A scientist, a writer, a philosopher, an explorer and an
educator, Professor Lessona stands out - with a stature that towers above that
of many a well-known scientist - as one of the foremost thinkers of the
nineteenth century.
He was born September 20, 1823, in Venaria Reale, a suburb
of Turin. His father, Dr. Carlo Lessona, was at the time the director of the
well-known veterinary school of Venaria, and this fact might explain the boy's
early interest in scientific study. In 1846 Michele Lessona obtained a degree
of medicine and surgery from the Royal University of Turin. Immediately after
graduation he went to Egypt and, although rather young, was appointed Chief of
the Khan Kah Hospital in Cairo.
In 1849 he returned to Italy and became an instructor in
Natural History, first in Asti and then in Turin. In 1854, at the age of 31, he
was appointed Professor of Mineralogy and Zoology at the Royal University of
Genoa. In 1864, after his return from Persia, he taught first at the University
of Bologna and then at the University of Turin. Here he occupied in 1865 the
Chairs of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy, becoming in 1877 the Rector of that
University.
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| Professor Michele Lessona |
In 1892 King Humbert of Italy made him a Senator for life, a
well-deserved recompense for his patriotism, leadership and learning. He passed
away, amidst universal sorrow, on July 20, 1894, in his beloved Turin.
In 1862 Professor Lessona had been appointed physician to
the diplomatic delegation that went to Persia at that time to establish
relations between the newly created Kingdom of Italy and the government of
Nasird-Din Shah. Immediately on his arrival in Tabriz, he met a Persian of high
lineage, Daud Khan who, having lived for many years in Italy spoke Italian
perfectly. From this gentleman Lessona learned of the Bábí movement, and he
became fascinated with the life of the Báb and His heroic ministry. When
opportunity permitted, he tried to visit places connected with the history of
the Báb, and he had the opportunity to converse, many times and at length, with
Count de Gobineau, the French ambassador to the court of the Shah. When he
returned to Italy Professor Lessona wrote a book ‘Hunting in Persia’ and a
precious little monograph of sixty-six pages entitled ‘I Babi’.
Fernando Morosi, a Baha'i of Rome and a book dealer by
profession, recently found a copy of this book, which was immediately
dispatched to Haifa and is now in the custody of Shoghi Effendi. It represents
one of the very first documentations, made by an European, of the episode of
the Báb.
The little book was printed in 1881 by the Royal Typographer
Vincenzo Bona of Turin and contains a good narrative of the life of the Báb and
other personal considerations of the author concerning the Bábí movement. Some
of the episodes he relates differ slightly from the accounts in the well-known
histories by Browne, de Gobineau, and Nabil-i-Zarandi. [1] There are, however,
other parts of the book which I would like to bring to the attention of the
reader.
After presenting his informant, Daud Khan, the author
comments: "Religious discussions are of comfort to the misfortunate who
are oppressed by tyranny and always stripped, or about to be stripped, of
everything they own."
Presenting the figure of the Báb, he says:
"Forty years ago, in the city of Shiraz, there left
childhood and entered puberty a youth that for his singular potency of
intellect, for his extraordinary application to study, his profound religious
tendencies, his loving nature, for his energy of character, grace of body and
beauty of countenance, awakened admiration and affection in everyone who had
occasion to deal with him, and captivated all the love of his teachers and
relatives. The name of this youth was Mirza 'Ali-Muhammad. It was said later that
his family was of the high nobility, one of those descending from the Prophet
by way of the Imam Husayn . . . It is certain that his family was wealthy and
that he was encouraged in every manner in his most ardent desire to learn.
Mirza 'Ali-Muhammad showed ardor similarly in religious practices..."
"He would converse with the Rabbis of Shiraz. He would investigate the
doctrine of the Gabras [2] … It is also certain that he studied the Gospels, a
rather easy matter, thanks to the volumes of the Bible and the Gospel
translated into the Persian language which the British disseminated in all of
Persia . . . A bad translation in poor style, without the imagination and the
floweriness of these sacred books."
"The present Shah, Nasiri'd-Din, sometimes during his
luncheon requests the reading of the Bible in Persian and sometimes he laughs,
and then the courtiers burst into a clamorous laughter and for a few days they
speak only of that verse, or word, which has provoked the hilarity of the
sovereign."
Speaking of the clergy, Lessona observes: "The clergy
of Persia is extremely corrupt; at the same time it administers religion and
justice - the first badly, the second worse; it falsifies wills, defrauds of
possessions, sells justice, practices usury and indulges in debauchery… The
powerful ones are in fear of it, the lowly scoff at it, the masses despise and
exploit it, ready to deride and ridicule it or to rise up at its call to
revolt. Every mosque has a larger or smaller number of beggars who live off
scant charity and become instruments of violence, plunder and death in the
hands of the priests."
Professor Lessona then speaks of Dr. Polak [3] who, at the
time, was physician to the Shah and who wrote books of medicine in Persian.
Relating in detail the history of the Bábís, he mentions the eighteen Letters
of the Living [4] of one of whom, Mulla Husayn, he writes: "He was a very
learned man, both in religion and jurisprudence: daring, austere and
fiery."
