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 &Baha'i world will 
celebrate the centennial anniversary of the founding of the Faith of 
&Baha'u'llah.  It will commemorate at once the hundreth anniversary 
of the inception of the &Babi Dispensation, of the inauguration of the 
&Baha'i Era, of the commencement of the &Baha'i Cycle, and of the 
birth of &Abdu'l-Baha.  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 &Baha'u'llah 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 &Bab 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, 
 
xii 
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 &Baha'u'llah--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 &Shaykhi school of the &Ithna-'Ashariyyih sect 
of &Shi'ah &Islam 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 
 
xiii 
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 &Islam.  
     It is not my purpose--nor does the occasion demand it,--to write 
a detailed history of the last hundred years of the &Baha'i 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 &Baha'i Era may be 
said to comprise the Heroic, the Primitive, the Apostolic Age of the 
Faith of &Baha'u'llah, 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 
 
xiv 
former commences with the Declaration of the &Bab, includes the 
mission of &Baha'u'llah, and terminates with the passing of &Abdu'l-Baha.  
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 &Bab, 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 
&Qajar dynasty and their wicked ministers participated, and which 
was supported by the entire &Shi'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 &Baha'u'llah, 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 &Baha'u'llah while in the &Siyah-Chal of &Tihran, of the 
Revelation anticipated by the &Bab, 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 &Akka.  It extends over thirty-nine 
years of continuous, of unprecedented and overpowering Revelation, 
 
xv 
is marked by the propagation of the Faith to the neighboring territories 
of Turkey, of Russia, of &Iraq, of Syria, of Egypt and of India, 
and is distinguished by a corresponding aggravation of hostility, 
represented by the united attacks launched by the &Shah of Persia and 
the &Sultan of Turkey, the two admittedly most powerful potentates 
of the East, as well as by the opposition of the twin sacerdotal orders 
of &Shi'ah and &Sunni &Islam.  The third period (1892-1921) revolves 
around the vibrant personality of &Abdu'l-Baha, 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 &Baha'u'llah, 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-Baha, that Charter 
of &Baha'u'llah'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 
&Baha'i century synchronizes with the birth of the Formative Age of 
the &Baha'i Era, with the founding of the Administrative Order of the 
Faith of &Baha'u'llah--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 
 
xvi 
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 &Baha'i 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 &Bab, 
the Forerunner, announced the impending inception of a divinely-conceived 
Order, how &Baha'u'llah, the Promised One, formulated its 
laws and ordinances, how &Abdu'l-Baha, 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 &Iraq, 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 &Shi'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 
 
xvii 
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 &Shi'ah &Islam, which, at a 
later stage, gathered momentum with the banishment of &Baha'u'llah 
to the domains of the Turkish &Sultan and the consequent hostility of 
the more powerful &Sunni 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 &Baha'i 
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-Adhkar 
of &Ishqabad, the first &Baha'i 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 
 
xviii 
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.  
 
+P1 
                                 FIRST PERIOD 
                           THE MINISTRY OF THE &BAB 
                                  1844-1853 
 
+P2 
 
+P3 
                                  CHAPTER I 
                       The Birth of the &Babi Revelation 
 
     May 23, 1844, signalizes the commencement of the most turbulent 
period of the Heroic Age of the &Baha'i 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 &Baha'i 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," &Baha'u'llah 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 &Baha'i 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 &Bab, arise meteor-like 
above the horizon of &Shiraz, 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.  
 
+P4 
     He Who communicated the original impulse to so incalculable a 
Movement was none other than the promised &Qa'im (He who 
ariseth), the &Sahibu'z-Zaman (the Lord of the Age), Who assumed 
the exclusive right of annulling the whole &Qur'anic 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 &Shi'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 &Imam, 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 &Qajar dynasty, 
first, the bigoted, the sickly, the vacillating &Muhammad &Shah, who 
at the last moment cancelled the &Bab's imminent visit to the capital, 
and, second, the youthful and inexperienced &Nasiri'd-Din &Shah, 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, &Haji &Mirza &Aqasi, the idolized 
tutor of &Muhammad &Shah, a vulgar, false-hearted and fickle-minded 
schemer, and the arbitrary, bloodthirsty, reckless &Amir-Nizam, &Mirza 
&Taqi &Khan, the first of whom exiled the &Bab to the mountain fastnesses 
of &Adhirbayjan, and the latter decreed His death in &Tabriz.  
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 
 
+P5 
contest, involving at once people, clergy, monarch and government, 
were the &Bab'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 
&Imams 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 &Shiraz, 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 &Bab, a twenty-five year old siyyid, of pure and holy lineage, and 
the young &Mulla &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 &Mulla &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 &Qa'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!"'  
 
+P6 
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 &Qayyumu'l-Asma', 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," &Mulla &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 &Bab, by the perusal of that 
"first, greatest and mightiest" of all books in the &Babi Dispensation, 
the celebrated commentary on the &Surih 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 &Mulla &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 &Shah; the counsel imparted to &Haji &Mirza 
&Aqasi to fear God, and the peremptory command to abdicate his 
 
+P7 
authority as grand vizir of the &Shah 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 &Kitab-i-Iqan, "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 &Quddus, a direct descendant 
of the &Imam &Hasan and the most esteemed disciple of Siyyid &Kazim.  
Immediately preceding him, a woman, the only one of her sex, who, 
unlike her fellow-disciples, never attained the presence of the &Bab, 
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 
&Tahirih (the Pure One) by the "Tongue of Glory," and surnamed 
&Qurratu'l-'Ayn (Solace of the Eyes) by Siyyid &Kazim, her teacher, 
she had, in consequence of the appearance of the &Bab 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 &Bayan, "enjoy nearest access to God," these 
"Luminaries that have, from everlasting, bowed down, and will everlastingly 
 
+P8 
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 &Bab'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 
&Mulla &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 &Tihran, 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 &Hijaz and &Shiraz.  
     Galvanized into action by the mandate conferred upon them, 
launched on their perilous and revolutionizing mission, these lesser 
luminaries who, together with the &Bab, constitute the First &Vahid 
(Unity) of the Dispensation of the &Bayan, 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 &Bab had received the eagerly anticipated 
letter of &Mulla &Husayn, His trusted and beloved lieutenant, 
communicating the joyful tidings of his interview with &Baha'u'llah, 
that He decided to undertake His long and arduous pilgrimage to the 
 
