The Reconciliation of Races and Religions Part 3

And from this time we cannot doubt that the purifying west wind breathed over the old Persian land which needed it so sadly.

It is probable, however, that the reformer had different ideas of disciples.h.i.+p. In one of his early letters he bids his correspondent take care to conceal his religion until he can reveal it without fear. Among his chief disciples were that gallant knight called the 'Gate's Gate,' Kuddus, and his kind uncle. Like most religious leaders he attached great worth to pilgrimages. He began by journeying to the s.h.i.+'ite holy places, consecrated by the events of the Persian Pa.s.sion-play. Then he embarked at Bus.h.i.+re, accompanied (probably) by Kuddus. The winds, however, were contrary, and he was glad to rest a few days at Mascat. It is probable that at Mecca (the goal of his journey) he became completely detached from the Muhammadan form of Islam. There too he made arrangements for propaganda. Unfavourable as the times seemed, his disciples were expected to have the courage of their convictions, and even his uncle, who was no longer young, became a fisher of men. This, it appears to me, is the true explanation of an otherwise obscure direction to the uncle to return to Persia by the overland route, _via_ Baghdad, 'with the verses which have come down from G.o.d.'

The overland route would take the uncle by the holy places of 'Irak; 'Ali [Muh.]ammad's meaning therefore really is that his kinsman is to have the honour of evangelizing the important city of Baghdad, and of course the pilgrims who may chance to be at Karbala and Nejef. These were, to s.h.i.+'ites, the holiest of cities, and yet the reformer had the consciousness that there was no need of searching for a _kibla_. G.o.d was everywhere, but if one place was holier than another, it was neither Jerusalem nor Mecca, but s.h.i.+raz. To this beautiful city he returned, nothing loth, for indeed the manners of the pilgrims were the reverse of seemly. His own work was purely spiritual: it was to organize an attack on a foe who should have been, but was no longer, spiritual.

Among his first steps was sending the 'First to Believe' to Isfahan to make a conquest of the learned Mulla Mukaddas. His expectation was fully realized. Mukaddas was converted, and hastened to s.h.i.+raz, eager to prove his zeal. His orders were (according to one tradition) to introduce the name of 'Ali Muhammad into the call to prayer (_azan_) and to explain a pa.s.sage in the commentary on the Sura of Joseph. This was done, and the penalty could not be delayed. After suffering insults, which to us are barely credible, Mukaddas and his friend found shelter for three days in s.h.i.+raz in the Bab's house.

It should be noted that I here employ the symbolic name 'the Bab.'

There is a traditional saying of the prophet Muhammad, 'I am the city of knowledge, and 'Ali is its Gate.' It seems, however, that there is little, if any, difference between 'Gate' (_Bab_) and 'Point' (_nukta_), or between either of these and 'he who shall arise' (_ka'im_) and 'the Imam Mahdi.' But to this we shall return presently.

But safety was not long to be had by the Bab or by his disciples either in s.h.i.+raz or in Bus.h.i.+re (where the Bab then was). A fortnight afterwards twelve hors.e.m.e.n were sent by the governor of Fars to Bus.h.i.+re to arrest the Bab and bring him back to s.h.i.+raz. Such at least is one tradition, [Footnote: _AMB_, p. 226.] but some Babis, according to Nicolas, energetically deny it. Certainly it is not improbable that the governor, who had already taken action against the Babi missionaries, should wish to observe the Bab within a nearer range, and inflict a blow on his growing popularity. Unwisely enough, the governor left the field open to the mullas, who thought by placing the pulpit of the great mosque at his disposal to be able to find material for ecclesiastical censure. But they had left one thing out of their account--the ardour of the Bab's temperament and the depth of his conviction. And so great was the impression produced by the Bab's sermon that the Shah Muhammad, who heard of it, sent a royal commissioner to study the circ.u.mstances on the spot. This step, however, was a complete failure. One may doubt indeed whether the Sayyid Yahya was ever a politician or a courtier. See below, p. 90.

The state of things had now become so threatening that a peremptory order to the governor was sent from the court to put an end to such a display of impotence. It is said that the aid of a.s.sa.s.sins was not to be refused; the death of the Bab might then be described as 'a deplorable accident.' The Bab himself was liable at any moment to be called into a conference of mullas and high state-officers, and asked absurd questions. He got tired of this and thought he would change his residence, especially as the cholera came and scattered the population. Six miserable months he had spent in s.h.i.+raz, and it was time for him to strengthen and enlighten the believers elsewhere. The goal of his present journey was Isfahan, but he was not without hopes of soon reaching Tihran and disabusing the mind of the Shah of the false notions which had become lodged in it. So, after bidding farewell to his relatives, he and his secretary and another well-tried companion turned their backs on the petty tyrant of s.h.i.+raz.

