Ruhiyyih Khanum and Ahmad Sohrab shares the stage in New York

One of the most wonderful events of her life, at the age of 20, was a lecture she delivered in New York City at the Friends' Meeting House. Her subject, "Mysticism in the Bahá'í Religion", was daunting and all the other speakers at this Congress were seasoned lecturers and famous orators. One of these, Syud Hossain, was described as an "incomparable lecturer on the Orient, world peace and international relations", and was the editor of "The New Orient". Several wellknown university professors, bishops and canons of different churches also addressed the Congress, and at the end of the programme, there was also to be a talk given by the conceited enemy of the Bahá'í Faith, Ahmad Sohrab. After her lecture she received a standing ovation, and on that same day was given the following cable: "HEARTY CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR BEAUTIFUL CONSCIENTIOUS AND ABLE PRESENTATION OF A GREAT AND DIFFICULT THEME I AM HAPPY AND PROUD OF YOU--SYUD HOSSAIN".

(A TRIBUTE TO AMATU'L-BAHÁ RÚHÍYYIH KHÁNUM by Violette Nakhjavani)

https://bahai-library.com/pdf/n/nakhjavani_tribute_ruhiyyih_khanum.pdf

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Monirih Khanum asks for money to build a school on Mt. Carmel

Letter from Monereh Khanum, the Wife of Abdul-Baha Addressed to Edith R. Sanderson

Haifa, Palestine,

Sept. 22, 1920.

My dear spiritual daughter:

I sincerely hope and supplicate to God that you may always be confirmed in your undertakings. Your letters have regularly arrived and have aroused great joy. We never fail to present to the Master your humble love and greetings.

Two days ago I wrote you a letter in Persian about the school we have been thinking of establishing on Mt. Carmel. That is surely a lofty idea and if taken up it will undoubtedly help the education of the Bahai girls and serve the uplift of the world of humanity.

We agreed that I should give the land and you procure the other expenses. The ground is ready. It is according to the wish of the Master and is situated on an elevated and most beautiful spot, near the Tomb of the Bab. Now, I have done my share, the rest remains upon your help and energy.

We have mentioned our plan to the Master and he approves of it. When speaking about procuring the funds, the Master expressed a desire that this work be done by the Bahai women.

The Greatest Holy Leaf (Abdul-Baha's sister) as well as the other members of the family send you their love.

Hoping that you will be confirmed and assisted by His Holiness BAHA'O'LLAH in accomplishing this helpful undertaking, I will ever remain,

Yours in His Name,

MONEREH.

-------------------

Haifa, Palestine, March 26, 1921.

Roohieh Khanum (Miss Sanderson).

My dear spiritual daughter:

It is a long time since I have written you. It is not because you are forgotten. No, God forbid! You are ever present in our heart and we are always eager to hear from you. The real cause was that we had not yet settled the affairs pertaining to the school. Mr. Remey was busy with the plan and the necessary tract of land was not quite prepared. Now, however, as we have made considerable progress, I would like to inform yon about the things done and ask what you have been able to accomplish. The plan has been completed and the governmental permission granted. The land is about nine thousand cubits and three hundred and fifty pounds have been gathered.

Now, I would like to show what you have been able to collect and what sum you are ready to contribute. The plan is such that we can begin by building nine rooms and build the rest when more money will be obtained.

The Master is at present in Tiberius. He needed a change after the severe indisposition he had some time ago. He has recovered and his health is improving daily. The pilgrims are not so numerous and he can obtain some rest.

The other members of the family are in good health and extend to you their best regards.

Yours sincerely,

MONEREH.

(Star of the West)

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Each path will lead to a center such as an orphanage, a hospital, a school, a university

Several people visited the Master on the second floor of the house, among them some engineers who wanted His comments about the House of Worship. The Master answered:

The Mashriqu’l-Adhkar is circular in shape. It has nine paths, nine gardens, nine pools with fountains and nine gates. Each path will lead to a center such as an orphanage, a hospital, a school, a university and other buildings that are dependencies of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkar.

(Mahmud's Diary, November 3, 1912 Chicago, IL)

https://centenary.bahai.us/vignette/responding-some-engineers-about-baha-i-house-worship

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Abdul Baha's soul is going to be in distress forever.

