1984: “Some six hundred men, women and children are now in prison”

The year just closing has been overshadowed by the continued persecution of the friends in Iran. They have been forced to disband their administrative structure, they have been harassed, dispossessed, dismissed from employment, made homeless and their children are refused education. Some six hundred men, women and children are now in prison, some denied any contact with their friends and relatives, some subjected to torture and all under pressure to recant their faith. 

- The Universal House of Justice  (Ridvan message, 1984)

circa 1934: An example of persecution faced by a Baha’i

In Kashan a police inspector bought and carried to headquarters a Baha’i calendar printed in Tihran and sold at the Hazirat’ul-Quds in Kashan. The believer who sold the calendar was summoned and interrogated, and afterward taken to the Department of Justice, where among other matters he was questioned as to his religion. Infuriated at the reply that he was a Baha’i, the examiner stated that there are only four recognized religions in Persia (probably Islam, Christianity, Zoroastrianism and Judaism -- Editor) and asked to which of these he belonged. The believer repeated that he was a Baha’i, whereupon the examiner wrote in the registry ‘I have no religion -- I am a Baha’i,’ and told the believer to sign this statement. The believer thereupon wrote: ‘I did not say that I have no religion -- I am a Baha’i’ and to this signed his name. After further investigation a case has been filed against this believer, the outcome of which is not yet known. 

(Baha’i News, no. 81, February 1934)

1933: “The situation in Persia is growing more dangerous…”

The situation in Persia is growing more dangerous, more confused and perplexing every day. Baha’i literature is banned, confiscated and burned. Baha’i marriage certificates are denied recognition by the civil authorities and the status of those who are married among the believers is fraught with incalculable difficulties and dangers. The printing of Baha’i newsletters, magazines and calendars is tacitly forbidden and constantly interfered with. Intolerable restrictions are being increasingly imposed on Baha’i gatherings, celebrations, teaching activities, and inter-assembly communications. With the passing of Keith, that indefatigable, brilliant and wholly consecrated international champion of the Cause, the Persian believers may be entering upon a period of systematic persecution reminiscent of the sufferings of a by-gone day. I urge your Assembly to obtain the fullest and up-to-date information from the Tihran Assembly and to exert the utmost pressure on the Persian Minister at Washington.

- Shoghi Effendi  (Message to the NSA of the United States and Canada, 8 November 1933; Baha’i News, no. 80, January 1934)

Mullá Muhammad-i-Mu’allim-i-Núrí – “was subjected, Quddús only excepted, to the severest atrocities that have ever befallen a defender of the fort of Tabarsí”

Mullá Muhammad-i-Mu’allim-i-Núrí, an intimate companion of Bahá’u’lláh who was closely associated with Him in Núr, in Tihrán, and in Mázindarán. He was famed for his intelligence and learning, and was subjected, Quddús only excepted, to the severest atrocities that have ever befallen a defender of the fort of Tabarsí. The prince had promised that he would release him on condition that he would execrate the name of Quddús, and had pledged his word that, should he be willing to recant, he would take him back with him to Ṭihrán and make him the tutor of his sons. “Never will I consent,” he replied, “to vilify the beloved of God at the bidding of a man such as you. Were you to confer upon me the whole of the kingdom of Persia, I would not for one moment turn my face from my beloved leader. My body is at your mercy, my soul you are powerless to subdue. Torture me as you will, that I may be enabled to demonstrate to you the truth of the verse, ‘Then, wish for death, if ye be men of truth.’”  The prince, infuriated by his answer, gave orders that his body be cut to pieces and that no effort be spared to inflict upon him a most humiliating punishment. 

- Nabil  (‘The Dawn-Breakers’; translated and edited by Shoghi Effendi)

1925: Persecution and martyrdom in Farahan: Ride-Quli Khan, his wife, and son

“In Farahan, province of Iraq-i-Ajam, an old believer, Ride-Quli Khan, who for years past had at the instigation of the fanatical clergy suffered humiliations and heavy losses at the hands of the mob, proceeded a few days ago to Sultan-Abad in order to renew his complaints to the provincial authorities. Profiting by his absence, a band of ruffians break into his house at night in order to carry away any valuable property. His wife, an expectant mother, is awakened and offers resistance. Armed with poignards, they rush on her and inflict on her in a most brutal fashion several mortal wounds. They even proceed to murder her son and are only prevented from doing so by the cry of the neighbors who rush forth to intervene.” 
(A communication by the secretary of the Qaghan Spiritual Assembly to the National Assembly of Persia, dated January 7th, [1925], included in a letter from Shoghi Effendi dated March 3, 1925, addressed to the ‘beloved of the Lord and the handmaids of the Merciful throughout the West’; Baha’i News, no. 6, July-August 1925)

1925: Persecution in Qamsar - Aqa Rida and his wife; Nasru’llah and his wife

“In the village of Qamsar, not very far from Tihran, a Persian, Aqa Rida by name, embraces the Baha’i faith. His friends and relatives are indignant and furious. They determine to persecute him. He is several times beaten severely and injured. They secure the sanction of the local Mulla to enable his wife, without obtaining a divorce, to marry another man. This unhappy person hastens desperately to Qashan and appealing to local authorities seeks and obtains temporary and partial relief. A few days ago, the son of a Mulla, Aqa Ahmad by name, visited Qamsar. Mischief-makers instantly incite him to humiliate, torment, and even murder the miserable convert. He immediately orders his arrest. His agents without notice and in a barbaric manner break into the house of a believer called Nasru’llah, accuse him of having sheltered his co-religionist, and command him to deliver the refugee immediately. Unsatisfied by his protestations and emphatic assurances, they start to search his house, violate the privacy of his home, enter the chamber of his wife, find her lying in bed having given birth to a child the night before, approach her, violently expose her, and shamelessly injure her to the point of almost ending her life. They then turn to her wretched husband and, with the aid of clubs, sticks, and chains, pitilessly mutilate his body. Fallen unconscious, they leave him, thinking him dead, and continue their search. Having fully investigated the matter they find that the husband was right after all and that Aqa Rida had fled to Mazkan. Reinforced by two Siyyids they immediately resolve to pursue him, and arriving in the village suddenly make their appearance at a meeting where the Baha’is were gathered and there instantly recognize their victim. They mercilessly drag him out, bind his hands behind his back, thrust him to the front, and with their whips, chains, and the butt end of their rifles drive him on to Qamsar. The Baha’i women in the vicinity, alarmed and grief-stricken, run after these heartless villains, and with loud lamentations vainly implore their mercy. Annoyed by their wailing they fire at them and disperse them. They drag him to Qamsar till at last he is brought before the Mulla’s son who orders him to recant. But this ardent devotee, though young in faith, refuses to yield and with remarkable fortitude and sublime composure disdains the threats and insults of his enemies. The Mulla’s son, angry and exasperated, gives order first to throw him into the river, then to tie him to the trunk of a tree and inflict on him the most severe corporal punishment. The people, however, with unutterable cruelty drag him through the streets into the main thoroughfare and start to force handfuls of straw into his mouth and with blows and kicks strive to compel him to swallow. They then befoul his face with filth. Finally they so disgrace and dishonor him and resort to such vile methods that the pen would shrink from recording the further unspeakable indignities to which this unfortunate man was subjected...” 

(A communication by the secretary of the Qaghan Spiritual Assembly to the National Assembly of Persia, dated January 7th, [1925], included in a letter from Shoghi Effendi dated March 3, 1925, addressed to the ‘beloved of the Lord and the handmaids of the Merciful throughout the West’; Baha’i News, no. 6, July-August 1925)

Public beheading of a believer during early years of the Baha'i Faith

A square in Tihran, Persia 

(Source: 'Land of Resplendent Glory', by the International Baha'i Audio-Visual Centre, 1971)

circa 1900: Some persecuted Baha'is

(Source: 'Persia - The Awakening East' by W.P. Cresson)

Scene of numerous martyrdom and persecutions

An early 20th-century scene of daily life in an open square in front of the bazaar in central Tehran. This square was the scene of numerous public martyrdom and other persecutions of Bábís and Bahá'ís. 
(The American Bahá'í, August 20, 2002)

Badi – the "Pride of Martyrs", an Apostle of Baha’u’llah

Aqa Buzurg of Khurasan, the illustrious "Badi" (Wonderful); converted to the Faith by Nabil; surnamed the "Pride of Martyrs"; the seventeen year old bearer of the Tablet addressed to Nisiri'd-Din Shah; in whom, as affirmed by Baha’u’llah, "the spirit of might and power was breathed," was arrested, branded for three successive days, his head beaten to a pulp with the butt of a rifle, after which his body was thrown into a pit and earth and stones heaped upon it. After visiting Baha’u’llah in the barracks, during the second year of His confinement, he had arisen with amazing alacrity to carry that Tablet, alone and on foot, to Tihran and deliver it into the hands of the sovereign. A four months' journey had taken him to that city, and, after passing three days in fasting and vigilance, he had met the Shah proceeding on a hunting expedition to Shimiran. He had calmly and respectfully approached His Majesty, calling out, "O King! I have come to thee from Sheba with a weighty message"; whereupon at the Sovereign's order, the Tablet was taken from him and delivered to the mujtahids of Tihran who were commanded to reply to that Epistle - a command which they evaded, recommending instead that the messenger should be put to death. That Tablet was subsequently forwarded by the Shah to the Persian Ambassador in Constantinople, in the hope that its perusal by the Sultan's ministers might serve to further inflame their animosity. For a space of three years Baha'u'llah continued to extol in His writings the heroism of that youth, characterizing the references made by Him to that sublime sacrifice as the "salt of My Tablets."

