Petition of Baha'is of Shushtar, Iran, March, 1867, to U.S. Government

"An extraordinary document reached Beirut April 3rd, addressed to the United States consul, from fifty-three Persians in Bagdad [actually from Shushtar, Iran, via Baghdad], petitioning the United States Congress for the release of their leader, Beha Allah, the Babite Persian reformer, who appeared in 1843,* and was followed by thousands, 30,000 of whom were killed by the Shah of Persia. He was arrested in Bagdad by the Turkish government, and is now (1867) in prison in Adrianople, European Turkey. His particular doctrine is 'the universal brotherhood of man.' The petitioners claim that they number 40,000. A German traveller writes from Bagdad enclosing the petition and speaks admiringly of the reformer, and asks for his release on the grounds of religious liberty which is now granted by the Sultan to all his subjects. One of the documents appended to the petition is signed with a Free Masonic Seal.**"

--Rev. Henry Harris Jessup, Fifty-three Years in Syria. New York and Chicago: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1910, Volume I, p. 329.

https://web.archive.org/web/20160403060044/http://www.h-net.org/~bahai/arabic/vol1/ardhal.htm