The Báb was a 19th century Persian religious leader who founded Bábism and whose teachings prepared the way for Bahá'u'lláh and the Bahá'í Faith. He declared himself to be a messenger from God and his teachings challenged Islamic orthodoxy, leading to his imprisonment and execution by firing squad in 1850. Despite miraculously surviving the first round of bullets, he was killed in a second round of firing. His martyrdom and the subsequent persecution of Bábís helped spread awareness of his message in Europe and established the Bábís and Bahá'ís as renowned for their courage and faith in the face of oppression. Persecution of Bahá'ís continues in

1. The
Martyrdom
of the Báb

2. Who was ! Báb?
The Báb was born in southern Persia on October 20th, 1819.
He was a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad and entitled to
wear the green turban of His descendency. The Báb is also the
forerunner of Bahá'u'lláh. They are considered twin
Manifestations.
The Báb's mission was to prepare humanity for the coming of an age of transformation by
purifying the people’s hearts so they could recognize the One for Whom the whole world
was waiting. The Báb was thus the "Door" through which this long-awaited universal
Manifestation (Bahá'u'lláh ) would appear.

3. "e W#tings of ! Báb
Tablets, meditations, and prayers flowed effortlessly from His lips. In one extraordinary period of
two days, His writings exceeded in quantity the entire text of the Qur'an, which represented the
fruit of 23 years of Muhammad's prophetic output, this is regarded as one of the proofs of His
divine inspiration.
He freely used new word structures and other variations of
accepted speech giving the reader an opportunity to break out of
familiar patterns of perception and stretch their intellectual
limits. In 1848 at His trial in Tabriz, He was charged for
violating the rules of grammar. Regardless of these charges, the
Báb reminded those who followed Him, that God is the Creator
of language and shapes it according to a divine purpose.
Ultimately, the Writings of the Báb created a new age
emphasizing purity of heart rather than acts of religious piety,
an inner condition of spirituality in all aspects of daily life, and
truth gained by independent investigation and not by blind
imitation of the edicts of a clergy, but by personal effort, prayer,
meditation, and detachment.

4. Why was ! Báb ma$yred?
The teachings of the Báb were in direct opposition to orthodox concepts
and shattered the authority of the Islamic Republic and it’s politically
powerful clergy of the time. A literalistic understanding of the Qur'an and
the belief that personal salvation comes through imitation of clerical
mentors, plus an unbending conviction that there will be no other Prophets
after Muhammad had unthinkable consequence for the Báb.
The Báb declared that Prophets appear over and over and will do so
forever. That each one reveals a message appropriate for the time and the
people in order to further the development of humankind. As human
consciousness recognizes and responds to each Divine Messenger, the
spiritual, moral, and intellectual capacities steadily develop, thus preparing
the way for God's next Manifestation.
Those opposed to the Báb argued that He was not only a heretic, but a dangerous rebel.
Consequently, those in power began attempts at suppression. The Báb’s followers had their homes
pillaged and destroyed and great numbers were put to death. The Báb was imprisoned, deported,
judged before tribunals and endured horrendous indignities. Despite all attempts at repression,
however, the movement progressed.

5. "e Báb’s Ma$yrdom
On the 9th of July, 1850, the Báb fell victim to the fanatical fury of His
persecutors, along with a devoted young man named Muḥammad ‘Alí,
who passionately begged to be martyred alongside Him.
They were led to a scaffold in the old barracks square of Tabríz. A spike
was driven into a pillar. The two were suspended by ropes under their
arms in such a way that the head of Muḥammad ‘Alí rested against the
breast of his beloved.
The night before His execution
the Báb said: “Tomorrow you
shall witness what God has
decreed."
The pillar on the right marked with an X is where the Báb was hung and shot.

6. A regiment of seven hundred and fifty soldiers lined up.
Thousands of people were present to witness the event.
The soldiers received the order to fire...
and the thundering sound of bullets filled the air.
The smoke from the guns was so thick it momentarily darkened the sky.
When the smoke cleared,
the crowd and the soldiers were stunned...
Muḥammad ‘Alí was unharmed and the Báb had disappeared!

7. Stunned and frightened the guards were ordered to search for the Báb. He was found back
in His cell giving final instructions to one of His followers. Several of the guards
remembered earlier in the day, when they had come to take Him to be executed, the Báb
had warned them that no earthly power could silence Him until He had finished all that He
had to say. When these same guards arrived this second time, the Báb calmly announced:
"Now you may proceed to fulfill your intention."
Having witnessed what they believed to be a
miracle and terrified of the wrath of God the first
regiment of soldiers vehemently refused to fire...

8. A second firing squad was assembled and ordered to
shoot. This time the bodies of the pair were shattered,
their bones and flesh mingled into one mass,
yet their faces were untouched! It is said their faces
reflected a peaceful and serene demeanor.
Immediately a gale of unusual ferocity blew up,
engulfing the city and raising a thick cloud of dust that
blotted out the light of the sun until nightfall.

9. In the darkness of the storm, the bodies were thrown in ditch outside the city and
guards were posted at the site.
However, the Bábís (followers of the Báb) managed to retrieve the remains that night.
The guards protected the Bábi’s by telling their superiors they saw the corpses being
devoured by wild animals.
Safeguarding the remains of the Báb and His fellow-martyr, the Bábís secretly kept
their remains in a plain wooden box which remained hidden in various places over
many decades.

