'Abdu'l-Baha's historic journeys to the West, and in particular His
eight-month tour of the United States of America, may be said to have
marked the culmination of His ministry, a ministry whose untold blessings
and stupendous achievements only future generations can adequately
estimate. As the day-star of Baha'u'llah's Revelation had shone forth in
its meridian splendor at the hour of the proclamation of His Message to
the rulers of the earth in the city of Adrianople, so did the Orb of His
Covenant mount its zenith and shed its brightest rays when He Who was its
appointed Center arose to blazon the glory and greatness of His Father's
Faith among the peoples of the West.
That divinely instituted Covenant had, shortly after its inception,
demonstrated beyond the shadow of a doubt its invincible strength through
its decisive triumph over the dark forces which its Arch-Breaker had with
such determination arrayed against it. Its energizing power had soon after
been proclaimed through the signal victories which its torch-bearers had
so rapidly and courageously won in the far-off cities of Western Europe
and the United States of America. Its high claims had, moreover, been
fully vindicated through its ability to safeguard the unity and integrity
of the Faith in both the East and the West. It had subsequently given
further proof of its indomitable strength by the memorable victory it
registered through the downfall of Sultan 'Abdu'l-Hamid, and the
consequent release of its appointed Center from a forty-year captivity. It
had provided for those still inclined to doubt its Divine origin yet
another indisputable testimony to its solidity by enabling 'Abdu'l-Baha,
in the face of formidable obstacles, to effect the transfer and the final
entombment of the Bab's remains in a mausoleum on Mt. Carmel. It had
manifested also before all mankind, with a force and in a measure hitherto
unapproached, its vast potentialities when it empowered Him in Whom its
spirit and its purpose were enshrined to embark on a three-year-long
mission to the Western world--a mission so momentous that it deserves to
rank as the greatest exploit ever to be associated with His ministry.
Nor were these, preeminent though they were, the sole fruits garnered
through the indefatigable efforts exerted so heroically by the Center of
that Covenant. The progress and extension of His Father's Faith in the
East; the initiation of activities and enterprises which may be said to
signalize the beginnings of a future Administrative Order; the erection of
the first Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar of the Baha'i world in the city of
I_sh_qabad in Russian Turkistan; the expansion of Baha'i literature; the
revelation of the Tablets of the Divine Plan; and the introduction of the
Faith in the Australian continent--these may be regarded as the outstanding
achievements that have embellished the brilliant record of 'Abdu'l-Baha's
unique ministry.
In Persia, the cradle of the Faith, despite the persecutions which,
throughout the years of that ministry, persisted with unabated violence, a
noticeable change, marking the gradual emergence of a proscribed community
from its hitherto underground existence, could be clearly discerned.
Nasiri'd-Din _Sh_ah, four years after Baha'u'llah's ascension, had, on the
eve of his jubilee, designed to mark a turning-point in the history of his
country, met his death at the hands of an assassin, named Mirza Rida, a
follower of the notorious Siyyid Jamalu'd-Din-i-Af_gh_ani, an enemy of the
Faith and one of the originators of the constitutional movement which, as
it gathered momentum, during the reign of the _Sh_ah's son and successor,
Muzaffari'd-Din, was destined to involve in further difficulties an
already hounded and persecuted community. Even the _Sh_ah's assassination
had at first been laid at the door of that community, as evidenced by the
cruel death suffered, immediately after the murder of the sovereign, by
the renowned teacher and poet, Mirza 'Ali-Muhammad, surnamed "Varqa"
(Dove) by Baha'u'llah, who, together with his twelve-year-old son,
Ruhu'llah, was inhumanly put to death in the prison of Tihran, by the
brutal Hajibu'd-Dawlih, who, after thrusting his dagger into the belly of
the father and cutting him into pieces, before the eyes of his son,
adjured the boy to recant, and, meeting with a blunt refusal, strangled
him with a rope.
