circa 1900: Some persecuted Baha'is

(Source: 'Persia - The Awakening East' by W.P. Cresson)

Scene of numerous martyrdom and persecutions

An early 20th-century scene of daily life in an open square in front of the bazaar in central Tehran. This square was the scene of numerous public martyrdom and other persecutions of Bábís and Bahá'ís. 
(The American Bahá'í, August 20, 2002)

Badi – the "Pride of Martyrs", an Apostle of Baha’u’llah

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."

- Shoghi Effendi  (‘God Passes By’)

Badi's martyrdom site

Site marked 'X' shows the spot where Badi, the bearer of Baha'u'llah's Tablet to the Shah of Persia, was martyred 
(The Baha'i World 1936-1938)

Táhirih's martyrdom site

Site of the Garden of Ilkhani where Táhirih was martyred 
(The Dawn-Breakers)

Táhirih's place of confinement in Tihran

The house of the Kalantar in Tihran where Táhirih was confined (upper room behind tree is the one she occupied) 
(The Dawn-Breakers)

Hujjat: “another champion of conspicuous audacity, of unsubduable will, of remarkable originality and vehement zeal”

Hujjat, another champion of conspicuous audacity, of unsubduable will, of remarkable originality and vehement zeal, was being, swiftly and inevitably, drawn into the fiery furnace whose flames had already enveloped Zanjan and its environs. 

- Shoghi Effendi  (‘God Passes By’)

Vahid: the "unique and peerless figure of his age"

Vahid, pronounced in the Kitáb-i-Íqán to be the "unique and peerless figure of his age," a man of immense erudition and the most preeminent figure to enlist under the banner of the new Faith, to whose "talents and saintliness," to whose "high attainments in the realm of science and philosophy" the Báb had testified in His Dala'il-i-Sab'ih (Seven Proofs), had already, under similar circumstances, been swept into the maelstrom of another upheaval, and was soon to quaff in his turn the cup drained by the heroic martyrs of Mazindaran. 

- Shoghi Effendi  (‘God Passes By’)

Mulla Husayn: “the one but for whom ‘God would not have been established upon the seat of His mercy, nor ascended the throne of eternal glory’”

Mulla Husayn, the first Letter of the Living, surnamed the Babu'l-Báb (the Gate of the Gate); designated as the "Primal Mirror;" on whom eulogies, prayers and visiting Tablets of a number equivalent to thrice the volume of the Qur'án had been lavished by the pen of the Bab; referred to in these eulogies as "beloved of My Heart;" the dust of whose grave, that same Pen had declared, was so potent as to cheer the sorrowful and heal the sick; whom "the creatures, raised in the beginning and in the end" of the Bábí Dispensation, envy, and will continue to envy till the "Day of Judgment;" whom the Kitáb-i-Íqán acclaimed as the one but for whom "God would not have been established upon the seat of His mercy, nor ascended the throne of eternal glory;" to whom Siyyid Kazim had paid such tribute that his disciples suspected that the recipient of such praise might well be the promised One Himself -- such a one had likewise, in the prime of his manhood, died a martyr's death at Tabarsi. 

- Shoghi Effendi  (‘God Passes By’)

Mírzá Abú-Tálib

Mírzá Abú-Tálib, one of the companions of Quddús who survived the struggle of Shaykh Tabarsí  (The Dawn-Breakers)

Quddus’ incredible station & his death compared to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ

Quddus, immortalized by Him [the Bab] as Ismu'llahi'l-Akhir (the Last Name of God); on whom Bahá'u'lláh's Tablet of Kullu't-Ta'am later conferred the sublime appellation of Nuqtiy-i-Ukhra (the Last Point); whom He elevated, in another Tablet, to a rank second to none except that of the Herald of His Revelation; whom He identifies, in still another Tablet, with one of the ‘Messengers charged with imposture’ mentioned in the Qur'án; whom the Persian Bayan extolled as that fellow-pilgrim round whom mirrors to the number of eight Vahids revolve; on whose ‘detachment and the sincerity of whose devotion to God's will God prideth Himself amidst the Concourse on high;’ whom 'Abdu'l-Bahá designated as the ‘Moon of Guidance;’ and whose appearance the Revelation of St. John the Divine anticipated as one of the two ‘Witnesses’ into whom, ere the ‘second woe is past,’ the ‘spirit of life from God’ must enter -- such a man had, in the full bloom of his youth, suffered, in the Sabzih-Maydan of Barfurush, a death which even Jesus Christ, as attested by Bahá'u'lláh, had not faced in the hour of His greatest agony. 

- Shoghi Effendi  (‘God Passes By’)

The “erudite, the twenty-two year old Quddus” – “in rank the first of these Letters [of the Living]

The last, but in rank the first, of these Letters to be inscribed on the Preserved Tablet was the erudite, the twenty-two year old Quddus, a direct descendant of the Imam Hasan and the most esteemed disciple of Siyyid Kazim. 

- Shoghi Effendi  (God Passes By)

The “glorious Báb, the immortal Quddus, the lion-hearted Mulla Husayn, the erudite Vahid, the audacious Hujjat, the illustrious seven martyrs of Tihran…”

No lesser tribute can be paid the memory of the glorious Báb, the immortal Quddus, the lion-hearted Mulla Husayn, the erudite Vahid, the audacious Hujjat, the illustrious seven martyrs of Tihran and a host of unnumbered heroes whose lifeblood flowed so copiously in the course of the opening decade of the first Bahá'í century, by the privileged champion-builders of the World Order of Bahá'u'lláh during the present critical stage in the unfoldment of the Formative Age of His Dispensation, than a parallel outpouring of their substance by the builders of the most holy House of Worship laboring in the corresponding decade of the succeeding century. 

- Shoghi Effendi  (From a letter dated March 16, 1949; ‘Citadel of Faith’)

The Báb, Quddus, Mulla Husayn, Vahid, Hujjat, King of Martyrs, Beloved of Martyrs, Ashraf, Badi, the martyrs of the land of Yazd, the martyrs of Shiraz, those massacred in the land of Nayriz, the martyrs of Tabriz, those who renounced their lives in Mazandaran, the martyrs of Isfahan

…most of the favoured ones of God offered up their lives as martyrs in the field of sacrifice. He Who is the resplendent Morn of divine guidance, the Exalted One [the Bab] sank below the horizon of sacrifice. Quddus sought companionship with the Beloved through glorious martyrdom. Mulla Husayn opened a new gate to the field of martyrdom. Vahid distinguished himself as a peerless figure in the arena of sacrifice. Zanjani [Hujjat] offered up his life as a martyr upon the plain of tribulation. The King of Martyrs hastened forth to the place of sacrifice. The Beloved of Martyrs was enraptured with ineffable gladness when he offered up his life for the sake of God. Ashraf attained the heights of honour as he unflinchingly set his face towards the arena of sacrifice. Badi, as he breathed his last, exclaimed: 'Magnified be my Lord, the Most Glorious!' The martyrs of the land of Ya [Yazd] drank their fill with relish from the draught of glorious martyrdom, and the martyrs of Shiraz laid down their lives in the arena of ardent love to the tune of sweet and wondrous melodies. Those massacred in the land of Nayriz were inebriated with the brimful cup of sacrifice, and the martyrs of Tabriz were seized with ecstatic joy and unleashed new energies in the field of sacrifice. Those who renounced their lives in Mazandaran exclaimed: 'O Lord! Destine for us this cup that brimmeth over with the choice wine'; while the martyrs of Isfahan laid down their lives with utmost joy and radiance. 

- ‘Abdu’l-Baha  (From a Tablet; compilation: ‘Fire and Light’, prepared by the Baha’i World Center; The Baha’i World 1979-1983)