The Baháʼí Faith in Egypt has existed for over 150 years. The first followers of the Baháʼí Faith arrived in Egypt in 1863. Baháʼu'lláh, founder of the religion, was himself briefly in Egypt in 1868 when on his way to imprisonment in ʻAkká. The first Egyptians were converts by 1896. Despite forming an early Baháʼí Local Spiritual Assembly and forming a National Assembly, in 1960 following a regime change the Baháʼís lost all rights as an organised religious community by Decree 263 at the decree of then-President Gamal Abdel Nasser. However, in 1963, there were still seven organized communities in Egypt. More recently the roughly 2000 or 7000 by ARDA Baháʼís of Egypt have been embroiled in the Egyptian identification card controversy from 2006 through 2009. There have been homes burned down and families driven out of towns.
According to the statement of the director of the office of External Affairs of the NSA of the Baháʼís of the United States, the Baháʼí community of Egypt has diminished by 90 percent to 500 people.
Early history One of the early Baháʼí pioneers to come to Egypt in 1867 was Mirza Heyder Ali during the reign of Ismaʻil Pasha; Ali was arrested and banished to Sudan for 12 years soon after his entrance into Egypt.* Other early Baháʼís in Egypt were Haji Báqir-i-Káshání and Siyyid Husayin-i-Káshání who took up residence in Egypt during the period Baháʼu'lláh was in Adrianople. Another early Baháʼí was Hag Hassan Khurásáni who held weekly meetings in his home. Baháʼu'lláh and his family left Adrianople on 12 August 1868 and after a journey by land and sea through Gallipoli and Egypt arrived in ʻAkká on 31 August, and confined in the barracks in the citadel in the city. From then on many well known Baháʼís spent time in Egypt or joined the religion there. Nabíl-i-Aʻzam made several journeys on behalf of Baháʼu'lláh and was imprisoned in Egypt in 1868. Robert Felkin was in Egypt circa 1880s and published a number of books -later he converted to the religion.Arohanui, Introduction by Collis Featherstone. In 1892 two converts in Egypt embarked to the West intending to spread the religion and were the first Baháʼís to enter the United States where the first converts followed in 1894.
Mírzá Abu'l-Faḍl-i-Gulpáygání Mírzá Abu'l-Faḍl-i-Gulpáygání, often called Mírzá Abu'l-Faḍl, was one of the prominent Baháʼís to pioneer to Egypt and made some of the first big changes to the community. Abu'l-Faḍl first came to Cairo in 1894 where he settled for several years. He worked at Al-Azhar University and was successful in converting more than fourteen and up to thirty of the teachers and students including the first native Egyptians to convert to the religion. Abu'l-Faḍl also became friends with writers and magazine publishers, and many articles that he authored appeared in the Egyptian press. In 1896, when Nasiru'd-Din Shah was assassinated in Iran, Zaʻimu'd-Dawlih used the rumour that the assassination had been performed by Baháʼís to cause a massacre of the Baháʼís in Egypt. Abu'l-Faḍl stood up in defence for the Baháʼís and stated that he himself was a Baháʼí and his allegiance became public. Two publications came out during this time from Mírzá Abu'l-Faḍl:
Fara'id (The Peerless Gems): A book written in 1898 in reply to an attack on the Kitáb-i-Íqán and published in Cairo. Generally considered Mírzá Abu'l-Faḍl's greatest work. Al-Duraru'l-Bahiyyih (The Shining Pearls): Published in 1900, it is a collection of essays on the history of the Baháʼí Faith. Since it was wrriten in Arabic, it was responsible for making the Baháʼís known in Egypt.
Following their publication al-Azhar University decreed that he was an infidel. From 1901 to 1904 at the request of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá he traveled and gave talks among the new Baháʼí community in the United States. Meanwhile, the Egyptian community continued to publish materials and from 1900 to 1910 several articles and books including official Baháʼí literature were published in Cairo. Abu'l-Faḍl died in 1914 is buried in the cemetery called Al-Rawda Al-Abadeyya, the Eternal Garden.
ʻAbdu'l-Bahá Circa 1887 ʻAbdu'l-Bahá met the Egyptian reformer Muhammad Abduh while both were in Lebanon wherein Abduh had a clearly positive impression of him.
