ecapture something of the atmosphere of spiritual purity
and detachment he had briefly encountered. Another, more deeply moved by
the experience of his visit, expressed to friends the feeling that "were
all the sorrows of the world to be crowded into my heart they would, I
feel, all vanish, when in the presence of Baha'u'llah. It is as if I had
entered Paradise..."(18)

THE DECLARATION IN THE RIDVAN GARDEN

By 1863, Baha'u'llah concluded that the time had come to begin acquainting
some of those around Him with the mission which had been entrusted to Him
in the darkness of the Siyah-_Ch_al. This decision coincided with a new
stage in the campaign of opposition to His work, which had been
relentlessly pursued by the Shi'ih Muslim clergy and representatives of
the Persian government. Fearing that the acclaim which Baha'u'llah was
beginning to enjoy among influential Persian visitors to Iraq would
re-ignite popular enthusiasm in Persia, the Shah's government pressed the
Ottoman authorities to remove Him far from the borders and into the
interior of the empire. Eventually, the Turkish government acceded to
these pressures and invited the exile, as its guest, to make His residence
in the capital, Constantinople. Despite the courteous terms in which the
message was couched, the intention was clearly to require compliance.(19)

By this time, the devotion of the little company of exiles had come to
focus on Baha'u'llah's person as well as on His exposition of the Bab's
teachings. A growing number of them had become convinced that He was
speaking not only as the Bab's advocate, but on behalf of the far greater
cause which the latter had declared to be imminent. These beliefs became a
certainty in late April 1863 when Baha'u'llah, on the eve of His departure
for Constantinople, called together individuals among His companions, in a
garden to which was later given the name Ridvan ("Paradise"), and confided
the central fact of His mission. Over the next four years, although no
open announcement was considered timely, the hearers gradually shared with
trusted friends the news that the Bab's promises had been fulfilled and
that the "Day of God" had dawned.

The precise circumstances surrounding this private communication are, in
the words of the Baha'i authority most intimately familiar with the
records of the period, "shrouded in an obscurity which future historians
will find it difficult to penetrate."(20) The nature of