Birth of the Báb

Culture of origin: Bahá’í · Cultural

Holiday sources: Bahá'í Faith · Iran

The Báb was born ʻAlí-Muḥammad in Shiraz on 20 October 1819. A merchant, he founded the Bábí Faith in 1844 and taught that a greater messenger would follow him; Bahá'ís revere him as the forerunner of Bahá'u'lláh, as John the Baptist was of Jesus. After clerics declared him an apostate, the Qajar government had him shot by a firing squad in Tabriz in 1850. Bahá'ís keep his birth on the first day after the eighth new moon following Naw-Rúz. On 1 and 2 November 2016, the Twin Holy Birthdays, the Islamic Republic's authorities sealed more than one hundred Bahá'í-owned businesses in Sari, Ghaemshahr, Bandar Abbas and other cities, because their owners had closed them for the holy days (Bahá'í World News Service).