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Barcelonnette

Barcelonnette (Barciloneta de Provença, also Barcilona; obsolete Barcellonetta) is a commune of France and a subprefecture in the department of Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. It is located in the southern French Alps, at the crossroads between Provence, Piedmont and the Dauphiné, and is the largest town in the Ubaye Valley. The town's inhabitants are known as Barcelonnettes.

Toponymy
Barcelonnette was founded and named in 1231, by Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Provence. While the town's name is generally seen as a diminutive form of Barcelona in Catalonia, Albert Dauzat and Charles Rostaing point out an earlier attestation of the name Barcilona in Barcelonnette in around 1200, and suggest that it is derived instead from two earlier stems signifying a mountain, *bar and *cin (the latter of which is also seen in the name of Mont Cenis).

In the Vivaro-Alpine dialect of Occitan, the town is known as Barcilona de Provença or more rarely Barciloneta according to the classical norm; under the Mistralian norm it is called Barcilouna de Prouvença or Barcilouneto. In Valéian (the dialect of Occitan spoken in the Ubaye Valley), it is called Barcilouna de Prouvença or Barcilounéta. Barcino Nova is the town's Latin name meaning "new Barcelona"; Barcino was the Roman name for Barcelona in Catalonia from its foundation by Emperor Augustus in 10 BC, and it was only changed to Barcelona in the Middle Ages.

The inhabitants of the town are called Barcelonnettes, or Vilandroises in Valéian.

Origins
The Barcelonnette region was populated by Ligures from the 1st millennium BC onwards, and the arrival of the Celts several centuries later led to the formation of a mixed Celto-Ligurian people, the Vesubians. Polybius described the Vesubians as belligerent but nonetheless civilised and mercantile, and Julius Caesar praised their bravery. The work History of the Gauls also places the Vesubians in the Ubaye Valley.

Following the Roman conquest of Provence, Barcelonnette was included in a small province with modern Embrun as its capital and governed by Albanus Bassalus. This was integrated soon afterwards into Gallia Narbonensis. In 36 AD, Emperor Tiberius transferred Barcelonnette to the province of the Cottian Alps. The town was known as Rigomagensium under the Roman Empire and was the capital of a civitas (a provincial subdivision), though no Roman money has yet been found in the canton of Barcelonnette.

Medieval town
The town of Barcelonnette was founded in 1231 by Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Provence. According to Charles Rostaing, this act of formal "foundation", according certain privileges to the town, was a means of regenerating the destroyed town of Barcilona. The town was afforded a consulat (giving it the power to administer and defend itself) in 1240.

Control of the area in the Middle Ages swung between the Counts of Savoy and of Provence. In 1388, after Count Louis II of Provence had left to conquer Naples, the Count of Savoy Amadeus VIII took control of Barcelonnette; however, it returned to Provençal control in 1390, with the d'Audiffret family as its lords. On the death of Louis II in 1417 it reverted to Savoy, and, although Count René again retook the area for Provence in 1471, it had returned to Savoyard dominance by the start of the 16th century, by which point the County of Provence had become united with the Kingdom of France due to the death of Count Charles V in 1481.

Ancien Régime
During Charles V's invasion of Provence in 1536, Francis I of France sent the Count of Fürstenberg's 6000 Landsknechte to ravage the area in a scorched earth policy. Barcelonnette and the Ubaye Valley remained under French sovereignty until the second Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis on 3 April 1559.

In 1588 the troops of François, Duke of Lesdiguières entered the town and set fire to the church and convent during their campaign against the Duke of Savoy. In 1600, after the Treaty of Vervins, conflict returned between Henry IV of France and Savoy, and Lesdiguières retook Barcelonnette until the conclusion of the Treaty of Lyon on 17 January the following year. In 1628, during the War of the Mantuan Succession, Barcelonnette and the other towns of the Ubaye Valley were pillaged and burned by Jacques du Blé d'Uxelles and his troops, as they passed through towards Italy to the Duke of Mantua's aid. The town was retaken by the Duke of Savoy in 1630; and in 1691 it was captured by the troops of the Marquis de Vins during the War of the League of Augsburg.

Between 1614 and 1713, Barcelonnette was the seat of one of the four prefectures under the jurisdiction of the Senate of Nice. At this time, the community of Barcelonnette successfully purchased the seigneurie of the town as it was put to auction by the Duke of Savoy; it thereby gained its own justicial powers. In 1646, a college was founded in Barcelonnette.

A "significant" part of the town's inhabitants had, by the 16th century, converted to Protestantism, and were repressed during the French Wars of Religion.

The viguerie of Barcelonnette (also comprising Saint-Martin and Entraunes) was reattached to France in 1713 as part of a territorial exchange with the Duchy of Savoy during the Treaties of Utrecht. The town remained the site of a viguerie until the French Revolution. A decree of the council of state on 25 December 1714 reunited Barcelonnete with the general government of Provence.

Revolution
Barcelonnette was one of few settlements in Haute-Provence to acquire a Masonic Lodge before the Revolution, in fact having two:
 * the lodge of Saint-Jean-d'Écosse des amis réunis, affiliated with the Saint-Jean-d'Écosse lodge in Marseille;
 * the lodge of Saint-Jean, affiliated with the Saint-Jean-de-Jérusalem d'Avignon lodge founded in 1749.

In March 1789, riots took place as a result of a crisis in wheat production. In July, the Great Fear of aristocratic reprisal against the ongoing French Revolution struck France, arriving in the Barcelonnette area on 31 July 1789 (when the news of the storming of the Bastille first reached the town) before spreading towards Digne.

This agitation continued in the Ubaye Valley; a new revolt broke out on 14 June, and famine was declared in April 1792. The patriotic society of the commune was one of the first 21 created in Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, in spring 1792, by the envoys of the departmental administration. Around a third of the male population attended at the club. Another episode of political violence occurred in August 1792.

Barcelonnette was the seat of the District of Barcelonnette from 1790 to 1800.

Modern history
In December 1851, the town was home to a movement of republican resistance towards Napoleon III's coup. Though only a minority of the population, the movement rebelled on Sunday 7 December, the day after the news of the coup arrived. Town officials and gendarmes were disarmed and placed in the maison d'arrêt. A committee of public health was created on 8 December; on 9 December the inhabitants of Jausiers and its surroundings formed a colony under the direction of general councillor Brès, and Mayor Signoret of Saint-Paul-sur-Ubaye. This was stopped, however, on 10 December before it could reach Barcelonnette, as the priest of the subprefecture had intervened. On 11 December, several officials escaped and found refuge in L'Argentière in Piedmont. The arrival of troops on 16 December put a final end to the republican resistance without bloodshed, and 57 insurgents were tried; 38 were condemned to deportation (though several were pardoned in April).

Between 1850 and 1950, Barcelonnette was the source of a wave of emigration to Mexico. Among these emigrants was Jean Baptiste Ebrard, founder of the Liverpool department store chain in Mexico. On the edges of Barcelonnette and Jausiers there are several houses and villas of colonial style (known as maisons mexicaines), constructed by emigrants to Mexico who returned to France between 1870 and 1930. A plaque in the town commemorates the deaths of ten Mexican citizens who returned to Barcelonnette to fight in the First World War.

During the Second World War, 26 Jews were arrested in Barcelonnette before being deported. The 89th compagnie de travailleurs étrangers (Company of Foreign Workers), consisting of foreigners judged as undesirable by the Third Republic and the Vichy regime and committed to forced labour, was established in Barcelonnette.

The 11th Battalion of Chasseurs alpins was garrisoned at Barcelonnette between 1948 and 1990.

Geography
Barcelonnette is situated in the wide and fertile Ubaye Valley, of which it is the largest town. It lies at an elevation of 1132 m (3717 ft) on the right bank of the Ubaye River, and is surrounded by mountains which reach peaks of over 3000 m; the tallest of these is the Needle of Chambeyron at 3412 m. Barcelonnette is situated 210 km from Turin, 91 km from Nice and 68 km from Gap.

Biodiversity
As a result of its relief and geographic situation, the Ubaye Valley has an "abundance of plant and animal species". The fauna is largely constituted of golden eagles, marmots, ibex and vultures, and the flora includes a large proportion of larches, génépis and white asphodels.

Climate
The Ubaye Valley has an alpine climate and winters are harsh as a result of the altitude, but there are only light winds as a result of the relief. There are on average almost 300 days of sun and 700 mm of rain per year.

Hazards
None of the 200 communes of the department is entirely free of seismic risk; the canton of Barcelonnette is placed in zone 1b (low risk) by the determinist classification of 1991 based on seismic history, and zone 4 (average risk) according to the probabilistic EC8 classification of 2011. The commune is also vulnerable to avalanches, forest fires, floods, and landslides. Barcelonnette is also exposed to the possibility of a technological hazard in that road transport of dangerous materials is allowed to pass through on the RD900.

The town has been subject to several orders of natural disaster: floods and mudslides in 1994 and 2008, and landslides in 1996 and 1999. The strongest recorded earthquakes in the region occurred on 5 April 1959, with its epicentre at Saint-Paul-sur-Ubaye and a recorded intensity of 6.5 at Barcelonnette, and on 17 February 1947, with its epicentre at Prazzo over the Italian border.

Architecture

 * The town hall was constructed in the 1930s after the destruction of the Saint Maurice chapel in July 1934. Its pediment was originally from the old Dominican convent and was identified in 1988. No houses in the town date from before the 17th century, the town having been rebuilt after the fire of 1628. The old hospital in the town dates from 1717.
 * The old gendarmerie on Place Manuel was originally constructed to house the subprefecture in 1825 in a neoclassical style, and its façade occupies one entire side of the square. Place Manuel was named after the Restoration politician Jacques-Antoine Manuel; the fountain in the centre of the square contains his image sculpted by David d'Angers.
 * The parish church was originally built in the Middle Ages, but was destroyed in the fire of 1628. It was quickly reconstructed between 1634 and 1638, and further between 1643 and 1644. This was later demolished in 1926–27 to allow the construction of the current church, though this still contains the steeple from the 17th-century reconstruction.
 * The Cardinalis tower was constructed in the 14th century as a bell tower for the Dominican convent, which was founded on the bequest of Hugh of Saint-Cher. It was damaged in the wars of the 17th century and was rebuilt, though parts still exist from the original construction. It is classed as a monument historique of France.

