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The fateful decision was eventually arrived at to banish Baha'u'llah to the penal colony of Akka, and Mirza Yahya to Famagusta in Cyprus. This decision was embodied in a strongly worded Farman, issued by Sultan Abdu'l- 'Aziz. The companions of Baha'u'llah, who had arrived in the capital, together with a few who later joined them, as well as Aqa Jan, the notorious mischief- maker, were arrested, interrogated, deprived of their papers and flung into prison. The members of the community in Adrianople were, several times, summoned to the governorate to ascertain their number, while rumors were set afloat that they were to be dispersed and banished to different places or secretly put to death. (179:1) Suddenly, one morning, the house of Baha'u'llah was surrounded by soldiers, sentinels were posted at its gates, His followers were again summoned by the authorities, interrogated, and ordered to make ready for their departure. "The loved ones of God and His kindred," is Baha'u'llah's testimony in the Suriy- i- Ra'is, "were left on the first night without food... The people surrounded the house, and Muslims and Christians wept over Us... We perceived that the weeping of the people of the Son (Christians) exceeded the weeping of others-- a sign for such as ponder." "A great tumult seized the people," writes Aqa Rida, one of the stoutest supporters of Baha'u'llah, exiled with him all the way from Baghdad to Akka, "All were perplexed and full of regret... Some expressed their sympathy, others consoled us, and wept over us... Most of our possessions were auctioned at half their value." Some of the consuls of foreign powers called on Baha'u'llah, and expressed their readiness to intervene with their respective governments on His behalf-- suggestions for which He expressed appreciation, but which He firmly declined. "The consuls of that city (Adrianople) gathered in the presence of this Youth at the hour of His departure," He Himself has written, "and expressed their desire to aid Him. They, verily, evinced towards Us manifest affection."
(179:2)
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