Obsessed by the bitter tragedy of the martyrdom of his
beloved Master [The Báb], driven by a frenzy of despair to avenge that odious
deed, and believing the author and instigator of that crime to be none other
than the Sháh himself, a certain Sádiq-i-Tabrízí, an assistant in a
confectioner’s shop in Tihrán, proceeded on an August day (August 15, 1852),
together with his accomplice, an equally obscure youth named Fathu’lláh-i-Qumí,
to Níyávarán where the imperial army had encamped and the sovereign was in
residence, and there, waiting by the roadside, in the guise of an innocent
bystander, fired a round of shot from his pistol at the Sháh, shortly after the
latter had emerged on horseback from the palace grounds for his morning
promenade. The weapon the assailant employed demonstrated beyond the shadow of
a doubt the folly of that half-demented youth, and clearly indicated that no
man of sound judgment could have possibly instigated so senseless an act.
The whole of Níyávarán where the imperial court and troops
had congregated was, as a result of this assault, plunged into an unimaginable
tumult. The ministers of the state, headed by Mírzá Áqá Khán-i-Núrí, the
I’timádu’d-Dawlih, the successor of the Amír-Nizám, rushed horror-stricken to
the side of their wounded sovereign. The fanfare of the trumpets, the rolling
of the drums and the shrill piping of the fifes summoned the hosts of His
Imperial Majesty on all sides. The Sháh’s attendants, some on horseback, others
on foot, poured into the palace grounds. Pandemonium reigned in which every one
issued orders, none listened, none obeyed, nor understood anything. Ardishír
Mírzá, the governor of Tihrán, having in the meantime already ordered his
troops to patrol the deserted streets of the capital, barred the gates of the
citadel as well as of the city, charged his batteries and feverishly dispatched
a messenger to ascertain the veracity of the wild rumors that were circulating
amongst the populace, and to ask for special instructions.
- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By’)
