Selected Publications

Works written by or edited by Professor Vahman, including monographs and book chapters.

Listen and Judge

An audiobook in four parts on the subject of Kasravi and the Baha'i Faith.

Written and presented in Persian.

Listen here.

Abdu'l-Baha, the Son of Persia

This book aims to illustrate the living relationship between the history of the Baha'i Faith and the enduring historical narrative of Iran. It underscores the significant influence of this religion on Iran's intellectual landscape, spanning the last 180 years, with a particular focus on its pivotal role during the Constitutional Revolution of 1905. The book also looks at how the Baha'i Faith has endured hostility from its very inception, in its birthplace, Iran, and its modernizing influence has been expunged from historical accounts.

Throughout his leadership of the Baha'i community, for thirty years, spanning from 1892 to 1921, Abdu'l-Baha played a pivotal role in introducing thousands of Iranians to the teachings of his father, Baha’ullah. Despite his involuntary exile in the Ottoman Empire, he tirelessly conveyed these teachings through numerous letters sent to Iran, and encouraged fellow Baha'is to share these teachings with their compatriots. As a result, well before the Constitutional Revolution, Baha'i teachings began to permeate Iranian society, reaching even the most remote and isolated villages. These teachings eventually reached beyond Iran's borders, spreading to Central Asia, the Caucasus, Europe, and America during Abdu'l-Baha's lifetime.

Abdu'l-Baha's words and writings commemorated the human spirit and the unity of mankind. His teachings encompassed a range of important principles, such as gender equality, compulsory education, especially for girls, the fundamental values of freedom of belief and conscience, the significance of harmonizing religion with science and reason, the promotion of racial equality, advocacy for democracy and parliamentary systems, the separation of religion from politics and government, the pursuit of universal peace, disarmament, and similar core ideals.

This book serves as a valuable resource for anyone interested in the history and destiny of Iran, and understanding how the Iranian people, who initiated the Constitutional Revolution a century ago, ended up with the Islamic Republic today.

Written in Persian.

Read more here.

The Bab and the Babi Community of Iran

In 1844, a young merchant from Shiraz called Sayyid ‘Ali-Muhammad declared himself the ‘gate' (the Báb) to the Truth and, shortly afterwards, the initiator of a new prophetic cycle. His messianic call attracted a significant following across Iran and Iraq. Regarded as a threat by state and religious authorities, the Bábís were subject to intense persecution and the Báb himself was executed in 1850.

In this volume, leading scholars of Islam, Bahá'í studies, and Iranian history come together to examine the life and legacy of the Báb, from his childhood to the founding of the Baha'i Faith and beyond. Among other subjects, they cover the Báb's writings, his Qur'an commentaries, the societal conditions that underlay the Babi upheavals, the works of Bábi martyr Tahirih Qurratu'l-‘Ayn, and Orientalist Edward Granville Browne's encounters with Bábí and Bahá'í texts.

Written in English.

Read more here.

Bab and the Babi Community of Iran 1819-2019

This book contains ten chapters each written by a scholar in this field - including Mojan Momen, Fereydun Vahman, and Nader Saeedi - compiled and edited by Dr. Fereydun Vahman. The book reveals the emergence of a new religion in nineteenth century Iran and its revolutionary teachings that, with the passion and sacrifice of its adherents, gradually penetrated Iranian society. Despite more than one and a half centuries of violent persecution, this religion not only continued to exist but also transformed and spread beyond the borders of Iran in the form of the Bahá’í Faith.

The importance of this unique work cannot be overstated. Firstly, because it is a lasting tribute of our generation to the Báb’s bicentenary birth, and secondly because of its original and novel contents on the Báb and the Bábí community of Iran.

Written in Persian.

Read more here.

175 Years of Persecution

For almost two centuries, followers of the Baha'i Faith, Iran's largest religious minority, have been persecuted by the state. They have been made scapegoats for the nation's ills, branded enemies of Islam and denounced as foreign agents. Since the Islamic Revolution of 1979 Baha'is have been barred from entering the nation's universities, more than two hundred have been executed, and hundreds more imprisoned and tortured.

Now, however, Iran is at a turning point. A new generation has begun to question how the Baha'is have been portrayed by the government and the clergy, and called for them to be given equal rights as fellow citizens. In documenting, for the first time, the plight of this religious community in Iran since its inception, Fereydun Vahman also reveals the greater plight of a nation aspiring to develop a modern identity built on respect for diversity rather than hatred and self-deception.

Written in English.

Read more here.

160 Years of Persecution of the Bahá'ís of Iran

For almost two centuries, followers of the Baha'i faith, Iran's largest religious minority, have been persecuted by the state. They have been made scapegoats for the nation's ills, branded enemies of Islam and denounced as foreign agents. Since the Islamic Revolution of 1979 Baha'is have been barred from entering the nation's universities, more than two hundred have been executed, and hundreds more imprisoned and tortured.

Written in Persian.

Read more here.

Forgotten Schools: Baha'is and Modern Education in Iran 1899 -1934

At the end of the Qajar era, Baha'is established modern schools. The fame of these schools became so widespread that families from different religious and class backgrounds sent their children to study there. The author of this rare research work tries to answer three basic questions by examining the origin, development and closure of these schools: Why did the religious Muzaffaruddin Shah allow the Baha'is to open the first Baha'i school to everyone? Why did the secular Reza Shah, some of whose children studied in Baha'i schools, close these schools? What was the role of Baha'i schools in the creation and expansion of Iran's modern educational system?

Written in Persian.

Read more here.