Ch.XXVI, p.645, f.1
"Strange as it may seem, they respected the women whom they gathered
and led to Mount Biyaban. There were, among them, two old men too feeble
to fight, Mulla Muhammad-Musa, a fuller, and Mashhadi Baqir, a dyer.
These were murdered. Mashhadi Baqir was killed by Ali Big, captain of
the Nayrizi soldiers, who severed the head from the body of his victim and
gave it to a child; then, covering the head of the niece of his victim with
a black veil, he led her to Mirza Na'im, who was then on Mount Biyaban
seated upon a stone in a garden. When Ali Big approached him, he threw
the head of Baqir at him and shoved the little girl abruptly forward. She
fell on her face, as he cried out, `We have done as you wished, the Babis
are no more!'
"Akhund Mulla Abdu'l-Husayn ordered that the mouth of Mirza Na'im
be stuffed with dirt, then a ghulam shot him in the head but the wound was
not fatal.
"Approximately six hundred and three women were arrested and taken to
the mill called `Takht' which is near Nayriz. One author tells the
following anecdote: `I was very young then and I was following my mother
who had another son younger than I. A man, called Asadu'llah, was
carrying my brother on his shoulders. The child wore a hat decorated with
a few ornaments. A rider saw the hat and snatched it with such brutality
that he took hold at the same time of the hair of the baby. The child was
thrown about ten feet away and my poor mother found him unconscious.'
"I shall not expatiate upon the horrors which followed this victory. It
is enough to know that Mirza Na'im rode on, preceded and followed by men
carrying the heads of the martyrs on pikes. The prisoners were prodded
along with whip and sword. The women were jostled into ditches full of
water. The night was spent at the caravansary in Shiraz. In the morning,
the women were taken out, all entirely naked; they were kicked, stoned,
whipped and spat upon. When their tormentors grew tired, they were
confined for twenty days, during which time they were constantly insulted
and outraged. Eighty Babis bound together in tens, were entrusted to one
hundred soldiers, with Shiraz as their destination. Siyyid Mir Muhammad
Abd died from exposure to cold at Khanih-gird, others expired a little
further on. The guards, from time to time, would cut off the head of one
of them. At last they entered Shiraz, through the gate of Sa'di. They
paraded the prisoners through the streets, then they cast them into
prison. The women were taken out of the school building after twenty days
and separated into two groups. One group was set free, the others were
sent to Shiraz with other prisoners who had lately been arrested.
"On reaching Shiraz, the caravan was again divided into two groups; the
women were sent to the caravansary Shah Mir Ali-Hamzih and the men to
prison with the other Babis. The next day was a feast day. The governor,
surrounded by all the prominent citizens of Shiraz, ordered the prisoners
to be brought before him. A Nayrizi called Jalal, whom Na'im had
nicknamed `Bulbul,' revealed the names of his fellow-citizens. The first
one to appear was Mulla Abdu'l-Husayn, who was commanded to curse the
Bab. He refused and his head rolled on the ground. Haji son of Asghar,
Ali Garm-Siri, Husayn son of Hadi Khayri, Sadiq son of Salih, and
Muhammad-ibn-i-Muhsin all were executed. The women were set free and the
men who survived were taken back to prison. The Shah having demanded that
the prisoners be sent away, seventy-three were sent to Tihran. Twenty-two
died during the journey, among whom were Mulla Abdu'l-Husayn who died at
Saydan, Ali son of Karbila'i Zaman at Abadih; Akbar son of Karbila'i
Muhammad at Qinarih; Hasan son of Abdu'l-Vahhab, Mulla Ali-Akbar, at
Isfahan. Karbila'i Baqir son of Muhammad-Zamam, Hasan and his brother
Dhu'l-Faqar, Karbila'i Naqi and Ali his son, Vali Khan, Mulla
Karim, Akbar Ra'is, Ghulam-'Ali son of Pir Muhammad, Naqi and
Muhammad-'Ali, sons of Muhammad, expired likewise during the course of
the journey.
"The others reached Tihran and, on the very day of their arrival,
fifteen of them were put to death, among them Aqa Siyyid Ali who had been
abandoned as dead, Karbila'i Rajab the barber, Sayfu'd-Din, Sulayman son
of K. Salman, Ja'far, Murad Khayri, Husayn son of K. Baqir, Mirza
Abu'l-Hasan son of Mirza Taqi, Mulla Muhammad-'Ali son of Aqa
Mihdi. Twenty-three died in prison, thirteen were freed after three
years, the only one who remained in Tihran, to die there a little later,
was Karbila'i Zaynu'l-'Abidin." (A. L. M. Nicolas' "Siyyid Ali-Muhammad
dit le Bab," pp. 421-424.)
