37. Journeys to the West

Avalonian Bahais 

As noted by Shoghi Effendi (1897 – 1957), grandson and successor of Abdul Baha, “Many Theosophists accept Bahá’u’lláh as a Prophet, but we have no special relation to theosophy.”[1] After his release from captivity by the Young Turks in 1908, Abdul Baha made several journeys to the West to spread the Bahai message. Abdul Baha spent most of the fall of 1911 in London and Paris. The constant stream of visitors was described by his hostess in London as “ministers and missionaries, oriental scholars and occult students, practical men of affairs an mystics, Anglicans, Catholics, and Non-conformists, Theosophists and Hindus, Christian Scientists and doctors of medicine, Muslims, Buddhists and Zoroastrians.”[2] Annie Besant, who succeeded Blavatsky as head of the Theosophical movement, and A.P. Sinnet, another member, visited him on numerous occasions. Both invited him to address the Theosophical Society in London. Abdul Baha continued to address the Theosophical Society in New York, where on May 30, 1912, he stated: “Tonight I am very happy in the realization that our aims and purposes are the same, our desires and longings are one… the certainty of unity and concord between Bahais and Theosophists is most hopeful.”[3]

Abdul Baha was imprisoned with his father Abdul Baha starting at the age of eight, and suffered various degrees of privation for almost fifty-five years, until the Young Turk takeover in 1908 freed religious prisoners of the Ottoman Empire.[4] During his travels between 1910 and 1913, Abdul Baha, who had never faced a public audience, or attended school, would give talks at the homes of Bahais, at hotels, and at other public and religious sites, such as the Lake Mohonk Conference on International Arbitration, the Bethel Literary and Historical Society, at the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), at Howard and Stanford universities, and at various Theosophical Societies, among others.[5]  The historian Earl Redman, in his extensive research, estimated that in his Journeys to the West, Abdul Baha delivered at least 495 talks in 63 cities and towns, and estimates at least 100,000 people heard him speak in Egypt, North America and Europe, from Scotland to Hungary. As Violetta Zein summarized:

 

‘Abdu’l-Bahá does not simply promulgate the teachings of Bahá’u'lláh. He also travels to the West with warnings, for all the people He meets, high and low alike. He repeatedly warns His audiences of an impending war, which, unstopped, will set Europe ablaze. He foreshadows radical changes in the balance of power in Europe, hints at Turkey’s future problems, anticipates the persecution of Jews on the European continent, but still, always promises that the “banner of the unity of mankind would be hoisted, that the tabernacle of universal peace would be raised and the world become another world.[6]

 

Abdul Baha left Haifa for Port Said, Egypt, on August 29, 1910, where he met with Wellesley Tudor Pole (1884 – 1968), a spiritualist and early Bahai. An advocate for the theories of Rudolf Steiner about the role of the Archangel Michael in the spiritual life of Britain, Tudor Pole made the connection between Glastonbury and Tintagel as sites which had links with both King Arthur and Michael. In addition to his interest in Arthur and the legends about Joseph of Arimathea bringing the Holy Grail to Britain, he also considered St. George as a manifestation of the Archangel Michael.[7] In 1907, following a suggestion from a “waking dream,” Tudor Pole’s sister and two other women found a glass, sapphire blue bowl which they came to believe was the Holy Grail. The cup had been placed there in 1887 by another clairvoyant, John Goodchild (1851 – 1914)—an antiquarian influenced by British Israelite ideas and the Golden Dawn—who had learned in a state of trance that the cup he bought in an antique shop in Italy was the cup of the Last Supper. On instructions from the voices he heard, he placed the cup in Glastonbury, having been advised that it would be discovered hen years later.[8] Both Goodchild and Tudor Pole maintained links with central figures in the Golden Dawn.[9] Pole also consulted with Arthur Edward Waite, a Freemason, as well as a member of the SRIA and the Golden Dawn, who confirmed for him that the cup had some characteristics of the Holy Grail.[10]

Tudor Pole communicated his story to Basil Wilberforce (1841 – 1916), Archdeacon of Westminster. Basil was the grandson of the famous abolitionist William Wilberforce, co-founder with Charles Simeon of the London Society for Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews, whose president was the Earl of Shaftesbury.[11] Basil was the son of Samuel Wilberforce, bishop in the Church of England, who met with Arminius Vambery at the home of Lord Houghton.[12] Outside of his clerical duties, Basil had an interest in the occult and spiritual healing, and he was closely associated with leading Theosophists.[13] He was an admirer of Swami Vivekananda, and along with Hugh Reginald Haweis (1838 – 1901), who had been at the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago as an Anglican delegate, and who was amongst the most popular Anglican preachers of his time. Basil was the spiritual mentor to many of the guests he invited to a special gathering at his Deans Yard home to hear Tudor Pole’s account, including the Duke of Newcastle, Lord Halifax, Lord Hugh Cecil, Earl and Countess Brownlow, the American Ambassador, Rev. R.J. Campbell, Alice Buckton, along with Lady Inverclyde, Sir John Evans and the widow of Frederic W. H. Myers, a founder of the Society for Psychical Research (SPR), and its president Sir William Crookes.[14] The scientists present were generally impressed, and advised further investigation, which Basil felt validated his own view that the vessel was in fact the Holy Grail.[15]

 

Psychical Research 

The Society of Psychical Research (SPR) was a non-profit organization founded in 1882 for the stated purpose of understanding “events and abilities commonly described as psychic or paranormal by promoting and supporting important research in this area” and to “examine allegedly paranormal phenomena in a scientific and unbiased way.” Its members included Bertrand Russell, Arthur Conan Doyle, Lord Balfour, John Dewey and John Ruskin and his friend Lewis Carroll, author of Alice in Wonderland. It was Samuel Wilberforce who ordained Carroll as deacon in 1861.[16] Sherry Ackerman’s Behind the Looking Glass “demonstrates how nineteenth century currents of spiritualism, theosophy and occult philosophy comingled with Carroll’s interest in revived Platonism and Neoplatonism.”[17] Among Carroll’s child female friends was the niece of Matthew Arnold, Julia Arnold, who married Leonard Huxley, the son of Thomas H. Huxley (1825 – 1895), known as “Darwin’ Bulldog.” Leonard and Julia were the parents of biologist and eugenicist Julian Huxley (1887 – 1975) and the writer Aldous Huxley (1894 – 1963), famous as the author of Brave New World.

Membership in the SPR overlapped with the Cambridge Apostles, an intellectual secret society at Cambridge, founded in 1820 by George Tomlinson. The Apostles were predominantly homosexuals, inspired by their interest in Platonic love, with Arthur Hallam and Alfred Tennyson being the most well-known couple.[18] Darwin’s brother Erasmus, Lord Balfour, and the philosopher Henry Sidgwick, were also members. John Maynard Keynes, Leonard Woolf, Lytton Strachey and his brother James, E.M. Forster and Rupert Brooke were all Apostles. Arthur Balfour, who served as president of the SPR, was succeeded by American psychologist and psychological warfare expert, William James, who had become a member of the Theosophical Society in 1882.[19] James was a protégé of French Jewish philosopher Henri Bergson (1859 – 1941), whose sister Moina married McGreggor Mathers, a founder of the Golden Dawn.[20]

In unveiling his find to Wilberforce’s guests, Tudor Pole advanced the claim that the vessel—now known as Glastonbury Vessel or Cup—marked the beginning of a new spiritual revelation that would unite both the East and the West. In a letter published in The Christian Commonwealth in 1910, he wrote that this cup brings “into sympathetic touch one with another the followers of all great religious teachers in the East and West.”[21] In 1907, Tudor Pole had traveled to Istanbul, where he believed he could find the key to the history of the Glastonbury chalice, and perhaps also discover the unknown prophet. A year later, in Alexandria, on what would have been his third trip to Istanbul as part of his quest, he met Abdul Baha, whom he believed to be the expected teacher. As explained by Dell J. Rose:

 

He understood the Bahá’i movement as the “first-fruits” of a new spiritual order, one that would help Britain regain its spiritual vitality, reconnecting Britain with its lost Israelite and Avalonian heritages. As a believer in the British-Israelite tradition, which taught that the modern British were descended from the lost tribes of Israel, Pole wished for a way to reconnect with this lost Eastern heritage, seeing in ʿAbdu’l-Bahá and the Bahá faith one possible link.[22]

 

