The baha’i world

it 

would be well to put in the schoolbooks for the students of all races.  

Molded thus in the school of life as well as by technical training, he became able to give expression to his feelings, 

thoughts and philosophy in some outstanding statues and relief panels. His works have been exhibited in various art 

academies and may be seen in many of our larger cities. Recently there was unveiled in Fairmont Park, Philadelphia, 

one of his best known works, a group in honor of “The Colored Soldiery of Pennsylvania in All Wars.” His “James 

J. 

Davis Allegorical Group” at Mooseheart, Illinois, is much admired. Milwaukee possesses his large equestrian statue of 

General Von Steuben, and in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, may be seen his Molly Pitcher statue. His ideal groups, panels of 

“The Harmonics of Evolution,” “Lions on the Way,” “Light Bearers,” particularly express the idealism of the sculptor.  

Delicacy of line, perfection of form, originality of idea, beauty of arrangement characterize his work. Profound 

meaning and aspiration are woven into every line. 

 

 

 

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912 

 

THE BAHA’I WORLD 

 

I  

I 

 

Seldom does one see such high idealism wrought in stone. He is truly an artist of the new age.  

So as the little group stood under the dome of the great edifice gazing intently upward, this query was put: “To one who can see a 

vision of the far stretching path of evolution in a block of cold marble and patiently chisel it into our view, what does this great temple 

in its unfinished condition mean?”  

“It is a divine inspiration from foundation to the crowning apex,” replied the artist, with glowing eyes and radiant smile. “At the very 

root of this materialization of a vision lie age old symbols of truth and wisdom with new light. It is expressed in an entirely new and 

most beautiful conception. There is nothing like it in the world. The nine-pointed star which dictates the ground plan and is reflected 

throughout the building up to the highest point of the edifice is the new symbol of a new age.  

“Permeating the whole structure is the spirit of the lofty principle of the unifying of the races, religions, classes and nations of 

mankind into a new degree of togetherness. The proportions of the construction are perfect. See those nine gracefully curved hnes of 

the nine ribs of the dome, which, rising, touch each other as fingers of upward 

 

-1 

 

stretching hands meeting in prayer over the glistening whiteness of the crystal dome. The fairylike openwork 

ornamentation, containing the religious symbols of the world, gives an air of ethereal refinement, aspiration and unity 

that harmonizes with the central thought of the whole structure.  

“Even in this unfinished state,” Mr. Schweizer continued, “the interior offers to the eye of vision untold and marvelous 

possibilities of finishing and final expression. It can be truly said that the building has no back or front or sides. All the 

nine entrances lead to one center, the Creator, the God of Love and Wisdom. Though as yet devoid of decoration, the 

structural masses leading up to the first and second balconies produce a lofty and uplifting sensation. The intense desire 

arises in the heart that this beautiful edifice may soon be finished, finished in the same magnificent workmanship and in 

harmony with the priceless original designs of its inspired architect and creator, Mr. Bourgeois.”  

Mr. Schweizer showed a keen appreciation, as did his radiant wife, of the permanency of the Bahã’i Temple when he 

said, “The technical construction is of a quality that will endure for hundreds of years and every precaution is clearly 

being taken toward that end. The spot where the Temple stands was 

 

[ 

 

I 

 

: 

 

Bahá’i Group of Tunis 

 

 

 

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APPRECIATIONS BY LEADERS OF THOUGHT 

 

913 

 

most wisely selected as through the guidance of a Divine hand. I can picture the Temple of the future, standing out like a sparkling 

jewel mounted on the golden rim of God’s earth. I repeat, there is nothing like it in the universe. When completed it will undoubtedly 

be the Mecca for millions of people from all corners of the earth. It will be considered as one of the great wonders of the world of 

architecture.”  

Again Mr. Schweizer revealed the depths of the inner understanding of the meaning of the Bahá’i Temple, for just as we were about to 

leave he said: “It has been a great and inspiring moment of our lives to visit the Temple under your loving guidance. We have learned 

much of the religion of Love of which this is the exquisite symbol and beloved shrine for the people of the world. We of today must 

bestow the highest grati tud 

 

and credit upon those who are sacrificing so much to build this Temple. Their earnest conviction, their sincere purpose, 

their profound love form a piercing beacon light against the prevailing darkness and confusion of the world. They by 

their lives seem to be calling those souls who are ready to come forth to pray in a new spirit of freedom and unity and 

love. For when love is universally realized, the hearts of men will be united and the whole race will be uplifted.  