+P9 
Tombs of His ancestors.  In the month of &Sha'ban, 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 &Fatimih, and Who was a 
descendant of the &Imam &Husayn, the most eminent among the lawful 
successors of the Prophet of &Islam, proceeded, in fulfillment of Islamic 
traditions, to visit the Kaaba.  He embarked from &Bushihr on the 
19th of &Ramadan (October, 1844) on a sailing vessel, accompanied 
by &Quddus 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-Hajjih (December 
12).  &Quddus, holding the bridle in his hands, accompanied his 
Master on foot to that holy Shrine.  On the day of &Arafih, the 
Prophet-pilgrim of &Shiraz, His chronicler relates, devoted His whole 
time to prayer.  On the day of Nahr He proceeded to &Muna, where 
He sacrificed according to custom nineteen lambs, nine in His own 
name, seven in the name of &Quddus, 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 &Hijaz was marked by two episodes of particular importance.  
The first was the declaration of His mission and His open 
challenge to the haughty &Mirza &Muhit-i-Kirmani, one of the most 
outstanding exponents of the &Shaykhi school, who at times went so 
far as to assert his independence of the leadership of that school 
assumed after the death of Siyyid &Kazim by &Haji &Muhammad &Karim 
&Khan, a redoubtable enemy of the &Babi Faith.  The second was the 
invitation, in the form of an Epistle, conveyed by &Quddus, 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 &Haji 
&Niyaz-i-Baghdadi, this same Sherif was informed of the circumstances 
attending the mission and martyrdom of the Prophet of 
&Shiraz, he listened attentively to the description of those events and 
expressed his indignation at the tragic fate that had overtaken Him.  
     The &Bab's visit to Medina marked the conclusion of His pilgrimage.  
Regaining Jaddih, He returned to &Bushihr, 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 
 
+P10 
martyr's death, and that He Himself would subsequently suffer a 
similar fate at the hands of their common foe.  
     The &Bab'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 &Imam, Who assumed a rank 
that excelled even that of the &Sahibu'z-Zaman, Who regarded Himself 
as the precursor of one incomparably greater than Himself, Who 
peremptorily commanded not only the subjects of the &Shah, 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 &Bab's return to &Shiraz the initial collision of irreconcilable 
forces may be said to have commenced.  Already the energetic 
and audacious &Mulla &Aliy-i-Bastami, one of the Letters of the Living, 
"the first to leave the House of God (&Shiraz) and the first to 
suffer for His sake," who, in the presence of one of the leading exponents 
of &Shi'ah &Islam, 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'an, which it took its Author 
twenty-three years to reveal, had been excommunicated, chained, 
disgraced, imprisoned, and, in all probability, done to death.  &Mulla 
&Sadiq-i-Khurasani, impelled by the injunction of the &Bab in the 
&Khasa'il-i-Sab'ih to alter the sacrosanct formula of the &adhan, sounded 
 
+P11 
it in its amended form before a scandalized congregation in &Shiraz, 
and was instantly arrested, reviled, stripped of his garments, and 
scourged with a thousand lashes.  The villainous &Husayn &Khan, the 
&Nizamu'd-Dawlih, the governor of &Fars, who had read the challenge 
thrown out in the &Qayyumu'l-Asma', having ordered that &Mulla 
&Sadiq together with &Quddus 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 &Shiraz 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 &mullas were 
beginning to perceive the seriousness of their position.  The governor, 
greatly alarmed, ordered the &Bab to be arrested.  He was brought to 
&Shiraz under escort, and, in the presence of &Husayn &Khan, was 
severely rebuked, and so violently struck in the face that His turban 
fell to the ground.  Upon the intervention of the &Imam-Jum'ih He 
was released on parole, and entrusted to the custody of His maternal 
uncle &Haji &Mirza Siyyid &Ali.  A brief lull ensued, enabling the 
captive Youth to celebrate the &Naw-Ruz 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 &Bab's 
itinerant messengers.  
     The commotion had assumed such proportions that the &Shah, 
unable any longer to ignore the situation, delegated the trusted 
Siyyid &Yahyay-i-Darabi, surnamed &Vahid, 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 &Bab.  Their first interview centered 
around the metaphysical teachings of &Islam, the most obscure passages 
of the &Qur'an, and the traditions and prophecies of the &Imams.  In 
 
+P12 
the course of the second interview &Vahid 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 &Bab was answering the very questions 
he had forgotten.  During the third interview the circumstances 
attending the revelation of the &Bab's commentary on the &surih of 
&Kawthar, comprising no less than two thousand verses, so overpowered 
the delegate of the &Shah 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 &Nayriz 
upheaval.  He who had firmly resolved to confute the arguments of 
an obscure siyyid of &Shiraz, to induce Him to abandon His ideas, 
and to conduct Him to &Tihran 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 
&Khan, who had been &Vahid's host during his stay in &Shiraz, was 
compelled to write to the &Shah and express the conviction that his 
Majesty's illustrious delegate had become a &Babi.  
     Another famous advocate of the Cause of the &Bab, even fiercer 
in zeal than &Vahid, and almost as eminent in rank, was &Mulla 
&Muhammad-'Aliy-i-Zanjani, surnamed &Hujjat.  An &Akhbari, 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 &Abvab-i-Arba'ih down to the humblest 
&mulla, he had more than once, through his superior talents and 
fervid eloquence, publicly confounded his orthodox &Shi'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 &Shiraz to investigate the matter fell immediately under the 
spell of the &Bab.  The perusal of but a page of the &Qayyumu'l-Asma', 
brought by that messenger to &Hujjat, sufficed to effect such a transformation 
within him that he declared, before the assembled &ulamas 
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, &Mirza &Ahmad-i-Azghandi, the most learned, 
the wisest and the most outstanding among the &ulamas of &Khurasan, 
who, in anticipation of the advent of the promised &Qa'im, had compiled 
above twelve thousand traditions and prophecies concerning the 
 
+P13 
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 &Shiraz was rapidly moving towards 
a climax.  &Husayn &Khan, 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, &Haji &Mirza &Aqasi, 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-Hamid &Khan, scaled, in the dead of night, the wall and 
entered the house of &Haji &Mirza Siyyid &Ali, where the &Bab 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-Hamid &Khan, confronted 
by this unexpected development, decided to conduct the &Bab 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 &Bab, 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 &Khan acceded to his request, 
and released his Prisoner on condition of His quitting the city.  
     Miraculously preserved by an almighty and watchful Providence, 
the &Bab proceeded to &Isfahan (September, 1846), accompanied by 
Siyyid &Kazim-i-Zanjani.  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 &Bab in the 
 
