NOTE L.
THE BÁB AT MÁKÚ AND
CHIHRÍK.
The Báb was accompanied
on his journey to Mákú by his amanuensis Áká Seyyid Huseyn of
Yezd, Mullá Sheykh 'Alí 'Jenáb-i-'Azím', Mullá Muhammad
'Mu'allim-i-Núrí' (afterwards killed at Sheykh
Tabarsí)1, and an escort of twelve horsemen
under the command of Muhammad Beg Chápárjí. A full account of this
journey, on the authority of Hájí Mírzá Jání of Káshán, who had it directly from
the aforesaid Muhammad Beg, is contained in the Táríkh-i-Jadíd.
The substance of this account is as follows:-
When Muhammad Beg was ordered to conduct the Báb to Tabríz and
there deliver him over to Bahman Mírzá the governor, he was so averse to
undertaking this charge that he feigned illness in hopes of being excused so
thankless a task. His orders, however, were peremptorily repeated, and he was
obliged to set out. He had been instructed not to take the Báb into the towns
which they must pass on the road, and accordingly on approaching Zanján he
called a halt at a stone caravansaray situated outside and at some distance from
the city. In spite of this, no sooner did their arrival become known than
numbers of the inhabitants came out in the hopes of being able to get
a
1 This is according to
Subh-i-Ezel's statement. According to the Táríkh-i- Jadíd
his companions were, besides the escort, Áká Mírzá 'Abdu'l-Wahháb, Mullá
Muhammad, Áká Seyyid Huseyn the amanuensis, his brother
Áká Seyyid Hasan of Yezd, and Seyyid
Murtazá.
[page 272]
glimpse of the Báb. Muhammad Beg, being
occupied with other business, took no heed of what was passing, while the other
men who composed the escort only offered such opposition to the entry of each
group of eager visitors as sufficed to procure for themselves a gift of money.
Presently an urgent message was brought from Ashraf Khán the governor of Zanján
(who was greatly alarmed at the popular excitement caused by the Báb's proximity
to the town) ordering Muhammad Beg at once to start again and proceed to
some spot further distant. Muhammad Beg accordingly informed the Báb,
with many apologies and expressions of regret, that he must prepare to resume
his journey without delay, to which, with a single expression of surprise and
regret at the governor's harshness, he submitted, and they pushed on to a brick
caravansaray two farsakhs beyond Zanján. At Mílán the Báb's arrival was
the signal for a similar demonstration of enthusiasm on the part of the
populace, and some two hundred persons who had come out of mere curiosity were
converted to the new faith.
Before Tabríz
was reached Muhammad Beg too began to experience that marvellous
fascination which the Báb exerted over almost everyone with whom he came in
contact, and ere the journey was completed he had become an avowed believer in
the divine mission of the captive whom he was conducting into exile. Of those
disciples who accompanied the Báb on this journey two only - Áká Seyyid
Huseyn and Seyyid Murtaza - allowed it to appear that they were
his companions. The others used to follow at some distance behind, and only on
halting for the night did they seek to find some pretext for approaching their
beloved Master. In spite of these precautions, Muhammad Beg, whose
faculties were perhaps quickened by his own recent conversion, did not fail in
time to discover what they wished to keep secret from him, for of the change
which had been wrought in his opinions and feelings they were not yet aware. One
day, however, he opened his heart to them, declaring that when he reflected on
the service in which he was engaged he felt himself to be worse than Shimr and
Yazíd, and expressing the warmest admiration for the patience, sweetness,
gentleness, and holiness of the Báb, "for," said he, "had he chosen to give the
slightest
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hint to the people of Zanján or Mílan that they
should effect his deliverance, they would not have given us time to draw our
breath ere they had effected their object."
Muhammad Beg was in hopes that he might be appointed to accompany the Báb
to Mákú - his ultimate destination - and this hope he communicated to the Báb,
who, however, replied that this was by no means a thing which he desired, for
that in that journey there would be harshness and cruelty shewn wherein
he would not that Muhammad Beg should bear any part. When they had come
within a stage of Tabríz the Báb requested Muhammad Beg to go on in
advance and announce his approach to Bahman Mírzá, to whom he also sent a
message praying that he might not be sent to Mákú but might be allowed to remain
in Tabríz. To this message the Prince merely replied that it had nothing to do
with him, and that the instructions given at the capital must be complied with.
