I cannot do better than quote in this connection a few passages from the text of the official defense which in a moving language was pronounced by the President of the Constantinople Bahá’í Spiritual Assembly at a plenary session of the Court on that historic occasion: “La Behá’isme est une religion universelle, moderne et absolument independante. Si l’on désiré une désignation plus moderne encore: c’est une institution de Clémence, de bonne entente et d’amour, en d’autres termes, de progrès moral et spirituel. Il n’est ni une secte, ni une branche des autres religions et doctrines diverses. Il est cependant leur aboutissement naturel, logique et pour ainsi dire scientifique. C’est la raison pour laquelle l’on trouve parmi ses adhèrents des personnes, venant de toutes les religions et doctrines existantes dans le monde, et qui se comptent aujourd’hui par millions. ...Ces explications ne sauraient toutefois à dévoiler le suffire (?) mystère qui est au fond des sacrifices, consentis dans ce siècle en Orient, par plus de vingt mille martyrs du Behá’isme, parmi lesquels se trouve Qurratu’l-‘Ayn Táhirih (la joie des yeux, la pure), cette jeune femme turque, dépeinté ainsi par notre illustre écrivain Suleyman Nasif, et dont le martyre sans precèdent est cité aujourd’hui par le monde entier comme l’epopée sans pareille de la cause humaine. Je ne sais si ces explications peuvent elucider les raisons pour lesquelles il se trouve à cette doctrine petrié également par le sang turc des amis parmi des hommes de race turque, cette race qui dans tout procès du genre humain et de ses nobles aspirations, n’a pas hesité jusqu’ici à verser son sang.... Toutefois, les Behá’ís n’ont point dissimulé leur présence en Turquie, surtout depuis le régime de la République. C’est ainsi qu’ils se sont fait inscrire comme Behá’ís sur les feuilles du dernier recensement à Constantinople. D’autre part est-il admissible que le Gouvernement ignore leur présence dans cette ville? Cela étant, il ne saurait etre imaginé que les Behá’ís soient sous le régime de la République, poursuivis comme tels, surtout après avoir acquis leur liberté sous le régime de la Constitution qui a suivi celui de la tyrannie durant lequel ils étaient persecutés.... Mais avant de terminer, je ne puis m’empecher de dire avec une entière assurance, que les adeptes en Turquie de cette doctrine, sont surs de la Justice d’un pays régi par la première véritable République pleine de lumière dont s’honore adjourd’hui tout l’Orient.... Ces déclarations d’une part, et la conduite suivie par les Behá’ís, a l’occasion de cet incident qui a commencé par l’interrogatoire auquel ils ont été soumis par la Police, de l’autre, sont la preuve convainquante de la sincerité et de la bonne foie avec lesquelles nous nous comportons tant vis à vis de la Justice que de celui du Gouvernement. Ainsi, nous aurions pu soustraire certaines pièces qui constituent les seuls documents pouvant servi à nous assimiler à des societés. Ne nous voyant pas en contravention avec la loi, nous n’avons rien voulu dissimuler, comme personellement je ne cherche qu’a tout dire ici. Ce n’est lá d’ailleurs qu’une necessité dicté par le Behá’isme et la conformation à une recommendation de Bahá’u’lláh. Lui nous dit: “Devant la Justice, dites la Verité et ne craignez rien.”
To these hotly contested debates two circumstances of unexpected character lent color and force, and must have contributed in no small measure to the successful conclusion of the issue. The participation of a noted Turkish publicist and author whose expressed sympathy for the Cause had identified him with the group of the suspected believers, and the association of the name of the Dowager Queen of Rumania with the Bahá’í Faith as a result of the discovery among the seized documents of the Constantinople Bahá’í Assembly of her public pronouncements on the Cause and her personal message to the friends in that city, both served to reinforce the position of the Bahá’ís and greatly encouraged them in their task. I am assured by a letter addressed to me by the President of the Constantinople Assembly that the sessions of the Court were dignified in their proceedings, sublime in the presentation of the ideals of the Cause, and representative in the character of their attendants. He writes: “Ce fut une déclaration de la Cause dans toute sa grandeur, et jamais l’Orient n’a vu retentir le nom de Bahá dans une pareille formule.... J’ai prefère laisser l’avocat qui n’est pas Behá’í en parler. En effet cela a eu plus d’effet d’entendre l’avocat, emporté par je ne sais quelle mystèrieuse poussée, crier, après avoir cité les principes ainsi: ‘Monsieur le Juge! n’est-ce pas lá en somme l’idéal vers lequel marche actuellement notre pays avec en tète notre Grand Gazi?’”
