- 1847-07-00 —
The people of Máh-Kú show markeded hostility to the Báb on His arrival. Later they were won over by His gentle manners and His love. They congregated at the foot of the mountain hoping to catch a glimpse of Him. [Bab129; DB244–5]
At the beginning of the Báb's incarceration the warden `Alí Khán kept the Báb strictly confined and allowed no visitors. He had a vision of the Báb engaged in prayer outside of the prison gates, knowing that the Báb is inside. He became humble and permitted the Bábís to visit the Báb. [Bab129–31; DB245–8]
The winter the Báb spent in Máh-Kú was exceptionally cold. [DB252]
Many of the Báb's writings were revealed in this period. [GPB24–5]
- It was probably at this time that He addressed all the divines in Persia and Najaf and Karbalá, detailing the errors committed by each one of them. [GPB24]
- He revealed nine commentaries on the whole of the Qur'an, the fate of which is unknown. [DB31; GPB24]
- He revealed the "Mother Book" of the Bábí Revelation, the Persian Bayán, containing the laws and precepts of the new Revelation in some 8,000 verses. It is primarily a eulogy of the Promised One. [BBD44–5; BBRSM32; BW12:91 GPB24–5; ESW165; SWB102, 159] It is possible that the latter part of the Persian Bayán was revealed while He was confined in Chihríq.
- The Báb began the composition of the `smaller and less weighty' Arabic Bayán. [Bab132; BBD45; GPB25]
- He stated in the Bayán that, to date, He had revealed some 500,000 verses, 100,000 of which had been circulated. [BBRSM32, GPB22]
- In the Dalá'il-i-Sab'ih (Seven Proofs) the Báb assigned blame to the seven powerful sovereigns then ruling the world and censured the conduct of the Christian divines who, had they recognized Muhammad, would have been followed by the greater part of their co-religionists. [BBD63; BW12:96; GPB26]
- The Báb wrote His `most detailed and illuminating' Tablet to Muhammad Sháh. [GPB26]
- 1848-06-26 —
The Conference of Badasht Bahá'u'lláh, who hosted and directed the event, rented three gardens, one for Quddús, another for Táhirih and the third for Himself. [Bab168; GPB31, 68; MF200]
The conference coincided with the removal of the Báb to Tabríz for interrogation in July. It was held near the village of Sháhrúd in Semnan province. [BBRSM23; DB292]
- `The primary purpose of that gathering was to implement the revelation of the Bayán by a sudden, a complete and dramatic break with the past — with its order, its ecclesiasticism, its traditions, and ceremonials. The subsidiary purpose of the conference was to consider the means of emancipating the Báb from His cruel confinement in Chihríq.' [BBRSM23; BKG43; DB297–8; GPB31, 157]
- From the beginning of His ministry the Báb had implicitly claimed some higher spiritual station than merely that of being the "bábu'l-imám" and in the early months of 1848 while still in prison in Máh-Kú He put forward these claims to his companions. He proclaimed HImself to be the Imam Mahdi, the promised Q´'im (He who will arise), the inaugurator of the Resurrection and the abrogator of the Islamic holy law. [BBRSM23]
- Bab167 says that the Bábís did not come to Badasht to make plans to rescue the Báb.
- It was attended by 81 believers and lasted 22 days. [BKG43–4, 46; DB292–3; GPB312]
- Each day Bahá'u'lláh revealed a Tablet, and on each believer He conferred a new name. Each day an Islamic law was abrogated. Henceforth, when the Báb was addressing the believers, He used the new name that Bahá'u'lláh had bestowed upon them. [DB293; GPB32]
- See BKG44–5; DB293 and MF201 for the story of the central event, Táhirih's confrontation with Quddús and removal of her veil.
Ṭáhirih, seizing upon the opportunity, arose and, unveiled, came forth from the garden. She proceeded towards the tent of Bahá'u'lláh crying out and proclaiming: "I am the Trumpet-blast; I am the Bugle-call!"—which are two of the signs of the Day of Resurrection mentioned in the Qur'án. Calling out in this fashion, she entered the tent of Bahá'u'lláh. No sooner had she entered than Bahá'u'lláh instructed the believers to recite the Súrih of the Event from the Qur'án, a Súrih that describes the upheaval of the Day of Resurrection.
[Twelve Table Talks given by 'Abdu'l-Bahá in 'Akká, no. 9, "Ṭáhirih and the Conference of Badasht"]
- Also see Bab167–9; BBD31–2; BBRSM46; BKG43–7; DB292–8; RB2:353.
- See The World-Wide Influence of Qurratul-'Ayn by Standwood Cobb.
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