The subprefecture has been situated since 1978 in a maison mexicaine, the Villa l'Ubayette, constructed between 1901 and 1903.

Population
In 1471, the community of Barcelonnette (including several surrounding parishes) comprised 421 fires (households). In 1765, it had 6,674 inhabitants, but emigration, particularly to Mexico, slowed the town's growth in the period before the Second World War. According to the census of 2017, Barcelonnette has a population of 2,598 (municipal population) across a total area of 16.42 km2. The town is characterised by low population density. Between 1990 and 1999 the town's annual mean population growth was -0.6%, though between 1999 and 2007 this increased to an average of -0.2%.

Economy
The city is mainly a tourist and resort centre, serving many ski lodges. The Pra-Loup resort is 7 km from Barcelonnette; Le Sauze is 5 km away. It and the Ubaye Valley are served by the Barcelonnette – Saint-Pons Airfield. Notably, Barcelonnette is the only subprefecture of France not served by rail transport; the Ubaye line which would have linked Chorges to Barcelonnette was never completed as a result of the First World War and the construction of the Serre-Ponçon Dam between 1955 and 1961.

Education
An école normale (an institute for training primary school teachers) was founded in Barcelonnette in 1833, and remained there until 1888 when it was transferred to Digne. The lycée André-Honnorat de Barcelonnette, originally the collège Saint-Maurice and renamed after the politician André Honnorat in 1919, is located in the town; Pierre-Gilles de Gennes and Carole Merle both studied there. Currently, three schools exist in Barcelonnette: a public nursery school, a public elementary school, and a private school (under a contract by which the teachers are paid by the national education system).

In 2010 the lycée André-Honnorat opened a boarding school aimed at gifted students of poorer social backgrounds, in order to give them better conditions in which to study. It is located in the Quartier Craplet, formerly the garrison of the 11th Battalion of Chasseurs Alpins and then the French Army's Centre d'instruction et d'entraînement au combat en montagne (CIECM).

Transportation
Barcelonnette – Saint-Pons Airfield (IATA: BAE, ICAO LFMR) is located at Saint Pons, 3 km (2 miles) west of Barcelonnette.

International links
Barcelonnette is twinned with: It is also the site of a Mexican honorary consulate.
 * 🇲🇽 Valle de Bravo, Mexico

Notable residents

 * Jacques-Antoine Manuel (1775–1827), lawyer, politician and orator.
 * Paul Reynaud (1878–1966), liberal politician and lawyer
 * Pierre-Gilles de Gennes (1932–2007), physicist and winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1991
 * Daniel Spagnou (born 1940), UMP politician
 * Bruno Dary (born 1952), general and military governor of Paris
 * Pierre Bottero (1964–2009), a French writer.

title: Barcelonnette


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Baháʼí Faith

The Baháʼí Faith is a religion founded in the 19th century that teaches the essential worth of all religions and the unity of all people. Established by Baháʼu'lláh, it initially developed in Iran and parts of the Middle East, where it has faced ongoing persecution since its inception. The religion is estimated to have 5 to 8 million adherents, known as Baháʼís, spread throughout most of the world's countries and territories.

The Baháʼí Faith has three central figures: the Báb (1819–1850), executed for heresy, who taught that a prophet similar to Jesus and Muhammad would soon appear; Baháʼu'lláh (1817–1892), who claimed to be that prophet in 1863 and had to endure both exile and imprisonment; and his son, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá (1844–1921), who made teaching trips to Europe and the United States after his release from confinement in 1908. After ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's death in 1921, the leadership of the religion fell to his grandson Shoghi Effendi (1897–1957). Baháʼís annually elect local, regional, and national Spiritual Assemblies that govern the religion's affairs, and every five years an election is held for the Universal House of Justice, the nine-member governing institution of the worldwide Baháʼí community that is located in Haifa, Israel, near the Shrine of the Báb.

According to Baháʼí teachings, religion is revealed in an orderly and progressive way by a single God through Manifestations of God, who are the founders of major world religions throughout human history; Buddha, Jesus, and Muhammad are cited as the most recent of these Manifestations of God before the Báb and Baháʼu'lláh. Baháʼís regard the world's major religions as fundamentally unified in their purpose, but divergent in their social practices and interpretations. The Baháʼí Faith stresses the unity of all people as its core teaching and as a result, it explicitly rejects notions of racism, sexism, and nationalism. At the heart of Baháʼí teachings is the desire to establish a unified world order that ensures the prosperity of all nations, races, creeds, and classes.

Letters and epistles by Baháʼu'lláh, along with writings and talks by his son ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, have been collected and assembled into a canon of Baháʼí scriptures. This collection includes works by the Báb, who is regarded as Baháʼu'lláh's forerunner. Prominent among the works of Baháʼí literature are the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, the Kitáb-i-Íqán, Some Answered Questions, and The Dawn-Breakers.

Etymology
The word "Baháʼí" (بهائی) is used either as an adjective to refer to the Baháʼí Faith or as a term for a follower of Baháʼu'lláh. The proper name of the religion is the "Baháʼí Faith", not Baháʼí or Baha'ism (the latter, once common among academics, is regarded as derogatory by the Baháʼís). It is derived from the Arabic "Baháʼ" (بهاء), a name Baháʼu'lláh chose for himself, referring to the 'glory' or 'splendor' of God. In English, the word is commonly pronounced, but the more accurate rendering of the Arabic is.

The accent marks above the letters, representing long vowels, derive from a system of transliterating Arabic and Persian script that was adopted by Baháʼís in 1923, and which has been used in almost all Baháʼí publications since. Baháʼís prefer the orthographies Baháʼí, the Báb, Baháʼu'lláh, and ʻAbdu'l-Bahá. When accent marks are unavailable, Bahai, Bahaʼi, or Bahaullah are often used.

Beliefs

The teachings of Baháʼu'lláh form the foundation of Baháʼí beliefs. Three principles are central to these teachings: the unity of God, the unity of religion, and the unity of humanity. Bahá'ís believe that God periodically reveals his will through divine messengers, whose purpose is to transform the character of humankind and to develop, within those who respond, moral and spiritual qualities. Religion is thus seen as orderly, unified, and progressive from age to age.

God
Baháʼí writings describe a single, personal, inaccessible, omniscient, omnipresent, imperishable, and almighty God who is the creator of all things in the universe. The existence of God and the universe are thought to be eternal, with no beginning or end. Even though God is not directly accessible, he is seen as being conscious of creation, with a will and a purpose which is expressed through messengers who are called Manifestations of God. The Baháʼí conception of God is of an "unknowable essence" who is the source of all existence and known through the perception of human virtues. In another sense, Baháʼí teachings on God are also panentheistic, seeing signs of God in all things, but the reality of God being exalted and above the physical world.

Baháʼí teachings state that God is too great for humans to fully comprehend, and based on them, humans cannot create a complete and accurate image of God by themselves. Therefore, human understanding of God is achieved through the recognition of the person of the Manifestation and through the understanding of his revelations via his Manifestations. In the Baháʼí Faith, God is often referred to by titles and attributes (for example, the All-Powerful, or the All-Loving), and there is a substantial emphasis on monotheism. Baháʼí teachings state that these attributes do not apply to God directly but are used to translate Godliness into human terms and to help people concentrate on their own attributes in worshipping God to develop their potential on their spiritual path. According to the Baháʼí teachings the human purpose is to learn to know and love God through such methods as prayer, reflection, and being of service to others.

Religion

Baháʼí notions of progressive religious revelation result in their accepting the validity of the well known religions of the world, whose founders and central figures are seen as Manifestations of God. Religious history is interpreted as a series of dispensations, where each manifestation brings a somewhat broader and more advanced revelation that is rendered as a text of scripture and passed on through history with greater or lesser reliability but at least true in substance, suited for the time and place in which it was expressed. Specific religious social teachings (for example, the direction of prayer, or dietary restrictions) may be revoked by a subsequent manifestation so that a more appropriate requirement for the time and place may be established. Conversely, certain general principles (for example, neighbourliness, or charity) are seen to be universal and consistent. In Baháʼí belief, this process of progressive revelation will not end; it is, however, believed to be cyclical. Baháʼís do not expect a new manifestation of God to appear within 1000 years of Baháʼu'lláh's revelation.

Baháʼís assert that their religion is a distinct tradition with its own scriptures and laws, and not a sect of another religion. Most religious specialists now see it as an independent religion, with its religious background in Shiʻa Islam being seen as analogous to the Jewish context in which Christianity was established. Baháʼís describe their faith as an independent world religion, differing from the other traditions in its relative age and modern context.

Human beings
The Baháʼí writings state that human beings have a "rational soul", and that this provides the species with a unique capacity to recognize God's status and humanity's relationship with its creator. Every human is seen to have a duty to recognize God through his Messengers, and to conform to their teachings. Through recognition and obedience, service to humanity and regular prayer and spiritual practice, the Baháʼí writings state that the soul becomes closer to God, the spiritual ideal in Baháʼí belief. According to Baháʼí belief when a human dies the soul is permanently separated from the body and carries on in the next world where it is judged based on the person's actions in the physical world. Heaven and Hell are taught to be spiritual states of nearness or distance from God that describe relationships in this world and the next, and not physical places of reward and punishment achieved after death.

The Baháʼí writings emphasize the essential equality of human beings, and the abolition of prejudice. Humanity is seen as essentially one, though highly varied; its diversity of race and culture are seen as worthy of appreciation and acceptance. Doctrines of racism, nationalism, caste, social class, and gender-based hierarchy are seen as artificial impediments to unity. The Baháʼí teachings state that the unification of humanity is the paramount issue in the religious and political conditions of the present world.

Social principles
When ʻAbdu'l-Bahá first traveled to Europe and America in 1911–1912, he gave public talks that articulated the basic principles of the Baháʼí Faith. These included preaching on the equality of men and women, race unity, the need for world peace, and other progressive ideas for the early 20th century. Published summaries of the Baháʼí teachings often include a list of these principles, and lists vary in wording and what is included.

