Bahá’u’lláh’s Life: Exile to Baghdád
“Blessed are the steadfastly enduring, they that are patient under ills and hardships, who lament not over anything that befalleth them ...”
— Bahá’u’lláh
Imagine spending four months in a filthy, pitch-dark dungeon. When you’re finally released, you learn that you’ve been banished from your homeland, never to return.
That’s what Bahá’u’lláh faced in December of 1852. He had been locked in the Síyáh-Chál, or “Black Pit,” of Tihrán, Persia (now Iran). There was no light, no heat, and no escape from the horrible stench. At times, a 112-pound (51 kg) chain hung around Bahá’u’lláh’s neck.
He had committed no crime. He was imprisoned for being a Bábí, a follower of a Messenger of God called the Báb, or “Gate,” who had been executed in 1850. The Báb taught that a new era was beginning for humanity, and that another Messenger would soon bring new teachings from God.
After the Báb’s execution, two angry and crazed Bábís attempted to kill the sháh, or king, of Iran. An ineffective weapon was used, but the sháh was wounded. Bahá’u’lláh denounced their terrible act of violence. Still, He was swept up in a wave of severe persecutions directed at the entire Bábí community.
Bahá’u’lláh was ill and exhausted when He was freed, but He had to leave Iran in a month’s time. It was the dead of winter, and a month wasn’t long enough to recover and prepare. His wife, Navváb, sold the few valuables she had to pay for supplies.
On January 12, 1853, Bahá’u’lláh set out for Baghdád, in what is now Iraq, with His family and two officials. His eldest son, ‘Abbás (later known as'Abdu’l-Bahá) was eight years old, and His daughter, Bahíyyih, was six. The youngest, Mírzá Mihdí, wasn’t well enough to make the journey safely, so he stayed behind with family. He joined his parents some years later.
Today, you can drive the 545 miles (877 km) from Tihrán to Baghdád in about eight hours or fly in one hour. But at that time, traveling by mule and on foot, the trip took three months!
The exiles trekked through snowy mountains with little protection from the bitter temperatures. ‘Abbás got frostbite. “The cold is so intense that one cannot even speak,” Bahá’u’lláh wrote, “and ice and snow so abundant that it is impossible to move.”
Fortunately, Bahá’u’lláh was treated with kindness everywhere He stopped along the way. People offered Him gifts, which He gently refused. In the village of Karand, Iran, the governor greeted Him with reverence.
As the travelers reached the border of Iraq, they rented an orchard as a place of rest. In that tranquil spot, spring flowers bloomed, water babbled in the brooks, and birds sang sweetly for the weary exiles. Bahá’u’lláh told the group that everything His enemies had planned had come to nothing.
Indeed, Bahá’u’lláh’s influence was unstoppable. He later announced in Baghdád that He was the Messenger of God that the Báb had foretold. Today, followers of His teachings of peace live in virtually every country in the world.
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Photo credit: Effie Baker, c.1930; Photos © Bahá’í International Community
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