The Prisoner and the Kings: How One Man Changed the Course of History

Kaiser William I in Berlin, Sultan 'Abdu'l-Aziz in Constantinople, Alexander II Nicolaevitch, Czar of Russia and Nasiri'd-Din Shah, King of Persia all received letters from a prisoner urging them to change their ways. As these letters went unheeded; these ruling monarchs and their thrones were swept away in a titanic upheaval that engulfed 20 kingdoms in half a century. The link binding them was a prisoner in a Turkish fortress on the coast of Palestine - a person none would ever consider a challenge to the rulers of the world. Foretelling the collapse of each dynasty with frightening precision, the prisoner tried to awaken the rulers to their social and spiritual responsibilities; to unite in a world-wide effort for social justice and peace; and to protect the down trodden and under privileged.In 1844 a man called the Bab started a spiritual revolution in Persia which was crushed by clergy and courtiers fearful of loss of privilege. He was executed in 1850 with his followers tortured and massacred. One supporter was not killed because of his position in the Persian court but he was a marked man and his oppressors found an excuse to throw him into a dungeon. It was in that pestilential prison full of rats and disease that the mission of Baha'u'llah began, a mission that was to fulfill the promises of all religions. In 1890 the Prisoner told Professor Edward Granville Browne of Cambridge University that he sought only the good of the world and the happiness of all nations; that all men should become one in faith and all men as brothers; that the bonds of affection between people should be strengthened; that the diversity of religion should cease and differences of race annulled. Browne wrote "The face of Him on Whom I gazed I can never forget, though I cannot describe it ... no need to ask in Whose presence I stood, as I bowed myself before One Who is the object of a devotion and love which kings might envy and emperors sigh for in vain." Napoleon III, the most powerful monarch of the day, had written a treatise on the elimination of poverty and appeared to be in tune with Baha'u'llah's teachings but when he turned away from social and humanitarian ideals he received a letter from Baha'u'llah which forecast "Thy Empire shall pass from thy hands, as a punishment for that which thou has wrought." Kaiser William I was warned of the same fate if he did not devote himself to the service of unity and justice but he agitated differences between neighbors, increased armaments and dreamed of war and bloodshed. Alexander II failed to take leadership in raising moral and ethical standards and the House of Romanov fell after 300 years. That the Empire of the Hapsburgs, an empire as old as Europe itself, could disintegrate and fall overnight because the ruler rejected the spiritual message of God was unthinkable. But that is what happened. There was only one monarch, Queen Maria of Rumania, who became a devoted follower writing: "If ever the name of Baha'u'lla