Visiting 'Abdu'l-Baha: Volume 1: The West Discovers the Master, 1897-1911

CONTENTS Preface vii Acknowledgements xv Who is ‘Abdu’l-Bahá?

1

1897–1898

3

Mírzá Habíbu’lláh Afnán – Anton Haddad – Arrival of the first Western pilgrims – Ibrahim Kheiralla and his march to oblivion – Lua and Edward Getsinger –Phoebe Hearst and Maryam ThornburghCropper

1899

1900

1901

May Bolles and Harriet Thornburgh – Anne Apperson, Julia Pearson and Robert Turner – Margaret Peeke – Ella Goodall and Helen Hillyer – Naw-Rúz 1899 – Ali-Kuli Khan – Anton Haddad

17

36

Sarah Farmer and Maria Wilson – Arthur and Elizabeth Dodge, and Anna Hoar – Charlotte, Louise and Eleanor Dixon – Laura Barney, Ellen Goin and Emma Tronvé – Emogene Hoagg, Helen Ellis Cole and Alma Albertson – Reverend Henry Jessup turns against the Faith

52

Edith and Marie-Louise McKay – Edith Jackson and Sigurd Russell – Starting the Shrine of the Báb – Mírzá Habíbu’lláh Afnán – Laura Barney and Mason Remey – Yúnís Khán and William Hoar – Confined to ‘Akká – Thomas Breakwell, Herbert Hopper and Isabella Brittingham – William and Wendell Dodge

1902–1903

The Mashriqu’l-Adhkár in Ashkabat – Madame de Canavarro and Myron Phelps – Hippolyte Dreyfus and Edith Sanderson – Contacts and enemies

v

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visiting ‘ abdu ’ l-bahá

1904

1905 1906

1907

1908

1909

89

George and Rosa Winterburn – Frank Frank and his guide – Azíz’u’lláh Azízí – Investigation and Interrogation of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá – Edith Jackson and Sigurd Russell – Ethel Rosenberg, Laura Barney and Some Answered Questions – Sydney Sprague – Other visitors

110

Howard and Mary MacNutt, and Julia Grundy – Mary Lucas – Josephine Cowles de Lagnel – The Ottoman Commission of Enquiry

132

Jane Whyte – William Jennings Bryan – Florence and Ali-Kuli Khan – Azíz’u’lláh Azízí returns – Hooper Harris and Harlan Ober, and others

149

Edwin Woodcock, and Edith and Joseph de Bons – Corinne and Arna True, and Mary Scaramucci – Thornton Chase, Arthur and Mary Agnew, and Carl Scheffler – Wellesca (Aseyeh) Allen-Dyar – Roy and Laurie Wilhelm – Mason Remey and Frances Phelps – Mary Hanford Ford – Other visitors – Troubles and the threat of exile

187

Helen Goodall, Ella Cooper and Marion Jack – Jean Stannard – Stanwood Cobb – Mason Remey and the Revolution – The Knobloch sisters

208

May and Sutherland Maxwell – Joseph and Pauline Hannen – Placing the Báb’s remains in His Shrine – Juliet Thompson, and Edward and Carrie Kinney – Valíyu’lláh Varqá – Susan Moody and Louise Waite – Other pilgrims and visitors

1910–1911

239

Bibliography Notes and References Index About the Author

259 267 283 288

Howard Struven and Mason Remey – Grace Crockett – Stanwood Cobb returns – The mouse and the sugar –Agnes Parsons – Sydney Sprague gets married and sets the stage for conflict – The future Guardian through the eyes of a Westerner – Ethel Stefana Stevens – The Master’s departure for the West – Egypt – The Master’s Western journey