"Their persecutors, having captured and killed the men, seized and slew
forty women and children in the following manner: They placed them in the
midst of a cave, heaped up in the cave a vast quantity of firewood, poured
naphtha over the faggots strewn around, set fire to it. One of those who
took part in this deed related as follows: `After two or three days I
ascended that mountain and removed the door from the cave. I saw that the
fire had sunk down into the ashes; but all those women with their children
were seated, each in some corner, clasping their little ones to their
bosoms, and sitting round in a circle, just as they were when we left
them. Some as though in despair or in mourning, had suffered their heads
to sink down on their knees in grief, and all retained the postures they
had assumed. I was filled with amazement, thinking that the fire had not
burned them. Full of apprehension and awe, I entered. Then I saw that all
were burned and charred to a cinder, yet had they never made a movement
which would cause the crumbling away of the bodies. As soon as I touched
them with my hand, however, they crumbled away to ashes. And all of us,
when we had seen this, repented what we had done. But of what avail was
this?'" (The "Tarikh-i-Jadid," pp. 128-31.) "The author of the
"Tarikh-i-Jadid," in concluding this narrative, takes occasion to point
out how literally was fulfilled in these events the prophecy contained in
the tradition referring to the signs which shall mark the appearance of the
Imam Mihdi: `In Him (shall be) the perfection of Moses, the preciousness
of Jesus, and the patience of Job; His saints shall be abased in His time,
and their heads shall be exchanged as presents, even as the heads of the
Turk and the Daylamite are exchanged as presents; they shall be slain and
burned, and shall be afraid, fearful, and dismayed; the earth shall be dyed
with their blood, and lamentation and wailing shall prevail amongst their
women; these are my saints indeed.' [This tradition, called
Hadith-i-Jabir, is also quoted from the "Kafi," one of the principal
compilations of shi'ite traditions, in the "Iqan."] When I was at Yazd
in the early summer of 1888, I became acquainted with a Babi holding a
position of some importance under government, two of whose ancestors had
taken a prominent part in the suppression of the Nayriz insurrection.
Of what he told me concerning this the following is a summary taken from my
diary for May 18th, 1888: `My maternal grandfather Mihr-'Ali Khan
Shuja'u'l-Mulk and my great-uncle Mirza Na'im both took an active part
in the Nayriz war--but on the wrong side. When orders came to Shiraz to
quell the insurrection, my grandfather was instructed to take command of
the expedition sent for that purpose. He did not like the task committed
to him and communicated his reluctance to two of the ulamas, who, however,
reassured him, declaring that the war on which he was about to engage was a
holy enterprise sanctioned by Religion, and that he would receive reward
therefor in Paradise. So he went, and what happened happened. After they
had killed 750 men, they took the women and children, stripped them almost
naked, mounted them on donkeys, mules, and camels, and led them through
rows of heads hewn from the lifeless bodies of their fathers, brothers,
sons, and husbands towards Shiraz. On their arrival there, they were
placed in a ruined caravanserai just outside the Isfahan gate and opposite
to an Imam-zadih, their captors taking up their quarters under some trees
hard by. Here they remained a long while, subjected to many insults, and
hardships, and many of them died. Now see the judgment of God on the
oppressors; for of those chiefly responsible for these cruelties not one
but came to a bad end and died overwhelmed with calamity. My grandfather
Mihr-'Ali Khan presently fell ill and was dumb till the day of his
death. Just as he was about to expire, those who stood round him saw from
the movement of his lips that he was whispering something. They leant down
to catch his last words and heard him murmur faintly "Babi! Babi!
Babi!" three times. Then he fell back dead. My great-uncle Mirza
Na'im fell into disgrace with the government and was twice fined ten
thousand tumans the first time, fifteen thousand the second. But his
punishment did not cease here, for he was made to suffer diverse tortures.
His hands were put in the "il-chik" (the torture consists in placing
pieces of wood between the victims fingers, binding them round tightly
with cord. Cold water is then thrown over the cord to cause its further
contraction) and his feet in the "tang-i-Qajar" (or "Qajar squeeze," an
instrument of torture resembling the "boot" once used in England, for the
introduction of which Persia is indebted to the dynasty which at present
occupies the throne); he was made to stand bareheaded in the sun with
treacle smeared over his head to attract the flies; and, after suffering
these and other torments yet more painful and humiliating, he was dismissed
a disgraced and ruined man.'" ("A Traveller's Narrative," Note H, pp.
191-3.)