10.  Turkey

10.2  The epistle to the Sultan of Turkey, Sultan Abd-al-Aziz
The epistle intended for Sultan Abd-al-Aziz runs as follows:
“O thou personage, who considerest thyself the greatest of all men, which looking upon the divine Bough (believing him to be) the lowest of men, although through him the eye of the Supreme Concourse is brightened and illumined! This youth has never made nor ever will he make a request of thee …. According to thy opinion this quickener of the world and its peacemaker is culpable and seditious. What crime, have the women, children and suffering BÁBis committed, to merit thy wrath, oppression and hate! ….”
“Thou hast presented a number of souls who have shown no opposition in thy country and have instigated no revolution against the government; nay, rather, days and night they have peacefully engaged in mentioning god. Thou hast pillaged their properties, and through thy tyrannical acts, all they had was taken from them…. Before god, a handful of dust is greater than thy kingdom, sovereignty, glory and dominion, and shall he desire, He would scatter you as the sand of the desert; ere long His wrath shall overtake thee, revolution shall appear in your midst and your countries shall be divided. …Thy glory is not extended, and our humiliation will not last…” The Bahai World 1926-1928, Vol. II. PP. 298-299; J.R.A.S. April 1892, P.310.

The book of Iqtidar, Tablets of Bahaullah Bombay Edition, P. 402; al-Kawakib al-Durriyya, Vol. II, PP. 263-264.

A passage appearing in the Kitab-i-Iqtidar in the text of this epistle to the effect that “Finally, the fortress of Acre became our place of incarceration” indicates that the epistle was written in Acre.

In the epistle, Baha reproves the Sultan for having looked down upon him; airs his grievances; speaks of the pillage of the properties of his followers (See Baha’s letter to Count Gobineau See PP. 405-406, where Baha complains that his followers were made to sell their properties at Edirne on the eve of their removal from there without being able to collect the proceeds realized from their sale); and warns the Sultan that sooner or later dismemberment or disintegration of his empire will set in.
This epistle addressed to Sultan Abd-al-Aziz was never sent to him. It was kept under the carpet as it was intended for home consumption.

10.2.1  Premier Ali Pasha, foreign Minister Fuad Pasha
According to Shoghi Effendi, god passes by, P.208, Baha addressed a second epistle to Ali Pasha from Acre in which he reproved him for his cruelty “that hath made hell to blaze and the spirit to lament.”
In the Lawh-i-Fuad, PP. 208-209, ibid, Baha alludes to the death of Fuad Pasha and reiterates that “Soon will we dismiss the one (Ali Pasha) who was like unto him and will lay behold on their chief (Sultan Abd-al-Aziz) who ruled the land, and I, verily, am the almighty, the all-Compelling.”
In PP. 231-232, ibid, Shoghi Effendi celebrates exultingly the death of Fuad Pasha and the downfall of Ali Pasha: “Fuad Pasha was struck down, while on a trip to Paris by the avenging sword of god, and died at Nice (1869).” “A few years after Baha’s banishment to Acre, Ali Pasha was shorn of all power and sank into complete oblivion.”
Baha also exultingly celebrates the death of Fuad Pasha in one of his writings, which contains a punning allusion to the Pasha’s name:

“thus did we overtake him with vengeance on our part; verily thy lord is stern in chastisement. An Angel called to him from the right hand of the throne:
“Those are ruthless angles: hast thou whither thou mayest fall? It was answered: ‘[No,] save Hell, wherewith the heart [Fuad] boils.” To meet his soul came forth the tormenting angels. It was said: “this is Hell, wherewith thou wert threatened in the Book, and which thou wert to deny in the nights and in the days.’” Prof. Browne’s translation. J.R.A.S April, 1892, P. 316.

By such minatory writings which were kept under the carpet, was the morale of Baha’s fellow-exiles, confined in the army barracks, boosted up, which Baha, an Ottoman subject, addressed cringing and adulatory letters to Count Gobineau (See France) in a bid to become a French protégé.

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