Ardistán
| اردستان Ardistán | ||
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| City in Iran | ||
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Ardistán is a small city in central Iran. It is the capital of Ardistán County in the Province of Isfahan.
The Bahá’í community of Ardistán was established in the early 1860's and grew to be up to thirty percent of the total population of the town by the 1890's. Recurrent periods of persecution from the early 1900's resulted in a dramatic decrease in the size of the community and since the 1979 Revolution the vast majority of young and middle aged Bahá’ís have left the town.
History[edit]
The Bábí religion was introduced to Ardistán by Quddús in 1845 when he visited the city and taught the Faith to people who visited him,[1] and during the same year Mullá ‘Alí-Akbar-i-Ardistání and Ismu'llahu'l-Asdaq visited the city together and taught the Faith resulting in Mírzá Fath-‘Alí Fath-i-A’zam becoming a Bábí.[2] In late 1846 and 1850 Vahíd made visits to the city, where one of his sisters lived, to teach the Bábí Faith.[3][4]
Mullá ‘Alí-Akbar-i-Ardistání established his residence in Ardistán with his ward Kázim-i-Samandar at some point in the 1850's and he later became a Bahá’í through Samandar and actively taught the Faith in the area up until his passing.[5] In the 1860's some Tablets revealed by Bahá’u’lláh for Bahá’ís in Iran were sent from Constantinople to Ardistán where Fath-i-A’zam, who had become a Bahá’í, was responsible for distributing them to the intended recipients.[2]
In 1888 Ardistán was affected by a major famine and Fath-i-A’zam distributed grain he owned to the populace of the town. Active teaching took place throughout the 1880's and by the early 1890's there was a firmly established Bahá’í community in the town with between 2,000 and 3,000 Bahá’ís.[6] Haji Mirza Haydar ‘Ali visited the community in the 1890's and found that the majority of the community was illiterate and at his suggestion in 1901 a Bahá’í school was established by ‘Abdu’l-Husayn Ávárih. A building to host Bahá’í meetings was also established around the same time.[7]
In the early 1900's the Bahá’ís of Ardistán faced severe persecution due to local religious authorities resulting in several Bahá’ís leaving the city,[8][9] and the Bahá’í school ceased operating in approximately 1904.[7] In 1915 Bahá’í Mirzá ‘Abdu’l-Husayn was arrested in Ardistán and there was a wave of agitation against the Bahá’í community with some Bahá’í houses being looted.[10] As a result of the persecution the Bahá’í population of the town dropped to around 300 during the Ministry of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.[6]
There were between 350 and 400 Bahá’ís in Ardistan as of 1935 with the vast majority of the community residing in the Bab ur-Raha quarter of the town where a Bahá’í owned public bath was established.[6] The town came to be divided between Bahá’í and Muslim areas with limited association between the two groups.[11] In the late 1930's Bahá’í travel teacher Mawhibatu’lláh Há’í Najafábádí visited Ardistán during a travel teaching trip and spent three months teaching Bahá’í children's classes in the city.[12]
In the late 1930's the Bahá’ís of Ardistán constructed a wall around the local Bahá’í Cemetery and the Local Spiritual Assembly of Ardistán conveyed a letter to the cities school superintendent advising that Bahá’í children would not attend school in order to observe the Martyrdom of the Báb as a Holy Day. After the letter was received all Bahá’í children in the community were expelled from school for non-attendance with the superintendent advising they had been directed to expel the children. Rafi‘i, the representative of the Assembly who had contacted the superintendent, was arrested for a brief time as a result but he was released after a short time with the Bahá’í children also being re-enrolled in local schools.[13]
In 1948 a large mob of approximately 2,000 people gathered in Ardistan intending to attack the Bahá’í residents of the Bab ur-Raha Quarter however the police department of the city mobilized in order to disperse the mob without incident.[14]
In 1966 the Bahá’í community of Ardistán donated $3,300 to the Bahá’í community of Ecuador to assist in the construction of a Teaching Institute,[15] and by 1967 the community had contributed an additional $6,700 to fund the establishment of Teaching Institutes in Korea and the Philippines.[16]
After the Revolution in Iran in 1979 the Bahá’í community of the country faced extreme persecution. In Ardistan restrictions were placed on Bahá’ís preventing them from finding work or pursuing an education. Municipal services such as garbage collection began to refuse to provide service to Bahá’ís and continue to refuse service to the present day. As a result the majority of the Bahá’í community left the town moving to the city of Isfahan.[11] In 1997 a Bahá’í of Ardistan, Mashaollah Enayati, visited the town to attend a Bahá’í gathering and he was arrested and taken to Isfahan where he was severely beaten and passed while in custody.[17]
In 2009 Bahá’í homes were targeted for vandalism in Ardistan being spray painted with the names of Bahá’ís and messages accusing them of impurity and spying for Israel.[18] The Bahá’í Cemetery of Ardistan was vandalized by the towns municipal office in 2016 with its gate being demolished,[11] and in December 2016 the Local Council forbade Bahá’ís from using the cemetery for burial.[19]
References[edit]
- ↑ Nabil, The Dawn-Breakers, US Baha'i Publishing Trust, 1932, p 182
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 H.M. Balyuzi, Baha'u'llah: The King of Glory, George Ronald: Oxford, 1980, p 471
- ↑ Ahang Rabbani, The Babis of Nayriz: History and Documents, self-published, 1999, p 54
- ↑ Nabil, The Dawn-Breakers, US Baha'i Publishing Trust, 1932, p 182
- ↑ H.M. Balyuzi, Eminent Baha'is in the Time of Baha'u'llah, George Ronald: Oxford, 1985, p 200
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Moojan Momen, The Baha'i Communities of Iran 1851-1921, Volume 2, George Ronald: Oxford, 2021, p 153
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Moojan Momen, The Baha'i Communities of Iran 1851-1921, Volume 2, George Ronald: Oxford, 2021, p 149
- ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1981). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 17 (1976-1979), Pg(s) 468. View as PDF.
- ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1956). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada. Wilmette, Ill. Volume 12 (1950-1954), Pg(s) 691. View as PDF.
- ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1986). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 18 (1979-1983), Pg(s) 387. View as PDF.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Once More, Baha’i Cemetery Gate Demolished, published at Iran Press Watch, accessed 24/11/2022
- ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1939). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada. New York City, NY. Volume 7 (1936-1938), Pg(s) 143. View as PDF.
- ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1942). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada. Wilmette, Ill. Volume 8 (1938-1940), Pg(s) 188. View as PDF.
- ↑ https://iranbahaipersecution.bic.org/archive/crowd-two-thousand-people-ardestan-were-planning-attack-bahai-neighbourhood
- ↑ Baha'i News (1966). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 426, Pg(s) 7. View as PDF.
- ↑ Baha'i News (1967). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 431, Pg(s) 2. View as PDF.
- ↑ https://iranbahaipersecution.bic.org/archive/report-maurice-copithorne-special-representative-un-commission-situation-human-rights-3
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20090930141828/http://www.bahairights.org/2009/09/19/anti-bahai-messages-sprayed-on-walls-in-ardestan-iran/
- ↑ https://iranbahaipersecution.bic.org/archive/local-council-banner-bahai-cemetery-ardestan-banning-burial-dead-cemetery-december-2016
