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A corollary to this epoch- making declaration, and a direct consequence of the intermittent disturbances instigated in Port Said and Isma'iliyyih by a fanatical populace in connection with the burial of some of the members of the Baha'i community, was the official and no less remarkable fatva (judgment) issued, at the request of the Ministry of Justice, by the Grand Mufti of Egypt. This, soon after its pronouncement, was published in the Egyptian press and contributed to fortify further the independent status of the Faith. It followed upon the riots which broke out with exceptional fury in Isma'iliyyih, when angry crowds surrounded the funeral cortege of Muhammad Sulayman, a prominent Baha'i resident of that town, creating such an uproar that the police had to intervene, and having rescued the body and brought it back to the home of the deceased, they were forced to carry it without escort, at night, to the edge of the desert and inter it in the wilderness.
(367:1)
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