The Episode of Zanján
The fiercest and most devastating of the three military actions against the Bábís began in Zanján, in May 1850, after the return of Ḥujjat from his detention in Ṭihrán. (See p. [125].) Although he had enjoyed the protection of Muḥammad Sháh in his defence of the Faith of the Báb, he was feared and hated as an infidel by the divines of Zanján. With the death of the Sháh and the accession to power of Mírzá Taqí Khán under the succeeding reign, he was the object of a concealed hostility on the part of the authorities, while enjoying the devoted loyalty and affection of countless men and women of his native town.
A small quarrel between children, in which Ḥujjat intervened to save the Bábí child, sparked into flame the smouldering animosity against Ḥujjat and a plan was made to seize and bring him before the Governor. Failing in this, his opponents subjected one of his companions to painful injury and death. Then, by the Governor's decree, Zanján was split into two opposing camps, a large number of men were recruited from surrounding villages, and Ḥujjat and his companions were forced to seek safety in the nearby fort of `Alí-Mardán Khán. Counting women and children, about three thousand of Ḥujjat's supporters entered the fort, which they held against repeated attack and siege for almost nine months.
Edward Granville Browne, who visited Zanján nearly forty years later, could find no natural advantages in the fort to account for the 'desperate resistance offered by the Bábís', and concluded that their success in holding off the vastly superior regiments of the Sháh should 'be attributed less to the strength of the position which they occupied than to the extraordinary valour with which they defended themselves'.[24] They were sustained in their cruel ordeal by the indomitable Ḥujjat, whom no calamity could overcome, and by the tenacity of their own devotion to the Báb, their promised Qá'im. A British observer in the 'Persian camp before Zenjan' reported to Sheil in Ṭihrán:
They [the Bábís] fight in the most obstinate and spirited manner, the women even, of whom several have been killed, engaging in the strife—and they are such excellent marksmen that up to this time a good many have fallen of the Government troops.[25]
The most celebrated of the women was a village girl, Zaynab, who dressed as a man and, for five months until her death in the struggle, guarded the ramparts with the men. Ḥujjat gave her the name of Rustam-`Alí.
Finding that all efforts to defeat the Bábís were fruitless, the commander determined to adopt the same treacherous tactics as had succeeded at Ṭabarsí and Nayríz. He drew up a proposal for peace, assuring the defenders of the forgiveness of the Sháh and pledging with a sealed copy of the Qur'án the safety of all who would leave the fort. Ḥujjat, fully conscious of their intentions but honouring the Qur'án, sent a delegation of nine young children and men over eighty to the camp of the commander. They were insolently received and most were thrown into a dungeon. It was the signal for a final month-long siege, in which some eighteen regiments were brought into action, subjecting the now famished and depleted Bábís to a constant bombardment of cannon. With the wounding of Ḥujjat, the fort was captured, but its occupants continued their struggle from nearby houses, throwing the opposing army into despair. Then Ḥujjat's wife and baby son were killed, and a few days later he himself died of his wounds. There were left of the Bábís only two hundred able-bodied men who were struck down in a fierce attack. When the survivors had been inhumanly tortured, killed and their bodies mutilated, the body of Ḥujjat was discovered and exposed for three days to dishonour in the public square. Hands unknown rescued and carried it away. Already Ḥujjat's eight-year-old son had been 'literally cut into small pieces', and the wives and daughters of the Bábís were handed over to the soldiers.[26][FM]
Yet never had the martyrs of Zanján sought a holy war, nor contemplated disloyalty to their country and sovereign. Assailed by enemies who purposed only their destruction, they had courageously defended themselves. The spirit of their defence shines in these words of Ḥujjat in his last days:
The day whereon I found Thy beloved One, O my God, and recognised in Him the Manifestation of Thy eternal Spirit, I foresaw the woes that I should suffer for Thee.... Would that a myriad lives were mine, would that I possessed the riches of the whole earth and its glory, that I might resign them all freely and joyously in Thy path.[27]
On January 6th 1851 Sheil closed his reports on Zanján:
For the present, the doctrines of Bâb have received a check—In every part of Persia his disciples have been crushed or scattered—But though there is a cessation of the open promulgation of his tenets, it is believed that in secret they are not the less cherished....[28]
The Dawn-Breakers had paid dearly with their lives that the Faith of the Báb might live on. And it did live on, to attain its efflorescence in the Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh.