The Babi Movement (Islamic Studies)

Introduction

The Babi movement, or Babism (Babiyya) was a post-Islamic religion that emerged from the matrix of Shaykhism in 19th-century Iran and derives its name from the Iranian prophet, Sayyid ʿAli Muhammad Shirazi (b. 1819–d. 1850), the Bab (Arabic: Gate). The movement began amidst a milieu of profound messianic expectation for the Hidden Imam (Qaʾim), whom the Twelver-Imami-Shiʿa believe had miraculously gone into occultation (ghayba) in the year 260/870, and who would return at the end of time (akhir al-zaman) to redress the wrongs suffered by the Shiʿa faithful and to fill the world with justice. Some of the Bab’s doctrines had resonances with the so-called Shiʿa heterodoxies of the past (batinis, ghulat, Isma’ilis, Nusayris, etc.). However, the Bab went radically beyond them by not only abrogating Islamic law (Sharia) but actually replacing it with a new religious and ritual law code. The Bab’s messianic claims seems to have gone through several stages during his short-lived life and ministry, such as the bab to the Hidden Imam, the Imam himself, and finally the Manifestation of the Godhead (mazhar). Through an allusive and esoteric style, the Bab early on in his first scriptural texts deployed the well-known technique of arcanization (taqiyya) to veil his messianic self-conception, a fact that the head of the Kirmani Shaykhis Karim Khan gleaned from the text and which led him to brand the Bab a heretic in several scathing polemical tracts. The writings of the Bab, often collectively called Bayan (exposition) (his two law books in Arabic and Persian are also called Bayan specifically), were couched in enigmatic and arcane locutions as they were phrased in the mystical and esoteric lexicon of its Shiʿi-Shaykhi milieu, but with the distinctiveness of a new authorial voice claiming divine revelation (wahy). The Bab often deliberately created out of his oeuvre a kind of messianic cryptogram to be properly decoded by the Babi messianic figure, namely, “Him whom God shall make manifest”’ (man yuzhiruhuʾllah), whom the Baha’is consider to be Mirza Husayn-ʿAli Nuri (b. 1817–d. 1892), better known as Baha’u’llah. This claim was rejected by his half-brother and head of the Babi community Yaha Azal (b. 1831–d. 1912), resulting in a split, with the majority of the Babis siding with Baha’u’llah whilst a minority sided with Yahya Azal. The former group metamorphosed into the Baha’i faith and the latter into Azalis or Bayanis. The Bab’s claim to be the bearer of a new divine message had both religious and sociopolitical implications and was deemed heretical by the Shiʿa clerical establishment. The movement destabilized the status quo and created mass upheavel in Qajar society. Several regions of the country witnessed massacres and violent suppression of the new faith. The Bab was subsequently tried for heresy before a court of clerics and executed by the Qajar state in 1850.

Babi History

The standard academic history of Babism is the foundational work Amanat 1989. Browne 1890–1901 is a condensed history of the Bab’s life and his religious movement. MacEoin 2009 is a historical critical academic volume on the Bab and the various stages of Babi history and doctrine. Hamadani 1893 is an early and important primary source on the early history of the Babi movement. Alkan 2008 provides one of the only studies that cover the history of the Babis in the Ottoman regions. Mohammad-Hosseini 1995 is a Baha’i hagiographical historiography in Persian and Afnan 2000 is an important volume of primary sources on the life of the Bab. Al-Hasani 1957 is an Arabic history of the Babis and Baha’is from an Iraqi academic. Kashani 1910 also represents an important early primary source on Babi history with a textual history that has been checkered with controversy.

