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The downfall of the Qajar Dynasty, the avowed defender and the willing instrument of a decaying clergy, almost synchronized with the humiliation which the Shi'ih ecclesiastical leaders had suffered. From Muhammad Shah down to the last and feeble monarch of that dynasty, the Faith of Baha'u'llah was denied the impartial consideration, the disinterested and fair treatment which its cause had rightly demanded. It had, on the contrary, been atrociously harassed, consistently betrayed and prosecuted. The martyrdom of the Bab; the banishment of Baha'u'llah; the confiscation of His earthly possessions; His incarceration in Mazindaran; the reign of terror that confined Him in the most pestilential of dungeons; the intrigues, the protests, and calumnies which thrice renewed His exile and led to His ultimate imprisonment in the most desolate of cities; the shameful sentences passed, with the connivance of the judicial and ecclesiastical authorities, against the person, the property, and the honor of His innocent followers - these stand out as among the blackest acts for which posterity will hold this blood-stained dynasty responsible. One more barrier that had sought to obstruct the forward march of the Faith was now removed.
(173:1)
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