Wittgensteinian Language-Games in an Indo-Persian Dialogue on the World Religions

Abstract

Mirza Husayn ‘Ali Nuri (d. 1892), founder of the Baha’i religion in Iran and known to his followers as Baha’u’llah, responded in the late 1870s to questions about Hinduism (and Zoroastrianism) put to him by the Zoroastrian agent in Iran, Manakji Limji Hataria (1813-1890). Manakji’s questions about Hinduism are posed as a general problem of how to understand the varying doctrines and truth-claims of the great world religions, and this, too, is a question Nuri addresses here. I see a strong resemblance between Nuri’s way of speaking about the diverse theologies of previous religions and the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein’s conception of “language games.” These questions and Nuri’s replies are contained in a letter sent to one of Nuri’s major disciples, Mirza Abu’l-Fadl Gulpaygani (1844-1914). The subjects discussed center on comparative religions, and Manakji repeatedly outlines what he understands to be Hindu doctrines and asks for Nuri’s responses to them. I should say at the outset that these responses tended to be oblique, with much remaining implicit, but that they do clearly constitute a dialogue of Nuri with Hinduism, as well as with the other traditions covered. Here I am most interested in the former. The letter to Mirza Abu’l-Fadl, containing asides by Nuri’s scribe, Mirza Aqa Jan Khadimu’llah, was printed in volume seven of the anthology, The Heavenly Repast (Ma’idih-’i Asmani) in 1972 or 1973 by the Iranian Baha’i scholar, ‘Abdu’l-Hamid Ishraq-Khavari. The tablet brings to the fore questions of what Nuri means by the unity of the world religions, and how he approaches this subject theologically and philosophically.