Bahá'u'lláh’s remarkable knowledge and sagacity during His youthful years was acknowledged in all gatherings of doctors and scholars

…There was in Ṭihrán… a Youth of the family of one of the ministers and of noble lineage, gifted in every way, and adorned with purity and nobility. Although He combined lofty lineage with high connection, and although His ancestors were men of note in Persia and universally sought after, yet He was not of a race of doctors or a family of scholars. Now this Youth was from His earliest adolescence celebrated amongst those of the ministerial class, both relatives and strangers, for single-mindedness, and was from childhood pointed out as remarkable for sagacity, and held in regard in the eyes of the wise. He did not, however, after the fashion of His ancestors, desire elevation to lofty ranks nor seek advancement to splendid but transient positions. His extreme aptitude was nevertheless admitted by all, and His excessive acuteness and intelligence were universally avowed. In the eyes of the common folk He enjoyed a wonderful esteem, and in all gatherings and assemblies He had a marvelous speech and delivery. Notwithstanding lack of instruction and education such was the keenness of His penetration and the readiness of His apprehension that when during His youthful prime He appeared in assemblies where questions of divinity and points of metaphysic were being discussed, and, in presence of a great concourse of doctors and scholars loosed his tongue, all those present were amazed, accounting this as a sort of prodigy beyond the discernment natural to the human race. From His early years He was the hope of His kindred and the unique one of His family and race, nay, their refuge and shelter.
- ‘Abdu’l-Baha  (‘A Traveler’s Narrative’)

Bahá'u'lláh's ancestral home in Takur

Two views of Bahá'u'lláh's ancestral home in Takur, in the district of Nur, where He usually spent His summers as a boy.

Bahá'u'lláh became renowned for His learning when He was about thirteen years old

He was extremely kind and generous. He was a great lover of outdoor life, most of His time being spent in the garden or the fields. He had an extraordinary power of attraction, which was felt by all. People always crowded around Him, Ministers and people of the Court would surround Him, and the children also were devoted to Him. When He was only thirteen or fourteen years old He became renowned for His learning. He would converse on any subject and solve any problem presented to Him. In large gatherings He would discuss matters with the 'Ulama (leading mullas) and would explain intricate religious questions. All of them used to listen to Him with the greatest interest. 

- 'Abdu'l-Baha  (Quoted by Esslemont in ‘Baha'u'llah and New Era’)

Photos of some of Baha'u'llah's brothers and sisters

Brother: Mirza Musa

Elder half-brother: Aqa Muhammad-Hasan

Half-brother: Mirza Rida-Quli-husband of Maryam

Half-sisters: Fatimih Sultan Khanum and Izziyyih Khaum 

Bahá'u'lláh and His siblings

• Mirza Aqa -- a half-brother. Baha’u’llah mentions an occasion in His childhood when during the wedding of this brother His attention was drawn to a puppet show.
• Mirza Muhammad -- a half-brother
• Mirza Muhammad-'Ali -- a half-brother
• Sakinih Khanum -- a half-sister
• Sughra Khanum -- a half-sister
• Sarih Khanum -- she is generally known as 'Ukht', Arabic for sister, because Baha'u'llah has thus referred to her.
• Mirza Mihdi -- he died in his father's lifetime
• Bahá'u'lláh (Mirza, Husayn-'Ali)
• Mirza Musa – faithful to Baha’u’llah. He was entitled Aqay-i-Kalim in later years.
• Nisa Khanum -- she married Mirza Majid-i-Ahi, a secretary of the Russian Legation.
• Shah-Sultan Khanum -- a half-sister. She was also called 'Izziyih Khanum. She later became a firm supporter of Mirza Yahya (Subhi-i-Azal).
• Mirza Taqi – a half-brother. He was a poet and became a Shaykhi much opposed to Baha’u’llah.
• Mirza Rida-Quli -- a half-brother. He earned the designation Haji' by his pilgrimage to Mecca, and kept apart from Baha'u'llah even trying to conceal the fact of their relationship. His wife, Maryam, however, became greatly devoted to Baha’u’llah.
• Mirza Ibrahim -- a half-brother. He died in his father's lifetime.
• Fatimih Sultan Khanum -- a half-sister. She also chose later to follow Mirza Yahya.
• Mirza Yahya -- a half-brother
• Husniyyih Khanum -- a half-sister
• Mirza Muhammad-Quli -- a half-brother. He was greatly devoted to Baha’u’llah. 

