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While the convulsions of Mazindaran and Nayriz were pursuing their bloody course the Grand Vizir of Nasiri'd- Din Shah, anxiously pondering the significance of these dire happenings, and apprehensive of their repercussions on his countrymen, his government and his sovereign, was feverishly revolving in his mind that fateful decision which was not only destined to leave its indelible imprint on the fortunes of his country, but was to be fraught with such incalculable consequences for the destinies of the whole of mankind. The repressive measures taken against the followers of the Bab, he was by now fully convinced, had but served to inflame their zeal, steel their resolution and confirm their loyalty to their persecuted Faith. The Bab's isolation and captivity had produced the opposite effect to that which the Amir- Nizam had confidently anticipated. Gravely perturbed, he bitterly condemned the disastrous leniency of his predecessor, Haji Mirza Aqasi, which had brought matters to such a pass. A more drastic and still more exemplary punishment, he felt, must now be administered to what he regarded as an abomination of heresy which was polluting the civil and ecclesiastical institutions of the realm. Nothing short, he believed, of the extinction of the life of Him Who was the fountain- head of so odious a doctrine and the driving force behind so dynamic a movement could stem the tide that had wrought such havoc throughout the land. (51:1) The siege of Zanjan was still in progress when he, dispensing with an explicit order from his sovereign, and acting independently of his counsellors and fellow- ministers, dispatched his order to Prince Hamzih Mirza, the Hishmatu'd- Dawlih, the governor of Adhirbayjan, instructing him to execute the Bab. Fearing lest the infliction of such condign punishment in the capital of the realm would set in motion forces he might be powerless to control, he ordered that his Captive be taken to Tabriz, and there be done to death. Confronted with a flat refusal by the indignant Prince to perform what he regarded as a flagitious crime, the Amir- Nizam commissioned his own brother, Mirza Hasan Khan, to execute his orders. The usual formalities designed to secure the necessary authorization from the leading mujtahids of Tabriz were hastily and easily completed. Neither Mulla Muhammad- i- Mamaqani, however, who had penned the Bab's death- warrant on the very day of His examination in Tabriz, nor Haji Mirza Baqir, nor Mulla Murtada- Quli, to whose houses their Victim was ignominiously led by the farrash- bashi, by order of the Grand Vizir, condescended to meet face to face their dreaded Opponent.
(51:2)
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