Tell the king that this territory will pass out of his hands

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Truth
Posts: 79
Joined: Fri Nov 07, 2008 6:19 am
Location: Oz

Tell the king that this territory will pass out of his hands

Postby Truth » Wed Nov 14, 2012 12:57 am

Hi there,

Reading through God Passes By, i've come across the following on page 181...

"Several of the companions who had been brought from Constantinople were awaiting them in Gallipoli. On his arrival Bahá’u’lláh made the following pronouncement to Hasan Effendi, who, his duty discharged, was taking his leave: “Tell the king that this territory will pass out of his hands, and his affairs will be thrown into confusion.” “To this,” Áqá Ridá, the recorder of that scene has written, “Bahá’u’lláh furthermore added: ‘Not I speak these words, but God speaketh them.’ In those moments He was uttering verses which we, who were downstairs, could overhear. They were spoken with such vehemence and power that, methinks, the foundations of the house itself trembled.”"

Did the bold part actually happen?
No need to ask in whose presence I stood, as I bowed myself before one who is the object of a devotion and love which kings might envy and emperors sigh for in vain!

Truth
Posts: 79
Joined: Fri Nov 07, 2008 6:19 am
Location: Oz

Re: Tell the king that this territory will pass out of his h

Postby Truth » Wed Nov 14, 2012 1:01 am

Actually, i presumed that the Sultan stayed in power but lost control of Gallipoli.

But what really happened was...

Sultan Abd-ul-Aziz was deposed on May 30, 1876 and a fortnight later he was found dead in the palace where he had been confined, and trustworthy medical evidence attributed his death to suicide although many people believed he was murdered by a conspiracy.

Thanks anyway! :megagrin:
No need to ask in whose presence I stood, as I bowed myself before one who is the object of a devotion and love which kings might envy and emperors sigh for in vain!

MontanaDon
Posts: 96
Joined: Tue Aug 19, 2008 9:33 pm

Re: Tell the king that this territory will pass out of his h

Postby MontanaDon » Wed Nov 14, 2012 2:32 am

He was speaking of the lands of the Vilayet of Adrianople. I don't know how vilayet should be translated, so I'll call it a state. It was what we would now call European Turkey plus parts of present day Greece and Bulgaria. It in turn was made up of what I'll call "counties". Gallipoli was in the "county" of Gallipoli in the "state" of Adrianople.
During the Bulgarian uprising of 1876/8, the break-away Romanian king, with the support and encouragement of the Russian Tsar, came to the Bulgarian's aid and invaded the Vilayet of Adrianople. I'm not sure how far south the armies came, but at various times they occupied Adrianople and nearly got to the Dardanelles. There were European observers who were caught by the unexpectedly fast advance of the Slavic troops. Their letters to major newspapers report slaughter and chaos. It was the beginning of this process that led to a "vote of no confidence" in Abdu'l-Aziz and his assassination.
As I remember, there was very little actual fighting in the west of the Vilayet of Adrianople, but the troops got control of the train line between Constantinople and Adrianople which made it very difficult for the Europeans to get out of the area.
There were rumours of this happening going back to the late '60's and it has been suggested that part of the campaign against Baha'u'llah were claims that He was supporting the Russian and Greek insurgencies that were eating away at the European parts of the Ottoman Empire; and led to His exile to Akka.
This was all part of the Balkan uprisings that drove the Ottoman Empire nearly out of Europe.

Don C
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Understood properly, all man's problems are essentially spiritual in nature.

Truth
Posts: 79
Joined: Fri Nov 07, 2008 6:19 am
Location: Oz

Re: Tell the king that this territory will pass out of his h

Postby Truth » Wed Nov 14, 2012 6:00 pm

Thanks MontanaDon. That was a really helpful explanation. :thumbs:
No need to ask in whose presence I stood, as I bowed myself before one who is the object of a devotion and love which kings might envy and emperors sigh for in vain!

iranpour
Posts: 74
Joined: Fri Feb 01, 2013 2:52 pm

Re: Tell the king that this territory will pass out of his h

Postby iranpour » Fri Feb 15, 2013 10:04 am

I wonder why you didn’t mention the Tablets of Baha’u’llah to Sultan Abdu'l-'Aziz and his ministers regarding the overthrowing of the Sultan and his ministers.
Baha’u’llah’s Prophecies regarding the Ottoman Empire and Sultan Abdu'l-'Aziz the Ottoman emperor:

