s to
a distinguished divine belonging to this sect, called Mulla Husayn
Bu_sh_ru'i, that the Bab first announced His mission. The exact date of
this announcement is given in the Bayan, one of the Bab's Writings, as two
hours and eleven minutes after sunset on the eve preceding the fifth day
of the month of Jamadiyu'l-Avval 1260 A.H.(8) 'Abdu'l-Baha was born in the
course of the same night, but the exact hour of His birth has not been
ascertained. After some days of anxious investigation and study, Mulla
Husayn became firmly convinced that the Messenger long expected by the
_Sh_i'ihs had indeed appeared. His eager enthusiasm over this discovery
was soon shared by several of his friends. Before long the majority of the
_Sh_ay_kh_is accepted the Bab, becoming known as Babis; and soon the fame
of the young Prophet began to spread like wildfire throughout the land.

Spread of the Babi Movement

The first eighteen disciples of the Bab (with Himself as nineteenth)
became known as "Letters of the Living." These disciples He sent to
different parts of Persian and Turkistan to spread the news of His advent.
Meantime He Himself set out on a pilgrimage to Mecca, where He arrived in
December 1844, and there openly declared His mission. On His return to
Bu_sh_ihr great excitement was caused by the announcement of His Babhood.
The fire of His eloquence, the wonder of His rapid and inspired writings,
His extraordinary wisdom and knowledge, His courage and zeal as a
reformer, aroused the greatest enthusiasm among His followers, but excited
a corresponding degree of alarm and enmity among the orthodox Muslims. The
_Sh_i'ih doctors vehemently denounced Him, and persuaded the Governor of
Fars, namely Husayn _Kh_an, a fanatical and tyrannical ruler, to undertake
the suppression of the new heresy. Then commenced for the Bab a long
series of imprisonments, deportations, examinations before tribunals,
scourgings and indignities, which ended only with His martyrdom in 1850.

Claims of the Bab

The hostility aroused by the claim of Babhood was redoubled when the young
reformer proceeded to declare that He was Himself the Mihdi (Mahdi) Whose
coming Muhammad had foretold. The _Sh_i'ihs identified this Mihdi with the
12th Imam(9) who, according to their beliefs, had mysteriously disappeared
from the sight of men about a thousand years previously. They believed
that he was still alive and would reappear in the same body as before,