This introductory statement would be incomplete without reference to one more essential characteristic of present-day Bahá’í activities. This factor consists in the powerfully unifying effect of certain conditions which have been forced upon the world-wide Bahá’í community by its enemies in the East. Referred to in greater detail later on, the continuance of the cruel and relentless persecutions of Persian Bahá’ís, the seizure of Bahá’í sacred shrines in Baghdád, and the official action of the Muslim Ecclesiastical Court of Egypt in pronouncing as heretics all Bahá’ís in Muḥammadan lands, combine to establish a sense of international, inter-racial and inter-religious solidarity among the Bahá’ís of the East and West which has greatly accelerated the manifestations of those forces of unity inherent in the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh. The very fact that this sense of solidarity emanates from spiritual loyalties raised high above those political, economic or sectarian interests making for a partial and incomplete internationalism in other organized bodies reveals, as clearly as any other factor which might be named, the universality of the Bahá’í Religion. As the Bahá’ís of all countries feel themselves profoundly stirred by the tragedies enacted in Persia, and as they combine ever more closely their collective forces in order to regain the religious property taken from them in Baghdád, the inevitable result is to produce a truly international type of character relying upon moral power to attain its ends because it realizes the inherent limitations of governments and other organized bodies to serve spiritual interests. In this phase of Bahá’í activity we therefore are witness to a collective experience and a discipline whose full effects will not be revealed in the present generation but which nevertheless are creating the only moral foundation upon which can be raised the nobler civilization to come. In connection with this fact should be considered also the nature of the discipline exerted by the relations of Bahá’ís to their local and national Assemblies referred to in a separate article in the present volume.

An activity directly benefiting by this intimate association of local groups through an elected National body has been the publication of all Bahá’í literature already translated into the English language.

Since the preparation of the previous volume (Bahá’í Year Book, 1925-1926) of the present work (The Bahá’í World, 1926-1928), the following titles have been added to the list published by American Bahá’ís : The Spiritual Opportunity of the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada; Esperanto, Russian, Spanish, Hebrew and Albanian editions of the No. 9 Compilation; The Spirit of World Unity; The Oneness of Mankind; Tablets to Japanese; Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, and Bahá’í Administration. Detailed references to these works will be found in the Bibliography supplied in another section of the present book.