The Baháʼí Faith in Spain begins with coverage of events in the history of the Bábí religion in the 1850s. The first mention of Spain in Baháʼí literature was ʻAbdu'l-Bahá mentioning it as a place to take the religion to in 1916. The first Baháʼí to visit Spain was in 1930 and the first pioneer to stay was Virginia Orbison in January 1947. Following some conversions to the religion the first Baháʼí Local Spiritual Assembly of Madrid was elected in 1948. As of 1959 there were 28 Baháʼís registered in Spain. Following the spread of the religion the first National Spiritual Assembly was elected in 1962. Following the election the breadth of initiatives of the community increased privately until 1968 when the national assembly was able to register as a Non-Catholic Religious Association in the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Information and Tourism allowing public religious events and publication and importation of religious materials. Following this the diversity of initiatives of the community significantly expanded. Baháʼís began operating a permanent Baháʼí school and in 1970 the first Spanish Roma joined the religion. In 1981 the Baháʼís held a separate school in the north central region of Spain to which over 100 people form 26 communities attended and the Spiritual Assembly of Mallorca held several month long classes (mostly for non-Baháʼís) in computer usage in 1985. Fifty years after the first local assembly there were 100 assemblies. The Association of Religion Data Archives (relying on World Christian Encyclopedia) estimated some 13300 Baháʼís in 2005. In 2008 the Universal House of Justice picked the Spanish community to host a regional conference for the Iberian peninsula and beyond.
Early phase There were more than 160 references to the Bábí and Baháʼí religions in the Spanish daily press, books, periodicals and manuscripts from the founding of the religions in 1844 to 1947. The earliest press articles found were published in 1850 and announce the news of the Zanjan upheaval (Madrid October 24) and the Execution of the Báb (Barcelona and Madrid on different days of November). Most of the books found are translations of foreign authors or reference works like dictionaries, encyclopedias or manuals but there are some contributions made by Spanish authors. See also first contact between the Netherlands and the Bábí and Baháʼí faiths.
ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's Tablets of the Divine Plan In the history of the Baháʼí Faith the first mentions of Spain start in the twentieth century. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, the son of the founder of the religion, wrote a series of letters, or tablets, to the followers of the religion in the United States in 1916–1917; these letters were compiled together in the book titled Tablets of the Divine Plan. The seventh of the tablets was the first to mention several countries in Europe including beyond where ʻAbdu'l-Bahá had visited in 1911–12. Written on April 11, 1916, it was delayed in being presented in the United States until 1919 — after the end of World War I and the Spanish flu. The seventh tablet was translated and presented by Mirza Ahmad Sohrab on April 4, 1919, and published in Star of the West magazine on December 12, 1919.
"In brief, this world-consuming war has set such a conflagration to the hearts that no word can describe it. In all the countries of the world the longing for universal peace is taking possession of the consciousness of men. There is not a soul who does not yearn for concord and peace. A most wonderful state of receptivity is being realized.… Therefore, O ye believers of God! Show ye an effort and after this war spread ye the synopsis of the divine teachings in the British Isles, France, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Russia, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Holland, Portugal, Rumania, Serbia, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Greece, Andorra, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, San Marino, Balearic Isles, Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, Crete, Malta, Iceland, Faroe Islands, Shetland Islands, Hebrides and Orkney Islands."
Establishment of the community Leonora Armstrong was an American pioneer living in Brazil when she saw to a translation into Spanish. She decided to go to Madrid to study the Spanish language because Shoghi Effendi, then head of the religion, wanted Spanish literature and she wanted to become proficient in the language. In July 1930 she boarded a French ship which first took her to several ports of call in West Africa and then to Barcelona. From Barcelona she proceeded to Madrid where she intended to take university courses. However she soon fell seriously ill with Scarlet fever for a time and was unable to take courses at a university of Madrid. When she recovered she went on Baháʼí pilgrimage and afterwards focused her efforts in Latin and South America.