The concept of the unity of humankind, seen by Baháʼís as an ancient truth, is the starting point for many of the ideas. The equality of races and the elimination of extremes of wealth and poverty, for example, are implications of that unity. Another outgrowth of the concept is the need for a united world federation, and some practical recommendations to encourage its realization involve the establishment of a universal language, a standard economy and system of measurement, universal compulsory education, and an international court of arbitration to settle disputes between nations. Nationalism, according to this viewpoint, should be abandoned in favor of allegiance to the whole of humankind. With regard to the pursuit of world peace, Baháʼu'lláh prescribed a world-embracing collective security arrangement.

Other Baháʼí social principles revolve around spiritual unity. Religion is viewed as progressive from age to age, but to recognize a newer revelation one has to abandon tradition and independently investigate. Baháʼís are taught to view religion as a source of unity, and religious prejudice as destructive. Science is also viewed in harmony with true religion. Though Baháʼu'lláh and ʻAbdu'l-Bahá called for a united world that is free of war, they also anticipate that over the long term, the establishment of a lasting peace (The Most Great Peace) and the purging of the "overwhelming Corruptions" requires that the people of the world unite under a universal faith with spiritual virtues and ethics to complement material civilization.

Shoghi Effendi, the head of the religion from 1921 to 1957, wrote the following summary of what he considered to be the distinguishing principles of Baháʼu'lláh's teachings, which, he said, together with the laws and ordinances of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas constitute the bedrock of the Baháʼí Faith:

"The independent search after truth, unfettered by superstition or tradition; the oneness of the entire human race, the pivotal principle and fundamental doctrine of the Faith; the basic unity of all religions; the condemnation of all forms of prejudice, whether religious, racial, class or national; the harmony which must exist between religion and science; the equality of men and women, the two wings on which the bird of human kind is able to soar; the introduction of compulsory education; the adoption of a universal auxiliary language; the abolition of the extremes of wealth and poverty; the institution of a world tribunal for the adjudication of disputes between nations; the exaltation of work, performed in the spirit of service, to the rank of worship; the glorification of justice as the ruling principle in human society, and of religion as a bulwark for the protection of all peoples and nations; and the establishment of a permanent and universal peace as the supreme goal of all mankind—these stand out as the essential elements [which Baháʼu'lláh proclaimed]."

Covenant
Baháʼís highly value unity, and Baháʼu'lláh clearly established rules for holding the community together and resolving disagreements. Within this framework no individual follower may propose 'inspired' or 'authoritative' interpretations of scripture, and individuals agree to support the line of authority established in Baháʼí scriptures. This practice has left the Baháʼí community unified and avoided any serious fracturing. The Universal House of Justice is the final authority to resolve any disagreements among Baháʼís, and the few attempts at schism have all either become extinct or remained extremely small, numbering a few hundred adherents collectively. The followers of such divisions are regarded as Covenant-breakers and shunned.

Sacred texts
The canonical texts of the Baháʼí Faith are the writings of the Báb, Baháʼu'lláh, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, Shoghi Effendi and the Universal House of Justice, and the authenticated talks of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá. The writings of the Báb and Baháʼu'lláh are considered as divine revelation, the writings and talks of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá and the writings of Shoghi Effendi as authoritative interpretation, and those of the Universal House of Justice as authoritative legislation and elucidation. Some measure of divine guidance is assumed for all of these texts.

Some of Baháʼu'lláh's most important writings include the Kitáb-i-Aqdas ("Most Holy Book"), which defines many laws and practices for individuals and society, the Kitáb-i-Íqán ("Book of Certitude"), which became the foundation of much of Baháʼí belief, and Gems of Divine Mysteries, which includes further doctrinal foundations. Although the Baháʼí teachings have a strong emphasis on social and ethical issues, a number of foundational texts have been described as mystical. These include the Seven Valleys and the Four Valleys. The Seven Valleys was written to a follower of Sufism, in the style of ʻAttar, the Persian Muslim poet, and sets forth the stages of the soul's journey towards God. It was first translated into English in 1906, becoming one of the earliest available books of Baháʼu'lláh to the West. The Hidden Words is another book written by Baháʼu'lláh during the same period, containing 153 short passages in which Baháʼu'lláh claims to have taken the basic essence of certain spiritual truths and written them in brief form.

History

The Baháʼí Faith traces its beginnings to the religion of the Báb and the Shaykhi movement that immediately preceded it. The Báb was a merchant who began preaching in 1844 that he was the bearer of a new revelation from God, but was rejected by the generality of Islamic clergy in Iran, ending in his public execution for the crime of heresy. The Báb taught that God would soon send a new messenger, and Baháʼís consider Baháʼu'lláh to be that person. Although they are distinct movements, the Báb is so interwoven into Baháʼí theology and history that Baháʼís celebrate his birth, death, and declaration as holy days, consider him one of their three central figures (along with Baháʼu'lláh and ʻAbdu'l-Bahá), and a historical account of the Bábí movement (The Dawn-Breakers) is considered one of three books that every Baháʼí should "master" and read "over and over again".

The Baháʼí community was mostly confined to the Iranian and Ottoman empires until after the death of Baháʼu'lláh in 1892, at which time he had followers in 13 countries of Asia and Africa. Under the leadership of his son, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, the religion gained a footing in Europe and America, and was consolidated in Iran, where it still suffers intense persecution. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's death in 1921 marks the end of what Baháʼís call the "heroic age" of the religion.

Báb
On the evening of 22 May 1844, Siyyid ʻAlí-Muhammad of Shiraz gained his first convert and took on the title of "the Báb" (الباب "Gate"), referring to his later claim to the status of Mahdi of Shiʻa Islam. His followers were therefore known as Bábís. As the Báb's teachings spread, which the Islamic clergy saw as blasphemous, his followers came under increased persecution and torture. The conflicts escalated in several places to military sieges by the Shah's army. The Báb himself was imprisoned and eventually executed in 1850.

Baháʼís see the Báb as the forerunner of the Baháʼí Faith, because the Báb's writings introduced the concept of "He whom God shall make manifest", a messianic figure whose coming, according to Baháʼís, was announced in the scriptures of all of the world's great religions, and whom Baháʼu'lláh, the founder of the Baháʼí Faith, claimed to be. The Báb's tomb, located in Haifa, Israel, is an important place of pilgrimage for Baháʼís. The remains of the Báb were brought secretly from Iran to the Holy Land and eventually interred in the tomb built for them in a spot specifically designated by Baháʼu'lláh. The writings of the Báb are considered inspired scripture by Baháʼís, though having been superseded by the laws and teachings of Baháʼu'lláh. The main written works translated into English of the Báb are compiled in Selections from the Writings of the Báb (1976) out of the estimated 135 works.

Baháʼu'lláh
Mírzá Husayn ʻAlí Núrí was one of the early followers of the Báb, and later took the title of Baháʼu'lláh. In August 1852, a few Bábís made a failed attempt to assassinate the Shah, Naser al-Din Shah Qajar. The Shah responded by ordering the killing and in some cases torturing of about 50 Bábís in Tehran. Further bloodshed spread throughout the country and hundreds were reported in period newspapers by October, and tens of thousands by the end of December. Baháʼu'lláh was not involved in the assassination attempt but was imprisoned in Tehran until his release was arranged four months later by the Russian ambassador, after which he joined other Bábís in exile in Baghdad.

Shortly thereafter he was expelled from Iran and traveled to Baghdad, in the Ottoman Empire. In Baghdad, his leadership revived the persecuted followers of the Báb in Iran, so Iranian authorities requested his removal, which instigated a summons to Constantinople (now Istanbul) from the Ottoman Sultan. In 1863, at the time of his removal from Baghdad, Baháʼu'lláh first announced his claim of prophethood to his family and followers, which he said came to him years earlier while in a dungeon of Tehran. From the time of the initial exile from Iran, tensions grew between him and Subh-i-Azal, the appointed leader of the Bábís, who did not recognize Baháʼu'lláh's claim. Throughout the rest of his life Baháʼu'lláh gained the allegiance of almost all of the Bábís, who came to be known as Baháʼís, while a remnant of Bábís became known as Azalis.

He spent less than four months in Constantinople. After receiving chastising letters from Baháʼu'lláh, Ottoman authorities turned against him and put him under house arrest in Adrianople (now Edirne), where he remained for four years, until a royal decree of 1868 banished all Bábís to either Cyprus or ʻAkká.

It was in or near the Ottoman penal colony of ʻAkká, in present-day Israel, that Baháʼu'lláh spent the remainder of his life. After initially strict and harsh confinement, he was allowed to live in a home near ʻAkká, while still officially a prisoner of that city. He died there in 1892. Baháʼís regard his resting place at Bahjí as the Qiblih to which they turn in prayer each day.

He produced over 18,000 works in his lifetime, in both Arabic and Persian, of which only 8% have been translated into English. During the period in Adrianople, he began declaring his mission as a Messenger of God in letters to the world's religious and secular rulers, including Pope Pius IX, Napoleon III, and Queen Victoria.

ʻAbdu'l-Bahá

ʻAbbás Effendi was Baháʼu'lláh's eldest son, known by the title of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá ("Servant of Bahá"). His father left a will that appointed ʻAbdu'l-Bahá as the leader of the Baháʼí community. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá had shared his father's long exile and imprisonment, which continued until ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's own release as a result of the Young Turk Revolution in 1908. Following his release he led a life of travelling, speaking, teaching, and maintaining correspondence with communities of believers and individuals, expounding the principles of the Baháʼí Faith.

As of 2020, there are over 38,000 extant documents containing the words of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, which are of widely varying lengths. Only a fraction of these documents have been translated into English. Among the more well known are The Secret of Divine Civilization, Some Answered Questions, the Tablet to Auguste-Henri Forel, the Tablets of the Divine Plan, and the Tablet to The Hague. Additionally notes taken of a number of his talks were published in various volumes like Paris Talks during his journeys to the West.

Shoghi Effendi
Baháʼu'lláh's Kitáb-i-Aqdas and The Will and Testament of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá are foundational documents of the Baháʼí administrative order. Baháʼu'lláh established the elected Universal House of Justice, and ʻAbdu'l-Bahá established the appointed hereditary Guardianship and clarified the relationship between the two institutions. In his Will, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá appointed Shoghi Effendi, his eldest grandson, as the first Guardian of the Baháʼí Faith. Shoghi Effendi served for 36 years as the head of the religion until his death.

