Table of Contents

• BAHAISM ii. Bahai Calendar and Festivals

  A. Banani

  The notion of renewal of time, implicit in most religious dispensations, is made explicit in the writings of the Bāb and Bahāʾ-Allāh.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• BAHAISM iii. Bahai and Babi Schisms

  D. M. MacEoin

  Although it never developed much beyond the stage of a sectarian movement within Shiʿite Islam, Babism experienced a number of minor but interesting divisions, particularly in its early phase.

• BAHAISM iv. The Bahai Communities

  P. Smith

  The development of the Bahai faith has been accompanied by a massive transformation of the religion’s social base. From being a religion predominantly composed of those of Iranian Shiʿite background, it has become a worldwide movement.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• BAHAISM v. The Bahai Community in Iran

  V. Rafati

  With the Declaration of the Bāb in 1844, followed by his being accepted as the promised Qāʾem (the Hidden Imam) by a handful of early believers, the first Babi community was born in the city of Shiraz.

• BAHAISM vi. The Bahai Community of Ashkhabad

  V. Rafati

  Attracted by religious freedom and economic opportunities unavailable to them in Iran, Iranian Bahais began to settle in Ashkhabad around 1884; the community prospered and reached its peak during the period 1917-28.

• BAHAISM vii. Bahai Persecutions

  D. M. MacEoin

  Bahai persecutions were a pattern of continuing discriminatory measures against adherents and institutions of the Bahai religion, punctuated by outbreaks of both random and organized violence.

• BAHAISM viii. Bahai Shrines

  J. Walbridge

  Of the Bahai sites of pilgrimage and visitation, the most important are the tombs of Bahāʾ-Allāh and the Bāb in Israel and the houses of the Bāb and Bahāʾ-Allāh in Shiraz and Baghdad.

• BAHAISM ix. Bahai Temples

  V. Rafati and F. Sahba

  Although the faith originated in Iran, no Bahai temple was ever built in that country, due to local antagonism. However,  since the time of Bahāʾ-Allāh, the Bahais of Iran have gathered in private Bahai homes to pray and to read the writings of the faith.

• BAHAISM x. Bahai Schools

  V. Rafati

  The Bahai schools were a series of government-recognized educational institutions conducted on Bahai principles from 1897 until 1929 in Ashkhabad and until 1934 in Iran.

• BAHAISM xi. Bahai Conventions

  M. Momen

  The first Bahai convention in the world was probably the meeting convened by the Chicago Spiritual Assembly on 26 November 1907 for the purpose of choosing a site for the House of Worship that was to be built.