THE DAWN-BREAKERS
Knowest thou what the seekers of life should seek?
Death--and submitting cast their lives at the
Beloved's feet.
He who towards Ka`bah his steps directs
Should not heed the wounding thorn in deserts forlorn.
--`Azízu'lláh Miṣbáḥ
The Báb appeared in a country renowned for a glorious and envied past;
but since the beginning of the nineteenth century Írán had declined
rapidly. The structure of the State had begun to falter under the
Ṣafavid dynasty (1501-1732), enjoying only a brief revival in the
next two reigns.[EM] But by the middle of the nineteenth century,
Persia was materially impoverished, intellectually stagnant,
spiritually moribund. The condition of the peasantry was appalling.
Corruption had eaten deep into the vitals of the nation and oppression
and tyranny were widespread. It is said that every man has his price;
the adage was particularly true of the Persians of the mid-nineteenth
century. Offices of State and governorships were shamelessly bought
and sold. Taxes and customs revenues were farmed. Bribery, peculation
and extortion were legitimized under the respectable name of
Madá[_kh_]il (Perquisites). Historic cities and buildings were falling
into ruin. Many a traveller has remarked on the magnificent aspect of
famous cities, towns and villages when seen from afar, with their
domes and minarets, citadels and gateways, groves and orchards; but
how miserable and dilapidated they were found to be when one entered
them. The toll of disease and neglect and insecurity had reduced the
population of a country with an area the size of Western Europe to
well below ten million.
[Footnote EM: Af[_sh_]árid Nádir [_Sh_]áh (1736-47) and the
Zand ruler, Karím [_Kh_]án (1750-79).]
The burden of a semi-feudal state was indeed onerous, and no less so was
the burden of the dominance established by the divines. Certainly, they
had in their ranks men of the calibre and quality of [_Sh_]ay[_kh_]
Aḥmad-i-Aḥsá'í, Siyyid Káẓim-i-Ra[_sh_]tí, Ḥájí Siyyid
Muḥammad-Báqir-i-Ra[_sh_]tí[EN] and [_Sh_]ay[_kh_] Murtiḍáy-i-Anṣárí,
men who had high regard for truth and righteousness; just as there were
in the service of the State men of enlightened vision and shining
integrity. But collectively the divines abused the power they had
obtained with the advent of the Ṣafavid dynasty.
[Footnote EN: Known both as Ra[_sh_]tí and [_Sh_]aftí.]
The fall of a nation from the pinnacle of achievement is more marked
than the decline from lesser heights.
The Call to a New Day
The Call of the Báb was a call to awakening, a claim that a New Day had
dawned. But the magnitude of this claim was not easily realized; one of
the first to do so was Qurratu'l-`Ayn. When Mullá `Alíy-i-Basṭámí was
condemned and imprisoned in Ba[_gh_]dád, she was still at Karbilá.
Because of complaints by the [_Sh_]í`ah divines, the Government sent her
back to Ba[_gh_]dád, where she lodged in the house of [_Sh_]ay[_kh_]
Muḥammad [_Sh_]ibl, the father of Áqá Muḥammad Muṣṭafáy-i-Ba[_gh_]dádí,
until the Government moved her to the house of the Muftí of
Ba[_gh_]dád.[EO] So outspoken was she in her public statements that some
of her fellow-believers from Káẓimayn were alarmed and, according to Áqá
Muḥammad-Muṣṭafá, agitated against her. Siyyid `Alí Bi[_sh_]r, the most
learned of them, wrote a letter on their behalf to the Báb, which
Nawrúz-`Alí, once an attendant of Siyyid Káẓim, took to Him in Máh-Kú,
returning with His answer which rang with high praise of Qurratu'l-`Ayn.
It caused Siyyid `Alí Bi[_sh_]r and his party from Káẓimayn[EP] to
withdraw from the Faith they had previously espoused with enthusiasm.
The Báb described Qurratu'l-`Ayn, in that Epistle, as Ṭáhirih, the Pure,
and Ṣiddíqih, the Truthful, and laid an injunction on His followers in
`Iráq to accept without question whatever she might pronounce, for they
were not in a position to understand and appreciate her station. By this
time a large number of Bábís had assembled in Ba[_gh_]dád, and
Qurratu'l-`Ayn was constantly and openly teaching the Faith. She had
received a copy of the _Commentary on the Súrih of Kaw[_th_]ar_, which
the Báb had revealed for Vaḥíd, and she made full use of it, driving the
opposing divines to desperation. When she threw down a challenge to them
to debate the issue with her, their only reply was vehement
denunciation.
[Footnote EO: In a book which the Muftí, Maḥmúd al-Álúsí,
wrote, he spoke of Qurratu'l-`Ayn with great admiration.]
[Footnote EP: These included Siyyid Ṭáhá and Siyyid
Muḥammad-Ja`far.]
Najíb Pá[_sh_]á was still at his post as Válí of Ba[_gh_]dád, but he was
now a chastened man. Moreover, the opponents of Qurratu'l-`Ayn were the
[_Sh_]í`ah divines and Najíb Pá[_sh_]á, being a Sunní, would take no
action to please them, but he reported to the Sublime Porte that
Qurratu'l-`Ayn had challenged them. The authorities in Constantinople
were also not prepared to give comfort to [_Sh_]í`ahs by making a martyr
of Qurratu'l-`Ayn. At the same time they had no wish to champion her
cause. They told Najíb Pá[_sh_]á that, as Qurratu'l-`Ayn was Persian,
she should confine her challenge to the divines of her native land; she
should be sent to Persia.[EQ] So Qurratu'l-`Ayn (or Ṭáhirih as we shall
call her), accompanied by a number of ardent and prominent Bábís,[1]
quitted Ba[_gh_]dád and was escorted to the frontier by Muḥammad Áqá
Yávar, an officer in the service of Najíb Pá[_sh_]á, who became
attracted to the Cause she was advocating.
[Footnote EQ: Yet only two years before they had refused to
hand over Mullá `Alí to the Persian Government, that he might
reach safety.]
Various eventful stops were made by Ṭáhirih and her companions in
their journey across Persia to Qazvín. In the small town of Kirand,
her eloquence and the clarity of her disquisition so impressed the
chiefs of that area that they offered to place twelve thousand men
under her command, to follow her wherever she went. The great majority
(if not all) of the inhabitants of Kirand and its neighbourhood were
`Alíyu'lláhís. Ṭáhirih gave them her blessing, told them to keep to
their homes, and moved on to Kirmán[_sh_]áh. The challenge she
presented to Áqá `Abdu'lláh-i-Bihbihání, the leading divine of that
town, thoroughly discomfited him. With the populace clamouring for a
positive answer, and the Governor treating Ṭáhirih with great
respect, the cornered divine sought to free himself from his
dilemma by writing to her father in Qazvín, asking him to send
some of his close relatives to remove her from Kirmán[_sh_]áh. Áqá
Muḥammad-Muṣṭafá, himself an eye-witness, vividly describes
how four men came from Qazvín, joined forces with a Qazvíní officer
stationed in Kirmán[_sh_]áh, invaded the house where Ṭáhirih's
companions resided, and beat and robbed them of all they possessed.
When the Governor learned what had happened, he ordered the arrest of
the culprits and restored to the Bábís their property. It was soon
known that Áqá `Abdu'lláh had conspired to bring about this situation.
From Kirmán[_sh_]áh, Ṭáhirih and her companions moved on to fresh scenes
of triumph in the small town of Ṣaḥnih, before reaching Hamadán. Here
her brothers arrived from Qazvín to beg her to return with them to their
native place. She agreed on condition that she should stay in Hamadán
long enough to make the public cognizant of the Faith of the Báb. During
her days in Hamadán, she issued a challenge to Ra'ísu'l-`Ulamá, the
leading divine of the city, whose response was to have the bearer of her
treatise, Mullá Ibráhím-i-Maḥallátí, himself a distinguished divine,
beaten and thrown out of his house. Mullá Ibráhím lingered between life
and death for some days, and although he recovered, his martyrdom was
not far off. This reverse was outweighed by Ṭáhirih's success in
converting two ladies of the Royal Family, married to scions of the
aristocracy of Hamadán, and even more significant were her talks with
two of the most learned Jewish rabbis,[ER] which led to attracting
members of the Jewish Faith to the Bábí fold.[ES] Hamadán, flourishing
on the site of ancient Ecbatana, is the city where the tombs of Esther
and Mordecai are situated.
[Footnote ER: Mullá Ilyáhú and Mullá Lálizár.]
[Footnote ES: The first Jewish Bahá'í was Ḥakím Masíḥ,
a doctor (later to become court physician to Muhammad
[_Sh_]áh) who met Ṭáhirih in Ba[_gh_]dád, and was deeply
impressed by her eloquence and masterly exposition. Years
later, while attending his son, he met Mullá
Ṣádiq-i-Muqaddas, a survivor of [_Sh_]ay[_kh_] Ṭabarsí,
to whom Bahá'u'lláh had given the designation of
Ismu'lláhu'l-Aṣdaq (the Name of God, the Most Truthful).
This encounter led Ḥakím Masíḥ to embrace the Bahá'í
Faith. He was the grandfather of Dr. Luṭfu'lláh Ḥakím.
(See Balyuzi, _`Abdu'l-Bahá_, p. 78n.)]
As promised, Ṭáhirih then left for Qazvín in the company of her
brothers. Before departing, she asked most of the Arab Bábís, who were
with her, to return to `Iráq. Only a few stayed behind, to join her
later in Qazvín, but within a month she requested all of her
fellow-believers, Arab and Persian alike, who had travelled with her,
to leave her native town. Of the large company who had come from
`Iráq, attending and supporting her, only Mullá Ibráhím-i-Maḥallátí
and [_Sh_]ay[_kh_] Ṣáliḥ-al-Karímí remained with her in Qazvín.
Three of the others[ET] went on to Ṭihrán, where they met the
Bábu'l-Báb. In April 1890, Edward Granville Browne, returning from
`Akká, met one of them, Áqá Muḥammad-Muṣṭafá, in Beirut and
inquired about that meeting and the appearance of Mullá Ḥusayn. He
learned that the Bábu'l-Báb was
Lean and fragile to look at, but keen and bright as the
sword which never left his side.[EU] For the rest, he was
not more than thirty or thirty-five years old, and his
raiment was white.[2]
[Footnote ET: They were [_Sh_]ay[_kh_] Muḥammad [_Sh_]ibl
and his son, Áqá Muḥammad-Muṣṭafá, and
[_Sh_]ay[_kh_] Sulṭán-i-Karbilá'í.]
[Footnote EU: Mullá Ḥusayn's sword is in the International
Archives of the Bahá'í Faith.]
At Qazvín, Ṭáhirih refused to be reunited with her husband and went
to her father's house. Her impetuous uncle, Ḥájí Mullá Taqí, felt
greatly insulted and his wrath knew no bounds. His denunciation of
those whom he considered to be responsible for his daughter-in-law's
waywardness became fiercer than ever before. [_Sh_]ay[_kh_] Aḥmad
and Siyyid Káẓim were the particular targets of his vilification.
Then, one morning at dawn, he was found in the mosque, fatally
stabbed. Immediately the Bábís were accused of his murder, and even
Ṭáhirih was considered guilty, was kept under close watch, and her
life was in danger. Although a [_Sh_]írází[3] confessed that he had
slain Ḥájí Mullá Taqí because of his rabid animosity towards
[_Sh_]ay[_kh_] Aḥmad and Siyyid Káẓim, three Bábís, totally
innocent of the crime, were put to death--[_Sh_]ay[_kh_]
Ṣáliḥ-al-Karímí in Ṭihrán, and Mullá Ibráhím-i-Maḥallatí
and Mullá Ṭáhir in Qazvín. These three were the first martyrs of
the Bábí Faith in Persia itself, and their deaths constituted the
first public execution of Bábís.[EV] Ḥájí Asadu'lláh, a well-known
merchant of the Farhádí family, was also martyred, while in prison, by
partisans of Ṭáhirih's husband, the Imám-Jum`ih of Qazvín, and a
report was circulated that he had died from natural causes.
[Footnote EV: It is of interest that [_Sh_]ay[_kh_]
Ṣáliḥ, martyred in Persia, was a native of `Iráq, while
the first martyr of the Bábí Faith, Mullá `Alíy-i-Basṭámí,
was a Persian who met his death in `Iráq.]
Ṭáhirih was now totally isolated. Bahá'u'lláh gave the task of rescuing
her to Mírzá Hádí, the nephew of the martyred Ḥájí Asadu'lláh. This
young man, who had left Qazvín at the outset of agitation against the
Bábís, returned at the risk of his life and successfully carried out his
mission. Ṭáhirih reached Ṭihrán in safety. Thus it was that she could be
at the conference of Bada[_sh_]t, where she rendered her most signal
service to the Faith of the Báb.
The Conference of Bada[_sh_]t
The gathering of the Bábís at Bada[_sh_]t coincided with the removal of
the Báb, from the castle of [_Ch_]ihríq to Tabríz, for His public
examination. Contrary to certain allegations, the Bábís did not
congregate in Bada[_sh_]t to concert plans to rescue Him. They came
there, guided by Bahá'u'lláh, to settle a vital and cardinal issue: was
this persuasion of theirs just an offshoot of Islám, or was it an
independent Faith? Until then no public claim had been made that the
Báb, as the Qá'im of the House of Muḥammad, was an Inaugurator of a new
theophany. Strange it seems, in perspective, that about the time when a
decision was being reached in a tiny hamlet on the edge of [_Kh_]urásán,
hundreds of miles away in the city of Tabríz, the Báb was announcing His
station before a tribunal summoned to question Him.[EW]
[Footnote EW: The station of the Báb is discussed and defined
by Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith, in _The
Dispensation of Bahá'u'lláh_, reprinted in the collection of
his writings entitled _The World Order of Bahá'u'lláh_, to
which the reader is referred.]
`Abdu'l-Bahá states that Bahá'u'lláh and Quddús had agreed that the
time had come to declare the advent of a new Dispensation.[4] However,
there were faint hearts in the Bábí ranks, as events were to prove.
Ṭáhirih had met opposition from fellow-Bábís because she had always
been bold enough to assert that this was indeed a new day. Any
announcement at Bada[_sh_]t would have to be emphatic and unhedged, to
make a persuasive impact. And this it was, in a most dramatic way.
Bahá'u'lláh had rented three gardens in Bada[_sh_]t: Quddús lived in
one, Ṭáhirih in the second, and Bahá'u'lláh had a tent pitched in
the third. Other Bábís, among whom were a number of the Letters of the
Living such as Mírzá Muḥammad-`Alí, the brother-in-law of
Ṭáhirih, and Mullá Báqir-i-Tabrízí, lived under tents in the
grounds facing the three gardens.[EX]
[Footnote EX: Mullá Ḥusayn was prevented from reaching
Bada[_sh_]t.]
During the three weeks of the conference, argument and
counter-argument were put forward, and differences of view and
approach arose between Quddús and Ṭáhirih. At last it was
Ṭáhirih's unheard-of gesture, courageous beyond belief and
description, followed by Bahá'u'lláh's decisive intervention, which
made clear to all that a new Dispensation had begun. Ṭáhirih's
brave act was to cast aside her veil. Men were shaken to the depths of
their being to see her thus. Some fled with horror from the scene.