Afnan, Abu’l-Qasim. ‘Ahd-i A’la: Zindigani-yi Hazrat-i Bab. Oxford: One World Publications, 2000.
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The volume is written by a descendent of the Bab’s family, and chronicles the life of the Bab, and draws from the author’s own private manuscript library. It is written from a Baha’i perspective.
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al-Hasani, ‘Abd al-Razzaq. Al-Babiyun wa-ʼal-Bahaʼiyun fī hadirihim wa-madihim: Dirasah daqiqah fi ʼal-kashfiyah wa-ʼal-shaykhiyah wa-fi kayfiyat zuhur ʼal-Babiyah fa-ʼal-Bahaʼiyah. Ṣaydā, Lebanon: Maṭbaʻat ʼal-ʻIrfān, 1957.
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An early Iraqi scholar, al-Hasani provides a largely neutral treatment of the history of the Babis and Baha’is.
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Alkan, Necati. Dissent and Heterodoxy in the Late Ottoman Empire: Reformers, Babis and Baha’is. Istanbul: ISIS, 2008.
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One of the few scholarly works that explore the history of the Babis in the Ottoman Empire.
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Amanat, Abbas. Resurrection and Renewal: The Making of the Babi Movement in Iran, 1844–1850. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1989.
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The standard academic history of the life of the Bab and the development of his movement into a religion.
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Browne, E. G. “Babism.” In Religious Systems of the World: A Contribution to the Study of Comparative Religion. By E. G. Browne, 333–353. London: Swann Sonnenschein, 1890–1901.
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Browne is one of the earliest western scholars to have studied the Babi movement. His work has left an indelible mark on subsequent scholarship on Babism. This article demonstrates Browne’s intimate understanding of the history of the Babi movement, couched in an engaging prose that vibrates with a poetic enthusiasm.
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Hamadani, Mirza Hosayn. Tarikh-i jaded, or the New History of Mīrzá ʿAlí Muḥammed, the Báb. Translated by E. G. Browne. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1893.
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This work is also called Tarikh-i Badi’-i Bayani (“The new history of the Bayani religion”). It is one of the early primary sources on the history of the Bab and Babism.
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Kashani, Haji Mirza Jani. Kitab-i Nuqtat al-Kaf. Edited by E. G. Browne. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 1910.
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Some details of the provenance, transmission, and authenticity of this account have been subject to much scholarly debate, but it is generally considered an important early primary source on the history of the Babi movement.
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MacEoin, Denis. The Messiah of Shiraz: Studies in Early and Middle Bābīsm. Vol. 3. Iranian Studies. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2009.
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Contains MacEoin’s scholarship on Babism written over thirty years, such as his PhD dissertation “From Shaykhism to Babism” (written in 1979) and a number of articles on Babi history and thought, largely written in the 1980s and 1990s.
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Mohammad-Hosseini, Nosratollah. Hadrat-i Báb. Dundas, ON: Institute for Baha’i Studies in Persian, 1995.
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A history of the life of the Bab and his writings and teachings from a Baha’i perspective.
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Babi Succession

After the Bab’s public execution in 1850 and the death of influential Babi leaders, the Babi community remained virtually without authoritative leadership for several years. The Bab had foretold the appearence of the Babi messianic figure called, “Him whom God shall make Manifest” (man yuzhiruhuʾllah), who would abrogate the Bayan and inaugurate a new religious dispensation. Baha’u’llah and a number of Babis had gone into exile in Baghdad and were later moved to Edirne. It was on Baha’u’llah’s messianic claim to be man yuzhiruhuʾllah that a split occurred between him and his younger half-brother Yaha Azal. Yaha Azal had allegedly been given the position of “vicegerency” in the Babi community, but with Baha’u’llah’s claim to be the Babi messianic figure that position was effectively destabilized, since according to the Bab, all the Babi voteries were to embrace the promised one of the Bayan upon his appearance. After the split, the majority of the Babis eventually turned to Baha’u’llah and became Baha’is, and the remaining Babis sided with Yaha Azal and became known as Azalis or Bayanis.

Baha’is

The development of the Baha’i faith from the Babi matrix is a complex phenomenon. Only those works that bear on aspects of the emergence of the Baha’is from the Babi movment will be outlined here. Baha’u’llah’s defense of his own claims to be the fulfillment of Babi prophecy is exemplified in his work Baha’u’llah 2008. Baha’u’llah’s Kitab-i Iqan, or Book of Certitude (Baha’u’llah 1982), is considered to be the completion of the Bayan-i Farsi. Abbas Effendi, ʿAbd al-Bahaʾ 1891, is a translation of a history of the Babi movement written by the son and successor of Baha’u’llah. Mazandarani 1973 provides some of the most important resources on the history of the religion, in Persian. Cole 1998 is an account of the history and development of the Baha’i faith from a historical-critical perspective. Afnan 2008 is a translation of an early history, chronicling the beginnings of the religion in the province of Fars. MacEoin 1983 provides a historical analysis of the development of the Baha’i faith from Babism. Zarandi 1932 is a translation of the standard hagiographical account of the life of the Bab and the rise of Babism, written from a Baha’i perspective. Cole 2005 is a sociohistorical study of the development of charismatic authority in the Baha’i faith.

