The Prime Minister issued a second order to his brother
Mírzá Hasan Khán, the gist of which order was this: “Obtain a formal and
explicit sentence from the learned doctors of Tabríz who are the firm support
of the Church of Ja’far (upon him be peace) and the impregnable stronghold of
the Shí’ite faith; summon the Christian regiment of Urúmíyyih; suspend
the Báb before all the people; and give orders for the regiment to fire a
volley.”
Mírzá Hasan Khán summoned his chief of the farráshes,
and gave him his instructions. They removed the Báb’s turban and sash which
were the signs of His Siyyid-hood, brought Him with four of His followers to
the barrack square of Tabríz, confined Him in a cell, and appointed forty of
the Christian soldiers of Tabríz to guard Him.
Next day the chief of the farráshes delivered over
the Báb and a young man named Áqá Muhammad-‘Alí who was of a noble family of
Tabríz to Sám Khán, colonel of the Christian regiment of Urúmíyyih, at
the sentences of the learned divine Mullá Muhammad of Mamaqán, of the second
ecclesiastical authority Mullá Mírzá Báqir, and of the third ecclesiastical
authority Mullá Murtadá-Qulí and others. An iron nail was hammered into the
middle of the staircase of the very cell wherein they were imprisoned, and two
ropes were hung down. By one rope the Báb was suspended and by the other rope
Áqá Muhammad-‘Alí, both being firmly bound in such wise that the head of that
young man was on the Báb’s breast. The surrounding housetops billowed with
teeming crowds. A regiment of soldiers ranged itself in three files. The first
file fired; then the second file, and then the third file discharged volleys.
From the fire of these volleys a mighty smoke was produced. When the smoke
cleared away they saw that young man standing and the Báb seated by the side of
His amanuensis Áqá Siyyid Husayn in the very cell from the staircase of which
they had suspended them. To neither one of them had the slightest injury
resulted.
(‘Abdu’l-Baha, ‘A Traveler’s Narrative’)
