From 1911 to 1913 'Abdu'l-Baha journeyed through Europe and
North America, visiting the local Baha'i communities, addressing public
audiences in peace societies, universities, churches, Negro conferences and
synagogues, meeting distinguished personages in government, clerical and
educational life and promulgating by example and eloquent speech the principles
of universal peace. The roster of these distinguished persons is too extensive
to include here, but the character of 'Abdu'l-Baha's reception in the West may
be indicated by naming, among many others, Archdeacon Wilberforce, Reverend R.
J. Campbell, Lord Lamington, Sir Michael Sadler, the Maharajahs of Jalawar and
Rajputana, Professor E. G. Browne, and Professor Patrick Geddes, in London; the
Persian Minister, the Turkish Ambassador, "Church dignitaries of various
branches of the Christian Tree," in Paris; Professor Arminius Vambery,
several members of Parliament, Count Albert Apponyi, Prelate Alexander
Giesswein and Professor Ignatius Goldziher, in Vienna; and in America, Dr.
David Starr Jordan, Rabbi Stephen Wise, Alexander Graham Bell, Hon. Franklin K.
Lane, Mrs. William Jennings Bryan, Andrew Carnegie, Hon. Franklin MacVeagh,
Admiral Peary, Rabindranath Tagore.
- Horace Holley (Introduction to The Secret of Divine
Civilization)