Tablets to the Kings
Baha'u'llah's Tablets to the Rulers.
by
Juan R.I. Cole
Department of History
University of Michigan
The Tablets to the Rulers were written by Baha'u'llah between 1867 and
circa 1873. Baha'u'llah's declaration of his station to the monarchs and rulers of
the world was self-consciously modelled on the similar declaration of
Muhammad to the rulers of his own time. It constituted an important part of
his self-revelation, coming on the whole after his declaration to the Babis, and
before (or in a few instances contemporaneously with) his issuance of the Most
Holy Book, which comprised the laws and ordinances of the new Baha'i
religion. In these epistles he not only declared his station as the promised one
of all religions, but for the first time began elaborating on the social principles
of his religion, founded in 1863. From late in 1863 to summer of 1868,
Baha'u'llah was resident in Edirne (Adrianople), to which he was exiled by
Ottoman Sultan Abdulaziz (r. 1861-1876).
In the Surat al-Muluk, Tablet of the Kings, written in Edirne in 1867, he
collectively and apostrophically addressed the rulers of the world. He called
upon monarchs to be just, and to reduce the size of their armies so as to allow
for smaller budgets and greater prosperity, and pointed out that if they resolved
their problems diplomatically they would need only the forces necessary to repel
invaders from their borders. He thus implicitly invoked the strategic principle
that an attack requires a three to one numerical superiority over the enemy, so
that defensive armies can be much smaller than offensive ones. He complained
that military budgets were increasing daily, resulting in oppressive taxes on the
subjects: "O kings of the earth! We see you increasing every year your
expenditures, and laying the burden thereof on your subjects. This, verily, is
wholly and grossly unjust . . . do not rob them to rear palaces for yourselves"
(POB, p. 12). He insisted that it was the state's responsibility to take care of
the poor. To Christian rulers he said that he was the spiritual return of Christ
whom they were awaiting. (Alvah-i Nazilih khitab bi Muluk, pp. 8, 9, 11). He
castigated the French ambassador in Istanbul for colluding with the Iranian
envoy against Baha'u'llah. He condemned the Ottoman authorities for
substituting their own principles for those of God, for hypocrisy, and for
unjustly banishing Baha'u'llah from Baghdad and then Istanbul and Edirne
(Muluk, 18-20). He denied opposing the sultan, and urged him to gather
around himself upright ministers with whom he should consult. He sternly
criticized the great gap between the wealthy and the poor in the empire, and
more especially in Istanbul, and urged the sultan to intervene to distribute
wealth more equitably (Muluk, 34, 36, 40). He reproached the Iranian
ambassador, Mirza Husayn Khan, the Mushiru'd-Dawlih, for intriguing against
him. He ended by addressing the Muslim clergy and philosophers of Istanbul,
urging them to recognize his authority as God's spokesman and to be humble
before God (Muluk, 49-51, 65-70).
Baha'u'llah's next letters to monarchs were addressed to Napoleon III (r.
1853-1870) of France and to Nasiru'd-Din Shah of Iran, and written toward the
end of his Edirne exile. The French empire was deeply involved in Middle
Eastern affairs because of its North African colonies, and had in the 1860s
intervened in what is now Lebanon and Syria to protect the interests of the
minority Christian population. Baha'u'llah wrote to Napoleon III, reminding of
him of his expressions of concern for the oppressed during the Crimean War of
1854-56, seeking recognition of the new Baha'i religion and apparently
soliciting French diplomatic pressure on the Ottomans to guarantee Baha'is their
civil rights. He sent the letter via a French consular official, perhaps not until
the party reached Akka. He received no reply (SAQ, pp. 32-33; PDC, pp. 51-
52).
In March-April, 1868, the Ottoman authorities began an investigation of
the Babis and Baha'is residing in Edirne, as a result of the complaints made to
them by the followers of Azal. Rumors began to fly that the exiles would be
further banished, or perhaps turned over to the Iranian authorities. In the end,
Baha'u'llah was sent with his companions to Akka on the coast of Ottoman
Syria, but Iranian authorities were permitted to maintain a consular office in the
city to keep watch on Baha'i activities. It is possible that the prospect of being
returned to Iran or of facing increased Iranian surveillance impelled Baha'u'llah
to write his long letter to Iran's Nasiru'd-Din Shah (r. 1848-96), in spring or
summer of 1868. He mentions toward the end of it his impending exile to Akka
(Muluk, 195-96). This Tablet made a point of Baha'u'llah's pacifist policies,
which had ended the conflict between the Babis and the Iranian state. He said
that in the new Baha'i religion, it was better to be killed than to kill. He argued
that a ruler had the responsibility to be just toward all his subjects, with no
distinction among them, implying that discrimination on religious grounds is
illegitimate (Muluk, 160-61, 164, 166). He pointed out that the Shah ruled
over a number of recognized religious communities, and pleaded that the
Baha'is be entered among their number, saying that the entire community should
not continue to be punished for the sins of one person (the Babi assassin who
fired on Nasiru'd-Din Shah in 1852) (Muluk, 178-79). This letter was not sent
until Baha'u'llah arrived in Akka, and the young courier who delivered it to
Nasiru'-Din Shah, Mirza Badi`, was arrested by the government, horribly
tortured, and executed.
