Him. So profound was the respect the governor entertained for Him,
Whom he regarded as one of the Lights of the Age, that it was not until
the end of three months, during which he had received five successive
commands from 'Ali Pa_sh_a, that he could bring himself to inform
Baha'u'llah that it was the wish of the Turkish government that He should
proceed to the capital. On one occasion, when 'Abdu'l-Baha and
Aqay-i-Kalim had been delegated by Baha'u'llah to visit him, he
entertained them with such elaborate ceremonial that the Deputy-Governor
stated that so far as he knew no notable of the city had ever been
accorded by any governor so warm and courteous a reception. So struck,
indeed, had the Sultan 'Abdu'l-Majid been by the favorable reports
received about Baha'u'llah from successive governors of Ba_gh_dad (this is
the personal testimony given by the Governor's deputy to Baha'u'llah
himself) that he consistently refused to countenance the requests of the
Persian government either to deliver Him to their representative or to
order His expulsion from Turkish territory.

On no previous occasion, since the inception of the Faith, not even during
the days when the Bab in Isfahan, in Tabriz and in _Ch_ihriq was acclaimed
by the ovations of an enthusiastic populace, had any of its exponents
risen to such high eminence in the public mind, or exercised over so
diversified a circle of admirers an influence so far reaching and so
potent. Yet unprecedented as was the sway which Baha'u'llah held while, in
that primitive age of the Faith, He was dwelling in Ba_gh_dad, its range
at that time was modest when compared with the magnitude of the fame
which, at the close of that same age, and through the immediate
inspiration of the Center of His Covenant, the Faith acquired in both the
European and American continents.

The ascendancy achieved by Baha'u'llah was nowhere better demonstrated
than in His ability to broaden the outlook and transform the character of
the community to which He belonged. Though Himself nominally a Babi,
though the provisions of the Bayan were still regarded as binding and
inviolable, He was able to inculcate a standard which, while not
incompatible with its tenets, was ethically superior to the loftiest
principles which the Babi Dispensation had established. The salutary and
fundamental truths advocated by the Bab, that had either been obscured,
neglected or misrepresented, were moreover elucidated by Baha'u'l