GOD PASSES BY
(U.S., Second Printing 1979)
FILENAME: GPB
FILEDATE: 08-06-94
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FOREWORD
On the 23rd of May of this auspicious year the Bahá'í world will
celebrate the centennial anniversary of the founding of the Faith of
Bahá'u'lláh. It will commemorate at once the hundreth anniversary
of the inception of the Bábí Dispensation, of the inauguration of the
Bahá'í Era, of the commencement of the Bahá'í Cycle, and of the
birth of `Abdu'l-Bahá. The weight of the potentialities with which
this Faith, possessing no peer or equal in the world's spiritual history,
and marking the culmination of a universal prophetic cycle, has been
endowed, staggers our imagination. The brightness of the millennial
glory which it must shed in the fullness of time dazzles our eyes. The
magnitude of the shadow which its Author will continue to cast on
successive Prophets destined to be raised up after Him eludes our
calculation.
Already in the space of less than a century the operation of the
mysterious processes generated by its creative spirit has provoked a
tumult in human society such as no mind can fathom. Itself undergoing
a period of incubation during its primitive age, it has, through
the emergence of its slowly-crystallizing system, induced a fermentation
in the general life of mankind designed to shake the very foundations
of a disordered society, to purify its life-blood, to reorientate
and reconstruct its institutions, and shape its final destiny.
To what else can the observant eye or the unprejudiced mind,
acquainted with the signs and portents heralding the birth, and
accompanying the rise, of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh ascribe this dire,
this planetary upheaval, with its attendant destruction, misery and
fear, if not to the emergence of His embryonic World Order, which,
as He Himself has unequivocally proclaimed, has "deranged the
equilibrium of the world and revolutionized mankind's ordered life"?
To what agency, if not to the irresistible diffusion of that world-shaking,
world-energizing, world-redeeming spirit, which the Báb has
affirmed is "vibrating in the innermost realities of all created things"
can the origins of this portentous crisis, incomprehensible to man,
and admittedly unprecedented in the annals of the human race, be
attributed? In the convulsions of contemporary society, in the
frenzied, world-wide ebullitions of men's thoughts, in the fierce
antagonisms inflaming races, creeds and classes, in the shipwreck of
nations, in the downfall of kings, in the dismemberment of empires,
in the extinction of dynasties, in the collapse of ecclesiastical hierarchies,
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in the deterioration of time-honored institutions, in the dissolution
of ties, secular as well as religious, that had for so long held
together the members of the human race--all manifesting themselves
with ever-increasing gravity since the outbreak of the first World War
that immediately preceded the opening years of the Formative Age
of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh--in these we can readily recognize the
evidences of the travail of an age that has sustained the impact of
His Revelation, that has ignored His summons, and is now laboring
to be delivered of its burden, as a direct consequence of the impulse
communicated to it by the generative, the purifying, the transmuting
influence of His Spirit.
It is my purpose, on the occasion of an anniversary of such profound
significance, to attempt in the succeeding pages a survey of
the outstanding events of the century that has seen this Spirit burst
forth upon the world, as well as the initial stages of its subsequent
incarnation in a System that must evolve into an Order designed to
embrace the whole of mankind, and capable of fulfilling the high
destiny that awaits man on this planet. I shall endeavor to review,
in their proper perspective and despite the comparatively brief space
of time which separates us from them, the events which the revolution
of a hundred years, unique alike in glory and tribulation, has unrolled
before our eyes. I shall seek to represent and correlate, in however
cursory a manner, those momentous happenings which have insensibly,
relentlessly, and under the very eyes of successive generations, perverse,
indifferent or hostile, transformed a heterodox and seemingly
negligible offshoot of the Shaykhí school of the Ithná-`Ash'áríyyih sect
of Shí'ah Islám into a world religion whose unnumbered followers are
organically and indissolubly united; whose light has overspread the
earth as far as Iceland in the North and Magellanes in the South;
whose ramifications have spread to no less than sixty countries of the
world; whose literature has been translated and disseminated in no
less than forty languages; whose endowments in the five continents
of the globe, whether local, national or international, already run
into several million dollars; whose incorporated elective bodies have
secured the official recognition of a number of governments in East
and West; whose adherents are recruited from the diversified races
and chief religions of mankind; whose representatives are to be found
in hundreds of cities in both Persia and the United States of America;
to whose verities royalty has publicly and repeatedly testified; whose
independent status its enemies, from the ranks of its parent religion
and in the leading center of both the Arab and Muslim worlds, have
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proclaimed and demonstrated; and whose claims have been virtually
recognized, entitling it to rank as the fourth religion of a Land in
which its world spiritual center has been established, and which is
at once the heart of Christendom, the holiest shrine of the Jewish
people, and, save Mecca alone, the most sacred spot in Islám.
It is not my purpose--nor does the occasion demand it,--to write
a detailed history of the last hundred years of the Bahá'í Faith, nor
do I intend to trace the origins of so tremendous a Movement, or to
portray the conditions under which it was born, or to examine the
character of the religion from which it has sprung, or to arrive at an
estimate of the effects which its impact upon the fortunes of mankind
has produced. I shall rather content myself with a review of the
salient features of its birth and rise, as well as of the initial stages in the
establishment of its administrative institutions--institutions which
must be regarded as the nucleus and herald of that World Order
that must incarnate the soul, execute the laws, and fulfill the purpose
of the Faith of God in this day.
Nor will it be my intention to ignore, whilst surveying the
panorama which the revolution of a hundred years spreads before our
gaze, the swift interweaving of seeming reverses with evident victories,
out of which the hand of an inscrutable Providence has chosen
to form the pattern of the Faith from its earliest days, or to minimize
those disasters that have so often proved themselves to be the prelude
to fresh triumphs which have, in turn, stimulated its growth and
consolidated its past achievements. Indeed, the history of the first
hundred years of its evolution resolves itself into a series of internal
and external crises, of varying severity, devastating in their immediate
effects, but each mysteriously releasing a corresponding measure of
divine power, lending thereby a fresh impulse to its unfoldment, this
further unfoldment engendering in its turn a still graver calamity,
followed by a still more liberal effusion of celestial grace enabling its
upholders to accelerate still further its march and win in its service
still more compelling victories.
In its broadest outline the first century of the Bahá'í Era may be
said to comprise the Heroic, the Primitive, the Apostolic Age of the
Faith of Bahá'u'lláh, and also the initial stages of the Formative, the
Transitional, the Iron Age which is to witness the crystallization and
shaping of the creative energies released by His Revelation. The first
eighty years of this century may roughly be said to have covered the
entire period of the first age, while the last two decades may be
regarded as having witnessed the beginnings of the second. The
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former commences with the Declaration of the Báb, includes the
mission of Bahá'u'lláh, and terminates with the passing of `Abdu'l-Bahá.
The latter is ushered in by His Will and Testament, which
defines its character and establishes its foundation.
The century under our review may therefore be considered as
falling into four distinct periods, of unequal duration, each of specific
import and of tremendous and indeed unappraisable significance.
These four periods are closely interrelated, and constitute successive
acts of one, indivisible, stupendous and sublime drama, whose
mystery no intellect can fathom, whose climax no eye can even
dimly perceive, whose conclusion no mind can adequately foreshadow.
Each of these acts revolves around its own theme, boasts of its own
heroes, registers its own tragedies, records its own triumphs, and contributes
its own share to the execution of one common, immutable
Purpose. To isolate any one of them from the others, to dissociate the
later manifestations of one universal, all-embracing Revelation from
the pristine purpose that animated it in its earliest days, would be
tantamount to a mutilation of the structure on which it rests, and
to a lamentable perversion of its truth and of its history.
The first period (1844-1853), centers around the gentle, the
youthful and irresistible person of the Báb, matchless in His meekness,
imperturbable in His serenity, magnetic in His utterance, unrivaled
in the dramatic episodes of His swift and tragic ministry. It begins
with the Declaration of His Mission, culminates in His martyrdom,
and ends in a veritable orgy of religious massacre revolting in its
hideousness. It is characterized by nine years of fierce and relentless
contest, whose theatre was the whole of Persia, in which above ten
thousand heroes laid down their lives, in which two sovereigns of the
Qájár dynasty and their wicked ministers participated, and which
was supported by the entire Shí'ah ecclesiastical hierarchy, by the
military resources of the state, and by the implacable hostility of the
masses. The second period (1853-1892) derives its inspiration from
the august figure of Bahá'u'lláh, preeminent in holiness, awesome in
the majesty of His strength and power, unapproachable in the transcendent
brightness of His glory. It opens with the first stirrings,
in the soul of Bahá'u'lláh while in the Síyáh-Chál of Tihrán, of the
Revelation anticipated by the Báb, attains its plenitude in the
proclamation of that Revelation to the kings and ecclesiastical leaders
of the earth, and terminates in the ascension of its Author in the
vicinity of the prison-town of `Akká. It extends over thirty-nine
years of continuous, of unprecedented and overpowering Revelation,
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is marked by the propagation of the Faith to the neighboring territories
of Turkey, of Russia, of `Iráq, of Syria, of Egypt and of India,
and is distinguished by a corresponding aggravation of hostility,
represented by the united attacks launched by the Sháh of Persia and
the Sultán of Turkey, the two admittedly most powerful potentates
of the East, as well as by the opposition of the twin sacerdotal orders
of Shí'ah and Sunní Islám. The third period (1892-1921) revolves
around the vibrant personality of `Abdu'l-Bahá, mysterious in His
essence, unique in His station, astoundingly potent in both the charm
and strength of His character. It commences with the announcement
of the Covenant of Bahá'u'lláh, a document without parallel in the
history of any earlier Dispensation, attains its climax in the emphatic
assertion by the Center of that Covenant, in the City of the Covenant,
of the unique character and far-reaching implications of that Document,
and closes with His passing and the interment of His remains
on Mt. Carmel. It will go down in history as a period of almost thirty
years' duration, in which tragedies and triumphs have been so intertwined
as to eclipse at one time the Orb of the Covenant, and at
another time to pour forth its light over the continent of Europe,
and as far as Australasia, the Far East and the North American continent.
The fourth period (1921-1944) is motivated by the forces
radiating from the Will and Testament of `Abdu'l-Bahá, that Charter
of Bahá'u'lláh's New World Order, the offspring resulting from the
mystic intercourse between Him Who is the Source of the Law of
God and the mind of the One Who is the vehicle and interpreter of
that Law. The inception of this fourth, this last period of the first
Bahá'í century synchronizes with the birth of the Formative Age of
the Bahá'í Era, with the founding of the Administrative Order of the
Faith of Bahá'u'lláh--a system which is at once the harbinger, the
nucleus and pattern of His World Order. This period, covering the
first twenty-three years of this Formative Age, has already been distinguished
by an outburst of further hostility, of a different character,
accelerating on the one hand the diffusion of the Faith over a still
wider area in each of the five continents of the globe, and resulting
on the other in the emancipation and the recognition of the independent
status of several communities within its pale.
These four periods are to be regarded not only as the component,
the inseparable parts of one stupendous whole, but as progressive stages
in a single evolutionary process, vast, steady and irresistible. For as
we survey the entire range which the operation of a century-old Faith
has unfolded before us, we cannot escape the conclusion that from
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whatever angle we view this colossal scene, the events associated with
these periods present to us unmistakable evidences of a slowly maturing
process, of an orderly development, of internal consolidation, of
external expansion, of a gradual emancipation from the fetters of
religious orthodoxy, and of a corresponding diminution of civil disabilities
and restrictions.
