orig. Mīrzā Ḥoseyn ʽAli Nūrī
born Nov. 12, 1817, Tehrān, Iran
died May 29, 1872, Acre, Palestine
Iranian religious leader, founder of the
A Shīʽite Muslim who allied himself with the Bāb , he joined his half brother Mīrzā Yaḥyā (known as Ṣobḥ-e Azal) in leading the Bābī movement after the Bāb's execution. Sunnite Muslims exiled him to Baghdad, Kurdistan, and finally Constantinople, where in 1867 he declared himself the imam-mahdi foretold by the Bāb and sent by God. This pronouncement split {{link=Babism">Bābism into two factions, with a small group (the Azalī ) adhering to its original beliefs and a larger group following him into what became the Bahāʾī faith. The Ottoman government banished him to Acre where, as Bahāʾ Ullāh, he developed Bahāʾī into a teaching that advocated the unity of all religions and universal human brotherhood.