The same tokens of devotion shown Bahá’u’lláh at the time of
His departure from His House, and later from the Garden
of Ridván, were repeated when, on the 20th of Dhi’l-Qádih (May 9, 1863),
accompanied by members of His family and twenty-six of His disciples, He left
Firayját, His first stopping-place in the course of that journey. A caravan,
consisting of fifty mules, a mounted guard of ten soldiers with their officer,
and seven pairs of howdahs, each pair surmounted by four parasols, was formed,
and wended its way, by easy stages, and in the space of no less than a hundred
and ten days, across the uplands, and through the defiles, the woods, valleys
and pastures, comprising the picturesque scenery of eastern Anatolia, to the
port of Sámsun, on the Black Sea. At times on horseback, at times resting in
the howdah reserved for His use, and which was oftentimes surrounded by His
companions, most of whom were on foot, He, by virtue of the written order of
Námiq Páshá, was accorded, as He traveled northward, in the path of
spring, an enthusiastic reception by the valís, the mutisárrifs, the
qá’im-maqáms, the mudírs, the shaykhs, the muftís and qádís, the
government officials and notables belonging to the districts through which He
passed.
- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By’)
