Introduction of the Baha'i faith by historian Arnold J. Toynbee

The Baha'i Sect is a derivative of the Babi Sect, whose founder Sayyid 'Ali Muhammad of Shiraz declared himself to be 'the Bab' (i.e 'the Gate' of the Twelfth Imam Mahdi of the Imami Shi'ah) in A.D. 1844, and eventually claimed to be the inaugurator of a new dispensation, and a manifestation or incarnation of God. The Babi movement was promptly denounced by the Imami Mujtahids and persecuted by the Persian Government; and the Bab himself, after being thrown into prison at Maku, was put to death at Tabriz in 1850. After the persecution had become intensified as a result of an attempt to assassinate Nasir-ad-Din Shah which was made by Babi fanatics in 1852, a band of Babis was led into exile by the Bab's at that time generally acknowledged successor, the Subh-i-Azal - Mirza Yahya. Their first asylum was Baghdad, and here the party was joined by Mirza Yahya's elder half-brother, Mirza Husayn 'Ali. In 1864 the exiles were transferred from Baghdad to Constantinople, and thence to Adrianople, by the Ottoman authorities. At Adrianople, in 1866-7, Mirza Husayn 'Ali, who had long since been the leader of the exiles de facto, declared himself to be 'Him whom God shall make Manifest': the greater prophet of whom the Bab had professed himself - at least in one phase of his teaching - to be the forerunner. This declaration may be taken as the genesis of the Baha'i Sect; since Mirza Husayn 'Ali, under the title of Baha'u'llah ('the Manifestation of the Beauty of God'), captured from his brother the allegiance of all but an insignificant minority of the Babis, in Persia as well as abroad, and was thenceforth regarded by his followers as the founder of their religion, while the figure of the Bab tended to diminish in stature and to recede into the background (compare the progressive eclipse of Marx by Lenin in the Communist Church of the Soviet Union). In 1868 the Ottoman Government banished Subh-i-Azal to Famagusta in Cyprus and Baha'u'llah to 'Akka on the Syrian coast, where Baha'u'llah continued to reside until his death in 1892. The rigorous internment to which the head of the Baha'i community was at first subjected at 'Akka was gradually relaxed, but it was re-imposed upon Baha'u'llah's son and successor 'Abdul-Baha from 1901 until the Ottoman Revolution of 1908. These physical restrictions, however, did not prevent the propagation of the new religion into Europe and America; and after his liberation in 1908 'Abdul-Baha went in person on a missionary journey which lasted from 1911 to 1913 and carried him as far afield as the Pacific coast of the United States. (For the history and doctrines of Babism see Browne, E. G.: 'The Babis of Persia' in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. xxi [new series] (London 1889), pp. 485-526 and 881-1009; eundem: A Traveller's Narrative written to illustrate the Episode of the Bab, edited and translated (Cambridge 1891, University Press, 2 vols.); eundem: Mirza Huseyn's New History of the Bab translated (Cambridge 1893, University Press); eundem: 'Personal Reminiscences of the Babi Insurrection at Zanjan in 1850, translated from the Persian' in J.R A.S. vol. xxix [new series), (London 1897); eundem: Kitab-i-Nuqtatu'l-Kaf, being the earliest history of the Babis, compiled by Haji Mirza Jani of Kashan - E J W. Gibb Memorial Series, vol. xv (London 1910, Luzac), eundem: Materials for the Study of the Babi Religion (Cambridge 1918, University Press), eundem: A Literary History of Persia, vol iv (Cambridge 1928, University Press). For an account of Bahaism from the Baha'i standpoint see Esslemont, J. E.: Baha'u'llah and the New Era (London 1923, Allen and Unwin).

-Arnold J. Toynbee, A Study of History: Volume V (Royal Institute of International Affairs) Oxford University Press.