The Greatest Holy Leaf Part 2

An illustration of Persia's most infamous prison, the Síyáh-Chál, known as the Black Pit. This illustration clearly shows the darkness and abominable crowded conditions of the prisoners in the dark hole three stories beneath the structure. Source: Baha'i Historical Facts

Ásíyih Khánum and the Holy Family began feeling panicked when they heard that the most fanatical of the Shí’ah clergy in Ṭihrán was planning to assassinate Bahá'u'lláh in the Síyáh-Chál.

After four months of a terrifying ordeal, Bahá'u'lláh was finally released on 13 December 1852, thanks to the Russian Consul, Prince Dolgorukov’s incessant efforts.

After overwhelming testimonies establishing Bahá'u'lláh’s innocence, Naṣiri'd-Dín Sháh was forced to issue the order for Bahá'u'lláh’s release. The Prime Minister’s envoy arrived at the Siyáh-Chál and wept so bitterly upon seeing the conditions in which they had kept Bahá'u'lláh, that he cursed his master.

After being released form the Síyáh-Chál, Bahá'u'lláh went to live in His family’s two-bedroom apartment, which Ásíyih Khánum had rented during His imprisonment.

The entrance to the Síyáh-Chál. Source: Bahá'í Teachings.

Ásíyih Khánum, 'Abdu'l-Bahá, Bahíyyih Khánum and Mírzá Mihdí were overjoyed beyond description to finally be reunited with their beloved Husband and Father, but their happiness was tempered with sadness for the sufferings He had endured.

Bahá'u'lláh spoke very little about His ordeal in the Síyáh-Chál, but He could not hide the marks those four horrific months had left on His blessed body: Bahá'u'lláh’s clothes were torn and dirty, His beard and His hair were unkempt, and He was so weak He could barely walk.

Bahá'u'lláh had been in chains and fetters 24 hours a day for four months and His back was bent and His neck was swollen and blistered from the deep imprint of the heavy chains which had cut into His delicate skin.

He was sick from the foul air he had had to breathe in the dark, cold, vile Síyáh-Chál, a prison so dark that once liberated, it took time for Bahá'u'lláh’s eyes to acclimate themselves to daylight again.

Bahíyyih Khánum wept with family over Bahá'u'lláh’s torture and persecution.

A brilliantly-illumined version of the photograph of the steps leading to the Síyáh-Chál.

Remembering the effect of seeing her blessed Father again after four months of hellish separation, the Greatest Holy Leaf simply said:

Oh, the joy of his presence!

Bahá'u'lláh spoke of the courageous and radiant martyrs who had rushed to meet their deaths with joy and attain the everlasting honor of martyrdom.

The Bábí Faith had won a crown of glory and an immense victory in the face of their tormentors, torturers, executioners, and all their enemies, and whatever shame, pain, and sorrow the Bábís were made to endure was well worth the glory of the newborn Faith.

It was very clear, even to 6-year-old Bahíyyih Khánum, that her beloved Father had had a profoundly altering divine experience in the Síyáh-Chál.

There was a profound change in Bahá'u'lláh they all noticed, beyond these superficial marks of suffering on their Husband and Father: He had a marvelous divine experience while chained in the dark pit of the Síyáh-Chál, and they saw in Bahá'u'lláh a new radiance enfolding him like a shining mantle.

They would not learn the full details of this sacred experience until 11 years later, in the Garden of Riḍván in Baghdad, when the appointed time had arrived for Bahá'u'lláh to finally announce that He was the One whom the Báb had unceasingly announced: He was “Him Whom God shall make manifest.”

Through the Greatest Holy Leaf’s own description, it almost seems like, seen through her child eyes, the Father who left the Síyáh-Chál was not the same Father who had entered it four months prior:

We saw a new radiance seeming to enfold him like a shining vesture, its significance were to learn years later. At that time we were only aware of the wonder of it, without understanding, or even being told the details of the sacred event.

Facsimile of two letters of recommendation issued in 1852 by the Turkish Legation in Ṭihrán and delivered to Bahá'u'lláh prior to His departure for Baghdád. Source: Letter on the left: Bahá'í Media. Letter on the right: Bahá'í Media.

