[i.e., the Imám-Jum’ih] fell to thinking how to compass their death and destroy them. He therefore persuaded certain of the doctors to cooperate with him, and they pronounced sentence of death. Afterwards they arrested those two brothers, put them in chains, and brought them before the public assembly. Yet seek as they might to fix on them some accusation, find some fault, or discover some pretext, they were unable to do so. At length they said, “You must either renounce this faith, or else lay down your heads beneath the sword of punishment.” Although some of those present urged them saying, “Say merely ‘We are not of this sect,’ and it is sufficient, and will be the means of your deliverance and protection,” they would by no means consent, but rather confirmed and declared it with eloquent speech and affecting utterance, so that the rage and violence of the Imám-Jum’ih boiled over, and, not satisfied with killing and destroying them, they inflicted sundry indignities on their bodies after death to mention which is not fitting, and of which the details are beyond the power of speech. Indeed in such wise was the blood of these two brothers shed that even the Christian priest of Julfá cried out, lamented, and wept on that day; and this event befell after such sort that everyone wept over the fate of those two brothers, for during the whole period of their life they had never distressed the feelings even of an ant, while by general report they had in the time of the famine in Persia spent all their wealth in relieving the poor and distressed. Yet, notwithstanding this reputation, were they slain with such cruelty in the midst of the people! But now for a long while the justice of the King has prevented and withheld, and none dares attempt such grievous molestations. FOOTNOTES 1 20 October 1819. 2 23 May 1844. 3 Qur’án 12. 4 Undertake the pilgrimage to Mecca. 5 Muḥammad _Sh_áh died September 4, 1848; the English translation of A Traveler’s Narrative first appeared in 1891. 6 Qur’án 108. 7 Qur’án 103. 8 A reference to Bahá’u’lláh, “Him Whom God shall make manifest,” whose precursor the Báb considered Himself to be. 9 The Ma_th_naví. 10 The Ma_th_naví. 11 Qur’án 7:154. 12 The _Sh_í’ites. 13 Qur’án 37:173. 14 9 July 1850. 15 Atabát ‘Alíyat, literally Supreme Shrines, a term by which the _Sh_í’ih Muslims referred to the cities of Kazímayn, Najaf, and Karbilá and generally applied to the region of eastern ‘Iráq, of which Ba_gh_dád was the center. When Bahá’u’lláh was released from prison and banished from Persia, He chose Ba_gh_dád for the place of His exile. 16 That is, Bahá’u’lláh. 17 Qur’án 95:4. 18 Qur’án 23:14.