Siyyid Muhammad-i-Isfahání

Siyyid Muhammad-i-Isfahání (1806 - January 22, 1872) was a Bábí who was a prominent opponent of Bahá’u’lláh. After the Martyrdom of the Báb he influenced Mírzá Yaḥyá to become more hostile towards Bahá’u’lláh encouraging Yaḥyá to exert authority over the Bábí community and he was designated the Antichrist of the Bahá’í Faith by Shoghi Effendi.

Biography

Early background

Siyyid Muhammad was born in Isfahán in 1806. He began studying at a theological college in the city however he was expelled from the college because of misconduct at some point. He became a Bábí in the mid 1840's, and as of June 1849 he was living in Tehran where he was an active member of the Bábí community and he heard news of the Battle of Shaykh Tabarsí along with other Bábís including Nabíl-i-A‘ẓam. He later moved to Karbilá and he was in the city when Bahá’u’lláh visited in 1851, and became frustrated at the deference and respect most of the Bábís showed towards Him.

Alliance with Mírzá Yaḥyá

At some point Siyyid Muhammad established a friendship with Mírzá Yaḥyá, who the Báb had appointed to be a figurehead of the community after His passing at the suggestion of Bahá’u’lláh, and in the early 1850's while he encouraged Yaḥyá to attempt to establish himself as the leader of the Bábís and to undermine Bahá’u’lláh to do so. Muhammad and Yaḥyá's actions and covert opposition to Bahá’u’lláh resulted in intense disunity in the Bábí community of Baghdád which resulted in Bahá’u’lláh leaving the city in 1854 in an attempt to remove Himself as a cause of disunity allowing Yaḥyá to assert himself as the undisputed leader of the Bábí Faith.

Although he considered himself the leader of the community Yaḥyá refused to meet with Bábís and when Nabíl-i-A‘ẓam visited Baghdád during Bahá’u’lláh's absence Yaḥyá refused to meet with him and directed him to go to Karbilá to meet with Siyyid Muhammad. In this period Muhammad assisted Yaḥyá in issuing directives to the Bábí community of Persia and in formulating a defence of their actions which were controversial by emphasizing that the Báb had abrogated the laws of Islam. He also encouraged Yaḥyá to claim to be the Báb's successor rather than a figurehead of the community. At some point between 1854 and 1856 Yaḥyá married the Báb's second wife for a few days and then had her married to Siyyid Muhammad.

In terms of his own position Muhammad had assembled a small band of followers in Karbilá and between 1854 and 1856 his men would rob wealthy pilgrims visiting the city and steal from the Shrine of the Imam Husayn with Muhammad's encouragement. When Nabíl-i-A‘ẓam visited Karbilá during this period he was disheartened by Muhammad's behavior and noted he played childish pranks. The period between 1854 and 1856 saw significant opposition to Yaḥyá's leadership of the community and Muhammad influenced Yaḥyá to orchestrate the assassinations of several prominent Bábí's seen as a threat to his position.

Siyyid Muhammad and Yaḥyá's actions resulted in a severe decline of the Bábí Faith and Bahá’u’lláh returned to Baghdád in 1856 and quickly became regarded as the spiritual leader of the community again. Muhammad attempted to defend Yaḥyá's position by having rumors spread across Persia to discredit Bahá’u’lláh and at some point he moved from Karbilá to Baghdád. Despite Muhammad's hostile behavior Bahá’u’lláh met with him and took no actions which would have excluded him from the community. The Revelation of the Kitáb-i-Íqán in 1861 greatly enhanced the respect for Bahá’u’lláh in the Bábí community and Muhammad spread rumors that it was actually revealed by Yaḥyá and only published under Bahá’u’lláh's name.

