The Burial of the Purest Branch

Mírzá Mihdí, the Purest Branch, a son of Bahá’u’lláh, died in the citadel of ‘Akká on 23 June 1870, twenty-two hours after falling through an open skylight.

Aqa Husayn-i-Ashchi related that Shaykh Mahmud told the Most Great Branch that he desired the honour of washing and shrouding the body of the Purest Branch, so that the guards should not lay their hands on that which was holy, and his offer was accepted; whereupon a tent was pitched in the yard, inside which the body of Mirza Mihdi was laid, and with the aid of some of the companions (one of whom was Ashchi himself), who brought water and other accessories, Shaykh Mahmud prepared the body of the martyred son of Bahá’u’lláh for interment. The Most Great Branch, sorely stricken by the death of His dearly-loved brother, His grief, Ashchi remarks, imprinted on His visage, was during that period walking outside the tent with rapid paces, keeping watch. And Aqa Rida says that the notables of ‘Akká joined the funeral procession. The Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith further writes:

After he had been washed in the presence of Bahá’u’lláh, he ‘that was created of the light of Bahá’, to whose ‘meekness’ the Supreme Pen had testified, and of the ‘mysteries’ of whose ascension that same Pen had made mention, was borne forth, escorted by the fortress guards, and laid to rest, beyond the city walls, in a spot adjacent to the shrine of Nabi Salih [the Prophet Salih], from whence, seventy years later, his remains, simultaneously with those of his illustrious mother, were to be translated [in December 1939] to the slopes of Mt Carmel, in the precincts of the grave of his sister, and under the shadow of the Báb’s holy sepulcher.

Source: H. M. Balyuzi, Bahá’u’lláh, The King of Glory, pp. 311–313, quoting Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, pp. 188–189.

Collected from bahaistories.com (Subject: mirza-mihdi).

Various. *bahaistories.com archive*. https://bahaistories.com/subject/mirza-mihdi