`Alí [_Kh_]án's devotion to the person of the Báb increased day by day. He did everything possible to mitigate the rigours of prison life. Every Friday he came up the mountain to offer his homage. Ḥájí Mírzá Áqásí was alarmed by the news reaching him from Máh-Kú, and so was the Russian Minister in Ṭihrán, Prince Dimitri Ivanovich Dolgorukov. In dispatches to Count Nesselrode, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, dated February 4th and December 24th 1848, he mentions that, in the previous year, the Báb had been removed from the vicinity of the Russian border by his demand.[9] This assertion is borne out by a letter of Mullá Aḥmad-i-Ibdál, one of the Letters of the Living, written when he was in Káẓimayn, close to Ba[_gh_]dád. It is not clear to whom the letter is addressed, most probably to one of the uncles of the Báb.[10] Mullá Aḥmad writes: These days, God willing, I intend to go and attain the presence of my Lord.... These days pilgrims arrived here from Urúmíyyih. I sought the news of my Lord from them. They said that He was in a district of Urúmíyyih, called [_Ch_]ihrúm [[_Ch_]ihríq?]. The Governor of Urúmíyyih wished, at first, to keep Him in the town itself, but the clerics had taken fright lest disturbances might arise, and had refused their consent; curses of God rest upon them. It is said that the Governor is acting with kindness, and from the towns of A[_dh_]arbáyján people come in large groups, attain His presence and return believers. According to what has been related there is a tremendous upsurge, that is to say, many, many people have become devoted to Him.... And as to the reason for the departure of [_Dh_]ikr, on Him be peace from Máh-Kú, it is this, that the Russian Envoy had heard that He was in Máh-Kú, and, being afraid of disturbance, told the Vizier, Ḥájí Mírzá Áqásí: 'Send the [_Dh_]ikr, on whom be peace, to some other area of your realms, because Máh-Kú is on the frontier and close to our territory, and we are afraid of disturbances; a few years ago, a certain Mullá Ṣádiq claimed to be the deputy [of the Imám] and within a month gathered 30,000 followers round him.' Russians had witnessed that and had taken fright. `Abdu'l-Bahá states that the Báb's incarceration in the castle of Máh-Kú lasted nine months. According to Nabíl-i-A`ẓam, on the twentieth day after Naw-Rúz (April 9th 1848), He left that mountain fastness on the Russian and Turkish frontiers.[11] At Máh-Kú the Báb revealed the _Dalá'il-i-Sab`ih_ (The Seven Proofs) and began the composition of the Persian _Bayán_[DF] (Exposition or Utterance). Nabíl-i-A`ẓam writes: