Conventional scholarship views Baha⊃ism and its precursor, Babism, as intrinsically rooted in traditional Shi⊂ism—in both Shi⊂ism's central doctrines of messianism, millennarianism, and imamism, and its less important features of Neoplatonism, numerology, esoteric knowledge, ecstatic worship, and obedience to religious hierarchy. In short, Babism and Baha⊃ism have been treated as historic relics from a traditional worldview rather than birth pangs of the modern age.