Mihdi, Mirza
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Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Shahriar Razavi, Mihdi, Mirza, bahai-library.com.
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Mihdí, Mírzá (1848–70)
Son of Bahá’u’lláh, who entitled him "the Purest Branch" (Ghusnu’lláhu’l-Athar);
younger brother of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and Bahíyyih Khánum.

ARTICLE OUTLINE:                                      LIFE
Life                                             Mírzá Mihdí was the youngest of three surviving
Death and Burial                                 children of Bahá’u’lláh and His wife Ásíyih
Station                                          Khánum, who is generally known by the title
Reinterment                                      Navváb (Highness). Mírzá Mihdí was born in 1848
in the family’s rented house near the Shemiran
ARTICLE RESOURCES:
Gate (Darvázih Shimrán) in northern Tehran. He
Notes                                            was named after Mihdí, Bahá’u’lláh’s elder full
Other Sources and Related Reading                brother, who was dear to Him and who had
recently died. In later years Bahá’u’lláh gave Mírzá
Mihdí the title "the Purest Branch."

Mírzá Mihdí was four years old when Bahá’u’lláh was imprisoned with a number of other Bábís in the
Siyáh-Chál (Black Pit) dungeon in Tehran in August 1852 and the family’s possessions were plundered
and seized. Four months later, Bahá’u’lláh was released and then banished for life from Iran. He chose
to go to Baghdad, the capital of the Ottoman province of Iraq. On 12 January 1853 He and His family
left Tehran on the first stage of their exile. Mírzá Mihdí, who was unwell at the time and unfit to
undertake three months of hard travel across the Iranian Plateau and the Zagros Mountains in severe
winter weather, had to be left behind in the care of relatives. 1 He was not reunited with his parents
until 1860, after Bahá’u’lláh’s return from the mountains of Sulaymaniyah, where He lived in seclusion
for two years. Mírzá Mihdí, then twelve, joined his parents in Baghdad, and the family remained there
for another three years, until April 1863.

Mírzá Mihdí accompanied Bahá’u’lláh in His successive exiles to
Istanbul, Edirne, and, finally, to the penal colony of Acre in
Ottoman Palestine (See: Bahá’í World Center.Early
Development). The band of exiles—numbering close to seventy—
arrived in Acre on 31 August 1868. They were confined to the
prison barracks under harsh conditions, enduring the rigors of
malnutrition, disease, and lack of potable water. They also
suffered extreme isolation; the strict terms of their
imprisonment limited contact among themselves and with the
local population. For the first time since Bahá’u’lláh’s banishment
from Iran in 1853, He was totally inaccessible to those who
sought His presence. Followers who made the arduous journey
from Iran often had to return without having seen Him. Some,
standing beyond the moat that encircles the city and looking at
the barracks from a great distance, were able to catch "a
fleeting glimpse" of His face in the window of His cell. If they
managed to enter the prison city, they were able at best to
catch sight of Him among the crowds at the public bath, where
Mírzá Mihdí and ‘Abdu’l- Bahá were brothers. Haifa,
the prisoners were taken weekly to bathe.2                            Israel. © Bahá’í International Community. Bahá’í
Media bank
Despite his youth, Mírzá Mihdí was accustomed to hardship and
was recognized as "a pillar of strength" among the exiles during the difficult period after their departure
from Baghdad.3 He resembled ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in appearance and character and was noted for his piety,
gentleness, dignity, courtesy, and patience. Throughout his brief adult life, Mírzá Mihdí was Bahá’u’lláh’s
companion and served as one of His secretaries, recording the sacred texts (tablets) that He revealed.
Many such manuscripts in Mírzá Mihdí’s excellent handwriting are extant.

DEATH AND BURIAL
One summer evening in 1870, while pacing on the prison rooftop, as was his custom, Mírzá Mihdí was
so deep in prayer and meditation that he failed to note a familiar hazard. He plunged through an open
skylight to the floor below, falling on a wooden crate that pierced his chest and caused severe bleeding.
An Italian physician was called to the prison, but Mírzá Mihdí died the next day, 23 June. During the
hours when he lay dying, he expressed to Bahá’u’lláh a final wish: that his death might be accepted as
a sacrifice so that the restrictions of confinement might be eased, allowing the followers of Bahá’u’lláh
who sought to visit Him the opportunity to attain His presence.

While ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, grief-stricken, kept watch outside a tent pitched in the prison courtyard, Mírzá
Mihdí’s body was washed, shrouded, and prepared for interment by Shaykh Mahmúd ‘Arrábí, a
prominent resident of Acre who had become a follower of Bahá’u’lláh. Lacking the means to buy a
coffin, Bahá’u’lláh obtained the money by having a rug from His own room sold. Mírzá Mihdí’s coffin,
escorted by fortress guards, was carried beyond the city walls and buried in an Arab cemetery adjacent
to the shrine of Nabí Sálih, traditionally considered the burial place of a prophet mentioned in the
Qur’an.

