To the Mountains of Ádhirbáyján14

The future was as clear as day to the Báb

The Báb had two companions whom He had selected from Kulayn to accompany Him, Siyyid Husayn-i-Yazdí

and his brother Siyyid Hasan. Siyyid Husayn was the Báb’s amanuensis, and Siyyid Hasan acted as an attendant to the group taking care of daily chores. Siyyid Husayn recounts the following:

During the first ten days of the Báb’s incarceration in Tabríz, no one knew what would next befall Him. The wildest conjectures were current in the city. One day I ventured to ask Him whether He would continue to remain where He was or would be transferred to still another place. ”Have you forgotten,” was His immediate reply, ”the question you asked me in Isfáhán? For a period of no less than nine months, we shall remain confined in the Jabal-i-Básit

[the Open Mountain] from whence we shall be transferred to the Jabal-i-Shadíd

[the Grievous Mountain]. Both these places are among the mountains of Khuy

and are situated on either side of the town bearing that name.”

Siyyid Husayn was still not clear but understood that they were going to be sent to two different prisons here in the north, because Khuy was a town in the mountainous region northwest of Tabríz [in the province of Ádhirbáyján]. Only later did he fully understand what ‘the Open Mountain’ and ‘the Grievous Mountain’ prison references were. This prediction of the Báb had been originally made while He was still in Isfáhán, and now repeated to Siyyid Husayn in Tabríz.

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