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

Martyrdom of Quddus

Next day the royalists fell on the Castle, and carried off as plunder all the goods and chattels which were therein. After this they moved their camp from that place, carrying with them in shameful bonds Jenáb-i-Kuddús, Mírzá Muhammad Hasan the brother of Jenáb-i-Bábu’l-Báb, Mullá Muhammad Sádik of Khurásán⁷⁷, Hájí Mírzá Muhammad Hasan of Khurásán, Sheykh Ni‘matu’lláh of Ámul, Hájí Nasír of Kazvín, MuIIá Yúsuf of Ardabíl, Áká Seyyid ‘Abdu’l-‘Azím [[of Khúy]]⁷⁸, and several others. They beat the drums to celebrate their victory, and displayed such pride in their prowess that one would have supposed that they had either retaken from Russia the territories once owned by Persia, or obtained some great victory over the English, which had placed them in possession of India, or <88> annexed Balúchistán, Afghánistán, Balkh, and Bukhárá, or recovered their captives from the Turcomans, or won from the Turks Baghdad, Kerbelá, and Nejef, and brought back with them as prisoners of war many a proud Páshá and great captain.

When these few half-famished men, who for three months had suffered such pangs of hunger as can scarcely be conceived, were brought in , the people decorated the city and made great rejoicings. Jenáb-i-Kuddús on his arrival in the city besought the Prince to send him to the capital, to be dealt with by the King himself, and to receive judgement according to the right. The Prince at first acceded to his request, but when the Sa‘ídu’l-‘Ulamá heard that he had done so, he sent him a message, saying, "Beware that you meddle not in this matter, for he is a plausible fellow and hath a specious tongue; should he be suffered to appear before His Majesty the King, he will assuredly succeed in misleading him. Send him to me, and I will give you a thousand túmáns." So the Prince accepted the thousand (or, according to another account, four hundred) túmáns, and delivered over Jenáb-i-Kuddús to the Sa‘ídu’l-‘Ulamá.

Now when Jenáb-i-Kuddús was brought in before him, the Sa‘ídu’l-‘Ulamá abused him right foully and entreated him most cruelly. With his own hands he first cut off both his ears, and then struck him on the crown of the head with an iron axe which he held in his hands, which blow caused his death. After that, a student severed his holy head from his body in the midst of the market-place⁷⁹. Then the Sa‘ídu’l-‘Ulamá commanded that his body should <89> be burned. So they tried to set fire to it by kindling dried rice-stalks. [According to the account given by Hájí Mírzá Jání, not even the blazing fire thus kindled would burn those holy remains. Some firmly believe this, and regard it as an assured fact; but the writer of these pages⁸⁰ regards fire as a thing which must in its very nature burn, and is essentially a consumer; that this natural quality should be taken from it appears to him impossible. But God knows best, and the responsibility for this narrative lies on the narrator. Hájí Mírzá Jání further writes that when they saw this they informed the Sa‘ídu’l-‘Ulamá.]⁸¹ He, fearing lest men might now condemn his action, bade them go at once and cut the body in pieces and scatter them in the fields. And they did as he commanded. But at night ⁸² certain of the faithful, not known to men as such, watched their opportunity, and came and gathered up the fragments of the body, and buried them in a ruined college. [[Hájí Mírzá Jání writes:-]] "A believer whose words are worthy of all credence narrated as follows:-

'One day, before ever these matters were talked of, I was in the company of that holy man. We were taking a walk in the country, and in the course of it chanced to pass by the gate of that same ruined college. He, speaking of the <90> vicissitudes of the world, said by way of illustration, "This college, for instance, was once frequented and flourishing, and is now desolate and ruined. After a while some illustrious man will be buried here, men will come from afar to visit the place, and once again it will flourish." So likewise in the year of his martyrdom, before he went to Khurásán, he chanced one day to pass with a companion through the square in which he suffered death. His eyes happening to fall on a heap of dried rice-stalks, he remarked, 'This very year they will slay a certain holy man in this very spot after the vilest fashion, and will attempt to burn his body with these very rice-stalks, but the fire will be ashamed to touch it, though this people will not be ashamed.' Then he heaved a deep sigh and was silent."

