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99-645: At the time of appointment he was just 19 years old. Two years later a pogrom began to exterminate the Bābīs in Iran, and Subh-i-Azal fled for Baghdad for 10 years before joining the group of Bābī exiles that were called to Istanbul. During the time in Baghdad tensions grew with Baháʼu'lláh, as Bābī pilgrims began to turn to the latter for leadership. The Ottoman government further exiled the group to Edirne, where Subh-i-Azal openly rejected Baháʼu'lláh's claim of divine revelation and

198-476: A Roman colony , it was notionally refounded and renamed Colonia Claudii Caesaris Ptolemais or Colonia Claudia Felix Ptolemais Garmanica Stabilis after its imperial sponsor Claudius ; it was known as Colonia Ptolemais for short. During the Crusades, it was officially known as Sainct-Jehan-d'Acre or more simply Acre (Modern French : Saint-Jean-d'Acre [sɛ̃ ʒɑ̃ dakʁ] ), after

297-666: A walī [i.e. successor or executor]. Shoghi Effendi wrote in 1944 that Subh-i-Azal appointed Hādī Dawlatābādī as his successor, and that he later publicly recanted his faith in the Bāb and in Subh-i-Azal. Hādī was targeted for death by a local cleric, and despite the public recantation, he continued being a leader of the Azalis in secret. Jalal Azal, a grandson of Subh-i-Azal who disputed the appointment of Hādī Dawlatābādī, later told William Miller between 1967-1971 that Azal did not appoint

396-541: A British pension and being perceived as a Muslim holy man by the people of Cyprus, even receiving a Muslim burial. From Cyprus he seemed to have little contact with the Bābīs in Iran. Harry Luke , an official of the British Colonial Office, commented in 1913 that after Subh-i-Azal's arrival in Cyprus, Now occurred a curious phenomenon. Athough doctrinally there was little to distinguish the two parties,

495-557: A Bāha'ī. Jalal Azal (d. 1971), the son of `Abdu'l-`Ali and grandson of Subh-i-Azal, also became a Bāha'ī around 1920 and married a granddaughter of Bāha'u'llāh. However, Jalal Azal joined Mīrzā Muhammad ʻAlī 's opposition and turned against ʻAbdu'l-Bahá. By the time of Subh-i-Azal's death 1912, the Azali form of Bābism entered a stagnation from which it never recovered, as it has not had an acknowledged leader or central organization. There may have been between 500 and 5,000 Azalis in Iran in

594-738: A Greek colony in the town, which he named Antioch after himself. About 165   BC Judas Maccabeus defeated the Seleucids in several battles in Galilee , and drove them into Ptolemais. About 153   BC Alexander Balas , son of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, contesting the Seleucid crown with Demetrius , seized the city, which opened its gates to him. Demetrius offered many bribes to the Maccabees to obtain Jewish support against his rival, including

693-585: A World Religion . Along the way Smith convened four Bahá'í Studies Seminars while at the University of Lancaster - 1977, 1978, 1979 and 1980 - and gave a paper at an August 1983 conference on Bahá'í history at UCLA sponsored by the Spiritual Assembly of Los Angeles and the Bahá'í Club, and two at a Labor Day Los Angeles conference in 1984 on Bahá'í history discussing the development of the religion in

792-482: A dispute between them caused the appointment to be withdrawn and he instead appointed Hādī Dawlatābādī (d. 1908). After the latter's death, Subh-i-Azal further appointed the man's son, Yahyā Dawlatābādī, but he had little involvement in the religion and any chain of leadership appears to have gone defunct with his appointment. Subh-i-Azal's son, Rizwan ʻAli, wrote to C.D. Cobham on 11 July 1912, [Subhi-i-Azal] before his death had nominated [as his executor or successor]

891-536: A few poor cottages. The khan was named Khan al-Ilfranj after its French founders. During Ottoman rule, Acre continued to play an important role in the region via smaller autonomous sheikhdoms. Towards the end of the 18th century Acre revived under the rule of Zahir al-Umar , the Arab ruler of the Galilee, who made the city capital of his autonomous sheikhdom . Zahir rebuilt Acre's fortifications, using materials from

990-646: A few thousand, almost entirely in Iran. Another source in 2009 noted a very small number of followers remained in Uzbekistan . His given name was Yahyá , which is the Arabic form of the English name "John". As the son of a nobleman in the county of Núr , he was known as Mīrzā Yahyā Nūrī ( Persian : میرزا یحیی نوری ). His most widely known title, "Subh-i-Azal" (or "Sobh-i-Ezel"; Persian : یحیی صبح ازل , "Morning of Eternity") appears in an Islamic tradition called

1089-613: A field hospital, which became the nucleus of the chivalric Teutonic Order . Upon the Sixth Crusade , the city was placed under the administration of the Knights Hospitaller military order. Acre continued to prosper as major commercial hub of the eastern Mediterranean, but also underwent turbulent times due to the bitter infighting among the Crusader factions that occasionally resulted in civil wars. The old part of

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1188-404: A fixed tax-rate of 25% on agricultural products, including wheat, barley, cotton, goats, and beehives, water buffaloes, in addition to occasional revenues and market toll, a total of 20,500 Akçe . Half of the revenue went to a Waqf . English academic Henry Maundrell in 1697 found it a ruin, save for a khan ( caravanserai ) built and occupied by French merchants for their use, a mosque and

