Baha’is mark Martyrdom of the Bab |11 July 2009

And Baha’is in Seychelles joined in the commemoration at the National Baha’i Centre, Roch Lane.
It was the 159th anniversary and allowed Baha’is to reflect on the continuing executions of their fellow believers in Iran, where clerics hope to wipe out the Baha’i faith completely as they had hoped to do with the killing of the Bab in 1850.

The Bab

The Bab was born on October 20, 1819 as Mirza ’Ali Muhamad. Hostilities towards him started in 1844 when he claimed he was the Bab – meaning the Gate.
The aggression was redoubled when he proclaimed himself the Mihdi, meaning the Point, whose coming Prophet Muhammad had foretold. The Shi’ihs identified the Mihdi with the 12th Imam who, according to their beliefs, had mysteriously disappeared from the sight of men about 1,000 years previously.

They believed that he was still alive and would reappear in the same body as before, and they interpreted in a material sense the prophecies regarding his dominion, glory, conquests and the "signs" of his advent, just as the Jews in the time of Christ interpreted similar prophecies regarding his coming.

They expected he would appear with earthly sovereignty and an innumerable army and declare his revelation, that he would raise dead bodies and restore them to life, and so on. As these signs did not appear, the Shi’his rejected the Bab with the same fierce scorn which the Jews displayed towards Jesus.

The Babís, on the other hand, interpreted the prophecies spiritually. They regarded the sovereignty of the Promised One as a mystical sovereignty; his glory as spiritual, not earthly glory; his conquests as conquests over the cities of men’s hearts, and they found abundant proof of the Bab’s claim in his wonderful life and teachings, his unshakable faith, his invincible steadfastness, and his power of raising to newness of spiritual life those who were in the graves of error and ignorance.
But the Bab did not stop even with the claim of Mihdihood and he adopted the sacred title of Primal Point.

This was a title applied to Muhammad himself by his followers. Even the Imams were secondary in importance to the ‘Point’, from whom they derived their inspiration and authority. In assuming this title, the Bab claimed to rank, like Muhammad, in the series of great founders of religion, and for this reason, in the eyes of the Shi'ihs, he was regarded as an impostor, just as Moses and Jesus before him had been regarded as impostors.

He even inaugurated a new calendar, restoring the solar year and dating the commencement of the new era from the year of his own declaration.

Intense persecution

Because of these declarations of the Bab and the alarming rapidity with which more people of all classes, rich and poor, learned and ignorant, were eagerly accepting the faith, attempts at suppression became more and more ruthless and determined. Houses were pillaged and destroyed. Women were seized and carried off. In Tihran, Fars, Mazindaran and other places, great numbers of the believers were put to death.

Many were beheaded, hanged, blown from the mouths of cannon, burnt or chopped to pieces. Despite all attempts at repression, however, the movement progressed. Through this very oppression, the assurance of the believers increased, for thereby many of the prophecies concerning the coming of the Mihdi were literally fulfilled. In a tradition recorded by Jabir, which the Shi’ihs regard as authentic, we read:  

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 Deylamite 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 shall prevail amongst their women; these are my saints indeed. (Extracted from History of the Bab, translated by Prof. E. G. Browne, p. 132.)

Martyrdom of the Bab

On July 9, 1850 the Bab himself, who was then in his 31st year, fell victim to the fanatical fury of his persecutors. He and a devoted young follower named Aqa Muhammad Ali, given the title Anis – Loyal Friend – who had passionately begged to be allowed to share his martyrdom, were led to the scaffold in the old barrack square of Tabriz.

About two hours before noon the two were suspended by ropes under their armpits in such a way that the head of Muhammad Ali (Anis) rested against the breast of his beloved master. A regiment of Armenian soldiers was drawn up and received the order to fire. Promptly the volleys rang out, but when the smoke cleared, they found his companion still alive and the Bab was nowhere to be found. The bullets had but severed the ropes by which they were suspended, and he had dropped to the ground unhurt. They found the Bab in a prison cell talking to his secretary and he told them: “I have finished my conversation with Siyyid Husayn. Now you may proceed to fulfil your intention.”

At about noon they were again suspended. The Armenians, who considered the result of their volleys a miracle, were unwilling to fire again, and another regiment of soldiers had to be brought to the scene, who fired when ordered.

This time the volleys took effect. The bodies of both victims were riddled by bullets and horribly mutilated, although their faces were untouched. The enemies of the Bab enjoyed a guilty thrill of triumph, thinking that this hated tree of the Babí faith was now severed at the root, and its complete eradication would be easy.

But their triumph was short-lived! They did not realise that the Spiritual Tree of Truth cannot be felled by any material axe. Had they but known, this very crime of theirs was the means of giving greater vigor to the cause. The martyrdom of the Bab fulfilled his own cherished wish and inspired his followers with increased zeal. Such was the fire of their spiritual enthusiasm that the bitter winds of persecution but fanned it to a fiercer blaze: the greater the efforts at extinction, the higher mounted the flames.

After the Bab’s martyrdom his remains, with those of his devoted companion, were thrown on the edge of the moat outside the city wall. On the second night they were taken at midnight by some of the Babís, and after being concealed for years in Persia were ultimately brought, through great danger and difficulty, to the Holy Land. There they are now interred in a tomb beautifully situated on the slope of Mount Carmel, not far from the Cave of Elijah. Thousands of Baha’i pilgrims from all parts of the world go to pay homage at the Holy Tomb of Baha’u’llah and with reverence visit and pray at the shrine of the Bab, the devoted lover and forerunner of the Baha’i faith.