Chapter 6: Forces of Opposition Arrayed

But man, proud man,
Drest in a little brief authority,
Most ignorant of what he's most assured,
His glassy essence, like an angry ape,
Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven
As makes the angels weep....
--Shakespeare

The London _Times_ of Wednesday, November 19th 1845, carried this item of news on its third page, taken from the _Literary Gazette_ of the preceding Saturday:

MAHOMETAN SCHISM.--A new sect has lately set itself up in
Persia, at the head of which is a merchant who had returned
from a pilgrimage to Mecca, and proclaimed himself a
successor of the Prophet. The way they treat such matters at
Shiraz appears in the following account (June 23):--Four
persons being heard repeating their profession of faith
according to the form prescribed by the impostor, were
apprehended, tried, and found guilty of unpardonable
blasphemy. They were sentenced to lose their beards by fire
being set to them. The sentence was put into execution with
all the zeal and fanaticism becoming a true believer in
Mahomet. Not deeming the loss of beards a sufficient
punishment, they were further sentenced the next day, to
have their faces blacked and exposed through the city. Each
of them was led by a mirgazah[BP] (executioner), who had
made a hole in his nose and passed through it a string,
which he sometimes pulled with such violence that the
unfortunate fellows cried out alternately for mercy from the
executioner and for vengeance from Heaven. It is the custom
in Persia on such occasions for the executioners to collect
money from the spectators, and particularly from the
shopkeepers in the bazaar. In the evening when the pockets
of the executioners were well filled with money, they led
the unfortunate fellows to the city gate, and there turned
them adrift. After which the mollahs at Shiraz sent men to
Bushire, with power to seize the impostor, and take him to
Shiraz, where, on being tried, he very wisely denied the
charge of apostacy laid against him, and thus escaped from
punishment.

[Footnote BP: Mír-[_Gh_]aḍab.]

An American quarterly, the _Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art_,[1] in its issue of January-April 1846, reproduced the same item of news which was again taken in full from the _Literary Gazette_ of London. As far as is known, these were the earliest references to the Faith of the Báb in any Western publication. British merchants, who then happened to be in [_Sh_]íráz, were responsible for that report, which, as we shall see, although correct in its essentials, was not devoid of error.

The Báb, returning from His pilgrimage to Mecca, arrived at Bú[_sh_]ihr sometime in the month of Ṣafar 1261 A.H. (February-March 1845). There He parted from Quddús, saying:

The days of your companionship with Me are drawing to a
close. The hour of separation has struck, a separation which
no reunion will follow except in the Kingdom of God, in the
presence of the King of Glory.[2]

Quddús left for [_Sh_]íráz and took with him a letter from the Báb addressed to His uncle, Ḥájí Mírzá Siyyid `Alí. Meeting Quddús and hearing all he had to impart convinced Ḥájí Mírzá Siyyid `Alí of the truth of the Cause of his Nephew, and he immediately pledged Him his unqualified allegiance.

Mullá Ṣádiq-i-Muqaddas now reached [_Sh_]íráz, accompanied by Mullá `Alí-Akbar-i-Ardistání, who had once been his pupil in Iṣfahán. Mullá Ṣádiq established himself in a mosque known as Báqir-Ábád, where he led the congregation in prayer. But as soon as he received a Tablet from the Báb, sent from Bú[_sh_]ihr, he moved to the mosque adjoining His house. There he carried out the specific instruction of the Báb to include in the traditional Islamic Call to Prayer--the A[_dh_]án--these additional words: 'I bear witness that He whose name is `Alí Qabl-i-Muḥammad [`Alí preceding Muḥammad, the Báb] is the servant of Baqíyyatu'lláh [the Remnant of God, Bahá'u'lláh].'[3]

Then the storm broke. [_Sh_]ay[_kh_] Abú-Há[_sh_]im, notorious for his behaviour on the pilgrim boat, had already written to his compatriots in [_Sh_]íráz to arouse their fury. Now the divines of that city, led by [_Sh_]ay[_kh_] Ḥusayn-i-`Arab,[BQ] Ḥájí [_Sh_]ay[_kh_] Mihdíy-i-Kujúrí and Mullá Muḥammad-`Alíy-i-Maḥallátí, were demanding blood. Quddús, Muqaddas and Mullá `Alí-Akbar were arrested, hauled before the Governor-General, and mercilessly beaten, after which they suffered the punishments and indignities described in the London report already quoted (see p. 76). But there were three of them, not four.[BR]

[Footnote BQ: The Názimu'[_sh_]-[_Sh_]arí`ih, who universally
earned the epithet of 'Ẓálim', the Tyrant.]

