Bahaism in Azerbaijan
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Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Leyla Melikova, Bahaism in Azerbaijan, bahai-library.com.
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GEOCULTURE

Leyla MELIKOVA

Junior research fellow
at the Academician Buniyatov Institute of Oriental Studies,
National Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan
(Baku, Azerbaijan).

BAHAISM
IN AZERBAIJAN

Abstract

T
he author traces the history of Baha-             Husayn Ali Nuri (1817-1892), known as
ism in Northern Azerbaijan, the reli-             Baha Ullah, and analyzes the present and
gious movement born in 1844 in Iran               future of Bahaism in the context of the re-
that assumed its final shape in 1863 under             lations between the state and society in
the influence of its founding father Mirza             Azerbaijan.

I n t r o d u c t i o n
Due to its geopolitical specifics, Azerbaijan (tucked in between Europe and Asia) has been al-
ways open to all sorts of cultural, spiritual, religious, public, and political influences and their synthe-
sis. This enriched the Azeris’ religious and cultural identification and made it possible to preserve it
throughout the centuries.
In the late 1980s, after the prolonged stagnation of the Soviet period, Azerbaijan attracted nu-
merous confessional groups, trends, and sects of all sorts, which entered into fierce competition for
new followers. Some of the newcomers left deep marks in the history of Azerbaijan’s religious life.
Bahaism, the religious doctrine that appeared in the mid-19th century in Iran and assumed its
final shape in 1863, is one such confession, the followers of which are actively seeking the status of
a world religion. Indeed it comes second after Christianity in terms of geographic distribution, Islam
and Buddhism, two traditional world religions, trailing behind. According to different sources, there
are about 6 million Bahais across the world. The Bahai community is a well-organized hierarchical
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structure with branches functioning in over 200 countries; the Encyclopedia Britannica cites the fig-
ure of 5,742,000 Bahais.1

How Bahaism Came to and
Developed in Azerbaijan
Bahaism in Northern Azerbaijan has evolved through several stages and ascended several lev-
els. At the first stage, which ended together with the 19th century, it lived through several very differ-
ent levels. It was brought to Azerbaijan and taught by families of Iranian subjects who fled the coun-
try to avoid persecution. Due to its geographic location, Southern Azerbaijan had been open to Bahai
influence earlier. In Northern Azerbaijan, however, where Islam had been the dominant religion for
many centuries, the new religion was not readily embraced. Until the late 19th century, Bahaism in
Northern Azerbaijan remained limited to the groups of those who had brought it into the country. The
Iranian refugees were gradually assimilated: the natural process promoted by many factors (ethnic,
linguistic, and partly mental closeness in particular) helped Bahaism spread far and wide. The Bahai
organizational mechanisms encouraged the proselytizing activities of the Bahai adepts.
Bahaism came to Northern Azerbaijan in 1860 when Baha Ullah was still alive; the echoes of
the Iranian developments that accompanied the emergence of Babism (the precursor of Bahaism)
reached Nakhchyvan even earlier, in 1844. In Ordubad, where the competing madhabs and Tariqahs
remained locked in struggle, people embraced Babism in great numbers. They sided with Molla
Sadyh Vanandli and Aga Mirkerimli of the village of Vanand. The supporters of the traditional Shi‘a
clergy represented by the Usuli School tried to gain control, similar to that of the secular authorities,
over the local people. The theologians, however, remained disunited. Mujtahid Aga Ali, for example,
a pupil of famous Sheikh Ahmad Ahsai (1753-1826), the founder of the Shi‘a sect of Sheikhits, was
against the Usuli School. For obvious reasons he preferred Sheikhism. The warring sides looked at the
several thousand people who closed ranks under the banner of Babism as a nuisance or even a real threat.
To keep the Babis in check Mujtahid Aga Ali sided with General Bekhbudov and his 5,000-strong army
dispatched from Russia. Shikhalibek naib, the khan of Nakhchyvan (who was also a sheikhi), spent a
lot of money to secure a victory for the sheikhi.2 The Babis were defeated and dispersed; the riot was
cruelly quenched to scare the local people. The ground for a new teaching (Babism transformed into
Bahaism), however, had been tilled. Several years later, in the same region (or rather its border areas)
there were Bahai villages. Such was the Evoglu village between Julfa and Hoi, on both banks of the
Gotur.3 Well-known Azeri writer M. Ordubadi left descriptions of patriarchal rules in many of the
Bahai families even though the Bahai ethics insisted on equal rights and freedoms for women. The
Bahais believed that it was their faith’s great advantage over Islam.
The fact that the events coincided with the Iranian developments is easily explained, first, by the
territorial proximity of the two countries divided by a common border and the steady inflow of Babis
forced to emigrate to avoid persecutions. Second, at that time the people of Northern and Southern
Azerbaijan shared Imamate Shi‘a as the dominant spiritual and religious idea dating back to the 16th
century (the very beginning of the Safavid dynasty).
The polemics between Sheikh ul-Islam of the Transcaucasus Akhund abd-us-Salam Akhund-
zade and the Bahais supplies a lot of interesting information about the relations between the two reli-
gions at Bahaism’s early stages.

