Shell and the Pearl - An Account of the Martrydom of Ali-Asghar of Yazd

In 1891 in Yazd seven Bahá'ís met a martyr's death. In this essay Roger White has written a scholarly and moving account of the martyrdom of the youthful 'Alí-Asghar, one of the seven. Drawing on previously unpublished documents, the author evokes 'Alí-Asghar's spirit of self-sacrifice and the poignancy of his extreme youth as well as the dramatic events that followed his martyrdom.

O 'Times' . . . Spend an hour with the oppressed of Iran and witness how the exemplars of justice and equity are sorely tried beneath the sword of tyrants. Infants have been deprived of milk, and women and children have fallen captive to the lawless. The blood of God's lovers hath dyed the earth red . . .

Bahá'u'lláh's appeal to the London newspaper rings across the decades as again in our own time His followers in Iran suffer for their belief. Written following the martyrdom of the seven Bahá'ís in Yazd, some extracts from this famous Tablet have now been translated and are published for the first time in 'The Shell and the Pearl'. Also included are extracts from the Tablet of 'Abdu'l-Bahá about the martyrdom to Sakínih Sultán, the widow of 'Alí-Asghar, and an account by Mr Labíb Shahíd, the grandson of 'Alí-Asghar, both published for the first time.

About the Author

Roger White, a native of Toronto, Canada, won an enthusiastic international readership and critical acclaim in several quarters through publication of his first collection of poems, 'Another Song, Another Season'. A second collection, 'The Witness of Pebbles', appeared in 1981, and his novel about the early days of the Bahá'í community in Paris before the First World War, 'A Sudden Music', in 1983.

Pages: 32
Dimensions: 198 x 129 cm (7.75 x 5 in)
Weight: 46 g
ISBN: 978-0-85398-205-0