianism, Daéná or Den is the personification of religion. This is especially evident in constructions such as dén mazdés (Mazda-venerating religion) and dén í Khvarásán (Religion of the East)67 but also when applied as a single noun without characteristic adjectives: ‘Rejoice, 0 Lord, together with the children of religion (dén)’.68 In still other hymns den seems to denominate the Church or the Community of Believers. 69 Like the Maid of Heaven in one of Bahá’u’lláh’s Tablets who is called upon to ‘put on … the broidered Robe of Light’,70 the Maiden of the Manichaean religious literature appears clad in raiments of light (Lichtkleid), representing the celestial form which the soul attains before it is allowed to enter the Kingdom of Light. 71 The Maiden also represents the alter ego with which the unification of the soul ultimately occurs:72 I reverence you, O God. Forgive my sins, save my soul, lead it up to the New Paradise. The souls will go to the Light, they will put on the body of the Father. They will be in glory within the New Aeon for ever and ever.73 The conception of light as a symbol of God and His divine attributes is a constituent part of all religions of humankind. It is abundantly present in the Bible, where God, ‘The Father of lights’ (James 1:17), in whose ‘light we shall see light’ (Ps 36:9), is perceived covered ‘with light as with a garment’ (Ps 104:2). In a similar manner Jesus, designating Himself as ‘the light of the world’ (In 8:12), had once transfigured in the presence of three of His disciples and ‘his face did shine as the sun and his raiment was white as

the light’ (Matt. 17:2). A celebrated passage is Qur’án 24:35: Allah is the Light of the heavens and the earth. The similitude of His light is as a niche wherein is a lamp. The lamp is in a glass. The glass is as it were a shining star. (This lamp is) kindled from a blessed tree, an olive neither of the East nor of the West, whose oil would almost glow forth (of itself) though no fire touched it. Light upon light. Allah guideth unto His light whom He will. And Allah speaketh to mankind in allegories, for Allah is Knower of all things. The subtle similitude of light as an attribute of the Maiden is especially evident in Islamic traditions and traditional exegesis which add many details to the description of the Maiden (húriyya) and bestow upon her a more precise form. A. J. Wensinck sums up these characteristic features: ‘Their eyebrows are a black line upon light, their forehead is a crescent moon, and their shining faces reflect the divine light … Their age is equal to that of their husbands, namely 33 years (the age of Jesus); their virginity is perpetually renewed.’ 74 And these húriyyas, virgins of Paradise, are considered in the Qur’án to be ‘Like unto hidden pearls’ (Qur’án 56:23), a metaphor— symbolizing Daéná?—alluded to by Bahá’u’lláh in the Aqdas: Whoso reflecteth upon these verses, and realizeth what hidden pearls have been enshrined within them, will, by the righteousness of God, perceive the fragrance of the All-Merciful wafting from the direction of this prison. 75 Here we again encounter, in the same familiar manner, the sublime symbolism of hidden pearls/húriyya (Qur’án 56:23) and the sweet fragrance that always accompanies Daéná. The Iranian heritage of such similes is apparent. It is also evident in the commentary of the great Andalusian theologian Ibn ‘Arabí (d. 1240), where he makes abundant use of the terms very familiar in Zoroastrian geosophy for

his interpretation of the verse Qur’án 24:3 5 quoted above. 76 But it was in Manichaeism and especially with regard to its cosmogony where the Iranian concept of light attained its greatest significance. Arabo-Islamic historiographers included such concepts in their reports on Mani and Manichaeism. Ibn al-Nadím (d. 995), for example, gives detailed report of the Manichaean concept regarding the creation of the world out of the two primordial elements, light and darkness, and includes two passages on the fate of the souls which ascend by the ‘Column of Glory’ (‘amud al-subh) to the moon, to the sun and thence to the ‘World of Praise’ (‘álam al-tasbíh), whence they continue their journey to ‘the highest, pure light’ (al-núr al-a‘la al-khális),77 ‘Light upon Light’ (núr ‘alá núr) as the Qur’án (24:3 5) puts it. In another passage Ibn al-Nadím is more specific: Mani says: ‘When the death of one of the Righteous (Elect) occurs, primal Man (al-insán al-qadím) sends to him a god of Light (iláh nayyir) in the form of the Wise Guide, accompanied by Three Gods bringing with them the vessel (al-rakwa), the raiment (al-libás), the headband (al-‘isába), the crown (al-táj) and the Garland of Light (iklíl al-núr). With them also comes the Maiden (al-bikr), the semblance of the spirit of that righteous one … and after that they take the Righteous and put on him the crown, the garland, the raiment and hand over to him the vessel, they ascend with him in a Column of Glory (‘amud al-subh) to the sphere of the moon and to the Nahnaha, the Mother of all Beings, back to his primordial origins in the Paradise gardens of Light.’78 The celestial entities mentioned in this passage recollect the description given in one of the Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh concerning the soul at the hour of its separation from the body: ‘The Maids of Heaven, inmates of the loftiest mansions, will circle around it, and the Prophets of God and His chosen ones will seek its companionship. With them that

soul will freely converse …’79 And the columna gloriae in which the soul is elevated to ‘the Paradise of Light’ resembles very much the ‘pillar of light’ in Bahá’u’lláh’s Tablet of Ishráqát (splendours, literally ‘the radiant lights of the rising sun’) quoted at the beginning of this paper, on which the Maiden appeared standing as ‘one of the Beauties of the Most Sublime Paradise’. Most significant is also the fact that all through her Odyssean journey starting in the ancient Gáthás, the Maiden appearing as Daéná or Den has preserved her main characteristics: she has remained the semblance of the spirit of the righteous and of his most inner being, his Ego, his Twin, and the one who when asked, ‘What damsel art thou?’ answers, ‘I am the Daéná of thine own self … me being beautiful, (thou madest) still more beautiful’, much in the same manner as the Maiden in Bahá’u’lláh’s Subhána Rabbí al-A‘lá, appearing to Him clad in radiant Lights (anwár núrá’) replies: ‘Am I not the Beauty of the Beloved (shining in the midst of the morn?’ 80 It is very much still the same photism, the Twin of the own Self and the symbol of the Spiritual Ego, Daéná, who had initiated Zarathushtra when He had retired to a cave on the peaks of a mountain, the Maiden of Heaven, who appeared to Bahá’u’lláh in the depths of His dungeon and on the peaks of the Kurdish mountains and who reportedly also initiated Mani, the young lad who spoke wisely just after His birth. And when he (Mani) reached the age of twelve, divine inspiration (wahy) descended upon him according to his own testimony from the King of the Paradise gardens of Light, which is God according to his [Mani’s] report. And the Angel which brought him the inspiration was the Twin (al-túm) which is a Nabatean (word) and means ‘the inseparable lifetime-mate’ (al-qarín).81 According to this record, the Twin, the Angel who was the

