a priest in 1838 by Richard Mant, Bishop of Down and Connor. In the same year, he was given the rectory of Linthwaite in Yorkshire. In his travels in Bukhara, he found the doctrine of the Lord's soon coming held by a remote and isolated people. The Arabs of Yemen, he says, "are in possession of a book called 'Seera,' which gives notice of the coming of Christ and His reign in glory, and they expect great events to take place in the year 1840." "In Yemen I spent six days with the Rechabites. They drink no wine, plant no vineyards, sow no seed, live in tents, and remember the words of Jonadab, the son of Rechab. With them were the children of Israel of the tribe of Dan ... who expect, in common with the children of Rechab, the speedy arrival of the Messiah in the clouds of heaven." In 1843, Wolff went to Bukhara (home of the Bukharan Jews) to seek two British officers, Lieutenant Colonel Charles Stoddart and Captain Arthur Conolly, who had been captured by the Emir, Nasrullah Khan in June 1842. He learned that they had been executed, and he was spared death himself only because the Emir laughed uncontrollably at Wolff's appearance in full canonical garb. His Narrative of this mission sold well and was printed in seven editions between 1845 and 1852. Fitzroy Maclean, then a junior diplomat travelling incognito, retraced Wolff's trip in 1938. He wrote of Wolff in his memoir, Eastern Approaches. Almost fifty years later, Maclean contributed a foreword to a biography of the missionary. When Joseph arrived in Mashad in late August 1844 on his return from Bukhara he noted, "It is remarkable that dissenters in doctrine are now prevailing largely in the Mohammadan religion" and that "there had arisen there another partly, who may be called the Mohammadan tractarians" CITE [Travel and Adventures 1860 vol. 1 page 513]. At that time, the Shaykhi branch of Islam in Persia was experiencing a growing Adventist movement in parallel to that taking place in Christian circles in North America, Britain and Europe. According to Islamic prophecy the Promised Mahdi would appear in the year 1260, which is 1844 in the Gregorian calendar. It was in Shiraz, during May 1844, that Siyyid 'Alí Muḥammad Shírází declared Himself to be the Báb, the Gate, the Promised Mahdi. Personal life and legacy He met