War and Peace in Qajar Persia: Implications Past and ... - Oguzlar.az

186 Ali GheissariFurthermore, “as of late, which is the Dhul-Hijja of 1329 ah [Novemberor December 1911], from Rasht [the Russians] have brought in manytroops, [they] have sent some to Qazvin, and have kept some here [inTabriz] – it is for two weeks now that the bazaar has been closed andpeople are confused. ...Out of desperation and in disarray I have beenstuck in the house...and once more I thought that too much worry wouldharm me, so I kept myself busy again with the writing of this history.” 16Although Hajj Mohammad-Taqi wrote under stress and anxiety, the text ofthe Memoirs has a certain flow and ease in style. At times it reflects the author’sambivalence regarding political events or over business issues and decisions,but it also shows that he remained on solid ground with respect to mattersof faith, commitment to trade, and the sense of duty towards himself and hisfamily. All distractions and occasional doubts notwithstanding, in his mindhe was sufficiently organized to devote at the outset a good deal of space tocommon statements of faith and creed and a number of popular faith-basedobservations on the actual and potential capacity of the human mind to graspDivine knowledge; deducing from them a kind of moral theory of knowledge.Accordingly, although human mind is limited in attaining full knowledge ofreality, moral imperatives as directed by faith keep man on the right path –a deduction through which the author also arrives at a teleological certitudeand functional, rather than meditative, view on the meaning of being. Hefurther discussed the family as a necessary institution, the significance of procreation,and the special status of parents and one’s duties towards them. Severalpages are devoted to various aspects of such theological and moral points,written in the spirit of faith and practical devotion. 17 Hajj Mohammad-Taqistated that in appreciation to Divine attributes there are centres and peripheries,and also there is a hierarchy which encompasses animate and inanimateworlds; hence, he observes great difference and diversity within each categoryof being – both in terms of quality and in form. Accordingly, we do not fullyknow the details and specifics of such differences, but certainly there mustbe a hierarchical ladder – for instance, among stones, which differentiatesgems from ordinary rocks. The same hierarchy also applies to the world ofhumans – no matter how much man prays, or submits to the Will of God,he will not be equal to a prophet who was directly appointed by God. 18 Theconclusion of his argument is that God’s purpose in creating man was forman to continuously strive to know God.Hajj Mohammad-Taqi then embarks on summarizing the biblical narrativeon the genealogy of the human race, and goes on to specifically highlightits moral significance. From Adam and Eve, Abel and Cain were born.After Cain slew Abel, chaos prevailed. In response to Adam’s mourning forAbel, God created Sheith (Shem) and Yafeth (Japheth), and designated aHouri for Sheith to marry, and a Jinn for Yafeth – who, respectively, representedgood and bad attributes in the moral make-up of humanity. Subsequently,the human race proliferated and settled in different parts of the earth