After Bahá'u'lláh was released from the Síyáh-Chál, He was exiled from His homeland forever.

For one month, from December 1852 to January 1853, Bahá'u'lláh’s cousin Maryam nursed Bahá'u'lláh back to health while Ásíyih Khánum made provisions for the journey.

The Persian government did not provide a penny for the expenditure of the Holy Family’s journey, and Ásíyih Khánum was forced to raise the funds for their expenses herself by selling almost everything that remained from her marriage treasures: jewels, embroidered garments, and other garments.

She was able to raise about 400 tumans, equivalent to about $1,600 in today’s currency, according to historian Dr. Bijan Masumian.

Ásíyih Khánum used the money to make provisions for the arduous winter journey over steep mountains. Until that point, Bahíyyih Khánum had never traveled father than Yalrud and Takúr, her parents’ ancestral homes in nearby Mázindarán.

A new episode was beginning in the life of Bahá'u'lláh and His family. They were now and forevermore exiles from their homeland.

No one except Bahíyyih Khánum’s maternal great-grandmother came to bid the Holy Family farewell.

The aspect of the journey that affected the sensitive Bahíyyih Khánum more than anything was the fact they had to leave her 4-year-old brother Mírzá Mihdí behind in Ṭihrán with family because he was too delicate and fragile to survive the arduous winter journey over the high mountains.

From this moment forward, Bahíyyih Khánum would share in each and every one of her beloved Father’s sufferings, hardships, and calamities.

First snow on a section of the Alborz Mountain range in Iran, from November 2010. Bahá'u'lláh and His Family would have been traveling two months after the first snowfall. Photograph by Mehdi Kalhor. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Bahá'u'lláh, Ásíyih Khánum, 'Abdu'l-Bahá, Bahíyyih Khánum, and Mírzá Músá, Bahá'u'lláh’s younger brother, left Ṭihrán and their homeland in the middle of a brutal winter through knee-deep snow in places, never to return.

The journey of the Holy Family from Ṭihrán to Bagdad lasted 86 days from 12 January to 8 April 1853.

The difficulties of the journey were almost indescribable.

The Holy Family did not have proper winter clothes to protect them from the fierce cold and they lacked food.

Bahá'u'lláh was extremely ill, still weak from His long, brutal confinement in the Síyáh-Chál, from which He had not recovered.

Ásíyih Khánum was in the late stages of her seventh pregnancy, which made traveling for her not only uncomfortable but potentially dangerous.

Born into an aristocratic Persian family, Ásíyih Khánum, had no training or experience for such an ordeal. She was not able to make sufficient provisions, she had absolutely no help as no servants traveled with the Holy Family, and to add to this, she had very little money left.

The Holy Family would either camp in the wilderness overnight or stay in caravanserais, travelers’ inns with accommodations for both people and pack animals, in which they were only allowed a single room. These rooms had no beds, and no light was allowed at night. The family sometimes managed to find tea, a few eggs, coarse bread and a little cheese.

Bahá'u'lláh was still so ill that He could not eat coarse food and He was growing weaker still from not eating. This distressed Ásíyih Khánum greatly, who exerted herself to try and find food Bahá'u'lláh could eat.

Once, Ásíyih Khánum had managed to find a little flour, attempted to make a cake for Bahá'u'lláh. But baking in the dark, she had used salt instead of sugar and the cake was inedible.

1920-1934 aerial photograph of the Old City of Baghdád, taken by the American Colony of Jerusalem. Source: Library of Congress.

After a three-month harrowing winter journey, Bahá'u'lláh and His family arrived in Baghdad on 8 April 1853.

In the family’s early months in Baghdad, they started receiving occasional proceeds from Ṭihrán which came from the sale of jewels, gold and other valuables, the last of Ásíyih Khánum’s dowry. The influx of money was a great help to the Holy Family and considerably improved their living conditions.

