# Sacred Books of the World

*Exported from [Holy-Writings.com](https://www.holy-writings.com/) on 2026-06-19 — 1 clipping.*

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> Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: A. C. Bouquet, Sacred Books of the World, bahai-library.com.
> ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
> 
> Sacred Books of the World
> 
> A. C. Bouquet
> pp. 310-312
> 
> London: Cassell & Company Ltd., 1962
> 
> 1. Text
> 
> [page 310]
> 
> (iv) Bahá'ísm
> 
> For the sake of completeness, it seems only right that reference
> should be made here to the Babi and Bahá'í movements, which arose
> in the early 19th century in Persia as derivatives from Shi'a Islam.
> The original founder, a young man claiming to be a descendant of
> the Quraish, called Mirza 'Ali Muhammad, said that he was the
> current Manifestation of a 'hidden Imam' or successor to the Prophet's
> nephew, Ali, the preceding eleven Imams being actual descendants
> of Ali's younger son, Ali Husayn. He declared himself in 1844, and
> was put to death in 1850, after appointing as his successor a lad of 20,
> Mirza Yahya, who had a half-brother somewhat older than himself
> called Baha'ullah. The youthfulness of Mirza Yahya led to a good
> deal of the affairs of the Babi community being conducted by
> 
> [page 311]
> 
> Baha'ullah. Eventually, in 1867, the latter openly announced that he
> himself was the true successor to Mirza 'Ali Muhammad. There was
> a violent quarrel between the two half-brothers and their supporters,
> and each charged the other with attempts at poisoning. Eventually
> the Turkish government separated the two protagonists and exiled
> them, but not before some persons on both sides had been killed.
> 
> After these not very edifying proceedings, the main power came to
> rest in the hands of Baha'ullah and his supporters. Baha'ullah asserted
> that the original Bab, Mirza 'Ali Muhammad, was nothing more
> than his harbinger, (a sort of Shi'a John the Baptist) and that he himself
> was a new and transcendent manifestation of God — not simply a
> prophet like Muhammad, but a quasi-divine Being, carrying still
> further the succession which began with Abraham, and destined to be
> followed by other Revelations: and he made his appeal to all people,
> and not simply to Moslems. The next step was the conversion to
> Bahá'ísm of a Syrian called Ibrahim George Khayru'llah, who had
> learnt English, and had married an English wife. In 1892 he went to
> the so-called Parliament of Religions at Chicago, and lectured there,
> attracting a good deal of attention. This has led to the development
> of a community of Bahá'ís in America, numbering some thousands,
> and to the erection of a huge Bahá'í temple at Evanston, Minnesota.
> 
> The Bahá'ís now regard themselves as members of a new religion,
> and not as Moslems. They possess an extensive sacred literature, some
> of it composed by Mirza 'Ali Muhammad, and some of it by Mirza
> Yahya, but most of it by Baha'ullah, in the form of epistles, which
> are regarded by Bahá'ís as of the nature of verbal revelations, and
> are extremely numerous. The followers of Baha'ullah have split into
> two sects, the larger being led by Abdu'l Baha, and the smaller by
> his brother, Muhammad Ali. There is another large temple at Haifa.
> 
> Bahá'ísm, apart from its not very satisfactory early history, possesses
> some teachings which are salutary, even though not original.
> It is said to be dwindling in the Middle East, and shows no sign of
> being able to supersede Christianity as a universal religion. Indeed an
> impartial observer in 1931 declared that the conversion of a Moslem
> to Bahá'ísm, so far from being an advance, was actually a step on
> the road to materialism, and that Bahá'ísm as a religion did not stand
> very high. The idea of an hereditary religious leader, though common
> 
> [page 312]
> 
> enough in the Middle East, does not seem generally attractive. In
> general, the teaching seems to be a kind of Asian Unitarianism, with
> a strong emphasis upon world-peace. There seems to be a vigorous
> effort at the present time, probably subsidized from America, to
> further the claims of Bahá'ísm, and the number of its adherents
> is said to be on the increase.
> 
> Note 1. The following quotation from the recent work of Pere
> Danielou, The Salvation of the Nations, may serve well to end this
> section: One can stifle from lack of prayer just as one can stifle
> from lack of air. Our Western world in its restless and activistic
> life has completely lost this sense of prayer. That is why there are
> so many mentally ill and eccentric in our midst: people don't pray
> enough. There is a well of silence within themselves to which they
> have no access, a domain of peace they know not how to enter.
> Islam has held on to these things.
> 
> Note 2. A valuable treatise called The Qur'an as Scripture was
> composed in 1952 by Arthur Jeffery, Professor of Semitic Languages
> at Columbia University, New York. It is not only an excellent
> critical account of the Qur'an in particular, but contains some
> valuable remarks upon sacred books in general.
> 
> 2. Image scans (click image for full-size version)
> 
> METADATA
> 
> Views4900 views since posted 2013-12-09; last edit 2013-12-09 15:01 UTC;
> 
> previous at archive.org.../bouquet_sacred_books_world
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> Scanned 2001 by Dan Povey; Formatted 2013-12-09 by Jonah Winters.
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> Shortlink: bahai-library.com/2146
> Citation: ris/2146
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> — *Sacred Books of the World (Used by permission of the curator)*