lified by all the people, especially when they
ceased to defend themselves ... the Master used to say sometimes that the
western friends will be severely persecuted but theirs will be primarily
moral....

Letter of 30 November 1930

30 November 1930

He (the Guardian) is enclosing extracts from Lord Curzon's "Persia and the
Persian Question" giving a detailed and faithful description of the state
of Persia in the middle of the 19th century. He thinks that references to
the extracts ... will be of great value in showing to the reader the
contrast between the decadent state of the government and the people at
that time and the heroism and nobility of character displayed by the early
disciples of the Bab... Shoghi Effendi is also sending you ... the
Master's words concerning the situation which led to the defensive action
which the early disciples of the Bab were compelled to take in Mazindaran,
Nayriz and Zanjan. From these words it is evident that a systematic
campaign of plunder and massacre had been initiated by the central
government. Baha'u'llah, Who Himself was an active figure in those days
and was regarded one of the leading exponents of the Faith of the Bab,
states clearly His views in the Iqan that His conception of the
sovereignty of the Promised Qa'im was purely a spiritual one, and not a
material or political one... His view of the sovereignty of the Qa'im
confirms the various evidences given in the text of the narrative itself
of the views held by those who actually participated in these events such
as Hujjat, Quddus, Mulla ?usayn. The very fact that these disciples were
ready and willing to emerge from the fort and return to their homes after
receiving the assurance that they would be no more molested is itself an
evidence that they were not contemplating any action against the
authorities.

Shoghi Effendi is also sending you an account of the doctrines of _Sh_i'ah
Islam from which the Movement originally sprang. It will help you to
connect the origin of the Movement with the tenets and beliefs held by the
_Sh_i'ahs of Persia. The Bab declared Himself at the beginning of His
mission to be the "Bab" by which He meant to be the gate or forerunner of
"Him Whom God will make manifest", that is to say Baha'u'llah, Whose
advent the _Sh_i'ahs also expected in the person of "the return of Imam
?usayn". The Sunnis also believe in a similar twofold manifestation, the
first they call "the Mihdi", the secon