Aqa Buzurg of Khurasan, the illustrious
"Badi" (Wonderful); converted to the Faith by Nabil; surnamed the
"Pride of Martyrs"; the seventeen year old bearer of
the Tablet addressed to Nisiri'd-Din Shah; in whom, as affirmed by
Baha’u’llah, "the spirit of might and power was breathed," was
arrested, branded for three successive days, his head beaten to a pulp with the
butt of a rifle, after which his body was thrown into a pit and earth and stones
heaped upon it. After visiting Baha’u’llah in the barracks, during the second
year of His confinement, he had arisen with amazing alacrity to carry that
Tablet, alone and on foot, to Tihran and deliver it into the hands of
the sovereign. A four months' journey had taken him to that city, and, after
passing three days in fasting and vigilance, he had met the Shah proceeding on
a hunting expedition to Shimiran. He had calmly and respectfully approached His
Majesty, calling out, "O King! I have come to thee from Sheba
with a weighty message"; whereupon at the Sovereign's order, the Tablet
was taken from him and delivered to the mujtahids of Tihran who were commanded
to reply to that Epistle - a command which they evaded, recommending instead
that the messenger should be put to death. That Tablet was subsequently
forwarded by the Shah to the Persian Ambassador in Constantinople, in
the hope that its perusal by the Sultan's ministers might serve to further
inflame their animosity. For a space of three years Baha'u'llah continued to
extol in His writings the heroism of that youth, characterizing the references
made by Him to that sublime sacrifice as the "salt of My Tablets."
