Hájí Mírzá Karím Khán
Hájí Mírzá Muhammad-Karím Khán Kirmání (February 23, 1810 - c. 1873)[1] was a member of the Shaykhí school of Islam. When Siyyid Káẓim passed away he assumed leadership of the Shaykhís and aggressively rejected the claims of the Báb.[2] The early Bábí's reportedly considered him to be the Anti-Christ or Dajjál.[3]
Biography[edit]
Khán was born in 1810 into a family which was closely related to the Qajar family which was the royal family of Persia.[4] His father was Prince Ibráhím Khán Qájár Quyúnlú (d. 1824) who was a cousin and son-in-law of Fath Ali Shah, the ruler of Persia, and he was appointed the governor of Khurasan in 1797 serving until 1803 when he was appointed governor of Kirman and Baluchistan serving in that role until his death in 1824.[5] Khán's father became an admirer of Shaykh Ahmad and he introduced Fath Ali Shah to Shaykh Ahmad's writings which resulted in the Shah engaging in correspondence with the Shaykh.[6] When his father died Khán's brothers began fighting over the inheritance however Khán remained focused on studying Islam and did not become involved in the conflict.[7] He married a daughter of Fath Ali Shah at some point strengthening his ties to the royal family.[5]
Khán first visited Karbala in 1828 staying for one year and after a brief period in Persia he returned to Karbala with his wife and lived in the city for a longer period. During his second visit to Karbala he studied under Siyyid Káẓim and became a Shaykhí.[8] After a period of study he received permission to return to Persia to settle in Kirmán and he departed Karbala in approximately 1839[9] established himself as an Islamic scholar in Kirmán,[10] and secured control of his fathers estate giving him large financial resources.[11] After establishing himself in Kirmán he reportedly had a book he had composed sent to Siyyid Káẓim requesting he sign it to endorse it which Siyyid Káẓim refused to do.[12]
When Siyyid Káẓim passed away in 1843 he did not appoint a successor,[13] instead directing his followers to seek out the Promised One who he had spoken about extensively.[14] Khán acknowledged that Siyyid Káẓim had not appointed a successor,[13] however he claimed leadership over the Shaykhí movement and was accepted by the Shaykhí community of Kirman and gradually expanded his influence across the rest of Persia.[15] At one point he claimed to be the Rukn-i-Rábi, the fourth pillar of Islam alongside God, Muhammad, and the Imams, however he quickly withdrew this claim after significant opposition from other Islamic clergymen.[16] On May 23, 1844, the Báb declared Himself to be the one foretold by Siyyid Káẓim. In late 1844 Khán was visited by Mulla Sádiq-i-Muqaddas, a prominent Shaykhí of Isfahan who had become a Bábí after meeting Mullá Ḥusayn, who informed him of the Báb's claims without disclosing His identity. Khán rejected the claims.[17] At some point in 1845 Husayn-i-Azghandí, a prominent mujtahid in Kirmán, summoned his nephew Mírzá Aḥmad-i-Azghandí, a Bábí, to Yazd to assist him in combating Khán's influence in the city.[18]
Some time after June 1845 Khán became incensed when Quddús visited Kirmán and received considerable attention and he petitioned the governor of the city to have Quddús expelled from the city however his request was refused and Quddús remained in the city until leaving of his own accord.[19] Around the same time Khán received a signed epistle from the Báb delivered to him by Mulla Sádiq-i-Muqaddas and he organized a public meeting at which he engaged Sádiq in a debate,[20] again rejecting the Báb,[21] and some of his pupils attempted to attack Mulla Sádiq with knives during the debate prompting the governor of Kirmán to intervene by arresting Mulla Sádiq and holding him in his house until tensions subsided.[22] In July 1845 Khán began making more hostile acts of opposition against the Báb and His followers having Bábís expelled from Kirmán and publishing a polemic work attacking the claims of the Báb titled Isháqu'l-Bátil (The Crushing of Falsehood).[23] He published additional works attacking the Báb in 1846 and 1849.[24]
