Murders and Killings by Baha'u'llah's men.

Assassinations by Baha's Men

Baha started out his pretensions at Edirne, They were preceded and followed by murders committed by Baha's men to remove prominent Babis, who rejected his pretensions. Baha's men included "those servants who fled into exile with God, and beyond them those brought nigh."

In his letter "revelation" at Acre Baha called a halt to these act of violence perpetuated by his 'Party of God (Hezb-ul'llah)' and enjoined self-constraint upon them." See section 3 of this topic.

This was Baha's "Era of the Most Great Peace."

Aqa Sayyid Ali the Arab was murdered in Tabriz:

Subh-i-Azal's brother-in-law Mirza Nasrullah, who was honoured with a letter of commendation from Baha (Baha's amanuensis Mirza Aqa Jan of Kashan's letter to Mirza Nasrullah) was poisoned in Edirne on the eve of Baha's departure to Acre.

Mirza Aqa Jan's letter to Mirza Nasrullah:

The Bab's brother-in-law Mulla Rajab Ali Qahir was murdered in Karbala.

The Bab's brother-in-law Aqa Ali Muhammad (brother of Ghahir) was killed in Baghdad.
See the accounts of assassinations of Qahir & Seraj .

Hajji Mirza Ahmad of Kashan, brother of Mirza Jani of Kashan, author of Nuqtatul Kaf was assassinated in Baghdad.

PP. 40-41, Prof. Browne's Persian Introduction to Mirza Jani of Kashan's Nuqtatul Kaf; P. 306, & P. 308, the Hasht Bihisht;

P. 35, Materials for the study of the BABi religion by Prof. Browne; pp. 119-126, the Kashful-Hiyal, 3rd impression vol. III; the Kitab-i-Subhi, P. 120.

"The Khayyat-Bashi [chief tailor] [Muhammad Khan] and Hajji Ibrahim were murdered in the Carawansaray of the corn-sellers [in Acre] and buried in the quick-time under the platform, which was only mortared up over their bodies. After a while, however the smell of the composing bodies corpses became so offensive that the other inhabitants of the Carwansaray complained to the local authorities, who instituted a search and discovered the bodies."

The Traveller's Narrative, English Translation, Vol II, Professor Browne's Note W.

In his Kitab-i-Subhi, P. 120, author Subhi Fadlullah Muhtadi, one time Persian scribe to Sir Abbas Effendi and a Bahai missionary confirms the Hasht-Bihisht version and adds:

The owner of the Carwansaray is stated to have reported to the local authorities that the victims had died of plague and the matter was hushed up to avoid panic among the local inhabitants.

In his Kashf-al-Hiyal, Vol, I, 6th impression, P.36 author Abd-al-Husayn-Ayati surnamed Awara, one time member of "the Hands of the Cause" and a prominent Bahai missionary, confirms the Hasht-Bihisht account and adds :

The assassins were Ustad Muhammad Ali the Barber [of Isfahan] and his accomplices. These two men were billed because they had presumptuously told Baha's brother Mirza Musa that remittances were being procured from Iran by way of deceit, fraud and blackmail and that their share was denied to them. The text sums as follows:

« و سبب قتلشان این بوده که به کلیم برادر بهاء جسارت کرده گفته اند پول ها را به مکر و حیله و شارلاتانی از ایران میطلبد و با بهره نمیدهد.»

In the Kashf-al-Hiyal Vol. III, 3rd impression, PP. 114-115, the author adds :

"the murder was hushed up upon production of a medical report furnished by a priest physician an old friend of Sir Abbas Effendi, to the local authorities to the effect that the victims had died of plague. The physician received a handsome sum from Sir Abbas Effendi for his service.

Incidentally there two victims were of "these servant's who fled with into exile with god."

In his introduction to the Materials for the Study of the Babi Religion, P. x (PP. 154) Professor Browne says: 'Khayrullah's narrative of the treat addressed to him on account of his apostasy from [i.e. Abbas Effendi Abdul Baha] by Mirza Hasan-i-Khurassani [Sir Abbas Effendi's special envoy, and the history of the sad fate of Mirza Yahya at Jeddah (PP. 156-167) [who had transferred his allegiance to Sir Abbas Effendi's half-brother Mirza Muhammad Ali whose sad fate Sir Abbas Effendi is stated to have foretold, and who was poisoned] read like extracts from the history of the assassins of Alamut and 'the old man of the mountain'."

When Baha, members of his family and his partisans were banished from Edirne to Acre in the holy land, three of Subh-i-Azal's followers namely Sayyid Muhammad of Isfahan, Subh-i-Azal's brother-in-law; Mirza Rida Quli of Tafrish and Aqa Jan Beg Kaj-Kulah, were also exiled to Acre.

Sayyid Muhammad of Isfahan, Mirza Rida Quli of Tafrish, and Aqa Jan Beg Kaj Kulah, were murdered by Baha's men in Acre, in 1872, the assassins included Ustad Muhammad Ali, the Barber of Isfahan. Mirza Jawad's Historical Epitome, Materials for the Study of the BABi Religion, by Prof. Browne, PP. 52-58.

The murder of Haji Sayyid Muhammad of Isfahan is alluded in a passage of Baha's Kitab-i Aqdas (the Most Holy Book) addressed to Subh-i-Azal wherein he says: “God hath taken him who led thee astray.”

Baha describes “Hajji Sayyid Muhammad of Isfahan as a man possessed of utmost degree of atheism or ditheism (Jandaqa), placing him in the same category as Munira Khanum, wife of Abdul Baha.” P. 14, Ibn-al-Baha Badiullah's Memoirs;

In his letter penned in his own hand writing, facsimile of which is attached to and referred to below, and addressed to a partisan of Baha in Iran. At the time, Sir Abbas Effendi seeks to condone and justify the murders on the ground that Mirza Rida Quli of Tafrish conducted hostile propaganda against Baha and his partisans among the local inhabitants, drank wine and ate pork. … and the divine might struck across his back like a shooting star.

In his reference to the murder of these three men, the Kashf-al-Hiyal volume III, 3rd impression, P.117, the author says Sir Abbas Effendi Himself was positively as accountable [in the murder of these three men], nay, he led the murder [gang] and the order [to kill] was issued by his father. Not only that, but in the early days Bahai argument or reasoning Sayyid Muhammad of Isfahan was killed by Sir Abbas Effendi himself and for this reason Sir Abbas Effendi was the Messiah and Sayyid Muhammad Antichrist. Because on the strength of an Islamic tradition Antichrist is to be slain with the sword of the Messiah. When it was realised that this reasoning or argument was scandalous, it was passed over in silence. The text sums as follows:

« چنانچه مکرر اشاره شد جنایات بهاء و پسرانش خیلی بیش از اینهاست راجع به همین سه نفر هم به طور حتم خود عباس افندی شریک بلکه پیش قدم در قتل بوده و فرمان از پدرش صادر شده. در اوایل استدلال میکرده شاند که سید محمد را خود عباس افندی کشته است و باین واسطه او مسیح و سیّد محمد دجال است که در اخبار اسلامی است که دجال به شمشیر مسیح کشته خواهد شد بعد دیدند این استدلال موجب افتضاح است مسکوت گذاشتند. »

P. 125, ibid : All the Bahais say that Baha issued the epistle of wrath

“Where are your swords of vengeance, O, Dominant of the world's [see 12.4.6, in which I have quoted Baha's revelation calling halt to acts of violence committed by his men. A similar passage appears in the text] and the friends [i.e. “those servants who fled into exile with god] understood that the slaying of these men [i.e. Sayyid Muhammad of Isfahan, Mirza Rida Quli of Tafrish, and Aqa Jan Beg Kaj Kulah] was incumbent upon them.

The text sums as follows:

« همه گوسفندان بهاء میگویند که بهاء الله لوح قهریّه صادر کرد که « این اسیاف انتقامک یا قهار العالمین » و احباب دانستند که کشتن آن اشخاص لازم است و یکی از قاتلین استاد محمد علی سلمانی را من خودم 21 سال پیش در عشق آباد دیدم و شرح حبس چندین ساله خود را برایم گفت و گفت وقتیکه تصمیم بر قبل آن مخالفین گرفتم من از جمال مبارک (بهاء ) اجازه خواستم با تبسم و شوخی فرمودند اگر اجازه ندهم چه میکنی عرض کردم اگر اجازه ندهید من شرکت در قتلشان خواهم کرد تبسمی نموده فرمودند مگر از خدا نمیترسی ؟ عرض کردم خدائی غیر از شما نیست که از او بترسم دیدم وجهة مبارک شاد و خندان شد و فرمودند مرحبا موفق باشی!»

