Ṭáhirih, seizing upon the opportunity, arose and, unveiled, came forth from the garden. She proceeded towards the tent of Bahá’u’lláh crying out and proclaiming: “I am the Trumpet-blast; I am the Bugle-call!”—which are two of the signs of the Day of Resurrection mentioned in the Qur’án. Calling out in this fashion, she entered the tent of Bahá’u’lláh. No sooner had she entered than Bahá’u’lláh instructed the believers to recite the Súrih of the Event from the Qur’án, a Súrih that describes the upheaval of the Day of Resurrection.
[Twelve Table Talks given by ‘Abdu'l-Bahá in ‘Akká, no. 9, "Ṭáhirih and the Conference of Badasht"]

• During the siege Quddús composed an extensive commentary on the word "samad" (lit. eternal), which appears in Qur’an 112:2: ‘In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful. Say: He is God alone; God the eternal! He begetteth not, and He is not begotten; And there is none like unto Him.’ [‘Abdu’l-Baha’s First Thousand-Verse Tablet: History and Provisional Translation by Ahang Rabbani and Khazeh Fananapazir p120]

• 37 per cent of the identified participants were of the `ulamá class. [BBRSM50]

Note: Moojan Momen in Two Episodes from the Life of Bahá'u'lláh in Iran (first published in Lights of Irfan, 20, pages 139-160) suggests that Bahá’u’lláh’s itinerary was: "Badasht, Núr, Tehran (where He met with Hujjat); He then set out for Jaz (with Mírzá Masíh Núrí and Mirza Majíd Áhí); in Jaz, Mírzá Masíh Núrí died and Muhammad Sháh’s decree arrived, then Bahá’u’lláh’ set out for Núr, visiting the Bábís at Shaykh Tabarsí on the way. There would just about have been enough time for this sequence of events to occur but it seems contrary to Bahá’u’lláh’s statement that He came to Jaz from Shahrúd (i.e. Badasht), unless we assume two visits to Jaz (one on the way from Badasht and then one coming from Tehran with Mírzá Masíh)."

• Here is a link to a similar tablet at the British Libary website.
• See Gate of the Heart 329-330 for a further explanation of the symbol of the pentagram and the circle.

"While engulfed in tribulations I heard a most wondrous, a most sweet voice, calling above My head. Turning My face, I beheld a Maiden—the embodiment of the remembrance of the name of My Lord—suspended in the air before Me. So rejoiced was she in her very soul that her countenance shone with the ornament of the good pleasure of God, and her cheeks glowed with the brightness of the All-Merciful. Betwixt earth and heaven she was raising a call which captivated the hearts and minds of men. She was imparting to both My inward and outer being tidings which rejoiced My soul, and the souls of God’s honoured servants.

Pointing with her finger unto My head, she addressed all who are in heaven and all who are on earth, saying: By God! This is the Best-Beloved of the worlds, and yet ye comprehend not. This is the Beauty of God amongst you, and the power of His sovereignty within you, could ye but understand. This is the Mystery of God and His Treasure, the Cause of God and His glory unto all who are in the kingdoms of Revelation and of creation, if ye be of them that perceive. This is He Whose Presence is the ardent desire of the denizens of the Realm of eternity, and of them that dwell within the Tabernacle of glory, and yet from His Beauty do ye turn aside." Súriy-i-Haykal para 6-7; SLH5-6

• As his position as nominal head deteriorated Mírzá Yahyá became more desperate, he had one such claimant, Mírzá Asadu'lláh Khí'í Dayyán, assassinated around 1856. [Bahá'u'lláh and the Naqshbandí Sufis in Iraq by Juan Cole p4]

• See Questions of Haji Mirza Siyyid Ali Muhammad occasioning the Revelation of the Kitab-i-Iqan by Haji Mirza Siyyid Ali Muhammad as translated by Denis MacEoin.

