November 6, 2017

June 1851: Baha’u’llah’s first exile

Mirza Taqi Khan
Soon after the martyrdom of the Báb, Mirza Taqi Khan, the Grand Vizier (the Prime minister) who was responsible for and had ordered the death of the Báb, and was now the Shah's brother-in-law, sought a meeting with Baha'u'llah. At this meeting in his office he stated in gently insinuating fashion:

"I am well aware of the nature and influence of your activities, and  am firmly convinced that were it not for the support and assistance which you have extended to Mulla Husayn and his companions, neither he nor his band of inexperienced students would have been capable of resisting for seven months the forces of the imperial  government. The ability and skill with which you have managed to direct and encourage those efforts could not fail to excite my admiration, but I have been unable to obtain any evidence whereby I could establish your complicity in this affair. I feel it a pity that so resourceful a person should not be given an opportunity to serve his country and sovereign. The thought has come to me to suggest that you visit Karbila in these days when the Shah is contemplating a visit to Isfahan. It is my intention to be enabled, upon your return, to confer upon you the position of Amir-Divan (Head of the Court) a function you could admirably discharge."  (‘The Dawn-Breakers’)

Although couched politely, this was tantamount to an order by the Prime Minister.

Bahá’u’lláh courteously refused to accept the position but advised Mírzá Taqí Khán of His wish to go on pilgrimage to the holy cities of 'Iraq. Many years later, Baha'u'llah told Nabil-i-A'zam: 'Had the Amir-Nizam been aware of My true position, he would certainly have laid hold on Me. He exerted the utmost effort to discover the real situation, but was unsuccessful. God wished him to be ignorant of it.' (God Passes By)

The immediacy of departure had not been specified at that momentous interview. But a few short days of preparation and of farewells to the family, relatives and friends were necessary before Baha’u’llah could depart, accompanied only by kinsmen Shukru'llah of Nur and Muhammad of Mazindaran, a survivor of Fort Shaykh Tabarsi. Bahá’u’lláh left the capital for Karbilá sometime during the month of June in the year 1851.

Left behind was a grieving and worried family, keenly aware of the official nature of his exile but unsure of the true plans of the dangerous Taqi Khan (the Prime Minister), who might easily be plotting Baha’u’llah’s death in Iraq, far from His loyal relatives and friends.

The dusty road led westward to Kirmanshah across the four-thousand-foot Iranian plateau ribbed with its mountain spines; there Baha’u’llah spent the month of Ramadan, the Islamic period of fasting, before continuing the journey to Baghdad. 
(Adapted from ‘Baha’u’llah, the King of Glory’, by Balyuzi; ‘Robe of Light, vol. 1’, by David Ruhe; and ‘The Dawn-Breakers’, by Nabil, translated and edited by Shoghi Effendi)