Babiyya

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BABIYYA

The Babi movement began during a period of heightened chiliastic expectation for the return of the Twelfth Imam (or Hidden Imam), who Shi˓ite Muslims believe will fill the world with justice. As such, the movement attracted not only students of religion, but members from all strata of society who probably sought change in the existing order.

The initial converts to the Babi movement were mid- to low-level clerics from the Shaykhi school of Twelver Shi˓ite Islam. The school, founded upon the teachings of Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsa˓i, was mainstream with regard to Shi˓ite law, Akhbari in its veneration for the utterances ascribed to the twelve imams, and theosophical in its approach to metaphysical matters. Shaykh Ahmad's successor, Sayyed Kazem, developed the eschatological teachings of his predecessor and taught that the advent of the "promised one" was imminent, although he did not specify if this figure was to be an intermediary of the hidden imam or the imam himself.

On 22 May 1844, ˓Ali Mohammad, a young merchant who had briefly attended the classes of Sayyed Kazem in Karbala, told a fellow Shaykhi disciple, Mulla Hosayn Boshrui, that he was the "gate" (bab) of the Hidden Imam and wrote an extemporaneous commentary on the Qur˒anic Sura of Joseph, the Qayyum al-asma˒ , to substantiate his claim. So impressed was Molla Hosayn and other students of Sayyed Kazem with the eloquence and learning ˓of Ali Mohammad and his ability to produce verses (ayat) at great speed and with no apparent forethought that they publicly endorsed his claims to be the gate of the Hidden Imam, while privately they believed that his station was much higher. The exact nature of the Bab's claims remained a matter of controversy during the first four years of his seven-year prophetic career. Although he initially made no explicit claim to prophethood, he implicitly claimed to receive revelation by emulating the style of the Qur˒an in the Qayyum al-asma˒ .

After the formation of the first core of believers, who, along with the Bab, were referred to as the first Vahed (Unity), the group dispersed at his instruction to proclaim the advent of the Bab, whose new theophany was to be initiated by his pilgrimage to Mecca, reaching a crescendo with his arrival in the holy cities of Iraq. The Bab instructed Molla Hosayn to disseminate his teachings in Iran and deliver the Qayyum al-asma˒ to the shah and his chief minister. Another disciple was sent to Azerbaijan, while others were instructed to return to their homes to spread the new message. The majority of the Bab's first disciples departed for Iraq, including Molla ˓Ali Bastami, who was sent as a representative to the holy cities. There, he preached the new message in public. As a result, both the messenger and the author of the message were condemned as heretics in a joint fatwa by prominent Sunni and Shi˓ite ulema in Iraq.

Following this episode, the Bab decided not to meet with his followers in Karbala as he had planned so as not to further raise the ire of an already enraged clerical establishment. This led to the disaffection of some of his more militant followers, who were expecting the commencement of a holy war. It also emboldened the Bab's critics, particularly the rival claimants for leadership of the Shaykhi community.

Persecution of the Babis in Iran began in 1845 and the Bab himself was confined to his home in June 1845. During this period he was forced to publicly deny certain claims that had been attributed to him, which he was willing to comply with since his actual claim was much more challenging, as witnessed in his later epistles and public statements, particularly from 1848 onward. By asserting that he was the recipient of revelation and divine authority, whether explicitly or implicitly by emulating the style of the Qur˒an, the Bab challenged the right of the ulema to collect alms on behalf of the Hidden Imam and interpret scripture in his absence. Further, his claim to be the Qa˓im (the one who rises at the end of time), made explicit at his public trial in Tabriz, indirectly threatened the stability of the Qajar monarchy of Iran, which held power as the Shadow of God on earth and depended upon the quiescent Shi˓ite clergy for legitimacy.

Despite the hostility of much of the high-ranking clergy, the Bab continued to win converts from among the ulema, including two very prominent personalities: Sayyed Yahya Darabi and Molla Mohammad ˓Ali Hojjat al-Islam Zanjani. In 1846, he managed to leave Shiraz and make his way to the home of the governor of Isfahan, Manuchehr Khan Mo˓tamad al-Dawla, a Georgian Christian convert to Islam who sympathized with the Bab's cause. There, he enjoyed increasing popularity, which further roused the ulema, who incited the shah against the Bab. Following the death of his patron, he was placed under arrest. From this point on, the charismatic persona of the Bab was removed from the public arena, as he was transferred from prison to prison until his final execution at the hands of government troops on 9 July 1850.

Although the Bab continued to influence the movement from prison through the dissemination of thousands of pages of writing, leadership of the community devolved upon his chief lieutenants, notably Molla Hosayn, Molla Mohammad ˓Ali Barforushi (also known as the Qoddus, "the Most Holy"), Qorrat al-˓Ayn, the well-known poetess (also known as Tahereh, "the Pure One"), Darabi, Zanjani, and Mirza Hosayn ˓Ali Nuri (later known as Baha allah). The latter, together with Qoddus and Tahereh, presided over a decisive meeting of Babis at Badasht, where a formal break with Islamic law was initiated when Tahereh publicly removed her veil. She was later put to death in 1852 upon the orders of the government, ratified by leading doctors of law. Qoddus would also die at the instigation of some members of the ulema following his capture at the shrine of Shaykh Tabarsi, where he, Molla Hosayn, and an embattled group of Babis defended themselves against government troops in the province of Khurasan. Molla Hosayn and most of the fort's defenders lost their lives there. Similarly, Darabi and Zanjani led large groups of Babis in armed resistance to government troops at Nayriz and Zanjan, but ultimately met the same fate as their fellow believers. In 1852, as a result of an assassination attempt on the life of Naser al-Din Shah by some Babis, several hundred to a few thousand of the Bab's followers were brutally executed or imprisoned. Among them was Mirza Husayn ˓Ali Nuri, the future Baha˒allah, who suffered a four-month captivity in a darkened pit (siyah chal), followed by exile to Iraq.

Although the demographic makeup of the Babi movement cannot be determined with precision, it is safe to say that it was largely an urban movement with significant concentrations of converts in rural areas. While it initially drew upon Shaykhi ulema, it later attracted followers from a range of social classes, particularly merchants and craftsmen. Finally, preaching and conversion were confined to predominantly Shi ite areas in Iraq and Iran.

As has been stressed by modern scholars, the Babi movement served as a vehicle of social protest, uniting a number of otherwise inimical heterodox and social classes in opposition to the established order. Despite this shared desire for social change (which still remains to be proven), the Bab's charismatic personality and forceful writing also played a central role in attracting converts and admirers, even in the West. Rather than being an unwitting product of messianic expectation, content to remain within the bounds of traditional Shi˓ite notions of the function of the Hidden Imam as the Mahdi and reformer of Islam, the Bab enunciated a supra-Islamic message that included new laws and social teachings designed, by his own admission, to prepare the people for a second theophany: the coming of "Him Whom God will make manifest" (man yuzhiruhu˒llah).

Although there were a number of claimants to this theophany in the 1850s, most Babis followed the Bab's nominee, Baha˒allah's half-brother Mirza Yahya (also known as Subh Azal). After Baha˒allah claimed this station in 1863, however, the majority of Babis recognized him as the fulfillment of the Bab's prophecies concerning the second theophany and subsequently identified themselves as Baha˒is. The Bab's followers, who continued to owe their allegiance to Subh Azal, became known as Azalis and played an important role in Iran's constitutional revolution in 1906.