Bahá'u'lláh and His party arrived at Firayját, about three miles away on the banks of the Tigris. [BKG176]

• Gawhar Khanum, Bah´'u'lláh's third wife whom He married in Baghdad before the declaration of His mission, remained in Baghdad with her brother, Mirza Mihdiy-i-Kashani. [MoF95]

• Judaydih
• Dilí-'Abbás
• Qarih-Tapih
• Saláhíyyih (stay two nights)
• Dúst-Khurmátú
• Táwuq
• Karkúk (stay two days)
• Irbíl
• By the River Záb
• Bartallih
• Mosul (stay three days)
• Zákhú
• Jazírih
• Nisíbín (Nusaybin)(On the boarder of Iraq, Syria, and Turkey)
• Hasan-Áqá
• Márdiín (three day halt)
• Díyár-Bakr (after three days of travel) (stay two-three days) It was here that Mírzá Yahyá made himself known to the party after having travelled in disguise from Mosul. [ALM12]
• Ma'dan-Mis (one night)
• Khárpút (one day's travel)(stay two or three days)
• Ma'dan-Nuqrih
• Dilik-Tásh
• Sívás
• Túqát (Tokat)
• Amasia (Amasya)(stay two days)
• Iláhíyyih (the last day of the overland journey)
• Sámsún on the Black Sea. (110 days after departure) [The Bahá'í Faith 1844-1953 :Information Statistical & Comparative p43]

"at a time when the forces of schism had rent asunder the ties that united the little band of exiles which had settled in Adrianople and whose fortunes seemed then to have sunk to their lowest ebb!" [BW5p175]

And now concerning the extensive commentary on the Islamic tradition which begins, “I was a hidden treasure…” During the days of Our sojourn in the Land of Mystery, ʻAlí Páshá had asked the Most Mighty Branch of God—may My life be a sacrifice for the ground which His most pure footsteps have trodden—to provide a commentary on this hadith. This He did in accordance with the exigencies of the time, and His purpose was that all may benefit from it…

As per a 1995 article prepared for The Bahá'í Encyclopedia, it was previously believed that 'Abdu'l-Bahá was 17 years old at the time of writing, if so, this would have dated the Tablet at about 1861. Given that this new evidence proves that it was written in Edirne, He would have been 19 years old but more probably in his early twenties. [Thanks to Necati Alkan for providing this correction and to Adib Masumian for doing the translation at his request.] iiiii

• See the website.

• Introduction to the Tablet of Ashab by Juan Cole
• The Lawḥ-i-Sayyáḥ (Tablet of the Traveller) (Note there are several Tablets with this name revealed at different times to different recipients.)
• The Súriy-i-Damm (The Tablet of Blood) addressed to Nabíl-i-A'zam
• The Súriy-i-Ḥajj (Tablet of Pilgrimage) for pilgrimage to the House of the Báb
• The Lawḥu’r-Rúḥ (Tablet of the Spirit)
• The Lawḥu’r-Riḍván
• The Lawḥu’t-Tuqá (The Tablet of Piety or the Fear of God)
  [GPB171; N&N23-29; BW13p1061-1062]

• It should be noted that the Báb never appointed a successor or an interpreter. Shoghi Effendi refers to him as the “titular head” and “a mere figurehead”. [GPB90]
• Bahá'u'lláh Himself conceived of the plan to elevate Yáhyá's status in the eyes of the public to divert attention from Himself. [TN37; RoB1p53-54]
• See [RoB2p241-242] for the story of the nightingale and the crow.
• See [UD631n] for information in his titles.
• See as well the memorandum from the Research Department to the Uniververal House of Justice regarding the appointment of Azal and his titles.

