Azali
Bayani, meaning "of the Bayán", are also often known as Azalis. Bayanis believe that Siyyid 'Ali Muhammad Shirazi, the Báb, was a Manifestation of God as he finally declared himself in 1848. Earlier, from 1844 to 1848, he had progressively claimed the titles of Remembrance (dhikr), then Proof (hujjah), then the promised Qa'im or Imam Mahdi and Báb'ullah (gate of God). The primary book of the Báb is called the Bayán, but in his writings this appears to refer to the collective corpus of his works as well rather than just two specific works by that name.
The Báb's followers were originally called Bábís, but the term Bayani more precisely reflects the prophet's own designation of the followers of his religion. In the 1850s a split in the leadership caused those that followed Mirza Husayn 'Ali Bahá'u'lláh to be called Bahá'ís, and those that followed Subh-i Azal to be called Bábís, Bayanis, or popularly Azalis. The substance of this split was over Mirza Husayn 'Ali Nuri Bahá'u'lláh's claim to being the Bábí messiah He whom God shall make Manifest (man yuzhiruhu'Llah).
The Britannica Concise Encyclopedia states that "the Azalis probably number no more than a few thousand"[1], most likely in isolated pockets in Iran and Northern Cyprus. There is some speculation that small communities of Bayanis might exist in the Central Asian Republic of Uzbekistan as well.
Recent developments
While some dispute persists on the question, Subh-i-Azal does not seem to have left a successor. After his death the Bayani community simply devolved on to the rank and file membership (mostly families and kin related to Subh-i-Azal or prominent early believers who had stayed in the fold and not converted to the Bahá'í Faith). However, in early 2005 the Bayani community re-emerged in the public eye for the first time in many years with the launching of their website Bayanic.com. Earlier in 2004 Australian based Iranian esotericist Wahid Azal had launched a yahoogroups list called Bayan19 specifically dedicated to discussions of the religion of the Bayan. But Wahid Azal's Bayani gnostic universalism reflects a radical antinomian departure from the Bayani creed. It is more of a Sufi and crypto-Isma'ili gnostic reinterpretation of the Bayani faith (with Azal's own ruminations on the mystical philosophy of Ibn Arabi as the background) rather than the Bayani faith in any standard orthodox formulation. His book Liber Decatriarchia Mystica (Library of the Most Great Name, Eastern Coast, Australia: 2006) does however dedicate an entire chapter to the early history of the Bayani faith from a standard Azali perspective.
See also
External links
- The Religion of Bayan A website dedicated to the People of the Bayan.