A Traveler's Narrative
page 16
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of affairs, and his incapacity and lack of resource became
apparent as the sun. For every hour he formed a new opinion
and gave a new order: at one moment he would seek to support
the decision of the doctors, accounting the eradication and
suppression of the Bábís as necessary: at another time he would
charge the doctors with aggressiveness, regarding undue interference
as contrary to justice: at another time he would become
a mystic and say, "All these voices are from the King," (9)
or repeat with his tongue, "Moses is at war with Moses," (10) or
recite, "This is nought but Thy trial." (11) In short this changeable
minister, by reason of his mismanagement of important
matters and failure to control and order the affairs of the
community, so acted that disturbance and clamor arose from
all quarters and directions: the most notable and influential of
the doctors ordered the common folk to molest the followers of
the Báb, and a general onslaught took place. More especially
when the claim of Mihdí-hood reached the hearing of eminent
divines and profound doctors they began to make lamentation
and to cry and complain from their pulpits, saying,
"One of the essentials of religion and of the authentic traditions
transmitted from the holy Imáms, nay, the chief basis of
the foundations of the church of His Highness Ja'far, is the
Occultation of the immaculate twelfth Imám (upon both of
them be peace). What has happened to Jabúlqá? Where has
Jabúlsá gone? What was the Minor Occultation? What has
become of the Major Occultation? What are the sayings of
Husayn ibn Rúh, and what the tradition of Ibn Mihríyár?
What shall we make of the flight of the Guardians and the
Helpers? How shall we deal with the conquest of the East and
the West? Where is the Ass of Antichrist? When will the
appearance of the Súfyán be? Where are the signs which are in
9. The Mathnaví.
10. The Mathnaví.
11. Qur'án 7:154
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