HOJJATIYYA SOCIETY

The Hojjatiyya (Hojjatieh) Society is an anti-Baha˒i group that was established in 1957 by Mahmood-e Halabi, one of the well-known preachers and publicists of Mashad, the religious center of Khorasan province in Iran. (Bahaism is a religious movement that originated in Iran in the nineteenth century.) After the resignation of Reza Shah (1941), who opposed political activity by clerics, Halabi began to criticize the history and doctrine of Bahaism. When Halabi moved to Tehran, after Mohammad Reza Shah's coup d'etat against the national government of Mohammad Mosaddegh at 1953, he found significant support from the conservative clergy, and the leading ulema approved of the Hojjatiyya Society's activities. Hojjatiyya opposed any radical or revolutionary activity, and consequently there were no prohibitions on its social and cultural approach.

After Iran's Islamic revolution in 1978–1979, the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who opposed Hojjatiyya's thesis as criticizing and crushing Bahaism as the main agenda of the Islamic Revolution, put some limitation on the activity of this group. Nevertheless Hojjatiyya was successful in closing the Baha˒i's public meetings and preventing the dissemination of the movement's ideas. In 1983, Halabi stopped the educational activities of the Hojjatiyya Society, following Khomeini's request that he do so. Hojjatiyya members have since been active in Iran's judiciary, security system, and in offices responsible for staffing Iran's governmental institutions.

See alsoBaha˒i Faith ; Revolution: Islamic Revolution in Iran .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Baghi, Emad al-din. Hizb-e-Qaedin Zaman. Tehran: Ettela˓at Publisher, 1984.

Majid Mohammadi