Translation of French Foot-Notes of the Dawn-Breakers/Chapter XXI

Translation of French Foot-Notes of the Dawn-Breakers by Emily Périgord

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CHAPTER XXI

Pages 458-459, Note 1 . . . “This eventful day brought to the Báb more secret followers than many sermons could have done. I have just said that the impression created by the prodigious endurance of the martyrs was deep and lasting. I have often heard repeated the story of that day by eye witnesses, by men close to the government, some even important officials. From their accounts, one might easily have believed that they were all Bábís, so great was the admiration they felt for memories which were not to the honor of Islám, and so high was the esteem they entertained for the resourcefulness, the hopes and the chances of success of the new doctrine.” (“A Traveller’s Narrative,” Note B, pp. 175-176.)

Page 464, Note 1 “While these developments were taking place in the north of Persia, the provinces of the center and the south were deeply stirred by the enthusiastic appeals of the missionaries of the new doctrine. The people—light, credulous, ignorant, superstitious in the extreme—were dumbfounded by the accounts of continuous miracles of which they heard every minute; the Mullás, deeply concerned, feeling that their wavering flock was ready to escape their control, multiplied their slanders and defamation; the grossest lies, the most cruel fictions were circulated among the bewildered masses, divided between terror and admiration.” (A. L. M. Nicolas’ “Siyyid ‘Alí-Muḥammad dit le Báb,” p. 387.)