With the arrival of Bahá’u’lláh at Constantinople, the
capital of the Ottoman Empire and seat of the Caliphate (acclaimed by the
Muhammadans as “the Dome of Islam,” but stigmatized by Him as the spot whereon
the “throne of tyranny” had been established) the grimmest and most calamitous
and yet the most glorious chapter in the history of the first Bahá’í century
may be said to have opened. A period in which untold privations and
unprecedented trials were mingled with the noblest spiritual triumphs was now commencing.
The day-star of Bahá’u’lláh’s ministry was about to reach its zenith. The most
momentous years of the Heroic Age of His Dispensation were at hand. The
catastrophic process, foreshadowed as far back as the year sixty by His
Forerunner in the Qayyúmu’l-Asmá, was beginning to be set in motion.
- Shoghi
Effendi (‘God Passes By’)