Full name Abdülaziz
Predecessor Abdülmecid I
Successor Murad V
Reign 1861–76

Inside the prison walls, Baha’u’llah wrote Epistles to the kings and rulers of the world, summoning them to justice, arbitration and universal peace and give them the news of His advent.
One of those kings was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, whose Prisoner addressed and condemned him in the severest terms, his misrule in such a tone that the Grand Vizir of Abdu'l-'Aziz, Ali Pasha, blanched while reading the communication addressed to his Imperial master and his ministers, made the following comment: "It is as if the king of kings were issuing his behest to his humblest vassal king, and regulating his conduct!"
Then another letter was revealed in which He counselled him how to rule the affairs of his kingdom. The letter begins with the the following paragraph:

“Hearken, O King (Sultan Abdu'l-'Aziz), to the speech of Him that speaketh the truth, Him that doth not ask thee to recompense Him with the things God hath chosen to bestow upon thee, Him Who unerringly treadeth the straight Path. He it is Who summoneth thee unto God, thy Lord, Who showeth thee the right course, the way that leadeth to true felicity, that haply thou mayest be of them with whom it shall be well…”
(Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 232)

Then He turns with three other Tablets which address two ministers of the Sultan, whose selfish and unprincipled influence played an important role in Bahá'u'lláh's successive banishments. The Suriy-i-Ra'is, which addresses 'Ali Pasha, the Ottoman Prime Minister, was revealed in August 1868 as the exiles were being moved from Adrianople to Gallipoli, and exposes unsparingly the abuse of civil power the minister had perpetrated. The Lawh-i-Ra'ís, which also contains passages directed to 'Ali Pasha, was revealed shortly after Bahá'u'lláh's incarceration in the citadel of 'Akká and includes a chilling denunciation of the character of the Minister. The third Tablet, the Lawh-i-Fu'ád, revealed in 1869 shortly after the death of Fu'ad Pasha, the Ottoman Minister to whose machinations it refers, describes the spiritual consequences of the abuse of power, and foretells the imminent downfall of his colleague, 'Ali Pasha, and the overthrow of the Sultan himself -- prophecies that were widely circulated and whose dramatic fulfilment added greatly to the prestige of their Author. (Baha'u'llah, The Summons of the Lord of Hosts, p. v)

Bahá'u'lláh in the Súriy-i-Ra'ís and the Lawh-i-Fu'ád predicts that Sultan Abdu'l-Aziz will lose control of the Ottoman Empire. Writing to `Alí Páshá, the Ottoman Prime Minister, in August 1868 Bahá'u'lláh wrote:

"The day is approaching when the Land of Mystery (Adrianople) and what is beside it shall be changed, and shall pass out of the hands of the King, and commotions shall appear, and the voice of lamentation shall be raised, and the evidences of mischief shall be revealed on all sides, and confusion shall spread by reason of that which hath befallen these captives at the hands of the hosts of oppression." (Bahá'u'lláh, Súriy-i-Ra’ís, 1868).

Later in 1869, Bahá'u'lláh writing in the Lawh-i-Fu'ád compares the Sultan and his Prime Minister to Nimrod and Pharaoh who rose up against Abraham and Moses and writes that they will lose power:

"Soon will We dismiss the one who was like unto him [`Alí Páshá], and will lay hold on their Chief who ruleth the land [the Sultan], and I, verily, am the Almighty, the All-Compelling. Be thou steadfast in the Cause of God and extol thy Lord morn and eve." (Bahá'u'lláh, Lawh-i-Fu'ád, 1869).

The prophecies in the Lawh-i-Fu'ád regarding the downfall of the Sultan and the Prime Minister played an important role in Mírzá Abu'l-Fadl, one of the Bahá'í Faith's foremost scholars, in conversion to the Faith, after the fulfilment of the prophecies.

