The Báb's Coffer Sent to Bahá'u'lláh
Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, (1944), Bahá'í Publishing Trust · Read original
When in Bahá'í history
Chihríq (today: near Salmás, Iran)
A retelling based on God Passes By by Shoghi Effendi (chapter 4), with details from Nabíl's The Dawn-Breakers (chapter 23). Words in quotation marks are quoted from these books.
In 1850 the Báb had been a prisoner in the mountain fortress of Chihríq, near the north-western frontier of Persia, for about two years. Shoghi Effendi writes that "He Himself had already foreshadowed His own approaching death." In the Kitáb-i-Panj-Sha'n, one of His last works, He had indicated that the sixth Naw-Rúz after the declaration of His mission would be the last He would celebrate on earth.
Shoghi Effendi continues:
Forty days before His final departure from Chihríq He had even collected all the documents in His possession, and placed them, together with His pen-case, His seals and His rings, in the hands of Mullá Báqir, a Letter of the Living, whom He instructed to entrust them to Mullá 'Abdu'l-Karím-i-Qazvíní, surnamed Mírzá Aḥmad, who was to deliver them to Bahá'u'lláh in Ṭihrán.
The coffer
Nabíl, who was present when the trust arrived, gives more detail in The Dawn-Breakers. The Báb placed the documents and Tablets, the pen-case, the seals and His agate rings in a coffer. With it He gave Mullá Báqir a letter for Mírzá Aḥmad that held the key. He told Mullá Báqir to take the utmost care of the trust and to show its contents to no one but Mírzá Aḥmad.
Mullá Báqir went to Qazvín, reaching it in eighteen days, and learned that Mírzá Aḥmad had gone to Qum. He followed him there. Nabíl was living in the same house in Qum with Mírzá Aḥmad and several other believers. At the insistence of one of them, Shaykh 'Aẓím, Mírzá Aḥmad opened the coffer in front of them.
Among its contents was a scroll of fine blue paper on which the Báb, in His own shikastih script, had written about five hundred verses in the form of a pentacle, all derived from the word "Bahá." Nabíl says the writing was so fine that from a distance it looked like a single wash of ink. The scroll was put back in the coffer, and Mírzá Aḥmad left for Ṭihrán that same day. All he would tell them of the Báb's letter was that the trust was to be delivered into the hands of Jináb-i-Bahá, that is, Bahá'u'lláh, in Ṭihrán.
Some forty days after the Báb sent the coffer away, an officer arrived at Chihríq to take Him to Tabríz, where He was martyred on the 9th of July, 1850.
This is a retelling. For the full account, see God Passes By by Shoghi Effendi, chapter 4, and The Dawn-Breakers by Nabíl-i-A'ẓam, chapter 23.
Cite this story
Effendi, S.. (1944). *God Passes By*. Bahá'í Publishing Trust. https://www.bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/shoghi-effendi/god-passes-by/
Record yourself reading this story
Recording stays on this device only. Nothing is uploaded.
Related stories
The Hidden Journey of the Báb's Remains
After the martyrdom of the Báb in 1850, believers hid His remains in shrines and houses in Ṭihrán for nearly fifty years, then carried them to the Holy Land, where 'Abdu'l-Bahá laid them to rest on Mount Carmel in 1909.
Siyyid Ḥusayn, the Báb's Amanuensis
Siyyid Ḥusayn-i-Yazdí, the Báb's amanuensis, spent His last night with Him in the barracks of Tabríz and was told not to confess his faith, so that he could later tell what he alone knew. In 1852 he was martyred in Ṭihrán.
The Rescue of the Báb's Remains
After the martyrdom, the bodies of the Báb and His companion were left under guard beside the moat of Tabríz. Ḥájí Sulaymán Khán had them carried away by night, and at Bahá'u'lláh's instruction they were later brought to Ṭihrán and kept hidden.
The Fall of the Amír-Niẓám
Mírzá Taqí Khán, the Amír-Niẓám, ordered the Báb's execution against the advice of his own counsellors. Within two years he lost the Sháh's favour and was put to death in the bath of Fín, near Káshán.