The religious movement known as B bism profoundly affected Iranian society during the 1840s. After a lengthy hiatus, academic study of the sect has entered a new phase with the appearance of several important books, articles, and theses.The present work surveys Persian and Arabic manuscripts relating to the history and doctrines of the sect. Part one examines the writings of the B b and his followers. Part two analyses primary and secondary sources for B b history, with a discussion of the controversial Kit b-i Nuqt at al-k f. Discussion of each title is followed by a comprehensive listing of known MS copies. An appendix contains an index of first lines and titles for works of the B b.This is the first study to examine the large corpus of B b writing and will help scholars identify texts and find manuscripts in Europe and the Middle East.

Of the several works on the rise and development of the Babi movement, especially those dealing with the life and work of its founder, Sayyid Ali Muhammad Shirazi, few deal directly with the compelling and complex web of mysticism, theology and philosophy found in his earliest compositions. This book examines the Islamic roots of the Babi religion, (and by extension the later Baha’i faith which developed out of it), through the Qur’anic commentaries of the Bab and sheds light on its relationship to the wider religious milieu and its profound debt to esoteric Islam, especially Shi'ism. Todd Lawson places the two earliest writings of the Bab within the diverse contexts necessary to understand them, in order to explain why these writings made sense to and inspired his followers. He delves into the history of the tafsir (Qur’an commentary) genre of Islamic scholarship, situates these early writings in the Akhbari, Sufi and most importantly Shaykhi traditions of Islam. In the process, he identifies both the continuities and discontinuities between these works and earlier works of Shi’i tafsir, helping us appreciate significant elements of the Bab’s thought and claims. Filling an important gap in the existing literature on the Babi movement, this book will be of greatest interest to students and scholars of Qur'an commentary, Mysticism, Shi'ism, the modern history of Iran and messianism.