The Call to a New Day
The Call of the Báb was a call to awakening, a claim that a New Day had dawned. But the magnitude of this claim was not easily realized; one of the first to do so was Qurratu'l-`Ayn. When Mullá `Alíy-i-Basṭámí was condemned and imprisoned in Baghdád, she was still at Karbilá. Because of complaints by the Shí`ah divines, the Government sent her back to Baghdád, where she lodged in the house of Shaykh Muḥammad Shibl, the father of Áqá Muḥammad Muṣṭafáy-i-Baghdádí, until the Government moved her to the house of the Muftí of Baghdád.[EO] So outspoken was she in her public statements that some of her fellow-believers from Káẓimayn were alarmed and, according to Áqá Muḥammad-Muṣṭafá, agitated against her. Siyyid `Alí Bishr, the most learned of them, wrote a letter on their behalf to the Báb, which Nawrúz-`Alí, once an attendant of Siyyid Káẓim, took to Him in Máh-Kú, returning with His answer which rang with high praise of Qurratu'l-`Ayn. It caused Siyyid `Alí Bishr and his party from Káẓimayn[EP] to withdraw from the Faith they had previously espoused with enthusiasm. The Báb described Qurratu'l-`Ayn, in that Epistle, as Ṭáhirih, the Pure, and Ṣiddíqih, the Truthful, and laid an injunction on His followers in `Iráq to accept without question whatever she might pronounce, for they were not in a position to understand and appreciate her station. By this time a large number of Bábís had assembled in Baghdád, and Qurratu'l-`Ayn was constantly and openly teaching the Faith. She had received a copy of the Commentary on the Súrih of Kawthar, which the Báb had revealed for Vaḥíd, and she made full use of it, driving the opposing divines to desperation. When she threw down a challenge to them to debate the issue with her, their only reply was vehement denunciation.
Najíb Páshá was still at his post as Válí of Baghdád, but he was now a chastened man. Moreover, the opponents of Qurratu'l-`Ayn were the Shí`ah divines and Najíb Páshá, being a Sunní, would take no action to please them, but he reported to the Sublime Porte that Qurratu'l-`Ayn had challenged them. The authorities in Constantinople were also not prepared to give comfort to Shí`ahs by making a martyr of Qurratu'l-`Ayn. At the same time they had no wish to champion her cause. They told Najíb Páshá that, as Qurratu'l-`Ayn was Persian, she should confine her challenge to the divines of her native land; she should be sent to Persia.[EQ] So Qurratu'l-`Ayn (or Ṭáhirih as we shall call her), accompanied by a number of ardent and prominent Bábís,[1] quitted Baghdád and was escorted to the frontier by Muḥammad Áqá Yávar, an officer in the service of Najíb Páshá, who became attracted to the Cause she was advocating.
Various eventful stops were made by Ṭáhirih and her companions in their journey across Persia to Qazvín. In the small town of Kirand, her eloquence and the clarity of her disquisition so impressed the chiefs of that area that they offered to place twelve thousand men under her command, to follow her wherever she went. The great majority (if not all) of the inhabitants of Kirand and its neighbourhood were `Alíyu'lláhís. Ṭáhirih gave them her blessing, told them to keep to their homes, and moved on to Kirmánsháh. The challenge she presented to Áqá `Abdu'lláh-i-Bihbihání, the leading divine of that town, thoroughly discomfited him. With the populace clamouring for a positive answer, and the Governor treating Ṭáhirih with great respect, the cornered divine sought to free himself from his dilemma by writing to her father in Qazvín, asking him to send some of his close relatives to remove her from Kirmánsháh. Áqá Muḥammad-Muṣṭafá, himself an eye-witness, vividly describes how four men came from Qazvín, joined forces with a Qazvíní officer stationed in Kirmánsháh, invaded the house where Ṭáhirih's companions resided, and beat and robbed them of all they possessed. When the Governor learned what had happened, he ordered the arrest of the culprits and restored to the Bábís their property. It was soon known that Áqá `Abdu'lláh had conspired to bring about this situation.