Among the “Avalonian Bahais” were four early twentieth-century esoteric personalities, including Alice Buckton (1867 – 1944), Robert Felkin (1853 – 1926), Neville Meakin (1876 – 1912), and Dion Fortune (1890 – 1946).[23] Buckton, a British poet and feminist, was an avid promoter of the educational teachings of Friedrich Fröbel, and was involved in the suffrage movement.[24] Like Tudor Pole, Felkin was interested in the gamut of esoteric subjects, from magic, Anthroposophy to fringe Masonry and Rosicrucianism.[25] Felkin would come to meet Tudor Pole through Meakin, whom Felkin had met through his association with Rudolf Steiner. In 1906, Steiner had joined the OTO and was immediately delegated Grand Master to found a Berlin Lodge.[26] Meakin had been appointed as one of the chief representatives of Steiner’s Anthroposophy in Britain, and was a member of both the Order of the Golden Dawn and its successor Stella Matutina. Meakin was also a member, or perhaps founder, of the Order of the Table Round, which he claimed had been in continuous existence since the time of King Arthur. Meakin initiated both Felkin and Tudor Pole into his order.[27]

Dion Fortune was well-known a prolific writer on occult subjects. She became interested in esotericism through the teachings of the Theosophical Society, before joining an occult lodge led by Irish occultist and Freemason Theodore Moriarty and then the London Temple of the Alpha et Omega, an occult group that had developed from the Golden Dawn. In her book Glastonbury: Avalon of the Heart, Fortune reveals here familiarity with both Tudor Pole and Buckton, through whom she would have learned about Bahaism. Fortune developed a Neoplatonic understanding of the mission of Abdul Baha, writing: “Each Christos who comes into the world has a special mission to fulfil in relation to the evolution of humanity. Osiris taught his people the arts of civilization, Krishna taught them philosophy, Buddha taught the way to escape from the bondage of matter, Abdul Baha taught social morality.”[28]

 

Theosophical Alliance

In May 1911, Abdul Baha moved to Cairo, gaining favorable coverage in the press, including from Rashid Rida’s Al-Ahram, at which time he met with Mohammed Abduh, as well as Abbas II, the Khevide of Egypt.[29] Finally on August 11, Abdul Baha left Egypt towards Europe and America. When Abdul Baha arrived in Marseilles, he spoke at the Alliance théosophiste (“Theosophical Alliance”) on December 6.[30] He also met with Hippolyte Dreyfus-Barney, a prominent early French Bahai, who converted to the faith from Judaism, who accompanied him to At Thonon-les-Bains, a French town on Lake Geneva.[31] There, Abdul Baha met with prominent Bahais Horace Holley and Juliet Thompson. Mass’oud Mirza Zell-e Soltan, brother of Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar, and the eldest son of Nasser ad-Din Shah, who had who had ordered the execution of the Bab, asked to meet with Abdul Baha, who accepted this apology for his family’s past wrongs.[32]

The Times of London printed an announcement of Abdul Baha’s arrival on September 6, 1911, two days after his arrival from Switzerland.[33] In London, Abdul Baha stayed at a residence of Lady Blomfield, wife of the noted Victorian era architect Arthur Blomfield. Later in the month he visited “Avalonian Bahai” Alice Buckton.[34] On the evening of September 10, Abdul Baha gave his first public talk in the West at City Temple, a Nonconformist church in London. An English translation was read by Tudor Pole, and printed in the Christian Commonwealth.[35] R.J. Campbell (1867 – 1956), who participated in Tudor Pole’s presentation at Wilberforce’s home, was a popular preacher at City Temple, where thousands would gather to hear him speak. However, Campbell garnered some controversy for the content of his idea. The theology preached by Campbell and a number of his friends came to be known as “The New Theology.”[36] On September 12, Abdul Baha and a number of believers met at the home of Mary Thornburgh-Cropper (1857 – 1938) in London.[37] She learned about the Bahai when she received a letter from American Bahai Phoebe Hearst (1842 – 1919) and she accepted the religion becoming the first Bahai in England.[38] Phoebe was the mother of the famous American publisher, William Randolph Hearst (1863 – 1951), who inspired Orson Welles’ film Citizen Kane.

On September 14, Abdul Baha sent greetings to the Theosophical Society, and joined a meeting at the office of the Editor-in-chief of the Journal of the Freemasons and Theosophists, in London.[39] Abdul Baha announced to his audience:

 

He is God!

