The Faith that had stirred a whole nation to its depth, for whose sake
thousands of precious and heroic souls had been immolated and on whose
altar He Who had been its Author had sacrificed His life, was now being
subjected to the strain and stress of yet another crisis of extreme
violence and far-reaching consequences. It was one of those periodic
crises which, occurring throughout a whole century, succeeded in
momentarily eclipsing the splendor of the Faith and in almost disrupting
the structure of its organic institutions. Invariably sudden, often
unexpected, seemingly fatal to both its spirit and its life, these
inevitable manifestations of the mysterious evolution of a world Religion,
intensely alive, challenging in its claims, revolutionizing in its tenets,
struggling against overwhelming odds, have either been externally
precipitated by the malice of its avowed antagonists or internally
provoked by the unwisdom of its friends, the apostasy of its supporters,
or the defection of some of the most highly placed amongst the kith and
kin of its founders. No matter how disconcerting to the great mass of its
loyal adherents, however much trumpeted by its adversaries as symptoms of
its decline and impending dissolution, these admitted setbacks and
reverses, from which it has time and again so tragically suffered, have,
as we look back upon them, failed to arrest its march or impair its unity.
Heavy indeed has been the toll which they exacted, unspeakable the agonies
they engendered, widespread and paralyzing for a time the consternation
they provoked. Yet, viewed in their proper perspective, each of them can
be confidently pronounced a blessing in disguise, affording a providential
means for the release of a fresh outpouring of celestial strength, a
miraculous escape from imminent and still more dreadful calamities, an
instrument for the fulfillment of age-old prophecies, an agency for the
purification and revitalization of the life of the community, an impetus
for the enlargement of its limits and the propagation of its influence,
and a compelling evidence of the indestructibility of its cohesive
strength. Sometimes at the height of the crisis itself, more often when
the crisis was past, the significance of these trials has manifested
itself to men's eyes, and the necessity of such experiences has been
demonstrated, far and wide and beyond the shadow of a doubt, to both
friend and foe. Seldom, if indeed at any time, has the mystery underlying
these portentous, God-sent upheavals remained undisclosed, or the profound
purpose and meaning of their occurrence been left hidden from the minds of
men.
Such a severe ordeal the Faith of the Bab, still in the earliest stages of
its infancy, was now beginning to experience. Maligned and hounded from
the moment it was born, deprived in its earliest days of the sustaining
strength of the majority of its leading supporters, stunned by the tragic
and sudden removal of its Founder, reeling under the cruel blows it had
successively sustained in Mazindaran, Tihran, Nayriz and Zanjan, a sorely
persecuted Faith was about to be subjected through the shameful act of a
fanatical and irresponsible Babi, to a humiliation such as it had never
before known. To the trials it had undergone was now added the oppressive
load of a fresh calamity, unprecedented in its gravity, disgraceful in its
character, and devastating in its immediate consequences.
Obsessed by the bitter tragedy of the martyrdom of his beloved Master,
driven by a frenzy of despair to avenge that odious deed, and believing
the author and instigator of that crime to be none other than the _Sh_ah
himself, a certain Sadiq-i-Tabrizi, an assistant in a confectioner's shop
in Tihran, proceeded on an August day (August 15, 1852), together with his
accomplice, an equally obscure youth named Fathu'llah-i-Qumi, to Niyavaran
where the imperial army had encamped and the sovereign was in residence,
and there, waiting by the roadside, in the guise of an innocent bystander,
fired a round of shot from his pistol at the _Sh_ah, shortly after the
latter had emerged on horseback from the palace grounds for his morning
promenade. The weapon the assailant employed demonstrated beyond the
shadow of a doubt the folly of that half-demented youth, and clearly
indicated that no man of sound judgment could have possibly instigated so
senseless an act.
The whole of Niyavaran where the imperial court and troops had congregated
was, as a result of this assault, plunged into an unimaginable tumult. The
ministers of the state, headed by Mirza Aqa _Kh_an-i-Nuri, the
I'timadu'd-Dawlih, the successor of the Amir-Nizam, rushed horror-stricken
to the side of their wounded sovereign. The fanfare of the trumpets, the
rolling of the drums and the shrill piping of the fifes summoned the hosts
of His Imperial Majesty on all sides. The _Sh_ah's attendants, some on
horseback, others on foot, poured into the palace grounds. Pandemonium
reigned in which every one issued orders, none listened, none obeyed, nor
understood anything. Ardi_sh_ir Mirza, the governor of Tihran, having in
the meantime already ordered his troops to patrol the deserted streets of
the capital, barred the gates of the citadel as well as of the city,
charged his batteries and feverishly dispatched a messenger to ascertain
the veracity of the wild rumors that were circulating amongst the
populace, and to ask for special instructions.
No sooner had this act been perpetrated than its shadow fell across the
entire body of the Babi community. A storm of public horror, disgust and
resentment, heightened by the implacable hostility of the mother of the
youthful sovereign, swept the nation, casting aside all possibility of
even the most elementary inquiry into the origins and the instigators of
the attempt. A sign, a whisper, was sufficient to implicate the innocent
and loose upon him the most abominable afflictions. An army of
foes--ecclesiastics, state officials and people, united in relentless hate,
and watching for an opportunity to discredit and annihilate a dreaded
adversary--had, at long last, been afforded the pretext for which it was
longing. Now it could achieve its malevolent purpose. Though the Faith
had, from its inception, disclaimed any intention of usurping the rights
and prerogatives of the state; though its exponents and disciples had
sedulously avoided any act that might arouse the slightest suspicion of a
desire to wage a holy war, or to evince an aggressive attitude, yet its
enemies, deliberately ignoring the numerous evidences of the marked
restraint exercised by the followers of a persecuted religion, proved
themselves capable of inflicting atrocities as barbarous as those which
will ever remain associated with the bloody episodes of Mazindaran, Nayriz
and Zanjan. To what depths of infamy and cruelty would not this same enemy
be willing to descend now that an act so treasonable, so audacious had
been committed? What accusations would it not be prompted to level at, and
what treatment would it not mete out to, those who, however unjustifiably,
could be associated with so heinous a crime against one who, in his
person, combined the chief magistracy of the realm and the trusteeship of
the Hidden Imam?
The reign of terror which ensued was revolting beyond description. The
spirit of revenge that animated those who had unleashed its horrors seemed
insatiable. Its repercussions echoed as far as the press of Europe,
branding with infamy its bloodthirsty participants. The Grand Vizir,
wishing to reduce the chances of blood revenge, divided the work of
executing those condemned to death among the princes and nobles, his
principal fellow-ministers, the generals and officers of the Court, the
representatives of the sacerdotal and merchant classes, the artillery and
the infantry. Even the _Sh_ah himself had his allotted victim, though, to
save the dignity of the crown, he delegated the steward of his household
to fire the fatal shot on his behalf. Ardi_sh_ir Mirza, on his part,
picketed the gates of the capital, and ordered the guards to scrutinize
the faces of all those who sought to leave it. Summoning to his presence
the kalantar, the daru_gh_ih and the kad_kh_udas he bade them search out
and arrest every one suspected of being a Babi. A youth named Abbas, a
former servant of a well-known adherent of the Faith, was, on threat of
inhuman torture, induced to walk the streets of Tihran, and point out
every one he recognized as being a Babi. He was even coerced into
denouncing any individual whom he thought would be willing and able to pay
a heavy bribe to secure his freedom.