Viewing these periods of Bahá'í history as the constituents of a
single entity, we note the chain of events proclaiming successfully the
rise of a Forerunner, the Mission of One Whose advent that Forerunner
had promised, the establishment of a Covenant generated
through the direct authority of the Promised One Himself, and lastly
the birth of a System which is the child sprung from both the Author
of the Covenant and its appointed Center. We observe how the Báb,
the Forerunner, announced the impending inception of a divinely-conceived
Order, how Bahá'u'lláh, the Promised One, formulated its
laws and ordinances, how `Abdu'l-Bahá, the appointed Center, delineated
its features, and how the present generation of their followers
have commenced to erect the framework of its institutions. We
watch, through these periods, the infant light of the Faith diffuse itself
from its cradle, eastward to India and the Far East, westward to the
neighboring territories of `Iráq, of Turkey, of Russia, and of Egypt,
travel as far as the North American continent, illuminate subsequently
the major countries of Europe, envelop with its radiance,
at a later stage, the Antipodes, brighten the fringes of the Arctic,
and finally set aglow the Central and South American horizons. We
witness a corresponding increase in the diversity of the elements
within its fellowship, which from being confined, in the first period of
its history, to an obscure body of followers chiefly recruited from the
ranks of the masses in Shí'ah Persia, has expanded into a fraternity
representative of the leading religious systems of the world, of almost
every caste and color, from the humblest worker and peasant to
royalty itself. We notice a similar development in the extent of its
literature--a literature which, restricted at first to the narrow range
of hurriedly transcribed, often corrupted, secretly circulated, manuscripts,
so furtively perused, so frequently effaced, and at times even
eaten by the terrorized members of a proscribed sect, has, within the
space of a century, swelled into innumerable editions, comprising tens
of thousands of printed volumes, in diverse scripts, and in no less than
forty languages, some elaborately reproduced, others profusely illustrated,
all methodically and vigorously disseminated through the
agency of world-wide, properly constituted and specially organized
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committees and Assemblies. We perceive a no less apparent evolution
in the scope of its teachings, at first designedly rigid, complex and
severe, subsequently recast, expanded, and liberalized under the succeeding
Dispensation, later expounded, reaffirmed and amplified by an
appointed Interpreter, and lastly systematized and universally applied
to both individuals and institutions. We can discover a no less distinct
gradation in the character of the opposition it has had to encounter--
an opposition, at first kindled in the bosom of Shí'ah Islám, which, at a
later stage, gathered momentum with the banishment of Bahá'u'lláh
to the domains of the Turkish Sultán and the consequent hostility of
the more powerful Sunní hierarchy and its Caliph, the head of the vast
majority of the followers of Muhammad--an opposition which, now,
through the rise of a divinely appointed Order in the Christian West,
and its initial impact on civil and ecclesiastical institutions, bids fair
to include among its supporters established governments and systems
associated with the most ancient, the most deeply entrenched sacerdotal
hierarchies in Christendom. We can, at the same time, recognize,
through the haze of an ever-widening hostility, the progress, painful
yet persistent, of certain communities within its pale through the
stages of obscurity, of proscription, of emancipation, and of recognition
--stages that must needs culminate in the course of succeeding
centuries, in the establishment of the Faith, and the founding, in the
plenitude of its power and authority, of the world-embracing Bahá'í
Commonwealth. We can likewise discern a no less appreciable
advance in the rise of its institutions, whether as administrative
centers or places of worship--institutions, clandestine and subterrene
in their earliest beginnings, emerging imperceptibly into the broad
daylight of public recognition, legally protected, enriched by pious
endowments, ennobled at first by the erection of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár
of Ishqábád, the first Bahá'í House of Worship, and more
recently immortalized, through the rise in the heart of the North
American continent of the Mother Temple of the West, the forerunner
of a divine, a slowly maturing civilization. And finally, we
can even bear witness to the marked improvement in the conditions
surrounding the pilgrimages performed by its devoted adherents to
its consecrated shrines at its world center--pilgrimages originally
arduous, perilous, tediously long, often made on foot, at times ending
in disappointment, and confined to a handful of harassed Oriental
followers, gradually attracting, under steadily improving circumstances
of security and comfort, an ever swelling number of new
converts converging from the four corners of the globe, and culminating
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in the widely publicized yet sadly frustrated visit of a noble
Queen, who, at the very threshold of the city of her heart's desire,
was compelled, according to her own written testimony, to divert her
steps, and forego the privilege of so priceless a benefit.
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FIRST PERIOD
THE MINISTRY OF THE BÁB
1844-1853
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CHAPTER I
The Birth of the Bábí Revelation
May 23, 1844, signalizes the commencement of the most turbulent
period of the Heroic Age of the Bahá'í Era, an age which marks the
opening of the most glorious epoch in the greatest cycle which the
spiritual history of mankind has yet witnessed. No more than a
span of nine short years marks the duration of this most spectacular,
this most tragic, this most eventful period of the first Bahá'í century.
It was ushered in by the birth of a Revelation whose Bearer posterity
will acclaim as the "Point round Whom the realities of the Prophets
and Messengers revolve," and terminated with the first stirrings of a
still more potent Revelation, "whose day," Bahá'u'lláh Himself affirms,
"every Prophet hath announced," for which "the soul of every Divine
Messenger hath thirsted," and through which "God hath proved the
hearts of the entire company of His Messengers and Prophets." Little
wonder that the immortal chronicler of the events associated with
the birth and rise of the Bahá'í Revelation has seen fit to devote no
less than half of his moving narrative to the description of those
happenings that have during such a brief space of time so greatly
enriched, through their tragedy and heroism, the religious annals of
mankind. In sheer dramatic power, in the rapidity with which events
of momentous importance succeeded each other, in the holocaust
which baptized its birth, in the miraculous circumstances attending
the martyrdom of the One Who had ushered it in, in the potentialities
with which it had been from the outset so thoroughly impregnated,
in the forces to which it eventually gave birth, this nine-year
period may well rank as unique in the whole range of man's religious
experience. We behold, as we survey the episodes of this first act of a
sublime drama, the figure of its Master Hero, the Báb, arise meteor-like
above the horizon of Shíráz, traverse the sombre sky of Persia
from south to north, decline with tragic swiftness, and perish in a
blaze of glory. We see His satellites, a galaxy of God-intoxicated
heroes, mount above that same horizon, irradiate that same incandescent
light, burn themselves out with that self-same swiftness, and
impart in their turn an added impetus to the steadily gathering
momentum of God's nascent Faith.
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He Who communicated the original impulse to so incalculable a
Movement was none other than the promised Qá'im (He who
ariseth), the Sáhibu'z-Zamán (the Lord of the Age), Who assumed
the exclusive right of annulling the whole Qur'ánic Dispensation,
Who styled Himself "the Primal Point from which have been generated
all created things ... the Countenance of God Whose splendor can
never be obscured, the Light of God Whose radiance can never fade."
The people among whom He appeared were the most decadent race
in the civilized world, grossly ignorant, savage, cruel, steeped in
prejudice, servile in their submission to an almost deified hierarchy,
recalling in their abjectness the Israelites of Egypt in the days of
Moses, in their fanaticism the Jews in the days of Jesus, and in their
perversity the idolators of Arabia in the days of Muhammad. The
arch-enemy who repudiated His claim, challenged His authority,
persecuted His Cause, succeeded in almost quenching His light, and
who eventually became disintegrated under the impact of His Revelation
was the Shí'ah priesthood. Fiercely fanatic, unspeakably corrupt,
enjoying unlimited ascendancy over the masses, jealous of their
position, and irreconcilably opposed to all liberal ideas, the members
of this caste had for one thousand years invoked the name of the
Hidden Imám, their breasts had glowed with the expectation of His
advent, their pulpits had rung with the praises of His world-embracing
dominion, their lips were still devoutly and perpetually murmuring
prayers for the hastening of His coming. The willing tools
who prostituted their high office for the accomplishment of the
enemy's designs were no less than the sovereigns of the Qájár dynasty,
first, the bigoted, the sickly, the vacillating Muhammad Sháh, who
at the last moment cancelled the Báb's imminent visit to the capital,
and, second, the youthful and inexperienced Násiri'd-Dín Sháh, who
gave his ready assent to the sentence of his Captive's death. The
arch villains who joined hands with the prime movers of so wicked a
conspiracy were the two grand vizirs, Hájí Mírzá Aqásí, the idolized
tutor of Muhammad Sháh, a vulgar, false-hearted and fickle-minded
schemer, and the arbitrary, bloodthirsty, reckless Amír-Nizám, Mírzá
Taqí Khán, the first of whom exiled the Báb to the mountain fastnesses
of Ádhirbayján, and the latter decreed His death in Tabríz.
Their accomplice in these and other heinous crimes was a government
bolstered up by a flock of idle, parasitical princelings and governors,
corrupt, incompetent, tenaciously holding to their ill-gotten privileges,
and utterly subservient to a notoriously degraded clerical order.
The heroes whose deeds shine upon the record of this fierce spiritual
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contest, involving at once people, clergy, monarch and government,
were the Báb's chosen disciples, the Letters of the Living, and their
companions, the trail-breakers of the New Day, who to so much
intrigue, ignorance, depravity, cruelty, superstition and cowardice
opposed a spirit exalted, unquenchable and awe-inspiring, a knowledge
surprisingly profound, an eloquence sweeping in its force, a piety
unexcelled in fervor, a courage leonine in its fierceness, a self-abnegation
saintly in its purity, a resolve granite-like in its firmness, a
vision stupendous in its range, a veneration for the Prophet and His
Imáms disconcerting to their adversaries, a power of persuasion alarming
to their antagonists, a standard of faith and a code of conduct
that challenged and revolutionized the lives of their countrymen.
The opening scene of the initial act of this great drama was laid
in the upper chamber of the modest residence of the son of a mercer
of Shíráz, in an obscure corner of that city. The time was the hour
before sunset, on the 22nd day of May, 1844. The participants were
the Báb, a twenty-five year old siyyid, of pure and holy lineage, and
the young Mullá Husayn, the first to believe in Him. Their meeting
immediately before that interview seemed to be purely fortuitous.
The interview itself was protracted till the hour of dawn. The Host
remained closeted alone with His guest, nor was the sleeping city
remotely aware of the import of the conversation they held with
each other. No record has passed to posterity of that unique night
save the fragmentary but highly illuminating account that fell from
the lips of Mullá Husayn.
"I sat spellbound by His utterance, oblivious of time and of those
who awaited me," he himself has testified, after describing the nature
of the questions he had put to his Host and the conclusive replies he
had received from Him, replies which had established beyond the
shadow of a doubt the validity of His claim to be the promised Qá'im.
"Suddenly the call of the Mu'adhdhin, summoning the faithful to
their morning prayer, awakened me from the state of ecstasy into
which I seemed to have fallen. All the delights, all the ineffable
glories, which the Almighty has recounted in His Book as the priceless
possessions of the people of Paradise--these I seemed to be experiencing
that night. Methinks I was in a place of which it could be
truly said: `Therein no toil shall reach us, and therein no weariness
shall touch us;' `no vain discourse shall they hear therein, nor any
falsehood, but only the cry, "Peace! Peace!"'; `their cry therein shall
be, "Glory to Thee, O God!" and their salutation therein, "Peace!",
and the close of their cry, "Praise be to God, Lord of all creatures!"'
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Sleep had departed from me that night. I was enthralled by the
music of that voice which rose and fell as He chanted; now swelling
forth as He revealed verses of the Qayyúmu'l-Asmá', again acquiring
ethereal, subtle harmonies as He uttered the prayers He was revealing.
At the end of each invocation, He would repeat this verse: `Far from
the glory of thy Lord, the All-Glorious, be that which His creatures
affirm of Him! And peace be upon His Messengers! And praise be
to God, the Lord of all beings!'"
"This Revelation," Mullá Husayn has further testified, "so suddenly
and impetuously thrust upon me, came as a thunderbolt which,
for a time, seemed to have benumbed my faculties. I was blinded by
its dazzling splendor and overwhelmed by its crushing force. Excitement,
joy, awe, and wonder stirred the depths of my soul. Predominant
among these emotions was a sense of gladness and strength
which seemed to have transfigured me. How feeble and impotent,
how dejected and timid, I had felt previously! Then I could neither
write nor walk, so tremulous were my hands and feet. Now, however,
the knowledge of His Revelation had galvanized my being. I
felt possessed of such courage and power that were the world, all its
peoples and its potentates, to rise against me, I would, alone and
undaunted, withstand their onslaught. The universe seemed but a
handful of dust in my grasp. I seemed to be the voice of Gabriel
personified, calling unto all mankind: `Awake, for, lo! the morning
Light has broken. Arise, for His Cause is made manifest. The portal
of His grace is open wide; enter therein, O peoples of the world!
For He Who is your promised One is come!'"
A more significant light, however, is shed on this episode, marking
the Declaration of the Mission of the Báb, by the perusal of that
"first, greatest and mightiest" of all books in the Bábí Dispensation,
the celebrated commentary on the Súrih of Joseph, the first chapter
of which, we are assured, proceeded, in its entirety, in the course of
that night of nights from the pen of its divine Revealer. The description
of this episode by Mullá Husayn, as well as the opening pages of
that Book attest the magnitude and force of that weighty Declaration.