This is My Will [Testament] that I share with you, all: If something should happen to me and I should pass away, bury me under the sand between Haifa and ‘Akka for it is the pathway trodden by the loved ones and the pilgrims. No marker should be built; no stone [placed], no tree should be raised there, so that it may be traceless. Otherwise, my soul will be in distress.

-Abdul Baha

https://amanatarchitect.com/project/shrine/

After my departure there will be a short time of quiet in the Baha'i Cause. Then the flame of love and activity... bury me between Haifa and Akka in the sands there, for it is the pathway of the loved ones and pilgrims. Build nothing over it.

-Abdul Baha

https://bahai-library.com/inventory/AB*&sort=authorized-asc&start=14750

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Laws of the Bab pertaining to number Nineteen in the Bayan (Arabic)

Structure and Divinity

• The doors (gates/Babs) of the religion were fixed at the number nineteen.
• The total number of units (wahid) in the Bayan should ideally be nineteen, though only eleven units were revealed by the Báb.
• Each of the revealed Units of the Bayan contains nineteen doors.
• The Letters of the Living (Huruf Hayy) are nineteen in number (comprising the Point/Báb and the eighteen Letters).
• The complete daily prayer (Salat) consists of nineteen rak'ahs (cycles of prayer) performed from noon to noon, single rak'ah by single rak'ah.

Time and Annual Cycles

• The year is fixed at nineteen months.
• A teacher's wife is forbidden to him for nineteen days if he strikes beyond the prescribed limit of five blows. If the teacher does not have a wife, the penalty is a financial fine: he must pay nineteen mithqals of gold to the individual he struck.
• A murderer's wives are forbidden to him for nineteen years.
• If someone orders another's expulsion from his home or land, his wife is forbidden to him for nineteen months.
• The mandatory purification ritual for those residing near the site (up to 66 farsakhs) where the Báb was struck must last nineteen days.
• After divorce, reconciliation is permitted up to nineteen times, following a one-month delay.
• One must consider replacing household utensils and furnishings (asbáb) every nineteen years.

Rituals and Practices

• At a child's birth, after saying Allahu Akbar five times while standing, statements of faith/contentment/creation by God are repeated nineteen times.
• When praying for the deceased, various glorifications are recited nineteen times after each of the six takbirs (glorifications).
• In formal gatherings, room must be left for the equivalent of nineteen people.
• Every nineteen days, one must invite nineteen people or at least offer them water.
• The Azan (call to prayer) ritual is divided into five parts throughout the day, and in each part, the phrase "There is no god but God" and a divine attribute are repeated nineteen times.

Financial Obligations and Penalties

• The minimum standard coin weight (mithqal) is fixed at nineteen nakhuds (chickpeas).
• The Bayani Sultan must fix the price of nineteen nakhuds of gold at 10,000 dinars and nineteen nakhuds of silver at 1,000 dinars.
• The dowry (mahr) can be reduced to nineteen mithqals (gold or silver), but the reduction must be made in increments of nineteen.
• The pilgrim tax requires giving four mithqals of gold to the nineteen guardians of the House of God.
• If a believer possesses more than nineteen books/volumes (excluding the authorized 19 volumes), they must pay nineteen mithqals of gold.
• If someone violates the ban on sitting in the center of a gathering, they must pay nineteen mithqals of gold.
• If someone railles (mocks) at a believer, they must pay nineteen mithqals of gold (or silver).
• If someone writes a word to Him Whom God shall make manifest that is other than what is revealed in the Bayan before His manifestation, it is obligatory for him to pay a fine of nineteen mithqals of gold.
• A mute person unable to say the Azan must compensate with nineteen mithqals of white sugar. The sugar is given to someone who will be responsible for saying the Azan for him.
• The 20% tax must be made to reach Him Whom God Shall Make Manifest. HWGSMM is commanded to distribute this fund to the nineteen Letters of Living.

The Bab, Arabic Bayan, Typed Version (2-21 of PDF)
https://bahai-library.com/inba/_typed_pdf/مجموعه%20کتابهای%20سبز-ج43.pdf

The Bab, Arabic Bayan, pp. 1-68 of Ms (3-70 of PDF)
https://afnanlibrary.org/inba-volume-43/

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A Baha’i Center, which had an orphanage, a school, a home for elderly women and a fund for the sick and unemployed.

From India she (Martha Root) went to Mandalay, Burma (in 1915), where she was able to visit the Baha’i Center, which had an orphanage, a school, a home for elderly women and a fund for the sick and unemployed.

(A Love Which Does Not Wait by Janet Ruhe-Schoen)

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Before they could begin to speak, the Blessed Beauty said

One day, Colonel Ahmad (Jarrah) and his brother Khálid came into the presence of Bahá’u’lláh to complain about their superior officer. Before they could begin to speak, the Blessed Beauty said: “Praise be to God, you have been freed from that man’s oppression.” Upon returning, they discovered that a telegram had arrived announcing the dismissal of their superior. Both brothers eventually entered the ranks of the believers.

(Memoirs of Badi Bushrui, Persian edition, p. 649, 650)

https://shop.ketab.com/book-detail.aspx?item=101875

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His shameless half-brother Muhammad-‘Ali was turned away.

On the ninth day after ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s ascension, which was the final official day of mourning,... Not all of the people who arrived to pay their respects to the grieving family were welcomed through the door of the Master’s home. His shameless half-brother Muhammad-‘Ali was turned away.

(Ethel Jenner Rosenberg: The Life and Times of England's Outstanding Bahá'ı́ Pioneer Worker
by Robert Weinberg, p. 188)

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Baha'u'llah declared all humanity purified and equal in the sight of God.

Though defensive jihad was sanctioned and anticipated in the writings of the Bab, it was hardly realized and is only dimly reflected in the Babi upheavals of the mid-1840s and later. The first thing that Baha’u’llah did in instituting his post-Babi, Baha’i religion in mid-1863, it may be recalled here, was to abolish militaristic jihad and declare all humanity purified and equal in the sight of God.

(The Báb and the Bábí Community of Iran, edited by Fereydun Vahman, Oneworld Academic, London, 2020)

https://bahai-library.com/vahman_bab_babi_community

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Why can’t we trust official Bahá’í translations? Video by Payam Aryan

https://youtu.be/ZHYHSgd2pyI

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The Bab attended now and then the classes of Haji Siyyid Kazim Rashti

During his seclusion in Karbala, he attended now and then the classes of Haji Siyyid Kasem, with a shining and luminous countenance. Whenever he entered the class, Haji Siyyid Kasem would show him the greatest respect and honor. When these classes closed, and the period of the pilgrimage was over, the Bab returned to Bu-Shihr and Shiraz and Haji Siyyid Kasem departed to the higher world.

(Episodes in the Life of Munirih Khanum, translated by Ahmad Sohrab, Los Angeles: Persian American Publishing Company, 1924)

https://bahai-library.com/khanum_episodes_life

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Purchase of huge parcels of lands and properties in Palestine

THE BAHAI CENTER IN ISRAEL

By IDIT LUZIA

Unlike other religious movements, the Bahais reached Palestine as a result of external coercion. They exploited the religious connotations of the environment in order to entrench themselves and expand the movement. Baha’u’llah arrived in Palestine in August 1868, and was imprisoned in the Acre Citadel along with eighty of his disciples. The same citadel was used as the headquarters for the Turkish army stationed in the area, and in 1870, following an overall redeployment of Turkish troops, the army needed additional room in the citadel and released some of the prisoners, including Baha’u’llah and his followers.

Nevertheless, they were forbidden to leave the city, and so they moved into Khan el-O’mdan and into homes rented from Muslims in Acre’s Crusader Quarter.

It is noteworthy that the Babis conducted business with the Muslims despite the animosity that the latter displayed toward them. Being the owners of nearly all of the property in the city, the Muslims evidently consented to rent homes to the Babis out of purely economic considerations.

It was at this stage that Baha’u’llah composed the book of religious tenets that became the cornerstone of the new faith. During this same period his son, Abbas Effendi, who was the administrative director of the sect, began to form ties with members of the upper class having close connections to the Ottoman administration. In parallel the Babis started to settle outside the city, even though they had yet to receive official permission to do so. In 1875 Abbas Effendi rented from the descendants of Abdullah Pasha, who had been the governor of Acre from 1819 to 1831, three estates east of the city, through which the Ne’eman River flowed. The eastern area was Ridvan Park, designed as a resort for Baha’u’llah and a pilgrimage site for his disciples. This was the first park in Palestine planned by the Babis. It was designed by a gardener brought from Persia especially for this purpose, and patterned after the Persian parks. The other two estates were used for agriculture. The Babis purchased all three in 1881. The western estate — the Paradise Garden — was cultivated by the Babi brothers Jimshad and Hassan, while the northern one (Ashraf Garden) was acquired by Mullah Abu-Talib, who later bequeathed the land to the Bahai faith.

