'Abdu'l-Baha: Through the War Years
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A BAHA'I MAGAZINE • VOLUME 6 NUMBER 1 • PUBLISHED QUARTERLY

Editorial Board:                                      IN THIS ISSUE
FIRUZ KAZEMZADEH
BETTY FISHER
HOWARD GAREY                                      2   'Abdu'l-Baha 'Abbas
(1844-1921)
ROBERT HAYDEN                                           Editorial
GLENFORD E. MITCHELL
GAYLE MORRISON
6 The Passing of 'Abdu'l-Baha
by Shoghi Effendi and Lady Blomfield
Subscriber Service:
MEG LUCKINBILL

19   'Abdu'l-Baha: Through the War Years
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The views expressed herein are those of che
47   A Glimpse of the Master
authors and do not necessarily reflect the              from the diary of
]Nliet Thompson
opinions of the publisher, the Nacional Spir-
itual Assembly of the Baha'ls of che United
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should be rypewritten and double spaced          67   The Writings of
'Abdu'l-Baha
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Copyright © 1971, National Spiritual As-
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20    WORLD ORDER: FALL 1971

T    HE OTTOMAN EMPIRE had always had
subjects who sought to destroy it. In re-
turn for their unruliness they had received
Second World War, when the opening of
hostilities brought the prospect that whole
towns and cities might be razed to the
condign punishment. As far back as the six-        ground. An enemy warship
did bombard the
teenth century, under Sulfan Selim I, "The         railway bridges between
'Akka and Haifa.
Grim" (reigned 1512-1520), the Shi'ahs of          On that occasion a shell
came down in the
Anatolia, who favored Selim's rival, Shah.         garden of Ric;lvan but did
not explode. One
Isma'il I, the $afavid ruler of Iran, were         day, when the sea was calm
with hardly a
massacred in their thousands. Greeks and           ripple on it, and rocks,
far from the shore,
Slavs, Macedonians and Albanians had, in           were clearly visible under
a sunny sky, the
the course of years, rebelled, met with harsh      people of 'Akka took them
for warships and
suppression and finally obtained their free-       fled en masse.
dom. With the overthrow of despotism, new             It was against such a
background that
hopes had arisen, but were soon dashed by          'Abdu'l-Baha decided to
move the Baha'is of
the Young Turks.                                   Haifa and 'Akka away from
the hysteria of
Within a few weeks of Turkey's entry into       the officials and the people
around them. As
the war, the British occupied the port of          a temporary home for them
He chose the
Ba~rah , deposed the Khedive of Egypt, pro-        Druze village of Abu-Sinan,
situated to the
claimed a protectorate over the country, and       east of 'Akka. 'Abdu'l-Baha
Himself stayed
set policies in motion which would affect          in 'Akka with one
attendant, and occasional-
profoundly the future of the Ottoman               ly spent a night or two in
Abu-Sinan. Shaykh
realms. Arabs, the largest minoriry in the         $aliQ., the Druze chief,
had put his own house
Ottoman Empire, had already shown signs of         at the disposal of
'Abdu'l-Baha, and that was
restiveness and were to pay for it dearly in       where His family lived.
Quarters were found
D amascus at the hands of ] am al Pasha.           for the other Baha'is in
the homes of villag-
Uprisings among them, particularly the re-         ers. Baha'u'llah had once
lived for three
volt of the Sharif of Mecca, were still far off,   months among these friendly
people in the
but signs were discernible and the Turks           foothills of Galilee. The
room in the house
were suspicious. It was also apparent that the     of Shaykh Mazruq, which He
had occupied,
call for a holy war (Jihad) , coming from          was always left untenanted.
Istanbul, would go unheeded. Except for a             Dr. I:fabibu'llah
Khudabakhsh (Dr. Mu'-
tiny number, the Muslims of the Indian sub-        ayyad) ran a dispensary at
Abu-Sinan, to
continent ignored it and, even more, did not       which people who were not
members of the
hesitate to fight the Turks.                       Baha'i community soo~ came
for treatment.
Spies were everywhere in the Holy land          They received equal attention
but paid ac-
and authorities were becoming increasingly         cording to their means. For
most of them the
repressive. Fear was abroad , a fear which         treatment was free. Dr.
Mu'ayyad performed
could sweep over the population like an            operations as well and was
assisted by Lua
epidemic, a fear such as was felt in Great         Getsinger. Bad!'
