# Familiar 'Akka Voices

*Exported from [Holy-Writings.com](https://www.holy-writings.com/) on 2026-06-19 — 1 clipping.*

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> Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Marzieh Gail, Familiar 'Akka Voices, Los Angeles: Kalimat Press, 1985, bahai-library.com.
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> 
> Familiar 'Akká Voices 1
> 
> by Marzieh Gail
> 
> from
> 
> The Master in 'Akká
> Myron Henry Phelps
> Los Angeles: Kalimat Press, 1985
> 
> In Cairo, on March 8, 1903, Myron H. Phelps of the New York Bar finished the introduction to his
> Life and Teachings of Abbas Effendi, and signed it with his three initials.
> Phelps had dedicated the work to Countess M. A. de S. Canavarro because it was she who attracted
> his attention "to the real character and significance of the Beha'i Movement." (His then widely used but
> erroneous spelling of Bahá’í was caused by the fact that Persian does not write the short vowels, and some
> used to read the first "a" as "e.")
> He went on to say that her "clear insight" was largely responsible for "such success as I may have
> had in reaching a correct appreciation and understanding of the teachings of Abbas Effendi." He and the
> Countess had "worked together over all parts of the book," and it should have been published over their
> two names, "but since she does not wish this, I am obliged to content myself with stating the facts." He
> also said, in the rather apologetic manner favored by authors of the day, that he was aware of the book's
> "many deficiencies" and possibly "some errors" and asked his readers to
> IX
> 
> FAMILIAR AKKÁ VOICES
> send him corrections in care of his publishers, G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York and London.
> It so happened that the publisher, G. H. Putnam, was an old friend of the orientalist, Edward
> Granville Browne—whom Phelps had met in Cairo, probably in the spring of 1903—and at Putnam's
> request Browne supplied the book with an introduction of his own, dated at Cambridge, September 27,
> 1903.
> Browne says he read the work "with equal pleasure and satisfaction." He says "the whole book is to
> me full of familiar echoes of the voices to which I so eagerly listened when I visited Akká thirteen years
> 
> 1   See scan of original at https://bahai-library.com/phelps_master_akka
> ago, in the days when Bahá’u’lláh himself still dwelt amongst mankind." (p. vii)
> Browne is, of course, mistaken when he says that the book is "a faithful and trustworthy exposition
> of the views of Abbas Effendi, 'the Master of Akká', and his followers." When studying the text of a
> proposed reprint sent in for evaluation by Kalimát Press, the Research Department of the Universal House
> of Justice identified forty inaccuracies during its initial review. (All are noted here in footnotes and
> references.) Phelps does not correctly present the Bahá’í Teachings, since, in the circumstances, exegesis
> was beyond him.
> "I do not," he writes, "for a moment conceive that I have arrived at a full understanding of the tenets
> of the [Bahá’í] religion and the philosophy underlying it in all their scope and detail." He says the time
> was far too short for his investigation—he was there in Akká for
> x
> 
> by Marzieh Gail
> one month, December 1902—and accurate renderings into a European language were not available, (p.
> xli)
> Indeed it would not be till the following year, 1904, that Laura Barney would begin to compile her
> priceless and authoritative account of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá's table talks, Some Answered Questions. Laura, an
> American heiress, was an intellectual; she had language skills, being bilingual in French and English; and
> she studied Persian in the Holy Land. Furthermore she was helped in her task by the erudite French
> scholar Hippolyte Dreyfus. Their work on this book drew Laura and Hippolyte together, their marriage
> resulted, and as is the custom in some countries, the couple was known as the Hippolyte Dreyfus-Barneys.
> (Thanks to a strange twist of fate, Laura, whose memory history will cherish, is passed over by many of
> her contemporaries, while her sister Natalie appears in turn of the century memoirs and is the subject of
> several full-length biographies, including a recent one by Jean Chalon.)
> In any case, Laura's book, Some Answered Questions, published in London, would not appear until
> 1908. Hippolyte brought out his French translation of the same talks, published in Paris by Leroux, and he
> called it Les Lecons de Saint-Jean-ďAcre.
> Laura says that Some Answered Questions is "in no way complete and exhaustive." The teachings,
> given her between 1904 and 1906, were, she tells us, deliberately simplified by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá "to
> correspond to my rudimentary knowledge," and they were not
> xi
> 
> FAMILIAR AKKÁ VOICES
> presented in order. Here, the Master is "the teacher adapting Himself to His pupil." He said He had given
> her His "tired moments." Sometimes "days and even weeks would pass" before He had time to continue
> with the lessons: "But I could well be patient, for I had always before me the greater lesson —the lesson
> of His personal life."
