The second period (1853–1892) derives its inspiration from
the august figure of Bahá’u’lláh, preeminent in holiness, awesome in the
majesty of His strength and power, unapproachable in the transcendent
brightness of His glory. It opens with the first stirrings, in the soul of
Bahá’u’lláh while in the Síyáh-Chál of Tihrán, of the Revelation anticipated by
the Báb, attains its plenitude in the proclamation of that Revelation to the
kings and ecclesiastical leaders of the earth, and terminates in the ascension
of its Author in the vicinity of the prison-town of ‘Akká. It extends over
thirty-nine years of continuous, of unprecedented and overpowering Revelation,
is marked by the propagation of the Faith to the neighboring territories of
Turkey, of Russia, of ‘Iráq, of Syria, of Egypt and of India, and is
distinguished by a corresponding aggravation of hostility, represented by the
united attacks launched by the Sháh of Persia and the Sultán of Turkey, the two
admittedly most powerful potentates of the East, as well as by the opposition
of the twin sacerdotal orders of Shi‘ah and Sunní Islám.
- Shoghi Effendi (Preface to ‘God Passes By’)