In the Arabic Lawhu'r-Ra'is, written in the summer of 1868 on his way
to Gallipoli, Baha'u'llah vows to Ottoman first minister Mehmet Emin Ali Pasha
(1815-71) that his exile will not extinguish the nascent Baha'i faith, condemns
him for plotting with the Iranian ambassador against him, and predicts that the
Ottoman empire would be engulfed in turmoil and Edirne would pass out of the
hands of the sultan (Muluk, 205-225). In the Lawh-i Fu'ad, written somewhat
later concerning Ottoman Foreign Minister Fu'ad Pasha (d. 1869), he went so
far as to predict that God would "take hold of" the sultan (Rosen, Collections,
6:231-32). Baha'is felt that these predictions were vindicated in 1876-78, when
Sultan Abdulaziz was overthrown in a constitutional revolution and committed
suicide, following which a Russo-Ottoman war broke out that led to the
temporary occupation of Edirne by Russian forces. In the Lawhu'r-Ra'is,
Baha'u'llah announced as his aim the unification of the peoples of the world. In
the Persian Lawh-i Ra'is, written upon his arrival in Akka and also addressed to
Ali Pasha, Baha'u'llah compares the ephemeral pomp and circumstance of the
Ottoman court to the elaborate puppet shows he saw as a child at court in
Tehran, at the end of which the royal puppets in all their finery were
unceremoniously packed into a trunk. He asked Ali Pasha to convey his
request to Sultan Abdulaziz for an audience of only ten minutes, during which
he would be pleased to produce for the sultan any proof of his mission the latter
deemed acceptable (Muluk, 228-67).
Of the remaining Tablets to monarchs and leaders, few are dated, but
they appear to belong to the first four years of Baha'u'llah's exile in Akka. In his
letter to Victoria (r. 1830-1901), Queen of Great Britain and Queen-Empress of
India, Baha'u'llah proclaimed himself the spiritual return of Christ. He
commended the Queen for abolishing slavery, saying it had also been forbidden
in the Baha'i faith (it was still practiced in the Middle East, but gradually being
ended). He congratulated her on having entrusted the reins of counsel (by
which he meant parliamentary governance) into the hands of the people, and
called upon members of parliament in Britain and other countries to undertake
the reform of world society so as to cure its ills. He recommended as a solution
the unification of the world under a single religion. He repeated his earlier
strictures, enunciated in the Tablet of the Kings (Surat al-Muluk), against
ruinous arms races and overtaxation of the ordinary folk and the poor. He
clearly enunciated for the first time here the need for a system of collective
security whereby, should any nation attack another, all the others would join
together to roll back and subdue the aggressor (Muluk, 131-41).
The second letter to Napoleon III was written in 1869 as part of the
larger collection of Tablets to the Monarchs called the Tablet of the Temple
(Surat al-Haykal). Baha'u'llah began by instructing the emperor to have his
priests cease ringing the church bells in anticipation of Christ's second coming,
since Baha'u'llah was himself that advent. In an aside, he addressed the monks
of the Roman Catholic church, urging them to abandon their seclusion in
monasteries and to take up useful work and to marry and produce offspring
who would praise God after their deaths. He also urged holy men to forsake
vegetarianism, saying he had allowed the eating of meat. Baha'u'llah
complained to Napoleon III that while he claimed to have intervened in the
Crimean War in order to save the innocent, he had declined to help the innocent
Baha'is, and had haughtily cast Baha'u'llah's previous letter behind his back.
"For what thou has done," he wrote, "thy kingdom shall be thrown into
confusion, and thine empire shall pass from thy hands, as a punishment for what
thou hast wrought." (POB, p. 31). He urged the emperor to be just to his
subjects and to the poor. In another aside, he urged the Baha'is to spread the
new religion, by first acquiring excellent moral qualities, by wisdom and and
exposition, and by avoiding arguments. He called upon the rich to be humble
before the poor, and to engage in philanthropy. He announced the
establishment of four great holy days, commemorating the manifestation of
God's names (at Ridvan), the sending of a messenger to announce Baha'u'llah's
advent, and two others, which he said would be specified in a Book.
(Baha'u'llah discussed the holy days of his religion more extensively later, in the
Most Holy Book [al-Kitab al-Aqdas] of 1873). In concluding, he said that all
the people of the world should be seen as one. This letter was smuggled out of
the Akka prison and delivered to Cesar Ketaphakou, son of the French consul
in Akka, who translated it into French and sent it on to Paris. Ketaphakou later
became a Baha'i on seeing the prophecy of Napoleon III's fall fulfilled when he
was defeated at Sedan by the Prussians in 1870 (SAQ 33, PDC, 51).
