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Nineteenth Century Qazvin was a maelstrom of religious controversy and conflict. Uṣūlīs, Akhbārīs, Shaykhīs, Bābīs, and Bahā'īs all interacted in conflict with each other and sometimes even in violence. This paper will first try to create a religious map of Qazvin in the early 19th Century. The central figure for much of the religious conflict in the city was Qurrat al-ʿAyn Tahirih, the daughter of an Uṣūlī scholar, who became a Shaykhī and then a Bābī. This paper will look at the circle of women around her and how she interacted with them. Although she herself was killed in 1852, the impact that she had on the women of the city had a lasting direct effect until the end of the nineteenth century and an indirect one up the present time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.religion.2007.06.008 Byline: Moojan Momen Abstract: During most of Baha'i history, there have been both marginal and apostate Baha'is. This article is about a group of articulate and well-educated marginal and apostate Baha'is who first appeared in the West about twenty-five years ago and who reached the peak of their activity in the last decade. The group's campaign against the Baha'i community brings to mind Max Scheler's description of the apostate as 'engaged in a continuous chain of acts of revenge against his own spiritual past'. Following a terminological, methodological and ethical discussion, this article examines the phenomenon and makes six points. (1) These apostates seek to reverse the status of the Baha'i Faith from that of an 'allegiant organisation' to that of a 'subversive' one, or a 'cult'. (2) The experiences of the apostates form a dark mirror image to those of the core members. (3) The Internet has been used extensively by these apostates to create a community of their own, thereby assisting the passage of many of them from marginality to apostasy. (4) This community has developed its own mythology, creed and salvation and has become what can perhaps be called an anti-religion. (5) Apostates have written papers and books that have been accepted by academic journals and presses. (6) If religious communities want to avoid facing attacks by apostates, it is necessary to act at an early stage of the process, as it is almost impossible to do anything later.

This paper gives a general account of the developments in the Bha'i Faith over the last three decades. The period began with the Baha'i Faith as a little-known religion with a hereditary leadership of predominantly Iranians membership but with some spread to the West. At the present time the religion has been transformed into a much better-known religion led by an elected council. It has increased some 20-fold in numbers and is now world-wide in membership. The major structural changes involved as the previous hereditary leadership at the international level was converted into the leadership of an elected council are analysed. The growth and development of the religion over this period are described and some statistical information is given. The central concerns of the religion during this time are described in terms of a number of motifs: polar, legalism, millenarianism, social reformism, universalism, liberalism, and martyrdom and sacrifice. An attempt is made to analyse some of the present problems facing the Baha'i community, both in terms of the presecutions that it suffers as well as the problems presented by its successful expansion, and to describe the ways in which it copes with these.