Around the time of Mírzá Mihdí’s burial, an earthquake shook the
region—strong enough to be felt thirty-five kilometers (21.8
miles) away in Nazareth, where it was noted by the Bahá’í
historian Nabíl, who was staying there at the time. Bahá’u’lláh
refers to the earthquake in a passage addressed to His dead
son, stating, "When thou wast laid to rest in the earth, the
earth itself trembled in its longing to meet thee." 4

Four months after Mírzá Mihdí’s death, his dying wish—that the
way be cleared for those seeking to visit his father—was
realized. The exiles were released from the barracks and allowed
to take up residence in the town of Acre, where it was possible
for them to receive visitors.

The loss of Mírzá Mihdí was a source of intense anguish for
Bahá’u’lláh and His family. One of their companions recalled
hearing Bahá’u’lláh lament "Mihdí! O Mihdí!" as His son’s life
ebbed away.5 On the day of Mírzá Mihdí’s death, Bahá’u’lláh
wrote: "Glorified art Thou, O Lord, my God! . . . Thou seest me
in the hands of Mine enemies, and My son blood-stained before
Thy face, O Thou in Whose hands is the kingdom of all names. I
have, O my Lord, offered up that which Thou hast given Me,
that Thy servants may be quickened and all that dwell on earth
The skylight of the prison area, now restored, where   be united."6 Bahá’u’lláh is reported to have comforted a grieving
Mírzá Mihdí fell. Acre, 2004. Photographer: Nancy      and disconsolate Navváb by repeating the assurance that God
Wong. © Bahá’í International Community. Bahá’í
Media Bank                                             had accepted their son as His ransom.7
STATION
Shoghi Effendi states that Bahá’u’lláh exalted the death of Mírzá Mihdí "to the rank of those great acts
of atonement associated with Abraham’s intended sacrifice of His son, with the crucifixion of Jesus
Christ and the martyrdom of the Imám Husayn." 8

Bahá’u’lláh referred to Mírzá Mihdí on the day of his death as
"he that was created by the light of Bahá" and described his
dying "at a time when he lay imprisoned at the hands of his
enemies" as a "martyrdom." In the same tablet, Bahá’u’lláh
extols Mírzá Mihdí’s station: "Happy art thou in that thou hast
been faithful to the Covenant of God and His Testament, until
Thou didst sacrifice thyself before the face of thy Lord, the
Almighty, the Unconstrained. Thou, in truth, hast been wronged,
and to this testifieth the Beauty of Him, the Self-Subsisting.
Thou didst, in the first days of thy life, bear that which hath
caused all things to groan, and made every pillar to tremble.
Happy is the one that remembereth thee, and draweth nigh,
through thee, unto God, the Creator of the Morn." 9

In another tablet, Bahá’u’lláh states: "Blessed art thou, . . . and
blessed he that turneth unto thee, and visiteth thy grave, and
draweth nigh, through thee, unto God, the Lord of all that was
and shall be . . . I testify that thou didst return in meekness
unto thine abode. Great is thy blessedness and the blessedness        Mírzá Mihdí, Akká, Israel. © Bahá’í International
Community. Bahá’í Media Bank
of them that hold fast unto the hem of thy outspread robe . . .
Thou art, verily, the trust of God and His treasure in this land. Erelong will God reveal through thee
that which He hath desired." 10

REINTERMENT
In December 1939—despite obstacles caused by the outbreak of World War II, local instability, riots,
and the opposition of adversaries—Shoghi Effendi succeeded in transferring the remains of Mírzá Mihdí
and Navváb from two different Muslim cemeteries in Acre to Mount Carmel in Haifa. On 24 December
1939 the coffins lay in state in the Shrine of the Báb. The following day, they were buried in the
monument gardens near the Shrine of the Báb, alongside the resting place of Bahíyyih Khánum, Mírzá
Mihdí’s sister, who died in Haifa in 1932.

Shoghi Effendi himself was among the bearers who carried the coffins of his great-grandmother and
granduncle from the Shrine of the Báb to their final resting places, easing each into place in turn and
scattering flowers upon them. After the tombs were sealed, Shoghi Effendi recited prayers that
Bahá’u’lláh had revealed to be read at their grave sites.

Of the significance of the reinterments Shoghi Effendi writes:

The conjunction of these three resting-places, under the shadow of the Báb’s own
Tomb, embosomed in the heart of Carmel, facing the snow-white city across the bay
of ‘Akká [Acre], the Qiblih of the Bahá’í world, set in a garden of exquisite beauty,
reinforces, if we would correctly estimate its significance, the spiritual potencies of a
spot, designated by Bahá’u’lláh Himself the seat of God’s throne. It marks, too, a
further milestone in the road leading eventually to the establishment of that
permanent world Administrative Center of the future Bahá’í Commonwealth, destined
never to be separated from, and to function in the proximity of, the Spiritual Center
of that Faith, in a land already revered and held sacred alike by the adherents of
three of the world’s outstanding religious systems. 11

Further, Shoghi Effendi identifies the precincts of these three
resting places as the "focal center" of the administrative
institutions at the Bahá’í World Center: "the conjunction of the
resting-place of the Greatest Holy Leaf with those of her brother
and mother incalculably reinforces the spiritual potencies of that
consecrated Spot which . . . is destined to evolve into the focal
center of those world-shaking, world-embracing, world-directing
administrative institutions, ordained by Bahá’u’lláh and
anticipated by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. . . ."12