Bushn'.1'i, another graduate of
Britain and France at the outbreak of the          the Syrian Protestant
College, ran a school,
side by side with the dispensary, for the
children of the Baha'is. life was naturally
" This chapter from 'A bdn'l-Bahd: The Centre of   rather primitive in this
isolated village in the
the Co venrmt of Bahd'il'lldh is reproduced by
permission of the author, and by arrangement     hills. On Mount Carmel, the
sole occupant of
with the publisher, George Ronald, London,        the pilgrim house was the
veteran, I:faji
England. © H. M. Balyuzi 1971.                   Mirza I:faydar-'Ali.
1. Banan passed away only recently. As far as
the present writer knows he has not left a       Mirza Fac;llu'llah Khan Banan
reached
full record of that remarkable journey.       Haifa from Shiraz with the
offerings of the
THROUGH THE WAR YEARS             21

Baha'is of that city, on January 19th 1915.              must see 'Abdu'l-Baha
at once. Riding His
His arrival was the last link with the outside           donkey 'Abdu'l-Baha
went to the military
world for a long time. Banin's journey was               cantonment. Jamal
Pasha received Him
fraught with considerable difficulty, for he             courteously, but told
Him that He was a
had to make his way from India to Haifa. 1 To            religious
mischief-maker, which was the rea-
have succeeded was indeed an achievement.                son He had been put
under restraint in the
However, sometime during the war years an                past. It happened
that, in the days of 'Abdu'l-
Arab Baha'i, advanced in years, named I:Iaji             l:Iamid, Jamal Pasha
himself had been
Ramaqin, braving all hazards, managed to                 known as a political
mischief-maker. So
reach Tihran. His perilous journey included              'Abdu'l-Baha, to
humor him, now replied
walking for forty-five days. He delivered to             that mischief-making
was of two kinds:
the Baha'is a Tablet entrusted to him by                 political and
religious; and then, pointing at
'Abdu'l-Baha, and returned bearing gold and              the arrogant Pasha,
He said that so far the
letters. A second time he attempted that                 political
mischief-maker had not caused any
heroic feat, but he did not reach his destina-           damage, and it was to
be hoped that the
tion, and no trace of him was ever found.                religious
mischief-maker would not do so
either.
EARLY IN 1915, J amal Pasha appeared on                     Lady Blomfield has
recorded another en-
the scene, Commander of the 4th Army                    counter between
'Abdu'l-Baha and Jamal
Corps, whose mission was to overrun the                Pasha, the story being
related by Mirza Jalal,
Suez Canal and drive the British out of                 a son-in-law of
'Abdu'l-Baha:
Egypt. With him came a reign of terror. The                   At the beginning
of the year 1916, at
whole of Syria (including the Holy Land)                   about seven o'clock
one morning, 'Abdu'l-
was under his martial control. Throughout                   Baha sent me for
His faithful coachman.
1915 and into the following year, Jamal                    Tell Isfandiyar to
have my carriage
Pasha was bringing Arab nationalists to trial               brought, and you
and Khusraw be ready to
in his military courts. Thirty-four of them                accompany me to
Nazareth in half an
were executed, and many more were de-                      hour.' We did as He
commanded, and at
ported. Mirza Mul)ammad-'Ali and his asso-                 the appointed time
'Abdu'l-Baha left His
ciates, long discredited and cowed into si-                home in Haifa,
accompanied by Khusraw
lence, now found fresh opportunities to plot               and me. That day
the health of 'Abdu'l-
against 'Abdu'l-Baha. They went to Jamal                   Baha was not very
satisfactory, as one
Pasha with various tales. Majdi'd-Din told                 could see by the
signs of weariness on His
him that 'Abdu'l-Baha was hostile to the                    blessed face.
However, the Commander-in-
Committee of Union and Progress. The tent                  chief of the Syrian
and Palestine fronts
which Baha'u'llah had used, the violators                   was in Nazareth.