[Footnote: _AMB_, p. 370.] The Bab, however, took a very wise precaution. At the last posting station before Isfahan he wrote to Minuchihr Khan, the governor (a Georgian by origin), announcing his approach and invoking the governor's protection.

Minuchihr Khan, who was religiously openminded though not scrupulous enough in the getting of money, [Footnote: _NH_, p. 346.]

granted this request, and sent word to the leading mulla (the Imam-Jam'a) that he should proffer hospitality to this eminent new-comer. This the Imam did, and so respectful was he for 'forty days' that he used to bring the basin for his guest to wash his hands at mealtimes. [Footnote: _Ibid_. p. 372.] The rapidity with which the Bab indited (or revealed) a commentary on a _sura_ of the Kur'an greatly impressed him, but afterwards he gave way to the persecuting tendencies of his colleagues, who had already learned to dread the presence of Babite missionaries. At the bidding of the governor, however, who had some faith in the Bab and hoped for the best, a conference was arranged between the mullas and the Bab (poor man!) at the governor's house. The result was that Minuchihr Khan declared that the mullas had by no means proved the reformer to be an impostor, but that for the sake of peace he would at once send the Bab with an escort of hors.e.m.e.n to the capital. This was to all appearance carried out. The streets were crowded as the band of mounted men set forth, some of the Isfahanites (especially the mullas) rejoicing, but a minority inwardly lamenting. This, however, was only a blind. The governor cunningly sent a trusty horseman with orders to overtake the travellers a short distance out of Isfahan, and bring them by nightfall to the governor's secret apartments or (as others say) to one of the royal palaces. There the Bab had still to spend a little more than four untroubled halcyon months.

But a storm-cloud came up from the sea, no bigger than a man's hand, and it spread, and the destruction wrought by it was great. On March 4, 1847, the French amba.s.sador wrote home stating that the governor of Isfahan had died, leaving a fortune of 40 million francs. [Footnote: _AMB_, p. 242.] He could not be expected to add what the Babite tradition affirms, that the governor offered the Bab all his riches and even the rings on his fingers, [Footnote: _TN_, pp. 12, 13, 264-8; _NH_, p. 402 (Subh-i-Ezel's narrative), cp. pp. 211, 346.] to which the prophet refers in the following pa.s.sage of his famous letter to Muhammad Shah, written from Maku:

'The other question is an affair of this lower world. The late Meu'timed [a t.i.tle of Minuchihr Khan], one night, made all the bystanders withdraw, ... then he said to me, "I know full well that all that I have gained I have gotten by violence, and that belongs to the Lord of the Age. I give it therefore entirely to thee, for thou art the Master of Truth, and I ask thy permission to become its possessor." He even took off a ring which he had on his finger, and gave it to me. I took the ring and restored it to him, and sent him away in possession of all his goods.... I will not have a dinar of those goods, but it is for you to ordain as shall seem good to you.... [As witnesses] send for Sayyid Yahya [Footnote: See above, p. 47.] and Mulla Abdu'l-Khalik.... [Footnote: A disciple of Sheykh Ahmad. He became a Babi, but grew lukewarm in the faith (_NH_, pp. 231, 342 n.1).] The one became acquainted with me before the Manifestation, the other after. Both know me right well; this is why I have chosen them.' [Footnote: _AMB_, pp. 372, 373.]

It was not likely, however, that the legal heir would waive his claim, nor yet that the Shah or his minister would be prepared with a scheme for distributing the ill-gotten riches of the governor among the poor, which was probably what the Bab himself wished. It should be added (but not, of course, from this letter) that Minuchihr Khan also offered the Bab more than 5000 hors.e.m.e.n and footmen of the tribes devoted to his interests, with whom he said that he would with all speed march upon the capital, to enforce the Shah's acceptance of the Bab's mission. This offer, too, the Bab rejected, observing that the diffusion of G.o.d's truth could not be effected by such means. But he was truly grateful to the governor who so often saved him from the wrath of the mullas. 'G.o.d reward him,' he would say, 'for what he did for me.'

