on, find some
fault, or discover some pretext, they were unable to do so. At length they
said, "You must either renounce this faith, or else lay down your heads
beneath the sword of punishment." Although some of those present urged
them saying, "Say merely 'We are not of this sect,' and it is sufficient,
and will be the means of your deliverance and protection," they would by
no means consent, but rather confirmed and declared it with eloquent
speech and affecting utterance, so that the rage and violence of the
Imam-Jum'ih boiled over, and, not satisfied with killing and destroying
them, they inflicted sundry indignities on their bodies after death to
mention which is not fitting, and of which the details are beyond the
power of speech. Indeed in such wise was the blood of these two brothers
shed that even the Christian priest of Julfa cried out, lamented, and wept
on that day; and this event befell after such sort that everyone wept over
the fate of those two brothers, for during the whole period of their life
they had never distressed the feelings even of an ant, while by general
report they had in the time of the famine in Persia spent all their wealth
in relieving the poor and distressed. Yet, notwithstanding this
reputation, were they slain with such cruelty in the midst of the people!

But now for a long while the justice of the King has prevented and
withheld, and none dares attempt such grievous molestations.

FOOTNOTES

1 20 October 1819.

2 23 May 1844.

3 Qur'an 12.

4 Undertake the pilgrimage to Mecca.

5 Muhammad _Sh_ah died September 4, 1848; the English translation of A
Traveler's Narrative first appeared in 1891.

6 Qur'an 108.

7 Qur'an 103.

8 A reference to Baha'u'llah, "Him Whom God shall make manifest,"
whose precursor the Bab considered Himself to be.

9 The Ma_th_navi.

10 The Ma_th_navi.

11 Qur'an 7:154.

12 The _Sh_i'ites.

13 Qur'an 37:173.

14 9 July 1850.

15 Atabat 'Aliyat, literally Supreme Shrines, a term by which the
_Sh_i'ih Muslims referred to the cities of Kazimayn, Najaf, and
Karbila and generally applied to the region of eastern 'Iraq, of
which Ba_gh_dad was the center. When Baha'u'llah was released from
prison and banished from Persia, He chose Ba_gh_dad for the place of
His exile.

16 That is, Baha'u'llah.

17 Qur'an 95:4.

18 Qur'an 23: