that the assertions were made to embarrass the Báb and undermine his credibility with the public, and that the language of this document is very different from the Báb's usual style, and so prepared by the authorities. Orientalist Edward Granville Browne received copies of the trial documents from , the first French Baha'i. A facsimile of the recantation is published in Browne's Materials for the Study of the Babi Religion, where he states, "[The document], unsigned and undated, was claimed to be in the Báb's handwriting and consists of a complete recantation and renunciation of any superhuman claim which he may have advanced or have appeared to advance. There is nothing to show to whom it is addressed, or whether it is the recantation referred to in the last paragraph of the [government report] or another. The handwriting, though graceful, is not easily legible..." But Amanat considers the document, which has no signature and date, to be fabricated. According to Amanat the document does not match the writing style of the Báb and was forged by the government officials of Tabriz to discredit him and please the Shah. Amanat believes that in the best scenario, the document may have been prepared by the government officials, but the Báb refused to sign it. He stood his ground despite great pressure to recant, and gain his freedom. Consequently he was executed by a firing squad in public in Tabriz to crush the Babi movement and to display the restored power of the Qajar government under the new minister, Amir Kabir. After the trial, the Báb was ordered back to the fortress of Chehríq. Proclamation In his early writings (1844-1847), the Báb appears to identify himself as a gate (báb), a reference to the Four Deputies of the Hidden Imam, the last of which went into occultation in 941 CE. In his later writings, the Báb more explicitly proclaimed his station as that of the Hidden Imam and a new messenger from God. The nature of the Báb's different claims and how they were understood to various groups is complicated. Detractors argue that the changing claims represent the Báb's own changing aspirations, while supporters describe the issue as a prudent and gradual disclosure of a coherent identity. For example, the Báb's first writing was designed in the same style as the Qur'an, something that would have been easily recognized at the time as