Mírzá Muhammad `Alí

Mírzá Muhammad `Alí sitting, presumably taken in Adrianople, 1868, at the age of 16. Detail from larger photograph.

Mírzá Muhammad `Alí (1852-1937) (Persian: میرزا محمد علی) was one of the sons of Bahá'u'lláh, the founder of the Bahá'í Faith. He was born from his father's second wife, Fatimih Khanum, whom Bahá'u'lláh married in Tehran in 1849, and she was later known as Mahd-i-'Ulya.

Muhammad `Alí received the title from his father of Ghusn-i-Akbar or the "Greater Branch".^[1]

In The Kitáb-i-‘Ahd (The Book of the Covenant), Bahá'u'lláh appointed `Abdu'l-Bahá as his successor<sup>[2]</sup>, with Muhammad `Ali subordinate to `Abdu'l-Bahá, explicitly noting both by their titles. As time passed, Muhammad `Alí claimed that `Abdu'l-Bahá was not sharing power. Muhammad `Alí insisted that he should instead be regarded as the leader of the Bahá'ís. The competition culminated in Muhammad `Alí accusing his older brother of conspiring against the Ottoman government, which resulted in imprisonment and near death for `Abdu'l-Bahá and his family. Almost all Bahá'ís accepted `Abdu'l-Bahá as Bahá'u'lláh's successor.^[3]

The division caused by Muhammad `Alí was short-lived. At the time of `Abdu'l-Bahá's death, Shoghi Effendi was appointed as the Guardian of the Faith by `Abdu'l-Bahá in his Will and Testament, while Muhammad `Alí was reprimanded. He took the opportunity of `Abdu'l-Bahá's death to try to revive his claim to leadership, but his attempt to forcefully occupy the Shrine of Bahá'u'lláh left him on the losing end of a legal battle that completely removed any rights he previously had to the property. He died in 1937 as an outcast from the worldwide Bahá'í community, and is regarded as the arch-breaker of the Covenant of Bahá'u'lláh.

See also

• Bahá'u'lláh's family
• Covenant-breaker
• Bahá'í divisions

Notes

1. ^ Taherzadeh (2000), p. 256.
2. ^ Bahá'u'lláh [1873-92] (1994), pp. 221-222.
3. ^ Taherzadeh (1992), p. 176; Taherzadeh (2000), p. 44.

References

• Bahá'u'lláh (1994) [1873-92]. Tablets of Bahá'u'lláh Revealed After the Kitáb-i-Aqdas. Wilmette, Illinois, USA: Bahá'í Publishing Trust. ISBN 0-87743-174-4. http://reference.bahai.org/en/t/b/TB/. 

• Taherzadeh, Adib (2000). The Child of the Covenant. Oxford, UK: George Ronald. ISBN 0-85398-439-5. 

• Taherzadeh, A. (1992). The Covenant of Bahá'u'lláh. Oxford, UK: George Ronald. ISBN 0-85398-344-5. 

Persondata
Name	Ali, Mirza Muhammad
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1852
Place of birth
Date of death	1937
Place of death