[Footnote BR: _Tárí[_kh_]-i-Jadíd_ (p. 202) names a fourth
person, a certain Mullá Abú-Ṭálib, a friend of Mullá
Ṣádiq-i-Muqaddas. His identity is unknown. A letter
exists, written by Mullá `Alí-Akbar-i-Ardistání to the Báb,
when he was seeking permission to visit Him. Since their
chastisement, he says, he had been living in ruins outside
[_Sh_]íráz. The letter makes it absolutely certain that he
was the only one who had remained and that both Quddús and
Muqaddas had gone.]

The Governor-General of the province of Fárs was Ḥusayn [_Kh_]án, who was called Ájúdán-Bá[_sh_]í (the adjutant-major), and had also the titles of Ṣáḥib-I[_kh_]tíyár and Niẓámu'd-Dawlih. Ḥusayn [_Kh_]án was a native of Mará[_gh_]ih in Á[_dh_]arbáyján, and had served as Persian envoy both to London and Paris. In London, in June 1839, Lord Palmerston was at first inclined not to meet him, but then decided to receive him unofficially. At that time relations between Britain and Írán had reached a low point. Captain Hennell, the British Political Agent, had been forced to withdraw from Bú[_sh_]ihr, and at the same time a British naval force had occupied the island of [_Kh_]árg (Karrack). Palmerston thundered at Ḥusayn [_Kh_]án: 'Had the Admiral on arriving on board turned his guns upon the town [Bú[_sh_]ihr] and knocked it about their ears, in my opinion he would have been justified in so doing'.[4] When the envoy returned home, Muḥammad [_Sh_]áh was so displeased that he had him severely bastinadoed. Nor had Ḥusayn [_Kh_]án's mission to France, it would seem, been any more successful, although some obscurity surrounds his dealings with the French. In Paris he engaged a number of officers to train the Persian army, and there were irregularities in the matter of their travelling expenses. But more serious issues were involved, which are described by Sir Henry Layard[BS] in the following passage:

M. Boré,[BT] with all his learning and enlightenment, was a
religious fanatic and profoundly intolerant of heretics.
After residing with him for a fortnight, and having been
treated by him with great kindness and hospitality, I found
myself compelled, to my great sorrow, to leave his house
[in 1840] under the following circumstances. The Embassy
which the King of the French[BU] had sent to the Shah had
not succeeded in obtaining the object of its mission, and
had left Persia much irritated at its failure, which was
mainly attributed by it and the French Government to English
intrigues. The truth was, I believe, that they had been
duped by Hussein Khan, who had been sent as ambassador to
Paris. The subject was an unpleasant one for me to discuss,
and I avoided it in conversation with my host. One day,
however, at dinner, it was raised by M. Flandin,[5] the
French artist, who denounced my country and countrymen in
very offensive terms, M. Boré himself joining in the abuse.
They accused the English Government and English agents of
having had recourse to poison to prevent Frenchmen from
establishing themselves and gaining influence in Persia, and
of having actually engaged assassins to murder M. Outray,
when on his way on a diplomatic mission to Tehran. I denied,
with indignation, these ridiculous and calumnious charges,
and high words having ensued, I moved from M. Boré's house
to a ruined building occupied by Mr. Burgess.[BV][6]

[Footnote BS: See note 9, Prologue.]

[Footnote BT: M. Boré resided in Julfa, Iṣfahán. He was a
layman sent by the French Government to obtain a foothold for
the French in Írán. Later he became a Jesuit priest, and was
the head of a Jesuit establishment in Galata when Layard met
him in Constantinople. It is likely he sent copious notes to
his superiors about the Báb and the Bábís.]

