The highly revered owner of a theological seminary in Sulaymáníyyih requested Bahá’u’lláh to draw up a document which would perpetuate the custodianship of his institution for his descendants.

Whenever Bahá’u’lláh came into Sulaymáníyyih, to make use of the public bath or to make any purchases, He would stay in the Takyih, the theological seminary of Mawláná Khálid. The original mosque of which Mawláná Khálid had been the custodian was destroyed in later times, but had been rebuilt to the same proportions. Mawláná Khálid was, at the time of Bahá'u'lláh's sojourn, an old man highly revered amongst the Kurds. He requested Darvish Muhammad [Bahá’u’lláh] to draw up a document which would perpetuate the custodianship of his institution for his descendants. That and other works from Bahá'u'lláh's pen are now owned by families in Sulaymáníyyih, who refuse to part with them at any price. Some three decades ago, a possessor of such a highly-valued relic stated that even should he be offered a million dinárs (a million pounds) he would still refuse to let that priceless document go, because he was certain all bounties would be cut off from him and his family, should it leave their possession.

A figure highly revered by the Kurds in Sulaymáníyyih is Káká Ahmad, a saint of past ages. But as compared with Íshán,[1] the designation given out of veneration to Darvish Muhammad, they had no doubt that the latter ranked higher. Even the particular mountain, called Sar-Galú, which Bahá’u’lláh had especially made His home, is held to be a place holy and sacred. 

- Hasan Balyuzi (‘Bahá’u’lláh King of Glory’)

[1] Íshán means They’, and Bahá'u'láh was known by this designation even before going to Sulaymániyyih.

Though Bahá’u’lláh hadn’t seen the book that He was requested to elucidate “He was able to resolve their perplexities in so amazing a fashion”

“God is My witness,” was Bahá’u’lláh’s instant reply to the learned delegation, “that I have never seen the book you refer to. I regard, however, through the power of God, … whatever you wish me to do as easy of accomplishment.” Directing one of them to read aloud to Him, every day, a page of that book, He was able to resolve their perplexities in so amazing a fashion that they were lost in admiration. Not contenting Himself with a mere clarification of the obscure passages of the text, He would interpret for them the mind of its author, and expound his doctrine, and unfold his purpose. At times He would even go so far as to question the soundness of certain views propounded in that book, and would Himself vouchsafe a correct presentation of the issues that had been misunderstood, and would support it with proofs and evidences that were wholly convincing to His listeners. 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By’)

While in exile in Kurdistan, some “most eminent doctors and most distinguished students” requested Bahá’u’lláh to elucidate “the abstruse passages” in a famous religious book

That seat of learning [theological seminary that Bahá’u’lláh was staying at] had been renowned for its vast endowments, its numerous takyihs, and its association with Saláhi’d-Dín-i-Ayyúbí and his descendants; from it some of the most illustrious exponents of Sunní Islám had gone forth to teach its precepts, and now a delegation, headed by Shaykh Ismá‘íl himself, and consisting of its most eminent doctors and most distinguished students, called upon Bahá’u’lláh, and, finding Him willing to reply to any questions they might wish to address Him, they requested Him to elucidate for them, in the course of several interviews, the abstruse passages contained in the Futúhát-i-Makkíyyih, the celebrated work of the famous Shaykh Muhyi’d-Dín-i-‘Arabí. 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By’)

Bahá’u’lláh’s impact on the people of Kurdistán

Not long after Baha’u’llah’s arrival in Kurdistán, Shaykh Sultán [The father-in-law of Áqáy-i-Kalím, Bahá’u’lláh’s brother] has related, He was able, through His personal contacts with Shaykh ‘Uthmán, Shaykh ‘Abdu’r-Rahmán, and Shaykh Ismá‘íl, the honored and undisputed leaders of the Naqshbandíyyih, the Qádiríyyih and the Khálidíyyih Orders respectively, to win their hearts completely and establish His ascendancy over them. The first of these, Shaykh ‘Uthmán, included no less a person than the Sulṭán himself and his entourage among his adherents. The second, in reply to whose query the “Four Valleys” was later revealed, commanded the unwavering allegiance of at least a hundred thousand devout followers, while the third was held in such veneration by his supporters that they regarded him as co-equal with Khálid himself, the founder of the Order. 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By’)

