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Emboldened by the recent ordeals with which Baha'u'llah had been so cruelly afflicted, these enemies, who had been momentarily quiescent, began to demonstrate afresh, and in a number of ways, the latent animosity they nursed in their hearts. A persecution, varying in the degree of its severity, began once more to break out in various countries. In Adhirbayjan and Zanjan, in Nishapur and Tihran, the adherents of the Faith were either imprisoned, vilified, penalized, tortured or put to death. Among the sufferers may be singled out the intrepid Najaf- 'Aliy- i- Zanjani, a survivor of the struggle of Zanjan, and immortalized in the "Epistle to the Son of the Wolf," who, bequeathing the gold in his possession to his executioner, was heard to shout aloud "Ya Rabbiya'l- Abha" before he was beheaded. In Egypt, a greedy and vicious consul- general extorted no less than a hundred thousand tumans from a wealthy Persian convert, named Haji Abu'l- Qasim- i- Shirazi; arrested Haji Mirza Haydar- 'Ali and six of his fellow- believers, and instigated their condemnation to a nine year exile in Khartum, confiscating all the writings in their possession, and then threw into prison Nabil, whom Baha'u'llah had sent to appeal to the Khedive on their behalf. In Baghdad and Kazimayn indefatigable enemies, watching their opportunity, subjected Baha'u'llah's faithful supporters to harsh and ignominious treatment; savagely disemboweled Abdu'r- Rasul- i- Qumi, as he was carrying water in a skin, at the hour of dawn, from the river to the Most Great House, and banished, amidst scenes of public derision, about seventy companions to Mosul, including women and children. (178:1) No less active were Mirza Husayn- Khan, the Mushiru'd- Dawlih, and his associates, who, determined to take full advantage of the troubles that had recently visited Baha'u'llah, arose to encompass His destruction. The authorities in the capital were incensed by the esteem shown Him by the governor Muhammad Pashay- i- Qibrisi, a former Grand Vizir, and his successors Sulayman Pasha, of the Qadiriyyih Order, and particularly Khurshid Pasha, who, openly and on many occasions, frequented the house of Baha'u'llah, entertained Him in the days of Ramadan, and evinced a fervent admiration for Abdu'l- Baha. They were well aware of the challenging tone Baha'u'llah had assumed in some of His newly revealed Tablets, and conscious of the instability prevailing in their own country. They were disturbed by the constant comings and goings of pilgrims in Adrianople, and by the exaggerated reports of Fu'ad Pasha, who had recently passed through on a tour of inspection. The petitions of Mirza Yahya which reached them through Siyyid Muhammad, his agent, had provoked them. Anonymous letters (written by this same Siyyid and by an accomplice, Aqa Jan, serving in the Turkish artillery) which perverted the writings of Baha'u'llah, and which accused Him of having conspired with Bulgarian leaders and certain ministers of European powers to achieve, with the help of some thousands of His followers, the conquest of Constantinople, had filled their breasts with alarm. And now, encouraged by the internal dissensions which had shaken the Faith, and irritated by the evident esteem in which Baha'u'llah was held by the consuls of foreign powers stationed in Adrianople, they determined to take drastic and immediate action which would extirpate that Faith, isolate its Author and reduce Him to powerlessness. The indiscretions committed by some of its over- zealous followers, who had arrived in Constantinople, no doubt, aggravated an already acute situation.
(178:2)
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