II.
A BRIEF COMMENTARY*
BY MARIAN LITTLE
In reading the story of the life of this great woman of Írán, one cannot but feel that Martha Root, the author, has caught the flaming torch from the hand of Ṭáhirih and lighted once more the path in order that those that are to follow may find the Way.
Her biography is so closely associated with the phenomenal quickening of religion known as the Bahá’í Faith that it would be difficult to know her except for her relation to this great event.
Although born in Írán in the middle of the nineteenth century, she belongs to the whole world, her radiant personality shone forth like the ray of light which comes after that darkest moment before dawn. She was a prototype for the women of the twentieth century and gave her life that they might be emancipated from their state of subjection.
She is quoted as saying: "Oh, when will the day come when new laws will be revealed on earth? I shall be the first to follow these new Teachings and to give my life for my sisters.”
Ṭáhirih the Pure was the name that Bahá’u’lláh gave her at the memorable Council at Badasht, where eighty-one followers of the Báb assembled by invitation of Bahá’u’lláh to consult upon the important question as to when the Báb was to proclaim the final stage of His Manifestation which was that of Qa’im. He had first declared Himself to be the Báb (Gate) but the station of Qa’im, the promised Imám, had not been proclaimed. It was at Badasht that Táhirih cast aside her veil, and in the presence of the gathering declared that the “New Revelation was at hand.”
Her teacher was Káẓim-i-Rashti, a Siyyid and disciple of the great and learned {{u|Sh}ay{{u|kh} Aḥmad-i—Aḥsá’í, who foretold the coming of the Báb in the near future, and was the forerunner of the great Bábí movement which was later to become the great Bahá’í Faith.
Qurratu’l-‘Ayn, the “Consolation of the
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*'Martha Root, after spending some time in Írán and meeting the remaining members of the family of Ṭáhirih wrote the little book “Ṭáhirih the Pure” which she had published in India where it made a profound impression. When Miss Root realized that she could-not live to write a synopsis of the book for Bahá’í World, volume eight, she requested that the work be assumed by Mrs. Marian Little. The above commentary is in compliance with this request.
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Eyes” became a student
of this Siyyid
Káẓim; she corresponded with him and
learned many things about questions which
she had longed to have answered. It was he
who gave her the title of Qurratu‘l-‘Ayn.
She journeyed to Karbilá to see him but the
narrative tells us that she arrived too late,
that he had passed from this world only ten
days before her arrival. Contemporary
historians state that she remained in Karbilá
and took the great Siyyid’s place and began
to teach his students. This was a most
remarkable innovation at a period when a
woman’s voice was never permitted to be
heard outside the harem. It was at this
time that during the period of fasting she
had a dream. “One night she saw in a
dream a young Siyyid standing in the air,
then he knelt and prayed. She heard these
prayers and learned one by heart, which she
quickly wrote down when she awoke.”
(From ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Memorials of the Faithful).
The author quotes again from
Nabil’s Narrative The Dawn Breakers
the sequel to this dream: “It was Ṭáhirih
who, having learned that her brother-in-law,
Mírzá Muḥammad-‘Alí, was departing from
Qazvín, entrusted him with a sealed letter
requesting him to deliver it to the Promised
One, Whom he was bound to meet in the
course of his journey. ‘Say to Him for me,’
she added: ‘The effulgence of Thy face
flashed forth and the rays of Thy visage
arose on high.’ Then speak the word: ‘Am
I not your Lord?’ and ‘Thou art, Thou art’
we will reply.” . . . The message was given
to, the Báb, and He forthwith declared her
one ‘of the Letters of the Living. She is the
only one of the eighteen disciples of the
Báb who never attained His presence in this
world, but she was the first to recognize
Him and answer to His call in the realm of
reality.
She was given the title of Zarrin-Táj, “One Crowned with Gold,” and was also addressed as Nuqtih, “The Point.” These titles are most significant for they reveal her station in recognizing the qualities which belonged to her. She was pure, she was beautiful, she was illumined, her whole being was centered and this endowed her with the gift of the Holy Spirit.
In reading the life of Ṭáhirih we find that her most outstanding characteristic was this spiritual illumination; for this is the thing that makes her life a part of the history of the Bahá’í Faith. She lives once more in this narrative written by Martha Root; and we walk with her and witness with her the many events and dramatic happenings which can only exist when Religion is reborn, when another Messenger of God walks the earth and utters once more the creative words which are destined to regenerate the whole world of all these things Ṭáhirih was a part —the heroic deeds of the followers of the Báb, and in the end the frightful martyrdom of thousands who gave their lives for the Cause they had embraced.
