It was at this period, and as a direct consequence of the rebellion and appalling downfall of Mirza Yahya, that certain disciples of Baha'u'llah (who may well rank among the "treasures" promised Him by God when bowed down with chains in the Siyah- Chal of Tihran), including among them one of the Letters of the Living, some survivors of the struggle of Tabarsi, and the erudite Mirza Ahmad- i- Azghandi, arose to defend the newborn Faith, to refute, in numerous and detailed apologies, as their Master had done in the Kitab- i- Badi', the arguments of His opponents, and to expose their odious deeds. It was at this period that the limits of the Faith were enlarged, when its banner was permanently planted in the Caucasus by the hand of Mulla Abu- Talib and others whom Nabil had converted, when its first Egyptian center was established at the time when Siyyid Husayn- i- Kashani and Haji Baqir- i- Kashani took up their residence in that country, and when to the lands already warmed and illuminated by the early rays of God's Revelation-- Iraq, Turkey and Persia-- Syria was added. It was in this period that the greeting of "Allah- u- Abha" superseded the old salutation of "Allah- u- Akbar," and was simultaneously adopted in Persia and Adrianople, the first to use it in the former country, at the suggestion of Nabil, being Mulla Muhammad- i- Furughi, one of the defenders of the Fort of Shaykh Tabarsi. It was in this period that the phrase "the people of the Bayan," now denoting the followers of Mirza Yahya, was discarded, and was supplanted by the term "the people of Baha." It was during those days that Nabil, recently honored with the title of Nabil- i- A'zam, in a Tablet specifically addressed to him, in which he was bidden to "deliver the Message" of his Lord "to East and West," arose, despite intermittent persecutions, to tear asunder the "most grievous veil," to implant the love of an adored Master in the hearts of His countrymen, and to champion the Cause which his Beloved had, under such tragic conditions, proclaimed. It was during those same days that Baha'u'llah instructed this same Nabil to recite on His behalf the two newly revealed Tablets of the Pilgrimage, and to perform, in His stead, the rites prescribed in them, when visiting the Bab's House in Shiraz and the Most Great House in Baghdad-- an act that marks the inception of one of the holiest observances, which, in a later period, the Kitab- i- Aqdas was to formally establish. It was during this period that the "Prayers of Fasting" were revealed by Baha'u'llah, in anticipation of the Law which that same Book was soon to promulgate. It was, too, during the days of Baha'u'llah's banishment to Adrianople that a Tablet was addressed by Him to Mulla Ali- Akbar- i- Shahmirzadi and Jamal- i- Burujirdi, two of His well- known followers in Tihran, instructing them to transfer, with the utmost secrecy, the remains of the Bab from the Imam- Zadih Ma'sum, where they were concealed, to some other place of safety-- an act which was subsequently proved to have been providential, and which may be regarded as marking another stage in the long and laborious transfer of those remains to the heart of Mt. Carmel, and to the spot which He, in His instructions to Abdu'l- Baha, was later to designate. It was during that period that the Suriy- i- Ghusn (Surih of the Branch) was revealed, in which Abdu'l- Baha's future station is foreshadowed, and in which He is eulogized as the "Branch of Holiness," the "Limb of the Law of God," the "Trust of God," "sent down in the form of a human temple"-- a Tablet which may well be regarded as the harbinger of the rank which was to be bestowed upon Him, in the Kitab- i- Aqdas, and which was to be later elucidated and confirmed in the Book of His Covenant. And finally, it was during that period that the first pilgrimages were made to the residence of One Who was now the visible Center of a newly- established Faith-- pilgrimages which by reason of their number and nature, an alarmed government in Persia was first impelled to restrict, and later to prohibit, but which were the precursors of the converging streams of Pilgrims who, from East and West, at first under perilous and arduous circumstances, were to direct their steps towards the prison- fortress of Akka-- pilgrimages which were to culminate in the historic arrival of a royal convert at the foot of Mt. Carmel, who, at the very threshold of a longed- for and much advertised pilgrimage, was so cruelly thwarted from achieving her purpose. (176:1)

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