Hushmand Dehqan: Difference between revisions

 

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Dehghan was arrested in [[Gorgan]] in the fall of 2012 during a wave of arrests of Baha’is in Golestan Province.<ref>{{cite web|title=HOUSHMAND DEHGHAN|url=https://ipa.united4iran.org/en/prisoner/3028|publisher=United4Iran|access-date=2025-11-26}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Two Dozen Iranian Baha’is Sentenced to Six to Eleven Years for Practicing Their Faith|url=https://iranhumanrights.org/2016/02/24-bahais-in-golestan-long-prison-sentences/|publisher=Center for Human Rights in Iran|date=2 February 2016|access-date=2025-11-26}}</ref> He was initially sentenced to a total of six years in prison for his adherence to the Baha’i faith, on charges including “membership in an illegal Baha’i organization with the intent to undermine national security” and “propaganda against the regime.”<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.com/persian/iran/2016/01/160128_u01-bahais-golestan|title=صدور احکام طولانی مدت زندان برای ۲۴ بهایی در استان گلستان [Long-term Prison Sentences Issued for 24 Baháʼís in Golestan Province]|website=BBC Persian|date=28 January 2016|language=fa|access-date=2025-11-26}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Heavy Sentences Imposed on Baha’is of Gorgan, Gonbad-e Qabus and Minudasht|url=https://iranpresswatch.org/post/13957/heavy-sentences-imposed-on-bahais-of-gorgan-gonbad-e-qabus-and-minudasht/|publisher=Iran Press Watch|date=26 January 2016|access-date=2025-11-26}}</ref> This initial sentence was later reduced to one year in prison by the Court of Appeal in January 2016. He was subsequently re-arrested in June 2017 and transferred to Gorgan’s Amirabad Prison to serve his sentence.<ref>{{cite web|title=Several Baha’is Begin Prison Sentences in Golestan Province|url=https://iranpresswatch.org/post/17683/several-bahais-begin-prison-sentences-in-golestan-province/|publisher=Iran Press Watch|access-date=2025-11-26}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=WUNRN |title=Iran – 24 Individuals of Baha’i Faith Imprisoned Because of Their Religion – Women & Men |url=https://wunrn.com/2016/01/iran-24-individuals-of-bahai-faith-imprisoned-because-of-their-religion-women-men/ |access-date=2025-11-26 |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=2016-01-28 |title=Iran Jails 24 Baha’is |url=https://www.rferl.org/a/iran-24-baha-i-jailed-golestan/27517477.html |access-date=2025-11-26 |work=Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty |language=en}}</ref> and conditionally released from prison after having completed one-third of his sentence.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://iranbahaipersecution.bic.org/index.php/archive/hrana-four-bahai-citizens-were-released-golestan-province|title=HRANA: Four Bahai Citizens Were Released from Golestan Province|website=Iran Bahai Persecution|date=2021-01-26|access-date=2025-11-26}}</ref>

Dehghan was arrested in [[Gorgan]] in the fall of 2012 during a wave of arrests of Baha’is in Golestan Province.<ref>{{cite web|title=HOUSHMAND DEHGHAN|url=https://ipa.united4iran.org/en/prisoner/3028|publisher=United4Iran|access-date=2025-11-26}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Two Dozen Iranian Baha’is Sentenced to Six to Eleven Years for Practicing Their Faith|url=https://iranhumanrights.org/2016/02/24-bahais-in-golestan-long-prison-sentences/|publisher=Center for Human Rights in Iran|date=2 February 2016|access-date=2025-11-26}}</ref> He was initially sentenced to a total of six years in prison for his adherence to the Baha’i faith, on charges including “membership in an illegal Baha’i organization with the intent to undermine national security” and “propaganda against the regime.”<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.com/persian/iran/2016/01/160128_u01-bahais-golestan|title=صدور احکام طولانی مدت زندان برای ۲۴ بهایی در استان گلستان [Long-term Prison Sentences Issued for 24 Baháʼís in Golestan Province]|website=BBC Persian|date=28 January 2016|language=fa|access-date=2025-11-26}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Heavy Sentences Imposed on Baha’is of Gorgan, Gonbad-e Qabus and Minudasht|url=https://iranpresswatch.org/post/13957/heavy-sentences-imposed-on-bahais-of-gorgan-gonbad-e-qabus-and-minudasht/|publisher=Iran Press Watch|date=26 January 2016|access-date=2025-11-26}}</ref> This initial sentence was later reduced to one year in prison by the Court of Appeal in January 2016. He was subsequently re-arrested in June 2017 and transferred to Gorgan’s Amirabad Prison to serve his sentence.<ref>{{cite web|title=Several Baha’is Begin Prison Sentences in Golestan Province|url=https://iranpresswatch.org/post/17683/several-bahais-begin-prison-sentences-in-golestan-province/|publisher=Iran Press Watch|access-date=2025-11-26}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=WUNRN |title=Iran – 24 Individuals of Baha’i Faith Imprisoned Because of Their Religion – Women & Men |url=https://wunrn.com/2016/01/iran-24-individuals-of-bahai-faith-imprisoned-because-of-their-religion-women-men/ |access-date=2025-11-26 |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=2016-01-28 |title=Iran Jails 24 Baha’is |url=https://www.rferl.org/a/iran-24-baha-i-jailed-golestan/27517477.html |access-date=2025-11-26 |work=Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty |language=en}}</ref> and conditionally released from prison after having completed one-third of his sentence.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://iranbahaipersecution.bic.org/index.php/archive/hrana-four-bahai-citizens-were-released-golestan-province|title=HRANA: Four Bahai Citizens Were Released from Golestan Province|website=Iran Bahai Persecution|date=2021-01-26|access-date=2025-11-26}}</ref>

