the wayside.

In Sirjan, in Du_gh_-Abad, in Tabriz, in Avih, in Qum, in Najaf-Abad, in
Sangsar, in _Sh_ahmirzad, in Isfahan, and in Jahrum redoubtable and
remorseless enemies, both religious and political, continued, under
various pretexts, and even after the signing of the Constitution by the
_Sh_ah in 1906, and during the reign of his successors, Muhammad-'Ali
_Sh_ah and Ahmad _Sh_ah, to slay, torture, plunder and abuse the members
of a community who resolutely refused to either recant or deviate a hair's
breadth from the path laid down for them by their Leaders. Even during
'Abdu'l-Baha's journeys to the West, and after His return to the Holy
Land, and indeed till the end of His life, He continued to receive
distressing news of the martyrdom of His followers, and of the outrages
perpetrated against them by an insatiable enemy. In Dawlat-Abad, a prince
of the royal blood, Habibu'llah Mirza by name, a convert to the Faith who
had consecrated his life to its service, was slain with a hatchet and his
corpse set on fire. In Ma_sh_had the learned and pious _Sh_ay_kh_
'Ali-Akbar-i-Qu_ch_ani was shot to death. In Sultan-Abad, Mirza 'Ali-Akbar
and seven members of his family including a forty day old infant were
barbarously massacred. Persecutions of varying degrees of severity broke
out in Na'in, in _Sh_ahmirzad, in Bandar-i-Jaz and in Qamsar. In
Kirman_sh_ah, the martyr Mirza Ya'qub-i-Muttahidih, the ardent twenty-five
year old Jewish convert to the Faith, was the last to lay down his life
during 'Abdu'l-Baha's ministry; and his mother, according to his own
instructions, celebrated his martyrdom in Hamadan with exemplary
fortitude. In every instance the conduct of the believers testified to the
indomitable spirit and unyielding tenacity that continued to distinguish
the lives and services of the Persian followers of the Faith of
Baha'u'llah.

Despite these intermittent severe persecutions the Faith that had evoked
in its heroes so rare a spirit of self-sacrifice was steadily and silently
growing. Engulfed for a time and almost extinguished in the sombre days
following the martyrdom of the Bab, driven underground throughout the
period of Baha'u'llah's ministry, it began, after His ascension, under the
unerring guidance, and as a result of the unfailing solicitude, of a wise,
a vigilant and loving Master, to gather its forces, and gradually to erect
the embryonic institutions which were to pave the way for the
establishment