Mullá Ḥusayn's Last Ride

A retelling based on The Dawn-Breakers: Nabíl's Narrative (trans. Shoghi Effendi), Chapter XX. The narrative is in our own words; the words in quotation marks are quoted from the book. Read the full text for his complete account.

Mullá Ḥusayn was the first to believe in the Báb. He had recognized Him in Shíráz in 1844. Less than five years later he was at the shrine of Shaykh Ṭabarsí in the forests of Mázindarán, where a few hundred Bábís, in the fort they had built around the shrine, were besieged by the Sháh's army. The besiegers had raised seven barricades around the fort.

Water was scarce, and the companions dug a well inside the walls. On the day the work was to be finished, the eighth of Rabíʻu'l-Avval (1 February 1849), Mullá Ḥusayn watched them and said:

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.

Whoever was willing to give his life, he told them, should be ready to ride out with him before dawn. That afternoon he performed his ablutions, dressed in new garments, and put on the green turban the Báb had sent him while he was in Mashhad. He spent his last hours with Quddús, sitting at his feet.

Soon after midnight, when the morning star had risen, he mounted his horse and gave the signal for the gate to be opened. Nabíl gives the number who rode out behind him as three hundred and thirteen. Mullá Ḥusayn charged the first barricade and scattered its defenders, then overcame the second and the third. His companions pressed on until all the barricades had been overthrown.

One of the enemy commanders, 'Abbás-Qulí Khán-i-Láríjání, had climbed a tree and was watching from its branches. Mullá Ḥusayn's horse became entangled in the rope of a tent, and before he could free it he was struck in the chest by a bullet. Bleeding heavily, he dismounted, staggered a few steps and fell. Two young companions from Khurásán, Qulí and Ḥasan, carried him back into the fort.

Quddús sent everyone else from the room, and the two spoke together for about two hours. Mírzá Muḥammad-Báqir, watching through a gap in the door, heard Mullá Ḥusayn ask, "Are you well pleased with me?" When the companions were let back in, Mullá Ḥusayn had died. Two of those present told Nabíl that "a faint smile still lingered upon his face." It was the hour of dawn on the ninth of Rabíʻu'l-Avval, 2 February 1849. He was thirty-six years old.

Quddús clothed him in his own shirt and buried him beside the shrine of Shaykh Ṭabarsí, telling those present to keep the place of his grave a secret.

This account is retold for the Bahá'í Story Library; it is a paraphrase, not the original text. The quoted words are from The Dawn-Breakers (Nabíl, trans. Shoghi Effendi), Chapter XX. See the source for the complete account.

Nabíl-i-Aʻẓam. (1932). *The Dawn-Breakers (Nabíl's Narrative)*. Bahá'í Publishing Trust. https://reference.bahai.org/en/t/nz/DB/