The contest lasted no less than eleven months. Its theatre
was for the most part the forest of Mázindarán. Its heroes were the flower of
the Báb’s disciples. Its martyrs comprised no less than half of the Letters of
the Living, not excluding Quddús and Mullá Husayn, respectively the last and
the first of these Letters. The directive force which however unobtrusively
sustained it was none other than that which flowed from the mind of
Bahá’u’lláh. It was caused by the unconcealed determination of the
dawn-breakers of a new Age to proclaim, fearlessly and befittingly, its advent,
and by a no less unyielding resolve, should persuasion prove a failure, to
resist and defend themselves against the onslaughts of malicious and
unreasoning assailants. It demonstrated beyond the shadow of a doubt what the
indomitable spirit of a band of three hundred and thirteen untrained,
unequipped yet God-intoxicated students, mostly sedentary recluses of the
college and cloister, could achieve when pitted in self-defense against a
trained army, well equipped, supported by the masses of the people, blessed by
the clergy, headed by a prince of the royal blood, backed by the resources of
the state, acting with the enthusiastic approval of its sovereign, and animated
by the unfailing counsels of a resolute and all-powerful minister.
- Shoghi
Effendi (‘God Passes By)