Of the governor's legal heir and successor, Gurgin Khan, the Bab preserved a much less favourable recollection. In the same letter which has been quoted from already he says: 'Finally, Gurgin made me travel during seven nights without any of the necessaries of a journey, and with a thousand lies and a thousand acts of violence.'

[Footnote: _AMB_, p. 371.] In fact, after trying to impose upon the Bab by crooked talk, Gurgin, as soon as he found out where the Bab had taken refuge, made him start that same night, just as he was, and without bidding farewell to his newly-married wife, for the capital. 'So incensed was he [the Bab] at this treatment that he determined to eat nothing till he arrived at Kashan [a journey of five stages], and in this resolution he persisted... till he reached the second stage, Murchi-Khur. There, however, he met Mulla Sheykh Ali... and another of his missionaries, whom he had commissioned two days previously to proceed to Tihran; and then, on learning from his guards how matters stood, succeeded in prevailing on him to take some food.' [Footnote: _NH_, pp. 348, 349.]

Certainly it was a notable journey, diversified by happy meetings with friends and inquirers at Kashan, Khanlik, Zanjan, Milan, and Tabriz.

At Kashan the Bab saw for the first time that fervent disciple, who afterwards wrote the history of early Babism, and his equally true-hearted brother--merchants both of them. In fact, Mirza Jani bribed the chief of the escort, to allow him for two days the felicity of entertaining G.o.d's Messenger. [Footnote: _Ibid_. pp. 213, 214.]

Khanlik has also--though a mere village--its honourable record, for there the Bab was first seen by two splendid youthful heroes [Footnote: _Ibid_. pp. 96-101.]--Riza Khan (best hated of all the Babis) and Mirza Huseyn 'Ali (better known as Baha-'ullah). At Milan (which the Bab calls 'one of the regions of Paradise'), as Mirza Jani states, 'two hundred persons believed and underwent a true and sincere conversion.' [Footnote: _Ibid_. p. 221. Surely these conversions were due, not to a supposed act of miraculous healing, but to the 'majesty and dignity' of G.o.d's Messenger. The people were expecting a Messiah, and here was a Personage who came up to the ideal they had formed.]What meetings took place at Zanjan and Tabriz, the early Babi historian does not report; later on, Zanjan was a focus of Babite propagandism, but just then the apostle of the Zanjan movement was summoned to Tihran. From Tabriz a remarkable cure is reported, [Footnote: _NH_, p. 226.] and as a natural consequence we hear of many conversions.

The Bab was specially favoured in the chief of his escort, who, in the course of the journey, was fascinated by the combined majesty and gentleness of his prisoner. His name was Muhammad Beg, and his moral portrait is thus limned by Mirza Jani: 'He was a man of kindly nature and amiable character, and [became] so sincere and devoted a believer that whenever the name of His Holiness was mentioned he would incontinently burst into tears, saying,

I scarcely reckon as life the days when to me thou wert all unknown, But by faithful service for what remains I may still for the past atone.'

It was the wish, both of the Bab and of this devoted servant, that the Master should be allowed to take up his residence (under surveillance) at Tabriz, where there were already many Friends of G.o.d. But such was not the will of the Shah and his vizier, who sent word to Khanlik [Footnote: Khanlik is situated 'about six parasangs' from Tihran (_NH_, p. 216). It is in the province of Azarbaijan.] that the governor of Tabriz (Prince Bahman Mirza) should send the Bab in charge of a fresh escort to the remote mountain-fortress of Maku. The faithful Muhammad Beg made two attempts to overcome the opposition of the governor, but in vain; how, indeed, could it be otherwise? All that he could obtain was leave to entertain the Bab in his own house, where some days of rest were enjoyed. 'I wept much at his departure,' says Muhammad. No doubt the Bab often missed his respectful escort; he had made a change for the worse, and when he came to the village at the foot of the steep hill of Maku, he found the inhabitants 'ignorant and coa.r.s.e.'

It may, however, be reasonably surmised that before long the Point of Wisdom changed his tone, and even thanked G.o.d for his sojourn at Maku. For though strict orders had come from the vizier that no one was to be permitted to see the Bab, any one whom the ill.u.s.trious captive wished to converse with had free access to him. Most of the time which remained was occupied with writing (his secretary was with him); more than 100,000 'verses' are said to have come from that Supreme Pen.

