The Cause Of the Banishment of Babis From Edirne to Palestine & Cyprus

1.    Hasht Bihisht’s Version of the Account
In the Traveller's Narrative, English Translation, Vol. II Note W, P. 360, Prof. Browne states, quoting from the Hasht-Bihisht [The Eight Paradises] "Some while after this Mirza Husayn Ali [Baha] devised a new stratagem. A number of letters were written in different handwritings by Aqa Mirza Abu Jan [Baha's scribe], Mushkin Qalam [Mirza Husayn the calligraphist, [Sir] Abbas Effendi and other partisans of Mirza Husayn Ali to sundry Turkish statesmen officials to the following effect: "About thirty thousand of us BÁBis are concealed in disguise in and around Istanbul, and in a short while we shall rise. We shall first capture Istanbul, and if Sultan Abd-al-Aziz and his ministers do not believe [in our religion], we shall depose and dismiss them from their rule and administration. And, our king is Mirza Yahya Subh-i-Azal.

These letters were left by night at the Sultan’s palace and the houses of different ministers by Mushkin Qalam and partisans of Mirza Husayn Ali resident in Istanbul. When next day these letters were discovered, the Turkish government which had treated the BÁBis with kindness and afforded them shelter and hospitality was naturally greatly incensed. The letters were forthwith laid before the Iranian Ambassador and at a joint assembly of Turkish and Iranian officials it was decided to exile the BÁBi chiefs to some remote land or fortress on the coast.”

On the face of it the account of the forged letters circulated by Baha which led to the removal of the BÁBis from Edirne would appear to be improbable in itself as it was bound to boomerang on Baha himself.

The account is however quite true, and the documentary evidence furnished is by none other person than Baha himself. This shows that Baha left no stone unturned to remove Subh-i-Azal out of the way by hook or by crook.

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