- 1847-03-31 —
Táhirih's activities in Iraq so alarm some Bábís of Kázimayn that they agitated against her. Siyyid `Alí Bishr wrote to the Báb in Máh-Kú on their behalf. The Báb replied praising Táhirih, causing the Kázimayn Bábís to withdraw from the Faith. [Bab163]
- Among those Táhirih met in Baghdád was Hakím Masíh, a Jewish doctor who years later becomes the first Bahá'í of Jewish background. [Bab165]
- Táhirih was sent back to Persia by Najíb Páshá. She was accompanied by a number of Bábís; they made a number of stops along the way, enrolling supporters for the Cause of the Báb. [Bab163–4; BBRSM216]
- Ma'ani says Táhirih left Baghdád early in 1847.
- In Kirand 1,200 people are reported to have volunteered to follow her. [Bab164 DB272; TN20]
- B164 says the number is 12,000; DB272 says it was 1,200.
- In Kirmánsháh she was respectfully received by the `ulamá. [Bab164; DB272]
- Táhirih arrived in Hamadán. Her father had sent her brothers here to persuade her to return to her native city of Qazvín. She agreed on condition that she may remain in Hamadán long enough to tell people about the Báb. [Bab165; DB273]
- MF180 says Táhirih remained in Hamadán for two months.
- 1847-08-00 — Táhirih sent Mullá Ibráhím Mahallátí to present to the chief mujtahid of Hamadán her dissertation in defence of the Bábí Cause. Mahallátí was attacked and severely beaten.
- 1847-08-00 — On her departure from Hamadán Táhirih asked most of the Arab Bábís travelling with her to return to Iraq. [B165; DB273]
Upon arriving in Qazvín, Táhirih refused her estranged husband's attempts at reconciliation and lived with her father. Her father-in-law Hájí Mullá Taqí, felt insulted and denounced the Shaykhís and Bábís. [B166; DB2736] - 1874-00-00 —
The passing of Mullá Sádiq-i-Muqaddas-i-Khurásání entitled by Bahá'u'lláh Ism'lláh'l-Asdaq (In the Name of God the Most Truthful) in Hamadán. He was born in Mashhad in around 1800, the son of a cleric, he furthered his own clerical studies in Karbila under the Shaykhi leader Sayyid Qasim Rashti, eventually gaining the rank of mujtahid, and becoming known by the honorific title Muqaddas ('the holy one').
- As a young man he had been a disciple of Siyyid Kázim and had met Siyyid 'Alí-Muhammad in Karbilá. He was among the first believers who identified with the Message of the Báb. See DB100 and EB7 for the story of how he independently determined His identity when he met Mullá Husayn in Isfahán on his way to deliver a tablet to Bahá'u'lláh in Tehran. The very next day he left Isfahán for Shíráz on foot arriving 12 days later to find that the Báb had already departed for pilgrimage.
- He took up residence in Shíráz and received a Tablet from the Báb instructing him to change the Call to Prayer. See DB146-148, EB13-14 for the story of how he endured over 900 strokes of the lash on the command of Husayn Khán-i-Írva´ní, the Governor of the province of Fars, and remained indifferent to the pain. (6 August, 1845) He was expelled from the city and proceeded to Yazd. He had similar fate in that city and was banished. He, together with Quddús and Mullá Alí Akbar'-i-Ardistání, were the first three Bábís known to suffer persecution for the Faith on Persian soil.
- On the way to Khurásán he joined Mullá Husayn and those who would participate in the Tabarsí siege where he was on hand for the death of Mullá Husayn. (DB381) After the deception and massacre he was one of the few survivors and, as a prisoner, was taken to Mázindarán to be executed by the family Prince Mihdí-Qulí Mírzá who had commanded the royal troops and had been killed in battle. On route the party called on the clerics to interrogate him and his fellow Bábis and they became convinced that they were not heretics deserving of execution. The prisoners were to be sent to Tehran but escaped and made their way to Míhámí and eventually to Mashad.
- In 1861, after life in that city became impossible, he went to Baghdád where he attained the presence of Bahá'u'lláh. After 14 months he returned to his native province of Khurásán.
- He continued in his audacious teaching and as a result was taken to Tehran where he was kept in the Síhåh-Chál. He taught a number of fellow prisoners about the Promised One and converted Hakím Masíh, the Jewish physician assigned to attend to the prisoners. He was the first Bahá'í of Jewish background in Tehran (and was the grandfather of Lutfu'lláh Hakím, a former member of the Universal House of Justice.) After 28 months imprisonment he was pardoned but refuse to leave without his fellow prisoners. The Sháh released 40 of the 43 prisoners. (The remaining three were guilty of actual crimes.)