The father-in-law of Áqáy-i-Kalím, Bahá’u’lláh’s brother, arrived in Sulaymáníyyih at the time when Bahá’u’lláh had moved to that town

Meantime His friends in Baghdád had discovered His whereabouts, and had dispatched Shaykh Sultán, the father-in-law of Áqáy-i-Kalím, to beg Him to return; and it was now while He was living in Sulaymáníyyih, in a room belonging to the Takyiy-i-Mawláná Khálid (theological seminary) that their messenger arrived. “I found,” this same Shaykh Sulṭán, recounting his experiences to Nabíl, has stated, “all those who lived with Him in that place, from their Master down to the humblest neophyte, so enamoured of, and carried away by their love for Bahá’u’lláh, and so unprepared to contemplate the possibility of His departure that I felt certain that were I to inform them of the purpose of my visit, they would not have hesitated to put an end to my life.” 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By’)

Bahá’u’lláh transferred His residence to the town of Sulaymáníyyih

Shortly after this contact was established, [a certain Shaykh, a resident of Sulaymáníyyih] Shaykh Ismá‘íl, the leader of the Khálidíyyih Order, who lived in Sulaymáníyyih, visited Him, and succeeded, after repeated requests, in obtaining His consent to transfer His residence to that town. 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By’)

Bahá’u’lláh’s calligraphic skill was discovered

Bahá’u’lláh had inherited a fine calligraphic hand from His father. During one of Bahá’u’lláh’s trips into the town of Sulaymáníyyih, a paper with Bahá’u’lláh’s penmanship fell into the hands of one of the Sufi shaykhs (leader, teacher, holy man) of Sulaymaniyyih. Realizing that this ‘Darvish Muhammad' was something more than He appeared to be, this Sufi shaykh went to Him and was soon learning from Him. 

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

As a result of a dream a resident of Sulaymáníyyih sought Bahá’u’lláh out while He was living in caves of Kurdistán

Bahá’u’lláh was still pursuing His solitary existence on that mountain when a certain Shaykh, a resident of Sulaymáníyyih, who owned a property in that neighborhood, sought Him out, as directed in a dream he had of the Prophet Muhammad. 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By’)

Bahá’u’lláh’s attendant Áqá Abu'l-Qásim was attacked and killed

From time to time, Bahá’u’lláh came into Sulaymáníyyih from the caves in search of the necessities of life. Áqá Abu'l-Qásim also visited Him and carried provisions to Him. Then a time came when Aqá Abu'l-Qásim had to leave Bahá’u’lláh and go to Irán to obtain money and certain goods. At the frontier, on his return, he was set upon either by highwaymen or frontier patrols and was mortally wounded. When he was found he was near to death, but was able to say that his name was Abu’l-Qásim, that he was a native of Hamadan, and that whatever he carried of money and goods belonged to Danish Muhammad, whose haunts were the uplands of Kurdish ‘Iraq. 

- Hasan Balyuzi (‘Bahá’u’lláh King of Glory’)

Many years later, Bahá’u’lláh described His situation in Kurdistán

“Soon after Our arrival, [to Baghdád] We betook Ourself to the mountains of Kurdistán, where We led for a time a life of complete solitude. We sought shelter upon the summit of a remote mountain which lay at some three days’ distance from the nearest human habitation. The comforts of life were completely lacking. We remained entirely isolated from Our fellow men until a certain Shaykh Ismá’íl discovered Our abode and brought Us the food We needed.” 

- Bahá’u’lláh (Quoted by Nabil, ‘The Dawn-Breakers, translated and edited by Shoghi Effendi)

Dressed in the garb of a dervish and taking the name Darvish Muhammad Bahá’u’lláh lived in a cave in the mountains of Kurdistan

Dressed in the garb of a dervish, those Sufis who wander from town to town, Bahá’u’lláh took the name Darvish Muhammad and assumed the life of a hermit, living in a cave in the mountains of Kurdistan.

