# Babis, Baha'is, Shaykhis

*Exported from [Holy-Writings.com](https://www.holy-writings.com/) on 2026-06-20 — 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: 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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> — *Babis, Baha'is, Shaykhis (Used by permission of the curator)*