Text of the Farman by Sultan Abdu'l-Aziz banishing Baha'u'llah to Akka

( 'Baha'u'llah, The King of Glory', by Balyuzi)

1949: First Baha'i Spiritual Assembly of Copenhagen, Denmark

(The Baha'i World 1946-1950)

Total number of National Spiritual Assemblies as of Ridvan 1983 --> 135

Among the outstanding features of the teaching and consolidation work are the continuing effective results of the participation of more than sixteen thousand believers from all parts of the world in the five International Conferences; intensive teaching campaigns carried out with the active support of all levels of the community and drawing upon the enthusiasm and capacity of Baha'i youth; the establishment of a second radio station in South America; the re-formation of the National Spiritual Assemblies of Uganda and Nepal, and the establishment of nine new National Spiritual Assemblies, two of which will be elected during the month of May this year, bringing the total of these secondary Houses of Justice to 135. 

- The Universal House of Justice  (Ridvan 1983 message of the Universal House of Justice)

1979-1982: Passing of five Hands of the Cause

Enoch Olinga (1979), Rahmatu'llah Muhajir (1979), Hasan A Balyuzi (1980), Abu'l-Qasim Faizi (1980), Adelbert Muehlschlegel (1980), and Paul Haney (1982).

(Adapted from explanatory notes included in ‘Messages from the Universal House of Justice 1963-1986’)

July 1957: Establishment of “a spiritual axis, extending from the Antipodes to the northern islands of the Pacific Ocean”

...The emergence of a new Regional Spiritual Assembly in the North Pacific Area [1], with its seat fixed in the capital city of a country which by reason of its innate capacity and the spiritual receptivity it has acquired, in consequence of the severe and prolonged ordeal its entire population has providentially experienced, is destined to have a preponderating share in awakening the peoples and races inhabiting the entire Pacific area, to the Message of Bahá'u'lláh, and to act as the Vanguard of His hosts in their future spiritual conquest of the main body of the yellow race on the Chinese mainland -- the emergence of such an assembly may be said to have, at long last established a spiritual axis, extending from the Antipodes to the northern islands of the Pacific Ocean -- an axis whose northern and southern poles will act as powerful magnets, endowed with exceptional spiritual potency, and towards which younger and less experienced communities will tend for some time to gravitate. 

- Shoghi Effendi  (From a message dated 19 July 1957 to the National Spiritual Assembly of Australia; ‘Letters from the Guardian to Australia and New Zealand’)

[1] National Spiritual Assembly of North East Asia, with its seat in Tokyo, Japan.]

circa 1948: First Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of Addis-Ababa, Ethiopia

(The Baha'i World 1946-1950)

Some dates associated with three Baha’i Houses of Worship: Ishqabad, India, and Australia

Construction of the first Baha'i House of Worship in 'Ishqabad, Russia, began in 1902 and was completed circa 1921. The House of Worship in India is near New Delhi; it was dedicated 23-27 December 1986. The House of Worship in Australasia, outside of Sydney in Ingleside, was dedicated on 16 September 1961. 

(Explanatory notes included in ‘Messages from the Universal House of Justice 1963-1986’)

February 12-18, 1953: Hands of the Cause attending the First intercontinental Baha'i Conference in Kampala, Uganda, Africa

Left to right: Musa Banani, Valiyu'llah Varqa, Shu'a'u'llah 'Ala’i, Mason Remey, Horace Holley, Tarazu'llah Samandari, Dhikru'llah Khadem, Leroy Ioas, Dorothy Baker, 'Ali-Akbar Furutan. The Kampala Haziratu'I-Quds is in the background. 

(The Baha’i World 1950-1954)

April 1934: First National Baha’i Convention in Iran - First National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of Iran

This Ridvan will go down in the history of Baha’i Persia because during the feast days the first national Baha’i Convention met in Tihran and elected the first National Assembly of Persia, with 84 delegates present from all over the country. Friends in the West will appreciate what achievement such a gathering represents in a country where travel is still a considerable adventure and where even a brief stay in the capital entails a long absence from home.

