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Two years later the palace of Udi Khammar, on the construction of which so much wealth had been lavished, while Baha'u'llah lay imprisoned in the barracks, and which its owner had precipitately abandoned with his family owing to the outbreak of an epidemic disease, was rented and later purchased for Him-- a dwelling- place which He characterized as the "lofty mansion," the spot which "God hath ordained as the most sublime vision of mankind." Abdu'l- Baha's visit to Beirut, at the invitation of Midhat Pasha, a former Grand Vizir of Turkey, occurring about this time; His association with the civil and ecclesiastical leaders of that city; His several interviews with the well- known Shaykh Muhammad Abdu served to enhance immensely the growing prestige of the community and spread abroad the fame of its most distinguished member. The splendid welcome accorded him by the learned and highly esteemed Shaykh Yusuf, the Mufti of Nazareth, who acted as host to the valis of Beirut, and who had despatched all the notables of the community several miles on the road to meet Him as He approached the town, accompanied by His brother and the Mufti of Akka, as well as the magnificent reception given by Abdu'l- Baha to that same Shaykh Yusuf when the latter visited Him in Akka, were such as to arouse the envy of those who, only a few years before, had treated Him and His fellow- exiles with feelings compounded of condescension and scorn.
(193:1)
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