Zaynab at the Barricades of Zanján

A retelling based on The Dawn-Breakers, Nabíl's narrative of the early days of the Faith (chapter XXIV, "The Zanján Upheaval"). Words in quotation marks are from that book.

During the upheaval at Zanján, Ḥujjat and his fellow believers were besieged in the fort of 'Alí-Mardán Khán. Short of food and under repeated attack, they built twenty-eight barricades and held them. A crier sent by the enemy promised pardon and rewards to anyone who would leave the fort and renounce his faith. The besieged answered him "with one voice."

Among the women and children in the fort was a village girl named Zaynab, from a hamlet near Zanján. Nabíl describes her as "fired with a lofty faith, and endowed with intrepid courage." The hardships of the men stirred in her a longing to share in the defence. She put on a tunic and a head-dress like theirs, cut off her hair, girt on a sword, took a musket and a shield, and joined their ranks. No one suspected that she was a woman.

When the enemy charged, she drew her sword and, raising the cry "Yá Ṣáḥibu'z-Zamán!", threw herself upon them. The attackers abandoned their barricades and fled. Ḥujjat, watching from one of the turrets, recognised her, and when she set off in pursuit he sent men to call her back. "No man," he was heard to say, "has shown himself capable of such vitality and courage."

When he asked her why she had done it, she wept and said: "My heart ached with pity and sorrow when I beheld the toil and sufferings of my fellow-disciples. I advanced by an inner urge I could not resist. I was afraid lest you would deny me the privilege of throwing in my lot with my men companions." She begged him not to withhold from her the crown of martyrdom.

Ḥujjat gave her the name Rustam-'Alí. "This is the Day of Resurrection," he told her, "the day when 'all secrets shall be searched out.' Not by their outward appearance, but by the character of their beliefs and the manner of their lives, does God judge His creatures, be they men or women." He granted her request, and warned her: "We are called upon to defend our lives against a treacherous assailant, and not to wage holy war against him."

For no less than five months Zaynab fought on. In her short hours of sleep she rested her head on her sword and covered herself with her shield. Each of her companions had a post to guard, but she was free to go wherever she was needed, and she ran to any barricade that was under attack. As the end of her life approached, the enemy discovered that she was a woman, and still they feared her.

One day, seeing her companions surrounded, she went to Ḥujjat and asked leave to go to their aid. "My life, I feel, is nearing its end," she said. "I may myself fall beneath the sword of the assailant. Forgive, I entreat you, my trespasses, and intercede for me with my Master, for whose sake I yearn to lay down my life." Ḥujjat was too moved to reply. She took his silence for consent, ran out through the gate crying "Yá Ṣáḥibu'z-Zamán!" seven times, and routed the guards of the first three of the enemy's barricades. She was attacking the fourth when she fell under a shower of bullets.

Nabíl records that after her death "no less than twenty women of her acquaintance embraced the Cause of the Báb."

This is a retelling. For the full account, see The Dawn-Breakers, chapter XXIV.

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/