> It is this personal life of the Master which Phelps has exceptionally well recorded in his book. For
> the rest, the interviews of Madame Canavarro with Khánum, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá's sister, are of great interest
> for Khanum's memories of the tragic events she had herself lived through. Otherwise one might well be
> misdirected if one relied on this text for a study of the deeper teachings, and for this reason Kalimát Press
> has chosen to reprint only portions of the book. Phelps has certainly kept for posterity certain aspects of
> Abdu'l-Baha's daily practice, even certain gestures, which touch the heart, and mean all the more to
> Bahá’ís because the Master was appointed by His Father not only as Head and Interpreter of the Faith, but
> as the example for all believers (each as best he can) to follow.
> The fact that Phelps was not a declared Bahá’í, although undoubtedly close and sympathetic to this
> religion, is probably an advantage to the non-Bahá’í reader. Here is an educated man, attracted to this
> Faith but not specifically an adherent, simply writing out the
> XII
> 
> by Marzieh Gail
> best way he knew, what he had learned and witnessed. His book has the same status as all other "pilgrims'
> reports," subjective accounts which returned pilgrims are welcome, even encouraged to share, but which
> necessarily cannot be regarded as authoritative if one wishes to go seriously into the Teachings. In a
> religion which has no clergy but which, unlike most other religions—except Islam—does possess its
> authoritative, original Texts, obviously one bases belief on these Texts rather than on the impressions of
> this or the other reporter. (Bahá’ís are directed by Bahá’u’lláh to "look into all things with a searching
> eye," [Tablets, p. 157]; they may well, throughout life, from their ongoing studies and contacts with other
> students of the Faith, alter or develop their own understanding of this or that teaching, but are always
> aware that their personal interpretation has no authority over anyone else. In trying to attract the attention
> of the world to the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh, Bahá’ís inevitably return again and again to their authorized
> Texts.)
> Religion in his time was, thought Myron Phelps, "almost throughout the world . . . stagnant and faith
> is dead." But there in the Holy Land he found "a demonstration that it is capable of revival. Such a
> spectacle as the ideal, Christlike life of Abbas Effendi has in it an immense probative and stimulating
> power. "As a result of reflections of this kind" he tells us, "came the impulse to prepare this book." And so
> for a month he witnessed, and spoke with
> XIII
> ABDU'L-BAHA NEAR THE SHRINE OF THE BÁB with a group of Bahá’ís.
> Note Shoghi Effendi, far left, and Western Bahá’ís directly behind the Master.
> 
> by Marzieh Gail
> family members and others who had long witnessed, the Master's way of being. Bahá’ís learn from
> childhood that only this kind of being can win them their goal — the spiritual conquest of the planet. The
> Guardian, Shoghi Effendi, has written that not by noble principles, not by the force of numbers, not even
> by staunch faith and great enthusiasm, can Bahá’ís vindicate "the supreme claim of the Abhá Revelation.
> One thing and only one thing will unfailingly and alone secure the undoubted triumph of this sacred
> Cause, namely, the extent to which our own inner life and private character mirror forth ... the splendor of
> those eternal principles proclaimed by Bahá’u’lláh." (Bahá’í Administration, p. 57)
> There is no arguing with a life such as the Master led, and He lived under close scrutiny. During
> forty years of His time on earth, He was a prisoner, and watched. Always there were people about Him,
> disciples, guests, notables, inquirers. What He was drew them —not only the half-wild poor, living in
> their hovels and out on the desert, but leading individuals from East and West —to the narrow, sandy
> stretch along the Mediterranean where He passed most of His days. It was a fact which His enemies,
> especially those members of His Household who broke with Him, could never forgive. Why had
> Bahá’u’lláh singled Him out and called Him "the Master"? Why did strangers come to Him from
> unknown America and offer Him lifelong devotion? Why not to them instead? Why would a Per-
> xv
> 
> FAMILIAR AKKÁ VOICES
> sian prince become His follower? Why would the learned take notes when He spoke?
> One thinks back to the time of Bahá’u’lláh, who also attracted murderous hostility, though He was
> also "the object of a devotion and love," wrote E. G. Browne, "which kings might envy." One reads, for
> example, that although He came as a prisoner and exile, He was greeted with great homage the day He
> entered Constantinople. That day His hostile half brother, Mírzá Yahyá, running along "by his own
> choice, behind Bahá’u’lláh's carriage," was heard by the chronicler Nabil to tell his evil genius, Siyyid
> Muhammad: "Had I not chosen to hide myself, had I revealed my identity, the honor accorded Him
> (Bahá’u’lláh) on this day would have been mine too." (God Passes By, p. 155) Helpless rage at another's
> perfection can lead to murder of the innocent. Joseph, down the ages, is time and again thrown into the
> well.