The house of Ḥájí ‘Alí Madad, had two rooms, one for Bahá'u'lláh and one for Ásíyih Khánum and the children, which served as the reception room for Bábís visiting Bahá'u'lláh, and Arab ladies taught by Ṭáhirih, who came to call on Ásíyih Khánum. 

One of the Iraqis who had been converted by Ṭáhirih while she lived in Baghdad, was a man named Shaykh Sulṭán. He would later play a great role in the history of the Faith as the man whom the Holy Family sent to ask Bahá'u'lláh to return to Baghdad from Sulaymáníyyih. And his daughter would become Mírzá Músá’s wife.

All the family helped.

Ásíyih Khánum, in delicate health, her strength weakened by the ordeal of the journey compounded by her pregnancy, worked beyond her strength, and Bahá'u'lláh sometimes helped her with the cooking.

Bahá'u'lláh’s brother, Mírzá Músá, also helped with the cooking and the washing.

According to Bahíyyih Khánum, Mírzá Músá was a talented cook.

Sometime after their arrival in Iráq, Bahá'u'lláh and Ásíyih Khánum’s seventh and last child was born, a baby boy they named 'Ali-Muḥammad.

Wilhelm Andersen  (1867–1945), Still life with samovar and tableware in silver. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

One day, seven-year-old Bahíyyih Khánum had been asked to prepare the tea, and she had just carried the very heavy samovár upstairs.

An Iráqí woman who was visiting exclaimed:

One proof that the Bábí teaching is wonderful is that a very little girl served the samovár!

Bahá'u'lláh, amused, turned to His daughter with an instant and witty retort:

Here is the lady converted by seeing your service at the samovár!

Old map of Baghdad in Arabic showing the Tigris river. When Bahíyyih Khánum first arrived, she and her family settled in Old Baghdad, in the northern part of the city. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Bahíyyih Khánum began helping her parents with the household duties, as both of them were in fragile health.

From the time she arrived in Baghdad at the age of 7, the Greatest Holy Leaf took on a new role, one that she would continue to fulfill for the rest of her life: she became Ásíyih Khánum’s kind and loving helper with the household work of the Holy Family.

She would exert herself beyond the strength of her little body to lend assistance in all the household tasks, her eyes constantly trained on her mother, always ready to spare Ásíyih Khánum any fatigue.

The kashkúl (alms bowl) Bahá’u’lláh used as He traveled through the mountains of Sulaymaniyyih as a dervish from 1854 to 1856. © Bahá'í International Community. Source: The Life of Bahá'u'lláh: A Photographic Narrative Website. Photo Credit: Ted Cardell, 1952.

After Bahá'u'lláh’s first two months in Baghdad, the Bábís had begun to consider Him as their source of guidance, and felt, at long last, like they had some direction.

But a severe crisis was brewing.

When Mírzá Yaḥyá resurfaced in Bagdad in 1853, his three-year absence and cowardice had eroded his position and elevated Bahá'u'lláh’s, and, in parallel, the character of the leaderless Bábís in Bagdad had declined while their confusion had deepened.

Mírzá Yaḥyá caused so much havoc and made Bahá'u'lláh’s life such a living hell that by April 1854, Bahá'u'lláh found Himself with no choice but to remove Himself from the toxic atmosphere of Baghdad and retreat to the mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan. He would remain there for two years until March 1856.

Before His retreat into the wilderness of Kurdistán, Bahá'u'lláh entrusted His family to His brother Mírzá Músá, He commanded the Bábís in Baghdad to treat Mírzá Yaḥyá with respect, and He had offered Mírzá Yaḥyá the hospitality of His Family and home.

The invitation did not fall on deaf ears.

The Holy Family in Baghdad without Bahá'u'lláh. Art by Violetta Zein.

Mírzá Yaḥyá moved into the Holy Family’s home with his five wives, making their lives a living nightmare with his impossible demands, his deep paranoia, his cynicism and his distrust of everyone. Mírzá Yaḥyá was overjoyed Bahá'u'lláh had left.

He was so paranoid that he forbade the Holy Family from associating with anyone and kept the house locked at all times, forbidding anyone to go out, even to the public bath.

