APPENDIX 5
THE EPISODE OF ZANJÁN
The episode of Zanján covered the period from May to December 1850, and much engaged the attention of the British and Russian envoys. On May 25th Sheil reported to Palmerston: 'At Zenjan ... an attempt at insurrection was made by the Sect of the Babees whose leader is the chief priest of the town—Five hours after the receipt of this intelligence a Battalion of Infantry 400 horse and three guns marched towards Zenjan—This is an instance unexampled in Persia of military celerity, which perhaps would not be surpassed in many countries of Europe.'[1] A month later, Sheil reported: 'The insurrection at Zenjan has not yet been quelled. The Bâbees of that city continue to defend themselves with the zeal of proselytes and the contempt of life inculcated by their faith...'[2]
Prince Dolgorukov, the Russian Minister, commented on July 31st: 'The Government has exhausted all possible means to compel the Babis to submit voluntarily. Muhammad Ali who heads the two or three hundred of these fanatics in Zanjan, has fortified himself in one of the quarters of the said town and terrifies the inhabitants. The Amir was finally forced to take energetic measures, and the former beglerbegi of Tabriz, Muhammad Khan, has just been sent against them with an army of 2000 men and four cannons.'[3] Dolgorukov had grossly underestimated the number of the Bábís. (See pp. [185]-[6].)
Sheil wrote on August 22nd: 'The Bâbees of Zenjan still continue to maintain that nearly defenceless city against the Shah's troops.'[4] On September 5th he reported: '... these fanatics are reduced to a few hundred fighting men, they continue to maintain a hopeless contest, with undaunted resolution, refusing submission on any terms...'[5]
Dolgorukov reported on September 14th: 'The Babis, who are engaged there in a life and death struggle against the troops of the Shah, are still resisting the attacks of Muhammad Khan, and one can only wonder at the fierceness with which they meet the danger of their situation. Their leader Mulla Muhammad Ali, has appealed to the Turkish Minister, Sami Effendi, and also to Colonel Sheil for their mediation. However, my English colleague is of the opinion that it would be very difficult to force the Persian Government to consent to foreign intervention in favor of the above mentioned sectaries.'[6] On October 6th, the Russian Minister was in a petulant mood: 'I think it would have been better if they [the Persian Government] had given more serious attention to the affairs of Zanjan. The Babis have been fighting against 6000 of the Shah's best troops for almost five months now, and Muhammad Khan, who is already master of three quarters of the city, cannot take the quarter which they have fortified themselves and are defending ... with a heroism and a fury worthy of a better application.'[7] In his dispatch of November 9th, Dolgorukov wrote: 'New military units have just been dispatched against the Babis of Zanjan. This time the Governor of that city, a brother of the Shah's mother, Amir Aslan Khan, is accused of provoking the resistance, which the Babis offer the Shah's army, by his incautious behavior.'[8] And, at last, on December 26th Dolgorukov could report: 'The Zanjan disturbances have ended. After a siege which lasted for almost six months the Shah's troops have destroyed the center of the rebellion. The Babis who defended themselves to the last, and whose numbers were finally reduced to twenty men, who sought refuge in a cellar, were torn to pieces. In addition to monetary expenditures, this struggle has cost Persia 1500 in killed and disabled.'[9]
Meanwhile Sheil had been reporting on September 25th: 'The disciples of Bâb have barricaded a portion of that town, from which they cannot be expelled without a greater loss of life than the assailants seem willing to encounter.'[10] And he wrote on October 25th: 'Contrary to all rational expectation the small portion of Zenjan occupied by the Bâbees continues to set at defiance the efforts of the Shah's troops to expel that sect from the City.' In the same dispatch he stated that 'General Sir Henry Bethune who visited the scene of operations, expressed a conviction that three hours with ordinary troops would finish the affair...'[11] Bethune was the man who had helped Muḥammad Sháh to his throne. Sheil seems to have become wearied of reporting on Zanján, for on November 23rd he wrote: 'I continue unable to make any variation in my reports relative to Zenjan—The same feeble ineffectual attempts at assault, the same repulses still mark the progress of the siege.' Then he made the extraordinary assertion that it had been affirmed that the defenders of Zanján were not Bábís at all, that they had been heard to 'proclaim from the walls in hearing of the troops, the creed that "there is no God but God, and Mahomed is his prophet."' Those men were fighting, it was said, because of the enormities perpetrated by the troops. Even more extraordinary is this fantastic and incredibly false statement in that same dispatch of November 23rd: 'Moolla Mahomed Ali, their chief, has the reputation of having proclaimed himself to be the true Bâb, and his predecessor to have been an impostor.'[12] On December 16th Sheil wrote to Palmerston: 'Her Majesty's Consul at Tabreez having informed me that great atrocities are committed at Zenjan by the soldiery particularly by their shocking treatment of such women as have been captured, I brought the circumstances to the knowledge of the Persian Minister—The Ameer-i.Nizam thanked me for the information, and said he would take immediate steps for preventing such barbarous proceedings, which are entirely opposed to his sentiments and feelings—' '... the mode in which my communication was received by the Ameer. i. Nizam shows an improvement in his tone, and in the temper with which he listens to suggestions of the above nature.'[13]
On December 24th, Sheil reported to Palmerston: 'This protracted siege, if siege it can be called, is inexplicable—An English gentleman who lately passed through Zenjan informed me a few days ago that the portion of the town occupied by the Bâbees is confined to three or four houses, and that their numbers are utterly insignificant—They have adopted a mode of defence which seems to exceed the military skill of the Persian commanders—The entire of the space included within these houses is mined or excavated and connected by passages. Here the Bâbees live in safety from the shot and shells of the assailants, who evidently have no predilection for underground warfare.'[14]
Lord Palmerston on February 11th 1851 wrote to Sheil that '... Her Majesty's Government approve of your having called the attention of the Ameer-i-Nizam ... to the acts of violence committed by the Persian Troops against Zenjan.'[15]