The Rise of Baha
5. The Alleged Interview Between Baha and Mulla Husayn
5.2 Lady Bloomfield’s Account
Let us now examine what transformation this fantastic story, product of Nabil’s fertile imagination has undergone by the passage of time.
According to Lady Bloomfield’s the Chosen Highway, whose authority was one Mirza Asadullah of Kashan, P. 19, Mulla Hussein’s mission to Teheran to resolve the “mystery which it enshrined” took place, not before the Point undertook to proceed on pilgrimage to Hejaz, but after he had returned from the pilgrimage.
What is stated to have taken him to Teheran was not “a scroll wrapped in a piece of cloth” but a “Tablet” (ibid, p. 22), “delivered into the hands of Mulla Husayn by the BÁB” and intended for “a great and holy person.”
“Go to Teheran,” ibid, p.23, the Primal Point is stated to have told Mulla Husayn, “seek out one, who is a very highly-placed personage, and who is well known to be, above all things, spiritual, showing forth loving kindness and charity.”
Arrived at Tehran, ibid P.23, Mulla Husayn begun to inquire about the “Great One”.
After some days had passed in fruitless seeking, he met one of the Ulemas, to whom the errand was confided, through not, of course, in its entire sacredness”. In the latter’s opinion there was but one personage” in Tehran who answered Mulla Hussein’s description of the “Great One”.
“There is something about him, “ibid, P. 24, the latter continued, “of the other world, the world of holiness”. That settled the matter, Mulla Husayn knew that he had found him who he sought”.
The person to who the errand was confided, and through whom Mulla Husayn picked on the “great one”, P. 24, ibid volunteered to take the tablet to the “great one” as “I am frequently at his home, where I give teaching to some of his brothers”.
“So this tutor was entrusted to deliver the tablet of the BÁB to Mirza Husayn Ali Nuri [i.e. Baha], who when he read the wonderful, inspired words, called his brother Mirza Musa saying “Read this, if there be any truth in this mortal world, it is to be found in the words of the written of this tablet.”
Mirza Husayn Ali sent back to Shiraz by the message a present of tea to the BÁB”.
Mulla Husayn and Baha did not meet each other. Exchanges too place through a third party.
The contents of the tablet are quoted, ibid, PP. 24-26, on the authority of Mirza Munir, the son of Mirza Zayn-al-Abedin, surnamed Zayn-al-Mugharrabin (see section 3.5).
The addressee of the tablet is “mot known”. The tablet refers to the time appointed for the ordeal [i.e. mutual impression] between the Primal Point and the Ulamas”.
The internal evidence, ibid, P. 25, indicates that the tablet was written in Isfahan”. The tablet, ibid, P. 26, says that “To-day [i.e. Dhil-Hijja A.H. 1262 (November 26, 1846) under footnote on P. 26] is the appointed day [for the ordeal between the Point and the Ulamas]”.
Lady Blomfield concludes, ibid, P. 26: “The Ulamas failed to keep the appointment … this Tablet was written in 1846, two years after his [the BÁB’s proclamation.”
This was Bloomfield’s fiction in 1940 of Mulla Hussein’s mission to Tehran to resolve the “Mystery which it enshrined”. It contradicts Nabil’s story.
To read more about Baha's members of family, got to the main page, select 'Bahaism -> THe Rise of Baha' and navigate through the index.