From Kirmánsháh, Ṭáhirih and her companions moved on to fresh scenes of triumph in the small town of Ṣaḥnih, before reaching Hamadán. Here her brothers arrived from Qazvín to beg her to return with them to their native place. She agreed on condition that she should stay in Hamadán long enough to make the public cognizant of the Faith of the Báb. During her days in Hamadán, she issued a challenge to Ra'ísu'l-`Ulamá, the leading divine of the city, whose response was to have the bearer of her treatise, Mullá Ibráhím-i-Maḥallátí, himself a distinguished divine, beaten and thrown out of his house. Mullá Ibráhím lingered between life and death for some days, and although he recovered, his martyrdom was not far off. This reverse was outweighed by Ṭáhirih's success in converting two ladies of the Royal Family, married to scions of the aristocracy of Hamadán, and even more significant were her talks with two of the most learned Jewish rabbis,[ER] which led to attracting members of the Jewish Faith to the Bábí fold.[ES] Hamadán, flourishing on the site of ancient Ecbatana, is the city where the tombs of Esther and Mordecai are situated.
As promised, Ṭáhirih then left for Qazvín in the company of her brothers. Before departing, she asked most of the Arab Bábís, who were with her, to return to `Iráq. Only a few stayed behind, to join her later in Qazvín, but within a month she requested all of her fellow-believers, Arab and Persian alike, who had travelled with her, to leave her native town. Of the large company who had come from `Iráq, attending and supporting her, only Mullá Ibráhím-i-Maḥallátí and Shaykh Ṣáliḥ-al-Karímí remained with her in Qazvín.
Three of the others[ET] went on to Ṭihrán, where they met the Bábu'l-Báb. In April 1890, Edward Granville Browne, returning from `Akká, met one of them, Áqá Muḥammad-Muṣṭafá, in Beirut and inquired about that meeting and the appearance of Mullá Ḥusayn. He learned that the Bábu'l-Báb was
Lean and fragile to look at, but keen and bright as the sword which never left his side.[EU] For the rest, he was not more than thirty or thirty-five years old, and his raiment was white.[2]
At Qazvín, Ṭáhirih refused to be reunited with her husband and went to her father's house. Her impetuous uncle, Ḥájí Mullá Taqí, felt greatly insulted and his wrath knew no bounds. His denunciation of those whom he considered to be responsible for his daughter-in-law's waywardness became fiercer than ever before. Shaykh Aḥmad and Siyyid Káẓim were the particular targets of his vilification. Then, one morning at dawn, he was found in the mosque, fatally stabbed. Immediately the Bábís were accused of his murder, and even Ṭáhirih was considered guilty, was kept under close watch, and her life was in danger. Although a Shírází[3] confessed that he had slain Ḥájí Mullá Taqí because of his rabid animosity towards Shaykh Aḥmad and Siyyid Káẓim, three Bábís, totally innocent of the crime, were put to death—Shaykh Ṣáliḥ-al-Karímí in Ṭihrán, and Mullá Ibráhím-i-Maḥallatí and Mullá Ṭáhir in Qazvín. These three were the first martyrs of the Bábí Faith in Persia itself, and their deaths constituted the first public execution of Bábís.[EV] Ḥájí Asadu'lláh, a well-known merchant of the Farhádí family, was also martyred, while in prison, by partisans of Ṭáhirih's husband, the Imám-Jum`ih of Qazvín, and a report was circulated that he had died from natural causes.
Ṭáhirih was now totally isolated. Bahá'u'lláh gave the task of rescuing her to Mírzá Hádí, the nephew of the martyred Ḥájí Asadu'lláh. This young man, who had left Qazvín at the outset of agitation against the Bábís, returned at the risk of his life and successfully carried out his mission. Ṭáhirih reached Ṭihrán in safety. Thus it was that she could be at the conference of Badasht, where she rendered her most signal service to the Faith of the Báb.