Bab, Baha’u’llah’s Predecessor, but very Different

Mirza Ali Muhammad Bab, was a student in Seyed Kazem Rashti’s class.

Among the disciples of Rashti there was one called “Ali Muhammad Shirazi”. He was born in Shiraz in 1235 A.H (1819 A.D), his father died while he was young. His uncle which was his guardian put him in one of Rashti’s disciple’s class called Maktab Abed, after a while the uncle took him to the port of Bushehr in the Persian Gulf, where he opened a commercial store for him, but due to his mental disorder he couldn’t manage the store.

Therefore his uncle took his nephew to elsewhere, to Karbala at the age of 20 for rehabilitation. Rashti recognized him as his disciple. In one of Rashti’s classes, Rashti said: “You should look for the Gate of Imam Mahdi”. When S. K. Rashti died the disciples decided to look for the Gate throughout Iran after his death. Ali Muhammad Shirazi moved to Shiraz, whereupon Hossein Bushrui appointed Qurrat al-ayn in Rashti’s place to teach the companions in Karbala. She selected a strong man among them named Muhammad Ali Barfurushi who was called al-quddus (the holy).

Bushrui helped Mirza Ali Muhammad Shirazi to become known as Bab

Then Bushrui set out for Shiraz and joined “Ali Muhammad Shirazi” where he could abuse the young man’s naiveté and conceit. He told him “You would soon be a man of great importance” who his master Rashti had informed him. Shirazi might be The Gate. Bushrui even offered himself to be The Gate of the Gate (the Bab of the Bab), he continued to induce Ali Muhammad Shirazi until 5 Jumadi I1260 A.H (A.D 1844), which Shirazi announced, he is Gate of Imam Mahdi (he was then 25 years old). During the announcement of Ali Muhammad Shirazi, 4 others devotees of Rashti, such as Mirza Shafee Tabrizi claimed as the new Gate of Imam Mahdi, but none of them were successful.

Russian Ambassador: the moving force behind the scenes

Husayn Bushrui hastened to announce the manifestation of Bab to the rest of Rashti’s disciples, also indirectly to announce himself as the Gate of Bab. It was later revealed that one of the moving forces behind the curtain was the Russian ambassador in Tehran. The man who ostensibly accepted Islam, studied Arabic, Persian, and became a regular attendant of Rashti’s lectures. In fact he was implanting the misleading tree in the land of Islamic nation. He played an effective role in managing Seyed Kazem Rashti and Ali Muhammad Shirazi and Husayn Ali Nouri Mazandarani (Baha) for more info all readers could refer to memoirs of Kenyaz Dalgorky.

Ali Muhammad Shirazi announcing his claim, later repenting away (1st repent).

As mentioned above, through the enticement of Husayn Bushrui and the machination of Russian spy, Kenyaz Dalgorky, Ali Muhammad Shirazi, declared that he was the Gate to the awaited Mahdi on 5 Jumadi I 1260 A.H. Bushrui started to tell people that he had seen the Bab with his own eyes and called them to follow him, those who followed him were called Babi. When the number of Babis reached to nineteen. Bab called them “The living words”.

He even decided to divide the year into nineteen months, each month including 19 days. He designated the day which he announced his claim -5 Jumadi I 1260 A.H as the beginning of this Calendar. After Bab’s claim, the clergy of Shiraz became so furious that the governor of Shiraz had to order a detention for Bab.

However after a slap by the governor, Bab denied his claim and told to governor: I am not the Bab (Bab) of Imam Mahdi-Al Montazar…

Support of Manucher Khan (the governor of Isfahan) a spy for the Russians

After a while Bab left Shiraz to Isfahan and under the protection of a Russian spy called Manucher Khan (the Georgian, the governor of Isfahan) whom the Russian government had instructed him to accept Islam, the Shah appointed him as the accredited representative of the state in Isfahan, Bab announced his claim again, which the government ordered to put him in prison but at the instigation of Kenyaz Dalgorky, Manucher Khan instead of delivering Bab to prison, took Bab to an unknown palace until Manucher Khan died and Gorgin Khan succeeded him. Gorgin saw the Bab roaming free in the yards of the palace, so he reported to Shah and Bab was exiled to the fort of Maku in Azerbaijan.

Tahirih declared the abrogation and supersession of Islam by the Bab’s faith

During the time Bab was in Maku, Mirza Husayn Ali Mazandarani (who was later entitled as Baha’u\'llah), Muhammad Ali Barfurushi and Umme Salame (Qurrat al -Ayn) called Babi followers to gather in a conference in Badasht (around the city of Shahrud), the purpose of this conference was ostensibly to devise a way to free Bab from prison but their actual purpose was to announce the repeal of Islam, so when a large enough crowd gathered, Qurrat al-Ayn addressed to them, “you should know the provisions of Muhammad’s law (sharia) have now been repealed by the appearance of Bab” and called them to obey him. After this summit the Shia scholars and the government of Iran became furious, The King asked his crown prince Naser al-Din who was in Tabriz to bring the Bab to court of Ulama (clergy) for trial.

Second repent of Bab at the crown prince council

After some ambiguous and foolish talks, all the present people declared that he is a mad person, his feet were tied and after eleven times that we he was struck with a rope, he began to repent and wrote a letter to the crown prince revealing his disgust. He declared that he had taken back his claims and repented for his past misdeeds

Execution of Bab, not because of his belief but because of the wars he created

While Bab was in prison, some Babi followers started three evil wars in Iran, which the total cost of the wars were about half of the cost of Iran’s war with Russia, meaning there was a significant chaos created in the nation. Most of the people were fooled and killed because they thought he that he was the gate of Imam Mahdi!!
Therefore the prime minister, Amir Kabir decided to execute Bab for country’s security in Tabriz, this event happened on 28th Shaban, 1266 A.H (9thJuly 1850) at Bab’s execution, the Russian consul tried to save Bab by offering a large bribe, but he was not successful in this regard, so after execution of Bab the Russian consul took a photograph of the body to send to his government.

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