A Bahá'í Glossary - Bahá'í Chronology

Bahá'í Chronology - The Ministry of Bahá'u'lláh - 9 B.E. (A.D. 1852-1853)

< Ministry of Báb 9 B.E. | 10 B.E. >

	[ 4 Articles ]
• Mas̲h̲íyyat / `Ilm 9 B.E. • Dhū al-Ḥijjah A.H. 1268 / Muḥarram A.H. 1269 • October A.D.1852 • Tishri / Cheshvan A.M. 5613	Bahá'u'lláh has a vision of the Maiden, who announces to Him that He is the Manifestation of God for this Age. [BBD142-3, 212; BKG823 ESW11-12, 21 GPB101-2; KAN62] This experience compares to the episode of Moses and the Burning Bush, Zoroaster and the Seven Visions, Buddha under the Bodhi tree, the descent of the Dove upon Jesus and the voice of Gabriel commanding Muḥammad to 'cry in the name of thy Lord'. [GPB93, 101] The Báb repeatedly gave the year nine as the date of the appearance of 'Him Whom God shall make manifest'. The Declaration of the Báb took place in AH 1260; year nine was therefore AH 1269, which began in the middle of October when Bahá'u'lláh had been in prison for about two months. [CB46-7] Subsequently in His Writings Bahá'u'lláh declared that He was the "Promised One" of all religions, fulfilling the messianic prophecies found in world religions. He stated that being several messiahs converging one person were the spiritual, rather than material, fulfilment of the messianic and eschatological prophecies found in the literature of the major religions. His eschatological claims constitute six distinctive messianic identifications: from Judaism, the incarnation of the "Everlasting Father" from the Yuletide prophecy of Isaiah 9:6, the "Lord of Hosts"; from Christianity, the "Spirit of Truth" or Comforter predicted by Jesus in His farewell discourse of John 14-17 and the return of Christ "in the glory of the Father"; from Zoroastrianism, the return of Shah Bahram Varjavand, a Zoroastrian messiah predicted in various late Pahlavi texts; from Shi'a Islam the return of the Third Imám, Imám Ḥusayn; from Sunni Islam, the return of Jesus, Isa; and from the Bábí religion, He whom God shall make manifest. While Bahá'u'lláh did not explicitly state Himself to be either the Hindu or Buddhist messiah, He did so in principle through His writings. Later, 'Abdu'l-Bahá stated that Bahá'u'lláh was the Kalki avatar, who in the classical Hindu Vaishnavas tradition, is the tenth and final avatar (great incarnation) of Vishnu who will come to end The Age of Darkness and Destruction. Bahá'ís also believe that Bahá'u'lláh is the fulfilment of the prophecy of appearance of the Maitreya Buddha, who is a future Buddha who will eventually appear on Earth, achieve complete enlightenment, and teach the pure Dharma. Bahá'ís believe that the prophecy that Maitreya will usher in a new society of tolerance and love has been fulfilled by Bahá'u'lláh's teachings on world peace. [Bahaikipedia - Bahá'u'lláh]
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• 'Idál 12 `Ilm 9 B.E. • Yawm al-Arba'ā' 13 Muḥarram A.H. 1269 • Wednesday 27 October A.D. 1852 • Yom Reviʻi 14 Cheshvan A.M. 5613	The Bábí Faith is first mentioned in the 27 October 1852 volume of Magyar Hírlap (The Hungarian Newspaper), under the title „Persia műveltségi történetéhez" („To the History of Education in Persia") where Captain Von Goumoens, a captain of the Austrian army based in Tehran reports on the terrible events related to the persecution of Bahá'ís in Iran.[www.bahai.hu]
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• Qawl / Masá'il 9 B.E. • Ṣafar / Rabī' al-awwal A.H. 1269 • December A.D. 1852 • Kislev / Tevet A.M. 5613	Bahá'u'lláh is released from the Síyáh-Chál. This was owing to: the efforts of the Russian Minister Prince Dolgorukov; the public confession of the would-be assassin; the testimony of competent tribunals; the efforts of Bahá'u'lláh's own kinsmen; and the sacrifices of those followers imprisoned with Him. [GPB104-5] See CH43-4 for the role of the Russian Consul in securing His release. He invoking his full power as an envoy of Russia, called out the S̲h̲áh and his court for their barbaric behaviour. See BKG101-2, CH44 and DB647-8 for the physical condition of Bahá'u'lláh on release. See BKG101, DB648-9 and GPB105 for the words of Bahá'u'lláh to Mírzá Áqá K̲h̲án on His release. The Russian minister invited Bahá'u'lláh to go to Russia but Bahá'u'lláh chose instead to go to Iraq. It may be that He refused the offer because He knew that acceptance of such help would have been misrepresented as having political implications. [BBIC:8; DB650]
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• 'Idál 13 S̲h̲araf 9 B.E. • Yawm al-Arba'ā' 1 Rabī' ath-thānī A.H. 1269 • Wednesday 12 January A.D. 1853 • Yom Reviʻi 3 Shevat A.M. 5613	Bahá'u'lláh and His family depart for Baghdád after a one month respite in the home of his half-brother Mírzá Riḍá-Qulí. During the three-month journey Bahá'u'lláh is accompanied by His wife Navváb, (Who was six weeks from giving birth upon departure.) His eldest son 'Abdu'l-Bahá (9), Bahíyyih K̲h̲ánum (7) and two of His brothers, Mírzá Músá and Mírzá Muḥammad-Qulí. Mírzá Mihdí (2), was very delicate was left behind with the grandmother of Àsíyih K̲h̲ánum. They are escorted by an officer of the Persian imperial bodyguard and an official representing the Russian legation. [BKG102-5; GPB108] CH44-5 says the family had ten days after Bahá'u'lláh's release to prepare for the journey to Iraq. 'Never had the fortunes of the Faith proclaimed by the Báb sunk to a lower ebb'. [DB651] This exile compares to the migration of Muḥammad, the exodus of Moses and the banishment of Abraham. [GPB107-8] See BKG104 and GPB108-9 for conditions on the journey.
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[ABBC Online] [ABBC 57-58]

