The Bab

The failed first volley

At the execution in Tabriz in July 1850, a first volley reportedly left the Bab unhurt with his ropes cut, and he was out of sight when the smoke cleared. He was found and a second volley killed him. Baha'i sources add that he was found back in his cell finishing a conversation with his secretary, and that his companion stood unhurt.

When the smoke and dust cleared away after the volley, Bab was not to be seen, and the populace proclaimed that he had ascended to the skies.

The balls had broken the ropes by which he was bound, but he was dragged from the recess where after some search, he was discovered, and shot.

To neither one of them had the slightest injury resulted.

Reported by Sir Justin Sheil, British Minister, from unnamed informants in 1850; a Persian who told W. S. Blunt in 1881 that he saw it as a boy; A Traveller's Narrative (1886 text); Nabil, a Babi and Baha'i historian writing in 1887-1888 from survivors.. Recorded 22 July 1850 (Sheil), about two weeks after the event.

The core sequence, a failed volley followed by a second, is reported by a non-Baha'i diplomat within two weeks, so it is not a late invention of the community. But Sheil was hundreds of miles away and his source is unknown. Anitchkov, the Russian consul in Tabriz, says only that the soldiers botched the shooting and made it a torture, and Stevens mentions no failure, although he was also absent. Details conflict: Blunt's informant has the companions killed by the first volley, Nabil has the companion unharmed, Sheil says the Bab was dragged from a recess, Nabil says he sat calmly in his room, and the guide quoted by Tweedy says he had fallen and escaped into the crowd. Nabil's figure of 750 rifles appears in the late Baha'i account, not in any 1850 dispatch. No sworn or official Persian record of the shooting was seen here. Baha'is call the event miraculous; Sheil himself gives the natural reading that bullets broke the ropes.

A neutral diplomat reported a failed first volley within two weeks, though at a distance and from unnamed informants. Scored is the failed volley and his being found alive; the conversation in the cell and the 750 rifles belong only to late Baha'i accounts. Reviewer's judgment, not a calculation.

Sources: Sheil to Palmerston, No. 88, 22 July 1850; R. Stevens to Sheil, No. 68, 24 July 1850; Anitchkov to the Russian Foreign Ministry, No. 437, 3/15 July 1850; The Babi and Baha'i Religions, 1844-1944: Some Contemporary Western Accounts; A Traveller's Narrative Written to Illustrate the Episode of the Bab, vol. 2, with Browne's notes; The Dawn-Breakers: Nabil's Narrative of the Early Days of the Baha'i Revelation; Execution of the Bab

Dust storm after the execution

Nabil writes that as the final volley was fired a gale rose and a whirlwind of dust darkened Tabriz from noon until night.

Reported by Nabil-i-A'zam, Baha'i historian, not present in Tabriz that day. Recorded 1887-1888, about 38 years later.

Not found in the British, Russian or French dispatches printed by Momen. Sheil, Stevens, Anitchkov and Ferrier do not mention it. A dust storm in a Persian summer would be ordinary in itself; what cannot be confirmed is that it happened that day and lasted until night. Weather records for Tabriz in 1850 were not found.

A dust storm is ordinary, but only a late narrative reports this one, and no dispatch from 1850 mentions it. Scored is a storm that day lasting until night. Reviewer's judgment, not a calculation.

Sources: The Dawn-Breakers: Nabil's Narrative of the Early Days of the Baha'i Revelation; The Babi and Baha'i Religions, 1844-1944: Some Contemporary Western Accounts

Fate of the regiment that shot him

Nabil presents the fate of the second firing regiment as a judgement: 250 men killed when a wall fell in an earthquake that same year, and the remaining 500 shot after a mutiny three years later.

This afternoon a cruel massacre of the soldiers of the Nasarieh Regiment took place here.

Reported by Nabil-i-A'zam, Baha'i historian; a separate British consular report on the mutiny. Recorded British report 28 May 1855; Nabil 1887-1888.

A British dispatch does confirm a real massacre of the Nasiriyyih regiment outside Tabriz in May 1855, after a mutiny over pay, with Consul Keith Abbott estimating 300 to 400 killed and wounded. That is about five years after the execution, not three, and Abbott names the Qa'im-Maqam, not Nabil's Mirza Sadiq Khan-i-Nuri. Abbott says nothing of the Bab, and Momen notes the commanding officer was not the man of 1850. The wall collapse was not found in any independent record. The link between the two events is an interpretation by believers, not a finding.

A British dispatch confirms a massacre of the regiment in 1855, which is solid. Scored is Nabil's account: the wall collapse is unconfirmed, and the date, numbers and official all differ. Reviewer's judgment, not a calculation.

Sources: The Dawn-Breakers: Nabil's Narrative of the Early Days of the Baha'i Revelation; The Babi and Baha'i Religions, 1844-1944: Some Contemporary Western Accounts

Reports of miracles and holy bathwater at Urumiyyih

American missionaries at Urumiyyih recorded that people said the Bab worked miracles, that crowds wept on visiting him, and that bystanders carried off the water he had bathed in.