Accompanying Bahá’u’lláh

In 1863 the Ottoman authorities exiled Bahá’u’lláh from Baghdád to Constantinople and Siyyid Muhammad asked ‘Abdu’l-Bahá for permission to accompany His household. Bahá’u’lláh agreed on account of the fact Muhammad's unsupervised behavior in Karbilá had damaged the reputation of the Faith and out of a desire to insulate the Baghdád community from his actions. Later the same year Bahá’u’lláh was exiled again to Adrianople and Muhammad also accompanied him on this exile. As the populace of Adrianople was less hostile to Bábís Yaḥyá stopped living in hiding and Muhammad encouraged him to begin openly challenging Bahá’u’lláh for leadership as opposed to denigrating him through rumors as they had previously.

In March 1866 Bahá’u’lláh went into seclusion with His immediate family and revealed a Tablet formally calling on Yaḥyá to recognize Him as the Manifestation of God foretold by the Báb representing an ultimatum requiring Yaḥyá to relinquish any claim to religious authority. After this Muhammad wrote a large amount of letters defaming Bahá’u’lláh and accusing Him of various crimes which he sent to the Bábís of Persia and Iraq and also to the civil authorities of the Ottoman Empire. Bahá’u’lláh came out of seclusion in approximately May 1866 and expelled Muhammad from the community and after this period, which became known as the Most Great Separation, the followers of Bahá’u’lláh referred to themselves as Bahá’ís and the followers of Mírzá Yaḥyá as Azalis.

Muhammad remained in Adrianople after the separation and associated with the Muslim community attempting to stoke resentment and hostility towards the Bahá’ís and he also wrote extensively to the Ottoman authorities in Constantinople in an attempt to provoke persecution of Bahá’u’lláh. In late 1867 or early 1868 Muhammad suggested to Yaḥyá that he challenge Bahá’u’lláh to a public confrontation as he was confident that Bahá’u’lláh would not accept, as he had always avoided direct conflict in the past, and he widely promoted the confrontation amongst the Muslim community hoping to publicly humiliate Bahá’u’lláh. When Bahá’u’lláh accepted the invitation Yaḥyá refused to attend and attempted to postpone the meeting which greatly damaged his position.

In 1868 Siyyid Muhammad moved back to Constantinople in order to associate with the Ottoman authorities and he gave them false reports about the situation in Adrianople attempting to prejudice them against Bahá’u’lláh.

In the Holy Land

At some point in late 1868 Siyyid Muhammad was arrested by the Ottomans in Constantinople, imprisoned with some Bahá’ís who had also been arrested in the capital, and sentenced to exile to Akka. After being exiled to Akka he adopted the title Quddús Effendi.

Siyyid Muhammad was initially imprisoned in the barracks of the citadel of Akka alongside Bahá’u’lláh and the Bahá’ís but after a short time he became friendly with the authorities of the city, claiming to have renounced the Bábí Faith and returned to Islam, and he was transferred to a room in the citadel which had a view of the gate into the city alongside a fellow Azali. He used his vantage point of the gate to see any Bahá’ís entering the city and would report them to the authorities who would then expel them from the city preventing them from meeting with Bahá’u’lláh.

In late 1871 Bahá’u’lláh, who had been released from confinement in the citadel of Akka the previous year, went into seclusion in the House of Udi Khammar and Siyyid Muhammad used his absence to begin attempting to meet with Bahá’ís in the city while also attempting to incite the populace of the city against them. He assisted in efforts to produce forged copies of Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh which included inflammatory passages which he had invented and added to the original Tablets.

Bahá’u’lláh had strictly forbidden the Bahá’í community from taking any hostile action against the Azalis however as He remained in seclusion into 1872 seven Bahá’ís decided to disobey Him and retaliate and on January 22, 1872, they murdered Muhammad and two other Azalis. Regarding Siyyid Muhammad's murder Bahá’u’lláh wrote:

"My captivity can bring on Me no shame. Nay, by My life, it conferreth on Me glory. That which can make Me ashamed is the conduct of such of My followers as profess to love Me, yet in fact follow the Evil One."