page_title: Baháʼí World Centre
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Baháʼí World Centre / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Bahai Garden in Haifa Israel. Was taken from Shderot Ben-Guryon. עברית: הגנים הבהאים בחיפה הם חלק מהמתחם הבהאי על הר הכרמל שבו שוכן המרכז הבהאי העולמי המהווה את המרכז המנהלי והדתי של הדת הבהאית. הגנים משתרעים בין המושבה הגרמנית למרכז הכרמל. במרכזו רחבה שבה גן מטופח ובו שבילי הליכה מרוצפים. במרכז הגנים שוכן מקדש הבאב. בתמונה הגנים והמקדש כפי שצולמו בלילה משדרות בן גוריון בהעיר התחתית. ქართული: ბაჰაიზმის მსოფლიო ცენტრი ჰაიფაში. Русский: Всемирный центр бахаи Расположен в город Хайфа.
context_page_description: The Baháʼí World Centre is the name given to the spiritual and administrative centre of the Baháʼí Faith. The World Centre consists of the Shrine of Baháʼu'lláh near Acre, Israel, the Shrine of the Báb and its gardens on Mount Carmel in Haifa, Israel, and various other buildings in the area including the Arc buildings.
  Much of the international governance and coordination of the Baháʼí Faith occurs at the Baháʼí World Centre. These include decisions that affect the religion on a global level, and the study and translation of the Baháʼí holy writings. The Universal House of Justice, representing the supreme governing body of the Baháʼí Faith, resides in Haifa. The Baháʼí World Centre is also the current destination for Baháʼí pilgrimage.
  The Baháʼí World Centre has its historical origins in the area that was once Ottoman Syria.
  This dates back to the 1850s and 1860s when the Shah of Iran and the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, ʻAbdu'l-ʻAziz, successively exiled Baháʼu'lláh from Iran to the fortress of Acre for lifetime incarceration.
context_section_description: The location of the administrative centre was a result of a successive number of banishments and imprisonments of Baháʼu'lláh, founder of the Baháʼí Faith.  Baháʼu'lláh was banished from Persia by Nasser-al-Din Shah in 1853, at which time Baháʼu'lláh went to Baghdad in the Ottoman Empire. Later he was exiled by the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, at the behest of the Persian Shah, to territories further away from Iran and finally to Acre in Ottoman Syria in 1868.  Baháʼu'lláh lived out the rest of his life in the area and he communicated with his followers throughout the Middle-East, Central Asia and India through special couriers, and Acre became the centre of the expanding network of Baháʼí groups.  When Baháʼu'lláh's imprisonment was eased, the area also became a centre of pilgrimage as Baháʼís would travel the long distance to see Baháʼu'lláh.
  The location of the Shrine of the Báb on Mount Carmel was indicated by Baháʼu'lláh to his son ʻAbdu'l-Bahá during a visit to Haifa.  Furthermore, the establishing of the administrative centre of the Baháʼí Faith on Mount Carmel was also indicated by Baháʼu'lláh in his Tablet of Carmel, which is considered one of the charter documents of the Baháʼí administration.
  Baháʼu'lláh died in 1892 near Acre, and his resting place is in Bahji. Following his death, Baháʼu'lláh's son ʻAbdu'l-Bahá was appointed to be the head of His Father's Faith and the condition of the area as the centre of Baháʼí activity continued. He continued to correspond with Baháʼís all over the world, including now Baháʼís in the West. While he was still officially a prisoner and confined to ʻAkka, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá also organized the transfer of the remains of the Báb from Iran to Palestine.  He organized the purchase of land on Mount Carmel that Baháʼu'lláh had instructed should be used to lay the remains of the Báb, and organized for the construction of the Shrine of the Báb. This process took another 10 years and was completed in 1909.
  In 1908, the Young Turks revolution freed all political prisoners in the Ottoman Empire, and ʻAbdu'l-Bahá was freed from imprisonment. Soon after the revolution, he moved to live in Haifa near the Shrine of the Báb, and since then the administrative headquarters of the religion have been in Haifa. During the final years of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's life the increasing levels of correspondence led to the employment of a number of secretaries including some in Western languages and the provision of a Pilgrim House in the area. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá died in 1921, and he is buried in Haifa, which was then in British Mandate Palestine.
  After ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's death, Shoghi Effendi was the head of the religion, and he directed the development of a number of separate projects in the area. He renovated the house of Baháʼu'lláh in Bahji in 1929, and in the 1950s secured legal possession of the lands around the building, creating a number of gardens. He also obtained possession of other sites around Acre related to Baháʼu'lláh's life, including the House of ʻAbbud. Around Haifa, he expanded the Shrine of the Báb by developing its golden-domed superstructure, and purchased lands surrounding the Shrine in order to create gardens. Shoghi Effendi had also decided that the buildings housing the institutions of the religion indicated in Baháʼu'lláh's Tablet of Carmel, including the Universal House of Justice, the as yet unestablished governing body of the worldwide Baháʼí community, would be arranged in the shape of an arc surrounded by gardens. The fulcrum of this arc would be the Monument Gardens, which hold the graves of members of the Baháʼí holy family. During his own lifetime he started the construction of one of the buildings comprising the arc, the International Archives building. He also negotiated tax-exempt status for all Baha'i properties. The religion's situation in Israel was clarified in an agreement signed in 1987 by then Vice-Premier and Foreign Minister, Shimon Peres, in which the government formally acknowledged the Baháʼí Faith as a “recognized religious community in Israel,” declared its "friendly relat
caption: Shrine of the Báb and the lower terraces at night
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