Bábism, also known as the Bábi Faith, is a monotheistic religion founded in 1844 by the Báb. The Báb, an Iranian merchant-turned-prophet, professed that there is one incorporeal, unknown, and incomprehensible God who manifests his will in an unending series of theophanies, called Manifestations of God. The Báb's ministry, throughout which there was much evolution as he progressively outlined his teachings, was turbulent and short lived and ended with his public execution in Tabriz in 1850. A campaign of extermination followed, in which thousands of followers were killed in what has been described as potentially one of the bloodiest actions of the Iranian military in the 19th century.
Shrine of the Báb in Haifa, Israel
The room in the Báb's house in Shiraz where he declared his mission to Mulla Husayn.
Shrine of Shaykh Ṭabarsí
The Shrine of the Báb in Haifa
Monotheism is the belief that one god is the only deity. A distinction may be made between exclusive monotheism, in which the one God is a singular existence, and both inclusive and pluriform monotheism, in which multiple gods or godly forms are recognized, but each are postulated as extensions of the same God.
Pharaoh Akhenaten and his family adoring the Aten
Fictionalized portrait of Xenophanes from a 17th-century engraving
Remains of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, Greece
God in The Creation of Adam, fresco by Michelangelo (c. 1508–1512)