The scholarly study of the Baháʼí Faith, its teachings, history and literature is currently conducted in a variety of venues, including institutes of the Baháʼí administration as well as non-affiliated universities. Some scholars study some aspect of the Baháʼí Faith as part of research on related matters while others engage in Baháʼí studies as a primary focus of their research. Scholars' comments on the religion and its predecessor Bábism date back to at least 1845, the year after its founding. Initially, they were often Orientalists or Christian missionaries but through time both Baháʼís and non-Baháʼí researchers have addressed the religion especially in tune with the growth of the religion, which has been called significant.
Organizations
Association for Baháʼí Studies − founded in 1975, the ABS operates under the supervision of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baháʼís of Canada. Baháʼí Library Online − a private, independent, all-volunteer project created by Jonah Winters and a team of contributors. Baháʼí Reference Library − an agency of the Baháʼí International Community, hosts authorized writings of the religion. H-Bahai − part of H-Net, an international interdisciplinary organization of scholars, H-Bahai is a website making available a wealth of difficult-to-obtain primary sources on the religion. Irfan Colloquium Landegg International University − a now defunct university that operated from 1992 to 2003 under the aegis of the Baháʼí community of Switzerland Unity Museum is a boutique tax-exempt non-profit member of the Washington Museum Association and American Alliance of Museums, separate from the formal organizational structure of the Baháʼí Faith, with its own board of directors, in Seattle, Washington, located near the University of Washington.
Wilmette Institute − founded in 1995 as an educational endeavor of the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States, the Wilmette Institute provides on-line and on-site summer residential sessions. Mediathèque Francophone
Journals
Baháʼí Studies Bulletin, published 1982–1993, Newcastle upon Tyne. Somewhat informal, yet prepared with full scholarly standards, the Baháʼí Studies Bulletin was edited, photocopied and distributed by Stephen Lambden, Professor of Religious Studies at University of Newcastle upon Tyne (said university not itself affiliated with the Bulletin). Contributors were university professors and other scholars, and the early years saw Bulletins that were a mixture of handwritten and typed articles (of varying layouts). Many of the contributors later appeared in the later, "more polished" journals listed here. Baháʼí Studies (a French-English bilingual publication, full name on the journal's cover is Études Baháʼí Studies) published 19?? to 1987, in Ottawa, by the Canadian Association for Studies on the Baháʼí Faith the Canadian association, and its journal, changed names in 1988 − see next bullet... The Journal of Baháʼí Studies (a French-English-Spanish trilingual publication) published since 1988, in Ottawa, by the Association for Baháʼí Studies (North America), an agency of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Canada. Baháʼí Journal of the Baháʼí Community of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland or Baháʼí Journal UK some issues of which were digitized and is preserved online. Then the periodical was redone and called the UK Baha'i Journal. Baháʼí Studies Review H-Bahai Digital Publications Series − published by H-Bahai, consisting of Occasional Papers in Shaykhi, Babi and Baha'i Studies; Research Notes in Shaykhi, Babi and Baha'i Studies; Documents on the Shaykhi, Babi and Baha'i Movements; and Translations of Shaykhi, Babi and Baha'i Primary Texts Irfan Colloquia, consisting of Safini-yi 'Irfán: Papers Presented at the ʻIrfán Colloquia (in Persian); Lights of ʻIrfán: Papers Presented at the ʻIrfán Colloquia and Seminars (in English), and Beiträge des 'Irfán-Kolloquiums: 'Irfán-Studien zum Baháʼí-Schrifttum (in German) UK Baha'i Review, various issues of which were digitized and is preserved online World Order Magazine (published 1935–1949 and 1966–2002)World Order Magazine's "Topical Index" Now Available on the Wilmette Institute Website, by Robert Stockman, Wilmetteinstitute.org, November 29, 2014
Academic chairs
Baha'i Chair for Studies in Development − at Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India. Baha'i Chair for World Peace − at the University of Maryland, College Park in College Park, Maryland, United States of America. Chair in Baháʼí Studies − at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Lecture Series in Baha'i Studies, Meir & Miriam Ezri Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies, University of HaifaLecture Series in Baha'i Studies , The Meir & Miriam Ezri Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies, University of Haifa, Mount Carmel, Haifa 31905, Israel, October 1, 2016
Archives and collections
Baháʼí archives/collections
A number of collections of Baháʼí related materials are preserved around the world. Some are maintained at universities; the Baháʼí World Center, especially at the Centre for the Study of the Sacred Texts, the International Archives, and International Baháʼí Library, most National Baháʼí Assemblies and many local Baháʼí assemblies or institutions maintain their own archives.
