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| Moat surrounding city of Tabriz, circa 1930s |
On the following day the Russian Consul in Tabriz visited
the spot, and ordered the artist who had accompanied him to make a drawing of
the remains as they lay beside the moat. Nabil, in his chronical, ‘The
Dawn-Breakers’, relates the following account from a believer by the name of
Hájí ‘Alí-‘Askar who saw this drawing:
“An official of the Russian consulate, to whom I was
related, showed me that same sketch on the very day it was drawn. It was such a
faithful portrait of the Báb that I looked upon! No bullet had struck His
forehead, His cheeks, or His lips. I gazed upon a smile which seemed to be
still lingering upon His countenance. His body, however, had been severely
mutilated. I could recognize the arms and head of His companion, who seemed to
be holding Him in his embrace. As I gazed horror-struck upon that haunting
picture, and saw how those noble traits had been disfigured, my heart sank
within me. I turned away my face in anguish and, regaining my house, locked
myself in my room. For three days and three nights, I could neither sleep nor
eat, so overwhelmed was I with emotion. That short and tumultuous life, with
all its sorrows, its turmoil, its banishments, and eventually the awe-inspiring
martyrdom with which it had been crowned, seemed again to be re-enacted before
my eyes. I tossed upon my bed, writhing in agony and pain.”
Earlier, when the Báb had dispersed all of His Writings and
personal belongings, it become clear and evident to His followers from various
signs that His days on earth were coming to an end. A devoted follower of the
Báb, Haji Sulayman Khan, the son of Yahya Khan, one of the nobles of
Adhirbayjan, therefore, left Tehran for Tabriz, in the hope of rescuing the
Báb.
The father of Haji Sulayman Khan was an officer in the
service of the father of Muhammad Shah. Haji Sulayman Khan was a highly
influential man. Amir Nizam, the Prime Minister of the time, was induced to
spare his life, in spite of the fact that many of his fellow believers were
being put to death.
On the afternoon of the second day following the execution,
Sulayman Khan arrived in Tabriz. To his dismay, he found that he had arrived
too late. Hearing what had happened to the remains of the Báb and His
companion, he resolved to recover them in spite of the danger involved.
Sulayman Khan proceeded straightaway to the house of the
mayor of Tabriz who was an old friend, associate, and confidant of his. The
mayor was also of a mystical temperament and did not entertain aversion or
dislike for any sect. Sulayman Khan 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.’
The Mayor, however told Sulayman Khan that ‘such troubles
were in no wise necessary.’ He called on the venturous Haji Allah-Yar, a
courageous and daring man, to render this service to his friend.
In the middle of the night Haji Allah-Yar took some of his
men, accompanied by two Bábís from Milan (a town in the province of
Adhirbayijan), and Sulyman Khan, to the spot where the remains of the Báb and
His disciple had been left. The soldiers guarding the bodies did not dare to
challenge them. Sulaymán Khán reverently gathered the sacred remains and placed
them in the 'aba of one of the believers and delivered them to a silk factory
belonging to Haji Ahmad, a believer from Milan. For two days the remains were
left in this silk factory. They were wrapped in shrouds and hidden under bales
of silk. They were then placed in a special casket which they manufactured and
transferred to another place of safety. Sulayman Khan then communicated the
news to Bahá'u'lláh and awaited His instructions. This transaction remained
absolutely secret.
When the news reached Baha’u’llah, He directed His faithful
brother, Mirza Musa (entitled Aqay-i-Kalim) to send a trusted person to Tabriz
and bring the casket to Tehran. Nabil explains that this decision was prompted
by the wish the Báb Himself had expressed in a Tablet of Visitation He revealed
some time previous when He was in the vicinity of a Muslim shrine near Tehran.
In the concluding passages of this Tablet the Báb addressed the buried saint in
words such as these, “Well is it with you to have found your resting place in
Ray, under the shadow of My Beloved. Would that I might be entombed within the
precincts of that holy ground!”
Sulaymán Khán and the others wrapped the casket in cotton
and prepared it for the journey. Riding on horseback, they travelled during the
cool of the night along the rocky pathways through the hills and mountains.
They were worried about the possibility of attack by highway robbers, who
preyed on travellers along the route. They were also very apprehensive of
encountering government custom authorities on route who would stop, question
and inspect the belongings of travelers to obtain revenue and stop smuggling.
Any suspicion by such authorities that these believers were carrying a casket
containing the bodies of the Báb and His disciple would have definitely
resulted in their confiscation and destruction. It would have also resulted in
the killing of the couriers.
Fortunately, such concerns did not materialize thanks in
part to the assistance they received from one of the believers in Tabriz, who
was the deputy-director of the provincial customs office of that city. It is
noteworthy to know that Tabriz in those years was apparently more populous than
Tehran as most of Iran’s imports and exports passed through it. The government,
therefore, had set up such customs houses to prevent smuggling or other
unwanted activities.
After travelling on horseback for about 300 kilometers, the
men, with their sacred cargo, arrived safely in Zanjan, a town about 330
kilometres from Tehran. They spent one night in Zanjan and continued on toward
Tehran the following day.
The casket arrived in Tehran at a time when Bahá'u'lláh, on
the order of the Prime Minister, had already departed from the capital for
Karbila. Following Baha’u’llah’s instructions, the casket was delivered to
Mirza Musa, Baha’u’llah’s faithful brother, who, with the help of another
believer, placed it in a safe location inside a Muslim shrine in Tehran. Other
than one believer who assisted Mirza Musa, no one else knew about this. After
some time the casket was transferred to the house of Sulayman Khan in Tehran.
In the meantime, on the third day following the execution,
the residents of Tabriz became aware of the disappearance of the bodies. As to
what happened, the sentinels excused themselves by saying that wild beasts must
have devoured them when they fell asleep. Their superiors also concealed the
truth and did not report it to the authorities for fear of losing their own
positions. The clergy took advantage of the opportunity to further undermine
and humiliate the Báb by fabricating the following logic: "The holy body
of the immaculate Imam and that of the true Shi'ite are preserved from the
encroachments of beasts of prey and creeping things and wounds, but the body of
this person have the wild beasts torn in pieces."
On His return to the capital Bahá’u’lláh directed that the
casket be removed and concealed in another Muslim shrine located west of
Tehran. It was left there until about 1868 when, from Adrianople, Baha’u’llah
addressed a Tablet to two believers in Tehran and instructed them to remove the
casket to yet another safe location. Thus under Baha’u’llah’s direction, and
later through ‘Abdu’l-Baha’is instructions, the sacred remains were moved from
place to place in Iran, until the time when, in pursuance of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's
instructions, they were transferred to the Holy Land, and were permanently and
ceremoniously laid to rest by Him in a specially erected mausoleum on the
slopes of Mt. Carmel – in the year 1909.
(Adapted from: ‘A Traveller’s Narative’, by ‘Abdu’l-Baha;
‘God Passes By’, by Shoghi Effendi, ‘Revelation of Baha’u’llah’, by Adib
Taherzadeh; ‘Release the Sun’, by William Sears; ‘Robe of Light’, by David
Ruhe; ‘Journey to a Mountain’, by Michael Day)
