Edward Granville Browne at Bahjí

In Chapter 3 of *Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era*, J. E. Esslemont quotes the account that "the distinguished orientalist, the late Professor Edward G. Browne, of the University of Cambridge" wrote of his visit to Bahá'u'lláh at Bahjí, near 'Akká, in 1890. Later in the same chapter Esslemont notes that Bahá'u'lláh granted Browne four interviews, "each lasting twenty to thirty minutes," and that apart from this visit He had no opportunities of intercourse with enlightened Western thinkers.

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Browne describes how his guide paused while he removed his shoes, then drew back the curtain and replaced it as Browne passed through. He found himself in a large room with a low divan along its upper end, and for a second or two he did not realize that anyone was there. Then he saw:

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> In the corner where the divan met the wall sat a wondrous and > venerable figure, crowned with a felt head-dress of the kind called > 'taj' by dervishes (but of unusual height and make), round the base > of which was wound a small white turban. The face of him on whom I > gazed I can never forget, though I cannot describe it.

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Those piercing > eyes seemed to read one's very soul; power and authority sat on that > ample brow ... No need to ask in whose presence I stood, as I bowed > myself before one who is the object of a devotion and love which > kings might envy and emperors sigh for in vain!

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"A mild dignified voice," Browne continues, "bade me be seated." He then gives some of the words he heard:

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> Praise be to God that thou hast attained! ... Thou hast come to see a > prisoner and an exile.... We desire but the good of the world and the > happiness of the nations; yet they deem us a stirrer up of strife and > sedition worthy of bondage and banishment. ... Yet so it shall be; > these fruitless strifes, these ruinous wars shall pass away, and the > 'Most Great Peace' shall come. ...

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Let not a man glory in this, that > he loves his country; let him rather glory in this, that he loves his > kind....

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Browne adds that these were the words "so far as I can recall them." They are his recollection of what was said, not a text revealed by Bahá'u'lláh.

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*A retelling based on **Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era** by J. E. Esslemont (Chapter 3), quoting Edward Granville Browne's account of his 1890 visit. For the fuller account, see the original.*

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