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This state of tension continued until the murder of the uncle, Mullá Taqí, as a consequence of which a savage killing of Bábís ensued in Qazvín.
Murder of Táhirih’s uncle, Mullá Taqí
Mullá Taqí held the title of Hujjatu’l-Islám [Proof of Islám], meaning he represented the best of Islám. He was also given the honorific title of Shahíd-i-Thálith [meaning Third Martyr]. Of course, titles are not reflective of a person’s actual spiritual qualities. Mullá Taqí was in fact very close minded and bigoted. He had already had a major confrontation with Shaykh Ahmad when the latter had come to Qazvín many years earlier. At that time he had pronounced Shaykh Ahmad to be a heretic.64ACT6 Mullá Taqí’s anti-Shaykhí rulings had legitimized the persecution of the Shaykhís in Qazvín.
Shortly after Táhirih had arrived in Qazvín, a Shaykhí, Mullá ‘Abdu’lláh , who was not connected to her happened to be travelling through Qazvín. He witnessed the brutal beating in the streets of another Shaykhí by the public. When he enquired as to why they were so hateful towards the Shaykhí’s, he was told that this was the righteous thing to do, as the great Mullá Taqí had pronounced the Shaykhís to be heretics. Mullá ‘Abdu’lláh went straight away to Mullá Taqí’s school and there asked him in person if all this was true. Mullá Taqí affirmed his previous ruling and denounced Shaykh Ahmad, saying “Him and his followers I regard as the embodiments of error.” 64ACT6 This inflamed Mullá ‘Abdu’lláh who went and bought a dagger and one night when Mullá Taqí was alone in the mosque, stabbed him to death.
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