Three years previously a youth, named Muhammad-Riday-i-Yazdi, was shot in
Yazd, on the night of his wedding while proceeding from the public bath to
his home, the first to suffer martyrdom during 'Abdu'l-Baha's ministry. In
Turbat-i-Haydariyyih, in consequence of the _Sh_ah's assassination, five
persons, known as the _Sh_uhaday-i-_Kh_amsih (Five Martyrs), were put to
death. In Ma_sh_had a well-known merchant, Haji Muhammad-i-Tabrizi, was
murdered and his corpse set on fire. An interview was granted by the new
sovereign and his Grand Vizir, the unprincipled and reactionary Mirza
'Ali-As_gh_ar _Kh_an, the Atabik-i-A'zam, to two representative followers
of the Faith in Paris (1902), but it produced no real results whatever. On
the contrary, a fresh storm of persecutions broke out a few years later,
persecutions which, as the constitutional movement developed in that
country, grew ever fiercer as reactionaries brought groundless accusations
against the Baha'is, and publicly denounced them as supporters and
inspirers of the nationalist cause.
A certain Muhammad-Javad was stripped naked in Isfahan, and was severely
beaten with a whip of braided wires, while in Ka_sh_an the adherents of
the Faith of Jewish extraction were fined, beaten and chained at the
instigation of both the Muhammadan clergy and the Jewish doctors. It was,
however, in Yazd and its environs that the most bloody outrages committed
during 'Abdu'l-Baha's ministry occurred. In that city Haji
Mirzay-i-Halabi-Saz was so mercilessly flogged that his wife flung herself
upon his body, and was in her turn severely beaten, after which his skull
was lacerated by the cleaver of a butcher. His eleven-year-old son was
pitilessly thrashed, stabbed with penknives and tortured to death. Within
the space of half a day nine people met their death. A crowd of about six
thousand people, of both sexes, vented their fury upon the helpless
victims, a few going so far as to drink their blood. In some instances, as
was the case with a man named Mirza Asadu'llah-i-Sabba_gh_, they plundered
their property and fought over its possession. They evinced such cruelty
that some of the government officials were moved to tears at the sight of
the harrowing scenes in which the women of that city played a
conspicuously shameful part.
In Taft several people were put to death, some of whom were shot and their
bodies dragged through the streets. A newly converted eighteen-year-old
youth, named Husayn, was denounced by his own father, and torn to pieces
before the eyes of his mother, whilst Muhammad-Kamal was hacked into bits
with knife, spade and pickaxe. In Man_sh_ad, where the persecutions lasted
nineteen days, similar atrocities were perpetrated. An eighty-year-old
man, named Siyyid Mirza, was instantly killed in his sleep by two huge
stones which were thrown on him; a Mirza Sadiq, who asked for water, had a
knife plunged into his breast, his executioner afterwards licking the
blood from the blade, while _Sh_atir-Hasan, one of the victims, was seen
before his death distributing some candy in his possession among the
executioners and dividing among them his clothing. A sixty-five year old
woman, _Kh_adijih-Sultan, was hurled from the roof of a house; a believer
named Mirza Muhammad was tied to a tree, made a target for hundreds of
bullets and his body set on fire, whilst another, named Ustad
Riday-i-Saffar, was seen to kiss the hand of his murderer, after which he
was shot and his corpse heaped with insults.
In Banaduk, in Dih-Bala, in Fara_sh_ah, in Abbas-Abad, in Hanza, in
Ardikan, in Dawlat-Abad and in Hamadan crimes of similar nature were
committed, an outstanding case being that of a highly respected and
courageous woman, named Fatimih-Bagum, who was ignominiously dragged from
her house, her veil was torn from her head, her throat cut across, her
belly ripped open; and having been beaten by the savage crowd with every
weapon they could lay hands on, she was finally suspended from a tree and
delivered to the flames.
