Early Western Accounts of the Babi and Baha'i Faiths by Moojan
Momen Bahá'í (and Bábí) Faith, Early Western Accounts of The
Bábí movement created a great deal of turmoil in Iran, thus it
soon aroused some interest in the West also. Initially news of
the movement reached the West through newspaper accounts and
traveler's reports, while the western governments received
information from their diplomatic staff. The first known account
of any of the events relating to Bábí and Bahá'í history was the
report sent by the British consul in Baghdad, Major Henry
Rawlinson, to the British Foreign Office relating to the arrest
and imprisonment of Mullá `Alí Bastámí in early 1845. The first
published account was that of proclamation by the Báb of his
mission in Mecca and the arrest and punishment of four of the
Báb's disciples in Shiraz, and the arrest of the Báb. This
account appeared in The Times of London on 1 November 1845.
Other important early accounts include those of Lady Mary Sheil,
the wife of the British Ministe