God Passes By Part 2

To these defamations, threats and protestations the learned and resolute champions of a misrepresented Faith, following the example of their Leader, opposed unhesitatingly treatises, commentaries and refutations, a.s.siduously written, cogent in their argument, replete with testimonies, lucid, eloquent and convincing, affirming their belief in the Prophethood of Mu?ammad, 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 ?usayn who, despite his defeat, his discomfiture and ignominious martyrdom, had been hailed by their antagonists as the very embodiment and the matchless symbol of G.o.d's all-conquering sovereignty and power.

This fierce, nation-wide controversy had a.s.sumed alarming proportions when Mu?ammad _Sh_ah finally succ.u.mbed to his illness, precipitating by his death the downfall of his favorite and all-powerful minister, ?aji Mirza Aqasi, who, soon stripped of the treasures he had ama.s.sed, fell into disgrace, was expelled from the capital, and sought refuge in Karbila. The seventeen year old Na?iri'd-Din Mirza ascended the throne, leaving the direction of affairs to the obdurate, the iron-hearted Amir-Nizam, Mirza Taqi _Kh_an, 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 l.u.s.t 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-_Ch_al of ?ihran and His subsequent banishment to 'Iraq. Government, clergy and people arose, as one man, to a.s.sault 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 _Sh_ay_kh_ Tabarsi, in the south in Nayriz, in the west in Zanjan, and in the capital itself, ma.s.sacres, 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 ?usayn 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 Mu?ammad, herald the advent of the vicegerent of G.o.d 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 a.s.sistance to Quddus in the Jaziriy-i-_Kh_adra (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 ?usayn, respectively the last and the first of these Letters. The directive force which however un.o.btrusively 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 a.s.sailants. It demonstrated beyond the shadow of a doubt what the indomitable spirit of a band of three hundred and thirteen untrained, unequipped yet G.o.d-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 ma.s.ses 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 inst.i.tutions, 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 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 fort.i.tude, 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 n.o.ble restraint exercised by one of its princ.i.p.al actors, the lion-hearted Mulla ?usayn, who persistently refused to unsheathe his sword until an armed and angry mult.i.tude, uttering the foulest invectives, had gathered at a farsang's distance from Barfuru_sh_ 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 ?usayn, demonstrated by his resolve to persevere in sounding the a_dh_an, 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 Ni_sh_apur; that led Mirza Mu?ammad-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 Mu?ammad _Sh_ah, had left behind in his headlong flight from his camp. We cannot but esteem the pa.s.sionate sincerity with which Mulla ?usayn pleaded with the Prince, and the formal a.s.surance 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 _Sh_ah 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 and cut down the approaching band. We are struck with wonder as we contemplate the super-human prowess of Mulla ?usayn 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 ?usayn, 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 a.s.sociation with the defenders of that Fort, and in his effective partic.i.p.ation 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 G.o.d!" Mulla ?usayn, 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 ?usayn'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, 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 _Kh_an-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 _Kh_an, 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 fort.i.tude 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 gra.s.s as they could s.n.a.t.c.h 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 pa.s.sages 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 ?usayn, 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 a.s.sembled in the camp of the enemy, were stripped of their possessions, and sold as slaves, 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 pa.s.sions he had sedulously inflamed, stripped his victim of his garments, loaded him with chains, paraded him through the streets of Barfuru_sh_, and incited the sc.u.m of its female inhabitants to execrate and spit upon him, a.s.sail 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 _Kh_ajih, in the vicinity of the _Ch_inar-Su_kh_tih 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 Ya?yay-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 _Kh_an, seconded by 'Abdu'llah _Kh_an, the _Sh_uja'u'l-Mulk, and reinforced by Prince Firuz Mirza, the governor of _Sh_iraz. 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, encompa.s.sed and a.s.saulted 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 and impa.s.sioned, 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 fort.i.tude, 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 ma.s.sacre 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 _Sh_iraz, 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 either branded, or had their nails torn out, or had been lashed to death, or had spikes hammered into their hands and feet, or had incisions made in their noses through which strings were pa.s.sed, and by which they were led through the streets before the gaze of an irate and derisive mult.i.tude.

This turmoil, so ravaging, so distressing, had hardly subsided when another conflagration, even more devastating than the two previous upheavals, was kindled in Zanjan and its immediate surroundings.

Unprecedented in both its duration and in the number of those who were swept away by its fury, this violent tempest that broke out in the west of Persia, and in which Mulla Mu?ammad-'Aliy-i-Zanjani, surnamed Hujjat, one of the ablest and most formidable champions of the Faith, together with no less than eighteen hundred of his fellow-disciples, drained the cup of martyrdom, defined more sharply than ever the unbridgeable gulf that separated the torchbearers of the newborn Faith from the civil and ecclesiastical exponents of a gravely shaken Order. The chief figures mainly responsible for, and immediately concerned with, this ghastly tragedy were the envious and hypocritical Amir Arslan _Kh_an, the Majdu'd-Dawlih, a maternal uncle of Na?iri'd-Din _Sh_ah, and his a.s.sociates, the Sadru'd-Dawliy-i-I?fahani and Mu?ammad _Kh_an, the Amir-Tuman, who were a.s.sisted, on the one hand, by substantial military reinforcements dispatched by order of the Amir-Nizam, and aided, on the other, by the enthusiastic moral support of the entire ecclesiastical body in Zanjan. The spot that became the theatre of heroic exertions, the scene of intense sufferings, and the target for furious and repeated a.s.saults, was the Fort of 'Ali-Mardan _Kh_an, which at one time sheltered no less than three thousand Babis, including men, women and children, the tale of whose agonies is unsurpa.s.sed in the annals of a whole century.

