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Battle of Fort Tabarsi


Shaykh Ṭabarsí, or more correctly the Shrine of Shaykh Tabarsí, was the location of a battle between the forces of the Shah of Persia and the Bábís, followers of the Báb over the period October 10, 1848 to May 10, 1849 when the prince resorted to a plan of betrayal to capture the remaining Bábís. It is located in Mazandaran Province, Iran.

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 a little over 300 according to Bábí and Bahá'í sources and according to court historians, were 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 wholesale 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 numbers coming from Isfahan, Boshruyeh, Miyami, and Bahnemir, though 33 locations are listed among the places of origin of the participants.

Sources describe the building of the fort as a matter of self-defence. The Bábí's spent many months under attack in the fort, resorting to eating the leather of their own clothes to remain alive.


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