CHAPTER XIII THE BÁB'S INCARCERATION IN THE CASTLE OF MAH-KU |
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SIYYID HUSAYN-I-YAZDI has been heard to relate
the following: "During the first ten days of
the Báb's incarceration in Tabríz, no one knew
what would next befall Him. The wildest conjectures
were current in the city. One day I ventured to ask
Him whether He would continue to remain where He was or
would be transferred to still another place. `Have you forgotten,'
was His immediate reply, `the question you asked
me in |
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The castle, a solid, four-towered stone edifice, occupies
the summit of a mountain at the foot of which lies the town
of Máh-Kú. The only road that leads from it passes into
that town, ending at a gate which adjoins the seat of government
and is invariably kept closed. This gate is distinct
from that of the castle itself. Situated on the confines of
both the Ottoman and Russian empires, this castle has been
used, in view of its commanding position and strategic advantages,
as a centre for reconnoitring purposes. The officer
in charge of that station observed, in time of war, the movements
of the enemy, surveyed the surrounding regions, and
reported to his government such cases of emergency as came
under his observation. The castle is bounded on the west
by the river Araxes, which marks the frontier between the
territory of the Sháh and the Russian empire. To the south
extends the territory of the |
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"For the first two weeks," Siyyid |
5 | "One day the Báb charged my brother to inform Shaykh Hasan that He would Himself request `Alí Khán to alter his attitude towards the believers who visited Máh-Kú and to abandon his severity. `Tell him,' He added, `I will to-morrow instruct the warden to conduct him to this place.' I was greatly surprised at such a message. How could the domineering and self-willed `Alí Khán, I thought to myself, be induced to relax the severity of his discipline? Early the next day, the gate of the castle being still closed, we were surprised by a sudden knock at the door, knowing full well that orders had been given that no one was to be admitted before the hour of sunrise. We recognised the voice of `Alí Khán, who seemed to be expostulating with the guards, one of whom presently came in and informed me that the warden of the castle insisted on being allowed admittance into the presence of the Báb. I conveyed his message and was commanded to usher him at once into His presence. As I was stepping out of the door of His antechamber, I found `Alí Khán standing at the threshold in an attitude of complete submission, his face betraying an expression of unusual humility and wonder. His self-assertiveness and pride seemed to have entirely vanished. Humbly and with extreme courtesy, he returned my salute and begged me to allow him to enter the presence of the Báb. I conducted him to the room which my Master occupied. His limbs trembled as he followed me. An inner agitation which he could not conceal brooded over his face. The Báb arose from His seat and welcomed him. Bowing reverently, `Alí Khán approached and flung himself at His feet. `Deliver me,' he pleaded, `from my perplexity. I adjure You, by the Prophet of God, Your illustrious Ancestor, to dissipate my doubts, for their weight has well-nigh crushed my heart. I was riding through the wilderness and was approaching the gate of the town, when, it being the hour of dawn, my eyes suddenly beheld You standing by the side of the river engaged in offering Your prayer. With outstretched arms and upraised eyes, You were invoking the name of God. I stood still and watched You. I was waiting for You to terminate Your devotions that I might approach and rebuke You for having ventured to leave the castle without my leave. In Your communion with God, You seemed so wrapt in worship that You were utterly forgetful of Yourself. I quietly approached You; in Your state of rapture, You remained wholly unaware of my presence. I was suddenly seized with great fear and recoiled at the thought of awakening You from Your ecstasy. I decided to leave You, to proceed to the guards and to reprove them for their negligent conduct. I soon found out, to my amazement, that both the outer and inner gates were closed. They were opened at my request, I was ushered into Your presence, and now find You, to my wonder, seated before me. I am utterly confounded. I know not whether my reason has deserted me.' The Báb answered and said: `What you have witnessed is true and undeniable. You belittled this Revelation and have contemptuously disdained its Author. God, the All-Merciful, desiring not to afflict you with His punishment, has willed to reveal to your eyes the Truth. By His Divine interposition, He has instilled into your heart the love of His chosen One, and caused you to recognise the unconquerable power of His Faith.'" |
6 | This marvellous experience completely changed the heart of `Alí Khán. Those words had calmed his agitation and subdued the fierceness of his animosity. By every means in his power, he determined to atone for his past behaviour. `A poor man, a shaykh, he hastily informed the Báb, "is yearning to attain Your presence. He lives in a masjid outside the gate of Máh-Kú. I pray You that I myself be allowed to bring him to this place that he may meet You. By this act I hope that my evil deeds may be forgiven, that I may be enabled to wash away the stains of my cruel behaviour toward Your friends." His request was granted, whereupon he went straightway to Shaykh Hasan-i-Zunúzí and conducted him into the presence of his Master. |
