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’)