In 1877 the governor of Acre declared Baha’u’llah’s prison term to be over, and the Babi leader was thus free to move at will. Abbas searched for a place of residence for his father in the rural areas adjacent to Acre. In his writings Abbas noted that Baha’u’llah longed for rural life, but apparently there were additional factors favoring a move in this direction. For instance, Baha’u’llah could operate more freely if he were far removed from the eye of the authorities. Abbas Effendi rented the Mazra’ah estate north of Acre from the wealthy Sawfat family, and the home on this estate had been built by Abdullah Pasha’s father. The Babis did not plan the park around the home even though the leader of the sect resided there, and it seems that it was clear from the outset that the stay at Mazra’ah would be brief, since the place was too small for all the members of the family. The Babis had yet to undertake independent construction. They began to buy land upon moving beyond the city limits. Throughout the history of the Bahais in Palestine, never was the process of land acquisition as rapid and intensive as in the days of Baha’u’llah. The spiritual leader was probably seeking to ensure the status and position of the sect, which was still in its formative stage.

Land was purchased in two areas: 1) the Zebulun Valley and 2) the Jordan Valley and the area east of the Sea of Galilee. Around 550 dunams were acquired at Jidru in the Zebulun Valley, and on a private basis members of the sect purchased another 120 dunams in Junaynih, cultivated them for agriculture and landscaped parks, and later transferred them to the sect. Probably because favorable geographical conditions prevailed and there was no problem of water supply, the cultivation of these tracts was performed from the start by members of the sect rather than by local land tenants. The area selected by the Babis in the Jordan Valley was not contiguous with the Zebulun Valley settlements, and it is probable that because of the small demand for these lands the price was attractively low. The area had been neglected for a protracted period, and its residents suffered attacks by Bedouin tribes lodging in the vicinity. This location offered the additional advantage of being located near the town of Tiberias and not far from the sect’s center in Acre, while at the same time lying far enough away from other cities to avoid harassment by the authorities. Four sites were located in this area: Nuqaib, Samara, Umm Juni and Adassiya. Around 13,000 dunams were purchased in Nuqaib, 12,500 in Samara, 5,600 in Umm Juni, and 1,100 in Adassiya (which was settled at a later stage) — a total of some 32,200 dunams. According to sources from this period, the villages were undeveloped, and the lands worked by fallah land tenants, who had resided on the site prior to the arrival of the Babis.

In 1879 Baha’u’llah moved from Mazra’ah to Bahji (Persian for park or pleasure), which like Mazra’ah was a rural estate. Bahji had been built by Sulayman Pasha (governor of the Acre District from 1805 to 1819), and had become the summer resort of his successor Abdullah Pasha. It included a large one-storey home encompassed by a number of structures and a garden. In 1840 the home was sold to Udi Khammar, a merchant from Acre who expanded the building and added a storey to it. The renovations ended in 1870 but by 1878 the Khammar family had already abandoned the site because of a cholera epidemic. Abbas Effendi took advantage of the panic, rented the estate and immediately afterwards purchased it. At this time it included five dunams, and descriptions by travelers who visited the site indicate that the Babis cultivated the grounds diligently. Baha’u’llah died and was buried in Bahji in 1892.

Land Purchase on Mount Carmel

Personnel of the Bahai World Center relate that Baha’u’llah had, in his will, declared his son Abbas as his successor. In fact, a struggle broke out over the leadership, primarily between Abbas Effendi and his brother Muhammad Quli. It ended in victory for Abbas, and his triumph was to have far-reaching repercussions for the sect and its property in Palestine.

Abbas Effendi changed the name of the sect from the Babis to the Bahais (after their prophet Baha’u’llah), and began to adapt the sect s ideas to Western modes of thinking. He forged ties with diverse influential circles outside the sect, thus greatly facilitating its efforts to entrench itself in Palestine. In 1898 the first Bahai pilgrims from the West began to arrive, which greatly helped to propagate the faith in several continents and to attract a flow of financial contributions from disciples in the West.