Author: Shahriar Razavi

© 2009 National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States.
Terms of Use.
Resting places of The Purest Branch (Mírzá Mihdí) and
Navváb, the wife of Bahá'u'lláh, in the Monument
Gardens on Mount Carmel. Haifa, Israel. 1990s. ©
Bahá’í International Community. Bahá’í Media Bank

Notes:
1. Various accounts indicate that Mírzá Mihdí was left in Tehran in the care of his maternal grandmother
(see David S. Ruhe, Robe of Light: The Persian Years of the Supreme Prophet Bahá’u’lláh, 1817–1853
[Oxford: George Ronald, 1994] 165); his maternal great-grandmother (See Lady [Sara Louisa] Blomfield,
The Chosen Highway [1940; Oxford: George Ronald, 2007] 45); his paternal aunt, Hadrat-i-Ukht, identified
as Sárih Khánum by H. M. Balyuzi (Bahá’u’lláh: The King of Glory, 2nd rev. ed. [Oxford: George Ronald,
1991] 13) (See Zikrullah Khadem, "The Purest Branch and the New Order," Payám-i-Bahá’í 79 (June
1986): 11); and "relatives" (See H. M. Balyuzi, Bahá’u’lláh: The King of Glory 102). The Research
Department of the Universal House of Justice, which has no definitive information on the topic, suggests
that it is possible that more than one relative may have cared for Mírzá Mihdí over the seven years before
he rejoined his parents in Baghdad.
2. Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, new ed. (Wilmette, IL, USA: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1974, 2004
printing) 187.
3. H. M. Balyuzi, Bahá’u’lláh: The King of Glory 314.
4. Bahá’u’lláh quoted in Shoghi Effendi, This Decisive Hour: Messages from Shoghi Effendi to the North
American Bahá’ís, 1932–1946 (Wilmette, IL, USA: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 2002) 64.12: 47.
5. Bahá’u’lláh quoted in Balyuzi, Bahá’u’lláh: The King of Glory 311.
6. Bahá’u’lláh quoted in Shoghi Effendi, This Decisive Hour 64.11: 47.
7. "Transfer of the Remains of the Brother and Mother of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to Mt. Carmel," The Bahá’í World,
vol. 8: 1938–40 (Wilmette, IL, USA: Bahá’í Publishing Committee, 1942) 256.
8. Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By 188.
9. Bahá’u’lláh quoted in Shoghi Effendi, This Decisive Hour 64.9–10: 46–47.
10. Bahá’u’lláh quoted in Shoghi Effendi, This Decisive Hour 64.12: 47.
11. Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By 348.
12. Shoghi Effendi, This Decisive Hour 64.6: 46 (also in "Transfer of the Remains" 245).

Understanding the Citations
Citing Bahá’í Encyclopedia Project Articles
Other Sources and Related Reading:
See Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By 188–89; Adib Taherzadeh, The Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh, vol. 3: ‘Akká,
The Early Years, 1868–77 (Oxford: George Ronald, 1983) 204–16; David S. Ruhe, Robe of Light 165;
David S. Ruhe, Door of Hope: The Bahá’í Faith in the Holy Land, 2nd rev. ed. (Oxford: George Ronald,
2001) 31–33, 159–62. The main source of information regarding the death and reinterment of Mírzá Mihdí
is "Transfer of the Remains of the Brother and Mother of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to Mt. Carmel" in The Bahá’í World,
vol. 8: 245–58, which includes communications from Shoghi Effendi and a personal account by his wife,
Rúhíyyih Khánum. See also Rúhíyyih Rabbani, The Priceless Pearl, 2nd ed. (Oakham, U.K.: Bahá’í
Publishing, 2000) 259–63. Additional information is found in "The Centenary of the Passing of Mírzá Mihdí,"
in The Bahá’í World, vol. 15: 1968–73 (Haifa: Bahá’í World Centre, 1976) 158–63. For the message from
the Universal House of Justice regarding the commemoration of the centenary of the passing of Mírzá Mihdí,
see Universal House of Justice, Messages from the Universal House of Justice, 1963–1986: The Third Epoch
of the Formative Age (Wilmette, IL, USA: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1996) 80: 168–69.
Persian sources include Zikrullah Khadem, "The Purest Branch and the New Order," Payám-i-Bahá’í 79
(June 1986): 11–15, and 80–81 (July–Aug. 1986): 13–17; and Riyád Qadímí, Jamál-i-Abhá (The Glorious
Beauty) (New Delhi: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1986) 112–15.
Information in response to the editors’ queries concerning Mírzá Mihdí’s early life was provided by the
Research Department of the Universal House of Justice, "Year of Mírzá Mihdí’s birth and the identity of the
relative who cared for him after Bahá’u’lláh’s exile to Baghdád," memorandum to the Universal House of
Justice, 8 May 2003.

Understanding the Citations
Citing Bahá’í Encyclopedia Project Articles
-- Mihdi, Mirza (Used by permission of the curator)