Translation of French Foot-Notes of the Dawn-Breakers/Chapter X
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CHAPTER X
Page 207, Note 2
“Muhammad having grown‘ silent, Mirzá . Muhammad-Hasan, who followed the philosophical doctrine of Mullá. $adra’., questioned the Báb in
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[Page 25]
TRANSLATION OF FRENCH FOOT-NOTES
order to induce him to explain three miracles which it would sufl-ice to relate in order to enlighten the reader. The first one was the Tiyyu’l—Arc_l, or the immediate transfer of a human being from one part of the world to another very distant point; The Shiites are convinced that the third Imam, Javad, had adopted this easy and economical way of traveling. For example, he betook himself, in the twinkling of an eye, from Medina in Arabia to Tfis in Lhurasan.
“The second miracle was the multiple and simultaneous presence of the same person in many different places. ‘Ali was, at the same moment, host to sixty different people.
“The third miracle was a problem of cosmography which I submit to our astronomers who will certainly relish it. It is said that, during the
reign of a tyrant, the heavens revolve rapidly, while during that of an (
Imam they revolve slowly. First, how could the heavens have two movements and then, what were they doing during the reign of the ‘Umayyads and the Abbassids? It was the solution of these insanities that they proposed to the Báb!
“I shall not dwell on them any longer but I believe I must here make clear the mentality of the learned Moslems of Persia. And if one should consider that, for nearly one thousand years, the science of Iran rests upon such trash, that men exhaust themselves in continuous research upon such matters, one will easily understand the emptiness and arrogance of all these minds.
“Be that as it may, the reunion was interrupted by the announcement of dinner of which each one partook, after which they returned to their respective homes.” (A. L. M. Nicolas’ “Siyyid ‘Ali-Muhammad dit le
Bab,” pp. 239-240.)
Page 211, Note 2
“Thus this room (in which I find myself) which has neither doors nor definite limits, is today the highest of the dwellings of Paradise, for the Tree of Truth lives herein. It would seem that all the atoms of the room, all sing in one voice, ‘In truth, I am God! There is no other God beside Me, the Lord of all things.’ And they sing above all the rooms of the,earth, even above those adorned with mirrors of gold. If, however, the Tree of Truth abides in one of these ornamented rooms, then the atoms of their mirrors sing that song as did and do the atoms of the mirrors of the Palace Sadri, for in the days of Sad (Iṣfahán) he abided therein." (“Le Bayan Persan,” vol. 1, p. 128.)
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SUPPLEMENT TO THE DAWN-BREAKERS
Page 212, Note 1
“On the fourth of March, 184.7, Monsieur de Bonniere wrote to the Secretary of F oreign-Affairs of France: ‘Mu‘tamidu’d-Dawlih, governor of Iṣfahán, has just died leaving a fortune appraised at forty million francs.”' (A. L. M. Nicolas’ “Siyyid ‘Ali-Muhammad dit le Báb," p. 242, note 192.) I
Page 215, Note 3
“The fihah, whimsical and fickle, forgetting that he had, a short time _
before, ordered the murder of the Reformer, felt the desire of seeing, at last, the man who aroused such universal interest; he therefore gave the order to Gurgin _I$_l;e’1n to send the Báb to him in Ṭihrán.” (A. L. M. Nicolas’ “Siyyid ‘Ali-Muhammad dit le Báb,” p. 242.)