The first to suffer on that calamitous day was the ill-fated Sadiq, who
was instantly slain on the scene of his attempted crime. His body was tied
to the tail of a mule and dragged all the way to Tihran, where it was hewn
into two halves, each of which was suspended and exposed to the public
view, while the Tihranis were invited by the city authorities to mount the
ramparts and gaze upon the mutilated corpse. Molten lead was poured down
the throat of his accomplice, after having subjected him to the torture of
red-hot pincers and limb-rending screws. A comrade of his, Haji Qasim, was
stripped of his clothes, lighted candles were thrust into holes made in
his flesh, and was paraded before the multitude who shouted and cursed
him. Others had their eyes gouged out, were sawn asunder, strangled, blown
from the mouths of cannons, chopped in pieces, hewn apart with hatchets
and maces, shod with horse shoes, bayoneted and stoned. Torture-mongers
vied with each other in running the gamut of brutality, while the
populace, into whose hands the bodies of the hapless victims were
delivered, would close in upon their prey, and would so mutilate them as
to leave no trace of their original form. The executioners, though
accustomed to their own gruesome task, would themselves be amazed at the
fiendish cruelty of the populace. Women and children could be seen led
down the streets by their executioners, their flesh in ribbons, with
candles burning in their wounds, singing with ringing voices before the
silent spectators: "Verily from God we come, and unto Him we return!" As
some of the children expired on the way their tormentors would fling their
bodies under the feet of their fathers and sisters who, proudly treading
upon them, would not deign to give them a second glance. A father,
according to the testimony of a distinguished French writer, rather than
abjure his faith, preferred to have the throats of his two young sons,
both already covered with blood, slit upon his breast, as he lay on the
ground, whilst the elder of the two, a lad of fourteen, vigorously
pressing his right of seniority, demanded to be the first to lay down his
life.
An Austrian officer, Captain Von Goumoens, in the employ of the _Sh_ah at
that time, was, it is reliably stated, so horrified at the cruelties he
was compelled to witness that he tendered his resignation. "Follow me, my
friend," is the Captain's own testimony in a letter he wrote two weeks
after the attempt in question, which was published in the
"Soldatenfreund," "you who lay claim to a heart and European ethics,
follow me to the unhappy ones who, with gouged-out eyes, must eat, on the
scene of the deed, without any sauce, their own amputated ears; or whose
teeth are torn out with inhuman violence by the hand of the executioner;
or whose bare skulls are simply crushed by blows from a hammer; or where
the bazaar is illuminated with unhappy victims, because on right and left
the people dig deep holes in their breasts and shoulders, and insert
burning wicks in the wounds. I saw some dragged in chains through the
bazaar, preceded by a military band, in whom these wicks had burned so
deep that now the fat flickered convulsively in the wound like a newly
extinguished lamp. Not seldom it happens that the unwearying ingenuity of
the Oriental leads to fresh tortures. They will skin the soles of the
Babi's feet, soak the wounds in boiling oil, shoe the foot like the hoof
of a horse, and compel the victim to run. No cry escaped from the victim's
breast; the torment is endured in dark silence by the numbed sensation of
the fanatic; now he must run; the body cannot endure what the soul has
endured; he falls. Give him the coup de grace! Put him out of his pain!
No! The executioner swings the whip, and--I myself have had to witness
it--the unhappy victim of hundredfold tortures runs! This is the beginning
of the end. As for the end itself, they hang the scorched and perforated
bodies by their hands and feet to a tree head downwards, and now every
Persian may try his marksmanship to his heart's content from a fixed but
not too proximate distance on the noble quarry placed at his disposal. I
saw corpses torn by nearly one hundred and fifty bullets." "When I read
over again," he continues, "what I have written, I am overcome by the
thought that those who are with you in our dearly beloved Austria may
doubt the full truth of the picture, and accuse me of exaggeration. Would
to God that I had not lived to see it! But by the duties of my profession
I was unhappily often, only too often, a witness of these abominations. At
present I never leave my house, in order not to meet with fresh scenes of
horror... Since my whole soul revolts against such infamy ... I will no
longer maintain my connection with the scene of such crimes." Little
wonder that a man as far-famed as Renan should, in his "Les Apotres" have
characterized the hideous butchery perpetrated in a single day, during the
great massacre of Tihran, as "a day perhaps unparalleled in the history of
the world!"
The hand that was stretched to deal so grievous a blow to the adherents of
a sorely-tried Faith did not confine itself to the rank and file of the
Bab's persecuted followers. It was raised with equal fury and
determination against, and struck down with equal force, the few remaining
leaders who had survived the winnowing winds of adversity that had already
laid low so vast a number of the supporters of the Faith. Tahirih, that
immortal heroine who had already shed imperishable luster alike on her sex
and on the Cause she had espoused, was swept into, and ultimately engulfed
by, the raging storm. Siyyid Husayn, the amanuensis of the Bab, the
companion of His exile, the trusted repository of His last wishes, and the
witness of the prodigies attendant upon His martyrdom, fell likewise a
victim of its fury. That hand had even the temerity to lift itself against
the towering figure of Baha'u'llah. But though it laid hold of Him it
failed to strike Him down. It imperilled His life, it imprinted on His
body indelible marks of a pitiless cruelty, but was impotent to cut short
a career that was destined not only to keep alive the fire which the
Spirit of the Bab had kindled, but to produce a conflagration that would
at once consummate and outshine the glories of His Revelation.
During those somber and agonizing days when the Bab was no more, when the
luminaries that had shone in the firmament of His Faith had been
successively extinguished, when His nominee, a "bewildered fugitive, in
the guise of a dervish, with ka_sh_kul (alms-basket) in hand" roamed the
mountains and plains in the neighborhood of Ra_sh_t, Baha'u'llah, by
reason of the acts He had performed, appeared in the eyes of a vigilant
enemy as its most redoubtable adversary and as the sole hope of an as yet
unextirpated heresy. His seizure and death had now become imperative. He
it was Who, scarce three months after the Faith was born, received,
through the envoy of the Bab, Mulla Husayn, the scroll which bore to Him
the first tidings of a newly announced Revelation, Who instantly acclaimed
its truth, and arose to champion its cause. It was to His native city and
dwelling place that the steps of that envoy were first directed, as the
place which enshrined "a Mystery of such transcendent holiness as neither
Hijaz nor _Sh_iraz can hope to rival." It was Mulla Husayn's report of the
contact thus established which had been received with such exultant joy by
the Bab, and had brought such reassurance to His heart as to finally
decide Him to undertake His contemplated pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina.
