Tahirih teaching in Mashhad.

“I am the word, the Qaim is to utter, the Word which shall put to flight the chiefs and nobles of the earth.”

Tahirih’s influence and reputation is celebrated in music and poetry throughout the world. The appearance of a soul as pure as Tahirih’s would have been a rare event in any culture but in a country as despotic as Persia, where women were deprived of education with little opportunity for self expression, her appearance was almost a miracle.

While still a young woman she travelled on pilgrimage, with her sister Marziyah, to the Atabad an area of historical significance in the region of Karbila. While in Karbila Tahirih had a dream in which a youth, wearing a green turban, appeared to her in a dream. With upraised hands He recited certain verses. When she awoke from her strange vision Tahirih recorded one of the verses in her book. Later when she received a copy of the Bab’s commentary on the Surah of Joseph, she discovered this was the same verse that had appeared in her dream.

Tahirih declared her belief in the Bab as the Promised Qaim and she became known as “The Point of Divine Knowledge.“ She travelled throughout the region and wherever she went she attracted thousands of followers. She has become immortalized in the annals of history, because of her rare intellect, her extraordinary beauty and her eloquent poetry.

From an original painting by Ivan Lloyd © 1993