'] Considering that Mirza
Yah??ya was regarded as a 'return' of K??uddus, some preferment may
conceivably have found its way to him. It was no contemptible
distinction to be a member of the Second Unity, i.e. to be one
of those who reflected the excellences of the older 'Letters of the
Living.' As a member of the Second Unity and the accepted reflexion
of K??uddus, S??ubh??-i-Ezel may have been thought of as a director of
affairs together with the obviously marked-out agent (_wali_),
Baha-'ullah. We are not told, however, that Mirza Yah??ya assumed
either the title of Ba?„b (Gate) or that of Nuk??t??a (Point).
[Footnote: Others, however, give it him (_TN_, p. 353).]
I must confess that S??ubh??-i-Ezel's account of the fortune of the
Ba?„b's relics appears to me, as well as to M. Nicolas, [Footnote:
_AMB_, p. 380 n.] unsatisfactory and (in one point) contradictory.
How, for instance, did he get possession of the relics? And, is there
any independent evidence for the intermingling of the parts of the two
corpses? How did he procure a crystal coffin to receive the relics?
How comes it that there were Bahaites at the time of the Ba?„b's
death, and how was S??ubh??-i-Ezel able to conceal the crystal coffin,
etc., from his brother Baha-'ullah?
Evidently S??ubh??-i-Ezel has changed greatly since the time when both
the brothers (half-brothers) were devoted, heart and soul, to the
service of the Ba?„b.
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