Please give my respectful greetings to the Theosophical Society, and tell them ‘You are in truth promoting the oneness of humanity, for you are free of ignorant prejudices and earnestly desire that all people should be one. Today, whoever promotes the oneness of humanity is acceptable in the eyes of God. All the divinely-inspired prophets strove for this goal, and served humanity.[40]

 

On September 17, at the invitation of Basil Wilberforce, Abdul Baha addressed the congregation of Saint John the Divine, in Westminster. On September 30, he spoke to a meeting at the headquarters of the Theosophical Society, at the express request of their president Annie Besant, with Alfred P. Sinnett and Eric Hammond, who later published The Splendour of God: Being Extracts from the Sacred Writings of the Bahais in 1910. Hammond and his wife were both interested in religions outside of Christianity and investigated Hinduism and Theosophy, meeting with Swami Vivekananda in 1896. Hammond wrote an essay, titled “An Eastern Saint of Today” on Ramakrishna which was published in The Theosophical Review in 1902.[41]

Already on July 2, the New York Times had already published several articles about his pending trip to England, including a full-page report on the history of the Bahai faith history and a description of Abdul Baha together with his photograph on September 24.[42] On September 21, New Age magazine, published by Alfred P. Orage (1873 – 1934), a Theosophist, friend of Aleister Crowley and disciple of Gurdjieff, where he wrote:

 

Seeds of strange religions are wafted from time to time on our shores. But fortunately or unfortunately, they do not find the soil in us in which to flourish… The latest to land in public is Bahaism, of which, indeed many of us have heard in private these many years.[43]

 

From September 23 to 25, Abdul Baha went to Bristol where he met with many leading individuals including Claude Montefiore, David Graham Pole, and Rev. Alexander Whyte, who was Moderator of the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland in 1898 and published in subjects of Christian mysticism like St. Teresa of Avila and Jakob Böhme.[44] British lawyer and Labour Party politician David Graham Pole (1877 – 1952), who was Secretary of the Scottish Theosophical Society and also a member of the Fabian society, had taken a delegation to London from Scotland to meet Abdul Baha.[45] In his speech to the society, Abdul Baha stated:

 

Please give my respectful greetings to the Theosophical Society, and tell them “You are in truth promoting the oneness of humanity, for you are free of ignorant prejudices and earnestly desire that all people should be one. Today, whoever promotes the oneness of humanity is acceptable in the eyes of God. All the divinely-inspired prophets strove for this goal, and served humanity. The oneness of humanity is the foundation of the divine teachings…”[46]

 

Rev. Alexander Whyte (1836 – 1921) was Moderator of the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland in 1898 and published in subjects of Christian mysticism like St. Teresa of Avila and Jakob Böhme.[47] In 1906, Whyte’s wife Jane Elizabeth travelled to 'Akká in Palestine in order to visit Abdul Baha. The invitation came from Mrs Whyte's friend, Mary Thornburgh-Cropper, who was the first person to become a Bahai in England in 1898. Whyte was encouraged to take up the offer by E.G. Browne, who first met Abdul Baha in 1890, before meeting him again in London and Paris during 1912–13.[48] Claude Montefiore, the great-nephew of Sir Moses Montefiore, was the intellectual founder of Anglo-Liberal Judaism and the founding president of the World Union for Progressive Judaism. He was a significant figure in the contexts of modern Jewish religious thought, Jewish-Christian relations, and Anglo-Jewish socio-politics, and educator. Montefiore was President of the Anglo-Jewish Association and an influential anti-Zionist leader, who co-founded the anti-Zionist League of British Jews in 1917.[49] Abdul Baha also met with Marie Evelyn Byng, Viscountess Byng of Vimy, also known as Lady Byng, the wife of Lord Byng, the 12th Governor General of Canada.

