First fervor

Vahid, the great Shi’a cleric who had become a follower of the Bab, ascended the pulpit of the central mosque of the small town of Nayriz in the spring of 1850.

A great crowd gathered and was dumbfounded to hear that there was a new revelation from God and that the Bab was its Messenger. A great excitement spread. Each day that Vahid spoke in the mosque, the audiences grew larger.

The Great Mosque at Nayriz c. Selcuklu Belediyesi

The local governor feared this fervor and how it might affect his position. He recruited local tribesmen to begin attacking the new Babis in town. The first to be harmed was Mulla Abdul-Husayn Nayrizi, a man of great piety who had walked forty miles to meet Vahid and become a believer straightaway after hearing his message. He would be the first in a long line of Babi and Baha’i descendants.

Vahid decided to set up defense in the old unused fort outside of town. Days of sorties by Babis and counter-fire by the soldiers followed. The Babis were filled with a great sense of spiritual destiny.

Ft. Khajih outside of Nayriz

The siege settled into a stalemate which was ended only by the governor’s trickery. Vahid walked out and was taken prisoner. Mulla Abdu’l Husayn’s son was among those killed. Rather than grieve, though, he rejoiced because his beloved son was the greatest sacrifice he could give to the promised one of the age.

Vahid’s body was dragged through the streets and desecrated by mobs. His remains were surreptitiously gathered up and buried secretly.

The prisoners were marched to Shiraz in a gruesome procession that included the severed heads of Babis. The Babi families were broken up and dispersed.

The governor of Nayriz profited handsomely from the resulting pillage.

Promised One I am the Mystic Fane which the Hand of Omnipotence hath reared. I am the Lamp which the Finger of God hath lit within its niche and caused to sh...

Jewish identities in Iran

Hakim Masih, the doctor of the Shah of Iran, vividly remembers being in a gathering of Muslim clerics in Baghdad when they were debating a woman who spoke from behind  a curtainHer logical and powerfully expressed arguments convinced that after hearing her on several more occasions, he became a believer in her.

The woman was Tahirih. He came to believe she was the Promised One.

Later, when he was back in Tihran, he treated a prisoner who was a Babi and a survivor of Fort Tabarsi who taught him about Tahirih and the Bab. Masih now understood the Station of the Baba and through Masih’s subsequent teaching, many Jews became Babis.

Tahirih’s stay in Hamadan touched off conversions to the new faith in the important Jewish community there. By the turn of the century, Hamadan had the largest group of Baha’is of Jewish background in Persia. In April, 1847, Mulla Lazar, son of the leading rabbi of Hamadan, hosted Tahirih in his home. His activities drew the anger of other Jewish elders who lodged complaints about him to the King. Later, his writings were found to reflect Babi/Baha’i ideas though he never publicly identified himself as a Babi.

(Mehrdad Amanat, Jewish Identities in Iran: Resistance and Conversion to Islam and the Baha’i Faith (I.B. Taurus: NY, NY 2011), 105.)

The Perfect Man

Shaykh Alusi of Baghdad interviewed Tahirih to determine whether shew as a heretic and came to admire her. He interpreted her teaching to mean that the Bab was similar to the figure of the ‘Perfect Man’ taught by Islamic mystics.

The Divine Will must make itself known through some expression—an individual who will be the educator and guide of humankind. The Qur’an states: “He directeth the ordinance from the heaven un to the earth; then it ascendeth unto Him in a Day, whereof the measure is a thousand years of that ye reckon” [32:4].

Muslim mystics believed that it was possible for a person to achieve these higher states of the knowledge of God and to guide others. Higher states of spiritual awareness could be pursued through movement, art, and music.

Varun Soni, dean of Religious Life at the University of Southern California, shares the basics of Sufism, the mystical branch of Islam that seeks to connect ...

As the cleric seemed open to some form of dialogue, a meeting between Sunni clergy and Tahirih was convened in his home. In later years, the Bab wrote to him and called on him to recognize his station which was the Station of Divine Manifestation---a new Muhammad.