A brief reference to certain outstanding features of this mournful episode, endowing the Faith, in its infancy, with measureless potentialities, will suffice to reveal its distinctive character. The pathetic scenes following upon the division of the inhabitants of Zanjan into two distinct camps, by the order of its governor-a decision dramatically proclaimed by a crier, and which dissolved ties of worldly interest and affection in favor of a mightier loyalty; the reiterated exhortations addressed by Hujjat to the besieged to refrain from aggression and acts of violence; his affirmation, as he recalled the tragedy of Mazindaran, that their victory consisted solely in sacrificing their all on the altar of the Cause of the Sahibu'z-Zaman, and his declaration of the unalterable intention of his companions to serve their sovereign loyally and to be the well-wishers of his people; the astounding intrepidity with which these same companions repelled the ferocious onslaught launched by the Sadru'd-Dawlih, who eventually was obliged to confess his abject failure, was reprimanded by the _Sh_ah and was degraded from his rank; the contempt with which the occupants of the Fort met the appeals of the crier seeking on behalf of an exasperated enemy to inveigle them into renouncing their Cause and to beguile them by the generous offers and promises of the sovereign; the resourcefulness and incredible audacity of Zaynab, a village maiden, who, fired with an irrepressible yearning to throw in her lot with the defenders of the Fort, disguised herself in male attire, cut off her locks, girt a sword about her waist, and, raising the cry of Ya Sahibu'z-Zaman!" rushed headlong in pursuit of the a.s.sailants, and who, disdainful of food and sleep, continued, during a period of five months, in the thick of the turmoil, to animate the zeal and to rush to the rescue of her men companions; the stupendous uproar raised by the guards who manned the barricades as they shouted the five invocations prescribed by the Bab, on the very night on which His instructions had been received-an uproar which precipitated the death of a few persons in the camp of the enemy, caused the dissolute officers to drop instantly their wine-gla.s.ses to the ground and to overthrow the gambling-tables, and hurry forth bare-footed, and induced others to run half-dressed into the wilderness, or flee panic-stricken to the homes of the 'ulamas-these stand out as the high lights of this b.l.o.o.d.y contest. We recall, likewise, the contrast between the disorder, the cursing, the ribald laughter, the debauchery and shame that characterized the camp of the enemy, and the atmosphere of reverent devotion that filled the Fort, from which anthems of praise and hymns of joy were continually ascending.

Nor can we fail to note the appeal addressed by Hujjat and his chief supporters to the _Sh_ah, repudiating the malicious a.s.sertions of their foes, a.s.suring him of their loyalty to him and his government, and of their readiness to establish in his presence the soundness of their Cause; the interception of these messages by the governor and the subst.i.tution by him of forged letters loaded with abuse which he dispatched in their stead to ?ihran; the enthusiastic support extended by the female occupants of the Fort, the shouts of exultation which they raised, the eagerness with which some of them, disguised in the garb of men, rushed to reinforce its defences and to supplant their fallen brethren, while others ministered to the sick, and carried on their shoulders skins of water for the wounded, and still others, like the Carthaginian women of old, cut off their long hair and bound the thick coils around the guns to reinforce them; the foul treachery of the besiegers, who, on the very day they had drawn up and written out an appeal for peace and, enclosing with it a sealed copy of the Qur'an as a testimony of their pledge, had sent it to Hujjat, did not shrink from throwing into a dungeon the members of the delegation, including the children, which had been sent by him to treat with them, from tearing out the beard of the venerated leader of that delegation, and from savagely mutilating one of his fellow-disciples. We call to mind, moreover, the magnanimity of Hujjat who, though afflicted with the sudden loss of both his wife and child, continued with unruffled calm in exhorting his companions to exercise forbearance and to resign themselves to the will of G.o.d, until he himself succ.u.mbed to a wound he had received from the enemy; the barbarous revenge which an adversary incomparably superior in numbers and equipment wreaked upon its victims, giving them over to a ma.s.sacre and pillage, unexampled in scope and ferocity, in which a rapacious army, a greedy populace and an unappeasable clergy freely indulged; the exposure of the captives, of either s.e.x, hungry and ill-clad, during no less than fifteen days and nights, to the biting cold of an exceptionally severe winter, while crowds of women danced merrily around them, spat in their faces and insulted them with the foulest invectives; the savage cruelty that condemned others to be blown from guns, to be plunged into ice-cold water and lashed severely, to have their skulls soaked in boiling oil, to be smeared with treacle and left to perish in the snow; and finally, the insatiable hatred that impelled the crafty governor to induce through his insinuations the seven year old son of Hujjat to disclose the burial-place of his father, that drove him to violate the grave, disinter the corpse, order it to be dragged to the sound of drums and trumpets through the streets of Zanjan, and be exposed, for three days and three nights, to unspeakable injuries. These, and other similar incidents connected with the epic story of the Zanjan upheaval, characterized by Lord Curzon as a "terrific siege and slaughter," combine to invest it with a sombre glory unsurpa.s.sed by any episode of a like nature in the records of the Heroic Age of the Faith of Baha'u'llah.

