The Letters of the Living were the most faithful and most gifted of the disciples of the so-called Gate or Point. See _Traveller's Narrative_, Introd. p. xvi. Babu'l Bāb. A. Muḥammad Hasan, his brother. A. Muḥammad Baghir, his nephew. A. Mulla Ali Bustani. Janabe Mulla Khodabacksh Qutshani. Janabe Hasan Bajastani. Janabe A. Sayyid Hussain Yardi. Janabe Mirza Muḥammad Ruzi Khan. Janabe Sayyïd Hindi. Janabe Mulla Maḥmud Khoyï. Janabe Mulla Jalil Urumiyi. Janabe Mulla Muḥammad Abdul Maraghaï. Janabe Mulla Baghir Tabrizi. Janabe Mulla Yusif Ardabili. Mirza Hadi, son of Mirza Abdu'l Wahab Qazwini. Janabe Mirza Muḥammad 'Ali Qazwini. Janabi Tahirah. Hazrati Quddus. TITLES OF THE BĀB, ETC. There is a puzzling variation in the claims of 'Ali Muḥammad. Originally he represented himself as the Gate of the City of Knowledge, or--which is virtually the same thing--as the Gate leading to the invisible twelfth Imâm who was also regarded as the Essence of Divine Wisdom. It was this Imâm who was destined as Ḳa'im (he who is to arise) to bring the whole world by force into subjection to the true God. Now there was one person who was obviously far better suited than 'Ali Muḥammad (the Bāb) to carry out the programme for the Ḳa'im, and that was Hazrat-i'-Ḳuddus (to whom I have devoted a separate section). For some time, therefore, before the death of Ḳuddus, 'Ali Muḥammad abstained from writing or speaking _ex cathedra_, as the returned Ḳa'im; he was probably called 'the Point.' After the death of this heroic personage, however, he undoubtedly resumed his previous position. On this matter Mr. Leslie Johnston remarks that the alternation of the two characters in the same person is as foreign to Christ's thought as it is essential to the Bāb's. [Footnote: _Some Alternatives to Jesus Christ_, p. 117.] This is perfectly true. The divine-human Being called the Messiah has assumed human form; the only development of which he is capable is self-realization. The Imāmate is little more than a function, but the Messiahship is held by a person, not as a mere function, but as a part of his nature. This is not an unfair criticism. The alternation seems to me, as well as to Mr. Johnston, psychologically impossible. But all the more importance attaches to the sublime figure of Baha-'ullah, who realized his oneness with God, and whose forerunner is like unto him (the Bāb). The following utterance of the Bāb is deserving of consideration: 'Then, verily, if God manifested one like thee, he would inherit the cause from God, the One, the Unique. But if he doth not appear, then know that verily God hath not willed that he should make himself known. Leave the cause, then, to him, the educator of you all, and of the whole world.' The reference to Baha-'ullah is unmistakable. He is 'one like thee,' i.e. Ezel's near kinsman, and is a consummate educator, and God's Manifestation.