Bahá’u’lláh’s daughter remembered what he had described of His life in these mountains:

‘The food was easy to describe - coarse bread, a little cheese was the usual diet; sometimes, but very rarely, a cup of milk; into this would be put some rice, and a tiny bit of sugar. When boiled together, these scanty rations provided the great treat of a sort of rice pudding.' (Bahiyyih Khanum, quoted by Lady Blomfield in “Chosen Highway”)

Bahá’u’lláh’s attendant, Aqa Abu’l-Qasim Hamadani lived in the town of Sulaymaniyyih and obtained provisions for Baha'u'llah, who would occasionally visit the town to go to the public baths. 

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

Sulaymániyyih, as it was in 1844

Sulaymániyyih, 1930s

Today Sulaymániyyih is a very pleasant small town, at a distance of about 200 miles from Baghdad, built amidst three hills and surrounded by trees and verdure. But it must have been otherwise in Bahá’u’lláh’s time, for Commander James F. Jones of the Indian Navy, who accompanied Sir Henry Rawlinson on a tour of Kurdistan in 1844, writes thus of Sulaymániyyih as he found it:

Sulimaniyeh, the capital of the Pachalic, is a collection of small and ruinous houses, bearing a more mean appearance than, I believe, the most wretched hamlet in England. This is, however, not attributable to the poverty of the Kurds alone, but to the nomad habits of its occupants, who, in the spring, summer, and autumn, abandon the town, and spread themselves over the country . . . After its second foundation by Ibrahim Pacha [sixty-two years previously], it gradually improved, and in Rich's time boasted of about a thousand houses. I believe, at the present time, it scarcely contains half that number of tenable dwellings, and is, moreover, considered unhealthily situated when compared with the more salubrious and less confined region of the adjoining plain. Built on the skirt of a low and barren range, which rises up immediately behind it, it is either entirely shut out from the cooler breezes that sweep the plain, or is visited by constant hot winds which blow from the E, and NE. over the heated ridge during the summer months. 

- Hasan Balyuzi (‘Bahá’u’lláh King of Glory’)

The “initial and impassioned outpourings of a Soul struggling to unburden itself, in the solitude of a self-imposed exile”

In the odes He revealed, whilst wrapped in His devotions during those days of utter seclusion, and in the prayers and soliloquies which, in verse and prose, both in Arabic and Persian, poured from His sorrow-laden soul, many of which He was wont to chant aloud to Himself, at dawn and during the watches of the night, He

• lauded the names and attributes of His Creator,
• extolled the glories and mysteries of His own Revelation,
• sang the praises of that Maiden that personified the Spirit of God within Him,
• dwelt on His loneliness and His past and future tribulations,
• expatiated upon the blindness of His generation, the perfidy of His friends and the perversity of His enemies,
• affirmed His determination to arise and, if needs be, offer up His life for the vindication of His Cause,
• stressed those essential pre-requisites which every seeker after Truth must possess, and
• recalled, in anticipation of the lot that was to be His,
• the tragedy of the Imám Husayn in Karbilá,
• the plight of Muhammad in Mecca,
• the sufferings of Jesus at the hands of the Jews,
• the trials of Moses inflicted by Pharaoh and his people and
• the ordeal of Joseph as He languished in a pit by reason of the treachery of His brothers.

These initial and impassioned outpourings of a Soul struggling to unburden itself, in the solitude of a self-imposed exile (many of them, alas lost to posterity) are, with the Tablet of Kullu’t-Ta‘ám and the poem entitled Rashh-i-‘Amá, revealed in Tihrán, the first fruits of His Divine Pen. They are the forerunners of those immortal works—the Kitáb-i-Íqán, the Hidden Words and the Seven Valleys—which in the years preceding His Declaration in Baghdád, were to enrich so vastly the steadily swelling volume of His writings, and which paved the way for a further flowering of His prophetic genius in His epoch-making Proclamation to the world, couched in the form of mighty Epistles to the kings and rulers of mankind, and finally for the last fruition of His Mission in the Laws and Ordinances of His Dispensation formulated during His confinement in the Most Great Prison of ‘Akká. 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By’)

The unbelievable sufferings of Bahá’u’lláh

... By the righteousness of God! I have borne what neither the oceans, nor the waves, nor the fruits, nor any created thing, whether of the past or of the future, hath borne or will be capable of bearing. 

