Iran: Province of Ádharbayjan
Exported from Holy-Writings.com on 2026-06-20 - 1 clipping

Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Moojan Momen, Iran: Province of Ádharbayjan, bahai-library.com.
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

Iran: Province of Ádharbáyján

Moojan Momen

1994

Ádharbáyján is the northwest province of Iran. Its
capital is Tabriz. In modern Iran, it is divided into East and West Ádharbáyján.
It is one of the richest and most populous of Iran's provinces. It is peopled
mainly by Turkish-speaking Shí`ís. In the west of the province
there are also many Kurds (who are mostly Sunní or `Aliyu'lláhí)
and Assyrian Christians. During the Qájár period it was customary
for the Crown Prince to be the governor of this province.

The Báb was imprisoned in Ádharbáyján
for much of his ministry. He arrived in the province in early May 1847,
was detained at the Ark (Citadel) in Tabriz for forty days, and then sent
on to Mákú, on the orders of the Prime Minister, Hájí
Mírzá Áqásí (q.v.), in July. During
his imprisonment at Mákú the Báb wrote two of his
most important works, the Bayán (q.v.) and the Seven Proofs (q.v.).
At first the terms of the imprisonment were very strict. The warden, Mírzá
`Alí Khán, soon warmed to his prisoner and allowed
easy access to him for the Bábís who made their way to this
remote area. Because of such leniency and the pressure brought by the Russian
Minister Dolgorukov to remove the Báb from the vicinity of the Russian
border, Hájí Mírzá Áqásí
ordered that the Báb be removed to the fortress of Chihríq
near Lake Urúmiyyih. The Báb left Mákú for

Chihríq on 9 April 1848.

In July 1848 the Báb was summoned to Tabriz to face trial before
the Crown Prince Násiru'd-Dín Mírzá and then
returned to Chihríq. During the period when the Báb
was imprisoned in Mákú and
Chihríq, many of
the leading followers of the Báb traveled through this province
in order to meet him. In mid-June 1850 the Báb was again brought
to Tabriz where his execution occurred (see "Báb, Martyrdom of"
for details of this).

The Bábí community of Ádharbáyján
was one of the strongest. Five of the Báb's leading disciples, the
Letters of the Living (q.v.), came from here. Most of them returned to
their home towns and villages and established important Bábí
communities in Tabriz, Khuy, Urúmiyyih, and Marághih
as well as in a number of villages such as Mílán, Mamaqán,
and Saysán. In several places the growth was on the basis of pre-existing
Shaykhí (q.v.) communities. There were numerous important
converts such as Mírzá Asadu'lláh-i-Dayyán
of Khúy, Mírzá `Ali Sayyáh (d. 1871),
Mullá Husayn-i-Dakhíl (both of Marághih),
Sulaymán Khán (martyred 1852), and Mírzá
Muhammad-`Alí Anís, who was martyred with the Báb.

In 1852 there was persecution of the Bábí community in
Mílán following the attempt on the life of the Shah. During
the 1850s there was a great deal of confusion in Ádharbáyján.
Many of the Bábís appear to have followed Mírzá
Asadu'lláh Dayyán of Marághih and were called
Dayyánís. Dayyán himself was murdered on the orders
of Mírzá Yahyá Azal (q.v.) in 1856. In Tabriz itself,
an Arab Bábí from Karbalá, Sayyid `Alí, who
called himself Sayyid `Uluvv and whose influence in Karbalá Bahá'u'lláh
had countered in 1851 (DB 593), won the allegiance of many of the Bábís.

After Bahá'u'lláh publicly declared his mission from Edirne,
there was much disagreement among the various factions at first. Following
the murder of Sayyid `Alí `Uluvv, three Bahá'ís who
were on their way to Edirne were arrested and executed in Tabriz in January
1867 (BBR 251-3). Since Ádharbáyján was on
the road to Edirne from the rest of Iran, many leading Bahá'ís
passed through the province en route to visit Bahá'u'lláh
in the 1860s. In consequence, most of the Bábís of the province
became Bahá'ís, although numbers of Azalís remained
for some time. In Mamaqán, for example, a number of Bábís
became Bahá'ís but it was not until one of those who remained
unconvinced, Hájí Mullá `Alí, visited Akka
in the time of `Abdu'l-Bahá (1310/1892) and was there converted
that the others became Bahá'ís. One source claims that after
this, "the root of the Yahyá'ís [Azalís] was cut out
of Ádharbáyján" (Uskú'í 34-5;
ZH 6:16).

A number of the Bahá'ís were important officials in the
province. These included Mírzá `Abdu'lláh
Khán
Núrí (d. c. 1317/1899), who was farrásh-khalwat

(chief steward of the household) to the Crown Prince and governor of the
province, Muzaffaru'd-Dín Mírzá, and was converted
by Nabíl-i-Azam (q.v.) in 1292/1875; and Mírzá Mu`ínu's-Saltanih
(d. c. 1344/1925), who was converted in 1293/1876 through Fádil
Qá'iní. Other provincial officials such as Mírzá
`Abdu'lláh
Khán Sar-rishtih-dár (vazír
máliyyih, minister of finance) and Ridá Qulí Khán
Afshár (governor of Sá'in Qal`ih) had been Bábís
and later became Bahá'ís.

