Table of Contents
Section One: Chihríq
The Grievous Mountain
The castle of Chihríq, was the prison the Báb entitled Jabal-i-Shadíd [the Grievous Mountain]1ACT7 It was approaching twenty days after Naw-Rúz 2ACT7 of 1848 [10 April 1848]3ACT7 when the Báb was transferred from the prison of Máh-Kú to Chihríq.
The warden of the prison castle of Chihríq was Yahyá Khán-i-Kurd, whose sister was one of the wives of the king, Muhammad Sháh. The warden, like most of the other inhabitants of the area, was a Kurd and belonged to the Sunní branch of Islam.4ACT7 Nabíl records that:
Strict and explicit instructions had been given by the Grand Vazír [Hájí Mírzá Áqásí] to Yahyá Khán, enjoining him not to allow anyone to enter the presence of his Prisoner. He was particularly warned not to follow the example of ‘Alí Khán-i-Máh-Kú’í ,who had gradually been led to disregard the orders he had received.5ACT7
Nabíl then adds:
Despite the emphatic character of that injunction, and in the face of the unyielding opposition of the all-powerful Hájí Mírzá Áqásí, Yahyá Khán found himself powerless to abide by those instructions. He, too, soon came to feel the fascination of his Prisoner; he, too, forgot, as soon as he came into contact with His spirit, the duty he was expected to perform. At the very outset, the love of the Báb penetrated his heart and claimed his entire being. The Kurds who lived in Chihríq, and whose fanaticism and hatred of the Shí’a exceeded the aversion which the inhabitants of Máh-Kú entertained for that people, were likewise subjected to the transforming influence of the Bab.
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