1287-672: A folk etymology that Hercules had found curative herbs at the site after one of his many fights. This name was Latinized as Ace . Josephus 's histories also transcribed the city into Greek as Akre . The city appears in the Babylonian Talmud with the Jewish Babylonian Aramaic name תלבוש ‎ Talbush of uncertain etymology. Under the Diadochi , the Ptolemaic Kingdom renamed

1386-578: A large proportion of the Bābīs who started to give their alliance to other claimants. Bahāʼī sources have attributed this to his incompetence and cowardice, but MacEoin also attributes the isolation to the Shi'a practice of Taqiyya . During the Baghdad period of 1853-1863, tensions rose between Subh-i-Azal and Baháʼu'lláh. Bahāʼī sources describe Azal as increasing in jealousy during this time, and Baháʼu'lláh's 2-year sojourn in Kurdistan as an attempt to avoid

1485-634: A large village for centuries at a time. Acre was a hugely important city during the Crusades as a maritime foothold on the Mediterranean coast of the southern Levant and was the site of several battles, including the 1189–1191 Siege of Acre and 1291 Siege of Acre . It was the last stronghold of the Crusaders in the Holy Land prior to that final battle in 1291. At the end of Crusader rule,

1584-599: A preocupation with, "the Shi'ite vision of a utopian political order under the aegis of the Imam of the age". In Baghdad, Subh-i-Azal kept his whereabouts secret and lived secluded from the Bābī community, keeping in contact through 18 agents termed "witnesses of the Bayan". The Bābī community in Iran remained fragmented and broken after the pogrom of 1852-3, and new leadership claims developed. The most significant challenger to Subh-i-Azal

1683-478: A public debate between the two brothers to settle the disputed claims. On a Friday morning, Azal challenged Baháʼu'lláh to a debate in the Sultan Selim Mosque that afternoon. Cole describes the communication, The challenge document envisaged that Azal and Bahā’u’llāh would face each other there and call down ritual curses on one other, in hopes that God would send down a sign that would demonstrate

1782-531: A revival to the town of Acre, and it served as the main port of Palestine through the Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates that followed, and through Crusader rule into the 13th century. The first Umayyad caliph, Muawiyah I (r. 661–680), regarded the coastal towns of the Levant as strategically important. Thus, he strengthened Acre's fortifications and settled Persians from other parts of Muslim Syria to inhabit

1881-618: A revolt against the Neo-Assyrian emperor Shalmaneser V . There is a clear destruction layer in the ruins, probably dating to the 7th century BC. Acre served as a major port of the Persian Empire , with Strabo noting its importance in campaigns against the Egyptians. According to Strabo and Diodurus Siculus , Cambyses II attacked Egypt after massing a huge army on the plains near the city of Acre. The Persians expanded

1980-514: A staging point for both Cestius 's and Vespasian 's campaigns to suppress the revolt in Judaea . The city was a center of Romanization in the region, but most of the population was made of local Phoenicians and Jews: as a consequence after the Hadrian times the descendants of the initial Roman colonists no longer spoke Latin and had become fully assimilated in less than two centuries (however

2079-630: A successor. Several Azalī Bābīs were influential in the Iranian Constitutional Revolution . For example, the writings of two sons-in-law of Subh-i-Azal, Mīrzā Āqā Khān Kirmānī (d. 1896) and Shaykh Ahmad Rūhī Kirmānī (d. 1896), both influenced the movement. Yahyā Dawlatābādī (d. 1939), the appointed successor of Subh-i-Azal, his younger brother `Alī-Muhammad, as well as Jamāl al-Dīn Esfahānī and Malik al-Motakallemīn were all associated with Azalī Bābism and influencing constitutional and secular reforms. However, Yahyā Dawlatābādī

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2178-632: Is an author of several books specializing in Baháʼí studies . Smith earned a Certificate of Education, with distinction in Geography, from the University of Bristol, in 1972, followed by a B.Ed. in Geography with honors from the University of Bristol, England in 1973, and then a Ph.D. from the University of Lancaster, England, in the Sociology of Religion in 1983, with his dissertation later published as The Babi and Bahaʼi Religions: From Messianic Shiʻism to

2277-628: Is one of Israel's mixed cities ; 32% of the city's population is Arab . The mayor is Shimon Lankri, who was re-elected in 2018 with 85% of the vote. The etymology of the name is unknown. A folk etymology in Hebrew is that, when the ocean was created, it expanded until it reached Acre and then stopped, giving the city its name (in Hebrew, ad koh means "up to here" and no further). Acre seems to be recorded in Egyptian hieroglyphs , probably being

2376-665: Is the Man of Akka (LU₂ ak-ka). The letter is sent to the King of Egypt, and it contains Canaanite glosses. Surata is also mentioned in letters from Byblos (EA 085), Gath (EA 366), and Megiddo (EA 245). Acre continued as a Phoenician city and was referenced as a Phoenician city by the Assyrians . Josephus , however, claimed it as a province of the Kingdom of Israel under Solomon . Around 725   BC, Acre joined Sidon and Tyre in