semblance of the Self, then bid the boy to lead a life of chastity until he grew up. When Mani reached the age of 24 the Twin appeared to him once again to tell him that it was now time for him to go out ‘and proclaim the Cause’.82 The Twin or the Nous and its similarity to Daéná was discussed extensively by Corbin. Among other scholars Moulton, too, considers Daéná to be ‘the double’ or ‘representative’ in the spirit world.83 But some elements of the eschatological representation of Jesus in the Manichaean sacred texts and His similarity to the Nous and the Column of Light may prove of some significance here. According to Manichaean cosmogony, after man was created, ‘Jesus the Radiant’ (Jesus der Glanz) descended upon Adam from the Kingdom of Light to reveal the secrets of His origin. He taught Him thus that the soul originates in the divine Kingdom of Light and stays during its sojourn on earth in a state of death-like slumber (Todesschlaf), since it gets alloyed and mixed with the hyle (hayúlá) ‘material matter’, which makes it forget its origins. Adam now decides to conquer lust through self-restraint and abstinence, but Eve, being formed of lesser particles of light, is seduced by a demon and gives birth to Cain and Abel. The particles of light remain thus in the bondage of the hyle but the Kingdom of Light carries on the struggle to liberate the soul. It is in the course of this eternal struggle that Jesus, according to this Manichaean tradition, acts until this very day as saviour and as a transmitter of divine knowledge. Together with the Maiden of Light (Lichtjungfrau) and the Nous emanating from Him, the three constitute a triad which finds its parallel in yet another dogmatic scheme: the three Envoys who also appear in the passage quoted from Ibn al-Nadím, together with the Maiden and the Column of Glory. (Klimkeit, Hymnen and Gebete der Religion des Lichts. 47f.) Beside the fact that the mythological hyle or hayúlá mentioned in this Manichaean tradition retains its impact on the doctrines of the Shaykhís, especially on the writings

of Shaykh Ahmad Ahsá’í (Corbin Spiritual Body and Celestial Earth 1990: 169ff, 206, 301) and was referred to in Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh,84 the relationship between Jesus, the Maiden or the Nous and the Column of Fire is very significant. All three seem to be regarded in one way or another as attributes of the one and same entity. Just as the Amesha Spentas, the Archangels of Zoroastrianism, together with the Lord Wisdom, Ahura Mazdá, constitute a sort of unio mystica, behaving like aspects or organs of the same entity85 and in same way that Spenta Mainyu, daughter of Ahura Mazdá—through whom Ahura Mazdá is able to create all things—is evidently, while a distinct entity, still only his creative aspect (Gershevitch, Avestan Hymn to Mithra, p. 195); in this same manner, the Maiden of Heaven seems to be an aspect of Zarathushtra, of Jesus, of Mani and of Bahá’u’lláh, the spiritual and divine ego of all. She appear as a distinct entity on one occasion, as an inseparable mate or Twin on another—Húriyyat al-Qurb (The Maiden of Proximity) as Bahá’u’lláh calls her in His ‘Tablet of the Holy Mariner’86—and as a synonym of the one and the same entity on yet another. This latter sense becomes especially evident in a Manichaean hymn in which Jesus appears as the ‘Bridegroom of Light’ (Licht-Bräutigam, Klimkeit, Hymnen and Gebete der Religion des Lichts, 134), but also in the invocacio of another hymn in praise of Mani where Jesus appears not only identical with the Maiden but also with Mani and Maitrea: Great Maitrea, noble Messenger of the Gods (yazdán), Transmitter of Religion (dén) … Jesus-Maid of Light, Már Mani, Jesus-Maid of Light-Mar Mani: Have mercy upon us, thou donor of light (roshnágráh).87 Four separate entities and nevertheless one. The representation of Jesus as Maiden reminds one of Revelation 21:9–11: And there came unto me one of the seven angels … and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee

the bride, the Lamb’s wife. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God. Having the glory of God, and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal.’ The familiar image of the Maiden is described in a most vivid manner in Revelation 12:1: ‘And there appeared a great wonder in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars.’88 Zarathushtra and Daéná, Jesus and the Maiden of Light, Bahá’u’lláh and the Maiden of Heaven would thus appear to be all aspects of one and the same reality. This is the Day whereon human ears have been privileged to hear what He Who conversed with God [Moses] heard upon Sinai, what He Who is the Friend of God [Muhammad] heard when lifted up towards Him, what He who is the Spirit of God [Jesus] heard as He ascended unto Him, the Help in Peril, the Self-Subsisting.89 According to the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh, not only is there just one Divine Reality, God, who has been communicating with humankind through His messengers down all the ages but the Messengers of God, the Manifestations of God themselves, are, according to His teachings, one and the same reality: They all abide in the same tabernacle, soar in the same heaven, are seated upon the same throne, utter the same speech, and proclaim the same Faith.90 Since all of these divine messengers transmit the same divine message they are to be regarded as one, even as the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh are regarded as one: Had the Primal Point (the Báb) been someone else beside Me as ye claim, and had attained My presence, verily He

would have never allowed Himself to be separated from Me … 91 But apart from the unanimity demonstrated in these passages between the different Messengers of God, it is the relationship that exists between the Prophet and the Maiden, the personification of His divine Ego, that interest us more. Discussing the implications of the dialogue in Surat al-Haykal between Bahá’u’lláh and the Maid of Heaven, Taherzadeh concludes: ‘It is fascinating to know that the one who speaks with the voice of God in this Tablet is identical with the One spoken to.’92 The topos of the Twin resembling the Self emerges as Daéná in the ancient Gáthás and is also encountered in Yasht 22 quoted above, where the Prophet, i.e. Zarathushtra, appears on the other side of the Bridge to welcome the recipient of the vision, who is none other than Zarathushtra Himself. The topos is clearly evident in Manichaean texts, according to which Mani’s last words were ‘I have now been capable of perceiving my Twin with my Light-Eyes.’93 According to the Manichaean Gnosis of the Mandaeans of Iraq, in whose vicinity Bahá’u’lláh had spent many years of His exile, every being in the physical world has its own counterpart, its archetype, in the other world. The deceased, after leaving its material body and being clad in a new body of pure light, enters the Kingdom of Light in order to meet and be reunited with its eternal mate: ‘I go forth towards my image, and my image comes forth towards me; it embraces me and takes me in his arms; it is such as if I had escaped from prison.’ 94 The same topos is encountered in a number of other songs and hymns and is present in the Ethiopian ‘Song of the Pearl’, as well as in the vision of Hermes Tresmagistus—to whom Bahá’u’lláh makes reference95—which have been clearly influenced by this ancient Iranian concept. Furthermore, a close relationship exists between the

