Babi

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

the name of a modern Persian sect, derived from the title, Bâbed-Din (gate of the faith), assumed by its founder, Mirza Ali Mohammed, a native of Shiraz, who, in 1843, after a pilgrimage to Mecca, undertook to form a new religion from a mixture of Mohammedan, Christian, Jewish, and Parsee elements. The sect soon became numerous, and were not molested by the reigning Shah; but on the accession of Nasired-Din in 1848, apprehending persecution, they took up arms, proclaiming the advent of the Bâb as universal sovereign. Several Persian armies were routed, but finally the insurgents were reduced by famine, and most of them executed (1849-1850). The Bab had held aloof from the revolt, but he was arrested and put to death in 1850. His successor was recognized in the youthful son of the Governor of Teheran, who retired to Bagdad. An attempt of three believers to assassinate the Shah, in 1852, led to terrible persecution of the sect. Bâbism has nevertheless gained in strength, and is at present widely diffused in Persia. Their doctrines form a system of Pantheism. Bâbism enjoins few prayers, and those only on fixed occasions; encourages hospitality and charity; prohibits polygamy, concubinage, and divorce; discourages asceticism and mendicancy; and directs women to discard the veil, and share as equals in the intercourse of social life. BĂBIROUSSA (bab-i-rös'a), a species of hog, sometimes called the horned hog and the hog deer, from the fact that its upper tusks, which are of great length and curved in form, piercing through the upper lip, grow upward and backward, like the horns of a ruminant. BABISM. See BÂBI.