2475-813: The Knights Hospitaller who had their headquarters there and whose patron saint was Saint John the Baptist . This name remained quite popular in the Christian world until modern times, often translated into the language being used: Saint John of Acre (in English), San Juan de Acre (in Spanish ), Sant Joan d'Acre (in Catalan ), San Giovanni d'Acri (in Italian ), etc. Acre lies at

2574-581: The Mediterranean . Acre was resettled as an urban centre during the Middle Bronze Age ( c.  2000 –1550   BC) and has been continuously inhabited since then. Egyptian execration texts record one 18th-century ruler as Tūra-ʿAmmu (Tꜣʿmw). Further to the north was the important MBA site of Tel Kabri dominating the Akko plain. Acre was listed as "Aak" among the conquests of

2673-624: The ʿKY in the execration texts from around 1800   BC. The Akkadian cuneiform Amarna letters also mention an "Akka" in the mid-14th century   BC. On its native currency, Acre's name was written ʿK ( Phoenician : 𐤏𐤊 ). It appears in Assyrian and once in Biblical Hebrew . Acre was known to the Greeks as Ákē ( ‹See Tfd› Greek : Ἄκη ), a homonym for a Greek word meaning "cure". Greek legend then offered

2772-619: The "spacious" port was still in use and the city was full of artisans. Throughout the Mamluk era (1260–1517), Acre was succeeded by Safed as the principal city of its province. Incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517, it appeared in the census of 1596, located in the Nahiya of Acca of the Liwa of Safad . The population was 81 households and 15 bachelors, all Muslim. They paid

2871-834: The 1970s. A source in 2001 estimated no more than a few thousand, almost entirely in Iran. Large collections of Subh-i-Azal's works are found in the British Museum Library Oriental Collection, London; in the Browne Collection at Cambridge University; at the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris; and at Princeton University. In the English introduction to "Personal Reminiscences of the Babi Insurrection at Zanjan in 1850," Browne lists thirty-eight titles as being among

2970-695: The Achaemenids out of the Levant. After Alexander 's death, his main generals divided his empire among themselves. At first, the Egyptian Ptolemies held the land around Acre. Ptolemy   II renamed the city Ptolemais in his own and his father's honour in the 260s   BC. Antiochus III conquered the town for the Syrian Seleucids in 200   BC. In the late 170s or early 160s   BC, Antiochus   IV founded

3069-644: The Babi manuscript named Kitab-i-Nuqtatu'l-Kaf from a collection of Babi manuscripts originally owned by de Gobineau and sold to the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris in 1884. The first portion of the manuscript is laid out as a doctrinal treatise, while the later sections contain what Browne assumed to be an early copy of Mirza Jani Kashani's history. Browne considered his discovery to be of immense importance, since at that time no other copies of this history were known. However, Browne also discovered that

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3168-587: The Baha'i historian Hasan M. Balyuzi... The Bābī community was engaged in several pitched military confrontations with the government from 1848-1851. Subh-i-Azal allied himself with a faction led by Azīm, and in 1852 coordinated a new militant uprising in Takur , Iran. This new upheaval was apparently timed to coincide with an attempt to assassinate Naser al-Din Shah , which was organized by Azīm. The uprising failed, and

3267-496: The Bahá'í faith in the United States", and that Peter Smith, along with Peter L. Berger , Jane Wyman, and Margit Warburg have "made important contributions to the social scientific study of this New Religious Movement of Iranian provenance, but they are a small cohort". On the Bahá'í scholarship of Smith, Denis MacEoin , a former Baháʼí, wrote that "Smith has never been a dissident of any kind... He does not take on any of

3366-519: The Bahāʼīs for trying to rewrite history. Further scholarship showed that the Nuqtatu'l-Kaf was circulating among Bahāʼīs, it wasn't being suppressed, and some material in it postdated the death of its assumed author. Denis MacEoin made the most detailed analysis of the question in his The Sources for Early Babi Doctrine and History (1992), summarized here by Margit Warburg : In 1892, Browne acquired

3465-412: The Bāb's delegation of leadership to the two brothers. Subh-i-Azal was 19 years old at the time. In the period immediately following the Bāb's execution (1850), there were many claims to authority and Bābīs did not initially unite around Subh-i-Azal's leadership, but at some point Azal became the recognized leader, and remained so for about 13 years. Warburg states that, "It seems likely that Subh-i-Azal

3564-609: The Bābīs in Iraq and Iran split into three factions: Azalīs, Bahāʼīs, or undecided. In February-March of 1867, all three factions gathered in Baghdad for debates, and soon the undecided mostly joined the Bahāʼīs, who were already in the majority. In Edirne, the group of about 100 Bābīs was still socially intermixed until the summer of 1867, when they lived separately based on their loyalties. A crisis erupted in August/September of 1867. Sayyid Muhammad Isfahānī, an Azalī, instigated

3663-401: The Bābīs. However, they were arrested several kilometers from Amul. Their imprisonment was ordered by the governor, but Subh-i-Azal escaped the officials for a short while, after which he was discovered by a villager and then brought to Amul on foot with his hands tied. On the path to Amul he was subject to harassment, and people are reported to have spat at him. Upon arriving he was reunited with