Ṭáhirih was imprisoned in the house of Maḥmúd Khán. She was summoned to the presence of Náṣiri’d-Dín Sháh, who urged her to deny the Báb and again become a true Muslim, promising her that she could become his bride and thus have an exalted place. To these requests she replied to the Sháh in verse:
“Kingdom, wealth and ruling be for thee, Wandering, becoming a poor dervish
- and calamity be for me
If that station is good, let it be for thee, And if this station is bad, I long for it,
- let it be for me.”
The Sháh was impressed with this answer and commented on her wonderful spirit and courage. In his own words, “So far history has not shown such a woman to us.”
The wife of the kalantar in whose house Ṭáhirih was imprisoned is quoted as relating a description of the last hours of this heroine’s imprisonment. “One night, whilst Ṭáhirih was staying in my home, I was summoned to her presence and found that she was fully adorned, dressed in a gown of snow white silk. Her room was redolent with the choicest perfume. I expressed my surprise at so unusual a sight. ‘I am preparing to meet my Beloved,’ she said, ‘and wish to free you from the cares and anxieties of my imprisonment.’ I was much startled at first and wept at thought of separation from her. ‘Weep not,’ she sought to reassure me, ‘the time of your lamentation is not yet
The Feast of the New Year being celebrated by the New York Bahá’ís on "Naw-Rúz,” March 21st, 1939.
come. I wish to share with you my last wishes, for the hour when I shall be arrested and condemned, to suffer martyrdom is fast approaching. I would request you to allow your son to accompany me to the scene of my death and to ensure that the guards and executioner into whose hands I shall be delivered will not compel me to divest myself of this attire. It is also my wish that my body be thrown into a pit, and that the pit be filled with earth and stones. . . . Three days after my death a woman will come and visit you, to whom you will give this package which I now deliver into your hands. My request is that you permit no one henceforth to enter my chamber. From now until the time when I shall be summoned to leave this house, let no one be allowed to disturb my devotions. This day I intend to fast . . . a fast which I shall not break until I am face to face with my Beloved.’ ”
“She was ready when they came for her that night. They took her to a garden. The executioners hesitated for a while to carry out the orders issued for her death and even refused to do it. Then they found a negro slave who was drunk; he put a handkerchief into Ṭáhirih’s mouth and strangled her.
They cast her into a well in the garden and threw stones and rubbish on her.” (‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Memorials of the Faithful.)
"Beauty and the female sex also lent their consecration to the new creed, and the heroism of the lovely but ill-fated poetess of Qazvín, Zarrin-Táj or Qurratu’l-‘Ayn, who throwing off her veil, carried the missionary torch far and wide, is one of the most affecting episodes of modern history.” (Lord Curzon, Persia and the Persian People.)
There are many quotations from contemporary Oriental scholars, all of whom bear testimony to the greatness of Ṭáhirih and to the Cause to which her life was consecrated. Le comte de Gobineau in Les Religions et Philosophies dans l’Asie Centrale, Valentine Chirol in his The Middle Eastern Question, Sir Francis Younghusband in The Gleam, Dr. T. K. Cheyne in The Reconciliation of Races and Religions.
Martha Root gives a touching account
of her visit to Qazvín in 1930 and her
interview with some of Ṭáhirih’s descendants
who accompanied her to the palace where
Ṭáhirih was born; they showed her the
quaint library where the little girl studied,
the child who was to become a poet and the
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first woman martyr for
the education and equality of women.
Then again the author tells us of her visit to Ṭihrán in the same year. "As I stood beside the well in a little garden in the heart of Ṭihrán, where her dear body was cast, I thought of the lines in the beautiful drama God’s Heroes written by Mrs. Laura Dreyfus Barney:
“Cease your profanations . . . weak of purpose. Do you think you can bury her there? She will reappear, and be ever before you all. You have rendered her immortal in the minds of men, and her spirit of love will be transmitted to millions of living hearts. You have undone your work and have established her fame. Forever after, Ṭáhirih will inspire courage and sincerity and truth!”
Since this book was written the author, Martha Root, has passed on. I cannot refrain here from saying a few words about this saintly being who so selflessly carried the message of Bahá’u’lláh to every continent in the world. She lived and died for the Cause of God and was a true disciple, following in the footsteps of her illustrious sister, Ṭáhirih the Pure.
