Báb

Siyyid 'Ali Muhammad (20 October 1819 - 9 July 1850) was a merchant from Shiraz, Iran who started a version of Shia Islam called Babism. After he started the religion, he changed his name to Bab. People who believe in the Bab are called Babis, and they believe that the Bab was a prophet. Babis also believe that the Bab is the Qa'im that Shi'as believe will come in the future.
The Bab wrote hundreds of letters and books teaching who he was and what the rules of his religion were. The Bab's new rules replaced the "Sharia law" or Muslim rules for his followers. Babism became very large; over ten thousand people believed in the Bab. The Shi'a clergy, or leaders of Islam in Iran hated the Bab and tried to harm people who followed his religion. In 1850 a firing squad shot the Bab in Tabriz, Iran.
The Bab had other names, for example the "Primal Point" and the "Point of the Bayan."
The Bab told everyone that another prophet who was stronger and even more powerful was coming soon. People who follow the Baha'i religion believe the Bab was talking about Baha'u'llah, who started the Baha'i religion.
Life
Early life
The Bab was born on October 20, 1819, in Shiraz, Iran. His father was a merchant, and many people in the town knew him. Very soon after the Bab was born, his father died. The Bab's uncle Haji Mirza Siyyid 'Ali was also a merchant, and he raised the Bab.
When the Bab became an adult, he started working as a merchant with his uncle. In 1842 he married a woman named Khadijih-Bagum. Together they had one son, who they named Ahmad. Ahmad was very sick and died when as a baby. Someone who lived at the same time as the Bab said he was very calm and quiet; they said the Bab only spoke who he had too, and did not even answer questions. The Bab was always thinking and praying. People said he was handsome, and had a thin beard. He always dressed in clean clothes, and wore a green scarf and a black turban, or wrap of cloth on his head.
The Shaykhis
Shaykh Ahmad-i-Ahsa'i started a Shi'a Islam religious group in Persia in the 1790s. The member of the group, who were called Shaykhis, believes that god was sending a new messenger to earth very soon. They called the new messenger the Qa'im, or theMahdi. When Shaykh Ahmad died, Siyyid Kazim, who was from Rasht, Iran, became the new leader of the Shaykhis. Shaykh Ahmad lived was born in 1753 and he died in 1862. Siyyid Kazim was born in 1793 and he died in 1843.
When the Bab went on a pilgrimage to Karbala and the places near it, he may have listened to Siyyid Kazim teach. Nobody knows for sure if he did or did not, because there are very few documents or records from that time.
When Siyyid Kazim was dying, in December, he told all his followers--people who believe what he taught--that they should travel and try to find the new prophet from god. He called that prophet "The Lord of the Age", and told them that he would be discovered very soon. One of the people who believed Siyyid Kazim prayed and fasted, or stopped eating from dawn to dusk for forty days - his name was Mulla Husayn. After that he travelled to Shiraz, and he met the Bab.
Announcement to Mulla Husayn
Mulla Husayn got to Shiraz on May 23, 1844. A young man wearing a green turban greeted him after he had not been in Shiraz for very long. In Iran at that time, only people who were related to the prophet Muhammad wore green turbans. Men who were related to the prophet Muhammad were called Siyyids. The young man was the Bab, and he invited Mulla Husayn to his home.
The Bab asked Mulla Husayn why he was in Shiraz, and Mulla Husayn told him that he was searching for the new prophet, or Promised One. The Bab asked Mulla Husayn how he would know who the prophet way. Mulla Husayn told him that the prophet would come from a famous and good family, and would know many things without having to learn them, also that he would have no problems with his body. Then the Bab said that all of those things were true about himself. "Behold, all these signs are manifest in me." The Bab was saying that he was the new prophet Mulla Husayn had been looking for. This shocked, or startled Mulla Husayn.
Mulla Husayn had one more way to know who the new prophet was, and he had not told the Bab about. Siyyid Kazim had told Mulla Husayn that the new prophet would write a book explaining the Surih of Joseph. Siyyid Kazim had also said that the new prophet would do this without anyone asking him to. After the Bab told Mulla Husayn that he was the new prophet, he wrote a book about the Surih of Joseph. The Bab called that book the Qayyumu'l-Asma'
After spending the night talking to the Bab Mulla Husayn said this. (The words below might be hard to read.)
Letters of the Living
Mulla Husayn was the Bab's first disciple. A student of a religious leader is called a disciple. In less than five months, seventeen more students of Siyyid Kazim became disciples of the Bab. All of the new disciples started believing the Bab was a new manifestation, or prophet of god without anyone else's help. One of these new disciples was a woman. Her name was Zarrin Taj Baraghani, and she was a poet. Later she was given a new name,Tahirih (the pure). Later people started calling the first eighteen disciples and the Bab the Letters of the Living. The Bab told the Letters of the Living that it was their job to tell people that he was the new prophet.
The Bab said that the Letters of the Living were special. In Shi'a Islam there are fourteen special people, called the "Infallibles". Shi'as believe the "Infallibles" are always right. Muhammad, the twelve Imams, and Fatimah, are the "Infallibles" in Shi'a Islam. Just like the "Infallibles", one of the letters of the Living was a woman, and one was a prophet. Nineteen was a special number in Babism. The Letters of the Living were very much like the Twelve Apostles of Christ.