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"The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens."
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"The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens."
Tabríz, Iran
21 stories took place here — most often featuring the Báb, Bahá'u'lláh and Mírzá Muḥammad-'Alíy-i-Zunúzí (Anís).
Tabríz (today: Tabríz, Iran)
Brought from Chihríq to Tabríz in the summer of 1848 to be examined by the most senior religious scholars of the realm, the Báb made an open declaration of His station before the assembled clergy: *I am the promised One.* The chapter records the bastinado that followed, and the denunciatory epistle He wrote upon His return to Chihríq.
Nabíl's chronicle preserves the day of July 9, 1850 in the public square of Tabríz. The Báb and His youthful companion Anís were suspended by ropes against a wall. The first volley of seven hundred and fifty muskets severed the ropes; the smoke cleared on an empty scene. The Báb was found in His cell, completing a conversation. A second volley was required to fulfil the sentence.
Nabíl's narrative of the morning of July 9, 1850, in the barrack square of Tabríz: the young follower Mírzá Muḥammad-‘Alíy-i-Zunúzí, called Anís, who begged to die with the Báb; the first volley that severed the ropes; the Báb's interrupted conversation; and His final words to the regiment.
Long before the barrack-square of Tabríz, a young man named Mírzá Muḥammad-'Alíy-i-Zunúzí wept for one thing only — to look upon the face of his Lord. Kept from the Báb by his own stepfather, he poured out his soul in prayer, and in vision was promised the one gift he longed for above life: to share with the Báb the cup of martyrdom. On the 9th of July, 1850, that promise was kept.
In A Traveler's Narrative, written for the world beyond Persia, 'Abdu'l-Bahá sets down the martyrdom of the Báb with the calm precision of a witness to sacred history: the order of the Grand Vizier, the Christian regiment ranged in three files, the volleys that severed the ropes, and the deep truth He draws from it — that persecution, in matters of conscience, only strengthens what it means to destroy.
After the firing squad, the remains of the Báb began a journey unlike any other in religious history — wrapped in a cloak, hidden in a silk factory, carried to Ṭihrán, buried beneath shrine floors, walled into a mosque, smuggled at last across mountains and seas to the Holy Land. For nearly sixty years the faithful passed this Most Holy of trusts from hand to hand, guarding it through every danger until 'Abdu'l-Bahá could lay it to rest on Mount Carmel.
Through the prison years the Báb's faithful amanuensis, Siyyid Ḥusayn-i-Yazdí, set down His revealed verses by candlelight and never left His side. On the last night the Báb bade him outwardly deny his faith — not to save himself, but to live and carry to the believers the things he alone had heard. It was to him the Báb was speaking when the soldiers came; and two years later he gave the life he had once been spared.
When Dr. John Esslemont set out to introduce the Báb to Western readers, he told the story of the barrack-square plainly: the two suspended by ropes, the regiment's volley, the smoke clearing upon two figures unhurt, and a second regiment summoned to finish what the first would not. He saw in that "pure and beautiful soul" a Forerunner — like John the Baptist of old — who insisted to the end that One greater than Himself was coming.
After the Báb was martyred, His body and that of His companion were flung outside the gate of Tabríz, at the edge of the moat, to be devoured — and a guard of sentinels was set to watch over them. Through the daring of a believer named Ḥájí Sulaymán Khán, the precious remains were carried away by night, hidden in a silk factory, and — at Bahá'u'lláh's own command — borne in secret toward safety. So began a hidden journey that would end, sixty years later, on Mount Carmel.
Sám Khán was the Christian colonel ordered to command the firing squad at the Báb's execution. Troubled in conscience by the prisoner he had been told to kill, he came to the Báb and confessed his unwillingness — and received in reply a promise that, if his intention were sincere, God would relieve him of his perplexity. When the first volley left the Báb unharmed, Sám Khán kept faith with that moment: he marched his men away and would never again take part in such a deed.
On the night before His martyrdom, lodged under guard in the barracks of Tabríz, the Báb's countenance shone with a joy such as had never before been seen in Him. To His grieving companions He gave words of comfort and quiet assurance, untroubled by the death that awaited Him at dawn. When the chief attendant came to lead Him away, the Báb warned that no earthly power could silence Him until He had said all He wished to say.
It was the chief minister of Persia, Mírzá Taqí Khán the Amír-Niẓám, who decreed the Báb's death and pressed it through against the reluctance of others. Shoghi Effendi describes him as arbitrary, bloodthirsty, and reckless. Within little more than a year of the martyrdom he had ordered, the all-powerful minister was stripped of his office, banished, and secretly put to death — a downfall the Bahá'í histories read as no mere accident of court intrigue.
Summoned from His mountain prison to be examined before the Crown Prince and the assembled clergy of Tabríz, the Báb was meant to be silenced and shamed. Instead, in that hostile hall, He openly affirmed the station He had come to proclaim — and the very tribunal convened to extinguish His Light became the stage on which it shone before the powers of the land.
In *A Traveler's Narrative*, 'Abdu'l-Bahá describes the morning of the Báb's martyrdom in the Tabríz barracks-square on the 9th of July, 1850 — the iron nail driven into the staircase, the two ropes by which He and His amanuensis were bound, the regiment that fired without harming Him, and the second regiment that did.
On the 9th of July, 1850,10 the Báb Himself, Who was then in His thirty-first year, fell a victim to the fanatical fury of His persecutors. With a devoted young follower name Áqá Muḥammad ‘Alí, who had passionately begged to be allowed…
Sulaymán Khán was the emigrant and settler who was given the title of Jamálí’d-Dín. He was born in Tunúkábán, into an old family of that region. He was cradled in wealth, bred to ease, reared in the comfortable ways of luxury. From his…
Town of Ámul, circa 1935 About nine miles from Fort Tabarsi, where Baha’u’llah had planned to join the heroic believers, He and His companions were arrested by the soldiers of the acting governor of…
The news of the approaching arrival of the Báb at Tabríz bestirred the believers in that city. They all set out to meet Him, eager to extend to so beloved a Leader their welcome.
Early in the morning of July 9th, 1850, the chief-attendant of prison came to the barracks to conduct the Báb into the presence of the leading religious doctors of law in Tabriz.
Tabriz, 19th Century [The day before His martyrdom]: Deprived of His turban and sash, the twin emblems of His noble lineage, the Báb, together with Siyyid Ḥusayn, His amanuensis, was driven to yet…
Aqa Jan Khan-i-Khamsih who carried out the order for the execution of the Báb The circumstances pertaining to the execution of the Báb provide us with many lessons to reflect on.