Javad Nurbakhsh took the lead of the Ni'matullāhī Order in 1953 upon the death of his predecessor Mūnis ʿAli Shad Dhu al-Riyasetin. Javad Nurbakhsh undertook a major expansion of the order in Iran. In the 1970s visitors from the joined the order while in Iran. In 1974, Javad Nurbakhsh went to the United States and decided that there was a need to establish regular "khaniqas" there. In 1979, Nurbakhsh left Iran to flee the repressive government that did not appreciate alternate religious authorities. He lived in the United States until he moved to England in 1983. By the early 1990s there were nine Ni'matullāhī khaniqas in the United States. The ones in the East Coast such as Boston, New York and Washington were almost completely attended by Americans, while the ones in California were about half American and half Iranian, with members coming from diverse religious backgrounds, not restricted to Shi'i Islam.