Throughout his lifetime, Shoghi Effendi translated Baháʼí texts; developed global plans for the expansion of the Baháʼí community; developed the Baháʼí World Centre; carried on a voluminous correspondence with communities and individuals around the world; and built the administrative structure of the religion, preparing the community for the election of the Universal House of Justice. He unexpectedly died after a brief illness on 4 November 1957, in London, England, under conditions that did not allow for a successor to be appointed.

In 1937, Shoghi Effendi launched a seven-year plan for the Baháʼís of North America, followed by another in 1946. In 1953, he launched the first international plan, the Ten Year World Crusade. This plan included extremely ambitious goals for the expansion of Baháʼí communities and institutions, the translation of Baháʼí texts into several new languages, and the sending of Baháʼí pioneers into previously unreached nations. He announced in letters during the Ten Year Crusade that it would be followed by other plans under the direction of the Universal House of Justice, which was elected in 1963 at the culmination of the Crusade.

Universal House of Justice

Since 1963, the Universal House of Justice has been the elected head of the Baháʼí Faith. The general functions of this body are defined through the writings of Baháʼu'lláh and clarified in the writings of Abdu'l-Bahá and Shoghi Effendi. These functions include teaching and education, implementing Baháʼí laws, addressing social issues, and caring for the weak and the poor.

Starting with the Nine Year Plan that began in 1964, the Universal House of Justice has directed the work of the Baháʼí community through a series of multi-year international plans. Starting with the Nine-Year Plan that began in 1964, the Baháʼí leadership sought to continue the expansion of the religion but also to "consolidate" new members, meaning increase their knowledge of the Baháʼí teachings. In this vein, in the 1970s, the Ruhi Institute was founded by Baháʼís in Colombia to offer short courses on Baháʼí beliefs, ranging in length from a weekend to nine days. The associated Ruhi Foundation, whose purpose was to systematically "consolidate" new Baháʼís, was registered in 1992, and since the late 1990s the courses of the Ruhi Institute have been the dominant way of teaching the Baháʼí Faith around the world. By 2013 there were over 300 Baháʼí training institutes around the world and 100,000 people participating in courses. The courses of the Ruhi Institute train communities to self-organize classes for the spiritual education of children and youth, among other activities. Additional lines of action the Universal House of Justice has encouraged for the contemporary Baháʼí community include social action and participation in the prevalent discourses of society.

Annually, on 21 April, the Universal House of Justice sends a 'Ridván' message to the worldwide Baháʼí community, that updates Baháʼís on current developments and provides further guidance for the year to come.

At local, regional, and national levels, Baháʼís elect members to nine-person Spiritual Assemblies, which run the affairs of the religion. There are also appointed individuals working at various levels, including locally and internationally, which perform the function of propagating the teachings and protecting the community. The latter do not serve as clergy, which the Baháʼí Faith does not have. The Universal House of Justice remains the supreme governing body of the Baháʼí Faith, and its 9 members are elected every five years by the members of all National Spiritual Assemblies. Any male Baháʼí, 18 years or older, is eligible to be elected to the Universal House of Justice; all other positions are open to male and female Baháʼís.

Malietoa Tanumafili II of Samoa, who became Baháʼí in 1968 and died in 2007, was the first serving head of state to embrace the Baháʼí Faith.

Demographics

As of around 2020, there were about 8 million Bahá'ís in the world. In 2013, two scholars of demography wrote that, "The Baha'i Faith is the only religion to have grown faster in every United Nations region over the past 100 years than the general population; Bahaʼi [sic] was thus the fastest-growing religion between 1910 and 2010, growing at least twice as fast as the population of almost every UN region." (See Growth of religion.)

The largest proportions of the total worldwide Bahá'í population were found in sub-Saharan Africa (29.9%) and South Asia (26.8%), followed by Southeast Asia (12.7%) and Latin America (12.2%). Lesser populations are found in North America (7.6%) and the Middle East/North Africa (6.2%), while the smallest populations in Europe (2.0%), Australasia (1.6%), and Northeast Asia (0.9%). In 2015, the internationally recognized religion was the second-largest international religion in Iran, Panama, Belize, Bolivia, Zambia, and Papua New Guinea; and the third-largest in Chad, and Kenya.

From the Bahá'í Faith's origins in the 19th century until the 1950s, the vast majority of Baháʼís were found in Iran; converts from outside Iran were mostly found in India and the Western world. From having roughly 200,000 Baháʼís in 1950, the religion grew to have over 4 million by the late 1980s, with a wide international distribution. As of 2008, there were about 110,000 followers in Iran. Most of the growth in the late 20th century was seeded out of North America by means of the planned migration of individuals. Yet, rather than being a cultural spread from either Iran or North America, in 2001, sociologist David B. Barrett wrote that the Baháʼí Faith is, "A world religion with no racial or national focus". However, the growth has not been even. From the late 1920s to the late 1980s, the religion was banned and adherents of it were harassed in the Soviet-led Eastern Bloc, and then again from the 1970s into the 1990s across some countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The most intense opposition has been in Iran and neighboring Shia-majority countries, considered an attempted genocide by some scholars, watchdog agencies and human rights organizations. Meanwhile, in other times and places, the religion has experienced surges in growth. Before it was banned in certain countries, the religion "hugely increased" in sub-Saharan Africa. In 1989 the Universal House of Justice named Bolivia, Bangladesh, Haiti, India, Liberia, Peru, the Philippines, and Taiwan as countries where the growth of the religion had been notable in the previous decades. Bahá'í sources claimed "more than five million" Bahá'ís in 1991–92. However, since around 2001 the Universal House of Justice has prioritized statistics of the community by their levels of activity rather than simply their population of avowed adherents or numbers of local assemblies.

Because Bahá'ís do not represent the majority of the population in any country, and most often represent only a tiny fraction of countries' total populations, there are problems of under-reporting. In addition, there are examples where the adherents have their highest density among minorities in societies who face their own challenges.

Exhortations
The following are a few examples from Baháʼu'lláh's teachings on personal conduct that are required or encouraged of his followers:
 * Baháʼís over the age of 15 should individually recite an obligatory prayer each day, using fixed words and form.
 * In addition to the daily obligatory prayer, Baháʼís should offer daily devotional prayer and should meditate and study sacred scripture.
 * Adult Baháʼís should observe a Nineteen-Day Fast each year during daylight hours in March, with certain exemptions.
 * There are specific requirements for Baháʼí burial that include a specified prayer to be read at the interment. Embalming or cremating the body is strongly discouraged.
 * Baháʼís should make a 19% voluntary payment on any wealth in excess of what is necessary to live comfortably, after the remittance of any outstanding debt. The payments go to the Universal House of Justice.

Prohibitions
The following are a few acts of personal conduct that are prohibited or discouraged by Baháʼu'lláh's teachings:
 * Backbiting and gossipping are prohibited and denounced.
 * Drinking and selling alcohol are forbidden.
 * Sexual intercourse is only permitted between a husband and a wife, and as a result, premarital, extramarital, and homosexual intercourse are all forbidden. (See also Homosexuality and the Baháʼí Faith)
 * Participation in partisan politics is forbidden.
 * Begging is forbidden as a profession.

The observance of personal laws, such as prayer or fasting, is the sole responsibility of the individual. There are, however, occasions when a Baháʼí might be administratively expelled from the community for a public disregard of the laws, or gross immorality. Such expulsions are administered by the National Spiritual Assembly and do not involve shunning.

While some of the laws in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas are applicable at the present time, other laws are dependent upon the existence of a predominantly Baháʼí society, such as the punishments for arson and murder. The laws, when not in direct conflict with the civil laws of the country of residence, are binding on every Baháʼí.

Marriage
The purpose of marriage in the Baháʼí Faith is mainly to foster spiritual harmony, fellowship and unity between a man and a woman and to provide a stable and loving environment for the rearing of children. The Baháʼí teachings on marriage call it a fortress for well-being and salvation and place marriage and the family as the foundation of the structure of human society. Baháʼu'lláh highly praised marriage, discouraged divorce, and required chastity outside of marriage; Baháʼu'lláh taught that a husband and wife should strive to improve the spiritual life of each other. Interracial marriage is also highly praised throughout Baháʼí scripture.

Baháʼís intending to marry are asked to obtain a thorough understanding of the other's character before deciding to marry. Although parents should not choose partners for their children, once two individuals decide to marry, they must receive the consent of all living biological parents, whether they are Baháʼí or not. The Baháʼí marriage ceremony is simple; the only compulsory part of the wedding is the reading of the wedding vows prescribed by Baháʼu'lláh which both the groom and the bride read, in the presence of two witnesses. The vows are "We will all, verily, abide by the Will of God."

Transgender people can gain recognition of their gender in the Baháʼí Faith if they have medically transitioned and undergone sex reassignment surgery (SRS). After SRS, they are considered transitioned and may have a Baháʼí marriage.

Work
Baháʼu'lláh prohibited a mendicant and ascetic lifestyle. Monasticism is forbidden, and Baháʼís are taught to practice spirituality while engaging in useful work. The importance of self-exertion and service to humanity in one's spiritual life is emphasised further in Baháʼu'lláh's writings, where he states that work done in the spirit of service to humanity enjoys a rank equal to that of prayer and worship in the sight of God.

Places of worship
Bahá'í devotional meetings in most communities currently take place in people's homes or Bahá'í centres, but in some communities Bahá'í Houses of Worship (also known as Bahá'í temples) have been built. Bahá'í Houses of Worship are places where both Baháʼís and non-Baháʼís can express devotion to God. They are also known by the name Mashriqu'l-Adhkár (Arabic for "Dawning-place of the remembrance of God"). Only the holy scriptures of the Bahá'í Faith and other religions can be read or chanted inside, and while readings and prayers that have been set to music may be sung by choirs, no musical instruments may be played inside. Furthermore, no sermons may be delivered, and no ritualistic ceremonies practiced. All Bahá'í Houses of Worship have a nine-sided shape (nonagon) as well as nine pathways leading outward and nine gardens surrounding them. There are currently eight "continental" Bahá'í Houses of Worship and some local Bahá'í Houses of Worship completed or under construction. The Bahá'í writings also envision Bahá'í Houses of Worship being surrounded by institutions for humanitarian, scientific, and educational pursuits, though none has yet been built up to such an extent.

