(Adapted from The Baha’i Encyclopedia Project
site)
2/10/18
Mullá ‘Alí Bastamí (d. 1846): The second person to recognize the Báb
According to Nabil,
twelve of his companions, each independently, also recognized the Báb soon
after him and became among the Letters of the Living. The Báb gave Mullá ‘Alí
the title "the Second Who Believed" and identified him in His Persian
Bayan, in allegorical language, as the return of the Imam Ali – indicative of
his high station. Mulla ‘Ali was directed by the Báb to go to the twin cities
of Najaf and Karbala in Iraq and announce the Advent of the Promised One.
Tahirih (the Pure One), then known as Fátimih Umm-Salamih Baraghání, was in
Karbala at that time and therefore heard about the claims of the Báb from Mulla
‘Ali. Mulla ‘Ali was subsequently arrested and tried in Baghdad in January 1845
and later sentenced to work for life in the imperial naval docks, where he died
in an Istanbul prison. He is known to be the first Bábí martyr.