See: “Year in Review 1993: Religion,” in: Encyclopaedia Britannica Online, available at [http://
members.eb.com/bol/topic?eu=125258&sctn=1], 10 March, 2000.
See: M.S. Ordubadi, My Life and My Circle, Azerneshr Publishers, Baku, 1996, p. 7 (in Azeri).
See: Ibid., p. 42.
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Sheikh ul-Islam criticized the book by Baha Ullah Kitabi Igan in the press. Published in pam-
phlet form, his remarks were sent to Akka in Palestine, home of the Bahai leaders. One of them,
pastry-cook Aga Riza Shirazi, wrote a book of counterarguments, to which Akhund abd-us-Salam
Akhundzade responded with a book of his own entitled My Defenses against Enemy Objections about
the Babism Faith,4 which appeared in Tiflis in 1896. (At that time, the Bahais were still known as
Babis). In Farsi, the language of the original, the book was called Mutalie-i Kitab-i Igan dar radde
miatalibi an (Reading Kitabi Igan to Refute its Propositions).5
S. Umanets pointed out that while criticizing Kitabi Igan in pamphlet form, Sheikh ul-Islam
remained within certain limits, his later book left no stone unturned to reveal the new religion’s incon-
sistency from the point of view of Muslim theology. His arguments were refuted point by point by
well-known Bahai ideologist and head of the Ashghabad Bahai community Mirza Abu’l-Fazl Gol-
paegani in his Faraid, a work that also discussed the main principles of the new religion. Later, in
1903, it appeared in book form in Cairo.6
Starting in 1863, Bahai communities openly and actively functioned in Baku, Ganja, Bard,
Salyan, Geychay, Sheki, and Nakhchyvan. Baku and Balakhany were the two largest Bahai centers:
by the 1880s, they had already attracted several hundred followers. There is a document confirming
purchase of house No. 216 in Chadrovaia (now Mirzaaga Aliev) Street dated to 1887 in the archives
of the Baku Bahai community. In Balakhany, there is still an old Bahai cemetery with old tombstones
still bearing Kurrat-ul Ain verses and other sacred Bahai texts.
On the whole, the early history of Bahaism in Northern Azerbaijan was free from complica-
tions; the local authorities and the clergy did not try to check its progress. Clashes and other petty
incidences were of a limited nature. The murder of Molla Sadykh in 1901, son of prominent Islamic
theologian Akhund Ibrahimkhalil who, enraged by his son’s conversion to Bahaism, issued a fatwa on
the murder of his son, was described in literature as an exception rather than the rule.
This is explained by the Russian authorities’ benevolence toward the Bahais mainly living in
Russian Turkestan. This was the natural choice on their part: in Ashghabad the local people were
Sunni Muslims; in Shi‘a Azerbaijan, on the other hand, geographically a more logical choice, their
presence could have created tension with unpredictable results. At that time, Northern Azerbaijan was
part of the Russian Empire, which explains the relative loyalty of the local authorities and the clergy
to the Bahais.
Historical writings mention another fact that testifies, albeit indirectly, to the status of Baha-
ism in Baku early in the 20th century. In 1909 and 1910, Leo Tolstoy corresponded with engineer
Mirza Alekper Mamedkhanov, a Bahai. It was through him that the great Russian writer received
Bahai publications and communicated with Abd-ul-Bakh; Azeri writings speak of him as Mirza Ali
Akper of Nakhchyvan; his son Aliullah Nakhchyvan, born in 1919, served for 40 years, from its
very first day in 1963, as a member of the Universal House of Justice, the Bahais’ highest admin-
istrative structure.