== Books ==

== Works cited ==

* {{Cite book |last=هوشمند |first=‏دهقان، |url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=UA7CAQAACAAJ&source=gbs_ViewAPI&redir_esc=y |title=‏گنج پنهان :‏: ‏سرگذشت و آثار حضرت قدوس /‏ |date=2016 |publisher=Intishārāt-i ʻĀdil |isbn=978-3-01-003131-8 |language=fa}}

{{cite book

| last = Dehghan

| first = Hooshmand

| author-link =

| title = Ganj-i penhan: Sargozasht va Āsār-i Haḍrat-i Quddūs

| trans-title = The Hidden Treasure: The Life and Works of Quddús

| publisher = Intishārāt-i ʻĀdil

| location = Germany

| year = 2016

| isbn = 978-3-01-003131-8

| language = fa

| script-title = fa:گنج پنهان: سرگذشت و آثار حضرت قدوس

}}

==Translations==

==Translations==

An Iranian Baháʼí historian

Hushmand Dehqan
Known for	Babi studies and Islamic mysticism
Discipline	Writer, Historian
Notable works	Ganj-i penhan (The Hidden Treasure: The Life and Works of Quddús)

Hooshmand Dehghan (also Hūshmand Dihqān) is a Baháʼí Iranian scholar noted for his research in Babi studies and Islamic mysticism (Sufism). His work, including the book Ganj-i penhan on the life of Quddús, has been significantly cited by academics such as Professor Boris Handal and acknowledged by scholars like Stephen Lambden. He is also known for being denied formal education in Iran due to his Baháʼí Faith and subsequent imprisonment for his religious beliefs.

Dehghan was denied formal education in Iran due to his Baháʼí Faith,^[1] Later in his career, he developed skills in translation through self-study.^[2] His first translation was a book about Mawlana (Rumi); however, the manuscript was never published. After completing the translation of the book, he realized that the author had simultaneously prepared a Persian version of the text alongside the English original.^[3]

Dehghan writes in two main areas. These areas are Babi studies and Islamic mysticism (Sufism).

His book, Ganj-i penhan, is about Babi studies and is cataloged by major reference libraries.^[4][5] This book is the first independent study about Quddús (Mullá Muḥammad ʻAlí-i-Bárfurúshi), a prominent disciple of the Báb.^[6]
Ganj-i-Penhan contains the life and works of Quddus. Some of Quddús’ works are published for the first time in this book. These works include a number of rare manuscripts of Quddús, which are compared in seven different manuscript and Arabic versions. In other words, it is in this section that Dehghan provides a critical edition of Quddús’s manuscripts.

One of these versions is a collection called آثار القدوسیه (Āthār al-Quddūsiyya), which includes ten manuscripts of Quddús that were transcribed by the early Bábís. Edward Granville Browne, the famous orientalist, had also found this collection in the British Museum, but as Dehghan argues, Brown had mistakenly identified the name of the collection as ابحار القدوسیه (” Abhār al-Quddūsiyya”). ^[10]
Dehghan also analytically and critically corrects several historical errors of the Bábí period for various reasons: He deeply doubts the authenticity of Mahdī Qulī Mīrzā, Nāṣer al-Dīn Shāh’s cousin’s letter to Quddús; He corrects and determines the exact year, month, and day of the change of the names of Bárfurúsh and Bábul based on reports in old newspapers;
Unlike Abbas Amanat, who estimates Quddus’s birth year as 1819,^[13] Dehghan determines the year 1822 based on historical evidence;
In some positions, Dehghan also challenges some of the historical conclusions found in Ẓuhūr al-Ḥaqq, a book by the notable Baháʼí historian, Fazel Mazandarani. This methodological rigor has been confirmed by Professor Boris Handal, a scholar of Bábí studies. Handal introduces Dehghan as a historical consultant (p. ix) and evaluates several aspects of his findings. Handal’s analysis shows that Dehghan has managed to fill in biographical gaps in The Hidden Treasure, providing details about Quddús’ family structure (p. 7), his intellectual background (pp. 24–25), and the route of his travels. Dehghan records key narratives such as Quddús’s debate with Karím Khán Kirmání (p. 88) and describes in detail his suffering in the final hours of his life, including an estimate of the 800 steps he walked on the way to lynching, and documenting Quddús’s psychological resilience in the face of public abuse and insults (pp. 327, 329).

