# Station Wagon Odyssey: Baghdad to Istanbul; A famous American traveler continuing a journey across the Moslem East

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

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> Station Wagon Odyssey: Baghdad to Istanbul; A famous American traveler continuing a journey across the Moslem East finds new friends and changing nations. William O. Douglas, Supreme Court Justice. National Geographic Magazine, Volume CXV,  No. 1, January 1959. Page 73. 
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> "The Bab Faces a Firing Squad"
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> One day in Tabriz as Mercedes, Mary, and I were window-shopping, a tall, heavy-set man about forty years of age came out of a shop and called my by name. How he knew me, I do not know. He was a Bahai. Inviting us in for soft drinks and huge pistachio nuts, he soon brought us up to date on the Bahais.
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> Tabriz was the scene of the execution of the Baba, founder of the Bahai religion. On July 9, 1850, he was suspended by a rope under his arms and shot by a firing squad. The shots rang out, but the Bab was not touched. The bullets merely cut the rope, and he fell to the ground unharmed.
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> The firing squad refused to shoot again, and it seemed in that instant that the miracle of the Bab might sweep Iran from its Moslem foundations. But a quick-witted officer summoned another firing squad that soon did kill the Bab, putting an end to any mysticism about his powers. A public school now stands where the Bab was executed.
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> — *Station Wagon Odyssey: Baghdad to Istanbul; A famous American traveler continuing a journey across the Moslem East (Used by permission of the curator)*