To the tide of calamity which, during the concluding years of the Bab's ministry, was sweeping with such ominous fury the provinces of Persia, whether in the East, in the South, or in the West, the heart and center of the realm itself could not remain impervious. Four months before the Bab's martyrdom ?ihran in its turn was to partic.i.p.ate, to a lesser degree and under less dramatic circ.u.mstances, in the carnage that was besmirching the face of the country. A tragedy was being enacted in that city which was to prove but a prelude to the orgy of ma.s.sacre which, after the Bab's execution, convulsed its inhabitants and sowed consternation as far as the outlying provinces. It originated in the orders and was perpetrated under the very eyes of the irate and murderous Amir-Nizam, supported by Ma?mud _Kh_an-i-Kalantar, and aided by a certain ?usayn, one of the 'ulamas of Ka_sh_an. The heroes of that tragedy were the Seven Martyrs of ?ihran, who represented the more important cla.s.ses among their countrymen, and who deliberately refused to purchase life by that mere lip-denial which, under the name of taqiyyih, _Sh_i'ah Islam had for centuries recognized as a wholly justifiable and indeed commendable subterfuge in the hour of peril.

Neither the repeated and vigorous intercessions of highly placed members of the professions to which these martyrs belonged, nor the considerable sums which, in the case of one of them-the n.o.ble and serene ?aji Mirza Siyyid 'Ali, the Bab's maternal uncle-affluent merchants of _Sh_iraz and ?ihran were eager to offer as ransom, nor the impa.s.sioned pleas of state officials on behalf of another-the pious and highly esteemed dervish, Mirza Qurban-'Ali-nor even the personal intervention of the Amir-Nizam, who endeavored to induce both of these brave men to recant, could succeed in persuading any of the seven to forego the coveted laurels of martyrdom.

The defiant answers which they flung at their persecutors; the ecstatic joy which seized them as they drew near the scene of their death; the jubilant shouts they raised as they faced their executioner; the poignancy of the verses which, in their last moments, some of them recited; the appeals and challenges they addressed to the mult.i.tude of onlookers who gazed with stupefaction upon them; the eagerness with which the last three victims strove to precede one another in sealing their faith with their blood; and lastly, the atrocities which a bloodthirsty foe degraded itself by inflicting upon their dead bodies which lay unburied for three days and three nights in the Sabzih-Maydan, during which time thousands of so-called devout _Sh_i'ahs kicked their corpses, spat upon their faces, pelted, cursed, derided, and heaped refuse upon them-these were the chief features of the tragedy of the Seven Martyrs of ?ihran, a tragedy which stands out as one of the grimmest scenes witnessed in the course of the early unfoldment of the Faith of Baha'u'llah. Little wonder that the Bab, bowed down by the weight of His acc.u.mulated sorrows in the Fortress of _Ch_ihriq, should have acclaimed and glorified them, in the pages of a lengthy eulogy which immortalized their fidelity to His Cause, as those same "Seven Goats" who, according to Islamic tradition, should, on the Day of Judgment, "walk in front" of the promised Qa'im, and whose death was to precede the impending martyrdom of their true Shepherd.

Chapter IV: The Execution of the Bab

The waves of dire tribulation that violently battered at the Faith, and eventually engulfed, in rapid succession, the ablest, the dearest and most trusted disciples of the Bab, plunged Him, as already observed, into unutterable sorrow. For no less than six months the Prisoner of _Ch_ihriq, His chronicler has recorded, was unable to either write or dictate.

Crushed with grief by the evil tidings that came so fast upon Him, of the endless trials that beset His ablest lieutenants, by the agonies suffered by the besieged and the shameless betrayal of the survivors, by the woeful afflictions endured by the captives and the abominable butchery of men, women and children, as well as the foul indignities heaped on their corpses, He, for nine days, His amanuensis has affirmed, refused to meet any of His friends, and was reluctant to touch the meat and drink that was offered Him. Tears rained continually from His eyes, and profuse expressions of anguish poured forth from His wounded heart, as He languished, for no less than five months, solitary and disconsolate, in His prison.

The pillars of His infant Faith had, for the most part, been hurled down at the first onset of the hurricane that had been loosed upon it. Quddus, immortalized by Him as Ismu'llahi'l-a_kh_ir (the Last Name of G.o.d); on whom Baha'u'llah's Tablet of Kullu't-Ta'am later conferred the sublime appellation of Nuq?iy-i-U_kh_ra (the Last Point); whom He elevated, in another Tablet, to a rank second to none except that of the Herald of His Revelation; whom He identifies, in still another Tablet, with one of the "Messengers charged with imposture" mentioned in the Qur'an; whom the Persian Bayan extolled as that fellow-pilgrim round whom mirrors to the number of eight Vahids revolve; on whose "detachment and the sincerity of whose devotion to G.o.d's will G.o.d prideth Himself amidst the Concourse on high;" whom 'Abdu'l-Baha designated as the "Moon of Guidance;" and whose appearance the Revelation of St. John the Divine antic.i.p.ated as one of the two "Witnesses" into whom, ere the "second woe is past," the "spirit of life from G.o.d" must enter-such a man had, in the full bloom of his youth, suffered, in the Sabzih-Maydan of Barfuru_sh_, a death which even Jesus Christ, as attested by Baha'u'llah, had not faced in the hour of His greatest agony. Mulla ?usayn, the first Letter of the Living, surnamed the Babu'l-Bab (the Gate of the Gate); designated as the "Primal Mirror;" on whom eulogies, prayers and visiting Tablets of a number equivalent to thrice the volume of the Qur'an had been lavished by the pen of the Bab; referred to in these eulogies as "beloved of My Heart;" the dust of whose grave, that same Pen had declared, was so potent as to cheer the sorrowful and heal the sick; whom "the creatures, raised in the beginning and in the end" of the Babi Dispensation, envy, and will continue to envy till the "Day of Judgment;" whom the Kitab-i-iqan acclaimed as the one but for whom "G.o.d would not have been established upon the seat of His mercy, nor ascended the throne of eternal glory;" to whom Siyyid Kazim had paid such tribute that his disciples suspected that the recipient of such praise might well be the promised One Himself-such a one had likewise, in the prime of his manhood, died a martyr's death at Tabarsi. Vahid, p.r.o.nounced in the Kitab-i-iqan to be the "unique and peerless figure of his age," a man of immense erudition and the most preeminent figure to enlist under the banner of the new Faith, to whose "talents and saintliness," to whose "high attainments in the realm of science and philosophy" the Bab had testified in His Dala'il-i-Sab'ih (Seven Proofs), had already, under similar circ.u.mstances, been swept into the maelstrom of another upheaval, and was soon to quaff in his turn the cup drained by the heroic martyrs of Mazindaran. Hujjat, another champion of conspicuous audacity, of unsubduable will, of remarkable originality and vehement zeal, was being, swiftly and inevitably, drawn into the fiery furnace whose flames had already enveloped Zanjan and its environs. The Bab's maternal uncle, the only father He had known since His childhood, His shield and support and the trusted guardian of both His mother and His wife, had, moreover, been sundered from Him by the axe of the executioner in ?ihran. No less than half of His chosen disciples, the Letters of the Living, had already preceded Him in the field of martyrdom. Tahirih, though still alive, was courageously pursuing a course that was to lead her inevitably to her doom.

