|
Collateral with these first stirrings of the Baha'i Administrative Order, and synchronizing with the emergence of National Baha'i communities and with the institution of their administrative, educational, and teaching agencies, the mighty process set in motion in the Holy Land, the heart and nerve- center of that Administrative Order, on the memorable occasions when Baha'u'llah revealed the Tablet of Carmel and visited the future site of the Bab's sepulcher, was irresistibly unfolding. That process had received a tremendous impetus through the purchase of that site, shortly after Baha'u'llah's ascension, through the subsequent transfer of the Bab's remains from Tihran to Akka, through the construction of that sepulcher during the most distressful years of Abdu'l- Baha's incarceration, and lastly through the permanent interment of those remains in the heart of Mt. Carmel, through the establishment of a pilgrim house in the immediate vicinity of that sepulcher, and the selection of the future site of the first Baha'i educational institution on that mountain. (345:1) Profiting from the freedom accorded the world center of the Faith of Baha'u'llah, ever since the ignominious defeat of the decrepit Ottoman empire during the war of 1914- 18, the forces released through the inception of the stupendous Plan conceived by Him could now flow unchecked, under the beneficent influence of a sympathetic regime, into channels designed to disclose to the world at large the potencies with which that Plan had been endowed. The interment of Abdu'l- Baha Himself within a vault of the Bab's mausoleum, enhancing still further the sacredness of that mountain; the installment of an electric plant, the first of its kind established in the city of Haifa, flooding with illumination the Grave of One Who, in His own words, had been denied even "a lighted lamp" in His fortress- prison in Adhirbayjan; the construction of three additional chambers adjoining His sepulcher, thereby completing Abdu'l- Baha's plan for the first unit of that Edifice; the vast extension, despite the machinations of the Covenant- breakers, of the properties surrounding that resting- place, sweeping from the ridge of Carmel down to the Templar colony nestling at its foot, and representing assets estimated at no less than four hundred thousand pounds, together with the acquisition of four tracts of land, dedicated to the Baha'i Shrines, and situated in the plain of Akka to the north, in the district of Beersheba to the south, and in the valley of the Jordan to the east, amounting to approximately six hundred acres; the opening of a series of terraces which, as designed by Abdu'l- Baha, are to provide a direct approach to the Bab's Tomb from the city lying under its shadow; the beautification of its precincts through the laying out of parks and gardens, open daily to the public, and attracting tourists and residents alike to its gates-- these may be regarded as the initial evidences of the marvelous expansion of the international institutions and endowments of the Faith at its world center. Of particular significance, moreover, has been the exemption granted by the Palestine High Commissioner to the entire area of land surrounding and dedicated to the Shrine of the Bab, to the school property and the archives in its vicinity, to the Western pilgrim- house situated in its neighborhood, and to such historic sites as the Mansion in Bahji, the House of Baha'u'llah in Akka, and the garden of Ridvan to the east of that city; the establishment, as a result of two formal applications submitted to the civil authorities, of the Palestine Branches of the American and Indian National Spiritual Assemblies, as recognized religious societies in Palestine (to be followed, for purposes of internal consolidation, by a similar incorporation of the branches of other National Spiritual Assemblies throughout the Baha'i world); and the transfer to the Branch of the American National Spiritual Assembly, through a series of no less than thirty transactions, of properties dedicated to the Tomb of the Bab, and approximating in their aggregate fifty thousand square meters, the majority of the title- deeds of which bear the signature of the son of the Arch- breaker of Baha'u'llah's Covenant in his capacity as Registrar of lands in Haifa.
(345:2)
|