a religious movement that is an offshoot of Shia Islam and was a precursor of Baha'ism, founded in Persia in 1844 by Mirza Ali Muhammad, also known as the Bab
Babi noun
[Persian from Arabic bāb gateway, intermediary; Mirza Ali Muhammad, d. 1850, claimed to be the intermediary of the hidden twelfth imam of Shia Islam]