7.    Alleged Recantation by the Primal Point

7.1   Crown Prince’s Report
The documents is a report written by the Crown Prince to his father Muhammad Shah in Teheran informing him of what had happened. The report bears official charter and its original is said to be kept in the archives of the library of the Majlis (Iranian Lower House) in Teheran.

The report says: To a question put to him the BÂB replied: “I am the Imam’s vicegerent and the BÂB .. It is incumbent on you to obey me, by virtue [of the saying] ‘Enter the Door [BÂB] with adornation.’ But I did not utter these words … He who shone forth on Mount Sinai uttered them … There is no I-ness in the case; god has said these things, while I am but as the Tree [or Burning Bush] on Sinai. At that time [the Divine Word] was created in it, and now in me, and I swear by God I am that person whom you have been expecting from the beginning of Islam until now.”

The BÂB was reminded that “It is in the traditions and a necessary part of our Faith that the [Promised] One shall appear from Mecca, and that the leaders of men and Jinn, together with forty five thousand Innis will believe in him, and that he will have with him the heir-looms of the prophet, such as David’s Coat-of-mail, the rod of Moses, Solomon’s ring, and the white hand [i.e. Hand of Moses, which he drew forth from under his cloak “as white as snow’].” The BÂB was asked: “where, now, are the rod of Moses & the white Hand?”
The BÂB replied: “I am not permitted to bring them.”

The BÂB was censured: "Thou didst err in coming without permission.”
When questioned “What hast thou of signs & Miracles?” The BÂB answered: “My Miracle is this that I can cause verses to be revealed for my staff” and he proceeded to do so. The BÂB was criticized for his infraction of the rules of grammar in vocalising a word. One of the examiners observed that “if such words were of the nature of ‘signs’, he likewise could produce such, and proceeded to recite : “Praise be to God who created the staff as He created the morning and the evening. After that they asked some questions on Jurisprudence and other sciences, which he was unable to answer, not even the plainest juridical question, such as those concerning doubt and error [arising, during the performance of prayer]”.

The report concludes: “When the discussion was concluded, His Reverence the Shaykh-al-Islam [Haji Ali Asghar] was summoned, who had the BÂB beaten and inflicted on him an exemplary chastisement, so that he apologized, recanted, and repented of and asked pardon for his errors, giving a sealed undertaking that henceforth he would not commit such faults. Now he is in prison and tends awaiting the decision of His Most Sacred Royal and Imperial Majesty.” Materials, PP. 249-255.

7.2   The Document Attributed to Primal Point
A second document, “unsigned and undated is, “to quote Dr Browne, “apparently in the Point’s handwriting and consists of a complete recantation and renunciation of any superhuman claim which he may have advanced or have appeared to advance. There is nothing to show to whom it is addressed, or whether it is the recantation referred to in the last paragraph of the preceding document [supra] or another.”

However, Dr Saeed Khan of Teheran wrote concerning this document: “The original document is kept safely in the Majlis [Parliament in Teheran]. It was addressed to the Crown Prince Naser-al Din Mirza, afterwards Shah.”

Dr Saeed Khan refers to the original of this unsigned document, which bears no seal, and not to the “sealed undertaking” referred to in the report. The authority of the writing, signature or seal attached to a document may only be verified by examination. Specimen of the Point’s handwriting excerpts have recourse to verification and composition.
Presuming that this document is in the Point’s handwriting we proceed to examine it as its face-value.

On the strength of the expressiveness “of your Highness” & “of His Imperial Majesty”, appears in the text, the document is addressed to the Crown-Prince Nasir-Din-Shah and to his father Muhammad Shah. The word Amr means “a command, matter, a thing.” The word Iddi’a means “claim, pretension”.

The Primal Point made known he was Gate of God by intimation and implication. In his written explanation of his disclaimer in Shiraz in 1845 the Primal Point stated that he was not a Gate (BÂB) in the traditional sense of the word, namely Gate (BÂB) or vicegerent to the Hidden Twelfth Imam in the sense as were the four original Gates (BÂBs or vicegerents who acted as a connection between the Twelfth Imam and men before his disappearance.

In this document, the Primal Point states that he has absolutely no knowledge connected with any pretension and not “with any superhuman" claim.” He repents unto God of the idea that there should be alleged against him any matter of pretensions and not “any [divine] mission.” Stating that certain prayers and words which have flowed from the tongue do not imply any matter at all and not “any such mission,” the Primal Point explains this matter in the paragraph immediately following it to mean that any pretension to special vicegerency for the Hidden Twelfth Imam is a purely baseless pretension and he has not set up such pretension or any other pretension.

