Najíb Pá[_sh_]á was still at his post as Válí of Ba[_gh_]dád, but he was now a chastened man. Moreover, the opponents of Qurratu'l-`Ayn were the [_Sh_]í`ah divines and Najíb Pá[_sh_]á, being a Sunní, would take no action to please them, but he reported to the Sublime Porte that Qurratu'l-`Ayn had challenged them. The authorities in Constantinople were also not prepared to give comfort to [_Sh_]í`ahs by making a martyr of Qurratu'l-`Ayn. At the same time they had no wish to champion her cause. They told Najíb Pá[_sh_]á that, as Qurratu'l-`Ayn was Persian, she should confine her challenge to the divines of her native land; she should be sent to Persia.[EQ] So Qurratu'l-`Ayn (or Ṭáhirih as we shall call her), accompanied by a number of ardent and prominent Bábís,[1] quitted Ba[_gh_]dád and was escorted to the frontier by Muḥammad Áqá Yávar, an officer in the service of Najíb Pá[_sh_]á, who became attracted to the Cause she was advocating. [Footnote EQ: Yet only two years before they had refused to hand over Mullá `Alí to the Persian Government, that he might reach safety.] Various eventful stops were made by Ṭáhirih and her companions in their journey across Persia to Qazvín. In the small town of Kirand, her eloquence and the clarity of her disquisition so impressed the chiefs of that area that they offered to place twelve thousand men under her command, to follow her wherever she went. The great majority (if not all) of the inhabitants of Kirand and its neighbourhood were `Alíyu'lláhís. Ṭáhirih gave them her blessing, told them to keep to their homes, and moved on to Kirmán[_sh_]áh. The challenge she presented to Áqá `Abdu'lláh-i-Bihbihání, the leading divine of that town, thoroughly discomfited him. With the populace clamouring for a positive answer, and the Governor treating Ṭáhirih with great respect, the cornered divine sought to free himself from his dilemma by writing to her father in Qazvín, asking him to send some of his close relatives to remove her from Kirmán[_sh_]áh. Áqá Muḥammad-Muṣṭafá, himself an eye-witness, vividly describes how four men came from Qazvín, joined forces with a Qazvíní officer stationed in Kirmán[_sh_]áh, invaded the house where Ṭáhirih's companions resided, and beat and robbed them of all they possessed. When the Governor learned what had happened, he ordered the arrest of the culprits and restored to the Bábís their property. It was soon known that Áqá `Abdu'lláh had conspired to bring about this situation.