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The first eighteen disciples of the Bab (with Himself as the nineteenth) became known as "letters of the living." These disciples He sent to different parts of Persia and Turkistan to spread the news of His advent. Meantime He Himself set out on a pilgrimage to Mecca, where He arrived in December 1844, and there openly declared His mission. (14:3) ..He was.. the Mihdi (Mahdi) Whose coming Muhammad had foretold. The Shiihs identified this Mihdi with the 12th Imam who, according to their beliefs, had mysteriously disappeared from the sight of men about a thousand years previously. They believed that he was still alive and would reappear in the same body as before, and they interpreted in a material sense the prophecies regarding his dominion, his glory, his conquests and the "signs" of his advent.. They expected that he would appear with earthly sovereignty and an innumerable army and declare his revelation, that he would raise dead bodies and restore them to life.. As these signs did not appear, the shiihs rejected the Bab with the same fierce scorn which the Jews displayed towards Jesus.. (15:1) ..the Bab did not stop even with the claim of Mihdihood. He adopted the sacred title of.. "Primal Point".. This was a title applied to Muhammad.. for this reason.. He was regarded as an imposter, just as Moses and Jesus before Him.. He even inaugurated a new calendar.. from the year of His own Declaration.
(16:1)
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