Calendar
The Baháʼí calendar is based upon the calendar established by the Báb. The year consists of 19 months, each having 19 days, with four or five intercalary days, to make a full solar year. The Baháʼí New Year corresponds to the traditional Iranian New Year, called Naw Rúz, and occurs on the vernal equinox, near 21 March, at the end of the month of fasting. Once every Baháʼí month there is a gathering of the Baháʼí community called a Nineteen Day Feast with three parts: first, a devotional part for prayer and reading from Baháʼí scripture; second, an administrative part for consultation and community matters; and third, a social part for the community to interact freely.

Each of the 19 months is given a name which is an attribute of God; some examples include Baháʼ (Splendour), ʻIlm (Knowledge), and Jamál (Beauty). The Baháʼí week is familiar in that it consists of seven days, with each day of the week also named after an attribute of God. Baháʼís observe 11 Holy Days throughout the year, with work suspended on 9 of these. These days commemorate important anniversaries in the history of the religion.

Symbols

The symbols of the religion are derived from the Arabic word Baháʼ (بهاء "splendor" or "glory"), with a numerical value of nine. This numerical connection to the name of Baháʼu'lláh, as well as nine being the highest single-digit, symbolizing completeness, are why the most common symbol of the religion is a nine-pointed star, and Baháʼí temples are nine-sided. The nine-pointed star is commonly set on Baháʼí gravestones.

The ringstone symbol and calligraphy of the Greatest Name are also often encountered. The ringstone symbol consists of two five-pointed stars interspersed with a stylized Baháʼ whose shape is meant to recall God, the Manifestation of God, and the world of man; the Greatest Name is a calligraphic rendering of the phrase Yá Baháʼu'l-Abhá (يا بهاء الأبهى "O Glory of the Most Glorious!") and is commonly found in Baháʼí temples and homes.

Socio-economic development

Since its inception the Baháʼí Faith has had involvement in socio-economic development beginning by giving greater freedom to women, promulgating the promotion of female education as a priority concern, and that involvement was given practical expression by creating schools, agricultural co-ops, and clinics.

The religion entered a new phase of activity when a message from the Universal House of Justice dated 20 October 1983 was released. Baháʼís were urged to seek out ways, compatible with the Baháʼí teachings, in which they could become involved in the social and economic development of the communities in which they lived. Worldwide in 1979 there were 129 officially recognized Baháʼí socio-economic development projects. By 1987, the number of officially recognized development projects had increased to 1,482.

Current initiatives of social action include activities in areas like health, sanitation, education, gender equality, arts and media, agriculture, and the environment. Educational projects include schools, which range from village tutorial schools to large secondary schools, and some universities. By 2017, the Baháʼí Office of Social and Economic Development estimated that there were 40,000 small-scale projects, 1,400 sustained projects, and 135 Baháʼí-inspired organizations.

United Nations
Baháʼu'lláh wrote of the need for world government in this age of humanity's collective life. Because of this emphasis the international Baháʼí community has chosen to support efforts of improving international relations through organizations such as the League of Nations and the United Nations, with some reservations about the present structure and constitution of the UN. The Baháʼí International Community is an agency under the direction of the Universal House of Justice in Haifa, and has consultative status with the following organizations:
 * United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)
 * United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM)
 * United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)
 * United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
 * World Health Organization (WHO)

The Baháʼí International Community has offices at the United Nations in New York and Geneva and representations to United Nations regional commissions and other offices in Addis Ababa, Bangkok, Nairobi, Rome, Santiago, and Vienna. In recent years, an Office of the Environment and an Office for the Advancement of Women were established as part of its United Nations Office. The Baháʼí Faith has also undertaken joint development programs with various other United Nations agencies. In the 2000 Millennium Forum of the United Nations a Baháʼí was invited as one of the only non-governmental speakers during the summit.

Persecution
Baháʼís continue to be persecuted in some majority-Islamic countries, whose leaders do not recognize the Baháʼí Faith as an independent religion, but rather as apostasy from Islam. The most severe persecutions have occurred in Iran, where more than 200 Baháʼís were executed between 1978 and 1998. The rights of Baháʼís have been restricted to greater or lesser extents in numerous other countries, including Egypt, Afghanistan, Indonesia, Iraq, Morocco, Yemen, and several countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

Iran
The most enduring persecution of Baháʼís has been in Iran, the birthplace of the religion. When the Báb started attracting a large following, the clergy hoped to stop the movement from spreading by stating that its followers were enemies of God. These clerical directives led to mob attacks and public executions. Starting in the twentieth century, in addition to repression aimed at individual Baháʼís, centrally directed campaigns that targeted the entire Baháʼí community and its institutions were initiated. In one case in Yazd in 1903 more than 100 Baháʼís were killed. Baháʼí schools, such as the Tarbiyat boys' and girls' schools in Tehran, were closed in the 1930s and 1940s, Baháʼí marriages were not recognized and Baháʼí texts were censored.

During the reign of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, to divert attention from economic difficulties in Iran and from a growing nationalist movement, a campaign of persecution against the Baháʼís was instituted. An approved and coordinated anti-Baháʼí campaign (to incite public passion against the Baháʼís) started in 1955 and it included the spreading of anti-Baháʼí propaganda on national radio stations and in official newspapers. During that campaign, initiated by Mulla Muhammad Taghi Falsafi, the Bahá'í center in Tehran was demolished at the orders of Tehran military governor, General Teymur Bakhtiar. In the late 1970s the Shah's regime consistently lost legitimacy due to criticism that it was pro-Western. As the anti-Shah movement gained ground and support, revolutionary propaganda was spread which alleged that some of the Shah's advisors were Baháʼís. Baháʼís were portrayed as economic threats, and as supporters of Israel and the West, and societal hostility against the Baháʼís increased.

Since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, Iranian Baháʼís have regularly had their homes ransacked or have been banned from attending university or from holding government jobs, and several hundred have received prison sentences for their religious beliefs, most recently for participating in study circles. Baháʼí cemeteries have been desecrated and property has been seized and occasionally demolished, including the House of Mírzá Buzurg, Baháʼu'lláh's father. The House of the Báb in Shiraz, one of three sites to which Baháʼís perform pilgrimage, has been destroyed twice. In May 2018, the Iranian authorities expelled a young woman student from university of Isfahan because she was Baháʼí. In March 2018, two more Baháʼí students were expelled from universities in the cities of Zanjan and Gilan because of their religion.

According to a US panel, attacks on Baháʼís in Iran increased under Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's presidency. The United Nations Commission on Human Rights revealed an October 2005 confidential letter from Command Headquarters of the Armed Forces of Iran ordering its members to identify Baháʼís and to monitor their activities. Due to these actions, the Special Rapporteur of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights stated on 20 March 2006, that she "also expresses concern that the information gained as a result of such monitoring will be used as a basis for the increased persecution of, and discrimination against, members of the Baháʼí faith, in violation of international standards. The Special Rapporteur is concerned that this latest development indicates that the situation with regard to religious minorities in Iran is, in fact, deteriorating."

On 14 May 2008, members of an informal body known as the "Friends" that oversaw the needs of the Baháʼí community in Iran were arrested and taken to Evin prison. The Friends court case has been postponed several times, but was finally underway on 12 January 2010. Other observers were not allowed in the court. Even the defense lawyers, who for two years have had minimal access to the defendants, had difficulty entering the courtroom. The chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom said that it seems that the government has already predetermined the outcome of the case and is violating international human rights law. Further sessions were held on 7 February 2010, 12 April 2010 and 12 June 2010. On 11 August 2010 it became known that the court sentence was 20 years imprisonment for each of the seven prisoners which was later reduced to ten years. After the sentence, they were transferred to Gohardasht prison. In March 2011 the sentences were reinstated to the original 20 years. On 3 January 2010, Iranian authorities detained ten more members of the Baha'i minority, reportedly including Leva Khanjani, granddaughter of Jamaloddin Khanjani, one of seven Baha'i leaders jailed since 2008 and in February, they arrested his son, Niki Khanjani.

The Iranian government claims that the Baháʼí Faith is not a religion, but is instead a political organization, and hence refuses to recognize it as a minority religion. However, the government has never produced convincing evidence supporting its characterization of the Baháʼí community. The Iranian government also accuses the Baháʼí Faith of being associated with Zionism. These accusations against the Baháʼís appear to lack basis in historical fact, with some arguing they were invented by the Iranian government in order to use the Baháʼís as scapegoats.

In 2019, the Iranian government made it impossible for the Baháʼís to legally register with the Iranian state. National identity card applications in Iran no longer include the “other religions” option effectively making the Baháʼí Faith unrecognized by the state.

Egypt
During the 1920s, Egypt's religious Tribunal recognized the Baha'i Faith as a new religion, independent from Islam, due to the nature of the 'laws, principles and beliefs' of the Baha'is.

Baháʼí institutions and community activities have been illegal under Egyptian law since 1960. All Baháʼí community properties, including Baháʼí centers, libraries, and cemeteries, have been confiscated by the government and fatwas have been issued charging Baháʼís with apostasy.

The Egyptian identification card controversy began in the 1990s when the government modernized the electronic processing of identity documents, which introduced a de facto requirement that documents must list the person's religion as Muslim, Christian, or Jewish (the only three religions officially recognized by the government). Consequently, Baháʼís were unable to obtain government identification documents (such as national identification cards, birth certificates, death certificates, marriage or divorce certificates, or passports) necessary to exercise their rights in their country unless they lied about their religion, which conflicts with Baháʼí religious principle. Without documents, they could not be employed, educated, treated in hospitals, travel outside of the country, or vote, among other hardships. Following a protracted legal process culminating in a court ruling favorable to the Baháʼís, the interior minister of Egypt released a decree on 14 April 2009, amending the law to allow Egyptians who are not Muslim, Christian, or Jewish to obtain identification documents that list a dash in place of one of the three recognized religions. The first identification cards were issued to two Baháʼís under the new decree on 8 August 2009.

Encyclopedias

 * Iranica

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Baháʼí Faith


text:
Baiuvarii

The Baiuvarii, Bavarii, or Bavarians (Bajuwaren) were a Germanic people who lived in or near modern-day Bavaria (which is named after them), Austria, and South Tyrol. They began to appear in records by the 6th century AD, and are considered to be the ancestors of modern-day Bavarians, Austrians and South Tyroleans. It is believed that they spoke an early version of the Bavarian language.