One, in desperation, tried to cut his throat. When the uproar
subsided, Bahá'u'lláh called for a copy of the Qur'án and directed a
reciter to read the fifty-sixth súrih, 'al-Wáqi`a':[EY]
When the inevitable day of judgment shall suddenly come, no
soul shall charge the prediction of its coming with
falsehood: it will abase some, and exalt others. When the
earth shall be shaken with a violent shock; and the
mountains shall be dashed in pieces, and shall become as
dust scattered abroad; and ye shall be separated into three
distinct classes: the companions of the right hand (how
happy shall the companions of the right hand be!), and the
companions of the left hand (how miserable shall the
companions of the left hand be!), and those who have
preceded others in the faith shall precede them to paradise.
These are they who shall approach near unto God: they shall
dwell in gardens of delight.
[Footnote EY: Literally, 'The Event'; Professor Arberry has
translated it as 'Terror' and George Sale as 'The
Inevitable'. The present writer prefers in this instance
Sale's rendering of the whole súrih to Arberry's; verses 1-12
are quoted. The incident is taken from `Abdu'l-Bahá, _The
Memorials of The Faithful_, p. 201, and Cheyne, _The
Reconciliation of Races and Religions_, pp. 101-3.]
At Bada[_sh_]t the faint-hearted fell away. And when those who had
remained steadfast left the hamlet it was to go out into a world, for
them, greatly changed. That change was in a sense a reflection of the
transformation they had experienced. They were determined to assert
their freedom from the fetters of the past. In a country tightly
wedded to blind, rigid orthodoxy, the deportment of the Bábís would
arouse bitter hostility. There were Bábís, undoubtedly, who in their
newly-found consciousness of emancipation, committed repellent
excesses, and they deserved rejection by their fellow-countrymen. But
for the majority, the animosity now directed against them created a
situation which was new, and in turn required counter-measures to
ensure their very existence. The opposition they had met in the past
was sporadic, and not nation-wide, depending on the character,
influence and power of the leaders, directors and instigators of such
opposition, in any particular locality. The open welcome which the Bab
had received when He reached Iṣfahán, following the barbaric
treatment He had suffered at the hands of the Governor-General and the
divines of Fárs; the enthusiasm and eagerness with which the people
had, at first, greeted Him both in Tabríz and Urúmíyyih; the friendly
reception which Quddús had found in Kirmán, after being humiliated in
[_Sh_]íráz; the reverence shown conspicuously to Ṭáhirih in Kirand
and Kirmán[_sh_]áh; the respect and kindly attention accorded
to the Bábu'l-Báb by Ḥamzih Mírzá, the Governor-General of
[_Kh_]urásán[EZ]--all were to become only memories, sadly lacking
counterparts in the era whose opening was marked by the Báb's public
declaration of His station as the promised Qá'im during His
examination at Tabríz, the echoing affirmation of the dawning of a new
and independent religious Dispensation at the conference of
Bada[_sh_]t, and by the death of Muḥammad [_Sh_]áh.
[Footnote EZ: Also known as Ḥi[_sh_]matu'd-Dawlih, the
brother of Muḥammad [_Sh_]áh, who, at a later date, was
the Governor-General of Á[_dh_]arbáyján, and refused to
superintend the execution of the Bab.]
Hardly had the conference of Bada[_sh_]t ended when the people of the
village of Níyálá attacked the Bábís. Nabíl-i-A`ẓam heard the story
from Bahá'u'lláh Himself:
We were all gathered in the village of Níyálá and were
resting at the foot of a mountain, when, at the hour of
dawn, we were suddenly awakened by the stones which the
people of the neighbourhood were hurling upon us from the
top of the mountain. The fierceness of their attack induced
our companions to flee in terror and consternation. I
clothed Quddús in my own garments and despatched him to a
place of safety, where I intended to join him. When I
arrived, I found that he had gone. None of our companions
had remained in Níyálá except Ṭáhirih and a young man
from [_Sh_]íráz, Mírzá `Abdu'lláh. The violence with which
we were assailed had brought desolation into our camp. I
found no one into whose custody I could deliver Ṭáhirih
except that young man, who displayed on that occasion a
courage and determination that were truly surprising. Sword
in hand, undaunted by the savage assault of the inhabitants
of the village, who had rushed to plunder our property, he
sprang forward to stay the hand of the assailants. Though
himself wounded in several parts of his body, he risked his
life to protect our property. I bade him desist from his
act. When the tumult had subsided, I approached a number of
the inhabitants of the village and was able to convince them
of the cruelty and shamefulness of their behaviour. I
subsequently succeeded in restoring a part of our plundered
property.[5]
The Episode of [_Sh_]ay[_kh_] Ṭabarsí
It was mid-July 1848 when the Bábís were scattered by the assault of
the villagers of Níyálá. They took different routes, but many of them
came together again. Bahá'u'lláh travelled to Núr, His home in
Mázindarán. Quddús was arrested and taken to the town of Sárí, also in
Mázindarán, where he was lodged, under restraint, in the home of Mírzá
Muḥammad-Taqí, the leading divine. Ṭáhirih also went to the same
province, and she too was arrested. Later, she was sent to the capital
and was given into the charge of Maḥmúd [_Kh_]án, the Kalántar
(Mayor) of Ṭihrán, who detained her until the hour of her martyrdom
in August 1852.
Mullá Ḥusayn, whose visit to the camp of Ḥamzih Mírzá had
prevented him from attending the conference of Bada[_sh_]t, had in the
meantime returned to Ma[_sh_]had, and intended to go to Karbilá. But
an emissary of the Báb overtook him with an urgent message. The Báb
had conferred on him the name of Siyyid `Alí, had sent him a green
turban of His own to wear, and had instructed him to go to the aid of
Quddús with the Black Standard unfurled before him--the Standard of
which the Prophet Muḥammad had said:
Should your eyes behold the Black Standards proceeding from
[_Kh_]urásán, hasten ye towards them, even though ye should
have to crawl over the snow, inasmuch as they proclaim the
advent of the promised Mihdí, the Vicegerent of God.[6]
Mullá Ḥusayn began his long march to Mázindarán to rescue Quddús,
accompanied by many of the Bábís who had scattered after the incident
in Níyálá, and some of the newly-converted who ranged themselves
behind the Black Standard. Their numbers, on that journey, swelled
into hundreds. On their way they raised the call of the New Day,
finding eager supporters, but also such venomous hostility that they
could not take residence in any town or village. Yet they did not
intend to engage in combat with anyone, let alone the forces of the
State. They were only demonstrating their belief and their vision.
As they approached Bárfurú[_sh_], its leading divine, Sa`ídu'l-`Ulamá,
was so vituperative in denouncing Mullá Ḥusayn that the whole town
rose up to oppose the Bábís. Clashes and casualties were inevitable.
Mullá Ḥusayn himself, in the fray, cut through the trunk of a tree
and the barrel of a gun, in one stroke of his sword, to fell an
adversary.[FA] The people of Bárfurú[_sh_] were worsted and asked for
a truce, and because of their unrest, their leaders begged
Mullá Ḥusayn to leave on the morrow for Ámul. `Abbás-Qulí
[_Kh_]án-i-Láríjání, whom Nicolas names as 'the chief military
personage of the province,'[7] gave Mullá Ḥusayn a solemn promise,
fortified by an oath on the Qur'án, that [_Kh_]usraw-i-Qádí-Kalá'í and
his horsemen would escort the Bábís to safety through the forests.
This military chief impressed on [_Kh_]usraw the need to do his duty
by Mullá Ḥusayn, and to show him respect and consideration. But
Sa`ídu'l-`Ulamá corrupted [_Kh_]usraw by telling him that he
personally would accept responsibility before God and man for any
injury, or even death, that might be inflicted on the Bábís. Once in
the depths of the forest, [_Kh_]usraw and his hundred men
treacherously attacked the Bábís. He received his desert at the hands
of a man[FB] of learning, not a hardened trooper, who at the first
opportunity stabbed and killed [_Kh_]usraw with a dagger.
[Footnote FA: The fame of this feat spread far and wide.
Later, when the Grand Vizier reprimanded Prince Mihdí-Qulí
Mírzá, commander of an army sent against the defenders of
[_Sh_]ay[_kh_] Ṭabarsí, because he had fled before them,
the Prince sent him pieces of the musket-barrel smashed by
the sword of Mullá Ḥusayn, with this message: 'Such is the
contemptible strength of an adversary who, with a single
stroke of his sword, has shattered into six pieces the tree,
the musket, and its holder.'[8]]
[Footnote FB: Mírzá Muḥammad-Taqíy-i-Juvayní.]
The Grand Vizier was particularly irked and infuriated that the Bábís
could defeat and put to flight his force, although, for the most part,
they were untrained in the arts of war. True, one could find in their
ranks men such as Riḍá [_Kh_]án-i-Turkamán,[FC] an accomplished
young courtier, whose father was the Master of the Horse in the royal
establishment. But these were exceptions. The vast majority were
artisans, small traders, merchants, students of theology, divines.
[Footnote FC: A martyr of [_Sh_]ay[_kh_] Ṭabarsí.]
[_Kh_]usraw's treachery and death, and raids by hostile villagers on
the exposed flanks of the Bábí camp, forced Mullá Ḥusayn to
seek a place where the Bábís could be safely lodged. Arriving
on October 12th 1848 at the shrine of [_Sh_]ay[_kh_] Aḥmad
ibn-i-Abí-Ṭálib-i-Ṭabarsí, about fourteen miles south-east of
Bárfurú[_sh_], he gave orders for the construction of a fortress round
the shrine, under the supervision of the builder of the Bábíyyih in
Ma[_sh_]had (see p. 56). They were harassed at every stage by
neighbouring villagers and had often to defend themselves. No sooner
was their work finished than they received a visit from Bahá'u'lláh,
who advised Mullá Ḥusayn to seek the release of Quddús, that he
might be with them. This mission was soon accomplished and, towards
the end of that year, Quddús joined them in the newly-built fortress,
to be acknowledged by Mullá Ḥusayn as above him in rank.
On January 30th 1849, Lt.-Col. Farrant, then chargé d'affaires in
Ṭihrán, reported to Lord Palmerston that some five hundred persons,
'disciples of a Fanatic, who calls himself the door, or gate of the
true Mahomedan Religion', had assembled in Mázindarán, that fighting
had broken out, and that `Abbás-Qulí [_Kh_]án-i-Láríjání had been
ordered to proceed to that province and arrest the leaders.[9]
The Bábís would gladly have lived peacefully within the four walls
they had erected around the shrine of [_Sh_]ay[_kh_] Ṭabarsí. But
the continuous clamouring of the divines, led by Sa`ídu'l-`Ulamá of
Bárfurú[_sh_], and the despotic, obstinate and haughty nature of the
Grand Vizier, combined to deny them peace and security. One army after
another was sent to reduce them. In sorties from their fortress they
inflicted heavy losses on the besieging forces, causing commanders to
flee for their lives. Some of the commanders[FD] died on the
battlefield, while Quddús, during one of the sorties, received a
bullet wound in his mouth.
[Footnote FD: Such as `Abdu'lláh [_Kh_]án-i-Turkamán and
Ḥabíbu'lláh [_Kh_]án-i-Af[_gh_]án.]
Bahá'u'lláh, accompanied by His brother Mírzá Yaḥyá, with Ḥájí
Mírzá Jání of Ká[_sh_]án, and Mullá Báqir of Tabríz (one of the
Letters of the Living), set out from Ṭihrán to join the defenders
of [_Sh_]ay[_kh_] Ṭabarsí, but they were intercepted and taken to
Ámul. Bahá'u'lláh offered to bear the punishment intended for the
others, and was bastinadoed.
At dawn of February 2nd 1849, Mullá Ḥusayn led his last sortie.
`Abbás-Qulí [_Kh_]án, in joint command of the Government forces, had
climbed a tree and, picking out the figure of Mullá Ḥusayn on
horseback, shot him in the chest. He did not know whom he had mortally
wounded, until a timorous siyyid from Qum[FE] turned traitor and
informed him. Mullá Ḥusayn was carried by his companions to
the fort, where he died and was buried inside the shrine. He
was thirty-five years old. Bahá'u'lláh wrote of him in the
_Kitáb-i-Íqán--The Book of Certitude_:--'But for him, God would not
have been established upon the seat of His mercy, nor ascended the
throne of eternal glory.'[10]
[Footnote FE: Mírzá Ḥusayn-i-Mutavallí.]
Now Mírzá Muḥammad-Báqir-i-Qá'iní replaced Mullá Ḥusayn in
leading the companions. But the end could not be far off. Of the three
hundred and thirteen defenders of the fortress, a number had died,
many were wounded, and a few wavered in their resolve. The pressure of
the forces arrayed against them increased. Cannon were levelled at
them. Food became scarce and they ate grass, leaves of trees, the skin
and ground bone of their slaughtered horses, the boiled leather of
their saddles. `Abdu'l-Bahá speaks of their sufferings in the
_Memorials of the Faithful_:
For eighteen days they remained without food. They lived on
the leather of their shoes. This too was soon consumed, and
they had nothing left but water. They drank a mouthful every
morning, and lay famished and exhausted in their fort. When
attacked, however, they would instantly spring to their
feet, and manifest in the face of the enemy a magnificent
courage and astonishing resistance.... Under such
circumstances to maintain an unwavering faith and patience
is extremely difficult, and to endure such dire afflictions
a rare phenomenon.[11]
The end came not through abject surrender, but through the perfidy of
the foe. Prince Mihdí-Qulí Mírzá, brother of Muḥammad [_Sh_]áh, took a
solemn oath on the Qur'án that their lives and property would be
inviolate should they come out of the fortress and disperse in peace. A
horse was sent for Quddús to take him to the camp of the Prince. But
once the companions had been lured out of the fortress, the oath was
conveniently forgotten. The Bábís were massacred, the fortress was
pillaged and razed to the ground. Hideous outrages were committed upon
the corpses of the slain, and a vast area of the forest was strewn with
their remains: disembowelled, hacked to pieces, burned. Survivors were
few. No more than three or four were kept to be heavily ransomed. A few
who were left for dead recovered. Still a few others were sold into
slavery and eventually found their way back to the company of their
fellow-believers. All the dead were Persians except two Arabs of
Ba[_gh_]dád who had come out with Ṭáhirih from `Iráq.[12]
Quddús was taken to Bárfurú[_sh_], his native town, where
Sa`ídu'l-`Ulamá, his pitiless foe, awaited him. Prince Mihdí-Qulí
Mírzá, oblivious to his pledge, forsook Quddús and gave him into the
hands of that bloodthirsty priest. Imprecations were heaped upon the
head of the captive. He was made to suffer refined tortures and
searing agonies which an insanely jealous adversary had devised for
him. At the height of his torments he was heard to say:
Forgive, O my God, the trespasses of this people. Deal with
them in Thy mercy, for they know not what we already have
discovered and cherish.[13]
In the public square of Bárfurú[_sh_] (the Sabzih-Maydán),
Sa`ídu'l-`Ulamá struck Quddús down with an axe, and any instrument which
a frenzied mob could lay its hands on was used to tear his flesh and
dismember him. Then they threw his shattered, mutilated body onto a
blazing fire lit in the square. That night, when all were gone, Ḥájí
Muḥammad-`Alíy-i-Ḥamzih, a divine, humane and compassionate, universally
acclaimed for his integrity, collected from the dying embers what
remained of the body of the martyr, and reverently buried it.
