A Cake on the Road to Baghdád

A retelling for children, based on The Chosen Highway by Lady Blomfield (George Ronald), from the memories of Bahíyyih Khánum, who was a little girl at the time.

Bahíyyih Khánum was six years old when her family was sent away from Tihrán in the middle of winter.

Her father, Bahá'u'lláh, had just been let out of a terrible prison, and He was very ill. The government ordered Him and His family to leave Persia and go to Baghdád. They had only ten days to get ready.

The family had once been wealthy, but their home had been robbed of almost everything. To pay for the journey, Bahíyyih's mother, Ásíyih Khánum, sold nearly all that was left of her jewels and fine clothes.

The journey took about four weeks. "The weather was bitterly cold, snow was upon the ground," Bahíyyih Khánum remembered. Her mother rode in a kind of covered seat carried by a mule, which jolted along the road. She was expecting a baby, but she never complained.

When they came to a town, Ásíyih Khánum took the family's clothes to the public baths and washed them with her own hands. Then she carried the cold, wet clothes away in her arms. She had grown up in comfort and had never done such hard work, and her hands became very sore.

At night they stayed in rough inns. Each family was given one room, and no lamps were allowed after dark. Bahá'u'lláh was so ill that He could not eat the rough food, and His wife worried about Him. One day she found a little flour. That night, at the inn, she made Him a sweet cake. But it was dark, and she used salt instead of sugar. "So the cake was uneatable!" Bahíyyih Khánum said.

Soldiers escorted them all the way, and at last the family reached Baghdád.

This is a retelling for children. For the fuller account, see "The Winter Road to Baghdád".

Blomfield, L.. (1940). *The Chosen Highway*. George Ronald. https://bahai-library.com/blomfield_chosen_highway