A claim to be no less than the mouthpiece of God Himself,
promised by the Prophets of bygone ages; the assertion that He was,
at the same time, the Herald of One immeasurably greater than Himself;
the summons which He trumpeted forth to the kings and princes
of the earth; the dire warnings directed to the Chief Magistrate of
the realm, Muhammad Sháh; the counsel imparted to Hájí Mírzá
Aqásí to fear God, and the peremptory command to abdicate his
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authority as grand vizir of the Sháh and submit to the One Who is
the "Inheritor of the earth and all that is therein"; the challenge
issued to the rulers of the world proclaiming the self-sufficiency of
His Cause, denouncing the vanity of their ephemeral power, and
calling upon them to "lay aside, one and all, their dominion," and
deliver His Message to "lands in both the East and the West"--these
constitute the dominant features of that initial contact that marked
the birth, and fixed the date, of the inception of the most glorious
era in the spiritual life of mankind.
With this historic Declaration the dawn of an Age that signalizes
the consummation of all ages had broken. The first impulse of a
momentous Revelation had been communicated to the one "but for
whom," according to the testimony of the Kitáb-i-Iqán, "God would
not have been established upon the seat of His mercy, nor ascended
the throne of eternal glory." Not until forty days had elapsed, however,
did the enrollment of the seventeen remaining Letters of the
Living commence. Gradually, spontaneously, some in sleep, others
while awake, some through fasting and prayer, others through dreams
and visions, they discovered the Object of their quest, and were
enlisted under the banner of the new-born Faith. The last, but in
rank the first, of these Letters to be inscribed on the Preserved Tablet
was the erudite, the twenty-two year old Quddús, a direct descendant
of the Imám Hasan and the most esteemed disciple of Siyyid Kázim.
Immediately preceding him, a woman, the only one of her sex, who,
unlike her fellow-disciples, never attained the presence of the Báb,
was invested with the rank of apostleship in the new Dispensation.
A poetess, less than thirty years of age, of distinguished birth, of
bewitching charm, of captivating eloquence, indomitable in spirit,
unorthodox in her views, audacious in her acts, immortalized as
Táhirih (the Pure One) by the "Tongue of Glory," and surnamed
Qurratu'l-`Ayn (Solace of the Eyes) by Siyyid Kázim, her teacher,
she had, in consequence of the appearance of the Báb to her in a
dream, received the first intimation of a Cause which was destined
to exalt her to the fairest heights of fame, and on which she, through
her bold heroism, was to shed such imperishable luster.
These "first Letters generated from the Primal Point," this "company
of angels arrayed before God on the Day of His coming," these
"Repositories of His Mystery," these "Springs that have welled out
from the Source of His Revelation," these first companions who, in
the words of the Persian Bayán, "enjoy nearest access to God," these
"Luminaries that have, from everlasting, bowed down, and will everlastingly
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continue to bow down, before the Celestial Throne," and
lastly these "elders" mentioned in the Book of Revelation as "sitting
before God on their seats," "clothed in white raiment" and wearing
on their heads "crowns of gold"--these were, ere their dispersal,
summoned to the Báb's presence, Who addressed to them His parting
words, entrusted to each a specific task, and assigned to some of them
as the proper field of their activities their native provinces. He
enjoined them to observe the utmost caution and moderation in their
behavior, unveiled the loftiness of their rank, and stressed the magnitude
of their responsibilities. He recalled the words addressed by
Jesus to His disciples, and emphasized the superlative greatness of
the New Day. He warned them lest by turning back they forfeit
the Kingdom of God, and assured them that if they did God's bidding,
God would make them His heirs and spiritual leaders among men.
He hinted at the secret, and announced the approach, of a still
mightier Day, and bade them prepare themselves for its advent.
He called to remembrance the triumph of Abraham over Nimrod,
of Moses over Pharaoh, of Jesus over the Jewish people, and of
Muhammad over the tribes of Arabia, and asserted the inevitability
and ultimate ascendancy of His own Revelation. To the care of
Mullá Husayn He committed a mission, more specific in character
and mightier in import. He affirmed that His covenant with him had
been established, cautioned him to be forbearing with the divines he
would encounter, directed him to proceed to Tihrán, and alluded, in
the most glowing terms, to the as yet unrevealed Mystery enshrined
in that city--a Mystery that would, He affirmed, transcend the light
shed by both Hijáz and Shíráz.
Galvanized into action by the mandate conferred upon them,
launched on their perilous and revolutionizing mission, these lesser
luminaries who, together with the Báb, constitute the First Vahíd
(Unity) of the Dispensation of the Bayán, scattered far and wide
through the provinces of their native land, where, with matchless
heroism, they resisted the savage and concerted onslaught of the forces
arrayed against them, and immortalized their Faith by their own
exploits and those of their co-religionists, raising thereby a tumult
that convulsed their country and sent its echoes reverberating as far
as the capitals of Western Europe.
It was not until, however, the Báb had received the eagerly anticipated
letter of Mullá Husayn, His trusted and beloved lieutenant,
communicating the joyful tidings of his interview with Bahá'u'lláh,
that He decided to undertake His long and arduous pilgrimage to the
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Tombs of His ancestors. In the month of Sha'bán, of the year 1260
A.H. (September, 1844) He Who, both on His father's and mother's
side, was of the seed of the illustrious Fátimih, and Who was a
descendant of the Imám Husayn, the most eminent among the lawful
successors of the Prophet of Islám, proceeded, in fulfillment of Islamic
traditions, to visit the Kaaba. He embarked from Búshihr on the
19th of Ramadán (October, 1844) on a sailing vessel, accompanied
by Quddús whom He was assiduously preparing for the assumption of
his future office. Landing at Jaddih after a stormy voyage of over a
month's duration, He donned the pilgrim's garb, mounted a camel,
and set out for Mecca, arriving on the first of Dhi'l-Hájjih (December
12). Quddús, holding the bridle in his hands, accompanied his
Master on foot to that holy Shrine. On the day of Árafih, the
Prophet-pilgrim of Shíráz, His chronicler relates, devoted His whole
time to prayer. On the day of Nahr He proceeded to Muná, where
He sacrificed according to custom nineteen lambs, nine in His own
name, seven in the name of Quddús, and three in the name of the
Ethiopian servant who attended Him. He afterwards, in company
with the other pilgrims, encompassed the Kaaba and performed the
rites prescribed for the pilgrimage.
His visit to Hijáz was marked by two episodes of particular importance.
The first was the declaration of His mission and His open
challenge to the haughty Mírzá Muhít-i-Kirmání, one of the most
outstanding exponents of the Shaykhí school, who at times went so
far as to assert his independence of the leadership of that school
assumed after the death of Siyyid Kázim by Hájí Muhammad Karím
Khán, a redoubtable enemy of the Bábí Faith. The second was the
invitation, in the form of an Epistle, conveyed by Quddús, to the
Sherif of Mecca, in which the custodian of the House of God was
called upon to embrace the truth of the new Revelation. Absorbed
in his own pursuits the Sherif however failed to respond. Seven years
later, when in the course of a conversation with a certain Hájí
Níyáz-i-Baghdádí, this same Sherif was informed of the circumstances
attending the mission and martyrdom of the Prophet of
Shíráz, he listened attentively to the description of those events and
expressed his indignation at the tragic fate that had overtaken Him.
The Báb's visit to Medina marked the conclusion of His pilgrimage.
Regaining Jaddih, He returned to Búshihr, where one of His first acts
was to bid His last farewell to His fellow-traveler and disciple, and
to assure him that he would meet the Beloved of their hearts. He,
moreover, announced to him that he would be crowned with a
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martyr's death, and that He Himself would subsequently suffer a
similar fate at the hands of their common foe.
The Báb's return to His native land (Safar 1261) (February-
March, 1845) was the signal for a commotion that rocked the entire
country. The fire which the declaration of His mission had lit was
being fanned into flame through the dispersal and activities of His
appointed disciples. Already within the space of less than two years
it had kindled the passions of friend and foe alike. The outbreak of
the conflagration did not even await the return to His native city of
the One Who had generated it. The implications of a Revelation,
thrust so dramatically upon a race so degenerate, so inflammable in
temper, could indeed have had no other consequence than to excite
within men's bosoms the fiercest passions of fear, of hate, of rage
and envy. A Faith Whose Founder did not content Himself with
the claim to be the Gate of the Hidden Imám, Who assumed a rank
that excelled even that of the Sáhibu'z-Zamán, Who regarded Himself
as the precursor of one incomparably greater than Himself, Who
peremptorily commanded not only the subjects of the Sháh, but the
monarch himself, and even the kings and princes of the earth, to
forsake their all and follow Him, Who claimed to be the inheritor of
the earth and all that is therein--a Faith Whose religious doctrines,
Whose ethical standards, social principles and religious laws challenged
the whole structure of the society in which it was born, soon
ranged, with startling unanimity, the mass of the people behind their
priests, and behind their chief magistrate, with his ministers and his
government, and welded them into an opposition sworn to destroy,
root and branch, the movement initiated by One Whom they regarded
as an impious and presumptuous pretender.
With the Báb's return to Shíráz the initial collision of irreconcilable
forces may be said to have commenced. Already the energetic
and audacious Mullá Alíy-i-Bastamí, one of the Letters of the Living,
"the first to leave the House of God (Shíráz) and the first to
suffer for His sake," who, in the presence of one of the leading exponents
of Shí'ah Islám, the far-famed Shaykh Muhammad Hasan,
had audaciously asserted that from the pen of his new-found Master
within the space of forty-eight hours, verses had streamed that
equalled in number those of the Qur'án, which it took its Author
twenty-three years to reveal, had been excommunicated, chained,
disgraced, imprisoned, and, in all probability, done to death. Mullá
Sádiq-i-Khurasaní, impelled by the injunction of the Báb in the
Khasá'il-i-Sab`ih to alter the sacrosanct formula of the adhán, sounded
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it in its amended form before a scandalized congregation in Shíráz,
and was instantly arrested, reviled, stripped of his garments, and
scourged with a thousand lashes. The villainous Husayn Khán, the
Nizámu'd-Dawlih, the governor of Fárs, who had read the challenge
thrown out in the Qayyúmu'l-Asmá', having ordered that Mullá
Sádiq together with Quddús and another believer be summarily and
publicly punished, caused their beards to be burned, their noses
pierced, and threaded with halters; then, having been led through
the streets in this disgraceful condition, they were expelled from
the city.
The people of Shíráz were by that time wild with excitement. A
violent controversy was raging in the masjids, the madrisihs, the
bazaars, and other public places. Peace and security were gravely
imperiled. Fearful, envious, thoroughly angered, the mullás were
beginning to perceive the seriousness of their position. The governor,
greatly alarmed, ordered the Báb to be arrested. He was brought to
Shíráz under escort, and, in the presence of Husayn Khán, was
severely rebuked, and so violently struck in the face that His turban
fell to the ground. Upon the intervention of the Imám-Jum'ih He
was released on parole, and entrusted to the custody of His maternal
uncle Hájí Mírzá Siyyid `Alí. A brief lull ensued, enabling the
captive Youth to celebrate the Naw-Rúz of that and the succeeding
year in an atmosphere of relative tranquillity in the company of His
mother, His wife, and His uncle. Meanwhile the fever that had
seized His followers was communicating itself to the members of the
clergy and to the merchant classes, and was invading the higher circles
of society. Indeed, a wave of passionate inquiry had swept the whole
country, and unnumbered congregations were listening with wonder
to the testimonies eloquently and fearlessly related by the Báb's
itinerant messengers.