“You teachers are certainly carrying the brightly shining torches as true light bearers to the children of God, pointing 

the way toward the ultimate goal—the Kingdom of God. I shall never forget this great privilege. I am deeply grateful to 

God that the Temple of Light is being constructed to promote the unity and progress of the world today.” 

 

r”’ — 

 

io 

 

b 

 

I 

 

Amity Banquet held under the auspices of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ Is of Pasadena, California, December 

3rd, 193 8. 

 

 

 

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20. 

 

A 

BOUT midway between the northernmost point of the continent of Europe (the North Cape pertaining to 

Norway) and the North Pole there lies a group of islands, five in number, with various smaller ones near by, which has 

excited the discoverer, the sportsman, the scientist, the trapper, the whaler, the miner, the explorer and finally of recent 

years the ubiquitous tourist, though few have braved the rigors of the north sufficiently to remain there. This group of 

islands known to us as Spitsbergen or by the Norwegian name of Svalborg, has been the goal of much scientific 

research and has proven itself rich in those wonderful provisions of nature which the wisdom of the Almighty placed 

there before man set foot upon that land. Fur animals abound, edible moss and birds supply food, and coal mines have 

been worked for many years which yield an ample supply of fuel for the islands with vast shipments also to the 

mainland of Norway.  

The largest of the group of islands known as West Spitsbergen, although only about 

650 

miles from the Pole, is so 

situated as to be modified in temperature by the warm ocean currents which provide an ice-free passage for boats 

during the summer months of June, July and August, although the eastern and northern shores are always ice- locked 

and have been explored only in the face of the most extreme hardships.  

It was this group of islands to which our cruise ship was bound, it was to this faraway haven that the precious books 

which lay in our cabin were to find their way! But these were gray days at sea, days and days when there was no ray of 

sunshine— no cessation of the heavy blanket of fog which enveloped the ship! No signs of life, no birds, no swimming 

things, no relief to the tragic monotony of foglike gray wool which choked the lungs and chilled one to the bone. The 

water temperature showed the presence of ice which could not 

 

be seen and yet cautiously the boat felt her way, a spectre in the gray mist. New York lay ten days behind us, Iceland 

had been left behind four days before. It was lonely  

—no friendly sail drifted into sight, no seagull’s sharp note broke the awful stillness, the sky and sea were one, merged 

together as in infinite space. And then—on the port side, little by little, the heavy curtain of fog lifted and disclosed a 

sea of floating ice. Strange weird shapes rose from the water, disintegrating icebergs doomed to lose their identity in 

the warmer atmosphere of the Gulf Stream already dissipated and yielding to the frozen north.  

For hours the boat cruised along amid the broken ice, the distance between the floating cakes becoming narrower and 

narrower until it became evident that we had reached the great ice barrier, that greedy monster that holds within his 

breast the secrets of the Poles, and as if alarmed lest we penetrate his domain, had come a hundred miles farther south 

than ever known to block the passage. Disappointment shrouded the faces of the travelers as word came from the 

Captain that our course would have to be retraced if indeed we were to find a break in the barrier which would permit 

our progress to Magdalena Bay, and thus to the land of Spitsbergen. After a night of tense nerves and ears strained for 

the crunching of the ice floe the morning broke clear and bright, and in a few hours the glory of Magdalena Bay broke 

upon the sight like a vision so wonderful and so breath-taking that it seemed as if one had been translated from earth to 

heaven—a heaven of brilliant, glistening ethereal beauty. Around this bay the sharp, jagged mountains rose in their ice 

mantles from a sea as blue as that of Italy and overhead there blazed a sun so bright that it might have been the tropics.  

At last the steamer came to anchor and put off a launch laden with sailors who went to set up an emergency landing 

stage on 

 

A JOURNEY TO THE ARCTIC  

B NELLIE 

S. 

FRENCH 

 

915 

 

916 

 

THE BAHA’T WORLD 

 

the shore of Magdalena Bay. No life breathed there, only a few gulls and an occasional auk shrieked their resentment at this invasion 

of their domain. Near the water were the crumbling ruins of a stone structure which had served many years ago as a research station.  

Wandering over the loose rocks and approaching the foot of the gigantic glaciers which moved in their majestic and imperceptible 

rhythm, casting off their iceberg progeny to fare for themselves and form a bulwark against the invasion of mankind, suddenly we saw 

among the rocks a pile of human bones. Tradition says these once were sailors and that they slew each other. What the tragedy may 

have been, whether starvation or cold, whether they marked the fateful end of some long cherished grudge fought to the finish here is 

not known, but the bones seemed to bear witness to this age when every man’s hand is raised against his brother! 

