388 A HISTORY OF PERSIA. and had the administration of the Ameer-i-Nizam been prolonged, the King of Persia would have been the master of an army of one hundred thousand men, regularly drilled and accoutred. The Minister had announced his intention of maintaining such a force ; and he was not likely to change his mind, or to neglect any precau- tion to ensure the efficiency of the army upon which depended the stability of the Kajar throne. The insurrection at Zinjan took place in the month of May, 1850, and the Babis long continued to defend themselves in that city against the troops of the king, with all the fiery zeal which is characteristic of the proselytes to a new religion. Zinjan is the capital of the district of Kflamseh, and it lies on the direct road from Tabreez to Tehran. Whilst the siege was in progress, the founder of the new creed was taken from his prison in Azerbaeejan, and, after having been examined as to his religious belief, was condemned to death by the authorities of Tabreez for having renounced the faith of Islam. A circumstance that arose out of this sentence had nearly been the cause of setting the Bab high above the temporal powers of Iran. A company of soldiers was drawn up in the great square of Tabreez, and before it was a hapless man whose arms were tied together : that man was the Bab, and he was to be shot to death. On their captain giving the word to fire, the soldiers discharged a volley, the smoke from which threw a veil over the scene. When the smoke had been dis- pelled, great was the astonishment of the soldiers and of the lookers-on to find that the person of the Bab had altogether disappeared. There could now be no doubt, they thought, of his having ascended to the heaven,
