Husayn Khan, the governor of Shiraz, stigmatized as a "wine- bibber" and a "tyrant," the first who arose to ill- treat the Bab, who publicly rebuked Him and bade his attendant strike Him violently in the face, was compelled not only to endure the dreadful calamity that so suddenly befell him, his family, his city and his province, but afterwards to witness the undoing of all his labors, and to lead in obscurity the remaining days of his life, till he tottered to his grave abandoned alike by his friends and his enemies. Hajibu'd- Dawlih, that bloodthirsty fiend, who had strenuously hounded down so many innocent and defenseless Babis, fell in his turn a victim to the fury of the turbulent Lurs, who, after despoiling him of his property, cut off his beard, and forced him to eat it, saddled and bridled him, and rode him before the eyes of the people, after which they inflicted under his very eyes shameful atrocities upon his womenfolk and children. The Sa'idu'l- 'Ulama, the fanatical, the ferocious and shameless mujtahid of Barfurush, whose unquenchable hostility had heaped such insults upon, and caused such sufferings to, the heroes of Tabarsi, fell, soon after the abominations he had perpetrated, a prey to a strange disease, provoking an unquenchable thirst and producing such icy chills that neither the furs he wrapped himself in, nor the fire that continually burned in his room could alleviate his sufferings. The spectacle of his ruined and once luxurious home, fallen into such ill use after his death as to become the refuse- heap of the people of his town, impressed so profoundly the inhabitants of Mazindaran that in their mutual vituperations they would often invoke upon each other's home the same fate as that which had befallen that accursed habitation. The false- hearted and ambitious Mahmud Khan- i- Kalantar, into whose custody Tahirih had been delivered before her martyrdom, incurred, nine years later, the wrath of his royal master, was dragged feet first by ropes through the bazaars to a place outside the city gates, and there hung on the gallows. Mirza Hasan Khan, who carried out the execution of the Bab under orders from his brother, the Amir- Nizam, was, within two years of that unpardonable act, subjected to a dreadful punishment which ended in his death. The Shaykhu'l- Islam of Tabriz, the insolent, the avaricious and tyrannical Mirza Ali Asghar, who, after the refusal of the bodyguard of the governor of that city to inflict the bastinado on the Bab, proceeded to apply eleven times the rods to the feet of his Prisoner with his own hand, was, in that same year, struck with paralysis, and, after enduring the most excruciating ordeal, died a miserable death-- a death that was soon followed by the abolition of the function of the Shaykhu'l- Islam in that city. The haughty and perfidious Mirza Abu- Talib Khan who, disregarding the counsels of moderation given him by Mirza Aqa Khan, the Grand Vizir, ordered the plunder and burning of the village of Takur, as well as the destruction of the house of Baha'u'llah, was, a year later, stricken with plague and perished wretchedly, shunned by even his nearest kindred. Mihr- 'Ali Khan, the Shuja'u'l- Mulk, who, after the attempt on the Shah's life, so savagely persecuted the remnants of the Babi community in Nayriz, fell ill, according to the testimony of his own grandson, and was stricken with dumbness, which was never relieved till the day of his death. His accomplice, Mirza Na'im, fell into disgrace, was twice heavily fined, dismissed from office, and subjected to exquisite tortures. The regiment which, scorning the miracle that warned Sam Khan and his men to dissociate themselves from any further attempt to destroy the life of the Bab, volunteered to take their place and riddled His body with its bullets, lost, in that same year, no less than two hundred and fifty of its officers and men, in a terrible earthquake between Ardibil and Tabriz; two years later the remaining five hundred were mercilessly shot in Tabriz for mutiny, and the people, gazing on their exposed and mutilated bodies, recalled their savage act, and indulged in such expressions of condemnation and wonder as to induce the leading mujtahids to chastise and silence them. The head of that regiment, Aqa Jan Big, lost his life, six years after the Bab's martyrdom, during the bombardment of Muhammarih by the British naval forces. (83:1)

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