At the age of six she witnessed the sacking and plundering of her parents’ property when her father was imprisoned in the Síyáh-Chál, the "Black Pit" of Tehran. She shared with her mother, Navváb, and her brother Abdu’l-Bahá the gnawing anxiety concerning whether Bahá’u’lláh would be executed. While her mother was absent, endeavoring to obtain information about the situation of her beloved husband and attempting to provide for the daily needs of the family, Bahíyyih Khánum alone cared for her infant brother.
When Bahá’u’lláh was released from incarceration, He and His family and a number of close associates were exiled to Baghdad in 1853. Thus began a period of exile that, for Bahíyyih Khánum, was to last until the end of her life and to include periods of captivity. She shared the imprisonment and banishment of Bahá’u’lláh when He was, at the behest of the Persian and Ottoman civil and ecclesiastic authorities, sent first to Baghdad, then to Constantinople, then to Adrianople, and finally to the prison city of Acre.
From her earliest days, Bahíyyih Khánum had an appreciation of the station of her father as a Messenger of God and a deep love and desire to serve Him and the cause He founded. At each stage of her life, she was called upon to undertake delicate and difficult missions and to demonstrate heroic qualities of character and spirit in service to that cause. She was elevated to a high rank by Bahá’u’lláh, Who also bestowed upon her the title of the Greatest Holy Leaf, a designation that members of the Bahá’í Faith often use when referring to her.
- Janet Khan (‘Prophet’s Daughter’)