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The last three and most eventful years of the Bab's ministry had, as we have observed in the preceding pages, witnessed not only the formal and public declaration of His mission, but also an unprecedented effusion of His inspired writings, including both the revelation of the fundamental laws of His Dispensation and also the establishment of that Lesser Covenant which was to safeguard the unity of His followers and pave the way for the advent of an incomparably mightier Revelation. It was during this same period, in the early days of His incarceration in the fortress of Chihriq, that the independence of the new- born Faith was openly recognized and asserted by His disciples. The laws underlying the new Dispensation had been revealed by its Author in a prison- fortress in the mountains of Adhirbayjan, while the Dispensation itself was now to be inaugurated in a plain on the border of Mazindaran, at a conference of His assembled followers. (31:1) Baha'u'llah, maintaining through continual correspondence close contact with the Bab, and Himself the directing force behind the manifold activities of His struggling fellow- disciples, unobtrusively yet effectually presided over that conference, and guided and controlled its proceedings. Quddus, regarded as the exponent of the conservative element within it, affected, in pursuance of a pre- conceived plan designed to mitigate the alarm and consternation which such a conference was sure to arouse, to oppose the seemingly extremist views advocated by the impetuous Tahirih. The primary purpose of that gathering was to implement the revelation of the Bayan by a sudden, a complete and dramatic break with the past-- with its order, its ecclesiasticism, its traditions, and ceremonials. The subsidiary purpose of the conference was to consider the means of emancipating the Bab from His cruel confinement in Chihriq. The first was eminently successful; the second was destined from the outset to fail. (31:2) The scene of such a challenging and far- reaching proclamation was the hamlet of Badasht, where Baha'u'llah had rented, amidst pleasant surroundings, three gardens, one of which He assigned to Quddus, another to Tahirih, whilst the third He reserved for Himself. The eighty- one disciples who had gathered from various provinces were His guests from the day of their arrival to the day they dispersed. On each of the twenty- two days of His sojourn in that hamlet He revealed a Tablet, which was chanted in the presence of the assembled believers. On every believer He conferred a new name, without, however, disclosing the identity of the one who had bestowed it. He Himself was henceforth designated by the name Baha. Upon the Last Letter of the Living was conferred the appellation of Quddus, while Qurratu'l- 'Ayn was given the title of Tahirih. By these names they were all subsequently addressed by the Bab in the Tablets He revealed for each one of them.
(31:3)
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