A Traveler's Narrative
page 28
person have the wild beasts torn in pieces." But after the fullest
investigation and inquiry it hath been proved that when the
Báb had dispersed all His writings and personal properties and
it had become clear and evident from various signs that these
events would shortly take place, therefore, on the second day
of these events, Sulaymán Khán the son of Yahyá Khán, one
of the nobles of Ádhirbayján devoted to the Báb, arrived, and
proceeded straightway to the house of the mayor of Tabríz.
And since the mayor was an old friend, associate, and
confidant of his; since, moreover, he was of the mystic temperament
and did not entertain aversion or dislike for any sect,
Sulaymán Khán divulged this secret to him saying, "Tonight
I, with several others, will endeavor by every means and
artifice to rescue the body. Even though it be not possible,
come what may we will make an attack, and either attain our
object or pour out our lives freely in this way." "Such troubles,"
answered the mayor, "are in no wise necessary." He
then sent one of his private servants named Hájí Alláh-Yár,
who, by whatever means and proceedings it was, obtained the
body without trouble or difficulty and handed it over to Hájí
Sulaymán Khán. And when it was morning the sentinels, to
excuse themselves, said that the wild beasts had devoured it.
That night they sheltered the body in the workshop of a Bábí of
Milán: next day they manufactured a box, placed it in the box,
and left it as a trust. Afterwards, in accordance with instructions
which arrived from Tihrán, they sent it away from
Ádhirbayján. And this transaction remained absolutely secret.
Now in these years [A.H. one thousand two hundred and]
sixty-six and sixty-seven throughout all Persia fire fell on the
households of the Bábís, and each one of them, in whatever
hamlet he might be, was, on the slightest suspicion arising,
put to the sword. More than four thousand souls were slain,
and a great multitude of women and children, left without
protector or helper, distracted and confounded, were trodden
down and destroyed. And all these occurrences were brought
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