(Adapted from ‘Baha’u’llah the King of Glory’, by H.M. Balyuzi)

Khadijih Khanum – the mother of Bahá'u'lláh

Khadijih Khanum's family belonged to the Namadsab tribe. Members of this tribe occupied areas in close proximity to Takur in the district of Núr in Mazandaran where Bahá'u'lláh's father and paternal ancestors came from. It is not known who Khadijih Khanum's parents were or whether she had any siblings. There is also no information available about Khadijih Khanum's childhood or early life. All aspects of her life before she married Mirza Buzurg, Bahá'u'lláh's father, remain unexplored. The date and place of her birth are also unknown. She was likely born in one of the villages in the vicinity of the village of Takur.

Following the traditional pattern, Khadijih Khanum married probably very young to a certain Aqa Sultan. He died sometime after the birth of their third child. They had two daughters and one son and were probably residing in Tihran. Sometime after his death, Khadijih Khanum married Mirza Buzurg.

Khadijih Khanum’s family had preexisting ties to the family of Mirza Buzurg since an older sister of Mirza Buzurg was already married into the family. It is estimated that their wedding took place between 1810 and 1812. They had five children. The first-born of that marriage was a daughter, Sarih Khanum: she is generally known as 'Ukht’, Arabic for sister, because Baha’u’llah has thus referred to her. The next was a son, Mirza Mihdi, who died in his father's lifetime. Bahá'u'lláh was their third-born. The fourth was another son, Mirza Musa, entitled Aqay-i-Kalim in later years, and the fifth was another daughter, Nisa Khanum, who was married to Mirza Majid-i-Ahi, a secretary of the Russian Legation. It was the Custom of the family to spend the winter months in Tehran, where Mirza Buzurg would attend to his government duties, and the summer in the family home in Takur. It is not clear exactly when Khadijih Khanum passed away and where she has been buried.

When Khadijih Khanum passed away, Bahá'u'lláh revealed a visitation prayer in her honour. The prayer bears no date and there is no indication as to where it was revealed. Here is a provisional translation approved by the Baha’i World Center:

Bahá'u'lláh's Father's House in Tihran

Bahá'u'lláh’s father - Mirza Buzurg

Specimen of the calligraphy
of Mirza Buzurg, Baha'u'llah's father

Bahá'u'lláh's father was renowned as a calligrapher. Indeed his real name was 'Abbas and he had been given the designation Buzurg (meaning "great") by the king because of his calligraphic prowess. He became the minister to a royal prince who was the commander of the royal guards. He was later a vizier (minister), an official responsible for the collection of taxes, in a province. As was customary among Iran's nobility, Mirza Buzurg had an extensive family.

Bahá'u'lláh’s father was a close associate of Qa'im-M'aqam, the Prime Minister to Muhammad Shah. Qa'im-Maqam was one of the few Iranians who had woken up to the fact that the world was passing Iran by and that the country needed to modernize if it was not to be swallowed up by the colonialist forces that threatened it: Russia from the north and Britain from the south. But in 1835, Muhammad Shah turned against Qa'im-Maqam and had him executed, a not uncommon fate for Qajar Prime Ministers. As a result, Bahá'u'lláh's father fell into disfavour also, particularly as he was at odds with the new Prime Minister, Haji Mirza Aqasi. He lost his position and much of his wealth, and even his mansion in Takur was all but destroyed in a flood. He fell ill and eventually died in the spring of 1839. 

