‘GAZETTEER OF PERSIA VOL. I Comprising the Provinces of ASTARÁBÁD, SHÁHRUD-BÚSTAN, KHÚRÁSÁN, AND SÍSTÁN’ [‎300r] (606/722)

Tlie power of Haji Mirza Agliasi was now at its height. Allah Yar
Khan, the governor of Khurasan, had, however, never ceased to intrigue
for his own return to the office of prime minister, which he had
previously held in the reign of Fateh AH Shah; but he was wholly
unable to cope with Ilaji Mirza Aghasi, whose influence was paramount.
At this juncture, Allah \ar Khan, however, managed to obtain from
the Shah the post of custodian to the shrine of Imam Raza at Mashhad,
and at the same time was allowed to transfer the government of Khurasan
to his son, Muhammad Nasr Khan, who was better known as the Salar.
Snbsequently, Allah Yar Khan was implicated in the murder of a chief
of Nardin, and was summoned to Thiran to explain his conduct. The
result was, that he was ordered to reside in exile at Karbala.
Meantime, the Salar continued to retain the government of Khurasan ;
but be secured for himself so much influence amongst the chiefs of Khurasan
and the Turkomans, that he was suspected of entertaining the design of
rendering himself independent. Accordingly Hamza Mirza, a brother of
the Shah, was sent against him, and after a severe struggle compelled the
Salar to take refuge amongst the Turkomans.
About this period an extraordinary fanatic began to attract notice,
whose name was to occupy a lasting place in the annals of Persia. This
was Saiyid AH Muhammad, better known as the Bab. He claimed to
be descended from Muhammad, the Prophet. His father was a grocer
at Shiraz. In his youth he manifested a religious disposition, and was
sent to Karbala, where he sat at the feet of a celebrated doctor of the
Mussalman law. From Karbala he proceeded to Bushahr, where he
sought to acquire a saintly reputation, after the usual fashion, by the
practice of religious austerities, and especially by exposing himself bare
headed to the burning summer sun, in order to show his power over that
wondrous orb, which had been worshipped by the Persians of old. This
process, however, whilst adding largely to his spiritual influence, seems
also to have had the effect of disordering his brain. In the first instance,
he declared that he was the Bab, or gate by which men might attain
to a knowledge of the twelfth Imam of the Shiahs,—the Imam Mahdi,—
who is supposed to be not dead, but concealed. Subsequently he announced
that he was himself the long-expected Imam Mahdi; and then he gave out,
that the Prophet Muhammad had revisited the earth, and appeared in his
person. Finally, he reached a climax by declaring, that he.was an incarna
tion of the supreme being. Meantime, the fame of his doctrines and
miracles spread far and wide throughout Persia; and he piepaied to leave
Bushahr and extend his mission to other quarters. He sent his naib, or
vicegerent, to Shiraz to prepare the city to receive him. The ^governor of
Karman, however, ordered the naib to be bastinadoed^. The Bab then pro
ceeded in person to Shiraz; and the governor of Karman temporised and
pretended to be a convert, and finally induced him to confront the mullas.
The result was that, after one or two conferences, the mullas declared that the
Bab was mad, and suggested that he should be confined and imprisoned
for life The sentence was carried out, and the Bab was imprisoned at
Shiraz, and subsequently transferred to Tabriz; but meantime Babism had
spread abroad in all directions. A hot persecution was commenced, and the
profession of Babism was treated as a capital offence; but belief m the
Bab became only the more deeply rooted when it was seen that his followers
were ready to lay down their lives in his cause.
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