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.
10.9 Merits of the Accounts
10.9.3. Persons Who Claimed the Office of H.W.G.S.M.M
Section 5.9 embodies a list in alphabetical order of some of the pretenders who preceded Baha in their pretensions to be Him-Whom-God-Will-Make-Manifest and/or the Imam Husayn returned again. Included in the list of fifteen pretenders are no. 4, Mirza Asadullah Dayyan of Khuyi surnamed Dayyan, whom Baha produces as a proof of his mission (see Baha’s grounds of pretensions) and who was murdered during the Baghdad period of the BÁBi exiles by Mirza Muhammad of Mazandaran, and No.11 Mirza Muhammad Nabil of Zarand, who later became Baha’s historian and Poet-Laureate.
In god passes by, P. 125, Shoghi Effendi states that “Such was the audacity and effrontery of those demoralized and misguided BÁBis that no less than twenty-five persons, according to [Sir Abbas Effendi] Abdul Baha’s testimony, had the presumption to declare themselves to be the Promised One foretold by the BÁB!”
With the particular direction of affairs in his own hands on the strength of the delegation of authority, Baha’s obsession to become the paramount authority in the Bayani fold preyed upon his mind and reasserted itself.
As long ago as in 1951, section 19.1 refers, Baha had given advance notice of his intended declaration at a later time in Baghdad as the Imam Husayn returned again, when he encountered, as he was walking through the streets in Karbala, Shaykh Husayn-i-Zanuzi .”
To Shia Islam, Shoghi Effendi’s god passes by, P. 125, “Baha was the return of the Imam Husayn”.
If others could setup a pretension to the office of the Promised One, Baha viewed from his vantage as acting for Subh-i Azal, stood a better chance of success than the pretenders who had preceded him in their pretensions.
After his return from Kurdistan Baha acted merely on behalf of Subh-i-Azal for the remaining period of the BÁBi exiles sojourn in Baghdad and for a few years in Edirne. By reasons of his acting capacity and of his relationship to Subh-i-Azal Baha stood a much better chance of success than any other previous pretender. Accordingly Baha claimed to be the return of the Imam Hussein, a mirror within the orbit of the Bayan, whom he identified with Him-Whom-God-Will-Make-Manifest, the Promised One of the Bayan, an independent and major manifestation in his cycle to come. Baha rested his claim on a truncated garbled version of the Primal Point’s communication addressed to Azim, the very same communication which Mirza Jani had a few years earlier invoked in support of the vain claims of Zabih and Blind Indian and which was in fact meant for Subh-i-Azal (See Baha’s Grounds of Pretension). Baha even asserted that the author of the communication, the Primal Point, was merely the herald of his coming (see Primal Point’s Tablet For Azim).
“Little by little his resolution took more definite shape, and he fell to thinking how, he might compass the destruction of such of the Bayanis as were likely to oppose him in his contemplated action:” The Traveler’s Narrative, Prof. Browne’s Note W, P. 358.
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