The Chronicle of Nabíl as a careful collection of facts made
in the interests of truth and completed in the lifetime of Bahá’u’lláh has now
a unique value. The author was thirteen years old when the Báb declared
Himself, having been born in the village of Zarand in Persia on the eighteenth
day of Safar, 1247 A.H. He was throughout his life closely associated with the
leaders of the Cause. Though he was but a boy at the time, he was preparing to
leave for Shaykh Tabarsí and join the party of Mullá Husayn when the news of
the treacherous massacre of the Bábís frustrated his design. He states in his
narrative that he met, in Tihrán, Hájí Mírzá Siyyid ‘Alí, a brother of the
Báb’s mother, who had just returned at the time from visiting the Báb in the
fortress of Chihríq; and for many years he was a close companion of the Báb’s
secretary, Mírzá Ahmad.
- Shoghi Effendi (‘Introduction to ‘The Dawn-Breakers’)
