Mullá Ḥusayn's Last Charge

*A retelling based on **The Dawn-Breakers** by Nabíl-i-A'ẓam (Chapter XX, The Mázindarán Upheaval, continued).*

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Mullá Ḥusayn-i-Bushrú’í, the first to recognise the Báb in Shíráz in 1844, had led his companions to the shrine of Shaykh Ṭabarsí in Mázindarán in the autumn of 1848, beneath the Black Standard and wearing the Báb’s turban. The Bábís had first been attacked outside Bárfurúsh in October. They raised a fort around the shrine and held it against the forces sent against them. Quddús had joined them there.

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After the defeat of Prince Mihdí-Qulí Mírzá at Vás-Kas in December 1848, his forces were reinforced by the troops of ‘Abbás-Qulí Khán-i-Láríjání and Sulaymán Khán-i-Afshár. They camped around the fort and built seven barricades about it. Water was so scarce that the besieged had to dig a well inside the enclosure.

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On the day the well was to be finished, the eighth of Rabí‘u’l-Avval, Mullá Ḥusayn watched his companions at work and said:

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> To-day we shall have all the water we require for our bath. Cleansed of all > earthly defilements, we shall seek the court of the Almighty, and shall > hasten to our eternal abode.

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He told those who were willing to give their lives to be ready to ride out with him before dawn. That afternoon he performed his ablutions, put on new clothes, and placed the Báb’s turban on his head. In his last hours he sat alone with Quddús.

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Soon after midnight, as the morning star rose, he mounted his horse and gave the signal for the gate to be opened. He rode out at the head of three hundred and thirteen companions, with the cry of *Yá Ṣáḥibu’z-Zamán!* He broke through the first barricade, then the second and the third, and the companions pressed on until all the barricades had been overthrown.

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In the confusion ‘Abbás-Qulí Khán had climbed a tree and was hiding in its branches. Mullá Ḥusayn’s horse became caught in the rope of a tent, and before he could free himself he was struck in the breast by a bullet from the Khán, who did not know whom he had hit. Bleeding heavily, Mullá Ḥusayn dismounted, took a few steps, and fell. Two young companions from Khurásán, Qulí and Ḥasan, carried him back to the fort.

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Quddús ordered everyone out of the room and stayed alone with him. For two hours they talked. Mírzá Muḥammad-Báqir, watching through a crack in the door, heard Quddús say, “You have hastened the hour of your departure, and have abandoned me to the mercy of my foes,” and heard Mullá Ḥusayn answer, “May my life be a ransom for you.

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Are you well pleased with me?” When the others were let in, Mullá Ḥusayn had died, a faint smile still on his face. It was dawn on the ninth of Rabí‘u’l-Avval 1265, 2 February 1849. He was, Nabíl writes, six and thirty years old.

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Quddús clothed him in his own shirt, laid him in the grave with his own hands beside the shrine, and told those present to keep the spot secret. By that day, by the count Nabíl preserves, seventy-two of the companions had died. The siege went on for some three months more. The fort was surrendered on a sworn promise of safety that was soon broken, and Quddús was put to death at Bárfurúsh that spring.

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

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