The Báb sent Epistles to “the divines of every city in Persia, as well as to those residing in Najaf and Karbilá”

The great bulk of the writings emanating from the Báb’s prolific mind was, however, reserved for the period of His confinement in Máh-Kú and Chihríq. To this period must probably belong the unnumbered Epistles which, as attested by no less an authority than Bahá’u’lláh, the Báb specifically addressed to the divines of every city in Persia, as well as to those residing in Najaf and Karbilá, wherein He set forth in detail the errors committed by each one of them. 

- Shoghi Effendi  (Chapter 2, ‘God Passes By’)

The Báb’s initial Writings

This work, [Qayyúmu’l-Asmá’] of such exalted merit, of such far-reaching influence, was followed by the revelation of the Báb’s first Tablet to Muhammad Sháh; of His Tablets to Sultán ‘Abdu’l-Majíd and to Najíb Páshá, the Válí of Baghdád; of the Saḥífiy-i-baynu’l-Ḥaramayn, revealed between Mecca and Medina, in answer to questions posed by Mírzá Muhít-i-Kirmání; of the Epistle to the Sherif of Mecca; of the Kitábu’r-Ruh, comprising seven hundred súrihs; of the Khasá’il-i-Sab‘ih, which enjoined the alteration of the formula of the adhán; of the Risaliy-i-Furu‘-i-‘Adliyyih, rendered into Persian by Mullá Muhammad-Taqíy-i-Harátí; of the commentary on the súrih of Kawthar, which effected such a transformation in the soul of Vaḥíd; of the commentary on the súrih of Va’l-‘Asr, in the house of the Imám-Jum‘ih of Isfahán; of the dissertation on the Specific Mission of Muhammad, written at the request of Manúchihr Khán; of the second Tablet to Muhammad Sháh, craving an audience in which to set forth the truths of the new Revelation, and dissipate his doubts; and of the Tablets sent from the village of Síyah-Dihán to the ‘ulamás of Qasvín and to Hájí Mírzá Áqásí, inquiring from him as to the cause of the sudden change in his decision. 

- Shoghi Effendi  (Chapter 2, ‘God Passes By’)

The impact of the Qayyúmu’l-Asmá’ on the Bábí community

It was this Book which the Bábís universally regarded, during almost the entire ministry of the Báb, as the Qur’án of the people of the Bayán; whose first and most challenging chapter was revealed in the presence of Mullá Husayn, on the night of its Author’s Declaration; some of whose pages were borne, by that same disciple, to Bahá’u’lláh, as the first fruits of a Revelation which instantly won His enthusiastic allegiance; whose entire text was translated into Persian by the brilliant and gifted Táhirih; whose passages inflamed the hostility of Husayn Khán and precipitated the initial outbreak of persecution in Shíráz; a single page of which had captured the imagination and entranced the soul of Hujjat; and whose contents had set afire the intrepid defenders of the Fort of Shaykh Ṭabarsí and the heroes of Nayríz and Zanján. 

- Shoghi Effendi  (Chapter 2, ‘God Passes By’)