Constantinople and Adrianople
The journey to Constantinople lasted between three and four months, the party consisting of Baha'u'llah with members of His family and twenty-six disciples. Arrived in Constantinople they found themselves prisoners in a small house in which they were very much overcrowded. Later they got somewhat better quarters, but after four months they were again moved on, this time to Adrianople. The journey to Adrianople, although it lasted but a few days, was the most terrible they had yet undertaken. Snow fell heavily most of the time, and as they were destitute of proper clothing and food, their sufferings were extreme. For the first winter in Adrianople, Baha'u'llah and His family, numbering twelve persons, were accommodated in a small house of three rooms, comfortless and vermin infested. In the spring they were given a more comfortable abode. They remained in Adrianople over four and a half years. Here Baha'u'llah resumed His teaching and gathered about Him a large following. He publicly announced His mission and was enthusiastically accepted by the majority of the Babis, who were known thereafter as Baha'is. A minority, however, under the leadership of Baha'u'llah's half brother, Mirza Yahya, become violently opposed to Him and joined with their former enemies, the Shi'ihs, in plotting for His overthrow. Great troubles ensued, and at last the Turkish Government banished both Babis and Baha'is from Adrianople, exiling Baha'u'llah and His followers to Akka, in Palestine, where they arrived (according to Nabil) on August 31, 1868, while Mirza Yahya and his party were sent to Cyprus. (25:1)

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