[Footnote BU: Louis-Philippe.]

[Footnote BV: An English merchant in Tabríz.]

Failure in London and tortuosity in Paris did not commend themselves to Muḥammad [_Sh_]áh; and so, for the next few years, Ḥusayn [_Kh_]án lived under a cloud. But in 1845 we find him riding high in the province of Fárs. He had been given that governorship because he was reputed to be a man stern in his judgments, and Fárs needed an iron hand.

Indeed Fárs had been in a terrifying plight. The people of [_Sh_]íráz, high and low alike, had effectively played cat and mouse with the governors sent from Ṭihrán to rule over them. Firaydún Mírzá, the Farmán-Farmá, Muḥammad [_Sh_]áh's own brother, much favoured by Ḥájí Mírzá Áqásí and much detested by the [_Sh_]írázís, was ousted by a combination of the grandees and the mob.

Mírzá Nabí [_Kh_]án-i-Qazvíní, the Amír-i-Díván,[7] was also forced out, not once, but twice. On the second occasion many leading citizens--headed by Ḥájí Qavámu'l-Mulk[8] and Muḥammad-Qulí [_Kh_]án-i-Ílbagí, a powerful chieftain of the Qa[_sh_]qá'í tribe--went to Ṭihrán, to demand the reinstatement of Firaydún Mírzá, whom they had previously challenged and maligned. Muḥammad [_Sh_]áh kept them waiting in the capital. Mírzá Riḍá (Meerza Reza), the acting British Agent in Shíráz, reported on August 7th 1844 to Captain Hennell in Bú[_sh_]ihr:

On the Evening of the 11th Rajab [July 28th] one of the
King's Chapurs [couriers] arrived at Shiraz, bringing two
Royal Firmans [edicts] which had been issued at the instance
of His Excellency Colonel Sheil, to be published at Shiraz
and Bushire....

One day the people, consisting of the principal and
respectable Inhabitants and Merchants, were assembled in the
Mosque, in order to hear the Firman from the Pulpit, when
the turbulent and evil [sic] disposed tumultuously rushed in
to prevent its being read, because addressed to the Ameer
[Amír, the Governor]; These were of the followers of the
Hajee Kuwaum [Ḥájí Qavám]. The Ameer then gave the Shiraz
Firman into the hands of Resheed Khan, Surteep [Ra[_sh_]íd
[_Kh_]án-i-Sartíp], who took it to the New Mosque in the
Naamutee [Ni`matí-[_Kh_]ánih] Quarter,[9] where it was
published from the Reading Desks to the assembled Moollahs,
respectable Inhabitants, and Merchants.

On the following day when the Ameer directed that the Firman
should be read in the Dewan Khaneh [Díván-[_Kh_]ánih--the
Court], the rioters fully armed again rushed in impetuously.
Syed Hussein Khan and Resheed Khan then assembled their
followers and topchees [túp[_ch_]í: gunner], and complaining
bitterly, requested permission to meet them ... nor was it
without difficulty and much persuasion that the Ameer could
induce them to desist pending instructions from the Capital.

The several Quarters of Shiraz are for the most part at
feud--Thieving and disturbance are on the increase--The
Ameer has not been dismissed nor has a new Governor been
appointed.[10]

And matters went from bad to worse. Mírzá Riḍá's report to his chief, the following November 24th, was one long catalogue of woes, not totally devoid of amusing points:

Last Friday, from the ten Quarters of Hyedree [Ḥaydarí]
and Naamutte [Ni`matí] a Mob and Crowd was again collected
in the open plain, which has ever been the scene of their
conflicts, for the purpose of fighting. From Midday to
Sunset they fought with slings and stones, sticks and
arms.... As Meerza Mahomed Ali, the secretary of Hajee Kuwam
[Ḥájí Qavám], a fine intelligent youth, was leaving his
dwelling about midday upon some business, a drunken
lootee,[BW] without reason or previous quarrel, plunged a
dagger into his right side ... two cousins, both young, in a
state of Drunkenness, were disputing regarding a woman, no
person not even the woman being present, when one struck a
dagger into the thigh of the other, who expired two days
after ... some men of the Fehlee[BX] Tribe were sitting
together one night, talking over occurrences of former
years, when ... an excellent horseman, was shot in the side
with a pistol, and immediately yielded his life.[11]

[Footnote BW: 'Lúṭí': mobster, bravo.]

