The Court of Inquisition convened for the trial of the Persian priest, was held on Monday last [January 13th], H.E. Nejib Pasha presiding, and Moola Abdool Azeez being also present, to afford his countenance to the accused--The perverted copy of the Koran being produced in Court, was unanimously condemned as a blasphemous production, and parties avowing a belief in the readings which it continued [sic], were declared to be liable to the punishment of death--It was then argued whether or not the Shirazee had thus avowed his belief in a blasphemous production--he himself distinctly repudiated the charge, and although witnesses were brought forward, who stated that he had in their presence declared his adoption of the spurious text, of which he was the bearer, yet as there was reason to suspect the fidelity of their evidence, the Sheeah divines were disposed to give him the benefit of his present disavowal--After much discussion the Soonee law-officers adjudged the culprit to be convicted of blasphemy & passed sentence of death on him accordingly, while the Sheeahs returned a verdict, that he was only guilty of the dissemination of blasphemy, & liable in consequence to no heavier punishment than imprisonment or banishment.... To this Rawlinson added: I understand that considerable uneasiness is beginning to display itself at Kerbela & Nejef, in regard to the expected manifestation of the Imam, and I am apprehensive that the measures now in progress will rather increase than allay the excitement.[BH][10] [Footnote BH: Rawlinson's letter to Sheil carries the statement that Mullá `Alí abjured his faith. Apart from the evidence of the devotion and heroism of the disciples of the Báb, which history amply provides, several factors must be considered. Major Rawlinson was not present at that meeting of the divines, which he termed 'the Court of Inquisition'. Therefore his information was secondhand. The emergence of Sunní-[_Sh_]í`ah antagonism was another factor which would certainly have clouded the issue. The 'advent of the Imam' need not, necessarily, have troubled the Sunní conscience, because Sunnís have never believed in the Imámate and the occultation of the Twelfth Imám. Furthermore, that which Mullá `Alí is supposed to have rejected, according to Rawlinson, was a 'perverted copy of the Koran'. Would Mullá `Alí ever have an interpolated copy of the Qur'án to announce the message he had to give, or to prove it? And then the question must also be asked: if Mullá `Alí, the man who brought the news of the advent of the Báb, had recanted, how was it that 'considerable uneasiness' was becoming perceptible in Karbilá and Najaf, 'in regard to the expected manifestation of the Imam'?]