The Warden of Máh-Kú

Ḥájí Mírzá Áqásí, the chief minister of Muḥammad Sháh, sent the Báb to the castle of Máh-Kú, in the mountains of Ádhirbayján near the Ottoman and Russian frontiers. Nabíl writes that he chose so remote a place in order to cut the Báb off from His followers, and expected that few would dare to travel there. He was soon shown, Nabíl adds, how gravely he had misjudged the influence of the Báb.

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While He was still held in Tabríz, the Báb had told His companion Siyyid Ḥusayn-i-Yazdí how long this imprisonment would last:

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> For a period of no less than nine months, we shall remain confined in the > Jabal-i-Básiṭ, from whence we shall be transferred to the Jabal-i-Shadíd.

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The townspeople of Máh-Kú were Kurds, and the warden, ‘Alí Khán, whose mother was a Kurd, had their full confidence. Yet they were drawn to the Báb. Their first act each morning was to seek a place from which they could catch a glimpse of His face and ask His blessing on their daily work; in their disputes they would turn toward His prison and invoke His name. ‘Alí Khán tried several times to stop the practice and could not.

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He himself was very strict: for the first two weeks no one but Siyyid Ḥusayn and his brother was admitted to the Báb, and no known follower was allowed to spend even a night in the town.

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Siyyid Ḥusayn told Nabíl what happened next. One day the Báb sent word to Shaykh Ḥasan-i-Zunúzí, who was spending his nights in a mosque outside the town gate, that the next day He would have the warden bring him to the castle. Early the next morning, before the castle gate had been opened, ‘Alí Khán came asking to be admitted. He entered trembling and threw himself at the Báb’s feet.

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Riding toward the town at dawn, he said, he had seen the Báb standing by the river in prayer; yet he had found both gates of the castle closed, and now found the Báb seated in His room. The Báb answered:

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> What you have witnessed is true and undeniable. You belittled this > Revelation and have contemptuously disdained its Author.

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God, He told him, did not wish to punish him, and had willed to reveal the Truth to his eyes. ‘Alí Khán then asked to bring to the Báb a poor shaykh who was living in a mosque outside the gate, and went himself to fetch Shaykh Ḥasan. From then on the gate was still closed at night, but by day those whom the Báb wished to see were admitted. ‘Alí Khán came to pay his respects every Friday and often brought his Prisoner the choicest fruit of the district.

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In the castle the Báb wrote the Persian Bayán, which Nabíl calls the most weighty of all His works. Shaykh Ḥasan-i-Zunúzí later testified:

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> The voice of the Báb, as He dictated the teachings and principles of His > Faith, could be clearly heard by those who were dwelling at the foot of the > mountain.

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Mullá Ḥusayn, who had walked all the way from Mashhad, arrived at Máh-Kú on the day of Naw-Rúz. The Báb embraced him and celebrated the feast in his company, and ‘Alí Khán allowed him to stay in the castle for as long as the Báb wished. When they parted, the Báb told him:

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> You have walked on foot all the way from your native province to this > place. On foot you likewise must return until you reach your destination.

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Informers reported to Ḥájí Mírzá Áqásí that the warden was devoted to his Prisoner, and the minister ordered the Báb moved to the castle of Chihríq, the “Grievous Mountain.” Twenty days after Naw-Rúz, at the end of nine months, the Báb left Máh-Kú.

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*A retelling based on **The Dawn-Breakers** (Nabíl-i-A'ẓam), Chapter XIII — The Báb's Incarceration in the Castle of Máh-Kú. For the fuller account, see the original.*

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