The rise of the Bábí sect or religion, which began in the later years of Muḥammad Sháh's reign, was an event of the most far-reaching significance and importance, and forms the subject of an extensive literature, * not only in Persian The Bábí movement. and Arabic, but in English, French, German, Russian and other European languages. Since it would be impossible to give an adequate account of its eventful history and extensive developments in this volume, and since ample materials for its study are already available even in English (indeed, thanks to the success attained by its missionaries in America, especially in English), no attempt at recapitulation will be made here. Sayyid 'Alí Muḥammad the Báb has himself (in the Persian Bayán) fixed the date of his “Manifestation” (Ẓuhúr) as May 23, 1844 (5 Jumáda i, 1260), just a thousand years after the disappearance or “Occultation” (Ghaybat) of the Twelfth Imám, or Imám Mahdí, to whom he claimed to be the “Gate” (Báb). Neither the idea nor the expression was new: the Imám Mahdí had four successive “Gates” (Ab-wáb ) by means of whom, during the “Lesser Occultation” (Ghaybat-i-Ṣughra), he maintained communication with his followers; and the “Perfect Shí'a” (Shí'a-i-Kámil) of the Shaykhí School, in which the Báb pursued his theological studies, connoted much the same idea of an Intermediary (Wásiṭa), or Channel of Grace, between the Concealed Imám and his faithful people. Later the Báb “went higher” (bálá-tar raft), to use the expression of his followers, and claimed to be first the “Supreme Point” (Nuqṭa-i-A'lá), or “Point of Explanation” (Nuqṭa-i-Bayán), then the Qá'im (“He who is to arise” of the House of the Prophet), then the Inaugurator of a new Dispensation, and lastly an actual Divine Manifestation or Incarnation. Some of his followers went even further, calling themselves Gods and him a “Creator of Gods” (Khudá-áfarín) while one of them went so far as to write of Bahá'u'lláh:*

<text in Arabic script omitted>

“Men say Thou art God, and I am moved to anger:
Raise the veil, and submit no longer to the shame of Godhead!”

Although the Bábí movement led to much bloodshed, this took place almost entirely after the death of Muḥammad Sháh, which happened on September 5, 1848, though already the Báb was a prisoner in the fortress of Mákú in the ex­treme N.W. of Persia, while in Khurásán, Mázandarán and elsewhere armed bands of his followers roamed the country proclaiming the Advent of the expected Mahdí and the inauguration of the Reign of the Saints, and threatening those sanguinary encounters between themselves and their opponents which were at once precipitated by the King's death and the ensuing dislocation and confusion.

Dark indeed were the horizons at the beginning of the new reign. The Walí-'ahd, or Crown Prince, Náṣiru'd-Dín,

Náṣiru'd-Dín Sháh (A.D. 1848-1896). was absent at Tabríz, the seat of his government, at the time of his father's death, and until he could reach Ṭihrán his mother, the Mahd-i-'Ulyá , assumed control of affairs. Ḥájji Mírzá Áqásí, whose unpopularity was extreme, not only ceased to act as Prime Minister, but had to flee for his life, and took refuge in the Shrine of Sháh 'Abdu'l-'Aẓím. * Disturbances broke out in the capital itself, and more serious revolts in Burújird, Kir-mánsháh, Kurdistán, Shíráz, Kirmán, Yazd and Khurásán, The young Sháh, then only seventeen years of age, * finally reached the capital on October 20, 1848, was crowned the same night, and immediately appointed as his Prime Minister Mírzá Taqí Khán Amír-i-Niẓám. Mírzá Taqí Khán, better known as the Amír-i-Niẓám , who, notwithstanding his lowly origin (his father was originally cook to the Qá'im-maqám ), * was one of the greatest men and most honest, capable and intelligent ministers produced by Persia in modern times. “The race of modern Persians,” exclaims Watson * enthusiastically, “cannot be said to be altogether effete, since so recently it has been able to produce a man such as was the Amír-i-Niẓám”; and the Hon. Robert Curzon, in his Armenia and Erzeroum, has described him as “beyond all comparison the most interesting personage amongst the commissioners of Turkey, Persia, Russia and Great Britain who were then assembled at Erzeroum.” In the brief period of three years during which he held the high office of Prime Minister he did much for Persia, but the bright promise of his career was too soon darkened by the envy and malice of his rivals. The tragic circumstances Tragic death of Mírzá Taqí Khán, Jan. 9, 1852. of his violent and cruel death in his exile at the beautiful palace of Fín near Káshán are too well known to need repetition, * but the admirable fidelity of his wife, the Sháh's only sister, can­not be passed over in silence. “No princes educated in a Christian court,” says Watson, * “and accustomed to the contemplation of the brightest example of conjugal virtues that the history of the world has recorded could have shown more tenderness and devotion than did the sister of the Sháh of Persia towards her unfortunate husband.” Her untiring vigilance was, however, finally tricked and out­witted by the infamous Ḥájji 'Alí Khán Ḥájibu'd-Dawla, who owed so much to the minister whose life he succeeded in bringing to an end on January 9, 1852.

