The Dawn-breakers (book)

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The Dawn-breakers or Nabíl's Narrative is a historical account of the early Bábí and Bahá'í Faiths penned by Nabíl-i-A`zam.

Nabil himself was a participant in many of the scenes which he recounts. In 1888 Nabíl began writing The Dawn-breakers with the personal assistance of Mírzá Músá, the brother of Bahá'u'lláh. It was finished in about a year and a half, and parts of the manuscript were reviewed and approved, some by Bahá'u'lláh, and others by `Abdu'l-Bahá. Unfortunately, the version of his narrative that Nabil re-wrote on the basis of this review was stolen in the early twentieth century, and the partial English translation made by Shoghi Effendi was based upon the first, unreviewed draft.^{[citation needed]}

The work was first edited, partially translated into English and printed in 1932 by Shoghi Effendi, great grandson of Bahá'u'lláh and Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith. This heavily-edited translation covers roughly the first half of the original narrative. The original text has never been published in full, though there are Persian and Arabic translations of Shoghi Effendi's English version. The original manuscript, is held in the International Bahá'í Archives in Haifa, Israel. Despite repeated requests by researchers for access, the Bahá'í World Centre has not released the manuscript, maintaining that the current restrictions on access to it, and similar items in its archives, are a consequence of the fact that their preservation, classification and cataloging efforts are on-going. Significant portions of the original text were included, however, in the eight volumes of the Tarikh Zuhur al-Haqq, a history of the Bábí and Bahá'í religions which includes copious documentary material, written and compiled by the Iranian Bahá'í scholar Fazil Mazandarani in the late 1930s and early 1940s and digitally republished in the online library at H-Bahai.

[edit] See also

God Passes By

[edit] References

Nabíl-i-Zarandí [1890] (1932). in Shoghi Effendi (Translator): The Dawn-Breakers: Nabíl’s Narrative, Hardcover, Wilmette, Illinois, USA: Bahá'í Publishing Trust. ISBN 0-900125-22-5.