Successive Stages in the Transfer of the Remains of the Bab from Persia to the Holy Land and the Erection of His Mausoleum on Mount Carmel

        
• Execution of the Bab in Tabriz and the exposure of His mangled body on the edge of the moat outside the city, July 9, 1850.

• Wrapping of His remains in a cloak, their secret removal to the silk factory owned by one of the believers of Milan and their deposition in a small wooden casket, July 11, 1850.

• Transportation, in accordance with Baha'u’llah's instructions, of the casket to Tihran and its concealment in the shrine of Imam-Zadih Hasan.

• Removal of the remains to the home of Haji Sulayman Khan and their subsequent transfer to the shrine of Imam-Zadih Ma’sum.

• Instructions issued by Baha'u'llah, while in Adrianople, to Mulla-'Ali Akbari-Sahmirzadi and Jaml-i-Burujirdi, to transfer the casket to a safer hiding place, and its temporary concealment within a wall of the Masjid-i-Masha’u’llah outside the gates of the capital, 1867-1868.

• Detection of the hiding place of the casket and its smuggling into Tihran and its deposition in the house of Mirza Hasan-i-Vazir, a believer and- son-in-law of Haji Mirza Siyyid 'Aliy-i-Tafrishi, the Majdu'l-Ashraf.

Years 1843-1844 were a Time of Great Expectation Worldwide

Around the world, believers of different faiths -- Hindus, Buddhists, Zoroasrrians, Jews, Christians, Muslims, American Indians – all, expected the coming of a Great World Teacher. Many Christians expected the return of Christ, and these very years --1843-1844-were a time of great expectation. Bible scholars studying independently in different parts of the world had arrived at the same exciting conclusion: This was the time promised for Christ’s return!
"Now is the hour!" was announced from pulpits in Europe, the Americas, Asia, Africa, and Australia. "Christ may come at any moment," was the message. "Watch, therefore, and pray." The message of Christ's return and the coming of the judgment hour was written in pamphlets and reported in the press. More than a thousand ministers in Great Britain and America alone preached the news. One of these was the eloquent evangelist Harriet Livermore [1], who not only preached throughout the United States, but also at the seat of power -- the House of Representatives in Washington, D.C.

Fate of Those Who Persecuted the Bab, Who Opposed the Construction of His Shrine and Threatened Its Destruction

Muhammad Shah, who disregarded the appeal of the Bab to meet Him in person and plead His Cause, sustained a sudden reverse of fortune, and succumbed, at the age of forty, to a complication of maladies.

Nasiri’d-Din Shah, during whose reign the Bab was executed, and under whose aegis the greatest massacre of the Babis took place, was, in the plenitude of his power, dramatically assassinated on the eve of his jubilee. The Qajar dynasty, to which he belonged, was subsequently brought to an ignominious end.

Haji Mirza Aqasi, the Grand Vazir of Muhammad Shah and chief instigator of the outrages perpetrated against the Bab, was disgraced by his sovereign, lost his fortune, was expelled to Karbila, and became a victim of disease and poverty.

Miza Taqi Khan, the Amir Nizam, the Grand Vazir of Nasiri'd-Din Shah, who was directly responsible for the execution of the Bab, was disgraced and put to death by royal order in the bath of the Palace of Fin, near Kashan.

Baha’u’llah is released from Siyah-Chal

It was during the month of December in 1852 that Baha’u’llah was released from the Siyah-Chal [1] (Black Pit) of Tehran. Here is how Baha’u’llah’s daughter, Bahiyyih Khanum, the Greatest Holy Leaf, recalled the circumstances involved many years later:

We listened eagerly to the accounts she [her mother, Asiyih Khanum] gave to my uncle [Baha’u’llah’s faithful brother, Mirza Musa]. This information came through the kindness of a sister of my grandfather, who was married to Mirza Yusif, a Russian subject, and a friend of the Russian Consul in Tihran. This gentleman, my great uncle by marriage, used to attend the courts to find out some particulars as to the victims chosen for execution day by day, and thus was able to relieve to some extent my mother's overwhelming anxiety as these appalling days passed over us.

It was Mirza Yusif, who was able to help my mother about getting food taken to my father, and who brought us to the two little rooms near the prison, where we stayed in close hiding. He had to be very careful in thus defying the authorities, although the danger in this case was mitigated by the fact of his being under the protection of the Russian Consulate, as a Russian subject.

First Canadian National Spiritual Assembly -- Elected in 1948

Front row, left to right: Rosemary Sala, Siegfried Schopflocher, Laura Davis, Ross Woodman, John Robarts. Back row, left to right: Emeric Sala, Rowland Estall, Doris Richardson, Lloyd Gardner

First Public Reference to the Faith in North America

It took place on September 23rd, 1893 in a paper entitled “The Religious Mission of the English Speaking Nations”, by Rev. Henry H. Jessup, a retired missionary from north Syria. It was read by Rev. George A. Ford at the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago. (A Basic Baha’i Dictionary Chronology, by Glenn Cameron with Wendi Momen)

Below is a portion of what was read on this occasion:

The First Disciple of the Bab Martyred at Fort Tabarsi on February 2nd, 1849

The one to whom the Bab declared His mission and the first to believe in the Him as the Promised One fell as a martyr at the Fort of Shaykh Tabarsi on 2 February 1849 at the age of thirty-five. He was the first of the Bab's eighteen disciples who were called the Letters of the Living, and was designated by the Bab as Babu'l-Bab which means the 'Gate of the Gate'.

He was born in the hamlet of Zirak near the small town of Bushruyih in the north-eastern Iranian province of Khurasan. His father appears to have been a wealthy cloth dyer who was also a local cleric. His mother was a respected poet. We know that he had at least one brother and sister. He furthered his own religious studies in Mashhad and Isfahan, and then at the age of eighteen went to Karbali as one of the students of the Shaykhi leader Siyyid Kazim Rashti. He became so highly respected that some thought that he might be his teacher’s successor. One of Mulla Husayn’s major assignments was to meet a preeminent Shi’ih cleric of his age and defend the Shaykhi views.