ʿAbd al-Bahaʾ, Abbas Effendi. A Traveller’s Narrative Written to Illustrate the Episode of the Bāb. 2 vols. Edited and translated by E. G. Browne. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1891.
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A history of the Bab written by one of the central figures of the Baha’i faith.
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Afnan, Mirza Habibu’llah. The Genesis of the Bábí-Bahá’í Faiths in Shíráz and Fárs. Translated and edited by Ahang Rabbani. Studies in the History of Religions 122. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2008.
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A scholarly translation and annotation of a primary source document, Tarikh-i Amri-i Fars va Shiraz, that narrates the rise of the Babi and Baha’i faiths in Shiraz.
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Baha’u’llah. The Book of Certitude. 3d ed. Translated by Shoghi Effendi. London: Baha’i Publishing Trust, 1982.
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The text of the Bab’s Bayan-i Farsi (Persian Bayan) was considered to have been deliberatly left incomplete by him, in which the last section of the text, instead of the usual nineteen vahids, contains only ten vahids, significantly leaving absent nine vahids. The Book of Certitude is considered to have completed the unfinished Bayan-i Farsi as fulfillment of prophecy.
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Baha’u’llah. Kitáb-i-Badi’. Hofheim-Langenhain, Germany: Baha’i-Verlag, 2008.
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The text is an apologia of Baha’u’llah’s claim to be the Babi messiah (man yuzhiruhu’llah), against Azali/Bayani polemics.
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Cole, Juan R. I. Modernity and the Millennium: The Genesis of the Baha’i Faith in the Nineteenth-Century Middle East. Studies in the Bábí and Bahá’í Religions 9. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998.
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A historical study of the appearance and developement of the Baha’i faith in light of modernism and messianism. Cole analyzes the role the Baha’i faith played in contributing to modernist discourses, not just in Iran but in the wider Ottoman Empire.
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Cole, Juan R. I. “The Evolution of Charismatic Authority in the Baha’i Faith, 1863–1921.” In Religion and Society in Qajar Iran. Edited by Robert M. Gleave, 311–345. RoutledgeCurzon/BIPS Persian Studies 4. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2005.
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Cole deploys the Weberian theory of charismatic authority to analyze the rise of the Baha’i faith from Babism.
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MacEoin, Denis. “From Babism to Baha’ism: Problems of Militancy, Quietism, and Conflation in the Construction of a Religion.” Religion 13.3 (1983): 219–255.
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A historical examination of the development of the Baha’i faith from Babism.
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Mazandarani, Fadil. Tarikh-i Zuhur al-Haqq. Vol. 8, Parts 1 and 2. N.p.: Muʼassasah-i Milli-i Matbuʻat-i Amri, 1973.
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Part 4 published in 2011. An important primary resource in Persian and Arabic for the study of the emergence of the Babi movement.
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Zarandi, Nabil. The Dawn-Breakers: Nabil’s Narrative. Translated and edited by Shoghi Effendi. Wilmette, IL: Baha’i Publishing Trust, 1932.
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Translation of the first part of a yet unpublished voluminous hagiographyTarikh-i Nabil, written by the Baha’i poet Nabil Zarandi in the late 19th century. This part chronicles the Shaykhi movement, the life of the Bab, and the Babi movement as well as its central saints and martyrs. It also gives an account of the emergence of the Baha’i faith from Babism and provides a theological reading of Babi history from a Baha’i perspective.
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Azalis

Two particular documents written by the Bab have been interpreted by both Baha’is and Azalis as appointing Yahya Nuri “Azal” (b. 1831–d. 1912) to leadership of the Babi community until the next Divine Manifestation’s (mazhar) appearance. When Azal’s half-brother Husayn-ʿAli “Baha’u’llah” (b. 1817–d. 1892) announced his claim to fulfill the Bab’s prophecy, Yahya opposed him and a split occured within the Babi community. Eventually most Babis turned to Baha’u’llah, but some Azalis remained active until the middle of the 20th century. They have published small parts of Azal’s own voluminous oeuvre as well as some of the Bab’s writings and a few anti-Baha’i polemics. Al-Mustaiqiz is an early Arabic work by Azal that sheds light on the struggle for leadership in the Babi community in the 1850s. Mutammim-i Bayan gives insight into Azal’s thought as well as his particular style of Persian writing. Qismati az Alvah bih Khatt-i Nuqtih-yi Ula va Aqa Siyyid Husayn Katib is a collection of letters, prayers, and talismans. Tanbih al-Na’imin and Hasht Bihisht are two late Azali polemics against Baha’u’llah, both originally published as pseudepigraphs. None of these editions contains a place or date, but they are generally assumed to have been printed roughly in the 1950s in Tehran. Manuchehri 2004 discusses one of the purported testaments of the Bab. Cole 2004 translates and analyzes a short piece by Azal.

