Afterwards they arrested those two brothers, [Siyyid Hasan
and Siyyid Husayn of Isfáhán] put them in chains, and brought them before the
public assembly. Yet seek as they might to fix on them some accusation, 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 Imám-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 Julfá 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!
- ‘Abdu’l-Baha (‘A Traveler’s Narrative’)
