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Equally significant has been the founding on Mt. Carmel of two international Archives, the one adjoining the shrine of the Bab, the other in the immediate vicinity of the resting- place of the Greatest Holy Leaf, where, for the first time in Baha'i history, priceless treasures, hitherto scattered and often hidden for safekeeping, have been collected and are now displayed to visiting pilgrims. These treasures include portraits of both the Bab and Baha'u'llah; personal relics such as the hair, the dust and garments of the Bab; the locks and blood of Baha'u'llah and such articles as His pen- case, His garments, His brocaded tajes (head dresses), the kashkul of His Sulaymaniyyih days, His watch and His Qur'an; manuscripts and Tablets of inestimable value, some of them illuminated, such as part of the Hidden Words written in Baha'u'llah's own hand, the Persian Bayan, in the handwriting of Siyyid Husayn, the Bab's amanuensis, the original Tablets to the Letters of the Living penned by the Bab, and the manuscript of "Some Answered Questions." This precious collection, moreover, includes objects and effects associated with Abdu'l- Baha; the blood- stained garment of the Purest Branch, the ring of Quddus, the sword of Mulla Husayn, the seals of the Vazir, the father of Baha'u'llah, the brooch presented by the Queen of Rumania to Martha Root, the originals of the Queen's letters to her and to others, and of her tributes to the Faith, as well as no less than twenty volumes of prayers and Tablets revealed by the Founders of the Faith, authenticated and transcribed by Baha'i Assemblies throughout the Orient, and supplementing the vast collection of their published writings. (347:1) Moreover, as a further testimony to the majestic unfoldment and progressive consolidation of the stupendous undertaking launched by Baha'u'llah on that holy mountain, may be mentioned the selection of a portion of the school property situated in the precincts of the Shrine of the Bab as a permanent resting- place for the Greatest Holy Leaf, the "well- beloved" sister of Abdu'l- Baha, the "Leaf that hath sprung" from the "Pre- existent Root," the "fragrance" of Baha'u'llah's "shining robe," elevated by Him to a "station such as none other woman hath surpassed," and comparable in rank to those immortal heroines such as Sarah, Asiyih, the Virgin Mary, Fatimih and Tahirih, each of whom has outshone every member of her sex in previous Dispensations. And lastly, there should be mentioned, as a further evidence of the blessings flowing from the Divine Plan, the transfer, a few years later, to that same hallowed spot, after a separation in death of above half a century, and notwithstanding the protests voiced by the brother and lieutenant of the arch- breaker of Baha'u'llah's Covenant, of the remains of the Purest Branch, the martyred son of Baha'u'llah, "created of the light of Baha," the "Trust of God" and His "Treasure" in the Holy Land, and offered up by his Father as a "ransom" for the regeneration of the world and the unification of its peoples. To this same burial- ground, and on the same day the remains of the Purest Branch were interred, was transferred the body of his mother, the saintly Navvab, she to whose dire afflictions, as attested by Abdu'l- Baha in a Tablet, the 54th chapter of the Book of Isaiah has, in its entirety, borne witness, whose "Husband," in the words of that Prophet, is "the Lord of Hosts," whose "seed shall inherit the Gentiles," and whom Baha'u'llah in His Tablet, has destined to be "His consort in every one of His worlds."
(347:2)
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