An official letter dated July 22,1850, from Sir Justin Sheil, Queen Victoria's Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary in Tihran, to the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Lord Palmerston. It reads:
“The founder of the sect has been executed at Tabreez. He was killed by a volley of musketry, and his death was on the point of giving his religion a lustre which would have largely increased his proselytes. 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 [1] from the recess where after some search he was discovered and shot. His death, according to the belief of his disciples, will make no difference as Bab must always exist.”
(Document F.O. 60/152/88 in the archives of the Foreign Office at the Public Records Office in London, England, quoted by Hand of the Cause John Ferraby in ‘All Things Made New’)
[1] Not literally, of course