. . . 

How tragic the 

thought and how the heart swelled with gratitude for the blessing of the Message in this day which is to dispel the darkness of human 

greed and competition and warm and melt the ice of human prejudice and hate! For was 

it 

not our intention to deliver this Message 

somewhere here in this frozen north? Was not the hand of the “Holy Mariner” unveiling His glorious sunshine and spreading His 

heavenly calm upon the sea that this very thing might be accomplished?  

Leaving Magdalena Bay the boat cruised along, revealing at every turn a new glory of ice and sea until finally the little habitat of 

Spitsbergen came into view, the harbor of King’s Bay, bidding us land and share the news of the great world with its isolated 

inhabitants. This then was our goal! 

This 

the land upon which was to be deposited for the first time in history, the Message of the 

Coming of “Him Whom God had made manifest,” the Glory of the Lord; through the humble efforts of these wayfarers in the path of 

service, souls were to be awakened, a new life was to pulsate and these regions were to be summoned to the glory of the New Day! It 

all seemed too wonderful to be true and the beauty of 

it 

all struck awe to the very soul. Here we would 

land—here 

we would surely 

find, even in the brief hour 

 

allotted to us, the one prepared of God to receive His Message and to herald the glad tidings of a New World Order.  

Our landing was effected by climbing on an old, unused trestle which had served for the hauling and dumping of coal 

some years before. A long, uneven roadbed led to what would have been the center of town, had there been a town, but 

which now proved to be a settlement of about thirty houses, the most conspicuous of which was the “Boutik” or store. 

Although groups of men had stood at the landing, no face gave evidence of being the one upon which the Light was 

first to shine. Stolid faces they were, weathered by wind and sea, furrowed by lines of hardship, grim with the struggle 

of life, still unready and unaware—we must look further for the object of our search to whom was to be given a copy of 

Bahd’u’lla’h and the New Era, 

in its Norwegian translation.  

As we entered the store where there seemed to be nothing negotiable save a few postal cards and a pile of raw pelts, 

one young man at once attracted our attention. He was a bright-eyed Norwegian who was serving as postmaster, though 

his duties must have been ordinarily very light, and to him we felt drawn at once. His knowledge of English was 

sufficient for him to understand that he was being presented with some very wonderful books which he was to share 

with his associates. On discovering that the books were in Norwegian his face beamed with gratitude and he seized the 

package in eager anticipation!  

After a brief interview in which we sought to convey the mighty significance of the contents of the books, our mission 

accomplished, we gave way to the curious, jostling crowd of our fellow passengers and leaving the store we started on 

a tour of investigation of the island.  

It is possible to conceive of this place in its winter atmosphere, in the darkness of its six months’ night, in its blinding, 

stormswept isolation, the angry Arctic ocean pounding on its shores, its manifold privations, but to us on that 

memorable day it showed only its softer side, its golden carpet of moss, its glistening, icy mountains, its 

 

low-growing, orchid-colored flowers, its myriads of birds sweeping down upon their nests, or rising in their winged freedom leaving 

their eggs a plentiful harvest to supply the needs of the islanders. To us it 

 

A JOURNEY TO THE ARCTIC 

 

917 

 

lay like a jewel in the hand of God, His to have and to hold, to warm and to quicken, to love and to preserve in His 

great wisdom for the completion of His design for mankind! 

 

21. 

 

TAHIRIHS 

 

MESSAGE 

 

TO THE MODERN WORLD 

B 

MARTHA 

L. RooT 

 

I 

AM happy to speak to you this evening about one of the greatest young women in the world, one of the most 

spiritual, one of the greatest poets of Iran, and the first woman of her time in Central Asia to lay aside the veil and work 

for the equal education of the girl and the boy. She was the first suffrage martyr in Central Asia. The woman suffrage 

movement did not begin with Mrs. Pankhurst in the West, but with Tahirih, also often called Qurratu’l-’Ayn of Iran. 

She was born in Qazvin, Persia, in 

 

I. 

 

1817.  