In that same year Abbas Effendi ordered the remains of the Bab, Mirza Ali Muhammad, to be disinterred and brought from Persia to Palestine. He inquired into the possibility of purchasing a burial site on Mount Carmel, with the intention of turning it into a world center. According to Bahai tradition, this decision had been made by Baha’u’llah himself, and it was he who selected the exact location.

The question that arises is why Haifa was chosen. The selection of Palestine is more easily understood, since Baha’u’llah resided in the land in the latter part of his life, when his standing reached a peak. Moreover, this was the Holy Land for the three monotheistic faiths, which imbued the land with a strong religious character.

Ostensibly it was only natural that Jerusalem, the center of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, be selected by the Bahais. On the other hand, the fact that the large faiths had already entrenched themselves in this city posed potential difficulties for the new sect. Furthermore, Jerusalem would have been distant and isolated from the existing center in Acre, unlike Haifa, which belonged to the same administrative district as Acre. Furthermore, the Bahais were already familiar to the populace of the Haifa area, and despite its limitations it was clear that this area would continue to serve as a focal point for pilgrimages after the death of Baha’u’llah.

The selection of Haifa in preference to Acre also stemmed from the changes that had been occurring in the two cities. Acre had begun to deteriorate, and Haifa to develop. At the beginning of the nineteenth century Acre had been the capital of the Northern District, but at mid-century the center of the Ottoman administration had been moved to Sidon, and during the 1860’s to Beirut. The volume of goods passing through the Acre port — which had been the hub of economic activity — began to dwindle from mid-century onward, as it was not a deep-water port, nor was it sufficiently protected to provide safe anchorage for the steamships that had started to sail in the Mediterranean.

In Haifa, by contrast, several attractive elements had emerged. In 1858 construction was undertaken outside of the walls; in 1859 the Russians built a quay in the port; in 1868 the Templers arrived, bringing with them a new style of building; and in the 1880’s the Jews appeared on the scene, also contributing to the construction of the city. Apart from these factors, Haifa possessed a religious attraction for the Bahais as well - according to various traditions the cave of Elijah, who was accepted by the Bahais as one of their prophets, was located near the city.

Abbas Effendi attempted to purchase the cave site from a Muslim, who was reluctant to sell property to the Bahais. This endeavor on his part, and the ties that he had managed to forge with the governor of Acre, aroused the suspicion of the authorities and in 1901 he was arrested and imprisoned. While his sentence was drawing to a close in 1908, Abbas Effendi succeeded through his disciples in acquiring around ten dunams of land on Mount Carmel. The Bahais specifically selected a locality near the Templer colony. The Templers had reached the area in the early 1860’s, and had stressed the aesthetic appearance of the neighborhood they established — which attracted the Bahais, for whom aesthetics were a central spiritual theme.

The first Bahai construction on the Carmel — and in fact the first building they erected in all of Palestine — was Abbas Effendi’s home, into which he moved in 1910. A year before, in 1909, the bones of the Bab were reinterred on the Carmel. Above the tomb a square structure was erected, which served as a place for meetings and communion. In this same year a hospice was built in Templer style for pilgrims from the East, and another one for those from the West. The latter construction was completed only after Abbas Effendi’s death. This separation between East and West constituted a contradiction to the Bahai precepts of unity and equality among all humans, but it was maintained, evidently because the differences were so substantial and Abbas Effendi understood that the ideals of the faith could be realized only in stages.

At the same time there were changes in the property that the Bahais had acquired before Abbas Effendi became their leader. Bahji turned into a stronghold of his opponents, although he continued to pay occasional visits to the place in the company of pilgrims, and to lodge in the teahouse that he had been renting. Contemporary sources attest to the fact that the place was largely neglected and run-down. In Paradise Garden Abbas Effendi added a room on the top floor of the gardener’s home, where he himself resided every so often. In the Jordan Valley the Bahais began to sell land to Jews, evidently for both economic reasons — the land was still worked by tenant farmers, who had introduced no improvements in their techniques — and security reasons — the Bedouin tribes persisted in their raids. In addition, the Jews had begun to take an interest in the area, and made attractive offers. Contemporary accounts note the difficulties inherent in cultivating the land, and the unenviable plight of the fellaheen victimized by the Bedouin incursions.

