The following is a basic timeline of the Bábí and Baháʼí religions emphasizing dates that are relatively well known. For a more comprehensive chronology of the timeline, see the references at the bottom.

1795

edit

1817

edit

1819

edit

1826

edit
  • Shaykh Ahmad dies and Siyyid Kázim is appointed leader of the Shaykhi sect.

1828

edit
  • Mírzá Muhammad Ridá, the Father of the Báb, dies. The Báb is placed in the care of his maternal uncle, Hají Mirzá Siyyid 'Alí

1835

edit

1843

edit

1844 AD / 1 BE

edit
  • The Báb's first religious experience, witnessed by his wife, is dated to about the evening of April 3.[2]
  • (1260 AH), May 22, evening, the Báb declares his mission to Mulla Husayn in Shiraz, Iran.
  • May 22–23, overnight, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá is born to Navváb and Baháʼu'lláh.
  • By late September Baháʼu'lláh accepts the Bábí religion.[3]

1845 AD / 2 BE

edit
  • September, restrictions are enforced on the Báb's movement within Shiraz after he declares himself to be the Mahdi publicly.
  • Government reports initiate coverage in the West first mentions the arrest and imprisonment of Mullá 'Alíy-i-Bastámí of the Bábí religion. It was published in The Times of London November 1 and several times thereafter.[4]

1846 / 3 BE

edit
  • Bahíyyih Khánum is born to Navváb and Baháʼu'lláh.
  • September, the Báb leaves Shiraz for Isfahan.[5]

1847 / 4 BE

edit

1848 / 5 BE

edit
  • Mírzá Mihdí is born to Navváb and Baháʼu'lláh.
  • Munirih Khánum, wife of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá is born in Isfahan to prominent Bábís of the city.
  • March 20, Mullá Husayn visits the Báb in Maku
  • April 10, the Báb is moved to the prison of Chihriq, due to his growing influence in Maku. He was largely kept there until a few days before his execution.
  • June - July, the Conference of Badasht was held.[6]
  • July, during public interrogation at Tabriz the Báb makes a dramatic public declaration. He is returned to Chihriq.
  • July 21, Mullá Husayn hoists the Black Standard and marches with 202 other Bábís to Mashhad.
  • October 10, Mullá Husayn and a host of other Bábís are besieged at fort Tabarsi.
  • October 20, Quddús arrives at fort Tabarsí.

1849 AD / 6 BE

edit

1850 AD / 7 BE

edit
  • July 9, the Báb is publicly executed in Tabriz.
  • Brief newspaper coverage of the Bábí religion reaches several newspapers in Britain and the United States in the autumn.[7]

1851 AD / 7-8 BE

edit

Dr. Rev. Austin Wright sent materials of the Báb and a letter/paper about events related to the religion to the American Oriental Society - he wrote the letter February 1851 and it was published June.[8] The letter/paper was published in June a Vermont newspaper as well.[9] Some of it was also translated into German by his supervisor, Rev. Justin Perkins, and was thought for many years to have not been published in English though even in its German form Wright had been named as the first person to write a paper on the Bábí-Baháʼí period.[10]: pp.10, 73 

1852 AD / 9 BE

edit

1853 / 9 BE

edit
  • January 12, Baháʼu'lláh is exiled from Tehran to Baghdad.

1854 / 11 BE

edit
  • April 10, Baháʼu'lláh retreats to the Sulaymaniyah mountains within Kurdistan due to a rising tensions between Mírzá Yahyá and himself.
  • Henry Aaron Stern (1820-1885) published a book that mentions "Baba, the Persian socialist" for a couple pages.[14][10]: pp.14–15 

1856 / 13 BE

edit
  • After being discovered in Kurdistan, Baháʼu'lláh returns to Baghdad, at the request of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá.
  • Mary Sheil and Sir Justin Sheil publish Glimpses of the Life and Manners in Persia which has a section on Bábísm of some 14 pages.[15][10]: pp.5, 8, 15 

1857 / 14 BE

edit

1860 / 17 BE

edit

1861 / 18 BE

edit

1862 / 19 BE

edit
  • May 10, the Persian ambassador requests that the Ottomans move the Bábís farther from Persia.

