'He is a scion of one of the noble families of Persia. His father was accomplished, wealthy, and much respected, and enjoyed the high consideration of the King and nobles of Persia. His mother died when he was a child. His father thereupon entrusted him to the keeping of his honourable spouse, [Footnote: NH, pp. 374 ff.] saying, "Do you take care of this child, and see that your handmaids attend to him properly."' This 'honourable spouse' is, in the context, called 'the concubine'—apparently a second wife is meant. At any rate her son was no less honoured than if he had been the son of the chief or favourite wife; he was named Ḥuseyn 'Ali, and his young half-brother was named Yaḥya.
According to Mirza Jani, the account which the history contains was given him by Mirza Ḥuseyn 'Ali's half-brother, who represents that the later kindness of his own mother to the young child Yaḥya was owing to a prophetic dream which she had, and in which the Apostle of God and the King of Saintship figured as the child's protectors. Evidently this part of the narrative is imaginative, and possibly it is the work of Mirza Jani. But there is no reason to doubt that what follows is based more or less on facts derived from Mirza Ḥuseyn 'Ali. 'I busied myself,' says the latter, 'with the instruction of [Yaḥya]. The signs of his natural excellence and goodness of disposition were apparent in the mirror of his being. He ever loved gravity of demeanour, silence, courtesy, and modesty, avoiding the society of other children and their behaviour. I did not, however, know that he would become the possessor of [so high] a station. He studied Persian, but made little progress in Arabic. He wrote a good nasta'lik hand, and was very fond of the poems of the mystics.' The facts may be decked out.
Mirza Jani himself only met Mirza Yaḥya once. He describes him as 'an amiable child.' [Footnote: NH, p. 376.] Certainly, we can easily suppose that he retained a childlike appearance longer than most, for he early became a mystic, and a mystic is one whose countenance is radiant with joy. This, indeed, may be the reason why they conferred on him the name, 'Dawn of Eternity.' He never saw the Bāb, but when his 'honoured brother' would read the Master's writings in a circle of friends, Mirza Yaḥya used to listen, and conceived a fervent love for the inspired author. At the time of the Manifestation of the Bāb he was only fourteen, but very soon after, he, like his brother, took the momentous step of becoming a Bābī, and resolved to obey the order of the Bāb for his followers to proceed to Khurasan. So, 'having made for himself a knapsack, and got together a few necessaries,' he set out as an evangelist, 'with perfect trust in his Beloved,' somewhat as S. Teresa started from her home at Avila to evangelize the Moors. 'But when his brother was informed of this, he sent and prevented him.' [Footnote: NH, p. 44.]
Compensation, however, was not denied him. Some time after, Yaḥya made an expedition in company with some of his relations, making congenial friends, and helping to strengthen the Bābī cause. He was now not far off the turning-point in his life.
Not long after occurred a lamentable set-back to the cause—the persecution and massacre which followed the attempt on the Shah's life by an unruly Bābī in August 1852. He himself was in great danger, but felt no call to martyrdom, and set out in the disguise of a dervish [Footnote: TN, p. 374.] in the same direction as his elder brother, reaching Baghdad somewhat later. There, among the Bābī refugees, he found new and old friends who adhered closely to the original type of theosophic doctrine; an increasing majority, however, were fascinated by a much more progressive teacher. The Ezelite history known as Hasht Bihisht ('Eight Paradises') gives the names of the chief members of the former school, [Footnote: TN, p. 356.] including Sayyid Muḥammad of Isfahan, and states that, perceiving Mirza Ḥuseyn 'Ali's innovating tendencies, they addressed to him a vigorous remonstrance.
