The Year 1850
While Quddús and his companions were defending themselves at Shaykh Ṭabarsí, Bábís in other parts of Persia were increasingly the victims of an intense and systematic persecution on the part of both civil and ecclesiastical authorities. The reason was not far to seek and was stated by Sheil, once more at his post in Ṭihrán after a long period of absence, when he addressed Lord Palmerston on February 12th 1850:
... unluckily the proselytes are all of the Mahommedan faith, which is inflexible in the punishment of a relapsed Mussulman. Thus both the temporal and religious authorities have an interest in the extermination of this sect.
It is conjectured that in Teheran this religion has acquired votaries in every class, not even excluding the artillery and regular Infantry—Their numbers in this city, it is supposed, may amount to about two thousand.[16]
Sheil's dispatches took note of four occurrences in particular, in the year 1850: the execution of the Báb,[FF] the episodes of Nayríz and Zanján, and the public martyrdom of seven Bábís in Ṭihrán.