Zaynu'l-Muqarrabín

In 1851, Zaynu'l-Muqarrabín became a follower of the Báb, and began teaching his newfound faith in his hometown, causing opposition from his previous admirers.

[4] Around August 1852, Shaykh ʻAzíz Alláh Núrí sent two letters to Nasír al-Dín Sháh with names of several prominent Bábís whom he considered dangerous and deserving of punishment, including his nephews Baháʼu'lláh and Azal, and Zaynu'l-Muqarrabín.

[13] According to ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, during this time after becoming a Baháʼí, "In Persia his life was in imminent peril; and since remaining at Najaf-Ábád would have stirred up the agitators and brought on riots, he hastened away to Adrianople" to meet Baháʼu'lláh again, then returned to Iran.

In 1867, Zaynu'l-Muqarrabín and 52 other Baháʼís of Baghdad wrote an appeal to the Congress of the United States for assistance in freeing Baháʼu'lláh from confinement by Ottoman authorities.

[14] In preparation for a pilgrimage by Nasiru'd-Din Shah to shrines in Iraq, the Consul-General of Persia petitioned the governor of Baghdad to expel all Baháʼís from the city.

[15] In Mosul Zaynu'l-Muqarrabín acted as leader of the Baháʼí community and he was also the main conduit of the writings of Baháʼu'lláh passing from ʻAkká to Iran.

[17][15] E. G. Browne visited Iran in 1887-88 and records that a Baháʼí of Kirmán told him, "[Zaynu'l-Muqarrabín in Mosul] is one of the most notable of 'the Friends', and to him is entrusted the revision and correction of all copies of the sacred books sent out for circulation, of which, indeed the most trustworthy are those transcribed by his hand.

[1] In April 1890, when Edward Granville Browne held four interviews with Baháʼu'lláh, he reviewed and copied from many Baháʼí manuscripts, all in the hand of Zaynu'l-Muqarrabín.

ʻAbdu'l-Bahá described his final years: After the ascension [of Baháʼu'lláh] he was consumed with such grieving, such constant tears and anguish, that as the days passed by, he wasted away.

He has left to posterity, in his exquisite hand, many volumes comprising most of Baháʼu'lláh's important tablets; today Baháʼí publications in Persian and Arabic are authenticated by comparison with these.[24]E.

G. Browne used his colophons to calculate the Badíʻ calendar, remarking, all the best and most correct manuscripts of the sacred books were written or revised by him ... in all that relates to the Bábí method of reckoning time Zeynu'l-Mukarrabín's authority is incontrovertible.

[29] His son, Núruʼd-Dín Zayn, later published his own memoirs of his experience with Baháʼu'lláh and his father (Khátirát-i Hayát dar Khidmat-i Mahbúb).