A fast ebbing life, so crowded with the acc.u.mulated anxieties, disappointments, treacheries and sorrows of a tragic ministry, now moved swiftly towards its climax. The most turbulent period of the Heroic Age of the new Dispensation was rapidly attaining its culmination. The cup of bitter woes which the Herald of that Dispensation had tasted was now full to overflowing. Indeed, He Himself had already foreshadowed His own approaching death. In the Kitab-i-Panj-_Sh_a'n, one of His last works, He had alluded to the fact that the sixth Naw-Ruz after the declaration of His mission would be the last He was destined to celebrate on earth. In His interpretation of the letter Ha, He had voiced His craving for martyrdom, while in the Qayyumu'l-Asma He had actually prophesied the inevitability of such a consummation of His glorious career. Forty days before His final departure from _Ch_ihriq He had even collected all the doc.u.ments in His possession, and placed them, together with His pen-case, His seals and His rings, in the hands of Mulla Baqir, a Letter of the Living, whom He instructed to entrust them to Mulla 'Abdu'l-Karim-i-Qazvini, surnamed Mirza A?mad, who was to deliver them to Baha'u'llah in ?ihran.

While the convulsions of Mazindaran and Nayriz were pursuing their b.l.o.o.d.y course the Grand Vizir of Na?iri'd-Din _Sh_ah, anxiously pondering the significance of these dire happenings, and apprehensive of their repercussions on his countrymen, his government and his sovereign, was feverishly revolving in his mind that fateful decision which was not only destined to leave its indelible imprint on the fortunes of his country, but was to be fraught with such incalculable consequences for the destinies of the whole of mankind. The repressive measures taken against the followers of the Bab, he was by now fully convinced, had but served to inflame their zeal, steel their resolution and confirm their loyalty to their persecuted Faith. The Bab's isolation and captivity had produced the opposite effect to that which the Amir-Nizam had confidently antic.i.p.ated.

Gravely perturbed, he bitterly condemned the disastrous leniency of his predecessor, ?aji Mirza Aqasi, which had brought matters to such a pa.s.s. A more drastic and still more exemplary punishment, he felt, must now be administered to what he regarded as an abomination of heresy which was polluting the civil and ecclesiastical inst.i.tutions of the realm. Nothing short, he believed, of the extinction of the life of Him Who was the fountain-head of so odious a doctrine and the driving force behind so dynamic a movement could stem the tide that had wrought such havoc throughout the land.

The siege of Zanjan was still in progress when he, dispensing with an explicit order from his sovereign, and acting independently of his counsellors and fellow-ministers, dispatched his order to Prince ?amzih Mirza, the Hi_sh_matu'd-Dawlih, the governor of a_dh_irbayjan, instructing him to execute the Bab. Fearing lest the infliction of such condign punishment in the capital of the realm would set in motion forces he might be powerless to control, he ordered that his Captive be taken to Tabriz, and there be done to death. Confronted with a flat refusal by the indignant Prince to perform what he regarded as a flagitious crime, the Amir-Nizam commissioned his own brother, Mirza ?asan _Kh_an, to execute his orders. The usual formalities designed to secure the necessary authorization from the leading mujtahids of Tabriz were hastily and easily completed. Neither Mulla Mu?ammad-i-Mamaqani, however, who had penned the Bab's death-warrant on the very day of His examination in Tabriz, nor ?aji Mirza Baqir, nor Mulla Murtada-Quli, to whose houses their Victim was ignominiously led by the farra_sh_-ba_sh_i, by order of the Grand Vizir, condescended to meet face to face their dreaded Opponent.

