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The Bahá'í Faith is a diverse and widespread religion founded by Bahá'u'lláh in the 19th century in Iran. Bahá'í sources usually estimate the worldwide Bahá'í population to be above 5 million. Most encyclopedias and similar sources estimate between 5 and 6 million Bahá'ís in the world in the early 21st century. The religion is almost entirely contained in a single, organized, hierarchical community, but the Bahá'í population is spread out into almost every country and ethnicity in the world, being recognized as the second-most geographically widespread religion after Christianity. See Bahá'í statistics. ==Earliest connections== The Bahá'í Faith originated in Asia, in Iran (Persia) and before there were any Bahá'ís in Europe, the first newspaper reference to the religious movement began with coverage of the Báb which occurred in ''The Times'' on 1 November 1845, only a little over a year after the Báb first started his mission. Similarly the Russian Empire took a notice of events. The religion had strong connections with Azerbaijan during the Russian rule in Azerbaijan. Among the most notable facts is a woman of Azerbaijani background who would play a central role in the religion of the Báb, viewed by Bahá´ís as the direct predecessor of the Bahá'í Faith – she would be later named Tahirih, though her story would be in the context of Persia.〔 She was among the Letters of the Living of the Báb. In 1847, the Russian ambassador to Tehran, Prince Dimitri Ivanovich Dolgorukov became aware of the claims of the Báb and seeing the fleeing of Bábís across the border requested that the Báb, then imprisoned at Maku, be moved elsewhere; he also condemned the massacres of Iranian religionists. Dolgorukov wrote some memoirs later in life but much of it has been shown to be a forgery. But his dispatches show that he was afraid of the movement spreading into the Caucasus. In 1852, after a failed assassination attempt against the Shah of Persia for which the entire Bábí community was blamed, many Bábís, including Bahá'u'lláh, who had no role in the attempt and later severely condemned it, were arrested in a sweep. News coverage of the events reached beyond London and Pairs to Dutch newspapers. When Bahá'u'lláh was jailed by the Shah, his family went to Mírzá Majid Ahi who was married to a sister of Bahá'u'lláh, and was working as the secretary to the Russian Legation in Tehran. Bahá'u'lláh's family asked Mírzá Majid to go to Dolgorukov and ask him to intercede on behalf of Bahá'u'lláh, and Dolgorukov agreed however this assistance was short lived. In addition, Bahá'u'lláh refused the offer of exile in Russia. Similarly the British consul-general of Baghdad offered him British citizenship and offered to arrange for a residence for him in India or any place he wished. Bahá'u'lláh refused the offer. After being further banished from Baghdad, Bahá'u'lláh wrote a specific letter or "tablet" addressed to Queen Victoria commenting favorably on the British parliamentary system and commending the Queen for the fact that her government had ended slavery in the British Empire. She, in response to the tablet, is reported to have said, though the original record is lost, that "If this is of God, it will endure; if not, it can do no harm." Though in no way espousing his beliefs, Bahá'ís know Arthur de Gobineau as the person who wrote the first and most influential account of the movement, displaying a both accurate and inaccurate knowledge, of its history in ''Religions et philosophies dans l'Asie centrale'' in 1865 followed almost simultaneously in western press by Alexander Kasimovich Kazembek as a series of articles entitled ''Bab et les Babis'' in the ''Journal Asiatique''.〔See: *('Bab et les Babis' ), ''Journal asiatique'', Publisher Société asiatique, April–May 1866, pp. 329–384, *('Bab et les Babis' ), ''Journal asiatique'', Publisher Société asiatique, June 1866, pp. 457–522. * ('Bab et les Babis' ), ''Journal asiatique'', Publisher Société asiatique, August–September 1866, pp. 196–252. * ('Bab et les Babis' ), ''Journal asiatique'', Publisher Société asiatique, October–November 1866, pp. 357–400.〕 In 1879, on the developing trade relations initiated by some Dutch business men, Dutchman Johan Colligan entered into partnership with two Bahá'ís, Haji Siyyid Muhammad-Hasan and Haji Siyyid Muhammad-Husayn, who were known later as the King and Beloved of Martyrs. These two Bahá'ís were arrested and executed because the Imám-Jum'ih at the time owed them a large sum of money for business relations and instead of paying them raised up a mob that would confiscate their property. Their execution was committed despite Johan Colligan's testifying to their innocence. In addition to newspaper coverage and diplomatic communications a growing scholarly interest reached the point that in April 1890 Edward G. Browne of Cambridge University was granted four interviews with Bahá'u'lláh after he had arrived in the area of Akka and left the only detailed description by a Westerner. The developing portrait of the Babis/Bahá'ís from accounts of business men and travelers communicated to the Dutch public, for example, was different than the early reports of isolationist rebels with poor morals, and was of being prone to engage with foreigners, being monogamous, and seeking out civil authorities for protection from Muslim mobs. However the French were still occupied much more with the Báb's dramatic life and the persecution his religion and life were subject to. French writer Henri Antoine Jules-Bois said that: "among the littérateurs of my generation, in the Paris of 1890, the martyrdom of the Báb was still as fresh a topic as had been the first news of his death. We wrote poems about him. Sarah Bernhardt entreated Catulle Mendès for a play on the theme of this historic tragedy."〔(Early Western Accounts of the Babi and Bahá'í Faiths ) by Moojan Momen〕 The French writer A. de Saint-Quentin also mentioned the religion in a book published in 1891.〔 For all the attention, little penetrated to understanding the religion itself.〔(Bibliographie des ouvrages de langue française mentionnant les religions babie ou baha’ie (1844–1944) ) compiled by Thomas Linard, published in Occasional Papers in Shaykhi, Babi and Bahá'í Studies, 3, 1997–06〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Bahá'í Faith in Europe」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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