In September 1942 Baháʼí Virginia Orbison pioneered for the first time when she arrived in Santiago, Chile, from the United States to carry on the work begun by Marcia Atwater. See Baháʼí Faith in Chile. After a few years she returned to the US briefly before moving south again -this time to Brazil where she met Leonora Armstrong and reviewed the translation Armstrong had contracted. Starting in 1946, following World War II, Shoghi Effendi drew up plans for the American (US and Canada) Baháʼí community to send pioneers to Europe including Spain; the Baháʼís set up a European Teaching Committee chaired by Edna True. Orbison was the first pioneer under the European Committee to reach Spain in January 1947. The second pioneer to Spain was Eduardo Gonzales in June 1947 and stayed until March 1948. Orbison describes conditions early on - "You had to know someone well before you'd dare mention the Faith." Nevertheless, a young bank employee had carried on correspondence about Esperanto with a friend of Orbison's in the United States and they were able to meet and discuss the religion. Orbison mentioned that a universal auxiliary language was a Baháʼí teaching. He and a friend returned the next day and both soon joined the religion. Other early contacts were afraid to be associated with the religion. By June 1947 there is mention of the first two converts. In 1948 the first Baháʼí Local Spiritual Assembly of Madrid was formed. Dorothy Beecher Baker, a prominent Baháʼí and member of the committee, visited the Baháʼís in Spain among other European countries in 1948 and again in 1951 when she was appointed as a Hand of the Cause. By June 1949 there were two assemblies in Spain when Orbison, Marion Little, and a Spaniard Baháʼí traveled to Barcelona to meet Baháʼís there. By April 1950 Else Horneman had joined Orbison in Spain.
Growth
Towards a national organization
In September 1951 the first Iberian conference took place with nine native Baháʼís and other pioneers who had attended the Fourth European Teaching Conference – recommendations from the consultation included exchanging updated information and further coordination between the communities, and to send contributions for the final work on the Shrine of the Báb. In 1953 a large meeting was held by the Spaniards in Barcelona which Orbison attended. According to Orbison's recollection many years later the next morning the police investigated the meeting and the women staying in the apartment were arrested on investigation that they were communists. All the Baháʼís of Barcelona were then gathered and questioned. The fact of converting one communist to a religion believing in God, and affirmations of Baháʼí teachings of obedience to government, may have played a role in relaxing the fears of the police. Regardless all were released. In October 1953 Americans pioneers Gertrude Eisenberg and Tenerife True pioneered to the Canary Islands and in June 1954 a young Persian, Shoghi Riaz Rouhani, also moved there.
In 1955 the first native Canarians joined the religion and in April the first assemblies of the Canaries were elected simultaneously in the cities of Santa Cruz de Tenerife and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. By 1955 there was an assembly in Murcia and Alicante in 1956.
By April 1955 the first Baháʼí Local Spiritual Assembly of Ceuta was elected.
A regional national assembly was elected for the Iberian peninsula from 1957 to 1962. The 1957 convention was witnessed by Charles Wolcott as a representative of Shoghi Effendi.
Born, raised, and married in Iran, Rúhu'lláh Furúghí moved to Spain in October 1958 with his wife and five children (the youngest, one year of age, the eldest fifteen). They had no knowledge of the language nor of the circumstances in their chosen goal. After spending nine months in Barcelona he moved with his family to Mallorca to assist with the formation of its first local assembly. Three years later the family pioneered once more, this time to Granada where there had been no Baháʼís.
Guy Murchie is Baháʼí and former staff writer for the Chicago Sunday Tribune and author of several books. For a time around 1958 he was living in Málaga. As of 1959 there were 28 Baháʼís registered in Spain. In May 1959 the first Baháʼí marriage was registered with the government as a civil ceremony.
The National Assembly of the Baháʼís of Spain was first elected in 1962 with attendance by Hand of the Cause Paul Haney. Its first members were: Antonio Jimenez, Luis Ortuno, Francisco Salas, Jose Lopez Monge, Ruhollah Mehrabhkani, Carlos Chias, Ramon Escartin, Isidro Torrella, and Charles Ioas.
In 1963 statistics on the community counted as follows:
Assemblies Alicante Barcelona Ceuta Cartagena L'Hospitalet de Llobregat Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Madrid Montgat Murcia Sabadell Santa Cruz de Tenerife Terrassa ValenciaSmaller Groups of Baháʼís Abanilla Badalona Cheste Granada Barberà del Vallès Teresa de CofrentesIsolated Baháʼís Béjar Cornellà de Llobregat Ferrol Jaén Linares Málaga Sant Joan Despí Vilanova i la Geltrú
Since forming a national community