- 1877-00-00 — `Abdu'l-Bahá rented the house of Mazra`ih for Bahá'u'lláh's use. [BKG357; DH87; RB3:416]
- 1877-06-03 —
Bahá'u'lláh took up residence at Mazra`ih. [BBD154]
- It took the repeated pleadings of Shaykh `Alíy-i-Mírí, the Muftí of `Akká, to persuade Him to go. [BBD 154; BKG358–9; GPB192–3]
- See BKG359 and DH89 for a description.
- Bahá'u'lláh resided there for two years with some members of His family while `Abdu'l-Bahá, the Greatest Holy Leaf and Navváb continued to live in the House of `Abbúd. [BBD13, 106; DH89–90]
- See CH136 for the reason why `Abdu'l-Bahá did not live at Mazra`ih.
- Also see DH8994.
- 1879-09-00 —
Bahá'u'lláh moved to the empty mansion at Bahjí after two years' residence at Mazra`ih. [BBD42; BKG362]
Note: The date of Bahá'u'lláh's first arrival at the Mansion of Bahji is given as
September 1879 in Bahá'u'lláh: The King of Glory, p. 362. However, in a Tablet
dated 11 Rabí`u'l-Avval 1298 A.H. [11 February 1881], Bahá'u'lláh tells Núri'd-
Dín that it had been only a month since He arrived at the Mansion; see Núri'd-
Dín's Collection, p. 43. [Memories of the Báb,
Bahá'u'lláh and `Abdu'l-Bahá by Mírzá Habíbu'lláh Afnán p32]
- Mírzá Muhammad-'Alí, Mírzá Badí'u'lláh, Zia'u'llah (Mírzá Díyá'u'lláh) and their mother Mahd-i-'Ulyá along with Gawhar and her daughter, Furúghíyyih Khánum, stayed at Bahji with Bahá'u'lláh. 'Abdu'l-Bahá and His mother, Khadíjih Khánum, and His sister, Bahíyyih Khánum as well as and His own family continued to live in 'Akká.
- See BBD42 and GPB216 for a list of Tablets revealed by Bahá'u'lláh during His occupation of the mansion of Bahjí.
- 1901-00-00 — The Junayn Gardens northwest of Mazra`ih, owned by several Bahá'ís, was registered under the name of `Abdu'l-Bahá and a brother. [BBD124]
- 1930-03-01 —
The intended pilgrimage of Queen Marie of Romania to the Bahá'í Shrines was thwarted. [GBF49; GPBXVIII; PP114]
- For details of this episode see GBF49–50 and PP113–16.
- In addition to visiting the Shrines Queen Marie had anticipated visiting her childhood friend, Lillian McNeill. She and her husband were resident in Mazra'ih at this time. [BW19p779-782]
- 1931-05-01 —
Lilian Barron McNeill, an English Bahá'í, and her husband, a retired British army officer, rented the house at Mazra'ih. [DH92]
- They restored the house, which had deteriorated, preserving those parts unchanged from the time of Bahá'u'lláh. [DH92–3, BW19P779-782]
- 1949-08-16 —
The passing of Lilian Vaughan McNeill (b.1 December, 1879). In May, 1931 she and her husband, Brigadier General Angus McNeill had taken a lease on the abandoned property at Mazra'ih where they lived until her passing. They had restored the house and property respecting the fact that Bahá'u'lláh and His family had lived there from June 1877 until September, 1879. In 1981 the staff at the Bahá'í World Centre discovered her simple grave in the Commonwealth Cemetery in Haifa and, with the permission of her family, erected a befitting and dignified memorial.
She had been a childhood friend of Marie Alexandra Victoria (Queen Marie of Romania).
During her latter years at Mazra'ih she wrote a series of short stories, some of which were published in the local English-language newspaper. [BW19p779-782]
- Brigadier General Angus McNeill died in Cyprus in June 1950, nearly one year after Lilian's passing, and was buried on 21 June 1950 in Wayne's Keep, the Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery now located in the buffer zone, under the control of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP). Anita Graves, archivist for the Cypriot community, discovered he grave in 1994. [from a message from Anita Graves dated November, 2019] iiiii
- 1950-12-15 — The Guardian appealed directly to Israel's Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion to recognize the interest of the Bahá'í community in the property known as Mazra'ih as a holy place. After a protracted struggle to obtain ownership of the property, then a Moslem religious endowment, he leased the site from the Department of Moslem and Druze affairs in the Ministry of Religions. [DH93, GBF137, PP290, CB331, MBW7, Bahá'í News, no. 244, June 1951, p. 4]
- 1973-03-13 —
The mansion at Mazra'ih was purchased. [BW15:169; BW16:136; BW19-779-782, DH94; VV14]
-
From the Ridván message of the Universal House of Justice ...
"The Mansion of Mazra`ih, often referred to by the beloved Guardian as one of the "twin mansions" in which the Blessed Beauty resided after nine years within the walled prison-city of `Akká, and dear to the hearts of the believers by reason of its associations with their Lord, has at last been purchased together with 24,000 square metres of land extending into the plain on its eastward side." [MUHJ68-73p112] - 1973-06-05 — The Universal House of Justice asked the Bahá'ís to commemorate on the Feast of Núr, the one hundredth anniversary of Bahá'u'lláh's departure from 'Akká and move to Mazra'ih. [VV21]
- 2008-05-12 —
After several years of negotiations, agreement was reached with the Israeli government for the acquisition of a rectangular plot of land 90,000 square metres in area, located between Bahjí and the main road. This land was being used by the government. This acquisition opened the way to further beautification of the environs of the Shrine of Bahá'u'lláh, the Qiblih of the people of Bahá, described by 'Abdu'l-Bahá as the "luminous Shrine" and "the place around which circumambulate the Concourse on high".
- The property in the possession of the Faith had been further augmented by the conclusion, after negotiations which extended over some twenty years, of a land exchange with the Israel Land Administration, by which a portion of the land bequeathed to the Faith in the Ein Sara neighbourhood of Nahariya, north of 'Akká, had been exchanged for an additional 100,000 square metres to the east of the Mansion of Bahjí, an area of about 32,000 square metres adjoining the island at the Riḍván Garden and the caravanserai adjacent to the Mansion of Mazra'ih. They reported that discussions were continuing with the authorities for a further exchange, using more of the Ein Sara land to acquire additional property in close proximity to the Bahá'í Holy Places in the 'Akká area required to protect the sanctity and tranquillity of these places in the face of the rapid urbanization of the region.
- It was also announced that work had been completed on the restoration of the Junayn Gardens, a small farmhouse and orchard north of Bahjí visited occasionally by Bahá'u'lláh, which was subsequently donated to the Faith. [Message from the Universal House of Justice dated 12 May, 2008]
- 2021-11-08 —
The Baha'i World Centre gave details of the conservation work that was continuing on the Mazra'ih Mansion. Most significantly, the room that Bahá'u'lláh's occupied had been made ready to receive pilgrims.
This Holy Place has been described by the Universal House of Justice in a letter to all Bahá'í National Spiritual Assemblies as "that serene and sacred spot, the first residence of Bahá'u'lláh after nine years' confinement within the walls of the prison-city of 'Akká."
- The work, which had begun more than a year earlier had been carried out on the courtyard and its wall as well as portion of the Roman aqueduct that runs through the site. Restoration work was also done on the stables and other structural element on the site.
The Universal House of Justice further states: "In the coming years, conservation work will be carried out on the other rooms of the Mansion, and the surrounding area will be landscaped to provide a large, open space for visitors to walk around and enjoy, intending to capture the tranquil spirit of this blessed spot." [BWNS1547]
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