Origins of Bábism

Babism began on the evening of 23 May 1844 in Shiraz, in Persia, when a young merchant named Siyyid Ali Muhammad declared to a student named Mulla Husayn that he was the Bab, meaning the Gate, a divinely guided figure who would prepare the way for a greater messenger expected by Shia Islam. He soon gathered a large following, whose members were called Babis, and he wrote works that put forward new laws and teachings. The movement alarmed both the clergy and the government, and its followers were persecuted, with several armed confrontations in the late 1840s. The Bab was executed by firing squad in Tabriz in July 1850. In 1863 one of his followers, Baha'u'llah, announced that he was the promised figure, and his followers formed the Baha'i Faith.

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