3762-790: The Egyptian pharaoh Thutmose III . In the Amarna Period ( c.  1350 BC), there was turmoil in Egypt's Levantine provinces. The Amarna Archive contains letters concerning the ruler(s) of Acco. In one, King Biridiya of Megiddo complains to Amenhotep III or Akhenaten of the king of Acre, whom he accuses of treason for releasing the captured Hapiru king Labaya of Shechem instead of delivering him to Egypt. Excavations of Tel ʿAkkō have shown that this period of Acre involved industrial production of pottery, metal, and other trade goods. In Amarna Letter EA 232 , Surata ( su₂-ra-ta)

3861-796: The Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, University Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) and the Social Science Division of MUIC. In May 2011 Smith was conference chair for the University conference on Excellence and the Liberal Arts Tradition, and gave the welcome and chaired a panel at the February 2012 conference of the university Re-Making Historical Memory in Southeast Asia, the 5th Thai-Malaysian International Conference on Southeast Asian Studies. In 2013 Smith

3960-433: The Hadith-i- Kumayl , which the Bāb quotes in his book Dalā'il-i-Sab'ih . It was common practice among the Bābīs to receive titles. He was also known by the titles al-Waḥīd, Ṭalʻat an-Nūr, and at-Tamara; or Everlasting Mirror (Mir'atu'l-Azaliyya), Name of Eternity (Ismu'l-azal), and Fruit of the Bayan (Thamara-i-Bayan). Subh-i-Azal was born in 1831 to Mīrzā Buzurg-i-Nūrī and his fourth wife Kuchak Khanum-i-Karmanshahi, in

4059-489: The Living who had, upon leaving the Conference of Badasht, traveled to Nur to propagate the faith. Shortly thereafter, she arrived at Barfurush and met Subh-i-Azal and became acquainted once again with Quddús who instructed her to take Subh-i-Azal with her to Nur. Subh-i-Azal remained in Nur for three days, during which he propagated the new faith. During the Battle of Fort Tabarsi , Subh-i-Azal, along with Baháʼu'lláh and Mirza Zayn al-Abedin endeavoured to travel there to assist

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4158-421: The Ottoman authorities, which resulted in both factions being further exiled in 1868; Baháʼu'lláh to Acre and Azal to Famagusta in Cyprus . The formal exile of Subh-i-Azal ended in 1881, when Cyprus was acquired by Britan in the aftermath of the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) , but he remained on the island for the rest of his life until his death on 29 April 1912. He remained elusive and secretive, living off

4257-427: The Palermo Conference held to commemorate the exile of Baháʼu'lláh , the founder of the religion, to Acre , Smith, along with Denis MacEoin , Moojan Momen , and Tahir Ronald Taherzadeh (a son of Adib Taherzadeh ), served as one of the youth guides at the mass pilgrimage to the Baháʼí World Centre . Smith then spent a year in Africa and visited some Malawi Bahá'í communities and then went through Botswana . Smith

4356-477: The Social Science major with concentrations in Southeast Asian Studies, International Studies, and Modern World History, and minors in related fields, as well as new courses. He was called one of the pillars of the college in 2019. While most of his professional life was an academic in Thailand, most of the published commentary has been about his Bahá'í scholarship. In 2001, oriental studies scholar Juan Cole wrote that "remarkably few social scientists have studied

4455-460: The West and liberal and fundamentalist attitudes in religions. In 1985 he arrived in Thailand for a faculty lecturer position in Religious Studies in the Department of Humanities Social Science division for the Mahidol University International College . He was then a founding member of International Students Degree Program in 1986 and was appointed Division Chairman and Program Director of the Social Science Division in 1998. From 1999 to 2003 Smith

4554-411: The appearance of a greater prophet. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá states that the Bāb did this to divert attention from Baháʼu'lláh, and that it was suggested by the latter. The conflicting accusations, claims, and counter-claims of Azalī and Bahāʼī sources make it difficult to reconstruct an objective narrative of the splitting of the Bābī community into these two groups, one of which came to dominate and expand, while

4653-425: The appointment of Subh-i-Azal. Its publication was encouraged by Muhammad Khan Qazvīnī, a Shi'ite scholar, and its authorship was attributed to Hājī Mīrzā Jānī, a Bābī who died in 1852. A similar manuscript attributed to Hājī Mīrzā Jānī and circulating among Bahāʼīs was Tarikh-i-Jadid , but the Bahāʼī version lacked extra text supportive of Subh-i-Azal's authority. In his introduction to its publication, Browne attacked

4752-401: The army's advance to Jerusalem. This demonstrates that even from the beginning, Acre was an important link between the Crusaders and their advance into the Levant. Its function was to provide Crusaders with a foothold in the region and access to vibrant trade that made them prosperous, especially giving them access to the Asiatic spice trade. By the 1130s it had a population of around 25,000 and

4851-414: The basis of the schism being a personal question, the one waxed exceedingly while the other waned. Rapidly the Ezelis dwindled to a handful, and soon were confined, almost entirely, to the members of Subh-i-Ezel's devoted family. There are conflicting reports as to whom Subh-i-Azal appointed as his successor, and there was confusion after his death. Azal originally planned to appoint his eldest son Ahmad, but

4950-463: The botched assassination attempt resulted in the entire Bābī community being blamed and severely punished by the government. Many thousand Bābīs were killed. Subh-i-Azal took up a disguise to escape Iran and joined a cohort of exiles in Baghdad. After Azīm's death in 1852, Subh-i-Azal became the clear head of the remaining militant faction of the Bābīs, which remained wedded to a vision of radical political activism; representing what Amanat describes as

