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The Covenant- breakers were unappeased by the measures taken by the authorities against One Who had so magnanimously intervened on their behalf. Aided by the notorious Yahya Bey, the chief of police, and other officials, civil as well as military, who, in consequence of their representations, had replaced those who had been friendly to Abdu'l- Baha, and by secret agents who traveled back and forth between Akka and Constantinople, and who even kept a vigilant watch over everything that went on in His household, they arose to encompass His ruin. They lavished on officials gifts which included possessions sacred to the memory of Baha'u'llah, and shamelessly proffered to high and low alike bribes drawn, in some instances, from the sale of properties associated with Him or bestowed upon some of them by Abdu'l- Baha. Relaxing nothing of their efforts they pursued relentlessly the course of their nefarious activities, determined to leave no stone unturned until they had either brought about His execution or ensured His deportation to a place remote enough to enable them to wrest the Cause from His grasp. The Vali of Damascus, the Mufti of Beirut, members of the Protestant missions established in Syria and Akka, even the influential Shaykh Abu'l- Huda, in Constantinople, whom the Sultan held in as profound an esteem as that in which Muhammad Shah had held his Grand Vizir, Haji Mirza Aqasi, were, on various occasions, approached, appealed to, and urged to lend their assistance for the prosecution of their odious designs. (265:1) Through verbal messages, formal communications and by personal interviews the Covenant- breakers impressed upon these notables the necessity of immediate action, shrewdly adapting their arguments to the particular interests and prejudices of those whose aid they solicited. To some they represented Abdu'l- Baha as a callous usurper Who had trampled upon their rights, robbed them of their heritage, reduced them to poverty, made their friends in Persia their enemies, accumulated for Himself a vast fortune, and acquired no less than two- thirds of the land in Haifa. To others they declared that Abdu'l- Baha contemplated making of Akka and Haifa a new Mecca and Medina. To still others they affirmed that Baha'u'llah was no more than a retired dervish, who professed and promoted the Faith of Islam, Whom Abbas Effendi, His son, had, for the purpose of self- glorification, exalted to the rank of God- head, whilst claiming Himself to be the Son of God and the return of Jesus Christ. They further accused Him of harboring designs inimical to the interests of the state, of meditating a rebellion against the Sultan, of having already hoisted the banner of Ya Baha'u'l- Abha, the ensign of revolt, in distant villages in Palestine and Syria, of having raised surreptitiously an army of thirty thousand men, of being engaged in the construction of a fortress and a vast ammunition depot on Mt. Carmel, of having secured the moral and material support of a host of English and American friends, amongst whom were officers of foreign powers, who were arriving, in large numbers and in disguise, to pay Him their homage, and of having already, in conjunction with them, drawn up His plans for the subjugation of the neighboring provinces, for the expulsion of the ruling authorities, and for the ultimate seizure of the power wielded by the Sultan himself. Through misrepresentation and bribery they succeeded in inducing certain people to affix their signatures as witnesses to the documents which they had drawn up, and which they despatched, through their agents, to the Sublime Porte.
(265:2)
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