Bahá'í Faith in France

The Bahá'í Faith in France started after French citizens observed and studied the religion in its native Persia in the 19th century. Following the introduction of followers of the religion shortly before 1900, the community grew and was assisted by `Abdu'l-Bahá's trip to France in 1911 and 1912. After growth and tribulation, the community established its National Assembly in 1958. The community has been reviewed a number of times by researchers. According to the 2005 Association of Religion Data Archives data there are close to some 4,400 Bahá'ís in France and the French government is among those who have been alarmed at the treatment of Bahá'ís in modern Iran.

A French agent working in Persia reported briefly on the Bábís, a predecessor religion to the Bahá'í Faith, in the 1840s after it originated in 1844.

Though in no way espousing his beliefs, Bahá'ís know Arthur de Gobineau as the person who obtained the only complete manuscript of the early history of the Bábí religious movement of Persia, written by Haji Mírzá Jân of Kashan, who was put to death by the Persian authorities about 1852. The manuscript now is in the Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris. He is also known to students of the Bábí Faith for having written the first and most influential account of the movement, displaying a fairly accurate knowledge of its history in Religions et philosophies dans l'Asie centrale. An addendum to that work is a bad translation of the Báb's Bayan al-'Arabi, the first Bábí text to be translated into a European language.

Bahá'u'lláh, founder of the Bahá'í Faith in the 19th century, addressed a number of items to French officials or in circumstances related to France from circa the 1870s. There were two Tablets to Emperor Napoleon III incorporated into major works of the literature of the Bahá'í Faith: the Súriy-i-Mulúk and the Kitáb-i-Aqdas. In the first it said the sincerity of the Emperor's claims on behalf of the oppressed and the helpless were tested. In the second he prophesies that, failing that sincerity, his kingdom would be "thrown into confusion", the "empire shall pass" from him and the people experience great "commotions". Bahá'u'lláh also criticizes the French Ambassador in Constantinople for having conspired with the Persian Ambassador saying he has neglected the exhortations of Jesus Christ as recorded in the Gospels and advises him, and those like him, to be just and not to follow the promptings of the evil within their own selves. Another tablet – the Tablet of Fu'ad – was written soon after the death of Fu'ád Páshá in Nice. The Pasha was the foreign minister of the Sultan and a faithful accomplice of the Prime Minister in bringing about the exile of Bahá'ú'lláh to 'Akka then in Palestine.

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