Immediately before and soon after this humiliating treatment meted out to the Bab two highly significant incidents occurred, incidents that cast an illuminating light on the mysterious circ.u.mstances surrounding the opening phase of His martyrdom. The farra_sh_-ba_sh_i had abruptly interrupted the last conversation which the Bab was confidentially having in one of the rooms of the barracks with His amanuensis Siyyid ?usayn, and was drawing the latter aside, and severely rebuking him, when he was thus addressed by his Prisoner: "Not until I have said to him all those things that I wish to say can any earthly power silence Me. Though all the world be armed against Me, yet shall it be powerless to deter Me from fulfilling, to the last word, My intention." To the Christian Sam _Kh_an-the colonel of the Armenian regiment ordered to carry out the execution-who, seized with fear lest his act should provoke the wrath of G.o.d, had begged to be released from the duty imposed upon him, the Bab gave the following a.s.surance: "Follow your instructions, and if your intention be sincere, the Almighty is surely able to relieve you of your perplexity."

Sam _Kh_an accordingly set out to discharge his duty. A spike was driven into a pillar which separated two rooms of the barracks facing the square.

Two ropes were fastened to it from which the Bab and one of his disciples, the youthful and devout Mirza Mu?ammad-'Ali-i-Zunuzi, surnamed Anis, who had previously flung himself at the feet of his Master and implored that under no circ.u.mstances he be sent away from Him, were separately suspended. The firing squad ranged itself in three files, each of two hundred and fifty men. Each file in turn opened fire until the whole detachment had discharged its bullets. So dense was the smoke from the seven hundred and fifty rifles that the sky was darkened. As soon as the smoke had cleared away the astounded mult.i.tude of about ten thousand souls, who had crowded onto the roof of the barracks, as well as the tops of the adjoining houses, beheld a scene which their eyes could scarcely believe.

The Bab had vanished from their sight! Only his companion remained, alive and unscathed, standing beside the wall on which they had been suspended.

The ropes by which they had been hung alone were severed. "The Siyyid-i-Bab has gone from our sight!" cried out the bewildered spectators. A frenzied search immediately ensued. He was found, unhurt and unruffled, in the very room He had occupied the night before, engaged in completing His interrupted conversation with His amanuensis. "I have finished My conversation with Siyyid ?usayn" were the words with which the Prisoner, so providentially preserved, greeted the appearance of the farra_sh_-ba_sh_i, "Now you may proceed to fulfill your intention."

Recalling the bold a.s.sertion his Prisoner had previously made, and shaken by so stunning a revelation, the farra_sh_-ba_sh_i quitted instantly the scene, and resigned his post.

Sam _Kh_an, likewise, remembering, with feelings of awe and wonder, the rea.s.suring words addressed to him by the Bab, ordered his men to leave the barracks immediately, and swore, as he left the courtyard, never again, even at the cost of his life, to repeat that act. aqa Jan-i-_Kh_amsih, colonel of the body-guard, volunteered to replace him. On the same wall and in the same manner the Bab and His companion were again suspended, while the new regiment formed in line and opened fire upon them. This time, however, their b.r.e.a.s.t.s were riddled with bullets, and their bodies completely dissected, with the exception of their faces which were but little marred. "O wayward generation!" were the last words of the Bab to the gazing mult.i.tude, as the regiment prepared to fire its volley, "Had you believed in Me every one of you would have followed the example of this youth, who stood in rank above most of you, and would have willingly sacrificed himself in My path. The day will come when you will have recognized Me; that day I shall have ceased to be with you."

Nor was this all. The very moment the shots were fired a gale of exceptional violence arose and swept over the city. From noon till night a whirlwind of dust obscured the light of the sun, and blinded the eyes of the people. In _Sh_iraz an "earthquake," foreshadowed in no less weighty a Book than the Revelation of St. John, occurred in 1268 A.H. which threw the whole city into turmoil and wrought havoc amongst its people, a havoc that was greatly aggravated by the outbreak of cholera, by famine and other afflictions. In that same year no less than two hundred and fifty of the firing squad, that had replaced Sam _Kh_an's regiment, met their death, together with their officers, in a terrible earthquake, while the remaining five hundred suffered, three years later, as a punishment for their mutiny, the same fate as that which their hands had inflicted upon the Bab. To insure that none of them had survived, they were riddled with a second volley, after which their bodies, pierced with spears and lances, were exposed to the gaze of the people of Tabriz. The prime instigator of the Bab's death, the implacable Amir-Nizam, together with his brother, his chief accomplice, met their death within two years of that savage act.

On the evening of the very day of the Bab's execution, which fell on the ninth of July 1850 (28th of _Sh_a'ban 1266 A.H.), during the thirty-first year of His age and the seventh of His ministry, the mangled bodies were transferred from the courtyard of the barracks to the edge of the moat outside the gate of the city. Four companies, each consisting of ten sentinels, were ordered to keep watch in turn over them. On the following morning the Russian Consul in Tabriz visited the spot, and ordered the artist who had accompanied him to make a drawing of the remains as they lay beside the moat. In the middle of the following night a follower of the Bab, ?aji Sulayman _Kh_an, succeeded, through the instrumentality of a certain ?aji Allah-Yar, in removing the bodies to the silk factory owned by one of the believers of Milan, and laid them, the next day, in a specially made wooden casket, which he later transferred to a place of safety. Meanwhile the mullas were boastfully proclaiming from the pulpits that, whereas the holy body of the Immaculate Imam would be preserved from beasts of prey and from all creeping things, this man's body had been devoured by wild animals. No sooner had the news of the transfer of the remains of the Bab and of His fellow-sufferer been communicated to Baha'u'llah than He ordered that same Sulayman _Kh_an to bring them to ?ihran, where they were taken to the Imam-Zadih-?asan, from whence they were removed to different places, until the time when, in pursuance of 'Abdu'l-Baha's instructions, they were transferred to the Holy Land, and were permanently and ceremoniously laid to rest by Him in a specially erected mausoleum on the slopes of Mt. Carmel.

