Battle of Fort Tabarsi

The commanding prince in charge of the government troops, unable to force the surrender of the followers of the Báb, resorted to a plan of betrayal to capture the remaining Bábís.

Mullá Husayn-i-Bushru'i, one of the most prominent Bábís and the first person to accept the new faith, 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.

Upon arriving at the shrine, the Bábís, numbering a little over 300 according to Bábí and Baháʼí sources and according to royal court historians, came under escalating attacks from mobs, local government forces and then imperial regiments.

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.

The episode included two leading figures of the religion in Mulla Husayn and Quddús and overall nine out of eighteen of the Letters of the Living, and actually received a widespread response across the country.