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The people of Shiraz were by that time wild with excitement. A violent controversy was raging in the masjids, the madrisihs, the bazaars, and other public places. Peace and security were gravely imperiled. Fearful, envious, thoroughly angered, the mullas were beginning to perceive the seriousness of their position. The governor, greatly alarmed, ordered the Bab to be arrested. He was brought to Shiraz under escort, and, in the presence of Husayn Khan, was severely rebuked, and so violently struck in the face that His turban fell to the ground. Upon the intervention of the Imam- Jum'ih He was released on parole, and entrusted to the custody of His maternal uncle Haji Mirza Siyyid Ali. A brief lull ensued, enabling the captive Youth to celebrate the Naw- Ruz of that and the succeeding year in an atmosphere of relative tranquillity in the company of His mother, His wife, and His uncle. Meanwhile the fever that had seized His followers was communicating itself to the members of the clergy and to the merchant classes, and was invading the higher circles of society. Indeed, a wave of passionate inquiry had swept the whole country, and unnumbered congregations were listening with wonder to the testimonies eloquently and fearlessly related by the Bab's itinerant messengers. (11:1) The commotion had assumed such proportions that the Shah, unable any longer to ignore the situation, delegated the trusted Siyyid Yahyay- i- Darabi, surnamed Vahid, one of the most erudite, eloquent and influential of his subjects-- a man who had committed to memory no less than thirty thousand traditions-- to investigate and report to him the true situation. Broad- minded, highly imaginative, zealous by nature, intimately associated with the court, he, in the course of three interviews, was completely won over by the arguments and personality of the Bab. Their first interview centered around the metaphysical teachings of Islam, the most obscure passages of the Qur'an, and the traditions and prophecies of the Imams. In the course of the second interview Vahid was astounded to find that the questions which he had intended to submit for elucidation had been effaced from his retentive memory, and yet, to his utter amazement, he discovered that the Bab was answering the very questions he had forgotten. During the third interview the circumstances attending the revelation of the Bab's commentary on the surih of Kawthar, comprising no less than two thousand verses, so overpowered the delegate of the Shah that he, contenting himself with a mere written report to the Court Chamberlain, arose forthwith to dedicate his entire life and resources to the service of a Faith that was to requite him with the crown of martyrdom during the Nayriz upheaval. He who had firmly resolved to confute the arguments of an obscure siyyid of Shiraz, to induce Him to abandon His ideas, and to conduct Him to Tihran as an evidence of the ascendancy he had achieved over Him, was made to feel, as he himself later acknowledged, as "lowly as the dust beneath His feet." Even Husayn Khan, who had been Vahid's host during his stay in Shiraz, was compelled to write to the Shah and express the conviction that his Majesty's illustrious delegate had become a Babi.
(11:2)
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