The Rise of Baha
10. Baha’s Sudden Flight to Suleymaniyya
Baha arrived in Baghdad upon expulsion from Iran, on “Jamad Thani 28, 1269 A.H. (April 8, 1853), Shoghi Effendi’s god passes by, P. 109.
Baha’s activities in Iraq from the time of his arrival in Baghdad till his removal to Istanbul on “Dhil Qa’da 14, 1279 A.H. May 3rd, 1863”, ibid, P. 133.
10.7 The Bayani’s Account on Baha’s Sudden Departure to Suleymaniyya
Let us now examine the other side of the picture, what the Bayanis have to say about Baha’s sudden flight to Kurdistan and return to Baghdad.
10.7.1. Hasht Bihisht
Prof. Browne’s account in the Traveler’s Narrative, Note W, PP. 356-359, and in his Persian Introduction to Mirza Jani’s Nuqta-al-Kaf, PP. 39-48, quoting the Hasht-Bihisht (the Eight Paradises), printed, PP. 301-302 as his authority:
“Now Baha was a man who from his youth upwards had associated and mixed with men of every class, whereby he had acquired a certain ‘breadth of disposition’ and ‘religious pliability’ which attracted around him men of like mind, to whom some slackening of the severer code of the Bayan was not unwelcome. Certain of the old school of BÁBis such as Mirza Ahmad (the brother of Mirza Jani of Kashan, the author of the Nuqta-al-Kaf; Mirza Ahmad was murdered by Baha’s men at Baghdad. [See assassinations], Mirza Buzurg of Kermanshah [murdered by Baha’s men at Baghdad, see assassinations], Sayyid Jawad of Karbala, Sayyid Muhammad of Isfahan [murdered by Baha’s men at Acre, [see assassinations], Mulla Muhammad Jafar of Naragh [Entitled Raqib], Mirza Muhammad Rida [murdered by Baha’s men at Baghdad [see assassinations], the Mutawali Bashi (Chief Custodian of the Shrine of Qum) [Mirza Muhamad Husayn, Mulla Rajab Ali Ghahir [whose sister Fatima was the Point’s second wife, and who his brother Aqa Ali Muhammad were murdered by Baha’s men at Baghdad and Karbala respectively, see assassinations] and others, perceiving this tendency to innovation and relaxation, remonstrated so vigorously with Mirza Husayn Ali [Baha] that he left Baghdad in wrath and went towards Sulaymaniyya, in the neighbourhood of which he abode amongst the Kurds for nearly two years. During this period his whereabouts was unknown to the BÁBis at Baghdad. When at length it became known, Subh-i-Azal wrote a letter to him ‘inviting him to return”.
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