The uncle of the Báb, Ḥájí Mírzá Siyyid Muḥammad, had been perplexed to hear that the promised one of Islam was his own nephew. When he was told that this was the same objection voiced by the uncle of the prophet of Islam, he was shaken and decided to investigate the matter. In 1861 he traveled to Karbala, Iraq, to visit his brother, Ḥájí Mírzá Ḥasan-ʻAlí, and then went to Baghdad to meet Baháʼu'lláh. There he posed four questions about the signs of the appearance of the promised one in writing to Baháʼu'lláh. The 200 pages (in original languages) of the Kitáb-i-Íqán were written in the course of at most two days and two nights in reply about January 15, 1861.The questions Ḥájí Mírzá Siyyid Muḥammad posed, and the letter he wrote to his son from Baghdad on January 17, 1861 (which dates the composition of the book) are both published in Ahang Rabbani, "The Conversion of the Great-Uncle of the Báb," World Order, vol. 30, no. 3 (Spring, 1999), pp. 19-38 (the four questions can be found on pp. 32-33).
