And amongst them [“certain persons (that) appeared amongst
the Bábís who had a strange ascendancy and appearance in the eyes of this sect”]
was she who was entitled Qurratu’l-‘Ayn [Tahirih] the daughter of Hájí Sálih,
the sage of Qazvín, the erudite doctor. She, according to what is related, was
skilled in diverse arts, amazed the understandings and thoughts of the most
eminent masters by her eloquent dissertations on the exegesis and tradition of
the Perspicuous Book, and was a mighty sign in the doctrines of the glorious Shaykh
of Ahsá. At the Supreme Shrines she borrowed light on matters divine from the
lamp of Kázim, and freely sacrificed her life in the way of the Báb. She
discussed and disputed with the doctors and sages, loosing her tongue to
establish her doctrine. Such fame did she acquire that most people who were
scholars or mystics sought to hear her speech and were eager to become
acquainted with her powers of speculation and deduction. She had a brain full
of tumultuous ideas, and thoughts vehement and restless. In many places she
triumphed over the contentious, expounding the most subtle questions. When she
was imprisoned in the house of [Mahmúd] the Kalantar of Tihrán, and the
festivities and rejoicings of a wedding were going on, the wives of the city
magnates who were present as guests were so charmed with the beauty of her
speech that, forgetting the festivities, they gathered round her, diverted by
listening to her words from listening to the melodies, and rendered indifferent
by witnessing her marvels to the contemplation of the pleasant and novel sights
which are incidental to a wedding. In short in elocution she was the calamity
of the age, and in ratiocination the trouble of the world. Of fear or timidity
there was no trace in her heart, nor had the admonitions of the kindly-disposed
any profit or fruit for her. Although she was of [such as are] damsels [meet]
for the bridal bower, yet she wrested preeminence from stalwart men, and
continued to strain the feet of steadfastness until she yielded up her life at
the sentence of the mighty doctors in Tihrán. But were we to occupy ourselves
with these details the matter would end in prolixity. (‘Abdu’l-Baha, ‘A
Traveler’s Narrative’)
