The first Kull-i-Shay' of the Bah�'� Era
The B�b has, in His writings revealed in Arabic, divided the years following the date of His Revelation, into cycles of nineteen years each. Each cycle of nineteen years is called V�hid. Nineteen cycles constitute a period called Kull-i-Shay. The numerical value of the word "V�hid" is nineteen. It signifies unity, and is symbolic of the unity of God. The numerical value of the "Kull-i-Shay" is 361, and literally means "all things."
This series of reflecting mirrors parallels and is in some ways closely linked to the better-known hierarchical system of Babism composed of "letters" (huruf), "unities" (wahid), and "all things" (kullu shay'). Together with the B�b himself, the eighteen "Letters of the Living" formed the "first unity" (al-wah�d al-awwal) of the Bay�n. It seems to have been the B�b's intention to establish a complete and identifiable hierarchy based on the multiplication of "unities" (w�hid), beginning with the Letters of the Living. According to Nabil, the B�b instructed his first disciples to record the names of those whom they converted, lists of which were to be forwarded to him via his uncle in Shiraz. These lists were to be classified by the B�b into "eighteen sets of nineteen names each," each set constituting a single "unity" and the total, together with the first "unity" coming to 361, the number of
"all things" (i.e., the numerical equivalent of the phrase kullu shay').
warmest regards
Ehsan Bayat
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