The commotion had assumed such proportions that the Sháh,
unable any longer to ignore the situation, delegated the trusted
Siyyid Yahyáy-i-Darábí, surnamed Vahíd, one of the most erudite,
eloquent and influential of his subjects--a man who had committed
to memory no less than thirty thousand traditions--to investigate
and report to him the true situation. Broad-minded, highly imaginative,
zealous by nature, intimately associated with the court, he, in
the course of three interviews, was completely won over by the
arguments and personality of the Báb. Their first interview centered
around the metaphysical teachings of Islám, the most obscure passages
of the Qur'án, and the traditions and prophecies of the Imáms. In
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the course of the second interview Vahíd was astounded to find that
the questions which he had intended to submit for elucidation had
been effaced from his retentive memory, and yet, to his utter amazement,
he discovered that the Báb was answering the very questions
he had forgotten. During the third interview the circumstances
attending the revelation of the Báb's commentary on the súrih of
Kawthar, comprising no less than two thousand verses, so overpowered
the delegate of the Sháh that he, contenting himself with a
mere written report to the Court Chamberlain, arose forthwith to
dedicate his entire life and resources to the service of a Faith that
was to requite him with the crown of martyrdom during the Nayríz
upheaval. He who had firmly resolved to confute the arguments of
an obscure siyyid of Shíráz, to induce Him to abandon His ideas,
and to conduct Him to Tihrán as an evidence of the ascendancy he
had achieved over Him, was made to feel, as he himself later acknowledged,
as "lowly as the dust beneath His feet." Even Husayn
Khán, who had been Vahíd's host during his stay in Shíráz, was
compelled to write to the Sháh and express the conviction that his
Majesty's illustrious delegate had become a Bábí.
Another famous advocate of the Cause of the Báb, even fiercer
in zeal than Vahíd, and almost as eminent in rank, was Mullá
Muhammad-`Alíy-i-Zanjání, surnamed Hujjat. An Akhbarí, a vehement
controversialist, of a bold and independent temper of mind, impatient
of restraint, a man who had dared condemn the whole
ecclesiastical hierarchy from the Abváb-i-Arbá'ih down to the humblest
mullá, he had more than once, through his superior talents and
fervid eloquence, publicly confounded his orthodox Shí'ah adversaries.
Such a person could not remain indifferent to a Cause that was
producing so grave a cleavage among his countrymen. The disciple
he sent to Shíráz to investigate the matter fell immediately under the
spell of the Báb. The perusal of but a page of the Qayyúmu'l-Asmá',
brought by that messenger to Hujjat, sufficed to effect such a transformation
within him that he declared, before the assembled `ulamás
of his native city, that should the Author of that work pronounce
day to be night and the sun to be a shadow he would unhesitatingly
uphold his verdict.
Yet another recruit to the ever-swelling army of the new Faith
was the eminent scholar, Mírzá Ahmad-i-Azghandí, the most learned,
the wisest and the most outstanding among the `ulamás of Khurásán,
who, in anticipation of the advent of the promised Qá'im, had compiled
above twelve thousand traditions and prophecies concerning the
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time and character of the expected Revelation, had circulated them
among His fellow-disciples, and had encouraged them to quote them
extensively to all congregations and in all meetings.
While the situation was steadily deteriorating in the provinces,
the bitter hostility of the people of Shíráz was rapidly moving towards
a climax. Husayn Khán, vindictive, relentless, exasperated by the
reports of his sleepless agents that his Captive's power and fame were
hourly growing, decided to take immediate action. It is even reported
that his accomplice, Hájí Mírzá Aqásí, had ordered him to
kill secretly the would-be disrupter of the state and the wrecker of
its established religion. By order of the governor the chief constable,
`Abdu'l-Hamíd Khán, scaled, in the dead of night, the wall and
entered the house of Hájí Mírzá Siyyid `Alí, where the Báb was
confined, arrested Him, and confiscated all His books and documents.
That very night, however, took place an event which, in its dramatic
suddenness, was no doubt providentially designed to confound the
schemes of the plotters, and enable the Object of their hatred to
prolong His ministry and consummate His Revelation. An outbreak
of cholera, devastating in its virulence, had, since midnight, already
smitten above a hundred people. The dread of the plague had entered
every heart, and the inhabitants of the stricken city were, amid
shrieks of pain and grief, fleeing in confusion. Three of the governor's
domestics had already died. Members of his family were lying dangerously
ill. In his despair he, leaving the dead unburied, had fled to a
garden in the outskirts of the city. `Abdu'l-Hamíd Khán, confronted
by this unexpected development, decided to conduct the Báb to His
own home. He was appalled, upon his arrival, to learn that his son
lay in the death-throes of the plague. In his despair he threw himself
at the feet of the Báb, begged to be forgiven, adjured Him not to
visit upon the son the sins of the father, and pledged his word to
resign his post, and never again to accept such a position. Finding
that his prayer had been answered, he addressed a plea to the governor
begging him to release his Captive, and thereby deflect the fatal
course of this dire visitation. Husayn Khán acceded to his request,
and released his Prisoner on condition of His quitting the city.
Miraculously preserved by an almighty and watchful Providence,
the Báb proceeded to Isfahán (September, 1846), accompanied by
Siyyid Kázim-i-Zanjání. Another lull ensued, a brief period of
comparative tranquillity during which the Divine processes which
had been set in motion gathered further momentum, precipitating a
series of events leading to the imprisonment of the Báb in the
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fortresses of Máh-Kú and Chihríq, and culminating in His martyrdom
in the barrack-square of Tabríz. Well aware of the impending trials
that were to afflict Him, the Báb had, ere His final separation from
His family, bequeathed to His mother and His wife all His possessions,
had confided to the latter the secret of what was to befall Him,
and revealed for her a special prayer the reading of which, He assured
her, would resolve her perplexities and allay her sorrows. The first
forty days of His sojourn in Isfahán were spent as the guest of Mírzá
Siyyid Muhammad, the Sultánu'l-`Ulamá, the Imám-Jum'ih, one of
the principal ecclesiastical dignitaries of the realm, in accordance with
the instructions of the governor of the city, Manúchihr Khán, the
Mu Tamídu'd-Dawlih, who had received from the Báb a letter requesting
him to appoint the place where He should dwell. He was
ceremoniously received, and such was the spell He cast over the
people of that city that, on one occasion, after His return from the
public bath, an eager multitude clamored for the water that had
been used for His ablutions. So magic was His charm that His host,
forgetful of the dignity of his high rank, was wont to wait personally
upon Him. It was at the request of this same prelate that the Báb,
one night, after supper, revealed His well-known commentary on
the súrih of Va'l-`Asr. Writing with astonishing rapidity, He, in a
few hours, had devoted to the exposition of the significance of only
the first letter of that súrih--a letter which Shaykh Ahmad-i-Ahsá'í
had stressed, and which Bahá'u'lláh refers to in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas--
verses that equalled in number a third of the Qur'án, a feat that called
forth such an outburst of reverent astonishment from those who
witnessed it that they arose and kissed the hem of His robe.
The tumultuous enthusiasm of the people of Isfahán was meanwhile
visibly increasing. Crowds of people, some impelled by curiosity,
others eager to discover the truth, still others anxious to be
healed of their infirmities, flocked from every quarter of the city to
the house of the Imám-Jum'ih. The wise and judicious Manúchihr
Khán could not resist the temptation of visiting so strange, so intriguing
a Personage. Before a brilliant assemblage of the most accomplished
divines he, a Georgian by origin and a Christian by birth,
requested the Báb to expound and demonstrate the truth of Muhammad's
specific mission. To this request, which those present had felt
compelled to decline, the Báb readily responded. In less than two
hours, and in the space of fifty pages, He had not only revealed a
minute, a vigorous and original dissertation on this noble theme, but
had also linked it with both the coming of the Qá'im and the return
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of the Imám Husayn--an exposition that prompted Manúchihr Khán
to declare before that gathering his faith in the Prophet of Islám, as
well as his recognition of the supernatural gifts with which the
Author of so convincing a treatise was endowed.
These evidences of the growing ascendancy exercised by an unlearned
Youth on the governor and the people of a city rightly
regarded as one of the strongholds of Shí'ah Islám, alarmed the
ecclesiastical authorities. Refraining from any act of open hostility which
they knew full well would defeat their purpose, they sought, by
encouraging the circulation of the wildest rumors, to induce the
Grand Vizir of the Sháh to save a situation that was growing hourly
more acute and menacing. The popularity enjoyed by the Báb, His
personal prestige, and the honors accorded Him by His countrymen,
had now reached their high watermark. The shadows of an impending
doom began to fast gather about Him. A series of tragedies from then
on followed in rapid sequence destined to culminate in His own death
and the apparent extinction of the influence of His Faith.
The overbearing and crafty Hájí Mírzá Aqásí, fearful lest the
sway of the Báb encompass his sovereign and thus seal his own doom,
was aroused as never before. Prompted by a suspicion that the Báb
possessed the secret sympathies of the Mu'tamíd, and well aware of
the confidence reposed in him by the Sháh, he severely upbraided the
Imám-Jum'ih for the neglect of his sacred duty. He, at the same
time, lavished, in several letters, his favors upon the `ulamás of
Isfahán, whom he had hitherto ignored. From the pulpits of that
city an incited clergy began to hurl vituperation and calumny upon
the Author of what was to them a hateful and much to be feared
heresy. The Sháh himself was induced to summon the Báb to his
capital. Manúchihr Khán, bidden to arrange for His departure,
decided to transfer His residence temporarily to his own home.
Meanwhile the mujtahids and `ulamás, dismayed at the signs of so
pervasive an influence, summoned a gathering which issued an abusive
document signed and sealed by the ecclesiastical leaders of the city,
denouncing the Báb as a heretic and condemning Him to death.
Even the Imám-Jum'ih was constrained to add his written testimony
that the Accused was devoid of reason and judgment. The Mu'tamíd,
in his great embarrassment, and in order to appease the rising tumult,
conceived a plan whereby an increasingly restive populace were made
to believe that the Báb had left for Tihrán, while he succeeded in
insuring for Him a brief respite of four months in the privacy of the
Imárat-i-Khurshíd, the governor's private residence in Isfahán. It
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was in those days that the host expressed the desire to consecrate all
his possessions, evaluated by his contemporaries at no less than forty
million francs, to the furtherance of the interests of the new Faith,
declared his intention of converting Muhammad Sháh, of inducing
him to rid himself of a shameful and profligate minister, and of
obtaining his royal assent to the marriage of one of his sisters with the
Báb. The sudden death of the Mu'tamíd, however, foretold by the
Báb Himself, accelerated the course of the approaching crisis. The
ruthless and rapacious Gurgín Khán, the deputy governor, induced
the Sháh to issue a second summons ordering that the captive Youth
be sent in disguise to Tihrán, accompanied by a mounted escort. To
this written mandate of the sovereign the vile Gurgín Khán, who
had previously discovered and destroyed the will of his uncle, the
Mu'tamíd, and seized his property, unhesitatingly responded. At the
distance of less than thirty miles from the capital, however, in the
fortress of Kinár-Gird, a messenger delivered to Muhammad Big,
who headed the escort, a written order from Hájí Mírzá Aqásí instructing
him to proceed to Kulayn, and there await further instructions.
This was, shortly after, followed by a letter which the Sháh
had himself addressed to the Báb, dated Rabí'u'th-thání 1263 (March
19-April 17, 1847), and which, though couched in courteous terms,
clearly indicated the extent of the baneful influence exercised by the
Grand Vizir on his sovereign. The plans so fondly cherished by
Manúchihr Khán were now utterly undone. The fortress of Máh-Kú,
not far from the village of that same name, whose inhabitants had
long enjoyed the patronage of the Grand Vizir, situated in the remotest
northwestern corner of Ádhirbayján, was the place of incarceration
assigned by Muhammad Sháh, on the advice of his perfidious
minister, for the Báb. No more than one companion and
one attendant from among His followers were allowed to keep Him
company in those bleak and inhospitable surroundings. All-powerful
and crafty, that minister had, on the pretext of the necessity of his
master's concentrating his immediate attention on a recent rebellion
in Khurásán and a revolt in Kirmán, succeeded in foiling a plan,
which, had it materialized, would have had the most serious repercussions
on his own fortunes, as well as on the immediate destinies of his
government, its ruler and its people.