Chronological list of significant events related to Bahá'u'lláh's historic pronouncement in the Súriy-i-Múlúk

• Fall of the French Monarchy (1870)
• Virtual extinction of the Pope's Temporal Sovereignty (1870)
• Assassination of Sultán 'Abdu'l-'Azíz (1876)
• Assassination of Násiri'd-Dín Sháh (1896)
• Overthrow of Sultán 'Abdu'l-Hamíd II (1909)
• Fall of the Portuguese Monarchy (1910)
• Fall of the Chinese Monarchy (1916)
• Fall of the Russian Monarchy (1917)
• Fall of the German Monarchy (1918)
• Fall of the Austrian Monarchy (1918)
• Fall of the Hungarian Monarchy (1918)
• Fall of the Turkish Monarchy (1922)
• Collapse of the Caliphate (1924)
• Fall of the Qájár Dynasty (1925)
• Fall of the Spanish Monarchy (1931)
• Fall of the Albanian Monarchy (1938)
• Fall of the Serbian Monarchy (1941)
• Fall of the Italian Monarchy (1946)
• Fall of the Bulgarian Monarchy (1946)
• Fall of the Rumanian Monarchy (1947)
  [The Bahá'í Faith 1844-1952: Information Statistical & Comparative p41]

Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, president of Argentina; John A. Macdonald, prime minister of Canada; Federico Errázuriz Zanartu, president of Chile; Eustorgio Salgar and Manuel Murillo Toro, presidents of Colombia; Tomás Guardia Gutiérrez, president of Costa Rica; Buenaventura Báez, president of the Dominican Republic; Gabriel García Moreno, president of Ecuador; Justo Rufino Barrios, president of Guatemala; Nissage Saget, president of Haiti; Benito Juárez and Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada, presidents of Mexico; José Vicente Cuadra, president of Nicaragua; Francisco Solano López, president of Paraguay; Manuel Pardo, president of Peru; Ulysses S. Grant, president of the United States of America; Lorenzo Batlle y Grau and Tomás Gomensoro, presidents of Uruguay; and Antonio Guzmán Blanco, president of Venezuela.

...some of the most celebrated passages of that Book (Kitáb-i-Aqdas) to the Chief Magistrates of the entire American continent, bidding them “bind with the hands of justice the broken,” and “crush the oppressor” with the “rod of the commandments” of their Lord. Unlike the kings of the earth whom He had so boldly condemned in that same Book, unlike the European Sovereigns whom He had either rebuked, warned or denounced, such as the French Emperor, the most powerful monarch of his time, the Conqueror of that monarch, the Heir of the Holy Roman Empire, and the Caliph of Islám, the Rulers of America were not only spared the ominous and emphatic warnings which He uttered against the crowned heads of the world, but were called upon to bring their corrective and healing influence to bear upon the injustices perpetrated by the tyrannical and the ungodly. [MA91]

The Templers flourished in Palestine for nearly 80 years; they even survived the British occupation during World War I when many Templers were deported and interned in Egypt. Palestine was a British Mandated Territory from 1923 until 1948. Great Britain’s entry into World War II signalled the end for the Templers in Palestine. The settlements of Wilhelma, Sarona, Betlehem and Waldheim were turned into internment camps, housing close to 2,000 people. In 1941, a large number of Templers (536) was deported to Australia along with 129 other German nationals. The last remaining Templers were expelled in 1948 when the State of Israel was established. [TSA website]

• Badí` asked Bahá'u'lláh for the honour of delivering the Tablet to the Sháh and Bahá'u'lláh bestowed it on him. [BKG297; RB3:182]
• The journey to Tehran took four months; he traveled alone. [BKG298]
• For the story of the journey see BKG297–300 and RB3:184.
• For the Tablet of Bahá'u'lláh to Badí` see BKG299 and RB3:175–176.
• Regarding the tablet to the Sháh

