Baháʼí studies


The scholarly study of the Baháʼí Faith, its teachings, history and literature is currently conducted in a variety of venues, including institutes of the Baháʼí administration as well as non-affiliated universities. Some scholars study some aspect of the Baháʼí Faith as part of research on related matters while others engage in Baháʼí studies as a primary focus of their research. Scholars' comments on the religion and its predecessor Bábism date back to the at least 1845, the year after its founding. Initially, they were often Orientalists or Christian missionaries but through time both Baháʼís and non-Baháʼí researchers have addressed the religion especially in tune with the growth of the religion, which has been called significant.

Organizations

Baháʼí archives/collections

A number of collections of Baháʼí related materials are preserved around the world. Some are maintained at universities; the Baháʼí World Center, especially at the Centre for the Study of the Sacred Texts, the International Archives, and International Baháʼí Library, most National Baháʼí Assemblies and many local Baháʼí assemblies or institutions maintain their own archives.

Academic

A number of venues exist for publishing materials related to the Baháʼí Faith. Many national assemblies have their own publishing trust and there are a few publishing houses that run more or less independently. Among them are:
Starting with the antecedent Bábísm religion, as viewed by Baháʼís, scholarship on the religion began in its earliest days.
While there were previous Iran or near-Iranian sources of scholarship of the religion in early periods, wide-ranging publications covering mostly western literature include Moojan Momens' 1981 The Babi and Baha'i Religions, 1844–1944: Some Contemporary Western Accounts, William Collins' 1992 Bibliography of English-language works on the Bábí and Baháʼí faiths, 1844–1985, and MacEoin's annotated bibliography borrowing heavily from Collins' work. There is also the Resource Guide for the Scholarly Study of the Baháʼí Faith by Robert Stockman and Jonah Winters published in 1997, focusing more on later works. Mostly these works explicitly ignored newspaper accounts.

19th century

A wide variety of accounts, encounters and investigations began to circulate outside of Persia as events began to unfold from the Spring of 1844 with the Declaration of the Báb. Initially viewed as an Iranian development and often through Christian missionary perspectives, the growth of religion would soon far transcend that limited perspective.
Baháʼí scholars who are also members of the faith must submit their work for review by the Baháʼí administration and obtain prior approval. According to the administration of the religion, the purpose of the review is threefold:
Juan Cole, a former Baháʼí who had disagreements with the Baháʼí administration on account of the review describes it as "a system of in-house censorship" which "has provoked many conflicts between Baháʼí officials and writers over the years." There have been several conflicts originating from the practice of review, and a number of prominent academics, including Juan Cole, Denis MacEoin and Abbas Amanat, have either been excommunicated or forced to resign due to academic disagreements with the religious hierarchy. Denis MacEoin has said that the review has stifled research in Baháʼí studies. Moojan Momen, another academic in the field of Baháʼí Studies who has labeled Juan Cole and Denis MacEoin "apostates," disagrees and states that "there is no more 'censorship' involved in this process than with any other academic journal."