Picture to your mind one of the most beautiful young women of Iran, a genius, a poet, the most learned scholar of the 

Qur’án and the traditions, for she was born in a Mu5ammadan country; think of her as the daughter of a jurist family of 

letters, daughter of the greatest high priest of her province and very rich, enjoying high rank, living in an artistic palace, 

and distinguished among her young friends for hir boundless, immeasurable courage. Picture what it must mean for a 

young woman like this, still in her twenties, to arise for the equality of men and women, in a country where, at that 

time, the girl was not allowed to learn to read and write!  

The Journal Asiatic of 1866 presents a most graphic view of Tahirih, the English translation of which is this: “How a 

woman, a creature so weak in Iran, and above all in a city like Qazvin where the clergy possess such a powerful 

influence, where the ‘Ulamas, the priests, because of their number and importance and power hold the attention of the 

government officials and of the people, how can it be that in such a country and district and under such unfavourable 

conditions a woman could have organized such a powerful party of heretics? It is unparalleled in past history.” 

 

As I said, in her day girls were not permitted to learn to read and write, but  

Tahirih had such a brilliant mind, and as a child she was so eager for knowledge that her father, one of the most learned 

mullas of Iran, taught her himself and later had a teacher for her. This was most unusual, for in her day girls had no 

educational opportunities. She outdistanced her brothers in her progress and passed high in all examinations. Because 

she was a woman they would not give her a degree. Her father often said what a pity she had not been born a son, for 

then she could have followed in his career as a great mulla of the Empire.  

Tahirih was married when she was thirteen years old to her cousin, the son of the Imám-Juma, a great mulla who leads 

the prayers at the mosque on Fridays. She had three children, two sons and one daughter. She became a very great poet 

and was deeply spiritual, she was always studying religion, always seeking for truth. She became profoundly interested 

in the teachings of Shaykh Absa’i and Siyyid Kazim Rashti, who were liberalists and said great spiritual reforms would 

come. Her father was very angry with her because she read their books and her father-in-law was too. But she 

continued to study their books and she heard about the Bab and Baha’u’llah, and their teachings for universal peace and 

the equal education of the girl and the boy. She believed in these principles whole-heartedly and declared herself a 

believer.  

This great young woman of Qazvin laid aside the veil which Muhammadan women wear; she didn’t put it aside 

altogether, but she many times let it slip from her face when she lectured. But she declared that women should not wear 

the veil, should not be isolated, but should have equal rights and opportunities. She quoted her great teacher, 

 

918 

 

TAHIRIH’s MESSAGE TO THE MODERN WORLD 

 

919 

 

Bahá’u’llah, that man and woman are as the two wings of the bird of humanity, and this bird of humanity cannot attain its highest, 

most perfect flight until the two wings are equally poised, equally balanced. She was too far ahead of her time, and like other pioneers 

of great progressive movements, she was imprisoned. Instead of putting her into jail, they made her a prisoner in the home of the 

Kalantar, that means the Mayor of  

Tihrán. Here several poets and some of the greatest women of the capital came to call, and every one was charmed by her presence. 

The Sháh-in-Sháh of Persia sent for her to be brought to his palace, and when he saw her he said: “I like her looks, leave her and let 

her be.”  

The Mayor gave a notable party for the betrothal of his son; they had music and dancing, but the guests left it all to come to meet 

Táhirih and listen to her words of wisdom, for she too was a guest at this party. Though she had at first been imprisoned in a house in 

the garden, the ladies of the Mayor’s household loved her so much they insisted that she must come and live in the house with them.  

Náiri’d-Din_Shah, the ruler, sent her a letter asking her to give up her very advanced ideas and telling her if she did, he would make 

her his bride, the greatest lady in the land. On the back of his letter she wrote her reply in verse declining his magnificently royal offer. 

Her words were:  

“Kingdom, wealth and ruling be for thee, Wandering, becoming a poor dervish and  

calamity be for me.  

If that station is good, let it be for thee. And if this station is bad, I long for it,  

let it be for me!”  

She was a prisoner in the Mayor’s home for more than three years and during all this time the women of fran came to love her more 

and more, and all people were enchanted with her poetry, and many came to believe as she did, that this is the dawn of a great new 

universal epoch when we must work for the oneness of mankind, for the independent investigation of truth, for the unity of religions 

and for the education of the girl equally with that of the boy. 

 

The orthodox clergy were afraid of these new progressive ideals and as they were the power behind the government, it was decided to 

put Táhirih to death. They had to do it secretly because they knew how many hundreds of the most important people in Tihrán loved 

her.  

