BAALBEC

[s. 77] : Beirut. It is A town of Syria, northeast of celebrated for its ruins of the Temple of the Sun. It is a station of the British Syrian Schools’ Committee, with 2 mi ionary women and 3 native women workers, 1 village and a dispensary. BABIS (pron. Babees) A sect among the Mohammedans of Persia. In 1845 a young moU ah of Shiraz, named Mohammed Ali, com school, a high school,: menced to preach against the vices of his coreligionists. His bold invective against the corrupreligious hierarchy won instant response from the common people and gave him great popularity as a preacher. It also aroused fierce anger among the men whose hypocrisy and luxurious living he attacked. He began to claim that he was divinely ordained to reform the religious faith and practise of the country, quoting from the Bible and the words of Christ as well as from the Koran in support of his teachings. As he diverged more and more from the doctrine that the teachings of the Koran have superseded all earlier revelations, he began to defy the mollahs of Shirez to harm him, declaring himself to be the Bab, that is to say, the “door” or forerunner of the Mahdi who is to come in the last days to reform religion. Threatened with punishment by the chief Mohammedan tion of the Ball, Dyer, M.D. Antrim, N. H., January 17, 1817 a medical mis spring of 1839 he was accepted as Society; and sionary by the Free Baptist Mi ion another year, he after continuing his studies for in the eloquent woman who continually stirred up When people to persevere in the new doctrine. lurther the authorities undertook to make serious battles arrests, the Babis resisted, and in occurred, particularly in the district of Shiraz some of which the Persian troops were defeated. lite ot In 1848 an attempt was made upon the An edict of the Shah by some of the Babis. and proscription was then i ued against the sect I he you sands of its members were ma acred. and leaders of the Babis escaped to Turkey The i ere stablished themselves at Baghdad. could not sian Government, finding that Babism Bab be eradicated while the succe ors of the the lived, requested Turkey to surrender still This Turkey refused to do, but finally consented to place the leaders of the sect under Persian surveillance at a point distant from the All efforts were vain, however, and frontier. refugees. flourishes still more or in Persia ^,, le , The Bab left a volume of his teachings—an ambitious but i lUte rate production called The doctrines held by (Exposition). char a chis followers seem to be of a progre ive of Mohamter, however, and are now a mixture “Bayan” medanism, Indian Theosophy and Pantheism, in which they follow the lead of the Sufis. Certain texts and precepts taken from the New Testament and the Psalms of David are added to this A principle of the eclectic body of doctrine. Dervish sect held in common with some of the orders is that all Mohammedanism as taught to-day, and in fact all religions, are hopele ly corrupt, that the Mahdi will, therefore, shortly appear to reform the world and that then true religion will be found to include parts of the Mohammedan, Buddhist, and Christian teachings. The system of morals preached by the Babis is in marked contrast to that of Islam in laying stre on the brotherhood of all mankind and in stigma- Like all Mohammedans, they tizing polygamy. hold the use of wine or spirits to be a sin. Two rival disciples of the Bab, each claiming to be his divinely appointed succe or, are now in exile under surveillance of the Turkish Government, the one in the Island of Cyprus, and the The latter is named other at Acre, in Syria. Beha-ed-din and has entered into relations with English and Americans with a view to uniting all religions. He claims 10,000 followers with his wife, for India. He made Bal a when he sor the center of his work until 1851, On his return to India returned to America. the rest of 1863, he settled at Midnapur, where His dispensary his mi ionary life was spent. proved to be a great ble ing to many, and through its influence hundreds were attracted to Gospel me age. AVhen he returned to India, sailed, Babis His followers, who called themselves eminent (People of the Bab), included some Mohammedan moUahs, and one remarkable and openly. BACHELER, Rev. Otis Robinson, M.D. InBorn the: ringing theologians of Teheran he answered by a mes sen defiance of all efforts to lay hands on the Multitudes of all cla es of the ger of God. repeople became his followers; the Bab was itselt garded as supreme authority, the throne teemed to be endangered, and finally the Persian Government arrested him and put him to death. Babism 60 BablB m Chicago and Baltimore, in the United States, who believe that he is the promised Me iah. Babism is one of the results of the impact of It was thought a,t one Christianity upon Islam. time that the Babis were more open to Christian teaching than orthodox Mohammedans. So far, however, they are merely more tolerant and more ready to seek in the Bible support for their doctrines. Mi ionary Review of the World, Vol. VII, N. S., pp. 362, 451, 629, 894; Vol. XV., N. S., pp. 771, 776-. Vol. XVII pp. 91 207. A Year among the Persians, also, Babism, Browne (E. G.), (in “Religious Systems of the World”), London. m the from America he brought a printing pre , which was of great use in his work; and in 1886 he became principal of the Midnapur Bible School, which position he held until he retired from the- After spending 53 years as a mi ionary he retired in 1893, and pa ed into his rest at New Hampton, N. H., on New Year’s morning, field. 1901. BADAGA LANGUAGE Belongs to the Can arg roup of the Dra vidian family of languages. living m the It is spoken by the Badaga tribe, It is writNilgiri Hills south of Mysore, India. ten with the Canarese letters. BADAGRI A city near Lagos, W. Africa, formerly important as a trading center. It is a mi ion station, opened by the WMS m 1842,: ese: and transferred to the CMS in 1845; it has 5 native workers, men and women, with 2 outstations, 3 village schools, and 102 communicants. 78