Though at the outset he [the warden of the fortress of
Chihríq] acted with the utmost severity, he was eventually compelled to yield
to the fascination of his Prisoner [the Báb]. Nor were the kurds, who lived in
the village of Chihríq, and whose hatred of the Shí‘ahs exceeded even that of
the inhabitants of Máh-Kú, able to resist the pervasive power of the Prisoner’s
influence. They too were to be seen every morning, ere they started for their
daily work, to approach the fortress and prostrate themselves in adoration
before its holy Inmate. “So great was the confluence of the people,” is the
testimony of a European eye-witness, writing in his memoirs of the Báb, “that
the courtyard, not being large enough to contain His hearers, the majority
remained in the street and listened with rapt attention to the verses of the
new Qur’án.” - Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By’)
