The same tokens of devotion shown Bahá'u'lláh at the time of
His departure from His House, and later from the Garden of Ridvan, were
repeated when, on the 20th of Dhi'l-Qa'dih (May 9, 1863), accompanied by
members of His family and twenty-six of His disciples, He left Firayjat, His
first stopping-place in the course of that journey. A caravan, consisting of
fifty mules, a mounted guard of ten soldiers with their officer, and seven
pairs of howdahs, each pair surmounted by four parasols, was formed, and wended
its way, by easy stages, and in the space of no less than a hundred and ten
days, across the uplands, and through the defiles, the woods, valleys and
pastures, comprising the picturesque scenery of eastern Anatolia, to the port
of Samsun, on the Black Sea. At times on horseback, at times resting in the
howdah reserved for His use, and which was oftentimes surrounded by His
companions, most of whom were on foot, He, by virtue of the written order of
Namiq Pasha, was accorded, as He traveled northward, in the path of spring, an
enthusiastic reception by the valis, the mutisarrifs, the qa'im-maqams, the
mudirs, the shaykhs, the muftis and qadis, the government officials and
notables belonging to the districts through which He passed. In Karkuk, in
Irbil, in Mosul, where He tarried three days, in Nisibin, in Mardin, in
Diyar-Bakr, where a halt of a couple of days was made, in Kharput, in Sivas, as
well as in other villages and hamlets, He would be met by a delegation
immediately before His arrival, and would be accompanied, for some distance, by
a similar delegation upon His departure. The festivities which, at some
stations, were held in His honor, the food the villagers prepared and brought
for His acceptance, the eagerness which time and again they exhibited in
providing the means for His comfort, recalled the reverence which the people of
Baghdad had shown Him on so many occasions.
- Shoghi Effendi ('God Passes By')