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CHAPTER II
The Báb's Captivity in Ádhirbayján
The period of the Báb's banishment to the mountains of Ádhirbayján,
lasting no less than three years, constitutes the saddest,
the most dramatic, and in a sense the most pregnant phase of His six
year ministry. It comprises His nine months' unbroken confinement
in the fortress of Máh-Kú, and His subsequent incarceration in the
fortress of Chihríq, which was interrupted only by a brief yet
memorable visit to Tabríz. It was overshadowed throughout by the
implacable and mounting hostility of the two most powerful adversaries
of the Faith, the Grand Vizir of Muhammad Sháh, Hájí Mírzá
Aqásí, and the Amír-Nizám, the Grand Vizir of Násiri'd-Dín
Sháh. It corresponds to the most critical stage of the mission of
Bahá'u'lláh, during His exile to Adrianople, when confronted with
the despotic Sultán `Abdu'l-`Azíz and his ministers, `Alí Páshá and
Fu'ád Páshá, and is paralleled by the darkest days of `Abdu'l-Bahá's
ministry in the Holy Land, under the oppressive rule of the tyrannical
`Abdu'l-Hamíd and the equally tyrannical Jamál Páshá. Shíráz had
been the memorable scene of the Báb's historic Declaration; Isfahán
had provided Him, however briefly, with a haven of relative peace
and security; whilst Ádhirbayján was destined to become the theatre
of His agony and martyrdom. These concluding years of His earthly
life will go down in history as the time when the new Dispensation
attained its full stature, when the claim of its Founder was fully and
publicly asserted, when its laws were formulated, when the Covenant
of its Author was firmly established, when its independence was proclaimed,
and when the heroism of its champions blazed forth in
immortal glory. For it was during these intensely dramatic, fate-laden
years that the full implications of the station of the Báb were
disclosed to His disciples, and formally announced by Him in the
capital of Ádhirbayján, in the presence of the Heir to the Throne;
that the Persian Bayán, the repository of the laws ordained by the
Báb, was revealed; that the time and character of the Dispensation of
"the One Whom God will make manifest" were unmistakably determined;
that the Conference of Badasht proclaimed the annulment
of the old order; and that the great conflagrations of Mazindarán,
of Nayríz and of Zanján were kindled.
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And yet, the foolish and short-sighted Hájí Mírzá Aqásí fondly
imagined that by confounding the plan of the Báb to meet the Sháh
face to face in the capital, and by relegating Him to the farthest
corner of the realm, he had stifled the Movement at its birth, and
would soon conclusively triumph over its Founder. Little did he
imagine that the very isolation he was forcing upon his Prisoner
would enable Him to evolve the System designed to incarnate the
soul of His Faith, and would afford Him the opportunity of safeguarding
it from disintegration and schism, and of proclaiming
formally and unreservedly His mission. Little did he imagine that
this very confinement would induce that Prisoner's exasperated
disciples and companions to cast off the shackles of an antiquated
theology, and precipitate happenings that would call forth from them
a prowess, a courage, a self-renunciation unexampled in their country's
history. Little did he imagine that by this very act he would be
instrumental in fulfilling the authentic tradition ascribed to the
Prophet of Islám regarding the inevitability of that which should
come to pass in Ádhirbayján. Untaught by the example of the
governor of Shíráz, who, with fear and trembling, had, at the first
taste of God's avenging wrath, fled ignominiously and relaxed his
hold on his Captive, the Grand Vizir of Muhammad Sháh was, in
his turn, through the orders he had issued, storing up for himself
severe and inevitable disappointment, and paving the way for his own
ultimate downfall.
His orders to `Alí Khán, the warden of the fortress of Máh-Kú,
were stringent and explicit. On His way to that fortress the Báb
passed a number of days in Tabríz, days that were marked by such an
intense excitement on the part of the populace that, except for a few
persons, neither the public nor His followers were allowed to meet
Him. As He was escorted through the streets of the city the shout
of "Alláh-u-Akbar" resounded on every side. So great, indeed,
became the clamor that the town crier was ordered to warn the
inhabitants that any one who ventured to seek the Báb's presence
would forfeit all his possessions and be imprisoned. Upon His arrival
in Máh-Kú, surnamed by Him Jabál-i-Basít (the Open Mountain)
no one was allowed to see Him for the first two weeks except His
amanuensis, Siyyid Husayn, and his brother. So grievous was His
plight while in that fortress that, in the Persian Bayán, He Himself
has stated that at night-time He did not even have a lighted lamp,
and that His solitary chamber, constructed of sun-baked bricks,
lacked even a door, while, in His Tablet to Muhammad Sháh, He
+P19
has complained that the inmates of the fortress were confined to two
guards and four dogs.
Secluded on the heights of a remote and dangerously situated
mountain on the frontiers of the Ottoman and Russian empires;
imprisoned within the solid walls of a four-towered fortress; cut off
from His family, His kindred and His disciples; living in the vicinity
of a bigoted and turbulent community who, by race, tradition,
language and creed, differed from the vast majority of the inhabitants
of Persia; guarded by the people of a district which, as the birthplace
of the Grand Vizir, had been made the recipient of the special
favors of his administration, the Prisoner of Máh-Kú seemed in the
eyes of His adversary to be doomed to languish away the flower of
His youth, and witness, at no distant date, the complete annihilation
of His hopes. That adversary was soon to realize, however, how
gravely he had misjudged both his Prisoner and those on whom he
had lavished his favors. An unruly, a proud and unreasoning people
were gradually subdued by the gentleness of the Báb, were chastened
by His modesty, were edified by His counsels, and instructed by His
wisdom. They were so carried away by their love for Him that their
first act every morning, notwithstanding the remonstrations of the
domineering `Alí Khán, and the repeated threats of disciplinary measures
received from Tihrán, was to seek a place where they could
catch a glimpse of His face, and beseech from afar His benediction
upon their daily work. In cases of dispute it was their wont to
hasten to the foot of the fortress, and, with their eyes fixed upon His
abode, invoke His name, and adjure one another to speak the truth.
`Alí Khán himself, under the influence of a strange vision, felt such
mortification that he was impelled to relax the severity of his discipline,
as an atonement for his past behavior. Such became his leniency
that an increasing stream of eager and devout pilgrims began to be
admitted at the gates of the fortress. Among them was the dauntless
and indefatigable Mullá Husayn, who had walked on foot the entire
way from Mashad in the east of Persia to Máh-Kú, the westernmost
outpost of the realm, and was able, after so arduous a journey, to
celebrate the festival of Naw-Rúz (1848) in the company of his
Beloved.
Secret agents, however, charged to watch `Alí Khán, informed Hájí
Mírzá Aqásí of the turn events were taking, whereupon he immediately
decided to transfer the Báb to the fortress of Chihríq (about
April 10, 1848), surnamed by Him the Jabál-i-Shadíd (the Grievous
Mountain). There He was consigned to the keeping of Yahyá Khán,
+P20
a brother-in-law of Muhammad Sháh. Though at the outset he acted
with the utmost severity, he was eventually compelled to yield to
the fascination of his Prisoner. Nor were the kurds, who lived in the
village of Chihríq, and whose hatred of the Shí'ahs exceeded even
that of the inhabitants of Máh-Kú, able to resist the pervasive power
of the Prisoner's influence. They too were to be seen every morning,
ere they started for their daily work, to approach the fortress and
prostrate themselves in adoration before its holy Inmate. "So great
was the confluence of the people," is the testimony of a European
eye-witness, writing in his memoirs of the Báb, "that the courtyard,
not being large enough to contain His hearers, the majority remained
in the street and listened with rapt attention to the verses of the
new Qur'án."
Indeed the turmoil raised in Chihríq eclipsed the scenes which
Máh-Kú had witnessed. Siyyids of distinguished merit, eminent
`ulamás, and even government officials were boldly and rapidly
espousing the Cause of the Prisoner. The conversion of the zealous,
the famous Mírzá Asadu'lláh, surnamed Dayyán, a prominent official
of high literary repute, who was endowed by the Báb with the
"hidden and preserved knowledge," and extolled as the "repository
of the trust of the one true God," and the arrival of a dervish, a
former navváb, from India, whom the Báb in a vision had bidden
renounce wealth and position, and hasten on foot to meet Him in
Ádhirbayján, brought the situation to a head. Accounts of these
startling events reached Tabríz, were thence communicated to Tihrán,
and forced Hájí Mírzá Aqásí again to intervene. Dayyán's father, an
intimate friend of that minister, had already expressed to him his
grave apprehension at the manner in which the able functionaries of
the state were being won over to the new Faith. To allay the rising
excitement the Báb was summoned to Tabríz. Fearful of the enthusiasm
of the people of Ádhirbayján, those into whose custody He had
been delivered decided to deflect their route, and avoid the town of
Khúy, passing instead through Urúmíyyih. On His arrival in that
town Prince Malik Qásim Mírzá ceremoniously received Him, and
was even seen, on a certain Friday, when his Guest was riding on His
way to the public bath, to accompany Him on foot, while the
Prince's footmen endeavored to restrain the people who, in their
overflowing enthusiasm, were pressing to catch a glimpse of so
marvelous a Prisoner. Tabríz, in its turn in the throes of wild excitement,
joyously hailed His arrival. Such was the fervor of popular
feeling that the Báb was assigned a place outside the gates of the city.
+P21
This, however, failed to allay the prevailing emotion. Precautions,
warnings and restrictions served only to aggravate a situation that
had already become critical. It was at this juncture that the Grand
Vizir issued his historic order for the immediate convocation of the
ecclesiastical dignitaries of Tabríz to consider the most effectual
measures which would, once and for all, extinguish the flames of so
devouring a conflagration.
The circumstances attending the examination of the Báb, as a
result of so precipitate an act, may well rank as one of the chief
landmarks of His dramatic career. The avowed purpose of that convocation
was to arraign the Prisoner, and deliberate on the steps to
be taken for the extirpation of His so-called heresy. It instead
afforded Him the supreme opportunity of His mission to assert in
public, formally and without any reservation, the claims inherent in
His Revelation. In the official residence, and in the presence, of the
governor of Ádhirbayján, Násiri'd-Dín Mírzá, the heir to the throne;
under the presidency of Hájí Mullá Mahmúd, the Nizámu'l-`Ulamá,
the Prince's tutor; before the assembled ecclesiastical dignitaries of
Tabríz, the leaders of the Shaykhí community, the Shaykhu'l-Islám,
and the Imám-Jum'ih, the Báb, having seated Himself in the chief
place which had been reserved for the Valí-'Ahd (the heir to the
throne), gave, in ringing tones, His celebrated answer to the question
put to Him by the President of that assembly. "I am," He exclaimed,
"I am, I am the Promised One! I am the One Whose name
you have for a thousand years invoked, at Whose mention you have
risen, Whose advent you have longed to witness, and the hour of
Whose Revelation you have prayed God to hasten. Verily, I say, it is
incumbent upon the peoples of both the East and the West to obey
My word, and to pledge allegiance to My person."
Awe-struck, those present momentarily dropped their heads in
silent confusion. Then Mullá Muhammad-i-Mamaqaní, that one-eyed
white-bearded renegade, summoning sufficient courage, with characteristic
insolence, reprimanded Him as a perverse and contemptible
follower of Satan; to which the undaunted Youth retorted that He
maintained what He had already asserted. To the query subsequently
addressed to Him by the Nizámu'l-`Ulamá the Báb affirmed that His
words constituted the most incontrovertible evidence of His mission,
adduced verses from the Qur'án to establish the truth of His assertion,
and claimed to be able to reveal, within the space of two days
and two nights, verses equal to the whole of that Book. In answer to a
criticism calling His attention to an infraction by Him of the rules
+P22
of grammar, He cited certain passages from the Qur'án as corroborative
evidence, and, turning aside, with firmness and dignity, a
frivolous and irrelevant remark thrown at Him by one of those who
were present, summarily disbanded that gathering by Himself rising
and quitting the room. The convocation thereupon dispersed, its
members confused, divided among themselves, bitterly resentful and
humiliated through their failure to achieve their purpose. Far from
daunting the spirit of their Captive, far from inducing Him to
recant or abandon His mission, that gathering was productive of no
other result than the decision, arrived at after considerable argument
and discussion, to inflict the bastinado on Him, at the hands, and in
the prayer-house of the heartless and avaricious Mírzá `Alí-Asghar,
the Shaykhu'l-Islám of that city. Confounded in his schemes Hájí
Mírzá Aqásí was forced to order the Báb to be taken back to
Chihríq.
