A Third of the Qur'án: The Báb in Iṣfáhán

In the autumn of 1846 the Báb arrived at Iṣfáhán, the great cultural capital of central Persia, having been despatched there from Shíráz under conditions arranged by Manúchihr Khán, the city’s Christian-born Mu‘tamidu’d-Dawlih, Trustee of the Realm.

The Imám-Jum‘ih of Iṣfáhán — the chief jurist of the great mosque — received the young Siyyid first. He had heard much, by this time, of Mullá Ḥusayn’s reports and of the rumour that had spread from Shíráz. He determined to test the visitor. He proposed, as the test, the most demanding kind of work an Eastern theological scholar could be asked to perform: a verse-by-verse Arabic commentary on a Súrih of the Qur’án, to be composed extempore.

The Báb agreed. He took up His pen.

Nabíl records what followed. The Báb wrote without pause for about two hours. The verses, in classical Arabic, came in such volume that the host found himself unable to keep up with the pace of the dictation, much less to make the kind of theological objection he had prepared. The Imám-Jum‘ih was forced to a conclusion he had not gone in expecting. He acknowledged afterwards what he had seen:

Peerless and unique, as are the words which have streamed from this pen, to be able to reveal, within so short a time and in so legible a writing, so great a number of verses as to equal a fourth, nay a third, of the Qur’án, is in itself an achievement.

The Imám-Jum‘ih did not, in the end, become an open follower — but he confessed, in private, that the proof had reached him:

Never until this day have I in my heart been firmly convinced of the truth of Islám... I solemnly testify to my belief in the reality of the superhuman power with which this Youth is endowed.

The four-month sojourn in Iṣfáhán became one of the most fruitful periods of the Báb’s public ministry. The Mu‘tamidu’d-Dawlih himself became deeply attached to Him; he went so far as to offer Him every facility for the further spread of the Cause. The Mu‘tamid hoped, indeed, to abdicate his governorship and devote the remainder of his life to the new movement.

His sudden death frustrated the design. His successor, far from sharing the Mu‘tamid’s sympathies, betrayed the Báb’s location to the Sháh. The Báb was summoned to Tihrán.

Nabíl records, late in the chapter, a prophecy the Báb made about how the Cause would in fact be preserved — not through ministers or governors, but through far humbler agency:

Through the poor and lowly of this land, by the blood which these shall have shed in His path, will the omnipotent Sovereign ensure the preservation and consolidate the foundation of His Cause.

Source: Nabíl-i-A'ẓam, The Dawn-Breakers (Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1932), Chapter X — The Báb's Sojourn in Iṣfáhán. Public domain text from the Bahá'í Reference Library.

Nabíl-i-A'ẓam. (1932). *The Dawn-Breakers: Nabíl's Narrative of the Early Days of the Bahá'í Revelation*. Bahá'í Publishing Trust. https://www.bahai.org/library/other-literature/historical/dawn-breakers/