No fewer than twenty-five separate individuals claimed to be "him whom God shall manifest".

The most striking feature of Babism during the 1850s is the proliferation of claims to some form of theophanic status on the part of individual members of the sect. ʿAbbās Effendi maintains that no fewer than twenty-five separate individuals claimed to be man yuẓhiruhuʾllāh at this time. Browne goes even further, saying that religious speculation “threatened, especially during the two or three years succeeding the Bāb’s martyrdom (1850–1853), to destroy all order and discipline in the young church by suffering each member to become a law unto himself, and by producing as many ‘Manifestations’ as there were Bābīs.” Both these statements are exaggerations: the real number of distinct ẓuhūrāt may indeed have been around twenty-five...

(Denis MacEoin, The Messiah of Shiraz, Page 376)

After the martyrdom of the Bab there came to view twenty-five individuals, each claiming to be the fulfillment of “Him whom God shall Manifest.” Wherever one turned, one came across such persons, all bent on exaggerating their egos. There was a vendor of sweets in Teheran, a hasheesh smoker in Esphahan, a baker in Bagdad and so on. Yet, when Baha-u-llah appeared, all repented and confessed their error.

(I Heard Him Say - Words of Abdul Baha as Recorded by his Secretary Mirza Ahmad Sohrab, Page 119)