< Ministry of Báb 9 B.E. | 10 B.E. >

Most of the Gregorian Calendar dates, A.H. 1166 (A.D. 1753) to 153 B.E (A.D. 1996), are from the original book, A Basic Bahá'í Chronology. From 153 B.E (A.D. 1996) to present the Gregorian Calendar dates are from A Basic Bahá'í Chronology online. The Hebrew, Islamic and Bahá'í dates were calculated by the ABG staff and may be subject to error, despite the great care that was taken. When the Gregorian date is "In the year", "c. Mar 1797", etc., we list the nearest approximate Hebrew, Islamic and Bahá'í dates.

Notes:

The dates in the left column do not always match the dates in the text. This is due to the plethora of calculations and calculators available. We use the calendar conversions from Calendar Home - Convert a date.
Continuous time periods, e.g., Monday thru Friday or June thru August, are annotated as Monday / Friday and June / August rather than Monday-Friday and June-August in all four calendars. This is to avoid confusion with Islamic days and months which contain a hyphen (or dash), e.g. Yawm ath-Thulatha', Jumadá al-akhirah.
Date Format = Day of the Week Name, Day of the Month Number, Month Name, Year Number -

B.E. = Bahá'í Era - Badí / Bahá'í Calendar - Conversion from spreadsheet created by the webmaster - Download Spreadsheet
A.H. = Anno Hejirea - Latin: "In the year of the Hijra" - Muslim / Islamic Calendar.
A.D. = Anno Domini - Latin: "In the year of our Lord" - Christian / Julian Calendar.
A.M. = Anno Mundi - Latin: "In the year of the world"; Hebrew: "To the creation of the world" - Hebrew Calendar.

c. = circa - meaning: "Around, round about, about. The prep. is often used in Eng. with dates, as circa 1400 (c 1400)." (Oxford English Dictionary)
Items with a greenish background are publications

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