5049-399: The brethren, and abode with them one day". During the rule of the emperor Claudius there was a building drive in Ptolemais and veterans of the legions settled here. The city was one of four colonies (with Berytus , Aelia Capitolina and Caesarea Maritima ) created in the ancient Levant by Roman emperors for Roman veterans. During the Great Jewish Revolt (66–73 CE), Acre functioned as

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5148-408: The challenge, but Azal never responded to the request and never showed up on those days. The Bahā’īs interpreted Azal’s failure to appear at his own challenge as cowardice, and it caused the further deterioration of Subh-i-Azal's credibility. The news quickly spread to Iran, where the majority of Bābīs still lived. Subh-i-Azal, along with Sayyid Muhammad Isfanani made accusations against Baháʼu'lláh to

5247-479: The city Ptolemaïs ( Koinē Greek : Πτολεμαΐς , Ptolemaΐs ) and the Seleucid Empire Antioch ( Ἀντιόχεια , Antiókheia ). As both names were shared by a great many other towns, they were variously distinguished. The Syrians called it "Antioch in Ptolemais" ( Ἀντιόχεια τῆς ἐν Πτολεμαΐδι , Antiókheia tês en Ptolemaΐdi ). Under Claudius, it was also briefly known as Germanicia in Ptolemais ( Γερμανίκεια τῆς ἐν Πτολεμαΐδι , Germaníkeia tês en Ptolemaΐdi ). As

5346-405: The city was destroyed by the Mamluks , thereafter existing as a modest fishing village until the rule of Zahir al-Umar in the 18th century. In 1947, Acre formed part of Mandatory Palestine and had a population of 13,560, of whom 10,930 were Muslim and 2,490 were Christian. As a result of the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine and subsequent 1948 Arab–Israeli war , the population of

5445-458: The city's medieval ruins. He died outside its walls during an offensive against him by the Ottoman state in 1775. Peter Smith (historian) Peter Smith helped establish Mahidol University International College (MUIC) in 1987, where he served as university administrator and chair of the Social Science Division until his retirement in 2013. He also teaches courses at the Wilmette Institute, an online Baháʼí educational institution, and

5544-452: The city, where the port and fortified city were located, protrudes from the coastline, exposing both sides of the narrow piece of land to the sea. This could maximize its efficiency as a port, and the narrow entrance to this protrusion served as a natural and easy defense to the city. Both the archaeological record and Crusader texts emphasize Acre's strategic importance—a city in which it was crucial to pass through, control, and, as evidenced by

5643-408: The city. From Acre, which became one of the region's most important dockyards along with Tyre , Mu'awiyah launched an attack against Byzantine-held Cyprus . The Byzantines assaulted the coastal cities in 669, prompting Mu'awiyah to assemble and send shipbuilders and carpenters to Acre. The city would continue to serve as the principal naval base of Jund al-Urdunn ("Military District of Jordan") until

5742-560: The coast of the Mediterranean 's Levantine Sea . Aside from coastal trading, it was an important waypoint on the region's coastal road and the road cutting inland along the Jezreel Valley . The first settlement during the Early Bronze Age was abandoned after a few centuries but a large town was established during the Middle Bronze Age . Continuously inhabited since then, it is among the oldest continuously inhabited settlements on Earth . It has, however, been subject to conquest and destruction several times and survived as little more than

5841-415: The community of Bābīs were divided by their allegiance to one or the other. In 1868 the Ottoman government further exiled Subh-i-Azal and his followers to Cyprus, and Baháʼu'lláh and his followers to Acre in Palestine. When Cyprus was leased to Britain in 1878, he lived out the rest of his life in obscurity on a British pension. By 1904, Azal's followers had dwindled to a small minority, and Baháʼu'lláh

5940-472: The defeat of the Byzantine army of Heraclius by the Rashidun army of Khalid ibn al-Walid in the Battle of Yarmouk , and the capitulation of the Christian city of Jerusalem to the Caliph Umar , Acre came under the rule of the Rashidun Caliphate beginning in 638. According to the early Muslim chronicler al-Baladhuri , the actual conquest of Acre was led by Shurahbil ibn Hasana , and it likely surrendered without resistance. The Arab conquest brought

6039-413: The early Fatimid Caliphate in 985, describing it as a fortified coastal city with a large mosque possessing a substantial olive grove. Fortifications had been previously built by the autonomous Emir Ibn Tulun of Egypt, who annexed the city in the 870s, and provided relative safety for merchant ships arriving at the city's port. When Persian traveller Nasir Khusraw visited Acre in 1047, he noted that

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6138-405: The growing disunity. In 1863 most of the Bābīs were called by the Ottoman authorities to Istanbul for four months, followed by an exile to Edirne that lasted from 12 December 1863 to 12 August 1868. The travel to Istanbul began with Baháʼu'lláh privately making his claim to be the messianic figure of the Bayan, which became a public proclamation in Edirne. This created a permanent schism between