“What is implied by the Divine Manifestations in the Bahá'í Faith is a special category of created Beings who are sent down to humanity with a new Revelation from God at more or less definite intervals. These are the Great Prophet-Founders of' the Religions. In contrast to this the Sufi concept reflects the predominant Moslem view that Prophethood was terminated in the Prophet Muhammad, consequently there can be no prophet after Him. From this point in history the "Muhammadan Essence" is realized in the "saints," specially chosen by God, who are called "Wali." The latter act on behalf and within the teaching of the Prophet Muhammad.” (Youli A. Ioannesyan)

The first martyr

Tahirih arrived in Baghdad in early 1847 and immediately resumed her public teaching. She used her translations of the Bab’s Writings such as the Qayyumu’l Asma, the first book that He had revealed.

“The Qayyumu’l-Asmá is a new Qur‘án which is centered on the drama of Joseph...emphasizes the peaceful nature of Joseph’s dispensation.” (Dr. Todd Lawson)

The chief judge of Baghdad summoned Tahirih to an interview. He found her to be innocent of heresy but to be sure, he sent her to the home of Shaykh Alusi, a cleric who had previously tried another of the Bab’s disciples, Mulla Ali Bastami.

Baghdad Street with Muslims and Jews

Fathers

“I plead with you!” Tahirih wrote imploringly to her father in 1846-7, “This humblest of people is your daughter. You know her, and she has been brought up and educated under your supervision. If she had, or has, a worldly love, that could not have remained a secret to you.”

Tahirih was defending herself against the rumors of her supposed immorality. Her assertiveness in teaching her unorthodox views gave those who opposed her the material they needed to slander her.

“Dear Father! So many times when I visit the holy shrine of the Imam, may peace be upon him, in the flood of my tears I pity you and pray for you that perhaps you may be saved,” but also admonished him that “If you fail to recognize the cause, there will be no benefit for you in all your acts of devotion.”

Vocals: Vedad Theophilus, Guitar: Bob Clifton, Camera: Scott Williams, Audio: Jeff Gray Baha'i Healing Prayer(English) Thy name is my healing, O my God, and ...

Tahirih continued to fearlessly proclaim the promise and the power of the new day of God and concluded this poem by speaking in a divine voice and finishing with a quotation from the Qur’an:

“Hear this! My one and only Cause is true.

The words I speak mean victory for you.

Off with rags of law and pious fashion!

Swim naked in the sea of compassion!

How long will you drift through this world of war,

far from the safety of your native shore?

Sing, Be! Our Cause stands strong, both clear and plain:

“What comes from God returns to God again!”

Slander

Tahirih faced great opposition in Karbila from 1844 to 1847.Nevertheless, she persisted, speaking to large audiences from behind a curtain in Siyyid Kazim’s house. Many fervent followers gathered around her and, in turn, spread her teachings throughout the holy cities of southern Iraq.

Her groups of students, called ‘the Qurratiya’, included both male and female and Persian and Arab. They had to obey purity rules such abstaining from smoking---which was common---or drinking coffee; some even sought her blessing for their foods. One of her students, Shaykh Salih Karimi, an Arab, was the first Babi martyr on Persian soil.

The prominent conservative Shaykhi, Babi, and Muslim clerics continued their attacks on her, so she moved to the nearby town of Kazimayn, where she drew large crowds. Conservative clerics spread slanderous rumors about her. Persia was a deeply conservative society, and so these rumors had their intended effect. The Babis of Kazimayn wrote to the Bab for guidance.

The Bab’s reply unequivocally supported Tahirih’s understanding of His teachings. He approved of her leadership of the Babis in the holy cities of Iraq. She was “a proof of God” and “none of those who are my followers repudiate her.” He referred to her as “the Pure,” and “Siddiqih,” the truthful.

"Let nations hear who’s come to set them free"

In October of 1844, a shop owner tacked up this sign on his store in Philadelphia:

“This shop is closed in honor of the King of kings, who will appear about the 20th of October. Get ready, friends, to crown him Lord of all.This follower of William Miller would be very disappointed: Jesus did not appear on the sky on the day prophecied.

But Miller was right: a new ‘Jesus’—the Bab--had appeared. That October of 1844, the Bab journeyed to Mecca, the spiritual heart of Islam, to proclaim His Advent.

The Bab proclaimed His Station to the faithful in Mecca standing next to the Ka’aba, the holiest shrine in Islam. Quddus, the Letter of the Living who had accompanied Him to Mecca, gave a text revealed by the Bab to the ruler of Mecca who was busy with the management of pilgrims and only later realized  the importance of its contents. Then, they journeyed to the tomb of Muhammad where they prayed intensely to the Prophet of Islam and his saints.