Anon. Tanbih al-Na’imin, n.p., n.d.
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A strongly worded anti-Baha’i polemic, attributed to a sister of Baha’u’llah and Azal, although the authorship is universally doubted or outright rejected by scholars, both on the basis of the manuscript history as well as on internal grounds.
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Cole, Juan R. I., trans. “Treatise on Kingship for A. L. M. Nicolas’ by Subh-i Azal.” Translations of Shaykhi, Babi and Baha’i Texts 8.1 (October 2004).
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A brief summary and translation of a work of Yahya Azal on kingship and the concept of sovereignty.
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Manuchehri, Sepehr. “The Primal Point’s Will and Testament.” Research Notes in Shaykhi, Babi and Baha’i Studies 7.2 (September 2004).
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A translation and study of a text considered to be the Bab’s last will and testament and appointing Yahya Azal head of the community until the appearance of the Babi Messiah.
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Mirza Aqa Khan Kermani, and Shaykh Ahmad Ruhi. Hasht Bihisht. n.p., n.d.
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A work somewhat anachronistically attributed to an early Babi figure. It contains at times vitriolic polemic, but in large parts reads like a program for social and political change in Iran inspired by, but certainly not entirely based on, the Bab’s writings.
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Nuri, Mirza Yahya. “Azal.” In Al-Mustaiqiz, n.p., n.d.
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This is a facsimile printing of a manuscript in the author’s own handwriting. The book represents an extensive polemic by the nominal Babi leader of the time against rival claims to authority in the Babi community of the 1850s.
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Nuri, Mirza Yahya. “Azal.” In Mutammim-i Bayan, n.p., n.d.
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A facsimile printing of a manuscript in the author’s own handwriting. The book is supposed to be an addendum to the text of the Bab’s major work Bayan-i Farsi, which he had left incomplete.
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Qismati az Alvah bih Khatt-i Nuqtih-yi Ula va Aqa Siyyid Husayn Katib.
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Most of the works included in this short volume have been authored by Azal, only a few by the Bab.
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Writings of the Bab

The Bab was a prolific author and despite the short duration of his prophetic career (1844–1850) he has left a vast oeuvre, which so far remains largely unpublished and neglected. His writings were written down or dictated to secretaries with great speed, a fact attested to by several eyewitness accounts as well as the Bab himself, who invoked the fact as proof of divine inspiration. The early writings of the Bab (pre-1848) and especially those penned before announcement of his messianic claims (pre-1844) are heavily couched in the prevalent Shiʿa terminology, mainly that of hadith and prayer literature, with a clear Shaykhi influence, although the style in both Arabic and Persian already stands out from said sources. From 1847 (banishment to Maku) the Bab’s writings become increasingly detached from the Shiʿa background and employ other, at times unique terminology. The latest writings (1848–1850) are characterized by heavy messianism directed toward the promised “Him whom God shall manifest” (man yuzhiruhuʾllah) as well as invocations of divine names and attributes, often employing neologisms and creating derivatives of Arabic roots that do not exist in prevalent usage of Arabic. The Bab also divided his writings into five categories (al-shuʾun al-khamsah, shuʾun-i khamsih), though there seems to be no unified list of these in his own writings, and some works fit in more than one category. Among the categories identified by him are works of Qurʾanic exegesis (“Tafsir”), sermons (“Khutab”), prayers and invocations (“Munajat”), divine verses (“ayat”), Persian works, and correspondence and treatises (“shuun-i ʿilmiyyih”). The Bab has produced several bibliographies of his own works, although they stem from the earliest period of his career and therefore are far from complete. No reliable estimate as to the quantity of his literary output is as yet available, but it is already clear that it comprises at least a few dozen volumes.

Primary Sources

Manuscript collections of the Bab’s writings are found in the British Library, the French National Library, and the library at Princeton University as well as in private libraries. Presumably, the most comprehensive collection so far is the International Baha’i Archive in Haifa, Israel. Since the second half of the 20th century a number of the Bab’s works have been published anonymously and without publication details in Iran. These have subsequently been made available via the H-Net listserver. Al-Ayat al-Shiraziyyah (ʿAbbas 2009) contains the first work written by the Bab after declaring his prophetic mission. Bayan-i Farsi and al-Bayan al-ʿArabi va Haykal al-Din va Sharh Haykal al-Din are to be considered the Bab’s most important works and according to his own testimony they form the “Mother Book” of his revelation. Sahifih-yi ʿAdliyyih is an early Persian treatise that deals with the basic tenets of the faith. Risalah fi Ithbat al-Nubuwwah al-Khassah is an Arabic treatise representing the theological, prophetological, and epistemological thought of the Bab. Dala’il-i Sabʾih is the Bab’s most important apologetic work. Panj Sha’n is a collection of prayers, sermons, and letters to early followers. Muntakhabat is a compilation of short passages from various works of the Bab.

