Episode of The 'Bab'
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Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: E. Crawshay Williams, Episode of The 'Bab', bahai-library.com.
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Episode of The 'Báb'

E. Crawshay Williams
published in Across Persia pp. 269-272

London: Edward Arnold, 1907

1. Text

THE EPISODE OF THE 'BAB' AND OTHER THINGS

"Things that are mysterious are not necessarily miracles."

— Goethe: Spruche in Prosa.

Only a little over fifty years ago, a certain man had
the opportunity of executing a genuine, well-attested,
first-class miracle.

In the middle of the nineteeth century, in a land
where the mysteries of the East are forgotten and the
wonders of the West not yet learnt, substantial flesh
and blood would have been dissipated into space, and
afterwards resurrected, live and identical beyond a
doubt. After a dramatic and entire disappearance, it
would have reappeared when and where it willed, not
for an hour or a day, but for the remainder of a
natural lifetime. What is more, the whole religious
thought of the East might have been profoundly
affected by this marvel; for the hero of this possible
prodigy was the head of a vigorous and ardent
religious body. Persecuted, but undaunted, this sect,
already endowed with a creed more advanced and
more attractive than its parent, Mahometanism itself,
would have received such encouragement and such
an apparently divine certificate by their prophet's
miraculous feat, that it is exceedingly doubtful whether
it would not have conquered, by the agency of this
tour de force, the religious fields, not only of Persia,
but of a far wider area.

All this in the middle of the nineteenth century.

But the miracle just failed of accomplishment. A
moment's hesitation, a faulty move, and the thing
was done, and what might have been the central
episode of a mighty creed became what was practically
the finale of a comparatively unimportant sectarian
agitation.

The man to whom was granted the unprecedented
opportunity for performing so transcendental a miracle
as his own disappearance and resurrection was the
Báb, and one of the centres of his still remaining
disciples is Abadeh, the little village to which I
journeyed from Surmek.

The Bab was the title of Mirza Ali Mahomet, and
it signifies "the Gate."

The prophet, who, like all his predecessors, thus
claimed to be the portal of a royal road to heaven, had
turned from commerce to the cure of souls. 'His
religious views,' says Professor Jackson, 'were somewhat eclectic; his doctrine leaned toward a mystic
pantheism, with elements of gnosticism, and were of a
highly moral order, and so liberal as to include steps
toward the emancipation of woman.'

Mahometanism, however, would tolerate nothing
of this kind; and when, attracted by a broader and
more liberal creed, increasing numbers of Persians
flocked to the standard of its preacher, the Mullahs
set themselves to work to nip the new heresy in the
bud.

Conflicts and persecutions taught the reformers that
fire and the sword were still the motto of Mahomet.
In the end the Bab himself was captured, taken to
Tabriz, and there condemned to be shot in the presence
of a great crowd.

He was hung by cords from the wall over a shop in
the city square, a squad of soldiers was marched up in
front of him, and the order was given to fire.

Those were not the days of smokeless powder, and
for a few moments after the volley the smoke hung
thick over the scene of the tragedy. When it cleared
away, the Bab was not there.

What if his devotees could have said that he had
been rapt up to heaven by the god whose prophet he
was? What if they had been able to exult a few days
or a few weeks later over the resurrection of their
divine master? Surely the preaching, — not only for
an hour or for a day, but for the remainder of a lifetime; not only upon scanty occasions and to a few
favoured disciples, but continually and to all who
cared to hear, — of one who in the most undoubted and
authentic way had been shot and resurrected, must
have produced a stupendous effect upon the Eastern
mind? It so nearly happened.

When the soldiers had fired, by what amounted to
little less than a miracle indeed, their shots had actually cut the cords which bound the Bab. He dropped
unharmed to the ground, and, under cover of the
smoke, took refuge in a little shop. Had he then had
the presence of mind to fly by a back way, it would
have needed little further aid from fortune to have
taken him safe out of his peril and rendered him a
power for life and a saint for all time. But when
Fate was doing her best for him, he failed to second
her exertions. Dazed very possibly by his fall, he
remained in the shop until he was discovered and
dragged out; and next time the volley was fired it did
its work.

So perished the Bab, and so was lost to mankind a
miracle which, even in these days of telegraphs and
newspapers, would have proved a staggering events
and If it had happened nearly two thousand years ago
would have been an accepted and everlasting evidence
of Divine power.

Babism is to-day a living creed, and it possesses
worshippers not only in Persia, but all over the Near
East and even in America, that generous almshouse
for afflicted creeds.

Abadeh has another title to attention besides its
Babism. In the bazaars there sit, in their little stalls,
men who carve from wood curious spoons and boxes,
for which the place is famous. But for these two
items of interest with which the village is associated,
there is little worthy of remark in the lonely patch of
houses bleakly situated in this desert many thousand
feet above the sea.

Nor is there much to be said about Shulgistan, the
next day's resting-place, of which all I remember is an
ancient mud fort and the decaying blue dome of an
Imamzadeh, behind which lay heaped up a white drift
of snow. ...

2. Image scans (click image for larger version)

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-- Episode of The 'Bab' (Used by permission of the curator)