Bahá'í Faith in Turkmenistan

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The Bahá'í Faith in Turkmenistan begins before Russian advances into the region when the area was under the influence of Persia.[1] By 1887 a community of Bahá'í refugees from religious violence in Persia had made a religious center in Ashgabat.[1] Shortly afterwards — by 1894 — Russia made Turkmenistan part of the Russian Empire.[2] While the Bahá'í Faith spread across the Russian Empire[3][2] and attracted the attention of scholars and artists,[4] the Bahá'í community in Ashgabat built the first Bahá'í House of Worship, elected one of the first Bahá'í local administrative institutions and was a center of scholarship. However during the Soviet period religious persecution made the Bahá'í community almost disappear - however Bahá'ís who moved into the regions in the 1950s did identify individuals still adhering to the religion. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in late 1991, Bahá'í communities and their administrative bodies started to develop across the nations of the former Soviet Union;[5] In 1994 Turkmenistan elected its own National Spiritual Assembly[6] however laws passed in 1995 in Turkmenistan required 500 adult religious adherents in each locality for registration and no Bahá'í community in Turkmenistan could meet this requirement.[7] As of 2007 the religion had still failed to reach the minimum number of adherents to register[8] and individuals have had their homes raided for Bahá'í literature.[9]

Contents

[edit] History in the region

[edit] Community of Ashgabat

The Bahá'í community of Ashgabat (also spelled `Ishqábád, Ashkhabad) was founded in about 1884, mostly from religious refugees from Persia.[10] One of the most prominent members of the community was Mirza Abu'l-Fadl Gulpaygani, an Apostle of Bahá'u'lláh, who lived in Ashgabat off and on from 1889 to 1894. A short time after moving there, the assassination of one of the Bahá'ís there, Haji Muhammad Rida Isfahani occurred and Gulpaygani helped the Bahá'í community to respond to this event and later he was the spokesman for the Bahá'ís at the trial of the assassins. This event established the independence of the Bahá'í Faith from Islam both for the Russian government and for the people of Ashgabat.[11] Under the protection and freedom given by the Russian authorities, the number of Bahá'ís in the community rose to 4,000 (1,000 children) by 1918 and for the first time anywhere in the world a true Bahá'í community was established, with its own schools, medical facilities, cemetery, and House of Worship. The city population was between 44 and 50 thousand at this time.[10]

This first Bahá'í House of Worship was constructed inside the city of Ashgabat. The design of the building was started in 1902, and the construction was completed in 1908 and was supervised by Vakílu'd-Dawlih,[12] another Apostle of Bahá'u'lláh. The House of Worship in Ashgabat has been the only Bahá'í House of Worship thus far to have the humanitarian subsidiaries associated with the institution built along side it.[13]

[edit] Community of Merv

The city of Merv (also spelled Marv, Mary) also had a Bahá'í community, while it was far smaller and less developed. The Bahá'í community in the city also received permission to build a House of Worship which they succeeded on a smaller scale.[1]

[edit] Soviet period

By the time the effects of the October Revolution began to spread across the Russian Empire transforming it into the Soviet Union, Bahá'ís had spread east through Central Asia and Caucasus, and also north into Moscow, Leningrad and Kazan with the community of Ashgabat alone numbering about 3000 adults. After the October Revolution the Ashgabat Bahá'í community was progressively severed from the rest of the worldwide Bahá'í community. The Bahá'í House of Worship was expropriated by the Soviet authorities in 1928 and leased back to the Bahá'ís until 1938 when it was fully secularized by the communist government and turned into an art gallery. A 1948 earthquake seriously damaged the building and rendered it unsafe; the heavy rains of the following years weakened the structure, and it was demolished in 1963 and the site converted into a public park.[12] With the Soviet ban on religion, the Bahá'ís, strictly adhering to their principle of obedience to legal government, abandoned its administration and its properties were nationalized.[14] By 1938, after numerous arrests and an policy of religious oppression, most Bahá'ís were sent to prisons and camps or sent abroad; Bahá'í communities in 38 cities ceased to exist. In 1953 Bahá'ís started to move to the Soviet Republics in Asia, after the head of the religion at the time, Shoghi Effendi, initiated a plan called the Ten Year Crusade. The Bahá'ís who moved to Turkmenistan found some individual Bahá'ís still living there though the religion remained unorganized.[2][15] During the 1978-9 civil war in Afghanistan some Bahá'ís fled to Turkmenistan.[16]

Map of Turkmenistan
Map of Turkmenistan

The first Bahá'í Local Spiritual Assembly in the Soviet Union was elected in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, when conditions permitted it in 1989; sixty-one Bahá'ís were listed as eligible for election. The Local Spiritual Assembly of Ashgabat was officially registered by the city council of Ashgabat on 31 January 1990. Through the rest of 1990 several Local Spiritual Assemblies formed across the Soviet Union including Moscow, Ulan-Ude, Kazan, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Leningrad, and Murmansk.[5] In September 1990 twenty-six Baha'is gathered together for the election of the first Local Spiritual Assembly of Merv.[1] By September 1991, there were some eight hundred known Baha'is and twenty-three Local Spiritual Assemblies across the dissolving Soviet Union,[2] while in Turkmenistan there were about 125 Bahá'ís with two Local Assemblies and two groups (in Balakhanih and Bayranali). When the National Spiritual Assembly of the Soviet Union was dissolved in 1992, a regional National Spiritual Assembly for the whole of Central Asia (Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Kirgizia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan) was formed with its seat in Ashgabat. Most of these countries went on to form their own National Spiritual Assembly,[1] and their communities went on to flourish (see Bahá'í Faith in Kazakhstan.)

