Mother Temple of
the West, the forerunner of a divine, a slowly maturing civilization. And
finally, we can even bear witness to the marked improvement in the
conditions surrounding the pilgrimages performed by its devoted adherents
to its consecrated shrines at its world center--pilgrimages originally
arduous, perilous, tediously long, often made on foot, at times ending in
disappointment, and confined to a handful of harassed Oriental followers,
gradually attracting, under steadily improving circumstances of security
and comfort, an ever swelling number of new converts converging from the
four corners of the globe, and culminating in the widely publicized yet
sadly frustrated visit of a noble Queen, who, at the very threshold of the
city of her heart's desire, was compelled, according to her own written
testimony, to divert her steps, and forego the privilege of so priceless a
benefit.

FIRST PERIOD: THE MINISTRY OF THE BAB 1844-1853

Chapter I: The Birth of the Babi Revelation

May 23, 1844, signalizes the commencement of the most turbulent period of
the Heroic Age of the Baha'i Era, an age which marks the opening of the
most glorious epoch in the greatest cycle which the spiritual history of
mankind has yet witnessed. No more than a span of nine short years marks
the duration of this most spectacular, this most tragic, this most
eventful period of the first Baha'i century. It was ushered in by the
birth of a Revelation whose Bearer posterity will acclaim as the "Point
round Whom the realities of the Prophets and Messengers revolve," and
terminated with the first stirrings of a still more potent Revelation,
"whose day," Baha'u'llah Himself affirms, "every Prophet hath announced,"
for which "the soul of every Divine Messenger hath thirsted," and through
which "God hath proved the hearts of the entire company of His Messengers
and Prophets." Little wonder that the immortal chronicler of the events
associated with the birth and rise of the Baha'i Revelation has seen fit
to devote no less than half of his moving narrative to the description of
those happenings that have during such a brief space of time so greatly
enriched, through their tragedy and heroism, the religious annals of
mankind. In sheer dramatic power, in the rapidity with which events of
momentous importance succeeded each other, in the holocaust which baptized
its birth, in the miraculous circumstances attending the martyrdom of the
One W