Much distressed at being the bearer of such unwelcome tidings, Muhammad
Beg returned to meet the Báb, whom he brought in to his own house at Tabríz.
There the Báb remained for several days until the fresh escort which was to
conduct him to Mákú arrived. The Báb sent Muhammad Beg with a second
message to the Prince, again renewing his request for permission to remain at
Tabríz. To this message also Bahman Mírzá turned a deaf ear; and such was
Muhammad Beg's chagrin, and so great the sorrow which he experienced on
parting from the Báb (whose new escort would suffer no further delay in
starting), that he fell ill of a fever which did not quit him for two
months.
No sooner had Muhammad Beg
recovered his health than he set out for Mákú to visit the Báb. On his arrival
there he fell at the Báb's feet, entreating him to overlook and condone any
fault of which he might have been guilty. The Báb answered that he was not
willing that even his enemies should suffer, much less his friends, and that he
freely forgave all who had wittingly or unwittingly trespassed against him. He
then enquired concerning the details of the disgrace which had befallen two of
those who had slighted him - Ashraf Khán and Bahman Mírzá - with which
Muhammad Beg forthwith proceeded to acquaint him; and, on hearing the
indignities to which Ashraf Khán
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had been subjected by the relatives of a woman
whom he had seduced, he expressed sorrow that so severe a punishment should have
overtaken him.
The confinement to which the
Báb was subjected at Mákú was by no means an excessively rigorous one. Not only
his amanuensis Áká Seyyid Huseyn, but also (according to
Subh-i-Ezel) Mullá Sheykh 'Alí, and apparently others amongst the
most earnest and devoted of his followers, were constantly with him, while many
others flocked to Mákú from all parts of Persia and were permitted to hold
almost unrestricted converse with their Master. Besides this, continual
correspondence was carried on between the Báb and his most active apostles, in
spite of the instructions given to 'Alí Khán the warden of Mákú Castle by the
Prime Minister Hájí Mírzá Ákásí to the effect that no such correspondence
was to be permitted. Whether 'Alí Khán found himself unable to prevent his
correspondence (at any rate without risking a popular tumult), or whether he
simply connived at it either from indolence, indifference, or partiality for the
Báb, does not very clearly appear. It would at any rate seem that he always
treated his prisoner with the utmost respect and deference, toiled daily up the
steep road from the village to the Castle (which stood on the summit of a
neighbouring hill), and, when questioned by his friends as to the opinion which
he had formed of the Báb, would reply that, although he was not clever enough to
understand his sayings, he was convinced of his greatness and
holiness.
During his sojourn at Mákú the Báb
composed a great number of works, amongst the more important of which may be
especially mentioned the Persian Beyán and the 'Seven Proofs'
(Dalá'il-i- Sab'a), both of which contain ample internal evidence of
having been written at this period (B. ii, pp. 912-913). Indeed, if we may
credit a statement made in the Táríkh-i-Jadíd on the authority of Mírzá
'Abdu'l-Wahháb, the various writings of the Báb current in Tabríz alone amounted
in all to not less than a million verses! The Prime Minister himself, Hájí Mírzá
Ákásí, was made the object of a homily entitled "The Sermon of Wrath"
(~~~) "which," says the author
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of the Táríkh-i-Jadíd, "if anyone will
peruse, he shall understand the true meaning of inward Strength and Power."
Whether this document reached the eyes of him for whom it was intended and
roused him to take further steps for the more effectual isolation of its author
is uncertain; but at all events fresh instructions of a more peremptory
character were despatched by the Prime Minister to the Warden of Mákú commanding
him at once to put a stop to the interchange of letters between the Báb and his
followers. 'Alí Khán replied that he was absolutely unable to do this; whereupon
orders were issued by the Prime Minister for the removal of the Báb from Mákú to
Chihrík. 'Alí Khán, though his own action had brought about this
transference, communicated the announcement thereof to the Báb with every
expression of distress and concern, but the latter sternly cut short his
apologies saying, "Why dost thou lie? Thou didst thyself write, and dost thou
excuse thyself?" So the Báb was taken to Chihrík. and placed in the custody of
Yahyá Khán.
