- 1844-08-11 —
The Báb sent Mullá `Alíy-i-Bastámí to Najaf and Karbalá to proclaim His Cause among the Shaykhís. In Najaf Mullá `Alí delivered a letter from the Báb to Shaykh Muhammad-Hasan Najafí, the leading Shí`í divine and the keeper of the shrines in Iraq. [BBRSM15; DB87-91; SBBH20–1, HotD46]
- The Shaykh's rejection of the claim led to a violent debate. Mullá `Alí was taken to Baghdád and imprisoned there. After a public trial, a joint tribunal of Sunní and Shí`í `ulamá, he was sent to Istanbul. He was the first martyr of the Bábí Dispensation. It is significant that Mullá Hasan Gawhar, a leading figure of the Shaykhí school, participated in the condemnation as it marks the first major challenge to Bábism from a Shaykhí leader. [Bab27, 37–8, 58; BBR83–90; BBRSM17; BKG31; DB90–2; MMBA, BBR2p17, GPB10]
- 1845-01-13 — The trial of Mullá `Alíy-i-Bastámí in Baghdád. A fatwá is issued in Baghdád against both Mullá `Alíy-i-Bastámí and the Báb, condemning the Báb, who is unnamed in the fatwá, to death as an unbeliever. [Bab64; BBRSM15, 215; SBBH21, 22]
- 1845-02-27 —
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