were so carried away by their love for Him that their first act every
morning, notwithstanding the remonstrations of the domineering 'Ali
_Kh_an, and the repeated threats of disciplinary measures received from
Tihran, was to seek a place where they could catch a glimpse of His face,
and beseech from afar His benediction upon their daily work. In cases of
dispute it was their wont to hasten to the foot of the fortress, and, with
their eyes fixed upon His abode, invoke His name, and adjure one another
to speak the truth. 'Ali _Kh_an himself, under the influence of a strange
vision, felt such mortification that he was impelled to relax the severity
of his discipline, as an atonement for his past behavior. Such became his
leniency that an increasing stream of eager and devout pilgrims began to
be admitted at the gates of the fortress. Among them was the dauntless and
indefatigable Mulla Husayn, who had walked on foot the entire way from
Ma_sh_ad in the east of Persia to Mah-Ku, the westernmost outpost of the
realm, and was able, after so arduous a journey, to celebrate the festival
of Naw-Ruz (1848) in the company of his Beloved.

Secret agents, however, charged to watch 'Ali _Kh_an, informed Haji Mirza
Aqasi of the turn events were taking, whereupon he immediately decided to
transfer the Bab to the fortress of _Ch_ihriq (about April 10, 1848),
surnamed by Him the Jabal-i-_Sh_adid (the Grievous Mountain). There He was
consigned to the keeping of Yahya _Kh_an, a brother-in-law of Muhammad
_Sh_ah. Though at the outset he acted with the utmost severity, he was
eventually compelled to yield to the fascination of his Prisoner. Nor were
the kurds, who lived in the village of _Ch_ihriq, and whose hatred of the
_Sh_i'ahs exceeded even that of the inhabitants of Mah-Ku, able to resist
the pervasive power of the Prisoner's influence. They too were to be seen
every morning, ere they started for their daily work, to approach the
fortress and prostrate themselves in adoration before its holy Inmate. "So
great was the confluence of the people," is the testimony of a European
eye-witness, writing in his memoirs of the Bab, "that the courtyard, not
being large enough to contain His hearers, the majority remained in the
street and listened with rapt attention to the verses of the new Qur'an."

Indeed the turmoil raised in _Ch_ihriq eclipsed the scenes which Mah-Ku
had witnessed. Siyyids of distinguished merit, eminent 'ulamas, and even
gover