BAHAISM xi. Bahai Conventions Bahai conventions occur at the national and international level for the primary purpose of electing the…

BAYT-AL-ʿADL (House of Justice), a Bahai administrative institution. In the Bahai faith all spiritual and administrative authority rests with institutions…

BĀLYŪZĪ, ḤASAN MOWAQQAR (b. Shiraz, 1908; d. London, 12 February 1980), Bahai author and administrator, the son of ʿAlī-Moḥammad Khan…

BAHĀʾĪYA ḴĀNOM (b. 1262/1846, Tehran), eldest daughter of Bahāʾ-Allāh and considered by Bahais as the “outstanding heroine of the Bahai Dispensation”…

BADĪʿ, ĀQĀ BOZORG, son of Ḥājī ʿAbd-al-Majīd of Nīšāpūr, a young Bahai martyr who has gained a certain distinction in…

AFNĀN (“twigs” or “branches”), term used in the Bahaʾi faith (initially by Bahāʾallāh) to designate certain lines of descent in…

BADAŠT, small village of about 1,000 inhabitants, 7 km east of the city of Šāhrūd, in the Qajar-period province of…

AMĪN, ḤĀJJĪ, name given successively to two Bahaʾis who were trustees of the Bahaʾi system of religious taxation, the Ḥoqūq…

ʿALĪ AKBAR ŠAHMĪRZĀDĪ, ḤĀJJĪ MOLLĀ known as Ḥāǰǰ Āḵund, a prominent Iranian Bahāʾī. Born in Šahmīrzād in 1258/1842, he was…

ADĪB ṬĀLAQĀNĪ, ḤĀJJ MĪRZĀ ḤASAN, prominent Iranian Bahaʾi author of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was born…

ABU’L-FAŻL (or ABU’L-FAŻĀʾEL) GOLPĀYEGĀNĪ, MĪRZĀ MOḤAMMAD, prominent Bahaʾi scholar and apologist. He was born in Jomādā II, 1260/June-July, 1844 in…

DIVORCE, legal termination of marriage. In the following series of articles only those communities are taken into consideration which are…

LAWḤ “tablet,” a term used distinctively in the Bahai writings as part of the title of individual compositions of Bahāʾ-Allāh…

MAẒHAR-E ELĀHI (Manifestation of God), a key Bahai term designating the prophets/founders of the world’s religions as the manifestations of the…

ṢOBḤI, FAŻL-ALLĀH MOHTADI  (b. Kashan, 1276 Š./1897; d. Tehran, 17 Ābān 1341/8 November 18 1962), Persian school teacher, who is…

SABET, HABIB (b. Tehran, 1903; d., Los Angeles, 1 Esfand, 1368/20 February 1990), Bahai entrepreneur and industrialist, who rose from…

BAHAISM xiv.    Nineteen Day Feast The Nineteen Day Feast (żiāfat-e nuzdah-ruza) is a gathering of the Bahai community every…

BAHAISM xiii. Bahai Pioneers “Pioneer” (in English) and mohājer (in Persian: migrant, pl. mohājerin) are terms used in Bahai literature…

MAḤFEL-E RUḤĀNI (spiritual assembly), current designation of the Bahai governing councils elected at local and national level. History.  In the…

WOMEN iii. IN SHIʿISM In theory, Shiʿism has a more favorable attitude towards women than Sunni Islam. These favorable differences…

WOMEN iv. IN THE WORKS OF THE BAB AND IN THE BABI MOVEMENT The Bab elevated the status of women…

SHOGHI EFFENDI (Šawqi Rabbāni; b. ʿAkkā, 1 March 1897; d. London, 4 November 1957), eldest grandson and successor of ʿAbd-al-Bahāʾ as…

MAŠREQ AL-AḎKĀR (the Dawning-Place of the Remembrance [of God]), a Bahai term having three meanings.  The first meaning is a gathering…

COSMOGONY AND COSMOLOGY viii. In the Bahai faith Bahai cosmology can be considered to be based on three interrelated statements…

vi. Bahai. vii. Jewish. viii. Armenian. vi. BAHAI The major Bahai festivals and holy days have been fixed by the…

FĀŻEL MĀZANDARĀNĪ, MĪRZĀ ASAD-ALLĀH, Bahai scholar and missionary (b. Bābol, 1298/1881; d. Ḵorramšahr, 5 Dey 1336 Š./26 December 1957). His…

FAYŻĪ, ABU’L-QĀSEM (b. Qom, 1906; d. Haifa, 19 November 1980), Bahai teacher, missionary, and author. Fayżī’s father, ʿAbd-al-Ḥosayn Khan, and…

DOLGORUKOV MEMOIRS, document published under the title Eʿterāfāt-e sīāsī yā yāddāšthā-ye Kenyāz Dolqorūkī (Political confessions or memoirs of Prince Dolgorukov)…

ḎEKR (lit., “remembrance”), the act of reminding oneself of God. i. In Sufism. ii. In the Babi and Bahai religions….

DĀRĀBĪ, SAYYED YAḤYĀ (b. Yazd, ca. 1226/1811, d. Neyrīz, 1266/1850), Babi leader usually known as Waḥīd (unique), a title given…

CORMICK, WILLIAM (b. Tabrīz 1822, d. Tabrīz 25 Ḏu’l-ḥejja 1294/30 December 1877), a British physician in Tabrīz. Cormick was the…

CHASE, thornton (b. Springfield, Mass., 22 February 1847), regarded by Bahais as the first Amer­ican Bahai and the first Bahai…

KALEMĀT-E MAKNUNA (The Hidden Words), a collection of aphorisms (71 in Arabic and 82 in Persian) by Bahāʾ-Allāh on spiritual and…

ḤAYDAR ʿALI EṢFAHĀNI, Ḥājji Mirzā, Bahāʾi polemicist (b. Isfahan, ca. 1830; d. Haifa, 7 December 1920). Ḥaydar ʿAli’s father, a…

MARTYRS, BABI (Bābi), adherents of the Babi religion who were killed for their faith (see BABISM) during the period up…

ẒOHUR-AL-ḤAQQ (variously also called Tāriḵ-e Ẓohur-al-Ḥaqq and Ketāb-e Ẓohur-al-Ḥaqq), the most comprehensive history of the first century of the Bahai…