Mishkín-Qalam's Mission and Exile to Cyprus

A retelling based on Adib Taherzadeh’s The Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Memorials of the Faithful.

Mírzá Ḥusayn of Iṣfahán, known by his artist’s name Mishkín-Qalam, was the leading calligrapher of Persia and held a position of some eminence at the court of Náṣiri’d-Dín Sháh in Tihrán. In Memorials of the Faithful ‘Abdu’l-Bahá calls him “a second Mír ‘Imád,” after one of the great masters of Persian calligraphy, and writes: “He wielded a musk-black pen, and his brows shone with faith.”

He first heard of the Cause of God in Iṣfahán, while on a visit home permitted by the Sháh. He did not go back to the court. He travelled instead to Adrianople and attained the presence of Bahá’u’lláh, and from that time gave his life to the Faith. While in Adrianople he wrote out the Greatest Name, Yá Bahá’u’l-Abhá, in many different forms and sent the pieces far and wide.

Bahá’u’lláh then sent him to Constantinople with Mírzá ‘Alíy-i-Sayyáḥ, with Jamshíd-i-Gurjí to serve them. Taherzadeh explains that the mission was meant to counter the misrepresentations that enemies of Bahá’u’lláh had spread in the capital and to allay the fears of the Persian ambassador. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá records that the leading Persians and Turks at first received Mishkín-Qalam with every honour and were captivated by his art, and that he began, boldly and eloquently, to teach the Faith.

The Persian ambassador went to the Sultan’s ministers and denounced him as an agitator sent by Bahá’u’lláh to stir up trouble. Spies were set around him, and he and his companions were arrested and imprisoned. In 1868 they were taken to Gallipoli to join Bahá’u’lláh and His companions on their way into exile. There their fate was decided: Bahá’u’lláh was sent to ‘Akká, and Mishkín-Qalam, with three other Bahá’ís, to Cyprus, where he was held in the citadel at Famagusta. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá writes that he remained a captive there “from the year 85 till 94”, that is, about nine years.

When Cyprus passed out of Turkish hands he was freed, and he made his way to ‘Akká. There he lived near Bahá’u’lláh, producing his calligraphs and sending them about. After the Ascension he remained firm in the Covenant. He travelled to Egypt, Damascus and India, and when ‘Abdu’l-Bahá heard that he was growing old and weak in India, He called him back to the Holy Land, where he died in about 1912. Taherzadeh writes that his name is remembered above all for his design of the Greatest Name.

A retelling based on The Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh, vols. 1–2 (Adib Taherzadeh, George Ronald) and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Memorials of the Faithful, with dates from H. M. Balyuzi, Eminent Bahá’ís in the Time of Bahá’u’lláh. For the fuller account, see the originals.

Taherzadeh, A.. (1974). *The Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh (4 volumes)*. George Ronald.