ha'u'llah upon His arrival in
Ba_gh_dad, a city which had witnessed the glowing evidences of the
indefatigable zeal of Tahirih, found among His countrymen residing in that
city no more than a single Babi, while in Kazimayn inhabited chiefly by
Persians, a mere handful of His compatriots remained who still professed,
in fear and obscurity, their faith in the Bab.

The morals of the members of this dwindling community, no less than their
numbers, had sharply declined. Such was their "waywardness and folly," to
quote Baha'u'llah's own words, that upon His release from prison, His
first decision was "to arise ... and undertake, with the utmost vigor, the
task of regenerating this people."

As the character of the professed adherents of the Bab declined and as
proofs of the deepening confusion that afflicted them multiplied, the
mischief-makers, who were lying in wait, and whose sole aim was to exploit
the progressive deterioration in the situation for their own benefit, grew
ever more and more audacious. The conduct of Mirza Yahya, who claimed to
be the successor of the Bab, and who prided himself on his high sounding
titles of Mir'atu'l-Azaliyyih (Everlasting Mirror), of Subh-i-Azal
(Morning of Eternity), and of Ismu'l-Azal (Name of Eternity), and
particularly the machinations of Siyyid Muhammad, exalted by him to the
rank of the first among the "Witnesses" of the Bayan, were by now assuming
such a character that the prestige of the Faith was becoming directly
involved, and its future security seriously imperiled.

The former had, after the execution of the Bab, sustained such a violent
shock that his faith almost forsook him. Wandering for a time, in the
guise of a dervish, in the mountains of Mazindaran, he, by his behavior,
had so severely tested the loyalty of his fellow-believers in Nur, most of
whom had been converted through the indefatigable zeal of Baha'u'llah,
that they too wavered in their convictions, some of them going so far as
to throw in their lot with the enemy. He subsequently proceeded to
Ra_sh_t, and remained concealed in the province of Gilan until his
departure for Kirman_sh_ah, where in order the better to screen himself he
entered the service of a certain 'Abdu'llah-i-Qazvini, a maker of shrouds,
and became a vendor of his goods. He was still there when Baha'u'llah
passed through that city on His way to Ba_gh_dad, and expressing a desire
to live in close proximity to Baha'u'llah but in a house by h