[edit] Banned community

Though the Bahá'í community of Ashgabat was the first to re-form its Local Spiritual Assembly following the oppressive decades of Soviet rule, and had doubled it's numbers from 1989 to 1991, and had successfully registered with the city government of Ashgabat, the nation of Turkmenistan revised it's religious registration laws such that in 1995, 500 adult religious adherent citizens were required in each locality in order for a religious community to be registered.[7] Thus by 1997 the Bahá'ís were unregistered by the government along with several other religious communities,[17] and more than just being unable to form administrative institutions, own properties like temples, and publish literature, perform scholarly work and community service projects - their membership in a religion is simply unrecognized, the religion is considered banned,[18] and homes are raided for Bahá'í literature.[9] As of 2007, under these harsh conditions, the Bahá'í community in Turkmenistan has still been unable to reach the required number of adult believers to be recognized by the government as a religion.[8]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d e Momen, Moojan. Turkmenistan. Draft for "A Short Encyclopedia of the Bahá'í Faith". Bahá'í Academics Resource Library. Retrieved on 2008-05-23.
  2. ^ a b c d Momen, Moojan. Russia. Draft for "A Short Encyclopedia of the Bahá'í Faith". Bahá'í Academics Resource Library. Retrieved on 2008-04-14.
  3. ^ Statement on the history of the Bahá'í Faith in Soviet Union. Official Website of the Bahá'ís of Kyiv. Local Spiritual Assembly of Kyiv (2007-8). Retrieved on 2008-04-19.
  4. ^ Smith, Peter (2000). "Tolstoy, Leo". A concise encyclopedia of the Bahá'í Faith. Oxford: Oneworld Publications. p. 340. ISBN 1851681841. 
  5. ^ a b Hassall, Graham & Fazel, Seena, “100 Years of the Bahá'í Faith in Europe”, Bahá’í Studies Review 1998 (8): pp. 35-44, <http://bahai-library.com/asia-pacific/Europe.htm> 
  6. ^ Hassall, Graham; Universal House of Justice. National Spiritual Assemblies statistics 1923-1999. Assorted Resource Tools. Bahá'í Academics Resource Library. Retrieved on 2008-04-02.
  7. ^ a b compiled by Wagner, Ralph D.. Turkmenistan. Synopsis of References to the Bahá'í Faith, in the US State Department's Reports on Human Rights 1991-2000. Bahá'í Academics Resource Library. Retrieved on 2008-05-25.
  8. ^ a b Turkmenistan - International Religious Freedom Report 2007. The Office of Electronic Information, Bureau of Public Affair (2007-09-14). Retrieved on 2008-05-21.
  9. ^ a b Corley, Felix (2004-04-01), “TURKMENISTAN: Religious communities theoretically permitted, but attacked in practice?”, F18News, <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=293> 
  10. ^ a b Momen, Moojan; ed. Shirin Akiner (1991). Cultural Change and Continuity in Central Asia, Chapter - The Bahá'í Community of Ashkhabad; it's social basis and importance in Bahá'í History. London: Kegan Paul International, pp. 278-305.. ISBN 0710303513. 
  11. ^ Momen, Moojan. Abu'l-Fadl Gulpaygani, Mirza. Draft for "A Short Encyclopedia of the Bahá'í Faith". Scholar's Official Website of Articles. Retrieved on 2008-05-23.
  12. ^ a b Rafati, V.; Sahba, F. (1989). "Bahai temples". Encyclopædia Iranica.  
  13. ^ Baha'i House of Worship - Ashkabad, Central Asia. The National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the United States (2007). Retrieved on 2007-08-03.
  14. ^ Effendi, Shoghi (1936-03-11). The World Order of Bahá'u'lláh. Haifa, Palestine: US Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1991 first pocket-size edition, pp. 64-67. 
  15. ^ Effendi, Shoghi (collected letters from 1947-57). Citadel of Faith. Haifa, Palestine: US Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1980 third printing, p. 107. 
  16. ^ Bahá'í Faith in Afghanistan… A short History of Afghan Bahá'ís.. Official Website of the Bahá'ís of Afghanistan. National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Afghanistan (2008). Retrieved on 2008-05-25.
  17. ^ "TURKMENISTAN - Harassment and imprisonment of religious believers", › Home› Library› Document, Amnesty International, 2000-03-24. Retrieved on 2008-05-25. (English) 
  18. ^ Corley, Felix (2004-04-07), “TURKMENISTAN: Religious freedom survey, April 2004”, F18News, <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=296> 

[edit] External links

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