Egypt

Egypt
The National Bahá’í Centre of Egypt, 1956.
Location of Egypt
National Assembly		Egypt
Statistics:
Total Population
-	UN 2021	109,262,178
Bahá'í pop.
-	Bahá'í source
-	Non-Bahá'í source	2,474
History: Firsts
-	Pioneers	Haji Báqir-i-Káshání Siyyid Husayin-i-Káshání
-	Local Assembly	1912, Cairo
-	National Assembly	1924, with Sudan
Related media
Categories: Egypt • People

The Arab Republic of Egypt is a country in north-east Africa and includes the Sinai Peninsula which is considered part of south-west Asia. Its predominant religion is Islam and Arabic is the country's official language, with Egyptian Arabic being popularly spoken.

In modern history the area was part of the Ottoman Empire from the 16th century until the late 19th century when it became a British protectorate. It remained under British rule until declaring independence in 1922. It existed as a Kingdom up until 1953 when it became a Republic and in 1958 the United Arab Republic was established amalgamating Egypt and some nations in Arabia. The United Arab Republic was disestablished in 1971.

The Bahá'í Faith was established in Egypt in the 1860’s and a community began to become firmly established in the 1890’s. The Bahá'í community achieved significant recognition and growth from the 1930’s to the 1950’s, however in 1960 Bahá'í activity was banned in the country with the community facing persecution throughout the 1970’s and 1980’s. Conditions have relaxed in recent years and there is an active Bahá’í community of Egypt.

History

Community Establishment

The first Bahá'ís in Egypt were likely Haji Báqir-i-Káshání and Siyyid Husayin-i-Káshání who were merchants and established themselves in Alexandria and Cairo in the 1860’s. Other Bahá'ís also settled in Egypt throughout the decade including Haji Abu'l-Qasim-i-Shirazi, who visited Bahá’u’lláh in Adrianople from the country, and Haji Mulla Ali Tabrizi and Haji Mirza Haydar-’Ali who moved to Egypt at the request of Bahá’u’lláh. In the late 1860’s several Bahá'ís in Egypt, including Haji Mirza Haydar ‘Ali, were arrested and exiled to Khartoum, Sudan, due to the efforts of the Persian Consul-General to Egypt, and in approximately 1867 Nabíl-i-A‘ẓam was sent to the country by Bahá’u’lláh to appeal their imprisonment however he was also arrested and held in Alexandria.

Bahá’u’lláh Himself passed through Egypt when he was exiled from Adrianople to ‘Akká in 1868 stopping in Alexandria and then Port Said. He was transported by ship and did not disembark in Alexandria however some fellow Bahá'í exiles visited the city and were able to establish contact with Nabíl-i-A‘ẓam, and some Persians living in Alexandria visited Bahá’u’lláh on the ship.

As of 1870 Bahá’í Hájí Muhammad Yazdi had established himself in Alexandria and he, and Hájí Javád-i-Yazdí, were made responsible for facilitating communication between Bahá’u’lláh and the Bahá’í community of Persia receiving Tablets in Alexandria then distributing them to Iran. Muhammad Taqí Isfahání who played a role in establishing the Egyptian Bahá’í community moved to the country around 1879, and in 1889 Núri'd-Dín, a prominent Baha’i and relative of the Bab, moved to Port Said.

In 1895 Mírzá Abu’l-Faḍl pioneered to Cairo on the instructions of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and began working at the University of al-Azhar. He contributed significantly to the establishment of a Bahá’í community in the city, teaching the Faith to individuals he felt were interested and establishing contact with writers and journalists, however by 1900 he had been declared an infidel due to his religious activity. As of the early 1900’s the Faith had been firmly established in Egypt and Bahá’í literature in Persian and Arabic began to be printed in Cairo during the decade. In 1910 a Bahá’í boys school and girls school was established in Cairo which offered education to both Bahá’ís and the wider community and they operated until 1919.

In August 1910 ‘Abdu’l-Bahá moved to Egypt living in the country until August 1911 when he began his travels across Europe and North America, and in 1912 the first Bahá’í local administrative body was established in Cairo. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá returned to Egypt in 1913 staying in the country from June to December.

Community Development

In 1924 the National Spiritual Assembly of Egypt & Sudan was established in accordance with directives issued by Shoghi Effendi aiming to formalize Bahá’í administration and the Local Spiritual Assembly of Alexandria was established the same year. As of 1926 there were active and well established Bahá’í communities in Cairo, Port Said, Alexandria, Isma‘ilíyyih, and Assiut.

The Bahá’í community of Alexandria, 1927.

In the late 1920’s Bahá’ís experienced prejudice in Egypt particularly in remote areas and Bahá’ís were denied recognition of marriages due to not identifying as Muslim prompting the community to appeal for recognition of the religion, however the Muslim Ecclesiastical Court of Egypt officially ruled that Bahá’ís were heretics in 1925. Although the ruling had negative consequences Shoghi Effendi noted that its wording also acknowledged that the Bahá’í Faith was an independent religion. In 1929 Martha Root visited Egypt and met with a Prince of the Royal Family who spoke about his positive opinion of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá having met him in France and the United States.

In the early 1930’s the National Spiritual Assembly of Egypt and Sudan undertook efforts to secure permission for the Bahá’í community to administer its own affairs, such as marriages, in light of Bahá’ís being excluded from the Islamic legal system in several ways. In pursuit of this goal the Assembly submitted a compilation of the laws and ordinances of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas to the Egyptian Government. In 1934 the National Assembly achieved legal incorporation, and received a large area of land donated by an Egyptian Bahá’í, and by the late 1930’s the Egyptian Bahá’í community was administering its own affairs under Bahá’í law.