Mírzá Yaḥyá expected that he and his wives be made comfortable at all times, wanting only the finest things and constantly complaining about food.

The Holy Family bore this burden for two years and tolerated Mírzá Yaḥyá's tyrannical demands out of love for Bahá'u'lláh and because He had asked them to, for reasons born of a wisdom inscrutable to all save Him.

Mírzá Yaḥyá and his wives made the Holy Family’s life absolute and utter misery for two years.

The passing of ‘Alí Muḥammad, Bahá'u'lláh’s youngest son. Art by Violetta Zein.

To add to the heartbreak of the entire family, Bahíyyih Khánum’s youngest baby brother ‘Alí Muḥammad fell ill and died during this time.

Mírzá Yaḥyá, that monster, never allowed Ásíyih Khánum to call for a doctor and never even permitted for the baby to receive a proper burial.

‘Alí-Muḥammad’s body was handed to a stranger.

The Holy Family never found out where ‘Alí Muḥammad had been buried.

The trials of Bahíyyih Khánum during Bahá'u'lláh’s absence. Art by Violetta Zein.

Bahíyyih Khánum was 8 when Bahá'u'lláh left for Kurdistán, and 10 when He returned.

During those two years, she helped Ásíyih Khánum with household chores, and her work significantly increased when Mírzá Yaḥyá and his wives moved in.

One of her more arduous tasks was drawing water from the well with a bucket at the end of a long rope, and in her memoirs, Bahíyyih Khánum recalled that Mírzá Yaḥyá had never once offered to help her.

Bahíyyih Khánum lived these two years of Bahá'u'lláh’s absence in utter loneliness.

'Abdu'l-Bahá, as a young boy, was allowed to leave the house with Mírzá Músá, but she was a girl, and did not have the same freedoms.

Two little girls her age lived next door, but Mírzá Yaḥyá forbade Bahíyyih Khánum from playing with them or from inviting them to come inside and play with her, and so she could only watch them from her house.

During this period of two years of separation from Bahá'u'lláh, the Greatest Holy Leaf displayed outstanding spiritual qualities.

She bore the burden of living with Mírzá Yaḥyá with complete resignation and acquiescence. She suffered countless ordeals. She forgot herself completely, turned away from material possessions and every last tie of worldly concern, and she lost herself in remembrance of Bahá'u'lláh, the center of her life.

The house of Bahá'u'lláh in Baghdád, where the Holy Family moved while He was in Kurdistán. Source: Taazakh Khabar News. 

Sometime in 1855, the life of the Holy Family greatly improved. Mírzá Músá invited Ásíyih Khánum and her children to move in with him, in the house of a man called Sulaymán-i-Ghannám, located in the Karkh quarter of Bagdad, on the western bank of the Tigris river.

This was the home Bahá'u'lláh would return to and He would later give it the title of Bayt-i-A'ẓam (the Most Great House).

Now reunited, and out of Mírzá Yaḥyá’s control, the Holy Family focused openly on their search for Bahá'u'lláh. Ásíyih Khánum, 'Abdu'l-Bahá, and Mírzá Músá investigated every clue, and followed every line of inquiry into His whereabouts.

'Abdu'l-Bahá was so distraught at the forced separation with His adored Father that he once spent the entire night praying a single prayer for the return of Bahá'u'lláh.

The way that the Holy Family found Bahá'u'lláh was a series of extraordinary coincidences that all happened around mid to late 1855.

When Bahá'u'lláh had left Baghdad, He had been accompanied by a Muslim attendant, Abu’l-Qásim. Poor Abu’l-Qásim was murdered shortly after arriving in Kurdistan, and his death was reported in a newspaper article which related his last words: he said his full name, that he was originally from Hamadán, and that everything he carried was the property of Darvísh Muḥammad-i-Irání, who lived in the uplands of ‘Iráqí Kurdistán.

Nearly two years after the article was published, 'Abdu'l-Bahá and Mírzá Músá found it lying in front of them at the Persian consulate.

