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The government wished to send Jaâfar-QulĂ KhĂĄn, Lieutenant-Colonel, ⊠but he excused himself, and said to MĂrzĂĄ TaqĂ KhĂĄn AmĂr-i-KabĂr: âIâm not an Ibn-i-ZĂyĂĄd64_ACT14 to go and make war on a band of siyyids and men of learning of whose tenets I know nothing, though I should be ready enough to fight Russians Jews or other infidels.â Other officers besides him showed a disinclination to take part in this war. âŠ. [M]any of the officers who were of the sect of the âAlĂyuâllĂĄhĂs65_ACT14 , although they went to the war, they withdrew from it when they learned more of the matter. ⊠In short, when the officers of the army perceived in their opponents ⊠devotion, godliness, and piety, some wavered in secret and did not put forth their full strength in the war. 66_ACT14
An example of this is the story of Muhsin, a BĂĄbĂ whose function in the fort was to sound the adhĂĄn [the call to prayer; see DB 8-9, Section 1]. NabĂl notes:
His voice endowed with a quality of warmth and richness that no man in the neighborhood could equal. Its reverberation, as he summoned the faithful to prayer, could be distinctly felt as far as the adjoining villages, and penetrated the hearts of those who heard it. Oftentimes did the worshippers in that vicinity, in whose ears the voice of Muhsin was ringing, express their indignation at the charges of heresy imputed to Hujjat and his friends. So loud grew their protestations that they eventually reached the ears of the leading mujtahid of ZanjĂĄn, who, unable himself to impose silence upon them, implored the AmĂr-TĂșmĂĄn to devise some means of eradicating from the minds of the people the belief in the piety and uprightness of Hujjat and his companions. âDay and night,â he complained, âI strive through my public discourse, no less than by private converse with the people, to instill into their minds the conviction that that wretched band is the sworn enemy of the Prophet and the wrecker of His Faith. The cry of that evil man, Muhsin, robs my words of their influence and nullifies my exertions. To exterminate that miserable wretch is surely your first obligation.â 67_ACT14
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