Bijan Masumian

About the above panel (from right to left):

(1) The Resurrection of Tahirih: A painting and a personal gift by my talented friend Shahin Azadegan that portrays the immortality of Tahirih, after her martyrdom in 1852. Samples of Tahirih’s poetry surrounds her in the well, the place of her martyrdom.

(2) Two lines from a well-known poem by Tahirih: Tahirih evidently sent these lines to the King of Persia (Naser al-Din Shah) to decline his marriage proposal. The English translation of the lines by Dr. Amin Banani in his Tahirih: A Portrait in Poetry is as follows:

I’ll walk the beggar’s path—though bad—it’s mine.
It’s Alexander’s road that you pursue.
Ride past my camp, on your road to nowhere.
May you have all you wish, for it’s your due.

(3) The Celestial Bird: Is a calligraphic rendition of the Baha’i greeting  “Allah’u’Abha” (God is the Most Glorious) in the form of a celestial bird. The bird, a rooster, is the symbolic representation of the Manifestation of God or the Prophet of the Age (Baha’u’llah) whose call at the dawn of the new age awakens humanity. The artwork is by the great Baha’i calligrapher Mishkin Qalam. The bird is holding one of the writings of Baha’u’llah. On the bottom left is Mishkin Qalam’s well-known insignia which decorated most of his artwork. It reads “The Servant of the Threshold of Baha [Baha’u’llah], Mishkin Qalam.”

The Narrative Behind the Panel: Is essentially Tahirih’s rejection of worldly desires, and her wish for reunion with the Celestial Bird (The Bab / Baha’u’llah). Baha’ullah saw the Bab’s revelation and his own as one and the same.

Persian translation of the above: