returned to Qazvin
and martyred.

Mulla Taqi's murder came about in this way: One day, when that besotted
tyrant had mounted his pulpit, he began to mock and revile the great
_Sh_ay_kh_ Ahmad-i-Ahsa'i. Shamelessly, grossly, screaming obscenities, he
cried out: "That _Sh_ay_kh_ is the one who has kindled this fire of evil,
and subjected the whole world to this ordeal!" There was an inquirer in
the audience, a native of _Sh_iraz. He found the taunts, jeers and
indecencies to be more than he could bear. Under cover of darkness he
betook himself to the mosque, plunged a spearhead between the lips of
Mulla Taqi and fled. The next morning they arrested the defenseless
believers and thereupon subjected them to agonizing torture, though all
were innocent and knew nothing of what had come to pass. There was never
any question of investigating the case; the believers repeatedly declared
their innocence but no one paid them any heed. When a few days had passed
the killer gave himself up; he confessed to the authorities, informing
them that he had committed the murder because Mulla Taqi had vilified
_Sh_ay_kh_ Ahmad. "I deliver myself into your hands," he told them, "so
that you will set these innocent people free." They arrested him as well,
put him in the stocks, chained him, and sent him in chains, along with the
others, to Tihran.

Once there he observed that despite his confession, the others were not
released. By night, he made his escape from the prison and went to the
house of Rida _Kh_an--that rare and precious man, that star-sacrifice among
the lovers of God--the son of Muhammad _Kh_an, Master of the Horse to
Muhammad _Sh_ah. He stayed there for a time, after which he and Rida
_Kh_an secretly rode away to the Fort of _Sh_ay_kh_ Tabarsi in
Mazindaran.(125) Muhammad _Kh_an sent riders after them to track them
down, but try as they might, no one could find them. Those two horsemen
got to the Fort of Tabarsi, where both of them won a martyr's death. As
for the other friends who were in the prison at Tihran, some of these were
returned to Qazvin and they too suffered martyrdom.

One day the administrator of finance, Mirza _Sh_afi, called in the
murderer and addressed him, saying: "Jinab, do you belong to a dervish
order, or do you follow the Law? If you are a follower of the Law, why did
you deal that learned mujtahid a cruel, a fatal blow in the mouth? If you
are a dervish and follow the Path, one of the rules of the Path i