The martyrdom of Quddús took place in the month of May 1849, seven
months after his fellow-Bábís had first taken refuge in the fort of
[_Sh_]ay[_kh_] Ṭabarsí.[14] It marked the end of an episode which
had begun, eleven months before, with the raising of the Black
Standard on the plain of [_Kh_]urásán; during which deeds of
incredible heroism by some three hundred Bábís had stunned and
humiliated opposition forces vastly outnumbering them; which had
witnessed the deaths of half the Letters of the Living, including the
first, the Bábu'l-Báb, and Quddús, the last and greatest; and which
closed with acts of treachery and atrocious cruelty. Words which
Quddús spoke during their occupation of the fort are a fitting
commentary upon the spirit of those who defended it:
Never ... have we under any circumstances attempted to
direct any offensive against our opponents. Not until they
unchained their attack upon us did we arise to defend our
lives. Had we cherished the ambition of waging holy war
against them, had we harboured the least intention of
achieving ascendancy through the power of our arms over the
unbelievers, we should not, until this day, have remained
besieged within these walls. The force of our arms would
have by now, as was the case with the companions of
Muḥammad in days past, convulsed the nations of the earth
and prepared them for the acceptance of our Message. Such is
not our way, however, which we have chosen to tread. Ever
since we repaired to this fort, our sole, our unalterable
purpose has been the vindication, by our deeds and by our
readiness to shed our blood in the path of our Faith, of the
exalted character of our mission. The hour is fast
approaching when we shall be able to consummate this
task.[15]
The Year 1850
While Quddús and his companions were defending themselves at
[_Sh_]ay[_kh_] Ṭabarsí, Bábís in other parts of Persia were
increasingly the victims of an intense and systematic persecution on
the part of both civil and ecclesiastical authorities. The reason was
not far to seek and was stated by Sheil, once more at his post in
Ṭihrán after a long period of absence, when he addressed Lord
Palmerston on February 12th 1850:
... unluckily the proselytes are all of the Mahommedan
faith, which is inflexible in the punishment of a relapsed
Mussulman. Thus both the temporal and religious authorities
have an interest in the extermination of this sect.
It is conjectured that in Teheran this religion has acquired
votaries in every class, not even excluding the artillery
and regular Infantry--Their numbers in this city, it is
supposed, may amount to about two thousand.[16]
Sheil's dispatches took note of four occurrences in particular, in the
year 1850: the execution of the Báb,[FF] the episodes of Nayríz and
Zanján, and the public martyrdom of seven Bábís in Ṭihrán.
[Footnote FF: See ch. 12.]
The Episode of Nayríz
The incomparable Vaḥíd--Siyyid Yaḥyáy-i-Dárábí--the trusted emissary
whom Muḥammad [_Sh_]áh had sent to investigate the claims of the Báb and
who had returned His devoted supporter--was in Yazd in the early weeks
of 1850, fearlessly proclaiming the advent of the Qá'im in the person of
the Báb. Unwise acts by a purported fellow-believer put his life in
danger in that city, and he was forced to leave secretly for Nayríz in
the province of Fárs.[FG] On hearing of his approach, the people of his
native quarter of [_Ch_]inár Sú[_kh_]tih who loved and honoured Vaḥíd,
together with a number of the notables of Nayríz, went out to meet him,
thus bringing on their families threats of dire punishment by the
Governor of Nayríz, Zaynu'l-`Ábidín [_Kh_]án, who was fearful and
desired to prevent Vaḥíd's entry to the town.[17] But these warnings
went unheeded; Vaḥíd continued his journey and on arrival at his native
quarter, went straight to the Masjid-i-Jum`ih where, ascending the
pulpit, he addressed a congregation estimated to have numbered fifteen
hundred. He said:
My sole purpose in coming to Nayríz is to proclaim the Cause
of God. I thank and glorify Him for having enabled me to
touch your hearts with His Message. No need for me to tarry
any longer in your midst, for if I prolong my stay, I fear
that the governor will ill-treat you because of me. He may
seek reinforcement from [_Sh_]íráz and destroy your homes
and subject you to untold indignities.[18]
[Footnote FG: See Appendix 3. Vaḥíd, as a man of
influence, possessed houses in Yazd, Nayríz, and his native
town of Dáráb.]
But the people refused to let him go, for they were willing and
prepared, they assured him, to meet any misfortune and hardship that
might overtake them.
Zaynu'l-`Ábidín [_Kh_]án, thwarted in his efforts to prevent Vaḥíd's
entrance into Nayríz, and aroused to fury by the influence he was
exerting on the populace, schemed to entrap and arrest him. For this
purpose he recruited a thousand trained soldiers. Some of those who had
joined Vaḥíd now broke away and forsook him, thus adding to the strength
of his opponents. The menace posed by the Governor became so severe that
Vaḥíd could find no way to secure the safety of his people and himself,
other than by taking refuge with seventy-two of his companions in the
fort of [_Kh_]ájih outside Nayríz. The Governor sent his brother,
`Alí-Aṣ[_gh_]ar [_Kh_]án, to attack this small band with the force he
had gathered. They did not succeed, but his brother was killed in the
engagement. The Bábís now lived under conditions of siege, and their
water supply was cut off. They built a water-cistern, strengthened their
fort, and were reinforced by additional residents of Nayríz. Meanwhile,
appeals were being made by Zaynu'l-`Ábidín [_Kh_]án for assistance from
[_Sh_]íráz, until the Governor-General of Fárs, Prince Fírúz Mírzá (the
Nuṣratu'd-Dawlih), who had ordered the extermination of the besieged
Bábís, sent an army to conclude the affair.[19] Even this large force
could not overcome the resistance of the defenders of the fortress. Not
only did victory elude it, but heavy losses were suffered.[FH]
[Footnote FH: Sheil, reporting to Lord Palmerston on July
22nd 1850, stated that the defenders 'twice repulsed the
Shah's troops.' (F.O. 60/152.)]
What had happened at [_Sh_]ay[_kh_] Ṭabarsí was now reenacted in
Nayríz. Zaynu'l-`Ábidín [_Kh_]án and his associates resorted to fraud
to overcome the Bábís. They suspended their attack and sent a written
message to Vaḥíd, which said, in effect:
Hitherto, as we were ignorant of the true character of your
Faith, we have allowed the mischief-makers to induce us to
believe that every one of you has violated the sacred
precepts of Islám. Therefore did we arise against you, and
have endeavoured to extirpate your Faith. During the last
few days, we have been made aware of the fact that your
activities are untinged by any political motive, that none
of you cherish any inclination to subvert the foundations of
the State. We also have been convinced of the fact that your
teachings do not involve any grave departure from the
fundamental teachings of Islám. All that you seem to uphold
is the claim that a man has appeared whose words are
inspired and whose testimony is certain, and whom all the
followers of Islám must recognise and support. We can in no
wise be convinced of the validity of this claim unless you
consent to repose the utmost confidence in our sincerity,
and accept our request to allow certain of your
representatives to emerge from the fort and meet us in this
camp, where we can, within the space of a few days,
ascertain the character of your belief. If you prove
yourselves able to demonstrate the true claims of your
Faith, we too will readily embrace it, for we are not the
enemies of Truth, and none of us wish to deny it. Your
leader we have always recognised as one of the ablest
champions of Islám, and we regard him as our example and
guide. This Qur'án, to which we affix our seals, is the
witness to the integrity of our purpose. Let that holy Book
decide whether the claim you advance is true or false. The
malediction of God and His Prophet rest upon us if we should
attempt to deceive you. Your acceptance of our invitation
will save a whole army from destruction, whilst your refusal
will leave them in suspense and doubt. We pledge our word
that as soon as we are convinced of the truth of your
Message, we shall strive to display the same zeal and
devotion you already have so strikingly manifested. Your
friends will be our friends, and your enemies our enemies.
Whatever your leader may choose to command, the same we
pledge ourselves to obey. On the other hand, if we fail to
be convinced of the truth of your claim, we solemnly promise
that we shall in no wise interfere with your safe return to
the fort, and shall be willing to resume our contest against
you. We entreat you to refuse to shed more blood before
attempting to establish the truth of your Cause.[20]
Vaḥíd was well aware of the dishonesty of this message;
nevertheless, he walked out in person, with five attendants, into the
camp of his enemies, where he was received for three days with great
ceremony. But all the while they were planning a stratagem to overcome
the occupants of the fort. Under duress, they compelled Vaḥíd to
write a letter to his people, assuring them that a settlement had been
reached, and that they should abandon the fortress and return to their
homes. Vaḥíd attempted to caution his companions against this
treachery in a second letter which was never delivered to them. Thus,
within a month, did the defenders of the fort of [_Kh_]ájih meet the
same fate as the defenders of [_Sh_]ay[_kh_] Ṭabarsí.
Four years later, a divine of Nayríz,[FI] a man who was just and
truthful and courageous, wrote the whole story of that episode high on
an inner wall of the Masjid-i-Jum`ih in the Bázár quarter. Although he
had to write with circumspection to avoid being denounced, he composed
his narrative in such a way that one can, without difficulty, read
more of it between the lines. His account bears out the fact that
Vaḥíd was given solemn assurances, that he was received with great
esteem and reverence, that those who had pledged their word broke
their pledges, that the quarter of [_Ch_]inár-Sú[_kh_]tih, which was
then a stronghold of the Bábís of Nayríz,[FJ] and the quarter of the
Bázár were sacked, that houses were demolished, huge sums of money
extorted, and Nayríz was reduced to a state of desolation.
[Footnote FI: Siyyid Ibráhím, the son of Siyyid Ḥusayn.]
[Footnote FJ: It is populated today by Bahá'ís.]
The circumstances of Vaḥíd's martyrdom recall the tragedy of
Karbilá. All alone, he was assailed in the streets of Nayríz, as Imám
Ḥusayn, whose descendant he was, had been assailed on the Euphrates
plain. There the body of the Imám had been trampled into the dust by
the hooves of horses, and in Nayríz the corpse of Vaḥíd suffered
similar indignities. When the victorious army marched back to
[_Sh_]íráz, it took as prisoners women and children, with the heads of
the martyrs of Nayríz raised aloft on lances. Damascus had witnessed a
similar scene centuries before, when the family of the martyred
Ḥusayn, which included his only surviving son, was paraded in its
streets, to be led into the court of the tyrant Yazíd, preceded by the
head of the Imám and those of his sons and brothers and nephews--the
flower of the House of Muḥammad.
The Seven Martyrs of Ṭihrán
At the beginning of 1850, seven Bábís were arrested in Ṭihrán,
charged with plotting to assassinate the Grand Vizier. They are known
as the Seven Martyrs of Ṭihrán. The accusation was palpably false.
There were many Bábís in Ṭihrán better equipped to engage in such
an exercise. But more significant, all seven were men of outstanding
character and repute, and respected by their countrymen. The real
reason for their arrest was their espousal of the Faith of the Báb.
Although efforts were made by men high in the professions they
represented, to persuade them to give lip-denial to their most sacred
beliefs, they steadfastly refused and were beheaded.
The Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith has vividly described this terrible
scene, which was enacted in a public square of Ṭihrán (the
Sabzih-Maydán):
The defiant answers which they flung at their persecutors;
the ecstatic joy which seized them as they drew near the
scene of their death; the jubilant shouts they raised as
they faced their executioner; the poignancy of the verses
which, in their last moments, some of them recited; the
appeals and challenges they addressed to the multitude of
onlookers who gazed with stupefaction upon them; the
eagerness with which the last three victims strove to
precede one another in sealing their faith with their blood;
and lastly, the atrocities which a bloodthirsty foe degraded
itself by inflicting upon their dead bodies which lay
unburied for three days and three nights in the
Sabzih-Maydán, during which time thousands of so-called
devout [_Sh_]í`ahs kicked their corpses, spat upon their
faces, pelted, cursed, derided, and heaped refuse upon
them--these were the chief features of the tragedy of the
Seven Martyrs of Ṭihrán, a tragedy which stands out as
one of the grimmest scenes witnessed in the course of the
early unfoldment of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh.[21]
Ḥájí Mírzá Siyyid `Alí, the uncle of the Báb, was one of these
martyrs. He had recently returned from his visit to the Báb in
[_Ch_]ihríq (see p. 150) and could easily have left the capital, when
rumours were rife following the events of Mázindarán and Yazd. But he
fearlessly stayed on, spurned all efforts made to induce him to
recant, and met death gladly in the path of his Nephew.
The other six were: Mírzá Qurbán-`Alí of Bárfurú[_sh_], Ḥájí Mullá
Ismá`íl-i-Qumí, Siyyid Ḥusayn-i-Tur[_sh_]ízí, Ḥájí
Muḥammad-Taqíy-i-Kirmání, Siyyid Murtaḍáy-i-Zanjání and Áqá
Muḥammad-Ḥusayn-i-Mará[_gh_]i'í.
Mírzá Qurbán-`Alí had been a Ni`matu'lláhí dervish, and a leading figure
of that mystic order. He was well-known in the ruling circles of the
capital and greatly respected. Mírzá Taqí [_Kh_]án (the Grand Vizier)
particularly wished to save him, but the faith of the dervish remained
unshakable. At his execution, the first blow of the executioner's sword
only knocked his turban off his head, whereupon he recited aloud:
Happy he whom love's intoxication
So hath overcome that scarce he knows
Whether at the feet of the Beloved
It be head or turban which he throws![22]
Ḥájí Mullá Ismá`íl had been a disciple of Siyyid Káẓim. Even at
the moment of his execution, someone came up to him with a message
from a friend, pleading with him to recant, but his answer was:
Zephyr, prythee bear for me a message
To that Ishmael[FK] who was not slain,
'Living from the street of the Beloved
Love permits not to return again.'[23]
[Footnote FK: Ishmael (Ismá`íl), the son of Abraham, by
Hagar.]
Ḥájí Muḥammad-Taqí and Siyyid Murtaḍá were merchants of note,
and Siyyid Ḥusayn had been a divine famed for his piety. Siyyid
Murtaḍá was a brother of that Siyyid Káẓim-i-Zanjání who
attended the Báb during His journey to Iṣfahán and later fell a
martyr at [_Sh_]ay[_kh_] Ṭabarsí. Áqá Muḥammad-Ḥusayn had
been tortured to betray his companions, but he would not implicate
innocent men in fictitious plots.
The Báb, from his remote prison in [_Ch_]ihríq and already overwhelmed
by calamity, eulogized these heroic men as the 'Seven Goats' of
Islamic tradition, who would precede the promised Qá'im, their true
Shepherd, to His own martyrdom.[FL]
[Footnote FL: See Appendix 4.]
The Episode of Zanján
The fiercest and most devastating of the three military actions
against the Bábís began in Zanján, in May 1850, after the return of
Ḥujjat from his detention in Ṭihrán. (See p. 125.) Although he
had enjoyed the protection of Muḥammad [_Sh_]áh in his defence of
the Faith of the Báb, he was feared and hated as an infidel by the
divines of Zanján. With the death of the [_Sh_]áh and the accession to
power of Mírzá Taqí [_Kh_]án under the succeeding reign, he was the
object of a concealed hostility on the part of the authorities, while
enjoying the devoted loyalty and affection of countless men and women
of his native town.
A small quarrel between children, in which Ḥujjat intervened to
save the Bábí child, sparked into flame the smouldering animosity
against Ḥujjat and a plan was made to seize and bring him before
the Governor. Failing in this, his opponents subjected one of his
companions to painful injury and death. Then, by the Governor's
decree, Zanján was split into two opposing camps, a large number of
men were recruited from surrounding villages, and Ḥujjat and his
companions were forced to seek safety in the nearby fort of
`Alí-Mardán [_Kh_]án. Counting women and children, about three
thousand of Ḥujjat's supporters entered the fort, which they held
against repeated attack and siege for almost nine months.
