Chapter 4: The First Martyr

The world turns and the world changes,
But one thing does not change.
In all of my years, one thing does not change.
However you disguise it, this thing does not change:
The perpetual struggle of Good and Evil.
--T. S. Eliot

Lady Sheil, whose husband was the British envoy in Ṭihrán,[BC] states in her book, _Glimpses of Life and Manners in Persia_, that the Báb declared His mission in Káẓimayn, near Ba[_gh_]dád, and that 'Incensed at this blasphemy, the Turkish authorities issued orders for his execution, but he was claimed by the Persian consul as a subject of the Shah, and sent to his native place'.[1] Obviously Lady Sheil was confused. She had heard of the arrest of Mullá `Alíy-i-Basṭámí in `Iráq and of his imprisonment. She mistook him for the Báb.

[Footnote BC: See note 6, Prologue.]

Mullá `Alí, as we have seen, was directed to `Iráq by the Báb, and took with him a copy of the _Qayyúmu'l-Asmá'_, the commentary on the Súrih of Yúsuf (Joseph). The news and the message that he gave aroused eager interest and ready response from his hearers. But hostile reaction was also swift. It was Mullá `Alí who, in Karbilá, informed Qurratu'l-`Ayn of the advent of the Báb. He was not at liberty to mention His Name. We do not know whether, in view of the fact that Qurratu'l-`Ayn had been elevated to the high and honoured position of a Letter of the Living, Mullá `Alí gave her any information other than the tidings of the appearance of the Báb. The disciples of Siyyid Káẓim were in a much stronger position there than in Najaf, in spite of the fact that in Karbilá they had a redoubtable opponent in the person of Siyyid Ibráhím-i-Qazvíní. There in Karbilá, Mullá `Alí remained safe. But the story was different in Najaf. Nabíl-i-A`ẓam writes:

In the presence of [_Sh_]ay[_kh_] Muḥammad-Ḥasan, one
of the most celebrated ecclesiastics of [_sh_]í`ah Islám,
and in the face of a distinguished company of his disciples,
Mullá `Alí announced fearlessly the manifestation of the
Báb, the Gate whose advent they were eagerly awaiting. 'His
proof,' he declared, 'is His Word; His testimony, none other
than the testimony with which Islám seeks to vindicate its
truth. From the pen of this unschooled Há[_sh_]imite Youth
of Persia there have streamed, within the space of
forty-eight hours, as great a number of verses, of prayers,
of homilies, and scientific treatises, as would equal in
volume the whole of the Qur'án, which it took Muḥammad,
the Prophet of God, twenty-three years to reveal!' That
proud and fanatic leader, instead of welcoming, in an age of
darkness and prejudice, these life-giving evidences of a
new-born Revelation, forthwith pronounced Mullá `Alí a
heretic and expelled him from the assembly. His disciples
and followers, even the [_Sh_]ay[_kh_]ís, who already
testified to Mullá `Alí's piety, sincerity, and learning,
endorsed, unhesitatingly, the judgment against him. The
disciples of [_Sh_]ay[_kh_] Muḥammad-Ḥasan, joining
hands with their adversaries, heaped upon him untold
indignities. They eventually delivered him, his hands bound
in chains, to an official of the Ottoman government,
arraigning him as a wrecker of Islám, a calumniator of the
Prophet, an instigator of mischief, a disgrace to the Faith,
and worthy of the penalty of death. He was taken to
Ba[_gh_]dád under the escort of government officials, and
was cast into prison by the governor of that city.[2]

Áqá Muḥammad-Muṣṭafáy-i-Ba[_gh_]dádí,[3] in a short autobiography which he wrote at the instance of Mírzá Abu'l-Faḍí, describes Mullá `Alí's arrival in `Iráq and the events which followed:

