A Place Foul Beyond Comparison

In August 1852 a young follower of the Báb named Ṣádiq, whose mind had become deranged after he witnessed the Báb's martyrdom, fired a pistol loaded with small shot at the Sháh. No serious harm was done, but, as Esslemont recounts in Chapter 3 of Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era, the whole body of Bábís was unjustly held responsible. Eighty of them were put to death in Tihrán; many others were seized and imprisoned, among them Bahá'u'lláh.

Esslemont then quotes Bahá'u'lláh's own words from the Epistle to the Son of the Wolf:

By the righteousness of God! We were in no wise connected with that evil deed, and Our innocence was indisputably established by the tribunals. Nevertheless, they apprehended Us, and from Níyávarán, which was then the residence of His Majesty, conducted Us, on foot and in chains, with bared head and bare feet, to the dungeon of Tihrán. ... We were consigned for four months to a place foul beyond comparison. ... Upon Our arrival We were first conducted along a pitch-black corridor, from whence We descended three steep flights of stairs to the place of confinement assigned to Us. The dungeon was wrapped in thick darkness, and Our fellow-prisoners numbered nearly a hundred and fifty souls: thieves, assassins and highwaymen. Though crowded, it had no other outlet than the passage by which We entered. No pen can depict that place, nor any tongue describe its loathsome smell.

He goes on:

Day and night, while confined in that dungeon, We meditated upon the deeds, the condition, and the conduct of the Bábís ... This Wronged One, thereupon, decided to arise, after His release from prison, and undertake, with the utmost vigor, the task of regenerating this people.

One night, He writes, these words were heard on every side in a dream:

Verily, We shall render Thee victorious by Thyself and by Thy Pen. Grieve Thou not for that which hath befallen Thee, neither be Thou afraid, for Thou art in safety.

Esslemont adds that the imprisonment lasted four months, and that Bahá'u'lláh and His companions "remained zealous and enthusiastic, in the greatest of happiness," although almost every day one or more of them was tortured or put to death.

A retelling based on Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era by J. E. Esslemont (Chapter 3, “Imprisoned as Bábí”), which quotes Bahá'u'lláh's Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, pp. 20–21. For the fuller account, see the original.

Esslemont, J. E.. (1923). *Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era*. George Allen & Unwin. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19241