Returning to the beginning of the ministry of the Báb, he
says:
"... His style was imaginative and sublime, not like
anything human; thus to his quality of a most eloquent orator he added that of
an inimitable writer. And while he preached, discussed and taught in the
mosques, in the colleges, in the streets, in his house, everywhere they were
reading aloud his verses, often interrupting with cries of the most ardent
admiration. In all of Shiraz they did not speak of anything else but the Báb,
everyone was filled with enthusiasm for him . . . The house of the Báb was
crowded, night and day, with new converts to his faith; to him came men rich in
possessions, men of intellect and energy, and among the very first many mullas
enrolled under his banner."
The author speaks of Qurratu'I-'Ayn [5] and the siege of Tabarsi,
[6] and, having visited Zanjan [7] he states: "I visited that city ten
years after the happenings I have related, and I still found frightening traces
of the devastation which had taken place."
Referring to the difficulty of securing more information on
the Bábí movement, he adds:
"... In Persia it is impossible to speak of the Bábís
or to learn something about their affairs. The terror which this name awakens
is such that no one dares to speak, or even think, of it. The Italians whom I
found in Tihran, and who proved extremely kind in every way, wanted to tell me
little or nothing about the Bábís, or were unable to do so; the same was true
of Europeans of other nationality in Tihran, Tabriz or Rasht. Nicolas, [8] with
whom I made the long journey from Tihran to St. Petersburg, started to speak to
me about them only after we passed the Persian frontier . . . Count de
Gobineau, in the village of Gezer near Tihran, would narrate to me episodes
about this sect, making the hours of the evening pass as lightning while he
wrote its history and read to me some chapters . . . Gathering material for the
history of the Báb, which he was doing at the time, was fraught with danger in
the heart of Persia, even for a Minister of the French Emperor..."
Referring to Vambery's critical comments on the episode of
Shaykh Tabarsi, [9] Lessona states: "... this judgment is entirely unjust
and a thousand miles from the truth, if we want to apply it to the precepts of
the Báb . . . These precepts are in a symbolical language and, amidst mystic
formulas, we found the sweet doctrines of the Báb, respectful of the past but
made to contrast with formalism and to make the spirit of goodness prevail...
The Báb and Qurratu'l-'Ayn were purified from any thought of violence and their
lives were filled with love for their fellow men and with enthusiasm for the
Faith...
"A new Báb, successor to the first, lives in Baghdad,
outside the government of the Shah. From there he is in touch with all Persia
and has disseminated Bábísm in all those provinces and even in the Indies of
the Orient."
This correspondent was thrilled in reading these words,
because of all the early European historians of the Faith Michele Lessona makes
a direct and unmistakable reference to Baha’u’llah, Who the following year in
Baghdad made His Declaration in the Ridvan.
The author ends his monograph by putting before the reader
the question whether the Bábí doctrine would survive and propagate. Wisely he
answers it himself by quoting one of Manzoni's verses: "To posterity the
arduous judgment!"
The great friendship born in Persia between Lessona and
Count de Gobineau had its strange epilogue in Turin. After the fall of the
French Empire, de Gobineau, exiled from his native France, spent part of the
year in Italy and part in Germany.
On the evening of October 12, 1882, a distinguished looking
and elegantly dressed gentleman, on his way to Pisa, became ill in a hotel bus
in Turin. He was taken to the Hotel Liguria and there this traveler died, the
early morning of October 13, attended by the hotel owner and some of the servants.
The hand of fate had made it possible for Count Arthur Joseph de Gobineau to
sleep forever in Italian soil and in the same town where Michele Lessona lived
and where Lessona, himself, twelve years later was laid to rest.
Notes
[1] Edward G. Browne, translator and editor of ‘A
Traveller's Narrative’; M. le Comte de Gobineau, author of ‘Les R eligions et
les Philosophies dans l' Asie Centrale’; and Muhammad-i-Zarandi, surnamed
Nabil-i-A'zam, author of ‘The Dawn-Breakers’.
[2] Gabr (or guebre), a term used contemptuously to
designate the Zoroastrian priesthood.
[3] Dr. J. E. Polak, author of Persien Das Land und seine
Bewohner (1865), was also a professor at the Medical College of Tihran.
[4] "The Bab's chosen disciples"
[5] Qurratu'l-'Ayn, "the only woman enrolled by the Báb
as one of the Letters of the Living", given the title Tahirih (the Pure
One) by Baha'u'llah, "the lovely but ill-fated poetess of Qazvin"
(Curzon) became well known throughout Europe for her efforts in behalf of the
education of the women of Persia.
[6] The siege of 313 followers of the Báb at the shrine of
Shaykh Tabarsi, a few miles south of Barfunlsh, by the army of the Shah. It was
during this siege that Mulla Husayn and later Quddus were killed.
[7] The uprising against the followers of the Báb at city of
Zanjan.
[8] Monsieur J. B. Nicolas, Interpreter of the Imperial
French Embassy in Tihran and father of A. L. M. Nicolas, author of ‘Siyyid
'Ali-Muhammad dit Ie Báb, Paris’, Dujaraic & Co., 1905.
[9] Hermann Vambery, author of ‘Meine Wanderungen und
Erlebnisse in Persien (1867)’, writes concerning the siege of Shaykh Tabarsi
pp. 286-303), according to Browne, in ‘A Traveller's Narrative’, Note A, p.
206.
[10] This system of persecution is attested also by Nabil
and by Browne.
(The Baha'i World 1950-1954)