- After Tehran he went to Khurásán and returned to the capital some three years later to help in changing the hiding place of the remains of the Báb. Then he travelled to Káshán, Isfahán and Yazd where he convinced some of the Afnáns to accept the truth of their Nephew's claims. After returning to Khurásán he was given permission to make a pilgrimage to 'Akká where he remained for some four months, returning by way of Mosul and Baghdád. When he reached Hamadán he was exhausted. Twelve days after his arrival he passed.
- He had been the recipient of many tablets from Bahá'u'lláh including a Tablet of Visitation after his passing. One of the most well-know tablets was the Lawh-i-Ahbáb (Tablet of the Friends). It is thought He revealed this Tablet some time after leaving the barracks in 'Akká, about 1870-1871. [RoB3p258-260, List of the Tablets of Bahá'u'lláh]
- He was the father of Ibn-i-Asdaq who Bahá'u'lláh appointed a Hand of the Cause of God. [EB19]
- 'Abdu'l-Baha posthumously referred to him as a Hand of the Cause of God.
- References [LoF32-41, MF5-8, DB381. EB7-23, BBR 69-70]
Note: Other sources fix his passing, EB23 and LoF32: 1889, but Bahá'í Encyclopedia Project had determine his passing as 1291 A.H or 1874-1875. The source is a letter from the Research Department dated 25 July 2005. - 1875-00-00 — Ḥakím Áqá Ján was the first Jewish believer from Hamadán. Given his position of leadership in the Jewish community, his acceptance of the Cause guided countless other Jews of Hamadán to do the same. He was convinced of the truth of the Faith after attending the talks of Hand of the Cause Ibn-i-Aṣdaq who had come from Khurásán to Hamadán and would hold gatherings for teaching the Cause.
The wife of Ḥakím Áqá Ján, Ṭúṭí Khánum, was a deeply faithful believer and his son, Mírzá Mihdí Khán, a doctor of medicine like his father, became the personal physician of Náṣiri'd-Dín Sháh.
In 1881, on his deathbed, Ḥakím Áqá Ján was reported to have seen Bahá'u'lláh standing in his room although He was in the Holy Land. In a tablet addressed to his son after his passing, Bahá'u'lláh said that He was with him at the moment of his ascension. [An Account of the Life of Ḥakím Áqá Ján translated by Adobe Masumian]
For more information on the enrolment of Persian Jews see Jewish Identities in Iran: Resistance and Conversion to Islam and the Baha'i Faith by Mehrdad Amanat as well as Arsalan Geula's Iranian Bahá'ís from Jewish Background: A Portrait of an Emerging Bahá'í Community.]
- 1889-00-00 — The passing of Hand of the Cause Mullá Sádiq Maqaddas Khurásáni also known by the designation Jináb-i-Ismu'lláhu'l-Asdaq.
[MoF5-8; LoF32-41; EB7-23]
Note that The Bahá'í Encyclopedia Project dates his passing 1874-1875. - 1894-00-02 —
Two Bahá'ís were arrested and bastinadoed in Níshápúr. One died seven days later, the other two years later. [BW18:384]
- Hájí Yárí, a Bahá'í of Jewish background, was arrested and imprisoned in Hamadán. [BW18:384]
- A Bahá'í in Dastjirdán, Khurásán, Áqá `Abdu'l-Vahháb Mukhtárí, was beaten and expelled from the village. [BW18:384]
- Bahá'ís in Fárán, Khurásán, were beaten and Bahá'í homes were looted. [BW18:384]
- 1897-00-00 —
Fifteen Bahá'ís were arrested in Saysán, Ádharbáyján. They were taken to Tabríz, imprisoned and fined. [BW18:384]
- Three Bahá'ís were arrested in Nayríz on the orders of Áqá Najafí, the `Son of the Wolf'. [BW18:384]
- The homes of several Bahá'ís in Hamadán were looted and ransacked after complaints by Jews of the town against Bahá'ís of Jewish background. [BW18:384]
- 1898-04-00 — Nine Bahá'ís attending a Ridván meeting were arrested, beaten and imprisoned in Hamadán. [BW18:384]
- 1903-06-08 — Bahá'ís in Maláyir, Hamadán, are attacked, beaten and imprisoned. Two are killed. [BW18:385]
- 1904-00-03 —
At this point there were separate Spiritual Assemblies for the Jewish and Zoroastrian Bahá'ís in Hamadán and Tihrán. [BBRSM:151; CB371; CT33]
- See BW2:275–9 for a letter from the `Israelitish' Bahá'í Assembly of Tihrán of November 1904.
