‘Abdu’l-Bahá on the Steps of Persian Consul-General Topakyan’s Home

“The Consul-General of Persia, Topakyan, gave a barbecue in honor of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and his Persian suite, at his delightful summer home and garden at Morristown, New Jersey. The journey was accomplished in an automobile from the home of Mr. Roy C. Wilhelm, in West Englewood, through beautiful meadows of New Jersey, and the whole day was spent most pleasantly at the Persian consulate, which is a building in the garden built after the old style of Persian architecture. Among the guests were some prominent men from New York and some society folk to interview him on all sorts of questions. He spoke that forenoon to those persons on the advance of materialism and its evil attendants or concomitants. The dinner was entirely Oriental in character. —”239 Days”, p. 103.

‘Abdu’l-Bahá stands outside on the top step of the front entrance to Persian Consul-General Haozoun Hohannes Topakyan’s home in Morristown, New Jersey.

Going clockwise from ‘Abdu’l-Bahá is Mr. Topakyan, unknown man, Mirza ‘Ali-Akbar Nakhjavani (d.1920), Dr. Aminu’llah Farid, Mirza Mahmud Zarqani, Valiyu’llah Varqa (1884-1955), Mirza Asadu’llah-i-Isfahani (c.1826-1930), Mirza Ahmad Sohrab (1893-1958); the man with banded hat behind Ahmad Sohrab appears to be Edward Getsinger.

This photograph appears between pages 99 and 100 of “239 Days” See also “Star of the West”, Volume 3, Number 11, page 9 (09-27-1912).