ʿAbbas, Qasim Muhammad, ed. Al-Ayat al-Shiraziyyah. Damascus, Syria: Al-Mada, 2009.
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Includes the text of the very important first major work of the Bab, Qayyum al-Asma, an allegorical interpretaion of the Qur’anic Surah of Josef. Also includes the text of al-Bayan al-ʿArabi.
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Al-Bayan al-ʿArabi va Haykal al-Din va Sharh Haykal al-Din.
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The first two works included in this book are to some extent concise summaries of the content of the longer Bayan-i Farsi, written in an at times somewhat obscure Arabic style. The third work is a commentary on the first chapters of Haykal al-Din.
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Bayan-i Farsi, n.p. n.d.
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An edition of the Bab’s major work based on several manuscripts. In it the Bab laid down his teachings on theology, prophetology, and epistemology and introduced his new Sharia, supposed to supersede Islamic law, including detailed ritual observances and social teachings.
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“Dala’il-i Sabʾih.” In The Bab: Collected Works. H-Net Humanities and Social Sciences Online.
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A two-part apologia of the Bab’s claim to revelation and to revealing divine verses equal to those of the Quran. The first part is in Persian, the second part is in the Arabic language.
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“Panj Sha’n.” In The Bab: Collected Works. H-Net Humanities and Social Sciences Online.
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A work published in two volumes, including specimens of the Bab’s five modes or styles (shu’un) of writing: prayers (munajat), sermons (khutab), exegesis (tafsir), elaborations (shu’un ʿilmiyyah), and Persian works (shu’un-i farsiyyih).
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“Risalah fi Ithbat al-Nubuwwah al-Khassah.” In Frühe Šaiḫī- und Bābī-Theologie: Die Darlegung der Beweise für Muhammads besonderes Prophetentum. Edited by A. Eschraghi. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2004.
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Includes a critical edition of a major treatise of the Bab and two smaller pieces based on an autograph manuscript and on three other copies.
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“Sahifih-yi ʿAdliyyih.” In The Bab: Collected Works. H-Net Humanities and Social Sciences Online.
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Probably the Bab’s earliest Persian work. It is a commentary on fundamental issues of Shi’a belief, mainly the station of the Imams and their representatives, largely couched in Shaykhi terminology.
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Translations

The Bab’s style of expression in both Persian and Arabic is notoriously difficult and requires patient study. Translations into Western languages represent a major challenge and therefore are quite rare. Nicolas 1902, Nicolas 1905, and Nicolas 1914 are translations of three major works of the Bab into French. Gobineau 1865 is an attempt to translate the short al-Bayan al-ʿArabi. Browne 1987 is a summary translation of Bayan-i Farsi. Todd 2002 makes available one of the earliest mystical treatises of the Bab. Alkan 2003 introduces and translates the Bab’s only known letter to the head of the Ottoman Empire. A selection of the writings of the Bab was translated into English by the Baha’i author Adib Taherzadeh (Taherzadeh 1982).

Alkan, Necati. “An Epistle of Sayyid Alí Muhammad ‘the Báb’ to Sultan Abdulmecid.” Lights of Irfán Book Four (2003): 1–16.
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An introduction to the Bab’s short letter sent to the Ottoman ruler of the time, together with an English translation.
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Browne, Edward Granville. “A Summary of the Persian Bayán.” In Selections from the Writings of E. G.Browne on the Bábí and Bahá´í Religions. Edited by Moojan Momen, 316–406. Oxford: George Ronald, 1987.
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An outline of the contents of Bayan-i Farsi containing numerous translated excerpts.
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Gobineau, Joseph Arthur, comte de. Les religions et philosophies dans l’Asie centrale. Paris: Didier, 1865.
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Contains a very early nearly complete French translation of al-Bayan al-ʿArabi as Le livre des preceptes (Ketab-e Hukkam) on pp. 389–474.
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Nicolas, A. L. M. Le livre de sept preuves de la mission du Bab. Translated by Louis Alphonse Daniel Nicolas (A.-L.-M.). Paris: Librairie Orientale et Americaine, 1902.
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French translation of Dala’il-i Sabʾih.
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Nicolas, A. L. M. Le Béyan Arabe, le livre sacré du Babysme de Seyyed Ali Mohamed dit le Bab Paris. Translated from Arabic by Louis Alphonse Daniel Nicolas (A.-L.-M.). Paris: Ernest Leroux, 1905.
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French translation of al-Bayan al-ʿArabi.
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Nicolas, A. L. M. Seyyed Ali Mohmmed [sic!] dit le Bab, Le Béyan Persan. Translated by Louis Alphonse Daniel Nicolas (A.-L.-M.). Paris: Librairie Paul Geuthner, 1914.
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French translation of Bayan-i Farsi.
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Taherzadeh, Habib, trans. Selections from the Writings of the Báb. Wilmette, IL: Baha’i Publishing Trust, 1982.
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A compilation of short passages from various works of the Bab, translated into English and later on into most other Western languages. The criteria for selection are not stated, but obviously to a large extent the aim of the compiler/translator was to demonstrate the close relationship between the Bab’s thought and the Baha’i teachings. The original language texts subsequently have been published as Muntakhabat az Ayat-i Hadrat-i Nuqtih-yi Ula (1976, Reprinted in 1982).
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Todd, Lawson B. “The Bab’s Epistle on the Spiritual Journey towards God.” Lights of ´Irfán Book 3 (2002): 49–58.
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Introduction, commentary, and English translation of a short piece by the Bab written before announcement of his claim.
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Studies

Numerous studies, glosses and commentaries have appeared on the writings of the Bab. Brown 2005a and Brown 2005b are two articles on different aspects of the Bab’s writings, one on his autobibliographies and the other his messianic Qur’an commentaries. Behmardi and McCants 2007 provides an analysis of the Bab’s often idiosyncratic Arabic style. McCants 2003 is a semi-critical edition and commentary on one of the works of the Bab. Lawson 1998a, Lawson 1998b, and Lawson 2007, respectively, discuss the Bab’s Qur’an commentaries, symbolic titles of the Bab, and the place of Fatima, the prophet Muhammad’s daughter, in one of the Bab’s early writings. Lawson 2015 is a comparative look at the Bab’s first scriptural text and James Joyce’s novel Ulysses.

