The Báb's Last Night in Tabríz
Nabíl-i-A'ẓam, The Dawn-Breakers: Nabíl's Narrative of the Early Days of the Bahá'í Revelation, (1932), Bahá'í Publishing Trust · Read original
When in Bahá'í history
Tabríz (today: Tabríz, Iran)
A retelling based on The Dawn-Breakers, Nabíl's narrative translated and edited by Shoghi Effendi (chapter 23). Words in quotation marks are quoted from the book.
Three days after the Báb was brought to Tabríz in the summer of 1850, an order came from the Grand Vizier that He was to be executed. He was stripped of His turban and sash, the signs of His descent from the Prophet, and taken with His amanuensis, Siyyid Ḥusayn, to a room in the barracks, with ten soldiers guarding the door.
As He approached the barracks, a youth pushed through the crowd, barefoot and exhausted, and threw himself at the Báb's feet. "Send me not from Thee, O Master," he begged. "Wherever Thou goest, suffer me to follow Thee." The Báb answered: "Muḥammad-'Alí, arise, and rest assured that you will be with Me. To-morrow you shall witness what God has decreed." This youth, Mírzá Muḥammad-'Alíy-i-Zunúzí, and two other companions who came forward were seized and put in the same cell as the Báb and Siyyid Ḥusayn.
That night
Nabíl heard Siyyid Ḥusayn describe the night that followed:
That night the face of the Báb was aglow with joy, a joy such as had never shone from His countenance. Indifferent to the storm that raged about Him, He conversed with us with gaiety and cheerfulness. The sorrows that had weighed so heavily upon Him seemed to have completely vanished. Their weight appeared to have dissolved in the consciousness of approaching victory.
The Báb told them: "To-morrow will be the day of My martyrdom. Would that one of you might now arise and, with his own hands, end My life. I prefer to be slain by the hand of a friend rather than by that of the enemy."
The companions wept. None of them could bring himself to do it, and they stayed silent. Then Mírzá Muḥammad-'Alí sprang to his feet and said he was ready to do whatever the Báb desired. The others stopped him, and the Báb said: "This same youth who has risen to comply with My wish will, together with Me, suffer martyrdom. Him will I choose to share with Me its crown."
The morning
Early the next morning the farrásh-báshí came to take the Báb to the mujtahids of the city. As the Báb was leaving, Siyyid Ḥusayn asked Him what he should do, and was told not to confess his faith, so that he could later tell what he alone knew. The farrásh-báshí interrupted their conversation and pulled Siyyid Ḥusayn aside. The Báb warned him: "Not until I have said to him all those things that I wish to say can any earthly power silence Me."
At noon that day, after the first volley failed to harm Him, the Báb was found back in the same room, finishing His conversation with Siyyid Ḥusayn. A second regiment then carried out the execution, and Mírzá Muḥammad-'Alí died with Him, as the Báb had said he would.
This is a retelling. For the full account, see The Dawn-Breakers by Nabíl-i-A'ẓam, chapter 23.
Cite this story
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/
This story shares quotes with 1 other story
“That night the face of the Báb was aglow with joy, a joy such as had never”
Also in
- Siyyid Ḥusayn, the Báb's Amanuensis— Nabíl-i-A'ẓam, The Dawn-Breakers: Nabíl's Narrative of the Early Days of the Bahá'í Revelation
“shone from His countenance. Indifferent to the storm that raged about Him, He”
Also in
- Siyyid Ḥusayn, the Báb's Amanuensis— Nabíl-i-A'ẓam, The Dawn-Breakers: Nabíl's Narrative of the Early Days of the Bahá'í Revelation
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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 Longing of Anís
Mírzá Muḥammad-'Alíy-i-Zunúzí, called Anís, was confined by his stepfather for his love of the Báb. In a vision the Báb promised that he would share His martyrdom, and on 9 July 1850 he died beside Him in Tabríz.
The Martyrdom of the Báb in Tabríz
In A Traveler's Narrative, 'Abdu'l-Bahá tells of the Báb's martyrdom in the barrack square of Tabríz in 1850. The first regiment's volleys left Him and His young companion unharmed; a second regiment then carried out the sentence.
The Martyrdom of the Báb in Tabríz
On 9 July 1850 in Tabríz, the first volley fired at the Báb and Anís cut only their ropes, and the Báb was found back in His room finishing a conversation. A second regiment carried out the execution.