image of the Maiden in ancient Iran and the soteriological concept of the Saoshyant. Ancient Iran, according to Zoroastrian metaphysics, is not merely an empire or a nation. It is a vast spiritual universe of luminous substance, the ‘foyer for the history of religions’, as Annemarie Schimmel has put it.96 Érán-Véj, the mundus imaginalis situated in the centre of the world, is the ardent desire and destination of every spiritual seeker and his nostalgia. It is the land of visions and the Terra lucida, the Land of Light, where the Paradise of Yima was situated; it is at the same time the landscape of individual eschatology, with all its magnificent mountains and flowing rivers, with its trees, plants, cities and their inhabitants, the imageries of the intermediary world of Húrqalyá. The visionary scenes of this celestial geosophy with its ‘suspended images’ (al- muthul al-mu‘allaqa) recollecting the Maiden ‘suspended in the air’ or ‘floating lightly on the enamoured winds’, images analogous to a ‘statue in its pure state, liberated from the marble the wood or the bronze’, as Corbin97 puts it, this visionary world of Húrqalyá passed from its ancient Zoroastrian source into the illuminationist school (ishráq) of the great theosopher Shihábu’d-Dín Yahyá Suhrawardí (d. 1191), was preserved in the writings of the mystics of medieval Iran and then revived at the beginning of the 19th century by Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsá’í (d. 1826), who drew extensively upon Húrqalyá in his writings.98 One of the 2,244 peaks of the magnificent mountain range situated in Érán-Véj, the primordial land of visions, is of special interest to us here—the Chakad-i-Daitik (the peak of Judgement) situated in the centre of Érán-Véj. Located on its summit is the Chinvat Bridge, where the auroral meeting of the soul with its Daéná, its heavenly ‘I’, takes place and over which the soul of the righteous man passes to the cosmic mountain and thence to the stars, to the Moon, to the Sun and then to the infinite Lights, to Garotmán, the ‘Abode of the Hymns’.99 From the top of the Cosmic Mountain the water of life, Ardví Sura (Anahita),

pours down, creating the Cosmic Lake which surrounds the world. It is in one part of the waters of this lake, according to Zoroastrian belief, that the Light of Glory, Khvarenah of Zarathushtra, has been laid down and is preserved with a view to the final Saoshyant, the saviour or Messias, who will be born from the Virgin-Mother Vispa- Tourvairi after she bathes in the lake and receives the radiant seed from its waters.100 The dawn in which Daéná is revealed, the heavenly waters of Ardví Súrá, the plants of Amertát, all of them … are perceived in their Angel, because beneath the appearance the apparition becomes visible to the Imagination. And this is the phenomenon of the Angel, the figure which the active Imagination reveals itself to be … That is why terrestrial phenomena are more than phenomena: They are the hierophanies proper to Mazdaism which, in beings and things reveal who … their heavenly person, the source of their Xvarnah [Khvarnah] is.101 The narrative of Zarathushtra’s own journey to the Land of Visions given in the Zardusht-Námak presents us with a variety of further elements which link and unite the two opposite poles of revelation and eschatology. According to this legend, Zarathushtra, when He reached the age of 30, set out with a number of His companions, both men and women, in search of Érán-Véj, their Land of Visions. After overcoming and transcending the laws of the physical world - surrounding Érán-Véj—they reached their destination ‘on the last day of the year’. The hierophanic sign, a homologue of the Aeon, is an implication of the end of a millennium, Naw Rúz, the dawn of a new age. Here Zarathushtra leaves His companions—the members of the old community—and continues His journey alone to the River Dáití situated in the centre of Érán- Véj, on the banks of which He was born. 102 He thus completes the journey of

one millennium back to His own origin. It is also the journey of the soul back to its primordial origin, back to its Twin and mate with whom it is now reunified, the celestial journey on which it is accompanied by Daéná, the semblance of its own Self. It is a journey back to the other world of God which is situated nowhere but ‘within this world’ as ‘Abdu’l-Bahá explains.103 Zarathushtra’s journey back to His own Self and to His primordial origins is also a journey forward to the mystical lake, in the waters of which His Light of Glory, Khvarenah, has been laid down. It is the journey of the Prophet crossing the bridge to the Prophet waiting on the other side, it is the journey to the Saoshyant, the saviour born of that Khvarenah and perceptible by that Light of Glory, appearing at the Dawn of the New Age at Dáití, the River Jordan of Zoroastrianism. It is the journey to such waters, in which Bahá’u’lláh—whose name, Bahá, signifies ‘Light of Glory’ and whose birthplace, Núr, means ‘Light’—enjoins His followers to ‘immerse’ themselves in the ocean of His words in order that they may ‘discover all the pearls of wisdom that lie hid in its depths’. 104 The link between revelation and eschatological fulfilment is also part of the writings of the Báb—‘My first name’, as Bahá’u’lláh calls His herald and forerunner.105 In the Qayyúm al-Asmá’, the commentary on the Súra of Joseph, whose garment, carried by his half-brothers to their father, Jacob, has been regarded as the object to which Bahá’u’lláh’s metaphor of ‘the sweet-smelling savours’ of his garment refers,106 the Báb Himself, like Jesus-Maid of Light, appears as the Maiden: O people of the earth! By the righteousness of the One true God. I am the Maid of Heaven (húriyya) begotten by the Spirit of Bahá.107 Before we determine whether the understanding gained here may also be used to understand other Tablets of

Bahá’u’lláh, let us consider one final definition of Daéná, which could prove significant. In his Religionen des Alten Iran, Nyberg points out that Daéná is a derivation of the root dáy-, ‘sehen’ (to see, look at, watch, observe) and suggests therefore, with regard to the Gáthás, that dáyáná be read with three syllables.108 Dáyaná originally meant ‘behold’ (‘schauen’), not in the general sense but as ‘beholding’ in its religious sense and as the organ with which one may experience the Divinity. Nyberg thus translates Daéná as ‘Schausinn’ (the faculty to behold) and ‘Schauseele’ (that part of the soul with which one may look at/into the divine world—into Húrqalyá), or ‘inneres Auge’ (inner/internal eye), an considers it to be a beam of light of divine origin, going out from one’s inner being to meet and unite with Light coming from the divine Kingdom of God. This beam of light therefore goes out both from men and from gods. 109 In like manner, Moulton110 translates Daéná as ‘insight’. Nyberg points out the parallels between dáyaná and Chisti/Chistá, the ancient goddess of the Mithra cults, whose name also signifies ‘Sehkraft’ (the power to see111 and also similarities with the adjective hudá- appearing in the Gáthás, which, like dáy- in dáyaná, means to look good (‘gut schauend’), in contrast to duzdá-, ‘to look bad’ (‘übel schauend’112). Many images appearing in the Gáthás seem to be allusions to ecstatic experiences practised by the earl cultic community, where the primordial good spirit Spanta Mainyu is called ‘Sleep’ or ‘Trance’.113 The Mazdean imageries discussed in this paper now permit a better understanding of the symbols and allegories appearing in, for example, The Tablet of the Youth of Eternity’ (Lawh-i Ghulám al- Khuld)114 celebrating with its overflowing Mazdaean allegories the anniversary of the Declaration of the Báb. In this Tablet, the Eternal Youth, an allusion to both the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh, appears as a radiant figure ‘which lightens up the inhabitants of the heavens and earths’; He wears on His head, in a manner similar to the radiant god of Ibn al-Nadím’s text ‘a crown