Bahaism in Public and
Spiritual Life of Azeri Society
at the Beginning of the 20th Century
At the turn of the century, when the oil industry of Azerbaijan began earning big money, Baha-
ism, a faith well adjusted to bourgeois society, turned to the newly rich in Baku and drew many of

See: S.I. Umanets, Sovremenny Babism, Tiflis, 1904, p. 31.
See: G. Mamedli, “Shekh ul-Islam Akhundzade,” Azerbaijan, 2 November, 1990, p. 4 (in Azeri).
See: S.I. Umanets, op. cit., p. 31.
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them to its side. For several years, Musa Nagiev (1849-1919), a rich oil industrialist and patron of
arts, was a member of the Spiritual Meeting of Baku. His personal authority raised the Bahai commu-
nity prestige as well.7
This was a time when the idea of social changes by destroying obsolete dogmas looked very attrac-
tive, especially in the context of the acute crisis of the traditional religious ideas. For this reason many
progressive-minded people found Bahaism attractive. Azerbaijan was no exception in this respect.
Bahai sources allege many outstanding cultural figures of Azerbaijan to be Bahais. They even
name Mirza Abdulgadir Ismailzade, father of poet Mikail Mushfig, as one of the early propagandists
(since 1860) of Bahaism in the village of Khyzy and in Baku; teacher of poet Aliaga Vakhid was also
a Bahai. Some people insist that Mirza Alekper Sabir (1862-1911), the great poet of Azerbaijan, was
also a Bahai; at least he was in close contact with the Bahai community of Balakhany and took part in
religious disputes. Another well-known poet Seyyd Azim Shirvani (1835-1888), poet and playwright
Huseyn Javid (1884-1941), founder of professional musical art in Azerbaijan Academician Uzeir
Gadjibekov (1885-1948), and others were also Bahais.
This information cannot be accepted at face value—neither can it be disproved. The religious
and spiritual atmosphere of Azerbaijan at the turn of the 20th century suggests that the educated and
creative part of the Azeri society could not reconcile itself to ignorant mullahs and the obscurantism
of a Muslim society torn apart by inner contradictions. The poetry of Mirza Alekper Sabir, well
known for his satirical writings, reflects the attitude to enlightenment and to everything progressive.
Not without irony, he described a talk between two philistines who looked at those striving for knowl-
edge, be it in the form of a university course or reading of the Mollah Nasreddin magazine, as apos-
tasy readily identified with Babism.8
The Azeri literature of the early 20th century amply covered the relations between Bahaism and
Azeri society of the time seen from all angles, a phenomenon that deserves special investigation.
Careful investigation of the prose and poetry of this period disproves what the contemporary
Azeri Bahais say. Indeed, the poem “Shamakhy babiliari khaggynda” (On Shemakha Babis) by one of
the best Azeri poets Seyyd Azim Shirvani could hardly have been written by a Bahai. The poem reads
like a biting satire of Bahaism as a force hostile to Islam that disorients the already morally disorient-
ed common people. The poet spared no words to criticize the very conception of the prophetical cy-
cles and some other elements of the religious and philosophical platform of Babism-Bahaism. To
sound more convincing, the poet deliberately distorted some of them and condemned all Bahais.9
At that time, Bahaism stood little chance of becoming a popular movement: in the early 20th
century, the Azeri enlighteners were brought together by the idea of cultural resurrection of the Islam-
ic world (which was in deep crisis at that time). Later their ideas assumed political overtones and
became the national-liberation ideas realized in 1918-1920 in the form of the Azerbaijan Democratic
Republic (ADR). Those who started the movement needed an attractive mobilizing ideology rooted in
Islamic traditions; at the early stages the progressive-minded people could have been attracted by
Bahaism’s Islamic roots, which could have served as the reformist basis. Closer scrutiny, however,
revealed principles (cosmopolitism, public alienation from Islam, and obvious orientation toward the
colonial world) absolutely alien to the national intelligentsia and its aims.
Later, thanks to the sympathies of part of the progressive-minded intelligentsia, Bahaism in
Azerbaijan assumed certain traits of religious modernism.
The press of that time accused writer and playwright Huseyn Javid of attempting to carry out
religious modernization. The memoirs of his relatives confirm that he had shared certain Bahai ideas:
at critical moments he used to say “Allahu Abha!” to warn that an outsider was present. The margin-
alia on his poem “In the Mosque,” which appeared in the Azer collection, testify that he was familiar

