The King and the Beloved of Martyrs

*A retelling based on **God Passes By** by Shoghi Effendi (chapter 12), with further details from Adib Taherzadeh's **The Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh**, volume 4. Words in quotation marks are quoted from those books.*

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Mírzá Muḥammad-Ḥasan and his elder brother, Mírzá Muḥammad-Ḥusayn, were merchants of Iṣfahán. As boys they had met the Báb when He was a guest in their father's house, and later, in Baghdád, they attained the presence of Bahá'u'lláh. Shoghi Effendi describes them as "celebrated for their generosity, trustworthiness, kindliness and piety." Taherzadeh records that they helped to ease the hardships of Bahá'u'lláh and His companions in exile, spent much of their wealth on the poor, and fed a great many starving people during a famine in Iṣfahán.

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The Imám-Jum'ih of Iṣfahán, Mír Muḥammad-Ḥusayn, had placed his financial affairs in the brothers' hands. When he learned that he owed them a large sum, he schemed, in Shoghi Effendi's words, "to nullify his obligations by denouncing them as Bábís". He was joined by Shaykh Muḥammad-Báqir, the leading mujtahid of the city. Bahá'u'lláh later called the one "the she-serpent" and the other "the wolf".

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The two brothers were arrested, together with their youngest brother, Mírzá Ismá'íl, who was later released. The governor of Iṣfahán, the Zillu's-Sulṭán, urged them several times to recant and go free. When he demanded that they deny their Faith, Mírzá Muḥammad-Ḥasan answered: "If only you knew what I know, you would never demand this of me."

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Náṣiri'd-Dín Sháh telegraphed that the brothers were to be sent to Ṭihrán, but the clergy stirred up crowds in the streets to demand their execution, and the prince gave way. Shaykh Muḥammad-Báqir pronounced the sentence of death and the Zillu's-Sulṭán ratified it. The brothers' houses were plundered "even to the trees and flowers in their gardens."

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Taherzadeh notes that many in the crowd, and the executioner himself, had received help from the brothers over the years. When the executioner spoke of his revulsion at the task, the two brothers assured him of their forgiveness and told him to do his duty, and Mírzá Muḥammad-Ḥasan gave him a ring from his finger. On 17 March 1879, after a final refusal to recant, they were beheaded, the younger brother first. Their bodies were dragged to the Maydán-i-Sháh and left there to the insults of the crowd. Their youngest brother later buried them in secret.

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'Abdu'l-Bahá wrote: "In such wise was the blood of these two brothers shed that the Christian priest of Julfá cried out, lamented and wept on that day."

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Bahá'u'lláh, then living at the Mansion of Mazra'ih near 'Akká, gave the two brothers the titles by which they are remembered: Sulṭánu'sh-Shuhadá', the King of Martyrs, and Maḥbúbu'sh-Shuhadá', the Beloved of Martyrs. Taherzadeh counts no fewer than a hundred Tablets in which He told their story and praised their virtues. Near the end of His life He addressed His Epistle to the Son of the Wolf to Shaykh Muḥammad-Taqí, son of the man who had pronounced their sentence, calling on him to repent.

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*This is a retelling. For the fuller account, see **God Passes By** by Shoghi Effendi, chapter 12, and **The Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh**, volume 4, by Adib Taherzadeh.*

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