of beauty’ (táj al jamál) and on the finger of His right-hand a ring with ‘a protecting holy pearl’ (khátamun min lu’lu’i qudsin hafíz). He brings ‘the primordial Light’ (núr qadím), so often encountered in Zoroastrian and Manichaean texts. When the Youth ‘stands up in the midst of the sky radiating like the sun at noontide’, the maidens in their celestial chambers shout and, like Daéná, who is ‘loved for her beauty’, ‘the Maiden of Beauty’ (Húriyyat al Jamál) appears like unto the rising sun’. We learn that she is none but ‘the Maiden of Bahá’, bringing with her ‘magnificent Beauty’. Like Daéná she still floats lightly and is ‘suspended in the air’ (‘ulliqat fí al-hawá’), she wears a ‘radiant veil’ (niqáb munír), and one may easily recognize her by her unfading accessory, the sweet fragrance of her ‘great perfume’ (‘atr ‘azím) with which everyone on earth is filled (ta‘attara). Finally, the Maiden in this Tablet of Bahá’u’lláh is clearly the same as the Youth and his ‘Double’. Like him, she has ‘Beauty’ (jamál) as her distinctive feature and she is called by the same name, ‘Maiden of Eternity’ (Húriyyat al-Khuld). Another example of the survival of Daéná in the writings of Bahá’u’lláh is in the ‘Tablet of the Holy Mariner’ (Lawh Malláh al- Quds) with its many and ancient Iranian symbols, its ‘Celestial Concourse’ (al-malá al-a‘lá), ‘angelic spirits’ (hayákil ar-rúh) and ‘guardian angels’ (malá’ikat al-hifz), as these Fravashis of the Avesta are still called in this Tablet. But most thrilling of all is the vivid portrayal of the Maid of Heaven, in which we can easily detect the ancient image of Daéná. The Maiden, referred to here as the ‘Maid of Spirit’ (húriyyat ar-rúh, rendered in the translation as the ‘maid of heaven’) and as the ‘Maid of Proximity’ (húriyyat al-qurb, rendered as ‘the favoured damsel’) and appearing as one of the ‘immortal maids of heaven’ (húriyyát al-baqá’)115 has nevertheless preserved all her distinct features now so familiar to us. She is still the vivid apparition of light, ‘Flooding with the light of her countenance the heaven and the earth’ and is easily recognizable through ‘the radiance

of her beauty [which] shone upon the people of dust’. And she has remained all through the three eventful millennia of her existence in full possession of her main accessory, the sweet fragrant breezes which have invariably accompanied her appearance and have become her unmistakable and characteristic insignia: Thereupon the countenance of the favoured damsel beamed above the celestial chambers even as the light that shineth from the face of the Youth above His mortal temple; She then descended with such an adorning as to illumine the heavens and all that is therein. She bestirred herself and perfumed all things in the land of holiness and grandeur. When she reached that place she rose to her full height in the midmost heart of creation, And sought to inhale their fragrance at a time that knoweth neither beginning nor end. In the ‘Tablet of the Holy Mariner’ the Maiden commands one of her handmaidens to ‘Descend into space (haykal al-shams, literally ‘the abode of the sun’) from the mansions of eternity’. The image evoked is similar to that which accompanies the soul on its celestial journey ‘to the stars to the moon, to the sun’. The Maiden then gives further definite instructions: Shouldst thou inhale the perfume of the robe from the Youth that hath been hidden within the tabernacle of light by reason of that which the hands of the wicked have wrought,

Raise a cry within thyself, that all the inmates of the chambers of Paradise, that are the embodiments of the eternal wealth, may understand and hearken; That they may all come down from their everlasting chambers and tremble, And kiss their hands and feet for having soared to the heights of faithfulness; Perchance they may find from their robes the fragrance of the Beloved One.116 The symbol is now evident: The Maiden, herself fragrant and ‘perfuming all things’, is now searching for the fragrance of Bahá’u’lláh, the ‘exalted and glorious (núrá’, literally “radiant”) Arabian Youth’, who appears here in much the same manner as ‘Jesus the Radiant’ (Jesus der Glanz) in Manichaean hymns and as Moses in this same Tablet, ‘Moses the Radiant’ (Músá al-‘Izz, rendered as ‘the Glory of Moses’).117 The Maiden, in search of the Youth having the same characteristics as herself, is in search of her own self at the end of the Aeon, like Zarathushtra looking forward to meeting His own Self waiting on the other side of the Bridge of Chinvat: the Maiden is the semblance of Bahá’u’lláh’s own Self; each is an aspect and attribute of the other Daéná, the autonomous archetypal image, the reflection and embodiment of the spiritual self, the symbol of the conscience, the personification of divine law and religion, this radiant and luminous image of a Maid of Heaven, translated by Plutarch into Sophia, wisdom,118 is entered Judaism and fertilized its spiritual bases.119 Transfigured as Dén (religion and religious community) in Pahlavi sacred texts, it has survived in the etymology of the term dín, religion, in Arabic and Persian. It has symbolically linked the two fertile ‘Earths of Revelation’, the Indo-Iranian and

the Semitic, creating a ‘Bridge of Chinvat’ between them. In the word dín, religion, she is now an integral part of the everyday life and language of millions of people belonging to a very wide range of cultures and civilizations. Traces of the concept of Daéná may also be found in North European thought, which has yet to be examined. Lommel, in obvious imitation of the Walküre, who, as a messenger of the Germanic god Wodan, raises the fallen heroes from the dead through her kiss and accompanies them then to the mythological kingdom of Asgard, calls Daéná Heilküre.120 The concept of Daéná as the personification of the Self is also evident in Emanuel Swedenborg’s doctrine, that ‘things outside the Angels assume an appearance corresponding to those which are within them’.121 And curiously enough, Daéná is also vividly present in the cultic songs of the Baltic peoples. In the same way that Daéná has come to represent the aeon, the Latvian dainas and Lithuanian dainos deal with the fundamental life-cycles of man and of the agricultural seasons. They are thus distinctive marks of the calendar, like Daéná, whose name is given to the tenth month of the Zoroastrian calendar.122 These Baltic ritual and cultic songs mirror the annual cycle and are associated with the sacral feasts observed especially during the autumn harvest and most prominently during the three major points of the life cycle: birth, marriage and death. The cultic character of the songs is evident in the dainas sung in the cemetery to guarantee that the deceased may have a favourable relationship with the ruler of the grave and the realm of the other world. In both languages the etymological source of daina is the Avestan Daéná.123 In her long process of evolution, Daéná has undergone some profound transformations, altering her outward appearance within the new cultural context but nevertheless retaining her distinct fingerprints and distinguishing features in such a way that makes it possible to recognize her easily at any time. Once again Daéná has re-emerged

