The Báb (Sayyid Ali Muhammad Shirazi)

On May 23, 1844, in Shiraz, the Báb declared his prophetic mission to his first disciple Mulla Husayn. His revolutionary teachings proclaimed the elevation of women, education, and the dawn of a new spiritual cycle that abrogated rigid clerical traditionalism.

Imprisoned in the mountain fortresses of Mah-Ku and Chihriq, his followers faced brutal suppression. In 1850, suspended before a regimental firing squad in Tabriz, the initial volley miraculously severed only his ropes; his remains were later interred in golden-domed splendour on Mount Carmel in Haifa.