- 1845-06-28 —
- 1848-04-09 —
The Báb was removed from Máh-Kú. Prior to this He had communicated His higher claims to His followers.
- Hájí Mírzá Áqásí was alarmed by the developments at Máh-Kú and ordered that the Báb be moved to Chihríq. [Bab131; DB259; GPB1920]
- The Báb's presence in Máh-Kú, so close to the Russian frontier, was also a cause for concern for the Russian government. Prince Dolgorukov, the Russian Minister in Tihrán, asked that He be removed. It is likely that this request was made in 1847 but not carried out until this time. [Bab131; BBR72; TN13]
- The Báb had been in Máh-Kú for nine months. [DB259]
- 1850-02-20 —
Martyrdom of the Seven Martyrs of Tihrán. Seven of the Bábís were executed in Tihrán on the false charge of having plotted to kill the Grand Vizier. [B182–5; BBD225; BBR100–5; BBRSM28, 216; BKG71; BW18:381; DB462; GPB47–8; BW19p381]
- See BBD225, BBR100 and BW18:381 for a list of their names.
- Three of the victims were so eager to be martyrs that they asked the executioner if they could be the first to die. [Bab183; BBD225; GPB47]
- Their bodies were left in the public square for three days. [BBD225; GPB47]
- See GPB478 for the chief features of the episode.
- The martyrs are the 'Seven Goats' referred to in Islamic traditions that were to 'walk in front' of the promised Qá'im. [GPB47–8]
- See Bab206–7 and BBR100–5 for the accounts of the event and responses of Prince Dolgorukov and Lt-Col Sheil.
- The were: Haji Mirzá Siyyid 'Ali (uncle of the Báb, the middle brother, known as "The Greatest Uncle"), Mirzá Qurban-'Ali, Haji Mullá Isma'il-i-Qumi, Sayyid Husayn-i-Turshizi, Háji Muhammad-Taqiy-i-Kirmani, Muhammad—Husayn-i-Maraghi'i. [BW19p381]
- See Bahá'í Chronicles for the story of the three uncles of the Báb, Haji Mirza Siyyid Ali (the Greatest Uncle - he was the middle brother), Haji Mirza Siyyid Muhammad (the Greater Uncle, the eldest) and Haji Mirza Hassan Ali, the younger Uncle.
- 1852-08-16 —
Bahá'u'lláh rode out towards the headquarters of the imperial army. At the time, He had been in 'The Abode of the Birds' (MurghMaḥallih), a garden which had been His summer residence. He stopped at Zargandih at the home of Mírzá Majíd Khán-i-Áhí, secretary to the Russian legation. [BKG77; DB603, AY235]
- Bahá'u'lláh was invited to remain in this home. [DB603]
- The Sháh was informed of Bahá'u'lláh's arrival and sent an officer to the legation to demand the delivery of Bahá'u'lláh into his hands. The Russian minister, Prince Dolgorukov, refused and suggested that Bahá'u'lláh be sent to the home of the Grand Vizier. [BKG77; DB603]
- Bahá'u'lláh was arrested. [BKG77; DB603]
- 1852-12-00 —
Bahá'u'lláh was released from the Síyáh-Chál.
- This was owing to: the efforts of the Russian Minister Prince Dolgorukov; the public confession of the would-be assassin; the testimony of competent tribunals; the efforts of Bahá'u'lláh's own kinsmen; and the sacrifices of those followers imprisoned with Him. [GPB104–5]
- Mírzá Májíd-í-Ahi, the Secretary to the Russian Legation in Tehrán and brother-in-law of Bahá'u'lláh, Prince Dolgorki, the Russian Ambassador, pressured the government of Násirí'd-Din Sháh to either produce evidence against Bahá'u'lláh or to release Him. In absence of any proof, Bahá'u'lláh, Who was initially condemned to life in prison, was forced by the King to choose a place of exile for Himself and His family. The Czar sent and escort of fifty officers to accompany Him to a place of safety from Tehran to the Iraqi border. [BKG99; Sunburst P129]
- See CH43–4 for the role of the Russian Consul in securing His release. He invoked his full power as an envoy of Russia and called out the Sháh and his court for their barbaric behaviour.
- See BKG101–2, CH44 and DB647–8 for the physical condition of Bahá'u'lláh upon release.
- See BKG101, DB648–9 and GPB105 for the words of Bahá'u'lláh to Mírzá Áqá Khán upon His release.
- The Russian minister invited Bahá'u'lláh to go to Russia but He chose instead to go to Iraq. [DB650]
- It may be that He refused the offer because He knew that acceptance of such help would almost certainly have been misrepresented by others as having political implications. [BBIC:8]
- 1942-00-00 —
The publication in Iran of The Political Confessions or Memoirs of Prince Dolgoruki (or, simply, Dolgorukov's Memoirs). The book contends that the Bábí Faith was simply an element in a plot to destabilize Iran and Islam. [22 February, 2009 Iran Press Watch]
- See Religious Contentions in Modern Iran, 1881-1941 by Dr Mina Yazdani where she posits that "The process of Othering the Bahá'ís had at least three components; 1) religious, carried on by the traditionalist theologians; 2) institutional and formal, sanctioned by the state; and 3) political, the result of a joint and gradual process in which Azalīs, former Bahá'ís and reformist theologians all played a role. This process reached its culmination with the widespread publication of The Confessions of Dolgoruki which resulted in a fundamental paradigm shift in the anti-Bahá'í discourse. With the widespread impression of Bahá'ís as spies of foreign powers, what up to that point constituted a sporadic theme in some anti-Bahá'í polemics now became the dominant narrative of them all, including those authored by traditionalist clerics. Consequently, as Iran entered the 1940s, the process that would transform Islamic piety to political ideology was well under way."
- In its preface, Dolgorukov's Memoirs purported to be a translation of the memoirs of Prince Dimitri Ivanovich Dolgorukov (Russian Minister in Iran from 1845-54), first published in the official organ of the Soviet Communist Party. According to the book, whose Russian "original" has never been found, Prince Dolgorukov had travelled to Iran during the 1830s, entered the ranks of the 'ulama, and instigated the Bábí-Bahá'í uprising. The book totally contradicted the well-documented life of Prince Dolgorukov, and made obvious chronological and historical mistakes in its allegations about the lives of the Báb and Bahá'u'lláh. Nevertheless, it was reprinted many times, and created a master narrative that others subsequently deployed. With its political tone, the book, on the one hand, heralded the ascendancy of politics over religion in the mindset of Iran's Shi'a clergy, and on the other, demonstrated the vast popularity that conspiracy theories enjoyed in Iran. [Iran Press Watch 1407] iiiii
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