By miracles the Bab set little store; in fact, the only supernatural gift which he much valued was that of inditing 'signs or verses, which appear to have produced a similar thrilling effect to those of the great Arabian Prophet. But in the second rank he must have valued a power to soothe and strengthen the nervous system which we may well a.s.sign to him, and we can easily believe that the lower animals were within the range of this beneficent faculty. Let me mention one of the horse-stories which have gathered round the gentle form of the Bab.

[Footnote: _AMB_, p. 371.]

It is given neither in the Babi nor in the Muslim histories of this period. But it forms a part of a good oral tradition, and it may supply the key to those words of the Bab in his letter to Muhammad Shah: [Footnote: Ibid. pp. 249, 250.] 'Finally, the Sultan [i.e. the Shah] ordered that I should journey towards Maku without giving me a horse that I could ride.' We learn from the legend that an officer of the Shah did call upon the Bab to ride a horse which was too vicious for any ordinary person to mount. Whether this officer was really (as the legend states) 'Ali Khan, the warden of Maku, who wished to test the claims of 'Ali Muhammad by offering him a vicious young horse and watching to see whether 'Ali Muhammad or the horse would be victorious, is not of supreme importance. What does concern us is that many of the people believed that by a virtue which resided in the Bab it was possible for him to soothe the sensitive nerves of a horse, so that it could be ridden without injury to the rider.

There is no doubt, however, that 'Ali Khan, the warden of the fortress, was one of that mult.i.tude of persons who were so thrilled by the Bab's countenance and bearing that they were almost prompted thereby to become disciples. It is highly probable, too, that just now there was a heightening of the divine expression on that unworldly face, derived from an intensification of the inner life. In earlier times 'Ali Muhammad had avoided claiming Mahdis.h.i.+p (Messiahs.h.i.+p) publicly; to the people at large he was not represented as the manifested Twelfth Imam, but only as the Gate, or means of access to that more than human, still existent being. To disciples of a higher order 'Ali Muhammad no doubt disclosed himself as he really was, but, like a heavenly statesman, he avoided inopportune self-revelations.

Now, however, the religious conditions were becoming different. Owing in some cases to the indiscretion of disciples, in others to a craving for the revolution of which the Twelfth Imam was the traditional instrument, there was a growing popular tendency to regard Mirza 'Ali Muhammad as a 'return' of the Twelfth Imam, who was, by force of arms, to set up the divine kingdom upon earth. It was this, indeed, which specially promoted the early Babi propagandism, and which probably came up for discussion at the Badasht conference.

In short, it had become a pressing duty to enlighten the mult.i.tude on the true objects of the Bab. Even we can see this--we who know that not much more than three years were remaining to him. The Bab, too, had probably a presentiment of his end; this was why he was so eager to avoid a continuance of the great misunderstanding. He was indeed the Twelfth Imam, who had returned to the world of men for a short time. But he was not a Mahdi of the Islamic type.

A constant stream of Tablets (letters) flowed from his pen. In this way he kept himself in touch with those who could not see him in the flesh. But there were many who could not rest without seeing the divine Manifestation. Pilgrims seemed never to cease; and it made the Bab still happier to receive them.

This stream of Tablets and of pilgrims could not however be exhilarating to the Shah and his Minister. They complained to the castle-warden, and bade him be a stricter gaoler, but 'Ali Khan, too, was under the spell of the Gate of Knowledge; or--as one should rather say now--the Point or Climax of Prophetic Revelation, for so the Word of Prophecy directed that he should be called. So the order went forth that 'Ali Muhammad should be transferred to another castle--that of Chihrik. [Footnote: Strictly, six or eight months (Feb. or April to Dec. 1847) at Maku, and two-and-a-half years at Chihrik (Dec. 1847 to July 1850).]

At this point a digression seems necessary.

The Bab was well aware that a primary need of the new fraternity was a new Kur'an. This he produced in the shape of a book called _The Bayan_ (Exposition). Unfortunately he adopted from the Muslims the unworkable idea of a sacred language, and his first contributions to the new Divine Library (for the new Kur'an ultimately became this) were in Arabic. These were a Commentary on the Sura of Yusuf (Joseph) and the Arabic Bayan. The language of these, however, was a barrier to the laity, and so the 'first believer' wrote a letter to the Bab, enforcing the necessity of making himself intelligible to all. This seems to be the true origin of the Persian Bayan.

