patronage of Sufism, Mohammad Shah was compared to Ismail I. He denoted Sufi Islam as the rival of Shi'ia and the ulama. The Sufis, who were persecuted during Fath-Ali Shah's reign, could now freely promote their beliefs. Mohammad was very dependent on his Sufi teacher Aqasi and gave court positions to Aqasi's Sufi friends such as Mirza Mahdi Khui, who became chief scribe of the court. Concurrent with their new patronage, Sufis took the idea of the Hidden Imam from the Shi'ia and connected it to their Sufi saints. Figures such as Safi-ad-din Ardabili became messengers of the Hidden Imam and the Sufi murshids (spiritual guides) were the only knowledgeable people who could read these communications, often through dreaming. The Sufis despised acts of torture and violence; when Aqasi became the grand vizier, he pleaded for their reduction. Mohammad would not accept it in his early years, arguing a culprit does not deserve sympathy, but as he aged and grew weaker from gout, he ordered the complete abolition of torture. Mohammad's approach to the Shi'ia clergy was one of hostility and conflict. He abandoned Fath-Ali Shah's attempts to reconcile the demands of piety and the tasks of the absolute ruler. He never asked for a theoretical acknowledgment of his coronation and was more inclined to search his spiritual guide in the dervishes and Sufis than in the ulama of the state. On 24 November 1842, Mohammad issued a firman abolishing the rights of sanctuary. He would constantly try to undermine the orthodox ulama position with the promotion of Sufism, and with the rise of Báb and Bábism. When Sayyid Ali Muhammad Shirazi first claimed to be the Báb (gateway to the Hidden Imam), the ulama declared a fatwa saying he must be killed. Mohammad, however, called Báb to Tehran and promised him shelter. This alarmed Aqasi, who had the Báb sent to Maku in Azerbaijan, where he was kept under confinement. Facing dissent from Mohammad, however, he took no drastic measures against the Báb and his followers. Although Mohammad had no enmity towards any branches of Christianity, he preferred to allow the French Lazarist missionaries into Iran rather than the English Anglicans. In hope of bringing modern education to the nation, he issued an edict that allowed missionaries to open schools. The head of the Lazarists was Eugène Boré, who in 1839 opened a school in Tabriz with both Christian