| Shrine of S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ Aḥmad ibn-i-Abí-Tálib-i-Ṭabarsí about fourteen miles southeast of Bárfurús̲h̲, Iran, which in
October 1848 the Bábís, under the supervision of Mullá Ḥusayn, built a
fortress around to use as a safe camp. 313 Bábís were encamped at S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ Ṭabarsí. The clergy of Bárfurús̲h̲, and later the government,
sent army after army to reduce their numbers, but the Bábís held out
against them from 12 October 1848 until 9 May 1849. Mullá Ḥusayn
was killed in February 1849 on a sortie from the fort and was buried
inside the shrine. The pressure on the Bábís increased, food became
scarce, and the defenders had to eat grass, the leaves of trees, the skin
and ground bone of their slaughtered horses and the boiled leather of their saddles. The siege ended when the commander of the attacking
forces, Prince Mihdí-Qulí Mírzá, swore a false oath on the Qur'án that
the lives and property of the Bábís would be inviolate should they come
out of the fort and disperse. A horse was sent for Quddús to take him to
the camp of the Prince, but once the Bábís came out of the fort, they
were massacred, the fortress pillaged and razed to the ground. Quddús
was taken to Bárfurús̲h̲, tortured and killed. |
| [BD 217-8] |
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| Shrine, turned into a fort, where 313 Bábís, a "handful of untrained and
frail-bodied students," withstood the besieging armies of Persia from
Oct. 12, 1848 to May 9, 1849 (DB 345, 399). Never surrendering, the
survivors were brought out of the Fort only when the enemy commander
swore a false oath of peace on the Qur'án. |
| [BG 46] |
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| See also: |
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