Part 1 of the famous PBS Documentary "Islam: Empire of faith" This part is about the Rasool Muha...

Tahirih seemed to have realized that the Bab was claiming to be the chosen messenger of a new Divine revelation, a new ‘Muhammad’. He was now the source of authority, and his writings supplanted the Qur’an. The instruction and the rule of the clergy were no longer necessary. This breathtaking claim was blasphemy to the Shi’a clerics.

In this poem, she boldly proclaims the Bab’s advent and station and calls for the believers to break from the clergy:

“Lovers! Creation veils his face no more!

Lovers, look! He himself is visible!

See! The face of God glows with glory;

Look, lovers! Bright, pure, blinding, beautiful!

Who made the cosmos turns earth green once more.

Rise! Rise from that dark so miserable!

The day of truth is here! Lies have turned to dust!

Order, justice, law are now possible.

Smashed, the despot’s fist! God’s hand opens:

grace pours down—not sorrow, pain, and trouble

Minds in darkness now burn light with knowledge

Tell the priest. Shut your books! Lock the temple!

Hatred and doubt once poisoned all the world.

The bloodied cup holds milk now—pure, ample!

Let nations hear who’s come to set them free:

Broken the chain, and smashed the manacle!”

"Behold me!"

Tahirih never met the Bab. Reading His commentary of the Surih of Joseph--brought to her by another of the Bab’s Letters of the Living--is what confirmed her faith.

She recognized immediately that this commentary on the story of Joseph contained the words she had heard in her dream. She was now certain she had found the Promised One of the age as foretold by her Shaykhi spiritual teachers.

The Story of Joseph according to the Bible

In this poem, she expresses the deep longing for nearness to God. On another level of meaning, the poem below expresses her belief in the oneness of religion. The unusual form of this poem, a rondo in five stanzas, imitates an earlier poem by Hafez in which a Muslim debates a Christian nun about the Church’s Doctrine of the Trinity.

The Muslim hears the Christians chanting the Islamic profession of faith in God and Muhammad. He decides that this belief in the absolute unity of God—not the mysterious division of God into three—is the true path. Christ and Muhammad’s messages are one:

“…You guard the vault where I am its treasure

You keep the mine where I am its silver

I am the seed, and you are the sower

But whose body is this, if you’re its owner?

What’s this soul? You have filled its place

…Since that day my heart cried out, Behold Me!

and I stepped in that street for all to see,

gadding about, a shameless debauchee,

He was all myself, all myself was he—

His jewel set in my heart’s palace

In the dust of my Ka’aba you now dwell

Your face lights the dark world with its dazzle

The waves of your hair my soul’s manacle

The arch of your eyebrows my heart’s idol

Your locks my cross in sacred space

…Then how much longer must I be restrained,

My feigned indifference to you still maintained?

How long must agitation be contained?

A prudish piety, how long ordained?

My wares banned from the marketplace?

I’ll drop my robe, my prayer mat I’ll discard,

drink till I’m drunk, and none of them regard

My passion will fill their house, roof to yard

Mt. Sinai’s flame grows bright, for I’m its bard

By the tavern gate, there’s my place!

…I am the slave on your roof keeping time,

I am the frightened bird snared by your lime,

the nightingale silent in your night-time,

the axis that stands for your name, Sublime

Not I, not we—That agony’s erased!”

"Please, understand this meaning."

One of the symbolic titles of the Bab was the ‘Primal Point’---the point from which all is created.

St. Augustine once wrote: “All the parts that will eventually become a tree are contained in the seed without division and at the same time. Thus the universe must be conceived”

Abdu'l-Bahá similarly said:

“Like a seed in which a tree is contained in latent state and then becomes a full-grown tree, the growth and development of all beings is gradual. Thus is the divine universal order and the natural system”.

Walter Heath sings about the Bab

Bahá’u’lláh describes the Báb as: “The Point upon which the realities of the Prophets and the Heralds revolve” and “The Primordial Point from which all things created have derived”.