Montefiore and Syed Ameer Ali, founder of the All-India Muslim League led by the Aga Khan III, attended a meeting organized by the Quest Society on March 23, 1911.[50] G.R.S. Mead (1863 – 1933), initially secretary to Madame Blavatsky, split with Annie Besant and formed the Quest Society in 1910. Mead published many authors in The Quest, such as Jessie Weston (1850 – 1928), an English independent scholar working mainly on mediaeval Arthurian texts, influenced by James George Frazer’s The Golden Bough (1890), and in the works of Jane Ellen Harrison, whose best-known work, From Ritual to Romance (1920), analyses the influence of the ancient cults of Tammuz and Adonis, and Mithras and Attis in Grail literature. Two interesting articles that appeared in The Quest just before Abdul Baha’s arrival. One is an essay by Wellesley Tudor Pole, entitled “The Passing of Major P.,” about spiritual life, the ethereal body, and related occult topics. The second article was about the March meeting, whose topic was “Can any great religion admit spiritual equality with other great religions?” The spokesmen for the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim viewpoints were Montefiore, Rev. Roland Corbet, and Syed Ameer Ali, respectively.[51] Montefiore was among the speakers when, at the invitation of Thornburgh-Cropper, nearly two hundred people gathered at Passmore Edwards’ Settlement, Tavistock Place, on September 29, to bid farewell to Abdul Baha Abbas on the eve of his departure for Paris. Among others Ameer Ali Syed wrote regretting his inability to be present, and Wilberforce sent affectionate greetings.[52]

In 1912, The Quest published “Psychology and Troubadours,” American poet Ezra Pound (1885 – 1972). Pound met with Abdul Baha in London about the end of September of 1911, later explaining to American writer Margaret Craven:

 

The whole point is that they have done instead of talking, and a persian movement for religious unity that claims the feminine soul equal to the male… is worth while.[53]

 

On October 3, 1911, Abdul Baha left London to return to Paris. While most of his talks were held at his residence, he also delivered talks at the Theosophical Society headquarters.[54] He also met with Hassan Taqizadeh, who actively participated in the Persian Constitutional Revolution, after which he developed into a secular politician. In 1908, Taqizadeh’s life was saved by Claude Stokes, a British military attaché, who allowed him to take refuge in the legation compound. Taqizadeh was then secured safe passage to England where he worked with E.G Browne to lobby parliament for support of the constitutionalist movement.[55]

 

Esperanto

On December 2, 1911, Abdul Baha left France, first returning to Egypt, until the following year, when he undertook a much more extensive journey to the United States and Canada, ultimately visiting some forty cities.[56] Abdul Baha also spoke at several American chapters of the Theosophical society, including Washington, DC, Illinois, New York and Boston.[57] During his nine months in North America, he met with David Starr Jordan, president of Stanford University. Jordan was also a strong supporter of eugenics, and his published views expressed a fear of “race-degeneration,” asserting that cattle and human beings are “governed by the same laws of selection.”[58]  Abdul Baha met with American Reform rabbi and Zionist Stephen Samuel Wise of New York City, who was also a founding member of the NAACP, along with Jacob Schiff; the inventor Alexander Graham Bell; Jane Addams, the noted social worker; the Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore, who was touring America at the time; Herbert Putnam, Librarian of Congress; the Robber Baron Andrew Carnegie; Samuel Gompers, the Jewish president of the American Federation of Labor; the Arctic explorer Admiral Robert Peary.[59] Carnegie and Compers were both later buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery.

Rev. Percy Stickney Grant, through association with American painter and Bahai Juliet Thompson (1873 – 1956), invited Abdul Baha to speak at Church of the Ascension in New York on the evening of April 14, 1912, which was covered by the New York Times, the New York Tribune, and the Washington Post.[60] After learning of the Baith Faith near 1898 she traveled to Paris at the invitation of the mother of Laura Dreyfus-Barney, the wife of Hippolyte Dreyfus. Later in 1901, in Paris she met Thomas Breakwell (1872 – 1902), who gave her Arthur de Gobineau’s description in French of the execution of the Bab which confirmed her faith. It was also in Paris that she met Charles Mason Remey (1874 – 1974) was a prominent member of the early American Bahai community, when she was taking classes on the religion from Mirza Abu’l-Fadl.[61]

Thompson recalled Khalil Gibran (1883 – 1931), the Lebanese-American writer, poet and visual artist, and a neighbor and acquaintance of hers, met Abdul Baha a couple times during 1911–1912.[62] Gibran is best known as the author of The Prophet, which was first published in the United States in 1923, and is considered to be the third-best-selling poet of all time, behind Shakespeare and Lao Tzu.[63] Born a Maronite, Gibran was influenced not only by his own religion but also by the Bahais, Islam, and the mysticism of the Sufis. According to Ghougassian, the works of William Blake “played a special role in Gibran’s life.”[64] Bushrui and Jenkins explained that Gibran’s life was “often caught between Nietzschean rebellion, Blakean pantheism and Sufi mysticism.”[65] Other influences include Walt Whitman and Ralph Waldo Emerson, the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, modern Symbolism and Surrealism.[66]

