s in which the women of that city played a
conspicuously shameful part.

In Taft several people were put to death, some of whom were shot and their
bodies dragged through the streets. A newly converted eighteen-year-old
youth, named Husayn, was denounced by his own father, and torn to pieces
before the eyes of his mother, whilst Muhammad-Kamal was hacked into bits
with knife, spade and pickaxe. In Man_sh_ad, where the persecutions lasted
nineteen days, similar atrocities were perpetrated. An eighty-year-old
man, named Siyyid Mirza, was instantly killed in his sleep by two huge
stones which were thrown on him; a Mirza Sadiq, who asked for water, had a
knife plunged into his breast, his executioner afterwards licking the
blood from the blade, while _Sh_atir-Hasan, one of the victims, was seen
before his death distributing some candy in his possession among the
executioners and dividing among them his clothing. A sixty-five year old
woman, _Kh_adijih-Sultan, was hurled from the roof of a house; a believer
named Mirza Muhammad was tied to a tree, made a target for hundreds of
bullets and his body set on fire, whilst another, named Ustad
Riday-i-Saffar, was seen to kiss the hand of his murderer, after which he
was shot and his corpse heaped with insults.

In Banaduk, in Dih-Bala, in Fara_sh_ah, in Abbas-Abad, in Hanza, in
Ardikan, in Dawlat-Abad and in Hamadan crimes of similar nature were
committed, an outstanding case being that of a highly respected and
courageous woman, named Fatimih-Bagum, who was ignominiously dragged from
her house, her veil was torn from her head, her throat cut across, her
belly ripped open; and having been beaten by the savage crowd with every
weapon they could lay hands on, she was finally suspended from a tree and
delivered to the flames.

In Sari, in the days when the agitation for the constitution was moving
towards a climax, five believers of recognized standing, known later as
the _Sh_uhaday-i-_Kh_amsih (Five Martyrs), were done to death, whilst in
Nayriz a ferocious assault, recalling that of Yazd, was launched by the
enemy, in which nineteen lost their lives, among them the sixty-five year
old Mulla 'Abdu'l-Hamid, a blind man who was shot and his body foully
abused, and in the course of which a considerable amount of property was
plundered, and numerous women and children had to flee for their lives, or
seek refuge in mosques, or live in the ruins of their houses, or remain
shelterless by