Ḥujjat of Zanján

A retelling based on A Traveller's Narrative, 'Abdu'l-Bahá's history of the Báb and His followers (translated by E. G. Browne), with details from God Passes By by Shoghi Effendi. Words in quotation marks are quoted from those books.

Mullá Muḥammad-'Alí of Zanján, surnamed Ḥujjat, was a religious scholar known for his independence and his skill in debate. 'Abdu'l-Bahá calls him "a man of mark possessed of penetrating speech." When news of the Báb reached Zanján, he sent a trusted disciple to Shíráz to find out the truth. The man came back with some of the Báb's writings. Shoghi Effendi writes that reading "but a page" of them was enough to transform Ḥujjat.

According to 'Abdu'l-Bahá's account, Ḥujjat gathered up the books in his lecture-room and said, "The season of spring and wine has arrived," and also: "Search for knowledge after reaching the known is culpable." From the pulpit he called on his disciples to accept the new Faith, and he wrote to the Báb declaring his belief.

The clergy of Zanján could not stop the spread of the Faith in the city, and they complained to Muḥammad Sháh, who summoned Ḥujjat to Ṭihrán. There he was questioned by an assembly of divines, but nothing came of it. The Sháh gave him a staff and fifty túmans for his expenses and allowed him to go home.

In 1850, under the next Sháh, the believers of Zanján were attacked. 'Abdu'l-Bahá tells of Zanján and Nayríz together:

In Zanján and Nayríz likewise at the decree of erudite doctors and notable lawyers a bloodthirsty military force attacked and besieged. In Zanján the chief was Mullá Muḥammad-'Alí the mujtahid, while in Nayríz Siyyid Yaḥyá of Daráb was the leader and arbiter. At first they sought to bring about a reconciliation, but, meeting with cruel ferocity, they reached the pitch of desperation; and, the overpowering force of the victorious troops having cut off every passage of flight, they unclosed their hands in resistance.

In God Passes By, Shoghi Effendi records that the believers of Zanján held the Fort of 'Alí-Mardán Khán, which at one time sheltered some three thousand men, women and children, and that Ḥujjat urged them again and again not to attack, telling them that their victory lay only in sacrificing everything for the Cause.

'Abdu'l-Bahá writes that the defenders "amazed the chiefs of the army by their steadfastness and endurance," but the army was too strong for them. The siege ended as those at Shaykh Ṭabarsí and Nayríz had ended: "After numerous battles they too at last yielded to covenants and compacts, oaths and promises, vows registered on the Qur'án, and the wonderful stratagems of the officers, and were all put to the edge of the sword." According to God Passes By, no fewer than eighteen hundred believers, Ḥujjat among them, lost their lives at Zanján.

'Abdu'l-Bahá did not set down the battles in detail. "Were we to occupy ourselves in detail with the wars of Nayríz and Zanján," He wrote, "or to set forth these events from beginning to end, this epitome would become a bulky volume."

This is a retelling. For the full account, see A Traveller's Narrative by 'Abdu'l-Bahá; the siege is told at length in chapter XXIV of The Dawn-Breakers.

'Abdu'l-Bahá. (1886). *A Traveler's Narrative*. Cambridge University Press. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19300