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| Isfahan 1839 |
The first to embrace the Cause of the Báb in that city was a
man, a sifter of wheat, who, as soon as the Call reached his ears, unreservedly
accepted the Message. With marvellous devotion he served Mullá Husayn, and
through his close association with him became a zealous advocate of the new
Revelation. A few years later, when the soul-stirring details of the siege of
the fort of Shaykh Tabarsí were being recounted to him, he felt an irresistible
impulse to throw in his lot with those heroic companions of the Báb who had
risen for the defence of their Faith. Carrying his sieve in his hand, he
immediately arose and set out to reach the scene of that memorable encounter.
“Why leave so hurriedly?” his friends asked him, as they saw him running in a
state of intense excitement through the bazaars of Isfáhán. “I have risen,” he
replied, “to join the glorious company of the defenders of the fort of Shaykh
Tabarsí! With this sieve which I carry with me, I intend to sift the people in
every city through which I pass. Whomsoever I find ready to espouse the Cause I
have embraced, I will ask to join me and hasten forthwith to the field of
martyrdom.”
(Chapter 4, ‘The Dawn-Breakers’)
