Hamadán

همدان Hamadán
City in Iran
Bahá’ís of Hamadán in the early 1930's.
Location of Hamadán
History: Firsts
-	Local Assembly	1898
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Hamadán is the capital city of Iran's Hamadan Province.

The Bahá’í Faith had a presence in the city from the early 1860's and grew significantly in the 1880's with a large proportion of the cities Jewish community accepting the Faith. The Bahá’í community established schools in the city which were officially registered with the government. The beginning of the Iranian Revolution in 1979 lead to intense persecution of the Faith in the city and seven Bahá’ís of Hamadán were martyred in 1981.

History

Origins of the Bahá’í Community

The Bábí religion was established in Hamadán in the 1840's likely by Haji Mulla Yusif who met the Báb during His pilgrimage to Mecca in 1844, accepted His religion, then converted his brother Mulla Aga Baba in Hamadán. Ṭáhirih, a Letter of the Living, resided in Mulla Aga Baba's home for a brief period in 1847 during which she taught the Faith converting a number of people inculding a Qajar princess. She debated Muslim and Jewish scholars while in the city advocating for the claims of the Báb. Throughout the 1850's the Bábí community of Iran experienced intense persecution, with Mulla Aga Baba and his son being martyred during the siege of Fort Shaykh Tabarsí, and no formal community was established in Hamadan.

In 1863 two Bábí brothers from Naraq, Aga Muhammad Javad and Aqa Muhammad Bagir, moved to Hamadan from Kashan and their home became a centre for teaching activity. The brothers became Bahá’ís at some point and hosted Bahá’ís visiting the city with the vast majority of the Bábí community in Hamadan accepting the claims of Bahá’u’lláh throughout the 1860's. The community consisted of approximately twenty people as of the early 1880's.

The Hamadan Bahá’í community began to experience a sudden increase growth in the 1880's through a focus on teaching the Jewish community of Hamadan with approximately fifty Jews having accepted the Faith in the city in the early 1880's. By 1883 it was estimated that 150 of the 800 Jewish families in Hamadan had become Bahá’ís and that there were approximately 940 Bahá’ís of Jewish descent in the city. Mírzá Abu’l-Faḍl visited Hamadan in 1887 and during his time in the city he composed an essay outlining Bahá’í proofs based on Judaism.

The number of Jews accepting the Faith resulted in some opposition from the Jewish community and in 1890 a group incluing several Rabbis complained to the governor requesting that he intervene to force the Jewish Bahá’ís to observe the laws of Judaism. The governor called a meeting at the main synagogue of Hamadan and Dai Rubin represented the Jewish Bahá’í converts. The matter was referred to a district council with conflict breaking out due to disagreements between the Muslim district council and the Jewish group who were opposed to the Bahá’ís and no ruling appears to have been made against the Bahá’ís.

During the 1880's there was a division within the Bahá’í community of Hamadan with Bahá’ís who had converted from Judaism referring to themselves as Kalimi Bahá’ís and Bahá’ís from a Muslim background referring to themselves as Furgani Bahá’ís. The Furgani Bahá’ís had a Bahá’í centre in the Tut-Qumiha quarter of the city while the Kalimi Bahá’ís met at the home of Dai Rubin. The division in the community persisted until 1906 when ‘Abdu’l-Bahá revealed a Tablet for Hamadan directing the community to cease using the terms Kalimi and Furgani and only regard themselves as Bahá’ís.

Administrative Development

In 1898 a Bahá’í consultative assembly was established in Hamadan during a visit of Hájí Amín to the city and the body ultimately evolved into the Local Spiritual Assembly. The assembly began administrating the affairs of the Faith in the city appointing committees to oversee children's classs, the advancement of women, teaching the Faith, and one for general services. A Bahá’í fund was also established. By the early 1900's Dai Rubin experienced financial difficulty and began renting out the property he had used to host Bahá’í gatherings so in 1902 the Local Spiritual Assembly began construction of a building which could host meetings of the whole community. Some local opposition delayed the completion of the project but the building was finished in 1904 and came to be known as the Ḥaẓíratu’l-Quds.

The Bahá’í Teaching Committee of Hamadán in the 1920's.

As of 1907 there were approximately 5,000 Bahá’ís in Hamadán making up ten percent of the cities population. In October, 1908, a Bahá’í school, the Ta’yid School for Boys, was established in Hamadán with classrooms being constructed at the Ḥaẓíratu’l-Quds to house the school. The following year the Bahá’í community established the Mawhibat School for Girls and in 1913 both schools received official government recognition. In 1909 the Bahá’ís of Hamadán began efforts to construct a bathhouse however their efforts were curtailed by opposition from the Jewish community. In 1915 a Bahá’í cemetery was secured in the city when a Bahá’í was denied burial in the Jewish cemetery.

As of 1921 it was estimated there were 6,000 Bahá’ís in Hamadán. In 1922 a Muslim cleric visiting the city petitioned the authorities to have the Bahá’í school closed down however the authorities instead appointed a number of non Bahá’í teachers to the staff. In 1926 Hamadán was noted as being one of the leading Bahá’í communities of Iran.

In 1930 and 1932 Martha Root and Keith Ransom-Kehler visited the city with large meetings being held. In 1934 the Bahá’í schools in Hamadán were closed down along with all Bahá’í schools in the country at the order of the government, and around the same time the Ḥaẓíratu’l-Quds was closed down with Bahá’í meetings being banned in the city.

In the mid 1930's some Hamadán Bahá’ís were prosecuted when applying to register newborn children on the grounds that they did not have a Muslim marriage certificate with the local authorities refusing to recognize Bahá’í marriages. Despite opposition the community remained active throughout the late 1930's regularly holding Nineteen Day Feasts, teaching deepening classes, holding meetings for teaching, and actively teaching the Faith in the community. The community faced persecution in the early 1940's with Bahá’í business being boycotted and orchards and farms owned by Bahá’ís being vandalized. In the late 1940's formal Bahá’í study classes for youth were established in the city.

Persecution

The Iranian Revolution which began in Iran in 1979 lead to an intensification of persecution of the Bahá’í Faith across the country with some Bahá’ís of Hamadán having their assets frozen in 1980. In February of that year several Bahá’ís including members of the Local Spiritual Assembly were arrested, their homes were confiscated from their families, and they were tortured. On June 14, 1981, seven members of the Local Spiritual Assembly were executed.

The Bahá’ís of Hamadan have continued to face persecution into recent years with several Bahá’ís being arrested without charge in 2006 and released after a short time with the Bahá’í International Community noting this was a technique being utilized to harass Bahá’ís across Iran. In 2012 all Bahá’í owned business in Hamadán were shut down by government authorities, and in 2015 several Bahá’í owned businesses were again sealed by the government due to closing on Bahá’í Holy Days.