in her land of origin, Iran, or the primordial Érán-Véj, and has been reborn in the Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh. Her trail through three millennia of humankind’s history links one of the most ancient with the most recent of humanity’s living religions. Bibliography ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. Selections from the Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. Haifa: Bahá’í World Centre, 1978. Báb, The. Muntakhabát-i Ayát az Athár-i Hadrat-i Nuqta-i Ulá, rpt. Wilmette, Ill.: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1984. English translation in Selections from the Writings of the Báb, rpt. Haifa: Bahá’í World Centre, 1978. Bahá’í Prayers. Wilmette, Ill.: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1985. Bahá’u’lláh. Ad’iya-i Hadrat-i Mahbúb (Prayers of Bahá’u’lláh), rpt. Hofheim-Langenhain, 1980. _____ Áthár-i Qalam-i A’lá, vol. 3, New Delhi: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, n.d., (rpt. of Iran ed., 121 B.E.). _____ Epistle to the Son of the Wolf. Wilmette, Ill.: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, rev. ed., 1976. _____ Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh. Wilmette, Ill: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1949. _____ The Hidden Words of Bahá’u’lláh. Wilmette, Ill.: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1975. _____ Kitáb-i-Aqdas: The Most Holy Book. Haifa: Bahá’í World Centre, 1992. _____ Lawh Malláh al-Quds, Arabic Text and English Translation, n.p., n.d. _____ The Seven Valleys and the Four Valleys. rev. edn. Wilmette, Ill.: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1952. _____ Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh revealed after the Kitáb-i-Aqdas. Haifa: Bahá’í World Centre, 1978. Balyuzi, H. M. Bahá’u’lláh, The King of Glory. Oxford: George Ronald, 1980. Bartholomae, Christian. Altiranisches Wörterbuch, Strassburg, 1904. Beyreuther, Erich. Geschichte des Pietismus. Stuttgart, 1978. Biblical World. Chicago, 1896. Boyce, Mary. A History of Zoroastrianism, vol. 2. Under the Achamenids. Leiden, 1982.

_____ The Manichaen Hymn-Cycles in Parthian. London: Oxford University Press, 1954. Corbin, Henry. Die Smaragdene Vision. Der Licht-Mensch im persischen Sufismus. Ulm: Eugen Diederichs Verlag, 1989 (translation of L’homme de lumière dans le soufisme iranien, also available in English translation). _____ Spiritual Body and Celestial Earth. From Mazdean Iran to Shí‘ite Iran. London: I.B. Tauris, 1990. Ekbal, Kamran. ‘Irtibát-i ‘aqá’id-i bábiyya bá ‘aqá’id-i shaykhiyya’, Khúshi- há 3 (1992). Landegg Academy, pp. 17–42. _____ ‘Islamische Grundlagen des Kitáb-i Aqdas, mit neuen Erkenntnissen zu seiner Datierung,’ in Aspekte des Kitáb-i-Aqdas. Schriftenreihe der Gesellschaft für Bahá’í Studien, Bd. 2, Hofheim 1995, pp. 105–48. Encyclopaedia of Islam, new edn. H. A. R. Gibb et. al. (eds.). Leiden, London, 1960- ER = Encyclopaedia of Religion, M. Eliade (ed.). 16 vols. New York, London, 1987. All articles on Zoroastrian topics in ER are written by Gh. Gnoli. Faydí, Muhammad ‘Alí. La’álí-i Dirakhshán. Shiraz, 1345sh. Geldner, review of Reitzenstein’s Das iranische Erlösungssystem, in Theologische Literaturzeitung 6 (1922), p. 125. Gershevitch, Ilya. Avestan Hymn to Mithra with an introduction, translation and commentary. Cambridge, 1959. Hamzeh’ee, M. Reza. The Yaresan. A Sociological, Historical and Religio- Historical Study of a Kurdish Community, Berlin, 1990. Heiler, Friedrich. Erscheinungsformen and Wesen der Religion. Stuttgart: Philipp Reclam jun., 1961. _____ Die Religionen der Menschheit. Stuttgart, 1982. Ibn ‘Arabí. Tafsír al-Qur’án al-Karím, vol. 2. Beirut: Dár al Yaqza al- ‘Arabiyya, 1968. Ibn al-Nadím. Al-Fihrist. Gustav Flügel (ed). Beirut: Maktabat al-Khayyát, n.d. Ishráq-Khávarí, ‘Abd al-Hamíd. Ganj-i Sháyigán. Tehran: Mu’assasa-yi Matbu‘át-i Amrí, 124 B.E./1967. ______ Ayyám-i Tis’a. rpt. Los Angeles: Kalimát Press, 1981. _____ Muhádarát, vols. 1 and 2, rpt. Langenhain: Bahá’í Verlag, 1987. Jackson, A(braham) V(alentine). Zoroaster. The Prophet of Ancient Iran, rpt. New York, 1965. Jockel, Rudolf. Die Lebenden Religionen. Berlin: Safari Verlag, 1958.

Klimkeit, H-J. Hymnen und Gebete der Religion des Lichts. Iranische und türkische liturgische Texte der Manichäer Zentralasiens. Opladen, 1989. Ling, Trevor. Die Universalität der Religion. München, 1971. Lommel, Herman. Die Gathas des Zarathustra. Mit einem Anhang von Erwin Wolff. Basel: Schwabe & Co., 1971. _____ Die Religion Zarathustras. Nach dem Awesta dargestellt. Tübingen: Verlag J.C.B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck), 1930. _____ Die Yaest’s des Avesta. Goettingen, 1927. Moulton, James Hope. Early Religious Poetry of Persia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1911. _____ Early Zoroastrianism. Lectures delivered at Oxford and in London February to May 1912. London: Williams and Norgate, 1913. Nyberg, Henrik S. Die Religionen des alten Iran. rpt. Osnabrück, 1966. Pavry, Jal Dastur Cursetji. The Zoroastrian Doctrine of a Future Life. From Death to the Individual Judgement. New York: AMS Press, 1965. Polotsky, H. J. Manichäismus, in Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft, Suppl. bd. 6. Stuttgart, 1935. Qur’án—The Meaning of the Glorious Koran, trans. Marmaduke Pickthall, Beirut: Dár al-Kitáb al-Lubnání, n.d. (ca. 1973). Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart, Handwörterbuch für Theologie und Religionswissenschaft, Kurt Galling (ed.). 6 vols., Tübingen, 1957–65. Shoghi Effendi. The Advent of Divine Justice. Wilmette, Ill.: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1990. _____ God Passes By. Wilmette, Ill.: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1944. _____ The World Order of Bahá’u’lláh. Wilmette, Ill.: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 2nd edn., 1974. Shorter Encyclopaedia of Islam. H. A. R. Gibb and J. H. Kramers (eds.). Leiden: E. J. Brill and Luzac & Co., 1961. Sours, Michael W. ‘The Maid of Heaven, The Image of Sophia, and the Logos Personification of the Spirit of God in Scripture and Sacred Literature’, The Journal of Bahá’í Studies, vol. 4, no. 1 (1991), pp. 47– 65. Taherzadeh, Adib. The Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh, vols 1–4. Oxford: George Ronald, 1974–92. Widengren, Geo. Iranische Geisteswelt. Von den Anfängen bis zum Islam. Baden Baden: Bertelsmann, 1961.