> Sidelights on how this book was written are found in the Khátirát-i Nuh Sálih of Dr. Yúnis Khán, his
> Nine Years of Memories of the days when he lived in the Holy Land.
> He tells how, very gradually, a few Westerners who implored to come received permission, in spite
> of the Master's precarious situation, and appeared discreetly, singly or in small groups. Among the early
> ones were two Americans, Madame de Canavarro and her brother
> xvi
> DR. YÚNIS KHAN AFRÚKHTIH Author of Khátirát-i Nuh Sálih (Nine Years of Memories).
> 
> FAMILIAR AKKÁ VOICES
> in Buddhism, Myron Phelps. Fortunately by then, the town residence of Bahá’u’lláh had been vacated and
> was in the Master's hands, so the two were accommodated there.
> Madame de Canavarro had been an ardent Buddhist, was a teacher of that Faith, and had expended
> large sums over many years to promote her beliefs. She had sacrificed her substance for the work, and
> was widely known for it. She belonged to a leading family, was thoroughly conversant with the new
> philosophy of the West, as well as with the Sufism of India, and she had had the Gospel of Buddha
> translated into English and French. Now, by way of Buddhism, she had come to the Bahá’í Faith. She was
> about forty-five or fifty, frail in health but joyous in spirit. Phelps, her co-religionist, accompanied her to
> Akká. He had a great talent for literary work and was making a record of his experiences.
> When the Countess arrived, she humbly kissed the hand of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. He showed her great
> kindness, and she was received by the ladies of the Household in the andarún. The day following her
> arrival, conversations at table with the Master began. Unlike recent visitors, Mr. Breakwell and the sons
> of Mr. Dodge, she asked many questions and Phelps wrote down the answers. But the problem was this:
> The two Buddhists differed as to their ideas and beliefs, and the book which was being compiled had to
> be agreeable to both. For this reason the Master was put to great trouble clarifying questions for both of
> them.
> xviii
> 
> by Munich Gail
> "The lady asks a question," says Dr. Yúnis Khán in his account, "I translate it and then give her the
> Master's reply. Mr. Phelps writes it all down very rapidly—but since the questioner and the writer have
> opposing viewpoints it becomes exceedingly difficult to communicate the response to these two
> conflicting minds, and the need to repeat it all places a burden on the Master. One brief section dealing
> with Buddha or other Prophets presented no problems. But for the important section dealing with
> reincarnation, Phelps insisted in setting forth his preferences and beliefs, or would slant the material in
> such a way as to please the many believers in reincarnation who are in Europe — thus attracting readers
> and sales—and this problem obtained throughout the writing of the book.
> "On the second or third day at the luncheon table, when complex matters began to be introduced, a
> fracas suddenly broke out and the occasion of it was this: A question which was obvious and basic in
> Bahá’í philosophy seemed abstruse to the lady and accordingly it was repeated a number of times until at
> last it was made clear. At this moment the lady turned on me, angrily attacked me and became so agitated
> that she could not address the problem with calm. The Master repeatedly asked me, 'What is she saying?'
> but the lady gave me no opportunity to grasp the subject and present it to the Master.
> "After a considerable uproar, she seemed to be saying, 'You people of the East, why should you be in
> the forefront of religion, in view of the fact that you are not
> xix
> FAMILIAR 'AKKÁ VOICES
> all that advanced, and why should we Westerners need to receive our ideas from you? Where did you
> come from, that we should need you? In the first place you do not possess such attainments that you
> should have the capacity to understand matters of this kind. When we have explained something to you
> and imparted some line of thought, then we have to wait for your answer. If it weren't for us from the
> West how would you grasp any of these things—and then as soon as you have grasped the matter, you
> understand the answer first, and then I have to understand it from you. Worst of all, you learn the secrets
> of Heaven and the divine truths directly from the Master (that is, you drink from the source), while we
> hear it only from your tongue (that is, we drink stagnant water). Why must I concentrate my eyes and ears
> on what comes out of your mouth, and sit waiting till I receive my answer?'
> "As soon as I understood her comments I presented them to the Master. Yes, it is in such situations
> that His dignified manner and His loving smiles can defeat a whole world. He gazed tenderly upon her
> and said, 'Tell her that the influence of the secrets of Heaven is spiritual, and not of the body. Ear and
> tongue are material tools. Unless the spirit be ready to receive the bounties of God, of what use are eye
> and ear? These spiritual themes are making an impact on your heart, I am speaking with you by the power
> of the Spirit, and you, with complete concentration and pure intent, and an illumined heart, are receiving
> the divine effulgences.
