Babi revolts - Origins of Bahaism

In Iran the despotic court continued to rule as before, with little attention to the new ideas of liberalism abroad and even at home which had been brought back by Persians who had travelled or lived in Europe. The year 1850 saw the execution of a religious heretic called the Bab, or “the Gate," at Tabriz. This was the origin of a religious movement which came to be known as Bahaism, named after Baha Allah, a successor of the Bab, and which still has adherents in America and Europe. The followers of the Bab were persecuted in Iran and there were a number of Babi revolts which were cruelly suppressed. Nonetheless the Babis and later Bahais continued to proselytize, for Westernization was beginning to have an influence on educated Persians, who began to question the authority of Shiite Islam and who turned to syncretistic faiths such as Bahaism or to the secularism of the Occident.

(Routledge Library Editions: History of the Middle East - Page 66)

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