He was Jamal Pasha, and
gave to Jamal Pasha. It was a tent under                    'Abdu'l-Baha was
determined to meet him
which, 'Abdu'l-Baha is reported to have said,               there, so in spite
of His great fatigue and
"representatives of the Most Great Peace"                   physical weakness,
the Beloved started on
should have met. 2 Then in order to create                  His journey.
confusion, the violators set rumors afoot that
the military government had banished 'Abd-                    'Abdu'l-Baha ...
arrived at Nazareth in
u'l-Baha to Damascus.                                      the evening at
seven o'clock, and took up
When Jamal Pasha encamped in the vicin-                His residence at the
German Hotel.
ity of 'Akka, he told the Governor that he                    The next day the
Master was invited to
lunch at the home of one of the notables
2. Dr. I:Iabib Mu'ayyad, Khatirat-i-Habib.                of the town of
Nazareth. He was one of
Memoirs of I:Iabib. ( 'fihran: i 961 ) , p. 3 3 3.     the Fahum family. On
that day Jamal
22    WORLD ORDER: FALL 1971

Pasha, and nearly two hundred of the war         IN THE EARLY MONTHS of the
war, 'Abdu'l-
leaders, were present at the lunch where        Baha said one day that, if it
had not been for
the Master sat down at one o'clock and           the intrigues of the
violators, He would have
arose from the table at four.                    gathered together some of the
leading men
During all those hours 'Abdu'l-Baha          amongst the Muslims and
Christians of the
was speaking in Turkish on philosophical         Holy Land and would have
counseled them
and scientific subjects, and on heavenly         to concert their efforts to
prevent disorder.
teachings. So intense was His utterance          But the actions of the
violators prevented
that all stopped eating while they listened      this.
to His blessed words.                               Relative inactivity and
increasing isola-
. . . Jamal Pasha, who had been His          tion, in the opening months of
1915, made
great enemy because of false accusations,        'Abdu'l-Baha remark, on
another occasion,
had not paid the proper respect to 'Abdu'l-      that He wished He had gone to
India, where
Baha when He had first arrived . Now,            His presence had been
fervent! y requested.
however, having heard the Master speak           Not having work to do, He
said, had an
so learnedly and wisely, he was most             adverse effect on His
physical condition. But
deferential and full of all kinds of polite-     although pilgrims could no
longer come and
ness. When the time came for the Master          correspondence was almost
halted, 'Abdu'l-
to rise, Jamal Pasha most courteously held       Baha was kept occupied with
local affairs,
the Beloved's arm to assist Him to leave         and soon the task of raising
and providing
the table, and himself led the way to the        food for the Baha'i community
and many
reception room, and seated the Master            others in need faced Him. The
mismanage-
comfortably.                                     ment and the impositions of
the Ottoman
Finally, after answering more questions,     overlord were gradually leading
to a state of
and giving wondrous light on many sub-           near famine.
jects, the Master arose to bid farewell to          No matter how relaxed or
arduous life
His host. Jamal Pasha accompanied Him            might be, 'Abdu'l-Baha always
found or
out of the house, and to the bottom of the       recalled a humorous
situation. A cat purring
steps, and would have gone further with          beside His chair would amuse
Him: this cat,
the Master, but was thanked with great           He remarked, is indeed
joyous, so carefree, so
kindness and urged by 'Abdu'l-Baha to            free of fear. A donkey
standing in the street
return. This was that Jamal Pasha who            made Him remember that He saw
no don-
\Vas not accustomed to rise from his seat to     keys anywhere in the United
States, and
pay respect to any one .... 'Abdu'l-Baha         reminded Him of a polar bear
in the Paris
was excessively fatigued, and remained           Zoo. People were staring at
the bear, He said,
that night at the German Hotel at Naza-          and the animal was staring
back, as if
reth ... :;                                      wanting to say: how did I get
entangled with
But in time the constant insinuations of         these folk? A man passing by
the gates of
the violators had their effect. Jamal Pasha         'Abdu'l-Baha's house in
Haifa, carrying a
stated that he would crucify 'Abdu'l-Baha,          basket, put it down as
soon as he saw Him,
when he returned victorious from his cam-           saying that he could not
find a porter and
paigns. When he did come back, ho·wever, he         had to carry the basket
himself. 'Abdu'l-Baha
was in full flight, defeated and humiliated,        remarked afterwards that a
man should not
and could not stop to carry out his threat.         feel ashamed of doing
useful work. Someone
had written to ask where 'Abdu'l-Baha was.
