ollowers of the Faith in Adrianople and the sentence of
life banishment pronounced subsequently against its Leader, would seal
irretrievably its fate.

In Abadih a certain Ustad 'Ali-Akbar was, at the instigation of a local
Siyyid, apprehended and so ruthlessly thrashed that he was covered from
head to foot with his own blood. In the village of Takur, at the bidding
of the _Sh_ah, the property of the inhabitants was pillaged, Haji Mirza
Rida-Quli, a half-brother of Baha'u'llah, was arrested, conducted to the
capital and thrown into the Siyah-_Ch_al, where he remained for a month,
whilst the brother-in-law of Mirza Hasan, another half-brother of
Baha'u'llah, was seized and branded with red-hot irons, after which the
neighboring village of Dar-Kala was delivered to the flames.

Aqa Buzurg of _Kh_urasan, the illustrious "Badi" (Wonderful); converted to
the Faith by Nabil; surnamed the "Pride of Martyrs"; the seventeen-year
old bearer of the Tablet addressed to Nasiri'd-Din _Sh_ah; in whom, as
affirmed by Baha'u'llah, "the spirit of might and power was breathed," was
arrested, branded for three successive days, his head beaten to a pulp
with the butt of a rifle, after which his body was thrown into a pit and
earth and stones heaped upon it. After visiting Baha'u'llah in the
barracks, during the second year of His confinement, he had arisen with
amazing alacrity to carry that Tablet, alone and on foot, to Tihran and
deliver it into the hands of the sovereign. A four months' journey had
taken him to that city, and, after passing three days in fasting and
vigilance, he had met the _Sh_ah proceeding on a hunting expedition to
_Sh_imiran. He had calmly and respectfully approached His Majesty, calling
out, "O King! I have come to thee from Sheba with a weighty message";
whereupon at the Sovereign's order, the Tablet was taken from him and
delivered to the mujtahids of Tihran who were commanded to reply to that
Epistle--a command which they evaded, recommending instead that the
messenger should be put to death. That Tablet was subsequently forwarded
by the _Sh_ah to the Persian Ambassador in Constantinople, in the hope
that its perusal by the Sultan's ministers might serve to further inflame
their animosity. For a space of three years Baha'u'llah continued to extol
in His writings the heroism of that youth, characterizing the references
made by Him to that sublime sacrifice as the "salt of My Tablets."

'Aba-Basir and Siyyid A_sh