The Báb Before the Divines of Tabríz

A retelling based on A Traveller's Narrative, 'Abdu'l-Bahá's history of the Báb, translated by E. G. Browne, with details from Nabíl's The Dawn-Breakers. Words in quotation marks are quoted from those books.

In 1848 the Báb had been held for three months in the castle of Chihríq, in the mountains of Ádhirbayján, after nine months in the castle of Máh-Kú. The leading divines of Tabríz and of the province wrote to Ṭihrán demanding that He be severely punished. The Prime Minister, Ḥájí Mírzá Áqásí, ordered Him brought to Tabríz. On the way, at Urúmíyyih, the governor treated Him with great deference, and people of every rank flocked to see Him.

The gathering

Some days after He reached Tabríz, the Báb was brought before a tribunal at the residence of the governor of the province. Among those present were the Niẓámu'l-'Ulamá, tutor to the Crown Prince, who presided; Mullá Muḥammad-i-Mámaqání, a leader of the Shaykhí community; Mírzá Aḥmad, the Imám-Jum'ih; Mírzá 'Alí-Aṣghar, the Shaykhu'l-Islám; and other divines. Nabíl records that the Crown Prince, Náṣiri'd-Dín Mírzá, attended in person, and that a crowd pressed around the entrance hoping to see the Báb.

When He entered, every seat was taken except the one reserved for the Crown Prince. The Báb greeted the assembly and sat down in it. The Niẓámu'l-'Ulamá asked Him whom He claimed to be and what message He had brought. Nabíl records the answer: "I am," thrice exclaimed the Báb, "I am, I am, the promised One! I am the One whose name you have for a thousand years invoked, at whose mention you have risen, whose advent you have longed to witness, and the hour of whose Revelation you have prayed God to hasten."

'Abdu'l-Bahá's history describes what followed: "He advanced the claim of Mihdí-hood; whereon a mighty tumult arose." The divines demanded proof. Without hesitation He recited verses, saying, "This is the permanent and most mighty proof." They found fault with His grammar, and He answered from the Qur'án, pointing to similar departures from the rules of grammar in its own text. When Mullá Muḥammad-i-Mámaqání rebuked Him harshly, the Báb replied: "Your Honour, I maintain what I have already declared." Before long He rose and left. In 'Abdu'l-Bahá's words, "So the assembly broke up and the Báb returned to His own dwelling."

Afterwards

The Crown Prince, then governor of Ádhirbayján, pronounced no sentence. The divines, however, decided that the Báb should be beaten. None of the governor's attendants would agree to carry out the punishment, so the Shaykhu'l-Islám took the Báb to his own house and applied the rods to His feet with his own hand. The Báb was then sent back to Chihríq and held in strict confinement.

Shoghi Effendi, in God Passes By, counts this as the occasion when the Báb asserted, "formally and unreservedly, His claim to be the promised Qá'im, in the presence of the Heir to the Throne, the leading exponents of the Shaykhí community, and the most illustrious ecclesiastical dignitaries assembled in the capital of Ádhirbayján."

This is a retelling. For 'Abdu'l-Bahá's own account, see A Traveller's Narrative; for the fuller account, see The Dawn-Breakers by Nabíl-i-A'ẓam, chapter XVIII.

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