Battle of Fort Tabarsi , or more correctly the Shrine of Shaykh Tabarsí , was the location of a battle between the forces of the Shah of Persia and the Bábís , followers of the Báb over the period October 10 , 1848 to May 10 , 1849 when the prince resorted to a plan of betrayal to capture the remaining Bábís . It is located in Mazandaran Province , Iran . Leading up to the Battle . Mullá Husayn - i - Bushru ' i , one of the most prominent Bábís , marched with 202 of his fellow disciples , under instructions from the Báb , from Mashhad to the Shrine of Shaykh Tabarsí with the Black Standard raised , fulfilling an Islamic prophecy . The mission was most likely proclamatory but possibly also to rescue another Bábí leader , Quddús , who was under house arrest in Sárí . After being rebuffed at the town of Barfurush the group took up making defensive fortifications at the Shrine of the Shaykh . Upon arriving at the shrine , the Bábís , numbering alittle over 300 according to Bábí and Bahá ' í sources and according to court historians was now under imminent attack from government forces . A scholarly review finds reasonable support for between 540 and 600 people present including over a hundred villagers who joined locally after those that arrived from across the country . A census of the Bábís who had traveled some distance to the Shrine shows 14 major former clerics of Islam , 122 minor former clerics of Islam , 12 nobility or high government officials , 5 whole sale merchants , 9 retail merchants , 39 guild tradesmen , 6 unskilled laborers , 6 peasants , and 152 unclassified . Different sources have some similarities of which cities / provinces they came from - the highest rates coming from Isfahan , Bushru ' i , Miyami , and Bihnamiri though 33 locations are listed among the places of origin of the participants . Sources describe the building of the fort as a matter of self - defence , the Bábí ' s spent many months under attack in the fort , resorting to eating the leather of their own clothes to remain alive . During the battle . Over the weeks that followed , more and more Bábís joined the fort with numbers rising to perhaps six - hundred . Most notable of the late arrivals is Quddús who joined after being released by Tabarsí Bábís on October 20 . Bahá ' ís see the battle , which was led by Mullá Husayn , as a heroic stand against oppressive government forces that lasted several months . After the battle . It is believed that eight of the disciples of the Báb also called the Letters of the Living were killed in the series of battles : Quddús was taken prisoner in the city of Barfurush . There the high priest rallied the townsfolk into a vicious frenzy . Quddus was then left to the hands of the mob who beat him to death on May 16 , 1849 . What remained of Quddus ' body was gathered by a friend and buried nearby . The battle is considered the most important upheaval of the Bábí religion because the Báb himself instructed Mullá Husayn - i Bushru ' i to initiate it with raising the " Black Standard " as well as a call for support of the initiative toothier Bábís , the episode included two leading figures of the religion in Mulla Husayn and Quddús and overall nine out of eighteen of the Letters of the Living , and actually reached a widespread response from across the country . No other upheaval the Bábís suffered had this pattern of importance in it . See also . Conference of Badasht one of the other major events of the Bábí period .