Edward Granville Browne, who visited Zanján nearly forty years later,
could find no natural advantages in the fort to account for the
'desperate resistance offered by the Bábís', and concluded that their
success in holding off the vastly superior regiments of the [_Sh_]áh
should 'be attributed less to the strength of the position which they
occupied than to the extraordinary valour with which they defended
themselves'.[24] They were sustained in their cruel ordeal by the
indomitable Ḥujjat, whom no calamity could overcome, and by the tenacity
of their own devotion to the Báb, their promised Qá'im. A British
observer in the 'Persian camp before Zenjan' reported to Sheil in
Ṭihrán:
They [the Bábís] fight in the most obstinate and spirited
manner, the women even, of whom several have been killed,
engaging in the strife--and they are such excellent marksmen
that up to this time a good many have fallen of the
Government troops.[25]
The most celebrated of the women was a village girl, Zaynab, who
dressed as a man and, for five months until her death in the struggle,
guarded the ramparts with the men. Ḥujjat gave her the name of
Rustam-`Alí.
Finding that all efforts to defeat the Bábís were fruitless, the
commander determined to adopt the same treacherous tactics as had
succeeded at Ṭabarsí and Nayríz. He drew up a proposal for peace,
assuring the defenders of the forgiveness of the [_Sh_]áh and pledging
with a sealed copy of the Qur'án the safety of all who would leave the
fort. Ḥujjat, fully conscious of their intentions but honouring the
Qur'án, sent a delegation of nine young children and men over eighty to
the camp of the commander. They were insolently received and most were
thrown into a dungeon. It was the signal for a final month-long siege,
in which some eighteen regiments were brought into action, subjecting
the now famished and depleted Bábís to a constant bombardment of cannon.
With the wounding of Ḥujjat, the fort was captured, but its occupants
continued their struggle from nearby houses, throwing the opposing army
into despair. Then Ḥujjat's wife and baby son were killed, and a few
days later he himself died of his wounds. There were left of the Bábís
only two hundred able-bodied men who were struck down in a fierce
attack. When the survivors had been inhumanly tortured, killed and their
bodies mutilated, the body of Ḥujjat was discovered and exposed for
three days to dishonour in the public square. Hands unknown rescued and
carried it away. Already Ḥujjat's eight-year-old son had been 'literally
cut into small pieces', and the wives and daughters of the Bábís were
handed over to the soldiers.[26][FM]
[Footnote FM: See Appendix 5.]
Yet never had the martyrs of Zanján sought a holy war, nor
contemplated disloyalty to their country and sovereign. Assailed by
enemies who purposed only their destruction, they had courageously
defended themselves. The spirit of their defence shines in these words
of Ḥujjat in his last days:
The day whereon I found Thy beloved One, O my God, and
recognised in Him the Manifestation of Thy eternal Spirit, I
foresaw the woes that I should suffer for Thee.... Would
that a myriad lives were mine, would that I possessed the
riches of the whole earth and its glory, that I might resign
them all freely and joyously in Thy path.[27]
On January 6th 1851 Sheil closed his reports on Zanján:
For the present, the doctrines of Bâb have received a
check--In every part of Persia his disciples have been
crushed or scattered--But though there is a cessation of
the open promulgation of his tenets, it is believed that in
secret they are not the less cherished....[28]
The Dawn-Breakers had paid dearly with their lives that the Faith of
the Báb might live on. And it did live on, to attain its efflorescence
in the Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh.
EPILOGUE
_I am the Primal Point from which have been generated all
created things.... I am the Countenance of God Whose
splendour can never be obscured, the Light of God Whose
radiance can never fade.... I am one of the sustaining
pillars of the Primal Word of God. Whosoever hath recognised
Me, hath known all that is true and right, and hath attained
all that is good and seemly._
--The Báb
On the third day after the martyrdom of the Báb, His remains,
inextricably united with those of His heroic, faithful disciple, were
placed in a casket and taken to a locality which was safe and secure.
What happened, during the next fifty years, to the remains of the Báb
cannot be better summarized than in the words of Shoghi Effendi, the
Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith:
Subsequently, according to Bahá'u'lláh's instructions, they
were transported to Ṭihrán and placed in the shrine of
Imám-Zádih Ḥasan. They were later removed to the
residence of Ḥájí Sulaymán [_Kh_]án[FN] himself in the
Sar-[_Ch_]a[_sh_]mih quarter of the city, and from his house
were taken to the shrine of Imám-Zádih Ma`ṣúm, where they
remained concealed until the year 1284 A.H. (1867-1868),
when a Tablet, revealed by Bahá'u'lláh in Adrianople,
directed Mullá `Alí-Akbar-i-[_Sh_]ahmírzádí[FO] and
Jamál-i-Burújirdí to transfer them without delay to some
other spot, an instruction which, in view of the subsequent
reconstruction of that shrine, proved to have been
providential.
Unable to find a suitable place in the suburb of [_Sh_]áh
`Abdu'l-`Aẓím, Mullá `Alí-Akbar and his companion
continued their search until, on the road leading to
[_Ch_]a[_sh_]mih-`Alí [the `Alí Springs], they came upon the
abandoned and dilapidated Masjíd-i-Ma[_sh_]á'u'lláh, where
they deposited, within one of its walls, after dark, their
precious burden, having first re-wrapt the remains in a
silken shroud brought by them for that purpose. Finding the
next day to their consternation that the hiding-place had
been discovered,[FP] they clandestinely carried the casket
through the gate of the capital direct to the house of Mírzá
Ḥasan-i-Vazír, a believer and son-in-law of Ḥájí Mírzá
Siyyid `Alíy-i-Tafri[_sh_]í, the Majdu'l-A[_sh_]ráf, where
it remained for no less than fourteen months.[FQ] The
long-guarded secret of its whereabouts becoming known to the
believers, they began to visit the house in such numbers
that a communication had to be addressed by Mullá `Alí-Akbar
to Bahá'u'lláh, begging for guidance in the matter. Ḥájí
[_Sh_]áh Muḥammad-i-Man[_sh_]ádí, surnamed Amínu'l-Bayán,
was accordingly commissioned to receive the Trust from him,
and bidden to exercise the utmost secrecy as to its
disposal.
Assisted by another believer, Ḥájí [_Sh_]áh Muḥammad
buried the casket beneath the floor of the inner sanctuary
of the shrine of Imám-Zádih Zayd, where it lay undetected
until Mírzá Asadu'lláh-i-Iṣfahání was informed of its
exact location through a chart forwarded to him by
Bahá'u'lláh. Instructed by Bahá'u'lláh to conceal it
elsewhere, he first removed the remains to his own house in
Ṭihrán, after which they were deposited in several other
localities such as the house of
Ḥusayn-`Alíy-i-Iṣfahání and that of
Muḥammad-Karím-i-`Aṭṭár, where they remained hidden
until the year 1316 (1899) A.H., when, in pursuance of
directions issued by `Abdu'l-Bahá, this same Mírzá
Asadu'lláh, together with a number of other believers,
transported them by way of Iṣfahán, Kirmán[_sh_]áh,
Ba[_gh_]dád and Damascus, to Beirut and thence by sea to
`Akká, arriving at their destination on the 19th of the
month of Ramaḍán 1316 A.H. (January 31, 1899), fifty
lunar years after the Báb's execution in Tabríz.[1]
[Footnote FN: He was, as we have seen, instrumental in
rescuing the remains of the Báb.]
[Footnote FO: Also known generally as Ḥájí Á[_kh_]und. He
was a Hand of the Cause, appointed by Bahá'u'lláh.]
[Footnote FP: Thieves must have seen Ḥájí Á[_kh_]und and
Jamál-i-Burújirdí place the casket in a niche and brick it
up. Whoever they were, they moved some of the bricks and
broke open the casket, but finding that it did not contain
any valuables they left it alone.]
[Footnote FQ: In the house of Mírzá Ḥasan-i-Vazír, the
remains were either deposited in a new casket, or the
original broken casket was put inside a larger one. Some
pieces of blood-stained and torn linen must have fallen out,
when the remains were being secured. Many years later, Dr.
Yúnis [_Kh_]án-i-Afrú[_kh_]tih, in the course of professional
attendance upon the family of Majdu'l-A[_sh_]ráf, learned
that they had in their possession pieces of linen soaked with
the blood of the Báb. Dr. Afrú[_kh_]tih persuaded them to
part with those precious relics. They are now in the
International Archives of the Bahá'í Faith.]
Forty years after the martyrdom of the Báb, on a day in spring,
Bahá'u'lláh was standing under the shade of a cluster of cypress trees
on the slopes of Mount Carmel. In front of Him stretched the curve of
the Bay of Haifa, beyond which loomed a sinister sight, the grim
citadel of `Akká--His first abode when He was brought, a Prisoner and
an Exile, to the Holy Land. In darkest days He had told His people not
to grieve, the prison gates would open and He would raise His tent on
the fair mountain across the bay.
He it was Whose advent the Báb had come to herald. For Him--He Whom
God shall make manifest--the young Martyr-Prophet had suffered
tribulations, had sacrificed His life. In His Dispensation, the
Dispensation of His Forerunner had found its fulfilment, regained its
splendour. And now as Bahá'u'lláh--the Lord of Hosts--looked at the
expanse of rock below those cypress trees (which today still stand,
firm and proud), He told His Son, `Abdu'l-Bahá, who would shortly
wield authority in His Name, that a mausoleum should be raised on
that mountain-mass to receive the remains of the Báb.
A decade went by before `Abdu'l-Bahá could carry out that command. The
sons of Bahá'u'lláh, who had strayed away from His Covenant, strove
hard to block the enterprise. But at last the land was secured, the
access route was obtained, the foundation-stone was laid, and
construction work had begun. Then the mischief wrought by those
violators of the Covenant of Bahá'u'lláh led to the incarceration of
`Abdu'l-Bahá within the walls of `Akká. His life was in peril, but
though, for a while, all His activities were either curtailed or
stopped, the work of constructing that mausoleum on Mount Carmel was
never allowed to lapse.
In the year 1908, the despotism of the Ottoman rulers came to an end,
and `Abdu'l-Bahá found His freedom. The next year on Naw-Rúz
Day--March 21st--in a vault beneath the building which He had raised
with undaunted resolution and with heart-ache, He deposited the casket
containing the remains of the Báb within a marble sarcophagus, the
gift of the Bahá'ís of Rangoon. Nearly forty years later, Shoghi
Effendi, the Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith, undertook to adorn the
Shrine of the Báb with a superstructure, both strong and beautiful,
crowned with a golden dome. Today it shines dazzlingly in the heart of
Mount Carmel--the Mountain of God--a spiritual home for a flourishing
world community and a beacon of hope for the whole of mankind.
APPENDIX I
THE SIEGE OF KARBILÁ
The best and fullest account of the upheavals in Karbilá is contained
in a sixty-six-page dispatch from Lt.-Col. Farrant, the British
Special Commissioner, to Sir Stratford Canning (later Viscount
Stratford de Redcliffe), the British Ambassador in Istanbul.[1] His
description of the position and the condition of Karbilá is
particularly worthy of note:
'The town of Kerbella is situated about four hours distance from the
right bank of the Euphrates on the confines of the Syrian desert, south
south west of Bagdad about 55 miles distant, and is about 1-3/4 miles in
circumference, surrounded by a brick wall about 24 feet high with twenty
nine bastions each of which is capable of containing one gun--it
contains 3400 houses of a very inferior description; the houses closely
crowded together approach within three yards of the wall--the streets
are very narrow, the tops of the houses are surrounded by a brick
parapet and can be fired from without exposure, it has six gates three
of which are very small--The tomb of Imaum Hossein is a fine building
and stands nearly in the centre of the town, that of his brother Abbas
in the South East quarter about two hundred and fifty yards from the
Najif gate. The town is surrounded by gardens which approach close to
the walls, leaving only a small footpath. The gardens are filled with
huge date trees, intersected with numerous ditches, and extend to some
distance from the town which is not perceptible until you are close
under the walls. Its strength consists in its situation, but it
appeared to me that a few good troops ought to be able to take it in a
short time. The houses mostly belonged to Persians who have left their
country and settled there for generations. Many of the rich men in
Persia have houses and land there, that in time of need they may have a
safe place of refuge, or wishing in their old age to retire to a place
held in such veneration by them--
'The population varies from ten thousand to twenty thousand and eighty
thousand, it is always fluctuating, and I was informed that during the
time the pilgrims arrive, the streets are almost impassable--The
houses are mostly divided into several small courts, occasionally one
hundred persons are crowded into one of these houses, which to outward
appearance could with difficulty contain half that number--The poorer
pilgrims take up their abodes in the Courts of the Mosques--
'The working classes at Kerbella viz Bakers small shopkeepers day
labourers &c were all Persians.'
Najíb Pá[_sh_]á had warned the Persian, the British and the French
Agents that he intended to attack Karbilá. In a long letter addressed
to the Persian Agent in Ba[_gh_]dád dated [_Sh_]avvál 16th 1258
(November 18th 1842), he had, after detailing the history of the
rebellion in Karbilá and its consequences, uttered this clear warning:
'Being, however, near the shrines of Ali & Hoosein [Ḥusayn] I
thought it my duty to visit them; with this auspicious determination I
proceeded thither, when the rebel above named [Ibráhím Za`farání][FR]
declared that if I came with troops he would not permit my entrance;
and I ascertained that he had also prepared the means of opposition.
To withdraw in this position of affairs from my publickly announced
purpose was a difficult step; & should the report of it spread abroad,
it might, God forbid, affect the whole order of government, the
rejection, too, of the petitions of loyal & suffering subjects, who
are the most sacred charge of the deity to us, is contrary to all the
rules & requirements of justice; I therefore, determined to proceed,
under the Imperial shadow, and the aid of the Almighty to the
punishment of the rebels, as a warning example to his equals; & if, as
I hear, he is prepared for resistance he shall submit to my entrance
by force. There are many subjects of Iran in the town alluded to; let
there hereafter be no claims, on the part of that high power, in
behalf of these persons; let them come out with their children,
families and property ... in fact they must not be in that town in the
hour of hostility, as this is quite inconsistent with the state of the
town & place. You must therefore in compliance with your duty in such
cases, without delay, inform, all those whom it may concern, of these
facts; for which friendly aid this letter is written and despatched;
and, please God you will doubtless thus act on the receipt thereof, &
without delay favour me with a reply to the same.'[2]
[Footnote FR: In the dispatch, his name is spelt Ibrahim
Zaffranee.]
However, no warning was given to the Persians to quit Karbilá as
Farrant's report makes clear: 'The Mollahs also excited the religious
feelings of the peoples, making them believe it was a common cause, a
religious war, a Persian seyd who was present, stated to me that many
of the Persians fought or gave assistance, that he amongst many did
not leave the town, thinking it would not be taken, and rumours were
spread that the Shah was sending a large force to their assistance, he
also stated that those Persians who were unfitted or refused to bear
arms were obliged to give money ... likewise they considered
themselves safe, as their Consul did not come to order them away.'
Instead, Farrant reports: 'The Persian Consul in reply to the Pacha
begged him to postpone his intended attack, that if the town was taken
by assault many innocent people (Persian subjects) would suffer, who
at present were unable to come away ... that if he would delay his
expedition for four or six months to give the Persians time to arrange
their affairs, he would proceed to Kerbella, and bring the Persians
away, and arrange everything for him.