Baha'u'llah alone was the object and the center of the cryptic allusions,
the glowing eulogies, the fervid prayers, the joyful announcements and the
dire warnings recorded in both the Qayyumu'l-Asma and the Bayan, designed
to be respectively the first and last written testimonials to the glory
with which God was soon to invest Him. It was He Who, through His
correspondence with the Author of the newly founded Faith, and His
intimate association with the most distinguished amongst its disciples,
such as Vahid, Hujjat, Quddus, Mulla Husayn and Tahirih, was able to
foster its growth, elucidate its principles, reinforce its ethical
foundations, fulfill its urgent requirements, avert some of the immediate
dangers threatening it and participate effectually in its rise and
consolidation. It was to Him, "the one Object of our adoration and love"
that the Prophet-pilgrim, on His return to Bu_sh_ihr, alluded when,
dismissing Quddus from His presence, He announced to him the double joy of
attaining the presence of their Beloved and of quaffing the cup of
martyrdom. He it was Who, in the hey-day of His life, flinging aside every
consideration of earthly fame, wealth and position, careless of danger,
and risking the obloquy of His caste, arose to identify Himself, first in
Tihran and later in His native province of Mazindaran, with the cause of
an obscure and proscribed sect; won to its support a large number of the
officials and notables of Nur, not excluding His own associates and
relatives; fearlessly and persuasively expounded its truths to the
disciples of the illustrious mujtahid, Mulla Muhammad; enlisted under its
banner the mujtahid's appointed representatives; secured, in consequence
of this act, the unreserved loyalty of a considerable number of
ecclesiastical dignitaries, government officers, peasants and traders; and
succeeded in challenging, in the course of a memorable interview, the
mujtahid himself. It was solely due to the potency of the written message
entrusted by Him to Mulla Muhammad Mihdiy-i-Kandi and delivered to the Bab
while in the neighborhood of the village of Kulayn, that the soul of the
disappointed Captive was able to rid itself, at an hour of uncertainty and
suspense, of the anguish that had settled upon it ever since His arrest in
_Sh_iraz. He it was Who, for the sake of Tahirih and her imprisoned
companions, willingly submitted Himself to a humiliating confinement,
lasting several days--the first He was made to suffer--in the house of one
of the kad-_kh_udas of Tihran. It was to His caution, foresight and
ability that must be ascribed her successful escape from Qazvin, her
deliverance from her opponents, her safe arrival in His home, and her
subsequent removal to a place of safety in the vicinity of the capital
from whence she proceeded to _Kh_urasan. It was into His presence that
Mulla Husayn was secretly ushered upon his arrival in Tihran, after which
interview he traveled to A_dh_irbayjan on his visit to the Bab then
confined in the fortress of Mah-Ku. He it was Who unobtrusively and
unerringly directed the proceedings of the Conference of Bada_sh_t; Who
entertained as His guests Quddus, Tahirih and the eighty-one disciples who
had gathered on that occasion; Who revealed every day a Tablet and
bestowed on each of the participants a new name; Who faced unaided the
assault of a mob of more than five hundred villagers in Niyala; Who
shielded Quddus from the fury of his assailants; Who succeeded in
restoring a part of the property which the enemy had plundered and Who
insured the protection and safety of the continually harassed and much
abused Tahirih. Against Him was kindled the anger of Muhammad _Sh_ah who,
as a result of the persistent representations of mischief-makers, was at
last induced to order His arrest and summon Him to the capital--a summons
that was destined to remain unfulfilled as a result of the sudden death of
the sovereign. It was to His counsels and exhortations, addressed to the
occupants of _Sh_ay_kh_ Tabarsi, who had welcomed Him with such reverence
and love during His visit to that Fort, that must be attributed, in no
small measure, the spirit evinced by its heroic defenders, while it was to
His explicit instructions that they owed the miraculous release of Quddus
and his consequent association with them in the stirring exploits that
have immortalized the Mazindaran upheaval. It was for the sake of those
same defenders, whom He had intended to join, that He suffered His second
imprisonment, this time in the masjid of Amul to which He was led, amidst
the tumult raised by no less than four thousand spectators,--for their sake
that He was bastinadoed in the namaz-_kh_anih of the mujtahid of that town
until His feet bled, and later confined in the private residence of its
governor; for their sake that He was bitterly denounced by the leading
mulla, and insulted by the mob who, besieging the governor's residence,
pelted Him with stones, and hurled in His face the foulest invectives. He
alone was the One alluded to by Quddus who, upon his arrival at the Fort
of _Sh_ay_kh_ Tabarsi, uttered, as soon as he had dismounted and leaned
against the shrine, the prophetic verse "The Baqiyyatu'llah (the Remnant
of God) will be best for you if ye are of those who believe." He alone was
the Object of that prodigious eulogy, that masterly interpretation of the
Sad of Samad, penned in part, in that same Fort by that same youthful
hero, under the most distressing circumstances, and equivalent in
dimensions to six times the volume of the Qur'an. It was to the date of
His impending Revelation that the Lawh-i-Hurufat, revealed in _Ch_ihriq by
the Bab, in honor of Dayyan, abstrusely alluded, and in which the mystery
of the "Musta_gh_a_th_" was unraveled. It was to the attainment of His
presence that the attention of another disciple, Mulla Baqir, one of the
Letters of the Living, was expressly directed by none other than the Bab
Himself. It was exclusively to His care that the documents of the Bab, His
pen-case, His seals, and agate rings, together with a scroll on which He
had penned, in the form of a pentacle, no less than three hundred and
sixty derivatives of the word Baha, were delivered, in conformity with
instructions He Himself had issued prior to His departure from _Ch_ihriq.
It was solely due to His initiative, and in strict accordance with His
instructions, that the precious remains of the Bab were safely transferred
from Tabriz to the capital, and were concealed and safeguarded with the
utmost secrecy and care throughout the turbulent years following His
martyrdom. And finally, it was He Who, in the days preceding the attempt
on the life of the _Sh_ah, had been instrumental, while sojourning in
Karbila, in spreading, with that same enthusiasm and ability that had
distinguished His earlier exertions in Mazindaran, the teachings of His
departed Leader, in safeguarding the interests of His Faith, in reviving
the zeal of its grief-stricken followers, and in organizing the forces of
its scattered and bewildered adherents.
Such a man, with such a record of achievements to His credit, could not,
indeed did not, escape either the detection or the fury of a vigilant and
fully aroused enemy. Afire from the very beginning with an uncontrollable
enthusiasm for the Cause He had espoused; conspicuously fearless in His
advocacy of the rights of the downtrodden; in the full bloom of youth;
immensely resourceful; matchless in His eloquence; endowed with
inexhaustible energy and penetrating judgment; possessed of the riches,
and enjoying, in full measure, the esteem, power and prestige associated
with an enviably high and noble position, and yet contemptuous of all
earthly pomp, rewards, vanities and possessions; closely associated, on
the one hand, through His regular correspondence with the Author of the
Faith He had risen to champion, and intimately acquainted, on the other,
with the hopes and fears, the plans and activities of its leading
exponents; at one time advancing openly and assuming a position of
acknowledged leadership in the forefront of the forces struggling for that
Faith's emancipation, at another deliberately drawing back with consummate
discretion in order to remedy, with greater efficacy, an awkward or
dangerous situation; at all times vigilant, ready and indefatigable in His
exertions to preserve the integrity of that Faith, to resolve its
problems, to plead its cause, to galvanize its followers, and to confound
its antagonists, Baha'u'llah, at this supremely critical hour in its
fortunes, was at last stepping into the very center of the stage so
tragically vacated by the Bab--a stage on which He was destined, for no
less a period than forty years, to play a part unapproached in its
majesty, pathos and splendor by any of the great Founders of the world's
historic religions.