Thus ended a life which posterity will recognize as standing at the confluence of two universal prophetic cycles, the Adamic Cycle stretching back as far as the first dawnings of the world's recorded religious history and the Baha'i Cycle destined to propel itself across the unborn reaches of time for a period of no less than five thousand centuries. The apotheosis in which such a life attained its consummation marks, as already observed, the culmination of the most heroic phase of the Heroic Age of the Baha'i Dispensation. It can, moreover, be regarded in no other light except as the most dramatic, the most tragic event transpiring within the entire range of the first Baha'i century. Indeed it can be rightly acclaimed as unparalleled in the annals of the lives of all the Founders of the world's existing religious systems.

So momentous an event could hardly fail to arouse widespread and keen interest even beyond the confines of the land in which it had occurred.

"C'est un des plus magnifiques exemples de courage qu'il ait ete donne a l'humanite de contempler," is the testimony recorded by a Christian scholar and government official, who had lived in Persia and had familiarized himself with the life and teachings of the Bab, "et c'est aussi une admirable preuve de l'amour que notre heros portait a ses concitoyens. Il s'est sacrifie pour l'humanite: pour elle il a donne son corps et son ame, pour elle il a subi les privations, les affronts, les injures, la torture et le martyre. Il a scelle de son sang le pacte de la fraternite universelle, et comme Jesus il a paye de sa vie l'annonce du regne de la concorde, de l'equite et de l'amour du prochain." "Un fait etrange, unique dans les annales de l'humanite," is a further testimony from the pen of that same scholar commenting on the circ.u.mstances attending the Bab's martyrdom. "A veritable miracle," is the p.r.o.nouncement made by a noted French Orientalist. "A true G.o.d-man," is the verdict of a famous British traveler and writer. "The finest product of his country,"

is the tribute paid Him by a noted French publicist. "That Jesus of the age ... a prophet, and more than a prophet," is the judgment pa.s.sed by a distinguished English divine. "The most important religious movement since the foundation of Christianity," is the possibility that was envisaged for the Faith the Bab had established by that far-famed Oxford scholar, the late Master of Balliol.

"Many persons from all parts of the world," is 'Abdu'l-Baha's written a.s.sertion, "set out for Persia and began to investigate wholeheartedly the matter." The Czar of Russia, a contemporary chronicler has written, had even, shortly before the Bab's martyrdom, instructed the Russian Consul in Tabriz to fully inquire into, and report the circ.u.mstances of so startling a Movement, a commission that could not be carried out in view of the Bab's execution. In countries as remote as those of Western Europe an interest no less profound was kindled, and spread with great rapidity to literary, artistic, diplomatic and intellectual circles. "All Europe,"

attests the above-mentioned French publicist, "was stirred to pity and indignation... Among the litterateurs of my generation, in the Paris of 1890, the martyrdom of the Bab was still as fresh a topic as had been the first news of His death. We wrote poems about Him. Sarah Bernhardt entreated Catulle Mendes for a play on the theme of this historic tragedy." A Russian poetess, member of the Philosophic, Oriental and Bibliological Societies of St. Petersburg, published in 1903 a drama ent.i.tled "The Bab," which a year later was played in one of the princ.i.p.al theatres of that city, was subsequently given publicity in London, was translated into French in Paris, and into German by the poet Fiedler, was presented again, soon after the Russian Revolution, in the Folk Theatre in Leningrad, and succeeded in arousing the genuine sympathy and interest of the renowned Tolstoy, whose eulogy of the poem was later published in the Russian press.

It would indeed be no exaggeration to say that nowhere in the whole compa.s.s of the world's religious literature, except in the Gospels, do we find any record relating to the death of any of the religion-founders of the past comparable to the martyrdom suffered by the Prophet of _Sh_iraz.

So strange, so inexplicable a phenomenon, attested by eye-witnesses, corroborated by men of recognized standing, and acknowledged by government as well as unofficial historians among the people who had sworn undying hostility to the Babi Faith, may be truly regarded as the most marvelous manifestation of the unique potentialities with which a Dispensation promised by all the Dispensations of the past had been endowed. The pa.s.sion of Jesus Christ, and indeed His whole public ministry, alone offer a parallel to the Mission and death of the Bab, a parallel which no student of comparative religion can fail to perceive or ignore. In the youthfulness and meekness of the Inaugurator of the Babi Dispensation; in the extreme brevity and turbulence of His public ministry; in the dramatic swiftness with which that ministry moved towards its climax; in the apostolic order which He inst.i.tuted, and the primacy which He conferred on one of its members; in the boldness of His challenge to the time-honored conventions, rites and laws which had been woven into the fabric of the religion He Himself had been born into; in the role which an officially recognized and firmly entrenched religious hierarchy played as chief instigator of the outrages which He was made to suffer; in the indignities heaped upon Him; in the suddenness of His arrest; in the interrogation to which He was subjected; in the derision poured, and the scourging inflicted, upon Him; in the public affront He sustained; and, finally, in His ignominious suspension before the gaze of a hostile mult.i.tude-in all these we cannot fail to discern a remarkable similarity to the distinguishing features of the career of Jesus Christ.