'Three days before receiving the Pacha's letter, the Consul asserts he
wrote privately to the Chief Priest Hajee Seid Kausem saying "we hear
the Pacha will move on Kerbella, and if he is determined, he will
certainly come, he is not an Ali Pacha--tell the Persians they had
better come out--" After the receipt of the Pacha's official letter he
again wrote to the Chief Priest [Siyyid Káẓim] of the Pacha's fixed
determination, and requested him to tell all the Persians to quit the
town--This letter he sent by a confidential person, but it appears it
never reached, as the Chief Priest declares he never wrote to him,
although he requested him to come to Kerbella--'
Farrant goes on to say: 'The Pacha would not listen to the
propositions of the Consul--H.R.H. The Zel-i Sultan (son of the late
Shah of Persia, a refugee) accompanied by Hajee Seid Kausem Chief
Priest, Seid Wahab Governor[FS] of Kerbella, Seid Hossainee and Seid
Nasseroola [Siyyid Naṣru'lláh], influential people of Kerbella,
came to the Pacha's camp at Mossaib and remained four days--The Pacha
told them he did not wish to injure the people, that Kerbella was in
rebellion and belonged to the Sultan...' However, he was willing to
make concessions, should the people of Karbilá submit to his rule and
let soldiers be stationed in their city.
[Footnote FS: The nominal Governor. He was either willingly
or by force of circumstances allied to the rebels.]
Farrant further relates: 'The Pacha told His R.H. the Zel i Sultan and
Chief Priest before leaving his camp to warn all Persians to separate
themselves from the Geramees (and gave the Prince a paper to that
effect) that if they could not leave the town, they should retire
altogether to one quarter of it, or else with their families and
property seek protection in the Courts of the tombs of Hoossein and
Abbas, for he was determined to proceed to extremities if the
Kerbellai's refused to submit to his orders...'
Farrant reports a second excursion by Ḥájí Siyyid Káẓim and
`Alí-[_Sh_]áh, the Ẓillu's-Sulṭán, on behalf of the people of
Karbilá, this time to the camp of Sa`du'lláh Pá[_sh_]á, the Colonel
commissioned by Najíb Pá[_sh_]á to invest the city. 'About the 1st
January [1843],' writes Farrant, 'the Persian Consul accompanied by
Seid Ibrahim Kasveenee[FT] arrived at Najib Pacha's camp at Mossaib
from Bagdad--The army had now been eleven days before Kerbella and
much fighting had taken place, and many on both sides had been
killed.' The talks which Mullá `Abdu'l-`Azíz (Persian Consul) and
Siyyid Ibráhím had with Najíb Pá[_sh_]á bore no result, and as Farrant
reports: 'The Consul and Chief Priest returned to Bagdad, they had
been four or five days in the Pacha's camp--The Chief Priest in
Kerbella Hajee Seid Kausem it is said (he told me also the same thing)
wrote to the Persian Consul and Seid Ibrahim Kasveenee begging the
former to come on to Kerbella, that "his presence was necessary, it
was the hour of danger"--This letter was received by them after they
had quitted the Pacha's camp about two hours. Rumours in the town were
very prevalent, that the Shah of Persia was sending an army of twenty
thousand men to their assistance, which gave great confidence to the
Persians inside--Persians have informed me that they heard these
reports and many believed them, also they have most positively assured
me that their Consul never wrote or communicated with them, and on
learning, that he had returned to Bagdad, did not consider there was
any danger. The Consul asserts he wrote to the Chief Priest Hajee Seid
Kausem, which the latter most positively denies....
[Footnote FT: Siyyid Ibráhím-i-Qazvíní, the adversary of
Siyyid Káẓim, who had left Karbilá altogether during this
turbulent period.]
'... The walls were daily crowded,' Farrant writes, 'by the
inhabitants who vented the grossest abuse on the Sultan, and cursed
the soldiers and their religion. The chief people in Kerbella did all
in their power to excite the religious feelings of the Sheeahs against
the Soonies, the Priests also were most active, I have been told, and
as they could not fight, repaired any damages the walls might receive.
They prayed also in the Mosques encouraging and exciting the people by
telling them it was a religious war.'
And then came the final assault. Farrant reports: 'Before daylight on
the 13 January the storming party moved from Camp accompanied by the
main body which halted at the battery, a soldier advanced and clambered
up the breach, observing that the guards had left their posts, and the
few who remained were asleep at the bottom of the wall round a fire--he
returned to the Seraskier and reported what he had seen--
'The storming party was then ordered to move forward...'
There was panic and slaughter. Farrant states that the sanctuary of the
tomb of `Abbás was violated, but Sa`du'lláh Pá[_sh_]á personally
intervened to prevent the desecration of the Shrine of Imám Ḥusayn. The
boastful leaders fled the city and as Farrant puts it: 'The principal
cause of the late affair at Kerbella may be ascribed to the chiefs of
that place who supported the Geramees in opposition to the Government,
and in the time of danger withdrew from the contest and left the
innocent and helpless to the fury of the soldiers.' 'Many flung
themselves over the walls and were dashed to pieces,' Farrant reports,
'whilst others sought shelter in the houses of H.R.H. The Zil i Sultan
and Hajee Seid Kausem [Siyyid Káẓim] Chief Priest, the latter shewed me
a court in his house where 66 persons of all ages and sexes were
suffocated, or crushed to death flying from the fury of the
soldiers...'
Farrant further reports: 'No Prince of the Royal blood nor any Persian
of rank were [sic] killed, the sufferers were all of the poorer
classes, small shopkeepers and labourers, also a few learned men--The
wife of Prince Holakoo Meerza [Hulákú Mírzá] was severely wounded by a
soldier (she is closely connected with the Shah of Persia being a
daughter of the late Hoossein Ali Meerza Prince Governor of Fars)....
The Secretary of Seid Ibrahim Kasveenee Chief Priest; Seid Mahomed Ali
Moosvee [Siyyid Muḥammad-`Alíy-i-Músaví] was seized by the soldiers
and forced to carry outside the walls some plunder for them, he stated
who he was, but it was of no avail, on arriving outside the gate, they
cut off his head and took it to the cashier of the Seraskier Pacha for
a reward--he was a young man much respected.... The house of Alee
Werdee Khan [`Alí-Virdí [_Kh_]án] (an uncle of the present Shah) was
also entered by the soldiers, this house was defended by the Arabs.
The Khan jumped into a well to save his life, one of his servants went
and informed the Seraskier who immediately sent some men to his
relief--The Khan was taken to the Seraskier nearly dead with cold, who
sent him into the haram [Shrine] of Hoossein for safety--Why the Khan
did not leave the town before the siege is a mystery, it is said that
he was very active in advising the Persians to remain in the town--'
The exaggerated reports from Mullá `Abdu'l-`Azíz, the Persian Agent in
Ba[_gh_]dád, had served to heighten the crisis. He had apparently been
slack in the exercise of his duties and when the siege was over,
alarmed by the magnitude of the disaster, he endeavoured to make a
quick getaway from Ba[_gh_]dád. Although the following report which he
made to the Prime Minister of Írán, Ḥájí Mírzá Áqásí, is unreliable
and highly-coloured, it is of sufficient interest to reproduce.
'In short,' he wrote, 'there is no one left in Kerbelah, and of those
who are alive, they are either wounded, naked or destitute of
property. According to what is described, about 5,000 persons were
killed in the shrine of Abbass,[FU] and property pillaged is beyond
estimate--no one has anything left. Whatever the people of Persia
possessed was brought to this place; afterwards it will become known,
what quantity of Persian property was there.... Whatever Ali Nakee
Meerza [`Alí-Naqí Mírzá] and Imam Verdee Meerza [Imám-Virdí Mírzá]
(sons of Fatteh Ali Shah [Fatḥ-`Alí [_Sh_]áh]) possessed was
plundered even to the stripping naked their wives.... The wives of the
people who were not killed were made captives.... Moollah Ali a person
belonging to Ali Pasha, who is at present in the service of Mahomed
Nejeeb Pasha, interceded for the women--Sadoollah Pasha (Colonel)
replied, that "the troops being without women, they must remain some
nights with them, after which we will dismiss them"...
[Footnote FU: `Abbás was a brother of Imám Ḥusayn.]
'Besides what I have related, the two shrines were converted into
barracks, and all the troops which are in Kerbelah have been quartered
in the two shrines with their horses and cattle--They have tied their
cattle in the apartments of the shrine and the college, and the troops
have made their own quarters in the corridor and private apartments,
and twice a day their drums and band play within the shrine--On
whatever persons they wish to inflict punishment, it is done within
the shrine of Imam Hoossein.... The remainder of the Sheeahs, who are
in Nejeff, Hillah, Kazimeyn and Bagdad are dispirited to such a
degree, that they have not the courage to weep at this calamity--
'All those who were in the private apartments of Hajee Syed Kazim
(Chief Priest) and in the house of Ali Shah (Zil.e.Sultan) remained in
safety--at the most about 200 persons were killed in the outer
apartments of Hajee Syed Kazim....
'From the commencement to the close of the siege occupied 24 days--and
from the day that the Pasha informed me, he would send troops against
Kerbelah until they arrived there occupied 15 days, and
notwithstanding my wishes that he would delay, until the people of
Persia should quit Kerbelah, he neither gave any delay nor opportunity
for their doing so....
'On account of these circumstances, the stay of your devoted servant in
Bagdad is needless--As yet I have received no money from Kermanshah, if
you were graciously pleased to grant it, and wrote to the Shoojah ood.
dowleh [[_Sh_]ujá`u'd-Dawlih], to send some money speedily to me your
devoted servant, to pay some of my debts,[FV] it is possible that I
might be able to bring the Zil.i.Sultan[FW] along with me.'[3]
[Footnote FV: Mullá `Abdu'l-`Azíz dared not go to Karbilá
because he feared his creditors. Siyyid Káẓim had urged
him to visit the holy city.]
[Footnote FW: Ẓillu's-Sulṭán was not in a distressed
condition, and his presence in Írán was not welcomed.]
* * * * *
'The latest accounts from Kerbella,' wrote Lt.-Col. Farrant at the end
of his long report on the siege, 'state the town to be perfectly quiet
and its population daily increasing.'
APPENDIX 2
THE MARTYRDOM OF THE BÁB
The martyrdom of the Báb was reported by Lt.-Col. Sheil to Lord
Palmerston, the British Foreign Secretary, on July 22nd 1850:
'The founder of this sect has been executed at Tabreez--He was killed by
a volley of musketry, and his death was on the point of giving his
religion a lustre which would have largely increased its proselytes.
When the smoke and dust cleared away after the volley, Báb was not to be
seen, and the populace proclaimed that he had ascended to the skies--The
balls had broken the ropes by which he was bound, but he was dragged
from the recess where after some search, he was discovered, and shot.
'His death according to the belief of his disciples will make no
difference, as Bâb must always exist.'[1]
At the time of the martyrdom of the Báb, R. W. Stevens, the British
Consul, was absent from Tabríz, and his brother, George, was left in
charge of the Consulate. The latter had failed to report the event to
Sheil. On July 24th, R. W. Stevens, back at his post, rectified that
omission and added that the body of the Báb and His disciple had been
'thrown into the Town ditch where they were devoured by dogs.'[2] Sheil
wrote to Palmerston, on August 15th, that 'Although the advice and
opinions of foreign agents are generally unpalatable to the Persian
Minister, I nevertheless think it my duty to bring under his observation
any flagrant abuse or outrage that reaches my knowledge. I persuade
myself that on such occasions notwithstanding the absence of
acknowledgement on the part of the Ameer-i-Nizam [Mírzá Taqí [_Kh_]án,
the Grand Vizier], he may perhaps privately take steps for applying a
remedy.' He went on to say that the Consul at Tabríz had reported that
the body of the Báb, 'by order of the Ameer-i-Nizam's brother, was
thrown into the ditch of the town to be devoured by dogs, which actually
happened.'[3] He enclosed the copy of the letter he had written to the
Grand Vizier on this subject. This is what he wrote to Mírzá Taqí
[_Kh_]án:
'Your Excellency is aware of the warm interest taken by the British
Government in all that concerns the honor, respectability and credit of
this Government, and it is on this account I make you acquainted with a
recent occurrence in Tabreez which perhaps has not been brought to Your
Excellency's knowledge--The execution of the Pretender Bab in that city
was accompanied by a circumstance which if published in the Gazettes of
Europe would throw the utmost discredit on the Persian Ministers. After
that person was put to death, his body by orders of the Vezeer.i.Nizam
was thrown into the ditch of the town to be devoured by dogs, which
actually happened--This act resembles the deeds of bye gone ages, and
could not I believe now occur in any country between China and
England--Feeling satisfied that it did not receive Your Excellency's
sanction, and knowing what sentiments it would excite in Europe, I have
thought it proper to write this friendly communication, not to let you
remain in ignorance of the occurrence.'[4]
Palmerston wrote back on October 8th: '... Her Majesty's Government
approve of your having called the attention of the Ameer-i-Nizam ...
to the manner in which the corpse of the Pretender Bâb was treated
after his execution at Tabreez.'[5]
APPENDIX 3
PRELUDE TO THE EPISODE OF NAYRÍZ
On February 12th 1850, Lt.-Col. Sheil, back at his post in Ṭihrán
after a long leave of absence, reported to Lord Palmerston:
'... a serious outbreak lately took place at Yezd, which however the
Governor of that city with the assistance of the priesthood succeeded
in quelling--
'The exciters of the insurrection were the partizans of the new Sect
called Babee, who assembled in such numbers as to force the Governor to
take refuge in the citadel, to which they laid siege--The Moollas
conscious that the progress of Babeeism is the decay of their own
supremacy determined to rescue the Governor, and summoning the populace
in the name of religion to attack this new Sect of infidels, the Babees
were overthrown and forced to take flight to the adjoining province of
Kerman....
'The tenets of this new religion seem to be spreading in Persia--Bab
the founder, a native of Sheeraz, who has assumed this fictitious
name, is imprisoned in Azerbijan, but in every large town he has
disciples, who with the fanaticism or fortitude so often seen among
the adherents of new doctrines, are ready to meet death.... Bab
declares himself to be Imam Mehdee, the last Imam, who disappeared
from human sight but is to reappear on earth--His decrees supersede
the Koran among his disciples, who not only revere him as the head of
their faith, but also obey him as the temporal Sovereign of the world,
to whom all other monarchs must submit--Besides this inconvenient
doctrine, they have adopted other tenets pernicious to society....
'Conversion by the sword is not yet avowed, argument and inspiration
from heaven being the present means of instilling or attaining faith
in the Mission of Bab--If left to their own merits the not novel
doctrines of this Preacher will doubtless sink into insignificancy, it
is persecution only which can save them from neglect and contempt, and
unluckily the proselytes are all of the Mahommedan faith, which is
inflexible in the punishment of a relapsed Mussulman--Thus both the
temporal and religious authorities have an interest in the
extermination of this Sect.
'It is conjectured that in Teheran this religion has acquired votaries
in every class, not even excluding the artillery and regular
Infantry--Their numbers in this city, it is supposed, may amount to
about two thousand.'[1][FX]
[Footnote FX: Part of this passage is also quoted on p. 178.]
The incident at Yazd, which the British Minister was reporting to the
Foreign Secretary, concerned the activities of a man named
Muḥammad-`Abdu'lláh, who professed belief in the new Revelation.