This dramatic, this unqualified and formal declaration of the
Báb's prophetic mission was not the sole consequence of the foolish
act which condemned the Author of so weighty a Revelation to a
three years' confinement in the mountains of Ádhirbayján. This
period of captivity, in a remote corner of the realm, far removed
from the storm centers of Shíráz, Isfahán, and Tihrán, afforded Him
the necessary leisure to launch upon His most monumental work, as
well as to engage on other subsidiary compositions designed to unfold
the whole range, and impart the full force, of His short-lived yet
momentous Dispensation. Alike in the magnitude of the writings
emanating from His pen, and in the diversity of the subjects treated
in those writings, His Revelation stands wholly unparalleled in the
annals of any previous religion. He Himself affirms, while confined
in Máh-Kú, that up to that time His writings, embracing highly
diversified subjects, had amounted to more than five hundred thousand
verses. "The verses which have rained from this Cloud of Divine
mercy," is Bahá'u'lláh's testimony in the Kitáb-i-Iqán, "have been so
abundant that none hath yet been able to estimate their number. A
score of volumes are now available. How many still remain beyond
our reach! How many have been plundered and have fallen into the
hands of the enemy, the fate of which none knoweth!" No less
arresting is the variety of themes presented by these voluminous
writings, such as prayers, homilies, orations, Tablets of visitation,
scientific treatises, doctrinal dissertations, exhortations, commentaries
on the Qur'án and on various traditions, epistles to the highest religious
and ecclesiastical dignitaries of the realm, and laws and
+P23
ordinances for the consolidation of His Faith and the direction of
its activities.
Already in Shíráz, at the earliest stage of His ministry, He had
revealed what Bahá'u'lláh has characterized as "the first, the greatest,
and mightiest of all books" in the Bábí Dispensation, the celebrated
commentary on the súrih of Joseph, entitled the Qayyúmu'l-Asmá',
whose fundamental purpose was to forecast what the true Joseph
(Bahá'u'lláh) would, in a succeeding Dispensation, endure at the
hands of one who was at once His arch-enemy and blood brother.
This work, comprising above nine thousand three hundred verses,
and divided into one hundred and eleven chapters, each chapter a
commentary on one verse of the above-mentioned súrih, opens with
the Báb's clarion-call and dire warnings addressed to the "concourse
of kings and of the sons of kings;" forecasts the doom of Muhammad
Sháh; commands his Grand Vizir, Hájí Mírzá Aqásí, to abdicate his
authority; admonishes the entire Muslim ecclesiastical order; cautions
more specifically the members of the Shí'ah community; extols the
virtues, and anticipates the coming, of Bahá'u'lláh, the "Remnant of
God," the "Most Great Master;" and proclaims, in unequivocal language,
the independence and universality of the Bábí Revelation,
unveils its import, and affirms the inevitable triumph of its Author.
It, moreover, directs the "people of the West" to "issue forth from
your cities and aid the Cause of God;" warns the peoples of the earth
of the "terrible, the most grievous vengeance of God;" threatens the
whole Islamic world with "the Most Great Fire" were they to turn
aside from the newly-revealed Law; foreshadows the Author's
martyrdom; eulogizes the high station ordained for the people of
Bahá, the "Companions of the crimson-colored ruby Ark;" prophesies
the fading out and utter obliteration of some of the greatest luminaries
in the firmament of the Bábí Dispensation; and even predicts "afflictive
torment," in both the "Day of Our Return" and in "the world
which is to come," for the usurpers of the Imamate, who "waged war
against Husayn (Imám Husayn) in the Land of the Euphrates."
It was this Book which the Bábís universally regarded, during
almost the entire ministry of the Báb, as the Qur'án of the people of
the Bayán; whose first and most challenging chapter was revealed in
the presence of Mullá Husayn, on the night of its Author's Declaration;
some of whose pages were borne, by that same disciple, to
Bahá'u'lláh, as the first fruits of a Revelation which instantly won
His enthusiastic allegiance; whose entire text was translated into
Persian by the brilliant and gifted Táhirih; whose passages inflamed
+P24
the hostility of Husayn Khán and precipitated the initial outbreak
of persecution in Shíráz; a single page of which had captured the
imagination and entranced the soul of Hujjat; and whose contents
had set afire the intrepid defenders of the Fort of Shaykh Tabarsí
and the heroes of Nayríz and Zanján.
This work, of such exalted merit, of such far-reaching influence,
was followed by the revelation of the Báb's first Tablet to Muhammad
Sháh; of His Tablets to Sultán `Abdu'l-Majíd and to Najíb Páshá,
the Valí of Baghdád; of the Sahífiy-i-baynu'l-Harámayn, revealed
between Mecca and Medina, in answer to questions posed by Mírzá
Muhít-i-Kirmání; of the Epistle to the Sheríf of Mecca; of the
Kitábú'r-Rúh, comprising seven hundred súrihs; of the Khasá'il-i-Sab`ih,
which enjoined the alteration of the formula of the adhán;
of the Risáliy-i-Furú-i-`Adlíyyih, rendered into Persian by Mullá
Muhammad-Taqíy-i-Haratí; of the commentary on the súrih of
Kawthar, which effected such a transformation in the soul of Vahíd;
of the commentary on the súrih of Va'l-`Asr, in the house of the
Imám-Jum'ih of Isfahán; of the dissertation on the Specific Mission
of Muhammad, written at the request of Manúchihr Khán; of the
second Tablet to Muhammad Sháh, craving an audience in which to
set forth the truths of the new Revelation, and dissipate his doubts;
and of the Tablets sent from the village of Síyáh-Dihán to the `ulamás
of Qazvín and to Hájí Mírzá Aqásí, inquiring from him as to the
cause of the sudden change in his decision.
The great bulk of the writings emanating from the Báb's prolific
mind was, however, reserved for the period of His confinement in
Máh-Kú and Chihríq. To this period must probably belong the
unnumbered Epistles which, as attested by no less an authority than
Bahá'u'lláh, the Báb specifically addressed to the divines of every city
in Persia, as well as to those residing in Najaf and Karbilá, wherein
He set forth in detail the errors committed by each one of them. It
was during His incarceration in the fortress of Máh-Kú that He,
according to the testimony of Shaykh Hasan-i-Zunúzí, who transcribed
during those nine months the verses dictated by the Báb to
His amanuensis, revealed no less than nine commentaries on the whole
of the Qur'án--commentaries whose fate, alas, is unknown, and one
of which, at least the Author Himself affirmed, surpassed in some
respects a book as deservedly famous as the Qayyúmu'l-Asmá.
Within the walls of that same fortress the Bayán (Exposition)--
that monumental repository of the laws and precepts of the new
Dispensation and the treasury enshrining most of the Báb's references
+P25
and tributes to, as well as His warning regarding, "Him Whom
God will make manifest"--was revealed. Peerless among the doctrinal
works of the Founder of the Bábí Dispensation; consisting of nine
Vahíds (Unities) of nineteen chapters each, except the last Vahíd
comprising only ten chapters; not to be confounded with the
smaller and less weighty Arabic Bayán, revealed during the same
period; fulfilling the Muhammadan prophecy that "a Youth from
Baní-Háshim ... will reveal a new Book and promulgate a new
Law;" wholly safeguarded from the interpolation and corruption
which has been the fate of so many of the Báb's lesser works, this
Book, of about eight thousand verses, occupying a pivotal position
in Bábí literature, should be regarded primarily as a eulogy of the
Promised One rather than a code of laws and ordinances designed
to be a permanent guide to future generations. This Book at once
abrogated the laws and ceremonials enjoined by the Qur'án regarding
prayer, fasting, marriage, divorce and inheritance, and upheld, in its
integrity, the belief in the prophetic mission of Muhammad, even as
the Prophet of Islám before Him had annulled the ordinances of
the Gospel and yet recognized the Divine origin of the Faith of Jesus
Christ. It moreover interpreted in a masterly fashion the meaning of
certain terms frequently occurring in the sacred Books of previous
Dispensations such as Paradise, Hell, Death, Resurrection, the Return,
the Balance, the Hour, the Last Judgment, and the like. Designedly
severe in the rules and regulations it imposed, revolutionizing in the
principles it instilled, calculated to awaken from their age-long torpor
the clergy and the people, and to administer a sudden and fatal blow
to obsolete and corrupt institutions, it proclaimed, through its drastic
provisions, the advent of the anticipated Day, the Day when "the
Summoner shall summon to a stern business," when He will "demolish
whatever hath been before Him, even as the Apostle of God demolished
the ways of those that preceded Him."
It should be noted, in this connection, that in the third Vahíd of
this Book there occurs a passage which, alike in its explicit reference
to the name of the Promised One, and in its anticipation of the
Order which, in a later age, was to be identified with His Revelation,
deserves to rank as one of the most significant statements recorded in
any of the Báb's writings. "Well is it with him," is His prophetic
announcement, "who fixeth his gaze upon the Order of Bahá'u'lláh,
and rendereth thanks unto his Lord. For He will assuredly be made
manifest. God hath indeed irrevocably ordained it in the Bayán."
It is with that self-same Order that the Founder of the promised
26
Revelation, twenty years later--incorporating that same term in His
Kitáb-i-Aqdas--identified the System envisaged in that Book, affirming
that "this most great Order" had deranged the world's equilibrium,
and revolutionized mankind's ordered life. It is the features of that
self-same Order which, at a later stage in the evolution of the Faith,
the Center of Bahá'u'lláh's Covenant and the appointed Interpreter
of His teachings, delineated through the provisions of His Will and
Testament. It is the structural basis of that self-same Order which,
in the Formative Age of that same Faith, the stewards of that same
Covenant, the elected representatives of the world-wide Bahá'í community,
are now laboriously and unitedly establishing. It is the
superstructure of that self-same Order, attaining its full stature
through the emergence of the Bahá'í World Commonwealth--the
Kingdom of God on earth--which the Golden Age of that same
Dispensation must, in the fullness of time, ultimately witness.
The Báb was still in Máh-Kú when He wrote the most detailed
and illuminating of His Tablets to Muhammad Sháh. Prefaced by a
laudatory reference to the unity of God, to His Apostles and to the
twelve Imáms; unequivocal in its assertion of the divinity of its
Author and of the supernatural powers with which His Revelation
had been invested; precise in the verses and traditions it cites in
confirmation of so audacious a claim; severe in its condemnation of
some of the officials and representatives of the Sháh's administration,
particularly of the "wicked and accursed" Husayn Khán; moving in
its description of the humiliation and hardships to which its writer
had been subjected, this historic document resembles, in many of its
features, the Lawh-i-Sultán, the Tablet addressed, under similar
circumstances, from the prison-fortress of `Akká by Bahá'u'lláh to
Násiri'd-Dín Sháh, and constituting His lengthiest epistle to any
single sovereign.
The Dalá'il-i-Sab`ih (Seven Proofs), the most important of the
polemical works of the Báb, was revealed during that same period.
Remarkably lucid, admirable in its precision, original in conception,
unanswerable in its argument, this work, apart from the many and
divers proofs of His mission which it adduces, is noteworthy for the
blame it assigns to the "seven powerful sovereigns ruling the world"
in His day, as well as for the manner in which it stresses the
responsibilities, and censures the conduct, of the Christian divines of a
former age who, had they recognized the truth of Muhammad's
mission, He contends, would have been followed by the mass of their
co-religionists.
+P27
During the Báb's confinement in the fortress of Chihríq, where
He spent almost the whole of the two remaining years of His life,
the Lawh-i-Hurúfat (Tablet of the Letters) was revealed, in honor
of Dayyán--a Tablet which, however misconstrued at first as an
exposition of the science of divination, was later recognized to have
unravelled, on the one hand, the mystery of the Mustagháth, and to
have abstrusely alluded, on the other, to the nineteen years which
must needs elapse between the Declaration of the Báb and that of
Bahá'u'lláh. It was during these years--years darkened throughout
by the rigors of the Báb's captivity, by the severe indignities inflicted
upon Him, and by the news of the disasters that overtook the heroes
of Mazindarán and Nayríz--that He revealed, soon after His return
from Tabríz, His denunciatory Tablet to Hájí Mírzá Aqásí. Couched
in bold and moving language, unsparing in its condemnation, this
epistle was forwarded to the intrepid Hujjat who, as corroborated
by Bahá'u'lláh, delivered it to that wicked minister.