In Sari, in the days when the agitation for the constitution was moving
towards a climax, five believers of recognized standing, known later as
the _Sh_uhaday-i-_Kh_amsih (Five Martyrs), were done to death, whilst in
Nayriz a ferocious assault, recalling that of Yazd, was launched by the
enemy, in which nineteen lost their lives, among them the sixty-five year
old Mulla 'Abdu'l-Hamid, a blind man who was shot and his body foully
abused, and in the course of which a considerable amount of property was
plundered, and numerous women and children had to flee for their lives, or
seek refuge in mosques, or live in the ruins of their houses, or remain
shelterless by the wayside.
In Sirjan, in Du_gh_-Abad, in Tabriz, in Avih, in Qum, in Najaf-Abad, in
Sangsar, in _Sh_ahmirzad, in Isfahan, and in Jahrum redoubtable and
remorseless enemies, both religious and political, continued, under
various pretexts, and even after the signing of the Constitution by the
_Sh_ah in 1906, and during the reign of his successors, Muhammad-'Ali
_Sh_ah and Ahmad _Sh_ah, to slay, torture, plunder and abuse the members
of a community who resolutely refused to either recant or deviate a hair's
breadth from the path laid down for them by their Leaders. Even during
'Abdu'l-Baha's journeys to the West, and after His return to the Holy
Land, and indeed till the end of His life, He continued to receive
distressing news of the martyrdom of His followers, and of the outrages
perpetrated against them by an insatiable enemy. In Dawlat-Abad, a prince
of the royal blood, Habibu'llah Mirza by name, a convert to the Faith who
had consecrated his life to its service, was slain with a hatchet and his
corpse set on fire. In Ma_sh_had the learned and pious _Sh_ay_kh_
'Ali-Akbar-i-Qu_ch_ani was shot to death. In Sultan-Abad, Mirza 'Ali-Akbar
and seven members of his family including a forty day old infant were
barbarously massacred. Persecutions of varying degrees of severity broke
out in Na'in, in _Sh_ahmirzad, in Bandar-i-Jaz and in Qamsar. In
Kirman_sh_ah, the martyr Mirza Ya'qub-i-Muttahidih, the ardent twenty-five
year old Jewish convert to the Faith, was the last to lay down his life
during 'Abdu'l-Baha's ministry; and his mother, according to his own
instructions, celebrated his martyrdom in Hamadan with exemplary
fortitude. In every instance the conduct of the believers testified to the
indomitable spirit and unyielding tenacity that continued to distinguish
the lives and services of the Persian followers of the Faith of
Baha'u'llah.
Despite these intermittent severe persecutions the Faith that had evoked
in its heroes so rare a spirit of self-sacrifice was steadily and silently
growing. Engulfed for a time and almost extinguished in the sombre days
following the martyrdom of the Bab, driven underground throughout the
period of Baha'u'llah's ministry, it began, after His ascension, under the
unerring guidance, and as a result of the unfailing solicitude, of a wise,
a vigilant and loving Master, to gather its forces, and gradually to erect
the embryonic institutions which were to pave the way for the
establishment, at a later period, of its Administrative Order. It was
during this period that the number of its adherents rapidly multiplied,
that its range, now embracing every province of that kingdom, steadily
widened, and the rudimentary forms of its future Assemblies were
inaugurated. It was during this period, at a time when state schools and
colleges were practically non-existent in that country, and when the
education given in existing religious institutions was lamentably
defective, that its earliest schools were established, beginning with the
Tarbiyat, schools in Tihran for both boys and girls, and followed by the
Ta'yid and Mawhibat schools in Hamadan, the Vahdat-i-Ba_sh_ar school in
Ka_sh_an and other similar educational institutions in Barfuru_sh_ and
Qazvin. It was during these years that concrete and effectual assistance,
both spiritual and material, in the form of visiting teachers from both
Europe and America, of nurses, instructors, and physicians, was first
extended to the Baha'i community in that land, these workers constituting
the vanguard of that host of helpers which 'Abdu'l-Baha promised would
arise in time to further the interests of the Faith as well as those of
the country in which it was born. It was in the course of these years that
the term Babi, as an appellation, designating the followers of Baha'u'llah
in that country, was universally discarded by the masses in favor of the
word Baha'i, the former henceforth being exclusively applied to the fast
dwindling number of the followers of Mirza Yahya. During this period,
moreover, the first systematic attempts were made to organize and
stimulate the teaching work undertaken by the Persian believers, attempts
which, apart from reinforcing the foundations of the community, were
instrumental in attracting to its cause several outstanding figures in the
public life of that country, not excluding certain prominent members of
the _Sh_i'ah sacerdotal order, and even descendants of some of the worst
persecutors of the Faith. It was during the years of that ministry that
the House of the Bab in _Sh_iraz, ordained by Baha'u'llah as a center of
pilgrimage for His followers, and now so recognized, was by order of
'Abdu'l-Baha and through His assistance, restored, and that it became
increasingly a focus of Baha'i life and activity for those who were
deprived by circumstances of visiting either the Most Great House in
Ba_gh_dad or the Most Holy Tomb in Akka.
