| The Black Pit. The subterranean dungeon in Ṭihrán where Bahá'u'lláh was imprisoned along with many other Bábís in the summer of 1852 following an attempt on the life of the S̲h̲áh by misguided Bábis. Bahá'u'lláh described it: 'Upon Our arrival We were first conducted along a pitch-black corridor, from whence We descended three steep flights of stairs to the place of confinement assigned to Us. The dungeon was wrapped in thick darkness, and Our fellow-prisoners numbered nearly a hundred and fifty souls; thieves, assassins, and highwaymen . . . No pen can depict that place, nor any tongue describe its loathsome smell. Most of these men had neither cloths nor bedding to lie on. God alone knoweth what befell Us in that most foul-smelling and gloomy place!'19 The Bábís were chained to one another and each day one would be taken out and killed. It was here in the Síyáh-C̲h̲ál that Bahá'u'lláh received His divine revelation when the Holy Spirit appeared to Him in the form of a Maiden of Heaven. |
| [BD 211] |
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| Literally "the Black Pit". The dark, foul-smelling, subterranean dungeon in Ṭihrán where Bahá'u'lláh was imprisoned for four months in 1852. |
| [KA 254] |
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| Black Pit in the slums of Ṭihrán, where (in August, 1852) Bahá'u'lláh was chained in the darkness three flights of stairs underground, with some 150 thieves
and assassins. Here He received the intimation of His world Mission. Holiest place
in Persia's capital. (DB 599; BN June 1954). |
| [BG 48] |
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