The Báb in the Castle of Chihríq

A retelling based on chapter XVII of The Dawn-Breakers: Nabíl's Narrative, translated by Shoghi Effendi. Words in quotation marks are quoted from that book.

At Máh-Kú the Báb's warden, 'Alí Khán, had come to revere his Prisoner and had let His followers visit Him freely. When spies reported this to the Grand Vizier, Ḥájí Mírzá Áqásí, he ordered the Báb moved to the castle of Chihríq. In the spring of 1848, twenty days after Naw-Rúz and after nine months at Máh-Kú, the Báb left for His new prison.

He had foretold the move. During His first days in Tabríz He had told His companion Siyyid Ḥusayn-i-Yazdí that they would spend nine months in the "Jabal-i-Basit," the Open Mountain, and would then be moved to the "Jabal-i-Shadid," the Grievous Mountain. The numerical value of the words Jabal-i-Shadíd is the same as that of the name Chihríq. A note in the book, quoting A Traveller's Narrative, says that His confinement at Chihríq was closer and more rigorous than it had been at Máh-Kú.

The keeper of Chihríq was Yaḥyá Khán, a Kurd whose sister was the wife of Muḥammad Sháh. Áqásí gave him strict orders to let no one into the presence of the Prisoner, and warned him in particular not to follow the example of 'Alí Khán. Nabíl records that the orders did not hold. Yaḥyá Khán, "too, soon came to feel the fascination of his Prisoner," and in the end he refused no one admittance to the castle.

Nabíl writes that the Kurds who lived at Chihríq hated the Shí'ahs even more than the people of Máh-Kú did. They too were drawn to the Báb. Every morning, before going to their work, they walked toward His prison, looked from a distance at the castle, called on His name and asked His blessing. So many visitors came that Chihríq could not lodge them all, and they found rooms in Iskí-Shahr, the old town of Chihríq, an hour away. A certain M. Mochenin, who went to Chihríq on duty, later wrote in his memoirs that the crowd of listeners was too large for the courtyard, and that most of them stood in the street to hear the verses of the Báb.

Whatever the Báb needed was bought in the old town and carried up to Him. Once He asked for some honey, and it was bought at a price He thought too high. He refused it and said: "Honey of a superior quality could no doubt have been purchased at a lower price. I who am your example have been a merchant by profession. It behoves you in all your transactions to follow in My way. You must neither defraud your neighbour nor allow him to defraud you." He sent the attendant back to bring better honey at a lower price.

During these months several leading siyyids, divines and officials of the nearby town of Khuy accepted His Cause. One of them, Mírzá Asadu'lláh, an official of high literary ability, had argued fiercely against it. After a dream that he told to no one, he wrote to the Báb asking Him to name three things he had in mind. The reply, in the Báb's own hand, described the dream and gave the exact verses he had chosen. Mírzá Asadu'lláh went on foot up the steep, stony path from Khuy to the castle to meet Him. The Báb later gave him the name Dayyán and revealed in his honour the Lawḥ-i-Ḥurúfát.

These conversions alarmed the government. In the summer of 1848 the Báb was brought to Tabríz to be examined before the dignitaries of the province, and afterwards He was returned to Chihríq and to the keeping of Yaḥyá Khán. It was from Chihríq, two years later, that He was taken to Tabríz for the last time, on the order of the new Grand Vizier, the Amír-Niẓám, to be put to death.

This is a retelling. For the full account, see The Dawn-Breakers by Nabíl-i-A'ẓam.

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/