“Sultan 'Abdu'l-'Aziz lost both his throne and his life in 1876. During the subsequent war with Russia (1877-1878), Adrianople was occupied by the enemy and the Turks experienced a violent bloodbath”. (Baha'u'llah, The Summons of the Lord of Hosts, p. 239)

He was deposed on May 30, 1876 and a fortnight later he was found dead in the palace where he had been confined, and trustworthy medical evidence attributed his death to suicide although many people believed he was murdered by a conspiracy. To be continued

iranpour
Posts: 74
Joined: Fri Feb 01, 2013 2:52 pm

Re: Tell the king that this territory will pass out of his h

Postby iranpour » Fri Feb 15, 2013 10:09 am

Conti.
`Alí Pashá was the Prime Minister of the Ottoman Empire under Sultan Abdu'l-Aziz; Bahá'u'lláh called him Ra’is "the Chief." Bahá'u'lláh in the Súriy-i-Ra'ís and the Lawh-i-Ra'ís predicts that he will lose his power and station. Writing to him in August 1868 Bahá'u'lláh wrote:

"Thou hast, O Chief, committed that which hath caused Muhammad, the Apostle of God, to lament in the most sublime Paradise. The world hath made thee proud, so much so that thou hast turned away from the Face through whose brightness the Concourse on high hath been illumined. Soon thou shalt find thyself in manifest loss!" (Bahá'u'lláh, Súriy-i-Ra’ís, 1868).

Writing to him in another tablet Bahá'u'lláh states once again that he will lose his station and glory:

"Soon will He seize you in His wrathful anger, sedition will be stirred up in your midst, and your dominions will be disrupted. ... Have ye fondly imagined your glory to be imperishable and your dominion to be everlasting? Nay, by Him Who is the All-Merciful! Neither will your glory last, nor will Mine abasement endure. Such abasement, in the estimation of a true man, is the pride of every glory." (Bahá'u'lláh, Lawh-i-Ra’ís, 1868).

`Alí Pashá died in office in 1871 after three months of illness.

Bahá'u'lláh prophesized the fall of the Caliphate, the title of the Islamic leader. From 1517 onwards, the Ottoman sultan was also the Caliph of Islam, and the Ottoman Empire was, from 1517 until 1922 (or 1924), synonymous with the Caliphate or the Islamic State. Addressing the people of Constantinople (Istambul), the capital of the Ottoman Empire, Bahá'u'lláh, in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas which was completed in 1873, claims that the leaders of Constantinople, the Caliph, has been a source of tyranny, and that they will lose control.
Concerning Constantinople (Istambul), the capital of Ottoman Empire and its inhabitants, Baha’u’llah prophesies as follows:

"O people of Constantinople! Lo, from your midst We hear the baleful hooting of the owl. Hath the drunkenness of passion laid hold upon you, or is it that ye are sunk in heedlessness? O Spot that art situate on the shores of the two seas (Constantinople)! The throne of tyranny hath, verily, been established upon thee, and the flame of hatred hath been kindled within thy bosom, in such wise that the Concourse on high and they who circle around the Exalted Throne have wailed and lamented. We behold in thee the foolish ruling over the wise, and darkness vaunting itself against the light. Thou art indeed filled with manifest pride. Hath thine outward splendour made thee vainglorious? By Him Who is the Lord of mankind! It shall soon perish, and thy daughters and thy widows and all the kindreds that dwell within thee shall lament. Thus informeth thee the All-Knowing, the All-Wise." (Bahá'u'lláh, Kitáb-i-Aqdas, 1873).

In June 1877, Bahá'u'lláh at last emerged from the strict confinement of the prison-city of 'Akká, and moved with His family to "Mazra'ih", a small estate a few miles north of the city. As had been predicted in His statement to the Turkish government, Sultan Abdu'l-Aziz had been overthrown and assassinated in a palace coup, and gusts from the winds of political change sweeping the world were beginning to invade even the shuttered precincts of the Ottoman imperial system. (Baha'i International Community, 1992 May 29, Statement on Baha'u'llah, p. 26)
On March 3, 1924, the first President of the Turkish Republic, Kemal Atatürk, constitutionally abolished the institution of the Caliphate. Its powers were transferred to the Turkish Grand National Assembly (parliament) of the newly formed Turkish nation-state and the title has since been inactive.
Turkey, which had thrice banished its Founder (The Founder of the Baha’i Faith) and inflicted on Him cruel and life-long imprisonment, had passed through one of the severest ordeals and far-reaching revolutions that its history has recorded, had shrunk from one of the most powerful empires to a tiny Asiatic republic, its Sultanate obliterated, its dynasty overthrown, its Caliphate, the mightiest institution of Islam, abolished. (Shoghi Effendi, The World Order of Baha'u'llah, p. 196).


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