Splits, divisions among the Babis and nominating Azal as a head, and receiving contributions in Azal’s name from believers.

The millenarian Bābī movement roiled Iran (1844–1850) under the leadership of Sayyid ‘Alī Muhammad Shīrāzī, the “Bāb” or supernatural gateway to God (Amanat 1989). After the Bāb was executed in 1850, the leadership of the movement became extremely fragmented, with many claimants to Bābī leadership and to divinity putting themselves forward (MacEoin 1989). Sometimes in the 1850s a single city would be split into three distinct Bābī communities, each with a different “divine” leader. Mīrzā Sa‘īd “Basīr” Hindi, a claimant to leadership with great charisma, was executed by a government official in the early 1850s, and many Bābī leaders died in regional conflicts and then the pogrom of 1852 after the Bābī attempt on the life of the shah.

The Nūrī household of four brothers from a great-landlord background was another focus of leadership. They seem to have made a self-conscious decision to put forward the youngest brother, Mīrzā Yahyā Subh-i Azal, as a sort of first among equals, and to attempt to convince the generality of the Bābīs to look to them, and to Azal in particular, for leadership. They were bolstered in this endeavor by a letter of the Bāb written before his execution that appeared to appoint Mīrzā Yahyā to a leadership role (Bāb 2001). The household consisted of Mīrzā Yahyā “Azal” Nūrī, of Mīrzā Husayn ‘Alī “Bahā’u’llāh” Nūrī, of Mīrzā Mūsā “Kalīm” Nūrī, and of Mīrzā Muhammad Qulī Nūrī. These were sons, all but two of them from different mothers, of the Iranian nobleman Mīrzā ‘Abbās “Buzurg” Nūrī, who had served in high governmental positions under Fath-‘Alī Shāh (r. 1797–1834). They were forced into exile in Ottoman Baghdad in the wake of the failed Bābī assassination attempt on Nāsiru’d-Dīn Shāh of 1852. Bahā’u’llāh was the treasurer for the household and for contributions received in Azal’s name from believers. He also screened Azal’s appointments and met with pilgrims, given that Azal’s position of leader put him in great danger from the shah’s assassins. Bahā’u’llāh himself in the 1850s was careful to deny that he had a high station or could work miracles (Cole 1997). Despite Azal’s reclusive style of leadership, and despite continual behind-the-scenes conflicts between Azal and Bahā’u’llāh, they succeeded in presenting a relatively united front from their place of exile in Baghdad (1853–1863). They continued in this vein when the Ottomans first exiled Bahā’u’llāh to Edirne in Ottoman Europe near Istanbul. He and his brothers and some Bābīs lived there November 1863 through summer, 1868, and it was midway through this period that open conflict between Azalīs and Bahā’īs broke out (Cole 1998a: 27–29).

(THE AZĀLĪ-BAHĀ’Ī CRISIS OF SEPTEMBER, 1867 by Juan R. I. Cole)