Reconciliation of Races and Religions — 10 – [Part II. Biographical and Historical]: Seyyid 'Ali Muḥammad (The Bāb): From “Now when a little while had elapsed…” to “…and numerous pilgrims from many countries resort to it.” Eulogium on the Master.

'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.

Aḳa Sayyid Ḥuseyn, the amanuensis, and his brother, Aḳa Sayyid Ḥasan, recanted, as they had been bidden to do, and were set at liberty; and Aḳa Sayyid Ḥuseyn 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.

'But since Mirza Muḥammad 'Ali, athirst for the draught of martyrdom, declared (himself) in the most explicit manner, they dragged him along with that (Central) Point of the Universal Circle [Footnote: i. e. the Supreme Wisdom.

] to the barrack, situated by the citadel, and, opposite to the cells on one side of the barrack, suspended him from one of the stone gutters erected under the eaves of the cells.

Though his relations and friends cried, "Our son is gone mad; his confession is but the outcome of his distemper and the raving of lunacy, and it is unlawful to inflict on him the death penalty," he continued to exclaim, "I am in my right mind, perfect in service and sacrifice."

....

Now he had a sweet young child; and they, hoping to work upon his parental love, brought the boy to him that he might renounce his faith.

But he only said,-- "Begone, and bait your snares for other quarry;

The 'Anka's nest is hard to reach and high."

So they shot him in the presence of his Master, and laid his faithful and upright form in the dust, while his pure and victorious spirit, freed from the prison of earth and the cage of the body, soared to the branches of the Lote-tree beyond which there is no passing.

[And the Bab cried out with a loud voice, "Verily thou shalt be with me in Paradise."

] 'Now after this, when they had suspended His Holiness in like manner, the Shaḳaḳi regiment received orders to fire, and discharged their pieces in a single volley.

But of all the shots fired none took effect, save two bullets, which respectively struck the two ropes by which His Holiness was suspended on either side, and severed them.

The Bāb fell to the ground, and took refuge in the adjacent room.

As soon as the smoke and dust of the powder had somewhat cleared, the spectators looked for, but did not find, that Jesus of the age on the cross.

'So, notwithstanding this miraculous escape, they again suspended His Holiness, and gave orders to fire another volley.

The Musulman soldiers, however, made their excuses and refused.

Thereupon a Christian regiment [Footnote: Why a Christian regiment?

The reason is evident.

Christians were outside the Bābī movement, whereas the Musulman population had been profoundly affected by the preaching of the Bābī, and could not be implicitly relied upon.

] was ordered to fire the volley....

And at the third volley three bullets struck him, and that holy spirit, escaping from its gentle frame, ascended to the Supreme Horizon.'

It was in July 1850. It remained for Holy Night to hush the clamour of the crowd.

The great square of Tabriz was purified from unholy sights and sounds.

What, we ask, was done then to the holy bodies--that of Bāb himself and that of his faithful follower?

The enemies of the Bāb, and even Count Gobineau, assert that the dead body of the Bāb was cast out into the moat and devoured by the wild beasts.

[Footnote: A similar fate is asserted by tradition for the dead body of the heroic Mullā Muḥammad 'Ali of Zanjan.

] We may be sure, however, that if the holy body were exposed at night, the loyal Bābīs of Tabriz would lose no time in rescuing it.

The _New History_ makes this statement,-- 'To be brief, two nights later, when they cast the most sacred body and that of Mirza Muḥammad 'Ali into the moat, and set three sentries over them, Haji Suleyman Khan and three others, having provided themselves with arms, came to the sentries and said, "We will ungrudgingly give you any sum of money you ask, if you will not oppose our carrying away these bodies; but if you attempt to hinder us, we will kill you."

The sentinels, fearing for their lives, and greedy for gain, consulted, and as the price of their complaisance received a large sum of money.

'So Haji Suleyman Khan bore those holy bodies to his house, shrouded them in white silk, placed them in a chest, and, after a while, transported them to Tihran, where they remained in trust till such time as instructions for their interment in a particular spot were issued by the Sources of the will of the Eternal Beauty.

Now the believers who were entrusted with the duty of transporting the holy bodies were Mullā Ḥuseyn of Khurasan and Aḳa Muḥammad of Isfahan, [Footnote: _TN_, p. 110, n. 3; _NH_, p. 312, n. 1. ] and the instructions were given by Baha-'ullah.'

