The Seven Who Would Not Recant

*A retelling based on **The Dawn-Breakers: Nabíl's Narrative** (trans. Shoghi Effendi), Chapter XXI. The narrative is retold in our own words; the words in quotation marks are verbatim from the book. Read the [full text](https://reference.bahai.org/en/t/nz/DB/) for Nabíl's complete account.*

1 / 10

Early in 1850, four months before the martyrdom of the Báb, the authorities in Ṭihrán obtained a list of about fifty believers living in the capital. Fourteen of them were seized and held in the house of the city's chief magistrate, Maḥmúd Khán-i-Kalántar, where Ṭáhirih too was confined. They were ill-treated for three weeks, but would not give their captors the information they wanted. One of them, Muḥammad-Ḥusayn-i-Marághi'í, refused to say a single word under torture, so that his jailers took him to be dumb.

2 / 10

The case went to the Grand Vizier, the Amír-Niẓám, who ordered that any of the fourteen who would not recant should be put to death. Seven recanted and were released at once. The other seven are remembered as the Seven Martyrs of Ṭihrán.

3 / 10

The first was Ḥájí Mírzá Siyyid 'Alí, the Báb's maternal uncle and one of the leading merchants of Shíráz, who had taken charge of the Báb after His father's death. Wealthy merchants offered to pay his ransom, and the Amír-Niẓám himself promised him an honourable return to his city if he would say one word of recantation.

4 / 10

He refused, saying that to deny this Revelation would be to deny all the Revelations before it, and ended: "I only request of you that you allow me to be the first to lay down my life in the path of my beloved Kinsman." He was beheaded. Nabíl records that the executioner, who had been told he would put to death only murderers and highway robbers, went away weeping and soon afterwards left for Khurásán.

5 / 10

The second was Mírzá Qurbán-'Alí, a much-loved figure among the Ni'matu'lláhí dervishes, greeted by admirers wherever he went, whose plain dress showed his detachment. State officials of every rank had interceded for him. The Amír-Niẓám told him that he was loth to sentence so exalted a man to death. Qurbán-'Alí replied that this was the day on which he would celebrate the Qurbán festival, the feast of sacrifice, and said: "The sooner you strike off my head, the greater will be my gratitude to you."

6 / 10

The third was Ḥájí Mullá Ismá'íl-i-Qumí, a former student of Siyyid Káẓim who had been at the gathering in Badasht, and whose insight into the meaning of the Qur'án, Nabíl says, few could rival. He gave his executioner a coin, forgave him, and said that for thirty years he had longed to see that day.

7 / 10

After him came Siyyid Ḥusayn-i-Turshízí, a mujtahid trained in Najaf; Ḥájí Muḥammad-Taqíy-i-Kirmání, one of the foremost merchants of Kirmán; Siyyid Murtaḍá, a merchant of Zanján; and Muḥammad-Ḥusayn-i-Marághi'í. The last three pleaded so earnestly to die before one another that in the end they were beheaded at the same moment.

8 / 10

For three days and nights their bodies lay in the Sabzih-Maydán, next to the royal palace, exposed to the abuse of the crowd. They were then buried together in one grave outside the city gate. When the Báb learned of their death He revealed a Tablet in their honour.

9 / 10

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

10 / 10