A Glimpse Across the Moat

A retelling based on God Passes By by Shoghi Effendi, Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era by J. E. Esslemont, Bahá'u'lláh, The King of Glory by H. M. Balyuzi and The Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh by Adib Taherzadeh. Words in quotation marks are from those books.

When Bahá'u'lláh and His companions were sent to 'Akká, it was, in Esslemont's words, a prison city "to which the worst criminals were sent from all parts of the Turkish Empire." The exiles, about eighty to eighty-four men, women and children, were shut in the army barracks. The place was dirty and cheerless; there were no beds, and the food was wretched. Malaria and dysentery broke out, everyone but two fell ill, and three died. For over two years none of the Bahá'ís were allowed outside the prison door except four men, carefully guarded, who went out each day to buy food. Visitors were "rigidly excluded."

Pilgrims still came. Some of them, Shoghi Effendi writes, "had journeyed the entire distance from Persia on foot." Balyuzi describes believers who had walked over the high mountains of western Iran and across the deserts of 'Iráq and Syria to reach 'Akká. Two enemies of the Faith, lodged over the city gateway, watched for any Bahá'í they recognized and reported him, and the officials would expel him at once. Refused entry within the city walls, the pilgrims went to a place on the plain outside the moats from which the windows of Bahá'u'lláh's quarters could be seen. Esslemont writes: "He would show Himself to them at one of the windows and after gazing on Him from afar, they would weep and return to their homes, fired with new zeal for sacrifice and service." In Balyuzi's words, "Only a wave of His blessed hand, from afar, was their reward after months of toil and travel."

The very few who got inside the city had, to their great distress, to go back without seeing Him. The first to enter His presence, Ḥájí Abu'l-Ḥasan-i-Ardikání, surnamed Amín-i-Iláhí (Trusted of God), could do so only in a public bath, where it had been arranged that he should see Bahá'u'lláh without approaching Him or giving any sign of recognition. Taherzadeh relates that he came with Ḥájí Sháh-Muḥammad-i-Manshádí, the two disguised as Arabs selling the camels they had bought on the way. On the appointed day, as soon as he saw Bahá'u'lláh, Ḥájí Abu'l-Ḥasan was seized by such emotion that his body shook, and he stumbled and fell on the stone floor. He injured his head badly and had to be carried out, bleeding.

Nabíl was recognized in the city and had to flee. Balyuzi records that when he was stopped and questioned, he said he had come to buy provisions, and was put out of the city. He too had to be content with a brief glimpse of Bahá'u'lláh from across the moat. One day he stood in the district of 'Izzi'd-Dín, north of 'Akká, gazing at the fortress. Bahá'u'lláh appeared at the window, behind the bars, and with the movement of His hands showed that He had seen him. The same day a prayer was revealed in Nabíl's honour. He roamed the countryside around Nazareth, Haifa, Jerusalem and Hebron until the gradual relaxation of restrictions allowed him to join the exiles.

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Another pilgrim, Ustád Ismá'íl-i-Káshí, came from Mosul. He was a master-builder from Káshán who had once served Farrukh Khán-i-Ghaffárí, the Amínu'd-Dawlih, and he was the maternal uncle of Áqá Ḥusayn-i-Áshchí. He could not attain the presence of Bahá'u'lláh, and stayed in Haifa with Khalíl Manṣúr, a coppersmith of Káshán and the first Bahá'í to settle in Haifa.

He posted himself on the far side of the moat, "gazing for hours, in rapt adoration, at the window of his Beloved." His sight was weak, and in the end he could not make out Bahá'u'lláh's face. He turned back to the cave on Mount Carmel where he was living. The Holy Family had been anxiously watching from a distance, and Shoghi Effendi records that the frustration of his hopes moved them to tears.

Áqá Ḥusayn was in the presence of Bahá'u'lláh that day. He later recalled how bitterly he wept, and how kind and gracious Bahá'u'lláh was as He spoke of the disappointed master-builder. Bahá'u'lláh said then that soon, God willing, the gates would be opened to the faces of the pilgrims, and they would come, safe and secure, into His presence. Ustád Ismá'íl, who had prospered in the service of the Amínu'd-Dawlih, became a peddler, going about with a tray of small items and making his home in a cave on Mount Carmel.

In June 1870 Mírzá Mihdí, the Purest Branch, 'Abdu'l-Bahá's twenty-two-year-old brother, was pacing the roof of the barracks at twilight, absorbed in his devotions, when he fell through an unguarded skylight. He died twenty-two hours later. Shoghi Effendi records that his dying supplication to his Father was "that his life might be accepted as a ransom for those who were prevented from attaining the presence of their Beloved."

While He was still in the barracks, Bahá'u'lláh wrote to some friends: "Fear not. These doors shall be opened. My tent shall be pitched on Mount Carmel, and the utmost joy shall be realized."

In time the restrictions eased. Four months after the passing of the Purest Branch, the barracks were needed for soldiers, and Bahá'u'lláh and His family were moved to a house, and the rest of the party to a caravanserai in the town. "From the time Bahá'u'lláh and His companions left the barracks," Esslemont writes, "visitors were allowed to see them."

This is a retelling. For the fuller accounts, see the books named above, especially God Passes By and Balyuzi's Bahá'u'lláh, The King of Glory, chapter 32.

Effendi, S.. (1944). *God Passes By*. Bahá'í Publishing Trust.