The Bridegroom of Bárfurúsh

A retelling for children, based on The Dawn-Breakers by Nabíl-i-A'ẓam (Chapters IX and XX), the story of the early days of the Bábí Faith.

For many months in 1848 and 1849, a few hundred followers of the Báb were surrounded by an army in a small fort called Fort Ṭabarsí, in the forests of Mázindarán in Persia. Their leader was a young man named Quddús. He was the last of the eighteen Letters of the Living, the first disciples of the Báb, and he had gone with the Báb on His pilgrimage to Mecca.

Another hero in the fort was Mullá Ḥusayn, the very first person to believe in the Báb. In one of the battles he was badly wounded. He was carried back into the fort, and Quddús asked to be left alone with him. The two friends talked together for about two hours. When the others came back in, Mullá Ḥusayn had passed away with a faint smile on his face, so peaceful that he seemed to be asleep.

After that, Quddús led the friends in the fort, and a believer named Mírzá Muḥammad-Báqir led them when they rode out to defend themselves. Food ran out, and the friends grew very hungry. Once, while the army was firing its cannons, a cannon-ball fell right in front of Quddús. He stayed calm and rolled it away with his foot. How unaware these attackers were, he said, of the power of God.

A promise that was broken

The prince who commanded the army took a copy of the Qur'án, the holy book of Islam, and wrote in it with his own hand a solemn promise, sealed with his seal. He swore that if the friends came out of the fort, no one would harm them. He sent the Qur'án to Quddús. Quddús kissed the holy book, and the friends came out.

The promise was not kept. Soon afterwards the army turned on the friends, and most of them were killed.

Quddús is brought home

Quddús was taken as a prisoner to the town of Bárfurúsh, the town where he had been born and had grown up. There the prince handed him over to his enemies. He said that he would take no responsibility for whatever happened to Quddús, and then he rode away.

The people of the town led Quddús through the streets in chains and treated him with great cruelty. Through it all, Quddús prayed for them. He asked God to forgive them and to have mercy on them, because they did not know what he and his friends had come to know, and he asked God to show them the way of truth.

The splendour of his nuptials

Years before, when Quddús was living at home in Bárfurúsh, his stepmother, who loved him like a mother, often said how much she longed to see his wedding. Quddús told her that his wedding day had not yet come. It would be celebrated, he said, not inside the house but out in the open air, in the Sabzih-Maydán, the town square, in front of the crowd.

Now, as he came near that same square, Quddús raised his voice and said:

Would that my mother were with me, and could see with her own eyes the splendour of my nuptials!

"Nuptials" means a wedding. Quddús was killed there in the square. He was still a young man.

When the Báb, who was a prisoner far away in the castle of Chihríq, heard what had happened to His beloved Quddús, His sorrow was so great that for six months He could neither write nor dictate.

This is a retelling for children. For the fuller account, see "The Martyrdom of Quddús".

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/