_____ Mani und der Manichäismus. Stuttgart: W. Kohlhammer Verlag, 1961. Wolff, Fritz. Avesta. Die Heiligen Bücher der Parsen, übersetzt auf der Grundlage von Chr. Bartholomae’s Altiranischem Wörterbuch. Berlin, 1924. Woschitz, Karl Matthäus, Manfred Hutter and Karl Prenner. Das Manichäische Urdrama des Lichtes. Studien zu koptischen, mittel- iranischen und arabischen Texten. Wien, 1989.

Notes 1. cf. Ekbal 1995; also K. Ekbal: The Koranic Roots of Some Legal and Theological Terms of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas Regarding Women and Homosexual Relations’, paper presented at the Second Irfan Colloquium, Wilmette, April 1994. 2. cf. Gherardo Gnoli: ‘Zoroastrianism’ in ER. Regarding Zoroastrianism cf. Boyce, A History of Zoroastrianism; Nyberg, Die Religionen des alten Iran; Jackson, Zoroaster. The dates on Zarathushtra’s life range widely from 6000 BCE to, say, 660–583 BCE (Jackson, p. 15). The approximate date used above is according to Gnoli. 3. ER, s.v. ‘Zarathushtra’. 4. References given in Ling, Die Universalität der Religion, p. 127. 5. Corbin, Spiritual Body and Celestial Earth; Corbin, Die Smaragdene Vision. Der Licht-Mensch im persischen Sufismus. 6. ER, s.v. ‘Saoshyant’. 7. ER, s.v. ‘Frashokereti’, Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart; s.v. ‘Apokalyptik’, ‘Chiliasmus’, ‘Eschatologie’, ‘Messianismus’, regarding the impact of Zoroastrianism on Buddhism, Judaism and Christianity cf. Moulton, Early Zoroastrianism, pp. 286–331; Jackson, Zoroaster, p. 1ff. 8. Heiler, Erscheinungsformen und Wesen der Religion; Heiler, Die Religionen der Menschheit; Jockel, Die Lebenden Religionen. 9. Coudert, ‘Angels’, ER. 10. ER, s.v. ‘Khvarenah’. 11. Corbin, Spiritual Body and Celestial Earth, pp. 13, 29. 12. The seven are: Vohu Manah (good thought), Asha Vahishta (best truth), Khshathra Vairya (desirable dominion), Spenta Armaiti (beneficent devotion), Haurvatát

(wholeness) and Amertát (immortality), cf. ER, s.v. ‘Zoroastrianism’, and Gershevitch, Avestan Hymn to Mithra, pp. 10ff. 13. Cited in Corbin, Spiritual Body and Celestial Earth, p. 7. 14. Húriyya is derived from húr, pl. of hawrá’, from the root hwr, generally denoting ‘whiteness’. Hawrá’ signifies a woman whose black eyes are in contrast to their ‘whites’ and to the whiteness of her skin. Húr is used in the Qur’án, e.g. 56:22–3, for the virgins of paradise, and has entered the English language through the Persian húrí, cf. EI, s.v. ‘Húr’. 15. Taherzadeh, Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh, vol. 1, p. 45. 16. The same passage is also included in the Tablet of Tarázát (Bahá’u’lláh, Tablets, pp. 37-8) and in Bahá’u’lláh, Epistle, pp. 136–7; cf. also Taherzadeh, Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh, vol. 4, p. 17. 17. Taherzadeh, Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh, vol. 4, pp. 11ff. 18. Excerpt of Súrat al-Haykal, published in Faydí 56f. English trans. by Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, pp. 101f; cf. also Taherzadeh, Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh, vol. 3, p. 143. 19. Discussed in Taherzadeh, Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh, vol. 3, pp. 223ff. 20. Hamzeh’ee, Yaresan, pp. 90ff. Jam actually means ‘bowl’. The Yaresan compare the human body to a bowl and the human soul to water … In another way jam can be a shortened form of jameh which means ‘garment’. The word jameh is frequently used in Yaresan texts, and there ‘emerging in someone’s garment’ means ‘to reincarnate’. On Bahá’u’lláh’s sojourn in the Kurdish mountains, see Balyuzi, King of Glory, pp. 115ff. 21. Bahá’u’lláh, The Seven Valleys and The Four Valleys; discussed in Taherzadeh, Revelation, vol. 1, pp. 96–104. 22. Bahá’u’lláh, Hidden Words; discussed in Taherzadeh, Revelation of Bahá’ulláh, vol. 1, pp. 71–83. 23. In Bahá’u’lláh, Áthár-i Qalam-i A’lá, vol. 3, pp. 196–215; short discussion in Taherzadeh, Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh, vol. 1, p. 62. 24. Pers. 77 and 82, discussed in Taherzadeh, Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh, vol. 1, pp. 71–83. 25. Short discussion in Taherzadeh, Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh, vol. 1, p. 125.

26. Text in Ishráq-Kháwarí, Ganj-i Sháyigán, pp. 61–4; discussed in Taherzadeh, Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh, vol. 1, pp. 211–13. 27. Text in Ishráq-Kháwarí, Ayyám-i Tis’a, pp. 92–9; discussed in Taherzadeh, Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh, vol. 1, pp. 213–18. 28. Discussed briefly in Taherzadeh, Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh, vol. 1, p. 218. 29. Text in Ishráq-Kháwarí, Ganj-i Sháyigán, pp. 33–5; discussed in Taherzadeh, Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh, vol. 1, pp. 219f. 30. Bahá’u’lláh, Ad’iya-i, pp. 141, 142, 153ff. 31. A compilation of all the Tablets mentioned, for example, in Adib Taherzadeh’s The Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh, in the original language with their gradual translation into European languages, together with the preparation of a general index and concordance, will prove an indispensable prerequisite for the rationalization and facilitation of research work in the future. 32. Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, p. 250. Arabic text in Faydí, La’álí-i Dirakhshán, pp. 56f; cf. Taherzadeh, Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh, vol. 3, p. 143. 33. Moulton, Early Zoroastrianism, pp. 159f. 34. Lommel, Die Religion Zarathustras, p. 160; English translations of the Yasna in a slightly different version in Moulton, Early Zoroastrianism, pp. 387f. The Gáthás of the Yasna are translated and appended to ibid. pp. 343–90. Definitions of Daéná given above are according to Pavry, Zoroastrian Doctrine of a Future Life, pp. 28f; Moulton, Early Religious Poetry of Persia, p. 142; Corbin, Spiritual Body and Celestial Earth, pp. 15ff. 35. Bahá’u’lláh, Kitáb-i-Aqdas, para. 4. 36. ibid. para. 179, cf. also paras. 136, 158. 37. Widengren, Iranische Geisteswelt, p. 11; ER, s.v. ‘Zoroastrianism’. 38. Gershevitch, Avestan Hymn to Mithra, p. 9. 39. Lommel, Die Yaest’s des Avesta, p. 103; ER, s.v. ‘Zoroastrianism’; regarding the later incorporation of Fravashis as Guardian angels cf. also Moulton, Early Zoroastrianism, p. 278. 40. A short description is given in Widengren, Iranische Geisteswelt, pp. 12f.