They decided upon September 

15, 

1852, for her death. With her prophetic soul she must have divined it for she wrote in one of her 

poems: “At the gates of my heart I behold the feet and the tents of hosts of calamity.” That morning she took an elaborate bath, used 

rosewater, dressed herself in her best white dress. She said good-bye to everyone in the house, telling them that in the evening she was 

leaving to go on a long journey. After that she said she would like to be alone, and she spent the day, as they said, talking softly to 

herself, but we know she was praying. They came for her at night and she said to them, “I am ready!” The Mayor had them throw his 

own cloak about her so that no one would recognize her, and they put her upon his own horse. In a roundabout way through smaller 

streets they took her to a garden and had her wait in a servant’s room on the ground floor. The official called a servant and ordered 

him to go and kill the woman downstairs. He went but when Táhirih spoke to him he was so touched by her sweetness and holiness, 

that he refused to strangle her, and carried the handkerchief again upstairs. The official dismissed him, called a very evil servant, gave 

him liquor to drink, then handed him a bag of gold as a present, put the handkerchief into his hands and said, “Go down and kill that 

woman below and do not let her speak to you.” The servant rushed in, brutally strangled her with the handkerchief, kicked her and 

while she was still living threw her into a dry well and filled it up with stones.  

But they could never bury her there! Her influence has gone around the whole world.  

Táhirih, Qurratu’l-’Ayn, has become immortal in the minds of millions of men and women, and her spirit of love and heroism will be 

transmitted to millions yet unborn.  

I should like to explain to you what her names mean. One of her teachers, Kázim Rashti gave her the name of Qurratu’l‘Ayn, which 

means “Consolation of the 

 

920 

 

THE BAHA’I WORLD 

 

Eyes,” because she was so young, so beautiful, so spiritual. Bahá’u’lláh gave her the name Táhirih, which means “The Pure One.” 

While still in the twenties she began to preach the equal rights of men and women, she was martyred at the age of thirty-six years, and 

yet today, eighty-seven years after her cruel martyrdom, the women of Iran and of many other countries of the Islamic world no longer 

are allowed to wear the veil, and girls are receiving education. She did not die in vain. Tahirih’s courageous deathless personality 

forever will stand out against the background of eternity, for she gave her life for her sister women. The sweet perfume of her heroic 

selflessness is diffused in the whole five continents. People of all religions and of none, all races, all classes, all humanity, cherish the 

memory of Tahirih and weep tears of love and longing when her great poems are chanted.  

When I was in Vienna, Austria, a few years ago, I had an interview with the mother of the President of Austria, Mrs. Marinna 

Hainisch, the woman who has done most for woman’s education in Austria, that nation of great culture. Mrs. Hainisch established the 

first high schools for girls in her land. She told me that the inspiration of all her lifework had been Tahirih of Iran. Mrs. Hainisch said: 

“I was a young girl, only seventeen years old when I heard of the martyrdom of Tahirih, and I said, ‘I shall try to do for the girls of 

Austria what Tahirih tried to do and gave her life to do, for the girls of Iran.’ 

“ 

She told me:  

“I was married, and my husband too, was only seventeen; everybody was against education for girls, but my young husband said: ‘If 

you wish to work for the education of girls, you can.’ 

“ 

I mentioned this interview over in Aligrah, India, a short time ago when I spoke 

to the university students at the home of Professor Habib, and at the close of my talk another guest of honor arose, a woman professor 

of Calcutta University, and asked if she could speak a few words. She said, “I am Viennese, I was born in Vienna and I wish to say 

that Mrs. Marinna Hainisch established the first college for the higher education of girls in Austria and I was graduated from the 

college.” This is a proof of the influence of 

 

Tahirih. Mrs. Hainisch had said to me, “It is so easy for you, Miss Root, to go all around the world and be given the 

opportunity to speak on the equal education of the girl and the boy. It was so hard for me to interest people in this new 

idea in my day, but I remembered Tahirih and I tried. Poor Tahirih had to die for these very ideals which today the 

world accepts!”  

When I was in Cawnpore, India, and spoke in a girls’ college on Tahirih’s life the founder and the donor of that great 

college arose and said: “It is my hope that every girl in this school will become a Tahirih of India.”  

