The Warden Won Over: The Báb's Captivity at Máh-Kú

Ḥájí Mírzá Áqásí, the chief minister of Muḥammad Sháh, designed the prison of Máh-Kú with a single intention: to silence the Báb by removing Him from anyone who would listen. The fortress sits in the mountains of Ádhirbayján, near the Turkish frontier, in country populated by Kurdish villagers who Áqásí believed would have no sympathy for a young Siyyid from the south. He was mistaken on every count.

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Nabíl records that the Báb’s imprisonment at Máh-Kú lasted, as He Himself foretold, nine months. He had told His companions beforehand:

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

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Even in confinement, the Báb was prolific. He revealed the Persian Bayán — the central doctrinal book of His dispensation — alongside many shorter works. The energy of His revelation could not be hidden by the fortress walls. Nabíl notes:

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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 > dwelling at the foot of the mountain.

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The Kurdish villagers, far from holding the new prophet at a distance, were drawn to Him. They began to bring Him gifts; they took to praying as He prayed. The warden of the fortress, ‘Alí Khán, had been chosen for his hostility to anything that resembled Bábí sympathy. The minister had instructed him to keep all visitors from the prisoner. But the warden too began to come to the cell. He came as a sceptic; he stayed as a witness.

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In one striking scene Nabíl preserves, ‘Alí Khán is finally moved to confess to the Báb the disservice he had done to His Cause. He acknowledges that he had *belittled this Revelation and contemptuously disdained its Author* — and that what he had seen had now made the disdain impossible.

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> What you have witnessed is true and undeniable.

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When Mullá Ḥusayn arrived at Máh-Kú on a pilgrimage of his own, having walked on foot all the way from his native province in the east, the Báb received him with the tenderness due such an arrival, but instructed him on his departure:

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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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Áqásí, hearing of the situation at the fortress, eventually ordered the Báb transferred to Chihríq — *the Mountain of Severity* — in the hope of finding stricter custody. The transfer too would prove unsuccessful. Whatever fortress the chief minister could imagine, the Báb’s influence would reach through its walls.

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