# Episode of The 'Bab'

*Exported from [Holy-Writings.com](https://www.holy-writings.com/) on 2026-06-19 — 1 clipping.*

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> Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: E. Crawshay Williams, Episode of The 'Bab', bahai-library.com.
> ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
> 
> Episode of The 'Báb'
> 
> E. Crawshay Williams
> published in Across Persia pp. 269-272
> 
> London: Edward Arnold, 1907
> 
> 1. Text
> 
> THE EPISODE OF THE 'BAB' AND OTHER THINGS
> 
> "Things that are mysterious are not necessarily miracles."
> 
> — Goethe: Spruche in Prosa.
> 
> Only a little over fifty years ago, a certain man had
> the opportunity of executing a genuine, well-attested,
> first-class miracle.
> 
> In the middle of the nineteeth century, in a land
> where the mysteries of the East are forgotten and the
> wonders of the West not yet learnt, substantial flesh
> and blood would have been dissipated into space, and
> afterwards resurrected, live and identical beyond a
> doubt. After a dramatic and entire disappearance, it
> would have reappeared when and where it willed, not
> for an hour or a day, but for the remainder of a
> natural lifetime. What is more, the whole religious
> thought of the East might have been profoundly
> affected by this marvel; for the hero of this possible
> prodigy was the head of a vigorous and ardent
> religious body. Persecuted, but undaunted, this sect,
> already endowed with a creed more advanced and
> more attractive than its parent, Mahometanism itself,
> would have received such encouragement and such
> an apparently divine certificate by their prophet's
> miraculous feat, that it is exceedingly doubtful whether
> it would not have conquered, by the agency of this
> tour de force, the religious fields, not only of Persia,
> but of a far wider area.
> 
> All this in the middle of the nineteenth century.
> 
> But the miracle just failed of accomplishment. A
> moment's hesitation, a faulty move, and the thing
> was done, and what might have been the central
> episode of a mighty creed became what was practically
> the finale of a comparatively unimportant sectarian
> agitation.
> 
> The man to whom was granted the unprecedented
> opportunity for performing so transcendental a miracle
> as his own disappearance and resurrection was the
> Báb, and one of the centres of his still remaining
> disciples is Abadeh, the little village to which I
> journeyed from Surmek.
> 
> The Bab was the title of Mirza Ali Mahomet, and
> it signifies "the Gate."
> 
> The prophet, who, like all his predecessors, thus
> claimed to be the portal of a royal road to heaven, had
> turned from commerce to the cure of souls. 'His
> religious views,' says Professor Jackson, 'were somewhat eclectic; his doctrine leaned toward a mystic
> pantheism, with elements of gnosticism, and were of a
> highly moral order, and so liberal as to include steps
> toward the emancipation of woman.'
> 
> Mahometanism, however, would tolerate nothing
> of this kind; and when, attracted by a broader and
> more liberal creed, increasing numbers of Persians
> flocked to the standard of its preacher, the Mullahs
> set themselves to work to nip the new heresy in the
> bud.
> 
> Conflicts and persecutions taught the reformers that
> fire and the sword were still the motto of Mahomet.
> In the end the Bab himself was captured, taken to
> Tabriz, and there condemned to be shot in the presence
> of a great crowd.
> 
> He was hung by cords from the wall over a shop in
> the city square, a squad of soldiers was marched up in
> front of him, and the order was given to fire.
> 
> Those were not the days of smokeless powder, and
> for a few moments after the volley the smoke hung
> thick over the scene of the tragedy. When it cleared
> away, the Bab was not there.
> 
> What if his devotees could have said that he had
> been rapt up to heaven by the god whose prophet he
> was? What if they had been able to exult a few days
> or a few weeks later over the resurrection of their
> divine master? Surely the preaching, — not only for
> an hour or for a day, but for the remainder of a lifetime; not only upon scanty occasions and to a few
> favoured disciples, but continually and to all who
> cared to hear, — of one who in the most undoubted and
> authentic way had been shot and resurrected, must
> have produced a stupendous effect upon the Eastern
> mind? It so nearly happened.
> 
> When the soldiers had fired, by what amounted to
> little less than a miracle indeed, their shots had actually cut the cords which bound the Bab. He dropped
> unharmed to the ground, and, under cover of the
> smoke, took refuge in a little shop. Had he then had
> the presence of mind to fly by a back way, it would
> have needed little further aid from fortune to have
> taken him safe out of his peril and rendered him a
> power for life and a saint for all time. But when
> Fate was doing her best for him, he failed to second
> her exertions. Dazed very possibly by his fall, he
> remained in the shop until he was discovered and
> dragged out; and next time the volley was fired it did
> its work.
> 
> So perished the Bab, and so was lost to mankind a
> miracle which, even in these days of telegraphs and
> newspapers, would have proved a staggering events
> and If it had happened nearly two thousand years ago
> would have been an accepted and everlasting evidence
> of Divine power.
> 
> Babism is to-day a living creed, and it possesses
> worshippers not only in Persia, but all over the Near
> East and even in America, that generous almshouse
> for afflicted creeds.
> 
> Abadeh has another title to attention besides its
> Babism. In the bazaars there sit, in their little stalls,
> men who carve from wood curious spoons and boxes,
> for which the place is famous. But for these two
> items of interest with which the village is associated,
> there is little worthy of remark in the lonely patch of
> houses bleakly situated in this desert many thousand
> feet above the sea.
> 
> Nor is there much to be said about Shulgistan, the
> next day's resting-place, of which all I remember is an
> ancient mud fort and the decaying blue dome of an
> Imamzadeh, behind which lay heaped up a white drift
> of snow. ...
> 
> 2. Image scans (click image for larger version)
> 
> METADATA
> 
> Views4966 views since posted 2015-02-21; last edit 2015-02-21 16:55 UTC;
> 
> previous at archive.org.../crawshay_episode_bab
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> Shortlink: bahai-library.com/4473
> Citation: ris/4473
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> — *Episode of The 'Bab' (Used by permission of the curator)*