Babism

Under this name a new religion, first arising in Persia during the year 1843, has made immense strides among the peoples of Eastern Asia, as well as penetrated into India and Turkey; founded on elevated principles of morality, it offers a direct contrast to the Mohammedan doctrines. The founder of this modern faith, named Mirza-Ali-Mohammed, was a youth of eighteen, born at Shiraz, of parents in the middle cla of society. Po e ed of some education, Mirza in early youth made a pilgrimage to Mecca, where it is supposed his mind received such new impre ions as to cause him to conceive the idea of substituting for Islamism another and more progre ive form of religion. Accordingly he, about the year 1843, on his return from the holy city, composed and publicly read a first commentary on the "Sourat" of the Koran, called Joseph, which made a deep impre ion upon his auditory. His discourses did not directly impeach Mohammedan doctrines, although he vaguely and adroitly sapped their very foundations by contrasting their teachings with the lamentably irreligious and immoral state of humanity at large. The new religious system thus outlined made numberle proselytes, and the fame of Ali-Mohammed penetrated all Persia. His eloquence was both brilliant and convincing - so much so, indeed, as to arrest the attention, and excite the admiration even of Mu ulmen the most bigoted. A uming a title of apostolic import, Ali next declared himself to be the Bab, i. e. the "door," by which alone it was po ible to enter the presence of God. The orthodox Moslems, incited by the priesthood, strove to summarily extinguish the new doctrine, but their designs were arrested by the Shah, who adopted a temporizing policy, either through a fear of popular tumults or because he himself secretly favored Babism. His converts daily increasing, and in large numbers, Ali-Mohammed soon declared himself to be, not the Bab, as he had before believed, but the Point, that is, the generator of truth, a divine presence, an embodied manifestation of omnipotence. He now dispatched mi ionaries far and wide to extend the propaganda of the new faith. One of these was a young and beautiful female, who quitted her home and family to publicly preach the tenets she had espoused, denounce polygamy, and taboo the use of the veil by her sex. The death of the Persian Shah, Mohammed, was an inauspicious event for the Babists. His succe or, Nasr-ed-Deen, discountenanced their doctrines, so that they rose in insurrection against his government. That revolt was suppre ed, not without taxing, however, the utmost powers of the executive. Still Babism flourished; it was therefore deemed nece ary to strike at the root of the so-called heresy in the person of the Bab himself. The latter thereupon was arrested, and, heavily ironed, was, with two of his disciples, taken to Tabreez, where they were brought up for trial before a tribunal of state. When before his judges, the Bab sustained a severe examination at their hands, refuted the arguments urged against him, and also exposed the falsity of the cardinal principles of the Islamitic creed. Refusing to return to the orthodox faith, the Bab was, with his companions, then condemned to death, and they suffered martyrdom accordingly, in 1850.-Babism, however, was not uprooted by the death of its prophet, inasmuch as the devotees of the religion elected a succe or to him, one Mirza-Yahara, a youth of sixteen, who a umed the title of Hezret- è - Ezel, or "Eternal Highne ." In 1852, an attempt made by the Babists to a a inate the Shah, was the cause of fresh arrests and the infliction of further death-penalties among these religionists. Among the sufferers on this occasion was the young female apostle before mentioned; she died with fortitude, and maintained to the last the infallibility of the faith she had so enthusiastically embraced. Since that period Babism has made further progre , but its adherents maintain their faith in secret, fearing to incur new persecution by overt profe ion of it. At the present day, therefore, it is believed that Babism obtains among all cla es of society in Persia, and among all religious sects, excepting the No ayrii and the Christians. Its profe ors 'write much, and the e ence of prophecy departing from him is trans- fused into the spirit of one of the remaining prophets, who therefore, in his turn, becomes the "Point," and so preserves the unity intact. After the death of the first Bab the power of the Point , in the unity of 19, was transmitted to the Eternal Highne . - We now come to the last im- portant feature of Babism, which is, that the Bab, and the unity of which he is the Point, do not, in themselves, constitute a definite revelation; and the founder of Bâbism has been very anxious to make this clearly known. The Biyyan , being the Holy Book par excel- lence, ought nece arily to be constituted in the divine number; or, in other words, in the number 19. There- fore, on this principle, it is divided into 19 distinct uni- tles or chapters, which are again sub-divided, each into 19 paragraphs. Of these 19 unities, 11 only have been written by the Bâb, the 8 remaining being left for the true and great revelator, who will complete the doctrine, and to whom the Bab is , what John the Baptist was to Christ. The Bab's own doctrine is merely transitional, serving to prepare men for what will come later; it opens the way, it is tentative, but it is not conclusive. For instance, the Bab abolishes the Kiblah , or mode of turning to a certain point of the horizon, adopted by ooth Moslems and Jews, when praying; and it can be surmised that neither Mecca nor Jerusalem have any particular devotional attraction for the Babists. But he does not substitute a new Kiblah in place of the one he has abolished, and declares that in this mat- ter he has nothing to command, it being a question which the future revelator will himself decide upon.- Marriage is considered by Ali Mohammed as a thing of the highest importance, not from the Mohammedan point of view, which considers it merely with regard to the propagation of descendants, but taking a loftier sight, the reformer's aim is to constitute family ties, the great desideratum of Asiatic society, where they exist only in exceptional cases. Upon a man being first married, the Bâb will tolerate his taking a second wife, but he does not urge or command the so doing; on the contrary, such is his manifest repugnance to polyg- amy, that Babists hesitate to use the toleration permit- ted them concerning a duality of wives. Concubinage is absolutely forbidden. The Bab has taken another step toward civilizing the East, by forbidding divorce, which is the greatest social disease of the Persian people. The facility for discarding a wife at any moment, and under the most trifling pretext, has done even more than polygamy for degrading women, and has so depraved society as to make a true and lasting union almost an impo ibility. It is, indeed, in Persia, a rare occurrence to find a woman of 22 to 24 years of age, who has not already had two or three husbands. - To conclude, what is little le important is, that the Bab has forbidden the use of the veil, which isolates women from the amenities of social life, and covers an existence of in- trigue, indecorum, and disorder. Bab'ist, n. A follower of the doctrines of the "Bâb." A devotee of BABISM, q. v. fine ment may have endured. As he advances in age, all his worst qualities become more strongly developed, and the expre ion of his physiognomy bears ample testimony to the fiercene and brutality of his disposition. The common Baboon, C. papio , is a native of the coast of Guinea, and is the one most commonly exhibited by it in- erant showmen. Its appearance is at once grotesque and formidable; its nervous limbs and compre ed form ind i- cate great force and agility; the anterior parts especially being extremely strong and muscular. It is of a uniform yellowish-brown color, with a shade of light red upon the head, shoulders, and extremities; the face, ears, and hands naked, and entirely black. The cheeks are con- siderably swollen below the eyes; after which the face contracts suddenly, which gives the nose the appearance of having been broken by a violent blow. It is furnished with whiskers, which have a backward direction, but do not conceal the ears. While young, this Baboon is gentle and familiar; but as it approaches adult age, it displays all the repulsive manner, and the ferocity and intractabil- ity common to the rest of its kind. The Mandrill, or varie- gated Baboon, C. maim on , is the most remarkable of the whole genus for brilliancy and variety of color, while for size it is unequalled by any other baboon, its height when standing upright being upwards of five feet. The limbs are large and muscular, the body thick and robust; the head large, face long, scarcely any forehead, and the snout ending abruptly; the eyes small and deeply sunk in the head; the cheek-bones enormously swollen, and marked with several deep furrows of violet-blue, purple, and scar- let; and the muzzle and lips large and protuberant. The hair of the forehead and temples rises in a remarkable manner into a pointed form, which gives the head a tri- angular appearance; and a small pointed orange-yellow beard adorns the chin. Round the back of the neck the hair is long, and inclines forward, somewhat in the man- ner of a wreath. On the loins the skin is almost bare and of a violet-blue color, gradually altering into a bright blood-red, which is more conspicuous on the hinder parts, where it surrounds the tail, which is very short, and generally carried erect. In most of its habits the Man- drill resembles the other Baboons, especially in its grow- ing more morose as it advances in age, and in becoming offensively libidinous. The Derrias, C. hamadryas , in- habits the mountains of Arabia and Aby in i a, and was probably the species known to the ancients, and sculp- tured on Egyptian monuments. It measures upward of 4 feet when standing erect. The face is extremely long, ing the eyes. The general color of the hair is a mixture of light green and cinereous. While young, it is gentle and playful, but as soon as it has arrived at a mature age, it becomes sulky and malicious. - The Chacma, or Pig- faced baboon, C. porcarius , nearly equal