Origin from 1868
The Ottoman authorities ordered Baha'u'llah into a final exile, moving him progressively further from Persia; leaving Adrianople on 12 August 1868, he and his companions arrived at Akka, in present-day Israel, on 31 August, where they were incarcerated in the city's prison citadel. This forced relocation, intended to isolate and diminish the faith, instead placed its founder permanently in the region that has since become the Baha'i World Centre, the administrative and spiritual heart of the religion.
Facts
Dates
Start YearSourced to the subject's own account31 August 1868, the arrival at Akka after departing Adrianople on 12 August; the source states both dates without qualification. StatusSourced to the subject's own account Learn More
How Baha'u'llah Was Exiled to Akka
This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.
The Ottoman authorities ordered Baha'u'llah into a final exile, the latest and harshest step in a policy of moving him progressively further from Persia with each successive banishment. Leaving Adrianople on 12 August 1868, he and his companions travelled onward until they arrived at Akka, in present-day Israel, on 31 August, where the Ottoman authorities had them incarcerated in the city's prison citadel.
The relocation was designed as a punishment. Akka in the late 1860s was a remote penal outpost within the empire, chosen precisely because it would isolate Baha'u'llah from his followers and, the authorities hoped, diminish the movement gathering around him by cutting off its founder from the wider world.
What this changed for the Baha'i Faith's spread ran directly against what the exile was meant to achieve. Rather than isolating and diminishing the faith, the forced relocation placed its founder permanently in the region that has since become the Baha'i World Centre, the administrative and spiritual heart of the religion to this day. The imprisonment the Ottoman authorities intended as an ending point for Baha'u'llah's influence became, instead, the fixed geographic centre the religion has been organised around ever since, a punishment that produced the opposite of what it was designed to do.
Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
This source names Baha'u'llah directly: "The Ottoman authorities ordered Baha'u'llah into a final exile, moving him progressively further from Persia; leaving Adrianople on 12 August 1868, he and his companions arrived at Akka, in..."
Occurred In
Akka (Acre), later joined by Haifa as the Baha'i World Centre, both in present-day Israel.
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