Baha'u'llah announced himself to Tsar Alexander II (d. 1881), as well,
warning him not to allow his base desires to veil him from turning toward the
countenance of his Lord. He notes that a Russian official helped Baha'u'llah
when he was imprisoned in the Siyah-Chal dungeon in Tehran, 1852-53, saying,
"Whilst I lay chained and fettered in the prison, one of thy ministers extended
Me his aid. Wherefore hath God ordained for thee a station which the
knowledge of none can comprehend except His knowledge. Beware lest thou
barter away this sublime station" (POB, p. 27). He declared himself the
fulfillment of biblical messianic expectations mentioned in Isaiah, and in the Old
and New Testaments, saying that the Father and the Son were come in the holy
vale (Muluk, pp. 121-28).
In the letter to Pope Pius IX (r. 1846-1878), Baha'u'llah warned the
pontiff not to allow a focus on Jesus's name to bar him from recognizing the
reality of the Lord of the heavens and earth. He criticized the pope for living in
palaces while the returned Messiah dwelt in the most desolate of abodes. He
reminded Pope Pius that the most learned men of Jesus's own time rejected him,
while a humble fisherman embraced his teachings. He lamented that while
generations of pious monks had prayed day and night for the return of Christ,
when he came they failed to recognize him. He said to the Pontiff to "Sell all
the embellished ornaments thou dost possess, and expend them in the path of
God . . . abandon thy kingdom unto the kings, and emerge from thy habitation,
with thy face set towards the Kingdom, and, detached from the world, then
speak forth the praises of thy Lord" (POB, p. 85). He thus counselled the Pope
to relinquish the papal estates and concentrate on a spiritual ministry. He
identified the Bab as the return of John the Baptist for Christians, heralding
Baha'u'llah's own advent who speaks with the tongue of the Son (Muluk, pp.
73-90).
In addition, Baha'u'llah apostrophizes some rulers in his 1873 book of
laws, al-Kitab al-Aqdas. He addressed Kaiser Wilhelm I of Prussia (r. 1871-
88), reminding him of how ephemeral was earthly glory, giving the example of
his defeated enemy Napoleon III. Baha'u'llah foresaw that the banks of the
Rhine would be "covered with gore" and heard "the lamentations of Berlin"
(Muluk, pp. 250-51). The Prussian monarchy later perished in the defeat
inflicted on it in World War I. He rebuked the emperor Franz Joseph of Austria
for visiting Jerusalem but neglecting to inquire about Baha'u'llah while in the
Holy Land. He collectively addressed the monarchs and rulers presiding over
the territories of the Americas, urging them to recognize him, and to "bind ye
the broken with the hands of justice, and crush the oppressor who flourisheth
with the rod of the commandments of your Lord" (Muluk, 258; POB, 63). He
also collectively addressed the rulers of the earth in the Most Holy Book,
calling upon them to accept him as their spiritual sovereign (Muluk, pp. 262-
65).
Baha'u'llah took an increasingly dim view of absolute monarchy during
this period. Whereas he began by urging something like cabinet consultation on
Sultan Abdulaziz, he ended by predicting that in the future no one would accept
the task of ruling as monarch alone, that monarchy would survive, if at all, only
as constitutional monarchy. He wrote to Shaykh Salman soon after his exile in
Akka, "One of the signs of the maturity of the world is that no one will accept
to bear the weight of kingship. Kingship will remain with none willing to bear
alone its weight. Theat day will be the day whereon wisdom [or Reason: `aql]
will be manifested among mankind. Only in order to proclaim the Cause of
God and spread abroad his faith will anyone be willing to bear this grievous
weight" (Mujmu`ih-yi Mubarakih, Sabri ed., 125-26; PDC, 72).
Bibliography: Most of the Tablets to the Monarchs were collected and
published in a volume of the series, Athar-i Qalam-i A`la (Traces of the
Supreme Pen), entitled Alvah-i Nazilih khitab bi Muluk va Ru'asa-yi Ard
(Revealed Tablets addressing the Kings and Leaders of the Earth) (Tehran:
Baha'i Publishing Trust, 124 B.E./1968). They were also published in Victor
Rosen, ed., Collections scientifiques de l'Institut des langues orientales du
Ministere des Affaires Etrangeres, 6 vols. (St. Petersburg, 1877-1891), vol. VI,
pp. 141-233. Those passages from these Tablets translated at various points by
Shoghi Effendi were collected and published as The Proclamation of Baha'u'llah
to the Kings and Leaders of the World (Haifa: Baha'i World Center, 1967).
The chief theological exposition of their import for Baha'i conceptions of sacred
history is Shoghi Effendi, The Promised Day is Come (Wilmette, Ill.: Baha'i
Publishing Trust, 1967). Academic writing treating aspects of these tablets
includes E.G. Browne, "The Babis of Persia," Journal of the Royal Asiatic
Society 21 (1889):953-72 and "Some Remarks on the Babi Texts Edited by
Baron Victor Rosen," Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 24 (1892):283-318;
and Juan R.I. Cole, "Iranian Millenarianism and Democratic Thought in the
19th Century," International Journal of Middle East Studies 24 (1992): 1-26.