The messenger, Mullá `Alí al-Basṭámí,[BD] reached Kúfih
in the year A.H. 1260 [A.D. 1844] and distributed books,
treatises and tablets amongst the divines. Due to this a
body of the divines in Najaf and Karbilá were seized with
consternation. They arose in opposition and stirred
themselves to vociferous denunciation. The Government
hearing of what had transpired, became concerned lest
disorders might ensue, and deemed it politic to imprison the
messenger, confiscate the books and tablets in his
possession and send him to the seat of the province, that is
Ba[_gh_]dád. The Válí, at that time, was Najíb Pá[_sh_]á,
the same man who captured Karbilá....[BE]

When the messenger reached Ba[_gh_]dád the Válí kept him in
prison and placed the books and the treatises in the
council-chamber. My father, [_Sh_]ay[_kh_] Muḥammad,
visited the messenger every day in the prison, and heard the
Word of God from him for three months. Whatever he heard he
imparted to those who were seekers, so that, during this
short time, a large number of people came to believe.
[_Sh_]ay[_kh_] Ba[_sh_]ír an-Najafí was one of them, a
mujtahid seventy-five years old. Then there were
[_Sh_]ay[_kh_] Sulṭán al-Karbilá'í and a group with him
in Karbilá; Siyyid Muḥammad-Ja`far, Siyyid Ḥasan
Ja`far, and Siyyid `Alí Bi[_sh_]r and a group with him in
the town of Káẓimíyyah; [_Sh_]ay[_kh_] Muḥammad
[_Sh_]ibl [the author's father], Siyyid Muḥsin
al-Káẓimí, [_Sh_]ay[_kh_] Ṣáliḥ al-Karímí and a
group with them of villagers like [_Sh_]ay[_kh_] `Abbás,
Mullá Maḥmúd, `Abdu'l-Hádí and Mihdí....

When the Government noticed that the Cause was gaining
ground day by day, the afore-mentioned Válí, Najíb
Pá[_sh_]á, ordered the divines of all the regions to come to
Ba[_gh_]dád....[4] They summoned my father, [_Sh_]ay[_kh_]
Muḥammad, to present himself. But my father left
Ba[_gh_]dád in disguise, because he had learned that the
Válí intended to make him give witness against the Cause of
the Day of Judgment. They brought the messenger to this
terrible assembly and asked him who the Lord of the Cause
was. He answered: 'The awaited Spirit of Truth hath come. He
is the One promised in the Books of God.' Then he read them
some verses and prayers and called upon them to believe. It
went hard with them to accept the Cause. They arose to deny
and to reject it, full of haughtiness. They agreed to
denounce the messenger as a heretic and passed the sentence
of death upon him, and thus ended that assemblage of ill
omen. The Válí sent the account of the proceedings to the
Sublime Porte, whence came the orders that the messenger
should be sent in fetters, together with his books, to the
capital. The messenger languished for six months in the gaol
of Ba[_gh_]dád and was then dispatched to the Sublime Porte,
under escort, by way of Mosul. The fame of the Cause was
noised abroad in Mosul, and when he passed Mosul nothing
more was heard of him.[5]

[Footnote BD: Áqá Muḥammad-Muṣṭafá wrote in Arabic.]

[Footnote BE: See Prologue I.]

The circumstances of Mullá `Alí's arrest were also noted by Major Henry Rawlinson,[6] then British Political Agent in Ba[_gh_]dád, who, on January 8th 1845, reported to Sir Stratford Canning, the Ambassador in Istanbul:

I have the honor to report for Your Excellency's information
the following circumstances which are at present causing
much excitement at this place, and which threaten in their
consequences to give rise to renewed misunderstanding
between the Persian & Turkish Govts.