More conspicuous than any of these undertakings, however, was the erection
of the first Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar of the Baha'i world in the city of
I_sh_qabad, a center founded in the days of Baha'u'llah, where the initial
steps preparatory to its construction, had been already undertaken during
His lifetime. Initiated at about the close of the first decade of
'Abdu'l-Baha's ministry (1902); fostered by Him at every stage in its
development; personally supervised by the venerable Haji Mirza
Muhammad-Taqi, the Vakilu'd-Dawlih, a cousin of the Bab, who dedicated his
entire resources to its establishment, and whose dust now reposes at the
foot of Mt. Carmel under the shadow of the Tomb of his beloved Kinsman;
carried out according to the directions laid down by the Center of the
Covenant Himself; a lasting witness to the fervor and the self-sacrifice
of the Oriental believers who were resolved to execute the bidding of
Baha'u'llah as revealed in the Kitab-i-Aqdas, this enterprise must rank
not only as the first major undertaking launched through the concerted
efforts of His followers in the Heroic Age of His Faith, but as one of the
most brilliant and enduring achievements in the history of the first
Baha'i century.
The edifice itself, the foundation stone of which was laid in the presence
of General Krupatkin, the governor-general of Turkistan, who had been
delegated by the Czar to represent him at the ceremony, has thus been
minutely described by a Baha'i visitor from the West: "The
Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar stands in the heart of the city; its high dome
standing out above the trees and house tops being visible for miles to the
travelers as they approach the town. It is in the center of a garden
bounded by four streets. In the four corners of this enclosure are four
buildings: one is the Baha'i school; one is the traveler's house, where
pilgrims and wayfarers are lodged; one is for the keepers, while the
fourth one is to be used as a hospital. Nine radial avenues approach the
Temple from the several parts of the grounds, one of which, the principal
approach to the building, leads from the main gateway of the grounds to
the principal portal of the Temple." "In plan," he further adds, "the
building is composed of three sections; namely, the central rotunda, the
aisle or ambulatory which surrounds it, and the loggia which surrounds the
entire building. It is built on the plan of a regular polygon of nine
sides. One side is occupied by the monumental main entrance, flanked by
minarets--a high arched portico extending two stories in height recalling
in arrangement the architecture of the world famous Taj Mahal at Agra in
India, the delight of the world to travelers, many of whom pronounce it to
be the most beautiful temple in the world. Thus the principal doorway
opens toward the direction of the Holy land. The entire building is
surrounded by two series of loggias--one upper and one lower--which opens
out upon the garden giving a very beautiful architectural effect in
harmony with the luxuriant semi-tropical vegetation which fills the
garden... The interior walls of the rotunda are treated in five distinct
stories. First, a series of nine arches and piers which separate the
rotunda from the ambulatory. Second, a similar treatment with balustrades
which separate the triforium gallery (which is above the ambulatory and is
reached by two staircases in the loggias placed one on either side of the
main entrance) from the well of the rotunda. Third, a series of nine blank
arches filled with fretwork, between which are escutcheons bearing the
Greatest Name. Fourth, a series of nine large arched windows. Fifth, a
series of eighteen bull's eye windows. Above and resting on a cornice
surmounting this last story rises the inner hemispherical shell of the
dome. The interior is elaborately decorated in plaster relief work... The
whole structure impresses one by its mass and strength."