7 | `Alí Khán set out, within the limits imposed upon him, to provide whatever would tend to alleviate the rigour of the captivity of the Báb. At night the gate of the castle was still closed; in the daytime, however, those whom the Báb desired to see were allowed to enter His presence, were able to converse with Him and to receive His instructions. |
8 | As He lay confined within the walls of the castle, He devoted His time to the composition of the Persian Bayán, the most weighty, the most illuminating and comprehensive of all His works. [7] In it He laid down the laws and precepts of His Dispensation, plainly and emphatically announced the advent of a subsequent Revelation, and persistently urged His followers to seek and find "Him whom God would make manifest," [8] warning them lest they allow the mysteries and allusions in the Bayán to interfere with their recognition of His Cause. [9] |
9 | I have heard Shaykh Hasan-i-Zunúzí bear witness to the following: "The voice of the Báb, as He dictated the teachings and principles of His Faith, could be clearly heard by those who were dwelling at the foot of the mountain. The melody of His chanting, the rhythmic flow of the verses which streamed from His lips caught our ears and penetrated into our very souls. Mountain and valley re-echoed the majesty of His voice. Our hearts vibrated in their depths to the appeal of His utterance." [10] |
10 | The gradual relaxation of the stern discipline imposed upon the Báb encouraged an increasing number of His disciples from the different provinces of Persia to visit Him in the castle of Máh-Kú. An unceasing stream of eager and devout pilgrims was directed to its gates through the gentleness and leniency of `Alí Khán. [11] After a stay of three days, they would invariably be dismissed by the Báb, with instructions to return to their respective fields of service and to resume their labours for the consolidation of His Faith. `Alí Khán himself never failed to pay his respects to the Báb each Friday, and to assure Him of his unswerving loyalty and devotion. He often presented Him with the rarest and choicest fruit available in the neighbourhood of Máh-Kú, and would continually offer Him such delicacies as he thought would prove agreeable to His taste and liking. |
11 |
In this manner the Báb spent the summer and autumn
within the walls of that castle. A winter followed of such
exceptional severity that even the copper implements were
affected by the intensity of the cold. The beginning of that
season coincided with the month of Muharram of the year
1264 A.H.
[12]
The water which the Báb used for His ablutions
was of such icy coldness that its drops glistened as they froze
upon His face. He would invariably, after the termination
of each prayer, summon Siyyid |
12 |
In one of His writings revealed in the year '60 A.H., the
Báb declares the following: "The spirit of prayer which animates
My soul is the direct consequence of a dream which
I had in the year before the declaration of My Mission. In
My vision I saw the head of the Imám |
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No sooner had |
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Mullá |
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On his way to Tihrán, Mullá |
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The night before his arrival at Máh-Kú, which was the
eve of the fourth Naw-Rúz after the declaration of the
Mission of the Báb, and which fell in that year, the year
1264 A.H.,
[16]
on the thirteenth of the month of Rabí'u'th-Thání,
`Alí Khán dreamed a dream. "In my sleep," he
thus relates his story, "I was startled by the sudden intelligence
that |
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This strange experience of `Alí Khán brought about a
deepening of reverence in his attitude towards the Báb. His
faith in the potency of His Revelation became even greater,
and his devotion to Him was vastly increased. In an attitude
of humble surrender, he followed Mullá |
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Until that time no one of the disciples of the Báb but
Siyyid |
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One day, as the Báb, in the company of Mullá |
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The prediction which the Báb had uttered was promptly
fulfilled. Those who had been charged to watch secretly
the movements and conduct of `Alí Khán submitted to
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These malevolent reports had an immediate influence
upon |
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Twenty days after Naw-Rúz, the Báb bade farewell to
the people of Máh-Kú, who, in the course of His nine months'
captivity, had recognised to a remarkable degree the power
of His personality and the greatness of His character. Mullá
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On the morning of the ninth day after Naw-Rúz, Mullá
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4. ["He dwells in a mountain of which the inhabitants could not even pronounce the name `Jannat' (Paradise) which is an Arabic word; how then could they understand its meaning? Imagine then what can happen in the matter of the essential truths!" ("Le Bayán Persan," vol. 4, p. 14.)]