Behmardi, Vahid, and William McCants. “A Stylistic Analysis of the Báb’s Writings.” OJBS: Online Journal of Baha’i Studies 1 (2007): 114–136.
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Abridged Annotated Translation of Vahid Behmardi’s “Muqaddamih-yi dar bárih-yi sabk va siyáq-i áthár-i mubárakih-yi H.a.rat-i rabb-i A`lá.” A partial translation of Behmardi’s Persian article on the Bab’s highly eccentric Arabic style.
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Brown, Vahid. “Autobibliography in the Writings of the Bab.” Lights of ‘Irfan 6 (2005a): 47–68.
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A discussion of four autobibliographies in the Bab’s writings, with a translation and commentary of one of them called Khutba Dhikriyya.
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Brown, Vahid. “Textual Resurrection: Book, Imam and Cosmos in the Qur’an Commentaries of the Bab.” (Revised). Bahai Studies Review 13 (2005b): 59–73.
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A study of the Bab’s highly esoteric Qur’an commentaries that Brown contends constituted a reenactment of the expectation of the completion of the Qur’an in Shi‘a tradition.
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Lawson, Todd. “Qur’an Commentary as Sacred Performance: The Bab’s Tafsirs of Qur’an 103 and 108, the Declining Day and the Abundance.” In Iran im 19. Jahrhundert und die Enstehung der Baha’i Religion. Vol. 8. Edited by Christoph Burgel and Isobel Schayani. Religionswissenschaftliche Texte und Studien 8. Hildesheim, Germany: George Olms, 1998a.
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A literary analysis of the Bab’s Qur’an commentaries as sacred performance.
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Lawson, Todd. “The Terms Remembrance (dhikr) and Gate (bab) in the Bab’s Commentary on the Sura of Joseph.” In Studies in Honor of the Late Hasan M. Balyuzi. Vol. 5. Edited by Moojan Momen, 1–63. Studies in the Babi and Baha’i Religions. Los Angeles: Kalimat, 1998b.
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An analysis of theological termiology in the lexicon of the Bab.
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Lawson, Todd. “The Authority of the Feminine and Fatima’s Place in an Early Work by the Bab (Revised.” OJBS: Online Journal of Baha’i Studies 1 (2007): 137–170.
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A study of the mystical significance of Fatima in one of the texts of the Bab, Tafsir surat Yusuf.
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Lawson, Todd. “Joycean Modernism in a Nineteenth-Century Qur’an Commentary? A Comparison of the Bab’s Qayyūm Al-Asmā’ with Joyce’s Ulysses.” In Erin and Iran: Cultural Encounters between the Irish and the Iranians. Edited by H. E. Chehabi and Grace Neville, 79–118. Boston: Center for Hellenic Studies Trustees of Harvard University, 2015.
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A comparative analysis of one of the Bab’s early Qur’an commentaries, with James Joyce’s novel Ulysses as works of literary modernism and, in the Bab’s case, a religiously inflected one.
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McCants, William. “A Grammar of the Divine: Translation, Notes, and Semi-critical Edition of the Bab’s Risalah fi al-nahw wa al-sarf (A Treatise on Grammar).” Syzygy: A Journal of Babi-Baha’i Studies 1.1 (2003).
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A semi-critical edition, translation, and commentary on the Bab’s Treatise on Grammar.
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Writings of Early Babis

In his writings the Bab called on his followers to write treatises to promote and defend his message. Although a vast number of early converts came from clerical ranks, surprisingly little literary output has been preserved, a fact that might be due to historical circumstances, not least the severe persecution and near extinction of the Babi community in the early 1850s. Among the historically most well-known leading Babi personalities was Fatimih Baraghani known as “Tahirih Qurratu’l-ʿAyn,” distinguished as one of the “Letters of the Living” in the symbolic alphabetic universe of the Babi dispensation. Adambakan 2008 is a German study of the life and thought of Qurratu’l-ʿAyn. Mohammad-Hosseini 2000 is an intellectual biography of the life and works of Tahirih, and Banani 2004 is a translation of a collection of Tahirih’s poetry. Hemmat and Hatcher 2002 provides another compilation and translation of Qurratu’l-ʿAyn’s poetry, and Afnan Thabit 2008 is a collection of several of the author’s Arabic prose works in the form of letters. Wardi 1997 is an Arabic study of the life and death of Tahirah Qurrat al-‘Ayn. Mazandarani 2008, an account of early Babism, includes letters and short works by Tahirih and other Babi personalities, such as Muhammad-Ali Barfurushi “Quddus” and Husayn Bushru’i, “Mullah Husayn Bab al-Bab.”