Bahá'u'lláh describes creation from the Point:

"You should know that God -May He be praised and glorified- drew a line, divided it longitudinally in two sections, and made the universe after revolving one upon the other. The line, however, is only formed from the point when it is moved. Please, understand this meaning”

The Point refers to the Manifestation of God. From the Point comes the Letters. The Letters of the Living were the Bab’s Apostles and from them arose the new Faith, the expressed Will of God.

In the Bible, the Will of God is symbolized by a Word through which all things were made. 

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made.”

To delve more deeply into the  metaphysics of the term ‘Point’ read HERE

A new selection of testimonials about the Bab HERE

“Am I not your Lord?”

The leader of the Shaykhis, Siyyid Kazim, passed away in early 1844 before Tahirih arrived back in Karbila. The time of the Promised One had come, but few of his followers went out searching.

One who did was Mulla Ali Qazvini, Tahirih’s brother-in-law. She gave him a letter written by her to to give to the Promised One should he find him:

“Say to Him, from me, the effulgence of Thy face flashed forth, and the rays of Thy visage rose high. Then speak the word, “Am I not your Lord?” and “Thou art, Thou art!” we will all reply.”

This documentary shows how the Baha'i Faith fulfills the expectations of the 19th century Adventist movements of Christianity and Islam. The Bahá'í Faith beg...

One night in the summer of 1844, Tahirih had a dream. She saw a young Siyyid dressed in black with a green turban. His hands raised up in prayer. After she woke, she remembered the words he had spoken stayed with her.

Around the same time, her brother-in-law found the Bab and gave him Tahirih’s letter. The Bab immediately declared her to be one of his Letters of the Living—his chief disciples who would carry his message out to the people and of whom there would be eighteen.  

What confirmed Tahirih’s faith was reading the Bab’s Commentary on the Surih of Joseph revealed the night of His declaration to Mulla Husayn and brought to her by another of the Bab’s Letters of the Living. Tahirih recognized that those were the same words she had heard in her dream.

The Female Presence

In his first revealed work, the Commentary on the Surih of Joseph, the Bab describes God’s Will as the Maid of Heaven—a female figure—coming to Him. She symbolizes his highest spiritual reality as He was the Living Presence of that Divine Will.

In His Writings, the Bab sets forth teachings to improve the status and condition of women in society. He makes divorce more difficult for men by imposing a twelve-month delay, allows women greater social freedom, and orders men to treat women with love and respect—he makes the penalty double for disrespect towards women than for men.

The Bab’s Revelation helped to highlight and improve the status of women. Tahirih, one of his chief apostles, was designated by him as a leader to whom people should turn. She understood and taught that the Bab wax the bringer of a new Revelation which brought opposition and slurs to which the Bab responded by writing that she was Tahirih, “the Pure One”. She unveiled herself at the Conference at Badasht to demonstrate that this was a new age and they were living under a new Law.

During the Babi upheaval at Zanjān, Babi women struggled along with their men. Zaynab, a young Babi girl, dressed as a male and fought with great determination instilling fear in the King’s troops. 

Women also fought stood with their men during the conflict at Nayriz. The women displayed great audacity and courage and “utterly demoralized their opponents and paralyzed their efforts."

Describes the heroism and suffering of Bábí and Bahá'í women in Nayriz in three violent upheavals in 1850, 1853 and 1909.

Seekers

Mulla Husayn found the object of his quest: the Promised One of God, the Renewer of the world. Siyyid Ali Muhammad, the ‘Bab’, meaning the ‘gate’, proclaimed to him:

“O thou who art the first to believe in Me! Verily I say, I am the Báb, the Gate of God, and thou art the Bábu’l-Báb, the gate of that Gate. Eighteen souls must, in the beginning, spontaneously and of their own accord, accept Me, and recognize the truth of My Revelation….”

Over the summer of 1844, these seekers came to recognize the Bab and became His apostles, His ‘Letters of the Living’:

Mírzá Muhammad Hasan Bushrú’í: younger brother of Mullá Husayn; killed at Shaykh Tabarsí.

Mírzá Muhammad Báqir Bushrú’í: nephew of Mullá Husayn; killed at Shaykh Tabarsí.

Mullá ‘Alí Bastamí: the second to recognize the Báb; directed by Him to announce His advent in the Shiite shrine cities of Iraq; arrested, tried in Baghdad, died in an Istanbul prison, becoming the first Bábí martyr.

