The Seven Martyrs of Ṭihrán

*A retelling for children, based on **The Dawn-Breakers: Nabíl's Narrative** (trans. Shoghi Effendi), Chapter XXI, with one detail from Shoghi Effendi's **God Passes By**. The words in quotation marks are word for word from The Dawn-Breakers.*

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In the year 1850, in the city of Ṭihrán, fourteen followers of the Báb were arrested and kept prisoner in the house of the city's chief officer. They were treated cruelly, but they would not tell their captors what they wanted to know.

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Then the Grand Vizier, the most powerful minister of the Sháh, gave an order. Any of the fourteen who would not give up his Faith would be put to death. Seven of them gave it up and were set free. The other seven would not. They are remembered as the Seven Martyrs of Ṭihrán.

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They came from very different walks of life. One was Ḥájí Mírzá Siyyid 'Alí, a leading merchant of Shíráz and the Báb's own uncle, who had looked after the Báb when He was a boy. Rich merchants offered to pay money to set him free, and the Grand Vizier promised he could go home with honour if he would say just one word against his Faith. He refused. He asked only one thing: "I only request of you that you allow me to be the first to lay down my life in the path of my beloved Kinsman."

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Another was Mírzá Qurbán-'Alí, a dervish loved by many people, who dressed very simply. Important officials had begged the Grand Vizier to spare him, and the Grand Vizier did not want to sentence him to death. Qurbán-'Alí told him not to hesitate. "The sooner you strike off my head," he said, "the greater will be my gratitude to you."

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Another was Ḥájí Mullá Ismá'íl, a scholar who understood the meaning of the Qur'án better than almost anyone. There were also a learned teacher of religious law, two merchants, and a quiet man named Muḥammad-Ḥusayn, who had refused to say a single word to his captors.

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All seven gave their lives that day. Shoghi Effendi writes of the joy that filled them as they came near to their death, and Nabíl tells us that the last three each begged to go before the others. When the Báb heard what had happened, He wrote a Tablet in their honour.

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*This is a retelling for children. For the fuller account, see ["The Seven Who Would Not Recant"](/stories/db-the-seven-martyrs-of-tihran).*

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