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Mirza Hasan Khan summoned his chief of the farrashes, and gave him his instructions. They removed the Bab's turban and sash which were the signs of His Siyyid-hood, brought Him with four of His followers to the barrack square of Tabriz, confined Him in a cell, and appointed forty of the Christian soldiers of Tabriz to guard Him. (26:2) Next day the chief of the farrashes delivered over the Bab and a young man named Aqa Muhammad-'Ali who was of a noble family of Tabriz to Sam Khan, colonel of the Christian regiment of Urumiyyih, at the sentences of the learned divine Mulla Muhammad of Mamaqan, of the second ecclesiastical authority Mulla Mirza Baqir, and of the third ecclesiastical authority Mulla Murtada-Quli and others. An iron nail was hammered into the middle of the staircase of the very cell wherein they were imprisoned, and two ropes were hung down. By one rope the Bab was suspended and by the other rope Aqa Muhammad-'Ali, both being firmly bound in such wise that the head of that young man was on the Bab's breast. The surrounding housetops billowed with teeming crowds. A regiment of soldiers ranged itself in three files. The first file fired; then the second file, and then the third file discharged volleys. From the fire of these volleys a mighty smoke was produced. When the smoke cleared away they saw that young man standing and the Bab seated by the side of His amanuensis Aqa Siyyid Husayn in the very cell from the staircase of which they had suspended them. To neither one of them had the slightest injury resulted.
(26:3)
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