(Adapted from ‘Bahá'u'lláh, a Short Biography’, by Moojan Momen)

Province of Mazandaran – home of Bahá'u'lláh’s family

Bahá'u'lláh's family came from Nur, a district in the Iranian province of Mazandaran, the province in north Iran at the south end of the Caspian Sea. This province has high mountain peaks in the south descending to the northern coastal plain bordering the sea. Because of the dense sub-tropical jungles of the lower parts of the province (a stark contrast to the dry desert conditions in much of the rest of Iran), it was always a difficult area for invaders to penetrate. The Zoroastrian royalty and nobility fled to these parts after the Arab Islamic invasion of Iran in the seventh century and Bahá'u'lláh's family are said to have been descended from the last Zoroastrian monarch of Iran. Even when the people of this area finally converted to Islam centuries after that invasion, they mainly converted to the Zaydi form of Shi'i Islam as distinct from the Sunni Islam of most of the rest of Iran. It was only when the Safavid monarchs imposed Twelver Shi'i Islam on the whole country that Mazandaran fell into line with the rest of Iran.

The noble families of the Nur district, including Bahá'u'lláh's family, had for generations provided the kings of Iran with well-educated government officials: civil servants who would collect taxes, keep accounts, pay the army and generally administer the government. Bahá'u'lláh's father, Mirza Buzurg Nuri, rose in the ranks of these civil servants to become the minister to a royal prince who was the commander of the royal guards. He was later a vizier (minister), an official responsible for the collection of taxes, in a province. He was given the village of Takur in the Nur region in lieu of salary and he built a fine mansion there by the side of the Nur river as a family home. 

- Moojan Momen  (‘Bahá'u'lláh, a Short Biography’)

Condition of Persia (Iran) at the time of Bahá'u'lláh’s birth

Tehran - Shimran gate c 1800

Iran at the beginning of the nineteenth century was asleep. The world around it was beginning to change rapidly but it was largely unaware of this. In Europe, the Industrial Revolution was starting to transform life in all its aspects: food, clothes, housing, work, transport, the city landscape, the environment -- nothing was spared its effects. Politically the age of the colonialist expansion into India and Africa was just beginning and even China and Japan were eventually unable to resist foreign penetration. Intellectually, the effects of the Age of Enlightenment were removing religion from the central position that it had always occupied and replacing it with science as the guarantor of truth.

But just as the world was being roused into a flurry of activity, Iran was settling into a comfortable repose after a turbulent eighteenth century which had seen the two-hundred year Safavid dynasty overthrown and a seventy-year period of turmoil.

At the end of the eighteenth century, the Qajar tribe had imposed its authority over the whole of Iran and settled into a system of government where every governorship of the provinces and every high government position was sold off to the highest bidder who would then act as a tax farmer, milking his position for whatever returns it offered until he was replaced. There was no law or system of government beyond the will of the king or of the local governor. They had the power of life and death over their subjects, who could be killed for even the most trivial reason. Even the state treasury was very rudimentary with officials being allocated in lieu of salary the taxes of certain villages, of which they in effect became lords and from which they were responsible for collecting their salaries as taxes. The nomadic tribes which were at least a third of the population were virtually independent. 

- Moojan Momen  (‘Bahá'u'lláh, a Short Biography’)

Bahá'u'lláh didn’t attend any schools

The education and instruction which Bahá'u'lláh received was limited both in nature and extent, as He Himself states in the Tablet addressed to Nasir’d-Din Shah: 'The learning current amongst men I studied not; their schools I entered not. Ask of the city wherein I dwelt, that thou mayest be well assured that I am not of them who speak falsely.' 

In those days, the scions of noble houses were taught such matters as befitted their station in life, such as riding, handling a gun, wielding a sword, calligraphy, acquaintance with the works of the great classical poets of the land, a good reading knowledge of the Holy Book, the Qur'an, and hardly ever anything more. They were given such instruction by tutors, specially engaged by the parents, who were also required to teach them good manners. 