On December 5, 1912, Abdul Baha left New York, and over the next six months he visited Britain, France, Austria-Hungary, and Germany, before finally returning to Egypt on June 12, 1913. Abdul Baha arrived in Edinburgh on  January 6, 1913, staying again with the Whytes. He met with Patrick Geddes (1854 – 1932) and addressed a meeting of the Edinburgh Esperanto Society in the newly built Freemason’s Hall. Before his talk at the Theosophical Society of Edinburgh, the secretary of the society, who had already met Abdul Baha in London in 1911, stated: “Abdul Baha has tremendous spiritual powers. In my opinion, He is the focal point of the spiritual, intellectual, and theological forces of the present and future centuries.”[67]

On February 13, 1913, Abdul Baha delivered an address on the various forms of life, the outpourings of divine grace, and the momentousness of the age at the headquarters of the Theosophical Society of France.[68] Some of the notables he met while in Paris include the Persian minister in Paris, several prominent Ottomans from the fallen regime, professor Inayatullah Khan, and E.G. Browne.[69] Abdul Baha also offered a talk to the Esperantists, and the Theosophists. Lidia Zamenhof, the daughter of L.L. Zamenhof (1859 – 1917), a Russian-Jewish ophthalmologist who created Esperanto, intended to be a universal second language for international communication, became a member of the Bahai Faith.[70] Abdul Baha visited Germany, including visiting Stuttgart, Esslingen and Bad Mergentheim, speaking to a youth group and again to a gathering of Esperantists. He left Stuttgart for Budapest, where he met with a number of well-known social leaders, academics and leaders of peace movements, including Turks, Arabs, Jews and Catholics, as well as the Theosophical Society.[71]

 


[1] Shoghi Effendi. Unfolding Destiny (London: Bahá'í Publishing Trust United Kingdom, 1981). Retrieved from https://bahai-library.com/shoghi-effendi_unfolding_destiny

[2] Johnson. Initiates of Theosophical Masters, p. 99.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Smith, Peter. “ʻAbdu’l-Bahá.” A Concise Encyclopedia of the Bahai Faith (Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 2000), pp. 16–18; retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20120215004655/http://www.oneworld-publications.com/pdfs/Encyclo_Baha.pdf

[5] Ibid.

[6] Violetta Zein. “The Extraodinary llife of ‘Abdu’l-Baha.” Party V: 1910–1912. Egypt and Europe. The Utterance Project. Retrieved from https://theutteranceproject.com/the-extraordinary-life-of-abdul-baha-part-5/

[7] A. Hale. “The Land near the Dark Cornish sea.” Journal for the Academic Study of Magic, 2 (2004), pp. 207 - 225; cited in Lil Osborn. “The Extraordinary Life and Work of Wellesley Tudor Pole - Baha’i Seer.” ABS Seminar Newcastle Weekend 27/28th July 2013, p. 8. Retrieved from https://bahai-library.com/osborn_life_tudor_pole

[8] “Think it Holy Grail.” The Washington Herald (August 11, 1907), p. 19. Retrieved from https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-washington-herald-later-bahai-welle/1498341/

[9] Brendan McNamara. “The ‘Celtic’ Dimension of Pre-First World War Religious Discourse in Britain: Wellesley Tudor Pole and the Glastonbury Phenomenon.” Journal of the Irish Society for the Academic Study of Religions, 1:1 (2014), p. 98.

[10] Gerry Fenge. The Two Worlds of Wellesley Tudor Pole (Lorian Association, 2010), pp. 26-7.

[11] Kelvin Crombie. For the Love of Zion (Hodder & Stoughton Religious, 1991).

[12] Vambery. The story of my struggles, p. 255.

[13] McNamara. “The ‘Celtic’ Dimension of Pre-First World War Religious Discourse in Britain,” p. 92.

[14] “Think it Holy Grail.”

[15] McNamara. “The ‘Celtic’ Dimension of Pre-First World War Religious Discourse in Britain,” p. 93.