The Bábís, however, had no cause to love Mírzá Taqí Khán, whose death they had already striven to compass,

Bábí risings of 1849-1850. and whose ultimate fate was regarded by them as a signal instance of Divine retribution, since, apart from other measures which he had taken against them, he was responsible for the execution of the Báb himself at Tabríz on July 9, 1850. The Báb indeed, helpless prisoner that he was, had kindled a flame which proved inextinguishable, and which especially illumines with a lurid glow the first four years of Náṣiru'd-Dín Sháh's reign. The story of the almost incredible martial achieve­ments of the Bábís at Shaykh Ṭabarsí in Mázandarán, at Zanján, Yazd, Nayríz and elsewhere during the years 1849- Gobineau. 1850 will never be more graphically told than by the Comte de Gobineau, who in his incom­parable book Les Religions et les Philosophies dans l'Asie Centrale combines wit, sympathy and insight in an extra­ordinary degree. I personally owe more to this book than to any other book about Persia, since to it, not less than to an equally fortunate and fortuitous meeting in Iṣfahán, I am indebted for that unravelling of Bábí doctrine and history which first won for me a reputation in Oriental scholarship. Gobineau was for some time a “prophet without honour in his own country,” but, while France long neglected him, Germany produced a “Gobineau-Vereiningung” * and several important works * on his life and writings. The militant phase of Bábíism culminated in the attempted assassination Attempt on the Sháh's life by three Bábís, Aug. 15, 1852. of Náṣiru'd-Dín Sháh by three members of the sect on August 15, 1852, and the frightful perse­cution which followed, wherein twenty-eight more or less prominent Bábís, including the beautiful and talented poetess Qurratu'l-'Ayn, suffered death with horrible tortures. * Most of the leading Bábís who survived emigrated or were exiled to Baghdád, and thence­forth, though the sect continued to increase in Persia, the centre of its activity, whether at Baghdád, Adrianople, Cyprus or Acre, lay beyond the frontiers of Persia.

It is unnecessary here to discuss the causes and course of the short Anglo-Persian War of 1856-7, brought about The Anglo­Persian War of 1856-7. by the seizure of Herát by the Persians. It began with the occupation by the British of the island of Khárak in the Persian Gulf on De­cember 4, 1856, and was officially terminated by the Treaty of Peace signed at Paris on March 4, 1857, by Lord Cowley and Farrukh Khán, though, owing to the slowness of com­munications at that time, hostilities actually continued for another month. They did not end a moment too soon for Great Britain, for almost before the ratifications were ex­changed the Indian Mutiny broke out. The need then Introduction of the telegraph. experienced for better communications between England and India led in 1864 to the intro­duction into Persia of the telegraph, to which further extension was given in 1870 and 1872, and this, as pointed out by Sir Percy Molesworth Sykes (whose History of Persia * is almost the only book which gives a continuous and coherent narrative of events from 1857 to 1921), had Other modern­??zing influences. far-reaching reactions, * and was one of the factors in the modernization of Persia. Others were the extension of the Press (first introduced into Tabríz by 'Abbás Mírzá about A.D. 1816) and consequent wider diffusion of literature; the slow growth of journalism since 1851 * down to its enormous expansion during the Revolution of 1906-1911 and again after the Russian col­lapse; the foundation of the Dáru'l-Funún, or Polytechnic College, at Ṭihrán in 1851, and the introduction of European science and instruction; and, in a lesser degree, the Sháh's three journeys to Europe in 1873, 1878 and 1889, though it is doubtful whether he or his attendants derived more advantage from what they saw in the course of their pere­grinations than Persian literature did from his accounts of his experiences.