The Baha'i Faith is a religion founded by Baha'u'llah (1817-92), a title meaning Glory of God. The name Baha'i derives from Baha ("glory, splendour") and signifies a follower of Baha'u'llah. According to Baha'i histories, Siyyid Ali-Muhammad, a 25-year-old merchant living in the Iranian city of Shiraz, announced on May 23, 1844 that he had been appointed by God as the gateway - or Bab - for a universal Messenger of God, who would follow him. Some people draw an analogy between the role played by the Bab and that played many centuries before by John the Baptist whom Christians believe was divinely inspired to foretell the arrival of Jesus. Siyyid denotes a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad.

[It is interesting to note that in the West the milennialists, such as William Miller (Seventh Day Adventists) and Joseph Smith (Church of Latter Day Saints, or Mormons), were predicting the return of Christ at this time.]

The Babi faith in turn had sprung from a movement in Shi'ah Islam, which believed in the forthcoming return of the 12th Imam, who would renew religion and guide the faithful.

Soon the teachings of the Bab spread throughout Persia, provoking strong opposition on the part of the clergy and the government. The Bab was arrested and, after several years of incarceration, condemned to death. In 1850 he was brought to Tabriz, where he was executed by a firing squad. There followed large-scale persecutions of the Babis in which ultimately more than 20,000 people lost their lives. The remains of the Bab are now interred in a shrine on the slopes of Mount Carmel, Haifa, Israel, the site of the Baha'i World Centre.

Baha'u'llah, who had been an early disciple of the Bab, was arrested in connection with an unsuccessful attempt on the life of the shah of Persia, Nasiri'd-Din, made in August 1852 by two Babis intent upon avenging their master. Though Baha'u'llah had not known of the plot, he was thrown into the Black Pit, a notorious jail in Tehran, where he was kept for four months. It is here where he became aware of his mission as a messenger of God.

He was released in January 1853 and exiled to Baghdad. There Baha'u'llah's leadership revived the Babí community, and an alarmed Persian government urged the Ottoman government to move both Baha'u'llah and the growing number of his followers farther away from Persia's borders.

Before being transferred to Constantinople, Baha'u'llah spent 12 days in a garden on the outskirts of Baghdad, where in April 1863 he declared to a small number of Babis that he was the messenger of God whose advent had been prophesied by the Bab. From Constantinople, where Baha'u'llah spent some four months, he was transferred to Adrianople. There he made a public proclamation of his mission in letters addressed to the rulers of Persia, Turkey, Russia, Prussia, Austria, and Britain, to the Pope, and to the Christian and Muslim clergy collectively.

The overwhelming majority of the Babis acknowledged Baha'u'llah's claim and thenceforth became known as Baha'is. Further plotting by Baha'u'llah's enemies brought about a fourth and final banishment. In 1868 he was sent to the walled prison-city of Akka, Palestine, now Israel.

For almost two years Baha'u'llah, his family, and a number of disciples were confined in army barracks converted into a jail. One of his sons and several companions died. When the severity of the incarceration abated, Baha'u'llah was permitted to reside within the walls of Akká and later in a mansion near the town. Before his life ended in 1892, Baha'u'llah saw his religion spread beyond Persia and the Ottoman Empire to the Caucasus, Turkistan, India, Burma, Egypt, and the Sudan.

Baha'u'llah appointed his eldest son, Abdu'l-Baha ("Servant of the Glory", 1844-1921), as the leader of the Baha'i community and the authorized interpreter of his teachings. Abdu'l-Baha not only administered the affairs of the movement from Palestine but also actively engaged in spreading the faith, traveling in Africa, Europe, and America from 1910 to 1913. He is buried in the Shrine of the Bab on the slopes of Mount Carmel.

In his Will and Testament, Abdu'l-Baha appointed his eldest grandson, Shoghi Effendi (1897-1957), as his successor, Guardian of the Cause of God, and authorized interpreter of the teachings of Baha'u'llah, thus assuring the continued unity of the believers. He was the head of the Baha'i Faith from 1921 until his passing. He is buried in a cemetery in North London.

During Abdu'l-Baha's ministry, Baha'i groups were established in North Africa, the Far East, Australia, and the United States. The Guardian instituted a number of plans to spread the Faith to all parts of the world. Believers were encouraged to "pioneer" to parts of the world where the Faith was not represented. It now has more than five million adherents in 236 countries and territories. Baha'is come from nearly every national, ethnic and religious background, making the Baha'i Faith the second-most-widespread religion in the world.

There is now no single individual that has a position of power. Since 1963 the supreme body of the Faith is the Universal House of Justice. It has its Seat at the Baha'i World Centre on the slopes of Mount Carmel in Haifa, Israel. It is a body of nine men elected by the members of the National Spiritual Assemblies of the world at an international convention held in Haifa, Israel every five years.

The Baha'i Faith was banned in Nazi Germany and, in the recent past, in Uganda under Idi Amin's rule. Currently the Baha'is are suffering severe persecution in Iran, the land of its birth. Some 300,000 Baha’is live throughout Iran, making the Baha’i Faith the country’s largest minority religion.