ISHQÁBÁD, one of the chief cities of Russian Turkistán, is just north of the Elburz mountains, which separate the desert plain of western Turkistán on the north from Persia on the south. The city lies on a plain a short distance from the mountains, which here are quite rugged and rocky. The town is quite modern in aspect, being laid off with gardens and broad streets meeting at right angles. Rows of trees along the sidewalks remind one of a western city, while the low buildings, walled gardens, and waterways, which flank the streets and are fed with water coming from streams from the nearby mountains, are strikingly oriental in character.
This city was but a huddle of mud huts when Bahá’u’lláh first directed some of His followers to settle there during the days of the most severe Bahá’í persecutions in Persia.
There in ‘Ishqábád these friends found a refuge of peace and tranquility where the Russian government protected them allowing them the free exercise of their faith; thus the city became in reality as well as in name the City of Love*.
The Bahá’ís of ‘Ishqábád form a strong element in the life of the place,and they are highly thought of and protected by the government. The Bahá’í Cause was first brought to the public notice in ‘Ishqábád some thirty-five or forty years ago by a martyrdom. It was the case of a learned man of some prominence, who met his death through receiving wounds at the hands of two assassins. These two individuals had been hired to do the deed by five Moslems, who took this measure to try to stop the spread of the Cause in that city. The Russian authorities took the matter in hand and condemned to death all of the seven men. The Bahá’ís then petitioned the governor to spare their lives. He not having authority to do this, a petition to the same effect was sent to the Czar, who granted it, and thus the prisoners were sent in chains to the mines of Siberia. Here is but another instance of the growth of the Cause through persecution, for from that time on the government not only allowed the Bahá’ís to worship as they chose, but it protected them and showed them special favors.
During all of the governmental changes in Russia the Bahá’ís have continued in safety there since it is understood that they are obedient servants of the government and harbor no sedition against the law of the land.
At about the close of the first decade of the Ministry of the Master ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, some of the friends in the Orient arose fired with spiritual fervor to build the first great Mashriqu’l-Adhkár. Following the guidance of the center of the Covenant, ‘Ishqábád was the place chosen for this service, and to direct this vast undertaking Hájí Mírzá Muhammad Taqí Afnán one of the most tried and venerable of the friends of the Cause was chosen by the Master.
The Master ‘Abdu’l-Bahá Himself established the style and the general lines upon which the Temple was built—namely, that it should be built upon the plan of a regular nine sided polygon surrounded by loggias and in the midst of a garden at the intersection of
nine avenues, with its principal
entrance facing the Direction of
the Holy Land—the composi-
