Birth of Shaykh Muhammad-'Alíy-i-Qá'iní, Apostle of Bahá'u'lláh, in Naw Firist, near Bírjand. [EB273]
• He was a nephew of Nabil-i-Akbar. He traveled to India and later to Haifa . He was sent to Ishqábád by 'Abdu'l-Bahá to take care of the education of children. Along with other believers he helped to complete the unfinished writings of Mírzá Abu'l-Fadl. [Wikipedia]

At about this time, there erupted in Iran a general persecution of the Baha'is that affected most of the country, in particular Tehran, Yazd, Isfahan, Sabzivar, Fars and Rasht. With the approval of Bahá'u'lláh the Bahá'ís began to settle in Ishqabad.

In about 1884, the first four Baha'is to settle permanently in Ashkhabad arrived there. Two of these arrived from Sabzivar, Aqa 'Abdu'r-Rasul Yazdi and Aqa Muhammad Rida Arbab Isfahani. On 3 April 1884, two other Bahá'ís arrived, Ustad `Ali Akbar and Ustad Muhammad Rida, both builders from Yazd. [The Baha'i Community Of Ashkhabad; Its Social Basis And Importance In Baha'i History by Mojan Momen p281-282]

The Bahá'í community of Ishqabad, because of the continuous influx of pioneers from Iran (most from Yazd), soon grew to the point of saturation resulting in the friends choosing to pioneer to other parts of Turkestan. They first settled in larger cities, such as Marv, Chardzhou, Bukhara, Samarkand, Tashkent and later when to smaller places. Soon there were Bahá'ís all over Turkestand, from Tashkent to the far corners of the Caspian Sea [YS pg.xvi]

Hájí Muhammad Ridáy-i-Isfahání was martyred in `Ishqábád. He had been on of the most prominent Bahá'ís and acted as the agent for the Afnan family Ishqabad. The murder had been orchestrated by the clergy who had brought ruffians from Khurasan for this purpose. They were bold, thinking that they were acting with impunity because the victim was a Bahá'í but the authorities intervened and arrested nine of the perpetrators. Some 70 fled to Iran. The plan had been to incite a general attack on the Bahá'í community. [BBRXXIX, 296–7; GPB202; The Baha'i Community Of Ashkhabad; Its Social Basis And Importance In Baha'i History by Mojan Momen p283; The Memoirs of Shamsi Sedaghat p27]

"In the city of 'Ishqábád the newly established Shí'ah community, envious of the rising prestige of the followers of Bahá'u'lláh who were living in their midst, instigated two ruffians to assault the seventy-year old Hájí Muhammad-Ridáy-i-Isfáhání, whom, in broad day and in the midst of the bazaar, they stabbed in no less than thirty-two places, exposing his liver, lacerating his stomach and tearing open his breast. A military court dispatched by the Czar to 'Ishqábád established, after prolonged investigation, the guilt of the Shí'ahs, sentencing two to death and banishing six others - a sentence which neither Násir'd-Dín Sháh, nor the 'ulamás of Tihrán, of Mashad and of Tabríz, who were appealed to, could mitigate, but which the representatives of the aggrieved community, through their magnanimous intercession which greatly surprised the Russian authorities, succeeded in having commuted to a lighter punishment." [GPB202-203]

• Pior to this time the Shi'i and the Bahá'í had lived side by side more or less peacefully. After this incident they were more segregated.
• Czar Alexander III sent a military commission from St Petersburg to conduct the trial of those accused of the murder. [AB109; GPB202]
• Mírzá Abu'l-Fadl served as chief Bahá'í spokesman at the trial that took place in November 1890[AB109]
• Two were found guilty and sentenced to death, six others were ordered to be transported to Siberia. [AB109; BBR297; GPB203]
• Bahá'u'lláh attached importance to the action as being the first time Shí'ís received judicial punishment for an attack on Bahá'ís. [BBRSM91]
• The Bahá'í community interceded on behalf of the culprits and had the death sentences commuted to transportation to Siberia. [AB109; BBR297; GPB203]
• For Western accounts of the episode see BBR296–300.
• See as well The Martyrdom of Haji Muhammad-Rida by Mirza Abu'l-Fadl Gulpaygani, translated by Ahang Rabbani.

