Back صبح أزل Arabic صبح ازل ARZ Sübhi Əzəl Azerbaijani یحیی صبح ازل AZB Subh-i Azal Catalan Subh-e Azal German Subh-i-Azal Esperanto یحیی صبح ازل Persian Subh-i azal Finnish Subh-i Azal French
Subh-i-Azal | |
|---|---|
 Subh-i-Azal at the age of 80, Famagusta, circa 1911[1] | |
| Personal life | |
| Born | Mīrzā Yahyā Nūrī 1831 |
| Died | April 29, 1912 (aged 80) |
| Children | Nine sons and five daughters |
| Parent(s) | Mirza Abbas Nuri Kuchik Khanum |
| Notable work(s) | Kitab-i-Nur, Ahkam-i-Bayan, Dhil-i-Bayan-i-Farsi |
| Known for | Second leader of Bābism |
| Relatives | Baháʼu'lláh (half-brother) Sheikh Ahmad Rouhi (son-in-law) Mirza Aqa Khan Kermani (son-in-law) |
| Religious life | |
| Religion | Bābism |
| Senior posting | |
| Predecessor | Bāb (as Primal Point) |
| Successor | Witnesses of the Bayān Yahyā Dawlatābādī (per Browne) |
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Subh-i-Azal[a] (1831–1912, born Mīrzā Yahyā Nūrī[b]) was an Iranian religious leader and writer who was the second head of the Bābī movement after the execution of its founder, the Bāb, in 1850. He was named the leader of the movement after being the Bāb's chief deputy shortly before its execution, and became a generally-acknowledged head of the community after their expulsion to Baghdad in 1852.[2]
The Bāb believed Subh-i-Azal had an ability to write divinely-inspired verses and saw him as a mirror, providing the ability to explain the unexplained, in the time before the appearance of the messiah, known in the Bābī religion as He whom God shall make manifest (Arabic: من يظهره الله, romanized: man yuẓhiruhu llāh). However, not all Bābīs followed his authority, and some of them also made claims of their own, including those to the position of the messiah. After his later conflict with his half-brother Baháʼu'lláh, who became Subh-i-Azal's leading intermediary and later claimed the messianic status, over leadership of the Bābī community, his followers became known as Azalis.[3]
At the time of appointment in 1850, he was just 19 years old. Two years later, a pogrom began to exterminate the Bābīs in Iran, and Subh-i-Azal fled for Baghdad for 10 years before joining the group of Bābī exiles that were called to Istanbul. During the time in Baghdad tensions grew with Baháʼu'lláh, as Bābī pilgrims began to turn to the latter for leadership. The Ottoman government further exiled the group to Edirne, where Subh-i-Azal openly rejected Baháʼu'lláh's messianic claim and the community of Bābīs were divided by their allegiance to one or the other.
In 1868 the Ottoman government further exiled Subh-i-Azal and his followers to Cyprus, and Baháʼu'lláh and his followers to Acre in Palestine. When Cyprus was leased to Britain in 1878, he lived out the rest of his life in obscurity on a British pension.[4]
By 1904, Azal's followers had dwindled to a small minority, and Baháʼu'lláh was almost universally recognized as the spiritual successor of the Bāb.[5] After Azal's death in 1912, the Azali form of Bābism entered a stagnation and has not recovered as there is no acknowledged leader or central organization.[2][6] Most Bābīs either accepted the claim of Baháʼu'lláh or the community gradually diminished as children and grandchildren turned back to Islam.[7] A source in 2001 estimated no more than a few thousand, almost entirely in Iran.[8] Another source in 2009 noted a very small number of followers remained in Uzbekistan.[9]
- ^ Lukach 1913, p. 264.
- ^ a b MacEoin 1987.
- ^ Warburg 2006, p. 7-8,146.
- ^ Mirza Yahya. In Britannica 2024.
- ^ Carus 1904, p. 361.
- ^ Warburg 2006, p. 7-8.
- ^ Momen 1991.
- ^ Barrett 2001, p. 246.
- ^ Campo 2009b.
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