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This stirring episode, so glorious for the Faith, so blackening to the reputation of its enemies-- an episode which must be regarded as a rare phenomenon in the history of modern times-- was soon succeeded by a parallel upheaval, strikingly similar in its essential features. The scene of woeful tribulations was now shifted to the south, to the province of Fars, not far from the city where the dawning light of the Faith had broken. Nayriz and its environs were made to sustain the impact of this fresh ordeal in all its fury. The Fort of Khajih, in the vicinity of the Chinar- Sukhtih quarter of that hotly agitated village became the storm- center of the new conflagration. The hero who towered above his fellows, valiantly struggled, and fell a victim to its devouring flames was that "unique and peerless figure of his age," the far- famed Siyyid Yahyay- i- Darabi, better known as Vahid. Foremost among his perfidious adversaries, who kindled and fed the fire of this conflagration was the base and fanatical governor of Nayriz, Zaynu'l- 'Abidin Khan, seconded by Abdu'llah Khan, the Shuja'u'l- Mulk, and reinforced by Prince Firuz Mirza, the governor of Shiraz. Of a much briefer duration than the Mazindaran upheaval, which lasted no less than eleven months, the atrocities that marked its closing stage were no less devastating in their consequences. Once again a handful of men, innocent, law- abiding, peace- loving, yet high- spirited and indomitable, consisting partly, in this case, of untrained lads and men of advanced age, were surprised, challenged, encompassed and assaulted by the superior force of a cruel and crafty enemy, an innumerable host of able- bodied men who, though well- trained, adequately equipped and continually reinforced, were impotent to coerce into submission, or subdue, the spirit of their adversaries.
(42:1)
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