unning as those which preceded it
and hardly less spectacular than they. Within a few months of the historic
decree which set Him free, in the very year that witnessed the downfall of
Sultan 'Abdu'l-Hamid, that same power from on high which had enabled
'Abdu'l-Baha to preserve inviolate the rights divinely conferred on Him,
to establish His Father's Faith in the North American continent, and to
triumph over His royal oppressor, enabled Him to achieve one of the most
signal acts of His ministry: the removal of the Bab's remains from their
place of concealment in Tihran to Mt. Carmel. He Himself testified, on
more than one occasion, that the safe transfer of these remains, the
construction of a befitting mausoleum to receive them, and their final
interment with His own hands in their permanent resting-place constituted
one of the three principal objectives which, ever since the inception of
His mission, He had conceived it His paramount duty to achieve. This act
indeed deserves to rank as one of the outstanding events in the first
Baha'i century.

As observed in a previous chapter the mangled bodies of the Bab and His
fellow-martyr, Mirza Muhammad-'Ali, were removed, in the middle of the
second night following their execution, through the pious intervention of
Haji Sulayman _Kh_an, from the edge of the moat where they had been cast
to a silk factory owned by one of the believers of Milan, and were laid
the next day in a wooden casket, and thence carried to a place of safety.
Subsequently, according to Baha'u'llah's instructions, they were
transported to Tihran and placed in the shrine of Imam-Zadih Hasan. They
were later removed to the residence of Haji Sulayman _Kh_an himself in the
Sar-_Ch_a_sh_mih quarter of the city, and from his house were taken to the
shrine of Imam-Zadih Ma'sum, where they remained concealed until the year
1284 A.H. (1867-1868), when a Tablet, revealed by Baha'u'llah in
Adrianople, directed Mulla 'Ali-Akbar-i-_Sh_ahmirzadi and
Jamal-i-Burujirdi to transfer them without delay to some other spot, an
instruction which, in view of the subsequent reconstruction of that
shrine, proved to have been providential.

Unable to find a suitable place in the suburb of _Sh_ah 'Abdu'l-'Azim,
Mulla 'Ali-Akbar and his companion continued their search until, on the
road leading to _Ch_a_sh_mih-'Ali, they came upon the abandoned and
dilapidated Masjid-i-Ma_sh_a'u'llah, where they deposited, within one of
its walls, a