Vaḥíd at Nayríz

*A retelling based on **God Passes By** by Shoghi Effendi (chapters I and III), with details from **The Dawn-Breakers** (chapter XXII). Words in quotation marks are quoted from those books.*

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Siyyid Yaḥyá-i-Dárábí, known as Vaḥíd, was one of the most learned men in Persia. Shoghi Effendi describes him as "one of the most erudite, eloquent and influential" of the Sháh's subjects, "a man who had committed to memory no less than thirty thousand traditions." When reports of the Báb spread through the country, Muḥammad Sháh sent him to Shíráz to investigate and report.

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Vaḥíd later described what happened. He had meant to refute the Báb, persuade Him to give up His claim, and bring Him back to Ṭihrán.

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"In the course of my first audience with Him, I was utterly abashed and confounded; by the end of the second, I felt as helpless and ignorant as a child; the third found me as lowly as the dust beneath His feet." Before the third interview he had privately resolved to ask, without saying it aloud, for a commentary on the Súrih of Kawthar. The Báb offered to reveal that very commentary, and wrote it in his presence.

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Vaḥíd sent no more than a written report to the court and gave the rest of his life to the Báb's Cause.

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In the spring of 1850 he came to Nayríz, in the province of Fárs, where he had a house in the Chinár-Sukhtih quarter. Before even going home he went into the mosque, still in his travelling clothes, climbed the pulpit and spoke. Nabíl records that about fifteen hundred people responded. The governor, Zaynu'l-'Ábidín Khán, raised a force of about a thousand men against him.

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Vaḥíd moved into the nearby Fort of Khájih with seventy-two companions, many of them boys or old men, and they drove back the attacks. The governor asked the governor of Shíráz for help, and a much larger army with artillery surrounded the fort.

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When the army could not take the fort, its commanders suspended the fighting and sent Vaḥíd a copy of the Qur'án under their seals. They wrote that they wished to learn about his Faith, and promised that if they were not convinced he would be allowed to return safely to the fort. Vaḥíd kissed the Qur'án and told his companions: "Though I am well aware of their designs, I feel it my duty to accept their call and take the opportunity to attempt once again to unfold the verities of my beloved Faith."

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He went to the camp with five attendants. For three days the officers treated him with honour. Then they forced him to write a letter telling his companions to leave the fort. He wrote a second, private letter warning them not to be deceived, but the messenger he trusted betrayed him and delivered only the first. The defenders left the fort and were attacked on their way into the town.

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The commanders now looked for a way around their oath. One officer who had taken no part in it, 'Abbás-Qulí Khán, handed Vaḥíd over to men whose relatives had died in the fighting. In the words of God Passes By, Vaḥíd, "by his green turban, the emblem of his proud lineage, was bound to a horse and dragged ignominiously through the streets." He was killed on 29 June 1850, ten days before the martyrdom of the Báb. Bahá'u'lláh called him "that unique and peerless figure of his age."

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*This is a retelling. For the full account, see **God Passes By** by Shoghi Effendi and **The Dawn-Breakers**, chapter XXII.*

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