- 1832-00-00 — The first of the American missionaries went to Persia to explore the possibility of establishing a base for the activities of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. The work of many others who succeeded him continued until 1934 when the government imposed regulations that drastically restricted the nature of their educational work in Iran. Although the missionaries were successful in educational and medical work they failed in their main objective, which was to evangelize not only Persia, but all of Asia. However, their schools, colleges and hospitals had contributed to the diffusion of western ideals and the standard of education. They established an educational system from the primary to the college level in a country that had no secular education system.
[American Missionaries in Iran, 1834-1934
by Mansoori, Ahmad] iiiii
- 1850-06-00 —
The Amír-Nizám, Mírzá Taqí Khán was determined to execute the Báb to halt the progress of His religion. On his orders the Báb was taken from Chihríq to Tabríz. [Bab152; BBR76–7; GPB51]
- His guard took Him on a circuitous, much longer route through Urúmíyyih where His presence was noted by American missionaries. [Bab152; BBR73, 76]
- Forty days before the Báb was to leave Chihríq He collected all His documents, Tablets, pen cases, seals, His agate rings, and His last Tablets to Mírzá 'Abdu'l-Karím Qazvíní, and put them in a coffer. He entrusted it to Mullá Báqir, one of the Letters of the Living, and instructed him to deliver it to His secretary. In the event that something should happen to Himself, the secretary was to proceed to Tihrán to deliver the box to 'Jináb-i-Bahá', that is, Bahá'u'lláh. In His last Tablets, Mírzá Husayn-'Alí Núrí was referred to again and again as "Him Whom God shall make Manifest" also, He was referred to as "Bahá'u'lláh". [CH49; Bab151–2; DB504–5; TN25–6]
- When the box was opened they found a Tablet in the form of a pentacle with 500 verses consisting of derivatives of the word 'Bahá'. [Bab151–2; DB504–5; TN25–6]
- This Blessed Tablet of the Bab was obtained in Cyprus by the Larnaca District Commissioner Claude Delaval Cobham, and he donated it to the British Library. It had been in the possession of Mirza Yayha in Famagusta. Mishkin-Qalam served Cobham toward the end of his 18 year exile in Cyprus, as a translator, which has nothing to do with this Tablet but it is interesting Baha'i history in Cyprus. [from an message from Anita Graves, National Bahá'í Archivist, Cyprus to Janis Zrudlo 25 April 2021.
- Here is a link to a similar tablet at the British Libary website.
- See Gate of the Heart 329-330 for a further explanation of the symbol of the pentagram and the circle.
- 1893-09-23 —
First public reference in North America to the Bahá'í Faith. [SBBH1p76]
- Reference was made to it in a paper entitled The Religious Mission of the English Speaking Nations by Rev. Henry H. Jessup, a retired missionary from north Syria, read by Rev George A. Ford at the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago. [AB63–4; BBD2412; BBR57; BFA1:323; BW2:230; GPB256; SBBH1:76, 88, 202]
- See AB63–4, BW2:169 for text.
- Historians have observed that, before this Parliament, "religion" was classified by many Americans into ethnic religion and universal religion. They considered there being only one universal religion: Christianity. In this view, all previous faiths were ethnic religions, and their purpose was to prepare the people for Christianity. Ethnic religions may have had portions of the truth, but only Christianity had all truth. This 1893 Parliament was a pivotal moment in the abolition of such classification, as representatives of "eastern" religions such as Swami Vivekananda and Anagarika Dharmapala promoted a new religious tolerance. [Paraphrased quote from Robert Stockman]
-
World Parliament of Religions 1893, a talk by Mr. Rothwell "Bud" Polk.
- See Chicago 1893.
- 1910-00-00 —
The publication of Fifty-Three Years in Syria by Reverend H. H. Jessup. (Apologies: this link does not have the same text as found on SBBR1p78) [Collins10.818]
- This same Reverend Jessup who delivered the address to the World Parliament of Religions in 1894 in Chicago seemed to have revised his opinion about the Faith. Perhaps this was due to the dis-information being spread by the Covenant-breakers after the passing of Bahá'u'lláh.
- He also published Babism and the Babites in "The Missionary Review of the World", Princeton, NJ Oct 1902 p771-775 and The Babites in "The Outlook", London, 22 June 1901 p451-456. [Collins11.574, 11.575]
- See also WOB83 for other missionaries who wrote polemics against the Bahá'í Faith.
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