Nabil wrote The Dawn-Breakers for Bahá'u'lláh. He started
the chronicle in 1888 and finished it in about a year and a half. Mirza Musa
helped him with it; some parts of the manuscript were reviewed by Bahá'u'lláh,
and some by the Master.
Nabil lived in 'Akká then, and when he had brought his
narrative down to the point where the story of the Seven Martyrs was ended, he
submitted the finished portions to Bahá'u'lláh, Who sent for him on December
11, 1888, a date Nabil records as one he will never forget. On that occasion,
his Lord gave him an account of various historical episodes, including the
gathering at Badasht.
He wrote: ‘At this stage of my narrative I was privileged to
submit to Bahá'u'lláh such sections of my work as I had already revised and
completed. How abundantly have my labours been rewarded by Him whose favour
alone I seek, and for whose satisfaction I have addressed myself to this task!
He graciously summoned me to His presence and vouchsafed me His blessings. I
was in my home in the prison-city of 'Akká, and lived in the neighbourhood of
the house of Aqay-i-Kalim, when the summons of my Beloved reached me. That day,
the seventh of the month of Rabi'u'th-Thani in the year 1306 A.H., [December
11, 1888 A.D.] I shall never forget.’ (‘The Dawn-Breakers’)
Nabil was very exact, always citing references, cautious in
his appraisals, frank as to the degree of his information, hunting for
eye-witnesses and survivors, eagerly questioning: 'Many, I confess, are the
gaps in this narrative, for which I beg the indulgence of my readers. It is my
earnest hope that these gaps may be filled by those who will, after me, arise
to compile an exhaustive and befitting account of these stirring events, the
significance of which we can as yet but dimly discern.' He was not omniscient,
rhetorical, boastful, as contemporary Eastern historians were; and he offers
precise detail rather than the rhyming generalizations so often preferred by
them.
It is amazing, the rapidity of his accomplishment, and the
care; and too, the variety of his work -- it takes a copious writing vocabulary
to range from military campaigns to poetical expression; and then the skillful
timing and pacing, the deploying of events, the massing of facts.
Especially, we notice the feeling and life in the work;
authentic everywhere, he is particularly sensitive when recording tenderness
and love, which he understood so well that in the end he could not live with
the knowledge of it, could not contain it. There is, for instance, that passage
where he explains the bonds between the Báb and Bahá'u'lláh, and shows how they
matched agony for agony; then he says: 'Such love no eye has ever beheld, nor
has mortal heart conceived such mutual devotion. If the branches of every tree
were turned into pens, and all the seas into ink, and earth and heaven rolled
into one parchment, the immensity of that love would still remain unexplored,
and the depths of that devotion unfathomed.'
These were not to him only Persian words. His life story
shows that he was not like the people who know all the words, none of the
meanings. Nabil must have been acquainted with the Persian story of the moths,
for he typifies it. It seems that the moths held a meeting to learn about the
flame; they sent out a messenger to investigate it; he circled around the
candle and returned and explained it most eloquently, but they could not
understand. They sent another moth and this one flew close to the flame, and
when he came back they saw his wings were singed and they began, dimly, to
know. But they were not yet clear in their minds as to the nature of the flame.
They sent a third moth to the candle; this one flew straight into the centre of
the flame, and he never came back; and then they understood.
How happy he would be now, if he could see his book; the
admirable English text, enriched with further sources, photographs, and
explanatory data, presenting his story to the West. Never during life could
Nabil have known that in a few short years leading public, university and
privately-owned libraries in the faraway American continent would include his
work. 'He who is associated with a great Cause becomes great,' 'Abdu'l-Bahá
once told a pilgrim.
(Adapted from Dawn Over Mount Hira, by Marzieh Gail, and
from ‘The Dawn-Breakers’, by Nabil-i-A’zam)
** Please note: The book which contains Nabil’s
historical records was published in 1953 as ‘The Dawn-Breakers, Nabil's
Narrative of the Early Days of the Bahá'í Revelation’. It was translated and
edited by Shoghi Effendi.