Nor should mention be omitted of the two schools for boys and girls which
were established in that city, of the pilgrim house instituted in the
close vicinity of the Temple, of the Spiritual Assembly and its auxiliary
bodies formed to administer the affairs of a growing community, and of the
new centers of activity inaugurated in various towns and cities in the
province of Turkistan--all testifying to the vitality which the Faith had
displayed ever since its inception in that land.
A parallel if less spectacular development could be observed in the
Caucasus. After the establishment of the first center and the formation of
an Assembly in Baku, a city which Baha'i pilgrims, traveling in increasing
numbers from Persia to the Holy Land via Turkey, invariably visited, new
groups began to be organized, and, evolving later into well-established
communities, cooperated in increasing measure with their brethren both in
Turkistan and Persia.
In Egypt a steady increase in the number of the adherents of the Faith was
accompanied by a general expansion in its activities. The establishments
of new centers; the consolidation of the chief center established in
Cairo; the conversion, largely through the indefatigable efforts of the
learned Mirza Abu'l-Fadl, of several prominent students and teachers of
the Azhar University--premonitory symptoms foreshadowing the advent of the
promised day on which, according to 'Abdu'l-Baha, the standard and emblem
of the Faith would be implanted in the heart of that time-honored Islamic
seat of learning; the translation into Arabic and the dissemination of
some of the most important writings of Baha'u'llah revealed in Persian,
together with other Baha'i literature; the printing of books, treatises
and pamphlets by Baha'i authors and scholars; the publication of articles
in the Press written in defense of the Faith and for the purpose of
broadcasting its message; the formation of rudimentary administrative
institutions in the capital as well as in nearby centers; the enrichment
of the life of the community through the addition of converts of Kurdish,
Coptic, and Armenian origin--these may be regarded as the first fruits
garnered in a country which, blessed by the footsteps of 'Abdu'l-Baha,
was, in later years, to play a historic part in the emancipation of the
Faith, and which, by virtue of its unique position as the intellectual
center of both the Arab and Islamic worlds, must inevitably assume a
notable and decisive share of responsibility in the final establishment of
that Faith throughout the East.
Even more remarkable was the expansion of Baha'i activity in India and
Burma, where a steadily growing community, now including among its members
representatives of the Zoroastrian, the Islamic, the Hindu and the
Buddhist Faiths, as well as members of the Sikh community, succeeded in
establishing its outposts, as far as Mandalay and the village of Daidanaw
Kalazoo, in the Hanthawaddy district of Burma, at which latter place no
less than eight hundred Baha'is resided, possessing a school, a court, and
a hospital of their own, as well as land for community cultivation, the
proceeds of which they devoted to the furtherance of the interests of
their Faith.
In 'Iraq, where the House occupied by Baha'u'llah was entirely restored
and renovated, and where a small yet intrepid community struggled in the
face of constant opposition to regulate and administer its affairs; in
Constantinople, where a Baha'i center was established; in Tunis where the
foundations of a local community were firmly laid; in Japan, in China, and
in Honolulu to which Baha'i teachers traveled, and where they settled and
taught--in all of these places the manifold evidences of the guiding hand
of 'Abdu'l-Baha and the tangible effects of His sleepless vigilance and
unfailing care could be clearly perceived.