- 1932-04-00 — Keith Ransom-Kehler travelled to Persia at the request of the Guardian where she served for sixteen months before she fell ill. She entered from the Western frontier and started by visiting the friends of Kirmansháh, Hamadán and Qazvín. After staying some time in Iṣfahán and recovering from sickness she travelled to Adhirbáyján. She then made another journey through the East and North, and the friends of Khurásán and Mázindarán and Gilán had the bounty of her presence. After spending time in Tehran where she made seven attempts to sent petitions to the Shah requesting that he lift the ban on Bahá'í literature and the restriction on holding Bahá'í meetings, she travelled to the village of Hasan-Ábád near Qom, then to Qom, Kashán, the village of Árán, the town of Jaushiqán and back to Kashán. She departed on the 5th of October for Isfahán and arrived the next day and continued with the program arranged for her. She fell it with chills and high fever and was confined to bed on the 10th of October. She was constantly attended by Najmiyyih Khánum ’Alá’í, the graduate nurse who had been her Ṭihrán hostess. In accordance with the Guardian’s instructions, this lady and her husband, Raḥmatu’lláh Khán ’Alá’í, had placed themselves entirely at Keith's disposition during her sojourn in this country. She passed away on the 23rd of October 1933 and was diagnosed as having smallpox with a complication of dysentery. [BW5p23-28]
entered Peria from the western frontie
- 1934-00-04 —
The government of Iran took several measures against the Bahá'ís throughout the country. [BW18p389]
- Nineteen Bahá'í schools are closed in Káshán, Qazvín, Yazd, Najafábád, Ábádih and elsewhere. [ARG109]
- Bahá'í meetings were forbidden in many towns, including Tihrán, Mashhad, Sabzivár, Qazvín and Arák.
- Bahá'ís centres in Káshán, Hamadán and Záhidán were closed by the authorities.
- Some Bahá'í government employees were dismissed.
- Some Bahá'í military personnel were stripped of their rank and imprisoned.
- Bahá'ís in many places were harassed over the filling-in of marriage certificates, census forms and other legal documents.
- 1981-06-14 —
Seven members of the Local Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Hamadan were executed by firing squad. These members were: Mr. Muhammad (Suhrab) Habibi, Mr. Muhammad-Baqir (Suhayl) Habibi, Mr. Husayn Khandil, Mr. Tarazu'llah Khuzayn, Mr. Husayn Mutlaq, Dr. Firuz Na'imi, and Dr. Nasir Vafa'i. The ribs of Tarazu'llah Khuzayn were crushed, and his hands were slashed. His legs and thighs had been pierced with a bayonet, and the injuries had turned his skin black and the tissues were swollen. [He was sixty-four when he died.] Suhrab Habibi's back had been branded with a hot ring – his own – and he had severe burns. The fingers of Husayn Khandil were slashed and his abdomen had been cut open. Dr. Na'imi's back had been broken and Dr. Vafa'i's thighs had been cut open; Suhayl Habibi's shoulders had been broken and smashed. Hossein Mutlaq had not been tortured but his body showed the greatest number of bullet wounds.
- Prior to their execution all six had been held in a 6 X 71/2 ft. cell for 137 days. They had to sleep by turns and they were not allowed to bathe.
- After their execution the bodies were dumped in the near-by hospital and were transported to the cemetery accompanied by a crowd of Bahá'ís and townspeople alike. Everyone was given an opportunity to view the tortured bodies. [Iran Press Watch; World Order, Series2, Volume_17 Issue 1 p14-31 written by Zhínús Mahmúdí.]
- See the story of Dr Firouz Naeimi also in Track Persia.
- See the story of Dr Naser Vafa'i.
- 2025-09-17 — Six Baha’i women in Hamadan, western Iran, who have been sentenced to a combined total of 39 years in prison, are facing imminent imprisonment. They were charged and sentenced for their belief in the Bahá'í Faith. The arrests follow a joint statement by 18 United Nations experts who raised the alarm at the “systematic targeting of Bahá'í women, ” flagging the “increase” in these human rights violations and denouncing the “arrests, summoning for interrogation, enforced disappearance, raids on homes, confiscation of personal belongings, limitations on freedom of movement and prolonged consecutive deprivations of liberty.”
The six Bahá'í women were first arrested in November 2023, held in solitary confinement for 31 days, which runs counter to international law, and forced to endure prolonged interrogations without access to lawyers or their families. Guilty verdicts and sentences were handed down in April 2024—after which the women appealed the verdicts. The six women are Zarrindokht Ahadzadeh, Farideh Ayyoubi, Noura Ayyoubi, Neda Mohebbi, Jaleh Rezaie, and Atefeh Zahedi. Two of the women, Atefeh and Neda, have children from as young as five years old. [BIC News]
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