Tell him, 'Abdu'l-Baha replied with a smile:
3. Lady Blomfield, The Chosen Highway (Wil-
mette, Ill. : Baha'i Publishing Trust, 1970),   in front of a cannon.
pp. 202-05.                                        The war fever slowly abated
and life in
THROUGH THE WAR YEARS                       23

'     &   H '· 'P
:==w4ii5iiii trit:.it"- - ..: -

,
.   1
r.
llH.
.1.ll H

A VIEW OF 'ABDUL-BAHA'S HOUSE IN HAIFA DURING HIS LIF E TIME

'Akka and Haifa, although not back to           purchases in the bazaar of his
native town.
normal, became calmer and more sedate as        'Abdu'l-Bahii. sent this cable
to a Baha'i of
the year advanced. 'Abdu'l-Baha felt then       Mailihad: "[May] My life be a
sacrifice unto
that the Baha'is could return to their homes.   'Alf-Akbar. I am well.
'Abbas."
Edith Sanderson, who had remained behind           Iran fared very badly
during the war. None
when other Western Baha'is had gone, and        of the belligerents respected
her declared
had moved to Abt'1-Sinan, left as early as      neutrality. Her own people
adopted active
January 1915. Well before Italy's entry into    partisan attitudes, the
majority favoring Tur-
the war on the side of the Allies in May        key and Germany. German and
Turkish,
1915, she obtained a passage on an Italian      Russian and British agents
were every-
boat. On May 5th the sojourn of the Bahii.'is   where. Russia and Turkey
fought their bat-
at Abt'1-Sinan came to an end. On that day,     tles in the north and the
northwest of the
the box that contained the portraits of the     country, each side receiving
substantial aid
Bab and Baha'u'llah, which was always kept      from the Iranians. The British
occupied the
in the room of the Greatest Holy Leaf, was      port of Bushire (Bt'1shihr) in
August 1915,
brought back to Haifa by Badi' Bushrt'1'i and   and landed a small force at
Bandar 'Abbas in
Dr. Mu'ayyad. Ten days later the doctor         March 1916, under
Brigadier-General Sir
himself, who had rendered sterling services,    Percy Sykes who, driving
inland to Kirman,
set out for Persia by the Baghdad route. From   Yazd, and I~fahan, reached
Shiraz in No-
Persia, where the Baha'is--;rere still being    vember. The central government
was power-
persecuted, news had come of a fresh martyr-    less. Bandits and highwaymen,
as long as
dom. Shaykh 'Ali-Akbar-i-Qt'ichani, a highly    they did not get in the way of
the belliger-
learned and respected Baha'i teacher, who       ents, had the freedom of the
roads and
had served the Faith with distinction in the    caravan routes. 'Abdu'l-Baha
had foreseen
Caucasus and India, was shot while making       these lamentable events and
had spoken of
24     WORLD ORDER: FALL 197 1

them to His countrymen in Paris. Baha'fs had               To this period (and
a little beyond ) also
their share of tribulation. For them tragedy           belongs a slim volume:
Risaliy-i-Tis'a-'Asha-
was never fa r off, and it was easy to make            riyyih- N ineteen
Discourses on the lives of
them suffe r in order to ap pease others. T he         the Bab and H is two
heralds: Shaykh AJ::imad-
martyrdom of Mirza Fac;llu'llah, the                   i-Al).sa'f and Siyyid
Ka?im-i-Rashti. T hese
Mu'avin u't-T ujjar, a well-known merchant             discourses were written
by AJ::imad Soh rab, at
oi - N araq (near Kashan) , was a case in              the instruction of
'Abdu'l-Baha, fo r the use of
point. In Sul~anabad (now Arak) a family               the Baha'i youth at
meetings in the pilgrim
of seven were slain in their home, in the dead         house on Mount Carmel.
