Loom of Reality and Partial Inventory of the Works of the Central Figures of the Bahá'í Faith

1. Overview of both projects

This page describes and links to two separate, distinct projects.

1. "Loom of Reality" (2013-2025) is a personal project that represents one attempt to organize some of the subject matter of the Bahá'í Writings in five main sections and approximately 1700 subheadings. These conceptual building blocks, which are interconnected and overlapping, are in most cases hyperlinked to thematic compilations of quotations from the Bahá’í Writings and beyond. The outline is at bahai-library.com/phelps_loom_reality_topics. See the complete database at loom.loomofreality.org, and the front page (with other links) at blog.loomofreality.org.

2. "Partial Inventory" (2020-2025) is a catalog of every known writing or recorded utterance of the Báb, Bahá'u'lláh, and `Abdu'l-Bahá. See the Inventory database at bahai-library.com/inventory. The Bibliography and Key to Source Codes is excerpted here. The PDFs are from blog.loomofreality.org/?page_id=252. See also Phelps' presentations below.

2. Loom of Reality - Thematic topic index to quotations

While "Loom of Reality" and "Partial Inventory" are completely separate projects, they are correlated by 1700+ "topics" or "subjects" (here the terms are used interchangeably). This site offers two versions of the interlinked outline. Both versions have identical content and links, but one highlights the off-site Topics of quotations — see bahai-library.com/phelps_loom_reality_topics — and the other highlights the on-site Subjects of the Inventory — see bahai-library.com/inventory/subjects/.

3. Partial Inventory, PDFs
(Version 5.0, May 2025)

Vol. 1, click to download PDF: phelps_loom_reality_2025_vol-1.pdf [83 MB]

Vol. 2 (v. 4 2024), click to download PDF: phelps_loom_reality_2024_2-of-2.pdf [10 MB]

As well as the downloadable PDF above, the complete database can also be browsed online at loom.loomofreality.org.

The primary goals of this catalog are to compile all publicly available sources of the works of the Central Figures of the Bahá’í Faith both in the original languages and in English translation, and where possible to facilitate online access to these sources via hyperlinks to digitized page images or typed texts. The intended audience is primarily an academic one with exposure to source criticism: As the goal is maximal inclusion, works of unknown authentication status, oral statements and provisional translations are all included; and as a consequence this resource may not be suitable for the general Bahá’í reader or for those seeking an introduction to the Bahá’í teachings. The Bahá’í Reference Library website at bahai.org/library is the sole official online repository of fully authenticated Bahá’í scriptures and their translations.

4. Partial Inventory, Presentation, 2020

See also this presentation "Approaching the Writings of Baha'u'llah,
in Powerpoint phelps_approaching_writings_bahaullah.pptx [2MB] and PDF phelps_approaching_writings_bahaullah.pdf [2MB].

5. Partial Inventory, Presentation, 2022

Cataloguing and subject indexing at loomofreality.org
(from bahai-library.com/hassall_reference_desk)

In this session given on the weekend of 9/10 April 2022 Steven Phelps speaks about projects in cataloguing and subject indexing, based on his blog blog.loomofreality.org and website loom.loomofreality.org. Online at youtube.com/watch?v=53ZvwpLnMv8.

See presentation notes in PDF or Powerpoint.

Sites referenced: loom.loomofreality.org, blog.loomofreality.org, wilmetteinstitute.org/overview-of-the-writings-of-the-bab, and wilmetteinstitute.org/overview-of-the-writings-of-bahaullah.

6. Partial Inventory, Presentation, 2025

Update on the Partial Inventory: Charting the coastline, and initial soundings