Sám Khán the Christian asked to be excused; the turn
of service came to another regiment, and the chief of the farráshes
withheld his hand. Áqá Ján Big of Khamsíh, colonel of the bodyguard,
advanced; and they again bound the Báb together with that young man to the same
nail. The Báb uttered certain words which those few who knew Persian
understood, while the rest heard but the sound of His voice.
The colonel of the regiment appeared in person: and it was
before noon on the twenty-eighth day of Sha’bán in the year [A.H.] one
thousand two hundred and sixty-six. [9 July 1850] Suddenly he gave orders to
fire. At this volley the bullets produced such an effect that the breasts [of
the victims] were riddled, and their limbs were completely dissected, except
their faces, which were but little marred.
Then they removed those two bodies from the square to the
edge of the moat outside the city, and that night they remained by the edge of
the moat. Next day the Russian consul came with an artist and took a picture of
those two bodies in the posture wherein they had fallen at the edge of the
moat.
(‘Abdu’l-Baha, ‘A Traveler’s Narrative’)
