The Babis were able to recruit from Ahl-e Haqq, Shaykhis, Ismailis and militant Akhbaris

The Babis were able to recruit from other nonconformist minorities, however. Though often overlooked, the conversions from the Ahl-e Haqq and associated “extremists” to the Babi movement were perhaps second only to the Shaykhis. Both as individuals and occasionally as a community, they showed greater receptivity, since their messianic expectations and their outlook, especially on the doctrine of prophethood, could be accommodated by the Babi Zohur. By the nineteenth century, Ahl-e Haqq had become largely a peasant religion with a syncretic belief system that had survived openly only in Kurdish, Persianized Kurdish, and Azari communities of western and northwestern Iran. But in all probability the geographical distribution of the Ahl-e Haqq included many scattered localities in central, northern, and even eastern Iran. The same is true with Ismaʻili village communities in central and southern Khorasan. Their receptivity to Shaykhism and then Babism came at a time when the Ismaʻili revival, first through the Neʻmatullahi and then under Shah Khalilullah and Aqa Khan had already kindled the messianic hopes of the ʻAtaullahi tribe in Southern Khorasan and Kerman.

Mass conversion among the followers of Mulla Mohammad ʻAli Zanjani (Hojjat), himself a militant Akhbari, is another indication of Babi appeal to nonconformist minorities. The socio-religious background of Zanjan Babis still remains a mystery, but certain peculiarities in their mass behavior betray the likelihood of religious extremism far distinct from the learned Akhbarism of the madrasa tradition.

(The Bab and the Babi Community of Iran, edited by Fereydun Vahman)