Shaykh Ṭabarsí, or more correctly the Shrine of Shaykh Tabarsí, was the location of a battle between the forces of the Shah of Persia and the Bábís over a period of seven months: October 10, 1848 to May 10, 1849. The commanding prince in charge of the government troops, unable to force the surrender of the followers of the Báb, resorted to a plan of betrayal to capture the remaining Bábís. The shrine is located in Mazandaran Province, Iran. Leading up to the Battle Mullá Husayn-i-Bushru'i, one of the most prominent Bábís and the very first person to accept the new faith, marched with 202 of his fellow disciples, under instructions from the Báb, from Mashhad to the Shrine of Shaykh Tabarsí with the Black Standard raised, fulfilling an Islamic prophecy. The mission was most likely proclamatory but possibly also to rescue another Bábí leader, Quddús, who was under house arrest in Sárí. After being attacked at the town of Barfurush (home of Quddús), the group took up making defensive fortifications at the nearby Shrine of the Shaykh. Upon arriving at the shrine, the Bábís, numbering a little over 300 according to Bábí and Baháʼí sources and according to royal court historians, came under escalating attacks from mobs, local government forces and then imperial regiments. A scholarly review finds reasonable support for between 540 and 600 people present including over a hundred villagers who joined locally after those that arrived from across the country. A census of the Bábís who had traveled some distance to the Shrine shows 14 major former clerics of Islam, 122 minor former clerics of Islam, 12 nobility or high government officials, 5 wholesale merchants, 9 retail merchants, 39 guild tradesmen, 6 unskilled laborers, 6 peasants, and 152 unclassified. Different sources have some similarities of which cities/provinces they came from — the highest numbers coming from Isfahan, Boshruyeh, Miyami, and Bahnemir, though 33 locations are listed among the places of origin of the participants. Sources describe the building of the fort as a matter of self-defence. The Bábí's spent many months under attack in the fort, resorting to eating the leather of their own clothes to remain alive. During the Battle Over the weeks that followed, more and more Bábís joined their fellow believers at the fort with numbers rising to perhaps six hundred. Most notable of the late arrivals is Quddús, who joined after being