Bab: Persian Bayan

Context

The Bab’s writings are intentionally scriptural and take a prophetic and mystical tone rooted in what might be characterized as a very liberal interpretation of the Qur’an. This interpretation arose from a religious and political revolutionary sect called Shaykhism. Shaykhis were Muslims who followed the spiritual teachings of Shaykh Ahmad (1753–1826) and believed that a final Islamic “imam,” or teacher, was coming. This final imam’s appearance in the world would coincide with the beginning of the final stage of human history. Shaykh Ahmad’s teachings were based on the beliefs of Twelver Shias: This Islamic sect believed that Islam was to be led by a series of twelve imams, starting with Ali (the son-in-law of Muhammad, the founder of Islam, and the first imam) and ending with a figure named Muhammad al-Mahdi (“the Mahdi”). While the first eleven imams died, it was believed of the twelfth that he had disappeared but would reappear before the Day of Judgment and make truth and justice triumphant—an event referred to in Islam as “occultation.” The Shaykhis believed that if the Mahdi was to provide guidance, someone on earth had to be able to communicate with him; Shaykh Ahmad was regarded as the first person able to do so. This capability gave the sect’s leader a kind of divinity in his followers’ eyes.

Although the event is largely undocumented, Baha’is believe that the Bab met the successor of Shaykh Amad, Sayyid Kazim (1793–1843), while visiting Karbala (the holy city of Shia Islam in Iraq) in 1839 and 1840. In 1842, shortly before his death, Kazim directed another Shaykhi named Mulla Husayn (1813–1849) to search for the Mahdi, who was believed to be a forerunner to the “final imam.” Two years later, in 1844, following a forty-day period of secluded prayer, Mulla Husayn met the Bab in Shiraz (in southwestern Iran), and the Bab declared himself the Mahdi; Husayn became the Bab’s first follower.

Although the Bab’s writings are understood and accepted as world scripture, it is important to remember that his writings were religiously and politically radical. Many of the Bab’s writings were written from prison, contributing to their revolutionary nature and implied audience; the audience of the texts would have been largely limited to the Bab’s faithul and other supporters, but the texts themselves are aimed at his theological or political opponents. Many of Baha’u’llah’s primary texts were also composed from prison. The Persian Bayan, the Bab’s most important text, is believed to have been entirely written while he was imprisoned in Maku in late 1847 or the early months of 1848. The Bab’s writings are intentionally heretical to traditional Islam while being theologically playful with Islamic ideas, and his audience viewed his words as negating and replacing Islam itself as a means of preparing humanity for a new religious teaching that would replace all religions. The political systems of the Middle East as well as the Western colonial influences on the region were believed to be ready to be overturned by the new age for which the Bab was preparing his audience.