> xx
> 
> by Marzieh Gail
> The essential is a true inner bond between us. God be praised that this firm, inward, spiritual tie is present.
> Whatever you have understood thus far has reached you from the breaths of the Holy Spirit, and my
> spiritual connection with you is immediate and direct. The tongue of the interpreter is but a material tool.'
> "Following this the Master cited examples of the devotion and success of the disciples of Christ, and
> said that in this wondrous age as well, souls who had neither physical sight nor hearing had attained to
> faith and had guided others. In brief, the lady was now content and expressed her pleasure, and peace was
> established between the two of us. She stayed over a month and important philosophical and mystical
> problems were solved for her. Some of these were published by Mr. Phelps in his book, some the lady
> kept in her heart.
> "As for the book, the first section, telling of the impressions of Phelps and the things he witnessed, is
> very sweet, sensitive and moving. The other section, describing the journeys of Bahá’u’lláh and the Holy
> Household, the exile from Tehran to Baghdad, to Constantinople and Adrianople and Akká, is also very
> accurate and well established. This section, which the lady heard from the Greatest Holy Leaf herself, the
> translator being one of the Master's daughters, she wrote down and gave to Mr. Phelps. As to the other
> part, however, many mistakes crept into it with regard to such matters as reincarnation. I translated half
> the book three or four times, and it was brought to the Master's attention. Again, I either
> xxi
> 
> FAMILIAR AKKÁ VOICES
> translated it into English or described the material to Mr. Phelps, and the Master corrected it.
> Nevertheless, the main part as published was contrary to the Master's teachings. Madame de Canavarro
> herself would understand His teachings, but Mr. Phelps would write as he pleased. Finally the two ended
> their days here in good spirits and for a considerable time thereafter letters would come from Madame de
> Canavarro telling of her services to the Cause."
> No doubt this account by Dr. Yúnis Khán explains why, as stated by Phelps in his introduction, the
> Countess did not wish the book to be published over their two joint names.
> 
> Through Madam Canavarro, Phelps was able to obtain, as it were, interviews in absentia with
> Bahiyyih Khánum, "The Lady." This was '‘Abdu’l-Bahá's sister, two years younger than Himself, who
> would in future, more than once, be in effect Regent of the Bahá’í World.
> She, the Greatest Holy Leaf, spoke no English, but young women in the Household, notably Rúhá
> Khánum and her sister Munawar, daughters of the Master, could serve as translators. The talks were not
> written down as Khánum spoke, they were recorded only after the lapse of a few hours and shared with
> Phelps in installments. He explains why he could not meet Khánum in person. It was because of the
> restrictions of Islamic custom,
> xxii
> BAHÍYYIH KHÁNUM, THE GREATEST HOLY LEAF
> 
> (FAMILIAR AKKÁ VOICES)
> which the Bahá’ís "carefully observe for the sake of peace and harmony." The ladies, captives in that
> Muslim country, wore the veil and except for close relatives did not meet with men. The present narrative
> from Khánum is probably the longest and most valuable of any she has left us.
> Here this graceful and patrician lady, fragile, her health forever impaired by exile and imprisonment,
> tells the story of her Brother, whose sufferings and those of their parents she had shared from childhood.
> She tells how it was for them in Tehran, during the days after an attempt was made on the life of the shah,
> and how, until His innocence was proved, Bahá’u’lláh was chained underground with criminals in the
> shah's Black Pit. How the family's house was pillaged, and in one day they passed from great wealth to
> destitution, and her mother had to exchange the gold buttons on their clothing for food. How she, a little
> girl then, spent days of terror alone with her small brother in their ruined house, listening to the cries of
> mobs who were torturing and killing her fellow believers in the streets, expecting at every moment to hear
> that Bahá’u’lláh was no more. Then came their exile to Baghdad, their extreme poverty at the beginning,
> the plots of Bahá’u’lláh's half brother Mírzá Yahyá, Bahá’u’lláh's two years absence in the wilderness,
> His return and the growing prosperity of the Faith. How word was carried to the two Muslim rulers, the
> shah and the sultan, of the spread of the Teachings, and brought on their exile to Constantinople. How
> they were expelled from Constantinople
> xxiv
> 
> by Marzieh Gail
> and exiled in summer clothes and with scanty food through cold so terrible that the upper reaches of the
> Euphrates froze over for forty days — to five years of captivity in Adrianople. Then the final exile to the
> fortress town of Akká. Khánum said that after landing in Akká, they had to walk through cursing, taunting
> mobs to the army barracks where they were jailed. Most were ailing, and Bahá’u’lláh and herself perhaps
> the sickest of all. As they entered the prison, the great door was bolted behind them, they were up to their
> ankles in mud, and the smell of excrement was so strong that Khánum fainted away and there was no
> place to lay her down. A man there was weaving a mat for the soldiers, and she was placed on this mat
> and brought back to herself with water from a puddle on the floor, which the weaver was using for his
> rushes. The prisoners came down with typhoid and dysentery, but were allowed no doctor or medicine.