Already so conspicuous and towering a figure had, through the accusations
levelled against Him, kindled the wrath of Muhammad _Sh_ah, who, after
having heard what had transpired in Bada_sh_t, had ordered His arrest, in
a number of farmans addressed to the _kh_ans of Mazindaran, and expressed
his determination to put Him to death. Haji Mirza Aqasi, previously
alienated from the Vazir (Baha'u'llah's father), and infuriated by his own
failure to appropriate by fraud an estate that belonged to Baha'u'llah,
had sworn eternal enmity to the One Who had so brilliantly succeeded in
frustrating his evil designs. The Amir-Nizam, moreover, fully aware of the
pervasive influence of so energetic an opponent, had, in the presence of a
distinguished gathering, accused Him of having inflicted, as a result of
His activities, a loss of no less than five kururs upon the government,
and had expressly requested Him, at a critical moment in the fortunes of
the Faith, to temporarily transfer His residence to Karbila. Mirza Aqa
_Kh_an-i-Nuri, who succeeded the Amir-Nizam, had endeavored, at the very
outset of his ministry, to effect a reconciliation between his government
and the One Whom he regarded as the most resourceful of the Bab's
disciples. Little wonder that when, later, an act of such gravity and
temerity was committed, a suspicion as dire as it was unfounded, should at
once have crept into the minds of the _Sh_ah, his government, his court,
and his people against Baha'u'llah. Foremost among them was the mother of
the youthful sovereign, who, inflamed with anger, was openly denouncing
Him as the would-be murderer of her son.
Baha'u'llah, when that attempt had been made on the life of the sovereign,
was in Lavasan, the guest of the Grand Vizir, and was staying in the
village of Af_ch_ih when the momentous news reached Him. Refusing to heed
the advice of the Grand Vizir's brother, Ja'far-Quli _Kh_an, who was
acting as His host, to remain for a time concealed in that neighborhood,
and dispensing with the good offices of the messenger specially dispatched
to insure His safety, He rode forth, the following morning, with cool
intrepidity, to the headquarters of the Imperial army which was then
stationed in Niyavaran, in the _Sh_imiran district. In the village of
Zarkandih He was met by, and conducted to the home of, His brother-in-law,
Mirza Majid, who, at that time, was acting as secretary to the Russian
Minister, Prince Dolgorouki, and whose house adjoined that of his
superior. Apprised of Baha'u'llah's arrival the attendants of the
Hajibu'd-Dawlih, Haji 'Ali _Kh_an, straightway informed their master, who
in turn brought the matter to the attention of his sovereign. The _Sh_ah,
greatly amazed, dispatched his trusted officers to the Legation, demanding
that the Accused be forthwith delivered into his hands. Refusing to comply
with the wishes of the royal envoys, the Russian Minister requested
Baha'u'llah to proceed to the home of the Grand Vizir, to whom he formally
communicated his wish that the safety of the Trust the Russian government
was delivering into his keeping should be insured. This purpose, however,
was not achieved because of the Grand Vizir's apprehension that he might
forfeit his position if he extended to the Accused the protection demanded
for Him.
Delivered into the hands of His enemies, this much-feared, bitterly
arraigned and illustrious Exponent of a perpetually hounded Faith was now
made to taste of the cup which He Who had been its recognized Leader had
drained to the dregs. From Niyavaran He was conducted "on foot and in
chains, with bared head and bare feet," exposed to the fierce rays of the
midsummer sun, to the Siyah-_Ch_al of Tihran. On the way He several times
was stripped of His outer garments, was overwhelmed with ridicule, and
pelted with stones. As to the subterranean dungeon into which He was
thrown, and which originally had served as a reservoir of water for one of
the public baths of the capital, let His own words, recorded in His
"Epistle to the Son of the Wolf," bear testimony to the ordeal which He
endured in that pestilential hole. "We were consigned for four months to a
place foul beyond comparison.... Upon Our arrival We were first conducted
along a pitch-black corridor, from whence We descended three steep flights
of stairs to the place of confinement assigned to Us. The dungeon was
wrapped in thick darkness, and Our fellow-prisoners numbered nearly one
hundred and fifty souls: thieves, assassins and highwaymen. Though
crowded, it had no other outlet than the passage by which We entered. No
pen can depict that place, nor any tongue describe its loathsome smell.
Most of those men had neither clothes nor bedding to lie on. God alone
knoweth what befell Us in that most foul-smelling and gloomy place!"
Baha'u'llah's feet were placed in stocks, and around His neck were
fastened the Qara-Guhar chains of such galling weight that their mark
remained imprinted upon His body all the days of His life. "A heavy
chain," 'Abdu'l-Baha Himself has testified, "was placed about His neck by
which He was chained to five other Babis; these fetters were locked
together by strong, very heavy, bolts and screws. His clothes were torn to
pieces, also His headdress. In this terrible condition He was kept for
four months." For three days and three nights, He was denied all manner of
food and drink. Sleep was impossible to Him. The place was chill and damp,
filthy, fever-stricken, infested with vermin, and filled with a noisome
stench. Animated by a relentless hatred His enemies went even so far as to
intercept and poison His food, in the hope of obtaining the favor of the
mother of their sovereign, His most implacable foe--an attempt which,
though it impaired His health for years to come, failed to achieve its
purpose. "'Abdu'l-Baha," Dr. J. E. Esslemont records in his book, "tells
how, one day, He was allowed to enter the prison yard to see His beloved
Father, where He came out for His daily exercise. Baha'u'llah was terribly
altered, so ill He could hardly walk, His hair and beard unkempt, His neck
galled and swollen from the pressure of a heavy steel collar, His body
bent by the weight of His chains."
While Baha'u'llah was being so odiously and cruelly subjected to the
trials and tribulations inseparable from those tumultuous days, another
luminary of the Faith, the valiant Tahirih, was swiftly succumbing to
their devastating power. Her meteoric career, inaugurated in Karbila,
culminating in Bada_sh_t, was now about to attain its final consummation
in a martyrdom that may well rank as one of the most affecting episodes in
the most turbulent period of Baha'i history.
A scion of the highly reputed family of Haji Mulla Salih-i-Baraqani, whose
members occupied an enviable position in the Persian ecclesiastical
hierarchy; the namesake of the illustrious Fatimih; designated as
Zarrin-Taj (Crown of Gold) and Zakiyyih (Virtuous) by her family and
kindred; born in the same year as Baha'u'llah; regarded from childhood, by
her fellow-townsmen, as a prodigy, alike in her intelligence and beauty;
highly esteemed even by some of the most haughty and learned 'ulamas of
her country, prior to her conversion, for the brilliancy and novelty of
the views she propounded; acclaimed as Qurrat-i-'Ayni (solace of my eyes)
by her admiring teacher, Siyyid Kazim; entitled Tahirih (the Pure One) by
the "Tongue of Power and Glory;" and the only woman enrolled by the Bab as
one of the Letters of the Living; she had, through a dream, referred to
earlier in these pages, established her first contact with a Faith which
she continued to propagate to her last breath, and in its hour of greatest
peril, with all the ardor of her unsubduable spirit. Undeterred by the
vehement protests of her father; contemptuous of the anathemas of her
uncle; unmoved by the earnest solicitations of her husband and her
brothers; undaunted by the measures which, first in Karbila and
subsequently in Ba_gh_dad, and later in Qazvin, the civil and
ecclesiastical authorities had taken to curtail her activities, with eager
energy she urged the Babi Cause. Through her eloquent pleadings, her
fearless denunciations, her dissertations, poems and translations, her
commentaries and correspondence, she persisted in firing the imagination
and in enlisting the allegiance of Arabs and Persians alike to the new
Revelation, in condemning the perversity of her generation, and in
advocating a revolutionary transformation in the habits and manners of her
people.
