The Inebriation of His Enrapturing Call (mast-and bulbulán)

Abstract: During the two years when Bahá'u'lláh lived in isolation in Kurdistan, He composed a number of poems, in which He gave vent to the mighty emotions aroused in His great heart by the mystical experiences He had while confined in the Síyáh-Chál. One of those poems, Mastand Bulbulán zin Naghmiy-i yá Húy-i-ú, "Nightingales are inebriated by the melody of His enrapturing Call," is the subject of this paper, which is an attempt to explain the metaphors and images that embellish this jewel, in the light of both later Writings by Bahá'u'lláh and the Persian literary tradition, in whose style the poem has been written.