CHAPTER VIII
Baha'u'llah's Banishment to Iraq (Continued)
The return of Baha'u'llah from Sulaymaniyyih to Baghdad marks a turning point of the utmost significance in the history of the first Baha'i century. The tide of the fortunes of the Faith, having reached its lowest ebb, was now beginning to surge back, and was destined to roll on, steadily and mightily, to a new high water- mark, associated this time with the Declaration of His Mission, on the eve of His banishment to Constantinople. With His return to Baghdad a firm anchorage was now being established, an anchorage such as the Faith had never known in its history. Never before, except during the first three years of its life, could that Faith claim to have possessed a fixed and accessible center to which its adherents could turn for guidance, and from which they could derive continuous and unobstructed inspiration. No less than half of the Bab's short- lived ministry was spent on the remotest border of His native country, where He was concealed and virtually cut off from the vast majority of His disciples. The period immediately after His martyrdom was marked by a confusion that was even more deplorable than the isolation caused by His enforced captivity. Nor when the Revelation which He had foretold made its appearance was it succeeded by an immediate declaration that could enable the members of a distracted community to rally round the person of their expected Deliverer. The prolonged self- concealment of Mirza Yahya, the center provisionally appointed pending the manifestation of the Promised One; the nine months' absence of Baha'u'llah from His native land, while on a visit to Karbila, followed swiftly by His imprisonment in the Siyah- Chal, by His banishment to Iraq, and afterwards by His retirement to Kurdistan-- all combined to prolong the phase of instability and suspense through which the Babi community had to pass. (127:1)

Now at last, in spite of Baha'u'llah's reluctance to unravel the mystery surrounding His own position, the Babis found themselves able to center both their hopes and their movements round One Whom they believed (whatever their views as to His station) capable of insuring the stability and integrity of their Faith. The orientation which the Faith had thus acquired and the fixity of the center towards which it now gravitated continued, in one form or another, to be its outstanding features, of which it was never again to be deprived. (127:2)

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