Táríkh-i-Jadíd / Táríkh-i Badí‘-i Bayání

i.e. God's word (Kur’án, lxxvi, 30). It is impossible to determine at what previous point the pronouns cease to refer to the Báb and begin to refer to God. But after all, since the Báb is regarded as a 'Manifestation' of the Divine Essence, the question would to a Bábí be of trivial import.

499 I cannot find in the Kur’án such words as these.

500 Kur’án iv. 115.

501 [Even so twelve thousand arrows were fired simultaneously at the Chief of Martyrs, of which not one touched his blessed form, because on that occasion he was pleased to exert his power. But when he resigned himself , Harmala ^note took aim at his fore head, and his shot missed not its mark; and this thing was a proof of perfect service , not of his powerlessness . But those men, by reason of their exceeding folly, did not at that time recognize so signal a manifestation of power, just as in this time also they]

^note Harmala b. el-Káhin. In none of the histories or Shi‘ite martyrologies which I have consulted do I find this man credited with a direct share in the death of Huseyn. He it was, however, who shot Huseyn's little nephew ‘Abdu’lláh b. al-Hasan (Tabarí, series ii, vol. i, p. 387, ll. 8-9), also called ‘Alí Asghar, the circumstances of whose death are detailed in the Rawsatu’s-Shuhadá, and in Ockley's History of the Saracens, vol. ii, p. 175. Hájí Mírzá Jání makes a more correct allusion to the incident in a different connection.

502 Cf. Gobineau, p. 270, and the Traveller's Narrative, vol. i, pp. 55-57, and vol. ii, pp. 43-45. Hájí Mírzá Jání confirms this detail.

503 This is incorrect, for Hájí Mírzá Jání says that the second volley proved fatal to the Báb. His words are as follows :- ###. Cf. n. 1 on p. 301 supra.

504 [permitted to strike]

505 [ascended to the zenith of the Realms of Holiness, and to the station of 'two bow-shots or less.' ^note]

^note These words, occurring in Kur’án, liii, 9, describe Muhammad's near approach to God on the occasion of his night-journey to heaven (mi‘ráj).

506 July 8th, A.D. 1850, which, however, appears to have fallen on a Monday. In the Traveller's Narrative (vol. i, p. 57; vol. ii, p. 44) the date is given as Sha‘bán 28th, but Subh-i-Ezel's statement corroborates the New History.

507 The Báb's "Manifestation" took place on Jemádí-ul-Úlá 5th, A.H. 1260 (May 23rd, A.D. 1844), but the Bábí era, as I have shewn at p. 425 of vol. ii of my Traveller's Narrative, is reckoned from the preceding Nawrúz (Wednesday, March 20th, A.D. 1844).

508 Seyyida-i-Batúl, i.e. Fátima, the daughter of the Prophet and wife of ‘Alí. Al-Batúl is the name given by Arabic-speaking Catholics to the Virgin Mary.

509 This, I think, is the proper rendering of the Words ###, the meaning being that as they curse those who slew the Imám Huseyn in the early days of Islám, such as Shimr and Yazíd, so may these in turn curse them for their greater obduracy and wickedness.

510 Literally, "if the shot first fired at him misses". I have here attempted, by an equivoque which could not be maintained in the next sentence, to bring the author's idea of the method of inflicting capital punishment employed in England into closer correspondence with the reality. He evidently supposes that it is customary to suspend the condemned man and then shoot him, exactly as was done in the case of the Báb. The whole passage affords a curious example of the strangely distorted though partially true conceptions formed by the Persians of things European. Many of those who read this passage will, however, call to mind the case of John Lee, convicted of the Babbicombe murder, which created so great a sensation at the time. Three times in succession was the condemned man placed on the drop, but in each case it remained fixed after the withdrawal of the bolt, nor could the stampings of the executioner effect its displacement. In consequence of this, and the awful suspense and mental agony which the unfortunate man must have suffered, a reprieve was granted, and the capital sentence was finally commuted to penal servitude for life.

511 That Mírzá Huseyn ‘Alí Behá’u’lláh should be dignified only with the inferior title of Jenáb (Excellency) instead of the higher one of Hazrat (Highness or Holiness) accords as well with the supposition of the genuineness of this letter as the parenthesis following the name does ill; for, as we learn from Gobineau (p. 277), he was only known as Jenáb-i-Behá in the days of Hazrat-i-Ezel's undisputed supremacy. Concerning the Báb's last dispositions, cf. my Traveller's Narrative, vol. ii, pp. 41-2, and n. 1 at the foot of p. 46.

512 [[concerning whom somewhat has been said]]

513 See my Traveller's Narrative, vol. ii, p. 46, n. 1.

514 Tal‘at-i-Abhá, a title not uncommonly applied to Behá’u’lláh by his followers.

515 Nukta-i-Úlá, i.e. the Báb.

516 The removal of the Báb's body was effected by Behá’u’lláh against the will and without the knowledge of Subh-i-Ezel, who was unable to ascertain whither it had been transferred. An interesting Muhammadan parallel to the miracle here recorded will be found alluded to in a footnote on p. 240 of the second volume of Sir Richard Burton's Pilgrimage to el-Medina and Mecca.

517 Here follow some twenty pages of controversial matter. Of these, as well as of another portion of the conclusion which I have not thought worth translating, an epitome is given in Appendix A.

Tarikh-i-Jadid / Tarikh Badi Bayani 55 / 55 Version 2009-10-28 11:08