Reported by Dr Austin H. Wright and Rev. J. H. Shedd, American missionaries in Urumiyyih, and Rev. Isaac Adams, a Nestorian writer. Recorded Wright in a German paper of 1851.

This is good evidence of what people believed, from outsiders with no wish to promote him. Wright reports miracle stories only as rumour and names no specific miracle. Shedd places the visit in 1850, while the transfer to Tabriz for the examination was in 1848, so the later missionary memories are imprecise. No specific cure is documented.

Event scored: that people said this and crowds behaved this way, reported by outsiders with no wish to promote him. No specific miracle is named or scored. Known here only through a summary, so lowered by about 10. Reviewer's judgment, not a calculation.

Sources: The Babi and Baha'i Religions, 1844-1944: Some Contemporary Western Accounts

Speed of composing verses

The Bab and his followers treated the flow of his verses, composed without formal religious training, as the sign of his mission. Outsiders heard that Arabic poured from him so quickly that onlookers thought him inspired.

Reported by Dr Austin H. Wright, American missionary, repeating local reports; the Bab's own writings as described by scholars. Recorded Wright 1851; the writings themselves from 1844.

The large body of writing is itself the evidence, and manuscripts survive. Its quality was contested at once. MacEoin calls his Arabic idiosyncratic and ungrammatical, and Ferrier reports that Shi'i scholars claimed to find faults in it. The claim of no learning is qualified: MacEoin records six or seven years of school, study of religious literature, and about a year near Sayyid Kazim Rashti's classes in Karbala. Wright's statement is second hand.

Event scored: very rapid and prolific writing. The surviving manuscripts prove the volume, while the speed rests on followers and a second-hand report. Known here only through a summary, so lowered by about 10. Reviewer's judgment, not a calculation.

Sources: The Babi and Baha'i Religions, 1844-1944: Some Contemporary Western Accounts; BAB, Sayyed 'Ali Mohammad Sirazi; Selections from the Writings of the Bab

Asked to heal the Shah at the Tabriz examination

In the Muslim chronicles of the 1848 examination, a cleric asks the Bab for a miracle: restore the sick Muhammad Shah. In that account the Crown Prince offers to resign the throne if the Bab can make him young, and the Bab says it is not in his power.

It is not in my power.

Reported by Rawzatu's-Safa, Qisasu'l-'Ulama and Nasikhu't-Tawarikh, Muslim chronicles hostile to him, as translated by E. G. Browne. Recorded Mid nineteenth century chronicles; Browne 1891.

Browne prints this version while saying he shares Kazem-Beg's doubts about its historical value, and notes that the Babi side offers no detailed narrative, because the Bab apparently had no friend in the room. It is a claim that a miracle was not performed. It should be read as a hostile account, not as a transcript. Later scholars disagree about how badly he fared: Algar and Bayat read the sources as showing he did poorly, while MacEoin finds the questions unfair, according to the Wikipedia summary.

Hostile chronicles, doubted by their own translator, and no friend of the Bab was in the room. An exchange of this kind could have happened, but this is not a transcript. Reviewer's judgment, not a calculation.

Sources: A Traveller's Narrative Written to Illustrate the Episode of the Bab, vol. 2, with Browne's notes; Tabriz interrogation documents: report to the Shah, recantation text and clerical sentence; Bab's trial in Tabriz

Foretelling his own death

Nabil relates, from the Bab's secretary Siyyid Husayn, that on his last night the Bab said the next day would be his martyrdom, and that he promised the youth Muhammad-'Ali that he would stay with him.

Reported by Siyyid Husayn-i-Yazdi, the Bab's secretary and devotee, as told to Nabil. Recorded 1887-1888.

The report rests on a devoted eyewitness at second hand, recorded decades later. Little foreknowledge was needed. G. A. Stevens wrote on 30 June 1850 that the Bab had been brought to Tabriz to be killed, so the town expected it, and Nabil himself says the Bab was stripped of his turban and moved to the barracks under guard.

A devoted eyewitness at second hand, nearly forty years later. The town already expected his death, so little foreknowledge was needed. Reviewer's judgment, not a calculation.

Sources: The Dawn-Breakers: Nabil's Narrative of the Early Days of the Baha'i Revelation; The Babi and Baha'i Religions, 1844-1944: Some Contemporary Western Accounts

The vision of 1844 and the dream of the Imam Husayn

The Bab wrote that on 4 May 1844 the spirit descended into his heart, and that a dream in which he drank blood from the severed head of the Imam Husayn was the source of his verses.

Reported by The Bab himself, in the Kitabu'l-Fihrist and the Sahifa-yi 'Adliyya, as cited by MacEoin. Recorded 1845 or close to it.

First person and early, so the report that he had these experiences is strong. Their content cannot be tested. The dates and citations come from MacEoin's Iranica article; the Persian and Arabic originals were not read here.

Event scored: the experience and the dream, as experiences. He wrote of them within about a year, and the originals were not read here. Known here only through a summary, so lowered by about 10. Reviewer's judgment, not a calculation.

Sources: BAB, Sayyed 'Ali Mohammad Sirazi