1863 / 20 BE

edit
  • April 21, Baháʼu'lláh declares himself to be He whom God shall make manifest in the Garden of Ridván in Baghdad on the eve of his exile to Constantinople (Istanbul). (13 Jalal 20 BE)
  • December 12, Baháʼu'lláh is exiled into formal confinement in Adrianople (Edirne) after four months in Constantinople. (1 Masa'il 20 BE)

1865 / 22 BE

edit

1867 / 24 BE

edit
  • 53 Baháʼís in Baghdad on March 16, 1867 petitioned the United States Congress for assistance for Baháʼu'lláh's release and for assistance for the Baháʼís in general.[16]
  • Baháʼu'lláh begins writing and sending his Tablets to the Kings.

1868 / 25 BE

edit
  • August 5, Baháʼu'lláh and a large group of followers are sent from Edirne to the penal colony of Akká, Palestine (now Acre, Israel).
  • August 31, Baháʼu'lláh arrives in ʻAkká.

1869 / 26 BE

edit

1870 / 27 BE

edit

1873 / 30 BE

edit

1886 / 43 BE

edit
  • Navváb dies.
  • Abdu'l-Bahá writes the original Arabic text of Traveller's Narrative later translated and published in 1891.

1889 / 46 BE

edit
  • February 25, E.G. Browne mentions the Baháʼí Faith as part of a series academic talks and papers through 1889 in England.

1890 / 47 BE

edit

E. G. Browne, a famed Cambridge orientalist interviewed Baháʼu'lláh and was His guest at Bahjí from 15 April to 20 April 1890. Browne was the only Westerner to meet Baháʼu'lláh and leave an account of his experience. In Browne's 1893 publication entitled A Year Among the Persians, he wrote a sympathetic portrayal of Persian society. After his death in 1926 it was reprinted and became a classic in English travel literature. Browne described Baháʼu'lláh as, "The face of Him on Whom I gazed, I can never forget, though I cannot describe it. Those piercing eyes seemed to read one's very soul; power and authority sat on that ample brow… No need to ask in whose presence I stood, as I bowed myself before one who is the object of a devotion and love which kings might envy and emperors sigh for in vain..."[17]

1892 / 49 BE

edit
  • May 29, Baháʼu'lláh dies, his mortal remains are placed in a Shrine dedicated to him next to the Mansion of Bahjí where he spent his final years. In his will he appointed ʻAbdu'l-Bahá to be his successor and head of the Baháʼí Faith.

1893 / 50 BE

edit

1894 / 51 BE

edit
  • Thornton Chase is the first of five Baháʼís in the United States this year

1897 / 54 BE

edit
  • March 1, Shoghi Effendi, the great-grandson of Baháʼu'lláh, is born.

1898 / 55 BE

edit
  • The first Western pilgrims arrive in ʻAkká, including Phoebe Hearst and the first African-American believer, Robert Turner.

1900 / 58 BE

edit

Sarah Farmer, founder of Green Acre Baháʼí School, meets ʻAbdu'l-Bahá and converts.

1901 / 59 BE

edit

1903 / 60 BE

edit

1908 / 65 BE

edit
  • September, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá is released from a lifetime of exile and imprisonment at 64 years of age.

1909 / 66 BE

edit
  • March 21, the mortal remains of the Báb are laid to rest in the Shrine of the Báb after 59 years in hiding.

1910 / 67 BE

edit

1911 / 68 BE

edit

1912 / 69 BE

edit

1916 / 73 BE

edit

1917 / 74 BE

edit
  • ʻAbdu'l-Bahá writes six more Tablets of the Divine Plan.

1918 / 75 BE

edit

1920 / 76 BE

edit
  • April 27, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá is knighted by the British Empire in recognition of his humanitarian work during WWI.

1921 / 77 BE

edit

1932

edit

1935

edit

1937

edit

1944 AD / 101 BE

edit
  • Shoghi Effendi releases God Passes By to mark the 100th anniversary of the Baháʼí dispensation, which commenced with the Declaration of the Bab in 1844 AD / 1 BE.

1951

edit

1953

edit

1957

edit
  • November 4, Shoghi Effendi dies without children and without appointing a successor Guardian. The temporary role of 'Head of the Faith' is taken up by 27 Hands of the Cause with plans to complete the Ten Year Crusade and elect the Universal House of Justice.

