The Help of the Russian Minister

*A retelling based on **The Dawn-Breakers**, Nabíl's narrative of the early days of the Faith, and Shoghi Effendi's **God Passes By**, which tell this episode. Words in quotation marks are quoted from those books, including Bahá'u'lláh's own words as they give them, and from Bahá'u'lláh's **Epistle to the Son of the Wolf**.*

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On 15 August 1852 two followers of the Báb made an attempt on the life of Náṣiri'd-Dín Sháh. It failed, and a fierce persecution of the Bábís followed.

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Bahá'u'lláh was then at Afchih, in Lavásán, as a guest of the Grand Vizier. His host, the Grand Vizier's brother, advised Him to stay hidden there for a time. Instead He rode the next morning toward the headquarters of the imperial army at Níyávarán. In the village of Zarkandih He was met by His brother-in-law, Mírzá Majíd, who was secretary to the Russian Minister, Prince Dolgorouki, and was taken to Mírzá Majíd's house, next to the Minister's.

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When the Sháh heard of it, he sent one of his trusted officers to the Legation to demand that the Accused be handed over. The Russian Minister refused. He asked Bahá'u'lláh to go to the home of the Grand Vizier, and formally told the Grand Vizier his desire "that the utmost care should be exercised to ensure the safety and protection of the Trust his government was delivering into his keeping." The Grand Vizier, afraid of losing his position, did not give that protection.

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Bahá'u'lláh was taken "on foot and in chains, with bared head and bare feet" to the Síyáh-Chál, an underground dungeon in Ṭihrán that had once been a reservoir for a public bath. On the way He was several times stripped of His outer garments and pelted with stones.

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In the dungeon His feet were put in stocks, and around His neck were fastened the Qará-Guhar chains, "infamous throughout Persia for their galling weight." He later wrote: "The dungeon was wrapped in thick darkness, and Our fellow-prisoners numbered nearly one hundred and fifty souls: thieves, assassins and highwaymen." Every day, He recalled, "Our gaolers, entering Our cell, would call the name of one of Our companions, bidding him arise and follow them to the foot of the gallows." His enemies mixed poison into the food sent to Him from His home; it did not kill Him, but it impaired His health for years.

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It was in this prison, Bahá'u'lláh later wrote, that "One night, in a dream, these exalted words were heard on every side: 'Verily, We shall render Thee victorious by Thyself and by Thy Pen. Grieve Thou not for that which hath befallen Thee, neither be Thou afraid, for Thou art in safety.'"

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Nabíl records that the Russian Minister, through one of his agents, kept in close touch with Bahá'u'lláh's condition. When the authorities began to blame another prisoner, 'Aẓím, for the plot, the Minister sent the Grand Vizier "a strongly worded message" of protest. He proposed that 'Aẓím be questioned in the Síyáh-Chál in the presence of a government representative, and that whatever he said be recorded and serve as the basis of the final judgment.

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'Aẓím declared that he alone had conceived the plan. Shoghi Effendi names, among the causes of Bahá'u'lláh's release, "the persistent and decisive intervention of the Russian Minister, Prince Dolgorouki, who left no stone unturned to establish the innocence of Bahá'u'lláh," together with 'Aẓím's confession, "the indisputable testimony established by competent tribunals," and "the unrelaxing efforts exerted by His own brothers, sisters and kindred." After four months in the dungeon He was set free.

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Soon afterward the Sháh ordered Him to leave Persia within a month. "The Russian Minister, as soon as he was informed of the Imperial decision, expressed the desire to take Bahá'u'lláh under the protection of his government, and offered to extend every facility for His removal to Russia." Bahá'u'lláh declined, and chose Baghdád. On 12 January 1853 He set out with members of His family, "escorted by an officer of the Imperial body-guard and an official representing the Russian Legation."

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Years later, in His Tablet to the Czar, Alexander II, Bahá'u'lláh remembered this help. "Whilst I lay chained and fettered in the prison, one of thy ministers extended Me his aid. Whereupon God hath ordained for thee a station which the knowledge of none can comprehend except His knowledge."

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*This is a retelling. For the fuller account, see **The Dawn-Breakers**, chapter 26, and **God Passes By** by Shoghi Effendi, chapters 5 to 7.*

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