See: A. Jafarov, Bahai Faith in Azerbaijan, Baku, 2004, p. 21 (in Azeri).
See: M.A. Sabir, Hophopname, Yazychi Publishers, Baku, 1992, pp. 251-216 (in Azeri).
See: S.A. Shirvani, Poems, Azerneshr Publishers, Baku, 1963, pp. 118-120 (in Azeri).
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with the Bahai conception of progressive divine revelation. He interpreted the religion in his own way
and believed that life itself was the supreme expression of philosophy and religion.10

Bahaism under Soviet Power
For some time, before the Bolsheviks came to power and afterwards, the Bahai community of
Azerbaijan developed under favorable conditions. In 1929-1930, there were 5 merchants, 2 handi-
craftsmen, 1 civil servant, and 1 broker among the nine members of the Spiritual Meeting of Baku.
According to the academic publications, the Baku and Balakhany Bahais actively promoted their own
religious publications.11
As the Soviet regime was tightening its grip on society during the Stalin period, the Soviet press
described Bahaism as an anti-socialist teaching alien to Soviet ideology. Azerbaijan was no exception
in this respect. Azeri periodicals described the Bahais as “wolves in sheep’s clothing, instruments
used by capitalists to exploit the working people.”12
In the mid-1920s, some of the Bahais were deported along with huge numbers of people of
Iranian extraction. From that time on, the community was operating under strict control; meetings
were no longer allowed, and their verbatim reports and religious literature were confiscated. Proof of
this can be found in the archives of the People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs of the Azerbaija-
nian S.S.R. For example, the file dated 17 July, 1926 contains information “about the charter and lists
of the executive structures of the Bahai community in the prayer house in Balakhany, Ramany-
Sabunchinskiy District, Baku Uezd.” The document says that the commune had 14 members: 3 peas-
ants, 3 handicraftsmen, 1 hairdresser, while the others were workers.
Mirzaaga Kerimov, drilling foreman born in 1901, was the community’s head. The community
lived by its Charter, which outlined its key goals and tasks as: “…gather every day or regularly for col-
lective prayer; manage the property received under contracts from the local Soviet structures; enter into
private legal deals; elect clergy to perform religious rites; participate in congresses of various confes-
sional communities; spread the Bahai teaching only among adults,” etc. The commune had the right to
collect voluntary donations for everyday needs and banned regular membership dues. It should seek
permission from state structures every time the community intended to publish a book or start a period-
ical or deliver a lecture; the same rule applied to changing and amending the community’s Charter.13
Another document that contains “Information about Non-Profit Societies, Unions, and Allianc-
es Registered in the Azerbaijanian S.S.R. (as of 1 September, 1926)” mentions three Bahai communi-
ties, with 23 members from the governing bodies: there were 3 workers, 11 peasants, 3 civil servants,
and 6 people engaged in other spheres in them.14 The document entitled “Information about Sects”
provides much more exact information about the number of Bahais: 153, in Baku; 58, in Balakhany,
and 73, in Ganja.15
The letter of 29 March, 1927 the Bahais sent to the Central Committee of the Communist Party
of Azerbaijan provides a complete picture about the state of affairs in the Bahai community of Soviet
Azerbaijan in the late 1920s. The authors, speaking in the name of “all Caucasian Bahais,” asked the
government to annul the decision on deportation of the “preacher of the teaching of Bahaism Mirza
Mamed Pertevi,” who had been living in Baku for four years and who was the only Bahai preacher in the