It was, in fact, an ecclesiastical crisis, as the authors of the Traveller's Narrative, as well as the Ezelite historian, distinctly recognize. Baha-'ullah, too,—to give him his nobler name—endorses this view when he says, 'Then, in secret, the Sayyid of Isfahan circumvented him, and together they did that which caused a great calamity.' It was, therefore, indeed a crisis, and the chief blame is laid on Sayyid Muḥammad. [Footnote: TN, p. 94. 'He (i.e. Sayyid Muḥammad) commenced a secret intrigue, and fell to tempting Mirza Yaḥya, saying, "The fame of this sect hath risen high in the world; neither dread nor danger remaineth, nor is there any fear or need for caution before you."'] Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel is still a mere youth and easily imposed upon; the Sayyid ought to have known better than to tempt him, for a stronger teacher was needed in this period of disorganization than the Ezelites could produce. Mirza Yaḥya was not up to the leadership, nor was he entitled to place himself above his much older brother, especially when he was bound by the tie of gratitude. 'Remember,' says Baha-'ullah, 'the favour of thy master, when we brought thee up during the nights and days for the service of the Religion. Fear God, and be of those who repent. Grant that thine affair is dubious unto me; is it dubious unto thyself?' How gentle is this fraternal reproof!
There is but little more to relate that has not been already told in the sketch of Baha-'ullah. He was, at any rate, harmless in Cyprus, and had no further opportunity for religious assassination. One cannot help regretting that his sun went down so stormily. I return therefore to the question of the honorific names of Mirza Yaḥya, after which I shall refer to the singular point of the crystal coffin and to the moral character of Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel.
Among the names and titles which the Ezelite book called Eight Paradises declares to have been conferred by the Bāb on his young disciple are Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel (or Azal), Baha-'ullah, and the strange title Mir'at (Mirror). The two former—'Dawn of Eternity' and 'Splendour of God'—are referred to elsewhere. The third properly belongs to a class of persons inferior to the 'Letters of the Living,' and to this class Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel, by his own admission, belongs. The title Mir'at, therefore, involves some limitation of Ezel's dignity, and its object apparently is to prevent Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel from claiming to be 'He whom God will make manifest.' That is, the Bāb in his last years had an intuition that the eternal day would not be ushered into existence by this impractical nature.
How, then, came the Bāb to give Mirza Yaḥya such a name? Purely from cabbalistic reasons which do not concern us here. It was a mistake which only shows that the Bāb was not infallible. Mirza Yaḥya had no great part to play in the ushering-in of the new cycle. Elsewhere the Bāb is at the pains to recommend the elder of the half-brothers to attend to his junior's writing and spelling. [Footnote: The Tablets (letters) are in the British Museum collection, in four books of Ezel, who wrote the copies at Baha-'ullah's dictation. The references are—I., No. 6251, p. 162; II., No. 5111, p. 253, to which copy Rizwan Ali, son of Ezel, has appended 'The brother of the Fruit' (Ezel); III., No. 6254, p. 236; IV., No. 6257, p. 158.] Now it was, of course, worth while to educate Mirza Yaḥya, whose feebleness in Arabic grammar was scandalous, but can we imagine Baha-'ullah and all the other 'letters' being passed over by the Bāb in favour of such an imperfectly educated young man? The so-called 'nomination' is a bare-faced forgery.
The statement of Gobineau that Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel belonged to the 'Letters of the Living' of the First Unity is untrustworthy. [Footnote: Fils du Loup, p. 156 n.3.] M. Hippolyte Dreyfus has favoured me with a reliable list of the members of the First Unity, which I have given elsewhere, and which does not contain the name of Mirza Yaḥya. At the same time, the Bāb may have admitted him into the second hierarchy of 18[19]. [Footnote: Fils du Loup, p. 163 n.1. 'The eighteen Letters of Life had each a mirror which represented it, and which was called upon to replace it if it disappeared. There are, therefore, 18 Letters of Life and 18 Mirrors, which constituted two distinct Unities.'] Considering that Mirza Yaḥya was regarded as a 'return' of Ḳuddus, some preferment may conceivably have found its way to him. It was no contemptible distinction to be a member of the Second Unity, i.e. to be one of those who reflected the excellences of the older 'Letters of the Living.' As a member of the Second Unity and the accepted reflexion of Ḳuddus, Ṣubḥ-i-Ezel may have been thought of as a director of affairs together with the obviously marked-out agent (wali), Baha-'ullah. We are not told, however, that Mirza Yaḥya assumed either the title of Bāb (Gate) or that of Nuḳṭa (Point). [Footnote: Others, however, give it him (TN, p. 353).]