Kitab-i-Aqdas

About the Author

Mirza Hoseyn ‘Ali Nuri was born on November 12, 1817, in Tehran, Persia (present-day Iran). He later took the name Baha’u’llah, or Baha’ Allah (Arabic for “the glory of God”), and became the primary figure of the Baha’i faith. Baha’u’llah came from an aristocratic family with political connections; his ancestry legendarily connects him directly to both Zoroaster and Jesse of the Jewish tradition, an ancestry that is latent with messianic claims. For example, the Old Testament book of Isaiah says, “And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse … and the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding” (11:1–2). Although Baha’u’llah would spend most of his historically important years in prison, his family connections were largely responsible for preventing his execution.

Baha’u’llah converted to Babism at the age of twenty-seven, and as a young man he was immediately viewed by other Babis as a leader within the movement. After the execution of the Bab in 1850, Baha’u’llah gained prominence as an administrator of the small religion while he was in Baghdad, in the Ottoman Empire (now in Iraq). There, on April 21, 1863, Baha’u’llah proclaimed that he was “He Whom God shall make manifest,” whom the Babis were awaiting, though he had reached this conclusion nearly a decade earlier. This event split the Babi faith, but the majority of Babis eventually converted to the new religion known today as Baha’i. Baha’u’llah spent most of the rest of his life in exile and in prison. The Islamic government in Persia regarded both the Bab and Baha’u’llah as threats to its authority, so Baha’u’llah was exiled first to Baghdad; then to Constantinople, Turkey (now Istanbul); and finally to Adrianople, Turkey (now Edirne). Later, he was arrested and held at the penal colony in ’Akko (Acre), in present-day Israel. In his final years he was allowed to live at home, although officially he remained a prisoner of the city until he died after a short illness on May 29, 1892. He appointed his eldest son, ‘Abdu’l-Baha, to be his spiritual successor.