The Greatest Holy Leaf was the eldest daughter of Bahá’u’lláh, the Founder of the Baha’i Faith. Born in Persia in 1846 she, in her long life which ended in 1932, spanned, with the exception of two years, the entire Heroic Age of this new world religion.
At the age of six when her Father was cast into the subterranean dungeon in Tihrán known as the ‘Black Hole’, her home was immediately looted and despoiled. In a day the wealthy and noble family was beggared and hid in fear of their lives as Bahá’u’lláh lay in heavy chains—the most prominent, the most blameless victim of the turmoil which His Forerunner’s liberal teachings had provoked in a land of bitter Muslim Shí'ah fanaticism.
Navváb, the refined, frail, saintly mother of the little girl fled to a humble dwelling near the dungeon where she could be near her illustrious and much-loved Spouse; ‘Abdu'l-Bahá, her eight-year-old Brother, accompanied His mother when daily she went to the home of friends to ascertain whether Bahá'u'lláh was still alive or had been executed that day— for every day some of His co-religionists were martyred, often being handed over to various guilds, the butchers, the bakers, the shoemakers, the blacksmiths, who exercised their ingenuity on new ways of torturing them to death. Through long days of constant terror the little girl stayed at home with her four-year-old brother Mihdí; often, she recalled, she could hear the shrieks of the mob as they carried off their victims.
After four months Bahá'u'lláh was released through the intervention of various prominent people, and He and His family were exiled to ‘Iráq. In a very severe winter, through the snow-bound mountains of western Persia, the ill-clad, destitute party for three months suffered the ordeal of what He described as ‘that terrible journey’.
Navváb sold the gold buttons of her clothes to help buy food and washed their garments till her delicate hands bled. Such were the earliest recollections of Bahíyyih Khánum; the happy, secure days of her first six years must have become a dream-like experience, for no real peace ever entered her life again. Her Brother ‘Abdu’l-Bahá testified to this: ‘For all her days she was denied a moment of tranquillity.’
- Amatu’l-Baha Ruhiyyih Khanum (Introduction to compilation: ‘Bahiyyih Khanum:The Greatest Holy Leaf’, prepared by the Research Department of the Universal House of Justice, 1982)