1. There is also the case of about sixty Jews who became Babis or Bahá'ís in the late 1860s or early 1870s in Mashád. These conversions, however, were among Jadidú'l-Islam, part of a community of Jews who had been forcibly converted to Islam a generation earlier.

2. Táhirih was the most prominent female adherent to the Babi religion. Her audacious act of publicly removing her veil irrevocably severed the Babis from the Islamic community. She was executed in 1853.

3. The "confession" of faith recommended for baptismal candidates went as follows "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God; that He really died on the cross for our salvation; that He really and truly rose from the dead, leaving behind an empty tomb; that He alone is the Savior of the World. I deny the doctrine of rij'at (return), by which I am to believe that Jesus was Moses returned, and that Mohammad, the Bab and Bahá'u'lláh were 'returns' of Jesus, and I declare it to be false teaching. Accepting Jesus as my Lord and Savior I declare Mohammad, the Bab and Bahá'u'lláh to have been false prophets and false guides, leading men away from the truth" (Richards, The Religion 235-36).

4. Dr. Robert Bruce, a mtnister of the Church Missionary Society, noted the interest in Christianity in thc town of Nayríz, which he visited in 1885: "The people are more enlightened than in the purely Muhammedan towns through which we passed on the road as many of them are Babis. And many of them disputed with us; but they did not dispute like the people in other places, but only for not selling more Testaments to them. Having sold twenty-five copies, we told them we must keep some for other towns. They said, 'do you think other people will have more desire to buy these books than we have?' " (Quoted in Wilson, Persia 332).

5. See Moojan Momen, "Early Relations between Christian Missionaries and the Babi and Bahá'í Communities" in Studies in Babi and Bahá'í History 1: 49-82.

6. About forly converts are listed in Masabih-i Hidayat, vol. 4. The listings generally include their professions.

7. Wilson writes of the Armenians: "They are progressive, ready to accept new methods in education and business, and all the amenities of civilization. In their dress, house furniture and social customs they are following close upon their foreign models. In truth the young men seelm entirely too apt disciples of advanced thoughtlessness. They have heard or read of French infidelity and are tinctured with it.... Another characteristic of the Armenians is their intense patriotism. Next to their desire for education and acquisition of wealth, this is the most remarkable. The feeling is intense, fervid, overpowering.... It entwines itself around the Gregorian Church as the only visible embodiment of national unity, the bond of race, its representative. The skeptic joins the devotee, the enlightened scholar joins the superstitious and ignorant in supporting, though not approving of priest and bishop and their formal rites, not from love of religion or care of its ceremonies (which are despised), but because the church is the recognized and only organization of race" (Persian 108-10).

8. Wilson quotes one missionary as writing: "Despised and persecuted, they are unable to command respect or arouse feelings of humanity in the breasts of their oppressors. They passively submit to the vilest insults, while petty acts of persecution gradually become habitual. A Mussulman child may with impunity pull a Jew's beard and spit in his face. The word "Jew" is considered a term of disgrace and is never used by the Persian without an apology for giving it utterance.... Even the native Christian, I am sorry to say, join the Mussulmans in abhorring the Jews. The Jews, in turn, hold themselves apart from all and probably in their hearts despise and hate all others" (Persian 108-10).

9. "Up to 1895 no Parsi was allowed to carry an umbrella. Even during the time I was in Yazd they could not carry one in town. Up to 1895 there was a strong prohibition upon eye-glasses and spectacles; up to 1885 they were prevented from wearing rings; their girdles had to be made of rough canvas, but after 1885 any white material was permitted. Up to 1886 the Parsis were obliged to twist their turbans instead of folding them.... Up to 1891 all Zoroastrians had to walk in town, and even in the desert they had to dismount if they met a big Mussulman.... Up to about 1860 Parsis could not engage in trade. They used to hide things in their cellar rooms, and sell them but not in bazaars nor may they trade in linen drapery. Up to 1870 they were not permitted to have a school for their children" (Malcolm, Five Years 45-46).

10. Besides Kurdish raids, most of the Nestorian complaints centered around landlord-tenant relations rather than on communal disputes. The intervention of the missionaries disrupted the balance of power in that region and created resentments among the neighboring Muslims. By exciting unrealistic hopes and dangerous prejudices among the Nestorians, the actions of the missionaries served, along with the political instability of the times, to create a situation of communal tension that had not existed before and that led to senseless massacres on both sides and finally to the tragic exodus of the bulk of Nestorians from Urumiyyih in 1918. While some would later retum, others emigrated from Iran entirely. Still others assimilated into the large urban areas. A full discussion of Nestorian and Muslim relations in the nineteenth century can be found in The Nestorians and Their Muslim Neighbors by John Joseph (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1961).

11. Shah Bahram Varjavand by Firuz Ruzbehyan and Gulshan Haqayiq by Haji Mahdi Aljumand are examples of this kind of literature.

12. Part of these debates are reproduced in Gulshan Haqayiq.