Mirza Jani states, 'two hundred persons believed and underwent a true
and sincere conversion.' [Footnote: _Ibid_. p. 221. Surely these
conversions were due, not to a supposed act of miraculous healing, but
to the 'majesty and dignity' of God's Messenger. The people were
expecting a Messiah, and here was a Personage who came up to the ideal
they had formed.]What meetings took place at Zanjan and Tabriz, the
early Babi historian does not report; later on, Zanjan was a focus
of Babite propagandism, but just then the apostle of the Zanjan
movement was summoned to Tihran. From Tabriz a remarkable cure is
reported, [Footnote: _NH_, p. 226.] and as a natural consequence we
hear of many conversions.

The Bab was specially favoured in the chief of his escort, who, in
the course of the journey, was fascinated by the combined majesty and
gentleness of his prisoner. His name was Muhammad Beg, and his moral
portrait is thus limned by Mirza Jani: 'He was a man of kindly nature
and amiable character, and [became] so sincere and devoted a believer
that whenever the name of His Holiness was mentioned he would
incontinently burst into tears, saying,

I scarcely reckon as life the days when to me thou wert all unknown,
But by faithful service for what remains I may still for the past
atone.'

It was the wish, both of the Bab and of this devoted servant, that the
Master should be allowed to take up his residence (under surveillance)
at Tabriz, where there were already many Friends of God. But such was
not the will of the Shah and his vizier, who sent word to Khanlik
[Footnote: Khanlik is situated 'about six parasangs' from Tihran
(_NH_, p. 216). It is in the province of Azarbaijan.] that the