+P14 
fortresses of &Mah-Ku and &Chihriq, and culminating in His martyrdom 
in the barrack-square of &Tabriz.  Well aware of the impending trials 
that were to afflict Him, the &Bab 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 &Isfahan were spent as the guest of &Mirza 
Siyyid &Muhammad, the &Sultanu'l-'Ulama, the &Imam-Jum'ih, one of 
the principal ecclesiastical dignitaries of the realm, in accordance with 
the instructions of the governor of the city, &Manuchihr &Khan, the 
Mu &Tamidu'd-Dawlih, who had received from the &Bab 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 &Bab, 
one night, after supper, revealed His well-known commentary on 
the &surih 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 &surih--a letter which &Shaykh &Ahmad-i-Ahsa'i 
had stressed, and which &Baha'u'llah refers to in the &Kitab-i-Aqdas--
verses that equalled in number a third of the &Qur'an, 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 &Isfahan 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 &Imam-Jum'ih.  The wise and judicious &Manuchihr 
&Khan 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 &Bab to expound and demonstrate the truth of &Muhammad's 
specific mission.  To this request, which those present had felt 
compelled to decline, the &Bab 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 &Qa'im and the return 
 
+P15 
of the &Imam &Husayn--an exposition that prompted &Manuchihr &Khan 
to declare before that gathering his faith in the Prophet of &Islam, 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 &Shi'ah &Islam, 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 &Shah to save a situation that was growing hourly 
more acute and menacing.  The popularity enjoyed by the &Bab, 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 &Haji &Mirza &Aqasi, fearful lest the 
sway of the &Bab encompass his sovereign and thus seal his own doom, 
was aroused as never before.  Prompted by a suspicion that the &Bab 
possessed the secret sympathies of the &Mu'tamid, and well aware of 
the confidence reposed in him by the &Shah, he severely upbraided the 
&Imam-Jum'ih for the neglect of his sacred duty.  He, at the same 
time, lavished, in several letters, his favors upon the &ulamas of 
&Isfahan, 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 &Shah himself was induced to summon the &Bab to his 
capital.  &Manuchihr &Khan, bidden to arrange for His departure, 
decided to transfer His residence temporarily to his own home.  
Meanwhile the mujtahids and &ulamas, 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 &Bab as a heretic and condemning Him to death.  
Even the &Imam-Jum'ih was constrained to add his written testimony 
that the Accused was devoid of reason and judgment.  The &Mu'tamid, 
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 &Bab had left for &Tihran, while he succeeded in 
insuring for Him a brief respite of four months in the privacy of the 
&Imarat-i-Khurshid, the governor's private residence in &Isfahan.  It 
 
+P16 
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 &Shah, 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 
&Bab.  The sudden death of the &Mu'tamid, however, foretold by the 
&Bab Himself, accelerated the course of the approaching crisis.  The 
ruthless and rapacious &Gurgin &Khan, the deputy governor, induced 
the &Shah to issue a second summons ordering that the captive Youth 
be sent in disguise to &Tihran, accompanied by a mounted escort.  To 
this written mandate of the sovereign the vile &Gurgin &Khan, who 
had previously discovered and destroyed the will of his uncle, the 
&Mu'tamid, and seized his property, unhesitatingly responded.  At the 
distance of less than thirty miles from the capital, however, in the 
fortress of &Kinar-Gird, a messenger delivered to &Muhammad Big, 
who headed the escort, a written order from &Haji &Mirza &Aqasi instructing 
him to proceed to Kulayn, and there await further instructions.  
This was, shortly after, followed by a letter which the &Shah 
had himself addressed to the &Bab, dated &Rabi'u'th-thani 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 
&Manuchihr &Khan were now utterly undone.  The fortress of &Mah-Ku, 
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 &Adhirbayjan, was the place of incarceration 
assigned by &Muhammad &Shah, on the advice of his perfidious 
minister, for the &Bab.  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 &Khurasan and a revolt in &Kirman, 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.  
 
+P17 
                                  CHAPTER II 
                      The &Bab's Captivity in &Adhirbayjan 
 
     The period of the &Bab's banishment to the mountains of &Adhirbayjan, 
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 &Mah-Ku, and His subsequent incarceration in the 
fortress of &Chihriq, which was interrupted only by a brief yet 
memorable visit to &Tabriz.  It was overshadowed throughout by the 
implacable and mounting hostility of the two most powerful adversaries 
of the Faith, the Grand Vizir of &Muhammad &Shah, &Haji &Mirza 
&Aqasi, and the &Amir-Nizam, the Grand Vizir of &Nasiri'd-Din 
&Shah.  It corresponds to the most critical stage of the mission of 
&Baha'u'llah, during His exile to Adrianople, when confronted with 
the despotic &Sultan &Abdu'l-'Aziz and his ministers, &Ali &Pasha and 
&Fu'ad &Pasha, and is paralleled by the darkest days of &Abdu'l-Baha's 
ministry in the Holy Land, under the oppressive rule of the tyrannical 
&Abdu'l-Hamid and the equally tyrannical &Jamal &Pasha.  &Shiraz had 
been the memorable scene of the &Bab's historic Declaration; &Isfahan 
had provided Him, however briefly, with a haven of relative peace 
and security; whilst &Adhirbayjan 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 &Bab were 
disclosed to His disciples, and formally announced by Him in the 
capital of &Adhirbayjan, in the presence of the Heir to the Throne; 
that the Persian &Bayan, the repository of the laws ordained by the 
&Bab, 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 &Mazindaran, 
of &Nayriz and of &Zanjan were kindled.  
 
+P18 
     And yet, the foolish and short-sighted &Haji &Mirza &Aqasi fondly 
imagined that by confounding the plan of the &Bab to meet the &Shah 
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 &Islam regarding the inevitability of that which should 
come to pass in &Adhirbayjan.  Untaught by the example of the 
governor of &Shiraz, 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 &Shah 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 &Ali &Khan, the warden of the fortress of &Mah-Ku, 
were stringent and explicit.  On His way to that fortress the &Bab 
passed a number of days in &Tabriz, 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 "&Allah-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 &Bab's presence 
would forfeit all his possessions and be imprisoned.  Upon His arrival 
in &Mah-Ku, surnamed by Him &Jabal-i-Basit (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 &Bayan, 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 &Shah, 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 &Mah-Ku 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 &Bab, 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 &Ali &Khan, and the repeated threats of disciplinary measures 
received from &Tihran, 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.  
&Ali &Khan 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 &Mulla &Husayn, who had walked on foot the entire 
way from &Mashad in the east of Persia to &Mah-Ku, the westernmost 
outpost of the realm, and was able, after so arduous a journey, to 
celebrate the festival of &Naw-Ruz (1848) in the company of his 
Beloved.  
     Secret agents, however, charged to watch &Ali &Khan, informed &Haji 
&Mirza &Aqasi of the turn events were taking, whereupon he immediately 
decided to transfer the &Bab to the fortress of &Chihriq (about 
April 10, 1848), surnamed by Him the &Jabal-i-Shadid (the Grievous 
Mountain).  There He was consigned to the keeping of &Yahya &Khan, 
 
