“The province had been for some years the scene of serious uprisings. At the end of 1844 or at the beginning of 1845, the governor of Bujnurd had revolted against the authority of the Sháh and had made an alliance with the Turkomans against Persia. The Prince Asifu’d-Dawlih, governor of Khurásán, asked the capital for assistance. The general Khán Bábá Khán, commander-in-chief of the Persian army, was ordered to send a thousand men against the rebels but the scarcity of public funds prevented the expedition. The Sháh, therefore, planned to head personally a campaign in the spring. The preparations began immediately. Soon ten battalions, of one thousand men each, were ready awaiting the arrival of Prince Hamzih Mírzá, appointed general-in-chief of the expedition. All of a sudden, the governor of Khurásán, Asifu’d-Dawlih, brother of the King’s mother, feeling that his security was threatened by the suspicions of the authorities at Tihrán, arrived at the Court humbly to protest at the feet of the King and to assure him of his complete devotion, and demand that his defamers be punished.
“It so happened that the principal one among his adversaries was Hájí Mírzá Aqásí, the all-powerful prime minister. A long trial took place which ended with the defeat of the governor and he was ordered to go on a pilgrimage to Mecca with the mother of the King.
“The son of Asifu’d-Dawlih, Salar, guardian of the mosque at Mashhad, wealthy in his own right, confident because of his alliance with the chief Kurd, Ja’far-Qulí Khán, Ilkhahní of the tribe of Qájár, assumed a hostile attitude. Thereupon 3000 men and 12 pieces of artillery were sent in retaliation and the government of Khurásán was given into the hands of Hamzih Mírzá.
“The news that Ja’far-Qulí Khán, heading a large troop of cavalry, had attacked the royal expedition, caused five more regiments and eighteen additional field pieces to be sent. On the twenty-eighth of October, 1847, this uprising was completely crushed, through the victory of Sháh-rud (September 15) and the defeat and flight of Ja’far-Qulí-Khán and of Salar.”
- A. L. M. Nicolas (‘Siyyid ‘Alí-Muhammad dit le Báb,’ pp. 257–258; footnotes to chapter 13 provided by Shoghi Effendi)
