An Ocean of Verses

*A retelling based on **Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era** by J. E. Esslemont, which describes the Writings of the Báb and quotes 'Abdu'l-Bahá's A Traveller's Narrative about them, with details from **God Passes By** by Shoghi Effendi. Words in quotation marks are quoted from those books.*

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The Grand Vizir, Ḥájí Mírzá Áqásí, prevented the Báb from meeting the Sháh in the capital and sent Him instead to the fortress of Máh-Kú, in the far northwest of Persia, on a mountain near the frontiers of the Ottoman and Russian empires. Shoghi Effendi writes that the Grand Vizir's orders to its warden were "stringent and explicit." For the first two weeks no one was allowed to see Him except His amanuensis, Siyyid Ḥusayn, and his brother.

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In the Persian Bayán the Báb Himself states that at night He did not even have a lighted lamp, and that His room of sun-baked bricks had no door. About April 1848 He was moved to the fortress of Chihríq, which He named the Jabal-i-Shadíd, the Grievous Mountain.

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Throughout these years He continued to write. J. E. Esslemont sums it up in one sentence: "The Writings of the Báb were voluminous, and the rapidity with which, without study or premeditation, He composed elaborate commentaries, profound expositions or eloquent prayers was regarded as one of the proofs of His divine inspiration."

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Shoghi Effendi records that while He was confined in Máh-Kú, the Báb affirmed that His writings had already amounted to more than five hundred thousand verses. Bahá'u'lláh, in the Kitáb-i-Íqán, testified: "The verses which have rained from this Cloud of Divine mercy have been so abundant that none hath yet been able to estimate their number. A score of volumes are now available. How many still remain beyond our reach! How many have been plundered and have fallen into the hands of the enemy, the fate of which none knoweth!"

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Esslemont then quotes 'Abdu'l-Bahá's A Traveller's Narrative on what these Writings contained.

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Some were commentaries on the verses of the Qur'án; some were prayers and homilies; others were exhortations and "dissertations on the different branches of the doctrine of the Divine Unity." But their essence, the Narrative says, was "the praises and descriptions of that Reality soon to appear which was his only object and aim, his darling, and his desire." The Báb regarded His own appearance as that of a harbinger of good tidings, and declared in His Writings: "I am a letter out of that most mighty book and a dew-drop from that limitless ocean." The Narrative adds that "commemoration of Him was the bright candle of his dark nights in the fortress of Mákú, and remembrance of Him was the best of companions in the straits of the prison of Chihrík."

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*This is a retelling. For the fuller account, see the chapter on the Báb in **Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era** by J. E. Esslemont, and **God Passes By** by Shoghi Effendi.*

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