She it was who while in Karbila--the foremost stronghold of _Sh_i'ah
Islam--had been moved to address lengthy epistles to each of the 'ulamas
residing in that city, who relegated women to a rank little higher than
animals and denied them even the possession of a soul--epistles in which
she ably vindicated her high purpose and exposed their malignant designs.
She it was who, in open defiance of the customs of the fanatical
inhabitants of that same city, boldly disregarded the anniversary of the
martyrdom of the Imam Husayn, commemorated with elaborate ceremony in the
early days of Muharram, and celebrated instead the anniversary of the
birthday of the Bab, which fell on the first day of that month. It was
through her prodigious eloquence and the astounding force of her argument
that she confounded the representative delegation of _Sh_i'ah, of Sunni,
of Christian and Jewish notables of Ba_gh_dad, who had endeavored to
dissuade her from her avowed purpose of spreading the tidings of the new
Message. She it was who, with consummate skill, defended her faith and
vindicated her conduct in the home and in the presence of that eminent
jurist, _Sh_ay_kh_ Mahmud-i-Alusi, the Mufti of Ba_gh_dad, and who later
held her historic interviews with the princes, the 'ulamas and the
government officials residing in Kirman_sh_ah, in the course of which the
Bab's commentary on the Surih of Kaw_th_ar was publicly read and
translated, and which culminated in the conversion of the Amir (the
governor) and his family. It was this remarkably gifted woman who
undertook the translation of the Bab's lengthy commentary on the Surih of
Joseph (the Qayyumu'l-Asma) for the benefit of her Persian
co-religionists, and exerted her utmost to spread the knowledge and
elucidate the contents of that mighty Book. It was her fearlessness, her
skill, her organizing ability and her unquenchable enthusiasm which
consolidated her newly won victories in no less inimical a center than
Qazvin, which prided itself on the fact that no fewer than a hundred of
the highest ecclesiastical leaders of Islam dwelt within its gates. It was
she who, in the house of Baha'u'llah in Tihran, in the course of her
memorable interview with the celebrated Vahid, suddenly interrupted his
learned discourse on the signs of the new Manifestation, and vehemently
urged him, as she held 'Abdu'l-Baha, then a child, on her lap, to arise
and demonstrate through deeds of heroism and self-sacrifice the depth and
sincerity of his faith. It was to her doors, during the height of her fame
and popularity in Tihran, that the flower of feminine society in the
capital flocked to hear her brilliant discourses on the matchless tenets
of her Faith. It was the magic of her words which won the wedding guests
away from the festivities, on the occasion of the marriage of the son of
Mahmud _Kh_an-i-Kalantar--in whose house she was confined--and gathered them
about her, eager to drink in her every word. It was her passionate and
unqualified affirmation of the claims and distinguishing features of the
new Revelation, in a series of seven conferences with the deputies of the
Grand Vizir commissioned to interrogate her, which she held while confined
in that same house, which finally precipitated the sentence of her death.
It was from her pen that odes had flowed attesting, in unmistakable
language, not only her faith in the Revelation of the Bab, but also her
recognition of the exalted and as yet undisclosed mission of Baha'u'llah.
And last but not least it was owing to her initiative, while participating
in the Conference of Bada_sh_t, that the most challenging implications of
a revolutionary and as yet but dimly grasped Dispensation were laid bare
before her fellow-disciples and the new Order permanently divorced from
the laws and institutions of Islam. Such marvelous achievements were now
to be crowned by, and attain their final consummation in, her martyrdom in
the midst of the storm that was raging throughout the capital.
One night, aware that the hour of her death was at hand, she put on the
attire of a bride, and annointed herself with perfume, and, sending for
the wife of the Kalantar, she communicated to her the secret of her
impending martyrdom, and confided to her her last wishes. Then, closeting
herself in her chambers, she awaited, in prayer and meditation, the hour
which was to witness her reunion with her Beloved. She was pacing the
floor of her room, chanting a litany expressive of both grief and triumph,
when the farra_sh_es of Aziz _Kh_an-i-Sardar arrived, in the dead of
night, to conduct her to the Il_kh_ani garden, which lay beyond the city
gates, and which was to be the site of her martyrdom. When she arrived the
Sardar was in the midst of a drunken debauch with his lieutenants, and was
roaring with laughter; he ordered offhand that she be strangled at once
and thrown into a pit. With that same silken kerchief which she had
intuitively reserved for that purpose, and delivered in her last moments
to the son of Kalantar who accompanied her, the death of this immortal
heroine was accomplished. Her body was lowered into a well, which was then
filled with earth and stones, in the manner she herself had desired.
Thus ended the life of this great Babi heroine, the first woman suffrage
martyr, who, at her death, turning to the one in whose custody she had
been placed, had boldly declared: "You can kill me as soon as you like,
but you cannot stop the emancipation of women." Her career was as dazzling
as it was brief, as tragic as it was eventful. Unlike her
fellow-disciples, whose exploits remained, for the most part unknown, and
unsung by their contemporaries in foreign lands, the fame of this immortal
woman was noised abroad, and traveling with remarkable swiftness as far as
the capitals of Western Europe, aroused the enthusiastic admiration and
evoked the ardent praise of men and women of divers nationalities,
callings and cultures. Little wonder that 'Abdu'l-Baha should have joined
her name to those of Sarah, of Asiyih, of the Virgin Mary and of Fatimih,
who, in the course of successive Dispensations, have towered, by reason of
their intrinsic merits and unique position, above the rank and file of
their sex. "In eloquence," 'Abdu'l-Baha Himself has written, "she was the
calamity of the age, and in ratiocination the trouble of the world." He,
moreover, has described her as "a brand afire with the love of God" and "a
lamp aglow with the bounty of God."
Indeed the wondrous story of her life propagated itself as far and as fast
as that of the Bab Himself, the direct Source of her inspiration. "Prodige
de science, mais aussi prodige de beaute" is the tribute paid her by a
noted commentator on the life of the Bab and His disciples. "The Persian
Joan of Arc, the leader of emancipation for women of the Orient ... who
bore resemblance both to the mediaeval Heloise and the neo-platonic
Hypatia," thus was she acclaimed by a noted playwright whom Sarah
Bernhardt had specifically requested to write a dramatized version of her
life. "The heroism of the lovely but ill-fated poetess of Qazvin,
Zarrin-Taj (Crown of Gold) ..." testifies Lord Curzon of Kedleston, "is
one of the most affecting episodes in modern history." "The appearance of
such a woman as Qurratu'l-'Ayn," wrote the well-known British Orientalist,
Prof. E. G. Browne, "is, in any country and any age, a rare phenomenon,
but in such a country as Persia it is a prodigy--nay, almost a miracle.
...Had the Babi religion no other claim to greatness, this were sufficient
... that it produced a heroine like Qurratu'l-'Ayn." "The harvest sown in
Islamic lands by Qurratu'l-'Ayn," significantly affirms the renowned
English divine, Dr. T. K. Cheyne, in one of his books, "is now beginning
to appear ... this noble woman ... has the credit of opening the catalogue
of social reforms in Persia..." "Assuredly one of the most striking and
interesting manifestations of this religion" is the reference to her by
the noted French diplomat and brilliant writer, Comte de Gobineau. "In
Qazvin," he adds, "she was held, with every justification, to be a
prodigy." "Many people," he, moreover has written, "who knew her and heard
her at different periods of her life have invariably told me ... that when
she spoke one felt stirred to the depths of one's soul, was filled with
admiration, and was moved to tears." "No memory," writes Sir Valentine
Chirol, "is more deeply venerated or kindles greater enthusiasm than hers,
and the influence which she wielded in her lifetime still inures to her
sex." "O Tahirih!" exclaims in his book on the Babis the great author and
poet of Turkey, Sulayman Nazim Bey, "you are worth a thousand Nasiri'd-Din
_Sh_ahs!" "The greatest ideal of womanhood has been Tahirih" is the
tribute paid her by the mother of one of the Presidents of Austria, Mrs.
