The Humboldt Republican, “The BAHIS OF PERSIA”

“I was in Persia on the 16th of last May,” said a gentleman recently.
“Why do you mention that particular day?” asked the reporter.
“Because,” he returned, “it is a day of sorrow to thousands of the inhabitants of the land of Cyrus. There is a new sect in that country, and they believe they will supplant all others. They are known as the Bahis. These peculiar people claim that on the 17th of May, in some year unknown, God became a man in the person of Behao Allah, who left the human body and ascended to heaven, after praying his people prepare themselves for a better and a perfect life, and to do everything that would build up the temporal man and ennoble this life. It was the son of this prophet who thus related his father’s death. The followers of Beha are called Bahis. They admit that Jesus and Mohammed and Moses were great prophets. They maintain that God has inaugurated a new era and that it began with the advent of Beha and Ali Mohammed. The origin of the belief is Persianic. A new Imam is to arise. With his rising will come peace to all men. There will be more happiness in the world, more charity, more honesty among men.
“Seventy-five years ago marked the advent of Ali Mohammed. He went abread in Persia proclaiming himself a prophet. The new sect has been persecuted with violence. They have suffered in degree equally as terrible as that undergone in the days of martyrdom. They have deserved it as little, too. They Bible or creed of this new sect is called the Bayan. In no way does it conflict with the established rule of any government. It lacks among its adherents one thing which has been deemed essential to the success of religious teaching. They are not orthodox. They Bayan teaches that there is no hell, except in unbelief, and that to believe is heaven – paradise. It claims the mission of the Old and New Testament, and the Koran to have been fulfilled and there fore useless in the present day. It holds that the human intellect has developed and is able to receive a better creed, a stronger religion and a better one. This new religion is patterned after the Mohammedan religion more than any other. However, the ritualism has undergone some decided changes. In the last month of the year a fast is ordained and only children, travelers and women in travail are exempt from the observance. There is one thing about this new sect which deserves consideration and support. A higher status is placed on women. No veil is required when the female desires to appear in public celebrations. The Bahis insists on charity and demands brotherly love. Begging is prohibited, and efforts are made by those in high station and affluence to assist their inferiors to rise by labor and independence above the roles of mendicants. They believe in a millennium and hope for its inauguration. They hope to obtain it strictly by religious means. The Bayan is strongly opposed to ignorance and superstition. Auricular confession they consider unpardonable and do not allow it. They reject slavery and the outward distinction of dress. They believe that God along knows their state after death. — New Orleans Picayune