The Bastinado at Ámul

About nine miles from Fort Shaykh Ṭabarsí, where Bahá’u’lláh had planned to join the heroic believers, He and His companions were arrested by the soldiers of the acting governor of the area and taken to the town of Ámul, in Mázindarán in northern Iran.

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The hostile clerics of Ámul had created a major commotion in the town. Having Bahá’u’lláh and His companions in their midst, the situation was further exacerbated by the divines calling upon the people to protect their religion by demanding severe punishment upon the captives – including murder. People were told to come to the mosque, fully armed – the butcher with his axe, the carpenter with his hatchet – prepared to make a rush at Bahá’u’lláh and murder Him. The divines of Ámul were particularly marked for their rapacity.

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The Acting Governor realized that any indulgence on his part would be fraught with personal danger. By inflicting a befitting punishment upon the captives, he sought to check the mob’s passions. He ordered punishment by bastinado – a form of torture that involves being beaten on the soles of the feet with a rod. He also promised that the captives would be kept in custody following this punishment until the return of the governor.

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Taken to the prayer-hall of the mujtahid of Ámul, the first to be bound in order to receive the bastinado was Mullá Báqir of Tabríz, one of the Letters of the Living. Said he, “I am only a groom of Bahá’u’lláh.” Whereupon Bahá’u’lláh intervened and succeeded in inducing his captors to release him.

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So too He interceded for Hájí Mírzá Jání, the merchant of Káshán who, He said, was “a mere tradesman” whom He regarded as His “guest,” so that He was “responsible for any charges brought against him.” This merchant had earlier acted as host to the Báb in Káshán; he was also the first chronicler of His Faith. Bahá’u’lláh’s younger half-brother, whom they proceeded to bind, was also set free as soon as Bahá’u’lláh had declared him to be His attendant.

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“None of these men,” Bahá’u’lláh told the acting governor, “are guilty of any crime. If you insist on inflicting your punishment, I offer Myself as a willing Victim of your chastisement.” The acting governor was reluctantly compelled to give orders that Bahá’u’lláh alone be chosen to suffer the indignity which he had intended originally for His companions.

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The same treatment that had been meted out to the Báb five months previously in Tabríz, Bahá’u’lláh suffered in the presence of the assembled ‘ulamás of Ámul. He and His companions then remained for a time imprisoned in one of the rooms of the mosque, until the acting governor had a passage secretly opened through the wall and brought Him to his own residence, where He was still staying when the Governor returned from the camp before Fort Shaykh Ṭabarsí.

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*Adapted from Nabíl, The Dawn-Breakers, translated and edited by Shoghi Effendi, pp. 368–373 and 584; H. M. Balyuzi, Bahá’u’lláh, The King of Glory, pp. 56–60; and David Ruhe, Robe of Light.*

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