It should be remembered, however, that apart from the miracle a.s.sociated with the Bab's execution, He, unlike the Founder of the Christian religion, is not only to be regarded as the independent Author of a divinely revealed Dispensation, but must also be recognized as the Herald of a new Era and the Inaugurator of a great universal prophetic cycle. Nor should the important fact be overlooked that, whereas the chief adversaries of Jesus Christ, in His lifetime, were the Jewish rabbis and their a.s.sociates, the forces arrayed against the Bab represented the combined civil and ecclesiastical powers of Persia, which, from the moment of His declaration to the hour of His death, persisted, unitedly and by every means at their disposal, in conspiring against the upholders and in vilifying the tenets of His Revelation.

The Bab, acclaimed by Baha'u'llah as the "Essence of Essences," the "Sea of Seas," the "Point round Whom the realities of the Prophets and Messengers revolve," "from Whom G.o.d hath caused to proceed the knowledge of all that was and shall be," Whose "rank excelleth that of all the Prophets," and Whose "Revelation transcendeth the comprehension and understanding of all their chosen ones," had delivered His Message and discharged His mission. He Who was, in the words of 'Abdu'l-Baha, the "Morn of Truth" and "Harbinger of the Most Great Light," Whose advent at once signalized the termination of the "Prophetic Cycle" and the inception of the "Cycle of Fulfillment," had simultaneously through His Revelation banished the shades of night that had descended upon His country, and proclaimed the impending rise of that Incomparable Orb Whose radiance was to envelop the whole of mankind. He, as affirmed by Himself, "the Primal Point from which have been generated all created things," "one of the sustaining pillars of the Primal Word of G.o.d," the "Mystic Fane," the "Great Announcement," the "Flame of that supernal Light that glowed upon Sinai," the "Remembrance of G.o.d" concerning Whom "a separate Covenant hath been established with each and every Prophet" had, through His advent, at once fulfilled the promise of all ages and ushered in the consummation of all Revelations. He the "Qa'im" (He Who ariseth) promised to the _Sh_i'ahs, the "Mihdi" (One Who is guided) awaited by the Sunnis, the "Return of John the Baptist" expected by the Christians, the "U_sh_idar-Mah" referred to in the Zoroastrian scriptures, the "Return of Elijah" antic.i.p.ated by the Jews, Whose Revelation was to show forth "the signs and tokens of all the Prophets", Who was to "manifest the perfection of Moses, the radiance of Jesus and the patience of Job" had appeared, proclaimed His Cause, been mercilessly persecuted and died gloriously. The "Second Woe," spoken of in the Apocalypse of St. John the Divine, had, at long last, appeared, and the first of the two "Messengers," Whose appearance had been prophesied in the Qur'an, had been sent down. The first "Trumpet-Blast", destined to smite the earth with extermination, announced in the latter Book, had finally been sounded. "The Inevitable,"

"The Catastrophe," "The Resurrection," "The Earthquake of the Last Hour,"

foretold by that same Book, had all come to pa.s.s. The "clear tokens" had been "sent down," and the "Spirit" had "breathed," and the "souls" had "waked up," and the "heaven" had been "cleft," and the "angels" had "ranged in order," and the "stars" had been "blotted out," and the "earth"

had "cast forth her burden," and "Paradise" had been "brought near," and "h.e.l.l" had been "made to blaze," and the "Book" had been "set," and the "Bridge" had been "laid out," and the "Balance" had been "set up," and the "mountains scattered in dust." The "cleansing of the Sanctuary,"

prophesied by Daniel and confirmed by Jesus Christ in His reference to "the abomination of desolation," had been accomplished. The "day whose length shall be a thousand years," foretold by the Apostle of G.o.d in His Book, had terminated. The "forty and two months," during which the "Holy City," as predicted by St. John the Divine, would be trodden under foot, had elapsed. The "time of the end" had been ushered in, and the first of the "two Witnesses" into Whom, "after three days and a half the Spirit of Life from G.o.d" would enter, had arisen and had "ascended up to heaven in a cloud." The "remaining twenty and five letters to be made manifest,"

according to Islamic tradition, out of the "twenty and seven letters" of which Knowledge has been declared to consist, had been revealed. The "Man Child," mentioned in the Book of Revelation, destined to "rule all nations with a rod of iron," had released, through His coming, the creative energies which, reinforced by the effusions of a swiftly succeeding and infinitely mightier Revelation, were to instill into the entire human race the capacity to achieve its organic unification, attain maturity and thereby reach the final stage in its age-long evolution. The clarion-call addressed to the "concourse of kings and of the sons of kings," marking the inception of a process which, accelerated by Baha'u'llah's subsequent warnings to the entire company of the monarchs of East and West, was to produce so widespread a revolution in the fortunes of royalty, had been raised in the Qayyumu'l-Asma. The "Order," whose foundation the Promised One was to establish in the Kitab-i-Aqdas, and the features of which the Center of the Covenant was to delineate in His Testament, and whose administrative framework the entire body of His followers are now erecting, had been categorically announced in the Persian Bayan. The laws which were designed, on the one hand, to abolish at a stroke the privileges and ceremonials, the ordinances and inst.i.tutions of a superannuated Dispensation, and to bridge, on the other, the gap between an obsolete system and the inst.i.tutions of a world-encompa.s.sing Order destined to supersede it, had been clearly formulated and proclaimed. The Covenant which, despite the determined a.s.saults launched against it, succeeded, unlike all previous Dispensations, in preserving the integrity of the Faith of its Author, and in paving the way for the advent of the One Who was to be its Center and Object, had been firmly and irrevocably established. The light which, throughout successive periods, was to propagate itself gradually from its cradle as far as Vancouver in the West and the China Sea in the East, and to diffuse its radiance as far as Iceland in the North and the Tasman Sea in the South, had broken. The forces of darkness, at first confined to the concerted hostility of the civil and ecclesiastical powers of _Sh_i'ah Persia, gathering momentum, at a later stage, through the avowed and persistent opposition of the Caliph of Islam and the Sunni hierarchy in Turkey, and destined to culminate in the fierce antagonism of the sacerdotal orders a.s.sociated with other and still more powerful religious systems, had launched their initial a.s.sault.

