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Explicit orders had been issued by the Sultan and his ministers to subject the exiles, who were accused of having grievously erred and led others far astray, to the strictest confinement. Hopes were confidently expressed that the sentence of life- long imprisonment pronounced against them would lead to their eventual extermination. The farman of Sultan Abdu'l- 'Aziz, dated the fifth of Rabi'u'th- Thani 1285 A.H. (July 26, 1868), not only condemned them to perpetual banishment, but stipulated their strict incarceration, and forbade them to associate either with each other or with the local inhabitants. The text of the farman itself was read publicly, soon after the arrival of the exiles, in the principal mosque of the city as a warning to the population. The Persian Ambassador, accredited to the Sublime Porte, had thus assured his government, in a letter, written a little over a year after their banishment to Akka: "I have issued telegraphic and written instructions, forbidding that He (Baha'u'llah) associate with any one except His wives and children, or leave under any circumstances, the house wherein He is imprisoned. Abbas- Quli Khan, the Consul- General in Damascus ... I have, three days ago, sent back, instructing him to proceed direct to Akka ... confer with its governor regarding all necessary measures for the strict maintenance of their imprisonment ... and appoint, before his return to Damascus, a representative on the spot to insure that the orders issued by the Sublime Porte will, in no wise, be disobeyed. I have, likewise, instructed him that once every three months he should proceed from Damascus to Akka, and personally watch over them, and submit his report to the Legation." Such was the isolation imposed upon them that the Baha'is of Persia, perturbed by the rumors set afloat by the Azalis of Isfahan that Baha'u'llah had been drowned, induced the British Telegraph office in Julfa to ascertain on their behalf the truth of the matter.
(186:1)
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