From that time till now disturbance and sedition have been on the wane in Persia, and clamor and strife have ceased; although [still] on rare occasions certain of the official doctors do, for their own personal and private advantage, stir up the common folk, raise a hue and cry, and, by their importunity and pertinacity, molest one or two individuals of this sect, as happened ten or twelve years ago in Iṣfáhán. For there were amongst the inhabitants of Iṣfáhán two brothers, Siyyids of Tabátabá, Siyyid Ḥasan and Siyyid Ḥusayn, celebrated in those parts for piety, trustworthiness, and nobility; men of wealth, engaged in commerce, behaving towards all men with perfect kindliness and courtesy. And to all outward appearance no one had observed in either of these two brothers any swerving from what was best, much less any conduct or behavior which could deserve torment or punishment; for, as is related, they were admitted by all [preeminent] in all praiseworthy and laudable qualities, while their deeds and actions were like exhortations and admonitions. These had transacted business with Mír Muḥammad Ḥusayn the Imám-Jum’ih of Iṣfáhán; and when they came to make up their accounts it appeared that the sum of eighteen thousand túmans was due to them. They [therefore] broke off [further] transactions, prepared a bond for this sum, and desired it to be sealed. This thing was grievous to the Imám-Jum’ih, so that he came to the stage of anger and enmity. Finding himself in debt, and having no recourse but to pay, he raised clamor and outcry saying “These two brothers are Bábís and deserve severe punishment from the king.” A crowd at once attacked their house, plundered and pillaged all their goods, distressed and terrified their wives and children, and seized and despoiled all their possessions. Then, fearing that they might refer the punishment to the step of the king’s throne and loose their tongues in demand of redress, he [i.e., the Imám-Jum’ih] fell to thinking how to compass their death and destroy them. He therefore persuaded certain of the doctors to cooperate with him, and they pronounced sentence of death. Afterwards they arrested those two brothers, put them in chains, and brought them before the public assembly. Yet seek as they might to fix on them some accusation, find some fault, or discover some pretext, they were unable to do so. At length they said, “You must either renounce this faith, or else lay down your heads beneath the sword of punishment.” Although some of those present urged them saying, “Say merely ‘We are not of this sect,’ and it is sufficient, and will be the means of your deliverance and protection,” they would by no means consent, but rather confirmed and declared it with eloquent speech and affecting utterance, so that the rage and violence of the Imám-Jum’ih boiled over, and, not satisfied with killing and destroying them, they inflicted sundry indignities on their bodies after death to mention which is not fitting, and of which the details are beyond the power of speech. Indeed in such wise was the blood of these two brothers shed that even the Christian priest of Julfá cried out, lamented, and wept on that day; and this event befell after such sort that everyone wept over the fate of those two brothers, for during the whole period of their life they had never distressed the feelings even of an ant, while by general report they had in the time of the famine in Persia spent all their wealth in relieving the poor and distressed. Yet, notwithstanding this reputation, were they slain with such cruelty in the midst of the people!
But now for a long while the justice of the King has prevented and withheld, and none dares attempt such grievous molestations.
Footnotes
20 October 1819.
23 May 1844.
Qur’án 12.
Undertake the pilgrimage to Mecca.
Muḥammad Sháh died September 4, 1848; the English translation of A Traveler’s Narrative first appeared in 1891.