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User:Penultimate supper/Sandbox Maneckji Limji Hataria

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Maneckji Limji Hataria

Maneckji Limji Hataria (1813–1890), was an Indian Parsi-Zoroastrian scholar and civil rights activist, who took up the cause of the Zoroastrians of Iran. Through his work was an community organizer and advocate in Iran, Hataria founded the first Anjoman-i- Zartoštīān (Society of Zoroastrians) in Iran; anjomans of this sort would go on to become a popular form of civic organization among Zoroastrians and other Iranians. Hataria is referred to as Mānekǰī Ṣāḥeb in Persian sources, and was given the local Sufi honorific of Darvīš-e Fānī by residents of Kerman[1].

Biography

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Early Life

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Hataria was born at the village of Mora Sumali near Surat, in Gujarat, India in 1813; and as he himself tells, earned his own bread from the age of fifteen, traveling widely as a commercial agent in India and Afgahanistan[2]. He came to be known as a successful and self-reliant businessman, and was well regarded among the Parsis of India for his devotion to his Zoroastrian faith and his mastery of Persian language and literature [3].

Society for the Amelioration of the Conditions of the Zoroastrians in Persia

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"Parsis of Bombay" with traditional Parsi hats, a wood engraving, ca. 1878

Parsis are an ethnoreligious group who migrated to the Indian subcontinent from Persia during the Muslim conquest of Persia of 633–654 CE. Zoroastrianism is the ethnic religion of the Parsi people. According to the Qissa-i Sanjan, Parsis migrated from the Sasanian Empire to Gujarat, where they were given refuge between the 8th and 10th centuries CE to escape persecution following the Muslim conquests.

In the 1830s, the Parsi residents of India's major cities lived in relative freedom and prosperity. Among them, the deteriorating conditions of Zoroastrians in Iran—the religion's birthplace—had long been a source of concern. Economic pressures, combined with the oppressive policies of the ulama and the Qajars had forced many of Iran's Zoroastrians into poverty, caused the deterioration of streams of religious knowledge transmission, and driven an increasing number of conversions to Islam.

Starting in 1834, charitable funds collected by eminent Parsis in Bombay had been sent to Yazd under the leadership of Burjorji Framji Panday, but the lack of clear channels of communication and trustworthy intermediaries made it difficult to guarantee they reached their destination, and a sustained flow of funds was not established. Panday also assisted a number of Persians to emigrate to Bombay and settle among the Parsis—becoming known as the Iranis—but similar difficulties prevented this effort from assisting large number of émigrés. The situation had become so dire for Iranian Zoroastrians that a contemporary issue of a European journal of Oriental studies even included a plea that "the opulent Parsis of Bombay [...] send a mission of inquiring to their brethren in Yazd and Kirman[4]."

In 1854 Panday's younger brother Meherwanji, assisted by other prominent Parsis of Bombay, including Dinshaw Maneckji Petit and Kharshedji Rustomji Cama, founded The Society for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Zoroastrians of Persia, which aimed to elevate the social and economic conditions of Zoroastrian in Iran, then suffering under the persecution of the Qajar regime[5]. Specifically the Society would work for to petition the government to remove the requirement that Zoroastrians pay the jizya, and to lift the ban on Zoroastrians traveling beyond their hometown.

Actively engaged in a the ongoing discourses of the Parsi community, Hataria developed a desire to visit Iran, but had long been prevented from doing so by concerns regarding the safety of Zoroastrian travelers. When changes in the political conditions of Iran seemed to herald the possibility of safe travel, Hataria obtained documents from the British government of Bombay which recommended that British officers in Tehran and Bushihr welcome and assist him. Hearing of his plans, the Society appointed Hataria—largely on the strength of his prior experience traveling for commercial purposes—as the society's first emissary[6]. It was hoped that his British citizenship would offer him some measures of protection in his travels[7].

Travel to Iran

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Zoroastrian Eternal Flame at the Fire Temple in Yazd, Central Iran

In the course of his travel to Persia, Hataria met with Baháʼu'lláh—then a prominent Bábí, later the prophet-founder of the Baháʼí Faith—in Baghdad. This meeting initiated a pattern of correspondence between the two which would continue for many years, as would ongoing contact between Hataria and other Parsi agents with members of the nascent Bahá'í community of Iran[8]. Some of the correspondence between Hataria and Bahá'u'lláh is preserved in a compilation of Bahá'í sacred texts entitled Tabernacle of Unity.

In Yazd, Hataria established a Council of Zoroastrians, which succeeded in convincing a number of Iranian Zoroastrians to emigrate to India (where they are today known as Parsis). Hataria may also have been instrumental in obtaining a remission of the jizya poll tax for his co-religionists in 1882.

Manekji preached the advantages of collective social work and communal unity. He urged the Zoroastrians of Yazd and Kerman to form anjuman societies, based somewhat on the pattern of the Bombay Parsi . Reports of early activities, sent by Manekji to Bombay, show that amongst other matters, the Kerman society attended to the restoration of the fire temple there. Similarly, hearing of the efforts of Manekji, the Bombay Parsis (led by Sir Dinshaw Petit, whose wife Sakarbai was from her mother's side of Iranian ancestry) collected funds for the repair of the Yazd Atash Behram (since demolished, and rebuilt in 1932). A bust of Manekji stands in the entrance gallery of the present-day Atash Behram at Yazd.

Legacy

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Zoroastrians in Iran

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Associations with literary figures of Iran

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Maneckji Limji Hataria was the first envoy of Indian Parsis with the history of being interested in Iran and ancient relics of Iran as well as being affected by Neo Zoroastrian or Dasatiri text entered Iran. Despite his first mission was ameliorating the situation of Zoroastrian lives in Iran, but because of the reasons which were mentioned, a little later he was linked to the scholars and writers of Iran in the Nasseri era.[9] he corresponded with Gobineau (see Boyce)

Bahá'í Faith

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confirms some things about manikji comissioning a history https://bahai-library.com/bahaullah_cole_questions_manakji

Notes & Citations

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  1. ^ Boyce 1969, p. 30.
  2. ^ Eduljee 2017a, p. 3.
  3. ^ Ošīdarī 1974, pp. 441–442, cited in Kasheff 2012
  4. ^ Ringer 2009, pp. 551–552, and Wilson, J in 1848 issue of the Oriental Christian Spectator quoted in Ringer.
  5. ^ Eduljee 2017c.
  6. ^ Boyce 1969, p. 23.
  7. ^ Ringer 2009, p. 553.
  8. ^ Maneck 1984, p. 70.
  9. ^ Hajianpour 2017.

References & Further Reading

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  • Autobiographical
    • Hataria, Manekji Limji (1865). "A Parsi Mission to Iran". Archived from the original on 26 September 2007. Retrieved 22 August 2006. (An English language translation of Hataria's own report)
  • Biographical
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