Zoroastrian Conversions to the Bahá'í Faith

This study examines the conversion in Yazd, Iran, of Zoroastrians to the Baha'i Faith in the period extending from the early 1880s to the beginning of the 20th century. This process started soon after the Parsis of India began to send emissaries to their co-religionists in Iran, who were despised and oppressed by the Muslims. Those emissaries initiated a series of social and economic reforms out of which emerged a new mercantile elite within the Zoroastrian community. When religious reform failed to keep pace with social change an ideational vacuum was created among this educated class. The Baha'i Faith, with its rationality, its tolerance, its appeal to Zoroastrian messianic motifs, and Iranian paradigms of legitimacy, and its association with reforming elements within the Zoroastrian community, succeeded in filling that vacuum for many. This thesis was submitted for an M.A. degree in the Department of Oriental Studies, University of Arizona in 1983. 107pp.