- Bahá’u’lláh (From a Tablet; provisional translation by Hand of the Cause Hassan Balyuzi)

Bahá’u’lláh recalls those painful days during His retirement

View of the mountains where Bahá’u’lláh
stayed in Sulaymaniyyih, 1940

At times His dwelling-place was a cave to which He refers in His Tablets addressed to the famous Shaykh ‘Abdu’r-Rahmán and to Maryam, a kinswoman of His. “I roamed the wilderness of resignation” He thus depicts, in the Lawh-i-Maryam, the rigors of His austere solitude, “traveling in such wise that in My exile every eye wept sore over Me, and all created things shed tears of blood because of My anguish. The birds of the air were My companions and the beasts of the field My associates.” “From My eyes,” He, referring in the Kitáb-i-Íqán to those days, testifies, “there rained tears of anguish, and in My bleeding heart surged an ocean of agonizing pain. Many a night I had no food for sustenance, and many a day My body found no rest.… Alone I communed with My spirit, oblivious of the world and all that is therein.” 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By’)

Sojourn in the mountains of Kurdistan 1854-6

Bahá’u’lláh's kashkúl

Attired in the garb of a traveler, coarsely clad, taking with Him nothing but his kashkúl (alms-bowl) and a change of clothes, and assuming the name of Darvísh Muhammad, Bahá’u’lláh retired to the wilderness, and lived for a time on a mountain named Sar-Galú, so far removed from human habitations that only twice a year, at seed sowing and harvest time, it was visited by the peasants of that region. Alone and undisturbed, He passed a considerable part of His retirement on the top of that mountain in a rude structure, made of stone, which served those peasants as a shelter against the extremities of the weather. 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By)

The kashkúl which He had with Him in the mountains of Kurdistan is preserved today in the International Baha'i Archives on Mount Carmel. 

- Hasan Balyuzi (‘Bahá’u’lláh King of Glory’)

Bahá’u’lláh, accompanied by an attendant, left Baghdád for “Kurdistán, a region whose sturdy and warlike people were known for their age-long hostility to the Persians”

Suddenly, and without informing any one even among the members of His own family, on the 12th of Rajab 1270 A.H. (April 10, 1854), He departed, accompanied by an attendant, a Muhammadan named Abu’l-Qásim-i-Hamadání, to whom He gave a sum of money, instructing him to act as a merchant and use it for his own purposes. Shortly after, that servant was attacked by thieves and killed, and Bahá’u’lláh was left entirely alone in His wanderings through the wastes of Kurdistán, a region whose sturdy and warlike people were known for their age-long hostility to the Persians, whom they regarded as seceders from the Faith of Islám, and from whom they differed in their outlook, race and language. 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By’)

Bahá’u’lláh had no intension to go back to Baghdád

…in Our solitude We were unaware of the harm or benefit, the health or ailment, of any soul. Alone, We communed with Our spirit, oblivious of the world and all that is therein… Our withdrawal contemplated no return, and Our separation hoped for no reunion. The one object of Our retirement was to avoid becoming a subject of discord among the faithful, a source of disturbance unto Our companions, the means of injury to any soul, or the cause of sorrow to any heart. Beyond these. We cherished no other intention, and apart from them. We had no end in view. 

- Bahá’u’lláh (‘The Kitab-i-Iqan)

 

Bahá’u’lláh’s family didn’t know where He went

One morning, the household of Bahá’u’lláh awoke to find Him gone. And no one knew where to seek Him. That day was 10 April 1854. It was to Sulaymáníyyih, in the heart and uplands of Kurdish ‘Iráq, that Bahá’u’lláh had turned for seclusion. 