The delegates made their headquarters at the Haziratu’l-Quds, where the Central Assembly and the Service Committee had made the necessary arrangements for their reception; all kinds of furniture, beds, tables and the like had been requisitioned from Baha’is throughout town, and the fact that the delegates were in a sense the house guests of the Tihran friends added to the pleasure of the Convention. Many of the local friends entertained the delegates, both at the Haziratu’-l-Quds and at their homes; the social aspects of the Convention were highly important because the Persian friends of different centres cannot communicate with one another with the frequency enjoyed in the West. A significant event of this Convention was the sending of representatives by the four women’s committees to report to the delegates and submit their program for the coming year.

The members of the National Assembly are as follows:

Jenabi Fazel Mazandarani.

Haji Ghulam Reza Amin Amin.

Mirza Valiullah Khan Varqa.

Dr. Yunis Khan Afrukhtih.

Mirza Shuaullah Khan Alai.

Mirza Ahmed Khan Yazdani.

Mirza Ali Akbar Khan Froutan.

Mirza Mahmud Khan Badiyi.

Mirza Enayatullah Ahmed Poor.

(Baha’i News, no. 86, August 1934)

Teachers sent to America by ‘Abdu’l-Baha

The following is the list of the four teachers whom the Master sent to America in order to spread the Cause.... Their names are as follows: ‘Abdu’l-Karim, Haji Mirza Hasan, Mirza ‘Abdu’l-Fadl and Mirza Asadu’llah.

- Shoghi Effendi  (From a letter dated December 14, 1933, written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to the NSA of the United States and Canada; Baha’i News, no. 81, February 1934; also a note in Baha'i News, no. 83, May 1934)

Countries Opened to the Faith of Baha'u'liah from 1844 to 1921 – by Shoghi Effendi

Listed alphabetically:

Period of the Báb's Ministry (1844-1853)

• Iraq 
• Persia

Period of Bahá'u'lláh's Ministry (1853-1892)

• Adhirbayjan
• Armenia
• Burma
• Egypt
• Georgia 
• India
•  Israel
• Lebanon
•  Pakistan
• Sudan
• Syria
• Turkey
• Turkmenistan

Period of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's Ministry (1892-1921)

1949: Third South American Baha'i Congress - Sao Paulo, Brazil

Baha'is and friends at the reception dinner 
(The Baha'i World 1946-1950)

1949: First All-Swiss Baha'i Conference, Bern, Switzerland, Nov. 5-6

(The Baha'i World 1946-1950)

The Báb orally assured some of His followers that they would personally meet Baha’u’llah

Some of His disciples the Báb assiduously prepared to expect the imminent Revelation. Others He orally assured would live to see its day. To Mulla Baqir, one of the Letters of the Living, He actually prophesied, in a Tablet addressed to him, that he would meet the Promised One face to face. To Sayyah, another disciple, He gave verbally a similar assurance. Mulla Husayn He directed to Tihran, assuring him that in that city was enshrined a Mystery Whose light neither Hijaz nor Shiraz could rival. Quddus, on the eve of his final separation from Him, was promised that he would attain the presence of the One Who was the sole Object of their adoration and love. To Shaykh Hasan-i-Zunuzi He declared while in Mah-Ku that he would behold in Karbila the countenance of the promised Husayn. On Dayyan He conferred the title of "the third Letter to believe in Him Whom God shall make manifest," while to Azim He divulged, in the Kitáb-i-Panj-Sha'n, the name, and announced the approaching advent, of Him Who was to consummate His own Revelation. 

- Shoghi Effendi  (‘God Passes By’)

August 1949: The National Baha'i Center, Frankfurt, Germany

(The Baha'i World 1946-1950)

1948: First Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of Rome, Italy

(The Baha'i World 1946-1950)

1948: First Baha'i European Conference Geneva, Switzerland

(The Baha'i World 1946-1950)

1947: Baha'i Children's Class, Shiraz, Iran

(The Baha'i World 1946-1950)

First Baha’i in Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Dorothy Sheets was the first Bahá’í to declare her belief in Bahá’u’lláh in Calgary. She later pioneered to Regina, Saskatchewan and to Newfoundland. Dorothy passed away in 1997. 

