ng to
break the back! O people, extinguish this fire and forget these words!
Alas! woe to our Faith, woe to our Law!"

Thus did they make complaint in mosques and chapels, in pulpits and
congregations.

But the Babi chiefs composed treatises against them, and set in order
replies according to their own thought. Were these to be discussed in
detail it would conduce to prolixity, and our object is the statement of
history, not of arguments for believing or rejecting; but of some of the
replies the gist is this: that they held the Proof as supreme, and the
evidence as outweighing traditions, considering the former as the root and
the latter as the branch, and saying, "If the branch agree not with the
root it serves not as an argument and is unworthy of reliance; for the
reported consequence has no right to oppose itself to the established
principle, and cannot argue against it." Indeed in such cases they
regarded interpretation as the truth of revelation and the essence of true
exegesis: thus, for instance, they interpreted the sovereignty of the
Qa'im as a mystical sovereignty, and His conquests as conquests of the
cities of hearts, adducing in support of this the meekness and defeat of
the Chief of Martyrs (may the life of all being be a sacrifice for him).
For he was the true manifestation of the blessed verse "And verily our
host shall overcome for them,"(13) yet, notwithstanding this, he quaffed
the cup of martyrdom with perfect meekness, and, at the very moment of
uttermost defeat, triumphed over his enemies and became the most mighty of
the troops of the Supreme Host. Similarly they regarded the numerous
writings which, in spite of His lack of education, the Bab had composed,
as due to the promptings of the Holy Spirit; extracted from books contrary
sayings handed down by men of mark; adduced traditions apparently agreeing
with their objects; and clung to the announcements of certain notables of
yore. They also considered the conversion of austere and recluse doctors
and eminent votaries of the Perspicuous Religion [of Islam] as a valid
proof, deemed the steadfastness and constancy of the Bab a most mighty
sign, and related miracles and the like; which things, being altogether
foreign to our purpose, we have passed by with brevity, and will now
proceed with our original topic.

At the time of these events certain persons appeared amongst the Babis who
had a strange ascendancy and appearance in the eyes of this sec