Name
The name of the Baiuvarii is also spelled Baiuvari. It probably means "men from Bohemia". The placename Bohemia is believed to be connected to that of the Boii, a Celtic people who partly left the region before the Roman era and then were dominated by Germanic peoples. The Baiuvarii gave their name to the region of Bavaria.

Language
The language of the Baiuvarii is classified as Germanic. It is uncertain whether they originally spoke an East Germanic or West Germanic language. Early evidence on the language of the Baiuvarii is limited to personal names and a few Runic inscriptions. By the 8th century AD, the Baiuvarii were speakers of an early form of the Austro-Bavarian language within the West Germanic family.

History
The name is first attested in Latin sources in the 6th century AD.
 * Notably, the early 6th century biography of Severinus of Noricum describes the region without mentioning them.
 * One of the earliest references to the Baiuvarii is the Frankish Table of Nations from about 520, which describes them as a people with kinship to the Burgundians, Thuringians and Lombards.
 * In his Getica (551), Jordanes wrote that the Suebes people under the rule of the 5th century Hunimund had lived across the Danube from Dalmatia and Pannonia with the Franks on their west, Thuringians to their north, and Burgundians to their south, and the Baibaros to their east, who may have been the Bavarians.
 * In a poem about a pilgrimage to Augsburg in 565, Venantius Fortunatus mentions the land Baioaria on the river Lech, which north flows from the Austrian alps to the German Danube. They were between the Allemanni on the Danube and the Breones who were based near the river Inn.

Evidence from the etymology of their name implies that the Baiuvarii, being named after Bohemia, can not have existed under that name before the 1st century AD. During this period Maroboduus, king of the Germanic Marcomanni, lead his people into their area which had previously been inhabited by the Celtic Boii. Whether the Baiuvarii settled Bavaria in a specific later migration, after Maroboduus, either from the north (Bohemia) or from Pannonia, is uncertain.

A possible earlier record of the Baiuvarii, is the 2nd century mention of the Banochaemae, whose name appears to have a similar etymology. Claudius Ptolemy described them in his Geography as living near the Elbe, east of the Melibokus mountains, and north of the Asciburgius mountains.

According to Karl Bosl, Bavarian migration to present-day Bavaria is a legend. The early Baiuvarii are often associated with the Friedenhain-Přešťovice archaeological group, but this is controversial. During the time of Attila in the 5th century, the entire Middle Danube region saw the entry of many new peoples from north and east of the Carpathians, and the formation and destruction of many new and old political entities.

It is thus more probable that the Baiuvarii emerged in the provinces of Noricum ripense and Raetia secunda following Odoacer's withdrawal of population to Italy in 488, and the subsequent expansion of Italian Ostrogothic, and Merovingian Frankish influence into the area. They are believed to have incorporated elements from several Germanic peoples, including the Sciri, Heruli, Suebi, Alemanni, Naristi, Thuringi and Lombards. They might also have included non-Germanic Romance people (romanized Celtic people).

The region was under the influence of the Ostrogothic Kingdom of Theodoric the Great. During this period, the Frankish king Theudebert I (died 548) claimed control from the North Sea to Pannonia. After his death, his uncle Chlothar I appointed Garibald I as dux of Bavaria. He established the Agilolfings dynasty with his power base at Augsburg or Regensburg. By the 8th century, many Baiuvarii had converted to Christianity.

Through their ruling Agilolfings dynasty, they were closely connected with the Franks.

Culture
A collection of Bavarian tribal laws was compiled in the 8th century. This document is known as Lex Baiuvariorum. Elements of it possibly date back to the 6th century. It is very similar to Lex Thuringorum, which was the legal code of the Thuringi, with whom the Baiuvarii had close relations.

The funerary traditions of the Baiuvarii are similar to those of the Alemanni, but quite different from those of the Thuringi.

Exogamy and migrant women
The Baiuvarii are distinguished by the presence of individuals with artificially deformed craniums in their cemeteries. These individuals were predominantly female; there is no undisputed evidence of males with artificially deformed skulls in Bavaria. Genetic and archeological evidence shows that these women were migrants from eastern cultures, who married Bavarii males, suggesting the importance of exogamy within the Bavarii culture. The migrant women were fully integrated in to Bavarii culture.

In 2018, genomic research showed that these foreign women had southeastern European and East Asian ancestry. The presence of these women among the Bavarii people indicates that men from the Bavarii culture practiced exogamy, preferentially marrying women from eastern populations.

Genetics
A genetic study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America in 2018 examined the remains of 41 individuals buried at a Bavarian cemetery ca. 500 AD. Of these, 11 whole genomes were generated. The males were found to be genetically homogeneous and of north-central European origin. The females were less homogeneous, carried less Northern European ancestry, and were found to combine Southeast European and East Asian ancestry.

There were significant gender differences in skin, hair and eye pigmentation in the sample. While 80% of the Bavarii males had blond hair and blue eyes, the women had much higher rates of brown eyes and darker hair colors. The local women with East Asian and Southern European-related ancestry, generally had brown eyes, and 60% were dark haired.

No significant admixture with Roman populations from territories further south of the area was detected. Among modern populations, the surveyed male individuals didn't have modified skulls and were found to be most closely related to modern-day Germans.

title: Baiuvarii


text:
Burgundians

The Burgundians were an early Germanic tribe or group of tribes. They appeared in the middle Rhine region, near the Roman Empire, and were later moved into the empire, in eastern Gaul. They were possibly mentioned much earlier in the time of the Roman Empire as living in part of the region of Germania that is now part of Poland.

The Burgundians are first mentioned together with the Alamanni as early as the 11th panegyric to emperor Maximian given in Trier in 291 AD, referring to events that must have happened between 248 and 291, and they apparently remained neighbours for centuries. By 411 a Burgundian group had established themselves on the Rhine, between Franks and Alamanni, holding the cities of Worms, Speyer, and Strasbourg. In 436 AD, Aëtius defeated the Burgundians on the Rhine with the help of Hunnish forces, and then in 443, he re-settled the Burgundians within the empire, in eastern Gaul.

This Gaulish domain became the Kingdom of the Burgundians. This later became a component of the Frankish Empire. The name of this kingdom survives in the regional appellation, Burgundy, which is a region in modern France, representing only a part of that kingdom.

Another part of the Burgundians formed a contingent in Attila's Hunnic army by 451 AD.

Before clear documentary evidence begins, the Burgundians may have originally emigrated from the Baltic island of Bornholm to the Vistula basin, in the middle of what is now Poland.

Name
The ethnonym Burgundians is commonly used in English to refer to the Burgundi (Burgundionei, Burgundiones or Burgunds) who settled in eastern Gaul and the western Alps during the 5th century AD. The original Kingdom of the Burgundians barely intersected the modern Bourgogne and more closely matched the boundaries of Franche-Comté in northeastern France, the Rhône-Alpes in southeastern France, Romandy in west Switzerland, and Aosta Valley, in north west Italy.

In modern usage, however, "Burgundians" can sometimes refer to later inhabitants of the geographical Bourgogne or Borgogne (Burgundy), named after the old kingdom, but not corresponding to the original boundaries of it. Between the 6th and 20th centuries, the boundaries and political connections of "Burgundy" have changed frequently. In modern times the only area still referred to as Burgundy is in France, which derives its name from the Duchy of Burgundy. But in the context of the Middle Ages the term Burgundian (or similar spellings) can refer even to the powerful political entity the Dukes controlled which included not only Burgundy itself but had actually expanded to have a strong association with areas now in modern Belgium and Southern Netherlands. The parts of the old Kingdom not within the French controlled Duchy tended to come under different names, except for the County of Burgundy.

Uncertain early history

The origins of the Burgundians before they reached the area near the Roman-controlled Rhine is a subject of various old proposals, but these are doubted by some modern scholars such as Ian Wood and Walter Goffart. As remarked by Susan Reynolds:

They have long been associated with Scandinavian origin based on place-name evidence and archaeological evidence (Stjerna) and many consider their tradition to be correct (e.g. Musset, p. 62). According to such proposals, the Burgundians are believed to have then emigrated to the Baltic island of Bornholm ("the island of the Burgundians" in Old Norse). By about 250 AD, the population of Bornholm had largely disappeared from the island. Most cemeteries ceased to be used, and those that were still used had few burials (Stjerna, in German 1925:176). In Þorsteins saga Víkingssonar (The Saga of Thorstein, Viking's Son), a man (or group) named Veseti settled on a holm (island) called borgundarhólmr in Old Norse, i.e. Bornholm. Alfred the Great's translation of Orosius uses the name Burgenda land to refer to a territory next to the land of Sweons ("Swedes"). The 19th century poet and mythologist Viktor Rydberg asserted from an early medieval source, Vita Sigismundi, that they themselves retained oral traditions about their Scandinavian origin.

Early Roman sources, such as Tacitus and Pliny the Elder, knew little concerning the Germanic peoples east of the Elbe river, or on the Baltic Sea. Pliny (IV.28) however mentions a group with a similar name among the Vandalic or Eastern Germanic Germani peoples, including the Goths. Claudius Ptolemy lists these as living between the Suevus (probably the Oder) and Vistula rivers, north of the Lugii, and south of the coast dwelling tribes. It has been proposed that there several important Germanic tribes originally had their origins around the Baltic sea, including the Rugii, Goths, Gepidae, Vandals, and others. According to such proposals, their ,movement south created turmoil along the entire Roman frontier. These migrations culminated in the Marcomannic Wars, which resulted in widespread destruction and the first invasion of Italy in the Roman Empire period. Jordanes reports that during the 3rd century AD, the Burgundians living in the Vistula basin were almost annihilated by Fastida, king of the Gepids, whose kingdom was at the mouth of the Vistula.

In the late 3rd century AD, the Burgundians appeared on the east bank of the Rhine, apparently confronting Roman Gaul. Zosimus (1.68) reports them being defeated by the emperor Probus in 278 near a river, together with the Silingi and Vandals. A few years later, Claudius Mamertinus mentions them along with the Alamanni, a Suebic people. These two peoples had moved into the Agri Decumates on the eastern side of the Rhine, an area still referred to today as Swabia, at times attacking Roman Gaul together and sometimes fighting each other. He also mentions that the Goths had previously defeated the Burgundians.