+P20 
a brother-in-law of &Muhammad &Shah.  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 &Chihriq, and whose hatred of the &Shi'ahs exceeded even 
that of the inhabitants of &Mah-Ku, 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 &Bab, "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'an."  
     Indeed the turmoil raised in &Chihriq eclipsed the scenes which 
&Mah-Ku had witnessed.  Siyyids of distinguished merit, eminent 
&ulamas, and even government officials were boldly and rapidly 
espousing the Cause of the Prisoner.  The conversion of the zealous, 
the famous &Mirza &Asadu'llah, surnamed &Dayyan, a prominent official 
of high literary repute, who was endowed by the &Bab 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 &navvab, from India, whom the &Bab in a vision had bidden 
renounce wealth and position, and hasten on foot to meet Him in 
&Adhirbayjan, brought the situation to a head.  Accounts of these 
startling events reached &Tabriz, were thence communicated to &Tihran, 
and forced &Haji &Mirza &Aqasi again to intervene.  &Dayyan'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 &Bab was summoned to &Tabriz.  Fearful of the enthusiasm 
of the people of &Adhirbayjan, those into whose custody He had 
been delivered decided to deflect their route, and avoid the town of 
&Khuy, passing instead through &Urumiyyih.  On His arrival in that 
town Prince Malik &Qasim &Mirza 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.  &Tabriz, in its turn in the throes of wild excitement, 
joyously hailed His arrival.  Such was the fervor of popular 
feeling that the &Bab 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 &Tabriz 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 &Bab, 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 &Adhirbayjan, &Nasiri'd-Din &Mirza, the heir to the throne; 
under the presidency of &Haji &Mulla &Mahmud, the &Nizamu'l-'Ulama, 
the Prince's tutor; before the assembled ecclesiastical dignitaries of 
&Tabriz, the leaders of the &Shaykhi community, the &Shaykhu'l-Islam, 
and the &Imam-Jum'ih, the &Bab, having seated Himself in the chief 
place which had been reserved for the &Vali-'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 &Mulla &Muhammad-i-Mamaqani, 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 &Nizamu'l-'Ulama the &Bab affirmed that His 
words constituted the most incontrovertible evidence of His mission, 
adduced verses from the &Qur'an 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'an 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 &Mirza &Ali-Asghar, 
the &Shaykhu'l-Islam of that city.  Confounded in his schemes &Haji 
&Mirza &Aqasi was forced to order the &Bab to be taken back to 
&Chihriq.  
     This dramatic, this unqualified and formal declaration of the 
&Bab'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 &Adhirbayjan.  This 
period of captivity, in a remote corner of the realm, far removed 
from the storm centers of &Shiraz, &Isfahan, and &Tihran, 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 &Mah-Ku, 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 &Baha'u'llah's testimony in the &Kitab-i-Iqan, "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'an 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 &Shiraz, at the earliest stage of His ministry, He had 
revealed what &Baha'u'llah has characterized as "the first, the greatest, 
and mightiest of all books" in the &Babi Dispensation, the celebrated 
commentary on the &surih of Joseph, entitled the &Qayyumu'l-Asma', 
whose fundamental purpose was to forecast what the true Joseph 
(&Baha'u'llah) 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 &surih, opens with 
the &Bab's clarion-call and dire warnings addressed to the "concourse 
of kings and of the sons of kings;" forecasts the doom of &Muhammad 
&Shah; commands his Grand Vizir, &Haji &Mirza &Aqasi, to abdicate his 
authority; admonishes the entire Muslim ecclesiastical order; cautions 
more specifically the members of the &Shi'ah community; extols the 
virtues, and anticipates the coming, of &Baha'u'llah, the "Remnant of 
God," the "Most Great Master;" and proclaims, in unequivocal language, 
the independence and universality of the &Babi 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 
&Baha, 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 &Babi 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 (&Imam &Husayn) in the Land of the Euphrates."  
     It was this Book which the &Babis universally regarded, during 
almost the entire ministry of the &Bab, as the &Qur'an of the people of 
the &Bayan; whose first and most challenging chapter was revealed in 
the presence of &Mulla &Husayn, on the night of its Author's Declaration; 
some of whose pages were borne, by that same disciple, to 
&Baha'u'llah, 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 &Tahirih; whose passages inflamed 
 
+P24 
the hostility of &Husayn &Khan and precipitated the initial outbreak 
of persecution in &Shiraz; 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 &Tabarsi 
and the heroes of &Nayriz and &Zanjan.  
     This work, of such exalted merit, of such far-reaching influence, 
was followed by the revelation of the &Bab's first Tablet to &Muhammad 
&Shah; of His Tablets to &Sultan &Abdu'l-Majid and to &Najib &Pasha, 
the &Vali of &Baghdad; of the &Sahifiy-i-baynu'l-Haramayn, revealed 
between Mecca and Medina, in answer to questions posed by &Mirza 
&Muhit-i-Kirmani; of the Epistle to the &Sherif of Mecca; of the 
&Kitabu'r-Ruh, comprising seven hundred &surihs; of the &Khasa'il-i-Sab'ih, 
which enjoined the alteration of the formula of the &adhan; 
of the &Risaliy-i-Furu'-i-'Adliyyih, rendered into Persian by &Mulla 
&Muhammad-Taqiy-i-Harati; of the commentary on the &surih of 
&Kawthar, which effected such a transformation in the soul of &Vahid; 
of the commentary on the &surih of &Va'l-'Asr, in the house of the 
&Imam-Jum'ih of &Isfahan; of the dissertation on the Specific Mission 
of &Muhammad, written at the request of &Manuchihr &Khan; of the 
second Tablet to &Muhammad &Shah, 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 &Siyah-Dihan to the &ulamas 
of &Qasvin and to &Haji &Mirza &Aqasi, inquiring from him as to the 
cause of the sudden change in his decision.  
     The great bulk of the writings emanating from the &Bab's prolific 
mind was, however, reserved for the period of His confinement in 
&Mah-Ku and &Chihriq.  To this period must probably belong the 
unnumbered Epistles which, as attested by no less an authority than 
&Baha'u'llah, the &Bab specifically addressed to the divines of every city 
in Persia, as well as to those residing in Najaf and &Karbila, wherein 
He set forth in detail the errors committed by each one of them.  It 
was during His incarceration in the fortress of &Mah-Ku that He, 
according to the testimony of &Shaykh &Hasan-i-Zunuzi, who transcribed 
during those nine months the verses dictated by the &Bab to 
His amanuensis, revealed no less than nine commentaries on the whole 
of the &Qur'an--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 &Qayyumu'l-Asma.  
     Within the walls of that same fortress the &Bayan (Exposition)--
that monumental repository of the laws and precepts of the new 
Dispensation and the treasury enshrining most of the &Bab'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 &Babi Dispensation; consisting of nine 
&Vahids (Unities) of nineteen chapters each, except the last &Vahid 
comprising only ten chapters; not to be confounded with the 
smaller and less weighty Arabic &Bayan, revealed during the same 
period; fulfilling the &Muhammadan prophecy that "a Youth from 
&Bani-Hashim ... 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 &Bab's lesser works, this 
Book, of about eight thousand verses, occupying a pivotal position 
in &Babi 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'an 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 &Islam 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 &Vahid 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 &Bab's writings.  "Well is it with him," is His prophetic 
announcement, "who fixeth his gaze upon the Order of &Baha'u'llah, 
and rendereth thanks unto his Lord.  For He will assuredly be made 
manifest.  God hath indeed irrevocably ordained it in the &Bayan."  
It is with that self-same Order that the Founder of the promised 
 
