Portraits – Page 29 – Dawn Breakers

missing for a period of time). Mullá ‘Abdu’l-Karím was close to Bahá’u’lláh as well, and it was to Mullá ‘Abdu’l-Karím that the Báb, shortly before His martyrdom, sent His rings, seals and documents in a sealed coffer to deliver to Bahá’u’lláh (Dawn-Breakers Chapter 23, p504-505). Later in 1850, Mullá ‘Abdu’l-Karím together with Áqáy-i-Kalím [faithful younger brother of Bahá’u’lláh], were entrusted by Bahá’u’lláh to securely hide the holy remains of the Báb (Dawn-Breakers Chapter 23, p521-522).

Mullá ‘Abdu’l-Karím was in Tihrán in 1852 when the attempt on the life of the Sháh was made. He was arrested. His brother Áqá ‘Abdu’l-Hamíd, who had come to urge him to return to Qazvín, was arrested with him. The two brothers were imprisoned in the Siyah-Chal with Bahá’u’lláh but did not survive. Both were taken by the artillerymen of the royal bodyguard, who hacked them to pieces with their daggers. This was probably in the present Maydan-i-Arg, adjacent to the artillerymen’s camp and the passage to the Siyah-Chal.

[Note: In 1852, besides Mullá ‘Abdu’l-Karím, Siyyid Husayn-i-Yazdí, one of the other of the three main amanuenses of the Báb, was also imprisoned in the Siyah-Chal with Bahá’u’lláh. And like Mullá ‘Abdu’l-Karím, Siyyid Husayn-i-Yazdí, was also taken and hacked to pieces by the royal bodyguard.]

Mullá ‘Abdu’l-Karím was loved and highly trusted. As noted, Nabíl got several of the accounts of the early events of the Faith from Mullá ‘Abdu’l-Karím, the most famous being the account of the Báb’s declaration to Mullá Husayn. That whole account, which is noted as Mullá Husayn narrating, is what Mullá ‘Abdu’l-Karím told Nabíl he had heard many times from Mullá Husayn. The Dawn-Breakers Chapter 3, p52 begins this account thus:

Mírzá Ahmad-i-Qazvíní, the martyr, who on several occasions had heard Mullá Husayn recount to the early believers the story of his moving and historic interview with the Báb, related to me the following: “I have heard Mullá Husayn repeatedly and graphically describe the circumstances of that remarkable interview: ‘The Youth who met me outside the gate of Shíráz overwhelmed me with expressions of affection and loving-kindness. … …

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