# Imbrie Murder Laid to Religious Hate

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

---

> Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: unknown, Imbrie Murder Laid to Religious Hate, bahai-library.com.
> ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
> 
> Imbrie Murder Laid to Religious Hate
> 
> [author name unknown]
> 
> published in New York Times
> 
> 1924-07-24
> 
> IMBRIE MURDER LAID TO RELIGIOUS HATE
> 
> Blindness of a Moslem and Poisoning of Sacred Well Ascribed to Bahá'ís.
> 
> AMERICAN LINKED WITH SECT
> 
> Vice Consul Beaten to Death in Hospital Operating Room, Had Forty Wounds.
> 
> Copyright 1924, by the New
> York Times Company.
> Special Cable to THE NEW YORK TIMES. -
> TEHERAN,
> July 23. - The following are the events which led up to the murder of
> Major Imbrie, American Vice Consul here. About a month ago a native was
> rumored to have lost his sight at a well immediately after having uttered
> the name of Abbas Effendi, the late spiritual leader of the Bahá'ís. The
> well thereupon became a shrine and was visited by crowds of Moslems, who
> started anti-Bahá'í demonstrations without any attempt by the authorities
> to stop them.
> 
> A few days ago the well was said to have been poisoned
> and Bahá'ís were reported to have done it. Attempts were made to find the
> alleged culprits and the place became still more crowded.
> On Friday morning Major Imbrie and Seymour, his companion, visited the
> place to take photographs. They were warned not to approach the well, as
> women were present.
> 
> Accordingly, they desisted and entered their
> carriage. Then shouts were raised that they were the Bahá'ís who had
> poisoned the well. Stones were thrown, and the carriage was followed by a
> crowd. Finally it was stopped and the two Americans were dragged out and
> attacked by the mob with sticks and stones. Soldiers were seen in the
> crowd and the police made only feeble efforts to rescue the
> Americans.
> 
> Major Imbrie, who was unarmed, did his best to defend
> himself until he became unconscious from a blow on the skull, evidently
> delivered with a sabre. While he was lying on the ground a stone broke his
> jaw. He was finally carried to the police hospital, but the mob forced its
> way into the operating room and continued to attack him. He received more
> than forty wounds.
> 
> While this disgraceful outburst on the part of a
> fanatical mob and the total inadequacy of the measures taken by the
> police have proved the existence of a danger to foreigners against which
> the Diplomatic Corps has strongly protested and demanded the enactment of
> proper measures for the security of foreigners and members of religious
> minorities, the steps already taken by the Persian Government have, it is
> hoped, removed for the present any reason for fearing a general outbreak
> of violence against foreigners.
> 
> The existence of martial law gives to
> the government power to prevent the publication of any more anti-
> foreign, particularly anti-British, articles in the press. Many of these,
> notwithstanding continued protests by the legation, have been published of
> late and have inflamed the excitement of the ignorant masses. It is
> difficult to absolve the government from all blame, as it has full control
> over the army, yet presumably from reasons of internal politics it has
> done nothing to check the effervescence.
> 
> It is hoped that the
> Government has now received a salutary lesson in this outrage and has
> learned that if it desires to gain the sympathy of the civilized powers it
> must govern in a civilized manner and cease to resort to appeals to the
> fanatical instincts which permeate not only the mob but also a large
> proportion of the intelligentsia. Eulogies in the Persian press about the courageous
> conduct of the police and soldiers are seriously discounted by the fact,
> according to various witnesses, that soldiers took part in attacking Major
> Imbrie and that the wound on his
> skull could have been made only by a sabre such as the soldiers
> carry.
> 
> WASHINGTON, July 23. - State Department advises from Teheran
> indicate an absence of premeditation in the killing of Vice Consul Imbrie
> and, it was announced today, the department
> will await further data before any official action is taken. Latest
> reports from Minister Hornfeld said there appeared to be no cause for
> anxiety regarding the welfare of foreigners in Persia and that
> tranquillity prevailed. the message added, that Teheran was under martial
> law and no reports of disturbances in the provinces had been
> received.
> 
> METADATA
> 
> Views14322 views since posted 1998; last edit 2025-02-28 02:58 UTC;
> 
> previous at archive.org.../nyt_imbrie_religious_hate;
> URLs changed in 2010, see archive.org.../bahai-library.org
> Language
> English
> Permission
> public domain
> History
> Scanned 1998 by Robert Stauffer.
> Share
> 
> Shortlink: bahai-library.com/395
> Citation: ris/395
> 
> select Collection:
> Archives
> Articles
> Articles-unpublished
> Audio
> Bibliographies
> BIC
> Biographies
> Books
> Chronologies
> Compilations
> Compilations-NSA
> Compilations-personal
> Documents
> East-asia
> Encyclopedia
> Essays
> Etc
> Excerpts
> Fiction
> Glossaries
> Guardian
> Histories
> Introductory
> Letters
> Maps
> Music
> Newspapers
> NSA-documents
> NSA-letters
> Personal
> Pilgrims
> Poetry
> Presentations
> Resources
> Reviews
> Scripts
> Software
> Statistics
> Study
> Talks
> Theses
> Transcripts
> Translations
> UHJ-documents
> UHJ-letters
> Video
> Visual
> Writings
> 
> home
> 
> sitemap
> 
> series
> 
> chronology
> 
> search:
> author
> 
> title
> 
> date
> 
> tags
> 
> adv. search
> languages
> 
> inventory
> 
> bibliography
> 
> abbreviations
> 
> links
> 
> about
> 
> contact
> 
> RSS
> 
> new
>
> — *Imbrie Murder Laid to Religious Hate (Used by permission of the curator)*