[Footnote GD: Lorimer, _Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf_. Gordon Lorimer was one of the ablest members of the Indian Political Department, and held various posts in the area of the Persian Gulf. In 1904, he was commissioned by the Government of India to prepare the Gazetteer. At the end of 1913, Lorimer replaced Sir Percy Z. Cox as Consul-General in Bú[_sh_]ihr and Political Resident in the Persian Gulf. In February a mishap with a revolver caused his untimely death. The present writer well remembers the event. The Gazetteer was made ready for publication by Capt. R. L. Birdwood.] 'A religious heresy which was destined to produce serious political consequences in Persia made its appearance during the later years of Muhammad Shāh: this was Bābism, the creed of the Bābis or followers of the Bāb. The founder was Saiyid `Ali Muhammad, the son of a grocer of Shīrāz, who, being sent as a youth to represent his father at Būshehr, soon left that place on pilgrimage to Makkah and afterwards sat as a student at the feet of Hāji Saiyid Kāzim, the greatest Mujtahid of the day at Karbala. On the death of his teacher he returned to Būshehr, where he proclaimed himself a prophet, the 23rd May 1844 being accounted the date of his manifestation in that character. '"He now assumed the title of the _Bāb_, or gate, through whom knowledge of the Twelfth Imam Mahdi could alone be attained. His pretensions undoubtedly became more extravagant as time proceeded, and he successfully announced himself as the Mahdi, as a re-incarnation of the prophet, and as a Revelation or Incarnation of God himself."[GE] The Bābi faith was ecclesiastically proscribed throughout Persia; and massacres of its adherents, with counter-assassinations of leading persecutors, became the order of the day.' [Footnote GE: Curzon, _Persia and the Persian Question_, Vol. I, p. 497.] * * * * * 'The new Bābi religion in Persia, of which the institution may be dated from 1844, the year in which Mīrza `Ali Muhammad, commonly known as the Bāb, declared his mission, does not appear to have obtained as yet much hold on the coast of the Persian Gulf, notwithstanding that the Bāb visited Būshehr at an early stage in his public career. It was reported that at Būshehr there were in 1905 only about 50 Bābis, chiefly employed in the Customs Department or in the Artillery; a very few others were found at the ports of Bandar `Abbas and Lingeh, and possibly at Shehr-i-Vīrān in the Līrāvi district; but at Baghdād, which was the headquarters of the Bābi religion from 1853 to 1864, it did not appear that there are any. It is probable, however, that Bābis are to be found in places where their existence has not been ascertained.'[5] BIBLIOGRAPHY `ABDU'L-BAHÁ. _Memorials of the Faithful._ Translated from the original Persian text and annotated by Marzieh Gail. Wilmette, Illinois: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1971.