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Though Baha'u'llah Himself practically never granted personal interviews, as He had been used to do in Baghdad, yet such was the influence He now wielded that the inhabitants openly asserted that the noticeable improvement in the climate and water of their city was directly attributable to His continued presence in their midst. The very designations by which they chose to refer to him, such as the "august leader," and "his highness" bespoke the reverence with which He inspired them. On one occasion, a European general who, together with the governor, was granted an audience by Him, was so impressed that he "remained kneeling on the ground near the door." Shaykh Aliy- i- Miri, the Mufti of Akka, had even, at the suggestion of Abdu'l- Baha, to plead insistently that He might permit the termination of His nine- year confinement within the walls of the prison- city, before He would consent to leave its gates. The garden of Na'mayn, a small island, situated in the middle of a river to the east of the city, honored with the appellation of Ridvan, and designated by Him the "New Jerusalem" and "Our Verdant Isle," had, together with the residence of Abdu'llah Pasha,-- rented and prepared for Him by Abdu'l- Baha, and situated a few miles north of Akka-- become by now the favorite retreats of One Who, for almost a decade, had not set foot beyond the city walls, and Whose sole exercise had been to pace, in monotonous repetition, the floor of His bed- chamber.
(192:1)
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