The Master at Eighteen

*A retelling based on **The Chosen Highway** by Lady Blomfield, which records the spoken chronicles of the women of Bahá'u'lláh's family together with her own account of the life of 'Abdu'l-Bahá. Words in quotation marks are from that book.*

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'Abdu'l-Bahá was eighteen when Bahá'u'lláh left Baghdád in the spring of 1863. *The Chosen Highway* traces the years that led up to that departure.

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When Bahá'u'lláh was imprisoned in Ṭihrán, "'Abdu'l-Bahá, then only eight years old, was broken-hearted at the ruthless treatment of His adored Father." The family was sent into exile, homeless and impoverished, but Lady Blomfield writes that these things counted for nothing while He was with His Father, so that the exile and the early days in Baghdád were happy.

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When Bahá'u'lláh withdrew to the mountains of Sulaymáníyyih, "the dear child was beside Himself with grief." He copied Tablets of the Báb that the family still had and helped His mother, Ásíyih Khánum, with her heavy tasks. His uncle, Mírzá Músá, took Him to meetings of the friends, and there He spoke "with a marvellous eloquence, even at that early age of eleven or twelve years." He prayed without ceasing for His Father's return, sometimes through a whole night. When Bahá'u'lláh came back, "His joy was as great as His grief had been."

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In the years that followed, "He grew into a beautiful youth, beloved by all who knew Him."

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Then Bahá'u'lláh's enemies petitioned for a further exile. The Governor of Baghdád, unwilling that any discourtesy should be shown to Him, had the Sultan's decree read to Him in a mosque: He and His family were to leave Baghdád for an unknown destination. The preparations were extremely difficult.

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"The Master, as He was now called, shielded His adored Father in all ways that lay in His power from undesirable intruders, from the world's insistence, and from those who merely wanted idly to see and to hear something new." It was He who "made the arrangements for the Beloved One to go to the Ridvan," where Bahá'u'lláh stayed while the family made ready to leave.

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In that garden, Lady Blomfield records, Bahá'u'lláh confided to His eldest Son that He was "He Whom God shall make Manifest." From then on, she writes, "a new joy and increased devotion to His Father" took possession of the Master, and He consecrated Himself to the work of the Cause.

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When the preparations were complete, the exiles set out. "Bahá'u'lláh, the Master, and the ladies of the family rode horses and mules," and some travelled in litters on the backs of mules, "of the most jolting description." Turkish soldiers escorted them and treated them with respect. At the end of "the tedious journey by land from Baghdad to Constantinople," the party was lodged in a crowded inn, and it was the Master who asked the Governor to let Bahá'u'lláh and His family have a house apart.

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*This is a retelling. For the fuller account, see **The Chosen Highway** by Lady Blomfield.*

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