Construction began on the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár of `Ishqábád with the laying of its cornerstone. [BFA2:116-17; YSxvii]
• BBRXXX says this was 12 December. The discrepancy may lie in the use of two different calendars.
• The foundation stone was laid in the presence of General Subotich, governor-general of Turkistan. [BFA2:116–17; GPB300; see discussion of Krupatkin vs Subotich in The City of Love: Ishqábád and the Institution of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár by Bruce Whitmore] Also see BBR442-443 for the account of a Russian official, A D Kalmykov who says it was General Subotich.
• `Abdu'l-Bahá commissioned Hájí Mírzá Muhammad-Taqí, the Vakílu'd-Dawlih, son of Hájí Siyyid Muhammad, the uncle of the Báb for whom Bahá'u'lláh had revealed The Kitáb-i-Íqán, to be in charge of the project. He largely paid for it. [AB109]
• `Abdu'l-Bahá Himself delineated the general design and a Russian architect, Volkov, planned and executed the details of the construction. [AB109–10; Universal House of Justice 20 June 1991 para 8]
• A meeting hall and some of its dependencies had been built before 1900.
• The dependencies included two Bahá'í schools, a travellers' hostel, a medical dispensary and Hazíratu'l-Quds. [BBD122; BBR442; BBRSM:91]
• For a Western account of this see BBR442–3.
• See jacket of BBR for a photograph of work on the Temple.
• See the message of the Universal House of Justice dated 1 August, 2014 for more on the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár in `Ishqábád.
Specifics

Location: In the heart of the city of `Ishqábád
Foundation Stone: Late 1902 by General Subotich, the governor-general of Turkistan who had been delegated by the Czar to represent him.
Construction Period: Initial step had been undertaken during the lifetime of Bahá'u'lláh. Superstructure: 1902 – 1907. External Ornamentation: 1919
Site Dedication: No record of a dedication ceremony on completion of the building can be found although the external ornamentation was completed in 1919 it is probable that the building had been in use for some years by this time.
Architects: `Abdu'l-Bahá Himself delineated the general design. More specific design was by Ustad Ali-Akbar-i-Banna and a Russian architect, Volkov, planned and executed the details of the construction under the supervision of Hájí Mírzá Muhammad-Taqí, the son of Hájí Siyyid Muhammad, the uncle of the Báb for whom Bahá'u'lláh had revealed The Kitáb-i-Íqán. [AB109]
Seating:
Dimensions:
Cost:
Dependencies: two Bahá'í schools, a travellers' hostel, a medical dispensary and Hazíratu'l-Quds
Expropriation:1928
Lease period: – 1938
Seizure; the building was turned into an art gallery
Earthquake: 1948
Demolition: August 1963 the Universal House of Justice announced that it had been demolished by the authorities and the site cleared.
References: AB109, BW14p479-481, GPB300-301, CEBF236, EB266-268, MF126-128

The outer structure of the House of Worship in `Ishqábád was completed and the dome was in place. [AB110, EB267]
• The outer decoration would not be completed until 1919.
• For a description of the Temple, its gardens and environs see BW1:79–81, GPB300–1 and PUP71.

Mr Husayn Uskuli and two Bahá'ís friends arrived in Shanghai from 'Ishqábád. His family joined him later. [PH28-29, BW13p871-872]

The war years 1937-1945 were difficult for him and the conditions following the victory of the Chinese Communist Party made it impossible to have contact with the local people yet he remained.

• He spent all his remaining years but for a few in Shanghai where he passed away on the 25th of February, 1956 and was laid to rest in the Shanghai Kiangwan cemetery. [Video Early History of the Bahá'ís of China 6min 33 sec]

National Spiritual Assemblies were formed in the Caucasus (Baku) and in Turkistan (Ashkhabad)about this time. Because these Assemblies were not chosen by the election of the members of the local spiritual assemblies or by representatives of the Bahá'í population as is the current practice, they should be considered as preliminary local and national Assemblies. [BW24p44]
• They were disbanded in 1938 due to government pressure. [Bahaipedia]