in size, and much superior in strength, to a common mastiff, inhabits the mountains in the neighborhood of the Cape of Good Hope, a ociates in families more or le numerous, and oc- cas i on ally levies contributions on the gardens of Cape Town, which it performs in a very adroit and regular manner. There are several other species which our limits forbid us to more than merely mention; as, the Drill, the Wood - baboon , the Pigtail , the Crested , the Yel- low , the Cinereous , . Bablah, n. ( Chem .) The brown fruit or seed of the Mi- mos a Arabica , or M. cinerea , from India and Senegal. It contains gallic and tannic acids, and is used in calico print- ing to give different shades of brown with an alum mordant. Baboon', n. [Fr. babouin; It. babuino.] (Zool.) The common name of the Cynocephalus , a genus of quadru- mana which forms the last link that unites the Simiada with quadrupeds; comprising a large, fierce, and form i- dable race of animals, who, though they in a slight degree partake of the human conformation, as seen in the orang- outang, ., are in their habits, propensities, and dispo- sitions the very reverse of gentlene and docility. In Apes and other quadruman a which have the head and face round, the nose is flat, and the nostrils are situated about half-way between the mouth and the eyes; but in the B. this organ is prolonged uniformly with the jaws, and the nostrils open at the end of it, exactly as in the dog. In short, the most distinctive peculiarity of the genus is the marked resemblance which the head and face of these animals bear to a large dog. They have, moreover, long and truncate muzzles, cheek pouches, tails, and sharp claws. Yet, notwithstanding this close approximation to the shape of the dog's head, the form and position of the eyes, combined with the similarity of the arms and hands, give to these creatures a resemblance to humanity as striking as it is humbling and disgusting. - Po e - ing strength, furnished with dangerous natural weapons, and being wild, restle , and impetuous, this animal, in its native haunts, proves itself to be one of the most for- midable of the savage race; nor can it be restrained, even when in confinement, any longer than coercion is con- tinued; allowed to have its own will, its savage nature gains the ascendency, and its actions are gratuitously cruel, mischievous, and destructive. But there is nothing so revolting as their lascivious habits, which they in- dulge to such a degree that it is unsafe and highly im- -A doll; a small image or effigy of an infant, for girls to Babuyanes, ( ba - booya -nes,) or MADJICOSIMA ISLANDS, a number of islands lying about 30 m. N. of Luzon, and generally considered the most northern of the Philip- pines. They are subject to the Loo-Choo islands; aggre- gate pop . about 12,000. Lat. 18° 58′ to 19° 42′ N.; Lon. 121° 15 to 122° 5' E. Ba'by, n. A little babe; an infant or young child of either sex; - synonymous with BABE, q. v. "The baby beats the nurse, and quite athwart Goes all decorum."-Shaks. these beasts form a part of the number. In their native "And it was the part of children to fall out about babies."-Bacon. haunts they subsist on roots and berries, and partly on -a. Like a baby, or young child; pertaining to an infant. eggs, insects, and scorpions; but in cultivated districts -v. a. To treat or care like a young child. they make incursions into the fields and gardens, where Babyhood, n. State of being a baby. they commit the greatest depredations on the fruit and Ba'by-house, n. A place for children's dolls and dolls' grain. They congregate in troops, and are bold and skilfurniture. ful in their predatory excursions, maintaining their Ba'byish, a. Like a baby; childish. ground even against large parties of men; and it is re- Babyish ne , n. The characteristic quality of a marked that "a troop of them will sometimes form a baby: childishne . long chain, extending from the vicinity of their ord i- Babyism, n. State of being babyish; babyhood. (R.) nary habitation to the garden or field which they happen to be engaged in plundering, and that the produce of their theft is pitched from hand to hand, till it reaches its destination in the mountains." The B. can never be said to be thoroughly tamed, how long soever his con- Baby-jumper, n. A frame and seat suspended from the ceiling by some elastic medium, and so disposed that a baby may be secured in it, and allowed to jump up and down. It is so constructed as to render the child's falling an impo ibility. Fig . 259.-BABYROUSSA, (Horned Hog of Java.) hauled from one side to the other by means of a rope stretched acro . Na'id, a king who reigned 555-538 B. c., and who states -A broad, flat-bottomed boat, or barge, employed for con that while restoring the temple of the sun-god at veying horses, cattle, carriages, . over a ferry; it is Sippara, he found a record deposited by Naram-Sin 3,200 years before. As the Babylonians kept a strict record of their kings, this date is believed to be authentic. Sargon and his son were conquerors, who widely extended the dominion of Babylonia. He is called the Fig . 258. NORTH FACE OF THE KASR OR PALACE OF NEBUCHADNEZZAR