The Baha'i Communities of Iran: Vol. 1, 1851-1921: The North of Iran

Contents List of Illustrations

ix

Introduction xiii Acknowledgements xxi 1 Tehran

1

2 Khurasan

119

3 Simnan and Damghan

242

4 Mazandaran and Gurgan

269

5 Gilan

328

6 Adharbayjan

360

7 Khamsih (Zanjan)

451

8 Qazvin

467

9 Qumm

501

Glossary

517

Bibliography

525

Index

549

5

Gilan Gilan is a northern province of Iran occupying the western half of the south Caspian littoral and separated from the rest of Iran to the south by the Elburz range of mountains. Like Mazandaran, it has a semi-tropical climate and dense vegetation. The people speak a distinctive dialect of Persian called Gilaki. Rice is the main crop in the lowlands, with fruit being plentiful, and the mulberry tree grows readily, enabling silkworms to be cultivated. Timber is cut in the forests and fisheries are also an important source of food and income (see map on p. 271, fig. 85).

There is one partial history of the Baha’i Faith in Rasht by a Jewish Baha’i physician from Hamadan, Mirza Yahya ‘Amid ul-Atibba (d.

1347/1928), which was written on Shoghi Effendi’s general instruction for such histories and was completed in 1926. But it is in fact more of an autobiographical account covering events only from the time of the author’s arrival in Rasht in 1889 until his departure in 1903. There is a similar autobiographical work by another Jewish Baha’i physician of Hamadan, Mirza Mahdi Tabib Hamadani, which covers events from the author’s arrival in Lahijan in 1319/1901 and Rasht in about 1325/1907 until 1921.

gilan

329

The second leader of the Shaykhi movement, Sayyid Kazim Rashti, was born in Rasht, the capital of Gilan, and the Shaykhis were strong in the province. There had been some Babis in Rasht, led by Karbala’i Ibrahim Samsari, who had travelled to Adharbayjan in about 1854 and had become a follower of Mirza Asadu’llah Dayyan. He had returned and convinced some nine others who, in the confused state that followed the execution of the Bab, were known as Dayyanis or Asadis.1 Some of them or their children later became Baha’is.2 In the 1850s there was also a Babi in Karbala named Shaykh Hasan Rashti but it seems likely that he had become a Babi in Karbala rather than Rasht.3 Despite this early Shaykhi and Babi presence, the Baha’i Faith was slow in becoming established in Gilan, coming first to Lahijan and then spreading from there to Rasht.

Rasht Rasht is the capital of Gilan province (339 km northwest of Tehran, 36 km south of the port of Anzali, pop. 20,000 in 1871, 40,000 in 1914, 109,593 in 1951). After a paved road was built along the route from Anzali through Rasht and on to Tehran in 1899, this became the major route for goods from Russia to enter Iran and Rasht itself came under strong Russian influence.

Although there is a report of Babis in Rasht and that they became Dayyanis or Asadis (see above), this community seems to have died out and subsequently, the Baha’i Faith spread to Rasht from Lahijan (see below).

Aqa Sayyid Javad Qazvini was the first Baha’i to move from Lahijan to Rasht and he was soon joined, in 1289/1872, by Haji Nasir Qazvini, a survivor of Shaykh Tabarsi who traded as the agent of Samandar (see pp.

471, 473). ‘Andalib (for his early life, see below under ‘Lahijan’) then also moved to Rasht (sometime after 1873) and took a room in the Mirza Baba Caravanserai from which he traded. These three were very active in spreading the Baha’i Faith. Several others moved from Qazvin and Lahijan to Rasht and there were also an increasing number of converts and others.

By 1296/1879, the Baha’i community had some 20 members and the numbers continued to increase thereafter.4 1 2 3 4

ZH 6:923, 8b:757–8.

ZH 8b:774.

MH 1:445.

ZH 6:928; MH 7:161–4; Samandar, Athar 219–20, 279.

330

the baha ’ i communities of iran

The first resident of Rasht to become a Baha’i was a certain Mirza Mahdi Rashti (c. 1853–1920). While he was studying in a religious college in Rasht in 1290/1873, he heard of the new religion from Shaykh ‘Ali Rawdih-khan, who himself had been converted by Nazim ul-Hukama and ‘Andalib in Lahijan. Mirza Mahdi went to Lahijan to ask about it from Nazim ul-Hukama and ‘Andalib. He was converted and returned to Rasht, converting both his father and some of his fellow students. Later he opened a pharmacy/perfumery shop in the bazaar. In 1297/1880 he was taken before Mir ‘Abdu’l-Baqi Mujtahid, a leading local cleric. When asked whether he had become a ‘Babi’, he replied that a certain dervish had come to him, talked to him about the Baha’i Faith and had presented a number of proofs to which he had had no answer and he was now asking the mujtahid for the answer. In this way he was able to present the Baha’i proofs to the large crowd that had gathered in the presence of the mujtahid in anticipation of the punishment of the ‘Babi’. He was arrested with the other Baha’is in 1883 (see below) but released after only 19 days, on condition he left town. His shop was sacked and he lost everything he owned.

He moved to Ashkhabad and was able to move his Baha’i wife Shirin and their children there after about two years. He eventually became a trader living in such cities as Samarqand (13 years) and Shanghai (3 years).5 Among the prominent citizens of Rasht to be converted by ‘Andalib in about 1879 were five brothers who were sayyids. They were sons of Sayyid Baqir and so were known as Baqirof and were named by Baha’u’llah Sadati-Khams (the five sayyids; the family later took the surname Khamsi).

Their names were Sayyid Rida, Sayyid Mahmud, Mir ‘Ali Naqi, Sayyid Asadu’llah (later known as Baratbaz) and Sayyid Nasru’llah (see fig. 95).6 Although they were deprived of a considerable inheritance when they became Baha’is, they were successful merchants and soon had acquired more than the inheritance they had lost. The eldest brother, Sayyid Rida, died relatively young in 1298/1881. There is some question over whether Sayyid Mahmud or Mir ‘Ali Naqi was the next eldest. The former, who traded in jewels, had studied in Karbala and had been the main one among the brothers to discuss the new religion with ‘Andalib. Mir ‘Ali Naqi (d.

December 1902) moved to Tehran and became a prominent merchant, founding a caravanserai in the Tehran bazaar called the Mir ‘Ali Naqi Serai.

5 6

ZH 6:942–6; MH 3:298–300.

ZH 6:940–1; Mihrabkhani, Khandan 13 states that there were in fact seven brothers but two (probably the oldest two) did not become Baha’is.

End of this sample.

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