1. 2026-03-30. Interregnum, The. Filip Boicu, W. Andy Knight. An open, candid interview offering a unique view of what he terms the "interregnum," linking today's turbulent world to xeno-racism and structural racism, and showing how honest intellectual dialogue can help society reflect and find hope. Video.
2. 2025-12. Negotiating Gender Equality among Pakistani Bahá'ís: A Qualitative Study. Saleha, Ayesha Zaka, Humaira Tehsin. Explores how Pakistani Bahá’ís negotiate religious ideals of gender equality within everyday life, revealing tensions between egalitarian beliefs and patriarchal social norms. Articles.
3. 2023-2026. BWNS Podcasts: Conversations and Insights from the Field. Bahá'í World News Service. Links to 46 interviews highlighting how Bahá’í individuals and communities worldwide apply spiritual principles to education, governance, equality, and social transformation, fostering unity and the betterment of society. Video and audio available. Audio.
4. 2023-06. Báb on the Rights of Women, The. Siyamak Zabihi-Moghaddam. Statements of the Báb on issues such as mutʿah and tahlíl marriages, polygyny, bridal consent, divorce and spousal relations, and their significance for the rights of women in Muslim juridical opinions and social customs. Link to article (offsite). Articles.
5. 2021-05. Secret of Divine Civilization, The. Fariba Moghadam. Overview of the history Abdu'l-Bahá's treatise, and its themes presented through a compilation of quotations. Prepared for the Wilmette Institute. Presentations.
6. 2021. What is Bahá'í Orientalism?. Geoffrey Nash. Postcolonial theory can help analyze religious writing; Edward Said and the concept of mutual othering; power and knowledge are linked in the production of Orientalist discourse. Link to article (offsite). Articles.
7. 2015-10-01. Migrants and Refugees in Europe. Universal House of Justice. Principles to guide the response of the Bahá’í community to the dramatic social changes concerning the 2015 influx into Europe of people fleeing conflict in the Middle East, especially Syria. UHJ-letters.
8. 2015. Half the Household Was African: Recovering the Histories of Two African Slaves in Iran. Anthony Lee. Biographies of two enslaved Africans in Iran, Haji Mubarak and Fezzeh Khanum, the servants of The Bab. A history of slavery in Iran can be written, not only at the level of statistics, laws, and politics, but also at the level of individual lives. Articles.
9. 2013-11. Divide and Rule: The Creation of the Alawi State after World War I. Necati Alkan. Summary of 20th-century history of the Nusayri/Alawi Shi'i movement in Syria and Turkey. (No mention of Bahá'ís.) Articles.
10. 2012. 'Abdu'l-Bahá's Encounter with Modernity during His Western Travels. Wendi Momen. Abdu'l-Bahá's responses to the West's technology and innovations on the one hand, vs. its archaic racist and sexual philosophies on the other. Articles.
11. 2012. Fighting for the Nuṣayrī Soul: State, Protestant Missionaries and the ʿAlawīs in the Late Ottoman Empire. Necati Alkan. Overview of the Alawites/Nusayris (Syrian Shi'is) in the start of the 19th century, political attitudes in Syria and Istanbul, and the influence of Protestant missionaries. Articles.
12. 2011. Bahá'í Faith in Africa, The: Establishing a New Religious Movement, 1952-1962. Anthony Lee. African presence in early Bábí and Bahá'í history; Bahá'í response to crises in Middle East and West Africa; histories of British Camaroons, Calabar. Studies of Religion in Africa series, vol. 39. Books.
13. 2006. Bahá'í Faith in the Arabic Speaking Middle East, The: Part 1 (1753-1863). Ramsey Zeine. Bábí and early Bahá'í links to the Arab world and the Arabic language; the identity of the Faith is a fusion of Persian and Arab origins. Articles.
14. 2002. Theological Responses to Modernity in the Nineteenth-century Middle East. Oliver Scharbrodt. With their theologies, Bahá'u'lláh and Muhammad 'Abduh both responded to the challenge of modernity and sought change, but while 'Abduh remained on the grounds of the Islamic tradition, Bahá'u'lláh founded a new religion. Articles.
15. 2001 Winter. Academic Irrelevance or Disciplinary Blind-Spot?: Middle Eastern Studies and the Baha'i Faith Today. Ismael Velasco. Possible reasons for the lack of attention to the Bahá'í religion in Middle Eastern academic studies. Why is it considered marginal? What are the conceptual boundaries involved and their limitations? Articles.
16. 2000. Introduction to Abdu'l-Baha's The Secret of Divine Civilization, An. Nader Saiedi. 'Abdu'l-Bahá's The Secret of Divine Civilization in the context of the Iranian social and political situation of the day, and comments on its contribution to ongoing debates on certain religious, social, and political debates. Articles.
17. 1999-03. Genesis of the Bahá'í Faith in Middle Eastern Modernity, The. Juan Cole. Middle Eastern religion is seldom mentioned in the same breath with modernism. The Bahá'í faith, which originated in Iran, poses key conundrums to our understanding of the relationship between modernity and religion in the global South. Essays.