So likewise in the exhortation known as "the Eternal Witness⁸³," which he wrote while on his way to Khurásán to Jenáb-i-Bábu‘l-Báb, and wherein, besides foreshadowing his own martyrdom, he clearly made known to him how he should die together with seventy⁸⁴ just and righteous men, he wrote, "I shall bury my body with my own hands," by which expression he signified that none⁸⁵ would bury him [but that one of themselves would succeed in accomplishing his interment]. Again in that same year he had repeatedly said to his sister and his step-mother, "This year all manner of troubles will befall you by reason of the love ye bear me, but be ye patient and thankful when affliction comes and the predestined blow falls, and display resignation and fortitude." There is also a well-authenticated tradition to the effect that a bearded woman of Jewish extraction called Sa‘ída shall compass the martyrdom <91> of the Ká’im⁸⁶ with an iron pestle in Fárán⁸⁷ of Teherán. And since Jenáb-i-Kuddús had arisen to proclaim this teaching, he was in a sense Lord of the Dispensation, even as it runs in the tradition. And by "the bearded Sa‘ída" the Sa‘ídu’l-‘Ulamá appears to be meant, for he lacked all virtues of manhood and was probably effeminate in the worst sense⁸⁸. And the "iron pestle" was that same iron axe wherewith he smote the head of his illustrious victim, while as to his being a recent convert to Islám and of Jewish extraction there is no doubt, this fact being well-known ⁸⁹ to all the people of Mázandarán. Moreover, after the martyrdom of Jenáb-i-Kuddús the Sa‘ídu’l-‘Ulamá suffered a grievous punishment. For God deprived his body of the element of heat, so that in mid-summer, even while the sign of the Lion was dominant, two iron chafing-dishes filled with glowing fire were brought with him whenever he went to the mosque, and, although he always wore a sheep-skin cloak over his vest, and over the sheepskin a thick mantle, he would make haste to finish his prayers, and at once return to his home. And on his arrival there, they would put the chafing-dishes under a kursí⁹⁰ and cover him with many thick quilts, yet still his body would shiver and shake under the kursí by reason of <92> the cold. So by reason of his lack of caloric and heat-producing power also one may describe him as bereft of virility and manhood.

At all events it appears that after the martyrdom of Jenáb-i-Kuddús, a pious divine, Hájí Muhammad ‘Alí Hamza’í by name, whose skill in exegesis and spiritual gifts were recognized by all, secretly sent several persons to bury the mutilated remains in the ruined college already mentioned. And he, far from approving the Sa‘ídu’l-‘Ulamá's conduct, used to curse and revile him, and never himself pronounced sentence of death against any Bábí, but on the contrary used to obtain decent burial for those slain by the Sa‘ídu’l-‘Ulamá. And when men questioned him concerning the garrison of the Castle, he would reply, "I do not condemn them or speak evil of them." For this reason half of Bárfurúsh remained neutral⁹¹, for at first he used to forbid men to traduce or molest the Bábís, though later, when the trouble waxed great, he deemed it prudent to be silent and shut himself up in his house. Now his austerity of life, piety, learning, and virtue were as well known to the people of Mázandarán as were the irreligion, immorality, and worldliness of the Sa‘ídu’l-‘Ulamá.

"The doctor oft of wisdom hath no share,

And is but wisdom's guardian, not its heir.

'Which beareth books⁹²,' saith God. A mere dead load

Is knowledge which is not by Him bestowed.

A sword in savage hands is not more dire

A danger than the knowledge fools acquire!

Rank, wealth, authority, and scripture lore

In evil hands cause only strife and war. <93>

Whene'er the unjust judge controls the pen,

Some Mansúr⁹³ dies upon the gallows then.

Whene'er fools wield authority, God's Word

'They slay the prophets⁹⁴' is a thing assured."⁹⁵

Since an attempt to describe even in outline and in the most concise manner possible all that relates to the garrison of the Castle would lead us too far beyond our original design, and would even then tell but a tithe of what took place, we must perforce content ourselves with giving for illustration brief and succinct accounts of some few individuals only.