The Winter Road to Baghdád
Lady Blomfield, The Chosen Highway, (1940), George Ronald · Read original
When in Bahá'í history
A retelling based on The Chosen Highway by Lady Blomfield (George Ronald), drawn from the recollections of the Greatest Holy Leaf, Bahíyyih Khánum. The narrative is retold in our own words; the lines in quotation marks are verbatim from the book. Read the full text for the complete account.
When Bahá'u'lláh was allowed to leave the Síyáh-Chál after four months, He was very ill. He and His family were banished: they were to leave Tihrán for Baghdád, and were given ten days to prepare.
Their home had already been plundered. Ásíyih Khánum, Bahá'u'lláh's wife, who had been born to wealth, nursed her husband so that He might have some strength for the journey, and sold almost all that remained of her marriage treasures, "jewels, embroidered garments, and other belongings for which she received about four hundred tumans." With that money she provided what she could for the road. As the book notes, "The Government provided nothing for those whom they exiled."
None of their friends or relations dared to come and help, or even to say good-bye, except one old lady, Ásíyih Khánum's grandmother. A faithful servant, Isfandíyár, and one woman servant stayed with them. The children were very young: 'Abbás was eight and Bahíyyih six. Mírzá Mihdí, only two and very delicate, was left behind in the care of his great-grandmother, and the parting was very sad.
The journey lasted about four weeks. "The weather was bitterly cold, snow was upon the ground," Bahíyyih Khánum remembered. Sometimes they camped in the wilderness. Her mother, only six weeks before the birth of her youngest son, rode in a takht-i-raván, a litter carried on a jolting mule, and "never did she utter one word of complaint." When they came to a city, Ásíyih Khánum took the clothes to the public baths and washed them herself, and carried the cold, wet clothes away in her arms. Drying them was almost impossible. Her hands, unused to such coarse work, became very painful.
At the caravanserais each family was allowed one room for one night, and no light was permitted after dark. Bahá'u'lláh was so ill that He could not eat the rough food, and He grew weaker. Ásíyih Khánum tried to think of some way to get Him different food. One day she managed to find a little flour, and that night at the caravanserai she made Him a sweet cake. In the dark she used salt instead of sugar. "So the cake was uneatable!" her daughter said.
Soldiers sent by the Governor of Tihrán escorted the family to the frontier, where Turkish soldiers met them and took them on to Baghdád.
This account is retold for the Bahai Story Library; it is a paraphrase, not the original text. The quoted lines are verbatim from The Chosen Highway (Lady Blomfield, George Ronald). See the source for the complete account.
Cite this story
Blomfield, L.. (1940). *The Chosen Highway*. George Ronald. https://bahai-library.com/blomfield_chosen_highway
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