Badi' Khurasani

Badí` Khurasani

Moojan Momen

1995

Badi` Khurasani Aqa Buzurg (c. 1852-1869), who

was given the title Badi` (wondrous, new) by Bahá'u'lláh, was the bearer

of Bahá'u'lláh's tablet to Nasiru'd-Din Shah and was killed on the orders

of the Shah in 1869.

Aqa Buzurg was the son of Haji `Abdu'l-Majid Nishapuri,

a Babi who had survived Shaykh Tabarsi (q.v.). In his early years, Badi`

showed no interest in his father's religion and even some antagonism, to

the extent that the other Babis of Nishapur were worried that Aqa Buzurg

might denounce them.

Nabil-A`zam (q.v.), who was visiting Nishapur, managed

one day to engage Badi` in conversation and win him over to the new religion.

Badi` now became so fervent in his new belief that he managed to persuade

his father to allow him to go with Shaykh Ahmad Fani, who was setting off

to visit Bahá'u'lláh in Edirne.

Shaykh Ahmad stopped in Yazd for a time and Badi`, impatient

to proceed, set off on foot towards Baghdad. Shortly after Badi` reached

Baghdad, there occurred in about April-May 1868, the martyrdom of Aqa `Abdu'r-Rasul

Qumi, who had been the water-carrier for the House of Bahá'u'lláh in Baghdad.

As there was no one to perform this task, Badi` stayed for a time and carried

water from the Tigris river to the House of Bahá'u'lláh and to the Bahá'ís

of Baghdad. It was a dangerous occupation, as the enemies of the Bahá'ís

were constantly taunting him, and he was attacked on several occasions

and stabbed. When the Bahá'í community of Baghdad was exiled to Mosul in

August 1868, Badi` also went there and for a time continued to act as water-carrier.

Eventually, hearing of Bahá'u'lláh's transfer to Akka,

Badi` set off for there. He arrived outside the city walls of Akka in 1869.

Because he wore the humble clothes appropriate to a water-carrier, he was

able to slip inside the city past the guards who rigorously excluded Bahá'í

pilgrims.

Badi` wandered around Akka and eventually found the Bahá'í

prisoners when they came to the mosque for prayers. He was able to get

inside the citadel and had two interviews with Bahá'u'lláh.

The tablet to Nasiru'd-Din Shah had been revealed some

years before in Edirne and Bahá'u'lláh now commissioned Badi` to deliver

this personally to the Shah. Bahá'u'lláh arranged for the tablet to be

delivered to Badi` in Haifa and Badi` immediately set off on the journey

back to Iran.

On his arrival in Tehran, Badi` sought out the Shah's

summer camp, approached the Shah, and delivered Bahá'u'lláh's tablet. Badi`

was arrested and tortured to reveal the names of his Bahá'í companions;

but he maintained, as was indeed the case, that he had had no companions

and was merely following the orders of Bahá'u'lláh. In the end he was killed

in July 1869. An account of his heroism in the face of torture has been

left by Muhammad-Vali Sipahdar-i-A`zam, who heard it from Kazim Khan, the

executioner (BKG 300-309).

Bibliography. BKG 293-310. ZH 6:30-32.

BBR 254-55.

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