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Those who, during Baha'u'llah's two years' absence from Baghdad, had so persistently reviled and loudly derided His companions and kindred were, by now, for the most part, silenced. Not an inconsiderable number among them feigned respect and esteem for Him, a few claimed to be His defenders and supporters, while others professed to share His beliefs, and actually joined the ranks of the community to which He belonged. Such was the extent of the reaction that had set in that one of them was even heard to boast that, as far back as the year 1250 A.H.-- a decade before the Bab's Declaration-- he had already perceived and embraced the truth of His Faith! (129:1) Within a few years after Baha'u'llah's return from Sulaymaniyyih the situation had been completely reversed. The house of Sulayman- i- Ghannam, on which the official designation of the Bayt- i- Azam (the Most Great House) was later conferred, known, at that time, as the house of Mirza Musa, the Babi, an extremely modest residence, situated in the Karkh quarter, in the neighborhood of the western bank of the river, to which Baha'u'llah's family had moved prior to His return from Kurdistan, had now become the focal center of a great number of seekers, visitors and pilgrims, including Kurds, Persians, Arabs and Turks, and derived from the Muslim, the Jewish and Christian Faiths. It had, moreover, become a veritable sanctuary to which the victims of the injustice of the official representative of the Persian government were wont to flee, in the hope of securing redress for the wrongs they had suffered.
(129:2)
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