From: We are Baha'is
Sulayman Khan Ilyas, Jamal Effendi
The man whom Providence had destined to become the spiritual
father of the subcontinent of India and of Burma was a nobleman of the same
province of Iran which had been the home of the ancestors of Bahá'u'lláh. His
name was Sulayman Khan and he was a native of Tunukabun. But when he set out in
the world to serve the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh, he left behind the garb of a
nobleman and attired in the garment of a humble man of the cloister travelled
far and wide. 'Abdu'l-Bahá says that he 'was given the title of Jamali'd-Din'.
He became known as Jamal Effendi. Sulayman Khan was the son of 'Isa Khan-i-Tunukabuni. 'Isa Khan was a man of substance and influence in his area of Mazindaran. But his son decided to try his luck in Tihran. It was in the capital city of Iran, the city in which Bahá'u'lláh was born, that Sulayman Khan had his tryst with fate. There he met his destiny, which was not to rise to high position in the temporal realm, but to scale spiritual heights. He gave his allegiance to Bahá'u'lláh, donned the garb of a dervish and took to the road. Forsaking his wealth, his earthly attachments, his position and station in life, and possessing an Ottoman passport, he roamed for a long time over the Ottoman domains, making his way to the Holy Land.
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