(Adapted from the Footnotes included in ‘Messages to Canada’)

1923: First election of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of England

The first meeting of the elected “National Spiritual Assembly” took place in London on 13 October 1923. 

(Footnote to a message from Shoghi Effendi to 'The beloved of the Lord and the handmaids of the Merciful throughout London, Manchester and Bournemouth, care of the members of the National Spiritual Assembly, 17 February, 1923'; ‘Unfolding Destiny’)

1939: First pioneer to Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Doris Skinner, a Bahá’í from Vancouver, was the first pioneer to Calgary in 1939, until 1949, when she pioneered to Newfoundland. 

(Adapted from the Footnotes included in ‘Messages to Canada’)

Siyah-Chal (The Black Pit) of Tehran – a depiction

Upon Our arrival We were first conducted along a pitch-black corridor, from whence We descended three steep flights of stairs to the place of confinement assigned to Us. The dungeon was wrapped in thick darkness, and Our fellow prisoners numbered nearly a hundred and fifty souls: thieves, assassins and highwaymen. Though crowded, it had no other outlet than the passage by which We entered. No pen can depict that place, nor any tongue describe its loathsome smell. Most of these men had neither clothes nor bedding to lie on. God alone knoweth what befell Us in that most foul-smelling and gloomy place! 

- Baha'u'llah  (‘Epistle to the Son of the Wolf’)

1939: First pioneer to Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

Beulah S. Proctor, an American believer, was the first pioneer, with her daughter, to Halifax in 1939. She died 1958. 

(Adapted from the Footnotes in ‘Messages to Canada’)

19th Century Persia: System used for surnames

In times past the people of Persia had no surnames, but in many instances they were known by the name of the district, city, town, or even the village from which they came: for example, Khurasani, Mazindarani, Tihrani, Isfahani, and Shirazi. There were also various honorific prefixes and suffixes by which a person was distinguished. A descendant of the Prophet Muhammad had (and has) the prefix of 'Siyyid'. At times, 'Mirza' took the place of 'Siyyid', and at times the two were used together. 'Mirza' by itself did not denote any particular ancestry, except when placed after a proper name to mark royal descent. The suffix 'Khan' served at one time as a title, but with passing years, it became merely honorific, even meaningless, and at no time was it a surname. The prefix 'Haji' or 'Haj' indicated then, as now, one who had made the pilgrimage to Mecca. Mashhadi and Karbila'i, as prefixes, marked pilgrimage to Mashhad or Karbila, but as suffixes pointed out nativity. There were also innumerable titles conferred by the sovereign in Iran, consisting of diverse combinations, sometimes ludicrous, sometimes grammatically impossible. Occasionally they indicated a definite rank and profession. As time passed, these titles multiplied absurdly, until they were swept away by legislation in the 1920's. Finally, a person was often distinguished from others by a combination of prefixes and suffixes attached to his name which, if omitted, might cause him to be taken for another Person. 

- H.M. Balyuzi  (‘The Bab The Herald of the Day of Days’)

1982: Commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the passing of the Greatest Holy Leaf - The five international conferences of the Seven Year Plan

The five international conferences of the Seven Year Plan were called to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the passing of the Greatest Holy Leaf, to discuss anew the present condition of the Faith in a turbulent world society, to examine the great opportunities for its future growth and development, and to focus attention on the unfulfilled goals of the Plan. We are certain that the contemplation of the gathered friends on the sterling qualities which distinguished the heroic life of the Greatest Holy Leaf will help them to persevere in their noble endeavours. 

- The Universal House of Justice  (From a message to the International Conference in Canberra, Australia, 2, September 1982; ‘Messages from the Universal House of justice 1963-1986’)