5. ["The country of the first minister on the Ádhirbayján frontier, this village was lifted out of obscurity under the administration of this minister and many citizens of Máh-Kú were raised to the highest offices in the state, because of their slavish attitude toward
6. ["The Báb himself tells us how he spent his days in the prison in which he was held captive. His lamentations, so frequent in the Bayán, were, I believe, due to the discipline which, from time to time, grew more severe at the command from Tihrán. All the historians, in fact, Bábís as well as Moslem, tell us that in spite of the strict orders to keep the Báb from communicating with the outer world, the Báb received great numbers of disciples and strangers in his prison. (The author of Mutanabbiyyin writes: `The Bábís from all parts of the earth went to Ádhirbayján on a pilgrimage to their chief.') "`Oh! How great is your blindness, O my children ! That which you do, you do believing to please me! And in spite of these verses which prove my being, these verses which flow from my power, the treasure of which is the very being of this personage (the Báb), in spite of these verses which come from his lips only by my permission, behold that, without any right whatsoever, you have placed him on the summit of a mountain whose inhabitants are not even worthy of mention. Close to him, which is close to me, there is no one except one of the Letters of the Living of my book. In his hands, which are my hands, there is not even a servant to light the lamp at night. And behold! The men who are upon the earth have been created only for his own existence: it is through his good will that has come all their joy and they do not give him even a light!' (Unite 2, porte 1.) "`The fruit of the religion of Islám is faith in the Manifestation (of the Báb) and behold they imprison him in Máh-Kú!' (Unite 2, porte 7.) `All that belongs to the divinely Chosen One is in heaven. This solitary room (wherein I am) which has not even a door, is today the greatest of the gardens of Paradise, for the Tree of Truth is planted herein. All the atoms of which it is composed cry out, "In truth, there is no other God but God, and there is no other God beside me, the Lord of the Universe!"' (Unite 2, porte 16.) "`The fruit of this door is that men, seeing that it is permitted to do all that for the Bayán (that is, spend so much money) which is only the foreshadowing of Him whom God shall make manifest, must realize what should be done for Him whom God shall make manifest, when he will appear, so that he will be spared what is happening to me on this day. That is to say, that there are throughout the world many Qur'ans worth thousands of tumans, while He who has showered verses (the Báb) is imprisoned on a mountain, in a room built of bricks baked in the sun. And, notwithstanding, that room is the Arch itself (9th heaven, the abode of Divinity). Let this be an example to the Bayanis so that they may not act toward Him as the believers in the Qur'án have acted toward me.' (Unite 3, porte 19.)" (A. L. M. Nicolas' "Siyyid
7. [So great multitudes continued to come from all quarters to visit the Báb, and the writings which emanated from His inspired pen during this period were so numerous that they amounted in all to more than a hundred thousand verses." (The "Tarikh-i-Jadid," p. 238.) "Behold, that about one hundred thousand lines similar to these verses have been scattered among men not to mention the prayers and questions of science and philosophy." ("Le Bayán Persan," vol. 1, p. 43.) "Consider also the Point of the Bayán. Those who are familiar with it know how great its importance was before the manifestation; but thereafter, and although it has revealed more than five hundred thousand verses upon diverse subjects, attacks are made upon it which are so violent that no writer would wish to relate them." ("Le Bayán Persan," vol. 3, p. 113.) "The verses which have rained from this Cloud of Divine mercy [the Báb] have been so abundant that none hath yet been able to estimate their number. A score of volumes are now available. How many still remain beyond our reach! How many have been plundered and have fallen into the hands of the enemy, the fate of which none knoweth!" (The "Kitáb-i-Íqán," pp. 182-3.)]
8. [Allusion to Bahá'u'lláh. "To Mullá Báqir, one of the Letters of the Living--the glory and favour of God be upon him--He [the Báb] addresses these words: `Haply, in the eighth year, the Day of His Manifestation, thou mayest attain His presence.'" ("The Epistle to the Son of the Wolf," p. 129.)]