Academic
Ghassem GhaniGhassem Ghani, Iranica Online, by Abbas Milani, Originally Published: December 15, 2000 Collection, at Yale University,Ghassem Ghani collection, Manuscripts and Archives, Sterling Memorial Library, 128 Wall Street, P.O. Box 208240, New Haven, CT 06520 1800–1900, 3.5 linear feet (1 box, 2 folios) in Persian. Jamshed & Parvati Fozdar Collection at the National Library of Singapore.Jamshed & Parvati Fozdar Collection, National Library of Singapore Baron Victor Rosen's collection in the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg branch.The St. Petersburg 19th c. Collection of Materials on the Babi and Bahaʼi Faiths: Primary and other Sources, Youli Ioannesyan, Institute of Oriental manuscripts, Russian Academy of Sciences, July 10, 2015The St. Petersburg 19th Century Orientalist Collection of Materials on the Babi and Baha'i Faiths: Primary and Other Sources, by Ioannesyan, Y., in Lights of Irfan 7: 75-100, 2006 Badiʼu'lláh and Muhammad Ali Bahaʼi Papers, 1901–1944, Burke Library Archives, Columbia University Libraries, Union Theological Seminary, New YorkBadiʼu'lláh and Muhammad Ali Bahaʼi Papers, 1901–1944, Burke Library Archives, Columbia University Libraries, Union Theological Seminary, New York Hurqalya Publications: Center for Shaykhī and Bābī-Bahāʼī Studies by Stephen Lambden, University of California, Merced.Hurqalya Publications: Center for Shaykhī and Bābī-Bahāʼī Studies by Stephen Lambden, University of California, Merced
Baháʼí sponsored
US National Bahai Archives, for Louhelen Baháʼí School Library, and the National Baha'i Library, USWelcome to National Bahai Archives, USCatalog for the U.S. National Baháʼí Library Now Available, by Robert Stockman, December 31, 2014 Eliot Baha'i ArchivesEliot Baha'i Archives associated with Green Acre Baháʼí School Los Angeles Baha'i Archives on Facebook,Los Angeles Baha'i Archives on Facebook and YouTube.Los Angeles Baha'i Center Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of Washington, D.C. ArchivesSpiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of Washington, D.C. Archives, Religion Collections in Libraries and Archives: A Guide to Resources in Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia, Humanities & Social Sciences division, Library of Congress Afnan Library, collection is the books, manuscripts and papers left by the late Hasan Balyuzi and others, located in Sandy near Cambridge, United Kingdom.Outstanding collection of Baha'i literature finds permanent home, Baháʼí World News Service, 15 February 2015.Afnan Library Online
Publishing
A number of venues exist for publishing materials related to the Baháʼí Faith. Many national assemblies have their own publishing trust and there are a few publishing houses that run more or less independently. Among them are:
BahaiBookStore.comBahaiBookStore.com the Baháʼí Distribution Service acting as an agency of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baháʼís of the United States BahaiBooksUK is the publishing trust of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baháʼís of the United Kingdom.About Us, BahaiBooks.org.uk BahaiBooks is the publishing trust of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baháʼís of Australia, founded in 1976.About Us , Baha'i Publications Australia Baha'i Publishing Trust of India.Baha'i Publishing Trust, New Delhi, India Oneworld PublicationsOneworld Publications founded in 1986 in the UKAbout Us has published Baha'i books.Baha'i books on Oneworld Publications Kalimát PressKalimát Press is a small, privately owned Baha'i publishing company. Baháʼí Encyclopedia Project was also established by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baháʼís of the United States for invited scholars to contribute scholarly articles.Baháʼí Encyclopedia Project, About
Scholarship
Starting in the earliest days of Bábísm, viewed by Baháʼís as the predecessor to their own religion, scholarship on the religion has been produced.
While there were previous Iran or near-Iranian sources of scholarship of the religion in early periods, wide-ranging publications covering mostly western literature include Moojan Momens' 1981 The Babi and Baha'i Religions, 1844–1944: Some Contemporary Western Accounts, William Collins' 1992 Bibliography of English-language works on the Bábí and Baháʼí faiths, 1844–1985, and MacEoin's annotated bibliography borrowing heavily from Collins' work. There is also the Resource Guide for the Scholarly Study of the Baháʼí Faith by Robert Stockman and Jonah Winters published in 1997,Resource Guide for the Scholarly Study of the Baháʼí Faith, by Robert Stockman and Jonah Winters, Wilmette, IL: Research Office of the Baháʼí National Center, 1997 focusing more on later works. Mostly these works explicitly ignored newspaper accounts.
19th century
A wide variety of accounts, encounters and investigations began to circulate outside of Persia as events began to unfold from the Spring of 1844 with the Declaration of the Báb. Initially viewed as an Iranian development and often through Christian missionary perspectives, the growth of religion would soon far transcend that limited perspective.
Diplomatic reports on Bábí activities begins January 8, 1845 concerning the fate of Mullá ʿAli-e Bastāmi. These were exchanges between Sir Henry Rawlinson, 1st Baronet who wrote first to Stratford Canning, 1st Viscount Stratford de Redcliffe. Newspaper accounts in the West began November 1, 1845, in The Times of London. Followed November 15 by the Literary Gazette"Mahometan Schism", Literary Gazette, November 15, 1845, p. 757, 1st column, below middle which was subsequently echoed widely.for example see: "Mahomedan Schism", Vermont Watchman and State Journal, February 19, 1845, p. 4, second column, top "Mahometan Schism", Signal of Liberty, p. 3, center top of full page view "Mahometan Schism", The Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art, January/February 1846, p. 142, bottom left then top of right columns "A modern Mahomet", Boon's Lick Times, April 4, 1846, p. 1, fourth column, halfway down "Mahometan Schism", Morning Chronicle, April 4, 1846, p. 4, 5th column, top, as highlighted "Mahometan Schism", South Australian, April 7, 1846 p. 3, bottom of second column, top of next, as highlighted "Persia", South Australian Register, April 11, 1846, p. 3, 5th column near bottom, as highlighted