'Ali Muhammad Bab

'Ali Muhammad Shirazi was born at Shiraz in 1235/1819. His father, Mirza Riqa, died when he was a child, and thereafter 'Ali Muhammad grew up under the care of his maternal uncle, Sayyid 'Ali.  After his elementary education in Persian and Arabic, a capital which he strenuously applied later to the production of his 'tablets' and 'revelations'  with awful results, he went to Bushehr,...

Sayyid Kazim Rashti

The circle of disciples created by Ahsa'i was maintained and extended by his successor Sayyid Kazim Rashtl (1212-1259/1797-1843) .. According to Muhammad Karim Khan Kirmani (1225-1288/1810-1871), the Shaykhi leader, in Hidiiyat al-talibin (p.71), Ahsa'i made this announcement to his pupils about...

Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsa'i

The Shaykh was born near al-'~sa', in the region of al-Qa~if, in  northern Arabian peninsula. As a child he was contemplative and given  to solitude. In 1186/1772, at the age of 20, he proceeded to the holy  cities of Iraq for further studies. There at the age of 43 (in 1209/1794), ...

Introduction

The beginning of the 12th/18th century marks the onset of a visible general decline and degeneration almost throughout the Islamic world. The emergence of Wahhabism in Arabian peninsula during the mid 12th/18th century, the emergence of Babism in mid 13th/19th century Iran, the emergence of Qadiyanism in late 13th/19th century India, were no more than indicators of the worsening state of general...