area and attracting a stream of new converts, many of whom took up residence in the fort. Army of ʻAbdu'lláh Khán As conversions in the area increased, the chief cleric of Barfurush wrote to the Shah, indicating that a rebellion was underway in the region. Naser al-Din Shah Qajar, then only 17, had just taken up the throne after his father's death, and responded quickly to news of commotion in Mazandaran. He issued an edict authorizing a government official in Mazandaran, ʻAbdu'lláh Khán, to gather an army and quell the forces gathered at Tabarsi. ʻAbdu'lláh Khán besieged the fort with twelve thousand men, and cut of their supply of water and food. Three days of heavy rain and snow followed his arrival, providing water for the Bábís and decimating the army's earth fortifications. ʻAbdu'lláh Khán and his officers took up residence in a nearby village to avoid the weather, and were absent when, on the fourth day of the siege, Quddús ordered the Bábís to disperse his army. The outnumbered Bábí's took the army by surprise and pushed them back to the village where ʻAbdu'lláh Khán was living, where they engaged and killed ʻAbdu'lláh Khán and every officer of his army. At this point Quddús ordered a retreat. Four hundred of the Shah's soldiers were killed, and around 100 of their horses captured by the Bábís. Upon returning to the fort, Quddús warned the Bábís that a larger, better organized army would come next, and ordered them to expand the fort. After this point, the fort walls reached ten meters tall, with a deep ditch surrounding it, a well for water, and tunnels and storehouses dug underground for refuge and storage. Army of Prince Mihdí-Qulí Mírzá After the defeat of ʻAbdu'lláh Khán, the Shah ordered a member of the royal family, Prince Mihdí-Qulí Mírzá to exterminate the Bábís of Mazandaran province. His edict to Mihdí-Qulí Mírzá is significant, because it ordered the death of the Bábís at Tabarsi, not only on the grounds of alleged rebellion, but also heresy: In addition to authorizing Mihdí-Qulí Mírzá, the Shah ordered tribal chiefs and princes in Mazandaran to join their forces to Mihdí-Qulí Mírzá. He headquartered his forces in Vaskas and ordered ʻAbbás-Qulí Khán, the governor of Amol County, who was a distinguished general, to join him there with an army. He sent envoys to Barfurush and other villages to gain intelligence about