le to the
age, are vouchsafed. The Divine Unity is incomprehensible, and can be known
only through its Manifestations; to recognize the Manifestation of the
cycle in which he lives is the supreme duty of man. Owing to the enormous
volume and unsystematic character of the Babi scriptures, and the absence
of anything resembling church councils, the doctrine on many important
points (such as the future life) is undetermined and vague. The
resurrection of the body is denied, but some form of personal immortality
is generally, though not universally, accepted. Great importance was
attached to the mystical values of letters and numbers, especially the
numbers 18 and 19 ("the number of the unity") and 19^2 = 361 ("the number
of all things"). In general, the Bab's doctrines most closely resembled
those of the Isma'ilis and Hurufis. In the hands of Baha the aims of the
sect became much more practical and ethical, and the wilder pantheistic
tendencies and metaphysical hair-splittings of the early Babis almost
disappeared. The intelligence, integrity and morality of the Babis are
high, but their efforts to improve the social position of woman have been
much exaggerated. They were in no way concerned (as was at the time falsely
alleged) in the assassination of Nasiru'd-Din Shah in May 1896. Of recent
persecutions of the sect the two most notable took place at Yazd, one in
May 1891, and another of greater ferocity in June 1903. Some account of the
latter is given by Napier Malcolm in his book _Five Years in a Persian
Town_ (London, 1905), pp. 87-89 and 186. In the constitutional movement in
Persia (1907) the Babis, though their sympathies are undoubtedly with the
reformers, wisely refrained from outwardly identifying themselves with that
party, to whom their open support, by alienating the orthodox _mujtahids_
and _mullas_, would have proved fatal. Here, as in all their actions, they
clearly obeyed orders issued from headquarters.

LITERATURE.--The literature of the sect is very voluminous, but mostly in
manuscript. The most valuable public collections in Europe are at St
Petersburg, London (British Museum) and Paris (Bibliotheque Nationale),
where two or three very rare MSS. collected by Gobineau, including the
precious history of the Bab's contemporary, Hajji Mirza Jani of Kashan, are
preserved. For the bibliography up to 1889, see vol. ii. pp. 173-211 of the
_Traveller's Narrative, written to illustrate the Episode of the Bab_, a