The áʼíBaháʼí Faith in Egypt has existed for over 150 years. The first followers of the Baháʼí Faith arrived in Egypt in 1863. Baháʼu'lláh, founder of the religion, was himself briefly in Egypt in 1868 when on his way to imprisonment in ʻAkká. The first Egyptians were converts by 1896. Despite forming an early Baháʼí Local Spiritual Assembly and forming a National Assembly, in 1960 following a regime change the Baháʼís lost all rights as an organised religious community by Decree 263 at the decree of then-President Gamal Abdel Nasser. However, in 1963, there were still seven organized communities in Egypt. More recently the roughly 2000 or 7000 by ARDA Baháʼís of Egypt have been embroiled in the Egyptian identification card controversy from 2006 through 2009. There have been homes burned down and families driven out of towns.
According to the statement of the director of the office of External Affairs of the NSA of the Baháʼís of the United States, the Baháʼí community of Egypt has diminished by 90 percent to 500 people.
Early history
One of the early Baháʼí pioneers to come to Egypt in 1867 was Mirza Heyder Ali during the reign of Ismaʻil Pasha; Ali was arrested and banished to Sudan for 12 years soon after his entrance into Egypt. Other early Baháʼís in Egypt were Haji Báqir-i-Káshání and Siyyid Husayin-i-Káshání who took up residence in Egypt during the period Baháʼu'lláh was in Adrianople. Another early Baháʼí was Hag Hassan Khurásáni who held weekly meetings in his home. Baháʼu'lláh and his family left Adrianople on 12 August 1868 and after a journey by land and sea through Gallipoli and Egypt arrived in ʻAkká on 31 August, and confined in the barracks in the citadel in the city. From then on many well known Baháʼís spent time in Egypt or joined the religion there. Nabíl-i-Aʻzam made several journeys on behalf of Baháʼu'lláh and was imprisoned in Egypt in 1868. Robert Felkin was in Egypt circa 1880s and published a number of books -later he converted to the religion. In 1892 two converts in Egypt embarked to the West intending to spread the religion and were the first Baháʼís to enter the United States where the first converts followed in 1894.
Mírzá Abu'l-Faḍl-i-Gulpáygání
Mírzá Abu'l-Faḍl-i-Gulpáygání, often called Mírzá Abu'l-Faḍl, was one of the prominent Baháʼís to pioneer to Egypt and made some of the first big changes to the community. Abu'l-Faḍl first came to Cairo in 1894 where he settled for several years. He worked at Al-Azhar University and was successful in converting more than fourteen and up to thirty of the teachers and students including the first native Egyptians to convert to the religion. Abu'l-Faḍl also became friends with writers and magazine publishers, and many articles that he authored appeared in the Egyptian press. In 1896, when Nasiru'd-Din Shah was assassinated in Iran, Zaʻimu'd-Dawlih used the rumour that the assassination had been performed by Baháʼís to cause a massacre of the Baháʼís in Egypt. Abu'l-Faḍl stood up in defence for the Baháʼís and stated that he himself was a Baháʼí and his allegiance became public. Two publications came out during this time from Mírzá Abu'l-Faḍl:
Fara'id (The Peerless Gems): A book written in 1898 in reply to an attack on the Kitáb-i-Íqán and published in Cairo. Generally considered Mírzá Abu'l-Faḍl's greatest work. Al-Duraru'l-Bahiyyih (The Shining Pearls): Published in 1900, it is a collection of essays on the history of the Baháʼí Faith. Since it was wrriten in Arabic, it was responsible for making the Baháʼís known in Egypt.
Following their publication al-Azhar University decreed that he was an infidel. From 1901 to 1904 at the request of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá he traveled and gave talks among the new Baháʼí community in the United States. Meanwhile, the Egyptian community continued to publish materials and from 1900 to 1910 several articles and books including official Baháʼí literature were published in Cairo. Abu'l-Faḍl died in 1914 is buried in the cemetery called Al-Rawda Al-Abadeyya, the Eternal Garden.
ʻAbdu'l-Bahá
Circa 1887 ʻAbdu'l-Bahá met the Egyptian reformer Muhammad Abduh while both were in Lebanon wherein Abduh had a clearly positive impression of him.