To this period of incarceration in the fortresses of Máh-Kú and
Chihríq--a period of unsurpassed fecundity, yet bitter in its humiliations
and ever-deepening sorrows--belong almost all the written
references, whether in the form of warnings, appeals or exhortations,
which the Báb, in anticipation of the approaching hour of His
supreme affliction, felt it necessary to make to the Author of a
Revelation that was soon to supersede His own. Conscious from the
very beginning of His twofold mission, as the Bearer of a wholly
independent Revelation and the Herald of One still greater than His
own, He could not content Himself with the vast number of commentaries,
of prayers, of laws and ordinances, of dissertations and
epistles, of homilies and orations that had incessantly streamed from
His pen. The Greater Covenant into which, as affirmed in His writings,
God had, from time immemorial, entered, through the Prophets
of all ages, with the whole of mankind, regarding the newborn
Revelation, had already been fulfilled. It had now to be supplemented
by a Lesser Covenant which He felt bound to make with the entire
body of His followers concerning the One Whose advent He characterized
as the fruit and ultimate purpose of His Dispensation.
Such a Covenant had invariably been the feature of every previous
religion. It had existed, under various forms, with varying degrees
of emphasis, had always been couched in veiled language, and had
been alluded to in cryptic prophecies, in abstruse allegories, in
unauthenticated traditions, and in the fragmentary and obscure
passages of the sacred Scriptures. In the Bábí Dispensation, however,
+P28
it was destined to be established in clear and unequivocal language,
though not embodied in a separate document. Unlike the Prophets
gone before Him, Whose Covenants were shrouded in mystery, unlike
Bahá'u'lláh, Whose clearly defined Covenant was incorporated in a
specially written Testament, and designated by Him as "the Book
of My Covenant," the Báb chose to intersperse His Book of Laws,
the Persian Bayán, with unnumbered passages, some designedly
obscure, mostly indubitably clear and conclusive, in which He fixes
the date of the promised Revelation, extols its virtues, asserts its
pre-eminent character, assigns to it unlimited powers and prerogatives,
and tears down every barrier that might be an obstacle to its
recognition. "He, verily," Bahá'u'lláh, referring to the Báb in His
Kitáb-i-Badí', has stated, "hath not fallen short of His duty to
exhort the people of the Bayán and to deliver unto them His Message.
In no age or dispensation hath any Manifestation made mention, in
such detail and in such explicit language, of the Manifestation
destined to succeed Him."
Some of His disciples the Báb assiduously prepared to expect the
imminent Revelation. Others He orally assured would live to see its
day. To Mullá Báqir, one of the Letters of the Living, He actually
prophesied, in a Tablet addressed to him, that he would meet the
Promised One face to face. To Sáyyah, another disciple, He gave
verbally a similar assurance. Mullá Husayn He directed to Tihrán,
assuring him that in that city was enshrined a Mystery Whose light
neither Hijáz nor Shíráz could rival. Quddús, on the eve of his
final separation from Him, was promised that he would attain the
presence of the One Who was the sole Object of their adoration and
love. To Shaykh Hasan-i-Zunúzí He declared while in Máh-Kú that
he would behold in Karbilá the countenance of the promised Husayn.
On Dayyán He conferred the title of "the third Letter to believe in
Him Whom God shall make manifest," while to Azím He divulged,
in the Kitáb-i-Panj-Sha'n, the name, and announced the approaching
advent, of Him Who was to consummate His own Revelation.
A successor or vicegerent the Báb never named, an interpreter of
His teachings He refrained from appointing. So transparently clear
were His references to the Promised One, so brief was to be the
duration of His own Dispensation, that neither the one nor the other
was deemed necessary. All He did was, according to the testimony of
`Abdu'l-Bahá in "A Traveller's Narrative," to nominate, on the
advice of Bahá'u'lláh and of another disciple, Mírzá Yahyá, who
would act solely as a figure-head pending the manifestation of the
+P29
Promised One, thus enabling Bahá'u'lláh to promote, in relative
security, the Cause so dear to His heart.
"The Bayán," the Báb in that Book, referring to the Promised
One, affirms, "is, from beginning to end, the repository of all of His
attributes, and the treasury of both His fire and His light." "If thou
attainest unto His Revelation," He, in another connection declares,
"and obeyest Him, thou wilt have revealed the fruit of the Bayán;
if not, thou art unworthy of mention before God." "O people of
the Bayán!" He, in that same Book, thus warns the entire company
of His followers, "act not as the people of the Qur'án have acted,
for if ye do so, the fruits of your night will come to naught." "Suffer
not the Bayán," is His emphatic injunction, "and all that hath been
revealed therein to withhold you from that Essence of Being and
Lord of the visible and invisible." "Beware, beware," is His significant
warning addressed to Vahíd, "lest in the days of His Revelation the
Vahíd of the Bayán (eighteen Letters of the Living and the Báb)
shut thee out as by a veil from Him, inasmuch as this Vahíd is but a
creature in His sight." And again: "O congregation of the Bayán,
and all who are therein! Recognize ye the limits imposed upon you,
for such a One as the Point of the Bayán Himself hath believed in
Him Whom God shall make manifest before all things were created.
Therein, verily, do I glory before all who are in the kingdom of
heaven and earth."
"In the year nine," He, referring to the date of the advent of the
promised Revelation, has explicitly written, "ye shall attain unto all
good." "In the year nine, ye will attain unto the presence of God."
And again: "After Hín (68) a Cause shall be given unto you which
ye shall come to know." "Ere nine will have elapsed from the inception
of this Cause," He more particularly has stated, "the realities of
the created things will not be made manifest. All that thou hast as
yet seen is but the stage from the moist germ until We clothed it
with flesh. Be patient, until thou beholdest a new creation. Say:
`Blessed, therefore, be God, the most excellent of Makers!'" "Wait
thou," is His statement to Azím, "until nine will have elapsed from
the time of the Bayán. Then exclaim: `Blessed, therefore, be God,
the most excellent of Makers!'" "Be attentive," He, referring in a
remarkable passage to the year nineteen, has admonished, "from the
inception of the Revelation till the number of Vahíd (19)." "The
Lord of the Day of Reckoning," He, even more explicitly, has stated,
"will be manifested at the end of Vahíd (19) and the beginning of
eighty (1280 A.H.)." "Were He to appear this very moment," He,
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in His eagerness to insure that the proximity of the promised Revelation
should not withhold men from the Promised One, has revealed,
"I would be the first to adore Him, and the first to bow down
before Him."
"I have written down in My mention of Him," He thus extols
the Author of the anticipated Revelation, "these gem-like words: `No
allusion of Mine can allude unto Him, neither anything mentioned in
the Bayán.'" "I, Myself, am but the first servant to believe in Him
and in His signs...." "The year-old germ," He significantly affirms,
"that holdeth within itself the potentialities of the Revelation that is
to come is endowed with a potency superior to the combined forces
of the whole of the Bayán." And again: "The whole of the Bayán is
only a leaf amongst the leaves of His Paradise." "Better is it for thee,"
He similarly asserts, "to recite but one of the verses of Him Whom
God shall make manifest than to set down the whole of the Bayán,
for on that Day that one verse can save thee, whereas the entire Bayán
cannot save thee." "Today the Bayán is in the stage of seed; at the
beginning of the manifestation of Him Whom God shall make manifest
its ultimate perfection will become apparent." "The Bayán
deriveth all its glory from Him Whom God shall make manifest."
"All that hath been revealed in the Bayán is but a ring upon My hand,
and I Myself am, verily, but a ring upon the hand of Him Whom
God shall make manifest... He turneth it as He pleaseth, for whatsoever
He pleaseth, and through whatsoever He pleaseth. He, verily,
is the Help in Peril, the Most High." "Certitude itself," He, in reply
to Vahíd and to one of the Letters of the Living who had inquired
regarding the promised One, had declared, "is ashamed to be called
upon to certify His truth ... and Testimony itself is ashamed to
testify unto Him." Addressing this same Vahíd, He moreover had
stated: "Were I to be assured that in the day of His manifestation
thou wilt deny Him, I would unhesitatingly disown thee... If, on
the other hand, I be told that a Christian, who beareth no allegiance
to My Faith, will believe in Him, the same will I regard as the apple
of My eye."
And finally is this, His moving invocation to God: "Bear Thou
witness that, through this Book, I have covenanted with all created
things concerning the mission of Him Whom Thou shalt make manifest,
ere the covenant concerning My own mission had been established.
Sufficient witness art Thou and they that have believed in Thy
signs." "I, verily, have not fallen short of My duty to admonish that
people," is yet another testimony from His pen, "...If on the day of
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His Revelation all that are on earth bear Him allegiance, Mine inmost
being will rejoice, inasmuch as all will have attained the summit of
their existence.... If not, My soul will be saddened. I truly have
nurtured all things for this purpose. How, then, can any one be
veiled from Him?"
The last three and most eventful years of the Báb's ministry had,
as we have observed in the preceding pages, witnessed not only the
formal and public declaration of His mission, but also an unprecedented
effusion of His inspired writings, including both the revelation
of the fundamental laws of His Dispensation and also the establishment
of that Lesser Covenant which was to safeguard the unity of
His followers and pave the way for the advent of an incomparably
mightier Revelation. It was during this same period, in the early
days of His incarceration in the fortress of Chihríq, that the independence
of the new-born Faith was openly recognized and asserted
by His disciples. The laws underlying the new Dispensation had
been revealed by its Author in a prison-fortress in the mountains of
Ádhirbayján, while the Dispensation itself was now to be inaugurated
in a plain on the border of Mazindarán, at a conference of His
assembled followers.
Bahá'u'lláh, maintaining through continual correspondence close
contact with the Báb, and Himself the directing force behind the
manifold activities of His struggling fellow-disciples, unobtrusively
yet effectually presided over that conference, and guided and controlled
its proceedings. Quddús, regarded as the exponent of the
conservative element within it, affected, in pursuance of a pre-conceived
plan designed to mitigate the alarm and consternation which
such a conference was sure to arouse, to oppose the seemingly
extremist views advocated by the impetuous Táhirih. The primary
purpose of that gathering was to implement the revelation of the
Bayán by a sudden, a complete and dramatic break with the past--
with its order, its ecclesiasticism, its traditions, and ceremonials. The
subsidiary purpose of the conference was to consider the means of
emancipating the Báb from His cruel confinement in Chihríq. The
first was eminently successful; the second was destined from the
outset to fail.
The scene of such a challenging and far-reaching proclamation
was the hamlet of Badasht, where Bahá'u'lláh had rented, amidst
pleasant surroundings, three gardens, one of which He assigned to
Quddús, another to Táhirih, whilst the third He reserved for Himself.
The eighty-one disciples who had gathered from various provinces
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were His guests from the day of their arrival to the day they dispersed.
On each of the twenty-two days of His sojourn in that
hamlet He revealed a Tablet, which was chanted in the presence of
the assembled believers. On every believer He conferred a new name,
without, however, disclosing the identity of the one who had bestowed
it. He Himself was henceforth designated by the name Bahá. Upon
the Last Letter of the Living was conferred the appellation of
Quddús, while Qurratu'l-`Ayn was given the title of Táhirih. By
these names they were all subsequently addressed by the Báb in the
Tablets He revealed for each one of them.
It was Bahá'u'lláh Who steadily, unerringly, yet unsuspectedly,
steered the course of that memorable episode, and it was Bahá'u'lláh
Who brought the meeting to its final and dramatic climax. One day
in His presence, when illness had confined Him to bed, Táhirih, regarded
as the fair and spotless emblem of chastity and the incarnation
of the holy Fátimih, appeared suddenly, adorned yet unveiled, before
the assembled companions, seated herself on the right-hand of the
affrighted and infuriated Quddús, and, tearing through her fiery
words the veils guarding the sanctity of the ordinances of Islám,
sounded the clarion-call, and proclaimed the inauguration, of a new
Dispensation. The effect was electric and instantaneous. She, of such
stainless purity, so reverenced that even to gaze at her shadow was
deemed an improper act, appeared for a moment, in the eyes of her
scandalized beholders, to have defamed herself, shamed the Faith
she had espoused, and sullied the immortal Countenance she symbolized.
Fear, anger, bewilderment, swept their inmost souls, and
stunned their faculties. `Abdu'l-Kháliq-i-Isfahání, aghast and deranged
at such a sight, cut his throat with his own hands. Spattered
with blood, and frantic with excitement, he fled away from her face.
A few, abandoning their companions, renounced their Faith. Others
stood mute and transfixed before her. Still others must have recalled
with throbbing hearts the Islamic tradition foreshadowing the appearance
of Fátimih herself unveiled while crossing the Bridge (Sirat)
on the promised Day of Judgment. Quddús, mute with rage, seemed
to be only waiting for the moment when he could strike her down
with the sword he happened to be then holding in his hand.
