A Friend in the Days of Death
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When in Bahá'í history
Tihrán (today: Tehran, Iran)
In 1852, while Bahá'u'lláh lay in chains in the dungeon of Ṭihrán, His family was left almost without a friend. His daughter Bahíyyih Khánum, then a child of six, later recalled the kinsman by marriage who dared to help them:
It was Mirza Yusif, who was able to help my mother about getting food taken to my father, and who brought us to the two little rooms near the prison, where we stayed in close hiding. He had to be very careful in thus defying the authorities, although the danger in this case was mitigated by the fact of his being under the protection of the Russian Consulate, as a Russian subject. Nobody at all, of all our friends and relations, dared to come to see my mother during these days of death, but the wife of Mirza Yusif, the aunt of my father.
Source: The Chosen Highway (Lady Blomfield), pp. 40–41, from the recollections of Bahíyyih Khánum.
Collected from bahaistories.com (Subject: siyah-chal).
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