  “Bahá’u’lláh’s lengthiest epistle to any single sovereign” -- Lawḥ-i-Sulṭán, (the Tablet to Náṣiri’d-Dín Sháh) Of the various writings that make up the Súriy-i-Haykal, one requires particular mention. The Lawḥ-i-Sulṭán, the Tablet to Náṣiri’d-Dín Sháh, Bahá’u’lláh’s lengthiest epistle to any single sovereign, was revealed in the weeks immediately preceding His final banishment to ‘Akká. It was eventually delivered to the monarch by Badí‘, a youth of seventeen, who had entreated Bahá’u’lláh for the honour of rendering some service. His efforts won him the crown of martyrdom and immortalized his name. The Tablet contains the celebrated passage describing the circumstances in which the divine call was communicated to Bahá’u’lláh and the effect it produced. Here, too, we find His unequivocal offer to meet with the Muslim clergy, in the presence of the Sháh, and to provide whatever proofs of the new Revelation they might consider to be definitive, a test of spiritual integrity significantly failed by those who claimed to be the authoritative trustees of the message of the Qur’án. [The Universal House of Justice (Introduction to ‘The Summons of the Lord of Hosts’)]

• See Three Momentous Years in The Bahá'í World for the story of Badí.

• More information on the Khán-i-`Avámíd that became the first Pilgrim House and eventually a Bahá'í School.

A fresh danger now clearly threatened the life of Bahá’u’lláh. Though He Himself had stringently forbidden His followers, on several occasions, both verbally and in writing, any retaliatory acts against their tormentors, and had even sent back to Beirut an irresponsible Arab convert, who had meditated avenging the wrongs suffered by his beloved Leader, seven of the companions clandestinely sought out and slew three of their persecutors, among whom were Siyyid Muḥammad and Áqá Ján.

The consternation that seized an already oppressed community was indescribable. Bahá’u’lláh’s indignation knew no bounds. “Were We,” He thus voices His emotions, in a Tablet revealed shortly after this act had been committed, “to make mention of what befell Us, the heavens would be rent asunder and the mountains would crumble.” “My captivity,” He wrote on another occasion, “cannot harm Me. That which can harm Me is the conduct of those who love Me, who claim to be related to Me, and yet perpetrate what causeth My heart and My pen to groan.” [GPB189-190]

“Say: Let not your hearts be perturbed, O people, when the glory of My Presence is withdrawn, and the ocean of My utterance is stilled. In My presence amongst you there is a wisdom, and in My absence there is yet another, inscrutable to all but God, the Incomparable, the All-Knowing. Verily, We behold you from Our realm of glory, and shall aid whosoever will arise for the triumph of Our Cause with the hosts of the Concourse on high and a company of Our favoured angels.”

“Be not dismayed, O peoples of the world, when the day-star of My beauty is set, and the heaven of My tabernacle is concealed from your eyes. Arise to further My Cause, and to exalt My Word amongst men. We are with you at all times, and shall strengthen you through the power of truth. We are truly almighty. Whoso hath recognized Me will arise and serve Me with such determination that the powers of earth and heaven shall be unable to defeat his purpose.” [GWB137]

• One of the documents in these cases was the original Long Obligatory Prayer that had been mentioned in the Kitab-i-Aqdas. Bahá'u'lláh had revealed the text but did not release it in order to avoid provoking conflict with Muslims. [Prayer and Worship by John Walbridge]
• The box also contained a valuable ring and a rosary. "The ring was sold by Mírzá Muhammad-`Alí in the course of his journey in India and spent as travel money. And Mírzá Badi`u’llah wasted the rosary." [MBBA214

…we write to advise you that it has not been possible to establish with absolute accuracy the date of the beloved Guardian’s birth. Shoghi Effendi’s passport gives 3rd March 1896…A note in the Guardian’s handwriting indicates 1st March 1897…A further and different date has been noted by Shoghi Effendi’s father. Unless further research is able to clarify the matter, it is not possible to make a categorical statement of the Guardian’s birth date.
• Shoghi Effendi's registration form for the Syrian Protestant College shows his year of birth as 1899. [PGp14-15]
• The inscription on the column erected at Shoghi Effendi's resting place shows "4 November 1896".