- Hasan Balyuzi (‘Bahá’u’lláh King of Glory’)

10 April 1854: Bahá’u’lláh left Baghdád

Seeing that his presence in Baghdád was in danger of splitting the community, Bahá’u’lláh decided to leave the scene of the conflict for the mountains 300 kilometers to the north of Baghdád which are the domains of the Kurdish people. He took with him one attendant, Aqá ‘Abu’l-Qásim Hamadáni, who was not well- known among the Bábís, and left suddenly, informing no-one of where He was going. 

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

A prayer by Bahá’u’lláh describing His agonizing conditions

O God, my God! Be Thou not far from me, for tribulation upon tribulation hath gathered about me. O God, my God! Leave me not to myself, for the extreme of adversity hath come upon me. Out of the pure milk, drawn from the breasts of Thy loving-kindness, give me to drink, for my thirst hath utterly consumed me. Beneath the shadow of the wings of Thy mercy shelter me, for all mine adversaries with one consent have fallen upon me. Keep me near to the throne of Thy majesty, face to face with the revelation of the signs of Thy glory, for wretchedness hath grievously touched me. With the fruits of the Tree of Thine Eternity nourish me, for uttermost weakness hath overtaken me. From the cups of joy, proffered by the hands of Thy tender mercies, feed me, for manifold sorrows have laid mighty hold upon me. With the broidered robe of Thine omnipotent sovereignty attire me, for poverty hath altogether despoiled me. Lulled by the cooing of the Dove of Thine Eternity, suffer me to sleep, for woes at their blackest have befallen me. Before the throne of Thy oneness, amid the blaze of the beauty of Thy countenance, cause me to abide, for fear and trembling have violently crushed me. Beneath the ocean of Thy forgiveness, faced with the restlessness of the leviathan of glory, immerse me, for my sins have utterly doomed me. 

- Bahá’u’lláh ('Prayers and Meditations by Bahá’u’lláh')

“For two years or rather less” Bahá’u’lláh “shunned all else but God”

“For two years or rather less,” He, likewise, in another Tablet, declares, “I shunned all else but God, and closed Mine eyes to all except Him, that haply the fire of hatred may die down and the heat of jealousy abate.” 

- Hasan Balyuzi (‘Bahá’u’lláh King of Glory’)

Bahá’u’lláh’s “object of…retirement”; “Our separation hoped for no reunion”

Finally, discerning, as He Himself testifies in the Kitáb-i-Íqán, “the signs of impending events,” He decided that before they happened He would retire. “The one object of Our retirement,” He, in that same Book affirms, “was to avoid becoming a subject of discord among the faithful, a source of disturbance unto Our companions, the means of injury to any soul, or the cause of sorrow to any heart.” “Our withdrawal,” He, moreover, in that same passage emphatically asserts, “contemplated no return, and Our separation hoped for no reunion.” 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By’)

Bahá’u'lláh reached the decision to take Himself away from Baghdád

…Bahá’u'lláh reached the decision to take Himself away from Baghdád and from the society of men whom He knew and who knew Him. Such seclusion from the gatherings of men has always occurred in the lives of the Manifestations of God. Moses went out to the desert of Sinai. Buddha sought the wilds of India. Christ walked the wilderness of Judaea, Muhammad paced the sunbaked hillocks of Arabia. 

- Hasan Balyuzi (‘Bahá’u’lláh King of Glory’)

Bahá’u’lláh “decided…to retire”: - “these showers of afflictions and unceasing calamities”

In the early days of Our arrival in this land, [Iraq] when We discerned the signs of impending events, We decided, ere they happened, to retire. We betook Ourselves to the wilderness, and there, separated and alone, led for two years a life of complete solitude. From Our eyes there rained tears of anguish, and in Our bleeding heart there surged an ocean of agonizing pain. Many a night We had no food for sustenance, and many a day Our body found no rest. By Him Who hath My being between His hands! notwithstanding these showers of afflictions and unceasing calamities, Our soul was wrapt in blissful joy, and Our whole being evinced an ineffable gladness. 

- Baha’u’llah (‘The Kitab-i-Iqan’)