41. Pavry, Zoroastrian Doctrine of a Future Life, p. 28. 42. Bartholomae, Altiranisches Wörterbuch, pp. 665–7, rendered into English by Pavry, Zoroastrian Doctrine of a Future Life, p. 28. Both Moulton, Early Zoroastriansm, p. 278, and Lommel, Die Religion Zarathustras, pp. 160f consider a similarity between Daéná and the Fravashi. 43. Wolff, Avesta, p. 447. 44. Bartholomae, Altiranisches Wörterbuch, pp. 662–5. 45. Lommel, Die Yaest’s des Avesta, p. 102; cf. also Lommel, Die Religion Zarathustras, p. 155. He also defines Daéná as ‘the Doctrine’ (die Lehre) and ‘the Conviction’ (die Überzeugung), ibid. p. 150. 46. Pavry, Zoroastrian Doctrine of a Future Life, p. 29; cf. also Moulton, Early Zoroastrianism, p. 263. 47. Biblical World, vol. 8, p. 154. 48. Geldner, review of Reitzenstein’s Das iranische Erlösungssystem, p. 125. 49. Pavry, Zoroastrian Doctrine of a Future Life, pp. 29, 34, etc. 50. Pavry, Zoroastrian Doctrine of a Future Life, p. 31. Lommel translates Daéná in the same passage as ‘one’s own spiritual ego’ (das eigene geistige Ich), Lommel, Die Gathas des Zarathustra, p. 134; and Moulton translates Daéná as ‘own self’, Moulton, Early Zoroastrianism p. 374. Regarding Karapans and Kavis cf. ibid. p. 357. The Chinvat Bridge is discussed in Nyberg, Religionen des Alten Iran, pp. 179–87. 51. Yasna 31:20. This and similar passages are in Pavry, Zoroastrian Doctrine of a Future Life, pp. 30ff. 52. Gershevitch, Avestan Hymn to Mithra, pp. 242f, cf. also pp. 118f. For further passages of the Avesta where Daéná appears as synonymous with Religion, cf. Wolff, Avesta, pp. 4, 189, 301, 447, always in combination with ‘Mazdayasnian Religion’. 53. Yasna 46:11 quoted above. 54. Shoghi Effendi, World Order, pp. 57ff. 55. Bahá’u’lláh, Kitáb-i-Aqdas, para. 182. 56. Corbin, Spiritual Body and Celestial Earth, p. 35. Regarding the etymology of dín cf. Heiler, Erscheinungsformen and Wesen der Religion, p. 4. The Aryan component united here with the Semitic component designating ‘debt’, ‘custom’ and ‘divine judgement’; cf. also Shorter Encyclopaedia of

Islam, s.v. ‘Dín’. The article refers to the fact that some scholars even contest the Semitic components of the meaning of dín and base its origin only on the Iranian daéná. The article ‘Dín’ in Encyclopaedia of Islam, new ed., makes no reference to the Avestan etymology of dín. 57. Hadokht Nask 2:7–14, in Pavry, Zoroastrian Doctrine of a Future Life, pp. 33–5; partly translated also in Nyberg, Die Religionen des alten Iran, 119. Whereas Pavry has translated Daéná as ‘Conscience’, in this version the original term, i.e. ‘Daena’, is used. German translation of the same passage is in Widengren, Iranische Geisteswelt, pp. 171–5. Lommel, Die Religion Zarathustras, who considers Daéná to be here a personification of one’s good or bad deeds, lets her answer: ‘I am your own ‘spiritual primordial being’ (geistiges Urwesen)’, pp. 187, 188. The primordial character of Daéná referred to here would also be in congruence to the primordial character of the Religion of God referred to in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, para. 182 and discussed above. 58. Corbin, Spiritual Body and Celestial Earth, p. 15. The latter part is a reference to the Zoroastrian perception of Earth as an Angel, cf. ibid. pp. 3ff. 59. Hadokht Nask 2:25–26, in Pavry, Zoroastrian Doctrine of a Future Life, p. 37; Nyberg, Die Religionen des alten Iran, p. 116. 60. Bundahishn 30:6, in Pavry, Zoroastrian Doctrine of a Future Life, p. 41. The dogs accompanying Daéná appear, e.g. in Vidévdát (Vendidad) 19:30, quoted in ibid., p. 36; on the ancient Aryan symbol of the dogs cf. Nyberg, Die Religionen des alten Iran, p. 181. 61. Pavry, Zoroastrian Doctrine of a Future Life, pp. 44f. 62. On Manichaeism cf. Widengren, Mani und der Manichäismus, and Woschitz, Das Manichäische Urdrama des Lichtes. 63. Widengren, Mani und der Manichäismus, pp. 89, 107; cf. also Boyce, The Manichaen Hymn-Cycles in Parthian. 64. That is, the twelve signs of the zodiac, the sun and the moon and the five planets. Widengren, Mani und der Manichäismus, pp. 72, 95; Woschitz, Das Manichäische Urdrama des Lichtes, pp. 74f. 65. Widengren, Mani und der Manichäismus, p. 68. 66. Polotsky, Manichäismus, pp. 240–71.

