The Báb: The Herald of the Day of DaysBalyuzi, H. M.
Religion
The Báb: The Herald of the Day of Days
Balyuzi, H. M.
Bab, Ali Muhammad Shirazi, 1819-1850; Bahai Faith
A number of other Bábís, as previously mentioned, also repaired to
[_Sh_]íráz and attained the presence of the Báb. One of them was Mullá
[_Sh_]ay[_kh_] `Alí of [_Kh_]urásán, whom the Báb designated as
`Aẓím[CK] (Great). He was still in [_Sh_]íráz when Siyyid
Yaḥyáy-i-Dárábí came to make his investigation. [_Sh_]ay[_kh_]
Ḥasan-i-Zunúzí was another. Moreover, [_Sh_]íráz itself had by this
time a group of native Bábís. Ḥájí Abu'l-Ḥasan, the Báb's
fellow-pilgrim, was one; another was a nephew of [_Sh_]ay[_kh_]
Abú-Turáb, the Imám-Jum`ih, a youth named [_Sh_]ay[_kh_]-`Alí Mírzá;
yet another, Ḥájí Muḥammad-Bisát, a close friend of the same
Imám-Jum`ih; and to name a few more: Mírzá-Áqáy-i-Rikáb-Sáz
(Stirrup-maker), destined to fall a martyr, one of the very few who
quaffed the cup of martyrdom in [_Sh_]íráz itself; Luṭf-`Alí Mírzá,
a descendant of the Af[_sh_]ár kings (1736-95), whom we shall meet in
a subsequent chapter; Áqá Muḥammad-Karím, a merchant, who was
eventually compelled by continued persecution to abandon his native
city; Mírzá Raḥím, a baker, who became an ardent teacher of the
Faith; Mírzá `Abdu'l-Karím, who had the office of key-holder to the
shrine known as [_Sh_]áh-[_Ch_]irá[_gh_][CL] (King of the Lamp) where
Mír Aḥmad, a brother of the eighth Imám, is buried; Ma[_sh_]hadí
Abu'l-Qásim-i-Labbáf (Quilt-maker), whose son Ḥi[_sh_]mat achieved
fame as a poet; Mírzá Mihdí, a poet of note, whose soubriquet was
Ṣábir (Patient), and his son, Mírzá `Alí-Akbar. Most of these
native Bábís of [_Sh_]íráz embraced the Faith after hearing the Báb
from the pulpit of the Mosque of Vakíl.
[Footnote CK: `Aẓím is numerically equivalent to
[_Sh_]ay[_kh_] `Alí.]
[Footnote CL: Many of the relatives of the Báb, including His
uncle, Ḥájí Mírzá Siyyid Muḥammad, were buried inside
this shrine.]
By the summer of 1846, the Báb had cleared the way for another chapter
in the progress of His Ministry. He bequeathed all His property
jointly to His mother and to His wife, who was to inherit subsequently
the whole estate.[CM] Then He took up His residence in the house of
His uncle, Ḥájí Mírzá Siyyid `Alí. That was the house where He was
born and where He had spent much of His childhood. At the time of this
move, He told those of His followers who had come to make their home
in [_Sh_]íráz to go to Iṣfahán. Included in that group were Siyyid
Ḥusayn-i-Yazdí, one of the Letters of the Living, who later became
the amanuensis of the Báb, [_Sh_]ay[_kh_] Ḥasan-i-Zunúzí and Mullá
`Abdu'l-Karím-i-Qazvíní, the scribe.
[Footnote CM: See Plate facing p. 193.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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