The Shepherd of Zarand

*A retelling based on **The Dawn-Breakers** by Nabíl-i-A'zam, who tells this part of the story in his own words. Words in quotation marks are as he wrote them.*

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Nabíl was born in the village of Zarand and given the name Yár-Muhammad. He was a shepherd, and had been given only the most rudimentary schooling. He longed to study more, but his circumstances did not allow it. He read the Qur'án eagerly, learned several of its passages by heart, and chanted them as he followed his flock over the fields.

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He loved solitude, and watched the stars at night "with delight and wonder." In the quiet of the wilderness he recited prayers attributed to the Imám 'Alí and, turning towards the Qiblih, asked the Almighty to guide his steps and enable him to find the Truth.

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His father, a devout man, often took him to Qum. The boy watched him pray at the Masjid-i-Imám-Hasan, performing every rite with scrupulous care. He heard several eminent mujtahids who had come from Najaf, attended their lectures and listened to their disputations. Gradually he came to perceive their insincerity and to loathe the baseness of their character.

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He wanted to find out whether the creeds and dogmas they pressed on him could be trusted, but he had neither the time nor the means. His father often rebuked him for his restlessness. "I fear," he would say, "that your aversion to these mujtahids may some day involve you in great difficulties and bring upon you reproach and shame."

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On the twelfth day after Naw-Rúz in the year 1263 A.H., he was visiting his maternal uncle in the village of Rubát-Karím. In the masjid there he happened to overhear two men talking.

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"Have you heard," one of them remarked, "that the Siyyid-i-Báb has been conducted to the village of Kinár-Gird and is on his way to Tihrán?"

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His friend had not heard, so the first man told him the whole story: the Declaration of the Báb, His arrest in Shíráz, His journey to Isfahán, the reception given Him there by the Imám-Jum'ih and by Manúchihr Khán, the wonders He had shown, and the verdict the clergy of Isfahán had pronounced against Him.

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Every detail stirred in the listener a keen admiration for the Báb. Nabíl later wrote: "His light seemed to have flooded my soul; I felt as if I were already a convert to His Cause."

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He went back to Zarand. He lost his appetite and his sleep, and his father remarked on his restlessness, but he kept his secret, afraid that if it came out it might stand in the way of his hopes.

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He remained in that state until a certain Siyyid Husayn-i-Zavári'í came to Zarand. The two became friends, and when the young man began to open his heart, he found that Siyyid Husayn was already a believer. Siyyid Husayn's cousin, Siyyid Ismá'íl-i-Zavári'í, had several times met the Báb in the house of the Imám-Jum'ih of Isfahán, and had seen Him reveal, in the presence of His host, a commentary on the Súrih of Va'l-'Asr. He had been amazed that, without slowing His writing, the Báb could answer whatever questions those present were moved to ask Him.

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Siyyid Husayn had with him a copy of one of the Báb's treatises, and he shared it with his friend. Reading it brought him strength and refreshment. At the time he was studying the Qur'án with a siyyid whose "incapacity to enlighten me on the tenets of his Faith," he wrote, "became more and more evident in my eyes."

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Siyyid Husayn told him that Siyyid Ismá'íl visited the shrines of Qum every spring. The young man persuaded his reluctant father to send him to Qum to perfect his Arabic. He hid his real purpose, fearing it might bring his father trouble with the judge and the clergy of Zarand.

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While he was in Qum, his mother, his sister and his brother came to spend the festival of Naw-Rúz with him and stayed about a month. During their visit he told his mother and his sister of the new Revelation, and kindled in their hearts the love of its Author.

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A few days after they went home, Siyyid Ismá'íl arrived. In their discussions he set out in detail all that was needed to win the young man over completely. He stressed the continuity of Divine Revelation and the oneness of the Prophets of the past, and explained how They were related to the Mission of the Báb. He spoke of the work of Shaykh Ahmad-i-Ahsá'í and Siyyid Kázim-i-Rashtí, neither of whom Nabíl had heard of before.

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Then Nabíl asked his question: what was the duty of every loyal adherent of the Faith at that time?

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"The injunction of the Báb," Siyyid Ismá'íl replied, was that all who had accepted His Message should go to Mázindarán and help Quddús, "who is now hemmed in by the forces of an unrelenting foe."

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Siyyid Ismá'íl was himself planning to go to the fort of Tabarsí, and Nabíl was eager to go with him. He was told instead to wait in Qum, with Mírzá Fathu'lláh, a youth of his own age, until a message came from Tihrán. No message came. At last he set out for the capital himself, and at the entrance of a madrisih opposite the Masjid-i-Sháh he unexpectedly met Siyyid Ismá'íl, who told him he had just written the letter and was about to send it to Qum.

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They were preparing to leave for Mázindarán when the news reached them that the defenders of the fort of Tabarsí had been treacherously slaughtered and the fort levelled to the ground. They mourned together. Soon afterwards Nabíl's maternal uncle arrived in Tihrán to take him home to Zarand.

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When he came to write The Dawn-Breakers, Nabíl told his own story only after he had recounted the events of the year in which Tabarsí fell, and he asked the reader's indulgence "if I dwell too long on the circumstances of my early life."

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*This is a retelling. For the fuller account, see **The Dawn-Breakers** by Nabíl-i-A'zam.*

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