vi

1899 May Bolles and Harriet Thornburgh The next members of the Hearst group to arrive were May Bolles, a young American living in Paris and the god-daughter of Phoebe Hearst, and Harriet Thornburgh, a close friend of Phoebe.1 When May and Harriet arrived in Port Said on 13 February 1899, they were taken in hand by Ahmad Yazdí and Núru’lláh Effendi, who arranged for their hotel rooms and for the transport of their baggage. Mr Yazdí and his brother Muhammad, who lived in Alexandria, would become very well known by Western pilgrims travelling through Egypt because of their true Bahá’í spirit and helpfulness. The attention and care the travellers received amazed them, and May wrote: ‘At the time we could not understand the spirit which animated them, but afterwards we knew that we were dead and they were living and were quickened with the love of God.’ The afternoon of their arrival, Núru’lláh Effendi took them to his home and introduced them to his wife and daughters. Then he floored them by bringing out a photograph of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and May said she could not remove her eyes from the picture. To further astound the two Americans, Núru’lláh Effendi gave each of them a copy of the photo and a lock of Bahá’u’lláh’s hair.2 On 16 February, May and Harriet, along with two Russian pilgrims who had been standing ‘motionless at the ship’s rail facing the east’ with ‘their steadfast gaze . . . on ‘Akká’, arrived at Haifa. They were met at the dock by some of the American pilgrims and driven directly to the house the Master had prepared for them. They joined the others in the pilgrim house and spent a restless night ‘between waking and sleeping’.3 May was awakened at seven the next morning with the news that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was coming. She barely had time to dress before He arrived. Following the other pilgrims, May entered last and 17

visiting ‘ abdu ’ l-bahá

In a moment I stood on the threshold and dimly saw a room full of people sitting quietly about the walls, and then I beheld my Beloved. I found myself at His feet, and He gently raised me and seated me beside Him, all the while saying some loving words in Persian in a voice that shook my heart. Of that first meeting I can remember neither joy nor pain nor anything that I can name. I had been carried suddenly to too great a height; my soul had come in contact with the Divine Spirit; and this force so pure, so holy, so mighty, had overwhelmed me. He spoke to each one of us in turn of ourselves and our lives and those whom we loved, and although His Words were so few and so simple they breathed the Spirit of Life to our souls . . .

The Russian Jews who had been on the boat the night before now arrived, their faces shining with a great light as they entered His Presence. We could not remove our eyes from His glorious face: we heard all He said; we drank tea with Him at His bidding; but existence seemed suspended, and when He arose and suddenly left us we came back with a start to life: but never again, thank God, to the same life on this earth! We had ‘beheld the King in His beauty.

We had seen the land which is very far off.’4

The next day, the pilgrims were to ascend Mount Carmel to the future site of the Shrine of the Báb, but May was ill and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá cancelled the trip, much to May’s amazement: That anything so important as this meeting in that blessed spot should be cancelled because one person was ill and could not go seemed incredible. It was so contrary to all ordinary habits of thought and action, so different from the life of the world where daily events and material circumstances are supreme in importance that it gave us a genuine shock of surprise, and in that shock the foundations of the old order began to totter and fall. The Master’s words had opened wide the door of God’s Kingdom and given us a vision of that infinite world whose only law is love.5

18

1899

Anne Apperson, Julia Pearson and Robert Turner On 20 February, Anne Apperson, Julia Pearson and Robert Turner joined May Bolles and Harriet Thornburgh in Haifa. Robert was Phoebe’s African-American butler who had probably first heard about the Faith when the Getsingers began teaching it to Phoebe and is recognized as the first American believer of African descent.6 The new pilgrims had a very brief meeting with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá that day, but He then had to leave for ‘Akká. He instructed them to go to ‘Akká themselves two days later, on Wednesday. May was still quite ill Tuesday night and bewailed that ‘the Master evidently did not realize how ill and weak I was or He would never have expected me to leave with the others on Wednesday morning.’ Lua just smiled and said, ‘You will soon realize something of the power of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.’

At dawn the next day, May awoke, feeling myself stirred by a breeze. I cannot describe what followed, but through my soul was flowing an essence; a mighty, unseen force was penetrating all my being, expanding it with boundless life and love and happiness, lifting and enfolding me in its mighty strength and peace. I knew then it was the Holy Spirit of God and that our Lord was praying for His servants in that blessed dawn, and I arose and prayed and was quite well.7

A short while later, the pilgrims, including May, set out for ‘Akká.

When they arrived at what is now called the House of ‘Abdu’lláh Páshá, they were met by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. The Greatest Holy Leaf and Munírih Khánum then showed them to their rooms, which the two selfless members of the Holy Household had vacated especially for the pilgrims. A little later, the American pilgrims were seated with ‘Abdu’lBahá. Suddenly, He said, ‘Where is Robert?’ Phoebe Hearst’s black butler soon arrived and was greeted by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá with, ‘Robert, your Lord loves you. God gave you a black skin, but a heart white as snow.’

He followed this greeting by telling all present: ‘We can all serve in the Cause of God no matter what our occupation is. No occupation can prevent the soul coming to God. Peter was a fisherman, yet he accomplished most wonderful things; but the heart must be turned always toward God, no matter what the work is.’8 19

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