forehead on the border of the wooden
casket, and, sobbing aloud, wept with such a weeping that all those who
were present wept with Him. That night He could not sleep, so overwhelmed
was He with emotion.(16)

By 1908, the so-called "Young Turk Revolution" had freed not only most of
the Ottoman empire's political prisoners, but 'Abdu'l-Baha as well.
Suddenly, the restraints that had kept Him confined to the prison-city of
'Akka and its immediate surroundings had fallen away, and the Master was
in a position to proceed with an enterprise that Shoghi Effendi was later
to describe as one of the three principal achievements of His ministry:
His public proclamation of the Cause of God in the great population
centres of the Western world.

* * * * *

Because of the dramatic character of the events that occurred in North
America and Europe, accounts of the Master's historic journeys sometimes
tend to overlook the important opening year spent in Egypt. 'Abdu'l-Baha
arrived there in September 1910, intending to go on directly to Europe,
but was compelled by illness to remain in residence at Ramleh, a suburb of
Alexandria, until August of the following year. As it turned out, the
months that followed were a period of great productivity whose full
effects on the fortunes of the Cause, in the African continent especially,
will be felt for many years to come. To some extent the way had no doubt
been paved by warm admiration for the Master on the part of _Sh_ay_kh_
Muhammad 'Abduh, who had met Him on several occasions in Beirut and who
subsequently became Mufti of Egypt and a leading figure at Al-Azhar
University.

An aspect of the Egyptian sojourn that deserves special attention was the
opportunity it provided for the first public proclamation of the Faith's
message. The relatively cosmopolitan and liberal atmosphere prevailing in
Cairo and Alexandria at the time opened a way for frank and searching
discussions between the Master and prominent figures in the intellectual
world of Sunni Islam. These included clerics, parliamentarians,
administrators and aristocrats. Further, editors and journalists from
influential Arabic-language newspapers, whose information about the Cause
had been coloured by prejudiced reports emanating from Persia and
Constantinople, now had an opportunity to learn the facts of the situation
for themselves. Publications that had been openly hostile changed their
tone. The edi