By: Siyyid Muhammad Tabib-i Manshadi
Meanwhile the people who had gathered around Muhammad-Sadiq, numbering about three hundred, embraced the idea of vandalizing and confiscating all Baha'i belongings, along with putting to death a number of the members of the community. One influential believer, Haj Ali-Muhammad, was soon informed of this gathering and arrived to suppress the flame of hatred glowing in the hearts of the fanatical populace. After much talking and persuasion, he was able to calm the crowd and disperse the gathering. Afterwards, he came directly to my house, happy that the group had a change of heart. The crowd, however, remained quiet for only a short time before becoming agitated again, an agitation much louder than before. Once again, Haj Ali-Muhammad went out to calm the crowd, but his efforts were in vain this time and the mob's abusive cries grew worse.
In the midst of all these commotion, Aqa Ghulam-Rida, the son of Hajji Ali-Naqi and a staunch believer, crossed paths with Siyyid Ibrahim. In a rage of anger, Siyyid Ibrahim decides that right there and then to take Aqa Ghulam-Rida's life by beating him with his sheperd's rod. Luckily, Aqa Ghulam-Rida escaped from the hands of this barbarous man. The Siyyid, seeing a distant group of rioters approaching, deceitfully lay motionless on the ground as if he had fatally fallen victim to the hands of a Baha'i. The angry crowd gathered around him, shouting "O people, shame has befallen Islam. Baha'is have murdered the Siyyid!" The people, who by now numbered in excess of three hundred, lifted the Siyyid's supposedly lifeless body and carried him to the house of Muhammad-i Kalantar, the town's chief. There they continued with their accusations and agitation that the Baha'is have killed this Siyyid!
The Kalantar sent a messenger to my house bearing the news that a Baha'i has beaten up a man, who remains unconscious in the chief's house, and asking me to examine him to determine if he was still alive. Confident of God's confirmations and putting my trust in His Hand, I headed to the Kalanter's home. On the way, I was constantly threatened by an angry mob who followed me the entire way. Several individuals attempted to take my life, but one of them barred the rest from injuring me. I finally passed through the crowd safely and reached the Kalanter's home. After examining the Siyyid and checking his pulse, I knew for certain that no one had harmed this person, yet this news fell on deaf ears of an enraged crowd needing an excuse to continue their assault. So, they left the Kalantar's house shouting obscenities.
Of this group, twenty-seven men, agitated further by a certain Javad (son of Haj Muhammad-Husayn-i Shirazi) and with the approval of Muhammad-i Kalantar, left the gathering. Heavily armed and crying out loud, they walked to the farm of Khajih-i Hasan. When they reached their destination, about an hour before noon, Mulla Ali-Akbar, the brother of the renowned Rady-Ruh, was working in the field. As the wild mob approached, someone throw a stone at Mulla Ali-Akbar, striking his head and covering his face and long, white beard with much blood. Unappeased by this act, another man struck him in the head with a heavy rod, knocking his feeble frame to the ground. Despite the protests of his ten-year-old grandson who went so far as to throw himself on Mulla Ali-Akbar to protect him, the mob proceeded, using knives, sticks and stones, to assault the body of Mulla Ali-Akbar until his spirit yielded. Perhaps only the hand of fate saved the young boy, who was rescued by an intervening citizen from the hands on the vicious men. Two individuals buried him in the exact spot which his body lay. Several days later, however, his sacred body was removed from that temporary grave and properly buried in his own home in Manshad. Mulla Ali-Akbar was seventy years old at the time of his martyrdom.
Having taken the life of Mulla Ali-Akbar, the bloodthirsty mob quickly headed towards the house of Muhammad-Ismail, a Baha'i baker who lived on the same farm. Ransacking his house and finding him on the second floor they stabbed him repeatedly before throwing him down from the balcony, after which his body was subjected to the blows by various means by those eagerly waiting outside. The body of that lover of Truth was buried in the vicinity of his house. At time of his martyrdom, Aqa Muhammad-Ismail was sixty-seven years old.
Subsequent to committing these two shameful acts of murder, the mob left the farm, returning to Manshad. As they entered, the remaining inhabitants of town numbering three hundred, joined them. By now, it was noon. They marched towards the home of Ustad Husayn, the shoemaker, who was a Baha'i from Yazd and happen to be in Manshad during these events. When the mob entered his house, Ustad Husayn retreated to his roof. Muhammad-Sadiq, who had incited the mob earlier in the day, followed him and took aim at killing him. Ustad Husayn, trying to protect himself with the shoemaking tool that he had in his hand, injured and successfully warded off Muhammad-Sadiq. No sooner had he fought off Muhammad-Sadiq that he was overtaken by several individuals who climbed a tree to gain access to the roof. Ustad Husayn, defenseless and overpowered, was thrown from his roof to the ground where a ruthless mob set on him and with knives, woods and stones martyred this noble soul.
In midst of this, his aged mother ran out from the house and threw herself on her son's lifeless body, weeping bitterly. The heartless mob, still stoning the dead body, brought much injury to this devoted woman who was seventy years old. So much so that only twenty days from the martyrdom of her son, from her injuries, she passed on to the Abha Kingdom as a result of her injuries, both of body and heart. The mob took the dead body of Ustad Husayn to a river on the outskirts of the town and buried him in a spot there, where his resting place has remained to this day. Ustad Husayn was fifty years old at the time of his martyrdom.
(to be continued)
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Translated by, and reprinted with permission of Ahang Rabbani.
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