Wouldn't the Minbari recognize Babylon-4 as it was built?

Question

Sheridan and Delenn sent Babylon-4 back in time 1000 years to serve as a battle station in the earlier war against the Shadows.

The Minbari found Babylon-4 with a Minbari and two Vorlons aboard it. It becomes such an important base of operations that even the Shadows recognize it 1000 years later and try to destroy it. The Minbari man aboard it became their greatest historical leader. The station must have been an important historical place to them.

It should be as important and recognizable to the Minbari as important places are to our past. (e.g. - People today recognize important places like the Great Wall of China, the Taj Mahal, the Tower of London, the Eiffel Tower, and the Great Pyramids of Egypt.)

Given that the Minbari had interstellar spaceflight abilities long ago, they would almost certainly have pictures of B-4.

Did the Minbari recognize B-4 as it was being built? (Hey, those humans are making a copy of our sacred battle station!)

I am looking for answers that have citations from novels, TV series, movies, or interviews with JMS.

Answer 1

By way of Word of God, JMS has addressed this:

How did the Shadows know about Babylon 4?

Well, if the Minbari had records of B4's visual look, given that the Shadows are advanced, would they not also have the potential to recognize it for what it was once it was nearing completion from their own records?

Did the Minbari agree to help fund B5 because they knew about B4?

No, because if you remember, even Delenn didn't know where B4 came from until she came to B5, well after completion.

Why don't the Minbari have many records of the last war?

It was also a very devastating war, and one of their mistakes was that there were those who were entrusted to keep the past, sort of a more advanced version of storytellers, who put all their data in one basket, as it were...very possessive and jurisdictional. When they and that center of data were taken out, a lot was lost. One drawback of a very rigid and structued society.

But if that happened early in the war, wouldn't they have records from after that point?

Certainly it would've occured in the last days of the war.

Answer 2

During WWE part 1, when Sheridan, Sinclair, Marcus, and Ivanova meet Delenn in the White Star's "conference room", Delenn specifically states that that the record [of B4] has never been shown to anyone outside the Grey Council. Because of that, general knowledge of B4 by the Minbari would be non-existent, preventing them from putting two and two together.

Additionally, B4 was pulled through time prior to it being operational: only Earthforth staff and construction crew were aware of the design specs. It stands to reason that the Minbari were not aware of what Babylon 4 looked like during 2254.

Also, even though the Minbari were sponsors of the Babylon Project, it doesn't mean that they were consulted on the schematics, layout, look, etc. All throughout season 1 and season 2, it was mentioned numerous times that Earth was burdened with the cost of developing, creating, building, and actualizing the project. All the Babylon stations had a specific Earthforce design using Earthforce technology: the Minbari would have only known [and honestly, only one of the Nine] had B4 opened for business instead of B5.