About three months ago, an inferior priest of Shiraz
appeared in Kerbela, bearing a copy of the Koran, which he
stated to have been delivered to him, by the forerunner of
the Imam Mehdi, to be exhibited in token of his approaching
advent. The book proved on examination to have been altered
and interpolated in many essential passages, the object
being, to prepare the Mohammedan world for the immediate
manifestation of the Imam, and to identify the individual to
whom the emendations of the text were declared to have been
revealed, as his inspired & true precursor. It was in
consequence pronounced by a part of the Sheeah divines at
Nejef and Kerbela, to be a blasphemous production, and the
priest of Shiraz was warned by them of the danger; which he
incurred in giving currency to its contents--but a
considerable section nevertheless of the Sheeahs of Nejef,
who under the name of _Usúlí_, or 'Transcendentalists', have
lately risen into notice as the disciples of the High Priest
Sheikh Kazem, and who are in avowed expectation of the
speedy advent of the Imam, adopted the proposed readings,
and declared themselves ready to join the Precursor; as soon
as he should appear amongst them--These parties owing to
local dissensions, were shortly afterwards denounced to the
Govt. by the orthodox Sheeas as heretics, and attention
being thus drawn to the perverted copy of the Koran, upon
which they rested their belief, the volume was seized & its
bearer being brought to Bagdad, was cast into prison, as a
blasphemer against Islam and a disturber of the public
peace.[BF][7]

[Footnote BF: Major Rawlinson nowhere mentions the name of
the priest who is alleged to have been the possessor of a
'spurious' version of the Qur'án. It is obvious that the
priest, about whom he was writing, could have been none other
than Mullá `Alíy-i-Basṭámí, whom he wrongly designated as
'Shirazee' for the simple reason that he had come from
[_Sh_]íráz. His frequent references to the disciples of
Siyyid Káẓim as '_Usúlí_' indicate that his knowledge of
the issue was meagre, for these disciples were known as
[_Sh_]ay[_kh_]ís. The term could have been more appropriately
applied to the opponents of Siyyid Káẓim. They and their
counterpart, the 'A[_kh_]bárís', followed different methods
of interpretation within the [_Sh_]í`ah fold. For a
description of these schools of thought, see Browne, _A
Literary History of Persia_, Vol. IV, pp. 374-6.]

Mullá `Alí was the first martyr of the Bábí Faith. Though his arrest and sufferings lasted only a few months, he was the centre of conjecture, the subject of official report, and the cause of increased rancour between the Sunní and [_Sh_]í`ah sects, and the Ottoman and Iranian governments. European officials who were drawn into this obscure drama included Major Rawlinson, who submitted frequent and lengthy reports to Sir Stratford Canning in Istanbul and Lt.-Col. Sheil in Ṭihrán, and received their advice and instructions; M. de Titow, Russian envoy in Istanbul who joined Canning in urging the Sublime Porte to restrain Najíb Pá[_sh_]á from putting 'the Persian Priest' to death, and instead to inflict on him only 'the mildest punishment consistent with the public tranquillity'; and Lord Aberdeen, the British Foreign Secretary in London, who was apprised of the final outcome.

Although the dispatches of Major Rawlinson are in certain aspects subject to grave reservations, for his knowledge was sometimes meagre and at second hand, even inaccurate, they do portray the agitation, confusion and opposition created by the claim of the Báb and the teaching of Mullá `Alí. Thus he wrote to Canning:

The Soonnee Priesthood have taken up the case in a rancorous
spirit of bigotry, and their inveteracy has enlisted the
sympathies of the entire Sheeah sect, in favor of the
imprisoned Persian ... the question has now become one of
virulent contest, between the Soonee & Sheeah sects, or
which is the same thing in this part of the Ottoman Empire,
between the Turkish & Persian population....[8]

It was the Governor (Válí) of Ba[_gh_]dád, Najíb Pá[_sh_]á, who bore the responsibility of controlling these passions; but being himself a fanatical Sunní, he was resolved that the [_Sh_]í`ahs should submit to the Sunní authority, and determined to bar any intrusions of the Persians into the affairs of his Pá[_sh_]álik.[BG] Nevertheless, as reported by Rawlinson:

Nejib Pasha at the same time, to give all due formality to
his proceedings, and to divest the affair of the appearance
of mere sectarian persecution, has brought in the chief
Priests from Nejef & Kerbela, to hold a solemn Court of
Inquisition in conjunction with the heads of the Soonnee
religion in Bagdad, but I do not anticipate much benefit
from this compulsory & most unwilling attendance of the
former parties--They will probably make an effort to save
the life of their unfortunate countryman, proposing the
banishment of the messenger and of the heads of the _Usúlí_
sect, as the simplest method of suppressing the heresy, but
they will be intimidated & overruled....[9]

[Footnote BG: His province.]