In 1940 the National Spiritual Assembly purchased land in Cairo and established a fund for the construction of a National Ḥaẓíratu’l-Quds and around the same time secured permission to establish Bahá’í cemeteries in Cairo, Alexandria, and Port Said after a fatwa was issued by the countries Islamic clergy forbidding Bahá’ís from being buried in Muslim cemeteries. As of 1944 the Egyptian Bahá’í community had functioning Local Spiritual Assemblies in Alexandria, Isma‘ilíyyih, and Port Said.

In 1944 construction of the National Ḥaẓíratu’l-Quds was completed and the community commemorated the Centenary of the Faith, and in 1945 Shoghi Effendi praised these achievements but also directed the Bahá’ís of Egypt to undertake greater efforts to teach and expand the Bahá’í Faith particularly by pioneering to new areas. The community pursued teaching and by 1947 had established new Assemblies in Tanta and Suez.

The National Spiritual Assembly officially adopted a formal Five Year Plan in 1948 to organize its teaching efforts and specific goals it set to achieve by 1953 including having nine Local Spiritual Assemblies, establishing a Bahá’í school and magazine, and expanding the Faith internationally by supporting the Bahá’ís of Ethiopia and sending pioneers to Tunisia, Algeria, and Libya. The Faith experienced persecution early in the plan with local incidents, including a Bahá’í youth meeting being violently attacked in Port Said, and national incidents which included the government banning the importation of Bahá’í literature and confiscating the Bahá’í news bulletin after it was established. Despite this teaching efforts found success with Local Spiritual Assemblies being established in Sohag in 1950, Mehalla el Kobra in 1951, and Mansoura in 1952.

In 1951 the Bahá’í National Youth Committee of Egypt organized celebrations of international youth day across the country, and women were elected to Local Spiritual Assemblies across the country for the first time. As of the end of the Five Year Plan in 1953 the Faith had opened six provinces across the country to the Faith and purchased land for a Bahá’í summer school.

Attendees at Bahá’í Winter School, Cairo, 1959.

In 1953 Shoghi Effendi launched the Ten Year Crusade which aimed to coordinate the Bahá’í community to establish itself internationally and the Bahá’ís of Egypt were given the responsibility of opening several African nations and territories to the Faith. Several Egyptian Bahá’ís pioneered to virgin territories with the National Spiritual Assembly coordinating pioneers in Northern Africa.

Due to the rapid expansion of the Faith in Northern Africa the National Spiritual Assembly of Egypt and Sudan was reconstituted as the National Spiritual Assembly of North East Africa in 1956 assuming responsibility for the entire region. The seat of the new body was in Cairo, and it was legally incorporated with the Egyptian government in 1957.

Persecution

In 1960 the government of the United Arab Republic issued a Decree officially banning all Bahá'í activity in the country and all Assemblies were disbanded with the National Spiritual Assembly of North East Africa relocating to Ethiopia. The religion was criticized and denigrated in the media, and in 1965 a number of Bahá’ís were arrested with Auxiliary Board member Muhammad Mustafa attempting to take full responsibility for the charges laid to secure the release of the others. The group was eventually released on bail however in June 1967 they were rearrested and a larger number of Bahá’ís were also arrested and they were held in a concentration camp for six months.

In 1971 the Bahá'ís of Egypt submitted a petition to the Supreme Constitutional Court of Egypt appealing for the Decree to be repealed and a verdict was continually postponed, until 1975 when the Court ruled it was constitutional and dismissed the appeal. The same year a Bahá'í was pressured to declare his religion as Muslim on his government identification card although a few days after refusing he was permitted to declare his religion as Bahá'í. In 1972 ninety-three Bahá'ís across the country were arrested and charged with treason and espionage but were released after forty days.

During the 1980’s the Bahá’í International Community began to make attempts to secure the protection of the civil rights of Bahá'í’s in Egypt, and the body was able to secure meetings with Egyptian ambassadors, however these meetings proved unproductive and National Spiritual Assemblies were encouraged to enlist the diplomatic support of their countries governments. In 1985 forty-one Egyptian Bahá'ís were arrested throughout the country.

As of the year 2000 the Bahá'ís of Egypt were under constant police surveillance and experienced systematic intimidation and arbitrary arrest from the police. The community also remained forbidden to gather for any purpose and unable to legally marry unless they declared themselves to be a member of another religion. That year the Bahá’í International Community presented a statement on the situation of the Bahá’ís in Egypt at a meeting of the United Nations Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights estimating that the Bahá’í community had been reduced to a few hundred members as a result of oppression since 1960.

In the 2000’s the Egyptian government introduced an identification card system which required that all citizens have a government issued identification card. The system did not recognize religious minorities and in 2006 the Supreme Administrative Court of Egypt ruled that Bahá'ís must lie and state they are the member of an officially recognized religion on their government documentation or be denied a card, with deprival of an identification card rendering Bahá'ís unable to access education, financial services, and medical care. The ruling was protested by the Bahá'í International Community and in 2009 a new ruling was issued allowing for Bahá'ís to leave the religion section blank.

Recent Years

Restrictions on the Faith had relaxed somewhat by 2011 and that year the Egyptian Bahá'í community issued an open letter calling for the initiation of a far reaching consultative process to determine the evolution of the country going forward.

As of 2022 the National Spiritual Assembly of Egypt had been re-established and that year Elsaha, an Egyptian online news service, published a short documentary film narrated by a member of the National Assembly which covered the history of the Bahá'í community of Egypt and its aims. As of 2022 a regional office of the Bahá’í International Community had been established in Cairo. In December 2024 Counsellor Omid Seioshanseian was arrested while in Egypt and detained for thirteen hours at Cairo International Airport during which he was physically mistreated, interrogated, and threatened, and later forced to record a denial that he was mistreated while under duress.