the
Divine summons, and of the dialogue with the "Spirit of God" which lay at
the heart of His mission. Religious history has never before offered the
inquirer the opportunity for so candid an encounter with the phenomenon of
Divine Revelation.

Toward the end of His life, Baha'u'llah's writings on His early
experiences included a brief description of the conditions in the
Siyah-_Ch_al.

We were consigned for four months to a place foul beyond comparison....
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!(8)

Each day the guards would descend the three steep flights of stairs of the
pit, seize one or more of the prisoners, and drag them out to be executed.
In the streets of Teheran, Western observers were appalled by scenes of
Babi victims blown from cannon mouths, hacked to death by axes and swords,
and led to their deaths with burning candles inserted into open wounds in
their bodies.(9) It was in these circumstances, and faced with the
prospect of His own imminent death, that Baha'u'llah received the first
intimation of His mission:

One night, in a dream, these exalted words were heard on every side:
"Verily, We shall render Thee victorious by Thyself and by Thy Pen. Grieve
Thou not for that which hath befallen Thee, neither be Thou afraid, for
Thou art in safety. Erelong will God raise up the treasures of the
earth--men who will aid Thee through Thyself and through Thy name,
wherewith God hath revived the hearts of such as have recognized Him."(10)

The experience of Divine Revelation, touched on only at secondhand in
surviving accounts of the lives of the Buddha, Moses, Jesus Christ, and
Muhammad, is described graphically in Baha'u'llah's own words:

During the days I lay in the prison of Tihran, though the galling weight
of the chains and the stench-filled air allowed Me but little sleep, still
in those infrequent moments of slumber I felt as if something flowed from
the crown of My head over My breast, even as a mighty torrent that
precipitateth itself upon the earth from the summit of a lofty mountain.
Every limb of My bod