Umm Juni and Samara were sold during the first decade of the twentieth century. Adassiya was retained, and in 1909 Abbas sent thirty Bahai families to settle there.

The establishment of the village of Adassiya was exceptional in the process of land settlement in Palestine, as it was the first and only attempt by the Bahais to found a village of their own and to cultivate the soil by themselves. This enterprise seems perplexing in light of the opposite trend that was unfolding simultaneously: the sale of land by the Bahais. It is probable that Adassiya, which was located at some distance from the other cultivated lands in the area, aroused no interest among the Jewish institutions, and Abbas Effendi, finding no way to sell it, opted to develop the site. Furthermore, this settlement provided an additional source of income for the Bahais concentrated around Haifa and Acre. Another explanation for Abbas’ reluctance to forfeit this land was its location — on the Yarmuk River and near the Hejaz railroad track. Because this was a strategic location it could be exploited as a bargaining card to attain administrative advantages for the sect. If indeed this was Abbas’ primary motivation, then the plan went awry with the signing of the Sykes-Picot treaty in 1916, which fixed the Jordan River as the boundary between the British Mandate in Palestine and the Hashemite kingdom. Abbas’ decision to have the Bahais themselves perform the labor probably stemmed from the fact that they were more likely to employ the methods he had instituted for cultivating the land than were the land tenants who, having little motivation, used antiquated methods.

Between 1910 and 1913 Abbas toured Egypt and Europe on a preaching mission. With the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the Bahais — like the other minorities — feared being drafted into the Turkish army. They were also wary of the possibility that animosity toward them would be augmented by war tensions. Abbas exploited his ties with the Druze and moved his people to the village of Abu Sinan. Later in that year, as the intensity of the initial pandemonium waned, they returned to their homes.

The British conquest of Palestine greatly ameliorated the Bahais’ position and in 1919 a new wave of pilgrims arrived. Abbas Effendi died in his home in November 1912, and was buried in an alcove dug near the grave of the Bab.

Building the Carmel Center

The period of Shogi Effendi’s leadership got under way amid turmoil in the Bahai world. Even though Abbas Effendi had appointed him as his successor, Shogi had studied outside of Palestine for a long period (in the American University of Beirut and in London), and he was only twenty-five when his grandfather died. His Western education and young age aroused skepticism as to his ability to lead the sect. In 1922 a struggle over the ownership of Bahji was waged between Shogi Effendi, his uncle Muhammad Ali, and Baha’u’llah’s grandson Hussain Afnan. The matter was brought before a British court, which ruled in favor of Shogi. In the wake of this affair he had many of his opponents, branded “violators of the faith,” deported from Palestine.

In 1929 the British officially recognized the Bahai faith as independent, which facilitated Shogi Effendi’s operations. From then on he concentrated on turning the property in Palestine into an impressive Bahai World Center, without settlement. He also introduced a form of democratic leadership, which was exceptional in religious frameworks. This initiative was apparently inspired by liberal Western ideas he had absorbed in the course of his studies.

During this period most of the remaining Bahai lands in the Jordan Valley were sold to Jews. Not included in these deals were around 200 dunams in Nuqaib, where the Bahais continued to reside until 1948, and Adassiya, which could not be sold because of the partition plan. In contrast to the situation in the Jordan Valley, the holdings in the Zebulun Valley and Haifa underwent development. The land at Jidru and the remaining tracts in Nuqaib were transferred in 1953 to the government of Israel in exchange for land in Bahji. Ridvan Park, Paradise Garden and Ashraf Garden have been cultivated up to the present day. The British general McNeill took up residence in Mazra’ah in 1931, and his wife described the place as “old and neglected.” The McNeill family renovated the home without altering its structure. General McNeill left Mazra’ah in 1947 following his wife’s death. In 1950 Shogi Effendi appealed to the prime minister at the time, David Ben-Gurion, to recognize the right of the Bahais to the site, and he received approval to lease it. In deals taking place in 1980 and 1983, the site was purchased by the legatees of Abdullah Pasha, along with additional land that had been acquired in 1980 by the Bahai community.

