- 1844-07-01 —
Forty days after the Declaration of the Báb, the second Letter of the Living, Mullá `Alíy-i-Bastámí, had a vision that led him to Mullá Husayn and he accepted the Báb. It is said that he became a believer upon hear one word from the Báb.
During this period of waiting for the second person to recognize the Báb, He called Mulla Husayn to His house several times. He always came at night and stayed until dawn. [HotD41; Bahá'í Encyclopedia].
- Sixteen others recognized Siyyid `Alí-Muhammad as the Promised One. The 18 were later designated `Letters of the Living'. [BBD138, B21–7; DB63–71, 80–2; MH73–81, MH121, SBBH1:16–17, GPB7-8]
- See RB2:145–6 for the fate of the Letters of the Living.
- See Bab26–7, BBD138, DB80–1, MH81 ; Letters of the Living (Hurúf-i-Hayy) for a list of the Letters of the Living.
- See BBRSM24–5 for more on the Letters of the Living.
- See BBRSM24–5 for a discussion of the special places occupied by Quddús, Mullá Husayn and Táhirih.
See DB81-82 for the story of how Tahirih was recognized as a Letter of the Living by the Báb.
- The Báb was the 19th Letter of the Living. [LW5.2]
- 1844-08-11 —
The Báb sent Mullá `Alíy-i-Bastámí to Najaf and Karbalá to proclaim His Cause among the Shaykhís. In Najaf Mullá `Alí delivered a letter from the Báb to Shaykh Muhammad-Hasan Najafí, the leading Shí`í divine and the keeper of the shrines in Iraq. [BBRSM15; DB87-91; SBBH20–1, HotD46]
- The Shaykh's rejection of the claim led to a violent debate. Mullá `Alí was taken to Baghdád and imprisoned there. After a public trial, a joint tribunal of Sunní and Shí`í `ulamá, he was sent to Istanbul. He was the first martyr of the Bábí Dispensation. It is significant that Mullá Hasan Gawhar, a leading figure of the Shaykhí school, participated in the condemnation as it marks the first major challenge to Bábism from a Shaykhí leader. [Bab27, 37–8, 58; BBR83–90; BBRSM17; BKG31; DB90–2; MMBA, BBR2p17, GPB10]
- See Alí Bastámí, Mullá by Denis MacEoin at Bahá'í Library Online.
- 1845-01-08 — The first notice of the Bábi faith that was recorded by a European was the report of Major Rawlinson, the British Consul in Baghdad, concerning the trial of Mulla Aliy-i-Bastami. He wrote to Sir Stratford Canning, the British Ambassador in Istanbul.
He subsequently wrote to Lt-Col Justin Sheil, the British Minister in Tihran on the 16th of January and again to Canning on the 25th of the month. [BBRp4, 83-90]
- 1845-01-13 — The trial of Mullá `Alíy-i-Bastámí in Baghdád. A fatwá is issued in Baghdád against both Mullá `Alíy-i-Bastámí and the Báb, condemning the Báb, who is unnamed in the fatwá, to death as an unbeliever. [Bab64; BBRSM15, 215; SBBH21, 22]
- 1845-02-27 —
- 1845-04-16 — Mullá `Alíy-i-Bastámí was removed from his prison cell in Baghdád and taken to Istanbul, where he was sentenced to hard labour in the imperial naval dockyard.
- 1846-12-00 —
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