Marianna Hainisch, "... I shall try to do for the women of Austria what
Tahirih gave her life to do for the women of Persia."
Many and divers are her ardent admirers who, throughout the five
continents, are eager to know more about her. Many are those whose conduct
has been ennobled by her inspiring example, who have committed to memory
her matchless odes, or set to music her poems, before whose eyes glows the
vision of her indomitable spirit, in whose hearts is enshrined a love and
admiration that time can never dim, and in whose souls burns the
determination to tread as dauntlessly, and with that same fidelity, the
path she chose for herself, and from which she never swerved from the
moment of her conversion to the hour of her death.
The fierce gale of persecution that had swept Baha'u'llah into a
subterranean dungeon and snuffed out the light of Tahirih also sealed the
fate of the Bab's distinguished amanuensis, Siyyid Husayn-i-Yazdi,
surnamed Aziz, who had shared His confinement in both Mah-Ku and
_Ch_ihriq. A man of rich experience and high merit, deeply versed in the
teachings of his Master, and enjoying His unqualified confidence, he,
refusing every offer of deliverance from the leading officials of Tihran,
yearned unceasingly for the martyrdom which had been denied him on the day
the Bab had laid down His life in the barrack-square of Tabriz. A
fellow-prisoner of Baha'u'llah in the Siyah-_Ch_al of Tihran, from Whom he
derived inspiration and solace as he recalled those precious days spent in
the company of his Master in A_dh_irbayjan, he was finally struck down, in
circumstances of shameful cruelty, by that same Aziz _Kh_an-i-Sardar who
had dealt the fatal blow to Tahirih.
Another victim of the frightful tortures inflicted by an unyielding enemy
was the high-minded, the influential and courageous Haji Sulayman _Kh_an.
So greatly was he esteemed that the Amir-Nizam had felt, on a previous
occasion, constrained to ignore his connection with the Faith he had
embraced and to spare his life. The turmoil that convulsed Tihran as a
result of the attempt on the life of the sovereign, however, precipitated
his arrest and brought about his martyrdom. The _Sh_ah, having failed to
induce him through the Hajibu'd-Dawlih to recant, commanded that he be put
to death in any way he himself might choose. Nine holes, at his express
wish, were made in his flesh, in each of which a lighted candle was
placed. As the executioner shrank from performing this gruesome task, he
attempted to snatch the knife from his hand that he might himself plunge
it into his own body. Fearing lest he should attack him the executioner
refused, and bade his men tie the victim's hands behind his back,
whereupon the intrepid sufferer pleaded with them to pierce two holes in
his breast, two in his shoulders, one in the nape of his neck, and four
others in his back--a wish they complied with. Standing erect as an arrow,
his eyes glowing with stoic fortitude, unperturbed by the howling
multitude or the sight of his own blood streaming from his wounds, and
preceded by minstrels and drummers, he led the concourse that pressed
round him to the final place of his martyrdom. Every few steps he would
interrupt his march to address the bewildered bystanders in words in which
he glorified the Bab and magnified the significance of his own death. As
his eyes beheld the candles flickering in their bloody sockets, he would
burst forth in exclamations of unrestrained delight. Whenever one of them
fell from his body he would with his own hand pick it up, light it from
the others, and replace it. "Why dost thou not dance?" asked the
executioner mockingly, "since thou findest death so pleasant?" "Dance?"
cried the sufferer, "In one hand the wine-cup, in one hand the tresses of
the Friend. Such a dance in the midst of the market-place is my desire!"
He was still in the bazaar when the flowing of a breeze, fanning the
flames of the candles now burning deep in his flesh, caused it to sizzle,
whereupon he burst forth addressing the flames that ate into his wounds:
"You have long lost your sting, O flames, and have been robbed of your
power to pain me. Make haste, for from your very tongues of fire I can
hear the voice that calls me to my Beloved." In a blaze of light he walked
as a conqueror might have marched to the scene of his victory. At the foot
of the gallows he once again raised his voice in a final appeal to the
multitude of onlookers. He then prostrated himself in the direction of the
shrine of the Imam-Zadih Hasan, murmuring some words in Arabic. "My work
is now finished," he cried to the executioner, "come and do yours." Life
still lingered in him as his body was sawn into two halves, with the
praise of his Beloved still fluttering from his dying lips. The scorched
and bloody remnants of his corpse were, as he himself had requested,
suspended on either side of the Gate of Naw, mute witnesses to the
unquenchable love which the Bab had kindled in the breasts of His
disciples.
The violent conflagration kindled as a result of the attempted
assassination of the sovereign could not be confined to the capital. It
overran the adjoining provinces, ravaged Mazindaran, the native province
of Baha'u'llah, and brought about in its wake, the confiscation, the
plunder and the destruction of all His possessions. In the village of
Takur, in the district of Nur, His sumptuously furnished home, inherited
from His father, was, by order of Mirza Abu-Talib _Kh_an, nephew of the
Grand Vizir, completely despoiled, and whatever could not be carried away
was ordered to be destroyed, while its rooms, more stately than those of
the palaces of Tihran, were disfigured beyond repair. Even the houses of
the people were leveled with the ground, after which the entire village
was set on fire.
The commotion that had seized Tihran and had given rise to the campaign of
outrage and spoliation in Mazindaran spread even as far as Yazd, Nayriz
and _Sh_iraz, rocking the remotest hamlets, and rekindling the flames of
persecution. Once again greedy governors and perfidious subordinates vied
with each other in despoiling the innocent, in massacring the guiltless,
and in dishonoring the noblest of their race. A carnage ensued which
repeated the atrocities already perpetrated in Nayriz and Zanjan. "My
pen," writes the chronicler of the bloody episodes associated with the
birth and rise of our Faith, "shrinks in horror in attempting to describe
what befell those valiant men and women.... What I have attempted to
recount of the horrors of the siege of Zanjan ... pales before the glaring
ferocity of the atrocities perpetrated a few years later in Nayriz and
_Sh_iraz." The heads of no less than two hundred victims of these
outbursts of ferocious fanaticism were impaled on bayonets, and carried
triumphantly from _Sh_iraz to Abadih. Forty women and children were
charred to a cinder by being placed in a cave, in which a vast quantity of
firewood had been heaped up, soaked with naphtha and set alight. Three
hundred women were forced to ride two by two on bare-backed horses all the
way to _Sh_iraz. Stripped almost naked they were led between rows of heads
hewn from the lifeless bodies of their husbands, sons, fathers and
brothers. Untold insults were heaped upon them, and the hardships they
suffered were such that many among them perished.