Undeterred, unruffled, exultant with joy, Táhirih arose, and,
without the least premeditation and in a language strikingly resembling
that of the Qur'án, delivered a fervid and eloquent appeal
to the remnant of the assembly, ending it with this bold assertion:
"I am the Word which the Qá'im is to utter, the Word which shall
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put to flight the chiefs and nobles of the earth!" Thereupon, she
invited them to embrace each other and celebrate so great an occasion.
On that memorable day the "Bugle" mentioned in the Qur'án was
sounded, the "stunning trumpet-blast" was loudly raised, and the
"Catastrophe" came to pass. The days immediately following so
startling a departure from the time-honored traditions of Islám
witnessed a veritable revolution in the outlook, habits, ceremonials
and manner of worship of these hitherto zealous and devout upholders
of the Muhammadan Law. Agitated as had been the Conference
from first to last, deplorable as was the secession of the few who
refused to countenance the annulment of the fundamental statutes
of the Islamic Faith, its purpose had been fully and gloriously
accomplished. Only four years earlier the Author of the Bábí Revelation
had declared His mission to Mullá Husayn in the privacy of His
home in Shíráz. Three years after that Declaration, within the walls
of the prison-fortress of Máh-Kú, He was dictating to His amanuensis
the fundamental and distinguishing precepts of His Dispensation.
A year later, His followers, under the actual leadership of Bahá'u'lláh,
their fellow-disciple, were themselves, in the hamlet of Badasht,
abrogating the Qur'ánic Law, repudiating both the divinely-ordained
and man-made precepts of the Faith of Muhammad, and shaking off
the shackles of its antiquated system. Almost immediately after, the
Báb Himself, still a prisoner, was vindicating the acts of His disciples
by asserting, formally and unreservedly, His claim to be the promised
Qá'im, in the presence of the Heir to the Throne, the leading exponents
of the Shaykhí community, and the most illustrious ecclesiastical
dignitaries assembled in the capital of Ádhirbayján.
A little over four years had elapsed since the birth of the Báb's
Revelation when the trumpet-blast announcing the formal extinction
of the old, and the inauguration of the new Dispensation was sounded.
No pomp, no pageantry marked so great a turning-point in the world's
religious history. Nor was its modest setting commensurate with
such a sudden, startling, complete emancipation from the dark and
embattled forces of fanaticism, of priestcraft, of religious orthodoxy
and superstition. The assembled host consisted of no more than a
single woman and a handful of men, mostly recruited from the very
ranks they were attacking, and devoid, with few exceptions, of wealth,
prestige and power. The Captain of the host was Himself an absentee,
a captive in the grip of His foes. The arena was a tiny hamlet in the
plain of Badasht on the border of Mazindarán. The trumpeter was a
lone woman, the noblest of her sex in that Dispensation, whom even
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some of her co-religionists pronounced a heretic. The call she sounded
was the death-knell of the twelve hundred year old law of Islám.
Accelerated, twenty years later, by another trumpet-blast, announcing
the formulation of the laws of yet another Dispensation,
this process of disintegration, associated with the declining fortunes
of a superannuated, though divinely revealed Law, gathered further
momentum, precipitated, in a later age, the annulment of the Sharí'ah
canonical Law in Turkey, led to the virtual abandonment of that
Law in Shí'ah Persia, has, more recently, been responsible for the
dissociation of the System envisaged in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas from the
Sunní ecclesiastical Law in Egypt, has paved the way for the recognition
of that System in the Holy Land itself, and is destined to
culminate in the secularization of the Muslim states, and in the
universal recognition of the Law of Bahá'u'lláh by all the nations,
and its enthronement in the hearts of all the peoples, of the
Muslim world.
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CHAPTER III
Upheavals in Mazindarán, Nayríz and Zanján
The Báb's captivity in a remote corner of Ádhirbayján, immortalized
by the proceedings of the Conference of Badasht, and distinguished
by such notable developments as the public declaration of His
mission, the formulation of the laws of His Dispensation and the establishment
of His Covenant, was to acquire added significance through
the dire convulsions that sprang from the acts of both His adversaries
and His disciples. The commotions that ensued, as the years of that
captivity drew to a close, and that culminated in His own martyrdom,
called forth a degree of heroism on the part of His followers and a
fierceness of hostility on the part of His enemies which had never been
witnessed during the first three years of His ministry. Indeed, this
brief but most turbulent period may be rightly regarded as the
bloodiest and most dramatic of the Heroic Age of the Bahá'í Era.
The momentous happenings associated with the Báb's incarceration
in Máh-Kú and Chihríq, constituting as they did the high watermark
of His Revelation, could have no other consequence than to
fan to fiercer flame both the fervor of His lovers and the fury of
His enemies. A persecution, grimmer, more odious, and more
shrewdly calculated than any which Husayn Khán, or even Hájí
Mírzá Aqásí, had kindled was soon to be unchained, to be accompanied
by a corresponding manifestation of heroism unmatched by
any of the earliest outbursts of enthusiasm that had greeted the birth
of the Faith in either Shíráz or Isfahán. This period of ceaseless and
unprecedented commotion was to rob that Faith, in quick succession,
of its chief protagonists, was to attain its climax in the extinction
of the life of its Author, and was to be followed by a further and
this time an almost complete elimination of its eminent supporters,
with the sole exception of One Who, at its darkest hour, was entrusted,
through the dispensations of Providence, with the dual function
of saving a sorely-stricken Faith from annihilation, and of
ushering in the Dispensation destined to supersede it.
The formal assumption by the Báb of the authority of the
promised Qá'im, in such dramatic circumstances and in so challenging
a tone, before a distinguished gathering of eminent Shí'ah
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ecclesiastics, powerful, jealous, alarmed and hostile, was the explosive
force that loosed a veritable avalanche of calamities which swept
down upon the Faith and the people among whom it was born.
It raised to fervid heat the zeal that glowed in the souls of the Báb's
scattered disciples, who were already incensed by the cruel captivity
of their Leader, and whose ardor was now further inflamed by the
outpourings of His pen which reached them unceasingly from the
place of His confinement. It provoked a heated and prolonged controversy
throughout the length and breadth of the land, in bazaars,
masjids, madrisihs and other public places, deepening thereby the
cleavage that had already sundered its people. Muhammad Sháh, at
so perilous an hour, was meanwhile rapidly sinking under the weight
of his physical infirmities. The shallow-minded Hájí Mírzá Aqásí,
now the pivot of state affairs, exhibited a vacillation and incompetence
that seemed to increase with every extension in the range of his grave
responsibilities. At one time he would feel inclined to support the
verdict of the `ulamás; at another he would censure their aggressiveness
and distrust their assertions; at yet another, he would relapse into
mysticism, and, wrapt in his reveries, lose sight of the gravity of the
emergency that confronted him.
So glaring a mismanagement of national affairs emboldened the
clerical order, whose members were now hurling with malignant zeal
anathemas from their pulpits, and were vociferously inciting superstitious
congregations to take up arms against the upholders of a
much hated creed, to insult the honor of their women folk, to plunder
their property and harass and injure their children. "What of the
signs and prodigies," they thundered before countless assemblies,
"that must needs usher in the advent of the Qá'im? What of the
Major and Minor Occultations? What of the cities of Jabúlqá and
Jabúlsá? How are we to explain the sayings of Husayn-ibn-Rúh,
and what interpretation should be given to the authenticated traditions
ascribed to Ibn-i-Mihríyár? Where are the Men of the Unseen,
who are to traverse, in a week, the whole surface of the earth? What
of the conquest of the East and West which the Qá'im is to effect on
His appearance? Where is the one-eyed Anti-Christ and the ass on
which he is to mount? What of Súfyán and his dominion?" "Are
we," they noisily remonstrated, "are we to account as a dead letter
the indubitable, the unnumbered traditions of our holy Imáms, or
are we to extinguish with fire and sword this brazen heresy that has
dared to lift its head in our land?"
To these defamations, threats and protestations the learned and
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resolute champions of a misrepresented Faith, following the example
of their Leader, opposed unhesitatingly treatises, commentaries and
refutations, assiduously written, cogent in their argument, replete
with testimonies, lucid, eloquent and convincing, affirming their
belief in the Prophethood of Muhammad, in the legitimacy of the
Imáms, in the spiritual sovereignty of the Sáhibu'z-Zamán (the
Lord of the Age), interpreting in a masterly fashion the obscure, the
designedly allegorical and abstruse traditions, verses and prophecies
in the Islamic holy Writ, and adducing, in support of their contention,
the meekness and apparent helplessness of the Imám Husayn
who, despite his defeat, his discomfiture and ignominious martyrdom,
had been hailed by their antagonists as the very embodiment and the
matchless symbol of God's all-conquering sovereignty and power.
This fierce, nation-wide controversy had assumed alarming proportions
when Muhammad Sháh finally succumbed to his illness, precipitating
by his death the downfall of his favorite and all-powerful
minister, Hájí Mírzá Aqásí, who, soon stripped of the treasures he
had amassed, fell into disgrace, was expelled from the capital, and
sought refuge in Karbilá. The seventeen year old Násiri'd-Dín Mírzá
ascended the throne, leaving the direction of affairs to the obdurate,
the iron-hearted Amír-Nizám, Mírzá Taqí Khán, who, without
consulting his fellow-ministers, decreed that immediate and condign
punishment be inflicted on the hapless Bábís. Governors, magistrates
and civil servants, throughout the provinces, instigated by the
monstrous campaign of vilification conducted by the clergy, and
prompted by their lust for pecuniary rewards, vied in their respective
spheres with each other in hounding and heaping indignities on the
adherents of an outlawed Faith. For the first time in the Faith's
history a systematic campaign in which the civil and ecclesiastical
powers were banded together was being launched against it, a campaign
that was to culminate in the horrors experienced by Bahá'u'lláh
in the Síyáh-Chál of Tihrán and His subsequent banishment to `Iráq.
Government, clergy and people arose, as one man, to assault and
exterminate their common enemy. In remote and isolated centers
the scattered disciples of a persecuted community were pitilessly
struck down by the sword of their foes, while in centers where
large numbers had congregated measures were taken in self-defense,
which, misconstrued by a cunning and deceitful adversary, served in
their turn to inflame still further the hostility of the authorities, and
multiply the outrages perpetrated by the oppressor. In the East at
Shaykh Tabarsí, in the south in Nayríz, in the west in Zanján, and
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in the capital itself, massacres, upheavals, demonstrations, engagements,
sieges, acts of treachery proclaimed, in rapid succession, the
violence of the storm which had broken out, and exposed the bankruptcy,
and blackened the annals, of a proud yet degenerate people.
The audacity of Mullá Husayn who, at the command of the
Báb, had attired his head with the green turban worn and sent to
him by his Master, who had hoisted the Black Standard, the unfurling
of which would, according to the Prophet Muhammad, herald the
advent of the vicegerent of God on earth, and who, mounted on
his steed, was marching at the head of two hundred and two of his
fellow-disciples to meet and lend his assistance to Quddús in the
Jazíriy-i-Khadrá (Verdant Isle)--his audacity was the signal for a
clash the reverberations of which were to resound throughout the
entire country. The contest lasted no less than eleven months. Its
theatre was for the most part the forest of Mazindarán. Its heroes
were the flower of the Báb's disciples. Its martyrs comprised no less
than half of the Letters of the Living, not excluding Quddús and
Mullá Husayn, respectively the last and the first of these Letters.
The directive force which however unobtrusively sustained it was
none other than that which flowed from the mind of Bahá'u'lláh.
It was caused by the unconcealed determination of the dawn-breakers
of a new Age to proclaim, fearlessly and befittingly, its advent, and
by a no less unyielding resolve, should persuasion prove a failure, to
resist and defend themselves against the onslaughts of malicious and
unreasoning assailants. It demonstrated beyond the shadow of a
doubt what the indomitable spirit of a band of three hundred and
thirteen untrained, unequipped yet God-intoxicated students, mostly
sedentary recluses of the college and cloister, could achieve when
pitted in self-defense against a trained army, well equipped, supported
by the masses of the people, blessed by the clergy, headed by a prince
of the royal blood, b