Sheykhieh, Before Babism & Baha’ism

Shi’a Muslims believe that there are 12 Imams (leader) after Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) who the last one is Imam Mahdi (PBUH) the son of Imam Askari (PBUH). Imam Mahdi had a minor occultation, In this period he had four special deputies, which before the death of the fourth representative Imam Mahdi wrote to him:

You will die in 6 days, don’t will to anyone and whoever claims to have relation with me is liar and his claim is false.

During the period of 1157 A.H to 1242 A.H, Sheikh Ahmad Ahsaei as a Shia Muslim claimed that between the people and Imam Mahdi (PBUH) there should be a great and pious person, 4th pillar of the faith, he taught this to his students in Karbala and in his speeches he introduced himself as The Gate. This belief of Ahsaei was heresy in Shia, and heresy is forbidden.

During the Shaykh’s era, because of the great defeats that the people had witnessed during the Iran-Russia wars, the state of mental depression and despair was quite common among people. That state of depression would encourage them to talk about the just ruler of Islam, the rise and remembrance of whom would exhilarate them. Shaykh Ahmad used this social ground quite well and talked about Mahdi as much as he could. He claimed to be close to Mahdi and able to contact him and was finally gather many followers.

Before his death, Ahsaei appointed his most capable student Seyed Kazim Rashti as his successor.

Seyed Kazim Rashti was a man that came from an unknown origin. His Birth and upbringing was unknown to the then people of Rasht (a city in north of Iran). Rashti developed Ahsaei’s false claim regarding 4th pillar of the faith as the Gate of 12th Shi’a Muslim Imam. He started to look for a person whom to bestow the title of Gate in order to achieve through him all his aims. He assumed the role of a lecturer and thus he was able to lure some shaken beliefs and the deviated, who became his disciples.

The most prominent of these disciples was a man named Husayn Bushrui from Bushrawayh, a village in Khurasan in Iran. Bushrui was a man known for slyness shrewdness, craftiness and caprice. Later, he started to advertise his beliefs to attract the shaken beliefs. One of them was Umme Salame, daughter of Salih Qazwini. She was married in her early youth to her cousin but deserted her because she believed in the Sheykhiyehs.

As a result of this she started to correspond with Kazim Rashti who was quite prolific in response, because she was just suitable for his ends, Seyed Kazim Rashti called her in his messages “Qurat-ul-Ayn”. Later he invited her to Karbala but Rashti perished in 1259 A.H before her arrival.

In Karbala, she was hosted by Husayn Bushrui and the rest of Rashti’s disciples. She became the most orthodox of them when she publicly put her call to practice with some of Rashti’s student’s, they called her “Tahirih”.

Nevertheless, both Shaykh Ahmad and Sayyed Kazem, as far as the principles of Islam were concerned, especially regarding the prophet of Islam being the seal of prophets and Imam Mahdi being the Imam who rises, had the same ideas as the Shi’ites have. (Since Baha’is have high respect and virtuous status for these two persons, we would refer to their statements in the related chapters). Sayyed Rashti died without appointing any successor and left his Shaykhi followers without any leader. He only gave partial clues for finding the next successor, something that was not seen before in history.

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