[Footnote BX: Faylí: a clan of the Qa[_sh_]qá'ís.]

Qubád [_Kh_]án, a nephew of the Íl[_kh_]ání (the supreme head of the Qa[_sh_]qá'í tribe), who governed Fírúzábád in the heart of the Qa[_sh_]qá'í terrain, had, for a financial consideration, put armed men at the disposal of some headmen of the village of Maymand to settle a vendetta--and so the story trails on.

Towards the end of the year 1844 Ḥusayn [_Kh_]án was given the governorship of Fárs, but as late as December 21st and December 24th Mírzá Riḍá was still pouring out tales of woe to Captain Hennell in Bú[_sh_]ihr. Matters had reached such a pitch, he said, that people were stripped naked in plain daylight in public thoroughfares, and if anyone offered resistance he was repeatedly stabbed; at night so many matchlocks were fired at random that no sleep was possible, and in any case people had to keep awake to guard their homes. The unpleasant yet humorous experience of a physician clearly shows the breakdown of law in [_Sh_]íráz at that time:

... some of the Alwat[BY] brought a horse to the door of a
Physician's Dispensary, whose equipment and clothes were of
the best, saying, 'We have an invalid who is very ill, take
the trouble to come to him and we will attend you.' The Poor
Physician starts for the sickman's [sic] dwelling, and they
take him through two or three streets when they desire him
to be so good as to dismount from the horse; he does so, and
they strip him from head to foot and go their way.[12]

[Footnote BY: 'Alváṭ': plural of 'Lúṭí'.]

During that period of anarchy the Báb was on pilgrimage and absent from [_Sh_]íráz. Ḥusayn [_Kh_]án arrived at his post in the early part of 1845, when the Báb was about halfway back to His native land. The new Governor set about with all dispatch to give the [_Sh_]írázís a lesson which he was certain they would take to heart. There were mutilations and executions until order was finally restored. But in little more than three years when Muḥammad [_Sh_]áh died, [_Sh_]írázís, headed once again by the astute Ḥájí Qavámu'l-Mulk and the headstrong Muḥammad-Qulí [_Kh_]án (the Ílbagí[BZ] of the Qa[_sh_]qá'ís), rebelled and forced the dismissal of Ḥusayn [_Kh_]án.

[Footnote BZ: The chieftain next in rank to the Íl[_kh_]ání.
The central government made these appointments.]

* * * * *

Ḥusayn [_Kh_]án was the first official in Persia to raise his hand against the Báb and His people. Having meted out cruel punishments to Quddús and the other two Bábís, and having acquainted himself with the identity of the Báb and ascertained that He had arrived at Bú[_sh_]ihr, Ḥusayn [_Kh_]án commissioned a body of horsemen to go to that port, arrest the Báb and bring Him to [_Sh_]íráz. In the meantime the Báb had completed His arrangements to return to the city of His birth.

At Dálakí, some forty miles to the north-east of Bú[_sh_]ihr, where the coastal plain ends and the plateau begins to rise, Ḥusayn [_Kh_]án's horsemen encountered the Báb. He was the first to notice them and sent His Ethiopian servant to call them to Him. They were reluctant to approach Him, but Aṣlán [_Kh_]án, a man senior in their ranks, accepted the invitation. However, to the Báb's query regarding the purpose of their mission they evasively replied that the Governor had sent them to make some investigation in that neighbourhood. But the Báb said to them:

The governor has sent you to arrest Me. Here am I; do with
Me as you please. By coming out to meet you, I have
curtailed the length of your march, and have made it easier
for you to find Me.[13]