page_title: Ásíyih Khánum
section_title: Easing of restrictions
hierarchical_section_title: Ásíyih Khánum / Easing of restrictions
caption_attribution_description: English: `Abdu'l-Bahá as a young man
context_page_description: Ásíyih K͟hánum was the wife of Baháʼu'lláh, the founder of the Baháʼí Faith. She is viewed by Baháʼís as the paragon of a devoted mother and wife. She is also known by her titles of Navváb, the Most Exalted Leaf, Búyúk K͟hánum or Hadrat-i-K͟hánum. K͟hánum is a title usually given to a Persian lady and is equivalent to madam. Baháʼu'lláh and Ásíyih Khánum were known as the Father of the Poor and the Mother of Consolation for their extraordinary generosity and regard for the impoverished. Baháʼu'lláh, along with Ásíyih Khánum and her children, are regarded as the Baháʼí holy family.
context_section_description: In 1870, restrictions were eased for the family and they were moved from the prison. As the people of Acre started to respect the Baháʼís and in particular, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá was able to arrange for houses to be rented for the family, and the family finally moved to the Mansion of Bahjí around 1879 when an epidemic caused the inhabitants to flee. She was greatly respected and admired by the Baháʼís and known for her keen sense of humour, kindness and compassion.
  Ásíyih personally helped women and children of Acre who were struck with illness nursing them to health. Though she was dainty and of little strength she nonetheless served the household and pilgrims with the help her daughter and Baháʼu'lláh. Her health soon swiftly declined with many of her family believing it was the climate of Acre.
  Ásíyih spent most of her time devoted to piety and her family. Baháʼu'lláh called her “Navváb”, a respectable term Persian noblemen called their wives. She was also affectionately known as Búyúk Khánum. He also named her Varaqiyih-'Ulyá (meaning "Greatest Holy Leaf") and his "perpetual consort in the worlds of God". Baháʼu'lláh named her son ʻAbdu'l-Bahá as his successor. She was greatly esteemed and revered by Baháʼís and even by her own children and was referred to as "the Exalted Leaf" by them. Shoghi Effendi described her as “the most distinguished of all people”. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá wrote about his mother:
  And truly the humiliation and reproach which she suffered in the path of God is a fact which no one can refute. For the calamities and afflictions mentioned in the whole chapter are such afflictions which she suffered in the path of God, all of which she endured with patience and thanked God therefor and praised Him, because He had enabled her to endure afflictions for the sake of Bahá. During all this time, the men and women (Covenant-breakers) persecuted her in an incomparable manner, while she was patient, God-fearing, calm, humble and contented through the favor of her Lord and by the bounty of her Creator.
caption: ʻAbbás Effendi, Ásíyih Khánum's eldest son.
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