Adambakan, Soraya. Qurrat al-ʿAyn: Eine Studie der religiösen und gesellschaftlichen Folgen ihres Wirkens. Vol. 278. Islamkundliche Untersuchungen. Berlin: Klaus Schwarz Verlag, 2008.
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The author’s dissertation in German, which is the study of the life and religious thought of Tahirih Qurrat al-’Ayn and its social consequences.
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Afnan Thabit, Yusuf. Buka’ al-Tahirah. Rasa’il Qurrat al-ʿAyn. Damascus, Syria: Al-Mada, 2008.
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A collection of several Arabic letters by Tahirah written to fellow Babis as well as to adversaries.
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Banani, Amin, ed. Tahirih: A Portrait in Poetry; Selected Poems of Qurratu’l-‘Ayn. Los Angeles: Kalimát, 2004.
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A bilingual (Persian/English) edition of a number of poems attributed to Tahirih, together with a short commentary and an introduction to the debates around authenticity and the challenges faced by translators.
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Hemmat, Amrollah, and John S. Hatcher. The Poetry of Táhirih. Oxford: George Ronald, 2002.
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A bilingual edition of poems attributed to Tahirih roughly arranged by topics, with explanatory notes and an introduction to her life and works. The authors have since continued their work in two similar volumes that appeared in 2008 and 2011, respectively.
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Mazandarani, Asadullah. Tarikh-i Zuhur al-Haqq. Vol. 3. Hofheim, Germany: Muʼassasa-i Maṭbūʻāt-i Bahāʼī-i Ālmān, 2008.
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A biographical work on early Babi history, includes transcripts and sometimes facsimiles of letters, treatises, and poems attributed to early Babi leaders.
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Mohammad-Hosseini, Nosratollah. Hadrat-i Tahirih. Dundas, ON: Persian Institute for Baha’i Studies, 2000.
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An extensive biography of Tahirih based on a vast array of sources, which also includes about 150 pages of her poems and prose works, some of which are published here for the first time and reproduced in her original handwriting.
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Wardi, Ali. Hakadha qatalu Qurrat al-ʻAyn. Cologne: Manshūrāt al-Jamal, 1997.
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An important work by an Iraqi academic on the life of Tahirah Qurrat al-‘Ayn.
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Anti-Babi Polemics

The bulk of anti-Babi polemics is found in refutations of the Baha’i faith and thus usually addresses Babism from a later perspective. Kirmani 1934, Kirmani 1972, and Kirmani 1976 are among the earliest works known to exist that are devoted solely to refuting Babism, in this case from a distinctinctly Shaykhi perspective. Momen 1982 discusses the earliest known text of anti-Babi polemics, a fatwa signed by several leading Sunni, Shiʻa, Sufi, and Sunni leaders in Baghdad. Iʾtidad 1972, edited by Abd al-Husayn Nava’i, is written by a noncleric and offers a slightly different approach. Zaʾim 1903 argues against Babism from a general Islamic perspective, Shirazi 1913 is specifically written from a Twelver-Shiʿa perspective.

Iʾtidad, al-Saltanih. Fitnih-yi Bab. Edited by ʿAbd al-Husayn Nava’i. Teheran, Iran: Intisharat-i Babak, 1972.
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This work is important because unlike most other anti-Babi polemics it is not written by a cleric but by a statesman and shows how the Bab’s movement was perceived by the government of the time.
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Kirmani, Karim Khan. Al-Shiháb al-Thaqib fi rajm al-Nawasib. Kerman, Iran: Maktabat al-Saʾadah, 1934.
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An early Arabic refutation of one of the Bab’s letters to the author, the head of the Kirmani branch of Shaykhism. It is representative of the reaction of traditional “ulama” to the Bab’s controversial claims and shows how he and his writings were perceived by them.
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Kirmani, Karim Khan. Izhaq al-Batil. Kerman, Iran: Maktabat al-Saʾadah, 1972.
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Possibly the earliest written refutation of Babism, authored in Arabic by the head of the Kirmani branch of Shaykhism in July 1845. An important document for understanding the claim of the Bab and its reception on behalf of his first and primary audience, namely Shiʾite and especially Shaykhi “ulama.”
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Kirmani, Karim Khan. Irshad al-ʿAwamm. 4 vol. Kerman, Iran: Maktabat as-Saʿada, 1976.
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The author of this lengthy work on the foundations of Shaykhi belief devotes a considerable part to the Bab’s claim and writings, with the expressed aim to employ simple Persian language to make the work accessible to the illiterate and misguided masses.
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Momen, Moojan. “The Trial of Mullá ʿAlí Bastámí: A Combined Sunní-Shíʿí Fatwá against the Báb.” Iran 20 (1982): 113–143.
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Introduction, analysis, and English translation of a historically significant document issued by representatives from several Islamic denominations in the year 1845, and most probably the first quasi-official Muslim response to the Bab’s claim. Persian translation by Kiumars Mazlum contains the original fatwa, Pazhuhish-Namih 3 (1998): 39–84.
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Shirazi, Abu Talib. Asrar al-ʿAqa’id. 2 vols. Teheran, Iran: Dar al-Kutub al-Islamiyyah, 1331 [1913].
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A polemical refutation of other faiths from the perspective of late-19th-century Usuli-Shiʿism. Includes a fairly long, detailed, and relatively well-informed discussion of Babism.
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Zaʾim, al-Dawlah. Tarikh al-Babiyyah aw Miftah Bab al-Abwab. Cairo, Egypt: n.p., 1903.
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An influential polemical book that deals in much detail with the history of Babism and the writings of the Bab from a Muslim (not specifically Shiʿa) point of view, although the information contained is largely unreliable.
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Babi Doctrine

MacEoin 1992 is an academic survey of Babi texts and the historiography of Babism. Saiedi 2008 identifies and analyzes major concepts in the Bab’s central works and offers a hermeneutic approach to its more obscure aspects from a Baha’i perspective. Lawson 2012 provides an astute reading of the literary origins of the Babi movement. Eschraghi 2005 is a study into the Bab’s numerous Qurʾanic tafsir works and how they relate to his Messianic claims and abrogation of Islamic Law. Lawson and Ghaemmaghami 2012 is an important collection of essays on the writings of the Bab. Afnan 2013 contains a large number of articles and research notes on various aspects of Babi scripture and terminology. Lambden 1988 is a study of aspects of the Bab’s deployment of Sinaitic theophanic motifs in the Bible and Qurʾan as a typology for his station as “Manifestation of God.” MacEoin 1994 collects the ritual aspects of the Bab’s new religous laws.

Afnan, Muhammad. Majmuʿih-yi Maqalat. Dundas, ON: Persian Institute for Baha’i Studies, 2013.
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A collection of the author’s essays, articles, and research notes on a wide array of topics, such as introducing manuscript collections, individual works of the Bab, and explainations of the background of specific Babi terms and concepts from a Baha’i perspective.
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Eschraghi, Armin. “Studien zum frühen Schrifttum des Báb.” In Beiträge des Irfán-Kolloquiums 2004. By Armin Eschraghi, 7–81. Hofheim, Germany: Bahá’í-Verlag, 2005.
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A two-part study of the Bab’s various Qur’anic commentaries and their relation to his messianic claim and later Babi doctrine.
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Lambden, Stephen. “The Sinaitic Mysteries: Notes on Moses/Sinai Motifs in Babi and Baha’i Scripture.” In Studies in Honor of the Late Hasan M. Balyuzi. Vol. 5. Ed. by Moojan Momen, 65–185. Studies in the Babi and Baha’i Religions. Los Angeles: Kalimat, 1988.
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An extensive article that touches on Babi theology and theophanology, or the concept of “Manifestation of God” (mazhar illahi) in light of Moses/Sinai theophanological motifs.
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Lawson, Todd. Gnostic Apocalypse in Islam: The Qur’an, Tafsir, Messianism, and the Literary Origins of the Bābī Movement. London: Routledge, 2012.
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The volume represents a revision and expanded version of Lawson’s unpublished Ph.D. thesis, “The Qur’an Commentary of Sayyid ʿAli Muhammad, the Bab, 1819–1850,” written in 1987. Lawson deals with the early writings and thought of the Bab, which are riddled with esoteric, mystical, and gnostic motifs in Shiʿism and especially Shaykhism.
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Lawson, Todd, and Omid Ghaemmaghami. A Most Noble Pattern: Collected Essays on the Writings of the Bab,`Ali Muhammad Shirazi, 1819–1850. Oxford: George Ronald, 2012.
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A collection of scholarly articles, translations, and some faith-based articles on select writings of the Bab.
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MacEoin, Denis. The Sources for Early Bābī Doctrine and History: A Survey. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 1992.
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An indispensable academic survey of the textual and doctrinal history of Babism—both by the Bab and by Babi notables—that includes notices of primary historical sources documenting the origins and development of the Babi movement.
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MacEoin, Denis. Rituals in Babism and Baha´ism. London: British Academic Press, 1994.
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A detailed and thorough exposition of ritual ordinances in the Bab’s writings.
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Saiedi, Nader. Gate of the Heart: Understanding the Writings of the Báb. Waterloo, ON: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2008.
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A study of the Bab’s complex symbolism and the structure of his main works and an introduction to the major epistemological themes in his writings, written from a Baha’i perspective. To date, this is the only introductory book to the Bab’s writings in the English language.