> There were seventy of them, and four died.
> Then her younger brother Mihdi fell from the roof of the barracks through an unguarded skylight, to
> his death. And throughout all the tragedies ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, whatever His own sufferings, served His Father
> as manager of the family and their fellow captives, as well as cook, comforter and nurse.
> Browne speaks in his introductory essay to Phelps's book of "the most remarkable triumph of the
> Bahá’í religion ... the marvellous success achieved in recent
> xxv
> FAMILIAR AKKÁ VOICES
> years by its missionaries in the United States of America. . . . Once again in the world's history has the
> East vindicated her claim to teach religion to the West . . . " It was precisely when these words were being
> written that Mírzá Abu'1-Fadl with Ali-Kuli Khan as his interpreter were reaching large and enthusiastic
> audiences in America. Browne cites a number of reasons for the Christian missionary's "almost complete
> failure" in Muslim countries. He points out that "Western Christianity, save in the rarest cases, is more
> Western than Christian, more racial than religious." Islam has nothing against racial intermarriage while
> "many even of the most excellent and earnest Christian missionaries . . . whom Europe and America send
> to Asia and Africa would be far less shocked at the idea of receiving on terms of intimacy in their house
> or at their table a white-skinned atheist than a dark-skinned believer."
> Another reason Browne gives for Bábí-Bahá'í success in gaining adherents is that these believers
> accept
> "the divine inspiration of the Qur'an" and the prophet-hood of Muhammad, and he describes the
> insoluble problem confronting the Christian missionary: the Qur'an teaches the validity of the religions
> gone before, therefore arguing the Muslims out of their Book converts them "not to Christianity but to
> Scepticism or Atheism."
> "What indeed," he asks, "could be more illogical . . . than to devote much time and labour to the
> composition of controversial works which endeavour to prove,
> xxvi
> .A View of Haifa circa 1880
> EDWARD G. BROWNE in Persian costume.
> 
> by Marzieh Gail
> in one and the same breath, first, that the Qur'an is a lying imposture, and, secondly, that it bears witness
> to the truth of Christ's mission, as though any value attached to the testimony of one proved a liar!"
> The Bábi or Bahá’í, however, "admits that Muhammad was the Prophet of God and that the Qur'an is
> the Word of God, denies nothing but their finality, and does not discredit his own witness when he draws
> from that source arguments to prove his faith." (pp. xix-xx)
> Browne is obviously wrong when he says of our beliefs, "their doctrine ... is at most a new synthesis
> of old ideas ..." Where in previous religions do we find sex equality, world language, universal education,
> world federation, administration of (Bahá’í) affairs through prayer and consultation by elected
> representatives of the "man in the street," and indeed the giving to that "ordinary" man and woman an
> individual voice that can become effective nationally and even globally through the Bahá’í system? If,
> however, Browne refers to the repetition by the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh, and every other Manifestation of
> God, of the same, essential truths at the core of all religions (which might be summed up in George
> Herbert's "Love God and love your neighbor, work and pray"), here one can understand why, as Phelps
> quotes Him, the Master says, "Every one receiving these instructions will think, 'How like my own
> religion!' " (p. 128)
> Telling of the impact which their belief exerts on the conduct of these believers, the "high ethical
> standard inculcated" by the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh, Browne re-
> xxix
> 
> FAMILIAR AKKÁ VOICES
> marks on the earnestness of followers of the new Faith, "while the great majority of Jews, Christians, and
> Muhammadans are what they are simply by reason of the circumstances of their birth." He lists two
> advantages which the Bahá’í religion enjoys over Christianity, Islam, "or any other of the older
> world-religions" — thus inferentially already calling the Faith a world religion: first, "its freedom from . .
> . lukewarm adherents . . . " and second, he thinks, that "towards other religions, especially Christianity,
> they [the Bahá’ís] would . . . be more tolerant than are the Muhammadans . . . " He does not hesitate to
> suggest that once in power, the believers as he knew them might not prove so tolerant toward native foes,
> but says that once dominant in Persia "they would, I am convinced, prove infinitely more progressive, and
> Persia as a country might not improbably gain enormously both in wealth and power by the change." (p.
