Mullá Ḥusayn and the Black Standard

A retelling based on The Dawn-Breakers by Nabíl-i-A'ẓam (Chapters XIX and XX, The Mázindarán Upheaval).

In the summer of 1848 Mullá Ḥusayn-i-Bushrú’í was in Mashhad when a messenger arrived bearing the Báb’s turban, with the news that the Báb had given him a new name, Siyyid ‘Alí. The message read:

Adorn your head with My green turban, the emblem of My lineage, and, with the Black Standard unfurled before you, hasten to the Jazíriy-i-Khaḍrá, and lend your assistance to My beloved Quddús.

The name means "the Verdant Isle." Mullá Ḥusayn went out a farsang from the city, hoisted the Black Standard, put on the Báb’s turban, and set out with two hundred and two companions. The day was 21 July 1848. At the villages along the way they proclaimed the new Faith, and some who heard them joined the company.

On the road Mullá Ḥusayn warned his companions again and again of the trials ahead, and told anyone unprepared for them to go home. As he approached Savád-Kúh he declared:

I, together with seventy-two of my companions, shall suffer death for the sake of the Well-Beloved.

Twenty of his companions turned back.

Near Bárfurúsh they were attacked by townspeople whom the leading cleric of the town, the Sa‘ídu’l-‘Ulamá’, had called to arms. After the townspeople made peace, a chieftain, Khusraw-i-Qáḍí-Kalá’í, was appointed to escort the company safely through the forest. The Sa‘ídu’l-‘Ulamá’ had secretly told him to seize their property and put them all to death. In the forest his horsemen attacked, killing several of the companions, but the rest overcame them.

The next morning Mullá Ḥusayn reached the shrine of Shaykh Ṭabarsí and set his companions to building a fort around it.

Soon after the fort was finished, Bahá’u’lláh visited it. He inspected the work and said: “The one thing this fort and company require is the presence of Quddús.” At His instruction Mullá Ḥusayn sent Mullá Mihdíy-i-Khu’í and six others to Sárí, where Quddús was being held, and the mujtahid who held him let him go. When Quddús arrived at the shrine, the first words he spoke, after he had dismounted and leaned against it, were these:

The Baqíyyatu’lláh will be best for you if ye are of those who believe.

By "Baqíyyatu’lláh," Nabíl explains, Quddús meant Bahá’u’lláh.

Later, when Bahá’u’lláh set out with a few companions to rejoin the besieged, they were arrested and brought before the acting governor of Ámul. When the governor ordered the captives beaten, Bahá’u’lláh declared His companions innocent:

None of these men 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 ordered that Bahá’u’lláh alone be punished.

Mullá Ḥusayn fell at dawn on 2 February 1849. By the count Nabíl preserves, the martyrs by that day numbered seventy-two. In the spring the fort was surrendered on a sworn promise of safety, which was broken, and Quddús was put to death at Bárfurúsh.

A retelling based on The Dawn-Breakers by Nabíl-i-A'ẓam (Chapters XIX and XX, The Mázindarán Upheaval). For the fuller account, see the original.

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/