1. Text
[page 63]
[photo of Subh-i-Ezel's funeral procession; see image scan below]
[page 70]
... In the course of my travels in Turkey I have met more than one Vali who had
spent his youth in Famagusta in the house of an
exiled parent; and, when Great Britain occupied
Cyprus in 1878, several State prisoners were found
within its walls. The most interesting of these was
the saintly Subh-i-Ezel, "The Dawn of Eternity,"
successor of the Persian, Mirza Ali Mohammed, who
founded the Babi sect and was put to death by the
Shah in 1850. The Babis, expelled from Persia
after their founder's execution, took refuge in
Baghdad, and were then transferred by the Turkish
Government to Adrianople, the Shah considering
that in Baghdad they were too close to the Persian
frontier. While in Adrianople, the sect was rent
in twain by schism. Subh-i-Ezel's more assertive
half-brother Bahau'llah now claimed the leadership
and maintained, indeed, that Mirza Ali, the Bab,
had been no more than his, Bahau'llah's, forerunner.
While some of the community continued to acknowledge
the Bab and adhered to Subh-i-Ezel, others
followed Bahau'llah and called themselves Bahais.
Meanwhile both sections were again deported by the
Turks, the Ezelis to Famagusta, Bahau'llah and his
followers to Acre. When, after the British occupation
[page 71]
Subh-i-Ezel was free to leave Cyprus, he elected
to remain in Famagusta, where he lived on a small
subsidy from the Cyprus Government until his death
in 1912 at the age of eighty-two. From Acre the
Bahai faith has spread to Europe and the United
States and counts two millions of adherents; the
Ezelis have dwindled to a handful.
2. Image scans (click image for full-size version)
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