In addition to those communities that had existed from the time of the
Báb, a number of new ones were established. From Saysán,
a number of Bahá'ís settled in nearby villages such as Bábákandí,
Díznáb and Matanih. Similarly, from Marághih,
Bahá'ís moved to Khurmázad, while Mullá
Husayn Khusrawsháhí in Malik-kandí converted
a number of the Chádúlú tribe. This resulted in Bahá'í
communities in villages such as Qijilú, Nawrúzlú,
and Áqjah. Although one of the Letters of the Living was from Ardabíl,
there does not appear to have been much Bahá'í activity in
that town until the conversion in about 1920 of Mullá `Abdu'l-`Azím,
known as Amínu'l-`Ulamá. He was martyred in Ardabíl
in 1927.

Being an area of relative safety for Bahá'ís, some migrated
to this province after persecution in their own hometowns. From Yazd came
Hájí Mullá Mihdí and his two sons, `Alí
Muhammad Varqá (q.v.) and Mírzá Husayn; from Naráq,
Mírzá Mahmúd; from Gurgán, Mírzá
Husayn Hudá (martyred 1333/1914). A number of Bahá'ís,
however, migrated from this province to Ashkhabad, to the Caucasus, and
to the Haifa-Akka area.

There was a crisis in the affairs of the Bahá'í community
after the passing of Bahá'u'lláh, when Mírzá
Jalíl Khú'í, a prominent Bahá'í
of this province, became a partisan of Mírzá Muhammad `Alí.
He and Áqá Jamál Burújirdí caused much
disruption to the community from about 1311/1893 to 1316/1898. At first
they had some success. For example, it is recorded that in Tabriz only
four remained followers of `Abdu'l-Bahá until the arrival, at `Abdu'l-Bahá's
instruction, of the Hand of the Cause Ibn-i-Abhar (q.v.), Hájí
Mírzá Haydar-`Alí Isfahání (q.v.) and
others (ZH 6:69).

During the time of `Abdu'l-Bahá, the Bahá'í community
of Ádharbáyján increased in numbers and influence.
There was expansion into new villages such as Khalkhál,
where a number of prominent citizen were converted, and to new areas such
as Qarih-Shírán, where some sixty members of the Yurtchí
tribe were enrolled. A number of those who were in the retinue of the Prince-Governor
of the province were Bahá'ís, such as Siyyid Ridá
Khán Ábdár. Through such Bahá'ís,
episodes of persecution such as erupted in Marághih in March
1905 or in Saysán in 1315/1897 were kept to small proportions. In
Mamaqán, where there were about fifty Bahá'ís, Mírzá
Ismá`íl Hujjatu'l-Islám was favorable to them and
tried to avert a persecution in February 1897. The Ahmadof brothers from
Mílán controlled an important commercial empire trading with
the Caucasus and beyond until the time of the Bolshevik Revolution. There
were also close links to the Bahá'í community in Russian
Ádharbáyján.

Holy Places

There are a number of Bahá'í holy places associated with
the life of the Báb in this province. The ruins of the fortresses
of Chihríq and Mákú where the Báb was
imprisoned; the citadel in Tabriz where the Báb was kept and the
public square where he was executed; the building in Mílán
to which the remains of the Báb were taken after his execution;
the apartment and public baths in Urúmiyyih used by the Báb.
Most of these being public buildings have never been in Bahá'í
hands.

Bibliography

ZH 3:1-89; 6:5-22; 8a:5-120. Mirza Haydar-`Alí Uskú'í,
History of the Bahá'ís of Adharbáyján,
photocopy of manuscript in Afnan library. History of the Bahá'ís
of Adharbáyján written by Mírzá Husayn-i-Mílání,
photocopy of manuscript in Afnan library.

METADATA

Views7920 views since posted 2010-08-10; last edit 2022-02-05 04:06 UTC;

previous at archive.org.../momen_encyclopedia_adharbayjan
Language
English
Permission
author
Share

Shortlink: bahai-library.com/3490
Citation: ris/3490

select Collection:
Archives
Articles
Articles-unpublished
Audio
Bibliographies
BIC
Biographies
Books
Chronologies
Compilations
Compilations-NSA
Compilations-personal
Documents
East-asia
Encyclopedia
Essays
Etc
Excerpts
Fiction
Glossaries
Guardian
Histories
Introductory
Letters
Maps
Music
Newspapers
NSA-documents
NSA-letters
Personal
Pilgrims
Poetry
Presentations
Resources
Reviews
Scripts
Software
Statistics
Study
Talks
Theses
Transcripts
Translations
UHJ-documents
UHJ-letters
Video
Visual
Writings

home

sitemap

series

chronology

search:
author

title

date

tags

adv. search
languages

inventory

bibliography

abbreviations

links

about

contact

RSS

new
-- Iran: Province of Ádharbayjan (Used by permission of the curator)