the temporal and spiritual rulers of the earth. He wrote some of the first of a series of letters known collectively as the “Tablets to the Kings”. He addressed the Sulṭán of Turkey, the
Sháh of Persia, and
Napoleon III, Emperor of the French. Among the themes in these letters was a call to the rulers “to be just and vigilant, to compose their differences and reduce their armaments.” Later He addressed such letters to
Queen Victoria,
Alexander II of Russia,
Pope Pius IX, William I, the Emperor of Germany, and Francis-Joseph, the Emperor of Austria. In His book of laws the
Kitáb-i-Aqdas,
Bahá’u’lláh addressed a
passage to “the Rulers of America and the Presidents of the Republics therein,” asking them to “adorn the temple of dominion with the ornament of justice” and bidding them “bind with the hands of justice the broken.” A few selections from this series of
Tablets are in this volume, on pages
122-125,
210-212,
219-232,
232-240, and
246-249. (For the full scope of these letters, see
Bahá’í World Faith,
Chapter One, and
The Promised Day Is Come, by
Shoghi Effendi.)
A fourth and final exile was ordered, this time (1868) sending Bahá’u’lláh to the prison-city of
‘Akká on the Bay of
Haifa in the
Holy Land. Bahá’u’lláh was an exile in ‘Akká and the surrounding countryside until the end of His life in 1892.
Here He revealed the major portion of His teachings, and despite restrictions His influence increased. Two of His major books in this period were the
Kitáb-i-Aqdas in which He stated the laws and ordinances of a new
dispensation and the
Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, a summary and defense of His teachings