In order to make the evaluation of the significance of that Prisoner’s visit to Egypt as objective as possible, and to illustrate what the stay of this unique Person among the Egyptians really meant, we must rely on tangible criteria, such as the status of His visitors and hosts, the rank of the leaders who paid Him respect, their published comments about their impressions after His visit, and the importance the media gave to any news about Him, even after His departure from Egypt.

The most distinguished of the people of prominence who welcomed that eminent Visitor was ‘Abbás Ḥilmí Páshá II, the Khedive of Egypt. He received ‘Abdu’l-Bahá more than once in his palace. Later, his brother, Prince Muhammad ‘Alí Tawfiq, recorded their encounter in the United States:

“On the morning of 22 July … I was informed that the Venerable ‘Abbás Effendi,1 the great, oriental man of learning and leader of the Bahá’ís wanted to meet me. I fixed three o’clock of the same afternoon for His visit… I welcomed ‘Abbás Effendi with great honour. His age did not affect His prodigal intelligence. He talked to me for about an hour on very important and varied subjects that revealed His profound knowledge and great experience. He truly is a man of knowledge and a great and stately man of the East….

“We, afterwards, returned the visit of ‘Abbás Effendi, and found His home small but equipped with all means of comfort and good order… As to His influential talks, they have played an important role in America, and have become the favoured subject of the newspapers, generating numerous comments from religious leaders. In brief, He, by His potency, has reached an envious rank. I stayed with Him a long time in conversing with Him. He delighted me with the sweetness of His speech, and when afterwards I left Him my heart was full of affection and respect for Him.” 2

Among the famous Arab leaders of thought who were impressed by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, we find the names such as ‘Abbás Mahmúd Al-‘Aqqad and Bishára Taklá, as well as the founder of the Al-Mu’ayyid newspaper Shaykh ‘Alí Yusif, Prince Shakíb-Arslan, Salím Qabín, Amín Al-Rihaní, Jubran Khalíl Jubran, and George Greig. Salient among the Egyptian religious leaders who met Him were Shaykh Muhammad Bakhit, the grand mufti of Egypt, and Shaykh Muhammad Rashíd, the imám of the khedive. Many other pashas, ‘ulamas and journalists also met Him. Had Shaykh Muhammad ‘Abdu been alive, no doubt he would have been the first to welcome ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. They had already met in Beirut, where Muhammad ‘Abdu expressed his respect and deep reverence for Him, as attested by Prince Shakíb-Arslan: “I never found him more welcoming to anyone as he was to ‘Abbás Effendi, whom he revered for His knowledge and kindness, His nobility and the sublimity of His character. ‘Abbás Effendi also treated him with similar respect and feelings.” 3

With ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s coming to Egypt, the name of the Bahá’í Faith for the first time figured on the front page, and for the first time the newspapers which gave it such prominence associated it with praise, accompanied it by true description and bolstered its status by the undisguised testimony of witnesses—people of authority who acclaimed its high station in the history of religious thinking and who cheered its call for the abolition of prejudice and the unity of mankind, who hailed its promise to bring a peace established on spiritual foundations and the principles of a new religious cycle. For the first time the head and the highest authority of that religion received—in His capacity as head of its institutions—an official tribute from the head of state and the high ranks of society in expression of their high regard for the principles it announced.

Wherever ‘Abdu’l-Bahá went in the West there was no difference: He received the same welcome. Lady Blomfield, 4 for example, gives an eyewitness testimony to this fact:

“Remembering those days, our ears are filled with the sound of their footsteps—as they came from every country in the world. Every day, all day long, a constant stream, an interminable procession! Ministers and missionaries, oriental scholars and occult students, practical men of affairs and mystics, Anglicans, Catholics, and Non-conformists, Theosophists and Hindus, Christian Scientists and doctors of medicine, Muslims, Buddhists and Zoroastrians. There also called: politicians, Salvation Army soldiers, and other workers for human good, women suffragists, journalists, writers, poets and healers, dressmakers and great ladies, artists and artisans, poor workless people and prosperous merchants, members of the dramatic and musical world, these all came; and none were too lowly, nor too great, to receive the sympathetic consideration of this holy Messenger, Who was ever giving His life for others’ good.” 5

This was but one instance of the welcome reserved for ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in every city He visited.