Thus drew to a close a chapter which records for all time the bloodiest,
the most tragic, the most heroic period of the first Baha'i century. The
torrents of blood that poured out during those crowded and calamitous
years may be regarded as constituting the fertile seeds of that World
Order which a swiftly succeeding and still greater Revelation was to
proclaim and establish. The tributes paid the noble army of the heroes,
saints and martyrs of that Primitive Age, by friend and foe alike, from
Baha'u'llah Himself down to the most disinterested observers in distant
lands, and from the moment of its birth until the present day, bear
imperishable witness to the glory of the deeds that immortalize that Age.
"The whole world," is Baha'u'llah's matchless testimony in the
Kitab-i-Iqan, "marveled at the manner of their sacrifice.... The mind is
bewildered at their deeds, and the soul marveleth at their fortitude and
bodily endurance.... Hath any age witnessed such momentous happenings?"
And again: "Hath the world, since the days of Adam, witnessed such tumult,
such violent commotion?... Methinks, patience was revealed only by virtue
of their fortitude, and faithfulness itself was begotten only by their
deeds." "Through the blood which they shed," He, in a prayer, referring
more specifically to the martyrs of the Faith, has significantly affirmed,
"the earth hath been impregnated with the wondrous revelations of Thy
might and the gem-like signs of Thy glorious sovereignty. Ere-long shall
she tell out her tidings, when the set time is come."
To whom else could these significant words of Muhammad, the Apostle of
God, quoted by Quddus while addressing his companions in the Fort of
_Sh_ay_kh_ Tabarsi, apply if not to those heroes of God who, with their
life-blood, ushered in the Promised Day? "O how I long to behold the
countenance of My brethren, my brethren who will appear at the end of the
world! Blessed are We, blessed are they; greater is their blessedness than
ours." Who else could be meant by this tradition, called Hadi_th_-i-Jabir,
recorded in the Kafi, and authenticated by Baha'u'llah in the
Kitab-i-Iqan, which, in indubitable language, sets forth the signs of the
appearance of the promised Qa'im? "His saints shall be abased in His time,
and their heads shall be exchanged as presents, even as the heads of the
Turk and the Daylamite are exchanged as presents; they shall be slain and
burned, and shall be afraid, fearful and dismayed; the earth shall be dyed
with their blood, and lamentation and wailing shall prevail amongst their
women; these are My saints indeed."
"Tales of magnificent heroism," is the written testimony of Lord Curzon of
Kedleston, "illumine the blood-stained pages of Babi history.... The fires
of Smithfield did not kindle a nobler courage than has met and defied the
more refined torture-mongers of Tihran. Of no small account, then, must be
the tenets of a creed that can awaken in its followers so rare and
beautiful a spirit of self-sacrifice. The heroism and martyrdom of His
(the Bab) followers will appeal to many others who can find no similar
phenomena in the contemporaneous records of Islam." "Babism," wrote Prof.
J. Darmesteter, "which diffused itself in less than five years from one
end of Persia to another, which was bathed in 1852 in the blood of its
martyrs, has been silently progressing and propagating itself. If Persia
is to be at all regenerate it will be through this new Faith." "Des
milliers de martyrs," attests Renan in his "Les Apotres," "sont accourus
pour lui (the Bab) avec allegresse au devant de la mort. Un jour sans
pareil peut-etre dans l'histoire du monde fut celui de la grande boucherie
qui se fit des Babis a Teheran." "One of those strange outbursts,"
declares the well-known Orientalist Prof. E. G. Browne, "of enthusiasm,
faith, fervent devotion and indomitable heroism ... the birth of a Faith
which may not impossibly win a place amidst the great religions of the
world." And again: "The spirit which pervades the Babis is such that it
can hardly fail to affect most powerfully all subjected to its
influence.... Let those who have not seen disbelieve me if they will, but,
should that spirit once reveal itself to them, they will experience an
emotion which they are not likely to forget." "J'avoue meme," is the
assertion made by Comte de Gobineau in his book, "que, si je voyais en
Europe une secte d'une nature analogue au Babysme se presenter avec des
avantages tels que les siens, foi aveugle, enthousiasme extreme, courage
et devouement eprouves, respect inspire aux indifferents, terreur profonde
inspiree aux adversaires, et de plus, comme je l'ai dit, un proselytisme
qui ne s'arrete pas, et donc les succes sont constants dans toutes les
classes de la societe; si je voyais, dis-je, tout cela exister en Europe,
je n'hesiterais pas a predire que, dans un temps donne, la puissance et le
sceptre appartiendront de toute necessite aux possesseurs de ces grands
avantages."
"The truth of the matter," is the answer which Abbas-Quli
_Kh_an-i-Larijani, whose bullet was responsible for the death of Mulla
Husayn, is reported to have given to a query addressed to him by Prince
Ahmad Mirza in the presence of several witnesses, "is that any one who had
not seen Karbila would, if he had seen Tabarsi, not only have comprehended
what there took place, but would have ceased to consider it; and had he
seen Mulla Husayn of Bu_sh_ruyih, he would have been convinced that the
Chief of Martyrs (Imam Husayn) had returned to earth; and had he witnessed
my deeds, he would assuredly have said: 'This is _Sh_imr come back with
sword and lance...' In truth, I know not what had been shown to these
people, or what they had seen, that they came forth to battle with such
alacrity and joy.... The imagination of man cannot conceive the vehemence
of their courage and valor."
What, in conclusion, we may well ask ourselves, has been the fate of that
flagitious crew who, actuated by malice, by greed or fanaticism, sought to
quench the light which the Bab and His followers had diffused over their
country and its people? The rod of Divine chastisement, swiftly and with
unyielding severity, spared neither the Chief Magistrate of the realm, nor
his ministers and counselors, nor the ecclesiastical dignitaries of the
religion with which his government was indissolubly connected, nor the
governors who acted as his representatives, nor the chiefs of his armed
forces who, in varying degrees, deliberately or through fear or neglect,
contributed to the appalling trials to which an infant Faith was so
undeservedly subjected. Muhammad _Sh_ah himself, a sovereign at once
bigoted and irresolute who, refusing to heed the appeal of the Bab to
receive Him in the capital and enable Him to demonstrate the truth of His
Cause, yielded to the importunities of a malevolent minister, succumbed,
at the early age of forty, after sustaining a sudden reverse of fortune,
to a complication of maladies, and was condemned to that "hell-fire"
which, "on the Day of Resurrection," the Author of the Qayyumu'l-Asma had
sworn would inevitably devour him. His evil genius, the omnipotent Haji
Mirza Aqasi, the power behind the throne and the chief instigator of the
outrages perpetrated against the Bab, including His imprisonment in the
mountains of A_dh_irbayjan, was, after the lapse of scarcely a year and
six months from the time he interposed himself between the _Sh_ah and his
Captive, hurled from power, deprived of his ill-gotten riches, was
disgraced by his sovereign, was driven to seek shelter from the rising
wrath of his countrymen in the shrine of _Sh_ah 'Abdu'l-'Azim, and was
later ignominiously expelled to Karbila, falling a prey to disease,
poverty and gnawing sorrow--a piteous vindication of that denunciatory
Tablet in which his Prisoner had foreshadowed his doom and denounced his
infamy. As to the low-born and infamous Amir-Nizam, Mirza Taqi _Kh_an, the
first year of whose short-lived ministry was stained with the ferocious
onslaught against the defenders of the Fort of Tabarsi, who authorized and
encouraged the execution of the Seven Martyrs of Tihran, who unleashed the
assault against Vahid and his companions, who was directly responsible for
the death-sentence of the Bab, and who precipitated the great upheaval of
Zanjan, he forfeited, through the unrelenting jealousy of his sovereign
and the vindictiveness of court intrigue, all the honors he had enjoyed,
and was treacherously put to death by the royal order, his veins being
opened in the bath of the Palace of Fin, near Ka_sh_an. "Had the
Amir-Nizam," Baha'u'llah is reported by Nabil to have stated, "been aware
of My true position, he would certainly have laid hold on Me. He exerted
the utmost effort to discover the real situation, but was unsuccessful.