'Abdu'l-Baha H im-
of night.                                              se lf corrected and
emended them. Nineteen
W ith the Baha'is back in Haifa, weekly             Discourses, together with
a short autobio-
gatherings were resumed in the house of                graphical monograph by
A.qa MuJ::iammad
'Abdu'l-Baha, and it was in that latter half of        Mus~afay-i- Baghdadi
(who in his childhood
the year 19 15 that the Memorials of the               went to Persia with his
father, Shaykh Mu-
Faithful took shape. These short biographies           bammad- i-Shibl, in the
company of Tahirih )
of early Baha'is, so eloquent and pellucid,            was published in Cairo
in 1919, by Shaykh
animated and moving, were spoken by                   
Mul).iyyi'd-Din-i-Kurdi, an outstanding pupil
'Abdu'l-Baha in these meetings. Each one, a            of Mirza Abu'l-Fadl. 4
sparkling gem, will remain unmatched. Sev-                 As the war years
followed their weary
enty-nine people are mentioned, and most of            course, the
depredations and misgovernment
them are those who were exiled with Baha-              of Ottoman authorities,
to which was added
'u'llah to 'Akka. But others are included such         devastation caused by
locusts, led to increas-
as I:laji Mirza Mul:iammad-Taqi, the Vakilu'd-         ing scarcities and
hardships. 'Abdu'l-Baha
Dawlih (the builder of the Mashriqu'l-                 now arose to alleviate
suffering. There were
Adhkar of 'Ishqabad) and his brother, Haji             properties and lands in
the Jordan Valley
Mirza Mubammad-'Ali. 'fahirih, although a              and beyond, at Samrah
and 'Adasiyyah, and
luminary of the Babi Dispensation, also fea-           by the shores of the
Sea of Galilee (Lake
rnres in that galaxy. These talks of 'A bdu 'l-        Tiberias), which
'Abdu'l-Baha could culti-
Baha were compiled into a book which was               vate for food. Some of
these were part of the
published in Haifa in 1924, with the title :           endowments of the
Shrines of Baha'u'llah
Tadhkirat11'l -Vafd-the Memorials of the               and the Bab. Sons of
Mirza Mubammad-
Faithful.                                              Quli, the faithful
half-brother of Baha'u'llah,
owned land at Nuqayb, on the northern
4. Dr. Zia (l)iya) Baghdad!, son of Aqa Mu-           shore of the Sea of
Galilee, where Mirza
l:iammad-Mugafa, was a well-known and
much-loved figure in the American Baha'i           Mul:iammad-Quli was buried.
community for three decades. He died in
19 37.                                             IN THE PAST, 'Abdu'l-Baha
had stayed at
5. Sakinih Sulc:in was the widow of one of the
marty rs of Yazd. She had a daughrer, named        Tiberias from time to time,
whenever He
F:i~imih, her only child, who died young,          needed a respite from the
humidity of the
but left a baby, a solace for the stricken         coast. But in summer time
the heat in
grandmother. Boch because of her cruel be-
rea vements and because of the services she        Tiberias, and in the lands
that lie below it, is
had rendered (which included nursing both          intense and onerous. Until
the return of
Mirza Abu"l-Fa~l and Shoghi Effendi, dur-          normal conditions,
'Abdu'l-Baha had to
ing his first year at the university in Beirut),
'Abdu"l-Baha always showed her a very gen-         spend days and weeks in and
around Tiberi-
erous measure of kindness. The tenderness          as. T he wheat He sent to
'Akka was given
of chat kindness is shown in the many Tab-         into the care of a lady
named Sakinih
lets addressed co her. In a Tablet dated
Sul~an, in whom He had great confidence. 5
October 17th 1921, He cells her chat al-
though He is overburdened with work, with          In a Tablet addressed to
her, dated Shavval
THROUGH THE WAR YEARS             25

15th 1336 A.H. (July 26th 1918), 'Abdu'l-           provided with choice
dishes, and there were
Baha says that because it has been very hot,        times when He Himself
cooked them, His
so hot as to affect His breathing, perforce He      own food was often a very
simple fare. He
has had to return to Tiberias. If He obtains        took little meat, and
hardly any fruit. His
relief in Tiberias, He will stay until the          preference was for milk,
cheese, and herbs
wheat is secured; otherwise He will have to         such as mint, tarragon,
and basil.
return to 'Akka and Haifa. He has sent some            The ravages of war were
mounting. The
wheat for the time being, to be distributed         British-Indian army was
pushing forward in
according to the list enclosed. He also states      Mesopotamia, and in spite
of its grave set-
that prices have gone up considerably, more         back in April 1916, at
Kt'.it-al-'Amarah, it
than threefold, in comparison with the pre-         retrieved its position and
captured Baghdad
vious year; the cost of transport is also           in March 1917. A month
later the United
doubled and trebled. It is indicated that there     States declared war on
Germany. The isola-
was a shortage of camels for transport,             tion of the Holy Land was
almost complete.
because 'Abdu'l-Baha states that much more             Shoghi Effendi said of
'Abdu'l-Baha in
wheat will be dispatched when camels are            these days:
available. In another Tablet, in which                 Agony filled His soul
at the spectacle of
Sakinih Sul~an is told to give two kayls 6 of          human slaughter
precipitated through hu-
wheat to Aqa Jamshid, 'Abdu'l-Baha says                manity's failure to
respond to the sum-
that He yearns to visit the Shrine of                  mons He had issued, or
to heed the
Baha'u'llah; He has been so heavily occupied           warnings He had given.
