Apart from these new materials, the book does not add a great deal to what has already been written, nor - being a frankly hagiographic work - does it do much to explain the underlying factors behind the Babi movement, though there is a useful prologue summing up the religious and historical developments of the preceding 40 years. Above all, we are still no closer to understanding the violent manifestations of Babism, as contrasted with the strongly pacifist nature of the final stage of the movement, Bahá'ísm. But as a straightforward account of an historical phenomenon as important for the understanding of 19th-century Persian history as it is for its religious implications it cannot be faulted.

    Points to criticize are on the whole few. There is a plethora of footnotes, some occupying the foot of the page, others relegated to an appendix, without any very obvious distinction between the two groups. The eccentricities of transcription remain, but one cannot blame Mr. Balyuzi for this, as they are apparently officially prescribed by the Bahá'í authorities. And although this is a far less polemical book than either of its predecessors, there are occasional unwarranted distortions. What are we to make, for example, of the footnote on p. 6 offered in explanation of the term "Geramee" applied in a British consular despatch to leaders of the anti-Bab faction in Kerbela in 1843: "Probably 'yaramaz', meaning 'good-for-nothing'"? How can Mr. Balyuzi have failed to recognize the well-known Persian word girami "honoured, respected"?