The Bayt-i-‘Aẓam, which translates to Most Great House, was the house where Bahá’u’lláh resided in Baghdad from 1856 to 1863.
Bahá’u’lláh designated it as a site of pilgrimage for Bahá’ís however the political situation in Iraq rendered it impossible for pilgrimages to take place and the House was destroyed in 2013. The blueprint of the building is in the possession of the Bahá’í community and it has been speculated it may be rebuilt at some point in the future.
History[edit]
The house was likely constructed in 1830 and was initially known as the House of Sulaymán-i-Ghannam.[1] It was located on the west bank of the Tigris river in the Karkh district of Baghdad.[2] During Bahá’u’lláh's sojourn in Sulaymáníyyih from 1854 to 1856 Mírzá Músá rented the property and established his residence in it with the family of Bahá’u’lláh living with him,[3] and it came to be known as the House of Mírzá Músá the Bábí.[4] It was a large home built out of mud brick consisting of two or three stories with a central courtyard.[3]
When Bahá’u’lláh returned to Baghdad in 1856 He established His residence in the House and named it Bayt-i-‘Aẓam, meaning Most Great House, and He also referred to it as the Throne of His Glory and the Lamp of Salvation between earth and heaven. A large number of visitors of various cultural and religious backgrounds began visiting Bahá’u’lláh at the property as did large amounts of Bábís from Persia. It remained the residence of Bahá’u’lláh until He was exiled to Constantinople in 1863.[5] At some point Ustad Isma’il-i-Kashi, a Bábí who worked as a builder on several government projects in Persia, came to Baghdad and conducted some construction work on the house for Bahá’u’lláh.[6]
The house had belonged to Haji Mirza Hadi who was a former Vizir in Iran who had retired to Baghdad and shortly before Bahá’u’lláh's exile from Baghdad he passed and the House was inherited by his son Haji Mirza Musa who was a Bábí who was loyal to Bahá’u’lláh. Haji Mirza Musa offered to give the House to Bahá’u’lláh however Bahá’u’lláh refused to accept it. As Haji Mirza Musa continued to offer it Bahá’u’lláh gave instructions for it to be purchased from him at a fair price resulting in it becoming a property of the Faith.[7]
At some point while Bahá’u’lláh was in Adrianople, between 1864 and 1868, He revealed a Tablet known as the Súriy-i-Ḥajj for Nabíl-i-A‘ẓam which instructed him to make a pilgrimage to the Bayt-i-‘Aẓam with certain rites being described. Bahá’u’lláh reaffirmed the pilgrimage to the Bayt-i-‘Aẓam as a requirement of the Bahá’í Faith in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas revealed in 1873 however Nabíl remains the only Bahá’í to have ever successfully completed it,[8] and it has not yet been instituted as a requirement of the Bahá’í Faith by the Universal House of Justice.[9]
In Bahá’u’lláh's absence the Bayt-i-‘Aẓam was the responsibility of several custodians but it gradually fell into a state of disrepair by the early 1900s and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá arranged for it to be renovated towards the end of His life.[1][3] It remained a property of the Bahá’í Faith until 1925 when it was confiscated by Iraqi authorities who were opponents of the Faith. Shoghi Effendi notified the international Bahá’í community that securing ownership of the property was a priority of the Faith and petitioned the British Administration of Iraq for ownership to be restored to the Bahá’ís.[10]
In 1928 Mountfort Mills was entrusted with managing a legal appeal to regain ownership of the property with the League of Nations in Switzerland,[11][12][13] and in March 1929 the League of Nations ruled in favor of the Bahá’í community,[14] however despite the decision the community never regained ownership of the property due to the Iraqi authorities ignoring the decision with hearings being held in the League of Nations up until 1933 on the case.[15]
In the 1980's the Iraqi authorities designated the House a heritage site due to it being a well preserved example of architecture of the period it was constructed in and in 2012 the Iraq Department of Antiquities published a guarantee that the House would be protected from harm however despite this guarantee the property was destroyed on June 26, 2013.[1]
Notes[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 17 July 2013 message from the Universal House of Justice to the Baha'is of the World
- ↑ Balyuzi 2000, p. 126. Bahá’u’lláh, The King of Glory
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Smith 2000, p. 66
- ↑ Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, 1944, p 129
- ↑ Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, 1944, p 130
- ↑ Adib Taherzadeh (1983). The Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh, Volume 3: ‘Akká, The Early Years: 1868–77. United Kingdom: George Ronald. p. 55. ISBN 0853981434.
- ↑ Adib Taherzadeh (1976). The Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh, Volume 1: Baghdad, 1853–63. United Kingdom: George Ronald. p. 211. ISBN 0853980527.
- ↑ Adib Taherzadeh (1977). The Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh, Volume 2: Adrianople, 1863–68. United Kingdom: George Ronald. p. 240. ISBN 0853980705.
- ↑ Iraj Ayman, Súrihs of Hajj: Wilmette Institute faculty notes
- ↑ 6 November 1925 letter from Shoghi Effendi to the Baha'i world
- ↑ Baha'i News (1933). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada. No 74, Pg(s) 3. View as PDF.
- ↑ Baha'i News Letter (1930). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada. No 37, Pg(s) 7. View as PDF.
- ↑ Baha'i News Letter (1929). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada. No 30, Pg(s) 3. View as PDF.
- ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1930). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada. New York City, NY. Volume 3 (1928-1930), Pg(s) 55. View as PDF.
- ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1936). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada. New York City, NY. Volume 5 (1932-1934), Pg(s) 355. View as PDF.
References[edit]
- Balyuzi, Hasan (2000). Bahá’u’lláh, The King of Glory. George Ronald Publisher Ltd. ISBN 0-85398-328-3.
- Smith, Peter (2000). "A concise encyclopedia of the Bahá'í Faith". Oxford: Oneworld Publications. ISBN 9781851681846.