Sir Rai Bahadur Sapru of Allahabad, one of India’s greatest lawyers, said to me: “I love Tahirih’s poems so much that I 

have named my favorite little granddaughter  

Tahirih. I have tried for years to get her poems, and now today you give them to me.” When I was in the Pemberton 

Cluh in London one evening, a well known publisher said to me: “I shall get Tahirih’s poems collected and publish 

them at a great price.” But he could never get them. I should like to tell you, dear listeners on the air, that the day after 

the martyrdom of  

Tahirih, the authorities burned her clothing, her books, her poems, her birth certificate; they tried to wipe out every 

trace of her life; but other people had some of her poems, and a friend of mine worked for years to gather them 

together, copied them in longhand and gave them to me as a present when I was in Iran in 1930. Another friend in 

India, Mr. 1sf andiar K. B. Bakhtiari of Karachi, has twice published one thousand copies of these poems for people in 

India. In my book Tdhirih the Pure, Iran’s Greatest Woman, published July, 1938, I included her poems and published 

three thousand copies. Two of these poems are translated into English, but the original poems are all in the Persian 

language. They would be very beautiful sung in the Persian language over your radio.  

Professor Edward G. Browne of Cambridge University, in his book A Traveller’s Narrative, wrote: “The appearance of 

such a woman as Tahirih, Qurratu’l-’Ayn, is in any country and in any age a rare phenomenon, but in such a country as 

Persia 

 

TAHIRIW5 MESSAGE TO THE MODERN WORLD 

 

921 

 

it is a prodigy, nay, almost a miracle. Alike in virtue of her marvelous beauty, her rare intellectual gifts, her fervid eloquence, her 

fearless devotion and her glorious martyrdom, she stands forth incomparable amidst her countrywomen. Had the Bábi religion no 

other claim to greatness, this were sufficient, that it produced a heroine like Qurratu’l_’Ayn.”  

And now dear listeners, that we have heard of Táhirih, Qurratu’l-’Ayn, this first woman suffrage martyr, this first woman in Central 

Asia to work for the education of girls, what will our own endeavors show forth in this twentieth century?  

Today you have equal education for girls and boys in Australia, and you have suffrage for women; but you in Australia and we in the 

United States and in all other parts of  

II.  

the globe are born into this world to work for universal peace, disarmament, a world court and a strong international 

police force to ensure arbitration. We are born into this world to work for universal education, a universal auxiliary 

language, for unity in religion and for the oneness of mankind. Our lives, our world, need strong spiritual foundations, 

and one of the finest traits of  

Táhirih, and one that helped the world most, was her fidelity in searching for truth! She began as a little girl and 

continued until the very day of her passing from this world.  

0 Táhirih, you have not passed out, you have only passed on! Your spiritual, courageous life will forever inspire, 

ennoble and refine humanity; your songs of the spirit will be treasured in innumerable hearts. You are to this day our 

living, thrilling teacher! 

 

A BRIEF COMMENTARY’  

B MARIAN LITTLE 

 

In reading the story of the life of this great woman of Iran, one cannot but feel that Martha Root, the author, has caught the flaming 

torch from the hand of Táhirih and lighted once more the path in order that those that are to follow may find the Way.  

Her biography is so closely associated with the phenomenal quickening of religion known as the Bahá’i Faith that it would be difficult 

to know her except for her relation to this great event.  

Although born in Iran in the middle of the nineteenth century, she belongs to the whole world, her radiant personality shone forth like 

the ray of light which comes after that darkest moment before dawn. She was a prototype for the women of the twentieth century and 

gave her life that they might be emancipated from their state of subjection.  

She is quoted as saying: “Oh, when will the day come when new laws will be revealed on earth? I shall be the first to follow these new 

Teachings and to give my life for my sisters.”  

Táhirih the Pure was the name that Bahá’u’lláh gave her at the memorable Council at 

 

Badasht, where eighty-one followers of the Báb assembled by invitation of Bahá’u’llah to consult upon the important question as to 

when the Báb was to proclaim the final stage of His Manifestation which was that of Qá’im. He had first declared Himself to be the 

Báb (Gate) but the station of Qá’im, the promised Imám, had not been proclaimed. It was at Badasht that Táhirih cast aside her veil, 

and in the presence of the gathering declared that the “New Revelation Was at hand.”  

Her teacher was Kázim-i-Rashti, a Siyyid and disciple of the great and learned Shaykh Alsmad-i-Ahsa’i, who foretold the coming of 

the Báb in the near future, and was the forerunner of the great Bábi movement which was later to become the great Bahá’i Faith.  

Qurratu’l-’Ayn, the “Consolation of the  

*Martha Root, after spending some time in fran and meeting the remaining members of the family of Tihirih wrote the little book 

“Táhirih the Pore” which she had published in India where