+P26 
Revelation, twenty years later--incorporating that same term in His 
&Kitab-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 &Baha'u'llah'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 &Baha'i 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 &Baha'i 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 &Bab was still in &Mah-Ku when He wrote the most detailed 
and illuminating of His Tablets to &Muhammad &Shah.  Prefaced by a 
laudatory reference to the unity of God, to His Apostles and to the 
twelve &Imams; 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 &Shah's administration, 
particularly of the "wicked and accursed" &Husayn &Khan; 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-Sultan, the Tablet addressed, under similar 
circumstances, from the prison-fortress of &Akka by &Baha'u'llah to 
&Nasiri'd-Din &Shah, and constituting His lengthiest epistle to any 
single sovereign.  
     The &Dala'il-i-Sab'ih (Seven Proofs), the most important of the 
polemical works of the &Bab, 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 &Bab's confinement in the fortress of &Chihriq, where 
He spent almost the whole of the two remaining years of His life, 
the &Lawh-i-Huru'fat (Tablet of the Letters) was revealed, in honor 
of &Dayyan--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 &Mustaghath, and to 
have abstrusely alluded, on the other, to the nineteen years which 
must needs elapse between the Declaration of the &Bab and that of 
&Baha'u'llah.  It was during these years--years darkened throughout 
by the rigors of the &Bab's captivity, by the severe indignities inflicted 
upon Him, and by the news of the disasters that overtook the heroes 
of &Mazindaran and &Nayriz--that He revealed, soon after His return 
from &Tabriz, His denunciatory Tablet to &Haji &Mirza &Aqasi.  Couched 
in bold and moving language, unsparing in its condemnation, this 
epistle was forwarded to the intrepid &Hujjat who, as corroborated 
by &Baha'u'llah, delivered it to that wicked minister.  
     To this period of incarceration in the fortresses of &Mah-Ku and 
&Chihriq--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 &Bab, 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 &Babi 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 
&Baha'u'llah, Whose clearly defined Covenant was incorporated in a 
specially written Testament, and designated by Him as "the Book 
of My Covenant," the &Bab chose to intersperse His Book of Laws, 
the Persian &Bayan, 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," &Baha'u'llah, referring to the &Bab in His 
&Kitab-i-Badi', has stated, "hath not fallen short of His duty to 
exhort the people of the &Bayan 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 &Bab assiduously prepared to expect the 
imminent Revelation.  Others He orally assured would live to see its 
day.  To &Mulla &Baqir, 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 &Sayyah, another disciple, He gave 
verbally a similar assurance.  &Mulla &Husayn He directed to &Tihran, 
assuring him that in that city was enshrined a Mystery Whose light 
neither &Hijaz nor &Shiraz could rival.  &Quddus, 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-Zunuzi He declared while in &Mah-Ku that 
he would behold in &Karbila the countenance of the promised &Husayn.  
On &Dayyan He conferred the title of "the third Letter to believe in 
Him Whom God shall make manifest," while to &Azim He divulged, 
in the &Kitab-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 &Bab 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-Baha in "A Traveller's Narrative," to nominate, on the 
advice of &Baha'u'llah and of another disciple, &Mirza &Yahya, who 
would act solely as a figure-head pending the manifestation of the 
 
+P29 
Promised One, thus enabling &Baha'u'llah to promote, in relative 
security, the Cause so dear to His heart.  
     "The &Bayan," the &Bab 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 &Bayan; 
if not, thou art unworthy of mention before God."  "O people of 
the &Bayan!" He, in that same Book, thus warns the entire company 
of His followers, "act not as the people of the &Qur'an have acted, 
for if ye do so, the fruits of your night will come to naught."  "Suffer 
not the &Bayan," 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 &Vahid, "lest in the days of His Revelation the 
&Vahid of the &Bayan (eighteen Letters of the Living and the &Bab) 
shut thee out as by a veil from Him, inasmuch as this &Vahid is but a 
creature in His sight."  And again:  "O congregation of the &Bayan, 
and all who are therein!  Recognize ye the limits imposed upon you, 
for such a One as the Point of the &Bayan 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 &Hin (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 &Azim, "until nine will have elapsed from 
the time of the &Bayan.  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 &Vahid (19)."  "The 
Lord of the Day of Reckoning," He, even more explicitly, has stated, 
"will be manifested at the end of &Vahid (19) and the beginning of 
eighty (1280 A.H.)."  "Were He to appear this very moment," He, 
 
+P30 
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 &Bayan.'"  "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 &Bayan."  And again:  "The whole of the &Bayan 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 &Bayan, 
for on that Day that one verse can save thee, whereas the entire &Bayan 
cannot save thee."  "Today the &Bayan 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 &Bayan 
deriveth all its glory from Him Whom God shall make manifest."  
"All that hath been revealed in the &Bayan 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 &Vahid 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 &Vahid, 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 
 
