Peter Smith (historian)

Peter Smith is a historian specializing in Bahá'í studies. He earned his doctorate in the Sociology of Religion from University of Lancaster (Ph.D., 1982), and his dissertation was later published as The Babi and Baha’i Religions: From Messianic Shi’ism to a World Religion.^[1] Peter Smith is currently on faculty at Mahidol University International College in Thailand.

Background

Born in Yorkshire, Peter Smith was raised in Bristol, England, where he became a Bahá'í at the age of 16 years old, initially hearing about the religion from media coverage of the second Bahá'í World Congress held in London. In 1968, after the Palermo Conference held to commemorate the exile of Bahá'u'lláh, the founder of the religion, to Acre, Peter Smith along with Denis MacEoin, Moojan Momen, and Tahir Ronald Taherzadeh (a son of Adib Taherzadeh), served as one of the youth guides at the mass pilgrimage to the Bahá’í World Centre.^[2] Peter Smith has been an active member of the British Bahá'í community, having served on National Teaching Committees and the Local Spiritual Assemblies of Bristol, Durham and Lancaster. He is married to Sammi Anvar with whom he has two children. Since 1985, Peter Smith has pioneered to Thailand, where he serves on the faculty of Mahidol University International College.^[3][4]

Books

• Smith, Peter (2008). An Introduction to the Baha'i Faith. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-86251-5.

• Smith, Peter (editor). Baha’is in the West: Studies in the Babi and Baha’i Religions, Vol. 14. Los Angeles: Kalimat Press, 2004.
• Smith, Peter (1987). The Bábí and Bahá'í Religions: From Messianic Shi'ism to a World Religion. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-30128-9.

• Smith, Peter (1999). The Bahá'í Faith: A Short History. Oxford, UK: Oneworld Publications. ISBN 1-85168-208-2.

• Smith, Peter (1988). The Bahá'í Religion, A Short Introduction to its History and Teachings. Oxford, UK: George Ronald. ISBN 0-85398-277-5.

• Smith, Peter (2000). A Concise Encyclopedia of the Bahá'í Faith. Oxford, UK: Oneworld Publications. ISBN 1-85168-184-1.

• Smith, Peter (editor). In Iran: Studies in Babi and Baha’i History, Vol. 3. Los Angeles: Kalimat Press. (1986)

