Jináb-i-Quddús () (c.1820–1849), is the title of Mullá Muḥammad ʻAlí-i-Bárfurúshi, who was the most prominent disciple of the Báb. He was the eighteenth and final Letter of the Living.
Biography Early life and education Quddús was born in Bárfurúsh (modern-day Babol), a city in Mazandaran Province near the Caspian Sea. At the time, Bárfurúsh had a population of approximately fifty thousand and was considered the largest city in Mazandaran. Quddús was born in a neighborhood named Chaharshanbeh-pish. His father's house was located near the eastern bank of the Áq-rúd River. Different sources offer slightly different years for his birth, between 1815 and 1822. Nabíl-i-Zarandí's hagiographic history The Dawn-Breakers states that he was born in 1822, and this date is often reproduced by Bahá'í sources, while Abbas Amanat concludes that 1819 is the most likely date, based on the evidence of Quddús' own writings and statements made by other primary sources about his age at the time of his death in 1849. However, in the book Ganj-i-Penhan (The Life and Works of Quddús), Hooshmand Dehghan determines the year 1822 based on various historical evidences.
His father, Áqá Muḥammad-Ṣáliḥ, was a small-scale, illiterate rice farmer. However, Dehqan notes that he was a broad bean farmer; as 'bakele' is the Mazandarani word for broad bean, he was known among the locals of Bárfurúsh as Áqá Muḥammad-Ṣáliḥ Bakele-kar. His mother—whose name is not recorded—was a descendant of Muhammad through his grandson Hasan, the second Imam of Shia Islam. His mother died when Quddús was still an infant. His father later remarried, and Quddús had a close relationship with his stepmother and his half-brothers by her. Neither his father or stepmother ever converted to Bábism or the Bahá'í Faith, but they received negative attention from local leaders because of their children's religious activities, and his stepmother developed close relationships with Baha'is in Qaem Shahr towards the end of her life. Quddús had two half-brothers—Mírzá Haydar and Áqá Muḥammad-Ṣádiq and a sister—Maryam. All of his siblings converted to Bábism, and at least Muhammad-Sádiq later became a Bahá'í. His parents and Muhammad-Sádiq outlived him, while Haydar was executed during the battle of Shaykh Tabarsi, and Maryam died shortly after Quddús and Haydar.
During his lifetime, Babol was one of many Iranian cities where the resident of neighborhoods and villages were segregated according to each households allegiance to one of two moieties, known as the Haydarís and Ne'matis. Quddus' household and relatives were aligned with the Ne'mati faction. While the divide between Ne'matis and Haydarís was not fundamentally a religious divide, many Ne'mati's in Babol at the time were adherents of the nascent Shia school of Shaykhism, while the Haydarís largely remained aligned with the dominant Usuli school. The family of Quddús were supporters of the local Shayki cleric Mullá Muhammad-Hamza Sharíʻat-madár, who employed Quddús as an attendant in his youth and likely arranged for him to receive a basic education from other members of the cleric's retinue.
Clerical education After receiving a basic education in the house of Sharíʻat-madár, Quddús was sent to the town of Sárí for a madrassa education. After a few years in Sárí, he was sent to another madrassa in Mashad, where he became a member of a small group of Shaykhi students which included Mullá Husayn and a number of other future Bábís.
When he was eighteen, Quddús left for the Shia holy city of Karbala in Iraq, where he spent four years studying under Sayyid Kázim, then the leader of the Shaykhi denomination. While living in Iraq he out religious retreats at the shrine of the ʻAtabát, and developed a particular devotion to the Imams. He returned to Bárfurúsh in March 1844, now a fully trained and licensed mullá—a Shia legal scholar endorsed by a teacher, and able to issue judgements on matters of religious law.
Babol was disrupted by a conflict between Quddús childhood patron Sharī'atmadār and a cleric named Mulla Sa'id Bárfurúshi. Mullá Saʻíd-i-Bárfurúshí was called Sa'id al-ʻUlamá. Sharī'atmadār represented the Niʻmatí kinship group and the Shaykhi religious faction. The Sa'id al-ʻUlamá represented the Haydarís and the Usuli school. Sharī'atmadār and Quddús were supported by large numbers of residents in Niʻmatís areas. Quddús was described as charismatic and meticulously observant of religious rituals. The supporters of Sharī'atmadār and Quddús were largely peasants, while the Sa'id al-ʻUlamá had a wealthier set of supporters.
He was described as a charismatic mullá (religious leader) with "affability, combined with dignity and bearing" and he became a notable person within his hometown. Mírzá Músá, who met him in 1846, said: "whoever was intimately associated with him was seized with an insatiable admiration for the charm of the youth".
Conversion to Bábism In 1844, He met the Báb in Shiraz, and recognized him as the revelatory figure that he and other Shayki had been seeking after the death of Sayyid Kazim. Although there is some disagreement among early primary sources and later analysts as to the exact identity of the first nineteen converts to Bábism and the order in which they recognized Sayyid ʿAlí Muḥammad, there is widespread agreement that Mullá Muḥammad ʻAlí was the last member of the group to arrive and accept the Báb's prophetic claims. He arrived in Shiraz independently from any other group of Shayki seekers after traveling from Babol; he may have been passing through Shiraz on his way to complete an Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, or may have heard about the Báb's declaration from a Shayki contact and set out to Shiraz with the intent of investigating the matter.