10. Finally, in 1909 their remains were laid to rest in a
beautiful shrine on the slopes of Mt. Carmel.
On the evening of that day in 1909, `Abdu'l-Bahá
by the light of a single lamp, in circumstances
both solemn and moving, laid the wooden casket
containing the remains of the Báb and His
companion to rest.
`Abdu'l-Bahá, had cast aside his turban, removed
his shoes and thrown off his cloak, bending low
over the open sarcophagus, with his silver hair
waving about his head, his face transfigured and
luminous, rested his forehead on the wooden
casket and sobbing aloud, wept with such grief
that all those who were present wept with him.

11. Influence of ! Life and Messa& of ! Báb on Europe
The Bab’s influence was felt even in Europe. Writing in the American periodical
Forum in 1925, the French literary critic Jules Bois remembered the extraordinary
impact the story of the Báb’s execution had on Europe:
“All Europe was stirred to pity and indignation.... Among the littérateurs
of my generation, in the Paris of 1890, the martyrdom of the Báb was
still as fresh a topic as it had been with the first news of His death. We
wrote poems about Him. Sarah Bernhardt entreated Catulle Mendès for
a play on the theme of this historic tragedy. Writers as diverse as Joseph
Arthur de Gobineau, Edward Granville Browne, Ernest Renan,
Aleksandr Tumanskiy, A.L.M. Nicolas, Viktor Rosen, Clément Huart,
George Curzon, Matthew Arnold, and Leo Tolstoy were affected by the
spiritual drama that had unfolded in Persia during the middle years of
the nineteenth century.”
The complete sincerity of the Bábi’s, their fearless disregard of death and tortures undergone for the sake
of their religion, their firm conviction in the truth of their faith, their admirable conduct towards
mankind and especially towards their fellow-believers, constituted the strongest factors for the attention
from the West.

12. How are ! Bábi and Báha’i Fai's connected?
The Báb prepared the people for the coming of Bahá'u'lláh. He wrote many times of the
coming appearance of a second Messenger from God, one who would be far greater than the
Báb, and whose mission would be to usher in the age of peace and justice. The nearly
simultaneous appearance of two Manifestations of God, Bahá'u'lláh states, “is a mystery such
as no mind can fathom”.
The Báb and Bahá'u'lláh it is said did not meet in person, but corresponded with each other.
Shortly before the Báb was martyred He sent His personal belongings to Bahá'u'lláh for safe
keeping.
Since the Báb prepared His followers most were ready to follow Bahá'u'lláh as fervently as
they had followed the Báb. Very quickly the Bábi’s merged with the Bahá’i’s.

13. Early Bábi and Báha’i Ma$yrs
Edward Granville Browne's concluding remarks in a major article in Religious Systems of the
World, published in 1892, speaks of the martyrs:
“It is not a small or easy thing to endure what these have endured, and surely what they deemed
worth life itself is worth trying to understand. I say nothing of the mighty influence which, as I
believe, the Bábi faith will exert in the future, nor of the new life it may perchance breathe into
a dead people; for, whether it succeed or fail, the splendid heroism of the Bábi martyrs is a thing
eternal and indestructible.”
Thousands of the Báb's followers were put to death in a horrific series of massacres. The
extraordinary moral courage and heroism demonstrated by the Bábis in the face of such an
onslaught and the nobility of the Báb's life and teachings has became legendary.

14. Tahirah an early Babi ma$yr
Tahirih was born in 1817 into a learned Muslim family. Women were
secluded and restricted on all fronts. Most were not educated and lived to
serve the men in their family. They bore children, looked after the household
and rarely left the confines of their homes. They were not in any way
permitted to play a social role. In fact, the only way they could learn about
society’s affairs was through the men in their immediate family.
Tahirih knew the Báb brought an independent revelation with a new set of
laws, such as the inclusion of women in society. Following a series of events
at Badasht, Tahirih appeared among the male participants of this conference
without her hejab or head scarf, and, quoting from the Koran, she said: "I am
the blast of the trumpet, the call of the bugle, like Gabriel I will awaken
sleeping souls." Everyone was in disbelief. This act and what it symbolized
shocked the participants, causing one man to cut his own throat while others
unsheathed their swords to kill her.
The news of her actions reached the authorities and resulted in her arrest in
1849. The Shah ordered her to recant her beliefs. She refused. Finally, she
was examined and her death sentence issued. Her last statement was: "You
can kill me as soon as you like, but you cannot stop the emancipation of
women.”

15. Bahá’í ‘s are (ill being persecuted and ma$yred
Few Incidents are more shocking than the
hanging of ten young Bahá’í women in Shiraz on
June 18, 1983. Their crime: teaching religious classes
to Bahá’í children— the equivalent of being “Sunday
school” teachers in the West.
The most recent cases of persecution, are the
imprisonment of Iran's seven Bahá’í leaders and the
continued detention of 12 staff and faculty members
of the Bahá’í Institute for Higher Education.
From it’s beginnings to the current day, the persecution of the early Bábi’s and contemporary
Bahá’í’s has never stopped. Today, there is an International outcry with formal demands to stop the
executions and imprisonments, yet this horror of religious persecution continues.