The Sifter of Wheat of Iṣfáhán

*A retelling based on Nabíl's **The Dawn-Breakers** (chapter IV), which also quotes the Báb's words about this believer in the Persian Bayán. His name and his death at Shaykh Ṭabarsí are recorded by H. M. Balyuzi in **The Báb**.*

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In 1844 Mullá Ḥusayn, the first to believe in the Báb, carried His message to Iṣfáhán. The disciples of Ḥájí Siyyid Asadu'lláh complained of him, but their master would not act against him. Another divine, Ḥájí Kalbásí, rebuked them and told them to enquire into his teachings dispassionately, and the governor, Manúchihr Khán, refused to interfere. For a time Mullá Ḥusayn was able to teach freely.

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Nabíl writes that "the first to embrace the Cause of the Bab in that city was a man, a sifter of wheat, who, as soon as the Call reached his ears, unreservedly accepted the Message." He served Mullá Ḥusayn with great devotion, and through that close association became a zealous advocate of the new Revelation. Nabíl does not give his name. Balyuzi records that he was usually known as Gandum-Pák-Kun, the Sifter of Wheat, and that his name was Mullá Ja'far.

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A few years later, when he heard the details of the siege of the fort of Shaykh Ṭabarsí in Mázindarán, he resolved to join the Báb's companions who were defending it. Carrying his sieve, he set out at once. His friends saw him running through the bazaars of Iṣfáhán and asked him, "Why leave so hurriedly?" He answered:

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> I have risen to join the glorious company of the defenders of the fort of > Shaykh Tabarsi! With this sieve which I carry with me, I intend to sift the > people in every city through which I pass. Whomsoever I find ready to espouse > the Cause I have embraced, I will ask to join me and hasten forthwith to the > field of martyrdom.

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He reached Ṭabarsí and was one of its martyrs.

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Nabíl adds that such was the devotion of this youth that the Báb Himself wrote of him in the Persian Bayán:

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> Isfahan, that outstanding city, is distinguished by the religious fervour of > its shi'ah inhabitants, by the learning of its divines, and by the keen > expectation, shared by high and low alike, of the imminent coming of the > Sahibu'z-Zaman. In every quarter of that city, religious institutions have > been established.

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And yet, when the Messenger of God had been made manifest, > they who claimed to be the repositories of learning and the expounders of the > mysteries of the Faith of God rejected His Message. Of all the inhabitants of > that seat of learning, only one person, a sifter of wheat, was found to > recognise the Truth, and was invested with the robe of Divine virtue!

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*This is a retelling. For the full account, see Nabíl's **The Dawn-Breakers**, chapter IV.*

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