Anís at the Báb's Side: The Martyrdom in Tabríz

The Bahá’í Holy Day of the Martyrdom of the Báb is observed each year at noon on July 9 — the very hour of the second volley in 1850. Nabíl’s narrative, *The Dawn-Breakers*, preserves the morning in detail. At the center of the account is a young follower from Tabríz named Mírzá Muḥammad-‘Alíy-i-Zunúzí, whom the Báb had named *Anís* — *Companion*.

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Anís had begged again and again to share the Báb’s fate. As the soldiers prepared the ropes in the barrack square, he turned to Sám Khán, the Christian Armenian colonel commanding the firing squad, and pleaded with him to be placed first:

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> Mírzá Muḥammad-‘Alí begged Sám Khán to be placed in such a manner > that his own body would shield that of the Báb.

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The two were suspended together by ropes under their armpits, *his head reposed on the breast of his Master.* Around mid-morning the order to fire was given. The volley rang through the square. When the smoke cleared, the watching crowd saw something they could not explain.

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> There, standing before them alive and unhurt, was the companion of > the Báb, whilst He Himself had vanished uninjured from their sight.

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Nabíl writes that *the cords with which they were suspended had been rent in pieces by the bullets, yet their bodies had miraculously escaped the volleys.* Soldiers and officers fanned out in confusion to look for the Báb. He was not difficult to find:

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> They set out in a frenzied search for Him, and found Him, > eventually, seated in the same room which He had occupied the night > before, engaged in completing His interrupted conversation, with > Siyyid Ḥusayn.

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He had been speaking to His amanuensis when the soldiers came for Him the first time, and He had told them that *no earthly power can silence Me until I have finished all that I have to say.* Now, the sentence completed, He rose and walked back to the place of execution with His companion.

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Sám Khán, seeing what had happened, refused to fire again, and withdrew his regiment. A second regiment was brought up. As they took their positions the Báb addressed the watching crowds:

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> Had you believed in Me, O wayward generation, every one of you > would have followed the example of this youth, who stood in rank > above most of you, and willingly would have sacrificed yourselves > in My path. The day will come when you will have recognised Me; > that day I shall have ceased to be with you.

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The order was given. The second volley took effect. The bodies of the Báb and of Anís were riddled by bullets, although their faces were almost untouched.

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It was a few minutes after noon, July 9, 1850.

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