- 1820-00-01 — Birth of Khadíjih Bagum (daughter of Mírzá `Alí, a merchant of Shíráz), first wife of the Báb, in Shíráz.
- 1842-08-00 —
The marriage of Siyyid `Alí Muhammad (the Báb) in Shíráz to Khadíjih-Bagum (b. 1821) the daughter of Mirzá 'Ali, a merchant of Shiraz. She had been a childhood friend and sometimes playmate. Their family homes were adjacent. [Bab46; BBD28, 127; BKG402; RB2:382; DoH107; DB76note3]
- See Bab80 for a reproduction of the marriage certificate.
- He returned to live in the House after His marriage. [RoB4429]
- 1843-01-10 —
The Báb dreamed that He drank a few drops of blood from the wounds of the martyred Imám Husayn. After this dream He felt that the Spirit of God had taken possession of His soul. At this moment He received intimation that He was to be a Manifestation of God. [GPB92; BBRSM14; DB253, HotD23-24]
- Khadíjih Bagum apparently recognized her Husband as the promised Qá'im `sometime before the Báb declared His mission after having seen Him wrapt in prayer during the night. He bade her to keep this knowledge concealed. He entrusted her with a special prayer to be used before she went to sleep, the reading of which would remove her difficulties and lighten the burden of her woes. [DB191–192; HotD27; KBWB9-14; The Genesis of the Bábi-Bahá'í Faiths in Shíráz and Fárs p21-22 by A. Rabbani]
- There are several such prayers among the Bábí and Bahá'í Writings, one of them has become informally known as "the Remover of Difficulties Prayer": There is no evidence that the pray mentioned above was this prayer. Please see The Invocation 'Is There Any Remover of Difficulties Save God...' by Muhammad Afnan and translated by Adib Masumian.
- See as well Joycean Modernism in a Nineteenth- Century Qur'an Commentary?
A Comparison of the Bab's Qayyūm al- asmā' with Joyce's Ulysses p113 by Todd Lawson.
- 1846-03-19 — After the Báb left Shiraz, His wife, Khadijih Bagum, mother, Fatimah Bagum, maternal grandmother, Zahra Bagum, as well as Ethiopian servants Mubarak, and maidservant Fiddih were living in the Sacred House. [MBBA167]
- 1851-12-00 —
When the news of the martyrdom of the Báb reached Shiraz, Fatimah Bagum, the mother of the Báb, having previously
consulted with her Son about the journey to the `Atabat, (literally means the sublime thresholds.Thea are the shrines of six Shia Imams which are in four cities of Iraq, namely Najaf, Karbala, Kadhimiya and Samarra) decided to leave Shiraz. She wanted to put behind her the constant barrage of insults aimed at her family by the city's divines.
- Before she left, it was decided that Khadíjih Bagum would live with her half-sister in the house of the martyred-uncle of the Báb, Háji Mírzá Siyyid 'Alí, and the Blessed House be entrusted to Mírzá Muhammad-Husayn-i-Bazzaz, son of Mírzá Asadu'llah. He was not a believer in the Báb but a native of Shiraz and a close acquaintance of the family. This decision ushered in a period where the House was in the hands of non-believers. [MBBA167-168]
- 1872-00-01 —
Restoration of the House of the Báb began at the request of Khadíjih Bigum with the permission and the financial support of Bahá'u'lláh. She requested that the House not be restored to its original configuration to avoid painful memories. Therefore,
substantial changes were made to the structure of the House. These included making two of the rooms part of the expanded courtyard and moving the small pool.