6237-409: The large Jama Masjid was built of marble , located in the centre of the city and just south of it lay the "tomb of the Prophet Salih ." Khusraw provided a description of the city's size, which roughly translated as having a length of 1.24 kilometres (0.77 miles) and a width of 300 metres (984 feet). This figure indicates that Acre at that time was larger than its current Old City area, most of which

6336-444: The local society's customs were Roman). The Christian Acts of the Apostles describes Luke the Evangelist , Paul the Apostle and their companions spending a day in Ptolemais with their Christian brethren. An important Roman colony ( colonia ) was established at the city that greatly increased the control of the region by the Romans over the next century with Roman colonists translated there from Italy . The Romans enlarged

6435-412: The manuscript was at variance with the version of Mirza Jani Kashani's history that made up the core text in the Tarikh-i-Jadid . Although the two texts for the most part are equivalent, several passages in the Nuqtatu'l-Kaf that refer to Subh-i-Azal and his role in the Babi movement are not included in the Tarikh-i-Jadid . This led Browne to conclude that the discrepancies between the two histories were

6534-474: The massive walls, protect. Acre was the final major stronghold of the Crusader states when much of the Levantine coastline was conquered by Mamluk forces. Acre itself fell to Sultan Al-Ashraf Khalil in 1291 . Acre, having been isolated and largely abandoned by Europe, was conquered by Mamluk sultan al-Ashraf Khalil in a bloody siege in 1291 . In line with Mamluk policy regarding the coastal cities (to prevent their future utilization by Crusader forces), Acre

6633-497: The northern end of a wide bay with Mount Carmel at the south. It is the best natural roadstead on the southern Phoenician coast and has easy access to the Valley of Jezreel . It was settled early and has always been important for the fleets of kingdoms and empires contesting the area, serving as the main port for the entire southern Levant up to the modern era. The ancient town was located atop Tel ʿAkkō (Hebrew) or Tell al-Fuḫḫār (Arabic), 1.5 km (0.93 mi) east of

6732-406: The other became almost defunct. Academic reviews are generally critical of the official Bahāʼī positions on the split; for example Edward Granville Browne , Denis MacEoin , and A. L. M. Nicolas . Edward Granville Browne studied the Bābī movement in Iran and translated many primary sources from 1890 to 1920. One of these, Kitab-i-Nuqtatu'l-Kaf (or Noqtat al-Kāf ), was of particular interest to

6831-467: The other prisoners. The prisoners were ordered to be beaten, but when it came time that Subh-i-Azal should suffer the punishment, Baha'u'llah objected and offered to take the beating in his place. After some time, the governor wrote to Abbas Quli Khan who was commander of the government forces stationed near Fort Tabarsi. Khan replied back to the governor's correspondence, saying that the prisoners were of distinguished families and should not be harassed. Thus,

6930-447: The port and the city grew to more than 20,000 inhabitants in the second century under emperor Hadrian . Ptolemais greatly flourished for two more centuries. After the permanent division of the Roman Empire in 395 AD, Ptolemais was administered by the successor state, the Byzantine Empire . The city started to lose importance and in the seventh century was reduced to a small settlement of less than one thousand inhabitants. Following

7029-420: The present city and 800 m (2,600 ft) north of the Na'aman River . In antiquity, however, it formed an easily protected peninsula directly beside the former mouth of the Na'aman or Belus. The earliest discovered settlement dates to around 3000   BC during the Early Bronze Age, but appears to have been abandoned after a few centuries, possibly because of inundation of its surrounding farmland by

7128-611: The prisoners were released and sent to Nur upon orders of the commander. According to Browne , Mirza Yahya had several wives, and at least nine sons and five daughters. His sons included: Nurullah, Hadi, Ahmad, Abdul Ali, Rizwan Ali (AKA Constantine the Persian), and four others. Rizwan Ali reports that he had eleven or twelve wives. Later research reports that he had up to seventeen wives including four in Iran and at least five in Baghdad. Smith reports that he had "perhaps twenty-five children in all". His granddaughter, Roshanak Nodust ,

7227-410: The province of Mazandaran . His father was a minister in the court of Fath-Ali Shah Qajar . His mother died while giving birth to him, and his father died in 1839 when he was eight years old, after which he was cared for by his stepmother Khadíjih Khánum, the mother of Baháʼu'lláh. In 1845, at about the age of 14, Subh-i-Azal became a follower of the Bāb. Subh-i-Azal met Tahirih , the 17th Letter of

7326-462: The reign of Caliph Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik (723–743), who moved the bulk of the shipyards north to Tyre. Nonetheless, Acre remained militarily significant through the early Abbasid period, with Caliph al-Mutawakkil issuing an order to make Acre into a major naval base in 861, equipping the city with battleships and combat troops. During the 10th century, Acre was still part of Jund al-Urdunn. Local Arab geographer al-Muqaddasi visited Acre during

7425-470: The remainder of his life. A Bahāʼī, Salmānī, reported that Azal again attempted to have Baháʼu'lláh killed in the late winter of 1866. In March 1866, Baháʼu'lláh responded with a formal written declaration to Subh-i-Azal in the Sūri-yi Amr and referred to his own followers as Bahāʼīs. This began an approximately year-long separation that ended with a definite schism. The two brothers separated households, and

