The Bab and the Babi Community of Iran

In 1844, a young merchant from Shiraz called Sayyid Ali-Muhammad declared himself the gate (the Bab) to the Truth and, shortly afterwards, the initiator of a new prophetic cycle. His messianic call attracted a significant following across Iran and Iraq. Regarded as a threat by state and religious authorities, the Babis were subject to intense persecution and the Bab himself was executed in 1850. In this volume, leading scholars of Islam, Bahai studies and Iranian history come together to examine the life and legacy of the Bab, from his childhood to the founding of the Bahai faith and beyond. Among other subjects, they cover the Babs writings, his Quran commentaries, the societal conditions that underlay the Babi upheavals, the works of Babi martyr Tahirih Qurratul-Ayn, and Orientalist Edward Granville Brownes encounters with Babi and Bahai texts.