glory of the Father," to
_Sh_i'ah Islam the return of the Imam Husayn; to Sunni Islam the descent
of the "Spirit of God" (Jesus Christ); to the Zoroastrians the promised
_Sh_ah-Bahram; to the Hindus the reincarnation of Krishna; to the
Buddhists the fifth Buddha.

In the name He bore He combined those of the Imam Husayn, the most
illustrious of the successors of the Apostle of God--the brightest "star"
shining in the "crown" mentioned in the Revelation of St. John--and of the
Imam 'Ali, the Commander of the Faithful, the second of the two
"witnesses" extolled in that same Book. He was formally designated
Baha'u'llah, an appellation specifically recorded in the Persian Bayan,
signifying at once the glory, the light and the splendor of God, and was
styled the "Lord of Lords," the "Most Great Name," the "Ancient Beauty,"
the "Pen of the Most High," the "Hidden Name," the "Preserved Treasure,"
"He Whom God will make manifest," the "Most Great Light," the "All-Highest
Horizon," the "Most Great Ocean," the "Supreme Heaven," the "Pre-Existent
Root," the "Self-Subsistent," the "Day-Star of the Universe," the "Great
Announcement," the "Speaker on Sinai," the "Sifter of Men," the "Wronged
One of the World," the "Desire of the Nations," the "Lord of the
Covenant," the "Tree beyond which there is no passing." He derived His
descent, on the one hand, from Abraham (the Father of the Faithful)
through his wife Katurah, and on the other from Zoroaster, as well as from
Yazdigird, the last king of the Sasaniyan dynasty. He was moreover a
descendant of Jesse, and belonged, through His father, Mirza Abbas, better
known as Mirza Buzurg--a nobleman closely associated with the ministerial
circles of the Court of Fath-'Ali _Sh_ah--to one of the most ancient and
renowned families of Mazindaran.

To Him Isaiah, the greatest of the Jewish prophets, had alluded as the
"Glory of the Lord," the "Everlasting Father," the "Prince of Peace," the
"Wonderful," the "Counsellor," the "Rod come forth out of the stem of
Jesse" and the "Branch grown out of His roots," Who "shall be established
upon the throne of David," Who "will come with strong hand," Who "shall
judge among the nations," Who "shall smite the earth with the rod of His
mouth, and with the breath of His lips slay the wicked," and Who "shall
assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of
Judah from the four corners of the earth." Of Him David had sung in his
Psalms, accl