| The Proof; Mullá Muḥammad-'Alí of Zanján. He was called Ḥujjatu'l-Islám, ‘an appellation given to highly-placed and well- recognized divines'.34 The Báb gave him the designation Ḥujjat-i-Zanjání. |
| Ḥujjat sent Mullá Iskandar to investigate the claims of the Báb. On Mullá Iskandar's return, he acquainted himself with the Writings of the Báb and from the pulpit directed his disciples to embrace the Báb's cause. He was detained in Ṭihrán and kept under surveillance. Upon his return to Zanján he was the target of concealed hostility on the part of the authorities. Zanján split into two opposing camps and Ḥujjat and his companions were forced to seek safety in a nearby fort. About three hundred of Ḥujjat's supporters held the fort against repeated attack and siege for almost nine months. Ḥujjat was wounded after a final month-long siege and his wife and baby son were killed. Ḥujjat himself died a few days later. In a fierce attack the Bábís were finally overcome, the survivors being tortured, killed and their bodies mutilated. The body of Ḥujjat was exposed for three days to dishonour in the public square, after which it was carried away by unknown hands.35 |
| [BD 111] |
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| Erudite cleric and Bábí convert martyred at Zanján. |
| [BG 19] |
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