The Merchant Brothers of Iṣfáhán

*A retelling drawn from Adib Taherzadeh's **The Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh**, vol. 4, chapter 5. Phrases in quotation marks are words preserved in that account.*

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Mírzá Muḥammad-Ḥasan and his elder brother Mírzá Muḥammad-Ḥusayn were born to a noble family in Iṣfáhán. Bahá'u'lláh later gave them the titles by which they are remembered: *Sulṭánu'sh-Shuhadá*, the King of Martyrs, and *Maḥbúbu'sh-Shuhadá*, the Beloved of Martyrs. They were nine and ten years old when the Báb declared His mission in 1844.

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Two of their uncles had accepted the Báb in the early days of His Faith and took part in the Conference of Badasht. One of them was the father of Munírih Khánum, who became the wife of 'Abdu'l-Bahá. Their father, Mírzá Ibráhím, was not yet a believer, but when the Báb was in Iṣfáhán he entertained Him in his home one day, and the two boys and their uncles attained His presence.

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The meeting left an abiding impression on them, and through their uncles' efforts they became ardent believers. Later one uncle took them to Baghdád, where they met Bahá'u'lláh, and they returned home, Taherzadeh writes, "radiant as shining lights."

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In those days merchants held an important place in the community, and the brothers were esteemed as merchants of note. They built a very prosperous business in Iṣfáhán, but they "were not attached to earthly possessions." Their generous support eased some of the hardships Bahá'u'lláh and His companions endured in their successive exiles and confinements. They spent much of their wealth on the poor and "lovingly harboured the distressed and the needy at all times." During a famine in Iṣfáhán they provided food and other necessities for a great many starving people.

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In their dealings with people they were renowned for their "trustworthiness, honesty, compassion, loving-kindness and generosity." Taherzadeh sums them up in one sentence: "They were shining embodiments of all Bahá'í ideals." The praise Bahá'u'lláh showered upon them, he adds, is "ample testimony to the loftiness of their station, the nobility of their character and the purity of their souls."

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The Imám-Jum'ih of Iṣfáhán had left the management of his financial affairs in their hands, because they were the most trustworthy people he could find. When he learned that he owed them a large sum, he joined with another cleric, Shaykh Báqir, to have them put to death as Bahá'ís, and the two promised the governor a large share of their estate. The brothers refused to recant their faith, and on 17 March 1879 they were executed in Iṣfáhán.

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*This is a retelling. For the fuller account, see **The Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh** by Adib Taherzadeh.*

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