Assessing the Teachings of Samā’ullāh (Jamshid Maʿānī)
Jamshid Maʿānī with disciples (circa 1970s) Someone recently sent me two of the English writings of Jamshīd Maʿānī: his rather short Kitāb-i-Insān (the Book of the Human) and then his Universal Palace of Order . Here I will provide my impressions. But before I go further: there is now confirmation that Maʿānī died in Iran sometime between late 2009 and early/mid 2010. So my 2009 correspondent was largely correct that Maʿānī had passed away when I attempted to send him a copy of my Greatest Name commentary at that time. Now, what I have read so far of Jamshid Maʿānī’s teachings is fascinating precisely because they sit at a strange crossroads between late Bahāʾī universalism, perennialist humanism (in a Huxleyian sense), quasi-mystical cosmology, and an almost technocratic-utopian sociology. They read like a synthesis of devotional metaphysics and administrative futurism. One constantly feels the residue of Bahāʾī vocabulary and aspirations, but refracted thro...
