The Coming of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá Abbas

(From the Christian Register)

The International complications in Persia caused by the Shuster incident are calling the attention of Americans to that ancient kingdom about which few of us have any intimate knowledge. It is, therefore, particularly timely that just at this present moment a distinguished Persian has consented to visit the United States and to give speeches and lectures upon the subject of “The Bahá’í Religious Movement in Persia and Throughout India.” ‘Abdu’l-Bahá Abbas, the head and centre of the movement, is now in Egypt. He will arrive in America about the last of March. His propaganda, we are told, is in no way restricted to party, sect, denomination or creed. When Turkey threw off the yoke of despotism, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was one of the political prisoners released from the fortress city of Akka, having been sent there in 1868, by order of Sultan ‘Abdul Hamid, “because of heretical and subversive opinions.” In spite of prison walls the Bahá’í tenets spread through Persia until it may be said that thousands nominally Mohammedans are in reality adherents of this new humanitarian faith.