Shortly before Bahá'u'lláh’s father passed away he was forced
to go through an exceptionally unfair treatment due to the machinations of Mirza
Aqasi, the Prime Minister, during which time he basically lost all of his wealth
in the capital city Tihran. Mirza Buzurg also had the added misfortune of losing
the better part of the palatial mansion which he had built and richly furnished
in the village of Takur, by the descent of floods upon the town. As a result of
all these Bahá'u'lláh’s father had moved in with his third wife in a house that
she had inherited from her father close to the entrance of Masjid-i-Shah in
Tihran. Baha’u’llah, on the other hand, rented the house 'near the Gate' of
Shimran, and took His mother, His wife, His other step-mothers and the rest of
His brothers and sisters to live with Him. This rented house remained His
residence for the remaining years He spent in Iran. It was near the
Madrisiy-i-Mirza Salih, the theological college where Mulla Husayn would stay
when bearing the message of the Báb to Tihran. The children of Bahá'u'lláh and Asiyih
Khanum - 'Abdu'l-Bahá (the Most Great Branch), Bahá'íyyih Khanum (the Greatest
Holy Leaf) and Mirza Mihdi (the Purest Branch) - were all born in this rented
house.
(Adapted from ‘Bahá'u'lláh the King of Glory’, by H.M. Balyuzi)