Vaḥíd was in Yazd at the time, fearlessly proclaiming the advent of
the Qá'im. Navváb-i-Raḍaví, an influential man of the city, who
hated Vaḥíd as much as Sa`ídu'l-`Ulamá had hated Quddús,[FY] was
plotting to destroy him. Despite Vaḥíd's injunction,
Muḥammad-`Abdu'lláh went ahead with his own schemes which resulted
in clashes with the civil authority, and his own death. Vaḥíd was
forced to leave Yazd in the dead of night, on foot. His house in Yazd
was pillaged, and his servant Ḥasan was seized and put to death.
While horsemen sent by his adversaries were searching for him, he hid
in the mountains; and by mountain tracks made his way to Bavánát in
the province of Fárs. There were many in that area who gave him
whole-hearted support, among them the renowned Ḥájí Siyyid Ismá`íl,
the [_Sh_]ay[_kh_]u'l-Islám of Bavánát. Then by way of Fasá he
approached the city of Nayríz.
[Footnote FY: See p. 176.]
APPENDIX 4
THE SEVEN MARTYRS OF ṬIHRÁN
In the course of 1849, Prince Dolgorukov, the Russian Minister in
Ṭihrán, had protested to the Persian Government that while going
into the presence of the [_Sh_]áh he had been forced to witness the
dragging away of the writhing corpses of eight criminals, executed in
front of the [_Sh_]áh. Dolgorukov considered it an affront to him, the
envoy of the Tsar, to be presented with such a spectacle. Sheil had
backed Dolgorukov's protest.[1] Palmerston had, in turn, approved
Sheil's action. On February 12th 1850, Prince Dolgorukov sent this
report to Count Nesselrode in St. Petersburg:
'Minds are in an extraordinarily excited state due to the execution
which has just taken place in the great square of Tihran. I have
already once expressed my opinion that the method by which last year
the troops of the Shah under the command of Prince Mahdi Quli Mirza
exterminated the Babis will not lessen their fanaticism.
'From that time on the Government has learned that Tihran is full of
these dangerous sectaries who do not recognize civil statutes and
preach the partitioning of the property of those who do not join their
doctrine. Becoming fearful for the social peace, the ministers of
Persia decided to arrest some of these sectaries and, according to the
common version, having received during the interrogation their
confession of their faith, executed them. These persons, numbering
seven, and arrested at random, since the Babis are counted already by
thousands within the very capital, would by no means deny their faith
and met death with an exultation which could only be explained as
fanaticism brought to its extreme limit. The Assistant Minister of
Foreign Affairs, Mirza Muhammad Ali, on the contrary affirms that
those people have confessed nothing and that their silence was
interpreted as a sufficient proof of their guilt.
'One can only regret the blindness of the Shah's authorities who
imagine that such measures could extinguish religious fanaticism, as
well as the injustice which guides their actions when examples of
cruelty, with which they are trying to frighten the people, are
committed without distinction against the first passer-by who falls
into their hands...'[2]
Ten days later (February 22nd 1850), Sheil wrote to Palmerston that
apparently the advice tendered by Her Majesty's Government that
criminals should not be executed in the presence of the Sovereign had
had some effect, because a few days before, seven Bábís, accused of
conspiring to assassinate the Grand Vizier, had been put to death in
public with no untoward incident. Sheil asserted that this fact proved
the feasibility of public executions. Mírzá Taqí [_Kh_]án had earlier
stated that with executions in public there was the risk of a
malefactor being snatched and spirited away. Sheil felt, however, that
on this occasion there was sympathy for the executed, because the
story of a conspiracy to murder the Grand Vizier was not generally
believed. He further observed that the Bábís had been offered their
lives, were they to recant, and they had firmly refused to do so. His
own comment to the Grand Vizier had been that executing the Bábís was
the surest way of propagating their doctrines.[3]
Lord Palmerston in answer to Sheil stated that Her Majesty's Government
was pleased to learn that Náṣiri'd-Dín [_Sh_]áh had agreed with the
advice not to have executions carried out in his presence, but added,
'the punishment of men for religious belief, besides being unjust and
cruel, is also an erroneous practice, and tends to encourage and
propagate the belief which it is intended to suppress.'[4]
APPENDIX 5
THE EPISODE OF ZANJÁN
The episode of Zanján covered the period from May to December 1850,
and much engaged the attention of the British and Russian envoys. On
May 25th Sheil reported to Palmerston: 'At Zenjan ... an attempt at
insurrection was made by the Sect of the Babees whose leader is the
chief priest of the town--Five hours after the receipt of this
intelligence a Battalion of Infantry 400 horse and three guns marched
towards Zenjan--This is an instance unexampled in Persia of military
celerity, which perhaps would not be surpassed in many countries of
Europe.'[1] A month later, Sheil reported: 'The insurrection at Zenjan
has not yet been quelled. The Bâbees of that city continue to defend
themselves with the zeal of proselytes and the contempt of life
inculcated by their faith...'[2]
Prince Dolgorukov, the Russian Minister, commented on July 31st: 'The
Government has exhausted all possible means to compel the Babis to
submit voluntarily. Muhammad Ali who heads the two or three hundred of
these fanatics in Zanjan, has fortified himself in one of the quarters
of the said town and terrifies the inhabitants. The Amir was finally
forced to take energetic measures, and the former beglerbegi of
Tabriz, Muhammad Khan, has just been sent against them with an army of
2000 men and four cannons.'[3] Dolgorukov had grossly underestimated
the number of the Bábís. (See pp. 185-6.)
Sheil wrote on August 22nd: 'The Bâbees of Zenjan still continue to
maintain that nearly defenceless city against the Shah's troops.'[4]
On September 5th he reported: '... these fanatics are reduced to a few
hundred fighting men, they continue to maintain a hopeless contest,
with undaunted resolution, refusing submission on any terms...'[5]
Dolgorukov reported on September 14th: 'The Babis, who are engaged
there in a life and death struggle against the troops of the Shah, are
still resisting the attacks of Muhammad Khan, and one can only wonder
at the fierceness with which they meet the danger of their situation.
Their leader Mulla Muhammad Ali, has appealed to the Turkish Minister,
Sami Effendi, and also to Colonel Sheil for their mediation. However,
my English colleague is of the opinion that it would be very difficult
to force the Persian Government to consent to foreign intervention in
favor of the above mentioned sectaries.'[6] On October 6th, the
Russian Minister was in a petulant mood: 'I think it would have been
better if they [the Persian Government] had given more serious
attention to the affairs of Zanjan. The Babis have been fighting
against 6000 of the Shah's best troops for almost five months now, and
Muhammad Khan, who is already master of three quarters of the city,
cannot take the quarter which they have fortified themselves and are
defending ... with a heroism and a fury worthy of a better
application.'[7] In his dispatch of November 9th, Dolgorukov wrote:
'New military units have just been dispatched against the Babis of
Zanjan. This time the Governor of that city, a brother of the Shah's
mother, Amir Aslan Khan, is accused of provoking the resistance, which
the Babis offer the Shah's army, by his incautious behavior.'[8] And,
at last, on December 26th Dolgorukov could report: 'The Zanjan
disturbances have ended. After a siege which lasted for almost six
months the Shah's troops have destroyed the center of the rebellion.
The Babis who defended themselves to the last, and whose numbers were
finally reduced to twenty men, who sought refuge in a cellar, were
torn to pieces. In addition to monetary expenditures, this struggle
has cost Persia 1500 in killed and disabled.'[9]
Meanwhile Sheil had been reporting on September 25th: 'The disciples
of Bâb have barricaded a portion of that town, from which they cannot
be expelled without a greater loss of life than the assailants seem
willing to encounter.'[10] And he wrote on October 25th: 'Contrary to
all rational expectation the small portion of Zenjan occupied by the
Bâbees continues to set at defiance the efforts of the Shah's troops
to expel that sect from the City.' In the same dispatch he stated that
'General Sir Henry Bethune who visited the scene of operations,
expressed a conviction that three hours with ordinary troops would
finish the affair...'[11] Bethune was the man who had helped
Muḥammad [_Sh_]áh to his throne. Sheil seems to have become wearied
of reporting on Zanján, for on November 23rd he wrote: 'I continue
unable to make any variation in my reports relative to Zenjan--The
same feeble ineffectual attempts at assault, the same repulses still
mark the progress of the siege.' Then he made the extraordinary
assertion that it had been affirmed that the defenders of Zanján were
not Bábís at all, that they had been heard to 'proclaim from the walls
in hearing of the troops, the creed that "there is no God but God, and
Mahomed is his prophet."' Those men were fighting, it was said,
because of the enormities perpetrated by the troops. Even more
extraordinary is this fantastic and incredibly false statement in that
same dispatch of November 23rd: 'Moolla Mahomed Ali, their chief, has
the reputation of having proclaimed himself to be the true Bâb, and
his predecessor to have been an impostor.'[12] On December 16th Sheil
wrote to Palmerston: 'Her Majesty's Consul at Tabreez having informed
me that great atrocities are committed at Zenjan by the soldiery
particularly by their shocking treatment of such women as have been
captured, I brought the circumstances to the knowledge of the Persian
Minister--The Ameer-i.Nizam thanked me for the information, and said
he would take immediate steps for preventing such barbarous
proceedings, which are entirely opposed to his sentiments and
feelings--' '... the mode in which my communication was received by
the Ameer. i. Nizam shows an improvement in his tone, and in the
temper with which he listens to suggestions of the above nature.'[13]
On December 24th, Sheil reported to Palmerston: 'This protracted siege,
if siege it can be called, is inexplicable--An English gentleman who
lately passed through Zenjan informed me a few days ago that the portion
of the town occupied by the Bâbees is confined to three or four houses,
and that their numbers are utterly insignificant--They have adopted a
mode of defence which seems to exceed the military skill of the Persian
commanders--The entire of the space included within these houses is
mined or excavated and connected by passages. Here the Bâbees live in
safety from the shot and shells of the assailants, who evidently have no
predilection for underground warfare.'[14]
Lord Palmerston on February 11th 1851 wrote to Sheil that '... Her
Majesty's Government approve of your having called the attention of
the Ameer-i-Nizam ... to the acts of violence committed by the Persian
Troops against Zenjan.'[15]
And finally, here is the last report of Sheil on the episode of Zanján.
It is dated January 6th 1851. 'I have the honor to report to Your
Lordship that Zenjan has been at length captured--Moolla Mahomed Ali,
the leader of the insurgents, had received a wound in the arm, which
terminated in his death--His followers dismayed by the loss of their
chief, yielded to an assault which their relaxation in the energy of
their defence encouraged the commander of the Shah's troops to
make--This success was followed by a great atrocity--The pusillanimity
of the troops, which the events of this siege had rendered so notorious,
was equalled by their ferocity--All the captives were bayonetted by the
soldiers in cold blood, to avenge ... the slaughter of their
comrades--Religious hatred may have conspired with the feelings excited
by a blood feud, which among the tribes are very strong, to cause this
ruthless act--Four hundred persons are said to have perished in this
way, among whom it is believed were some women and children--Of the fact
itself there can be no doubt, as it is admitted by the Government in its
notification of the reduction of the city, though it may be presumed
that in the number there is exaggeration.'[16]
APPENDIX 6
LORD PALMERSTON'S ENQUIRY
Lord Palmerston wrote to Sheil on May 2nd 1850:
'I have to instruct you to furnish me with a more detailed account
than that contained in your despatch No. 20, of the 12th of February,
of the difference between the tenets of the new sect of Bab, and those
of the established religion of Persia.'[1]
Sheil answered Lord Palmerston on June 21st:
'In conformity with Your Lordship's instructions I have the honor to
enclose an account of the new Sect of Bab--The statement contained in
the enclosure numbered No. 1 is taken from an account given to me by a
disciple of Bab, and which I have no doubt is correct. The other is
extracted from a letter from a chief Priest in Yezd, and cannot be
trusted--
'This is the simplest of religions. Its tenets are summed up in
materialism, communism, and the absolute indifference of good and
evil, and of all human actions.'[2]
Unfortunately both accounts sent to Palmerston are highly inaccurate.
Moreover, Sheil's own comments indicate that he himself did not have
an open mind. Plainly the account given to him, as he had stated, 'by
a disciple of Bab', was not a verbatim rendering into English, but a
reconstruction with interpolations, as witnessed by these two
sentences: 'They believe in Mahomed as a Prophet and in the divine
origin of the Koran: but Bâb contends that until this moment only the
apparent meaning of the Koran was understood and that he has come to
explain the real secret and divine essence of God's word. But it will
be seen in a subsequent part of this account that the words _Prophet_
and _Divine origin_ have no signification.' Further evidence is
provided by Sheil's rough notes with marginal additions[3] from which
the account by a Bábí is drawn.
What disciple of the Báb would say: 'The intercourse of the sexes is
very nearly promiscuous--There is no form of marriage; a man and woman
live together as long as they please and no longer, and if another man
desires to have possession of that woman, it rests with her, not with
the man who has been her husband, if he can be so termed:--A man may
have wives without limit; a woman has a similar licence.' This Bábí,
unless his account was garnished, was either a nihilist of sorts, or
totally ignorant of what the teaching of the Báb was.
Equally extraordinary, confused and contrary to the Writings of the
Báb in the Persian and Arabic _Bayán_ are the following lines in that
account by a Bábí: 'There is no hell or heaven, therefore there is no
hereafter--annihilation is man's doom in fact--he with every living
and vegetable thing, in short everything whatever, will be absorbed in
the Divinity--Everything is God, and therefore _absorbed_, which is
the phrase of the Soofees, who consider every thing is a reflection of
God--Hell is suffered and heaven is enjoyed in this world; but there
is no such thing as crime, nor of course virtue, only as they concern
the relations of man and man in this world. A man's will is his Law in
all things....
'The most absolute materialism seems to form the essence of their
belief--God is one--Every individual substance and particle, living or
not, is God, and the whole is God--and every individual thing, always
was, always is, and always will be.'[4]
The account by the Chief Priest of Yazd, which was a vitriolic attack
on the Báb and Vaḥíd, and which Sheil had ruled out in his letter
to the Foreign Secretary as 'cannot be trusted', was not dissimilar,
in some respects, to the account by 'a disciple of Bab'.
These extracts make it clear how misinformed was Lord Palmerston, the
British Foreign Secretary, by the reports of his representative in
Ṭihrán.
APPENDIX 7
MYTH-MAKING
The volume of writing in the West about the Bábí and Bahá'í Faiths is
not insignificant. There are copious scholarly works on the subject in
Russian, French and English. We have the works of Alexander Toumansky,
Baron Rosen, Mírzá Kazem-Beg, Count Gobineau, A.-L.-M. Nicolas, and
Edward Granville Browne. We also have attacks and refutations, but
these latter categories belong to more recent years, when the Bahá'í
Faith has been making considerable headway in the Western world.
There is another genre of writing which merits attention, if only for a
negative reason. These writings do not enlighten; they create myths.
Generally speaking, remarks by travellers and casual visitors to Írán
fall within this category, but are by no means confined to such writers.
A sizable book could be compiled of the remarks and observations which
are myth-making. Here we must be content with only a few extracts.
Some of these solemn pronunciations are highly amusing, as with the
following which is taken from a book by Arthur Arnold:[FZ]
[Footnote FZ: 1833-1902, a radical politician and writer.
M.P. for Salford and editor of _Echo_.]