“I personally met one of the killers being ‘Muhammad Ali the chief barber’ 21 years ago in Ishq-Abad (of Russia). He told me about his imprisonment which lasted for a few years and said: “When I decided on killing those opposing (Baha), I asked for permission from the blessed Beauty (i.e. Baha). With a simle on his face he asked me what I would do if he did not give me the permission. In response I said that I woul (still) take part in their killing. He smiled and asked “Aren’t you afraid of God?”, I said: “There is no god but you to be afraid of.”. His blessed face became jubilant and happy and said “Well done! Good luck to you!”.

Mirza Rida Quli's murder “was justified on the grounds that he “drank wine & ate pork.”. Abdul Baha's letter reproduced in facsimile in the Kitab-i Subhi, pp. 184-186, and the Kashf-al-Hiyal pp. 122-123, 3rd impression, vol. III.

With the blood of the victims land at his door, Baha alleged against Subh-i-Azal an attempted fratricide of which, according to Subh-i-Azal, he was in reality himself the author. Baha produced as evidence “those servants who fled into exile with god [i.e. Baha], and beyond then those brought nigh and one of my attendants.”

Baha's Sura-i Haykal, pp. 205-207.

“One of my attendants” is identified “as Ustad Muhammad Ali, the barber of Isfahan, whose ears had been cut off for theft and other crimes by the Governor of Isfahan, who, having fled thence to Baghdad, had become one of Baha's chosen associates, and the source of manifold evils and mischiefs” P. 305, the Hasht Bihisht, “who was one of the assassins of the Azalis in Acre.” P. 55, Mirza Jawad's Historical Epitome, Materials for the Study of the BABi Religion by Professor Browne, who “received Baha's blessing on the eve of the commission of his crime”, pp. 125-126, the Kashf-al-Hiyal, 3rd impression, Vol II, and who was apparently recipient of the title “the Barber of the Truth,” in Baha's Honour list.,

p. 309, the Hasht Bihisht, & How Baha referred to his Members of family.

Baha suffered from Dystaxia. P. 65 the Tanbihun Naimin (The Sleeper Awakened). This infinity affected Baha's hands which had become shaky. Traces of this disease were noticeable in Baha's writings written with a shaky hand.

To cover up Baha's infinity with some sort of excuse in the eyes of his followers Abdul Baha invented this canard:

“Subh-i-Azal administered poison to Baha, who not wishing to break the former's heart, took the poison. But for the poison to work Baha's blessed will was not forthcoming. So Baha escaped death; but his hand remains shaky.”

pp. 78-79, Kashf-al-Hiyal, sixth impression, Vol. I.

Avareh dismisses Baha's allegation of attempted fratricide as a fabrication. P. 321, Kashf-al-Hiyal, 3rd impression, vol III.

“… If they be true [i.e. charges of assassinations of the Azalis by Bahais; they were confirmed by Prof. Browne in his Introduction to the Tarikh-i-Jadid (The New History), pp. vviii-xxiv, and in his Persian Introduction to Mirza Jani of Kashan's Nuqtatul Kaf, pp. 40-41] on whole view of the tendencies and probable influences of Baha's teachings must necessarily be greatly modified, for of what we are the noblest and most humane utterances if they be associated with deeds such as here alleged.”

Professor Brown's comment in Note W. p. 364, Abdul Baha's “A Traveller's Narrative,” vol ii, English translation.

“Baha is not [the Imam] Husayn but Hasan [Sabah, History of the Assassins of Alamut and the old man of the mountain] returned.”

PP. 28-38, the Kashf-al Hiyal. 6th impression, vol I.

Disgusted with the crimes laid at the door of the Bahai hierarchy, some Babis renounced their Babi faith and composed the following distich:

“If Husayn Ali [i.e. Baha, his real name Husayn Ali is written as one word in Persian and not as two separate words] is the manifestation of Husayn Ali [i.e. the third Imam, and son of Ali Ibn Ali Talib; Baha claims to be the Imam Husayn returned; the Imam's name Husayn Ali is written in Persian as two separate words] then may god grant heavenly bless thousand times to the pure soul of Yazid [i.e. the Caliph of dynasty of Umayyids, son of Mu'awiya, having instigated the murder of the Imam Ali's two sons, Hasan & Husayn, his name is cursed by Moslems; his name is synonymous with a wicked and execrable person]. Husayn [i.e. the Imam] was the wronged-one (Mazlum) and not the wrongdoer [Yazid].”