• Borhān-e lāmeʿ, translated and published as The Brilliant Proof (1912),
• al-Ḥojaj al-bahīya, translated and published as Miracles and Metaphors (1981).
• A selection of his shorter works, entitled Letters and Essays (1985), is also available in English.
• His other works such as al-Farāʾed, Šarḥ-e Āyāt-e Mowarraḵa, Kašf al-ḡeṭāʾ, and a few collections of his shorter works exist in Arabic and Persian.

• See 'Adasiyyah: A Study in Agriculture and Rural Development by Iraj Poostchi. This village was purchased by 'Abdu'l-Bahá in 1901. He paid 400 Turkish gold lira for 920 hectares and then gifted 1/24th of the total area to the family from whom He had made the purchase.
• Under the guidance of 'Abdu'l-Bahá and Shoghi Effendi this village became a model of agriculture and Bahá'í life. The Bahá'ís lost ownership after 1962 when Jordan implemented land reforms.
• 'Adasiyyah is mentioned in the film Exemplar (17:40-18:50).

Blessed is the spot, and the house, and the place, and the city, and the heart, and the mountain, and the refuge, and the cave, and the valley, and the land, and the sea, and the island, and the meadow where mention of God hath been made, and His praise glorified. -Bahá’u’lláh

"To ensure the preservation of the Sacred Texts and to safeguard their inviolability; to analyse, classify, and coordinate the Writings; and to defend and protect the Cause of God and emancipate it from the fetters of repression and persecution;"

Today, the greatest of all deeds is service to the Cause. Souls that are well-assured should with utmost discretion teach the Faith,lll this martyrdom is no confined to the destruction of life and the shedding of blood. A person enjoying the bounty of life may yet be recorded as a martyr in the Book of the Sovereign Lord. [OLOMP46N12]
• He was the first of the Hands of the Cause of God named by Bahá'u'lláh.
• ‘Abdu’l-Bahá gave him a special mission to teach members of the “ruling class” the Faith.
• He was deeply involved in the planning and construction of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár in ‘Ishqábád.
• Ibn-i-Asdaq, Mírzá ‘Alí-Muhammad, Hand of the Cause of God, Apostle of Bahá’u’lláh, passed away in Tihrán. He was one of the few Apostles to live into the time of Shoghi Effendi as the Guardian. [BBD115, EM176, LoF9-12, RoB4p286]
• For details of his life see RoB1P92-93; RoB2p 293; RoB3p62-63, 253-260, 265-268; EB2-23; MF5-8; DB100-101, 145-148, 185-187; EB171–6; BW6p103; Bahaipedia; LoF9-12.
• His daughter, Ruha Asdaq wrote a book about her pilgrimage experiences with her father titled One Life One Memory: Memories of Pilgrimage in 1914. The book was translated to English and published by George Ronald in 1999. For a book review by Paul Mantle.
• For more details of his life see EB171-176; RoB4p 301-304, Tablets to him RoB4 254, 275, 277, 2966,315-328, Photos RoB4 277-278, 281-286, 292.

The carpet, one of the most exquisite pieces ever woven in Persia, was made in Khurásán in about 1900-1905. It had been donated to by Díyá'ulláh Asgharzádih as a gift to Àbdu'l-Bahá Who immediately placed it in the Shrine of Bahjí. [BW4p208-210]

For photos taken at the summer school see SYH198-199.

• 27 February, 1929: The World Order of Bahá'u'lláh
• 21 March, 1930: The World Order of Bahá'u'lláh Further Considerations
• 28 November, 1931: The Goal of the New World Order
• 21 March, 1931: Golden Age of the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh
• 21 April, 1933: America and the Most Great Peace
• 8 February, 1934:The Dispensation of Bahá'u'lláh consisting of:
  • Bahá’u’lláh
  • Báb
  • Abdu’l‑Bahá
  • Administrative Order
• 11 March, 1936: The Unfoldment of World Civilization

History of the Bahá’í Faith in Tanzania said that the first local spiritual assembly was elected in Dar es Salaam in 1952 and that it received civic registration later under Tanganyika’s Trustee’s Incorporation Ordinance.