Nor did the nascent communities established in France, England, Germany
and the United States cease to receive, after His memorable visits to
those countries, further tokens of His special interest in, and solicitude
for, their welfare and spiritual advancement. It was in consequence of His
directions and the unceasing flow of His Tablets, addressed to the members
of these communities, as well as His constant encouragement of the efforts
they were exerting, that Baha'i centers steadily multiplied, that public
meetings were organized, that new periodicals were published, that
translations of some of the best known works of Baha'u'llah and of the
Tablets of 'Abdu'l-Baha were printed and circulated in the English, the
French, and German languages, and that the initial attempts to organize
the affairs, and consolidate the foundations, of these newly established
communities were undertaken.
In the North American continent, more particularly, the members of a
flourishing community, inspired by the blessings bestowed by 'Abdu'l-Baha,
as well as by His example and the acts He performed in the course of His
prolonged visit to their country, gave an earnest of the magnificent
enterprise they were to carry through in later years. They purchased the
twelve remaining lots forming part of the site of their projected Temple,
selected, during the sessions of their 1920 Convention, the design of the
French Canadian Baha'i architect, Louis Bourgeois, placed the contract for
the excavation and the laying of its foundations, and succeeded soon after
in completing the necessary arrangements for the construction of its
basement: measures which heralded the stupendous efforts which, after
'Abdu'l-Baha's ascension, culminated in the erection of its superstructure
and the completion of its exterior ornamentation.
The war of 1914-18, repeatedly foreshadowed by 'Abdu'l-Baha in the dark
warnings He uttered in the course of His western travels, and which broke
out eight months after His return to the Holy Land, once more cast a
shadow of danger over His life, the last that was to darken the years of
His agitated yet glorious ministry.
The late entry of the United States of America in that world-convulsing
conflict, the neutrality of Persia, the remoteness of India and of the Far
East from the theater of operations, insured the protection of the
overwhelming majority of His followers, who, though for the most part
entirely cut off for a number of years from the spiritual center of their
Faith, were still able to conduct their affairs and safeguard the fruits
of their recent achievements in comparative safety and freedom.
In the Holy Land, however, though the outcome of that tremendous struggle
was to liberate once and for all the Heart and Center of the Faith from
the Turkish yoke, a yoke which had imposed for so long upon its Founder
and His Successor such oppressive and humiliating restrictions, yet severe
privations and grave dangers continued to surround its inhabitants during
the major part of that conflict, and renewed, for a time, the perils which
had confronted 'Abdu'l-Baha during the years of His incarceration in Akka.
The privations inflicted on the inhabitants by the gross incompetence, the
shameful neglect, the cruelty and callous indifference of both the civil
and military authorities, though greatly alleviated through the bountiful
generosity, the foresight and the tender care of 'Abdu'l-Baha, were
aggravated by the rigors of a strict blockade. A bombardment of Haifa by
the Allies was a constant threat, at one time so real that it necessitated
the temporary removal of 'Abdu'l-Baha, His family and members of the local
community to the village of Abu-Sinan at the foot of the hills east of
Akka. The Turkish Commander-in-Chief, the brutal, the all-powerful and
unscrupulous Jamal Pa_sh_a, an inveterate enemy of the Faith, through his
own ill-founded suspicions and the instigation of its enemies, had already
grievously afflicted 'Abdu'l-Baha, and even expressed his intention of
crucifying Him and of razing to the ground the Tomb of Baha'u'llah.
'Abdu'l-Baha Himself still suffered from the ill-health and exhaustion
brought on by the fatigues of His three-year journeys. He felt acutely the
virtual stoppage of all communication with most of the Baha'i centers
throughout the world. Agony filled His soul at the spectacle of human
slaughter precipitated through humanity's failure to respond to the
summons He had issued, or to heed the warnings He had given. Surely sorrow
upon sorrow was added to the burden of trials and vicissitudes which He,
since His boyhood, had borne so heroically for the sake, and in the
service, of His Father's Cause.
And yet during these somber days, the darkness of which was reminiscent of
the tribulations endured during the most dangerous period of His
incarceration in the prison-fortress of Akka, 'Abdu'l-Baha, whilst in the
precincts of His Father's Shrine, or when dwelling in the House He
occupied in Akka, or under the shadow of the Bab's sepulcher on Mt.