Ammianus Marcellinus, on the other hand, claimed that the Burgundians descended from the Romans. The Roman sources do not speak of any specific migration from Poland by the Burgundians (although other Vandalic peoples are more clearly mentioned as having moved west in this period), and so there have historically been some doubts about the link between the eastern and western Burgundians.

In 369/370 AD, the Emperor Valentinian I enlisted the aid of the Burgundians in his war against the Alamanni.

Approximately four decades later, the Burgundians appear again. Following Stilicho's withdrawal of troops to fight Alaric I the Visigoth in 406–408 AD, a large group of peoples from central Europe north of the Danube came west and crossed the Rhine, entering the Empire near the lands of the Burgundians who had moved much earlier. The dominant groups were Alans, Vandals (Hasdingi and Silingi), and Danubian Suevi. The majority of these Danubian peoples moved through Gaul and eventually established themselves in kingdoms in Roman Hispania. One group of Alans was settled in northern Gaul by the Romans.

Some Burgundians also migrated westwards and settled as foederati in the Roman province of Germania Prima along the Middle Rhine. Other Burgundians, however, remained outside the empire and apparently formed a contingent in Attila's Hunnic army by 451 AD.

Rhineland
In 411, the Burgundian king Gundahar (or Gundicar) set up a puppet emperor, Jovinus, in cooperation with Goar, king of the Alans. With the authority of the Gallic emperor that he controlled, Gundahar settled on the left (Roman) bank of the Rhine, between the river Lauter and the Nahe, seizing Worms, Speyer, and Strassburg. Apparently as part of a truce, the Emperor Honorius later officially "granted" them the land, with its capital at the old Celtic Roman settlement of Borbetomagus (present Worms).

Despite their new status as foederati, Burgundian raids into Roman Upper Gallia Belgica became intolerable and were ruthlessly brought to an end in 436, when the Roman general Aëtius called in Hun mercenaries, who overwhelmed the Rhineland kingdom in 437. Gundahar was killed in the fighting, reportedly along with the majority of the Burgundian tribe.

The destruction of Worms and the Burgundian kingdom by the Huns became the subject of heroic legends that were afterwards incorporated in the Nibelungenlied—on which Wagner based his Ring Cycle—where King Gunther (Gundahar) and Queen Brünhild hold their court at Worms, and Siegfried comes to woo Kriemhild. (In Old Norse sources the names are Gunnar, Brynhild, and Gudrún as normally rendered in English.) In fact, the Etzel of the Nibelungenlied is based on Attila the Hun.

Settlement in eastern Gaul

For reasons not cited in the sources, the Burgundians were granted foederati status a second time, and in 443 were resettled by Aëtius in Sapaudia, part of the Gallo-Roman province of Maxima Sequanorum. Burgundians probably even lived near Lugdunum, known today as Lyon. A new king, Gundioc or Gunderic, presumed to be Gundahar's son, appears to have reigned following his father's death. The historian Pline tells us that Gunderic ruled the areas of Saône, Dauphiny, Savoie and a part of Provence. He set up Vienne as the capital of the kingdom of Burgundy. In all, eight Burgundian kings of the house of Gundahar ruled until the kingdom was overrun by the Franks in 534.

As allies of Rome in its last decades, the Burgundians fought alongside Aëtius and a confederation of Visigoths and others against Attila at the Battle of Châlons (also called "The Battle of the Catalaunian Fields") in 451. The alliance between Burgundians and Visigoths seems to have been strong, as Gundioc and his brother Chilperic I accompanied Theodoric II to Spain to fight the Sueves in 455.

Aspirations to the empire
Also in 455, an ambiguous reference infidoque tibi Burdundio ductu implicates an unnamed treacherous Burgundian leader in the murder of the emperor Petronius Maximus in the chaos preceding the sack of Rome by the Vandals. The Patrician Ricimer is also blamed; this event marks the first indication of the link between the Burgundians and Ricimer, who was probably Gundioc's brother-in-law and Gundobad's uncle.

In 456, the Burgundians, apparently confident in their growing power, negotiated a territorial expansion and power sharing arrangement with the local Roman senators.

In 457, Ricimer overthrew another emperor, Avitus, raising Majorian to the throne. This new emperor proved unhelpful to Ricimer and the Burgundians. The year after his ascension, Majorian stripped the Burgundians of the lands they had acquired two years earlier. After showing further signs of independence, he was murdered by Ricimer in 461.

Ten years later, in 472, Ricimer–who was by now the son-in-law of the Western Emperor Anthemius–was plotting with Gundobad to kill his father-in-law; Gundobad beheaded the emperor (apparently personally). Ricimer then appointed Olybrius; both died, surprisingly of natural causes, within a few months. Gundobad seems then to have succeeded his uncle as Patrician and king-maker, and raised Glycerius to the throne.

In 474, Burgundian influence over the empire seems to have ended. Glycerius was deposed in favor of Julius Nepos, and Gundobad returned to Burgundy, presumably at the death of his father Gundioc. At this time or shortly afterwards, the Burgundian kingdom was divided among Gundobad and his brothers, Godigisel, Chilperic II, and Gundomar I.

Consolidation of the kingdom

According to Gregory of Tours, the years following Gundobad's return to Burgundy saw a bloody consolidation of power. Gregory states that Gundobad murdered his brother Chilperic, drowning his wife and exiling their daughters (one of whom was to become the wife of Clovis the Frank, and was reputedly responsible for his conversion). This is contested by, e.g., Bury, who points out problems in much of Gregory's chronology for the events.

In c. 500, when Gundobad and Clovis were at war, Gundobad appears to have been betrayed by his brother Godegisel, who joined the Franks; together Godegisel's and Clovis' forces "crushed the army of Gundobad". Gundobad was temporarily holed up in Avignon, but was able to re-muster his army and sacked Vienne, where Godegisel and many of his followers were put to death. From this point, Gundobad appears to have been the sole king of Burgundy. This would imply that his brother Gundomar was already dead, though there are no specific mentions of the event in the sources.

Either Gundobad and Clovis reconciled their differences, or Gundobad was forced into some sort of vassalage by Clovis' earlier victory, as the Burgundian king appears to have assisted the Franks in 507 in their victory over Alaric II the Visigoth.

During the upheaval, sometime between 483 and 501, Gundobad began to set forth the Lex Gundobada (see below), issuing roughly the first half, which drew upon the Lex Visigothorum. Following his consolidation of power, between 501 and his death in 516, Gundobad issued the second half of his law, which was more originally Burgundian.

Fall

The Burgundians were extending their power over eastern Gaul—that is western Switzerland and eastern France, as well as northern Italy. In 493, Clovis, king of the Franks, married the Burgundian princess Clotilda (daughter of Chilperic), who converted him to the Catholic faith.

At first allied with Clovis' Franks against the Visigoths in the early 6th century, the Burgundians were eventually conquered at Autun by the Franks in 532 after a first attempt in the Battle of Vézeronce. The Burgundian kingdom was made part of the Merovingian kingdoms, and the Burgundians themselves were by and large absorbed as well.

Physical appearance
The 5th century Gallo-Roman poet and landowner Sidonius, who at one point lived with the Burgundians, described them as a long-haired people of immense physical size: "Why... do you [an obscure senator by the name of Catullinus] bid me compose a song dedicated to Venus... placed as I am among long-haired hordes, having to endure Germanic speech, praising often with a wry face the song of the gluttonous Burgundian who spreads rancid butter on his hair? ... You don't have a reek of garlic and foul onions discharged upon you at early morn from ten breakfasts, and you are not invaded before dawn... by a crowd of giants."

Language
The Burgundians and their language were described as Germanic by the poet Sidonius Apollinaris. Herwig Wolfram has interpreted this as being because they had entered Gaul from Germania.

More specifically their language is thought to have belonged to the East Germanic language group, based upon their presumed equivalence to the Burgundians named much earlier by Pliny in the east, and some names and placenames. However this is now considered uncertain. Little is known of the language. Some proper names of Burgundians are recorded, and some words used in the area in modern times are thought to be derived from the ancient Burgundian language, but it is often difficult to distinguish these from Germanic words of other origin, and in any case the modern form of the words is rarely suitable to infer much about the form in the old language.

The language appears to have become extinct during the late 6th century, likely due to the early conversion of the Burgundians to Latin Christianity.

Religion
Somewhere in the east the Burgundians had converted to the Arian Christianity from earlier Germanic paganism. Their Arianism proved a source of suspicion and distrust between the Burgundians and the Catholic Western Roman Empire.

Divisions were evidently healed or healing circa 500, however, as Gundobad, one of the last Burgundian kings, maintained a close personal friendship with Avitus, the bishop of Vienne. Moreover, Gundobad's son and successor, Sigismund, was himself a Catholic, and there is evidence that many of the Burgundian people had converted by this time as well, including several female members of the ruling family.

Law
The Burgundians left three legal codes, among the earliest from any of the Germanic tribes.

The Liber Constitutionum sive Lex Gundobada ("The Book of Constitutions or Law of Gundobad"), also known as the Lex Burgundionum, or more simply the Lex Gundobada or the Liber, was issued in several parts between 483 and 516, principally by Gundobad, but also by his son, Sigismund. It was a record of Burgundian customary law and is typical of the many Germanic law codes from this period. In particular, the Liber borrowed from the Lex Visigothorum and influenced the later Lex Ripuaria. The Liber is one of the primary sources for contemporary Burgundian life, as well as the history of its kings.

Like many of the Germanic tribes, the Burgundians' legal traditions allowed the application of separate laws for separate ethnicities. Thus, in addition to the Lex Gundobada, Gundobad also issued (or codified) a set of laws for Roman subjects of the Burgundian kingdom, the Lex Romana Burgundionum (The Roman Law of the Burgundians).

In addition to the above codes, Gundobad's son Sigismund later published the Prima Constitutio.

title: Burgundians


text:
Dots and boxes

Dots and boxes is a pencil-and-paper game for two players (sometimes more). It was first published in the 19th century by French mathematician Édouard Lucas, who called it la pipopipette. It has gone by many other names, including dots and dashes, game of dots, dot to dot grid, boxes, and pigs in a pen.

