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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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