The nucleus of the divinely ordained, world-embracing Community-a Community whose infant strength had already plucked asunder the fetters of _Sh_i'ah orthodoxy, and which was, with every expansion in the range of its fellowship, to seek and obtain a wider and still more significant recognition of its claims to be the world religion of the future, had been formed and was slowly crystallizing. And, lastly, the seed, endowed by the Hand of Omnipotence with such vast potentialities, though rudely trampled under foot and seemingly perished from the face of the earth, had, through this very process, been vouchsafed the opportunity to germinate and remanifest itself, in the shape of a still more compelling Revelation-a Revelation destined to blossom forth, in a later period into the flourishing inst.i.tutions of a world-wide administrative System, and to ripen, in the Golden Age as yet unborn, into mighty agencies functioning in consonance with the principles of a world-unifying, world-redeeming Order.

Chapter V: The Attempt on the Life of the Shah and Its Consequences

The Faith that had stirred a whole nation to its depth, for whose sake thousands of precious and heroic souls had been immolated and on whose altar He Who had been its Author had sacrificed His life, was now being subjected to the strain and stress of yet another crisis of extreme violence and far-reaching consequences. It was one of those periodic crises which, occurring throughout a whole century, succeeded in momentarily eclipsing the splendor of the Faith and in almost disrupting the structure of its organic inst.i.tutions. Invariably sudden, often unexpected, seemingly fatal to both its spirit and its life, these inevitable manifestations of the mysterious evolution of a world Religion, intensely alive, challenging in its claims, revolutionizing in its tenets, struggling against overwhelming odds, have either been externally precipitated by the malice of its avowed antagonists or internally provoked by the unwisdom of its friends, the apostasy of its supporters, or the defection of some of the most highly placed amongst the kith and kin of its founders. No matter how disconcerting to the great ma.s.s of its loyal adherents, however much trumpeted by its adversaries as symptoms of its decline and impending dissolution, these admitted setbacks and reverses, from which it has time and again so tragically suffered, have, as we look back upon them, failed to arrest its march or impair its unity.

Heavy indeed has been the toll which they exacted, unspeakable the agonies they engendered, widespread and paralyzing for a time the consternation they provoked. Yet, viewed in their proper perspective, each of them can be confidently p.r.o.nounced a blessing in disguise, affording a providential means for the release of a fresh outpouring of celestial strength, a miraculous escape from imminent and still more dreadful calamities, an instrument for the fulfillment of age-old prophecies, an agency for the purification and revitalization of the life of the community, an impetus for the enlargement of its limits and the propagation of its influence, and a compelling evidence of the indestructibility of its cohesive strength. Sometimes at the height of the crisis itself, more often when the crisis was past, the significance of these trials has manifested itself to men's eyes, and the necessity of such experiences has been demonstrated, far and wide and beyond the shadow of a doubt, to both friend and foe. Seldom, if indeed at any time, has the mystery underlying these portentous, G.o.d-sent upheavals remained undisclosed, or the profound purpose and meaning of their occurrence been left hidden from the minds of men.

Such a severe ordeal the Faith of the Bab, still in the earliest stages of its infancy, was now beginning to experience. Maligned and hounded from the moment it was born, deprived in its earliest days of the sustaining strength of the majority of its leading supporters, stunned by the tragic and sudden removal of its Founder, reeling under the cruel blows it had successively sustained in Mazindaran, ?ihran, Nayriz and Zanjan, a sorely persecuted Faith was about to be subjected through the shameful act of a fanatical and irresponsible Babi, to a humiliation such as it had never before known. To the trials it had undergone was now added the oppressive load of a fresh calamity, unprecedented in its gravity, disgraceful in its character, and devastating in its immediate consequences.

Obsessed by the bitter tragedy of the martyrdom of his beloved Master, driven by a frenzy of despair to avenge that odious deed, and believing the author and instigator of that crime to be none other than the _Sh_ah himself, a certain ?adiq-i-Tabrizi, an a.s.sistant in a confectioner's shop in ?ihran, proceeded on an August day (August 15, 1852), together with his accomplice, an equally obscure youth named Fat?u'llah-i-Qumi, to Niyavaran where the imperial army had encamped and the sovereign was in residence, and there, waiting by the roadside, in the guise of an innocent bystander, fired a round of shot from his pistol at the _Sh_ah, shortly after the latter had emerged on horseback from the palace grounds for his morning promenade. The weapon the a.s.sailant employed demonstrated beyond the shadow of a doubt the folly of that half-demented youth, and clearly indicated that no man of sound judgment could have possibly instigated so senseless an act.

The whole of Niyavaran where the imperial court and troops had congregated was, as a result of this a.s.sault, plunged into an unimaginable tumult. The ministers of the state, headed by Mirza aqa _Kh_an-i-Nuri, the I'timadu'd-Dawlih, the successor of the Amir-Nizam, rushed horror-stricken to the side of their wounded sovereign. The fanfare of the trumpets, the rolling of the drums and the shrill piping of the fifes summoned the hosts of His Imperial Majesty on all sides. The _Sh_ah's attendants, some on horseback, others on foot, poured into the palace grounds. Pandemonium reigned in which every o