Acre’s first Baha’i pilgrims

Baha’i pilgrimage to Acre began shortly after 1868, when Baha’u’llah arrived at the ancient walled city as a prisoner of the Ottoman Empire.

He had been banished from His native Iran 15 years earlier, and lived successively in Baghdad, Istanbul, and Edirne before being sent to Acre, then a remote outpost of the Ottoman Empire used as a place of exile.

Devoted followers from Iran determined His whereabouts and would travel on foot for months just to catch a glimpse of Him. Not allowed inside the city walls, the pilgrims would stand outside and look toward the citadel, hoping Baha’u’llah would come to a window on the second floor where He was confined, even for a minute, so they could see Him wave His hand.

Later, when authorities allowed Baha’u’llah to live outside the barracks, pilgrims could sometimes enter His presence to show their devotion and listen to His explanations of the new revelation from God.

Sometimes He would write a tablet – a prayer or other communication – for the pilgrims to take back to Iran or elsewhere to Baha’is thirsty for contact with the leader they considered the mouthpiece of God for this age.

After His passing, pilgrims still came – to pray at His resting place and to pay their respects to His son, ‘Abdu’l-Baha, whom Baha’u’llah had appointed to succeed Him as head of the Baha’i community, and later to Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian of the Baha’i Faith.

As the religion spread around the world, the believers came from farther away, including the first group of Western pilgrims, mainly Americans, who arrived in 1898. They were allowed a special visit to the tomb, and a member of the group, May Bolles, later wrote this:

“As we gazed upon the veiled door our souls stirred within us as though seeking release, and had we not been upheld by the mercy of God we could not have endured the poignancy of joy and sorrow and love and yearning that shook the foundations of our beings.”