In A.D. 1872 (A H. 1289) he left Syria and took up his abode in Egypt for a period of about 21 years. There he foregathered with the late Hajji Abdu'l-Karim Efendi of Tihran, one of the followers Of His Holiness Baha'u'llah (glorious is His mention!), who gave him good tidings of this Most Great Manifestation. At first he did not believe these tidings and began to study the Divine Scriptures1 with the object of demonstrating there from the falsity of this claim, and he remained an unbeliever for a number of years, until God opened his eyes and he saw the Truth as it is. Then he forwarded a letter of contrition and belief to His Holiness Baha'u'llah (glorious is His praise!), and there was revealed for him a Holy Tablet from the Heaven of Virtue gladdening him with the announcement that his cry had been heard and his request answered, and that he had been commemorated with a mention whereby [all men's] hearts would be attracted. This happened in A.D. 1890 (A.H.1308), and the text of the above-mentioned Tablet is inserted for a blessing at the end of his book entitled Bahaullah2 'which he composed in the English language to prove the truth of this most great and wonderful Theophany.
In the beginning of June, 1898 (Muharram, A.H. 1316),he visited Chicago and Kenosha to investigate the condition of the believers there. Then he returned to New York, whence he went with his wife and one of the believing women, Mrs. Anna Bell, to the city of Lubeck in the State of Maine. There he spent nine weeks, engaged from six to nine hours daily in dictating orally to Mrs. Bell, while she wrote down what he dictated with the type-writer, until he had nearly completed the composition of his book entitled Beha'u'llah. At this juncture there reached him a telegram from California informing him that Mrs. Phoebe Hearst wanted him and his wife to meet her at New York to go with her as her guests to 'Akka to visit the tomb of His Holiness Baha'u'llah (to whom be' glory ), and to meet the members of the Holy Family. He accepted this invitation, returned to New York, and prepared for the journey.
1. Mrs. Sara G. Herron. Op. cit., p. 170
2. "About twenty five souls."