18. 1998. Der Messianismus des frühen 19. Jahrhunderts und die Entstehung der Baha'i Religion. Kamran Ekbal. On the resurgence of a millenarianistic climate in the 19th century from China through the Middle-East to the USA. It highlights the millenniarist mood in Iran at the time of the beginnings of the Bábí and Bahai religions. Articles.
19. 1998. Modernity and the Millennium: The Genesis of the Bahá'í Faith in the Nineteenth-century Middle East [introduction only]. Juan Cole. Introduction and first 4 pages of Chapter One. Excerpts.
20. 1998. Bahá'í Studies Bulletin: Index by volume. Robert Stauffer, comp. List of articles in all issues of Bahai Studies Bulletin, 1982-1992. Bibliographies.
21. 1997. Bahá'u'lláh and Liberation Theology. Juan Cole. The idea of liberation and equality is central to Bahá'í theology; the poor in the 19th century Middle East; Bahá'u'lláh and the poor; Tablet to the Kings on wealth and peace; laws of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas and Huququ'lláh; state social welfare. Articles.
22. 1993. Still Lives. Denis MacEoin. The nature of private lives and biography in Middle Eastern culture, with brief discussion of Rushdie's Satanic Verses and the lives of Tahirih and Shoghi Effendi. Articles.
23. 1991. Baha'u'llah as 'World Reformer'. Christopher Buck. This article places Bahá'u'lláh in the context of Islamic reform by comparing him to several contemporary Iranian reformers. Bahá'u'lláh prosecuted his proposed reforms in three stages: (1) Bábí reform; (2) Persian reform; and (3) world reform. Articles.
24. 1989 Winter. Ideology, Ethics, and Philosophical Discourse in Eighteenth-Century Iran. Juan Cole. Intellectual biography as a discipline assumes that the life and thought of an individual can shed light on an epoch. This paper examines 1700s Iran via the Shi'i scholar Mohammad Mehdi Niraq (d. 1794). No mention of the Bábí or Bahá'í Faiths. Articles.
25. 1986-10-27. Places Where the Manifestations of God Have Appeared; Equality of Men and Women. Universal House of Justice. The consistent portrayal of all known Manifestations of God as male and their historical emergence exclusively in the East; the equality of men and women; on soul mates. UHJ-letters.
26. 1983-09. Bahá'í Influence on the Reform Movements of the Islamic World in the 1860s and 1870s. Moojan Momen. Bahá'í influences on the Middle Eastern reform movement in the 1860s and 1870s. Articles.
27. 1981 Spring. Muhammad `Abduh and Rashid Rida: A Dialogue on the Bahá'í Faith. Juan Cole. Translation of a dialogue between two influential Sunni thinkers of the early Twentieth Century; contains much of historical interest. Articles.
28. 1930. Treasures of the East: The Life of Nine Oriental Countries. Zia M. Bagdadi. Descriptions of nine "Treasures" — Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Iraq, Jijaz (Arabia), Transjordania (Arabia), Persia, India, and Turkey — by an Iraqi physician who traveled to the U.S. and was instrumental in the establishment of several Bahá'í communities. Books.

1. 1845-01-10 — The beginning of the Islamic new year. Messianic fervour grew, particularly among Shaykhís. [BBRSM15]
2. 1850-07-31 —
   The Faith of the Báb had spread to two countries at this point, Iran and Iraq. [MBW147]
   • Bab148–60, 202–3; BBD147; BBR77–82; DB510–17; GPB49–55; TN26–7.
   • By this time "there was no province in the entire country in which from a few up to ten Bábí communities had not been established. These early Bábí communities of Muslim converts, who were generally from Shaikhi background, had come from various strata of Persian society, although a few Jews and Zoroastrians had also joined the movement (Māzandarānī, 1943, p. 395; Samandar, p. 348)". [BAHAISM v. The Bahai Community in Iran by V. Rafati]
3. 1916-05-16 — The Sykes–Picot Agreement, officially known as the Asia Minor Agreement, was a secret 1916 agreement between the United Kingdom and France, to which the Russian Empire assented. The agreement allocated to Britain control of areas roughly comprising the coastal strip between the Mediterranean Sea and the River Jordan, Jordan, southern Iraq, and an additional small area that included the ports of Haifa and Acre, to allow access to the Mediterranean. France got control of southeastern Turkey, northern Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. Russia was to get Istanbul, the Turkish Straits and Armenia. The controlling powers were left free to determine state boundaries within their areas. Further negotiation was expected to determine international administration in the "brown area" (an area including Jerusalem, similar to and smaller than Mandate Palestine), the form of which was to be decided upon after consultation with Russia, and subsequently in consultation with the other Allies, and the representatives of Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca. [Wikipedia]
4. 1956-04-00 — Shoghi Effendi announced the extension to Egyptian Bahá'í women of the right to be elected to the National Spiritual Assembly and to participate in the national convention. [MBW96–7]

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