e ferocious and shameless
mujtahid of Barfuru_sh_, whose unquenchable hostility had heaped such
insults upon, and caused such sufferings to, the heroes of Tabarsi, fell,
soon after the abominations he had perpetrated, a prey to a strange
disease, provoking an unquenchable thirst and producing such icy chills
that neither the furs he wrapped himself in, nor the fire that continually
burned in his room could alleviate his sufferings. The spectacle of his
ruined and once luxurious home, fallen into such ill use after his death
as to become the refuse-heap of the people of his town, impressed so
profoundly the inhabitants of Mazindaran that in their mutual
vituperations they would often invoke upon each other's home the same fate
as that which had befallen that accursed habitation. The false-hearted and
ambitious Mahmud _Kh_an-i-Kalantar, into whose custody Tahirih had been
delivered before her martyrdom, incurred, nine years later, the wrath of
his royal master, was dragged feet first by ropes through the bazaars to a
place outside the city gates, and there hung on the gallows. Mirza Hasan
_Kh_an, who carried out the execution of the Bab under orders from his
brother, the Amir-Nizam, was, within two years of that unpardonable act,
subjected to a dreadful punishment which ended in his death. The
_Sh_ay_kh_u'l-Islam of Tabriz, the insolent, the avaricious and tyrannical
Mirza 'Ali As_gh_ar, who, after the refusal of the bodyguard of the
governor of that city to inflict the bastinado on the Bab, proceeded to
apply eleven times the rods to the feet of his Prisoner with his own hand,
was, in that same year, struck with paralysis, and, after enduring the
most excruciating ordeal, died a miserable death--a death that was soon
followed by the abolition of the function of the _Sh_ay_kh_u'l-Islam in
that city. The haughty and perfidious Mirza Abu-Talib _Kh_an who,
disregarding the counsels of moderation given him by Mirza Aqa _Kh_an, the
Grand Vizir, ordered the plunder and burning of the village of Takur, as
well as the destruction of the house of Baha'u'llah, was, a year later,
stricken with plague and perished wretchedly, shunned by even his nearest
kindred. Mihr-'Ali _Kh_an, the _Sh_uja'u'l-Mulk, who, after the attempt on
the _Sh_ah's life, so savagely persecuted the remnants of the Babi
community in Nayriz, fell ill, according to the testimony of his own
grandson, and was stricken with dumbness, which was never relieved till
the