The Greatest Holy Leaf in the Barracks

*A retelling for children, based on **The Chosen Highway** by Lady Blomfield.*

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At the end of 1921 an Englishwoman named Lady Blomfield came to Haifa. 'Abdu'l-Bahá had passed away only a short time before. While she was there, she listened to the memories of His family and wrote them down. Many of those memories came from Bahíyyih Khánum, known as the Greatest Holy Leaf. She was the daughter of Bahá'u'lláh and the sister of 'Abdu'l-Bahá.

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She had seen a great deal in her long life. When she was six years old, her father was arrested and thrown into prison, and their home was stripped of everything. Soon after, in the middle of winter, she made the long, hard journey from Tihrán to Baghdád with her family. As a young woman she lived as a prisoner in the city of 'Akká. In 1922, when the young Shoghi Effendi went away for a time, the work of the Faith was left in her care.

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On the 2nd of May 1922, the Greatest Holy Leaf, the wife of 'Abdu'l-Bahá and a party of ladies, with Lady Blomfield among them, went to see the old barracks in 'Akká. This was the prison where Bahá'u'lláh, His family and His companions had been kept when they first arrived in the city. Áqá Ḥusayn, the cook, who had been with Bahá'u'lláh in Baghdád, came with them to explain what had happened in each place.

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He showed them a vault-like room where the family and their companions had been shut in during the first terrible days. All but two of them fell sick with typhoid fever, and 'Abdu'l-Bahá nursed them, cooked for them and shared out their food Himself, making sure no one was forgotten.

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The Greatest Holy Leaf had been in that room. She had caught that same fever, and from time to time she suffered its effects all through her life. Lady Blomfield wrote that as they listened, the Greatest Holy Leaf was with them, "her eyes charged with memories."

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*This is a retelling for children. For the fuller account, see ["Her Eyes Charged with Memories: A Portrait of the Greatest Holy Leaf"](/stories/ch-greatest-holy-leaf-eyes-of-memory).*

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