The Báb gave the first nineteen converts to Bábism the title of the Letters of the Living, and entrusted them with tasks that would fulfill important prophecies from Shia eschatology. He directed each of them to travel to a different area of Persia or Iraq to evangelize on his behalf, to expand the number of followers of the new religion, attract the support of prominent civil and religious leaders, and gather a base of support in the cities of the ʻAtabát—the Shia shrines of Iraq. Mullá Husayn was sent to Isfahan, Tehran, and Khorasan and given responsibility for announcing the message of the Bab to the Shah. Mullá 'Alí and others were sent to Karbalá and the other shrine cities of Iraq. Quddús was selected to accompany the Báb on pilgrimage to Mecca, where they would announce the start of a new revelation in the holiest city in the Muslim world.
Accompanying the Báb on pilgrimage After the eighteen Letters of the Living recognized him, the Báb and Quddús left on a pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina, the sacred cities of Islam. The Báb's household slave Mubárak is the only other person who is generally agreed to have travelled with the party. Quddús was chosen to accompany the Báb primarily due to the closeness of their relationship, and served as the Báb's amanuensis during the journey.
The pilgrims left Shiraz on September 10, 1844, departing from the port of Bushehr on the 19th of Ramadán (October, 1844), and arriving in Mecca on the first of Dhi'l-Hájjih (December 12, 1844). The journey by sea lasted a total of seventy days, and—owing to humid weather, rough seas, and unpleasant interactions with fellow pilgrims— was very difficult. The party experienced discrimination and abuse from other pilgrims as a result of ethnic and sectarian prejudice, and the Báb later described the majority of the pilgrims as "a bunch of useless and ignorant people" who violated traditions of pious behavior expected of pilgrims.
In Mecca, the Báb, Mubárak, and Quddús performed the expected rituals of the Hajj. On the day of Eid al Adha, the Báb sacrificed nineteen lambs, "nine in his own name, seven in the name of Quddús, and three in the name of his Ethiopian servant [Mubárak]". quoted in During this pilgrimage the Báb publicly claimed to be the Qa'im, meeting with a number of prominent religious figures in an attempt to gain their allegiance. Quddús was tasked with delivering a letter of the Báb to the Sharif of Mecca—the Custodian of the Kaaba—proclaiming his status. Portions of this letter are included in the book Selections from the Writings of the Báb. Although the Báb had initially planned to travel to the shrine cities of Iraq after his pilgrimage, he received a letter in early 1845 describing the difficulties that Mullá ʻAlíy-i-Bastami (the second Letter of the Living) had encountered in that region and decided that he and his party should instead return to the port of Bushehr. The Báb's decision not to gather his growing community of followers in Karbalá was disappointing to many who had expected him to lead a military revolution against the forces of orthodoxy, fulfilling the role of the Mahdi.
The Báb's, Mubárak and Quddús returned to Bushehr in the spring of 1845. While the Báb engaged in correspondence with Persian government ministers seeking to gain Mullá ʻAlíy-i-Bastami freedom from imprisonment in Ottoman territory, he ordered Quddús to travel to Shiraz on a mission of evangelism. Zarandí records the Báb as having indicated to Quddús that the two of them would never meet again after parting in Bushehr: "Yours will be the ineffable joy of quaffing the cup of martyrdom for His sake. I, too, shall tread the path of sacrifice, and will join you in the realm of eternity."
Persecution in Shiraz
Before Quddús arrived in Shiraz, a small number of other Bábís had already begun to engage in evangelical activity in the city including the provocative action of appending a statement about the Báb's to a call to prayer proclaimed from the minaret of a prominent mosque. After his arrival, Quddús ascended the same minaret and read from the Báb's Qayyūm al-asmā. Another Bábí, Mulla Sadiq Khurasani—known as Muqaddas among Bábís and Bahá'ís—made public declarations that "the Gate to the Hidden Imam had appeared". Prior to Quddús's mission in Shiraz the Letters of the Living had largely kept the identity of the Báb secret, but during these public declarations they openly connected their movement with Siyyid ʿAlí-Muḥammad of Shiraz for the first time. In response to these actions, the governor of the city ordered Quddús, Muqaddas, and another Bábí arrested and tried by a religious council.
As a result of the trial Quddús experienced his first persecution as a Bábí. The governor ordered Muqaddas to be whipped, and all three Bábís had their beards burned, then their noses pierced, and threaded with halters; "then, having been led through the streets in this disgraceful condition, they were expelled from the city." The brutal treatment of the Bábís became a matter of international news, covered by newspapers in the UK starting November 1, 1845, followed by the US, Australia, and New Zealand. Quddús's travel to Shiraz brought the Báb's claim to the attention of the governor, Husayn Khan, who ordered the Báb arrested en route to Shiraz in summoned the Báb to Shiraz in July 1845.
Travels