> xxiv)
> He bases this on his own visit to Persia, described in his classic A Year Amongst the Persians, when
> he spent twelve months (1887-88) in that country. A modern Bahá’í, reading this work, feels that Browne
> was most of the time with believers who were just emerging from Islam, who in many cases had not had
> the new teachings of Bahá’u’lláh, who indeed had much of the time been cut off from the imprisoned,
> then the martyred Báb, and now, since 1852, from their Leader in exile — that Leader Who "recast,
> expanded, and liberalized" the Bab's teachings and Whose own teachings were later "expounded,
> reaffirmed and amplified" by
> XXX
> by Marzieh Gail
> His appointed Interpreter, the Master. (God Passes By, p. xvii)
> Browne, the scholar, writes of Phelps inferentially de haut en bas, as almost a passerby. Once
> finished with the compliments normal in an introduction, we learn that Phelps did not know the languages
> (as did Browne), that Phelps had not spent a long time with the believers (as had Browne), that Phelps did
> not know the Persian classics (as did Browne), and Phelps "goes, perhaps, rather too far ... "
> Harking back, however, to the dawn of the Faith, Browne was caught up in unscholarly fervor, and
> could not help ending his remarks with the martyr's song, sung in 1852 by Sulaymán Khán, the one with
> lighted candles burning in his wounds as, through jeering mobs, he walked and danced to his death:
> In this hand the wine-cup, in this the Loved One's tress,
> So would I dance across the market place. *
> MYRON PHELPS begins his own personal introduction to this book by stating of the Bahá’í Faith:
> "We are here in the presence of a great force, destined to have a far-reaching influence upon the thoughts
> and lives of men." (p. xxvii)
> "Fascinating indeed," he continues, "are those mysterious and mighty movements which . . . with a
> certain rhythmic sequence and regularity, have from
> •Retranslated by M.G.-ED.
> xxxi
> 
> FAMILIAR 'AKKÁ VOICES
> the earliest days swept over the earth . . . changing individual habits and social customs . . . moulding the
> lives of vast masses of mankind. A Confucius, a Zoroaster, a Buddha, a Christ, a Mahomet, is born as
> other men, lives the ordinary span of human life, and dies as others, but by his brief presence the face of
> the world is changed."
> Over eighty years ago, Phelps referred to the Bahá’í religion as "a religious faith which gives
> promise of becoming, at no very distant time, one of the recognised great religions of the world." His
> appreciation, so early in the century when the general public knew little of the Bahá’í teachings, does him
> much credit. Many eminences, leaders in their various fields, did indeed pay it their tributes — this is a
> matter of record —but even now when our Faith is established worldwide, it takes a special type of mind
> to objectively consider the stupendous claim of Bahá’u’lláh, that He is the Promised One of all religions. ,
> Browne tells how he himself was excoriated for his interest. He had been "irresistibly attracted" to
> the Báb by Count de Gobineau's landmark study, Les Religions et les Philosophies dans l'Asie Centrále.
> He traveled to Persia, and later had four interviews with Bahá’u’lláh as His guest in the mansion of Bahji,
> April 15-20, 1890. It was during this visit that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá handed Browne the manuscript of His
> (anonymously written) A Traveller's Narrative. Browne translated it and was savagely attacked for his
> pains, in the Oxford Magazine, May 25, 1892.
> xxxii
> by Marzieh Gail
> In his introduction to Phelps's book, ten years after the event, Browne quotes portions of this attack,
> which ended with the statement that his article prefacing the translation displayed "a personal attitude
> almost inconceivable in a rational European . . . " The critic also avers that "speaking candidly as a
> layman," he considers "the history of a recent sect which has affected the least important part of the
> Moslem world (nor that part very deeply) and is founded on a personal claim which will not bear
> investigation for a moment" is "quite unworthy of the learning and labour which the author has brought to
> bear upon it." And adds that "the prominence given to the 'Báb' in this book is an absurd violation of
> historical perspective; and the translation of the Traveller's Narrative a waste of the powers and
> opportunities of a Persian scholar." (p. xiiin)
> The attention of Phelps was drawn to Akká because he saw in the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh and the
> unnumbered Persian martyrs, successors to the age-old glory that had always recurred in the past. He
> wished to observe the third figure, still living, of a remarkable triumvirate, two of them Messengers from
> God, the third now invested with the headship of the Faith. What impressed him much was the fact that
> Bahá’ís recognize other faiths "as equally divine in origin" with their own. And again, that the Bahá’í
> Faith has "a vital and effective power to mould life."
> These things were a revelation to him, Phelps says. He saw in what he had witnessed there in Akká
> "the potentiality of immense good to other nations of the
> xxxiii
> 
> FAMILIAR AKKÁ VOICES
> world by impelling a recognition of the real strength and greatness of the spirit of true religion, under
> whatever external form it may appear. Out of such reflections "came the impulse to prepare this book." (p.
> xlii)
> Inevitably, students of the Bahá’í Faith will be impatient to add explanatory material to what they
> find here. There is Browne's note, for example, on page 42, quoting Mírzá Yahyá, the murderous half
> brother of Bahá’u’lláh, to the effect that in Adrianople Bahá’u’lláh attempted to poison him, not the
> reverse, as was the case — the brother giving Him poison which inflicted on Bahá’u’lláh a month-long
> illness and left Him with a tremor in His hand for the rest of His life. Again in Adrianople, as an estranged
> wife of the sanguinary Mírzá Yahyá revealed, he poisoned the Holy Family's well. It was also in that city
> that he tried to induce Salmání, the devoted barber of Bahá’u’lláh, who describes in My Memories of
> Bahá’u’lláh the plot to assassinate the Messenger of God in His bath.
> Discussing Browne's statement in the latter's notes on A Traveller's Narrative (p. 371 ff.), where
> Browne lists accusations by the half brother and states — with the same jingoism that Browne criticizes in
> the Christian missionaries — that after all, "the removal of persons inimical to a religious movement by . .
> . religious assassination is a thing far less repugnant to the Eastern than to the Western mind." Phelps
> challenges the implication: "A transparent fabrication," he says of
> xxxiv
> 
> by Marzieh Gail
> the charges, "incredible to anyone familiar with the character and teachings of the Beha'is." "I must
> protest most energetically against Professor Browne's suggestion that any traits of Oriental character
> shared by the leaders of Beha'ism be assumed as possibly closing their eyes to the iniquity of such
> proceedings in support of their cause . . . I wish to place on record the fact that my own acquaintance with
> the Beha'is and the spirit which animates them makes it inconceivable to me that such utter perversion of
> moral sense, however possible it may generally be to the Oriental type of character, about which I here
> express no opinion, could under any circumstances characterise their policy as a body or the policy of
> their leaders." (pp. 42, 43n)
> A caveat should be added to Phelps's reporting of the Master's words on hunting, reproduced here,
> and how He did not care for this sport: hunting in moderation is not forbidden to Bahá’ís, as one learns
> from the Aqdas, Bahá’u’lláh's Book of Laws.
> Two historic selections from Browne, which Phelps includes, are the word-portrait of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
> as Browne saw Him in 1890, when the Master was forty-six, and the now world-famous, first interview
> that the orientalist was privileged to have with Bahá’u’lláh during that same visit.
> The historian Hasan Balyuzi, in his in-depth study, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá: The Centre of the Covenant of
> Bahá’u’lláh,
> XXXV
> 
> FAMILIAR 'AKKÁ VOICES
> quotes extensively from the present work, and tells how Phelps describes his visit to Akká as one of the
> most memorable months of his life, "for not only was I able to gain a satisfactory general view of this
> religion, but I made the acquaintance of Abbas Effendi, who is easily the most remarkable man whom it
> has ever been my fortune to meet." (p. 97)
> In their review of The Life and Teachings of Abbas Effendi, Kazem and Firuz Kazemzadeh pointed
> out that even then, fifty years after ‘Abdu’l-Bahá's passing, there was no adequate biography of the
> Master (this was before Mr. Balyuzi's book was available, 1971). Necessary documents were not at hand,
> sources were in archives on at least three continents, language barriers including Persian and Arabic
> narrowed the number of researchers. At that time the authors listed only five biographers: Phelps, H. C.
> Ives, M. Zarqání, Dr. H. Mu'ayyad, and Dr. Yúnis Khán Afrúkhtih. The present book by Phelps was "the
> first attempt to write a full-length study of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in English."
> Phelps did not have the necessary historical background — this was long before the Guardian's
> translation of Nabíl's chronicle, The Dawn-Breakers, and the writing of his own master work, God Passes
> By. These reviewers feel that the pages of narrative from the Greatest Holy Leaf are the "marrow" of this
> book, but state that as a guide to Bahá’í beliefs Phelps cannot be relied on. They explain that the Bahá’í
> Faith "does not synthesize" but "unifies and fulfills the great religions of the past," and that "the very basis
> on which ... its
> xxxvi
> 
> by Marzieh Gail
> acceptance of other religions rests — the concepts of progressive revelation and of the relativity of
> religious truth — is strikingly novel." (World Order Magazine, Fall, 1971)
> Today in the United States there is a new class of human beings who go by the name of Street
> People. They used to be confined to certain parts of the city, like the Bowery in New York, and Third and
> Howard Streets in San Francisco, but today they are increasingly mixed in with the rest. They lie along
> walls of buildings, among the passersby, sit over gratings for warmth, crouch in doorways. At meal times,
> unless too far gone, they line up where they know there will be food. Some are young enough, not badly
> dressed, and these may ask for money. But others are layered and encrusted with poverty going back
> many years, their hair coarse, sores on their lips, oblivious, asking nothing, muttering to themselves,
> carrying all their worldly goods in a soiled bag—as cut off from the passersby, as if they were a thousand
> miles away.
> To the equivalent of these Street People ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was a refuge and asylum, these that He nursed
> and fed. Except that the American ones have some access to government subsidies and charitable
> institutions, and live in relatively clean cities, while those children of His across the world often enough
> had no one but Him between them and death.
> As Phelps tells it they were, many of them, blind,
> xxxvii
> 
> FAMILIAR AKKÁ VOICES
> were skin and bones, old, on crutches, of all the races thereabouts. Abdu’l-Bahá would stand at a narrow
> angle of the street and call them to Him and greet them as friends. And to each He would say, "Welcome!
> Welcome! Well done! Well done!" They pushed about Him, grasped at Him, some even scratching and
> wounding His hands. There were five or six hundred poor in Akká, and when winter came, the Master
> saw to it that each had a warm coat.
> All this, while He Himself was poor and did not even belong to this country, His place of
> imprisonment and exile. Since 1892, He had been left in full charge of Bahá’u’lláh's Faith. When funds
> came in, He denied Himself, distributing all for the spread of the Cause, for the destitute, for the
> Household and their continual guests who flocked to Him even in the prison town, for the education of the
> young. (He financed the medical training in Beirut of both Yúnis Khán and H. Mu'ayyad.) When Ali-Kuli
> Khan served by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá's side virtually night and day for thirteen months as His amanuensis, the
> Master would give him exactly enough money for his needs—Khan never had to ask. Gifts of flowers,
> fruit, sweets, garments, were distributed, as were valuables such as jewels, unless these were necessary for
> the Faith. For example, when Elsa (Laura) Barney offered jewels to the Master, He gave them to Lua and
> Edward Getsinger in 1901 to pay for their journey back to the United States. Obviously, the Master did all
> this by putting everyone else first.
> xxxviii
> ABDU’L-BAHÁ IN THE HOLY LAND
> holding a Tablet
> 
> FAMILIAR AKKÁ VOICES
> Phelps's book starts out with a typical scene, showing ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in the midst of the crowding
> poor. Four years later, my mother, a young American woman, bride of Ali-Kuli Khan, witnessed much
> the same scene when she came on pilgrimage to Akká in 1906. The Master had directed her to wear the
> Persian veil in public, since times were dangerous, the Household was continually spied upon, and her
> husband was a Persian. Florence Khánum never really learned how to wear the chádur, but did her best.
> One day, wandering a little away from the Master's house and lost in her chádur, Florence found herself
> one with the crowd. That day, so it happened, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had appointed an attendant, Bashir, to give
> out the silver coins. Florence, struggling in vain to reach Bashir's protection and smothering in her
> costume, did not dare cry out or put aside her veil and reveal her American face. Terrified, pushing ahead,
> she was mistaken for a beggar woman trying to shove away the rest. Luckily, the believers who were
> assisting the harried Bashir realized who she was and, not without smiles, led her to safety.
> Having been part of the beggar mob herself, Florence left a more horrified report than the genteel
> one of Myron Phelps. To her, New England-bred, these people were only half humans, with their wild
> staring eyes and soiled rags, their jutting bones, their injuries, their leprosy. To her they were hateful, like
> sick, ill-kept beasts.
> To many, the poor still are. But not to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.
> xl
> ABDU'L-BAHA with some believers
> Taken in Haifa on March 3, 1921, on which day the Master started with
> Cummingham for Tiberias.
> 
> FAMILIAR AKKÁ VOICES
> He went about His prison life, living the words of Bahá’u’lláh: "Know ye that the poor are the trust
> of God in your midst. . . betray not His trust." (Gleanings, p. 251) "If ye meet the abased or the
> down-trodden, turn not away disdainfully from them . . . Flee not from the face of the poor that lieth in the
> dust, nay rather befriend him." (Ibid., p. 314) "Vaunt not thyself over the poor ..." (Hidden Words, Arabic,
> 25)
> And when Abdu’l-Bahá left the world in 1921, these and their descendants wailed that their Father
> was gone.
> xlii
> 
> A VIEW OF LAKE GENNESARET, circa 1925
>
> — *Familiar 'Akka Voices (Used by permission of the curator)*