INTRODUCTION This book is not intended to be a comprehensive history of the Babi religion. Nevertheless, its chapters reveal the emergence of a new religion in nineteenth century Iran and its revolutionary teachings that with the passion and sacrifice of its adherents gradually penetrated Iranian society. Despite more than one and a half centuries of violent persecution, this religion not only continued to exist but also transformed and spread beyond the borders of Iran in the form of the Baha’i Faith. The picture conveyed by historians of the Qajar era or by Babi and Baha’i historians is an astonishing narrative of the embrace of this new religion by a considerable proportion of the Iranian people. The question of how, in a time when there were no means of rapid communication, the name and the teachings of the Bab spread so rapidly throughout Iran and the sacred Shia cities of Iraq, has been answered in different ways. These explanations revolve mainly around the economic crisis in nineteenth century Iran, the corruption of the Qajar monarchy, the tyranny of the rulers, and disillusionment with the immorality and hypocrisy of the Shia religious clerics. They argue that under such circumstances, in search of hope and salvation, people turned to the Bab, especially when his prophetic claims coincided with the messianic expectations of Shia Islam.
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