May 27, 2019

The two very heavy chains that Baha’u’llah “was weighted and tormented by”

If sometime thou shouldst happen to visit the prison of His Majesty the Sháh, ask thou the director and chief of that place to show thee those two chains, one of which is known as Qará-Guhar and the other as Salásil. I swear by the Day-star of Justice, that during four months, I was weighted and tormented by one of these chains. ‘The sorrow of Jacob paleth before my sorrow; and all the afflictions of Job were but a part of my calamities.’ 

- Baha’u’llah  (‘The Epistle to the Son of the Wolf’)

May 12, 2019

“chains of such weight as only notorious criminals were condemned to carry, were placed upon His [Bahá’u’lláh’s] neck”

One of the chains placed around Bahá’u’lláh’s neck in the Síyáh-Chál 

The Qará-Guhar fetters (lit. big and heavy), heavier than the intermediate weight of the Salásil chains (lit. iron chains) weighed about fifty-one kilograms or one hundred and ten pounds; a special wooden fork was supplied to the prisoner to help carry its weight. (David Ruhe, ‘Robe of Light: The Persian Years of the Supreme Prophet Bahá’u’lláh 1817-1853)