"بلاد فارس والشأن الفارسي من إعداد السيد المحترم جورج ناثانييل كورزون، عضو البرلمان." [‎٥‎٠‎١] (٧١٤/٥٦٠)

(7^4
INSTITUTIONS AND REFORMS
501
length, as some of the miserable fugitives reapproached their homes,
they were met by a crowd headed by the Imam Jama, or Chief
Priest of Sehdeh. ' Kill these renegades,' shouted he. ' Who
is the Shah? We know no Shah! Erase them from the
earth ! The poor Babis were at once attacked, several were
killed or wounded, and one captive was smeared with petroleum
and burnt alive. It is these little incidents, protruding from time
to time their ugly features, that prove Persia to be not as yet
quite redeemed, and that somewhat stagger the tall-talkers about
Iranian civilisation.
If one conclusion more than another has been forced upon our
notice by the retrospect in which I have indulged, it is that a
Heroism su ^ me and unmurmuring devotion has been inculcated
by this new faith, whatever it be. There is, I believe,
but one instance of a Babi having recanted under pressure or
menace of suffering, and he reverted to the faith and was executed
within two years. Tales of magnificent heroism illumine the blood
stained pages of Babi history. Ignorant and unlettered as many
of its votaries are, and have been, they are yet prepared to die for
their religion, and the fires of Smithfield did not kindle a nobler
courage than lias met and defied the more refined torture-mongers
of Teheran. Of no small account, then, must be the tenets of a
creed that can awaken in its followers so rare and beautiful a spirit
of self-sacrifice.
From the facts that Babism in its earliest years found itself in
conflict with the civil powers, and that an attempt was made by
Babis upon the life of the Shah, it has been wrongly in
ferred that the movement was political in origin and
Nihilist in character. It does not appear from a study
of the writings either of the Bab or his successors, that there is any
foundation for such a suspicion. The persecution of the govern
ment very early drove the adherents of the new creed into an
attitude of rebellion ; and in the exasperation produced by the
struggle, and by the ferocious brutality with which the rights of
conquest were exercised by the victors, it was not surprising if
fanatical hands were found ready to strike the sovereign down. At
the present time the Babis are equally loyal with any other subjects
of the Crown. Nor does there appear to be any greater justice in
the charges of socialism, communism, and immorality, that have so
freely been levelled at the youthful persuasion. Certainly no such
1
Not a
political
movement