Babis, Baha'is, Shaykhis
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Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Cyril Glasse, Babis, Baha'is, Shaykhis, bahai-library.com.
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Babis, Bahá'ís, Shaykhis

Cyril Glasse
published in The Concise Encyclopedia of Islam pp. 61, 62, 363-364

San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1991

[Page 61]

Báb (lit. "door" or "gate"). The Shí'ites often
quote this Hadíth: "I [the Prophet] am the city of knowledge and `Alí
is the gate (Báb)". From this, the term Báb lent
itself to be used in Shí'ism as the title of a person claiming to
vehicle special knowledge. The most famous use of the title
Báb is that of the spiritual leader of the Bábís,
a 19th-century branch of the Shaykhís, who were themselves an
offshoot of Twelve-Imám Shí'ism. In 1260/1844,
Mirzá 'Alí Muhammad, the leader of a branch of the
Shaykhís, claimed to be the Báb, or living door to the
Hidden Imám. He later went on to claim to be the Mahdí, and
finally, a Divine Messenger. Mirzá 'Alí Muhammad
composed a book called the Bayán ("Explanation"). His
followers caused revolts in Iran and he was shot by a firing squad in
Tabríz in 1267/1850.

Bábís. The followers of a small sect which sprang up
in Iran in the middle of the last century, as a schism within the
Shaykhís. Its leader, Mirzá `Alí Muhammad
called himself the Báb, or "door" to the Hidden Imám,
but later declared himself the revealer of a new religion. A small number
of Bábís still exist today, but the sect was mainly a
springboard to another religion, with a wider appeal, the
Bahá'ís.

[Page 62]

Bahá'ís. A religion of modern times; an offshoot of
the Bábí sect of Persia (itself on offshoot of the
Shaykhís, who broke away from Twelve-Imám
Shí'ism). In the middle of the last century the Bábís
split three ways: original Bábís, Azalí
Bábís, and Bahá'ís. The Azalís are now
extinct. After the death of the Báb, Mirzá `Alí
Muhammad, in 1267/1850, one branch of the
Bábí movement followed a young man called by the
Bábí name of Subh-i Azal ("the Eternal Dawn").
After three Bábí followers attempted to assassinate Shah
Násir ad-Dín in 1269/1852, the
Bábís were repressed by the government (the talented
Bábí poetess Zarrin Táj, called Qurrat al-`Ayn, or
"Coolness of the Eye" was executed, with others), and
Subh-i Azal left Persia for Baghdad.

Subh-i Azal's leadership was successfully challenged by
Bahá' Alláh ("The Splendor of God" 1233-
1310/1817-1892) whose former, pre-Bábí name was
Mirzá Husayn `Alí Núrí.
Bahá' Alláh lost no time in declaring himself "the
promised one" of the Báb's prophecies and founded
Bahá'ísm, taking many of the Bábí followers
with him.

In 1280/1963 at the request of the Persian government, the
Ottomans imprisoned the Bahá'í chiefs, at first in Edirne
(Adrianople), and then sent Subh-i Azal to Cyprus, and
Bahá' Alláh to Acre (Akko) in Palestine. There was
intrigue between the two factions; the Azalís went into decline
and became extinct. The Bahá'í branch flourished, despite a
heavy 19% levy on the revenue of its followers. After the death of
Bahá' Alláh in internment at Acre in 1892, there
were many schisms, firstly between his sons. One of them, `Abbás
Effendi (1844-1921), who took the name `Abd al-Bahá
("Slave of Bahá' Alláh") discovered that he, too, had
the gift of prophecy. A similar claim was later made by his son, Shoghi
Effendi (d. 1957), but control of the organization was placed in the hands
of a council.

The tomb of Bahá' Alláh in Haifa, Israel, is a shrine
of Bahá'ísm. The sect itself, now denuded of traditional
religious trappings and propounding an accommodating mixture of
syncretism, humanism, world peace, and brotherly love, gained a certain
following in Europe and, above all, in America, where it had been
energetically promoted. In Iran, the Bahá'ís are now looked
upon as heretical and are often persecuted with great rigor.

[Page 363]

Shaykhís. [first two paragraphs make no mention of
Bábís or Bahá'ís and are excluded] ...The
successor to al-Ahsá'í was Sayyid Karím
Rashti (d. 1259/1843), who claimed to be guided by the Hidden
Imám in dreams. By this time the sect

[Page 364]

was already regarded with great suspicion by the authorities, and grounds
for their concern were to grow when, after Sayyid Karím died,
some of the Shaykhís found a new leader in the person of
Mirzá `Alí Muhammad ash-Shirází.
The year 1260/1844 was believed to be the year in which the
Twelfth Imám would return to the world; Mirzá went so far
as to claim publicly to be the Báb ("door") — a more direct
link than before — to the Hidden Imám. He was brought before the
courts — such a claim having serious religious and political
implications in Persia — and spent much of his career imprisoned. In 1848
he claimed to be the Twelfth Imám. He was shot by a firing squad
at the age of thirty in Tabriz in 1267/1850, after his followers
had caused riots.

In addition to claiming to be the spokesman, the Báb
("door"), to the Hidden Imám, and the Imám himself,
Mirzá `Alí had in his brief career gone on to found a new
religion. This incorporated modernist elements such as the
equality of women and abrogation of the Koran, advocated the
removal of the Ka`bah and the tomb of the Prophet, and proposed a bizarre
set of pseudo-mystical practices centering on the numbers 19 (the lunar
metonic cycle) and 28 (another lunar cycle). The number 19 is also the
numeric value of the Divine Name al-Wahad ("The One"). The
claims of the Báb expanded into prophethood and beyond. He
also predicted a "promised one" who would fulfil his teachings.

The proselytizing of his followers led to civil disturbances, insurrection,
and his own demise. The writings of the Báb are the
Bayán, or "Explanation", and his followers, called
Bábís, exist to this day in Iran in small numbers.

The question of his succession, in the characteristically unstable fashion
of such doctrines, led to further developments. Some followed the
Báb's original teachings, but a new group arose which was
shortly to split into two new sects. The new group was led first by a
figure called by the cult name of Subh-i-Azal ("Eternal
Dawn"); and a schism occurred with the emergence of another leader
called Bahá' Alláh ("The Radiance of God"), thus
creating two sects, the Azalís and the Bahá'ís.

Not all the original Shaykhís had adhered to the Báb,
and those who had not now proceeded, under the leadership of one
Muhammad Karím, a descendant of the imperial Qajars, to
form the "new" Shaykhís, of whom thousands still exist in Iran
today, along with the "Old Shaykhís", survivors of the
Bábís, and the Bahá'ís....

[final two paragraphs make no mention of Bábís or
Bahá'ís and are excluded]

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