So far our authority.

Different names, however, are given by Nicolas, _AMB_, p. 381. The account here given from the _New History_ is in accordance with a letter purporting to be written by the Bāb to Haji Suleyman Khan exactly six months before his martyrdom; and preserved in the _New History_, pp. 310, 311. 'Two nights after my martyrdom thou must go and, by some means or other, buy my body and the body of Mirza Muḥammad 'Ali from the sentinels for 400 tumāns, and keep them in thy house for six months.

Afterwards lay Aḳa Muḥammad 'Ali with his face upon my face the two (dead) bodies in a strong chest, and send it with a letter to Jenab-i-Baha (great is his majesty!

).

[Footnote: _TN_, p. 46, n. 1] Baha is, of course, the short for Baha-'ullah, and, as Prof. Browne remarks, the modest title Jenab-i-Baha was, even after the presumed date of this letter, the title commonly given to this personage.

The instructions, however, given by the Bāb elsewhere are widely different in tendency.

He directs that his remains should be placed near the shrine of Shah 'Abdu'l-'Azim, which 'is a good land, by reason of the proximity of Wahid (i. e. Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel).'

[Footnote: The spot is said to be five miles south of Tihran.

] One might naturally infer from this that Baha-'ullah's rival was the guardian of the relics of the Bāb. This does not appear to have any warrant of testimony.

But, according to Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel himself, there was a time when he had in his hands the destiny of the bodies.

He says that when the coffin (there was but one) came into his hands, he thought it unsafe to attempt a separation or discrimination of the bodies, so that they remained together 'until [both] were stolen.'

It will be seen that Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel takes credit (1) for carrying out the Bāb's last wishes, and (2) leaving the bodies as they were.

To remove the relics to another place was tantamount to stealing.

It was Baha-'ullah who ordered this removal for a good reason, viz.

, that the cemetery, in which the niche containing the coffin was, seemed so ruinous as to be unsafe.

There is, however, another version of Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel's tradition; it has been preserved to us by Mons.

Nicolas, and contains very strange statements.

The Bāb, it is said, ordered Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel to place his dead body, if possible, in a coffin of diamonds, and to inter it opposite to Shah 'Abdu'l-'Azim, in a spot described in such a way that only the recipient of the letter could interpret it.

'So I put the mingled remains of the two bodies in a crystal coffin, diamonds being beyond me, and I interred it exactly where the Bāb had directed me.

The place remained secret for thirty years.

The Baha'is in particular knew nothing of it, but a traitor revealed it to them.

Those blasphemers disinterred the corpse and destroyed it.

Or if not, and if they point out a new burying-place, really containing the crystal coffin of the body of the Bāb which they have purloined, we [Ezelites] could not consider this new place of sepulture to be sacred.'

The story of the crystal coffin (really suggested by the Bayan) is too fantastic to deserve credence.

But that the sacred remains had many resting-places can easily be believed; also that the place of burial remained secret for many years.

Baha-'ullah, however, knew where it was, and, when circumstances favoured, transported the remains to the neighbourhood of Ḥaifa in Palestine.

The mausoleum is worthy, and numerous pilgrims from many countries resort to it.

EULOGIUM ON THE MASTER

The gentle spirit of the Bāb is surely high up in the cycles of eternity.

Who can fail, as Prof. Browne says, to be attracted by him?

'His sorrowful and persecuted life; his purity of conduct and youth;

his courage and uncomplaining patience under misfortune; his complete self-negation; the dim ideal of a better state of things which can be discerned through the obscure mystic utterances of the Bayán; but most of all his tragic death, all serve to enlist our sympathies on behalf of the young prophet of Shiraz.'

'Il sentait le besoin d'une réforme profonde à introduire dans les moeurs publiques....

Il s'est sacrifié pour l'humanité; pour elle il a donné son corps et son âme, pour elle il a subi les privations, les affronts, les injures, la torture et le martyre.'

(Mons.

Nicolas.

) _In an old Persian song, applied to the Bāb by his followers, it is written_:-- In what sect is this lawful?

In what religion is this lawful?

That they should kill a charmer of hearts!

Why art thou a stealer of hearts?