Mullá Khudá-Bakhsh Qúchání (Mullá ‘Alí Rází): did not actively participate in the Bábí community.

Mullá Hasan Bajistání: active at first, later retired considering himself unworthy of the station of the Letters of the Living.

Siyyid Husayn Yazdí: accompanied the Báb as His secretary during His imprisonment in Mákú and Chihríq; executed during the persecutions in 1852.

Mírzá Muhammad Rawdih-Khán Yazdí (or Dhákir-i-Masá’ib): chose not to reveal his beliefs but continued to teach the Bábí Faith covertly to the end of his life.

Sa’íd Hindí: went to India and taught.

Mullá Mahmúd Khú’í: killed at Shaykh Tabarsí.

Mullá Jalíl Urúmí: taught the Bábí Faith especially in Azerbaijan and Qazvin; killed at Shaykh Tabarsí.

Mullá Ahmad Abdál Marághi’í: killed at Shaykh Tabarsí.

Fort Tabarsi

Mullá Báqir Tabrízí: traveled with Táhirih to Iran; acted as intermediary for the Báb’s correspondence and other items that He wished delivered to Bahá’u’lláh; the last surviving Letter of the Living.

Mullá Yúsuf Ardibílí: killed at Shaykh Tabarsí.

Mírzá Muhammad-‘Alí Qazvíní: brother-in-law of Táhirih; entrusted by her with a sealed letter and a verbal message to be delivered to the Promised One; killed at Shaykh Tabarsí.

Mírzá Hádí Qazvíní: distanced himself from the Bábís; some lists replace him with Mullá Muhammad Miyámayí, who actively propagated the new religion in northeastern Iran.

Táhirih, also known by the titles Qurratu’l-‘Ayn (Solace of the Eyes): a prominent Shaykhí and an accomplished poet; the only woman among the Letters of the Living; executed during the persecutions of 1852.

The Bab’s Letter to Quddus

Quddús (the Most Holy), title given to Mullá Muhammad-‘Alí Bárfurúshí: the last Letter of the Living; accompanied the Báb on His pilgrimage to Mecca, joined the Bábí forces at Shaykh Tabarsí in late 1848; tortured, and then killed in 1849 in Barfurush (Babul), the town of his birth; ranked by Bahá’u’lláh as having been second only to the Báb, and described by Shoghi Effendi as the first in rank among the Letters of the Living.

Purified, ready

Though William Miller felt great disappointment at seeing an empty sky---Jesus had not returned in the way he expected—the vision was realized in the Islamic world.

Siyyid Kazim, the leader of the Shaykhis in Iran, believed that a ‘rightly guided one’ had appeared in the world and was here to renew religion. His allegorical interpretation of the Qur’an told him so.

The time had come for his students to go out and seek the Promised One.

Luke Slott explains the last wish of Siyyid Kazim

After Siyyid Kazim’s passing, his student, Mulla Husayn, secluded himself in the Great Mosque at Kufa, south of Baghdad, one of the oldest mosques in the Islamic world.

Great Mosque at Kufa

He purified himself by praying and fasting for forty days and nights before beginning his quest. He was one of the few Shaykhis who set out as their teacher had counselled.

Mulla Husayn’s prayers led him  to Shiraz, the ancient city of poets and gardens. He arrived at the gate of Shiraz on a hot and sunny afternoon.

The ancient entrance to Shiraz city from the northern part .

A young man greeted him with great warmth. His name was Siyyid Ali Muhammad. Mulla Husayn thought to himself that this young man must be one of his fellow Shaykhis. Evening was approaching. The young Siyyid invited Mullah Husayn to come to his home.

Soon the two arrived at the door of the house:

“We soon found ourselves standing at the gate of a house of modest appearance. He knocked at the door, which was soon opened by an Ethiopian servant. “Enter therein in peace, secure” were His words as He crossed the threshold and motioned me to follow Him. His invitation, uttered with power and majesty, penetrated my soul.”

The door of the House of the Bab

Veiled

Tahirih moved with her husband as a young bride to Iraq where their three children were born.

A young mother had responsibilities such as organizing the different foods, cleaning, preparing meals, maintaining clothing, and educating children in proper manners.