- Balyuzi  (‘Bahá'u'lláh, The King of Glory’)

Bahá'u'lláh's House in Tihran

Bahá'u'lláh's intelligence and perception as a child surpassed mature men

When Bahá'u'lláh was seven years old, one day His mother was watching the elegance of His bearing as He paced to and fro, and remarked 'He is somewhat short of stature.' but His father answered: 'It is of no importance. Are you not aware of His capacity and His abilities? Such intelligence! And such perception! He is as a flame of fire. Even at this young age He surpasses mature men.' 

- ‘Abdu’l-Baha  (Quoted by Ishraq-Khavari in Risaliy-i-Ayyam-i-Tis’ih; in ‘Stories of Baha’u’llah’, compiled by Ali-Akbar Furutan)

Bahá'u'lláh’s dream at a young age

At the age of five or six the Blessed Beauty [Bahá'u'lláh] had a dream which He described to His father. In the dream He found Himself in a garden. Huge birds were attacking Him from every side, but were unable to inflict any harm. He then went to the sea and, as He was swimming, the birds of the air and the fish of the sea attacked Him, but He was not harmed. His father summoned a famous seer to interpret the dream. 'This dream-indicates', replied the seer, 'that the Child shall be the founder of a great Cause, and that all the leaders and learned men throughout the world will attack Him, but, like the birds and the fish, they shall do no harm. He will be victorious over all.’ 

- ‘Abdu’l-Baha  (Quoted by Ishraq-Khavari in ‘Risaliy-i-Ayyam-i-Tis’ih’; in ‘Stories of Baha’u’llah’, compiled by Ali-Akbar Furutan)

As a child, Baha’u’llah was a little short in stature

It is related that one day, when Baha’u’llah was seven years old, as He was walking His parents were watching Him, and His mother remarked that He was a little short in stature. His father replied: 'That matters not. Do you not know how intelligent He is and what a wonderful mind He has!' 

- Balyuzi  (‘Baha’u’llah, The King of Glory’)

Bahá'u'lláh’s mother was so fascinated by Him

The mother of the Blessed Beauty [Bahá'u'lláh] was so enthralled with Him that she could not contain her amazement at His behaviour. 'This child never cries,' she would say; 'He is so unlike other babies who cry and scream and are forever restless while in the nursing stage . . .'

- ‘Abdu’l-Baha  (Quoted by Ishraq-Khavari in Risaliy-i-Ayyam-i-Tis’ih; in ‘Stories of Baha’u’llah’, compiled by Ali-Akbar Furutan)

Bahá'u'lláh’s father had an amazing dream about his Son

Baha'u'llah's father

When Bahá'u'lláh was still a child, the Vazir, His father, dreamed a dream. Bahá'u'lláh appeared to him swimming in a vast, limitless ocean. His body shone upon the waters with a radiance that illumined the sea. Around His head, which could distinctly be seen above the waters, there radiated, in all directions, His long, jet-black locks, floating in great profusion above the waves. As he dreamed, a multitude of fishes gathered round Him, each holding fast to the extremity of one hair. Fascinated by the effulgence of His face, they followed Him in whatever direction He swam. Great as was their number, and however firmly they clung to His locks, not one single hair seemed to have been detached from His head, nor did the least injury affect His person. Free and unrestrained, He moved above the waters and they all followed Him.

The Vazir, greatly impressed by this dream, summoned a soothsayer, who had achieved fame in that region, and asked him to interpret it for him. This man, as if inspired by a premonition of the future glory of Bahá'u'lláh, declared: "The limitless ocean that you have seen in your dream, O Vazir, is none other than the world of being. Single-handed and alone, your son will achieve supreme ascendancy over it. Wherever He may please, He will proceed unhindered. No one will resist His march, no one will hinder His progress. The multitude of fishes signifies the turmoil which He will arouse amidst the peoples and kindreds of the earth. Around Him will they gather, and to Him will they cling. Assured of the unfailing protection of the Almighty, this tumult will never harm His person, nor will His loneliness upon the sea of life endanger His safety."