The
Táríkh-i-Jadíd, ever disposed towards the marvellous if not the
miraculous, relates that Yahyá Khán saw the Báb in a dream a short time
before his actual arrival at Chihrík, and that this dream he related to
Jenáb-i- 'Azím (Mullá Sheykh 'Alí), declaring at the same time
that should the Báb's appearance prove to be such as he had seen in his vision
he would know for a surety that this was indeed the promised Imám Mahdí. On the
Báb's arrival Yahyá Khán went out to meet him and beheld his face even as
the face in the dream. Thereupon, being greatly moved, he bowed himself in
reverence before the Báb, and brought him in with all honour into his own house,
neither would he sit down in his presence without permission. In consequence of
the impression thus produced on Yahyá Khán, the Báb, in spite of Hájí
Mírzá Ákásí's stringent orders, was not much more isolated from his
followers at Chihrík. than he had been at Mákú.
Subh-i-Ezel's version is quite different, and is not only
much more probable in itself, but also rests on much better authority, since
through his hands passed the greater part of the correspondence which was
carried on with the Báb. According to this version, the Báb's confinement at
Chihrík.
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was of the most rigorous kind, and it was only
with the greatest difficulty that letters could be conveyed to or from him. Some
of the expedients resorted to for this purpose were described by Mullá Sheykh
'Alí to Subh-i-Ezel and by him to me. Sometimes the letter to be
conveyed to the Báb was carefully wrapped up in a waterproof covering, weighted,
and sunk in a vessel filled with mást (curdled milk), which vessel the
Bábí messenger would pray the guards to convey as a trifling present to the
captive. Sometimes the letter was enclosed in a candied walnut of the kind
called juzghand. The bearer, on his arrival at Chihrík, would
enter into conversation with the sentries, offer them a share of his
juzghands, and finally, having sufficiently ingratiated himself with
them, request them to carry a handful of sweetmeats to their prisoner. If they
consented to do this, the walnut containing the letter was dexteriously slipped
into the handful destined for the Báb.
A
passage from M. Mochenin's memoir quoted by Kazem-Beg (i. p. 371) would seem,
however, to imply that even at Chihrík. the Báb was permitted to address those
who came to hear and see him. "The concourse of people," he says, "was so great
that, the court not being spacious enough to contain all the audience, the
greater number remained in the street listening attentively to the verses of the
new Kur'án." But at all events the Báb was subjected to a closer and more
rigorous confinement at Chihrík. than he had been at Mákú. Hence he used to call
the former "the Grievous Mountain" (~~~)1) for
which it stands.], and the latter "the Open Mountain" (~~~). His
gaoler at Chihrík. was moreover a coarse and unsympathetic creature, to whom
Áká Seyyid Huseyn of Yezd gave the name of "Fierce and
Terrible" (~~~)2.
The last point which requires discussion is this:- of the three and a
half years which elapsed between the death
1 It will be noticed that the numerical value of the word ~~~
(318) is the same as that of the name Chihrík. (~~~)
2 Kur'án, lxvi. 6.
[page 277]
of Minúchihr Khán (Rabí'ul-Avval A. H. 1263 =
Feb. - March A. D. 1847) and the execution of the Báb (Sha'bán 27th A.H. 1266 =
July 8th A.D. 1850) what portion was passed by the Báb at Mákú and Chihrík.
respectively? As the Báb did not leave Isfahán till after Minúchihr Khán's
death, we may, allowing for the time consumed in travelling and probable delays,
assume that he did not reach Mákú much before June A.D. 1847. Kazem-Beg says
that he remained there six months ere he was transferred to Chihrík,
where, if this statement be correct, he must have arrived about the beginning of
A.D. 1848. From Chihrík. he was brought to Tabríz to undergo his first
examination (see subsequent note) during the life of Muhammad Sháh, who
died on Sept. 4th, A.D. 1848; and from Chihrík. he was again brought to Tabríz
in July A.D. 1850 to suffer martyrdom. It would therefore seem that of the last
three years of the Báb's life six months (from June to December, A.D. 1847) were
spent at Mákú, and two years and a half (January A.D. 1848 - July A.D. 1850) at
Chihrík.
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