One of the most enjoyable activities for women was the trip to the bathhouse. In a bathhouse, a woman could relax, discuss her life, share ideas, hear news, and tell stories. In Tihran alone, there were over one hundred and forty bathhouses by the mid-19th century.

Women changed from inside to outside clothes for the trip to the bathhouse. All women wore some form of veil or head scarf out of modesty.

Ancient Greece, women, and the veil

The wearing of veils was an ancient practice throughout the near East, possibly originating in ancient Mesopotamia or with the Assyrians; according to their ancient law code:

“§ 40. A wife-of-a-man, or [widows], or [Assyrian] women who go out into the main thoroughfare [shall not have] their heads [bare]. [...] A prostitute shall not veil herself, her head shall be bare. Whoever sees a veiled prostitute shall seize her, secure witnesses, and bring her to the palace entrance. They shall not take her jewelry; he who has seized her shall take her clothing; they shall strike her 50 blows with rods; they shall pour hot pitch over her head.”

The veil seems to have been used as a way of distinguishing women of high birth from slave women and prostitutes.

The veil did not originate with either Persia or Islam but rather in local tribal customs so there was a great deal of variation in its use throughout these regions. Though it became a sign of religious purity, it also served as a means of secluding and owning women.

Women in Ancient Athens and Sparta

Women and tradition in the Islamic world today

Sacrifice, devotion, and defiance

Tahirih, the young bride, moved with her husband, Mulla Muhammad, to Karbila so he could pursue his education to become a mujtahid.

Karbila was a place of profound importance because the third Imam, Husayn, was buried there. In the Battle of Karbila, in 680 AD, Husayn and seventy companions were massacred by troops sent by the caliph whose authority he publicly rejected. Husayn became the symbol of sacrifice, devotion, and defiance against oppression for Shi’a Muslims.

Explanation of the station and thought of the Imam Husayn

Tahirih gave birth to two sons, Ibrahim and Isma’il, in Karbila and a daughter, Zaynab. But the future with her children was one of conflict and loss. In time, the sons turned against their mother, becoming important orthodox mujtahids.

Despite this, when her sons were mentioned in future Shi’a biographies, they were designated by one of her titles ‘al-Qurat ul-Ayn’ not that of her husband—evidence of the great respect in which her learning had been held.

The oldest known recording of Quran recitation from 1885 in Makkah, ( Surah : Ad-Dhuha ) The recording was done during the ottoman khilafat on the then newly...

Marriage prospects

When she became a teenager, Tahirih was expected to marry. Her family decided that she should marry her paternal first cousin, Mulla Muhammad, the son of her uncle Taqi.

A family’s wealth and position determined a girl’s prospects for marriage. The groom’s parents asked for her hand in marriage, and then the father negotiated a bride price. The bride and groom did not “date” in the American sense before their marriage. By strict Islamic law, this money was meant for the bride but often went to her family.

Marriage contract from 1837 (of Khadiah Sultan Baygum and Mirza Abu Talib), Kasravi collection

The new bride was expected to work with the other women of the household and defer to the senior women. The eldest male made all the important decisions.

Men from outside the family could never see the women of the household nor go into their quarters; poor families without much living space might just use some kind of curtain for the separation of the genders.

Tahirih’s marital arrangements may well have followed this traditional pattern. But this union would be a very limiting one for her because her cousin was much more conventional and orthodox in his views than she turned out to be. A wife during this time was expected to conform to her husband’s ideas and not take an active public role. Tahirih did just the opposite as she matured.

Women’s world in Qajar Iran HERE

To hear an audiobook about Tahirih and the Bab click HERE

What is a Mujtahid?

Tahirih’s father and uncles--the Baraghani brothers--became the most influential family in Qazvin. Once the capital of Persia, Qazvin had been inhabited for nine thousand years; the oldest paved street in Persia ran through it. Located on a trade route, it had attracted a diverse population of Persians, Turks, Jews, and Armenians.

They were deeply involved as mujtahids in the affairs of the city. Settling in the western part of Qazvin, they exercised great power.

Tahirih’s older uncle, Mullah Taqi, became one of the richest clerics in Persia by adjudicating in business disputes of which he earned a percentage, collecting alms, pocketing the proceeds from abandoned lands, and participating in business. Though highly respected as a mujtahid, Taqi’s financial practices may have caused resentment.