After a further period of imprisonment westerners became interested in meeting him as well. Thornton Chase, the first Baháʼí of the West, came in 1907, and he wrote a book about it. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, highly impressed by Chase's qualities, conferred on him the title thábit, "steadfast." Stanwood Cobb managed to meet ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, then head of the religion, after an accidental meeting with Lua Getsinger in 1908 in Egypt. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá traveled to Egypt in September 1910 after being released following events of the Young Turk Revolution. This was the initial event of a series of journeys he took. Sometime from late September to mid-August 1910 until the winter of 1913, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá would travel from Egypt to various countries and back in two successive trips – first to Europe, second to America (United States and Canada) and back to Europe on the return trip. Before, between, and on return he would stop in Egypt. See ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's journeys to the West. Wellesley Tudor Pole became a Baháʼí after traveling to Egypt to interview him in November 1910. In the same year, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá referred to an early Baháʼí Local Spiritual Assembly of Cairo. Playwright Isabella Grinevskaya traveled to meet ʻAbdu'l-Bahá in Egypt and became a member of the religion. Louis Gregory visited ʻAbdu'l-Bahá at Ramleh in 1911. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá was about to make long travels to the West. Just before ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's first trip, a message from Lady Blomfield extended an invitation for ʻAbdu'l-Bahá when he was in London. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá then set sail 11 August 1911, reached as far as London, and returned in early December to rest for the winter. His next trip was more extensive and reached to California. He left 25 March 1912 and returned 17 June 1913 and on return stayed in Egypt almost six months before returning to Haifa/Akka. Upon his return he gave a number of talks. These were eventually published as ʻAbdu'l-Bahá in Egypt. After ʻAbdu'l-Bahá returned to Haifa, Martha Root stayed there for six months in 1915. One of the earliest Baháʼís of the west and a Disciple of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, Lua Getsinger, died in 1916 and she was buried in Egypt. And following ʻAbdu'l-Bahá laying the cornerstone for the first Baháʼí House of Worship of the West, the Baháʼís from Cairo, Port Said and Alexandria contributed to the Fund for its construction in Wilmette, Illinois. During World War I Baháʼís in Port Said were pillaged twice. Meanwhile, Tudor Pole was stationed in Egypt and was directly involved in addressing the concerns raised by Ottoman threats against ʻAbdu'l-Bahá. As the battle lines advanced from Egypt through Palestine, the Ottomans had threatened that ʻAbdu'l-Bahá would be killed if the Ottomans had been forced to leave the region. This threat was taken seriously by the British Military who then sought to make his protection part of the plans for the Palestine theatre. General Allenby altered his plans for the prosecution of the war and succeeded in protecting ʻAbdu'l-Bahá.
After the death of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá In the period between the world wars, public opposition to Baháʼís became more widespread as the religion grew and in addition to growing, the Baháʼís of Egypt began to publish materials to be more easily read. At the death of ʻAbdul-Bahá in 1921, Shoghi Effendi left England with the assistance of Lady Blomfield and stopped in Egypt to change boats for Haifa.
Progress of the religion The assembly of Alexandria was formed in 1924 for the first time and Subhê Eliçs was among the elected – he was re-elected until 1961 and left an oral history recorded from his experiences in the community in 1977. It was also the year of the first election of the regional National Spiritual Assembly of Egypt and Sudan. In 1928 the Bulletin was first published by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baháʼís of Egypt, in English, Arabic and Persian. The national conventions continued to elect the national assembly. By 1930 most of the Egyptian Baháʼís were native Egyptians and despite circumstances an Egyptian Baháʼí woman was able to attend the 1931 Women's Conference of All-Asia held in Lahore, Burma. Marie of Edinburgh, another western Baháʼí, was able to stop at Egypt for a time but failed to make landfall in Haifa. In early 1934 Sabri Elias pioneered to what was then called Abyssinia, (see Baháʼí Faith in Ethiopia) where he was soon joined by further Egyptians by mid-1934 – enough to elect the first Assembly in Addis Ababa. In 1935 the national assembly saw to the translation of the Kitáb-i-Íqán into Arabic and its publication. The Baháʼís returned from Ethiopia when war was breaking out. Meanwhile, the publishing committee of Alexandria published the Tablet to The Hague in one of the local papers on the occasion of the question of peace. By early 1937 Mostafa Kamel of Egypt was able to act as a youth international correspondent for a youth newsletter.
Instances of opposition 1924 began with an apparent triumph when following a controversy over a burial of a Baháʼí in a Muslim cemetery, Egypt became the first Islamic state to legally recognize the Baháʼí Faith as an independent religion separate from Islam and creating two cemeteries for the Baháʼís – one in Cairo and the other in Ismaïlia. As a result of the decision when certain Muslims attacked Baháʼís in Kom El-Sayeda the perpetrators were excommunicated from Islam for the attack. In 1936 following interest from citizens of Belqas as well as visitors from Tanta it became known that Saad Effendi Salim Nosseir was a Baháʼí and opposition was stirred up such that the interested citizens and Nosseir were unable to leave their homes. Nossier, being a public servant, appealed for a change in residence and serve in another district and was at first refused despite his good reputation. However, in time he was transferred. And in late 1938 there were extraordinary events concerning the burial of Mohammed Effendi Soliman of Ismaïlia who had died 9 December 1938. Having informed family and friends of his wish for a Baháʼí funeral, and drawing up a Will requiring his heirs to submit to the Local Assembly of Ismaïlia, the assembly informed the police of the papers and arrangements. A non-Baháʼí brother agitated against this funeral and became so threatening that he was detained by the police. However, when it came time to take the casket to the cemetery a large angry crowd made travel impossible despite police protection. That night the casket was transferred to police headquarters though fighting injured eight policemen. On the next day after midnight a truck took the casket out of town to be buried in the desert sands. The home of the deceased was attacked by a mob, and demonstnitions were continued in the streets throughout the night. In 1939, after the national assembly elections, petition was made to have Baháʼí marriage ceremonies legal in Egypt – as part of the justification a copy of a marriage contract issued by the Spiritual Assembly of Haifa and legalized by both Palestine authorities and the Egyptian Consulate in Jerusalem was enclosed. However, by 1944 a Baháʼí marriage was compulsorily annulled because the wife had originally been Moslem, in spite of her statement in court that she now considered herself a Baháʼí. Sabri Elias married and went on Baháʼí pilgrimage and then returned to Ethiopia and then some years later went on to Djibouti. Shoghi Effendi came through Egypt during a personal trip with his wife Rúhíyyih Khanum through Africa in 1940.
Up to the time of dissolution