The Martyrdom of Quddús

A retelling based on The Dawn-Breakers by Nabíl-i-A'ẓam (Chapter XX, "The Mázindarán Upheaval," continued). The words in quotation marks are from the book.

On 2 February 1849 Mullá Ḥusayn, the first to believe in the Báb, was shot while leading a sortie from the fort of Shaykh Ṭabarsí. He was carried back inside, spent his last two hours alone with Quddús, and died at dawn with a faint smile on his face.

Quddús, the last of the eighteen Letters of the Living, remained the leader of the besieged companions. The sorties that followed were led by Mírzá Muḥammad-Báqir, whom Nabíl calls Quddús's "valiant lieutenant." During one bombardment a cannon-ball fell in front of Quddús as he walked in the centre of the fort. He rolled it with his foot and said:

How utterly unaware are these boastful aggressors of the power of God's avenging wrath!

Food ran out. When the stored rice was gone, the companions ate the flesh of their horses and even the leather of their saddles, and boiled grass from the fields. At length Prince Mihdí-Qulí Mírzá, the commander of the army, wrote with his own hand on the margin of the opening súrih of a copy of the Qur'án that the defenders would be safe if they came out, sealed it, and sent it to Quddús. Quddús kissed the Qur'án and told his companions to prepare to leave the fort. The oath was broken. Some of the companions were sold as slaves, and the rest were put to death.

Quddús was taken to Bárfurúsh, his native town. There, after the town's religious leaders had questioned him, the prince declared: "I wash my hands of all responsibility for any harm that may befall this man. You are free to do what you like with him." Then he rode away to Sárí, and Quddús was left in the hands of his enemies.

He was stripped of his clothes, and the turban the Báb had given him was befouled. Barefoot, bareheaded and loaded with chains, he was paraded through the streets, spat upon and cursed, and attacked with knives and axes. Amid his torments he was heard praying for his tormentors: "Forgive, O my God, the trespasses of this people."

Years before, when his stepmother had longed to see his wedding, Quddús had told her that his wedding would be held not in a house but in the open air, in the Sabzih-Maydán, before the gaze of the multitude. As he approached the Sabzih-Maydán, he raised his voice and said:

Would that my mother were with me, and could see with her own eyes the splendour of my nuptials!

The crowd then fell upon him, tore his body to pieces and threw it into a fire. That night a devoted friend gathered what remained and buried it not far from the square. Nabíl calls Quddús "that heroic youth, who was still on the threshold of his life." The Báb, then a prisoner in the castle of Chihríq, was so grieved that for six months He could neither write nor dictate.

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.

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/