In Egypt it was the signal for the adoption of a series of measures which
have in their cumulative effect greatly facilitated the extension of such
a recognition by a government which is still formally associated with the
religion of Islam, and which suffers its laws and regulations to be shaped
in a great measure by the views and pronouncements of its ecclesiastical
leaders. The inflexible determination of the Egyptian believers not to
deviate a hair's breadth from the tenets of their Faith, by avoiding all
dealings with any Muslim ecclesiastical court in that country and by
refusing any ecclesiastical post which might be offered them; the
codification and publication of the fundamental laws of the Kitab-i-Aqdas
regarding matters of personal status, such as marriage, divorce,
inheritance and burial, and the presentation of these laws to the Egyptian
Cabinet; the issuance of marriage and divorce certificates by the Egyptian
National Spiritual Assembly; the assumption by that Assembly of all the
duties and responsibilities connected with the conduct of Baha'i marriages
and divorces, as well as with the burial of the dead; the observance by
all members of that community of the nine Holy Days on which work, as
prescribed in the Baha'i teachings, must be completely suspended; the
presentation of a petition addressed by the national elected
representatives of that community to the Egyptian Prime Minister, the
Minister of the Interior and the Minister of Justice (supported by a
similar communication addressed by the American National Spiritual
Assembly to the Egyptian Government), enclosing a copy of the judgment of
the Court, and of their national Baha'i constitution and by-laws,
requesting them to recognize their Assembly as a body qualified to
exercise the functions of an independent court and empowered to apply, in
all matters affecting their personal status, the laws and ordinances
revealed by the Author of their Faith--these stand out as the initial
consequences of a historic pronouncement that must eventually lead to the
establishment of that Faith on a basis of absolute equality with its
sister religions in that land.

A corollary to this epoch-making declaration, and a direct consequence of
the intermittent disturbances instigated in Port Said and Isma'iliyyih by
a fanatical populace in connection with the burial of some of the members
of the Baha'i community, was the official and no less remarkable fatva
(judgmen