As to the subjects He treated in His talks with a simplicity and ease of approach that took listeners and readers—Bahá’ís as well as others—by surprise, and astonished political leaders and leaders of thought by their dissimilarity to the common ideas of that epoch, they presented the distinguishing features of the Bahá’í Faith. They mainly revolved around the principles He extracted from the teachings of His Father’s divine message and have since become known as the principles of the Bahá’í Faith.

His grandson, Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith, has saved us the effort of gathering them and putting them in order:

“The independent search after truth, unfettered by superstition or tradition; the oneness of the entire human race, the pivotal principle and fundamental doctrine of the Faith; the basic unity of all religions; the condemnation of all forms of prejudice, whether religious, racial, class or national; the harmony which must exist between religion and science; the equality of men and women, the two wings on which the bird of human kind is able to soar; the introduction of compulsory education; the adoption of a universal auxiliary language; the abolition of the extremes of wealth and poverty; the institution of a world tribunal for the adjudication of disputes between nations; the exaltation of work, performed in the spirit of service, to the rank of worship; the glorification of justice as the ruling principle in human society, and of religion as a bulwark for the protection of all peoples and nations; and the establishment of a permanent and universal peace as the supreme goal of all mankind…” 6

These are the most salient and vital components of the divine order ‘Abdu’l-Bahá expounded at length to the public in general and to the leaders in particular during His journey to the West. He, furthermore, described them as “the spirit of the age”. 7 However, He did not confine His talks to the Bahá’í teachings, but confirmed and defended the veracity of previous Messages revealed by the Manifestations of God from the past, and explained the close ties that united these religions directly with the Bahá’í Faith in one spiritual edifice whose teachings evolve and grow in proportion to the spiritual development and maturity of humanity and its needs.

In truth, the message ‘Abdu’l-Bahá took to the West, as we shall see in the pages of this blog, was a message addressed to all people to draw the attention of each and all, once more, to the new divine Revelation, and to warn them of the approach of perilous wars, capable of devouring Europe, unless the leaders concerned with this continent hasten to take the necessary measures for their avoidance. He emphatically warned His listeners about the great change that inevitably will alter the world, nay, create a new one.

Last but not least, we wish to admit, or rather stress, that it is impossible to evaluate, at present, the significance of such a historic event, which has not yet yielded all its effect; this, future historians alone will be able to befittingly carry out. At present, all we can do is to describe the various aspects of that journey: the people our august Traveller met, the welcome He received, the love He showered upon His visitors, the subjects He expounded, the regret expressed in His presence by some of those involved in the persecution and killing of Bahá’ís. Of all of these, the visitor to this site will read—gradually, as we follow the stages of this journey.

1. Effendi is an old Turkish title of respect, which, in Ottoman Palestine, was reserved for individuals of high rank or eminence.
2. Prince Muhammad ‘Alí, Rihlat ila America (A Trip to America), p. 414, cited in Mahmúd Zarqání, Badá’i’ul-Athar, Volume 1, p. 163.
3. Muhammad Rashíd Rída, Taríkh Al-Ustaz Al-Imám Muhammad ‘Abdu (Cairo, 1931), p. 407.
4. Lady Blomfield, wife of English architect Sir Arthur Blomfield, was a writer and humanitarian. Her compilations (with assistance) of notes of talks given by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in London and Paris are a cherished legacy. Lady Blomfield served the war injured and assisted in the Geneva Declaration of the Rights of the Child and its adoption by the League of Nations and the establishment of Save the Children Fund, whose activities she continued into old age and the final year of her life.
5. As cited in Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, 2nd printing (Wilmette, Illinois: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1979), p. 283.
6. Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, pp. 281-82.
7. Ibid.