Page:Historyofpersiaf00watsrich.djvu/413

PRETENDED MAHOMEDAN MIRACLES. 393 narrow-minded moollahs. He found much difficulty in bending to his will the privileged and rapacious Mahomedan doctors ; but he did not recoil from the labour of subduing them. The priests of Tabreez, about this time, resolved to show the world who believed in miracles that such manifestations of a direct interference with the ordinary course of nature were not exhibited solely through the medium of the person of the Bab. They determined to try the effect of one in connection with a Moslem place of worship. A cow on the way to the slaughter-house twice took sanctuary in a mosque and was twice expelled ; a third attempt to deprive the animal of the privilege of taking sanctuary was punished by the patron saint of the mosque, for the driver of the cow fell down dead. Such was the story that was noised abroad, and as it was received with credit, other miracles were attributed to the influence of the spirit who guarded the same holy place ; blind men were said to have had their sight restored, and sick men to have been healed of their maladies. Much religious enthu- siasm was accordingly excited, and, in honour of the distinction which had thus been conferred upon Tabreez, the city was illuminated. The mosque where the cow- herd had fallen dead was pronounced to be a sanctuary, which must thenceforward be on no account violated, and it was publicly announced that it was lawful to slay any persons who might be discovered gambling or intoxicated in its neighbourhood. But the priests of Tabreez found that, although the people of that city were as credulous and fanatical as could be wished, there was a ruler in Persia who was possessed both of common sense and of firmness, and who would not permit the establishment of