Handal confirms that Dehghan’s inference that Quddús had frequent meetings with the Báb at Karbala is based on abundant historical evidence (pp. 27–28). At the same time, Dehghan’s work demonstrates the depth of his critical methodology in reconstructing Bábí history, particularly by drawing on the history of the photographic industry to decisively reject the authenticity of the image widely attributed to Quddús (p. 500). ^[16]

Dehghan wrote about Ibn Arabi and Mawlana (Rumi). In 2024, Dehqan wrote an academic article about Rumi in the Persian-language publication Aasoo, showing that Rumi, influenced by the culture and society of Konya, became a mystic poet. As Dehghan writes, Konya was a city very interested in poetry and music at that time. Rumi, according to Dehghan, combined poetry, music, and mysticism in his ghazals and the Masnavi. In this article, he showed that if Rumi had stayed in Balkh, he would not have composed poetry and would have remained a jurist.^[17]

Dehghan has also studied the Muslim mystic Ibn Arabi. He wrote extensive commentary and explanations on Ibn Arabi’s mystical school in a translation of one of William Chittick‘s books. His translation and explanations have received attention in academic journals. Fatemeh Aghaya, PhD in Shiite Sects, among others, compares Dehghan’s translation with several other translations of Chittick’s book and writes: Dehghan has included better research on Ibn Arabi’s terminology in his translation.^[18]

Stephen Lambden, a scholar at the University of California, Merced includes Dehghan in a list of notable Bahai historians. He writes, “Among Bahā’ī writers who wrote about the Bāb and his writings one should consult the often prolific literary output of (to be selective) Mirza Abū al-Faḍl Gulpayiganī […] Hasan Balyuzi; Alessandro Bausani; Denis MacEoin; Abbas Amanat; Moojan Momen […] Juan Cole […] Hooshmand Dehqan […].”^[19]

Lambden writes about Dehghan’s book, Ganj-i penhan: sargozasht va asar-i hazrat-i Quddus, “An important volume about the life and writings of Muhammad `Ali Barfurushi entitled Quddus.” He adds “it includes important Tablets [Sacred Writings], Ziyarat-Namah [Visitation Tablet] and other materials addressed by the Báb to this important 18th Huruf al-Hayy [the first eighteen disciples of the Báb].” ^[19]

Boris Handal, a professor of Educational Technologies at the University of Notre Dame Australia and researcher in Bábí and Baháʼí studies, cites Dehghan, 123 times in his own book, “Quddús: First in Rank”. Handal devotes several pages (pp. 26–28) of his book to discussing Dehqan’s historical views about Quddús.^[16]

Dehghan was arrested in Gorgan in the fall of 2012 during a wave of arrests of Baha’is in Golestan Province.^[20][21] He was initially sentenced to a total of six years in prison for his adherence to the Baha’i faith, on charges including “membership in an illegal Baha’i organization with the intent to undermine national security” and “propaganda against the regime.”^[22][23] This initial sentence was later reduced to one year in prison by the Court of Appeal in January 2016. He was subsequently re-arrested in June 2017 and transferred to Gorgan’s Amirabad Prison to serve his sentence.^[24][25][26] and conditionally released from prison after having completed one-third of his sentence.^[27]

Dehghan, Hooshmand (2016). Ganj-i penhan: Sargozasht va Āsār-i Haḍrat-i Quddūs گنج پنهان: سرگذشت و آثار حضرت قدوس [The Hidden Treasure: The Life and Works of Quddús] (in Persian). Germany: Intishārāt-i ʻĀdil. ISBN 978-3-01-003131-8.

در کافه اگزیستانسیالیستی At the Existentialist Café in Persian.^[28]

عالمگیر: کوید -۱۹ جهان را تکان میدهد “Pandemic! COVID-19 Shakes the World” in Persian. ^[29]