The Fate of the Point’s Writings

15. Professor Browne’s Concluding Remarks
Introduction to the Tarikh-i Jadid by Prof. Browne, P. XXVII :
“From the moment that his [i.e. Baha’s] claims were generally recognised by the BABis, however, the whole of the earlier literature of the sect, including the writings of the BAB himself, began to suffer neglect and sink into oblivion. Without admitting the assertion made by the Azalis, that Baha and his followers deliberately destroyed, or fundamentally tampered with, the books belonging to the older dispensation on a large scale, it is clear that conditions which could alone secure the continual transcription and circulation of these books had ceased to exist.”

Prof. Browne sums up the fate of the Point's writings in the following terms:

"and, from my own experience, I can affirm that hard as it is to obtain from the Bahais in Persia [now Iran] the loan or gift of BABi books belonging to the earlier period of the faith, at Acre it is harder still even to get a glimpse of them. They may be and probably are, still preserved there but for all the good the enquirer is likely to get from them, they might almost as well have suffered the fate which the Azalis believe to have overtaken them."