Taqi opposed Shaykh Ahmad and his allegorical interpretations of passages from the Qur’an. He issued a decree declaring him an infidel—the first cleric to do so—a shocking action because Shaykh Ahmad was a profoundly learned and respected figure.

Tahirih’s father, Mulla Salih, was not politically oriented like his older brother. He founded a school which attracted hundreds of students.

The youngest brother, Mullah Ali, taught at this school and was interested in mystical philosophy. He engaged in ascetical spiritual practices, even rumored to chain himself to a wall to stay awake and study. Mullah Ali was attracted to the Shaykhi teachings.

Dreams of Muhammad

The distinguished uncles of Tahirih had their understanding of Islam challenged by the rise of Shaykhism, based on the teachings of Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsa’i.

Shaykh Ahmad, its founder, was an Islamic philosopher born in Bahrain who was broadly educated in astronomy, medicine, mathematics, music, and in all the Islamic subjects and was highly regarded.

He rigorously practiced meditation and had dreams of the Prophet Muhammad and the Imams in which he drank of their saliva---meaning their knowledge and spirit.

Shaykhism created a great deal of excitement and resulted in a dynamic new movement which attracted many students and controversy.

Shaykh Ahmad taught:

God was transcendent and unknowable because Man could not know God’s Essence because this implied similarity to God.

Man could know Him through His ‘actional’ attributes—His characteristics as they act in this world.

Man could not come to know God purely by his own effort as the Sufis taught but through His intermediaries who expressed His Will.

God was one in His being, simple not complex.

Reason should be reconciled with revelation. He interpreted the Qur’anic verses on the end times allegorically because the literal meaning conflicted with reason.

The Day of Judgment was not when the world would end but the ‘rightly-guided one’—would appear to usher in a new time. People would be judged by whether they recognized God’s manifestation in His new form.

The time of the appearance of the rightly guided one was at hand, and he wanted to prepare his students to recognize him.

Writings of Shaykh Ahmad (in Persian) HERE

Dissertation of Shaykhism in its Islamic context HERE

Audio version account of Shaykh Ahmad from the Dawnbreakers HERE

The men in Tahirih's family

Tahirih’s two uncles and her father were all mujtahids, high-ranking clerics who had the authority to render original decisions of Islamic law. They were recognized as being able to exercise Ijtihad, the use of independent reasoning to arrive at a legal decision based on the Qur’an, the body of law and tradition. 

Mujtahids regularly engaged in theological disputes. Because being a mujtahid brought a man wealth from land and fees, these disputes could turn into political ones. One such dispute drew in Tahirih’s uncles—Taqi, Ali, and her father, Salih.

The uncles rose from humble beginnings by studying for years in the holy cities of Qum, Isfahan, and Karbila where clerics received most of their education in the Qur’an, Arabic literature and grammar, the philosophy of law, and the interpretation of texts.

The uncles settled in the city of Qazvin and became deeply involved in the ongoing theological disputes there.

To hear an audiobook about Tahirih and the Bab click HERE

Second floor library

Tahirih grew up in a world of learning: the men in her family were mujtahids, her mother and aunt had attained a similar degree of education.

Behind the lattice covered walls of the spacious family home, she spent many hours in the second-floor library memorizing the Qur’an, reading and studying religious jurisprudence and its principles, Islamic traditions, and Qur’anic commentary with her uncles, and Persian literature and poetry with her mother.

Original home of Tahirih in Qazvin, Persia,

She had the good fortune to be able to attend the girls’ section of the large school founded by her father, which numbered hundreds of students including some from other parts of the kingdom and as far away as India. In the Kingdom of Persia at the time less than 10% of the population could read and write.

Bakhtiari migration: sheep, goats, donkeys, cows on the road Woman on horse. Inside courtyard. Oven made of mud. Clay fire tray. Bottle on fire in tray. Cupboard. Huts. Dhow on river. Rows of wooden pegs in soil. Tent.

Her brother acknowledged her fearsome intellect:

““We were all, her brothers and cousins, fearful to speak in her presence, so much did her knowledge intimidate us, and if we hazarded to put forward an opinion on a point of doctrine that was in dispute, she would prove to us where we were going wrong in a manner so clear, precise and magisterial that we were thrown into confusion and withdrew.””

To hear an audiobook about Tahirih and the Bab click HERE