The years following the Báb’s Declaration were filled with turmoil. In a single year, the ferociously fanatical and ignorant Persian Muslims murdered 4,000 adherents of His Cause. The first to believe in Him was shot from ambush; His greatest disciple, Quddús, was torn to pieces in the public square of Bárfurúsh (Bábul). Ṭáhirih, the most outstanding woman Bábí, was the first woman’s suffrage martyr. Bravely and defiantly she cried out to her captors, “You can kill me as soon as you like but you cannot stop the emancipation of women.” The remnant of the 313 believers who had sought refuge in the Fort of Shaykh Ṭabarsí near the Caspian Sea faced enslavement; the Prince had treacherously violated his pledge to set them free and let them return home unharmed.

Among the Báb’s many books, some written while a prisoner in the mountains of Ádharbayján, the most important are the Persian Bayán and the Arabic Bayán. The former was translated into French by A. L. M. Nicolas, the Persian-born French consul at Tabríz who was fascinated by the life and teachings of the Prophet of Shíráz.

It was for the love of Bahá’u’lláh, the Glory of God, that the Báb sacrificed His life. His dramatic