Carmel, was moved to confer once again, and for the last time in His life,
on the community of His American followers a signal mark of His special
favor by investing them, on the eve of the termination of His earthly
ministry, through the revelation of the Tablets of the Divine Plan, with a
world mission, whose full implications even now, after the lapse of a
quarter of a century, still remain undisclosed, and whose unfoldment thus
far, though as yet in its initial stages, has so greatly enriched the
spiritual as well as the administrative annals of the first Baha'i
century.
The conclusion of this terrible conflict, the first stage in a titanic
convulsion long predicted by Baha'u'llah, not only marked the extinction
of Turkish rule in the Holy Land and sealed the doom of that military
despot who had vowed to destroy 'Abdu'l-Baha, but also shattered once and
for all the last hopes still entertained by the remnant of
Covenant-breakers who, untaught by the severe retribution that had already
overtaken them, still aspired to witness the extinction of the light of
Baha'u'llah's Covenant. Furthermore, it produced those revolutionary
changes which, on the one hand, fulfilled the ominous predictions made by
Baha'u'llah in the Kitab-i-Aqdas, and enabled, according to Scriptural
prophecy, so large an element of the "outcasts of Israel," the "remnant"
of the "flock," to "assemble" in the Holy Land, and to be brought back to
"their folds" and "their own border," beneath the shadow of the
"Incomparable Branch," referred to by 'Abdu'l-Baha in His "Some Answered
Questions," and which, on the other hand, gave birth to the institution of
the League of Nations, the precursor of that World Tribunal which, as
prophesied by that same "Incomparable Branch," the peoples and nations of
the earth must needs unitedly establish.
No need to dwell on the energetic steps which the English believers as
soon as they had been apprized of the dire peril threatening the life of
'Abdu'l-Baha undertook to insure His security; on the measures
independently taken whereby Lord Curzon and others in the British Cabinet
were advised as to the critical situation at Haifa; on the prompt
intervention of Lord Lamington, who immediately wrote to the Foreign
Office to "explain the importance of 'Abdu'l-Baha's position;" on the
despatch which the Foreign Secretary, Lord Balfour, on the day of the
receipt of this letter, sent to General Allenby, instructing him to
"extend every protection and consideration to 'Abdu'l-Baha, His family and
His friends;" on the cablegram subsequently sent by the General, after the
capture of Haifa, to London, requesting the authorities to "notify the
world that 'Abdu'l-Baha is safe;" on the orders which that same General
issued to the General Commanding Officer in command of the Haifa
operations to insure 'Abdu'l-Baha's safety, thus frustrating the express
intention of the Turkish Commander-in-Chief (according to information
which had reached the British Intelligence Service) to "crucify
'Abdu'l-Baha and His family on Mt. Carmel" in the event of the Turkish
army being compelled to evacuate Haifa and retreat northwards.
The three years which elapsed between the liberation of Palestine by the
British forces and the passing of 'Abdu'l-Baha were marked by a further
enhancement of the prestige which the Faith, despite the persecutions to
which it had been subjected, had acquired at its world center, and by a
still greater extension in the range of its teaching activities in various
parts of the world. The danger which, for no less than three score years
and five, had threatened the lives of the Founders of the Faith and of the
Center of His Covenant, was now at long last through the instrumentality
of that war completely and definitely lifted. The Head of the Faith, and
its twin holy Shrines, in the plain of Akka and on the slopes of Mt.