See: R. Huseynov, Above Our Time, Ishyg Publishers, Baku, 1988, pp. 210, 344 (in Azeri).
See: B. Rizaev, Who are Bahais, Azerneshr Publishers, Baku, 1930, pp. 22-23 (in Azeri).
B. Rizaev, op. cit., pp. 24-25; Revolution and Culture (No. 2-3), Azeneshr Publishers, Baku, 1930 (in Azeri).
The Central State Archives of Political Parties and Public Movements of Azerbaijan, rec. gr. 27, inv. 1, f. 287,
sheets 1-2.
Ibid., rec. gr. 27, inv. 1, f. 357, sheet 1.
Ibid., rec. gr. 27, inv. 1, f. 342, sheets 183-1–184 (rev.).
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Caucasus. He had been instructed “to leave the U.S.S.R. in a week’s time.” The letter also said: “The
Soviet country did not allow us (the Bahais.—M.L.) to study the international language Esperanto…
The permission the Spiritual Council had received several months earlier to call the annual conference
of the Caucasian Bahais was annulled and the conference banned without explanation.” The letter was
signed by A. Zargarov, the community’s chairman, and M. Kiazim-Zade, its secretary.16
A week later, on 7 April, 1927, the C.C. All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) issued a clas-
sified document entitled “On Sectarianism,” which outlined special treatment of the religious groups
and communities. The document, which envisaged numerous bans and limitations, suggested that
those religious communities, “the charters of which speak of their positive attitude toward all state
duties, military service in particular,”17 should be treated loyally. The Bahai community, which re-
fused to interfere into political processes and made universal peace and harmony one of its major
principles, did not fit the document’s conditions.
This explains why the new circular the Extraordinary Commission of the Council of the Peo-
ple’s Commissars of Azerbaijan “On the Need to Force the Sects to Accept Conscription” issued in
July 1926 created numerous problems for the Bahais. The document ordered that “the question of
obligatory and unquestioned acceptance of armed military service be raised” before all religious com-
munities. The document pointed out that the “departments of Internal Administrations should refrain
from pressure and should limit themselves to communal meetings and verbatim reports.” Special in-
structions would follow, said the document. “It is a combat mission not to be postponed.”18
In 1929, when the real estate of all religious organizations was transferred to the state under a
special decree, the Baku community had to lease building No. 216 on Chadrovaia Street from the
state. In the 1930s, the authorities demanded that the community discontinue its activities. The Bahais
had to obey: activities remained suspended until 1934, when collective meetings and conferences
were permitted all of a sudden. In April 1934, elections to the Local Spiritual Meetings were held in
fourteen cities across the Soviet Union; the Baku, Ganja, Barga, Balakhany, and Salyan communities
resumed their activities.19
In the mid-1930s, the Baku Bahai community had over 200 members; it was headed by Faraj
Kasumov, a well-known and highly respected expert in world religions with good command of Ara-
bic and Farsi. In the small hours of 14 October, 1937, the wave of Stalin terror engulfed the Bahais:
arrests, deportations, and executions became common features of their everyday life. Faraj Kasumov,
nephew of the already arrested in Leningrad Iusif Kasumov, who had filled an important post in the
C.C. Communist Party of Azerbaijan, was arrested and executed not because he belonged to the fam-
ily of an “enemy of the people.” He died together with other Bahais accused of “undermining and
anti-state activities.”20
The accusations of fascist propaganda were absurd: the Bahais preached pacifism, universal
harmony, and peace. The document dated 12 May, 1938 mentions: “The File on the Bahai Spying
Organization” (allegedly headed by engineer Bagban Zade Javad) opened during the deportation of
Iranian subjects out of the Soviet Union. He was accused of spying in favor of Iran, fascist propagan-
da, and contacts with the Bahai organizations in Great Britain, Germany, Palestine, and Iran. Seven
people were arrested.21
The arrests in Baku, Balakhany, Bard, Ganja, Salyan, Khylly (today Neftchala), and Nakhchy-
van crippled some of the communities forever. Repressions did not stop until 1949.

The State Archives of Azerbaijan (formerly the State Archives of the October Revolution), rec. gr. 1, inv. 74,
f. 216, sheet 41.
Ibid., rec. gr. 1, inv. 74, f. 224, sheet 62.
The Central State Archives of Political Parties and Public Movements of Azerbaijan, rec. gr. 27, inv. 1, f. 343,
sheet 92.
See: A. Jafarov, op. cit., p. 24.
The Wave, 3-9 June, 1992, p. 3 (in Azeri).
The State Archives of Azerbaijan, rec. gr. 1, inv. 88, f. 400, sheet 3.
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After 1956 all the repressed Bahais were rehabilitated and the political tension slackened, but until
the late 1980s the movement remained fairly passive in Azerbaijan for several reasons: first, Bahais had
been exterminated en masse; second, those who survived lived under strict state control. In the 1950s,
the Local Spiritual Meetings had to cut down the number of its members from 9 to 5 or 6. It was not until
the mid-1960s that the Bahais were given a chance to contact, at least sporadically, Bahais abroad. Re-
ligious holydays concealed as jubilees and birthday parties were held on weekdays.22
This went on until the late 1980s when, encouraged by the democratic changes, the Bahais re-
sumed their activities. At the end of 1990, they elected the Baku Spiritual Meeting; the Ganja, Bala-
khany and later Sumgayit, Nakhchyvan, and Salyan communities returned to the scene. In 1992 they
elected the National Spiritual Meeting. The 1992 Law of the Republic of Azerbaijan on the Freedom
of Conscience permitted the Bahai Community of Baku to function with the approval of the Ministry
of Justice; in 2001 it was repeatedly registered with the State Committee for Working with Religious
Organizations; the Sumgayit community was registered at that time too. Today, Bahais live in the
republic’s18 settlements (half of them have Bahai communities), in the others there are not enough
Bahais to form communities.23

