Note BH — CHAPTER 4 THE FIRST MARTYR

Rawlinson's letter to Sheil carries the statement that Mullá `Alí abjured his faith. Apart from the evidence of the devotion and heroism of the disciples of the Báb, which history amply provides, several factors must be considered. Major Rawlinson was not present at that meeting of the divines, which he termed 'the Court of Inquisition'. Therefore his information was secondhand. The emergence of Sunní-Shí`ah antagonism was another factor which would certainly have clouded the issue. The 'advent of the Imam' need not, necessarily, have troubled the Sunní conscience, because Sunnís have never believed in the Imámate and the occultation of the Twelfth Imám. Furthermore, that which Mullá `Alí is supposed to have rejected, according to Rawlinson, was a 'perverted copy of the Koran'. Would Mullá `Alí ever have an interpolated copy of the Qur'án to announce the message he had to give, or to prove it? And then the question must also be asked: if Mullá `Alí, the man who brought the news of the advent of the Báb, had recanted, how was it that 'considerable uneasiness' was becoming perceptible in Karbilá and Najaf, 'in regard to the expected manifestation of the Imam'?