As part of a general anti-religious campaign launched under Stalin, the Soviet authorities abrogated the constitution of the Spiritual Assembly of 'Ishqábád (now Ashgabat, Turkmenistan) and the Assembly was dissolved. [BW3:37-43; BW8p88; SETPE1p154; YS2]
• Bahá'í schools and libraries were closed. [BBRSM173]
• Not long after, the government ordered that all religious buildings in the Soviet Union were the property of the government and the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár locked. As soon as the doors were sealed by the authorities the friends gathered in the surrounds gardens for prayers. They came in far greater numbers that had requested the Temple. Too it was expropriated and later leased back to the Bahá'ís. [BBD122; BBR473; BBRSM161; BW3:37]
• The chairman of the Local Spiritual Assembly, Jináb-i Gulpáygání, as representative for the community, was chosen to go to Moscow to appeal the case where the authorities agreed to remove the seals from the gates making the grounds accessible to the friends. [YS2]
• For the history of the persecution of the Bahá'ís in the Soviet Union see BBR473 and BW3:34–43.
• Note: PP364–5 says it was 1929.
• See The Bahá'í Community of Ashkhabad; Its Social Basis and Importance in Bahá'í History by Moojan Momen.

Bahá'ís in the Soviet Union were persecuted by the authorities. [BBR473, BW8p87-90, 179-81, BW14p479-481, SETPE1p155; YS6]
• Five hundred Bahá'í men were imprisoned in Turkistán. [Bw8p89]
• Many Persian Bahá'ís living in various cities of the Soviet Union were arrested, some are sent to Siberia, others to Pavladar in northern Kazakhstan and yet others to Iran. [BW8p87, 179, 184]
• Six hundred Bahá'í refugees-women, girls, children and a few old men, went to Iran, most to Mashhad. [BW8p89]
• The Bahá'í Temple in Ishqábád (now Ashgabat, Turkmenistan) was confiscated and turned into an art gallery. [BDD122, BW8p89]
• The Bahá'í schools were ordered closed. [BW8p89]
• Spiritual Assemblies and all other administrative institutions in the Caucasus were ordered dissolved. [BW8p89]
• Shoghi Effendi included all these territories in his Ten Year Plan, unveiled in 1953, as follows:
  • The National Spiritual Assembly of Germany and Austria was made responsible for opening Albania, Estonia, Finno—Karelia, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldavia (Moldova), Romania and White Russia (Belarus) and for consolidating Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic (S.F.S.R.), and Yugoslavia.
  • The National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of lran was made responsible for opening Kirgizia (later named Kyrgyzstan), Mongolia, Tajikistan (Tadzhikistan) and Uzbekistan, and for consolidating Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, and Turkmenistan.
  • The National Spiritual Assembly of the United States was responsible for opening Kazakhstan, Sakhalin, and the Ukraine. [BW20p196-197]

Husayn Uskuli, (b. 1875) long-time pioneer to Shanghai from 'Ishqábád, passed away in Shanghai at the age of 82 and was buried in the Kiangwan Cemetery in Shanghai. [PH29, BW13p871-873]
• He had heard about the Faith at the age of 18 from Mírzá Haydar-'Alí. After his marriage he moved to 'Ishqábád where he was very active in the community. After his move to Shanghai his home was the centre of activity and hospitality for all those passing through. He was the only foreign-born Bahá'í to remain in China after the regime change. The xenophobic attitude of the government precluded any meaningful contact with the local citizenry.
• He was survived by four daughters and a son.

The Universal House of Justice announceed the demolition of the House of Worship in 'Ishqábád (now Ashgabat, Turkmenistan) by the Soviet authorities owing to earthquake damage. [BBD122; BW14:479–81]
• For a picture of the damaged Temple see BW14:481.

The passing of Hand of the Cause of God Ali Akbar Furútan in Haifa at the age of 98. [BWNS261, BW'03-'04pg227]
• Born in Sabzivar, Iran, on 29 April 1905.
• Moved with his family to Ashgabat in what was then Russian Turkestan (now part of Turkmenistan), and, through his years of school and university, he took an active part in the work of the Bahá'í communities of Ashgabat, Baku, Moscow, and other parts of Russia.
• In 1930 he was expelled from the Soviet Union during the Stalinist persecution of religion and from that time on played an ever more significant role in the work and administration of the Iranian Bahá'í community. [BW03-04p227-230]
• Shoghi Effendi had appointed him among the first contingent on the 24th of December, 1951. [MoCxxiii]
• For a tribute from the Universal House of Justice see message of 27 November, 2003.