A more difficult matter is 'Ali Muhammad's very peculiar consciousness, which reminds us of that which the Fourth Gospel ascribes to Jesus Christ. In other words, 'Ali Muhammad claims for himself the highest spiritual rank. 'As for Me,' he said, 'I am that Point from which all that exists has found existence. I am that Face of G.o.d which dieth not. I am that Light which doth not go out. He that knoweth Me is accompanied by all good; he that repulseth Me hath behind him all evil.' [Footnote: _AMB_, p. 369.] It is also certain that in comparatively early writings, intended for stedfast disciples, 'Ali Muhammad already claims the t.i.tle of Point, i.e. Point of Truth, or of Divine Wisdom, or of the Divine Mercy. [Footnote: _Beyan Arabe_, p. 206.]

It is noteworthy that just here we have a very old contact with Babylonian mythology. 'Point' is, in fact, a mythological term. It springs from an endeavour to minimize the materialism of the myth of the Divine Dwelling-place. That ancient myth a.s.serted that the earth-mountain was the Divine Throne. Not so, said an early school of Theosophy, G.o.d, i.e. the G.o.d who has a bodily form and manifests the hidden glory, dwells on a point in the extreme north, called by the Babylonians 'the heaven of Anu.'

The Point, however, i.e. the G.o.d of the Point, may also be ent.i.tled 'The Gate,' i.e. the Avenue to G.o.d in all His various aspects. To be the Point, therefore, is also to be the Gate. 'Ali, the cousin and son-in-law of Muhammad, was not only the Gate of the City of Knowledge, but, according to words a.s.signed to him in a _hadith_, 'the guardian of the treasures of secrets and of the purposes of G.o.d.' [Footnote: _AMB_, p. 142.]

It is also in a book written at Maku--the Persian Bayan--that the Bab constantly refers to a subsequent far greater Person, called 'He whom G.o.d will make manifest.' Altogether the harvest of sacred literature at this mountain-fortress was a rich one. But let us now pa.s.s on with the Bab to Chihrik--a miserable spot, but not so remote as Maku (it was two days' journey from Urumiyya). As Subh-i-Ezel tells us, 'The place of his captivity was a house without windows and with a doorway of bare bricks,' and adds that 'at night they would leave him without a lamp, treating him with the utmost lack of respect.' [Footnote: _NH_, p. 403.] In the Persian manner the Bab himself indicated this by calling Maku 'the Open Mountain,' and Chihrik 'the Grievous Mountain.' [Footnote: Cp. _TN_, p. 276.] Stringent orders were issued making it difficult for friends of the Beloved Master to see him; and it may be that in the latter part of his sojourn the royal orders were more effectually carried out--a change which was possibly the result of a change in the warden. Certainly Yahya Khan was guilty of no such coa.r.s.eness as Subh-i-Ezel imputes to the warden of Chihrik. And this view is confirmed by the peculiar language of Mirza Jani, 'Yahya Khan, so long as he was warden, maintained towards him an att.i.tude of unvarying respect and deference.'

This 'respect and deference' was largely owing to a dream which the warden had on the night before the day of the Bab's arrival. The central figure of the dream was a bright s.h.i.+ning saint. He said in the morning that 'if, when he saw His Holiness, he found appearance and visage to correspond with what he beheld in his dream, he would be convinced that He was in truth the promised Proof.' And this came literally true. At the first glance Yahya Khan recognized in the so-called Bab the lineaments of the saint whom he had beheld in his dream. 'Involuntarily he bent down in obeisance and kissed the knee of His Holiness.' [Footnote: _NH_, p. 240. A slight alteration has been made to draw out the meaning.]

It has already been remarked that such 'transfiguration' is not wholly supernatural. Persons who have experienced those wonderful phenomena which are known as ecstatic, often exhibit what seems like a triumphant and angelic irradiation. So--to keep near home--it was among the Welsh in their last great revival. Such, too, was the brightness which, Yahya Khan and other eye-witnesses agree, suffused the Bab's countenance more than ever in this period. Many adverse things might happen, but the 'Point' of Divine Wisdom could not be torn from His moorings. In that miserable dark brick chamber He was 'in Paradise.' The horrid warfare at Sheykh Tabarsi and elsewhere, which robbed him of Babu'l Bab and of Kuddus, forced human tears from him for a time; but one who dwelt in the 'Heaven of Pre-existence' knew that 'Returns' could be counted upon, and was fully a.s.sured that the gifts and graces of Kuddus had pa.s.sed into Mirza Yahya (Subh-i-Ezel). For himself he was free from anxiety. His work would be carried on by another and a greater Manifestation. He did not therefore favour schemes for his own forcible deliverance.

