Such was the devotion gradually kindled in the heart of that governor, through his association with Abdu'l- Baha, and later through his perusal of the literature of the Faith, which mischief- makers, in the hope of angering him, had submitted for his consideration, that he invariably refused to enter His presence without first removing his shoes, as a token of his respect for Him. It was even bruited about that his favored counselors were those very exiles who were the followers of the Prisoner in his custody. His own son he was wont to send to Abdu'l- Baha for instruction and enlightenment. It was on the occasion of a long- sought audience with Baha'u'llah that, in response to a request for permission to render Him some service, the suggestion was made to him to restore the aqueduct which for thirty years had been allowed to fall into disuse-- a suggestion which he immediately arose to carry out. To the inflow of pilgrims, among whom were numbered the devout and venerable Mulla Sadiq- i- Khurasani and the father of Badi, both survivors of the struggle of Tabarsi, he offered scarcely any opposition, though the text of the imperial farman forbade their admission into the city. Mustafa Diya Pasha, who became governor a few years later, had even gone so far as to intimate that his Prisoner was free to pass through its gates whenever He pleased, a suggestion which Baha'u'llah declined. Even the Mufti of Akka, Shaykh Mahmud, a man notorious for his bigotry, had been converted to the Faith, and, fired by his newborn enthusiasm, made a compilation of the Muhammadan traditions related to Akka. Nor were the occasionally unsympathetic governors, despatched to that city, able, despite the arbitrary power they wielded, to check the forces which were carrying the Author of the Faith towards His virtual emancipation and the ultimate accomplishment of His purpose. Men of letters, and even ulamas residing in Syria, were moved, as the years rolled by, to voice their recognition of Baha'u'llah's rising greatness and power. Aziz Pasha, who, in Adrianople, had evinced a profound attachment to Abdu'l- Baha, and had in the meantime been promoted to the rank of Vali, twice visited Akka for the express purpose of paying his respects to Baha'u'llah, and to renew his friendship with One Whom he had learned to admire and revere. (191:4)

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