Articles

• ‘Motif research: Peter Berger and the Baha’i Faith’. Religion (1978) 8: 210-34.
• ‘Baha’i Studies, University of Lancaster, 7–8 April 1979’. Bulletin of the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies, vol. 6/2, (1979) pp. 119–23.
• ‘Doctoral and Masters theses on Baha’i subjects (1923-77)’. Bulletin of the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies, vol. 6/2, (1979) pp. 129–30.
• Review of H. M. Balyuzi, Baha’u’llah: The King of Glory. In International Journal of Middle East Studies, (1981) 13: 369‑70.
• Review of Mangol Bayat, Mysticism and Dissent: Socioreligious Thought in Qajar Iran. In The Bulletin of the British Society for Middle East Studies. (1981)
• ‘Millenarianism in the Babi and Baha’i religions’. In Millennialism and Charisma, ed. Roy Wallis, pp. 231–83. Belfast: The Queen’s University. (1982)
• ‘The American Baha’i community, 1894-1917: A preliminary survey’. In Studies in Babi and Baha’i History, Vol. 1, ed. Moojan Momen, pp. 85–223. Los Angeles: Kalimat Press. (1982)
• ‘Additional doctoral and Masters’ theses relating to Babi and Baha’i subjects’. Bulletin of the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies, vol. 9/1, (1982) pp. 89–90.
• ‘A note on Babi and Baha’i numbers in Iran’. Iranian Studies (1984) 17: 295-301.
• ‘Reality magazine: Editorship and ownership of an American Baha’i periodical’. In From Iran East and West: Studies in Babi and Baha’i History, Vol.2, ed. Juan Cole and Moojan Momen, pp. 135–55. Los Angeles: Kalimat Press. (1984)
• ‘Anglo-American religion and hegemonic change in the world system, c. 1870-1980’. British Journal of Sociology (1986) 37: 88-105.
• (With Moojan Momen) ‘The Babi Movement: A resource mobilization perspective’. In In Iran: Studies in Babi and Baha’i History, Vol. 3, ed. P. Smith, pp. 33–92. Los Angeles: Kalimat Press. (1986)
• ‘Babism’ and ‘The Baha’i Faith’. In The Encyclopedia of World Faiths, ed. Peter Bishop and Michael Darton, pp. 173‑76, 185, London, Macdonald. (1987)
• Review of Daniel E. Foss and Ralph Larkin, Beyond Revolution: A New Theory of Social Movements. In British Journal of Sociology, (1987) 38: 483.
• ‘Bahai Faith, iv. The Bahai communities’. In Encyclopaedia Iranica, loc., cit. (1988)
• (with Moojan Momen) ‘The Baha’i Faith, 1957‑1988: A survey of contemporary developments’. Religion, (1989) 19: 63‑91.
• Review of Sami Zubaida, Islam, the People and the State. Essays on Political Ideas and Movements in the Middle East. In Sociology (1989).
• (i) ‘Abdu’l‑Baha’, (ii) ‘Azali Babis’, (iii) ‘Babis’, (iv) ‘Baha’i Faith’, (v) ‘Baha’u’llah’, (vi) ‘Shoghi Effendi Rabbani’, and (vii) ‘Universal House of Justice’. In The Oxford Companion to Religions of the World, ed. John Bowker and J.F. Coakley. Oxford University Press, loc.cit. (1997)
• ‘The Baha’i Faith in the West: A Survey’. In Peter Smith (ed.), Baha’is in the West: Studies in the Babi and Baha’i Religions, Vol. 14, pp. 3–60. Los Angeles: Kalimat Press. (2004)
• ‘Shoghi Effendi’s letters to the Baha’is of India and Burma during the 1920s’. Baha'i Studies Review (2005) 13: 15-40.
• Review of Robert Gleave (ed.) Religion and Society in Qajar Iran. In Baha'i Studies Review (2005) 13: 130-135.
• (With Moojan Momen) ‘Babi martyrs’. Encyclopaedia Iranica. (2006)
• ‘The global distribution of Baha’is in the 1920s’. Baha'i Studies Review, (2007) vol. 14, pp. 107–20.
• Review of William Garlington. The Baha’i Faith in America (Praeger, 2005). In Baha'i Studies Review, (2007) vol. 14, pp. 145–49.
• ‘The global distribution of Baha’is in the 1930s’. Baha'i Studies Review, (2009) vol. 15, pp. 115–32.
• ‘Baha’is’. In Graham Harvey (ed.) Religions in Focus: New Approaches to Tradition and Contemporary Practices. (2009) London: Equinox.
• Review of The Equality of Women and Men: The Experience of the Baha’i Community of Canada, by Deborah K. van den Hoonaard and Will C. van den Hoonaard (2006). Baha'i Studies Review, (2009) vol. 15, pp. 161–62.
• Review of The Baha’is of Iran: Socio-Historical Studies, by Dominic Parviz Brookshaw and Seena B. Fazel (eds.) (2008). Baha'i Studies Review, vol. 15, pp. 164–70.
• ‘The global distribution of Baha’is in the 1940s’. Baha'i Studies Review (2010) 16, pp. 135–53.
• (With William Collins) ‘Babi and Baha’i millennialism’. In Catherine Wessinger (ed.) Oxford Handbook on Millennialism. Oxford University Press, pp. 474–91. (2011)
• ‘Shoghi Effendi’s letters to the Baha’is of India and Burma during the 1930s’. Baha'i Studies Review (2011) 17, pp. 47–86.
• ‘Women in the Baha’i Faith’. Encyclopedia Iranica. (2011)
• ‘Ranking and the globalization of higher education’. Silpakorn University Journal of Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts 12/2, pp. 35–69. (2012)
• ‘The Baha’i Faith’. Helmut K. Anheier and Mark Juergensmeyer (eds.) Encyclopedia of Global Studies. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. (2012)
• ‘Islam-related movements’. Helmut K. Anheier and Mark Juergensmeyer (eds.) Encyclopedia of Global Studies. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage (2012)

References