The game starts with an empty grid of dots. Usually two players take turns adding a single horizontal or vertical line between two unjoined adjacent dots. A player who completes the fourth side of a 1×1 box earns one point and takes another turn. A point is typically recorded by placing a mark that identifies the player in the box, such as an initial. The game ends when no more lines can be placed. The winner is the player with the most points. The board may be of any size grid. When short on time, or to learn the game, a 2×2 board (3×3 dots) is suitable. A 5×5 board, on the other hand, is good for experts.

Strategy
For most novice players, the game begins with a phase of more-or-less randomly connecting dots, where the only strategy is to avoid adding the third side to any box. This continues until all the remaining (potential) boxes are joined together into chains – groups of one or more adjacent boxes in which any move gives all the boxes in the chain to the opponent. At this point, players typically take all available boxes, then open the smallest available chain to their opponent. For example, a novice player faced with a situation like position 1 in the diagram on the right, in which some boxes can be captured, may take all the boxes in the chain, resulting in position 2. But with their last move, they have to open the next, larger chain, and the novice loses the game.

A more experienced player faced with position 1 will instead play the double-cross strategy, taking all but 2 of the boxes in the chain and leaving position 3. The opponent will take these two boxes and then be forced to open the next chain. By achieving position 3, player A wins. The same double-cross strategy applies no matter how many long chains there are: a player using this strategy will take all but two boxes in each chain and take all the boxes in the last chain. If the chains are long enough, then this player will win.

The next level of strategic complexity, between experts who would both use the double-cross strategy (if they were allowed to), is a battle for control: an expert player tries to force their opponent to open the first long chain, because the player who first opens a long chain usually loses. Against a player who does not understand the concept of a sacrifice, the expert simply has to make the correct number of sacrifices to encourage the opponent to hand them the first chain long enough to ensure a win. If the other player also sacrifices, the expert has to additionally manipulate the number of available sacrifices through earlier play.

In combinatorial game theory, Dots and Boxes is an impartial game and many positions can be analyzed using Sprague–Grundy theory. However, Dots and Boxes lacks the normal play convention of most impartial games (where the last player to move wins), which complicates the analysis considerably.

Unusual grids and variants
Dots and Boxes need not be played on a rectangular grid – it can be played on a triangular grid or a hexagonal grid.

Dots and boxes has a dual graph form called "Strings-and-Coins". This game is played on a network of coins (vertices) joined by strings (edges). Players take turns cutting a string. When a cut leaves a coin with no strings, the player "pockets" the coin and takes another turn. The winner is the player who pockets the most coins. Strings-and-Coins can be played on an arbitrary graph.

In analyses of Dots and Boxes, a game that starts with outer lines already drawn is called a Swedish board while the standard version that starts fully blank is called an American board. An intermediate version with only the left and bottom sides starting with drawn lines is called an Icelandic board.

A related game is Dots, played by adding coloured dots to a blank grid, and joining them with straight or diagonal line in an attempt to surround an opponent's dots.

title: Dots and boxes


text:
Big Brother (Nineteen Eighty-Four)

Big Brother is a character and symbol in George Orwell's dystopian 1949 novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. He is ostensibly the leader of Oceania, a totalitarian state wherein the ruling party, Ingsoc, wields total power "for its own sake" over the inhabitants.

The ubiquitous slogan "Big Brother is watching you" serves as a constant reminder that Party members are not entitled to privacy. They are subject to constant surveillance to ensure their ideological purity. This is primarily through omnipresent telescreens that provide two-way video communication and constantly blare propaganda.

This close surveillance does not extend to the "proles", who constitute the majority of Oceanic society. They are viewed as inferior beings whose ideas and opinions simply don't matter because they lack both the intelligence and conviction to recognize and assert their latent political power. (In British English, "prole" is an abbreviation of proletarian. It is often derogatory. )

"Big Brother" has become a synecdoche for abuse of government power, particularly in respect to civil liberties, often specifically related to mass surveillance and a lack of choice in society.

Character origins
There are many theories about the origin of the character. In the essay section of his novel 1985, Anthony Burgess states that Orwell got the idea for the name of Big Brother from advertising billboards for educational correspondence courses from a company called Bennett's during World War II. The original posters showed J. M. Bennett himself, a kindly-looking old man offering guidance and support to would-be students with the phrase "Let me be your father." According to Burgess, after Bennett's death, his son took over the company and the posters were replaced with pictures of the son (who looked imposing and stern in contrast to his father's kindly demeanor) with the text "Let me be your big brother".

Additional speculation from Douglas Kellner of the University of California, Los Angeles, argued that Big Brother represents Joseph Stalin, representing Stalinism, and Adolf Hitler, representing Nazism. Another theory is that the inspiration for Big Brother was Brendan Bracken, the Minister of Information, a government department in wartime United Kingdom, until 1945. Orwell worked under Bracken on the BBC's Indian, Hong Kong and Malayan Service. Bracken was customarily referred to by his employees by his initials, B.B., the same initials as the character Big Brother. Orwell also resented the wartime censorship and need to manipulate information which he felt came from the highest levels of the Ministry of Information and from Bracken's office in particular.

The idea of Big Brother could be also borrowed from the 1937 H. G. Wells novel Star Begotten, in which "Big Brother" is referenced as a fictitious example of "mystical personifications" able to easily manipulate the common man, as well as the Soviet Union, where there was an ideology of "brotherly nations" or "brotherly countries". Russia presented itself as a big brother who watches over its younger brothers (other nations). The ideological word 'big brother' or 'older brother' was very well known and used in the Soviet Republics before and after the Second World War. In the "Circe" episode of James Joyce's Ulysses (1922) the prophet Elijah addresses God as "Big Brother up there, Mr President".

Existence
In the novel, it is never explicitly indicated if Big Brother is or had been a real person, or is a fictional personification of the Party, similar to Britannia and Uncle Sam. Big Brother is described as appearing on posters and telescreens as a man in his mid-forties. In Party propaganda, Big Brother is presented as one of the founders of the Party.

At one point, Winston Smith, the protagonist of Orwell's novel, tries "to remember in what year he had first heard mention of Big Brother. He thought it must have been at some time in the sixties, but it was impossible to be certain. In the Party histories, Big Brother figured as the leader and guardian of the Revolution since its very earliest days. His exploits had been gradually pushed backwards in time until already they extended into the fabulous world of the forties and the thirties, when the capitalists in their strange cylindrical hats still rode through the streets of London".

In the fictional book The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism, read by Winston Smith and purportedly written by political theorist Emmanuel Goldstein, Big Brother is referred to as infallible and all-powerful. No one has ever seen him and there is a reasonable certainty that he will never die. He is simply "the guise in which the Party chooses to exhibit itself to the world" since the emotions of love, fear and reverence are more easily focused on an individual (if only a face on the hoardings and a voice on the telescreens) than an organisation. When Winston Smith is later arrested, O'Brien repeats that Big Brother will never die. When Smith asks if Big Brother exists, O'Brien describes him as "the embodiment of the Party" and says that he will exist as long as the Party exists. When Winston asks "Does Big Brother exist the same way I do?" (meaning is Big Brother an actual human being), O'Brien replies "You do not exist" (meaning that Smith is now an unperson, an example of doublethink).

Cult of personality
Big Brother is the subject of a cult of personality. A spontaneous ritual of devotion to "BB" is illustrated at the end of the compulsory Two Minutes Hate:

"At this moment the entire group of people broke into a deep, slow, rhythmic chant of 'B-B! ... B-B! ... B-B!'—over and over again, very slowly, with a long pause between the first 'B' and the second—a heavy murmurous sound, somehow curiously savage, in the background of which one seemed to hear the stamps of naked feet and the throbbing of tom-toms. For perhaps as much as thirty seconds they kept it up. It was a refrain that was often heard in moments of overwhelming emotion.  Partly it was a sort of hymn to the wisdom and majesty of Big Brother, but still more it was an act of self-hypnosis, a deliberate drowning of consciousness by means of rhythmic noise."

Film adaptations
The character, as represented solely by a single still photograph, was played in the 1954 BBC adaptation by production designer Roy Oxley. In the 1956 film adaptation, Big Brother was represented by an illustration of a stern-looking disembodied head.

In the film starring John Hurt released in 1984, the Big Brother photograph was of actor Bob Flag. Both Oxley and Flag sported small moustaches.

Use as metaphor
Since the publication of Nineteen Eighty-Four, the phrase "Big Brother" has come into common use to describe any prying or overly-controlling authority figure and attempts by government to increase surveillance. Big Brother and other Orwellian imagery are often referenced in the joke known as the Russian reversal.

Iain Moncreiffe and Don Pottinger jokingly mentioned in their 1956 book Blood Royal the sentence: "Without Little Father need for Big Brother", referring to the Russian Revolution and the Soviet Union.

The worldwide reality television show Big Brother is based on the novel's concept of people being under constant surveillance. In 2000, after the United States version of the CBS program Big Brother premiered, the Estate of George Orwell sued CBS and its production company Orwell Productions, Inc. in federal court in Chicago for copyright and trademark infringement. The case was Estate of Orwell v. CBS, 00-c-5034 (ND Ill). On the eve of trial, the case settled worldwide to the parties' "mutual satisfaction", but the amount that CBS paid to the Orwell Estate was not disclosed. CBS had not asked the Estate for permission. Under current laws, the novel will remain under copyright protection until 2044 in the United States, it entered the public domain in 2020 within the European Union.

The magazine Book ranked Big Brother no. 59 on its "100 best characters in fiction since 1900" list. Wizard magazine rated him the 75th-greatest villain of all time.

The iconic image of Big Brother (played by David Graham) played a key role in Apple's "1984" television commercial introducing the Macintosh. The Orwell Estate viewed the Apple commercial as a copyright infringement and sent a cease-and-desist letter to Apple and its advertising agency. The commercial was never televised again, though the date mentioned in the ad (24 January) was but two days later, making it unlikely that it would have been re-aired regardless. Subsequent ads featuring Steve Jobs for a variety of products have mimicked the format and appearance of that original ad campaign, with the appearance of Jobs nearly identical to that of Big Brother.

China's Social Credit System has been described as akin to "Big Brother" by detractors, where citizens and businesses are given or deducted good behavior points depending on their choices, though new reports say the system doesn't work that way.

title: Big Brother (Nineteen Eighty-Four)