- After these changes were made, Khadíjih Bagum took up residence in the Blessed House. She lived there for
the next nine years, until her passing in October 1882. [EB232; The Genesis of the Bábi-Bahá'í Faiths in Shíráz and Fárs p93 by A. Rabbani; MBBA172]
- To protect the House further, a small house next to it on the eastern wall was bought. It belonged to a certain Hájí Muhammad-
Ja`far-i-Hadíd. The elders of the Afnán family asked Hájí Mírzá `Abdu'l-Hamid to live there. He was one of the early believers in the Báb and married to the daughter of Hujjat-i-Zanjani. From the first day Hujjat's daughter arrived in Shiraz, she was a close companion of Khadíjih Bagum, who had a particular affinity for the families of the Bábí martyrs. An underground passageway was constructed connecting the two homes. It was used as the main entrance for the House of the Báb so that the neighborhood would not take notice of the occupants. [MBBA171-172]
- After her ascension, as instructed by Bahá'u'lláh, her sister, Zahra Bagum, moved her residence to the Sanctified House. She
lived there until her passing in 1891. [MBBA172]
Note: During the early days of the Afnán family, there was considerable competition within certain quarters of the family over the House of the Báb. On several occasions, the issue was brought to Bahá'u'lláh. He consistently reaffirmed the hereditary custodianship of Zahra Bagum and her descendants. By the time of `Abdu'l-Bahá's Ministry, only a few family members questioned the custodianship rights. However, to ensure complete unity, the Master reaffirmed the hereditary right of Núri'd-Dín and, thereafter, Mírzá Habíb. Before his passing, Mírzá Habíb passed the custodianship to his oldest son, Abú'l-Qásim Afnán. [MBBA115n165] - 1882-11-11 —
The passing of Khadíjih-Bagum, the wife of the Báb, in Shíráz in the house of her Husband. [BBD127; EB235; KBWB35; DB191; RoB2p387] Note: KBWB35 states that she passed on the 15th of September, 1882 however MBBA112 suggests 16th of October. She died of dysentery.
- Within two hours of her passing her faithful servitor, an Ethiopian slave named Fiddhih, someone who had been a member of the household since the age of seven, passed away as well. Both were interred within the Shrine of Sháh-Chirágh. [BK35]
- Upon her passing Bahá'u'lláh revealed a tablet of visitation for her and later He composed a verse to be inscribed on her tombstone. [RoB2p387]
- In accordance with Bahá'u'lláh's instructions, in 1308 A.H.
[1891], Mírzá Muhammad-`Alí went to Bombay to publish some
of the Holy Tablets. As the Blessed Beauty instructed, he
purchased a gravestone for the resting place of the wife of the Báb.
The following verse, revealed from the heaven of divine will, was
engraved on it: He is the Everlasting. Verily this exalted leaf
hearkened to the Call of the Tree beyond which there is no passing
and winged her flight towards it. "Abú'l-Qásim Afnán informs the translator that this gravestone is safe in an
undisclosed location in Iran." [MBBA117]
- 2015-02-12 —
The official opening of the new location of the Afnan Library Trust at Sandy, close to Cambridge. The Afnan Library Trust was established in 1985 to manage the collection bequeathed by Hasan Balyuzi when he passed away in 1980. It consists of some 10,000 books, as well as a vast quantity of manuscripts, original letters, maps, documents, periodicals, and unpublished items – some of them dating back to the nineteenth century. [BWNS1040]
- The official website can be found here.
- "In a letter dated the 10 November and the 20 November 1979 he (Hasan Balyuzi) left instructions that all his books and document were to be kept together perpetually... and that they are to form the nucleus of the Afnán Library, founded in the name of his father, Muvaqqari'd-Dawlih, and dedicated to Khadíjih Bagum". [KBWBix]
- Included in the collection were volumes of photographic copies of Tablets by the Central Figures of the Faith, as well as historical and doctrinal works by individual Bahá'ís, 104 volumes in all, that had been compiled by the National Committee for the Preservation of Bahá'í Writings and Archives of Iran in the years just prior to the Iranian revolution. The Library worked closely with the Research Department of the Bahá'í World Centre to make digitized transcripts of these volumes. The digitized volumes contain some 4,000 works of Bahá'u'lláh, more than 3,000 works of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, and many writings of the Báb. The index and the links to the volumes can be found on the Afnan Library site.
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