The Exiles in the Barracks of 'Akká

A retelling based on God Passes By by Shoghi Effendi. Words in quotation marks are quoted from that history.

A farmán of Sultán 'Abdu'l-'Azíz, dated July 26, 1868, condemned Bahá'u'lláh and His companions to perpetual banishment. It ordered their strict incarceration and forbade them to associate either with each other or with the people of the town. About seventy exiles, men, women and children, were sent to 'Akká. Shoghi Effendi records that the authorities hoped the sentence of life-long imprisonment would lead to their eventual extermination.

Under the Turks, 'Akká had sunk to "the level of a penal colony to which murderers, highway robbers and political agitators were consigned from all parts of the Turkish empire." It had no source of water within its gates. Bahá'u'lláh, in the Lawḥ-i-Sulṭán, set down what was said of it: "it is the most desolate of the cities of the world, the most unsightly of them in appearance, the most detestable in climate, and the foulest in water."

When the exiles landed, a curious and callous crowd had gathered at the port to see the "God of the Persians." The prisoners were taken to the army barracks, locked in and put under guard. "The first night," Bahá'u'lláh wrote, "all were deprived of either food or drink... They even begged for water, and were refused." The water in the pool of the courtyard was too filthy and brackish to drink. Each prisoner was given three loaves of black and salty bread.

Soon after their arrival all but two of them fell sick with malaria and dysentery. Three died, among them two brothers who died the same night, "locked," as Bahá'u'lláh testified, "in each other's arms." The guards refused to bury the dead until they were paid, so Bahá'u'lláh gave the carpet He used to be sold. It was learned later that the guards had buried them unwashed and unshrouded, without coffins, in the clothes they wore. "From the foundation of the world until the present day," He wrote, "a cruelty such as this hath neither been seen nor heard of."

Then came a crisis from within the community. Bahá'u'lláh had forbidden His followers, more than once and in writing, to take revenge on their tormentors. Even so, seven of the companions secretly sought out and killed three of their persecutors. The governor's troops surrounded His house. Bahá'u'lláh was taken to the Governorate and questioned, and 'Abdu'l-Bahá was chained in prison for the first night. The townspeople now flung charges of impiety, atheism, terrorism and heresy at everyone who bore the name of the Faith, and even the exiles' children were pelted with stones in the streets. Of that deed Bahá'u'lláh wrote: "My captivity can bring on Me no shame. Nay, by My life, it conferreth on Me glory. That which can make Me ashamed is the conduct of such of My followers as profess to love Me, yet in fact follow the Evil One."

It was in this setting, soon after He moved to the house of 'Údí Khammár, that Bahá'u'lláh revealed the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, His Most Holy Book.

Then the tide turned. Shoghi Effendi names the causes: the gradual recognition by all the people of Bahá'u'lláh's complete innocence; the slow spread of His teachings through "the hard crust of their indifference and bigotry"; the appointment of a humane governor, Aḥmad Big Tawfíq; and the "unremitting labors of 'Abdu'l-Bahá," Who, through His contacts with ordinary people of the town, showed Himself more and more to be "the shield of His Father."

That governor would not enter 'Abdu'l-Bahá's presence without first removing his shoes, and he sent his own son to Him for instruction. When he asked Bahá'u'lláh how he might serve Him, it was suggested that he restore the aqueduct, which had lain in disuse for thirty years, and he did so. The Muftí of 'Akká, Shaykh Maḥmúd, known for his bigotry, became a believer. The townspeople said that the improvement in their climate and water was due to Bahá'u'lláh's presence, and they spoke of Him as the "august leader" and "his highness." A later governor let it be known that his Prisoner could pass through the city gates whenever He wished, but Bahá'u'lláh declined. When at last He left the city, it was only after another Muftí of 'Akká, Shaykh 'Alíy-i-Mírí, at 'Abdu'l-Bahá's suggestion, had pleaded with Him insistently to end His nine years of confinement within its walls.

This is a retelling. For the fuller account, see God Passes By by Shoghi Effendi, chapters XI and XII.

Effendi, S.. (1944). *God Passes By*. Bahá'í Publishing Trust. https://www.bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/shoghi-effendi/god-passes-by/