It must have been shortly after discovering the article that the Holy Family received their second clue: Mírzá Músá overheard two Iraqis talking about a marvelous person, a saintly dervish living in Sulaymáníyyih. They spoke so highly of him, they called Him a name of Ṣúfí prophecy: "The Nameless One," and they said that He had single-handedly enkindled the entire Kurdish countryside with His life.

This could ONLY be Bahá'u'lláh.

Now that the family knew Bahá'u'lláh was in or around Sulaymáníyyih, they needed an Iraqi believer to go from Baghdad and make his way into Iraqi Kurdistan, arrive in Sulaymáníyyih and find and bring back Bahá'u'lláh.

There is no photograph of Shaykh Sulṭán but here is a nearly contemporary photograph of Iraqis from Baghdad. It is a 1873 Studio portrait of models wearing traditional clothing from the province of Baghdad by Pascal Sébah. From left to right, an Arab of the Shammar tribe, a married Muslim woman, and an Arab of the Zubaid tribe. Source: Library of Congress.

The perfect candidate was named Shaykh Sulṭán.

He had nothing tying him down, and was free to leave at any moment, was unafraid of the dangers of the mission, and, most importantly, he said nothing would bring him more happiness than to bring Bahá'u'lláh back.

But there were two problems;

The first was that Shaykh Sulṭán was poor.

Very poor.

The second problem was that Shaykh Sulṭán wasn’t strong enough to walk to Kurdistan, he needed a donkey. Which he couldn’t afford. Because he was poor.

The Holy Family had no money and the only thing of value left that they still had was a single rug on which they all slept.

Once they sold the rug, they were able to purchase the donkey for Shaykh Sulṭán who set off straightaway with another believer on the most important mission of their lives, traveling for Sulaymáníyyih to beg Bahá'u'lláh to return.

Everything was in God’s hands.

Different shades of handwoven termeh cloth. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

From the moment Shaykh Sulṭán had left on his mission to find Bahá'u'lláh in Kurdistán, the Holy Family had begun to regain hope of seeing Bahá'u'lláh again.

For four months, Ásíyih Khánum, aided by Bahíyyih Khánum, sewed and fitted a coat for her beloved Husband out of a precious handwoven red cloth called tirmíh, which she had especially set aside from her marriage treasures for this purpose. The cloth had miraculously survived the loss of every other one of Ásíyih Khánum’s rare and extensive wedding treasures.

An Indian Muslim in the 8^th century had spoken a prophecy about this red coat:

In [the Great Day of God] the Holy One will be found abiding in a land called Karkh [Baghdad]. He will walk beside the river, wearing the dervish turban, and wrapped in a red robe. He will be teaching His followers on the banks of the river. Would that I might be privileged to enter His Presence, and to shed my life-blood in His Path.

Background image of a street in Baghdad in the 19th century created with https://openart.ai/

Four months after Shaykh Sulṭán’s departure, on 18 March 1856, just three days before Naw-Rúz, a messenger arrived at the Most Great House with a message from Shaykh Sulṭán: he was arriving in Baghdad the next day with Bahá'u'lláh!

'Abdu'l-Bahá was electrified.

He carefully interviewed and questioned the messenger and was convinced His Father would be home the next day.

The rest of the Holy Family were not convinced.

'Abdu'l-Bahá alone was sure.

The entrance to the Most Great House. Digitally-framed color photograph obtained from Sa'ad Salim, used with permission.

In the evening of 19 March 1856, Ásíyih Khánum, 'Abdu'l-Bahá, and Bahíyyih Khánum sat breathlessly, as they heard a step.

Although, outwardly, He looked like a dervish, they instantly recognized Bahá'u'lláh!

The moment they had all impatiently awaited for two long years was finally here!

The entire family was submerged in an ocean of joy.

The children clung to their Father, 'Abdu'l-Bahá holding Bahá'u'lláh’s hand tightly, as if he never intended to let Him out of His sight again. Bahíyyih Khánum would later say:

Our joy cannot be described as we clung to Him.

'Abdu'l-Bahá threw himself on the floor, kissing and embracing his Father’s feet, crying:

Why did you leave us, why did you leave us?

Bahá'u'lláh, deeply moved, wept over His Son.

The reunion of the Holy Family was a deeply happy and touching scene: Ásíyih Khánum, kind and gentle, 'Abdu'l-Bahá, ecstatic, enveloped in Darvísh Muḥammad’s coarse clothes.

The mountain of Sar-Galú where Bahá’u’lláh stayed in Sulaymáníyyih between 1854 and 1856, circa 1940. © Bahá'í International Community. Source: Bahá'í Media Bank.

Bahá'u'lláh’s wife and children never tired of His stories from Sar-Galú and Sulaymáníyyih. He described for them the simple foods He ate, coarse bread, a little cheese, and a rare treat when He could have it, a type of rice pudding He would make with rice and a tiny bit of sugar, cooked in milk.

Bahá'u'lláh told His family how He retreated further into caves, moving from place to place when people tried to pry Him out of His solitude. He recounted the story of the young boy He once found, weeping bitterly over his calligraphy exercise, how He had helped him with his homework and how His penmanship had caught the attention of the Kurds who invited Him to come live in Sulaymáníyyih.

And Bahá'u'lláh told Ásíyih Khánum and the children that He had left Mírzá Músá’s name with His Kurdish friends in Sulaymáníyyih, telling them they would always be able to find Him in Baghdad if they spoke His brother’s name.

After Bahá'u'lláh’s return, joy followed joy: first, Mírzá Músá married the daughter of the loyal ‘Iráqí Bábí who had brought Bahá'u'lláh back, Shaykh Sulṭán, and then, in 1858, after a five-year absence, the family was reunited at last with Mírzá Mihdí, now almost ten years old!

But while the family of Bahá'u'lláh experienced great happiness during this time, Bahá'u'lláh returned to find a Bábí community in shambles.

His work of spiritual regeneration awaited.

Historical view of Baghdad, Iraq, taken around 1930. Bahá'í Media Bank.

Life in the Most Great House in Baghdad was more difficult for the women of the Holy Family who had to stay indoors almost constantly and was harder even for Bahíyyih Khánum who was a child and was very lonely.

Bahíyyih Khánum was lonely that is, until she met an Arab girl about her age who became a very close and dear friend to her until the end of her stay in Baghdad. Bahíyyih Khánum called her affectionately Ḥabíbatí (my darling).

Bahíyyih Khánum and Ḥabíbatí were friends for about 10 years.

The Greatest Holy Leaf taught Ḥabíbatí Persian, and they became inseparable. With her parents’ blessing, Ḥabíbatí lived in the Most Great House with Bahíyyih Khánum and the Holy Family.

At last, in May 1863, when Bahá'u'lláh was exiled to Istanbul, Ḥabíbatí was devastated.

People who only met the Greatest Holy Leaf for a short time loved her with all their heart, and Ḥabíbatí had spent 10 years with her. The two girls had become young women together.

Heartbroken, Ḥabíbatí would sit in a corner of the house all day, crying for her lost friend and chanting prayers and poetry.

Later, Ḥabíbatí married and had children, and although she was illiterate, she would dictate letters to her children for Bahíyyih Khánum. Her son Jalíl described his mother’s letters to the Greatest Holy Leaf:

Every word of her letters was a drop of the blood of her heart, a gem of pure love offered to her exalted beloved.

Ḥabíbatí taught the Bahá'í Faith and the Persian language to her children, who became deeply devoted and enthusiastic Bahá'ís and active members of the Bahá'í community in Baghdad.

Decades later, when future Hand of the Cause Abu'l-Qásim Faizi was visiting Baghdad, he met Jalíl, Ḥabíbatí’s son. Jalíl was tall and strong, dressed in a long spotless Arab robe and he chanted the Tablets of Bahá'u'lláh in Arabic with a warm and penetrating voice that rang out. Abu’l-Qásim Faizi was very touched.

Then, Jalíl approached Abu’l-Qásim Faizi and spoke to him in perfect Persian.

Astonished, Abu’l-Qásim Faizi asked him:

How is it that you speak such fluent Persian?

Jalíl responded:

Our mother spoke to us in the language of Bahá'u'lláh. If any of her children addressed her in Arabic, she would not answer.

