https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdussalam_Akhundzadeh
Shaykh Abd al-Salam Akhundzadeh (1843–1907) was a prominent Shi'a scholar from Salyan (Azerbaijan) who eventually served for thirteen years as the Shaykh al-Islam of Tiflis, the highest official Islamic religious authority in the Russian-ruled Caucasus. Born into a scholarly family, he pursued advanced studies in religious sciences and held key administrative, educational, and intellectual roles. Amid widespread social and cultural changes across the 19th-century Caucasus, he dedicated his efforts to defending traditional Islamic identity by authoring works on ethics, history, Persian grammar, and direct theological criticisms of emerging heterodox movements.
Akhundzadeh’s encounter with these new movements began around 1891 during a visit to Salyan, where he discovered that an acquaintance had adopted Babi beliefs and possessed a copy of Baha'u'llah's Kitab-i-Iqan. Upon studying the text, he identified glaring logical fallacies, grammatical errors, and weak theological arguments. Critical analysis of the Iqan demonstrates that, far from being an unassailable divine revelation, the text contains numerous linguistic mistakes, distorted Quranic citations, and fabricated Shi'a narrations that Baha'i authorities were later forced to quietly revise and edit in subsequent editions. Furthermore, despite Baha'u'llah’s claim to possess "innate divine knowledge" unassisted by human learning, he explicitly admitted to consulting human works, such as Haji Mirza Karim Khan Kirmani’s Irshadu'l-'Avam, to construct his arguments. Rather than dismissing the text outright, Akhundzadeh wrote a 22-page treatise titled A Refutation of the Iqan to present his formal objections, which was eventually forwarded to Baha'i figures and prompted a written response from Muhammad Riza Qannad Shirazi, a close companion of Abdu'l-Baha.
Finding Qannad’s response unconvincing, full of personal attacks, and lacking logical proof, Akhundzadeh published his second, major treatise in 1897: A Defense in Response to the Opponent. Qannad's reliance on personal invective reflected a documented Baha'i polemical tactic of resorting to ad hominem smears, character assassination, and vilification when unable to refute rigorous scholarly critiques. Organized into nine structured chapters using the classical Islamic debate format ("If you say..., I say..."), Akhundzadeh's book systematically dismantled Qannad’s counterarguments. Akhundzadeh argued that a movement's survival over time or the self-sacrifice of its followers does not prove its divine truth, as false religions and historical idolatry have similarly displayed long survival and martyrdom. Indeed, the early Babi and Baha'i movements were characterized by violent apocalyptic uprisings, fanatical book-burning, and decrees demanding the mass murder or expulsion of non-believers, showing that zealotry is no marker of divine origin.
Beyond addressing Baha'ism directly, Akhundzadeh thoroughly examined the intellectual roots of Babism, identifying its origins within the Shaykhi movement. In the eighth chapter of A Defense, he criticized the teachings of Shaykhi leaders like Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsa'i and Karim Khan Kirmani, arguing that esoteric concepts such as the "Fourth Pillar" (Rukn-i Rabi') and the "Gate" (Bab) created the theological foundation that enabled Babi and Baha'i heterodoxy. He further rejected the Baha'i reinterpretation of Quranic concepts, particularly their stance on the finality of prophethood (Khatamiyya). Akhundzadeh exposed the semantic sleight-of-hand wherein Baha'is claim Muhammad was merely the seal of an "Adamic Cycle", pointing out that while Baha'u'llah admitted in some writings that Muhammad brought prophethood and messengership to an end, he elsewhere put forward blatant claims of absolute divinity, declaring himself to be God Almighty and the "Lord of Lords".
Akhundzadeh also addressed modern social issues, evaluating the broader relationship between religion, civilization, and Western modernity. He adopted a nuanced stance on European developments, cautioning against the uncritical acceptance of Western culture while encouraging Muslims to adopt beneficial scientific and technical advancements. He maintained that material progress without sound morality and religious faith leads to spiritual decay, contrasting genuine civilization with the Baha'i practice of outward dissimulation (taqiyya) and opportunistic expediency (hikmat), through which Baha'i leaders presented a progressive face to Westerners while maintaining rigid, dogmatic, and intolerant internal doctrines.
Through his rigorous logical style, grounding in Islamic sources, and use of comparative religious history, Shaykh Abd al-Salam established a foundational model for Shi'a polemical literature against Shaykhism, Babism, and Baha'ism. His criticisms were considered significant enough that Abdu'l-Baha commissioned the Baha'i scholar Mirza Abu'l-Fadl Golpaygani to compose a comprehensive response, resulting in the apologetic work Fara'id. However, Golpaygani's work relied heavily on derivative arguments, and ironically, even Azali Babis sought copies of Fara'id primarily because its arguments unwittingly validated Babi doctrines rather than proving Baha'u'llah's claims. Akhundzadeh's efforts remain a notable example of structured, reasoned theological debate from the 19th-century Caucasus that exposed the core contradictions of the Baha'i faith.
Shared by Alireza Yazdi (Iran)