'The measure of injustice and oppression which these courts of the
Koran inflict upon the Christians may seem mild, in comparison with
the treatment by which they suppress nonconformity within the pale of
their own community. We have seen an example in the sentence
of "a hundred sticks", which the incautious expression of
liberal views brought upon the friend of the Zil-i-Sultan
[Ẓillu's-Sulṭán],[GA] who added to free speech the wickedness of
wearing trousers of European cut. There is, however, in Ispahan a
surviving heresy, the most notable in Persia, which, when proved
against a man, is almost a death warrant.[GB]
[Footnote GA: Prince Sulṭán Mas`úd Mírzá, the eldest son
of Náṣiri'd-Dín [_Sh_]áh, Governor-General of Iṣfahán
and the adjoining provinces.]
[Footnote GB: At the time of Arnold's visit, Mírzá Asadu'lláh
[_Kh_]án, a Bahá'í, was the Vizier of Iṣfahán.]
'Early in the present century, a boy was born at Shiraz, the son of a
grocer, whose name has not been preserved. Arrived at manhood, this
grocer's son expounded his idea of a religion even more indulgent than
that of Mahommed. He is known by the name of Bāb (the gate), and
his followers are called Bābis. In 1850, Bāb had established
some reputation as a prophet, and was surrounded by followers as ready
to shed their blood in his defence as any who formed the body-guard of
Mahommed in those early days at Medina, when he had gained no fame in
battle, and had not conceived the plan of the Koran. Bāb was
attacked as an enemy of God and man, and at last taken prisoner by the
Persian Government, and sentenced to death. He was to be shot. Tied to
a stake in Tabriz, he confronted the firing party and awaited death.
The report of the muskets was heard, and Bāb felt himself wounded,
but at liberty. He was not seriously hurt, and the bullets had cut the
cord which bound him. Clouds of smoke hung about the spot where he
stood, and probably he felt a gleam of hope that he might escape when
he rushed from the stake into a neighbouring guardhouse. He had a
great reputation, and very little was necessary to make soldiers and
people believe that his life had been spared by a genuine miracle.
Half the population of Persia would perhaps have become Bābis, had
that guardhouse contained the entrance to a safe hiding place. But
there was nothing of the sort. The poor wretch was only a man, and the
soldiers saw he had no supernatural powers whatever. He was dragged
again to the firing place and killed. But dissent is not to be
suppressed by punishment, and of course Bābism did not die with
him. Two years afterwards, when the present Shah was enjoying his
favourite sport, and was somewhat in advance of his followers, three
men rushed upon his Majesty and wounded him in an attempted
assassination. The life of Nazr-ed-deen [Náṣiri'd-Dín] Shah, Kajar,
was saved by his own quickness and by the arrival of his followers,
who made prisoners of the assassins. They declared themselves
Bābis, and gloried in their attempt to avenge the death of their
leader and to propagate their doctrines by the murder of the Shah. The
baffled criminals were put to death with the cruelty which the
offences of this sect always meet with. Lighted candles were inserted
in slits cut in their living bodies, and, after lingering long in
agony, their tortured frames were hewn in pieces with hatchets.
'In most countries, the theory of punishment is, that the State, on
behalf of the community, must take vengeance upon the offender. But in
Persia it is otherwise. There, in accordance with the teaching of the
Koran, the theory and basis of punishment is, that the relations of
the victim must take revenge upon the actual or would-be murderers. In
conformity with this idea, the Shah's chamberlain executed on his
Majesty's behalf, and with his own hand, one of the conspirators. Yet
the Bābis remain the terror and trouble of the Government of
Ispahan, where the sect is reputed to number more followers than
anywhere else in Persia. But many of them have, in the present day,
transferred their allegiance from Bāb to Behar, a man who was
lately, and may be at present, imprisoned at Acca, in Arabia, by the
Turkish Government. Behar represents himself as God the Father in
human form, and declares that Bāb occupies the same position, in
regard to himself, that John the Baptist held to Jesus Christ. We were
assured that there were respectable families in Ispahan who worship
this imprisoned fanatic, who endanger their property and their lives
by a secret devotion, which, if known, would bring them to
destitution, and probably to a cruel death.'[1]
* * * * *
Our second extract is from a much weightier book written by an
American diplomat, Mr. S. G. W. Benjamin, the first United States
Minister accredited to Írán:[GC]
[Footnote GC: 'In the winter of 1882-1883 the author was
appointed by President Arthur to the Legation in Persia, just
created by Act of Congress. In 1885, with the accession of
the Democratic party to power, he returned to private life,
in accordance with the practice of the diplomatic service of
the United States.'[2]]
'But the most remarkable sect now in Persia is probably that of the
Bâbees, or followers of the Bâb. Their importance is not so much due
to their numbers or political influence, as to the fact that the sect
is of recent origin, full of proselyting zeal, and gaining converts
every day in all parts of Persia, and latterly also in Turkey. The
Bâbees present one of the most important religious phenomena of the
age. It must be admitted, however, that they very strongly resemble in
their communistic views the doctrines enounced [sic] by the famous
Mazdâk [Mazdak], who was executed by Chosroes I after bringing the
empire to the verge of destruction by the spread of his anarchical
tenets.
'In 1810 was born Seyed Alee Mohammed, at Shirâz.... Like all the
founders of oriental religions, he began his career with a period of
seclusion and meditation. He accepted Mahomet and Alee in the creed
which he considered himself predestined to proclaim; but he added to
this the declaration that their spirits had in turn entered into his
own soul, and that he was therefore a great prophet,--the Bâb, who was
to bring their gospel to a legitimate conclusion. It became his
mission, therefore, to announce that all things were divine, and that
he, the Bâb, was the incarnate presentment of the universal life. To
this doctrine was added a socialism which formulated the equality of
all, sweeping away social classes and distinctions, and ordaining a
community of property, and also, at first, of wives. The new doctrines
took hold of the heart of the masses; men and women of all ranks
hastened to proclaim their yearning for something that promised to
better their condition, by embracing the wild teachings of the Bâb ...
the Government could not long remain blind to the possible results if
the movement were allowed to spread unchecked. Therefore, after
several serious tumults, the Bâb was seized and executed at Tabreez.
This only served to add fuel to the fire. A fierce persecution broke
forth; but the Bâbees were not willing to submit tamely to
suppression.... The Bâbees are now obliged to practise their faith in
secret, all of those in Persia being outwardly of the Sheäh sect. But
their activity does not cease, and their numbers are increasing
rapidly. The sect has also extended to Turkey. The leader of the
Turkish branch resides at Constantinople.
'In Persia the title of the present head of the sect is Sob-e-Azêl
[Ṣubḥ-i-Azal]. As his belief in the Bâb is a secret, his name is
not mentioned in this connection.... Just now there seems to be
unusual activity among the Bâbees, emissaries or missionaries are
secretly pervading the country, not only seeking to make proselytes
but also presenting modifications in belief. The community in wives is
no longer a practised tenet of the Bâb sect, while it is proclaimed
with increasing emphasis that the Bâb is none other than God himself
made manifest in the flesh.'[3]
* * * * *
The next extract is by another diplomat, General Sir Thomas Edward
Gordon, who had once been the Military Attaché and Oriental Secretary
of Queen Victoria's Legation in Ṭihrán, and wrote his book after a
second visit to Írán:
'The Babi sect of Mohammedans, regarded as seceders from Islam, but who
assert their claim to be only the advocates for Mohammedan Church
reform, are at last better understood and more leniently
treated--certainly at Tehran. They have long been persecuted and
punished in the cruellest fashion, even to torture and death, under the
belief that they were a dangerous body which aimed at the subversion of
the State as well as the Church. But better counsels now prevail, to
show that the time has come to cease from persecuting these sectarians,
who, at all events in the present day, show no hostility to the
Government; and the Government has probably discovered the truth of the
Babi saying, that one martyr makes many proselytes....
'An acknowledged authority on the Bab, the founder of this creed, has
written that he "directed the thoughts and hopes of his disciples to
this world, not to an unseen world." From this it was inferred he did
not believe in a future state, nor in anything beyond this life. Of
course, among the followers of a new faith, liberal and broad in its
views, continued fresh developments of belief must be expected; and
with reference to the idea that the Babis think not of a hereafter, I
was told that they believe in the reincarnation of the soul, the good
after death returning to life and happiness, the bad to unhappiness. A
Babi, in speaking of individual pre-existence, said to me, "You
believe in a future state; why, then, should you not believe in a
pre-existent state? Eternity is without beginning and without end."
This idea of re-incarnation, generally affecting all Babis, is, of
course, an extension of the original belief regarding the
re-incarnation of the Bab, and the eighteen disciple-prophets who
compose the sacred college of the sect....
'The Babi reform manifests an important advance upon all previous
modern Oriental systems in its treatment of woman. Polygamy and
concubinage are forbidden, the use of the veil is discouraged, and the
equality of the sexes is so thoroughly recognised that one, at least,
of the nineteen sovereign prophets must always be a female. This is a
return to the position of woman in early Persia, of which Malcolm
speaks when he says that Quintus Curtius told of Alexander not seating
himself in the presence of Sisygambis till told to do so by that
matron, because it was not the custom in Persia for sons to sit in
presence of their mother.'[4]
It must be said that Sir Thomas Gordon's long account of the Bábís
(from which only a few passages are taken) is good in many respects;
nevertheless, it perpetuates myths.
* * * * *
Finally, here are two extracts from a book[GD] so highly rated that,
when it was published in 1915, it was put on the 'Secret List' of the
British Foreign Office, and kept there for more than a decade:
[Footnote GD: Lorimer, _Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf_.
Gordon Lorimer was one of the ablest members of the Indian
Political Department, and held various posts in the area of
the Persian Gulf. In 1904, he was commissioned by the
Government of India to prepare the Gazetteer. At the end of
1913, Lorimer replaced Sir Percy Z. Cox as Consul-General in
Bú[_sh_]ihr and Political Resident in the Persian Gulf. In
February a mishap with a revolver caused his untimely death.
The present writer well remembers the event. The Gazetteer
was made ready for publication by Capt. R. L. Birdwood.]
'A religious heresy which was destined to produce serious political
consequences in Persia made its appearance during the later years of
Muhammad Shāh: this was Bābism, the creed of the Bābis or
followers of the Bāb. The founder was Saiyid `Ali Muhammad, the son
of a grocer of Shīrāz, who, being sent as a youth to represent
his father at Būshehr, soon left that place on pilgrimage to Makkah
and afterwards sat as a student at the feet of Hāji Saiyid
Kāzim, the greatest Mujtahid of the day at Karbala. On the death
of his teacher he returned to Būshehr, where he proclaimed himself
a prophet, the 23rd May 1844 being accounted the date of his
manifestation in that character.
'"He now assumed the title of the _Bāb_, or gate, through whom
knowledge of the Twelfth Imam Mahdi could alone be attained. His
pretensions undoubtedly became more extravagant as time proceeded, and
he successfully announced himself as the Mahdi, as a re-incarnation of
the prophet, and as a Revelation or Incarnation of God himself."[GE]
The Bābi faith was ecclesiastically proscribed throughout Persia;
and massacres of its adherents, with counter-assassinations of leading
persecutors, became the order of the day.'
[Footnote GE: Curzon, _Persia and the Persian Question_, Vol.
I, p. 497.]
* * * * *
'The new Bābi religion in Persia, of which the institution may be dated
from 1844, the year in which Mīrza `Ali Muhammad, commonly known as the
Bāb, declared his mission, does not appear to have obtained as yet much
hold on the coast of the Persian Gulf, notwithstanding that the Bāb
visited Būshehr at an early stage in his public career. It was reported
that at Būshehr there were in 1905 only about 50 Bābis, chiefly employed
in the Customs Department or in the Artillery; a very few others were
found at the ports of Bandar `Abbas and Lingeh, and possibly at
Shehr-i-Vīrān in the Līrāvi district; but at Baghdād, which was the
headquarters of the Bābi religion from 1853 to 1864, it did not appear
that there are any. It is probable, however, that Bābis are to be found
in places where their existence has not been ascertained.'[5]
BIBLIOGRAPHY
`ABDU'L-BAHÁ. _Memorials of the Faithful._ Translated from the
original Persian text and annotated by Marzieh Gail.
Wilmette, Illinois: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1971.
ARBERRY, ARTHUR J. _The Koran Interpreted._ Vol. One, Suras
I-XX; Vol. Two, Suras XXI-CXIV. London: George Allen & Unwin
Ltd., 1955; 2nd imp. 1963.
ARNOLD, ARTHUR. _Through Persia by Caravan._ Vol. II. London:
Tinsley Brothers, 1877.
_Bahá'í World, The._ An International Record. Vol. VIII,
1938-1940. Wilmette, Illinois: Bahá'í Publishing Committee,
1942.
BAHÁ'U'LLÁH. _Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh._
Trans, by Shoghi Effendi. Wilmette, Illinois: Bahá'í
Publishing Trust, 1935; rev. ed. 1952; repr. 1969. London:
Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1949.
---- _The Kitáb-i-Íqán. The Book of Certitude._ Trans. by
Shoghi Effendi. Wilmette, Illinois: Bahá'í Publishing Trust,
1931; 2nd ed. 1950; 3rd repr. 1960. London: Bahá'í
Publishing Trust, 2nd ed. 1961.
BALYUZI, H. M. _`Abdu'l-Bahá._ The Centre of the Covenant of
Bahá'u'lláh. London: George Ronald, 1971; 2nd repr. 1972
(Oxford).
---- _Bahá'u'lláh_, a brief life, followed by an essay entitled
The Word Made Flesh. London: George Ronald, 1963; 4th repr.
1973 (Oxford).
---- _Edward Granville Browne and the Bahá'í Faith._ London:
George Ronald, 1970.
BENJAMIN, S. G. W. _Persia and the Persians._ London: John
Murray, 1887.
BROWNE, E. G. _A Literary History of Persia._ In four volumes.
Vol. IV: _Persian Literature in Modern Times._ Cambridge
University Press, 1924.
---- (ed.) _Materials for the Study of the Bábí Religion._
Cambridge University Press, 1918; repr. 1961.
---- (ed.) _The Táríkh-i-Jadíd or New History of Mírzá `Alí
Muḥammad the Báb_, by Mírzá Ḥuseyn of Hamadán, trans.
from the Persian, with an Introduction, Illustrations, and
Appendices. Cambridge University Press, 1893.
---- (ed.) _A Traveller's Narrative written to illustrate the
Episode of the Báb._ Edited in the original Persian, and
translated into English, with an Introduction and
Explanatory Notes. Vol. I, Persian Text. Vol. II, English
Translation and Notes. Cambridge University Press, 1891.
---- _A Year Amongst the Persians_: Impressions as to the Life,
Character and Thought of the People of Persia, received
during twelve months' residence in that country in the years
1887-8. London: A. & C. Black, 1893. 2nd ed. Cambridge
University Press, 1926. 3rd ed. London: A. & C. Black, 1959.
CHEYNE, T. K. _The Reconciliation of Races and Religions._
London: Adam & Charles Black, 1914.
CURZON, G. N. _Persia and the Persian Question._ In two
volumes. London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1892. Frank Cass &
Co. Ltd., 1966.
FLANDIN, EUGÈNE-NAPOLÉON and COSTE, PASCAL. _Voyage en Perse_
pendant les années 1840 et 1841. Paris, 1851.
GOBINEAU, M. LE COMTE DE. _Les Religions et les Philosophies
dans l'Asie Centrale._ Paris, 1865 and 1866.
GORDON, SIR THOMAS EDWARD. _Persia Revisited (1895)._ London:
Edward Arnold, 1896.
