accounted Him
an adept in alchemy and the science of divination, still others designated
Him "a pivot of the universe," whilst a not inconsiderable number among
His admirers went so far as to believe that His station was no less than
that of a prophet. Kurds, Arabs, and Persians, learned and illiterate,
both high and low, young and old, who had come to know Him, regarded Him
with equal reverence, and not a few among them with genuine and profound
affection, and this despite certain assertions and allusions to His
station He had made in public, which, had they fallen from the lips of any
other member of His race, would have provoked such fury as to endanger His
life. Small wonder that Baha'u'llah Himself should have, in the
Lawh-i-Maryam, pronounced the period of His retirement as "the mightiest
testimony" to, and "the most perfect and conclusive evidence" of, the
truth of His Revelation. "In a short time," is 'Abdu'l-Baha's own
testimony, "Kurdistan was magnetized with His love. During this period
Baha'u'llah lived in poverty. His garments were those of the poor and
needy. His food was that of the indigent and lowly. An atmosphere of
majesty haloed Him as the sun at midday. Everywhere He was greatly revered
and loved."

While the foundations of Baha'u'llah's future greatness were being laid in
a strange land and amidst a strange people, the situation of the Babi
community was rapidly going from bad to worse. Pleased and emboldened by
His unexpected and prolonged withdrawal from the scene of His labors, the
stirrers of mischief with their deluded associates were busily engaged in
extending the range of their nefarious activities. Mirza Yahya, closeted
most of the time in his house, was secretly directing, through his
correspondence with those Babis whom he completely trusted, a campaign
designed to utterly discredit Baha'u'llah. In his fear of any potential
adversary he had dispatched Mirza Muhammad-i-Mazindarani, one of his
supporters, to A_dh_irbayjan for the express purpose of murdering Dayyan,
the "repository of the knowledge of God," whom he surnamed "Father of
Iniquities" and stigmatized as "Ta_gh_ut," and whom the Bab had extolled
as the "Third Letter to believe in Him Whom God shall make manifest." In
his folly he had, furthermore, induced Mirza Aqa Jan to proceed to Nur,
and there await a propitious moment when he could make a successful
attempt on the life of the sovereign. His shamelessness and effrontery had