Ahmad Bahhaj
Ahmad Bahhaj (1853 - 1933) was a son of Mírzá Yaḥyá, who opposed Bahá’u’lláh in an attempt to lead the Bábí community. He was alienated from his father and became a Bahá’í later in life.
Background[edit]
Bahhaj was the son of Mírzá Yaḥyá and his wife Fatima who was from Shiraz. He was born in 1853.[1] He was the eldest child of Yaḥyá to accompany him on his exile to Famagusta, Cyprus, in 1868 and became regarded as his fathers heir and successor in the Azali religion.[2] At some point he married a woman named `Ulaviyya or Fatima and they had two daughters, `Adila who was born in Cyprus in 1880 and `Ala'iyya.[3]
Bahhaj was alienated from his father when a woman serving in his household fell pregnant and they both accused the other of being the father. The matter was settled in court and Yaḥyá disinherited him,[4] and in 1884 he moved to Constantinople where he began working for a bank. In 1899 he ceased employment with the bank and by 1912 he had returned to Famagusta, Cyprus, where he was living in poverty working as a railway porter and his family had remained in Constantinople where they had become Protestants.[2]
In 1921 Bahhaj's nephew Jalal Azal wrote to him and informed him he had settled in Palestine with the assistance of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and as he recalled ‘Abdu’l-Bahá being kind to him when he lived in Baghdad and Adrianople as a child he relocated to Haifa. He became a Bahá’í but was reclusive and did not associate much with the community. He passed away in 1933 and was buried in the Haifa Bahá’í cemetery.[2]
