Evening star., 1909-07-11

demands for some radical political and re-
ligious reforms. The soul of the move
ment was the earnest spirit and eloquent
voice of young man OF twenty-five
years, of humble origin and Of limited
learning, even for Persia in that day. He
declared, in true oriental figure of speech.
that he was the voice of a new order for
his native land, mOdestly urging that he
was, however, but the herald of one to
come, ''the great manifestation, the life
of the movement and it's real leader. The
Mollahs denounced him as an impostor
and guilty of treason and heresy, capital
where hunted down as wild beasts and
slain as heretics and rebels. and the
young leader died as a martyr in 1850,
after six stormy years of fearless proc
lamation and agitation. In the figura-
tive language of the orient he had called
himself the door or gate" by which
the people would enter into the larger
liberty; and his reforms were labeled
"Babism' by his prosecutors. Out of
Babism came the greater. Bahaism.
Not in the annals of the war of any
people for independence are there record
ed deeds of daring and devotion such as
adorn the accounts that relate how Per-
sian patriots fell in their fight for free
crushed, and the bloody chapter closed.
One illustration only Of the many thou
sands who died, ''suspected' of being dis
loyal to the shah and the Koran, is as
follows:
young woman of talent. beauty and
wealth. Kurrut u Ayre. had given spe-
cial offense to the clergy and the officials,
for she had actually educated herself.
grace in Islam. and in eloquent speech
had become a power in arOusing new
hope in the distressed spirits of the op-
pressed Persians She was put to death
by public torture, the details of which are
too SrueSOme to print
4 4
The new leader, two years older than
"Bab,' and who had never known him
save by reputation and correspondence, a
man of social prominence, liberal educa-
tion and large wealth. now appeared, in
1852. and all Persia at once gave audience.
His learning. moderation in utterance,
ing all gave him attention from hut to
palace from the serf to the shah. His
name, Miza-Husa-in-Ali-Nur is little
known In print: his title. Buha' ollah
empire. His writings became so embar-
RAISING to the clergy that he was soon
shut up in Bagdad. whence he withdrew
at the secret request Of the governor of
the city and lived for a while secluded in
the recesses of the mountains. He was
again apprehended and sent prisoner to
Constantinople, and some years later to
Adrianople, on the Black sea. and finally.
in 1862, to Aka, where he died, in 1892.
at the age of seventy y-five. having spent
more than half his days as prisoner for
his efforts to give freedom to his fellow
sufferers in Persia. Before he was de-
ported to the city of the sultan he plain
ly proclaimed to his followers: II am the
greater manifestation. announced by
prophetic books, and by the Bab.'' He
was acclaimed their leader. and he as
sured the believers that deliverance was
certain to come. but without resort to
arms" and that it must first come in
each ones own life. BE not overcome
of evil, but overcome evil with good de-
scribes not inaccurately the tenor of his
teachings. His son. Abas Effendi known
as Abdul BAHIA, is his successor. who also
shared his long imprisonment until the
recent Ottoman revolution gave him free
dom.
Though oriental in diction. the thought
in the writings of Baha'o'llah is not dis
similar to much in western practical"
philosophy. The spirit of his writing is