Review of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Journey West: The Course of Human Solidarity, Negar Mottahedeh, editor, and of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in America by Robert H. Stockman

Abstract

'Abdu'l-Baha in America. By Robert H. Stockman. Bahai Publishing Trust, Wilmette, 2012; 413 pp.'Abdu'l-Baha's Journey West: The Course of Human Solidarity. Edited by Negar Mottahedeh, Palgrave MacMillan, New York, 2013, xiii + 196 pp.It would be no exaggeration to say that Abdu'l-Baha s travels in Europe were a major event in the history of the Baha'i Faith. historic journeys to the West, Shoghi Effendi states, and in particular His eight-month tour of the United States of America, may be said to have marked the culmination of His ministry, a ministry whose untold blessings stupendous achievements only future generations can adequately estimate (God Passes By 291). A faith born a mere half-century earlier in Persia virtually unknown beyond its cultural confines suddenly entered the Western stage, proclaiming its message of unity of mankind, universal peace, equality of races sexes, harmony of religion science, universal education, essential unity of religions.The events of those two years were recorded, however incompletely, in the Bahai magazine Star of the West in Mirza Mahmud Zarqani's detailed chronicle, Kitab-i-Badayi'u'l-Athar, known in its English translation as Mahmud's Diary. The significance repercussions of Abdu'lBaha s Western travels were emphasized in the relevant chapters of Shoghi Effendi's God Passes By admirably treated in Hasan Balyuzi's biography, Abdu'l-Baha. Allan Ward's 239 Days: Abdu'l-Bahas Journey in America, provided a welcome guide to a memorable journey that found a prominent place in the memoirs of individuals too numerous to mention, who met Abdu'l-Baha became his devoted disciples.Robert H. Stockman's Abdu'l-Baha in America is a straightforward account from the day Abdu'l-Baha received the invitation to visit the to the day He embarked on His return voyage. Stockman is no novice at writing on the history of the Faith. His biography of Thornton Chase, the first American Baha'i, is an important contribution, throwing light on the person in the wider context of his life times. His two volumes, The Bahai Faith in America, beginning with its origins on this continent in the late nineteenth century continuing to Abdu'l-Baha's 1912 journey, make Stockman's latest book in a sense a sequel to his earlier works.As he had previously demonstrated, Stockman is a thorough researcher who carefully analyzes his sources that include institutional documents, speeches, private correspondence, published unpublished memoirs, a large number of newspaper magazine articles, many of which had not been studied before. Access to the archives of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the United States opened to him a treasure trove of information that is both new valuable. Throughout his book he pays attention to details that add to the authenticity of his narrative. He corrects, for instance, a number of chronological mistakes in the otherwise reliable Zarqani's Mahmud's Diary, mistakes that may have been caused by the problem of dealing with more than one calendar when he was writing his chronicle.Stockman is constantly aware of the environment in which Abdu'l-Baha moved. The comparison he makes between the messages of Abdu'l-Baha those of several prominent Oriental sages shows the differences both of the messages of their effects on American society. Attention to context enriches Stockman's narrative raises question that other historians will have to address.In Abdu'l-Baha in America Stockman gives a panoramic view of Abdu'lBaha's coast-to-coast travels multifarious activities: a meeting with a former president of the United States a visit to the homeless in the Bowery; dinners at embassies wealthy homes; speeches at universities, including Stanford, Howard, Columbia, as well as at churches synagogues, at peace societies, at the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, at private homes; in addition to uncounted conversations with individuals of all classes, ethnicities, beliefs. …