Munirih Khánum

Munírih Khánum (Persian: منیره خانم‎‎‎; 1847 – April 28, 1938) was the wife of `Abdu'l-Bahá, the son of Bahá'u'lláh, the founder of the Bahá'í Faith. She was entitled the Holy Mother. Her memoirs, first published in 1924, are regarded as one of the first published memoirs by a Persian woman in the 20th century.

Munírih Khánum was born Fáṭimih Nahrí, the eldest child of Muhammad `Alí Nahrí and his wife, Zahrá of Isfahán in Isfahan. The Nahrí family were a prominent family in the city, and her family were one of the first Bábís of Isfahan who later became eminent Bahá'ís of Persia. The family were also highly connected with high-ranking nobles and clerics of the city. Her maternal uncle was killed at the age of fourteen in Persia because of his religion. Munírih's birth came as a surprise to her parents. Her father was previously married and had no issue and upon his wives death, he remarried Zahrá Khánum. Munírih's birth in 1847 did not occur until some ten years after the parents marriage, when the couple had assumed they would never have children.

Her father was one of the first Bábís in her city of birth, and Munírih was bought up as a devout Bábí and later Bahá'í under her parents care. Though it was customery not to educate girls, even of noble birth, her father had his daughter educated and she was a fine writer and poet. Her poetry was reported to be beautiful and she wrote many during her marriage and later years. Munírih was also fluent in her native Persian and also Arabic and Turkish. She was also well versed in Persian literature, in the works of Rumi and Nizami which she refers to in her later writings. According to her later memoirs her father died shortly after her eleventh birthday and she was left to the care of both her maternal and paternal extended families.

As a young woman, Munírih was regarded as a suitable match for marriage to Bahá’í families throughout Persia. However, in her infancy as was the Persian custom her parents had betrothed her to a young man. Some time after the death of her father, her family thought she had come of age for a marriage. They arranged that she be wedded to the young Mírzá Kázim, the youngest brother of the King and Beloved of Martyrs. Munírih was reluctant at first, but due to familiar pressure she begrudgingly consented to the marriage despite her misgivings.

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