The Báb sent Mullá `Alíy-i-Bastámí to Najaf and Karbalá to proclaim His Cause among the Shaykhís. In Najaf Mullá `Alí delivered a letter from the Báb to Shaykh Muhammad-Hasan Najafí, the leading Shí`í divine and the keeper of the shrines in Iraq. [BBRSM15; DB87-91; SBBH20–1, HotD46]
• The Shaykh's rejection of the claim led to a violent debate. Mullá `Alí was taken to Baghdád and imprisoned there. After a public trial, a joint tribunal of Sunní and Shí`í `ulamá, he was sent to Istanbul. He was the first martyr of the Bábí Dispensation. It is significant that Mullá Hasan Gawhar, a leading figure of the Shaykhí school, participated in the condemnation as it marks the first major challenge to Bábism from a Shaykhí leader. [Bab27, 37–8, 58; BBR83–90; BBRSM17; BKG31; DB90–2; MMBA, BBR2p17, GPB10]

Principal Bahá'ís in Baghdád were arrested by the Turkish authorities and exiled to Mosul and other places. [BBR265; BKG247; CH129–30; RB2:333]
• RB2:333 indicates this took place towards the end of Bahá'u'lláh's stay in Adrianople.
• About 70 people were exiled. [GPB178; RB2:334] Estimate given by Hájí Mirzá Haydar-;Alí is 80. (DOH12]
• See BKG184 for an illustration of Mosul.
• See BKG183 for a description of the city.
• See RB2:334 for the hardships suffered by the exiles.
• They remained in Mosul for some 20 years until Bahá'u'lláh advised the community to disband (1885-1886). Their hardship was lessened by generous contributions from the King of Martyrs and the Beloved of Martyrs. A charity fund was established, the first fund of that kind in any Bahá'í community. [RB2:334–6]

Násiri'd-Dín Sháh maded a pilgrimage to the shrines in Iraq. In preparation for his visit the Bahá'ís were rounded up, arrested and exiled. [BBR267; BBRSM90; BKG441]
• See BKG441–3 for details of the exile.

A teenage Muslim girl learned of the Faith from one of her Bahá’í school classmates and, together with her older sister, became seriously interested in the teachings. When the Bahá’í Faith was referred to during a discussion of religion in class in one of the Government schools in Baghdad, the girl rose to her feet in defence of the Cause. When questioned by the teacher she announced her belief in Baha’u’llah, an assertion which created a stir in the class. The students spoke of the incident the same day to their parents, among whom was the Minister of Education, who, the following day, ordered an investigation to be made. He himself went to the school, dismissed the headmaster, and following the intervention of the Minister of the Interior ordered the arrest of the girl, together with that of three Bahá’í girls studying at that school. A chain of arrests, totalling almost fifty, followed in the course of the next few months. [BW15p138]
• One of the detainees, Anisa Abdul-Razzaq Abbas wrote of her time of her confinement over six years. Her book was translated by her daughter, Alhan Irwin, and published under the title Without Hesitation: An Account of an Iraqi Prisoner of Conscience. The book was published by One Voice Press in March 2021.

Following the arrest of more than 50 Bahá'ís in Iraq, their trial opened and the Bahá'ís were exonerated.
• The Revolutionary Council was dissatisfied with this result and the case was ordered to be reopened in a military court with the death sentence requested for all the detainees. [BW16:138]

The Iraqi military court tried nearly 50 Bahá'ís and handed down in absentia sentences of life imprisonment on ten Bahá'ís, two of whom were deceased and a number of whom were of other nationalities or Iraqis not resident in Iraq.
• In the weeks following, 24 Bahá'ís had their property confiscated, one Bahá'í was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment and another to 20 years. [BW16:138]

In Iraq, a young Bahá'í was detained, interrogated, beaten and asked to recant his faith when he specified his religion on a form.
• When he refused to recant his faith he was tried by a revolutionary court and sentenced to ten years' imprisonment. [BW16:138]

Bahá'ís celebrated the bicentennial of the birth of Bahá'u'lláh in a ceremony in Baghdad attended by representatives from the Iraqi parliament, the Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights (IHCHR), the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq, civil society as well as media activists.
• This was considered the most prominent ceremony where Bahá'ís officially announced themselves for the first time in 47 years, as the Baathist Revolutionary Command Council issued Decree No. 105 in 1970 to ban Bahá'í activities. As a consequence, Bahá'í administrative institutions in Iraq were dissolved and any activity where Bahá'ís declared their religious identity was punishable by imprisonment.
• During the proceedings they asked for support to rescind the law on prohibiting Bahá'í activity, which was still in effect despite the fact that the law contradicted the 2005 constitution, which guaranteed freedom of belief to all citizens.
• Millions of Bahá'ís around the world celebrated the honorary bicentennial of the birth of Bahá'u'lláh on Oct. 21-22. Bahá'ís in Baghdad celebrated after one month of postponements given the security difficulties and challenges surrounding the ceremony. [Al-Monitor.com]

On a December day in 1973, Anisa Abdul-Razzaq Abbas heard a knock at the door of the Baghdad home she was visiting. She opened the door to greet two men from the Iraqi Al-Amn security force, who immediately placed her under arrest. Her crime: being a member of the Bahá'í Faith, Over the next six years, Anisa would spend three years in Iraq's infamous Abu Ghraib prison and a further three years in Al-Rashaad prison before her release in 1979. During her years of incarceration, Anisa would rely on her faith to meet the myriad challenges of prison life. Day after day, she and her fellow-prisoners experienced levels of cruelty and injustice that most would find unthinkable. Separated from her husband, who was being held in the men's prison, and from her children, Alhan and Ruwa, who were without both parents, Anisa was sustained through her darkest days by the love of her family, and by the strength and solidarity offered by her fellow Bahá'í prisoners.*Anisa's story is one of patience, courage, and steadfastness in the face of religious prejudice and state-sponsored oppression, and it is a reminder to us all of the resilient strength of the human spirit. *Their eldest child, Abir was attending university in Sulaimaniyyeh after serving a six month sentence.