Ḥujjat and the Defenders of Zanján

A retelling for children, based on Nabíl's The Dawn-Breakers, from the chapter on the siege of Zanján in 1850.

In the city of Zanján, in the north-west of Persia, there lived a learned teacher named Mullá Muḥammad-'Alíy-i-Zanjání. Many people listened to him. He sent a messenger to the Báb with a letter and gifts. The Báb wrote back and gave him one of His own titles, Ḥujjat, which means "the Proof," and asked him to teach the new Faith openly.

Ḥujjat did as the Báb asked. Some of the religious leaders of Zanján were angry, and they complained about him to the king's chief minister. The king ordered Ḥujjat to come to the capital, Ṭihrán, and he was kept there for a long time. When a new king came to the throne and Ḥujjat's life was in danger, he slipped out of Ṭihrán in disguise and went home to Zanján.

The trouble in Zanján grew worse, and one of the believers was killed. Ḥujjat and his companions then moved into an old fort, the fort of 'Alí-Mardán Khán, next to the part of the city where he lived. They brought the women and children inside with them.

The believers held that fort from the spring of 1850 into the winter. More and more soldiers were sent against them, and cannons were fired at the fort. Each time the defenders went out to drive back an attack, Ḥujjat reminded them that they were there only to protect their lives and their families, not to make war on anyone.

The women of the fort helped in every way. Some dressed as men and took the places of those who had fallen. Others carried heavy skins of water on their shoulders to the wounded. They sewed clothes, baked bread, cared for the sick, and repaired the walls. A young village girl named Zaynab cut off her hair, dressed as a soldier, and stood with the defenders for five months. Only Ḥujjat recognized her. When he agreed to let her stay, he told her:

We are called upon to defend our lives against a treacherous assailant, and not to wage holy war against him.

Zaynab gave her life in the fighting.

One day, while cannons were firing at the fort, Ḥujjat was hit in the arm by a bullet as he was washing before prayer. Later, when his friends wanted to make one last desperate attack, he stopped them. He told them to accept the will of God and to stay calm and steadfast to the end, whenever that end might come.

For nineteen days he bore the pain of his wound. Then, one morning, he passed away while he was bowed down in prayer, calling on the name of the Báb. Two of his friends buried him secretly at midnight.

After that, the defenders who were left could not hold out much longer. A last great attack overwhelmed them, and the survivors were treated very cruelly.

Nine years later Nabíl, who wrote this history, went to Zanján. He saw the ruins of the old fort, with the marks of the fighting still on its gates and walls.

This is a retelling for children. For the fuller account, see "Ḥujjat and the Fort at Zanján".

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/