appeared suddenly, adorned yet unveiled, before the assembled companions,
seated herself on the right-hand of the affrighted and infuriated Quddus,
and, tearing through her fiery words the veils guarding the sanctity of
the ordinances of Islam, sounded the clarion-call, and proclaimed the
inauguration, of a new Dispensation. The effect was electric and
instantaneous. She, of such stainless purity, so reverenced that even to
gaze at her shadow was deemed an improper act, appeared for a moment, in
the eyes of her scandalized beholders, to have defamed herself, shamed the
Faith she had espoused, and sullied the immortal Countenance she
symbolized. Fear, anger, bewilderment, swept their inmost souls, and
stunned their faculties. 'Abdu'l-_Kh_aliq-i-Isfahani, aghast and deranged
at such a sight, cut his throat with his own hands. Spattered with blood,
and frantic with excitement, he fled away from her face. A few, abandoning
their companions, renounced their Faith. Others stood mute and transfixed
before her. Still others must have recalled with throbbing hearts the
Islamic tradition foreshadowing the appearance of Fatimih herself unveiled
while crossing the Bridge (Sirat) on the promised Day of Judgment. Quddus,
mute with rage, seemed to be only waiting for the moment when he could
strike her down with the sword he happened to be then holding in his hand.

Undeterred, unruffled, exultant with joy, Tahirih arose, and, without the
least premeditation and in a language strikingly resembling that of the
Qur'an, delivered a fervid and eloquent appeal to the remnant of the
assembly, ending it with this bold assertion: "I am the Word which the
Qa'im is to utter, the Word which shall put to flight the chiefs and
nobles of the earth!" Thereupon, she invited them to embrace each other
and celebrate so great an occasion.

On that memorable day the "Bugle" mentioned in the Qur'an was sounded, the
"stunning trumpet-blast" was loudly raised, and the "Catastrophe" came to
pass. The days immediately following so startling a departure from the
time-honored traditions of Islam witnessed a veritable revolution in the
outlook, habits, ceremonials and manner of worship of these hitherto
zealous and devout upholders of the Muhammadan Law. Agitated as had been
the Conference from first to last, deplorable as was the secession of the
few who refused to countenance the annulment of the fundamental statutes
of the Islamic Faith, its purpose had been