+P31 
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 &Bab'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 &Chihriq, 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 
&Adhirbayjan, while the Dispensation itself was now to be inaugurated 
in a plain on the border of &Mazindaran, at a conference of His 
assembled followers.  
     &Baha'u'llah, maintaining through continual correspondence close 
contact with the &Bab, 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.  &Quddus, 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 &Tahirih.  The primary 
purpose of that gathering was to implement the revelation of the 
&Bayan 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 &Bab from His cruel confinement in &Chihriq.  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 &Baha'u'llah had rented, amidst 
pleasant surroundings, three gardens, one of which He assigned to 
&Quddus, another to &Tahirih, whilst the third He reserved for Himself.  
The eighty-one disciples who had gathered from various provinces 
 
+P32 
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 &Baha.  Upon 
the Last Letter of the Living was conferred the appellation of 
&Quddus, while &Qurratu'l-'Ayn was given the title of &Tahirih.  By 
these names they were all subsequently addressed by the &Bab in the 
Tablets He revealed for each one of them.  
     It was &Baha'u'llah Who steadily, unerringly, yet unsuspectedly, 
steered the course of that memorable episode, and it was &Baha'u'llah 
Who brought the meeting to its final and dramatic climax.  One day 
in His presence, when illness had confined Him to bed, &Tahirih, regarded 
as the fair and spotless emblem of chastity and the incarnation 
of the holy &Fatimih, appeared suddenly, adorned yet unveiled, before 
the assembled companions, seated herself on the right-hand of the 
affrighted and infuriated &Quddus, and, tearing through her fiery 
words the veils guarding the sanctity of the ordinances of &Islam, 
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-Khaliq-i-Isfahani, 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 &Fatimih herself unveiled while crossing the Bridge (&Sirat) 
on the promised Day of Judgment.  &Quddus, 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, &Tahirih arose, and, 
without the least premeditation and in a language strikingly resembling 
that of the &Qur'an, delivered a fervid and eloquent appeal 
to the remnant of the assembly, ending it with this bold assertion:  
"I am the Word which the &Qa'im is to utter, the Word which shall 
 
+P33 
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'an 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 &Islam 
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 &Babi Revelation 
had declared His mission to &Mulla &Husayn in the privacy of His 
home in &Shiraz.  Three years after that Declaration, within the walls 
of the prison-fortress of &Mah-Ku, He was dictating to His amanuensis 
the fundamental and distinguishing precepts of His Dispensation.  
A year later, His followers, under the actual leadership of &Baha'u'llah, 
their fellow-disciple, were themselves, in the hamlet of &Badasht, 
abrogating the &Qur'anic 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 
&Bab Himself, still a prisoner, was vindicating the acts of His disciples 
by asserting, formally and unreservedly, His claim to be the promised 
&Qa'im, in the presence of the Heir to the Throne, the leading exponents 
of the &Shaykhi community, and the most illustrious ecclesiastical 
dignitaries assembled in the capital of &Adhirbayjan.  
     A little over four years had elapsed since the birth of the &Bab'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 &Mazindaran.  The trumpeter was a 
lone woman, the noblest of her sex in that Dispensation, whom even 
 
+P34 
some of her co-religionists pronounced a heretic.  The call she sounded 
was the death-knell of the twelve hundred year old law of &Islam.  
     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 &Shari'ah 
canonical Law in Turkey, led to the virtual abandonment of that 
Law in &Shi'ah Persia, has, more recently, been responsible for the 
dissociation of the System envisaged in the &Kitab-i-Aqdas from the 
&Sunni 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 &Baha'u'llah by all the nations, 
and its enthronement in the hearts of all the peoples, of the 
Muslim world.  
 
+P35 
                            CHAPTER III 
                   Upheavals in &Mazindaran, &Nayriz and &Zanjan 
 
     The &Bab's captivity in a remote corner of &Adhirbayjan, 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 &Baha'i Era.  
     The momentous happenings associated with the &Bab's incarceration 
in &Mah-Ku and &Chihriq, 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 &Khan, or even &Haji 
&Mirza &Aqasi, 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 &Shiraz or &Isfahan.  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 &Bab of the authority of the 
promised &Qa'im, in such dramatic circumstances and in so challenging 
a tone, before a distinguished gathering of eminent &Shi'ah 
 
+P36 
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 &Bab'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 &Shah, at 
so perilous an hour, was meanwhile rapidly sinking under the weight 
of his physical infirmities.  The shallow-minded &Haji &Mirza &Aqasi, 
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 &ulamas; 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 &Qa'im?  What of the 
Major and Minor Occultations?  What of the cities of &Jabulqa and 
&Jabulsa?  How are we to explain the sayings of &Husayn-ibn-Ruh, 
and what interpretation should be given to the authenticated traditions 
ascribed to &Ibn-i-Mihriyar?  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 &Qa'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 &Sufyan and his dominion?"  "Are 
we," they noisily remonstrated, "are we to account as a dead letter 
the indubitable, the unnumbered traditions of our holy &Imams, 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 
 
+P37 
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 
&Imams, in the spiritual sovereignty of the &Sahibu'z-Zaman (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 &Imam &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 &Shah finally succumbed to his illness, precipitating 
by his death the downfall of his favorite and all-powerful 
minister, &Haji &Mirza &Aqasi, who, soon stripped of the treasures he 
had amassed, fell into disgrace, was expelled from the capital, and 
sought refuge in &Karbila.  The seventeen year old &Nasiri'd-Din &Mirza 
ascended the throne, leaving the direction of affairs to the obdurate, 
the iron-hearted &Amir-Nizam, &Mirza &Taqi &Khan, who, without 
consulting his fellow-ministers, decreed that immediate and condign 
punishment be inflicted on the hapless &Babis.  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 &Baha'u'llah 
in the &Siyah-Chal of &Tihran and His subsequent banishment to &Iraq.  
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 &Tabarsi, in the south in &Nayriz, in the west in &Zanjan, and 
 
+P38 
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 &Mulla &Husayn who, at the command of the 
&Bab, 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 &Quddus in the 
&Jaziriy-i-Khadra (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 &Mazindaran.  Its heroes 
were the flower of the &Bab's disciples.  Its martyrs comprised no less 
than half of the Letters of the Living, not excluding &Quddus and 
&Mulla &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 &Baha'u'llah.  
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, backed by the resources of the state, acting with 
the enthusiastic approval of its sovereign, and animated by the unfailing 
counsels of a resolute and all-powerful minister.  Its outcome 
was a heinous betrayal ending in an orgy of slaughter, staining with 
everlasting infamy its perpetrators, investing its victims with a halo 
of imperishable glory, and generating the very seeds which, in a 
later age, were to blossom into world-wide administrative institutions, 
and which must, in the fullness of time, yield their golden fruit in 
the shape of a world-redeeming, earth-encircling Order.  
     It will be unnecessary to attempt even an abbreviated narrative 
of this tragic episode, however grave its import, however much misconstrued 
 
