Battle of Fort Tabarsi - Leading Up To The Battle

Leading Up To The Battle

Mullá Husayn-i-Bushru'i, one of the most prominent Bábís, marched with 202 of his fellow disciples, under instructions from the Báb, from Mashhad to the Shrine of Shaykh Tabarsí with the Black Standard raised, fulfilling an Islamic prophecy. The mission was most likely proclamatory but possibly also to rescue another Bábí leader, Quddús, who was under house arrest in Sárí. After being rebuffed at the town of Barfurush the group took up making defensive fortifications at the Shrine of the Shaykh. Upon arriving at the shrine, the Bábís, numbering alittle over 300 according to Bábí and Bahá'í sources who had traveled cross country to be present and perhaps 1500 according to (probably inflated by) court historians, was now under imminent attack from government forces.

A scholarly review finds reasonable support for between 540 and 600 people present including over a hundred villagers who joined locally after those that arrived from across the country. A census of the Bábís who had traveled some distance to the Shrine shows 14 major former clerics of Islam, 122 minor former clerics of Islam, 12 nobility or high government officials, 5 whole sale merchants, 9 retail merchants, 39 guild tradesmen, 6 unskilled laborers, 6 peasants, and 152 unclassified. Different sources have some similarities of which cities/provinces they came from - the highest rates coming from Isfahan, Bushru'i, Miyami, and Bihnamiri though 33 locations are listed among the places of origin of the participants.

Differing accounts exist as to why the battle started. Bahá'í sources describe the building of the fort as a matter of self defence. In any case, the forces of the Persian government soon surrounded the fort and the battle commenced.