Bayan (The Writings of Bab)

  By D. M. MACEOIN            BAYĀN (declaration, elucidation), term applied to the writings of the Bāb in general (Bayān-e fārsī 3:17, p. 102; 6:1, pp. 184-85) and to two late works in particular, the Bayān-e fārsī and al-Bayān…

Browne on Babism and Bahá’ísm

  By Juan I.R.Cole             Browne first developed an intense curiosity about Babism when he read Gobineau’s account in the summer of 1886, and one of his pursuits during his subsequent year-long sojourn in Iran (1887-88) was making…

Bab

  By Denis Mac Eoin       BĀB “door, gate, entrance”: a term of varied applications.             It is applied differently in several sects to a rank in the spiritual hierarchy, either as conceived in transcendent terms or as actually…

Azali Babism

  By Denis Mac Eoin            Azali Babism, designation of a religious faction which takes its name from Mīrzā Yaḥyā Nūrī Ṣobḥ-e Azal (about 1246-1330/1830 - 1912), considered by his followers to have been the legitimate successor to…

The Babism

           A religious thought appeared in Persia around 1844 at the invitation of a man from the people of Shiraz, known as Ali Muhammad. He was a disciple of some of the students of Sheikh Ahmad Zainuddin Al-Ahsa’ei, who combined Sufi…

Bahá’í and Babi Schisms

           Although Babism never developed much beyond the stage of a sectarian movement within Shia Islam, it experienced a number of minor but interesting divisions, particularly in its early phase. The first of these involved the…