Shrine of Bahá’ú’lláh

The Shrine of Baha'u'llah marks the final resting place of the founder of the Baha'i Faith, who was exiled from Persia and imprisoned in Acre by the Ottoman Empire. His burial here in 1892 established the Qiblih of a world religion.

Baha'u'llah was born Mirza Husayn-Ali Nuri in 1817, the son of a Persian nobleman. He became a follower of the Bab, a messianic figure who announced the imminent arrival of a greater prophet. In 1863, in a garden outside Baghdad, Baha'u'llah declared himself to be that promised one. The Ottoman authorities, pressured by the Persian government, subjected him to a series of exiles: from Baghdad to Constantinople, from Constantinople to Edirne, and finally to the penal colony of Acre in 1868. The sentence was perpetual confinement.

For years, Baha'u'llah lived within Acre's prison walls, enduring privation and loss. Gradually, his growing reputation and the respect of local officials allowed him to move outside the city. His son 'Abdu'l-Baha secured the Mansion of Bahji, and Baha'u'llah spent his final thirteen years there, continuing to write the revelations, letters, and laws that constitute Baha'i scripture.

He died on May 29, 1892. Thousands of people from diverse backgrounds gathered to pay respects. His interment in a room adjacent to the mansion transformed a point on the map north of Acre into the spiritual center of a faith that would spread to every country on earth.