Mírzá Muhammad `Alí
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Detail from a larger photograph, assumed to have been taken in Adrianople in 1868, when `Alí was 16.
Mírzá Muhammad `Alí (Persian: میرزا محمد علی 1852–1937) was one of the sons of Bahá'u'lláh, the founder of the Bahá'í Faith. He was the eldest son of his father's second wife, Fatimih Khanum, later known as Mahd-i-'Ulya, whom Bahá'u'lláh married in Tehran in 1849.
Muhammad `Alí received the title from his father of Ghusn-i-Akbar ("Greater Branch").[1]
In the Kitáb-i-‘Ahd ("Book of the Covenant"), Bahá'u'lláh appointed `Abdu'l-Bahá as his successor,[2] with Muhammad `Ali subordinate to `Abdu'l-Bahá. Both were noted explicitly by their titles. As time passed, Muhammad `Alí claimed that `Abdu'l-Bahá was not sharing power. According to some interpretations, Muhammad `Alí insisted that he should instead be regarded as the leader of the Bahá'ís. Many accusations were levelled against each other by both `Abdu'l-Bahá and Muhammad `Alí, culminating in Muhammad `Alí accusing his older brother of conspiring against the Ottoman government. This resulted in the imprisonment and near-death of `Abdu'l-Bahá and his family. Almost all Bahá'ís accepted `Abdu'l-Bahá as Bahá'u'lláh's successor.[3]
At the time of `Abdu'l-Bahá's death, Shoghi Effendi was appointed as the Guardian of the Faith by `Abdu'l-Bahá in his Will and Testament, while Muhammad `Alí was reprimanded in the same document. Because Bahá'u'lláh's last will and testament named Muhammad `Alí as second in rank to `Abdu'l-Bahá, he took the opportunity of `Abdu'l-Bahá's death to try to revive his claim to leadership, but his attempt to occupy the Shrine of Bahá'u'lláh by force left him on the losing end of a legal battle that removed any rights he had to the property.
The division between rival sects with Muhammad `Alí and Shoghi Effendi as their respective leaders was short-lived and the Shoghi Effendi emerged as the leader of the worldwide Bahá'í community. Muhammad `Alí died in 1937 as an outcast, and was labelled by Shoghi Effendi as the arch-breaker of the Covenant of Bahá'u'lláh.[4]
See also
Notes
- ↑ Taherzadeh 2000, p. 256
- ↑ Bahá'u'lláh 1994, p. 221-222
- ↑ Taherzadeh 2000, p. 44
- ↑ Adamson 2009, p. 121
References
- Adamson, Hugh C. (2009). The A to Z of the Baha'i Faith. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 0810868539.
- Bahá'u'lláh (1994) [1873-92]. Tablets of Bahá'u'lláh Revealed After the Kitáb-i-Aqdas. Wilmette, Illinois, USA: Bahá'í Publishing Trust. ISBN 0-87743-174-4.
- Taherzadeh, Adib (2000). The Child of the Covenant. Oxford, UK: George Ronald. ISBN 0-85398-439-5.
- Taherzadeh, A. (1992). The Covenant of Bahá'u'lláh. Oxford, UK: George Ronald. ISBN 0-85398-344-5.
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