The Passing of 'Abdu'l-Bahá: First Reports in the Star
Star of the West Editors, Star of the West, (1922), Bahai News Service · Read original
When in Bahá'í history
Haifa (today: Haifa, Israel)
In the early weeks of 1922 the Star of the West devoted its principal pages to the first detailed American accounts of the passing of 'Abdu'l-Bahá. The Master had ascended on the morning of 28 November 1921 in His house in Haifa, after a brief illness. The cabled news had reached America in the first week of December. The detailed accounts — sent by letter from those who had been present — took several further weeks to arrive.
The Star's lead editorial conveyed the spiritual gravity of the moment in language as steady as the editors could manage. The Master had been the Centre of the Bahá'í community for thirty years. Generations of believers in several continents had grown up under His direct guidance. The fact of His passing was, for the entire community, the end of a long and intimate spiritual companionship.
The accounts of the funeral itself — drawn from letters sent by Lady Blomfield, by the Holy Family, by the small circle of resident pilgrims — gave the American friends their first glimpse of the public extent of the mourning in the Holy Land.
The funeral procession wound from the Master's house in Haifa up the slope of Mount Carmel to the resting place that had been prepared beside the Shrine of the Báb. The Star's report estimated the number of mourners at ten thousand — drawn from every community of the Haifa-'Akká region. There were Christians of the Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Maronite, Anglican, and Coptic communions. There were Muslims of both Sunní and Shi'a traditions. There were Jews of the established Palestinian Jewish community and of the new Zionist settlements. There were Druzes from the Carmel villages. There were Bahá'ís from every quarter of the Holy Land and from the small community of resident pilgrims from abroad.
The British High Commissioner of the Mandate, Sir Herbert Samuel, attended in person. The mayors of Haifa and 'Akká attended. The senior religious dignitaries of every community were present. The streets of Haifa were lined, the Star's report records, by uncounted thousands who came simply to stand silently as the cortège passed.
At the gravesite a sequence of speakers from each community offered tribute. Christians spoke of the friend their churches had lost. Muslims spoke of the just man whose counsel they had sought. Jews spoke of the protector of the Jewish community whose intervention had served them in difficulty. Each tribute, the Star's report observes, was free of the small partisan claim; each speaker honoured the Master in the language proper to his own faith and left the larger fact of the Master's spiritual identity to the Bahá'í community to which He primarily belonged.
The procession dispersed at dusk. The Master rested in the chamber that had been prepared. The Holy Family returned to the house where He had lived. The Bahá'í world, in the days that followed, would learn of the existence of the Will and Testament and of the appointment of Shoghi Effendi as Guardian. But that news would belong to the following months. The closing of the November day at the gravesite on Mount Carmel was the closing of an age.
Source: Star of the West, Volume 12 (1922), accounts of the passing and funeral of 'Abdu'l-Bahá. Public domain text from bahai-library.com.
Cite this story
Editors, S. O. T. W.. (1922). *Star of the West*. Bahai News Service. https://bahai-library.com/star_of_the_west_volume_12
Record yourself reading this story
Recording stays on this device only. Nothing is uploaded.
Related stories
His Last Days
In His final week, 'Abdu'l-Bahá went on doing exactly what He had always done — praying, giving to the poor, comforting His family — until He fell asleep, quietly, in the early hours of the morning.
A Vault Within the Shrine: Where 'Abdu'l-Bahá Was Laid to Rest
At the end of the great funeral on Mount Carmel in 1921, 'Abdu'l-Bahá was laid to rest not in a tomb of His own but in a chamber of the Shrine of the Báb — the very Shrine He had laboured for years to raise over the remains of His Lord's Forerunner. The Builder of that holy House became one of its treasures.
The Last Full Measure: 'Abdu'l-Bahá's Final Years of Service
When the Great War ended, the partial freedom of His last years brought 'Abdu'l-Bahá not rest but an even heavier round of labour — pilgrims streaming back to His door, Tablets flowing out to the believers of every land, the poor of Haifa still waiting each morning. He poured out the last of His strength in the work of the Cause until, worn and longing for home, He laid the burden down.
The Cable from Haifa: News of the Master's Passing
In the December 1921 and January 1922 issues of the Star of the West, the editors gave their readers the bare cable that had reached Chicago on the 29th of November and then, in the issues that followed, the fuller accounts of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's last days written by the household in Haifa.