Consequently no meaning of recantation or renunciation of his claim to be Gate of God, a major manifestation, bringer of a new Revelation, may be read into the Point’s denial of special vicegerency for the Hidden Twelfth Imam, to which he set up no pretension.

In fact the Twelfth Imam returned as one of the Point’s Letters of the Living at the beginning of the Primal Point’s mission in 1844.
Misconception of the Point’s denial on the part of the Point’s examiners arose from the fact that they identified the Mahdi and the Qaim with Hidden Twelfth Imam.
The document, in the terms in which it is couched, is a masterpiece indeed. It may be said that the Point’s examiners plotted, and the Point plotted; But of those who plotted was the Primal Point the best.
The Point’s denial was misconceived by Dr. Browne who had no access to all the relevant material.

During the trial proceedings the examiners “agreed that should His Holiness [Sayyid Ali Muhammad the BÂB], not being of sound mind, claim to be the BÂB, they would pronounce sentence of death against him.” New History, P. 285

In the course of trial proceeding the BÂB requested that a Physician might be allowed to feel his pulse and certify to his perfect sanity. New History, appendix II, Mirza Jani’s History, PP. 354-355.
A third document is addressed to the Primal Point, and contains the Fatwa, or ecclesiastical sentence of the Moslem doctors of the law. It is formally sealed by two of them. The second seal is that of the Shaykh-al-Islam Haji Mirza Ali Asghar who caused the Primal Point to be beaten. It reads as follows:

“Sayyid Ali Muhammad Shirazi:
In the Imperial Banquet-hall and August Assembly of His Highness the Crown Prince of the undeclining Empire [of Persia], (may god aid, and support and strengthen him!) and of a number of learned doctors, thou didst admit certain matters each one of which separately implied thy apostasy and justified thy death. The repentance on incorrigible apostate is not accepted, and the only thing which has caused the postponement of thy execution is a doubt as to thy sanity of mind. Should this doubt be removed, the sentence of an incorrigible apostate would without hesitation be executed upon thee.”
Sealed by Abul-Qasim-al-Hasani al-Husayn Ali Asghar al-Hasani al-Husayni, Materials, P. 259

Accordingly a commission of these doctors was appointed to examine the BÂB and make a report. One of the members of this commission was Dr Cormick, an English Physician long resident in Tabriz. In a personal letter telling of his interview with the BÂB Dr Cormick writes as follows:
“….. Nothing of any importance transpired in this interview, as the BÂB was aware of my having been sent with two other Persian doctors to see whether he was of sound mind, to decide the question whether to put him to death or not. With this knowledge he was told to answer any question put to him. To all enquiries he merely regarded with a mild look, chanting in a low melodious voice hyms … Our report to the Shah at that time was of a nature to spare his life. He was put to death. Some time after by the order of the Amir-i-Nizam Mirza Taqi Khan. On our report he merely got the bastinado, in which operation a Farrash, whether intentionally or not, struck him across the face with the stick destined for his feat, which produced a great wound and swelling of the face … He expressed a desire that I should be sent for, and I accordingly treated him for a few days … He was a very mild and delicate-looking man, rather small in stature and very fair for a Persian, with melodious soft voice, which struck me much .. in fact his whole look and deportment went to dispose in his favour …” Materials, PP. 260-261

This is an attempt to reconstruct the trial proceedings of 1845 and their sequel in chronological sequence. We have no reason to doubt the accuracy of Dr. Cormick’s statement on the strength of the finding of the Medical Board of these doctors. He was put to death in July 1850 by the order of the Amir Nizam Taqi Khan having regard to the exigencies of the time and the requirements of public expediency. Here was a man who claimed to be a center of a New Dispensation. Moslem ecclesiastical dignitaries, instead of examining him on the nature and evidence of his claim and doctrine, thought fit, in their consummate wisdom, to catechise him on silly and trivial questions such as plainest juridical questions concerning doubt and error arising during the performance of prayer and relic of grammar.

In seeking to pillories the Primal Point they have in fact pilloried themselves. After this farcical trial His Holiness the Primal Point was sent back to his prison in the center of Chihriq to be brought back again to Tabriz in July 1850 to suffer martyrdom before a firing squad on consideration of public policy.

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