invincible power of the Lord, your God, the Almighty. Has He not, in past days, caused Abraham, in spite of His seeming helplessness, to triumph over the forces of Nimrod? Has He not enabled Moses, whose staff was His only companion, to vanquish Pharaoh and his hosts? Has He not established the ascendancy of Jesus, poor and lowly as He was in the eyes of men, over the combined forces of the Jewish people? Has He not subjected the barbarous and militant tribes of Arabia to the holy and transforming discipline of Muḥammad, His Prophet? Arise in His name, put your trust wholly in Him, and be assured of ultimate victory. [Footnote AA: Qur'án xxxvi, 65.] [Footnote AB: Qur'án lxxxix, 23.] [Footnote AC: _ibid._, xlvii.] [Footnote AD: Qur'án.] [Footnote AE: _ibid._, xxviii, 4.] CHAPTER 2 HE WHOM THEY SOUGHT The gentle spirit of the Bāb is surely high up in the cycles of eternity. Who can fail, as Prof. Browne says, to be attracted by him? --T. K. Cheyne, D.Litt., D.D. Siyyid (or Mírzá) `Alí-Muḥammad, known to history as the Báb, was the son of Siyyid (or Mír) Muḥammad-Riḍá, a mercer of [_Sh_]íráz.[1] He was born on October 20th 1819 (Muḥarram 1st, 1235 A.H.). Through both His father and His mother He was descended from Imám Ḥusayn,[AF] the third Imám. Thus He stood in direct line of descent from the Prophet Muḥammad. According to Mírzá Abu'l-Faḍl-i-Gulpáygání, Siyyid Muḥammad-Riḍá, the Báb's father, died when his only child was an infant, unweaned. Then the care of the child devolved upon a maternal uncle, Ḥájí Mírzá Siyyid `Alí. He was the only relative of the Báb to espouse His Cause openly during His lifetime and, as will be seen, to accept martyrdom for His sake. But according to a manuscript history of the Bábí-Bahá'í Faith in [_Sh_]íráz by Ḥájí Mírzá Ḥabíbu'lláh-i-Afnán,[AG] Siyyid Muḥammad-Riḍá passed away when his son was nine years old, and `Abdu'l-Bahá appears to confirm this account.[AH] [Footnote AF: He was the son of Fáṭimih and `Alí.] [Footnote AG: Ḥájí Mírzá Ḥabíbu'lláh's father, Áqá Mírzá-Áqá, was a nephew of the wife of the Báb, and his paternal grandfather, Áqá Mírzá Zaynu'l-`Ábidín, was a paternal cousin of the father of the Báb. (See Foreword for other details of the manuscript.)] [Footnote AH: Browne (ed.), _A Traveller's Narrative_, Vol. II, p. 2.]