On the Altar of Devotion: The Báb's Pilgrimage to Mecca

Late in the year 1844, only a few months after the first recognitions in Shíráz, the Báb set out to fulfil the long-anticipated pilgrimage to Mecca. The journey was the formal occasion on which He intended to declare His station in the heartland of Islam itself. The young Quddús — youngest of the Letters of the Living — was His chosen companion.

1 / 11

They sailed from the port of Búshihr, on the Persian Gulf. Nabíl records the voyage as a long ordeal. The pilgrim ship was overcrowded, slow, and ill provisioned; storms slowed it; for days the water failed entirely. The Báb and Quddús were obliged to live on what they could:

2 / 11

> For days we suffered from the scarcity of water. I had to > content myself with the juice of the sweet lemon.

3 / 11

Their consolation, all who saw them remembered, was their unbroken absorption in one another’s company:

4 / 11

> During the entire period of approximately two months... whenever > by day or night I chanced to meet either the Báb or Quddús, I > invariably found them together, both absorbed in their work.

5 / 11

Arrived at last in Mecca, they performed the rites in pilgrim garb. Outside the Sacred Mosque, a Bedouin slipped through the crowd and stole the Báb’s saddlebag — within it lay important writings. The companions made to pursue the thief; the Báb restrained them.

6 / 11

> Had I allowed you, you would surely have overtaken and punished > him. But this was not to be... this was decreed by God, the > Ordainer, the Almighty.

7 / 11

Inside the precincts of the Sacred Mosque, the Báb sought out Mírzá Muḥíṭ-i-Kirmání, one of the two principal claimants to the succession of Siyyid Káẓim. He addressed him directly, challenging him to acknowledge the Promised One who now stood before him. The scholar wavered, then pledged his allegiance — though Nabíl notes the pledge would not in the end be kept.

8 / 11

From Mecca the company travelled north to Medina. There, at the tomb of the Prophet, the Báb spoke with a stillness that unnerved His companions. He had begun to speak openly, by then, of the death that would be required of Him:

9 / 11

> I am come into this world to bear witness to the glory of > sacrifice... Rejoice, for both I and Quddús will be slain on > the altar of our devotion.

10 / 11

Six years later, in the barrack-square of Tabríz, that prophecy would be exactly fulfilled.

11 / 11