released by Tabarsí Bábís on October 20. Baháʼís see the battle as a heroic stand against oppressive government forces; it lasted seven months despite the few hundred Bábís being outnumbered by up to 10,000 troops. On May 10, 1849, at last having been reduced to near-starvation by the encirclement, the Bábí defenders surrendered after a guarantee of safe passage from the government commander, including an oath sworn on the Quran — a guarantee that was immediately violated, with most of the members of the religion massacred on the spot after leaving the fort. After the Battle It is believed that eight of the disciples of the Báb, also called the Letters of the Living, were killed in the series of battles: Mullá Husayn-i-Bushru'i Muhammad-Hasan-i-Bushru'i Muhammad-Baqir-i-Bushru'i Mullá Mahmud-i-Khu'i Mullá Jalil-i-Urumi Mullá Ahmad-i-Ibdal-i-Maraghi'i Mullá Yusif-i-Ardibili Mullá Muhammad-'Aliy-i-Qazvini Quddús was taken prisoner in the city of Barfurush. There the leading Muslim clerics rallied the townsfolk into a vicious frenzy. Quddus was then left to the hands of the mob who beat him to death on May 16, 1849. What remained of Quddus' body was gathered by a friend and buried nearby. The battle is considered the most important upheaval of the Bábí religion because the Báb himself instructed Mullá Husayn-i Bushru'i to initiate this sequence of events with raising the "Black Standard" as well as a call for support of the collective initiative of Bábís. The episode included two leading figures of the religion in Mulla Husayn and Quddús and overall nine out of eighteen of the Letters of the Living, and actually received a widespread response across the country. No other upheaval the Bábís suffered had this amount of importance attached to it. The battle was also followed and mentioned in French language newspaper accounts from the Journal de Constantinople in March 1849. See also Conference of Badasht one of the other major events of the Bábí period. Notes References History of the Bahá'í Faith Fort Tabarsi History of Mazandaran Province Conflicts in 1842