Even as a child the Greatest Holy Leaf had such a pure character and such a spiritual power, that she affected generations of a single family.

Three less well-known photos of the outside of the house of Bahá'u'lláh in Baghdád from the street.
Photo on the left: view of the Most Great House from the alley/street. Source: The Bahá'í World Volume 5, via Baha'i Media.
Photo in the center: balcony of the Most Great House facing the port on the River Tigris. Source: TheBahá'í World Volume 6via Baha'i Media.
Photo on the right: Source: Nabíl, The Dawn-Breakers, Epilogue, page 663.

According to historian Baharieh Rouhani Ma’ani, the deprivations Bahíyyih Khánum suffered and the hardships that she endured in Baghdad played an important role in forming her distinct personality and character.

These were the first years during which she shared the exile, grief, and ordeals of her blessed Father, Bahá'u'lláh, and she endured the incessant tests and tribulations caused by Mírzá Yaḥyá and Siyyid Muḥammad with complete resignation and radiant acquiescence.

In his letter upon the Greatest Holy Leaf’s passing on 17 July 1932, Shoghi Effendi tells an absolutely remarkable story: from time to time, when Bahíyyih Khánum was a teenager, Bahá'u'lláh entrusted her with missions so delicate that no girl of her age could have or even would have been willing to perform, and she seized those opportunities to serve her Father with spontaneous joy.

Although Shoghi Effendi does not specify the nature of those missions—no doubt because they were confidential—he does tell us that they were extremely delicate and sensitive.

These vignettes into the life of Bahíyyih Khánum in service to Bahá'u'lláh in Baghdad opens up a new vista in how we perceive the Greatest Holy Leaf in her teenage years.

During Bahá'u'lláh’s self-imposed retirement to Sulaymáníyyih, Bahíyyih Khánum showed a strength of character and a tender care that would define the rest of her life.

Her years in Baghdad defined Bahíyyih Khánum as an unbreakably strong individual, one imbued with compassion, strength of character, utter self-effacement, detachment from all material things, and steadfastness in the Covenant.

She was not only capable but also ready, and joyfully willing to make all the sacrifices which being the only daughter of Bahá'u'lláh entailed.

An 1876 engraving by John Philip Newmain depicts a marketplace in Baghdad which could very well have looked the same twenty years earlier when Bahíyyih Khánum lived there. Source: The thrones and palaces of Babylon and Ninevah from sea to sea; a thousand miles on horseback. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

The period from April 1853 when the Holy Family arrived in Baghdad until their second exile in April 1863 covered ten years in the life of Bahíyyih Khánum.

She arrived in Iraq as a girl of 7, and left as a young woman of 17.

During her decade in Baghdad, Bahíyyih Khánum was Ásíyih Khánum’s loving helper. She lived to serve her family. Her father, Bahá'u'lláh, her mother, Ásíyih Khánum, and her brothers, 'Abdu'l-Bahá and Mírzá Mihdí.

She exerted herself incessantly, beyond her strength, and she had a very different life from those of other girls her age. She didn’t have little friends to play with: her life became a life of service, selflessness, and empathy.

The Greatest Holy Leaf constantly watched out for her mother and father.Serving her parents, her family, and the Faith were the joys of her life.

'Abdu'l-Bahá was educated and trained by Bahá'u'lláh, and also at times Mírzá Músá and Ásíyih Khánum.

As to Bahíyyih Khánum, she had no time for formal studies but her training and education came through her calling, serving two of the three Central Figures of the Bahá'í Faith, Bahá'u'lláh and 'Abdu'l-Bahá, through their entire ministries.

Purity: image created with https://openart.ai/

By the time the Holy Family left Baghdad the Greatest Holy Leaf, the saintly daughter of Bahá'u'lláh was a young woman gifted with spiritual qualities beyond human understanding or comprehension: she was thoughtful and filled with empathy for every single person who crossed her path, she took for granted her countless acts of loving-kindness towards everyone, something she considered entirely normal, but was, in fact, extraordinary.