Surely sorrow
that He has been prevented from going                  upon sorrow was added
to the burden of
there.                                                 trials and vicissitudes
which He, since His
Most of the communications to Sakfnih               boyhood, had borne so
heroically for the
Sul~an, regarding the distribution of wheat,           sake, and in the
service, of His Father's
consist of a list of names and quantities. The         Cause.
brevity of the following may be indicative of              And yet during
these somber days, the
how pressing time was:                                 darkness of which was
reminiscent of the
Ratls 7           tribulations endured during the most dan-
Neighbors' daughters             25              gerous period of His
incarceration in the
'Abdu'r-Ral:iman the son                         prison-fortress of 'Akka,
'Abdu'l-Baha,
of Al:imad Effendi            30              whilst in the precincts of His
Father's
J:Ianna's wife                   15              Shrine, or when dwelling in
the House He
The fat woman                    25              occupied in 'Akka, or under
the shadow of
Rafi'ih                          25              the Bab's sepulcher on Mt.
Carmel, was
moved to confer once again, and for the
last time in His life, on the community of
Although at 'Abdu'l-Baha's table, both               His American followers a
signal mark of
before and after the war, His guests were              His special favor by
investing them, on the
eve of the termination of His earthly
little time to write, He has written her that      ministry, through the
revelation of the
letter to ascertain her wishes regarding her       Tablets of the Divine Plan,
with a world
grandson, Labib. Whatever she chooses He           mission, whose full
implications even now,
will carry out; her wish is the same as His
own, and He will never forget her services.        after the lapse of a
quarter of a century,
The present writer knew this lady well dur-        still remain undisclosed,
and whose un-
ing the years that he was a student in the         foldment thus far, though
as yet in its
American University of Beirut.
6. Kay! was a measure for grain.                      initial stages, has so
greatly enriched the
7. Ra~! in Syria was equivalent to 5 lbs.             spiritual as well as the
administrative
26       WORLD ORDER :. FALL 1971

annals of the first Baha'i century. 8         Baba was still in danger. Let
those who
helped to avert that danger speak. First, Lady
THE TABLETS OF THE DIVINE PLAN are                 Blomfield:
fourteen in number and were revealed at two          In the spring of 1918, I
was much startled
separate times: eight of them in 1916, and           and deeply disturbed by a
telephone mes-
six in 1917 .. ..                                    sage: "'Abdu'l-Baha in
serious danger.
Take immediate action." It came from an
In all, 'Abdu'l-Baha mentioned by name in        authoritative source. There
was not a mo-
these Tablets some 120 territories and is-           ment to be lost. Every
available power
lands, to which the message of Baha'u'llah           must be brought to bear
to save the
should be carried. When He did so, there             Master.
were Baha'is in only 35 countries. Immediate            I went at once to Lord
Lamington. His
response came from loving and devoted                sympathetic regard for
'Abdu'l-Baha, his
hearts, but before "the proclamation of the          understanding of the
ramifications and
oneness of humanity" could be raised to all          "red tape" necessary for
"immediate ac-
the world "systematically and enthusiastical-        tion" were of priceless
value.
ly," the Administrative Order had first to be           A letter was
immediately written to the
developed as an instrument of collective             Foreign Office explai
ning the importance
teaching-a tremendous labor of sixteen               of 'Abdu'l-Bahi's
position, His work for
years initiated by the Guardian of the Faith         true peace, and for the
spiritual welfare of
after 'Abdu'l-Baha's passing-so that by 1937         many thousands of people.