7524-408: The result of a deliberate plot of the followers of Baha'u'llah to discredit Subh-i-Azal's claims to leadership. The Baha'is hotly rejected Browne's conclusion and accused the Azalis of distorting the sources. Thus, Abdu'l-Baha suggested that the Azalis had prepared a falsified version of Mirza Jani Kashani's history and had encouraged Browne to publish it. This hypothesis was restated many years later by

7623-766: The revenues of Ptolemais for the benefit of the Temple in Jerusalem , but in vain. Jonathan Apphus threw in his lot with Alexander; Alexander and Demetrius met in battle and the latter was killed. In 150   BC Alexander received Jonathan with great honour in Ptolemais. Some years later, however, Tryphon, an officer of the Seleucid Empire , who had grown suspicious of the Maccabees, enticed Jonathan into Ptolemais and there treacherously took him prisoner. The city

7722-481: The son of Aqā Mīrzā Muhammad Hādī of Dawlatābād.. H.C. Lukach wrote to Browne on 5 September 1912, It appears that Subhi-i-Azal left a letter saying that he of his sons who resembled him most closely in his mode of life and principles was to be his successor. The point as to which of the sons fulfils this condition has not yet been decided; consequently all the children would appear at present to be co-heirs... No steps have, as far as I am aware, yet been taken to elect

7821-650: The thorny areas that Warburg or other non-affiliates might tackle. But he does not just parrot official hand-me-downs either, and he remains largely honest to his academic calling." Born in Yorkshire, UK, Smith was raised in Bristol , England, where he joined the Baháʼí Faith at the age of 16 years, initially hearing about the religion from media coverage of the first Baháʼí World Congress held in London. In 1968, after

7920-508: The town dramatically changed as its Palestinian-Arab population was expelled or forced to flee; it was then resettled by Jewish immigrants. In present-day Israel, the population was 51,420 in 2022, made up of Jews , Muslims , Christians , Druze , and Baháʼís . In particular, Acre is the holiest city of the Baháʼí Faith in Israel and receives many pilgrims of that faith every year. Acre

8019-578: The town westward and probably improved its harbor and defenses. In December 2018, archaeologists digging at the site of Tell Keisan in Acre unearthed the remains of a Persian military outpost that might have played a role in the successful 525 BC Achaemenid invasion of Egypt. The city's industrial production continued into the late Persian era, with particularly expanded iron works. The Persian-period fortifications at Tell Keisan were later heavily damaged during Alexander's fourth-century BC campaign to drive

8118-618: The truth of one or the other. This custom, called mubāhalih in Persian, is a very old one in the Middle East, and appears to have evoked the contest between Moses and Pharaoh’s magicians. Baháʼu'lláh arrived at the mosque, with a crowd waiting, and sent a messenger to the home of Subh-i-Azal to remind him of the challenge, but Azal told the messenger that the confrontation would have to be postponed. That night, Baháʼu'lláh wrote to Azal, proposing that either Sunday or Monday they would complete

8217-571: The two brothers. Subh-i-Azal responded to these claims by making his own claims and resisting the changes of doctrine which were introduced by Baháʼu'lláh. His attempts to keep the traditional Bābism were, however, mostly unpopular. Subh-i-Azal was behind the poisoning of Baháʼu'lláh while in Edirne in 1865. An Azali source later re-applied these allegations to Baháʼu'lláh , even claiming that he poisoned himself while trying to poison Subh-i-Azal. The poisoning had adverse effects on Bahaʼu'lláh throughout

8316-484: The works of Subh-i-Azal. Acre, Israel Acre ( / ˈ ɑː k ər , ˈ eɪ k ər / AH -kər, AY -kər ), known locally as Akko ( Hebrew : עַכּוֹ , ʻAkkō ) and Akka ( Arabic : عكّا , ʻAkkā ), is a city in the coastal plain region of the Northern District of Israel . The city occupies a strategic location, sitting in a natural harbour at the extremity of Haifa Bay on

8415-593: Was Chair of the Social Science Division but was suddenly past the age of retirement and offered to resign after being the longest serving fulltime faculty of MUIC (and was then Chair of the Social Science Division of MUIC). In 1993 Smith was awarded Commander of the Most Noble Order of the Crown of Thailand, Third Class, and in 2006 received a certificate of merit, citing his 20-year contribution to MUIC, by Dean Chariya Brockelman. During his tenure he developed

8514-533: Was Deputy Director for Academic Affairs, coordinating and overseeing the quality of academic programs and developed a teaching guide for staff. Smith led a unit of five faculty and four degree majors for a Social Science conference in 2003 to promote dialogue and cooperation between Malaysia and Thailand. In 2007 he addressed the Third International Malaysia-Thailand Conference on Southeast Asian Studies, sponsored by

8613-471: Was Mirza Asad Allah Khu'i, known by the title Dayyān , who made a claim to be He whom God shall make manifest . Azal wrote a lengthy refutation of Dayyān titled Mustayqiz . Dayyān was killed in Baghdad by Mirza Muhammad Mazandarani in 1856 at the order of Subh-i-Azal. Subh-i-Azal's leadership was controversial. He generally absented himself from the Bābī community, spending his time in Baghdad in hiding and disguise. Subh-i-Azal gradually alienated himself from

