The Báb and the Warden of Máh-Kú

A retelling based on God Passes By by Shoghi Effendi, with the account of 'Alí Khán's vision from The Dawn-Breakers of Nabíl. Words in quotation marks are quoted from those books.

In 1847 Muḥammad Sháh, on the advice of his Grand Vizir, Ḥájí Mírzá Áqásí, assigned the fortress of Máh-Kú as the Báb's place of confinement. It stood on a mountain in the remotest north-western corner of Ádhirbayján, near the frontiers of the Ottoman and Russian empires. The district was the Grand Vizir's birthplace and had received special favours from him, and its people differed from most Persians in race, language and creed. Only one companion and one attendant were allowed to stay with the Báb.

The Grand Vizir's orders to the warden, 'Alí Khán, "were stringent and explicit." For the first two weeks no one was allowed to see the Báb except His amanuensis, Siyyid Ḥusayn, and Siyyid Ḥusayn's brother. In the Persian Bayán the Báb Himself wrote that at night He did not even have a lighted lamp, and that His room of sun-baked bricks had no door.

Shoghi Effendi writes that the people of the district were gradually won over by the Báb's gentleness and modesty and taught by His counsels. So great was their love for Him that "their first act every morning, notwithstanding the remonstrations of the domineering 'Alí Khán, and the repeated threats of disciplinary measures received from Tihrán, was to seek a place where they could catch a glimpse of His face, and beseech from afar His benediction upon their daily work." When they had a dispute, they would go to the foot of the fortress, fix their eyes on His room, invoke His name and adjure one another to speak the truth.

The warden's vision

Nabíl preserves Siyyid Ḥusayn's account of what changed 'Alí Khán. One day the Báb sent word to Shaykh Ḥasan-i-Zunúzí, who was spending his nights in a mosque outside the town gate, that He would ask the warden to change his attitude toward the believers, and would have him bring Shaykh Ḥasan to the castle the next day. Siyyid Ḥusayn could not see how the "domineering and self-willed" warden could be brought to relax his discipline.

Early the next morning, before the gates were opened, 'Alí Khán was at the door insisting on being admitted to the Báb. When he was brought in, he threw himself at the Báb's feet. He said that he had been riding toward the town at dawn and had seen the Báb standing by the river, praying with outstretched arms, so absorbed in worship that He did not notice him. 'Alí Khán had gone to rebuke the guards for letting their Prisoner out, and had found both the outer and the inner gates shut. Now he found the Báb seated in His room.

The Báb answered him: "What you have witnessed is true and undeniable. You belittled this Revelation and have contemptuously disdained its Author. God, the All-Merciful, desiring not to afflict you with His punishment, has willed to reveal to your eyes the Truth."

'Alí Khán then asked leave to bring to the Báb a poor shaykh who lived in a mosque outside the gate, hoping, he said, that his evil deeds might be forgiven. In Shoghi Effendi's words, "'Alí Khán himself, under the influence of a strange vision, felt such mortification that he was impelled to relax the severity of his discipline, as an atonement for his past behavior."

Pilgrims at the gate

After this, believers from many provinces were admitted to the fortress. They usually stayed three days before the Báb sent them back to their work. Among them was Mullá Ḥusayn, who had walked the whole way from Mashhad and kept the festival of Naw-Rúz of 1848 with the Báb. 'Alí Khán came to pay his respects every Friday and often brought the Báb the choicest fruit to be found near Máh-Kú.

Within those walls the Báb revealed the Persian Bayán. Shaykh Ḥasan-i-Zunúzí later told Nabíl: "The voice of the Báb, as He dictated the teachings and principles of His Faith, could be clearly heard by those who were dwelling at the foot of the mountain."

Secret agents reported all this to the Grand Vizir, who had the Báb moved, about April 10, 1848, to the fortress of Chihríq.

This is a retelling. For the fuller account, see God Passes By by Shoghi Effendi, chapter II, and The Dawn-Breakers by Nabíl-i-A'ẓam, chapter XIII.

Effendi, S.. (1944). *God Passes By*. Bahá'í Publishing Trust. https://www.bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/shoghi-effendi/god-passes-by/