ملاحظاتی در یک جزوه تاریخی: ناموس ناصری

Abstract: This article examines the account of the trial of the Báb before Shakhi ulamá and state officials in the provincial capital Tabríz. This important tribunal, which was presided by the then crown prince, Nasir al-Dín Mírzá, and was held in July 1848, signified an important turning point in the short but eventful life of the prophet-founder of the Bábí religion. This account is composed by Mullá Muhammad Taqí Mámagání. He was the son of a leading Shaykhi cleric of Tabríz, Mullá Muhammad Mámagání. The latter signed the Báb's execution order (fatwá) in 1850, and played a leading role in interrogating the Báb in the tribunal.

It was in the summer of 1889 that Násir al-Dín Sháh, on his third trip en route to Europe, stopped in Tabríz. Mullá Muhammad Taqí Mámaqání, along with some Shaykhi clerics of Tabríz, paid a visit to the Sháh. During this visit Nasir al-Dín Sháh recalled the memories of Mámaqání's father, Mullá Muhammad, and his so called praiseworthy role in the trial of the Bab, the protection of the Faith of Islam, and the exaltation of the Muslims. Forty days later, in recognition of the Sháh's favor, Mámaqání completed his account and named it Námús-i Náṣirí in honor of the Sháh.

Námús-e Násirí is based on the author's father's recollections of the trial of the Báb. Muhammad Taqí believed that Námús-e Násiri presented the most accurate account of the conversations in that tribunal. He categorically considered some aspects of this trial presented in the Násikh-ul Taváríkh and Rowzat-ul safá-ye Násirí to be false.

In spring 1995, Hasan Murselvand, an Iranian historian, edited Námús-e Násirí and published it in Iran along with an introductory and biographical sketches of many eminent Bábís, as well as clerics and statesmen who heedlessly confronted the development of the spiritual movement of the Báb. A copy of Námús-e Násir is being preserved in the library of Áyatulláh Mar'ashí Najafí in Qum.