67. Klimkeit, Hymnen und Gebete der Religion des Lichts, pp. 138, 164. 68. Hymn to install new bishops, in Klimkeit, Hymnen und Gebete der Religion des Lichts, p. 138; further examples given pp. 72, 140, 141, 164. 69. ibid. pp. 120, 124, 134, 135, 142, 173, 203. This is in accordance with Avestan texts such as Yasna 12:9, referred to in this manner by Nyberg, Die Religionen des alten Iran 274, cf. also ibid. pp. 117, 118, 119f, 246f, 283. 70. Bahá’u’lláh, Gleanings, no. 129, pp. 282–5. 71. Bahá’u’lláh, Gleanings, no. 81, p. 156. According to Widengren, the raiment of light (Lichtkleid) is one of the main symbols of Indo-Iranian origin, Widengren, Mani und der Manichäismus, p. 67; cf. also quotation from Klimkeit, Hymnen und Gebete der Religion des Lichts, p. 206, quoted above. 72. Klimkeit, Hymnen und Gebete der Religion des Lichts, p. 51. 73. Boyce, The Manichaen Hymn-Cycles in Parthian, p. 16. 74. Encyclopedia of Islam, s.v. ‘Húr’. 75. Bahá’u’lláh, Kitáb-i-Aqdas, para. 136. 76. Ibn ‘Arabí, Tafsír al-Qur’án al-Karím, pp. 140f. 77. Ibn al-Nadím, Al-Fihrist, pp. 329–30; cf. also Boyce, Manichaen Hymn-Cycles in Parthian, p. 20. 78. Ibn al-Nadím, Al-Fihrist, p. 335, partly translated in Pavry, Zoroastrian Doctrine of a Future Life, p. 46 and discussed in Boyce, Manichaen Hymn-Cycles in Parthian, pp. 20f. On Nahnaha cf. Boyce, ibid. The concept of ‘primordial man’ is discussed in Woschitz, Das Manichäische Urdrama des Lichtes, pp. 77ff; regarding the significance of the sun and the moon in Manichaeism, cf. ibid. pp. 71ff. 79. Bahá’u’lláh, Gleanings, no. 81, p. 156. 80. Alastu jamál al-mahbúb fí wast al-duhá. Text in Ishráq-Khávarí, Ganj-i Sháyigán, p. 63 (own translation). 81. Ibn al-Nadím, Al-Fihrist, p. 328. 82. ibid. 83. Corbin, Die Smaragdene Vision. Der Licht-Mensch im persischen Sufismus, pp. 55ff; Moulton, Early Zoroastrianism, p. 264; cf. also Widengren, Iranische Geisteswelt, p. 144. Woschitz, Das Manichäische Urdrama des Lichtes, pp. 57ff; A. Schimmel, Preface to Corbin, Die Smaragdene Vision. Der Licht-Mensch im persischen Sufismus, p. 14.

84. Ishráq-Khávarí, 1987:461f, discussed in Ekbal 27; cf. also Woschitz 51ff. 85. Gershevitch 10f, Corbin, 1990:7. 86. Bahá’u’lláh, Lawh Malláh al-Quds; translation and discussion in Taherzadeh, 1:228–45. 87. Klimkeit, Hymnen und Gebete der Religion des Lichts, p. 206. 88. cf. also Rev. 22:17, Mt. 9:15, 25:1–3, Jh. 3:29. 89. A Tablet of Bahá’u’lláh, quoted in Shoghi Effendi, Advent of Divine Justice, p. 79. 90. A Tablet of Bahá’u’lláh, quoted in Shoghi Effendi, World Order, p. 115. 91. Quoted by Shoghi Effendi, in ibid. p. 138; cf. also Taherzadeh, Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh, vol. 3, p. 140. 92. Taherzadeh, Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh, vol. 3, p. 134. 93. Corbin, Die Smaragdene Vision. Der Licht-Mensch im persischen Sufismus, p. 56. 94. cf. ibid. pp. 55f. 95. Bahá’u’lláh mentions Hermes in Lawh-i Hikmat (Tablet of Wisdom), Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh, p. 148. Hermes is regarded as identical to Idrís in Qur’án 19:57f, for Hermes Tresmasgistus cf. Corbin, Die Smaragdene Vision. Der Licht-Mensch im persischen Sufismus, pp. 47ff, regarding the ‘Song of the Pearl’, cf. Widengren, Mani und der Manichäismus, pp. 19f, Woschitz, Das Manichäische Urdrama des Lichtes, pp. 118ff. 96. Preface to Corbin, Die Smaragdene Vision. Der Licht-Mensch im persischen Sufismus, p. 9. 97. Corbin, Spiritual Body and Celestial Earth, pp. 87f. 98. cf. Corbin, Spiritual Body and Celestial Earth, pp. 118, 180ff. For Hurqalyá cf. Ekbal, ‘Irtibát-i ‘aqá’id-i bábiyya bá ‘aqá’id-i shaykhiyya’, p. 26. 99. Corbin, Spiritual Body and Celestial Earth, pp. 27ff. 100. ibid. p. 277. 101. ibid. pp. 28f. 102. For a basic narrative cf. Corbin, Spiritual Body and Celestial Earth, p. 33. 103. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Selections, p. 195. An interpretation very similar to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s was given by the German theologian Philip Nicolai (1556–1608), a forerunner of the pietist movement from which the Templers, who emigrated to Haifa in 1868, had emerged: ‘Ob das Reich Gottes, dahin

die gläubige Seele von diesem Jammertal fähret, etwas auswendig von uns oder etwas inwendig in uns sei … Die wiedergeborene Seele … fähret aus der Welt in das Reich der Herrlichkeit Gottes gleichwie von außen nach innen … zu ihrer inwendigen Heimat and himmlischen Vaterland hinein …’ (Whether the Kingdom of God, to where the believer’s soul travels from this valley of distress, lies beyond or within our own self [is the actual question]. The reborn soul … travels from the world into the Kingdom of God’s Glory as if from the exterior to the interior … into its internal home and heavenly fatherland) cited in Beyreuther, Geschichte des Pietismus, p. 17. 104. Bahá’u’lláh, Kitáb-i-Aqdas, para. 182. 105. cf. Balyuzi, King of Glory, p. 117. 106. Notes to Kitáb-i Aqdas, p. 165. 107. Arabic text in the Báb, Muntakhabát-i Ayát, p. 36; translation, Selections, p. 54. 108. Nyberg, Religionen des Alten Iran, p. 114; cf. also Rommel, Die Religion Zarathustras, p. 150. 109. ibid. pp. 114ff. 110. Moulton, Early Zoroastrianism, p. 265. 111. Nyberg, Die Religionen des alten Iran, pp. 83, 118. 112. ibid. p. 115. 113. ibid. pp. 146f. 114. cf. references in note 27 above; own provisional translation. 115. Many distinct designations of the Maiden in various Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh have been generally translated uniformly as ‘maid of heaven’, thereby obscuring the deep-rooted nuances of the original terms. A literal construction for ‘maid of heaven’, which ought to be something like ‘húriyyat al-samá” or ‘húrí-i ásimání’ does not appear in any of the texts examined here. 116. Bahá’u’lláh, in Bahá’í Prayers, pp. 222–9 (emphasis added). 117. Text in Taherzadeh, Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh, vol. 1, pp. 230–5. 118. Corbin, Spiritual Body and Celestial Earth, p. 15; on Plutarch’s translation from Zoroastrian texts cf. Moulton, Early Zoroastrianism, pp. 399–407; passages given in original Greek language in Jackson, Zoroaster. The Prophet of Ancient Iran, pp. 235f.

119. Sours, ‘The Maid of Heaven’, pp. 47–65. 120. ‘Ich sage dafür Heilküre, da sie das Wesen ist, welche für den Menschen rein Heil erkoren hat’. Lommel, Die Religion Zarathustras, p. 161. 121. Corbin, Spiritual Body and Celestial Earth, p. 102. 122. Moulton, Early Zoroastrianism, p. 433. 123. ER, s.v. Dainas