In 1853, after the Báb had been martyred and during a period of intense persecution of His followers, Khán noted he had written five or six books attacking the Báb and had distributed them to Azerbaijan, Iraq, Hijaz, and as far as India and had written letters to many ulama and government officials criticizing the Báb.[25] In 1856 he advocated for Persia launching a holy war against the British Empire.[26] In 1867 Khán wrote another work dedicated to attempting to refute the Báb's claims for Nasir al-Din Shah for the purposes of emphasizing that the Shaykhí sect he lead was unrelated to the Bábí Faith.[27]
In 1873 Khán passed away while travelling to visit the Holy Shrines of the Imams in Iraq.[28] One of his sons Shaykh Muhammad-Khan Kirmani (1846 - 1906) succeeded him as leader of his sect and another of his sons Shaykh Zaynal- 'Abidin Khan Kirmani (1859 - 1942) succeeded Muhammad-Khan.[29]
References[edit]
- ↑ Denis MacEoin, The Messiah of Shiraz, Brill: Leiden/Boston, 2009, p 25
- ↑ Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, US Baha'i Publishing Trust, 1979 (second printing), p 9
- ↑ Nabil, The Dawn-Breakers: Nabíl’s Narrative of the Early Days of the Bahá’í Revelation, US Baha'i Publishing Trust, 1932, Chapter II - footnote 32
- ↑ Denis MacEoin, The Messiah of Shiraz, Brill: Leiden/Boston, 2009, p 56
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Denis MacEoin, The Messiah of Shiraz, Brill: Leiden/Boston, 2009, p 147
- ↑ Denis MacEoin, The Messiah of Shiraz, Brill: Leiden/Boston, 2009, p 83
- ↑ Denis MacEoin, The Messiah of Shiraz, Brill: Leiden/Boston, 2009, p 148
- ↑ Denis MacEoin, The Messiah of Shiraz, Brill: Leiden/Boston, 2009, p 130
- ↑ Denis MacEoin, The Messiah of Shiraz, Brill: Leiden/Boston, 2009, p 150
- ↑ Nabil, The Dawn-Breakers: Nabíl’s Narrative of the Early Days of the Bahá’í Revelation, US Baha'i Publishing Trust, 1932, p 39
- ↑ Denis MacEoin, The Messiah of Shiraz, Brill: Leiden/Boston, 2009, p 152
- ↑ Nabil, The Dawn-Breakers: Nabíl’s Narrative of the Early Days of the Bahá’í Revelation, US Baha'i Publishing Trust, 1932, p 40
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 Denis MacEoin, The Messiah of Shiraz, Brill: Leiden/Boston, 2009, p 139
- ↑ Nabil, The Dawn-Breakers: Nabíl’s Narrative of the Early Days of the Bahá’í Revelation, US Baha'i Publishing Trust, 1932, p 47
- ↑ Denis MacEoin, The Messiah of Shiraz, Brill: Leiden/Boston, 2009, p 152
- ↑ Adib Taherzadeh, Revelation of Baha'u'llah: Volume 1, George Ronald: Oxford, 1974, p 333
- ↑ Nabil, The Dawn-Breakers: Nabíl’s Narrative of the Early Days of the Bahá’í Revelation, US Baha'i Publishing Trust, 1932, p 101
- ↑ The Dawn-Breakers, p 184
- ↑ The Dawn-Breakers, pp 181-82
- ↑ Denis MacEoin, The Messiah of Shiraz, Brill: Leiden/Boston, 2009, p 219
- ↑ "ḴORĀSĀNI, MOLLĀ ṢĀDEQ (d. 1874), teacher, defender and promulgator of the Babi-Bahai faiths". Encyclopaedia Iranica. Encyclopaedia Iranica. Retrieved 16 October 2016.
- ↑ Nabil, The Dawn-Breakers: Nabíl’s Narrative of the Early Days of the Bahá’í Revelation, US Baha'i Publishing Trust, 1932, Chapter IX - footnote 16
- ↑ Peter Smith, The Bábí and Bahá’í Religions, Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 1987, pp 17-18
- ↑ Denis MacEoin, The Messiah of Shiraz, Brill: Leiden/Boston, 2009, p 220
- ↑ Denis MacEoin, The Messiah of Shiraz, Brill: Leiden/Boston, 2009, p 220
- ↑ Denis MacEoin, The Messiah of Shiraz, Brill: Leiden/Boston, 2009, p 460
- ↑ Denis MacEoin, The Messiah of Shiraz, Brill: Leiden/Boston, 2009, p 322
- ↑ Adib Taherzadeh, Revelation of Baha'u'llah: Volume 1, George Ronald: Oxford, 1974, p 335
- ↑ https://allaboutheaven.org/sources/shaikh-muhammad-karim-khan-kirmani/145