The extravagant language of the newspapers in reporting the details of this official inquiry served in turn to accentuate the publicity already achieved, and induced the officials of the Court to exercise scrupulous impartiality in the consideration and judgment of the case. As to the verdict that has been pronounced on December 13, it is stated clearly that although the followers of Bahá’u’lláh, in their innocent conception of the spiritual character of their Faith, found it unnecessary to apply for leave for the conduct of their administrative activities and have thus been made liable to the payment of a fine, yet they have, to the satisfaction of the legal representatives of the State, not only established the inculpability of the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh, but have also worthily acquitted themselves in the task of vindicating its independence, its Divine origin, and its suitability to the circumstances and requirements of the present age. It will be admitted that this recognition on the part of the authorities would have never been so speedily secured had the representatives of the believers proceeded through the ordinary and official channels to obtain such a recognition from their government.
Decline of Islám
Surely every unprejudiced observer, reviewing on one hand the turbulent history of the Cause in Turkey and recalling on the other the series of internal convulsions that have seized that country, cannot but marvel at the contrast between the swift decline of an all-powerful theocracy and the gradual consolidation of a persecuted Faith. He will appreciate the significance of the circumstances that have caused on one hand the dismemberment of what was the most powerful institution of Islám, and contributed on the other to the emergence upon its ruins of the very Faith it has vainly labored to suppress. Should he look further into the past and consult the annals of Christendom during the first century of the Christian era, he cannot fail to observe the striking parallel between the cataclysmic visitation of Providence that has afflicted the most sacred institutions of the Jews in the Holy Land and the utter collapse in this, the first century of the Bahá’í era, of the Sultanate and the Caliphate, the highest institutions of orthodox Islám. He will recall the severities which the hand of Titus inflicted upon the Jews, the harassing siege of Jerusalem, the destruction of the Holy City, the profanation of the Temple, the desecration of the Holy of Holies, the transfer of its priceless treasures to the imperial city of Rome, the erection on the site of Zion of the pagan colony of Oelia Capitolina, the massacre of the Jews, and the exile and dispersion of most of the survivors. In like manner, he will observe that almost in the corresponding decade of the first century of the era of Bahá’u’lláh, not at the hand of the infidel, but by a recognized ruler professing the faith of Islám, a blow, unprecedented in its magnitude, has been dealt to the highest seats of authority in the Islámic world. He will call to mind the recent disestablishment of the state religion of Turkey, the overthrow of the dynasty of the House of Uthmán, the loss of the unity of the vast majority of the adherents of the Muhammadan Faith, the humiliation inflicted upon the whole hierarchy of its ecclesiastical exponents in that land, the abolition of religious courts, the annulment of the provisions of the Qur’án, the promulgation of a universal western code of civil law, the suppression of its Orders and the closing of most of its seminaries and establishments.
Such a close correspondence between these historic retributions which the Almighty’s avenging arm has chosen to inflict upon the persecutors of Christ and Bahá’u’lláh cannot but fortify the confidence of every Bahá’í believer in the future glories of this Divine Dispensation. Particularly will he feel strengthened when he recalls the triumphs that have signalized the advance of Christianity after the humiliation of its enemies. And as he ponders upon the circumstances that have given such startling publicity to the Cause, not only throughout Turkey but in the adjoining countries as well, he cannot fail to recognize, in this strange episode, following so closely upon the fall of the mighty stronghold of Bahá’í opposition, a prelude to a higher recognition and fuller unfoldment of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh.