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No less active were Mirza Husayn- Khan, the Mushiru'd- Dawlih, and his associates, who, determined to take full advantage of the troubles that had recently visited Baha'u'llah, arose to encompass His destruction. The authorities in the capital were incensed by the esteem shown Him by the governor Muhammad Pashay- i- Qibrisi, a former Grand Vizir, and his successors Sulayman Pasha, of the Qadiriyyih Order, and particularly Khurshid Pasha, who, openly and on many occasions, frequented the house of Baha'u'llah, entertained Him in the days of Ramadan, and evinced a fervent admiration for Abdu'l- Baha. They were well aware of the challenging tone Baha'u'llah had assumed in some of His newly revealed Tablets, and conscious of the instability prevailing in their own country. They were disturbed by the constant comings and goings of pilgrims in Adrianople, and by the exaggerated reports of Fu'ad Pasha, who had recently passed through on a tour of inspection. The petitions of Mirza Yahya which reached them through Siyyid Muhammad, his agent, had provoked them. Anonymous letters (written by this same Siyyid and by an accomplice, Aqa Jan, serving in the Turkish artillery) which perverted the writings of Baha'u'llah, and which accused Him of having conspired with Bulgarian leaders and certain ministers of European powers to achieve, with the help of some thousands of His followers, the conquest of Constantinople, had filled their breasts with alarm. And now, encouraged by the internal dissensions which had shaken the Faith, and irritated by the evident esteem in which Baha'u'llah was held by the consuls of foreign powers stationed in Adrianople, they determined to take drastic and immediate action which would extirpate that Faith, isolate its Author and reduce Him to powerlessness. The indiscretions committed by some of its over- zealous followers, who had arrived in Constantinople, no doubt, aggravated an already acute situation.
(178:2)
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