| The period of the Bahá'í dispensation beginning with the Declaration
of the Báb on 23 May 1844, and ending with the appearance of a new Manifestation
of God at some date in the future. The Bahá'í Era is promised by Bahá'u'lláh to last no less than a thousand years. The opening
of the Bahá'í Era marks the end of the Prophetic Era (Adamic Cycle)
and the beginning of the Era of Fulfillment or Bahá'í Cycle. |
| Shoghi Effendi has identified three phases or 'Ages' of the Bahá'í
Era. These are the Apostolic, Heroic or Primitive Age (1-77 BE / AD 1844—1921),
which began with the Declaration of the Báb and included three epochs comprising
the Bábí dispensation and the ministries of Bahá'u'lláh and 'Abdu'l-Bahá; the Transitional, Formative or Iron Age (77 BE— / AD
1921—), which began with the passing of 'Abdu'l-Bahá and includes
the time in which we live now; and the Golden Age, which shall see the achievement
of world civilization and the Most Great Peace. |
| [BD 35-36] |
 |
| Began May 22, 1844, at 2 hours and 11 minutes after sunset in S̲h̲íráz, Persia. The first century of this Era comprises the "Heroic, the Primitive, the
Apostolic Age...and also the initial stages of the Formative, the Transitional, the
Iron Age" ushered in by 'Abdu'l-Bahá's Will and Testament. (GPB xi, xiii). The Bahá'í Revelation is "the consummation of all the Dispensations within the Adamic Cycle,
inaugurating an era of at least a thousand year's duration, and a cycle destined to
last no less than five thousand centuries[500,000 years] ...." (GPB 100). |
| [BG 11] |
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