Hají Mírzá Riḍa-Quli

Hají Mírzá Riḍa-Quli.

Hají Mírzá Riḍa-Quli (c. 1826 - c. 1894) was a half-brother of Bahá’u’lláh.

Background

Riḍa-Quli was the son of Mírzá Buzurg and his third wife Kulthum Khanum. In his career he was a physician. He married his cousin Maryam between 1842 and 1844 and she became a devoted Bahá’í, however he did not become a Bábí or a Bahá’í remaining a Muslim and completing the pilgrimage to Mecca which earned him the title Hají. They had a daughter named Zahrá Khánum who married Mírzá Ismá‘íl, son of Rida-Quli's uncle Mirza Muhammad and Sárih Khánum, and became a Bahá’í.

Riḍa-Quli concealed his relationship to Bahá’u’lláh, objecting to being associated with Him when introduced as His brother in Tehran on at least one occasion. According to some historical sources he was secretly a Bábí and Bahá’í whereas others state he was never a believer. While he never openly identified as a Bahá’í he housed Bahá’u’lláh in his home after He was released from the Síyáh-Chál in late 1852 and Bahá’u’lláh lived there for a few months while He was nursed back to health before being exiled to Baghdad.

In the 1850's Riḍa-Quli's brothers Bahá’u’lláh and Mírzá Muḥammad-Ḥasan arranged for Ḥasan's daughter Shahr-Bánú Khanum to marry ‘Abdu’l-Bahá however Ḥasan passed away before the marriage could take place and Shahr-Bánú came under the care of Riḍa-Quli. When Bahá’u’lláh attempted to arrange for the promised marriage to take place Riḍa-Quli reportedly refused to allow the marriage to take place fearing that it would associate him with Bahá’u’lláh and cause problems for his relationship with the Shah and government of Iran.

In 1868 several reports were submitted to Tehran by clerics opposed to the Faith stating that Bábí's were planning an uprising in the Miyandub district, which encompasses Nur. Riḍa-Quli attempted to counter the reports from Tehran and the clerics accused him of being paid by Bahá’u’lláh to spread the Faith. The Shah, who was on a hunting expedition at the time, ordered for him to be imprisoned until he arrived back in Tehran. Several relatives of Bahá’u’lláh in Nur were tortured, the village of Dar-Kala which contained properties which had belonged to Bahá’u’lláh was sacked, and twelve men accused of being Bábí's were sent to Tehran in chains. Rida-Quli and the other prisoners were later released.

At some point after the late 1870's Rida-Quli corresponded with Bahá’í scholar Mírzá Abu’l-Faḍl providing him with information about the Nurí family informing him that the family had genealogical charts showing descent from the Sasanian Kings of Iran.