It was also Shogi Effendi who planned the circular garden with a home in its center in Bahji. This garden integrated Eastern and Western elements. There were Persian symbols, such as eagles, the symbol of strength, and peacocks, the bird of paradise. The circle was divided into quadrants, in the tradition of the Persian garden. On the other hand, there were amphoras and pillars with Corinthian capitals, which originated in classical Greece but which were also very characteristic of the English garden.

Along the Carmel land purchase continued in the framework of the development of the World Center, and Shogi Effendi also expanded the structure above the graves of the Bab and Abbas Effendi. Between 1949 and 1953 the edifice that exists today was erected. Here too, diverse styles were incorporated: marble pillars from the West and a dome from the East, Oriental interior design, and a garden containing the same elements as the other Bahai gardens. The erection of this large building constituted a turning point in the nature of Bahai construction, as it represented a considerable financial investment. The funds were gathered through contributions by members of the sect throughout the world, and from land sales.

The hospice for Bahai pilgrims from the West was completed in 1923. Between 1951 and 1963 the World Bahai Council resided there, and from 1963 to 1983 members of the Universal House of Justice lodged in the building.

In the years 1953-1975 the Bahai Archive was built, and Shogi Effendi ordered it to be designed like the Parthenon. Greek architecture was regarded in the West as the epitome of culture, and the selection of the Parthenon as a model reflected Shogi’s esteem for classical civilization and his desire for integration on a world scale.

The Universal House of Justice was built from 1975 to 1982. The idea had been suggested earlier by Shogi Effendi, but the execution was postponed until after his death, evidently due to a lack of funds. This structure is located next to the archive, and it too was built in classical Greek style so that the two buildings would be congruous. Nevertheless, the Universal House of Justice was built with a dome — once again, in order to blend diverse styles. The garden containing these buildings is a continuation of the one around the tomb of the Bab, and it strongly resembles the garden in Bahji. Here too, a circle is divided by boulevards into quadrants, the novelty being a hanging garden in the tradition of ancient Persia. Today the lands held by the Bahais on the Carmel total approximately 300 dunams.

(The Land that became Israel : studies in historical geography by Ruth Kark - 1990)

https://archive.org/details/landthatbecameis0000unse

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Baha'i lands in Israel and the reason Baha'i community in Palestine never expanded

The lands were bought during the first period. Although the geographical conditions were not favorable, the scope of the purchase was large, which indicates that political considerations and economic contingencies were the dominant factors behind the decision to acquire realty in this area.

Settlement was agricultural in nature, and the land was initially cultivated by tenant farmers. In the second period land sales were initiated, and in parallel an attempt was made to settle Bahai families on the tracts that were retained. During the last period nearly all of these lands were sold. One striking feature of the Bahai community throughout its history in Palestine was its small size, which never exceeded several hundred members. There were a number of reasons why the community in Palestine never expanded: historical events not directly related to the sect, a hostile administration, internal struggles within the sect, and a leadership that consciously limited demographic development.

(The Land that became Israel : studies in historical geography by Ruth Kark - 1990)

https://archive.org/details/landthatbecameis0000unse

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Abdul Baha's Will and Testament is no less weighty a Book than the Kitáb-i Aqdas

Shoghi Effendi writes that Bahá’u’lláh’s Most Holy Book was ‘the brightest emanation of the mind of Bahá’u’lláh’. He used identical words to describe ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Will and Testament as ‘the brightest emanation of His mind’, and as ‘supplementary to no less weighty a Book than the Kitáb-i Aqdas’.

(The Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá: ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Covenant by Brent Poirier, Bahá’í Studies Review (2025), Published: 06 May 2025 | © 2025 Association for Bahá’í Studies UK)

www.abs.bahai.org.uk/bsr-e20250506

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sacrificed himself by his own hand in Bagdad!

Immediately afterward, my father bought a house in another quarter of the city called "Shah-Shahan." Here, in company with His Honor, Zein-el-Mogarrabeen and Siyyid Ismail, (who in later years, sacrificed himself by his own hand in Bagdad) they spent their time in promulgating the Cause of God.

(Episodes in the Life of Munirih Khanum, translated by Ahmad Sohrab, Los Angeles: Persian American Publishing Company, 1924)

https://bahai-library.com/khanum_episodes_life

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