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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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