Mírzá Mihdí

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Mírzá Mihdí (Arabic: مرزا مهدي‎‎) (1848-June 23, 1870), given the title Ghusn-i-Athar (the Purest Branch), was the youngest son to Bahá'u'lláh and Navváb. He was born in Tehran and stayed there for several years after his family left for Baghdad in 1853. He accompanied his family through subsequent exiles serving as one of his father's secretaries. He died at the age of 22 in the prison city of `Akká on 23 June 1870 while pacing back and forth on the rooftop of Bahá'u'lláh's cell, chanting the Qasidiy-i-Varqa'iyyih, (a poem revealed by Bahá'u'lláh in Kurdistan)[1] when he fell through a skylight in `Akká, falling on top of a crate below him, which mortally pierced his lungs.

The death is significant due, in part, to Bahá'u'lláh's offer to heal him of his wounds, and Mirza Mihdi's request to use his life as a sacrifice so that the prison gates would open and the pilgrims would be able to visit the Bahá'í Holy Family, a wish that, a grieving Bahá'u'lláh granted. He died of his injuries 22 hours later. Baha'u'llah linked it to the subsequent ending of their close imprisonment a couple of months later.

Mírzá Mihdí was eventually buried outside the city walls, but was moved to a new grave by Shoghi Effendi in December 1939 alongside his mother Navváb in the gardens below the Arc on Mount Carmel in Haifa in an area now called the Monument Gardens.

[edit] References

• Smith, Peter (1999). A Concise Encyclopedia of the Bahá'í Faith. Oxford, UK: Oneworld Publications. ISBN 1851681841. 

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