The `Akká Area

The following sites are also in the Akka area:

The Mansion of Mazra`ih

Fountain in the Garden of Ridván

Nine years Bahá'u'lláh was confined within the city walls. His sole exercise had been to pace, in monotonous repetition, the floor of his own bed-chamber. `Abdu'l-Bahá relates that one day Bahá'u'lláh remarked,

I have not gazed on verdure for nine years. The country is the world of the soul, the city is the world of bodies.[25]

Realizing Bahá'u'lláh's longing for the country, `Abdu'l-Bahá decided to take him away from the city into the country. He was successful in renting a summer mansion of simple design located about four miles north of the city, and then informed Bahá'u'lláh that the ``palace'' was ready. ``I am a prisoner,'' replied Bahá'u'lláh.[26] But at the insistence of the Muftí of `Akká, Bahá'u'lláh departed from the city for the Mansion of Mazra`ih. Bahá'u'lláh's liberation occurred in June 1877.

The Garden of Ridván

In 1875, expectant that Bahá'u'lláh would soon leave the city, `Abdu'l-Bahá rented some property, near a place called Shahuta, as a place of beauty and rest for Bahá'u'lláh. The garden of Na`mayn is a verdant knoll situated in the middle of a river east of `Akká. The garden became one of the favorite retreats of Bahá'u'lláh and was named Ridván (paradise) by him. There was also a simple house for the gardener or caretaker. That building is now known simply as the little house.

The Mansion of Bahjí

The Mansion of Bahjí

Bahá'u'lláh's two years at the Mansion of Mazra`ih were productive and pleasant. But the mansion was too small to serve the many needs of Bahá'u'lláh, his family , and the other exiles and expatriate settlers in `Akká. In 1879, Bahá'u'lláh moved to the Mansion of Bahjí.

`Údí Khammár, who had lavished much wealth on the construction of the mansion during the years of Bahá'u'lláh's incarceration in the barracks, had fled the mansion because of an outbreak of an epidemic disease. The Bahá'ís managed to rent, and later purchase the mansion without much difficulty. `Údí Khammár's commercial successes had enabled him to add extensively to the original structure built earlier in 1821. The mansion was surrounded by a garden and high wall, and the area around the mansion was known as al-Bahjá, Place of Delight. The following inscription in Arabic which `Údí Khammár had placed over the main doorway to welcome visitors is very thought-provoking to many Bahá'ís:

Greetings and salutations rest upon this Mansion which increaseth in splendour through the passage of time. Manifold wonders and marvels are found therein, and pens are baffled in attempting to describe them.[27]

The Shrine of Bahá'u'lláh

Entrance to the Shrine of Bahá'u'lláh

Bahá'u'lláh departed from this world on 29 May, 1892. The mortal remains are interred in the northernmost room of the mansion-complex of Bahjí, the Shrine of Bahá'u'lláh. It is the holiest place in the Bahá'í world.

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