We have no direct evidence that Yahya Khan was dismissed from his office as a mark of the royal displeasure at his gentleness. But he must have been already removed and imprisoned, [Footnote: _NH_, p. 353.] when the vizier wrote to the Crown Prince (Nasiru'd-Din, afterwards Shah) and governor of Azarbaijan directing him to summon the Bab to Tabriz and convene an a.s.sembly of clergy and laity to discuss in the Bab's presence the validity of his claims.

[Footnote: _Ibid_. p. 284.] The Bab was therefore sent, and the meeting held, but there is (as Browne has shown) no trustworthy account of the deliberations. [Footnote: _TN_, Note M, 'Bab Examined at Tabriz.'] Of course, the Bab had something better to do than to record the often trivial questions put to him from anything but a simple desire for truth, so that unless the great Accused had some friend to accompany him (which does not appear to have been the case) there could hardly be an authentic Babi narrative. And as for the Muslim accounts, those which we have before us do not bear the stamp of truth: they seem to be forgeries. Knowing what we do of the Bab, it is probable that he had the best of the argument, and that the doctors and functionaries who attended the meeting were unwilling to put upon record their own fiasco.

The result, however, _is_ known, and it is not precisely what might have been expected, i.e. it is not a capital sentence for this troublesome person. The punishment now allotted to him was one which marked him out, most unfairly, as guilty of a common misdemeanour--some act which would rightly disgust every educated person. How, indeed, could any one adopt as his teacher one who had actually been disgraced by the infliction of stripes? [Footnote: Cp. Isaiah liii. 5.] If the Bab had been captured in battle, bravely fighting, it might have been possible to admire him, but, as Court politicians kept on saying, he was but 'a vulgar charlatan, a timid dreamer.' [Footnote: Gobineau, p. 257.] According to Mirza Jani, it was the Crown Prince who gave the order for stripes, but his '_farrashes_ declared that they would rather throw themselves down from the roof of the palace than carry it out.' [Footnote: _NH_, p. 290.] Therefore the Sheykhu'l Islam charged a certain Sayyid with the 'baleful task,' by whom the Messenger of G.o.d was bastinadoed.

It seems clear, however, that there must have been a difference of opinion among the advisers of the Shah, for shortly before Shah Muhammad's death (which was impending when the Bab was in Tabriz) we are told that Prince Mahdi-Kuli dreamed that he saw the Sayyid shoot the Shah at a levee. [Footnote: _Ibid_. p. 355.]

Evidently there were some Court politicians who held that the Bab was dangerous. Probably Shah Muhammad's vizier took the disparaging view mentioned above (i.e. that the Bab was a mere mystic dreamer), but Shah Muhammad's successor dismissed Mirza Akasi, and appointed Mirza Taki Khan in his place. It was Mirza Taki Khan to whom the Great Catastrophe is owing. When the Bab returned to his confinement, now really rigorous, at Chihrik, he was still under the control of the old, capricious, and now doubly anxious grand vizier, but it was not the will of Providence that this should continue much longer. A release was at hand.

It was the insurrection of Zanjan which changed the tone of the courtiers and brought near to the Bab a glorious departure. Not, be it observed, except indirectly, his theosophical novelties; the penalty of death for deviations from the True Faith had long fallen into desuetude in Persia, if indeed it had ever taken root there.

[Footnote: Gobineau, p. 262.] Only if the Kingdom of Righteousness were to be brought in by the Bab by material weapons would this heresiarch be politically dangerous; mere religious innovations did not disturb high Court functionaries. But could the political leaders any longer indulge the fancy that the Bab was a mere mystic dreamer?

Such was probably the mental state of Mirza Taki Khan when he wrote from Tihran, directing the governor to summon the Bab to come once more for examination to Tabriz. The governor of Azarbaijan at this time was Prince Hamze Mirza.

The end of the Bab's earthly Manifestation is now close upon us. He knew it himself before the event, [Footnote: _NH_, pp. 235, 309-311, 418 (Subh-i-Ezel).] and was not displeased at the presentiment. He had already 'set his house in order,' as regards the spiritual affairs of the Babi community, which he had, if I mistake not, confided to the intuitive wisdom of Baha-'ullah. His literary executors.h.i.+p he now committed to the same competent hands.

