and personality of the Bab. Their
first interview centered around the metaphysical teachings of Islam, the
most obscure passages of the Qur'an, and the traditions and prophecies of
the Imams. In the course of the second interview Vahid was astounded to
find that the questions which he had intended to submit for elucidation
had been effaced from his retentive memory, and yet, to his utter
amazement, he discovered that the Bab was answering the very questions he
had forgotten. During the third interview the circumstances attending the
revelation of the Bab's commentary on the surih of Kaw_th_ar, comprising
no less than two thousand verses, so overpowered the delegate of the
_Sh_ah that he, contenting himself with a mere written report to the Court
Chamberlain, arose forthwith to dedicate his entire life and resources to
the service of a Faith that was to requite him with the crown of martyrdom
during the Nayriz upheaval. He who had firmly resolved to confute the
arguments of an obscure siyyid of _Sh_iraz, to induce Him to abandon His
ideas, and to conduct Him to Tihran as an evidence of the ascendancy he
had achieved over Him, was made to feel, as he himself later acknowledged,
as "lowly as the dust beneath His feet." Even Husayn _Kh_an, who had been
Vahid's host during his stay in _Sh_iraz, was compelled to write to the
_Sh_ah and express the conviction that his Majesty's illustrious delegate
had become a Babi.

Another famous advocate of the Cause of the Bab, even fiercer in zeal than
Vahid, and almost as eminent in rank, was Mulla Muhammad-'Aliy-i-Zanjani,
surnamed Hujjat. An A_kh_bari, a vehement controversialist, of a bold and
independent temper of mind, impatient of restraint, a man who had dared
condemn the whole ecclesiastical hierarchy from the Abvab-i-Arba'ih down
to the humblest mulla, he had more than once, through his superior talents
and fervid eloquence, publicly confounded his orthodox _Sh_i'ah
adversaries. Such a person could not remain indifferent to a Cause that
was producing so grave a cleavage among his countrymen. The disciple he
sent to _Sh_iraz to investigate the matter fell immediately under the
spell of the Bab. The perusal of but a page of the Qayyumu'l-Asma, brought
by that messenger to Hujjat, sufficed to effect such a transformation
within him that he declared, before the assembled 'ulamas of his native
city, that should the Author of that work pronounce day to be night and
the sun to be a sha