Memorials of the Faithful Part 20

112 Cf. Nabil, The Dawn-Breakers, chapter XV.

113 The reference is to Mu?ammad's daughter, Fatimih, "the bright and fair of face, the Lady of Light."

114 Eldest son of the _Sh_ah and ruler over more than two-fifths of the kingdom. He ratified the death sentence. Soon after these events, he fell into disgrace. Cf. G.o.d Pa.s.ses By, p. 200; 232.

115 The eighth Imam, poisoned by order of the Caliph Ma'mum, A.H. 203, after the Imam had been officially designated as the Caliph's heir apparent. His shrine, with its golden dome, has been called the glory of the _Sh_i'ih world. "A part of My body is to be buried in _Kh_urasan", the Prophet traditionally said.

116 p.r.o.nounced Ta-heh-reh.

117 Cf. The Dawn-Breakers, p. 81, note 2, and p. 285, note 2. Certain lines, there translated by Shoghi Effendi, are incorporated here.

118 A forerunner of the Bab, and first of the two founders of the _Sh_ay_kh_i School. See glossary.

119 Qur'an 17:1; 30:56; 50:19; etc

120 The sixth Imam.

121 The "Ahsanu'l-Qisas," the Bab's commentary on the Surih of Joseph, was called the Qur'an of the Babis, and was translated from Arabic into Persian by Tahirih. Cf. G.o.d Pa.s.ses By, p. 23.

122 Qur'an 3:54: "Then will we invoke and lay the malison of G.o.d on those that lie!" The ordeal was by imprecation.

123 Qur'an 21:48; 19:37, etc. In Islam the Bridge of ?ira?, sharp as a sword and finer than a hair, stretches across h.e.l.l to Heaven.

124 Cf. The Dawn-Breakers, p. 276. The murderer was not a Babi, but a fervent admirer of the _Sh_ay_kh_i leaders, the Twin Luminous Lights.

125 Cf. The Dawn-Breakers, p. 278.

126 This refers to the doctrine that there are three ways to G.o.d: the Law (_sh_ari'at), the Path (tariqat), and the Truth (haqiqat). That is, the law of the orthodox, the path of the dervish, and the truth.

Cf. R. A. Nicholson, Commentary on the Ma_th_navi of Rumi, s.v.

127 The eighteenth Letter of the Living, martyred with unspeakable cruelty in the market place at Barfuru_sh_, when he was twenty-seven. Baha'u'llah conferred on him a station second only to that of the Bab Himself. Cf. The Dawn-Breakers, pp. 408415.

128 Cf. Qur'an 74:8 and 6:73. Also Isaiah 27:13 and Zechariah 9:14.

129 Qur'an, Surih 56.

130 A systematic campaign against the new Faith had been launched in Persia by the civil and ecclesiastical authorities combined. The believers, cut down wherever they were isolated, banded together when they could, for protection against the Government, the clergy, and the people. Betrayed and surrounded as they pa.s.sed through the forest of Mazindaran, some 300 believers, mostly students and recluses, built the Fort of _Sh_ay_kh_ Tabarsi and held out against the armies of Persia for eleven months. Cf. The Dawn-Breakers, chapters XIX and XX; G.o.d Pa.s.ses By, p. 37 et seq.

131 On August 15, 1852, a half-crazed Babi youth wounded the _Sh_ah with shot from a pistol. The a.s.sailant was instantly killed, and the authorities carried out a wholesale ma.s.sacre of the believers, its climax described by Renan as "a day perhaps unparalleled in the history of the world." Cf. Lord Curzon, Persia and the Persian Question, pp. 5012, and G.o.d Pa.s.ses By, p. 62 et seq.