This is what the Baha'is History (_The Travellers Narrative_) relates,--

'Now the Sayyid Bab ... had placed his writings, and even his ring and pen-case, in a specially prepared box, put the key of the box in an envelope, and sent it by means of Mulla Bakir, who was one of his first a.s.sociates, to Mulla 'Abdu'l Karim of Kazwin. This trust Mulla Bakir delivered over to Mulla 'Abdu'l Karim at k.u.m in presence of a numerous company.... Then Mulla 'Abdu'l Karim conveyed the trust to its destination.' [Footnote: _TN_, pp. 41, 42.]

The destination was Baha-'ullah, as Mulla Bakir expressly told the 'numerous company.' It also appears that the Bab sent another letter to the same trusted personage respecting the disposal of his remains.

It is impossible not to feel that this is far more probable than the view which makes Subh-i-Ezel the custodian of the sacred writings and the arranger of a resting-place for the sacred remains. I much fear that the Ezelites have manipulated tradition in the interest of their party.

To return to our narrative. From the first no indignity was spared to the holy prisoner. With night-cap instead of seemly turban, and clad only in an under-coat, [Footnote: _NH_, p. 294.] he reached Tabriz. It is true, his first experience was favourable. A man of probity, the confidential friend of Prince Hamze Mirza, the governor, summoned the Bab to a first non-ecclesiastical examination. The tone of the inquiry seems to have been quite respectful, though the accused frankly stated that he was 'that promised deliverer for whom ye have waited 1260 years, to wit the Ka'im.' Next morning, however, all this was reversed. The 'man of probity' gave way to the mullas and the populace, [Footnote: See _New History_, pp. 296 _f._, a graphic narration.] who dragged the Bab, with every circ.u.mstance of indignity, to the houses of two or three well-known members of the clergy. 'These reviled him; but to all who questioned him he declared, without any attempt at denial, that he was the Ka'im [ = he that ariseth]. At length Mulla Muhammad Mama-ghuri, one of the Sheykhi party, and sundry others, a.s.sembled together in the porch of a house belonging to one of their number, questioned him fiercely and insultingly, and when he had answered them explicitly, condemned him to death.

'So they imprisoned him who was athirst for the draught of martyrdom for three days, along with Aka Sayyid Huseyn of Yezd, the amanuensis, and Aka Sayyid Hasan, which twain were brothers, wont to pa.s.s their time for the most part in the Bab's presence....

'On the night before the day whereon was consummated the martyrdom ... he [the Bab] said to his companions, "To-morrow they will slay me shamefully. Let one of you now arise and kill me, that I may not have to endure this ignominy and shame from my enemies; for it is pleasanter to me to die by the hands of friends." His companions, with expressions of grief and sorrow, sought to excuse themselves with the exception of Mirza Muhammad 'Ali, who at once made as though he would obey the command. His comrades, however, anxiously seized his hand, crying, "Such rash presumption ill accords with the att.i.tude of devoted service." "This act of mine," replied he, "is not prompted by presumption, but by unstinted obedience, and desire to fulfil my Master's behest. After giving effect to the command of His Holiness, I will a.s.suredly pour forth my life also at His feet."

'His Holiness smiled, and, applauding his faithful devotion and sincere belief, said, "To-morrow, when you are questioned, repudiate me, and renounce my doctrines, for thus is the command of G.o.d now laid upon you...." The Bab's companions agreed, with the exception of Mirza Muhammad 'Ali, who fell at the feet of His Holiness and began to entreat and implore.... So earnestly did he urge his entreaties that His Holiness, though (at first) he strove to dissuade him, at length graciously acceded.

'Now when a little while had elapsed after the rising of the sun, they brought them, without cloak or coat, and clad only in their undercoats and nightcaps, to the Government House, where they were sentenced to be shot. Aka Sayyid Huseyn, the amanuensis, and his brother, Aka Sayyid Hasan, recanted, as they had been bidden to do, and were set at liberty; and Aka Sayyid Huseyn bestowed the gems of wisdom treasured in his bosom upon such as sought for and were worthy of them, and, agreeably to his instructions, communicated certain secrets of the faith to those for whom they were intended. He (subsequently) attained to the rank of martyrdom in the Catastrophe of Tihran.