God wished him to be ignorant of it." Mirza Aqa _Kh_an, who had taken such
an active part in the unbridled cruelties perpetrated as a result of the
attempt on the life of the sovereign, was driven from office, and placed
under strict surveillance in Yazd, where he ended his days in shame and
despair.
Husayn _Kh_an, the governor of _Sh_iraz, stigmatized as a "wine-bibber"
and a "tyrant," the first who arose to ill-treat the Bab, who publicly
rebuked Him and bade his attendant strike Him violently in the face, was
compelled not only to endure the dreadful calamity that so suddenly befell
him, his family, his city and his province, but afterwards to witness the
undoing of all his labors, and to lead in obscurity the remaining days of
his life, till he tottered to his grave abandoned alike by his friends and
his enemies. Hajibu'd-Dawlih, that bloodthirsty fiend, who had strenuously
hounded down so many innocent and defenseless Babis, fell in his turn a
victim to the fury of the turbulent Lurs, who, after despoiling him of his
property, cut off his beard, and forced him to eat it, saddled and bridled
him, and rode him before the eyes of the people, after which they
inflicted under his very eyes shameful atrocities upon his womenfolk and
children. The Sa'idu'l-'Ulama', the fanatical, the ferocious and shameless
mujtahid of Barfuru_sh_, whose unquenchable hostility had heaped such
insults upon, and caused such sufferings to, the heroes of Tabarsi, fell,
soon after the abominations he had perpetrated, a prey to a strange
disease, provoking an unquenchable thirst and producing such icy chills
that neither the furs he wrapped himself in, nor the fire that continually
burned in his room could alleviate his sufferings. The spectacle of his
ruined and once luxurious home, fallen into such ill use after his death
as to become the refuse-heap of the people of his town, impressed so
profoundly the inhabitants of Mazindaran that in their mutual
vituperations they would often invoke upon each other's home the same fate
as that which had befallen that accursed habitation. The false-hearted and
ambitious Mahmud _Kh_an-i-Kalantar, into whose custody Tahirih had been
delivered before her martyrdom, incurred, nine years later, the wrath of
his royal master, was dragged feet first by ropes through the bazaars to a
place outside the city gates, and there hung on the gallows. Mirza Hasan
_Kh_an, who carried out the execution of the Bab under orders from his
brother, the Amir-Nizam, was, within two years of that unpardonable act,
subjected to a dreadful punishment which ended in his death. The
_Sh_ay_kh_u'l-Islam of Tabriz, the insolent, the avaricious and tyrannical
Mirza 'Ali As_gh_ar, who, after the refusal of the bodyguard of the
governor of that city to inflict the bastinado on the Bab, proceeded to
apply eleven times the rods to the feet of his Prisoner with his own hand,
was, in that same year, struck with paralysis, and, after enduring the
most excruciating ordeal, died a miserable death--a death that was soon
followed by the abolition of the function of the _Sh_ay_kh_u'l-Islam in
that city. The haughty and perfidious Mirza Abu-Talib _Kh_an who,
disregarding the counsels of moderation given him by Mirza Aqa _Kh_an, the
Grand Vizir, ordered the plunder and burning of the village of Takur, as
well as the destruction of the house of Baha'u'llah, was, a year later,
stricken with plague and perished wretchedly, shunned by even his nearest
kindred. Mihr-'Ali _Kh_an, the _Sh_uja'u'l-Mulk, who, after the attempt on
the _Sh_ah's life, so savagely persecuted the remnants of the Babi
community in Nayriz, fell ill, according to the testimony of his own
grandson, and was stricken with dumbness, which was never relieved till
the day of his death. His accomplice, Mirza Na'im, fell into disgrace, was
twice heavily fined, dismissed from office, and subjected to exquisite
tortures. The regiment which, scorning the miracle that warned Sam _Kh_an
and his men to dissociate themselves from any further attempt to destroy
the life of the Bab, volunteered to take their place and riddled His body
with its bullets, lost, in that same year, no less than two hundred and
fifty of its officers and men, in a terrible earthquake between Ardibil
and Tabriz; two years later the remaining five hundred were mercilessly
shot in Tabriz for mutiny, and the people, gazing on their exposed and
mutilated bodies, recalled their savage act, and indulged in such
expressions of condemnation and wonder as to induce the leading mujtahids
to chastise and silence them. The head of that regiment, Aqa Jan Big, lost
his life, six years after the Bab's martyrdom, during the bombardment of
Muhammarih by the British naval forces.
The judgment of God, so rigorous and unsparing in its visitations on those
who took a leading or an active part in the crimes committed against the
Bab and His followers, was not less severe in its dealings with the mass
of the people--a people more fanatical than the Jews in the days of Jesus--a
people notorious for their gross ignorance, their ferocious bigotry, their
willful perversity and savage cruelty, a people mercenary, avaricious,
egotistical and cowardly. I can do no better than quote what the Bab
Himself has written in the Dala'il-i-Sab'ih (Seven Proofs) during the last
days of His ministry: "Call thou to remembrance the early days of the
Revelation. How great the number of those who died of cholera! That was
indeed one of the prodigies of the Revelation, and yet none recognized it!
During four years the scourge raged among _Sh_i'ah Muslims without any one
grasping its significance!" "As to the great mass of its people (Persia),"
Nabil has recorded in his immortal narrative, "who watched with sullen
indifference the tragedy that was being enacted before their eyes, and who
failed to raise a finger in protest against the hideousness of those
cruelties, they fell, in their turn, victims to a misery which all the
resources of the land and the energy of its statesmen were powerless to
alleviate.... From the very day the hand of the assailant was stretched
forth against the Bab ... visitation upon visitation crushed the spirit
out of that ungrateful people, and brought them to the very brink of
national bankruptcy. Plagues, the very names of which were almost unknown
to them except for a cursory reference in the dust-covered books which few
cared to read, fell upon them with a fury that none could escape. That
scourge scattered devastation wherever it spread. Prince and peasant alike
felt its sting and bowed to its yoke. It held the populace in its grip,
and refused to relax its hold upon them. As malignant as the fever which
decimated the province of Gilan, these sudden afflictions continued to lay
waste the land. Grievous as were these calamities, the avenging wrath of
God did not stop at the misfortunes that befell a perverse and faithless
people. It made itself felt in every living being that breathed on the
surface of that stricken land. It afflicted the life of plants and animals
alike, and made the people feel the magnitude of their distress. Famine
added its horrors to the stupendous weight of afflictions under which the
people were groaning. The gaunt spectre of starvation stalked abroad
amidst them, and the prospect of a slow and painful death haunted their
vision.... People and government alike sighed for the relief which they
could nowhere obtain. They drank the cup of woe to its dregs, utterly
unregardful of the Hand which had brought it to their lips, and of the
Person for Whose sake they were made to suffer."
SECOND PERIOD: THE MINISTRY OF BAHA'U'LLAH 1853-1892