[16] Karoline Leach. In the Shadow of the Dreamchild: A New Understanding of Lewis Carroll (London: Peter Owen, 1999), p. 134

[17] Sherry L. Ackerman.  Behind the Looking-Glass: Reflections on the Myth of Lewis Carroll (Cathair na Mart: Evertype, 2012). Retrieved from https://www.evertype.com/books/behind-the-looking-glass.html

[18] Alfred Leslie Rowse. Homosexuals in History: A Study of Ambivalence in Society, Literature and the Arts (Dorset Press, 1983), p. 271–287.

[19] Tony Lysy. “William James, Theosophist.” Quest,  88: 6 (November–December, 2000), pg 228-233.

[20] J. Alexander Gunn. Bergson and His Philosophy (Start Publishing, 2013).

[21] Dell J. Rose. “Esotericism, Orientalism, and the Search for Direction in Early Twentieth Century Britain.” Aries - Journal for the Study of Western Esotericism, 1:27 (2023), p. 13.

[22] Ibid., p. 3.

[23] Ibid.

[24] Ibid., p. 21.

[25] Ibid., p. 18.

[26] Godwin. The Theosophical Society, p. 362.

[27] Rose. “Esotericism, Orientalism, and the Search for Direction in Early Twentieth Century Britain,” p. 18.

[28] Dion Fortune. Aspects of Occultism, 24; cited in Rose. “Esotericism, Orientalism, and the Search for Direction in Early Twentieth Century Britain,” p. 22.

[29] H.M. Balyuzi. Abdul Baha The Centre of the Covenant of Baháʼu'lláh (Oxford: George Ronald, 2001), pp. 133–68.

[30] Violetta Zein. “The Extraodinary Life of ‘Abdu’l-Baha.” Party V: 1910–1912. Egypt and Europe. The Utterance Project. Retrieved from https://theutteranceproject.com/the-extraordinary-life-of-abdul-baha-part-5/

[31] “Hippolyte Dreyfus, apôtre d’ʻAbdu’l-Bahá; Premier Baháʼí français.” Qui est Abdu'l-Baha ? (Assemblée Spirituelle Nationale des Baha'is de France, July 9, 2000).

[32] Juliet Thompson Marzieh Gail. The diary of Juliet Thompson (Kalimat Press, 1983), pp. 147–223.

[33] Elham Afnan “.‘Abdu’l-Bahá and Ezra Pound’s Circle.” Journal of Bahá’í Studies, 6: 2 (1993), p. 6. Retrieved from https://bahai-library.org/afnan_abdul-baha_ezra_pound

[34] Stephanie Mathivet. “Alice Buckton (1867–1944): The Legacy of a Froebelian in the Landscape of Glastonbury.” Journal of the History of Education Society, 35: 2 (2006), p. 263–281.

[35] Lady Blomfield. The Chosen Highway (London: Baháʼí Publishing Trust, 1975), pp. 147–185.

[36] R.J. Campbell. A Spiritual Pilgrimage (Williams & Norgate, 1916).

[37] Zein. “The Extraodinary llife of ‘Abdu’l-Baha.”

[38] “Mary Thornburgh-Cropper.” Bahaipedia. Retrieved from https://bahaipedia.org/Mary_Thornburgh-Cropper

[39] Zein. “The Extraodinary llife of ‘Abdu’l-Baha.”

[40] “Abdu’l-Baha sends greetings to the Theosophical Society.” Abdul Baha Speaks. Retrieved from https://abdulbahatalks.wordpress.com/1911/09/14/abdul-baha-sends-greetings-to-the-theosophical-society/

[41] “Eric Hammond.” Bahaipedia. Retrieved from https://bahaipedia.org/Eric_Hammond

[42] Elham Afnan “.‘Abdu’l-Bahá and Ezra Pound’s Circle.” Journal of Bahá’í Studies, 6: 2 (1993), p. 6. Retrieved from https://bahai-library.org/afnan_abdul-baha_ezra_pound

[43] Orage. “Notes of the Week.” New Age (September 21, 1911). Elham Afnan “.‘Abdu’l-Bahá and Ezra Pound’s Circle.” Journal of Bahá’í Studies, 6: 2 (1993), p. 6. Retrieved from https://bahai-library.org/afnan_abdul-baha_ezra_pound

[44] Murdo Macdonald. Patrick Geddes’s Intellectual Origins (Edinburgh University Press, 2020), pp. 25 - 26

[45] Peter Smith. Bahá'ís in the West(Kalimat Press, 2004), pp. 265–93.

