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A lull had, in consequence, momentarily ensued, which was destined to be broken, at a later stage, by a further wave of repressive measures in which the Sultan of Turkey and his ministers, as well as the Sunni sacerdotal order, were to join hands with the Shah and the Shi'ah clericals of Persia and Iraq in an endeavor to stamp out, once and for all, the Faith and all it stood for. While this lull persisted the initial manifestations of the internal crisis, already mentioned, were beginning to reveal themselves-- a crisis which, though less spectacular in the public eye, proved itself, as it moved to its climax, to be one of unprecedented gravity, reducing the numerical strength of the infant community, imperiling its unity, causing immense damage to its prestige, and tarnishing for a considerable period of time its glory. (112:1) This crisis had already been brewing in the days immediately following the execution of the Bab, was intensified during the months when the controlling hand of Baha'u'llah was suddenly withdrawn as a result of His confinement in the Siyah- Chal of Tihran, was further aggravated by His precipitate banishment from Persia, and began to protrude its disturbing features during the first years of His sojourn in Baghdad. Its devastating force gathered momentum during His two year retirement to the mountains of Kurdistan, and though it was checked, for a time, after His return from Sulaymaniyyih, under the overmastering influences exerted preparatory to the Declaration of His Mission, it broke out later, with still greater violence, and reached its climax in Adrianople, only to receive finally its death- blow under the impact of the irresistible forces released through the proclamation of that Mission to all mankind. (112:2) Its central figure was no less a person than the nominee of the Bab Himself, the credulous and cowardly Mirza Yahya, to certain traits of whose character reference has already been made in the foregoing pages. The black- hearted scoundrel who befooled and manipulated this vain and flaccid man with consummate skill and unyielding persistence was a certain Siyyid Muhammad, a native of Isfahan, notorious for his inordinate ambition, his blind obstinacy and uncontrollable jealousy. To him Baha'u'llah had later referred in the Kitab- i- Aqdas as the one who had "led astray" Mirza Yahya, and stigmatized him, in one of His Tablets, as the "source of envy and the quintessence of mischief," while Abdu'l- Baha had described the relationship existing between these two as that of "the sucking child" to the "much- prized breast" of its mother. Forced to abandon his studies in the madrisiyi- i- Sadr of Isfahan, this Siyyid had migrated, in shame and remorse, to Karbila, had there joined the ranks of the Bab's followers, and shown, after His martyrdom, signs of vacillation which exposed the shallowness of his faith and the fundamental weakness of his convictions. Baha'u'llah's first visit to Karbila and the marks of undisguised reverence, love and admiration shown Him by some of the most distinguished among the former disciples and companions of Siyyid Kazim, had aroused in this calculating and unscrupulous schemer an envy, and bred in his soul an animosity, which the forbearance and patience shown him by Baha'u'llah had served only to inflame. His deluded helpers, willing tools of his diabolical designs, were the not inconsiderable number of Babis who, baffled, disillusioned and leaderless, were already predisposed to be beguiled by him into pursuing a path diametrically opposed to the tenets and counsels of a departed Leader.
(112:3)
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