May 23, 1844

Declaration of the Báb

The Báb privately declares his mission to Mullá Husayn; ‘Abdu’l-Bahá is born

The Báb later fixed the moment with stopwatch precision: two hours and eleven minutes after sunset.

Two dates for one evening

On the evening of 22 May 1844 in Shiraz, Sayyed ʿAlī Moḥammad privately told the Shaykhi seeker Mullá Husayn that he was Sayyed Kāẓem Rashtī's successor as bearer of divine knowledge and the "gate" to the Hidden Imam.

Encyclopaedia Iranica gives 5 Jumādā I 1260 as 22 May, while Baháʼís commemorate the Declaration on 23 May — the encounter began after sunset, and the religious day ran from sunset to sunset.

Mullá Husayn did not assent at once: the scholarly account says he accepted after consideration, becoming the first of the disciples later called the Letters of the Living.

One room, not a city

This was a private declaration to a single seeker, not a proclamation to Shiraz. Nothing was announced publicly that night.

Baháʼí historical tradition associates the encounter with the composition, in Mullá Husayn's presence, of the opening sura of the Qayyūm al-asmāʾ — not the entire several-hundred-page work, and not the Báb's first full-length writing, which was an earlier commentary on the Sura al-Baqara.

The familiar details — dialogue, refreshments, tests posed by Mullá Husayn — come mainly from later Bábí and Baháʼí narratives rather than any contemporaneous transcript.

A birth the same night

That night in Tehran, a son named ʿAbbās was born to Mírzá Ḥusayn-ʿAlí Núrí — later Baháʼu’lláh — and Ásíyih Khánum; he became known as ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. Baháʼí tradition places the birth at midnight, though an early Baháʼí survey states the exact hour was not ascertained.

The Báb's claim developed over years. In May 1844 he presented himself primarily as the gate and representative of the Hidden Imam.

The early Qayyūm al-asmāʾ affirmed that Islamic laws remained binding; his explicit claim to be the Mahdi and his abrogation of Islamic law came later, in 1848.

Sources

Researched 24 Aug 2026 7 sources not yet audited Traditional date

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Traditional date. Conventionally dated here; the research places it at 1844-05-22.

What the sources leave uncertain

Encyclopaedia Iranica gives 5 Jumādā I 1260 as May 22, while Baháʼís commemorate the Declaration on May 23 because the encounter began after sunset and the religious day ran from sunset to sunset. The slug’s May 23 date therefore reflects the commemorative date, not the civil date on which the evening began.
The Báb’s later Persian Bayān supplies the unusually precise time of two hours and eleven minutes after sunset.
Detailed dialogue, refreshments, tests posed by Mullá Husayn and the speed of composition come mainly from later Bábí and Baháʼí narratives, especially Nabíl’s hagiographic account, rather than a contemporaneous transcript.
Baháʼí tradition places ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s birth at midnight that same night, but an early Baháʼí survey states that his exact birth hour was not ascertained.