1960

edit
  • Hand-of-the-Cause Mason Remey claims to be Effendi's successor Guardian. The other living Hands of the Cause and almost all of the Baha'i community reject his claim.

1963

edit
  • A wave of persecution of Baháʼís in Morocco ends in mid April with a royal pardon against death sentences for being Baháʼí in Morocco after months of diplomatic newspaper.[20] and television coverage in the United States.[21]
  • April 21, the first Baháʼí World Congress takes place in London. The first Universal House of Justice is elected by representatives of 56 National Spiritual Assemblies gathered in Haifa, in synchronization with the end of the Ten Year Crusade and the centenary of the Declaration of Baháʼu'lláh in the Garden of Ridván.[22][23]

1968

edit
  • Second election of the Universal House of Justice

1973

edit
  • Third election of the Universal House of Justice

1978

edit
  • Fourth election of the Universal House of Justice

1979

edit

1983

edit

1985

edit
  • October, the Universal House of Justice publishes The Promise of World Peace

1986

edit

1987

edit
  • Sixth election of the Universal House of Justice

1992

edit

1993 AD / 150 BE

edit
  • March 21, the Kitáb-i-Aqdas is released in English with notes, question and answers, supplementary materials and synopsis and codification. (1 Baha 150 BE)
  • Seventh election of the Universal House of Justice

1998

edit
  • Eighth election of the Universal House of Justice

2000

edit
  • January 19, Rúhíyyih Khanum dies, representing the last remnant of the family of Baháʼu'lláh who remained loyal to Shoghi Effendi and the Universal House of Justice.

2001

edit

2003

edit
  • Ninth election of the Universal House of Justice

2006

edit

2008

edit
  • The Universal House of Justice announced the convocation in October of a series of 41 regional conferences around the world which finished by March 2009.[24]
  • Tenth election of the Universal House of Justice

2013

edit
  • Eleventh election of the Universal House of Justice

Further reading

edit

See also

edit

Citations

edit
  1. ^ Nabíl-i-Zarandí 1932, pp. 2–19.
  2. ^ Afnan & Rabbani 2008, pp. 20–22.
  3. ^ Cameron & Momen 1996, p. 19.
  4. ^ Momen 1999.
  5. ^ a b Perkins 1987, p. 212.
  6. ^ Amanat 1989, p. 324.
  7. ^ Baháʼí Library Online 2010.
  8. ^ "American Oriental Society". The Literary World. New Haven, CT.: American Oriental Society: 470. June 14, 1851 [Feb 18, 1851]. ProQuest 90101699.(registration required)
  9. ^ "A new Prophet" (PDF). Green Mountain Freeman. Vol. 8, no. 26. Montpelier, Vermont. June 26, 1851. p. 1 (5th col mid, 6th col top). Retrieved March 12, 2015.
  10. ^ a b c Momen, Moojan (1981), The Babi and Baha'i Religions, 1844-1944: Some Contemporary Western Accounts, Oxford, England: George Ronald, ISBN 0-85398-102-7
  11. ^ The Attempted Assassination of Nasir al Din Shah in 1852: Millennialism and violence, by Moojan Momen, 2011
  12. ^ The Attempted Assassination of Nasir al Din Shah in 1852: Millennialism and Violence, by Moojan Momen, 2011
  13. ^ Momen, Moojan (August 2008). "Millennialism and Violence: The Attempted Assassination of Nasir al-Din Shah of Iran by the Babis in 1852". Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions. 12 (1): 57–82. doi:10.1525/nr.2008.12.1.57. JSTOR 10.1525/nr.2008.12.1.57.
  14. ^ Henry Aaron Stern (1854). Dawnings of light in the East. Purday. pp. 261–262.
  15. ^ lady Mary Leonora Woulfe Sheil; Sir Justin Sheil (1856). Glimpses of Life and Manners in Persia. J. Murray. pp. 176–81, 273–82.
  16. ^ Stauffer 1997.
  17. ^ Shoghi Effendi 1944, pp. 194–5.
  18. ^ Hainsworth nd.
  19. ^ Lambden 1999.
  20. ^ The Harvard Crimson 1963.
  21. ^ Rutstein 2008.
  22. ^ Francis 2004.
  23. ^ Smith 1999, pp. 109–110.
  24. ^ Baháʼí International Community 2009.

References

edit
edit