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Baha'u'llah also turned His prophetic spotlight from the Ottoman rulers to the Turkish Empire itself: 'Soon', He told them, '...sedition will be stirred up in your midst, and your dominions will be disrupted... Be expectant... Erelong will ye behold that which hath been sent down from the Pen of My command' (PDC 61). He described a series of nightmarish disasters 'ready to overtake' the empire and drive it to its knees. During the course of these catastrophes, He wrote, Adrianople would 'pass out of the hands of the king'; the 'outward splendour' of the imperial capital, Constantinople, would 'perish' (PDC 61-2); and conditions would 'wax so grievous, that the very sands on the desolate hills will moan, and the trees on the mountain will weep, and blood will flow out of all things' (PDC 61). These dire predictions were more than justified by a seemingly endless succession of invasions, wars, epidemics, famines, massacres and revolutions in which nine- tenths of the Turkish army died or deserted and a quarter of the populace perished. Adrianople was occupied by Russian troops. The once- vast Turkish empire was shriveled into a tiny Asiatic republic, while its capital, Constantinople, was abandoned by its conquerors and indeed stripped of its 'outward slendour'. (171:2) ..In the first of His two letters to 'Ali Pasha, He wrote: The day is approaching when the Land of Mystery [Adrianople], and what is beside it shall be changed, and shall pass out of the hands of the king, and commotions shall appear, and the voice of lamentation shall be raised, and the evidences of mischief shall be revealed on all sides, and confusion shall be spread by reason of that which hath befallen these captives at the hands of the hosts of oppression. The course of things shall be altered, and conditions shall wax so grievous, that the very sands on the desolate hills will moan, and the trees on the mountain will weep, and blood will flow out of all things. Then wilt thou behold the people in sore distress (PDC 61). (172:1) ..Baha'u'llah addressed the seat of Turkish power: O Spot [Constantinople] that art situate on the shores of the two seas! The throne of tyranny hath, verily, been stablished upon thee, and the flame of hatred hath been kindled within thy bosom... Thou art indeed filled with manifest pride. Hath thine outward splendour made thee vainglorious? By Him Who is the Lord of mankind! It shall soon perish, and thy daughters, and thy widows, and all the kindreds that dwell within thee shall lament. Thus informeth thee the All- Knowing, the All- Wise (PDC 61-2).
(172:3)
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