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Qazvín: Mullá ‘Abdu’l-Karím-i-Qazviní
Mullá ‘Abdu’l-Karím-i-Qazviní was one of the three main amanuenses of the Báb (the other two being Siyyid Husayn-i-Yazdí and Shaykh Hasan-i-Zunúzí). An amanuensis is a secretary who writes and copies what is dictated. Mullá ‘Abdu’l-Karím was given the title of Mírzá Ahmad by Bahá’u’lláh (Dawn-Breakers Chapter 21, p439), and being a scribe, he was therefore also known as Mírzá Ahmad-i-Katib [meaning Mr. Ahmad, the scribe].
What is a bit confusing in the Dawn-Breakers is that Nabíl sometimes refers to Mullá ‘Abdu’l-Karím as Mírzá Ahmad – the two names are used interchangeably, and the reader is left to conclude that it is the same person based on the context.
Briefly, Mullá ‘Abdu’l-Karím was from Qazvín and the story of his search for spirituality, his dream and how he came to recognize the Báb is told by Nabíl in detail in Dawn-Breakers Chapter 8, p162-168. This happened in Shíráz in the summer of 1846, after the Báb had returned from his pilgrimage (hajj). After relating this story, Nabíl then relates how he met Mullá ‘Abdu’l-Karím in Tihrán (shortly after the struggle at Fort Shaykh Tabarsí had ended) and how they became friends, a close friendship that would last a long time [Dawn-Breakers Chapter 8, p168-169]. Nabíl returns to the theme of his trust and friendship with Mullá ‘Abdu’l-Karím again in Dawn-Breakers Chapter 21, p439-445. This is important because Nabíl greatly valued and trusted Mullá ‘Abdu’l-Karím and used his stories as a source of reliable information when writing the Dawn-Breakers.
Soon after his first meeting with the Báb in Shíráz in the summer of 1846, Mullá ‘Abdu’l-Karím begins to help transcribe the Writings of the Báb. He becomes one of the three main amanuenses of the Báb and accompanies the Báb in this role at many points during the Báb’s life as is mentioned at various points in the Dawn-Breakers including: Chapter 9, p176 (he helps Vahíd copy the Báb’s commentary on the Súrih of Kawthar which had just been revealed for Vahíd) and p192 (he is asked by the Báb to go to Isfáhán and wait for Him over there); Chapter 10, p212 (he is transcribing the Báb’s Writings in Isfáhán with the other two amanuenses; and they are the only ones who know the whereabouts of the Báb when He is being secretly housed by the Mu’tamid); and Chapter 12, 227-228 (he joins the Báb at Kulayn, just outside Tihrán; and recounts incident of the Báb