8712-457: Was almost universally recognized as the spiritual successor of the Bāb . After Azal's death in 1912, the Azali form of Bābism entered a stagnation and has not recovered as there is no acknowledged leader or central organization. Most Bābīs either accepted the claim of Baháʼu'lláh or the community gradually diminished as children and grandchildren turned back to Islam. A source in 2001 estimated no more than

8811-744: Was an important port city. It minted its own coins, and its harbor was one of the main gates to the land. Through this port the Roman Legions came by ship to crush the Jewish revolt in 67AD. It also served was used as connections to the other ports (for example, Caesarea and Jaffa)....The port of Acre (Ptolemais) was a station on Paul's naval travel, as described in Acts of the Gospels (21, 6-7): "And when we had taken our leave one of another, we took ship; and they returned home again. And when we had finished our course from Tyre, we came to Ptolemais, and saluted

8910-564: Was built between the 18th and 19th centuries. After four years, the siege of Acre was successfully completed in 1104, with the city capitulating to the forces of King Baldwin I of Jerusalem following the First Crusade . The Crusaders made the town their chief port in the Kingdom of Jerusalem . On the first Crusade, Fulcher relates his travels with the Crusading armies of King Baldwin, including initially staying over in Acre before

9009-670: Was captured by Alexander Jannaeus (ruled c.  103 –76   BC), Tigranes the Great (r. 95–55   BC), and Cleopatra (r. 51–30   BC). Here Herod the Great (r. 37–4   BC) built a gymnasium . Around 37 BC, the Romans conquered the Hellenized Phoenician port-city called Akko. It became a colony in southern Roman Phoenicia , called Colonia Claudia Felix Ptolemais Garmanica Stabilis . Ptolemais stayed Roman for nearly seven centuries until 636 AD, when it

9108-596: Was conquered by the Muslim Arabs. Under Augustus , a gymnasium was built in the city. In 4 BC, the Roman proconsul Publius Quinctilius Varus assembled his army there in order to suppress the revolts that broke out in the region following the death of Herod the Great . The Romans built a breakwater and expanded the harbor at the present location of the harbor....In the Roman/Byzantine period, Acre-Ptolemais

9207-455: Was designated to be the Bab's successor", and MacEoin states that, the Bāb regarded him as "his chief deputy" and the "future head of the movement." The nature of that appointment differs according to which sources are believed. The disagreement is over whether he was appointed a spiritual successor who could write divinely-revealed verses, or a nominal figurehead who would maintain the community until

9306-690: Was entirely destroyed, with the exception of a few religious edifices considered sacred by the Muslims, namely the Nabi Salih tomb and the Ayn Bakar spring. The destruction of the city led to popular Arabic sayings in the region enshrining its past glory. In 1321 the Syrian geographer Abu'l-Fida wrote that Acre was "a beautiful city" but still in ruins following its capture by the Mamluks. Nonetheless,

9405-527: Was later known for starting Peyk-e Saadat Nesvan , the first woman's rights magazine in Iran. Subh-i-Azal was appointed by the Bāb to "preserve what hath been revealed in the Bayān ", but the nature of his role has been the subject of debate due to conflicting sources. Shortly before the Bāb's execution, the Bāb wrote letters and gave them to Mullā ʻAbdu'l-Karīm to deliver to Subh-i-Azal and Baháʼu'lláh. These were later interpreted by both Azalīs and Bahāʼīs as proof of

9504-439: Was only matched for size in the Crusader kingdom by the city of Jerusalem. Around 1170 it became the main port of the eastern Mediterranean, and the kingdom of Jerusalem was regarded in the west as enormously wealthy above all because of Acre. According to an English contemporary, it provided more for the Crusader crown than the total revenues of the king of England. The Andalusian geographer Ibn Jubayr wrote that in 1185 there

9603-745: Was stigmatized as a Bābī and, like his father, publicly distanced himself from association with the Azalīs while presenting himself as Muslim; he was nearly killed in 1908 and soon exiled from Iran as an anti-monarchist activist. The 7 "witnesses of the Bayan" that remained loyal to him were Sayyid Muhammad Isfahani, Mulla Muhammad Ja'far Naraqi, Mulla Muhammad Taqi, Haji Sayyid Muhammad (Isfahani), Haji Sayyid Jawad (al-Karbala'i), Mirza Muhammad Husayn Mutawalli-bashi Qummi, and Mulla Rajab 'Ali Qahir. The remaining 11 witnesses later became Bahāʼīs and abandoned Subh-i-Azal. Ahmad Bahhaj (1853-1933), son of Subh-i-Azal and Fatima (sister of Baqir), later moved to Haifa and became

9702-604: Was still a Muslim community in the city who worshipped in a small mosque. Acre, along with Beirut and Sidon , capitulated without a fight to the Ayyubid sultan Saladin in 1187, after his decisive victory at Hattin and the subsequent Muslim capture of Jerusalem. Acre remained in Muslim hands until it was unexpectedly besieged by King Guy of Lusignan —reinforced by Pisan naval and ground forces—in August 1189. The siege

9801-564: Was unique in the history of the Crusades since the Frankish besiegers were themselves besieged, by Saladin's troops. It was not captured until July 1191 when the forces of the Third Crusade , led by King Richard I of England and King Philip II of France , came to King Guy's aid. Acre then served as the de facto capital of the remnant Kingdom of Jerusalem in 1192. During the siege, German merchants from Lübeck and Bremen had founded

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