Carmel, were henceforth to enjoy for the first time, through the
substitution of a new and liberal regime for the corrupt administration of
the past, a freedom from restrictions which was later expanded into a
clearer recognition of the institutions of the Cause. Nor were the British
authorities slow to express their appreciation of the role which
'Abdu'l-Baha had played in allaying the burden of suffering that had
oppressed the inhabitants of the Holy Land during the dark days of that
distressing conflict. The conferment of a knighthood upon Him at a
ceremony specially held for His sake in Haifa, at the residence of the
British Governor, at which notables of various communities had assembled;
the visit paid Him by General and Lady Allenby, who were His guests at
luncheon in Bahji, and whom He conducted to the Tomb of Baha'u'llah; the
interview at His Haifa residence between Him and King Feisal who shortly
after became the ruler of 'Iraq; the several calls paid Him by Sir Herbert
Samuel (later Viscount Samuel of Carmel) both before and after his
appointment as High Commissioner for Palestine; His meeting with Lord
Lamington who, likewise, called upon Him in Haifa, as well as with the
then Governor of Jerusalem, Sir Ronald Storrs; the multiplying evidences
of the recognition of His high and unique position by all religious
communities, whether Muslim, Christian or Jewish; the influx of pilgrims
who, from East and West, flocked to the Holy Land in comparative ease and
safety to visit the Holy Tombs in Akka and Haifa, to pay their share of
homage to Him, to celebrate the signal protection vouchsafed by Providence
to the Faith and its followers, and to give thanks for the final
emancipation of its Head and world Center from Turkish yoke--these
contributed, each in its own way, to heighten the prestige which the Faith
of Baha'u'llah had been steadily and gradually acquiring through the
inspired leadership of 'Abdu'l-Baha.
As the ministry of 'Abdu'l-Baha drew to a close signs multiplied of the
resistless and manifold unfoldment of the Faith both in the East and in
the West, both in the shaping and consolidation of its institutions and in
the widening range of its activities and its influence. In the city of
I_sh_qabad the construction of the Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar, which He Himself
had initiated, was successfully consummated. In Wilmette the excavations
for the Mother Temple of the West were carried out and the contract placed
for the construction of the basement of the building. In Ba_gh_dad the
initial steps were taken, according to His special instructions, to
reinforce the foundations and restore the Most Great House associated with
the memory of His Father. In the Holy Land an extensive property east of
the Bab's Sepulcher was purchased through the initiative of the Holy
Mother with the support of contributions from Baha'is in both the East and
the West to serve as a site for the future erection of the first Baha'i
school at the world Administrative Center of the Faith. The site for a
Western Pilgrim House was acquired in the neighborhood of 'Abdu'l-Baha's
residence, and the building was erected soon after His passing by American
believers. The Oriental Pilgrim House, erected on Mt. Carmel by a believer
from I_sh_qabad, soon after the entombment of the Bab's remains, for the
convenience of visiting pilgrims, was granted tax exemption by the civil
authorities (the first time such a privilege had been conceded since the
establishment of the Faith in the Holy Land). The famous scientist and
entomologist, Dr. Auguste Forel, was converted to the Faith through the
influence of a Tablet sent him by 'Abdu'l-Baha--one of the most weighty the
Master ever wrote. Another Tablet of far-reaching importance was His reply
to a communication addressed to Him by the Executive Committee of the
"Central Organization for a Durable Peace," which He dispatched to them at
The Hague by the hands of a special delegation. A new continent was opened
to the Cause when, in response to the Tablets of the Divine Plan unveiled
at the first Convention after the war, the great-hearted and heroic Hyde
Dunn, at the advanced age of sixty-two, promptly forsook his home in
California, and, seconded and accompanied by his wife, settled as a
pioneer in Australia, where he was able to carry the Message to no less
than seven hundred towns throughout that Commonwealth. A new episode began
when, in quick response to those same Tablets and their summons, that
star-servant of Baha'u'llah, the indomitable and immortal Martha Root,
designated by her Master "herald of the Kingdom" and "harbinger of the
Covenant," embarked on the first of her historic journeys which were to
extend over a period of twenty years, and to carry her several times
around the globe, and which ended only with her death far from home and in
the active service of the Cause she loved so greatly. These events mark
the closing stage of a ministry which sealed the triumph of the Heroic Age
of the Baha'i Dispensation, and which will go down in history as one of
the most glorious and fruitful periods of the first Baha'i century.