The Greatest Holy Leaf found tremendous joy in serving her family, and spent the rest of her time in prayer, another lifelong aspect of her life.

By the time she came of age to be married, the Greatest Holy Leaf had grown into a delightful and very beautiful young woman. Physically, Bahíyyih Khánum closely resembled her mother Ásíyih Khánum in her graceful, slender physical features, large grey-blue eyes and golden-brown hair and a warm, ivory-coloured skin. Bahíyyih Khánum had a wonderful sense of humor and was remarkably intelligent.

Bahíyyih Khánum’s own mother Ásíyih Khánum, had married Bahá'u'lláh when she was the Greatest Holy Leaf’s age, in 1832.

But a life of domesticity, taking care of a husband and children, were not to be the Greatest Holy Leaf’s destiny.

Bahíyyih Khánum took charge of her own destiny.

Though still a teenager, she knew her mind. She wanted a life of service to Bahá'u'lláh and her family. She yearned for a life of service to the Faith. She wanted nothing to distract her from the path she had chosen for herself.

She implored Bahá'u'lláh to allow her to remain unmarried so that she could fully devote her entire life to serving Him, her mother Ásíyih Khánum, the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh, and humankind.

Bahá'u'lláh granted Bahíyyih Khánum her wish.

“No man worth” art by Violetta Zein.

An old man, a friend of Bahá'u'lláh, reported to Lady Blomfield who was interviewing him in 1930, what Bahá'u'lláh had one day told him:

I know no man worthy to marry such purity as my daughter.

Lady Blomfield asked the old man:

Khánum must have been very lovely?

The man replied:

I have been told so; naturally, I never saw her.

A beautiful cream-colored Táj, ornately embroidered which belonged to Bahá’u’lláh. This is the tall headdress which Bahá'u'lláh adopted on 22 April 1863, the First day of Riḍván. © Bahá’í International Community. Source: Bahá'í Media Bank.

On 28 March 1863, Námiq Páshá’s Deputy-Governor met Bahá'u'lláh in the mosque across from the Government House, and handed Him the letter from ‘Alí Páshá, the Grand Vizir of Sulṭán ‘Abdu’l-Azíz informing Him of His second exile.

For one month, Bábís prepared all the animals, howdas and supplies they would need for the 1,600 kilometer (1,000 miles) overland caravan journey to Istanbul.

On 22 April 1892, Bahá'u'lláh crossed the Tigris River into the Garden of Riḍván and made His Declaration to the Bábís assembled around Him, informing them He was “Him Whom God shall make manifest”, the One Promised by the Báb.

On the Ninth Day of this first Festival of Riḍván, 30 April 1863, the Holy Family rejoined Bahá'u'lláh in the Garden.

An artistic interpretation of the piles of roses and nightingales singing in the garden of Riḍván during the 12-day festival in 1863. © Violetta Zein.

Bahíyyih Khánum was the beloved daughter of Bahá'u'lláh, and she in turn, felt not only immense love and affection for her holy Father, but also passionate concern for His well-being.

The relationship between Bahíyyih Khánum and Bahá'u'lláh, however, transcended far and above a relationship between a daughter and her father. Shoghi Effendi would state that she was “united with the Spirit of her almighty Father” by a “mystic bond.”

It is evident that from a very early age, the Greatest Holy Leaf had a very clear understanding of the station of Bahá'u'lláh as the Manifestation of God for today, the one promised by the Báb as “Him Whom God shall make manifest.”

So profound was Bahíyyih Khánum’s understanding of Bahá'u'lláh’s station that she would dedicate the remainder of her days to serving Him, 'Abdu'l-Bahá, Shoghi Effendi, and Bahá'u'lláh’s followers from every country and walk of life.

Bahíyyih Khánum offers us an infinitely precious glimpse into the relationship between Bahá'u'lláh and the Holy Family after His Declaration on 22 April 1863 in Baghdad:

After His Declaration we all regarded him as one far above us, and tacitly gave him a corresponding position in our demeanor towards him. He was never called upon to consider, or take part in, any worldly matters. We felt no claim upon Him because of family relationship—no more than that of his other followers.