Vaḥíd at the Fort of Khájih

Nabíl’s *Dawn-Breakers* devotes a chapter to the upheaval at Nayríz in 1850. It completes the story of Siyyid Yaḥyá-i-Dárábí, whose recognition of the Báb at Shíráz Nabíl had recounted many chapters earlier.

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Siyyid Yaḥyá, known by the title *Vaḥíd*, had come away from his audiences with the Báb a transformed man. He taught in Burújird and Kurdistán, in Qazvín, Qum, Káshán, Iṣfahán, Ardistán and Ardikán. At Yazd, where he arrived in time for Naw-Rúz, his open proclamation of the Faith roused the enmity of the Navváb-i-Raḍaví, and his house was besieged. He left the city by night and made his way, teaching as he went, toward Nayríz, where he had a house and where his native quarter of Chinár-Súkhtih lay.

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Crowds went out from Nayríz to welcome him. On the fifteenth of Rajab (the spring of 1850), still in his dust-laden garments, he entered the masjid and ascended the pulpit; Nabíl records that no fewer than a thousand people of the Chinár-Súkhtih quarter and five hundred from other quarters responded to his appeal.

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The governor of Nayríz, Zaynu’l-‘Ábidín Khán, alarmed at his influence, raised about a thousand men to seize him. Vaḥíd ordered twenty of his companions to occupy the fort of Khájih, near the Chinár-Súkhtih quarter, and after the governor’s men opened fire, he rode out and fixed his residence there. Seventy-two companions had taken shelter in the fort. The governor’s brother, ‘Alí-Aṣghar Khán, laid siege to it with a thousand men.

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Again and again the defenders, many of them untrained youths and some very old men, among them a shoemaker of more than ninety, sallied out and routed the besiegers. ‘Alí-Aṣghar Khán himself was killed. The governor appealed to Prince Fírúz Mírzá, governor of Fárs, who sent regiments and artillery from Shíráz and ordered the able-bodied men of the surrounding villages to join them. Vaḥíd had a water-cistern built within the fort. In one sortie that lasted eight hours, the women of Nayríz cheered from the rooftops, and the enemy camp was left desolate.

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Unable to win in the field, the besiegers turned to deception. They suspended hostilities for a few days, then sent into the fort a Qur’án to which they had affixed their seals, with a written appeal: they now understood, they said, that the Bábís had no political aim; let some of them come out to the camp and explain their Faith; if convinced they would embrace it, and if not, they solemnly promised a safe return to the fort.

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Vaḥíd received the Qur’án with reverence and kissed it. “Our appointed hour has struck,” he remarked. Turning to his companions, he added: “Though I am well aware of their designs, I feel it my duty to accept their call and take the opportunity to attempt once again to unfold the verities of my beloved Faith.” He told them to place no reliance on the enemy’s professions, and went out with five attendants.

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For three days and nights the commanders entertained him with marked respect, while secretly plotting against him. They forced him to write to his companions that peace had been made. He sent a second, secret letter warning them, but the messenger, Ḥájí Siyyid ‘Ábid, betrayed him and delivered only the first. The companions dispersed and were attacked on their way into the town; a few were killed.

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Then, evading their oath, the commanders gave Vaḥíd over to men whose kinsmen had died in the fighting. They snatched the turban from his head, wound it around his neck, bound him to a horse, and dragged him through the streets. Nabíl records the words he spoke in his agony — words the Imám Ḥusayn had once uttered:

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> Thou knowest, O my Beloved, that I have abandoned the world for > Thy sake, and have placed my trust in Thee alone.

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A fierce persecution of his companions followed, and the fort of Khájih was burned to the ground. Vaḥíd was martyred on the eighteenth of Sha‘bán 1266 (June 1850), a little over a month after he had entered Nayríz. Ten days later, the Báb was shot in Tabríz.

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*A retelling based on **The Dawn-Breakers** (Chapter XXII, The Nayríz Upheaval). For the fuller account, see the original.*

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