Some years before the outbreak of the First World War, the Bahais had settled in Haifa. Persecuted in Persia; they had fled to Baghdad, from where they were exiled by the Turkish government to Adrianopolis and, finally, to Acre, where Baha Allah (‘the glory of God’) arrived in 1868. Towards the end of the nineteenth century the bones of his predecessor, Mirza Ali Muhammad, were brought to Acre and finally interred on Mount Carmel in 1909, at a spot chosen by Baha Allah. Today, the Golden Dome Shrine rises over it. Baha Allah had been a Shi’ite Muslim, but by the changes he introduced in the faith, he separated himself from Islam. By the time he died in Acre in 1892, he had acquired a number of disciples. In the course of his many trips, his son Abbas Effendi (Abd al-Baha) disseminated Baha Allah’s teachings throughout the world, acquiring hundreds of thousands of new adherents to the Bahai belief, especially in the United States. In 1908 Abbas Effendi came to live in Haifa, where his well-preserved house still exists (on Persian Street). Abbas Effendi rapidly became an admired and respected figure in Haifa. He attracted Bahais eager to listen to his preaching, and many of them decided to settle in Haifa in consequence. On the strength of contributions from all over the world, the Bahais bought up large tracts of land on the slopes of Mount Carmel, where they later built their shrine, surrounded by extensive gardens. In this way, at the end of Ottoman rule, Haifa became the centre of a new community, at the head of which stood Abbas Effendi, a personage of a stature the like of which Haifa had perhaps never known before.
(Ottoman Haifa A History of Four Centuries under Turkish Rule By Alex Carmel)
(Ottoman Haifa A History of Four Centuries under Turkish Rule By Alex Carmel)