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Emboldened by the recent ordeals with which Baha'u'llah had been so cruelly afflicted, these enemies, who had been momentarily quiescent, began to demonstrate afresh, and in a number of ways, the latent animosity they nursed in their hearts. A persecution, varying in the degree of its severity, began once more to break out in various countries. In Adhirbayjan and Zanjan, in Nishapur and Tihran, the adherents of the Faith were either imprisoned, vilified, penalized, tortured or put to death. Among the sufferers may be singled out the intrepid Najaf- 'Aliy- i- Zanjani, a survivor of the struggle of Zanjan, and immortalized in the "Epistle to the Son of the Wolf," who, bequeathing the gold in his possession to his executioner, was heard to shout aloud "Ya Rabbiya'l- Abha" before he was beheaded. In Egypt, a greedy and vicious consul- general extorted no less than a hundred thousand tumans from a wealthy Persian convert, named Haji Abu'l- Qasim- i- Shirazi; arrested Haji Mirza Haydar- 'Ali and six of his fellow- believers, and instigated their condemnation to a nine year exile in Khartum, confiscating all the writings in their possession, and then threw into prison Nabil, whom Baha'u'llah had sent to appeal to the Khedive on their behalf. In Baghdad and Kazimayn indefatigable enemies, watching their opportunity, subjected Baha'u'llah's faithful supporters to harsh and ignominious treatment; savagely disemboweled Abdu'r- Rasul- i- Qumi, as he was carrying water in a skin, at the hour of dawn, from the river to the Most Great House, and banished, amidst scenes of public derision, about seventy companions to Mosul, including women and children.
(178:1)
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