Indeed, such an unwieldy court of Sunní and [_Sh_]í`ah divines could come to no agreement about Mullá `Alí's punishment. On January 16th 1845, Rawlinson wrote to Sheil, in Ṭihrán:

The Court of Inquisition convened for the trial of the
Persian priest, was held on Monday last [January 13th], H.E.
Nejib Pasha presiding, and Moola Abdool Azeez being also
present, to afford his countenance to the accused--The
perverted copy of the Koran being produced in Court, was
unanimously condemned as a blasphemous production, and
parties avowing a belief in the readings which it continued
[sic], were declared to be liable to the punishment of
death--It was then argued whether or not the Shirazee had
thus avowed his belief in a blasphemous production--he
himself distinctly repudiated the charge, and although
witnesses were brought forward, who stated that he had in
their presence declared his adoption of the spurious text,
of which he was the bearer, yet as there was reason to
suspect the fidelity of their evidence, the Sheeah divines
were disposed to give him the benefit of his present
disavowal--After much discussion the Soonee law-officers
adjudged the culprit to be convicted of blasphemy & passed
sentence of death on him accordingly, while the Sheeahs
returned a verdict, that he was only guilty of the
dissemination of blasphemy, & liable in consequence to no
heavier punishment than imprisonment or banishment....

To this Rawlinson added:

I understand that considerable uneasiness is beginning to
display itself at Kerbela & Nejef, in regard to the expected
manifestation of the Imam, and I am apprehensive that the
measures now in progress will rather increase than allay the
excitement.[BH][10]

[Footnote BH: Rawlinson's letter to Sheil carries the
statement that Mullá `Alí abjured his faith. Apart from the
evidence of the devotion and heroism of the disciples of the
Báb, which history amply provides, several factors must be
considered. Major Rawlinson was not present at that meeting
of the divines, which he termed 'the Court of Inquisition'.
Therefore his information was secondhand. The emergence of
Sunní-[_Sh_]í`ah antagonism was another factor which would
certainly have clouded the issue. The 'advent of the Imam'
need not, necessarily, have troubled the Sunní conscience,
because Sunnís have never believed in the Imámate and the
occultation of the Twelfth Imám. Furthermore, that which
Mullá `Alí is supposed to have rejected, according to
Rawlinson, was a 'perverted copy of the Koran'. Would Mullá
`Alí ever have an interpolated copy of the Qur'án to announce
the message he had to give, or to prove it? And then the
question must also be asked: if Mullá `Alí, the man who
brought the news of the advent of the Báb, had recanted, how
was it that 'considerable uneasiness' was becoming
perceptible in Karbilá and Najaf, 'in regard to the expected
manifestation of the Imam'?]

The personal intervention of Najíb Pá[_sh_]á had served also to influence the course of events in another way. By referring the matter to the Sublime Porte, he prevented the extradition of the Persian prisoner to his native land, as requested by the Iranian Prime Minister, Ḥájí Mírzá Áqásí.

A similar request for the transfer of Mullá `Alí to Persian jurisdiction was made to Major Rawlinson by the Governor of Kirmán[_sh_]áh, Muḥibb-`Alí [_Kh_]án, for, as he wrote:

In the first place it is improper to arrest and imprison
anyone on a mere accusation, which may be true or
false,--and in the second place, supposing that he (the
Shirázee) were guilty; as a subject of the exalted Govt. of
Persia, he ought not to be subject to arrest--if his crime
were proved, his punishment should be that of banishment
from the Turkish territory--I have therefore considered it
necessary to represent this matter to you my friend, and to
request that, as a well wisher to the preservation of
friendship between the two Governments, You will communicate
with H. Excy. Nejib Pasha on the subject, and will suggest
to him, that if the guilt of the Persian be fully
substantiated, he may be sent to Kermanshah, in order that I
may transfer him to Tehran for punishment--and if on the
other hand, the accusations against him prove to be
malicious and without foundation, he may be at once released
and set at liberty.