9. ["It is always in the same line of thought that when imprisoned in Máh-Kú he addressed a long letter to the Sháh (
10. [This is the prayer which the Báb Himself quotes in the "Dalia'il-i-Sab'ih" as His supplication during the months of His captivity in the castle of Máh-Kú: "O my God! Grant to him, to his descendants, to his family, to his friends, to his subjects, to his relatives and all the inhabitants of the earth the light which will clarify their vision and facilitate their task; grant that they may partake of the noblest works here and hereafter! "In truth, nothing is impossible to Thee. "O my God! give him the power to bring about a revival of Thy religion and give life by him to what Thou hast changed in Thy Book. Manifest through him Thy new commandments so that through him Thy religion may blossom again! Put into his hands a new Book, pure and holy, that this Book may be free from all doubt and uncertainty and that no one may be able to alter or destroy it. "O my God! Dispel through Thy splendor all darkness and through his evident power do away with the antiquated laws. By his preeminence ruin those who have not followed the ways of God. Through him destroy all tyrants, put an end, through his sword, to all discord; annihilate, through his justice, all forms of oppression; render the rulers obedient to his commandments; subordinate all the empires of the world to his empire! "O my God! Humble everyone who desires to humble him; destroy all his enemies; deny anyone who denies him and confuse anyone who spurns the truth, resists his orders, endeavors to darken his light and blot his name!" The Báb then adds these words: "Repeat these benedictions often and, if time to recite them all be lacking, do not fail to say at least the last. Be awake on the day of the apparition of Him whom God will manifest because this prayer has come down from heaven for Him, although I hope no sorrow awaits Him; I have taught the believers in my religion never to rejoice over the misfortune of anyone. It is possible therefore that at the time of the appearance of the Sun of Truth no suffering may fall upon Him." ("Le Livre des Sept Preuves," translation of A. L. M. Nicolas, pp. 64-65.)]
11. ["L'auteur du Mutanabiyyin écrit: `Les Bábí de toutes les parties de la terre se rendaient en Ádhirbayján, en pelerinage aupres de leur chef.'" (Prince `Alí-Qulí Mírzá, I'tidadu's-Saltanih being the author.) (A. L. M. Nicolas' "Siyyid
12. [December 9, 1847-January 8, 1848 A.D.]
13. ["During his sojourn in Máh-Kú, the Báb composed a great number of works amongst the most important of which may be especially mentioned the Persian Bayán and the Seven Proofs, (Dalá'il-i-Sab`ih) both of which contain ample internal evidence of having been written at this period. Indeed, if we may credit a statement made in the Tarikh-i-Jadid, on the authority of Mírzá Abdu'l-Vahhab, the various writings of the Báb, current in Tabríz alone, amounted in all to not less than a million verses!" ("A Traveller's Narrative" Note L, p. 200.) Regarding the "Dalá'il-i-Sab`ih," Nicolas writes as follows: "`The Book of Seven Proofs' is the most important of the polemical works from the pen of Siyyid
15. ["Mashhad is the greatest place of pilgrimage in all Persia, Kárbilá being, as everyone knows in Ottoman territory. It is in Mashhad that the holy shrine of the Imám Ridá is located. I shall not enlarge upon the hundreds of miracles that have taken place and still take place at this shrine; it is enough to know that every year thousands of pilgrims visit the tomb and return home only after the shrewd exploiters of that productive business have separated them from their last penny. The stream of gold flows on and on for the benefit of the greedy officials; but these officials need the cooperation of many partners to catch their innumerable dupes in their nets. This is, without doubt, the best organized industry in Persia. If one half of the city derives its living from the Mosque, the other half is likewise keenly interested in the great concourse of pilgrims. The merchants, the restaurant and hotel keepers, even the young women who find among the visitors an abundant supply of `husbands for a day'! "All these people were naturally allied against a missionary whose teachings were threatening their livelihood. To denounce these abuses in any other city was tolerable but it was quite improper to denounce them where everyone of every class was thriving upon them. The Imám Mihdí had undoubtedly the right to come but he certainly was a public nuisance. It may have been very thrilling to undertake with him the conquest of the world, but there was fatigue, risk and danger in the enterprise while now they were enjoying perfect peace in a fine city where one could earn a living with ease and security." (Ibid., pp. 258-259.)]
16. [1848 A.D.]
17. [See Glossary.]
18. [Literally "Land of Paradise."]
19. [According to
21. [In the "Dalá'il-i-Sab`ih," the Báb reveals the following: "The hádith `Adhirbayjan' referring to this matter says: `The things which will happen in Ádhirbayján are necessary for us, nothing can prevent their occurrence. Remain therefore in your homes, but if you hear that an agitator has appeared then hasten towards him.' And the hádith continues, saying: `Woe to the Arabs, for the civil war is near!' If, in speaking these last words, the Prophet had intended to refer to his own mission, his statement would have been vain and worthless." ("The Book of Seven Proofs," Nicolas' translation, p. 47.)]
22. [Reference to the Prophet