Sequential excerpts (including footnotes) from ‘The Dawn-Breakers’ by Nabil-i-‘Azam, translated and edited by Shoghi Effendi

June 4, 2024

The Shah “issued an imperial mandate summoning the Báb to the capital”

The Sháh, who was firmly convinced of the loyalty of the Mu’tamíd, realised, when he received this message, that the late governor’s sincere intention had been to await a favourable occasion when he could arrange a meeting between him and the Báb, and that his sudden death had interfered with the execution of that plan. He issued an imperial mandate summoning the Báb to the capital. In his written message to Gurgín Khán, the Sháh commanded him to send the Báb in disguise, in the company of a mounted escort headed by Muhammad Big-i-Chaparchí, of the sect of the ‘Alíyu’lláhí, to Tihrán; to exercise the utmost consideration towards Him in the course of His journey, and strictly to maintain the secrecy of His departure. 

- Nabil (‘The Dawn-Breakers’, chapter 10)

“The Sháh, whimsical and fickle, forgetting that he had, a short time before, ordered the murder of the Reformer, felt the desire of seeing, at last, the man who aroused such universal interest; he therefore gave the order to Gurgín Khán to send the Báb to him in Tihrán.” 

- A. L. M. Nicolas (“Siyyid ‘Alí-Muammad dit le Báb,” p. 242.; Footnotes to chapter 10 provided by Shoghi Effendi)