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In those days belief in the imminent appearance of a Divine Messenger was especially prevalent among a sect known as the Shaykhis, and it was to a distinguished divine belonging to this sect, called Mulla Husayn Bushru'i, that the Bab first announced His mission. The exact date of this announcement is given in the Bayan.. as two hours and eleven minutes after sunset on the eve preceding the fifth day of the month of Jamadiyu'l-Avval 1260 A.H. 'Abdul-Baha was born in the course of the same night, but the exact hour of His birth has not been ascertained.. Before long the majority of the Shaykhis accepted the Bab.. (14:2) The first eighteen disciples of the Bab (with Himself as the nineteenth) became known as "letters of the living." These disciples He sent to different parts of Persia and Turkistan to spread the news of His advent. Meantime He Himself set out on a pilgrimage to Mecca, where He arrived in December 1844, and there openly declared His mission.
(14:3)
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