unfoldment of its Administrative
Order, make the modern inquirer's task infinitely easier than in Dr.
Esslemont's time.

3 The "a" pronounced as in _Sh_ah.

4 One of the two great factions--_Sh_i'ih and Sunni--into which Islam
fell soon after the death of Muhammad, was the first legitimate
successor of the Prophet, and that only his descendants are the
rightful caliphs.

5 First day of Muharram, 1235 A.H.

6 On this point a historian remarks: "The belief of many people in the
East, especially the believers in the Bab (now Baha'is) was this:
that the Bab received no education, but that the Mullas, in order to
lower him in the eyes of the people, declared that such knowledge
and wisdom as he possessed were accounted for by the education he
had received. After deep search into the truth of this matter we
have found evidence to show that in childhood for a short time he
used to go to the house of _Sh_ay_kh_ Muhammad (also known as Abid)
where he was taught to read and write in Persian. It was this to
which the Bab referred when he wrote in the book of Bayan: 'O
Muhammad, O my teacher! ...'

"The remarkable thing is this, however, that this _Sh_ay_kh_, who
was his teacher, became a devoted disciple of his own pupil, and the
uncle of the Bab who was like a father to him, whose name was Haji
Siyyid 'Ali, also became a devout believer and was martyred as a
Babi.

"The understanding of these mysteries is given to seekers after
truth, but we know this, that such education as the Bab received was
but elementary, and that whatever signs of unusual greatness and
knowledge appeared in him were innate and from God."

7 A Traveller's Narrative Written to Illustrate the Episode of the Bab
with an introduction by E. G. Browne, referred to subsequently as A
Traveller's Narrative (Episode of the Bab).

8 i.e. May 23, 1844 A.D.

9 The Imam of the _Sh_i'ihs is the divinely ordained successor of the
Prophet whom all the faithful must obey. Eleven persons successively
held the office of Imam, the first being 'Ali, the cousin and
son-in-law of the Prophet. The majority of the _Sh_i'ihs hold that
the twelfth Imam, called by them the Imam Mihdi, disappeared as a
child into an underground passage in 329 A.H., and that in the