Through the
the first stage in fulfilling the Tablets of the     influence of Lord
Lamington, and his
Divine Plan could be inaugurated in the First        prompt help, the letter,
with its alarming
Seven Year Plan of the American Baha'i               news, was at once put
into the hands of
community. Since then, the launching of a            Lord Balfour. !l
number of teaching plans of limited scope in            That very evening a
cable was sent to
all continents, and the undertaking of two           General Allenby with
these instructions,
successive world-encompassing projects in            "Extend every protection
and considera-
which the Baha'fs of the whole world have            tion to 'Abdu' l-Baha,
His family and His
participated, have revealed the potentialities       friends, when the British
march on Haifa."
of the master-plan which the mind of 'Abdu'l-           So a terrible tragedy
was averted, by the
Baha conceived in those years of sorrow and          promptness and
understanding of Lord
stress. Bur much still lies in the lap of the        Lamington and the power
of Lord Balfour,
future, for the Tablets of the Divine Plan are       his colleagues in the
Cabinet here in
no less than 'Abdu'l-Baha's charter for the          London, and by the
devotion, efficiency,
teaching of the Faith of Baha'u'llah through-        and promptitude of Major
Tudor-Pole at
out His Dispensation.                                the Turkish end, for
Haifa was still in the
hands of the Turks.
ON DECEMBER 9th 1917, General Allen by                  The ·Turks had been
so aroused by the
entered Jerusalem. It now seemed certain             enemies of the Master
that they had
that the days of the Ottoman rule in the Holy        threatened to crucify
Him, and all His
Land were numbered. But the life of 'Abdu' l-        family, on Mount Carmel.
When General Allenby took Haifa,
several days before it was believed possible
8. Shoghi Effendi, God Passes B~y (Wilmette,        for him to do so, he sent
a cablegram to
Ill.: Baha'i Publishing Trust, 1970), pp.        London which caused everybody
to won-
304-05.
9. Then, the Right Honorable Arthur Balfour,        der, and especially filled
the hearts of the
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.          Baha'fs in all the world with
deep grati-
THROUGH THE WAR YEARS             27

tude to the Almighty Protector.                  cial help at this time. The
upshot of these
The cable of General Allenby was as           various activities bore fruit,
and the For-
follows: "Have to-day taken Palestine.           eign Office sent a despatch
to General
Notify the world that 'Abdu'l-Baha is            Allenby instructing him to
ensure the
safe." 10                                        safety of 'Abdu'l-Baha and
His family and
Major Tudor-Pole writes:                         entourage so soon as the
British Army
It must have been in the early spring of      captured Haifa.
1918 that I began to feel acute anxiety for         This despatch passed
through my hands
'Abdu'l-Baha's safety at Haifa, and that of      in Cairo en rottte for Army
Headquarters
His family and followers there. I came out       at Ludd . . . . and
Intelligence was re-
of the line in December 1917 during the          quested to make urgent
inquiry. In due
attack on J erusa lem, and being temporar-       course this demand for
information reached
ily incapacitated for active service, was        the Headquarters of
Intelligence at the
transferred to Intelligence, first at Cairo      Savoy Hotel, Cairo, and
ultimately (when
and later at Ludd, Jaffa, and Jerusalem.         enqu iries elsewhere had
proven fruitless)
was passed to me for action. As a result,
With an advance base at and around            General Allenby was provided
with full
Jaffa, we were beginning to prepare for a        particulars in regard to
'Abdu'l-Baha ...
move towards Haifa and the north at that         and the history of the
Movement of which
time. For several reasons, including short-      He was the Master.
age of men and munitions, the British               Allenby at once issued
orders to the
advance was delayed well into the summer         General Commanding Officer in
command
of 1918.                                         of the Haifa operations to
the effect that
Meanwhile, the news reaching me con-          immediately the town was
entered, a Brit-
cerning 'Abdu'l-Baha's imminent danger           ish guard was to be posted at
once around
became more and more alarming. I tried           'Abdu'l-Baha's house, and a
further guard
to arouse interest in the matter among           was to be placed at the
disposal of His
those who were responsible for Intelli-          family and followers. Means
were found
gence Service activities .... I also brought     for making it known within
the enemy
the matter before my own chief, General          lines that stern retribution
would follow
Sir Arthur Money (Chief Administrator            any attempt to cause death or
injury to the
of Occupied Enemy Territory) ....                great Persian Master or to
any of His
At this time chance brought me into           household.
touch with an officer whose social and
politica l connexions m London were                 When Haifa was ultimately
taken, these
strong. Through his courtesy and interest I      instructions for posting a
guard were duly
was enabled to get an urgent message             carried out, and all dangers
of death or
through to the British Foreign Office.           accident were thereby
averted.