Under any circumstances his continued imprisonment is
unbecoming and contrary (to custom).[11]

This request was duly submitted by Rawlinson to Najíb Pá[_sh_]á but, as the Governor had already referred the matter to the Sublime Porte after the religious court's examination, the prisoner remained in Turkish custody.

It was on April 15th that Rawlinson reported to Canning that 'Nejib Pasha received orders by yesterday's post to transmit to Constantinople the Persian priest who has been in confinement for the last 3 months at Bagdad.... His Excy. is preparing to obey these instructions with all available despatch.' He also says in the same letter:

... [the] more in fact these Mujtiheds[BI] are degraded by
the Turkish Govt., the more complete, I think, will be their
ascendancy over the minds of their disciples and the only
results, therefore, which are likely to attend the
proscription of their public duties, are the more complete
isolation of the Persian community of this province, and an
increase of the rancorous feeling with which the dominant
Soonee party is regarded--[12]

[Footnote BI: [_Sh_]í`ah divines.]

On the last day of April, Rawlinson wrote once more to Canning:

I take this opportunity of reporting that the Persian priest
of Shiraz so long detained in confinement at this place, was
sent a prisoner to Constantinople in company with the
Tartar[BJ] who conveyed the last Bagdad post.[13]

[Footnote BJ: Official courier.]

Meanwhile, as early as February, Major Rawlinson came to an erroneous conclusion about the Báb, which subsequent events belied. He wrote to Canning on the 18th:

... the excitement which has been for some time prevalent in
this vicinity among the Sheeah sect in connection with the
expected manifestation of the Imam Mehdi, is beginning
gradually to subside, the impostor who personated the
character of the forerunner of the Imam ... having been
deterred by a sense of personal danger from a further
prosecution of the agitation, which he set on foot at
Kerbela in the Autumn on his passage from Persia to
Mecca.[14]

He was also in error in stating to Sheil, ten days later, that 'the impostor ... joined as a private individual the Caravan of pilgrims which is travelling to Persia by the route of Damascus and Aleppo'.[15]

In considering this episode of the arrest, imprisonment and banishment of the first Bábí martyr, there are four aspects which deserve special note. First is the fact that while the Bábís in [_Sh_]íráz were being punished by Ḥusayn [_Kh_]án, Governor of the province of Fárs,[BK] the Persian Government was trying to rescue Mullá `Alí in Ba[_gh_]dád. Secondly, whereas the [_Sh_]í`ah divines were demanding a light punishment, the Sunnís were clamouring for the death penalty. A third point, important to students of the Bábí Faith, is that from the earliest stage of its history rumours and misinformation about the Báb abounded. It is also of considerable interest that this episode was reported to Lord Aberdeen, the British Foreign Secretary in London.

[Footnote BK: Mullá `Alí was before long caught up in a
furore of agitation and oppression, was apprehended, put on
trial and condemned to death. It has always been assumed that
he was put to death somewhere in `Iráq (either in Mosul or
beyond), while being taken to Istanbul, because nothing more
was ever heard of him after he reached Mosul. But recent
research in official archives has established the fact that
he arrived in the Ottoman capital, was once again put on
trial and was condemned to hard labour in the dockyards,
where he died towards the end of 1846. (For most of this
information the author is much indebted to Mr Sami
Doktoroglu.)]

As to Mullá `Alí, what precisely happened to him, how and where he died and where he was interred, have all remained mysteries. It has been said that he died in the prison of Karkúk, but no definite proof exists. He was the first of the concourse of martyrs whose numbers were soon to swell into hundreds and thousands.