+P39 
by adverse chroniclers and historians.  A glance over its 
salient features will suffice for the purpose of these pages.  We note, 
as we conjure up the events of this great tragedy, the fortitude, the 
intrepidity, the discipline and the resourcefulness of its heroes, contrasting 
sharply with the turpitude, the cowardice, the disorderliness 
and the inconstancy of their opponents.  We observe the sublime 
patience, the noble restraint exercised by one of its principal actors, 
the lion-hearted &Mulla &Husayn, who persistently refused to unsheathe 
his sword until an armed and angry multitude, uttering the foulest 
invectives, had gathered at a farsang's distance from &Barfurush to 
block his way, and had mortally struck down seven of his innocent 
and staunch companions.  We are filled with admiration for the 
tenacity of faith of that same &Mulla &Husayn, demonstrated by his 
resolve to persevere in sounding the &adhan, while besieged in the caravanserai 
of &Sabsih-Maydan, though three of his companions, who had 
successively ascended to the roof of the inn, with the express purpose 
of performing that sacred rite, had been instantly killed by the bullets 
of the enemy.  We marvel at the spirit of renunciation that prompted 
those sore pressed sufferers to contemptuously ignore the possessions 
left behind by their fleeing enemy; that led them to discard their own 
belongings, and content themselves with their steeds and swords; that 
induced the father of &Badi', one of that gallant company, to fling 
unhesitatingly by the roadside the satchel, full of turquoises which 
he had brought from his father's mine in &Nishapur; that led &Mirza 
&Muhammad-Taqiy-i-Juvayni to cast away a sum equivalent in value in 
silver and gold; and impelled those same companions to disdain, and 
refuse even to touch, the costly furnishings and the coffers of gold 
and silver which the demoralized and shame-laden Prince &Mihdi-Quli 
&Mirza, the commander of the army of &Mazindaran and a brother of 
&Muhammad &Shah, had left behind in his headlong flight from his 
camp.  We cannot but esteem the passionate sincerity with which 
&Mulla &Husayn pleaded with the Prince, and the formal assurance he 
gave him, disclaiming, in no uncertain terms, any intention on his 
part or that of his fellow-disciples of usurping the authority of the 
&Shah or of subverting the foundations of his state.  We cannot but view 
with contempt the conduct of that arch-villain, the hysterical, the 
cruel and overbearing &Sa'idu'l-'Ulama, who, alarmed at the approach 
of those same companions, flung, in a frenzy of excitement, and 
before an immense crowd of men and women, his turban to the 
ground, tore open the neck of his shirt, and, bewailing the plight 
into which &Islam had fallen, implored his congregation to fly to arms 
 
+P40 
and cut down the approaching band.  We are struck with wonder as 
we contemplate the super-human prowess of &Mulla &Husayn which 
enabled him, notwithstanding his fragile frame and trembling hand, 
to slay a treacherous foe who had taken shelter behind a tree, by 
cleaving with a single stroke of his sword the tree, the man and his 
musket in twain.  We are stirred, moreover, by the scene of the 
arrival of &Baha'u'llah at the Fort, and the indefinable joy it imparted 
to &Mulla &Husayn, the reverent reception accorded Him by His 
fellow-disciples, His inspection of the fortifications which they had 
hurriedly erected for their protection, and the advice He gave them, 
which resulted in the miraculous deliverance of &Quddus, in his subsequent 
and close association with the defenders of that Fort, and in 
his effective participation in the exploits connected with its siege 
and eventual destruction.  We are amazed at the serenity and sagacity 
of that same &Quddus, the confidence he instilled on his arrival, the 
resourcefulness he displayed, the fervor and gladness with which the 
besieged listened, at morn and at even-tide, to the voice intoning the 
verses of his celebrated commentary on the &Sad of &Samad, to which 
he had already, while in &Sari, devoted a treatise thrice as voluminous 
as the &Qur'an itself, and which he was now, despite the tumultuary 
attacks of the enemy and the privations he and his companions were 
enduring, further elucidating by adding to that interpretation as 
many verses as he had previously written.  We remember with 
thrilling hearts that memorable encounter when, at the cry "Mount 
your steeds, O heroes of God!" &Mulla &Husayn, accompanied by two 
hundred and two of the beleaguered and sorely-distressed companions, 
and preceded by &Quddus, emerged before daybreak from the Fort, 
and, raising the shout of "&Ya &Sahibu'z-Zaman!", rushed at full charge 
towards the stronghold of the Prince, and penetrated to his private 
apartments, only to find that, in his consternation, he had thrown 
himself from a back window into the moat, and escaped bare-footed, 
leaving his host confounded and routed.  We see relived in poignant 
memory that last day of &Mulla &Husayn's earthly life, when, soon after 
midnight, having performed his ablutions, clothed himself in new 
garments, and attired his head with the &Bab's turban, he mounted his 
charger, ordered the gate of the Fort to be opened, rode out at the 
head of three hundred and thirteen of his companions, shouting aloud 
"&Ya &Sahibu'z-Zaman!", charged successively the seven barricades 
erected by the enemy, captured every one of them, notwithstanding 
the bullets that were raining upon him, swiftly dispatched their 
defenders, and had scattered their forces when, in the ensuing tumult, 
 
