SĂyáh-Chál ( literally "black pit") is the common word in Persian language for "dungeon".
Historically, siyah-chals were used as a harsher form of incarceration. Typically, such dungeons had no windows or outlets, other than the entrance, consisting of a short stairway into the ground.
In Bahá'Ă history the "SĂyáh-Chál" refers to the dungeon south east of the palace of the Sháh and near the Sabzih-Maydán in Tehran where Bahá'u'lláh, founder of the Bahá'Ă Faith, was in captivity in 1852, together with about 30 other BábĂ's if not more. He described his experiences in the Epistle to the So...