The Boy in the Bazaar of Shíráz

A retelling for children, based on Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era by J. E. Esslemont.

In the south of Persia there is a city called Shíráz, full of gardens and narrow streets and busy markets. And there, a long time ago — on the twentieth of October in the year 1819 — a baby boy was born. His name was Siyyid 'Alí-Muḥammad. One day the whole world would come to know Him by another name: the Báb.

When He was still very small, His father, who was a well-known merchant, died. So He was raised by His uncle, who loved Him and cared for Him as He grew.

As the years went by, people began to notice that this boy was not quite like the other children of the city. There was something gentle and beautiful about Him, and a kindness in the way He treated everyone He met. Esslemont, who later wrote down the story of His early years, said that He was known for "great personal beauty and charm of manner."

But the thing people noticed most was how He prayed. He did not say His prayers only because someone told Him to. He loved to pray. He never forgot, never skipped, never rushed. While other people only did what they had to, He went further — He lived in the very spirit of His prayers, every single day.

When He was about fifteen years old, He went to work in the family business, buying and selling beautiful cloth and silks. First He worked with the uncle who had raised Him, and later with another uncle in a town beside the sea, where ships came and went with goods from faraway places.

Now, a busy marketplace is a place where it is very easy to cheat — to put a thumb on the scale, or charge a little too much, or forget to pay a debt. But this young Merchant never did. He weighed everything honestly. He paid what He owed, right away. He was so fair, and so good to deal with, that the other merchants talked about it for years and years afterward. People simply trusted Him.

On the outside, it looked like an ordinary life — a kind young man, selling cloth in the bazaar. But underneath, something wonderful was getting ready. All those quiet prayers, all that honesty, all that gentleness, were like soil being made ready for a seed. For when He was almost twenty-five years old, this Merchant of Shíráz would step out of His little shop and change the whole world.

And here is something beautiful that Bahá'ís remember every year: very near the time the Báb was born, another great One, Bahá'u'lláh, was born too. So the two birthdays are celebrated close together, like two bright lights shining side by side.

Big things often begin in small and quiet ways — in a kind word, an honest day's work, a heart that remembers to pray. That is how the story of the Báb began, in the bazaar of Shíráz.

This is a retelling for children. For the fuller account, see "A Merchant of Shíráz: The Birth of the Báb".

Esslemont, J. E.. (1923). *Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era*. George Allen & Unwin. https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/19241/pg19241-images.html