Bahaism Today in Azerbaijan:
Present and Future
The Bahais feel very much at home in Azerbaijan, which is well known for its religious toler-
ance. Their community is well-organized and rich enough to help its followers survive personal and
financial crises. The materials accumulated from personal talks with Bahais testify that they only ask
for help on rare occasions: illnesses, surgery, deaths in the family, and special occasions such as
marriages. This possibility will inevitably attract even more supporters.
According to experts, in some countries (Russia among them) the correlation between secular
and religious ideologies is of different dimensions because some of the new religions are concerned
with world problems (such as Bahaism), while the traditional religions prefer to address them indi-
rectly by dealing with national and regional issues. This places the new religions apart from the tradi-
tional religious and ideological structures when it comes to addressing the most important and urgent
social problems. In this context, the new religions look preferable. People side with them because
they feel disappointed with the official ideology, either secular or religious, and its approach to spir-
itual and material problems. Those who turn to the new religions, Bahaism in our case, hope that, if
realized, the utopian program of spiritual perfection of the individual and society will resolve all
problems which pester contemporary civilization and each of its members separately.
Throughout its history Bahaism has invariably attracted progressive-minded people in Azerba-
ijan and elsewhere. Bahaism came to Azerbaijan in the 1860s. Since 1863, its communities have been
functioning in Baku, Ganja, Bard, Salyan, and Geychay; until the 1930s they developed under rela-
tively favorable conditions. Today, after a long interval caused by political circumstances, Bahaism is
rapidly regaining its lost position.
Since ancient times Azerbaijan has been a Muslim country—the position of Islam remain as
strong as ever, but we should admit that today Islam is represented there by Shi‘a and Sunni, which,
in turn, consist of various madhabs (Shafiite and Hanafi) divided into several Tariqahs (Wahhabism,
all kinds of Sufi brotherhoods, followers of Seyyd Nursi and Fethullah Gülen, etc.). We can hardly
expect ethno-confessional unity in a country where there is any number of non-traditional cults, sects,
and new religious movements.

See: A. Jafarov, op. cit., p. 25.
[http://www.bahai.az/links_ru.shtml].
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It would be wrong to ascribe the spread of Bahaism in Azerbaijan to internal factors. We should
bear in mind that the Bahais rely on rich proselytizing experience. On top of this, there are always
those who see the meaning of life in “God-seeking” and who are unable to merely accept traditional
religious beliefs. Such people should not be dismissed as a passive group unable to decide for them-
selves and prone to be tempted by illusory spiritual prospects. These people seek another God for
themselves in the hope of realizing their new ideas about the meaning of life and about themselves.
This is especially true of the recent converts as distinct from a large group of Bahais who inherited the
religion from their families.
It seems that in the future too, Islam, even divided into several madhabs, will remain firmly
rooted in Azerbaijan; Bahaism stands no chance of replacing it.

C o n c l u s i o n
Today, the consolidation of people within Bahai public reorganization has already demonstrat-
ed its usefulness in many countries and regions, Azerbaijan being no exception in this respect. Baha-
ism can be described as a new religion, the term being partly accepted by the academic community
with respect to the religious universalist movements.
Its geographic scope makes Bahaism an interesting example of trans-cultural processes and
trends caused by the fact that its ranks are swelling with representatives from all kinds of religious and
cultural traditions. We are in fact watching an inter-civilizational and inter-religious dialog.

Sudaba ZEINALOVA

Ph.D. (Hist.), Senior researcher
at the A. Bakikhanov Institute of History,
Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences
(Baku, Azerbaijan).

THE EVANGELICAL-LUTHERAN COMMUNITY
IN AZERBAIJAN:
A RETROSPECTIVE ANALYSIS

Abstract

T     his article looks at the life of the Prot-
estant religious community in Azerbaij-
an, studies the history of how the Ger-
man population that formed the foundation
munity migrated to Azerbaijan, and sheds
light on the activity of the Lutheran church.
A scientific analysis of the ethnoconfessional
diversity that exists today in Azerbaijan recon-
of the Protestant, Evangelical-Lutheran com-          firms the peace-loving and respectful attitude
-- Bahaism in Azerbaijan (Used by permission of the curator)