+P41 
his steed became suddenly entangled in the rope of a tent, and before 
he could extricate himself he was struck in the breast by a bullet 
which the cowardly &Abbas-Quli &Khan-i-Larijani had discharged, 
while lying in ambush in the branches of a neighboring tree.  We 
acclaim the magnificent courage that, in a subsequent encounter, 
inspired nineteen of those stout-hearted companions to plunge headlong 
into the camp of an enemy that consisted of no less than two 
regiments of infantry and cavalry, and to cause such consternation 
that one of their leaders, the same &Abbas-Quli &Khan, falling from 
his horse, and leaving in his distress one of his boots hanging from the 
stirrup, ran away, half-shod and bewildered, to the Prince, and confessed 
the ignominious reverse he had suffered.  Nor can we fail to 
note the superb fortitude with which these heroic souls bore the load 
of their severe trials; when their food was at first reduced to the flesh 
of horses brought away from the deserted camp of the enemy; when 
later they had to content themselves with such grass as they could 
snatch from the fields whenever they obtained a respite from their 
besiegers; when they were forced, at a later stage, to consume the 
bark of the trees and the leather of their saddles, of their belts, of 
their scabbards and of their shoes; when during eighteen days they 
had nothing but water of which they drank a mouthful every morning; 
when the cannon fire of the enemy compelled them to dig 
subterranean passages within the Fort, where, dwelling amid mud 
and water, with garments rotting away with damp, they had to 
subsist on ground up bones; and when, at last, oppressed by gnawing 
hunger, they, as attested by a contemporary chronicler, were driven 
to disinter the steed of their venerated leader, &Mulla &Husayn, cut it 
into pieces, grind into dust its bones, mix it with the putrified meat, 
and, making it into a stew, avidly devour it.  
     Nor can reference be omitted to the abject treachery to which the 
impotent and discredited Prince eventually resorted, and his violation 
of his so-called irrevocable oath, inscribed and sealed by him on the 
margin of the opening &surih of the &Qur'an, whereby he, swearing by 
that holy Book, undertook to set free all the defenders of the Fort, 
pledged his honor that no man in his army or in the neighborhood 
would molest them, and that he would himself, at his own expense, 
arrange for their safe departure to their homes.  And lastly, we call 
to remembrance, the final scene of that sombre tragedy, when, as a 
result of the Prince's violation of his sacred engagement, a number 
of the betrayed companions of &Quddus were assembled in the camp 
of the enemy, were stripped of their possessions, and sold as slaves, 
 
+P42 
the rest being either killed by the spears and swords of the officers, or 
torn asunder, or bound to trees and riddled with bullets, or blown 
from the mouths of cannon and consigned to the flames, or else being 
disemboweled and having their heads impaled on spears and lances.  
&Quddus, their beloved leader, was by yet another shameful act of the 
intimidated Prince surrendered into the hands of the diabolical 
&Sa'idu'l-'Ulama who, in his unquenchable hostility and aided by 
the mob whose passions he had sedulously inflamed, stripped his 
victim of his garments, loaded him with chains, paraded him through 
the streets of &Barfurush, and incited the scum of its female inhabitants 
to execrate and spit upon him, assail him with knives and 
axes, mutilate his body, and throw the tattered fragments into a fire.  
     This stirring episode, so glorious for the Faith, so blackening to 
the reputation of its enemies--an episode which must be regarded as a 
rare phenomenon in the history of modern times--was soon succeeded 
by a parallel upheaval, strikingly similar in its essential features.  
The scene of woeful tribulations was now shifted to the south, to the 
province of &Fars, not far from the city where the dawning light of 
the Faith had broken.  &Nayriz and its environs were made to sustain 
the impact of this fresh ordeal in all its fury.  The Fort of &Khajih, in 
the vicinity of the &Chinar-Sukhtih quarter of that hotly agitated 
village became the storm-center of the new conflagration.  The hero 
who towered above his fellows, valiantly struggled, and fell a victim 
to its devouring flames was that "unique and peerless figure of his 
age," the far-famed Siyyid &Yahyay-i-Darabi, better known as &Vahid.  
Foremost among his perfidious adversaries, who kindled and fed the 
fire of this conflagration was the base and fanatical governor of 
&Nayriz, &Zaynu'l-'Abidin &Khan, seconded by &Abdu'llah &Khan, the 
&Shuja'u'l-Mulk, and reinforced by Prince &Firuz &Mirza, the governor 
of &Shiraz.  Of a much briefer duration than the &Mazindaran upheaval, 
which lasted no less than eleven months, the atrocities that 
marked its closing stage were no less devastating in their consequences.  
Once again a handful of men, innocent, law-abiding, peace-loving, 
yet high-spirited and indomitable, consisting partly, in this case, of 
untrained lads and men of advanced age, were surprised, challenged, 
encompassed and assaulted by the superior force of a cruel and 
crafty enemy, an innumerable host of able-bodied men who, though 
well-trained, adequately equipped and continually reinforced, were 
impotent to coerce into submission, or subdue, the spirit of their 
adversaries.  
     This fresh commotion originated in declarations of faith as fearless 
 
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and impassioned, and in demonstrations of religious enthusiasm 
almost as vehement and dramatic, as those which had ushered in the 
&Mazindaran upheaval.  It was instigated by a no less sustained and 
violent outburst of uncompromising ecclesiastical hostility.  It was 
accompanied by corresponding manifestations of blind religious 
fanaticism.  It was provoked by similar acts of naked aggression on 
the part of both clergy and people.  It demonstrated afresh the same 
purpose, was animated throughout by the same spirit, and rose to 
almost the same height of superhuman heroism, of fortitude, courage, 
and renunciation.  It revealed a no less shrewdly calculated coordination 
of plans and efforts between the civil and ecclesiastical authorities 
designed to challenge and overthrow a common enemy.  It was preceded 
by a similar categorical repudiation, on the part of the &Babis, 
of any intention of interfering with the civil jurisdiction of the 
realm, or of undermining the legitimate authority of its sovereign.  
It provided a no less convincing testimony to the restraint and forbearance 
of the victims, in the face of the ruthless and unprovoked 
aggression of the oppressor.  It exposed, as it moved toward its 
climax, and in hardly less striking a manner, the cowardice, the want 
of discipline and the degradation of a spiritually bankrupt foe.  It 
was marked, as it approached its conclusion, by a treachery as vile 
and shameful.  It ended in a massacre even more revolting in the horrors 
it evoked and the miseries it engendered.  It sealed the fate 
of &Vahid who, by his green turban, the emblem of his proud lineage, 
was bound to a horse and dragged ignominiously through the streets, 
after which his head was cut off, was stuffed with straw, and sent 
as a trophy to the feasting Prince in &Shiraz, while his body was 
abandoned to the mercy of the infuriated women of &Nayriz, who, 
intoxicated with barbarous joy by the shouts of exultation raised by 
a triumphant enemy, danced, to the accompaniment of drums and 
cymbals, around it.  And finally, it brought in its wake, with the aid 
of no less than five thousand men, specially commissioned for this 
purpose, a general and fierce onslaught on the defenseless &Babis, 
whose possessions were confiscated, whose houses were destroyed, 
whose stronghold was burned to the ground, whose women and 
children were captured, and some of whom, stripped almost naked, 
were mounted on donkeys, mules and camels, and led through rows 
of heads hewn from the lifeless bodies of their fathers, brothers, sons 
and husbands, who previously had been eit