- Shoghi Effendi  (‘God Passes By’)

Badi's martyrdom site

Site marked 'X' shows the spot where Badi, the bearer of Baha'u'llah's Tablet to the Shah of Persia, was martyred 
(The Baha'i World 1936-1938)

Táhirih's martyrdom site

Site of the Garden of Ilkhani where Táhirih was martyred 
(The Dawn-Breakers)

Táhirih's place of confinement in Tihran

The house of the Kalantar in Tihran where Táhirih was confined (upper room behind tree is the one she occupied) 
(The Dawn-Breakers)

Hujjat: “another champion of conspicuous audacity, of unsubduable will, of remarkable originality and vehement zeal”

Hujjat, another champion of conspicuous audacity, of unsubduable will, of remarkable originality and vehement zeal, was being, swiftly and inevitably, drawn into the fiery furnace whose flames had already enveloped Zanjan and its environs. 

- Shoghi Effendi  (‘God Passes By’)

Vahid: the "unique and peerless figure of his age"

Vahid, pronounced in the Kitáb-i-Íqán to be the "unique and peerless figure of his age," a man of immense erudition and the most preeminent figure to enlist under the banner of the new Faith, to whose "talents and saintliness," to whose "high attainments in the realm of science and philosophy" the Báb had testified in His Dala'il-i-Sab'ih (Seven Proofs), had already, under similar circumstances, been swept into the maelstrom of another upheaval, and was soon to quaff in his turn the cup drained by the heroic martyrs of Mazindaran. 

- Shoghi Effendi  (‘God Passes By’)

Mulla Husayn: “the one but for whom ‘God would not have been established upon the seat of His mercy, nor ascended the throne of eternal glory’”

Mulla Husayn, the first Letter of the Living, surnamed the Babu'l-Báb (the Gate of the Gate); designated as the "Primal Mirror;" on whom eulogies, prayers and visiting Tablets of a number equivalent to thrice the volume of the Qur'án had been lavished by the pen of the Bab; referred to in these eulogies as "beloved of My Heart;" the dust of whose grave, that same Pen had declared, was so potent as to cheer the sorrowful and heal the sick; whom "the creatures, raised in the beginning and in the end" of the Bábí Dispensation, envy, and will continue to envy till the "Day of Judgment;" whom the Kitáb-i-Íqán acclaimed as the one but for whom "God would not have been established upon the seat of His mercy, nor ascended the throne of eternal glory;" to whom Siyyid Kazim had paid such tribute that his disciples suspected that the recipient of such praise might well be the promised One Himself -- such a one had likewise, in the prime of his manhood, died a martyr's death at Tabarsi. 

- Shoghi Effendi  (‘God Passes By’)

Mírzá Abú-Tálib

Mírzá Abú-Tálib, one of the companions of Quddús who survived the struggle of Shaykh Tabarsí  (The Dawn-Breakers)

Quddus’ incredible station & his death compared to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ

Quddus, immortalized by Him [the Bab] as Ismu'llahi'l-Akhir (the Last Name of God); on whom Bahá'u'lláh's Tablet of Kullu't-Ta'am later conferred the sublime appellation of Nuqtiy-i-Ukhra (the Last Point); whom He elevated, in another Tablet, to a rank second to none except that of the Herald of His Revelation; whom He identifies, in still another Tablet, with one of the ‘Messengers charged with imposture’ mentioned in the Qur'án; whom the Persian Bayan extolled as that fellow-pilgrim round whom mirrors to the number of eight Vahids revolve; on whose ‘detachment and the sincerity of whose devotion to God's will God prideth Himself amidst the Concourse on high;’ whom 'Abdu'l-Bahá designated as the ‘Moon of Guidance;’ and whose appearance the Revelation of St. John the Divine anticipated as one of the two ‘Witnesses’ into whom, ere the ‘second woe is past,’ the ‘spirit of life from God’ must enter -- such a man had, in the full bloom of his youth, suffered, in the Sabzih-Maydan of Barfurush, a death which even Jesus Christ, as attested by Bahá'u'lláh, had not faced in the hour of His greatest agony. 

- Shoghi Effendi  (‘God Passes By’)

The “erudite, the twenty-two year old Quddus” – “in rank the first of these Letters [of the Living]

The last, but in rank the first, of these Letters to be inscribed on the Preserved Tablet was the erudite, the twenty-two year old Quddus, a direct descendant of the Imam Hasan and the most esteemed disciple of Siyyid Kazim. 

- Shoghi Effendi  (God Passes By)