In those days belief in the imminent appearance of a Divine Messenger was especially prevalent among a sect known as the _Sh_ay_kh_ís, and it was to a distinguished divine belonging to this sect, called Mullá Ḥusayn Bu_sh_rú’i, that the Báb first announced His mission. The exact date of this announcement is given in the Bayán, one of the Báb’s Writings, as two hours and eleven minutes after sunset on the eve preceding the fifth day of the month of Jamádiyu’l-Avval 1260 A.H.(8) ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was born in the course of the same night, but the exact hour of His birth has not been ascertained. After some days of anxious investigation and study, Mullá Ḥusayn became firmly convinced that the Messenger long expected by the _Sh_í’ihs had indeed appeared. His eager enthusiasm over this discovery was soon shared by several of his friends. Before long the majority of the _Sh_ay_kh_ís accepted the Báb, becoming known as Bábís; and soon the fame of the young Prophet began to spread like wildfire throughout the land. Spread of the Bábí Movement The first eighteen disciples of the Báb (with Himself as nineteenth) became known as “Letters of the Living.” These disciples He sent to different parts of Persian and Turkistán to spread the news of His advent. Meantime He Himself set out on a pilgrimage to Mecca, where He arrived in December 1844, and there openly declared His mission. On His return to Bú_sh_ihr great excitement was caused by the announcement of His Bábhood. The fire of His eloquence, the wonder of His rapid and inspired writings, His extraordinary wisdom and knowledge, His courage and zeal as a reformer, aroused the greatest enthusiasm among His followers, but excited a corresponding degree of alarm and enmity among the orthodox Muslims. The _Sh_í’ih doctors vehemently denounced Him, and persuaded the Governor of Fárs, namely Ḥusayn _Kh_án, a fanatical and tyrannical ruler, to undertake the suppression of the new heresy. Then commenced for the Báb a long series of imprisonments, deportations, examinations before tribunals, scourgings and indignities, which ended only with His martyrdom in 1850. Claims of the Báb