The
Hasht-Bihisht (lit. Eight Paradises) commonly refers to a
Azali apologetic text which is particularly critical of the
Bahá'í Faith - a religion that believed the
Bábí messianic figure of
He whom God shall make manifest has already appeared in
Bahá'u'lláh. It is well cited by many
polemic texts against the Bahá'í faith.
Two sons-in-law of Mirza Yahya Azal, namely, Shaykh Ahmad Ruhi and Mirza Aqa Khan Kirmani, are reputed to be the authors, and it was written before 1890 
There is another famous
Hasht Bihisht written by
Amir Khusro around 1302 AD. It is based upon an earlier epic poem, the
Shahnameh written by
Firdausi around 1010 AD and a later adaptation, the
Haft Paykar by
Nizami, written around 1197 AD. The
Shahnameh is a very long work spanning many ages of Persian history.
Khusro's
Hasht Bihisht retells just a small portion of the life of
Bahram V Gur and embellishes the original historical but glorified tales with other non-historical elements. Most famously,
Khusro appears to be the
first writer to have added
The Three Princes of Serendip as characters and the story of the alleged camel theft and recovery as a plot element to the more traditional Bahram Gur stories.
In architecture the Hasht Bihist refers to a specific type of floorplan common in Indian Mughal architecture whereby the plan is divided into 8 chambers surrounding a central room.