Through friends associated with the
Baha'i Cause in England, an independent             It was a wonderful
experience in the
avenue of approach to the ruling powers          midst of the chaos of war
conditions to
in London was discovered.                        visit the Master at His Mount
Carmel
By these means Lord Balfour, Lord             home, which even at that time
was a
Curzon, and others in the Cabinet were           haven of peace and
refreshment.
advised as to the critical situation at Haifa.      I can remember Him,
majestic yet gentle,
Lord Lamington's influence proved of spe-        pacing up and down His garden
whilst He
spoke to me about eternal realities, at a
10. Blomfield, pp. 219-20.                         time when the who le
material world was
28       WORLD ORDER: FALL 1971

rocking on its foundations. The divine              facts. He also stated that
the Turks would
power of the spirit shone through His               surrender 'Akki (supposed
to be impreg-
presence, giving one the feeling that a             nable) to two unarmed
British soldiers.
great prophet from Old Testament days               The resultant facts so far
as I was able to
had risen up in a war-stricken world, as an         gather them were as
follows:-
inspirer and spiritual guide for the human             Subsequent to the entry
of our troops
race.                                               into Haifa, the front line
was pushed
One or two incidents which happened             forward half-way across the
Bay of 'Akka,
shortly afterwards, connected with the cap-         and outposts were placed
in position on
ture of Haifa, are worthy of record.                the sands of the Bay some
four miles from
During the British advance from the             'Akki itself. 'Akki, as a
fortified and
south, field batteries were placed in posi-         walled town, was believed
to be filled with
tion on high ground immediately to the              Turkish troops at this
time. Very early one
south-east of Mount Carmel, the intention           morning two British Army
Service sol-
being to shell Haifa at long range over             diers, who had lost their
bearings in the
Mount Carmel itself. Some of the Eastern            night, found themselves at
the gates of
Baha'fs living on the northern slopes of            'Akka, believing
erroneously that the town
Mount Carmel becoming agitated, went to             was already in British
hands. However, the
'Ab::lu'l-Baha's residence and expressed            Turkish rearguard troops
had been secretly
fear as to the tragic course of possible            evacuated only eight hours
earlier, and the
events. According to an eye-witness of this         Mayor of the town, seeing
British soldiers
scene (from whom I obtained the story               outside the gates, came
down and pre-
when I reached Haifa), 'Abdu'l-Baha                 sented them with the keys
of the town in
calmed His excited followers and called             token of surrender! It is
credibly stated
them to prayer. Then He told them that              that the dismayed Tommies,
being un-
all would be well, and that no British              armed, dropped the keys
and made post
shells would cause death or damage to the           haste for the British
lines! 11
population or to Haifa and its environs. As         On September 23rd, British
forces com-
a matter of historical fact, the range of the    ing along the coastal road,
rounded the
field batteries in question was inaccurate,      promontory of Mount Carmel
and appeared
the shells passing harmlessly over the           before Haifa. The Mayor and
the notables
town and falling into the Bay of 'Akki           went out to offer their
submission. The first
beyond.                                          question that the British
commanding officer
Another incident of those stirring times     put to the Mayor 'of Haifa was:
"Is 'Abdu'l-
is worthy of record, although I am not           Baha in this city? Is He
safe?" 'Abdu'l-Baha
able to vouch for its complete accuracy at       was sitting calm and
unperturbed in the
first hand. Before the fall of Haifa, 'Abdu'l-   forecourt of His house.
Baha'fs were there
Baha was discussing the British campaign         around Him, tense and
awaiting news. Indian
with a few of His followers in His garden        army outriders arrived
posthaste at the gates
one day. He then predicted that, contrary        of the house. The next
evening, the Gov-
to the general expectation, the taking of        ernor of Jerusalem came in
person to pay his
Haifa and the walled town of 'Akki              respects. Lt. Colonel (later
Sir) Ronald
would come about almost without blood-           Storrs was not a stranger. He
had known
shed. This prediction was verified by the        'Abdu'l-Baha as far back as
the days of His
incarceration within the city walls of 'Akka.
He came again, the following morning-
September 25th-before returning to Jeru-
11. Ibid., pp. 222-25 .                               salem.
    — 'Abdu'l-Baha: Through the War Years (Used by permission of the curator)