[46] “Abdu’l-Baha sends greetings to the Theosophical Society.” Abdul Baha Speaks. Retrieved from https://abdulbahatalks.wordpress.com/1911/09/14/abdul-baha-sends-greetings-to-the-theosophical-society/

[47] Murdo Macdonald. Patrick Geddes’s Intellectual Origins (Edinburgh University Press, 2020), pp. 25 - 26

[48] Moojan Momen. “Browne, Edward Granville.” Bahai Library Online (1995). Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20130405015913/http://bahai-library.com/momen_encyclopedia_browne

[49] Daniel Langton. Claude Montefiore: His Life and Thought (London: Vallentine Mitchell Press, 2002).

[50] Elham Afnan “.‘Abdu’l-Bahá and Ezra Pound’s Circle.” Journal of Bahá’í Studies, 6: 2 (1993), p. 4. Retrieved from https://bahai-library.org/afnan_abdul-baha_ezra_pound

[51] Elham Afnan “.‘Abdu’l-Bahá and Ezra Pound’s Circle.” Journal of Bahá’í Studies, 6: 2 (1993).

[52] The Christian Commonwealth (October 4, 1911); cited in In the Footsteps of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá (National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United Kingdom, 2021), p. 19.

[53] A. David Moody. Ezra Pound Poet I The Young Genius 1885-1920 (Oxford University Press, 11 October 2007), p. 159.

[54] ʻAbdu’l-Bahá. Paris Talks (Baháʼí Distribution Servicem, 1912), pp. 119–123.

[55] Homa Katouzian. Iran (Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2012).

[56] William S. Hatcher & J. Douglas Martin. The Baha’i Faith: The Emerging Global Religion (US Baha’i Publishing Trust, 2002).

[57] Zein. “The Extraodinary llife of ‘Abdu’l-Baha.”

[58] David Starr Jordan. The Blood of the Nation: A Study of the Decay of Races through the Survival of the Unfit (1910), p. 12.

[59] Firuz Kazemzadeh. “ʻAbdu’l-Bahá 'Abbás (1844–1921).” Baháʼí Encyclopedia Project (Evanston, IL: National Spiritual Assembly of the Baháʼís of the United States). Retrieved from http://www.bahai-encyclopedia-project.org/index.php?view=article&catid=36%3Aadministrationinstitutions&id=81%3Aabdul-baha-abbas-1844-1921&option=com_content&Itemid=74

[60] Juliet Thompson & Marzieh Gail. The diary of Juliet Thompson (Kalimat Press, 1983).

[61] “Early American Baha’is Honor Juliet Thompson at Memorial Service in House of Worship.” Baháʼí News, 313 (March 1957), pp. 10–11.

[62] Juan Cole. “Chronology of his Life.” Juan Cole’s Khalil Gibran Page: Writings, Paintings, Hotlinks, New Translations. Retrieved from https://public.websites.umich.edu/~jrcole/gibran/chrono.htm

[63] Joan Acocella. “Prophet Motive: The Kahlil Gibran phenomenon.” The New Yorker (December 30, 2007).

[64] Joseph Ghougassian. Kahlil Gibran: Wings of Thought, The People’s Philosopher (New York: Philosophical Library, 1973), p. 56.

[65] Suheil B. Bushrui & Joe Jenkins. Kahlil Gibran, Man and Poet: a New Biography (Oneworld Publications, 1998), p. 11.

[66] Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet (Journeys in Film, 2015), p. 24.

[67] H.M. Balyuzi. Abdu'l-Bahá, the Centre of the Covenant of Bahá'u'lláh (Oxford: George Ronald, (1971)), pp. 367–8.

[68] Zein. “The Extraodinary llife of ‘Abdu’l-Baha.”

[69] H.M. Balyuzi. Abdul Baha The Centre of the Covenant of Baháʼu'lláh (Oxford: George Ronald, 2001), pp. 373–379.

[70] Peter Smith. “Zamenhof, Lidia.” A concise encyclopedia of the Baháʼí Faith (Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 2000), pp. 368

[71] Balyuzi. Abdul Baha The Centre of the Covenant of Baháʼu'lláh, pp. 383–387.

Divide & Conquer