KAZEMZADEH, FIRUZ. _Russia and Britain in Persia, 1864-1914._
New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1968.
KELLY, J. B. _Britain and the Persian Gulf._ 1795-1880. Oxford:
The Clarendon Press, 1968.
LAYARD, SIR HENRY. _Early Adventures in Persia, Susiana, and
Babylonia._ In two volumes. London: John Murray, 1887.
LORIMER, J. G. _Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, 'Oman, and
Central Arabia._ In two volumes. Calcutta, 1915 and 1908.
Repr. Farnborough, Hants. and Shannon, Ireland: Gregg
International Publishers Ltd and Irish University Press,
1970.
NABÍL-I-A`ẒAM (Muḥammad-i-Zarandí). _The Dawn-Breakers._
Nabíl's Narrative of the Early Days of the Bahá'í
Revelation. Wilmette, Illinois: Bahá'í Publishing Trust,
1932; Repr. 1953. London: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1953.
NICOLAS, A.-L.-M. _Seyyèd Ali Mohammed dit le Bâb._ Paris:
Dujarric & Cie., 1905.
SALE, GEORGE (ed.) _The Korân._ Trans. into English from the
Original Arabic, with Explanatory Notes. London: Frederick
Warne and Co. Ltd., 1927.
SHEIL, LADY MARY LEONORA. _Glimpses of Life and Manners in
Persia._ London: John Murray, 1856.
SHOGHI EFFENDI. _God Passes By._ Wilmette, Illinois: Bahá'í
Publishing Trust, 1944; 5th repr. 1965.
---- _The World Order of Bahá'u'lláh._ Wilmette, Illinois:
Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1938; rev. 1955; 2nd imp. 1965.
SOHRÁB, AḤMAD. _Risáliy-i-Tis`a-`A[_sh_]aríyyih._ Nineteen
Discourses on the Báb and His two heralds: [_Sh_]ay[_kh_]
Aḥmad-i-Aḥsá'í and Siyyid Káẓim-i-Ra[_sh_]tí.
Cairo, 1919.
The reader is also referred to bibliographies contained in the
following works (listed above):
Balyuzi, _Edward Granville Browne and the Bahá'í Faith_, pp.
123-5.
Browne, _Materials for the Study of the Bábí Religion_, Sec.
III, pp. 175-243.
Browne (ed.), _A Traveller's Narrative_, Vol. II, Note A, pp.
173-211.
Nabíl-i-A`ẓam, _The Dawn-Breakers_, pp. 491-3 (Brit.), pp.
669-71 (U.S.).
NOTES
Full details of authors and titles are given in the bibliography. Page
numbers are given for the American and British editions of
Nabíl-i-A`ẓam, _The Dawn-Breakers_. All Foreign Office documents
(reference F.O.) are held by the Public Record Office, London. They
are Crown copyright and appear verbatim by kind permission of the
Controller of Her Majesty's Stationery Office.
PROLOGUE I AND II
[1] See Sohráb, _Risáliy-i-Tis`a-`A[_sh_]aríyyih_, p. 13, for an
account of [_Sh_]ay[_kh_] Aḥmad's discourses. (This source is
discussed in Balyuzi, _`Abdu'l-Bahá_, p. 417.)
[2] _ibid._, p. 14.
[3] See note 1 above, pp. 19-20.
[4] F.O. 248/108 of May 15th 1843, enclosed in letter of May 20th 1843
to Sheil.
[5] _The Dawn-Breakers_, p. 33 (Brit.), p. 45 (U.S.).
[6] Sheil served as the British Minister in Ṭihrán from August 1842
to February 1853, except for a period of leave from October 1847 to
November 1849, when Col. Farrant deputised for him. Sheil was knighted
in 1855.
[7] F.O. 248/113.
[8] The other pretenders were Ḥusayn-`Alí Mírzá, the
Farmán-Farmá, Governor-General of Fárs, and Ḥasan-`Alí Mírzá, the
[_Sh_]ujá`u's-Salṭanih, Governor General of Kirmán, both sons of
Fatḥ-`Alí [_Sh_]áh. Three of the sons of the Farmán-Farmá managed
to take themselves to London.
[9] Sir Henry Layard (1817-1894) was the discoverer of the ancient
city of Nineveh. He was elected to the British parliament as a
Liberal, and served a term as the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign
Affairs. In 1877 he was appointed Ambassador in Constantinople. His
account is taken from _Early Adventures in Persia, Susiana, and
Babylonia_, Vol. I, pp. 257-61.
[10] The Ambassador recalled was Sir John MacNeill and the quarrel
between Írán and Britain was over the city of Hirát. This beautiful
city had always been considered an integral part of the province of
[_Kh_]urásán, but since the assassination of Nádir [_Sh_]áh, the
Af[_sh_]ár king, in 1747, Hirát had passed into possession of
Af[_gh_]án rulers. Muḥammad [_Sh_]áh was intent on regaining
Ḥirát, but Anglo-Russian rivalry and the British fear of Russian
designs on India, hitherto almost non-existent, had become dominant
factors in the international scene, bound to shadow the destiny
of Írán; the British believed that the acquisition of Hirát by
the Persians would, in the main, benefit Russia. They took
counter-measures in the Persian Gulf and occupied the island of
[_Kh_]árg, close to Bú[_sh_]ihr.
[11] F.O. 60/95 of February 14th 1843.
[12] _ibid._
CHAPTER 1: ALL HAIL [_SH_]ÍRÁZ
Opening quotation: Gertrude Lowthian Bell (1868-1926), _Poems from the
Divan of Hafiz_, Wm. Heinemann Ltd., London, 1897, No. xxx.
[1] Browne, _A Year Amongst the Persians_, (1926 ed.), p. 284.
[2] Curzon, _Persia and the Persian Question_, Vol. I, p. 497, n. 2.
[3] Browne (ed.), _A Traveller's Narrative_, Vol. II, p. 309.
[4] Since they originated from the small town of Bara[_gh_]án, they
were known as Bara[_gh_]ání.
[5] Qurratu'l-`Ayn's words are quoted in _The Dawn-Breakers_, p. 56
(Brit.), pp. 81-2 (U.S.); and in verse form in _A Persian Anthology_,
trans. by E. G. Browne, ed. by E. Denison Ross, Methuen & Co., London,
1927, p. 72.
CHAPTER 2: HE WHOM THEY SOUGHT
Opening quotation: T. K. Cheyne, _The Reconciliation of Races and
Religions_, p. 74.
[1] Mír Muḥammad-Riḍá's father was named Mír Naṣru'lláh, his
grandfather Mír Fatḥu'lláh, and his great-grandfather Mír Ibráhím.
[2] For details of this unedifying transaction, see Kazemzadeh,
_Russia and Britain in Persia, 1864-1914_, ch. 4. The contract was
signed on March 8th 1890.
[3] Translated by H. M. Balyuzi.
[4] [_Sh_]ay[_kh_] Muḥammad was known as [_Sh_]ay[_kh_] `Ábid, and
also as [_Sh_]ay[_kh_]uná and [_Sh_]ay[_kh_]-i-Anám. That his real
name was Muḥammad is attested by this verse in the Arabic _Bayán_,
one of the last works of the Báb: 'Say O Muḥammad, My teacher, do
not beat me ere my years have gone beyond five.'
His school was in the quarter called Bázár-i-Mur[_gh_] (Poultry
Market), housed in a mosque-like structure which went by the name of
Qahviy-i-Awlíyá'. It was close to the house of Ḥájí Mírzá Siyyid
`Alí, the uncle-guardian of the Báb. In its courtyard were a number of
graves: three were particularly revered as those of saintly
personages, one of whom was called Awlíyá'--though no one really knew
whose were the graves.
It is known that [_Sh_]ay[_kh_] `Ábid wrote a monograph on the
childhood of the Báb, but the manuscript has always been in the
possession of people not well-disposed to the Faith of the Báb and
Bahá'u'lláh, and they have persistently refused to give it up or to
divulge its contents. [_Sh_]ay[_kh_] `Ábid was also destined in later
years to accept the Faith proclaimed by his former Pupil.
[5] Account taken from Mírzá Abu'l Faḍl's unpublished writings.
[6] Nicolas, _Seyyèd Ali Mohammed Dit le Bâb_, pp. 189-90.
[7] Written in several volumes during the reign of Náṣiri'd-Dín
[_Sh_]áh by Lisánu'l-Mulk of Ká[_sh_]án, whose soubriquet was Sipihr.
[8] _The Dawn-Breakers_, pp. 20-2 (Brit.), pp. 25-9 (U.S.).
[9] _ibid._, pp. 22-3 (Brit.), p. 30 (U.S.).
[10] Ḥájí Mírzá `Alí's father was named Mírzá `Ábid.
[11] By [_Dh_]ikr, he means Himself. Repeatedly in the
_Qayyúmu'l-Asmá'_, the Báb refers to Himself as [_Dh_]ikr, and was
known to His followers as [_Dh_]ikru'lláh-al-A`ẓam (Mention of God,
the Most Great), or [_Dh_]ikru'lláh-al-Akbar (Mention of God, the
Greatest), and sometimes as Ḥaḍrat-i-[_Dh_]ikr. 'Ḥaḍrat'
prefixed to the name of a Manifestation of God has been translated as
'His Holiness'. But this English rendering is totally inadequate, for
'Ḥaḍrat' has no English equivalent when placed prior to the name
of a Manifestation of God. It conveys also the sense of His Honour,
His Eminence, His Excellency, and the like.
[12] From the _Qayyúmu'l-Asmá'_, translated by H. M. Balyuzi.
CHAPTER 3: ṬIHRÁN
Opening quotations: Bahá'u'lláh, (1) _Gleanings_, LVI (2)
_Kitáb-i-Íqán_, p. 161 (Brit.), p. 252 (U.S.).
[1] _The Dawn-Breakers_, p. 58 (Brit.), pp. 86-7 (U.S.).
[2] _ibid._, p. 66 (Brit.), p. 96 (U.S.).
[3] Two works of the Báb are entitled _Bayán_ (Utterance): the larger
one is in Persian, and the other which is much shorter is in Arabic.
[4] _The Dawn-Breakers_, p. 69 (Brit.), p. 99 (U.S.).
[5] _ibid._, p. 70 (Brit.), pp. 100-1 (U.S.).
[6] _ibid._, pp. 71-4 (Brit.), pp. 104-8 (U.S.).
[7] See Foreword, paragraph 4.
[8] Shoghi Effendi, _God Passes By_, p. 9.
CHAPTER 4: THE FIRST MARTYR
Opening quotation: T. S. Eliot, 'Choruses from _The Rock_', I. 'The
Eagle soars in the summit of Heaven'. _Collected Poems 1909-1962_,
Faber & Faber Ltd., London, 1963.
[1] London 1856, p. 177.
[2] _The Dawn-Breakers_, pp. 61-2 (Brit.), pp. 90-1 (U.S.).
[3] Throughout his life Áqá Muḥammad-Muṣṭafá served the Faith which he
had embraced, with zeal and distinction. He spent many years in Beirut
where he attended to the needs and requirements of pilgrims. His son,
Áqá Ḥusayn Iqbál, did the same in subsequent years, with great devotion.
Another son, Dr. Zia Bagdadi (Dr. Ḍíyá Ba[_gh_]dádí) resided in the
United States, where his services were inestimable.
[4] 'There gathered [_Sh_]ay[_kh_] Najaf, the son of [_Sh_]ay[_kh_]
Ja`far, and [_Sh_]ay[_kh_] Músá from Najaf; Siyyid Ibráhím al-Qazvíní
from Karbilá; [_Sh_]ay[_kh_] Muḥammad-Ḥasan Yásín and
[_Sh_]ay[_kh_] Ḥasan Asadu'lláh from Káẓimíyyah; Siyyid
Muḥammad al-Álúsí and Siyyid `Alí, the Naqíb-al-A[_sh_]ráf, and
Muḥammad-Amín al-Wá`iz and [_Sh_]ay[_kh_] Muḥammad-Sa`íd, the
[_Sh_]áfi`í Muftí from Ba[_gh_]dád. There were others also besides
these.' (Áqá Muḥammad-Muṣṭafáy-i-Ba[_gh_]dádí.)
[5] Translated by H. M. Balyuzi. Áqá
Muḥammad-Muṣṭafáy-i-Ba[_gh_]dádí's autobiography is no more
than 24 pages long. It is the second of two booklets printed together
in Cairo. There is no publication date.
[6] Major-General Sir Henry Rawlinson (1810-95) was one of the
outstanding European figures in the nineteenth century. It was he who
transcribed the cuneiform inscriptions on the rocks of Bísitún in
Western Írán, which record the achievements of the great Darius. He
discovered the key to decipher them. Like Sir John Malcolm, he
entered the service of the East India Company at the age of seventeen.
Six years later, he went with two other British officers to train the
Persian army, but after two years he was dismissed because Muḥammad
[_Sh_]áh had begun to quarrel with the British. Next he served in
Qandahár. By his own wish he was transferred to `Iráq, because he
wanted to be close to Western Írán and continue his research. He also
continued the unfinished work of Layard at Nineveh. The British Museum
has a wealth of archaeological finds donated by him. From 1859-60, he
briefly occupied the post of British Minister in Ṭihrán. Then to
the end of his life he served on the India Council in London and
devoted his time to writing and to scientific pursuits. From 1870-84,
the Trustees of the British Museum issued four volumes of cuneiform
inscriptions under his close supervision.
[7] F.O. 248/114 of January 8th 1845, enclosed in Rawlinson's letter
to Sheil of January 16th 1845.
[8] _ibid._
[9] _ibid._
[10] F.O. 248/114 of January 16th 1845.
[11] F.O. 248/114 (undated). Translation by Rawlinson, enclosed in his
letter to Sheil of January 16th 1845.
[12] F.O. 195/237 of April 15th 1845.
[13] F.O. 195/237 of April 30th 1845.
[14] F.O. 195/237 of February 18th 1845.
[15] F.O. 248/114 of February 28th 1845.
CHAPTER 5: PILGRIMAGE TO MECCA
Opening quotation: translation by H. M. Balyuzi.
[1] His son, Ḥájí [_Sh_]ay[_kh_] Yaḥyá, succeeded him as
Imám-Jum`ih, and lived till 1919 to an advanced age. He extended his
protection to the Bahá'ís on every possible occasion.
[2] Ḥájí Mírzá Ḥabíbu'lláh's narrative.
[3] _The Dawn-Breakers_, p. 91 (Brit.), p. 131 (U.S.).
[4] _ibid._, pp. 90-1 (Brit.), p. 130 (U.S.).
[5] _ibid._, p. 92 (Brit.), pp. 132-3 (U.S.).
[6] _ibid._, pp. 93-5 (Brit.), pp. 134-6 (U.S.).
[7] _ibid._, pp. 96-7 (Brit.), pp. 138-40 (U.S.).
[8] _ibid._, p. 97 (Brit.), p. 140 (U.S.).
CHAPTER 6: FORCES OF OPPOSITION ARRAYED
Opening quotation: Isabella in _Measure for Measure_, Act II, sc. ii.
[1] Published by Leavitt, Trow & Co., New York & Philadelphia.
[2] _The Dawn-Breakers_, p. 99 (Brit.), p. 142 (U.S.).
[3] _ibid._, pp. 100-1 (Brit.), p. 144 (U.S.).
[4] Cited Kelly, _Britain and the Persian Gulf_, p. 310.