After Fire, Construction To Resume At $77 million Bahá’í Shrine In Israel

An aerial view of the Bahá’í shrine that caught fire on April 8. Photo via r/bahai, a forum for Baha’i faith on Reddit

ACRE, Israel — Bahá’í leaders will resume construction soon on the shrine of ʻAbdu’l Bahá, the Iran-born head of the faith who popularized the religion outside the Middle East. A fire on April 8 caused significant damage to the main building under construction at the holy site on Israel’s coast, just north of Haifa.

Clouds of black smoke billowed from the mausoleum, prompting firefighters to evacuate the nearby suburbs of Giv'at Hatmarim and Afgad. The blaze destroyed “several months of work” on the 2,900-square-meter (0.7-acre) circular platform and piazza, the Universal House of Justice — the governing council of the Bahá’í faith — said in an April 14 statement. The shrine when completed will be considered one of seven holy sites in the religion.

The fire broke out when windblown sparks from welding on the dome ignited scaffolding and plastic forms being used to mold poured concrete, Ynet reported. The completed concrete walls and structures were undamaged, and the $77 million (250 million shekel) project — announced in 2019 — is insured, said the Universal House of Justice. The shrine and meditation garden are being paid for by donations from Bahá’í faith’s 5 million members across the world.

Bahá’í media representative Sama Sabet said construction “will resume soon.” She didn’t estimate the cost of the damage.

Many Bahá’ís received news of the fire with “distress,” the Universal House of Justice said. Shrines are of great importance in the religion. ʻAbdu’l Bahá (1844-1921), also known as ʻAbbás Effendi, played a key role in guiding the growing Bahá’í community. ʻAbdu’l Bahá interpreted his father’s writings and spread the faith, particularly in Europe, the United States and Canada.

He was “a role model for all people of how you live a spiritual life with practical feet — how you go about walking in the world in a practical way but elevate your actions to bring you to the spiritual plane,” said Joyce Litoff, the associate director of communications for the Bahá’í National Center in Evanston, Illinois.

In the Bahá’í faith, shrines function both as mausoleums and places of remembrance. The shrine will “forever embosom those sacred remains” of ʻAbdu’l Bahá, the Universal House of Justice said in the announcement of the shrine’s construction.

ʻAbdu’l Bahá’s mausoleum and garden south of the Tell Akko archaeological mound will be one of seven Bahá’í holy sites, ornamental meditation gardens and administrative complexes in a western Galilee pilgrimage route stretching from Mazra’a near Nahariya south through Acre — spelled Akko in Hebrew and Akka in Arabic — to Mount Carmel in Haifa. The serene mausoleums of the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh — together with their adjoining manicured gardens, characterized by their sacred geometry and immaculate landscaping — were registered on UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 2008.

Construction is set to resume soon on the Bahá’í shrine, one of seven holy sites in the religion. Photo by Gil Zohar

For the last century, ʻAbdu’l Bahá has been temporarily entombed in Haifa’s shrine of Siyyid ‘Alí-Muhammad Shírází (1819-1850), popularly known as the Báb, or “Gate” in Arabic. Shírází was executed in Tabriz for apostasy after claiming to be the deputy of the promised Twelver Mahdi, or al-Qa’im. According to legend, the firing squad’s initial barrage of bullets failed to hit him, and a second team of shooters was brought in. As a Shiite heretic, his body was fed to dogs. It was rescued and hidden by believers.

In 1908, all Ottoman political and religious prisoners were freed by the Young Turk revolution. Newly released, ʻAbdu’l Bahá smuggled the Báb’s remains to Ottoman Palestine and built his iconic shrine midway up Mount Carmel, near where he himself was living. Its dome, visible from the Haifa harbor along the axis of the German Colony, was gilded in 1953.

When Corrine Strolger, who grew up a Bahá’í and now works as a community outreach associate for the Bahá’í National Center, first visited the shrines to the Báb in Haifa and of Bahá’u’lláh in Acre in 2015, it almost felt like “coming home,” she said. She could pray and meditate there for hours on end, which had usually been a struggle.

While the fire will delay construction, Litoff said a discussion she saw among believers on social media puts that slowdown in perspective. The discussion recalled a fire that broke out in 1931 during the building of the Bahá’í House of Worship in Wilmette, Illinois.

“Despite the setbacks, that building was completed, and it’s now a cultural landmark in the area and in the world,” Litoff said. “Yes, this is a horrible thing that happened, but no worries — we’ll rebuild.”

The Bahá’í faith believes in progressive revelation — that God has revealed himself in a series of manifestations including Moses, Jesus, Muhammad and most recently Bahá’u’lláh.

ʻAbdu’l Bahá’s mausoleum was designed by Vancouver’s Hossein Amanat, an Iranian-Canadian architect. It features a sloping geometric meditation garden rising in a sunburst pattern to form a dome covering the tomb.

Amanat is best known for his Shahyad Freedom Tower in central Tehran that was dedicated in 1972 to honor the Pahlavi dynasty. Following Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, the monumental 45-meter high archway was renamed the Azadi Tower. Amanat’s neoclassical Persian structure here extends the Riḍván Garden, which was a favorite oasis where Bahá’u’lláh retreated after he was released from Acre Prison in 1877. The modest house in which he stayed during his visits there has been restored.

In 1863, Bahá’u’lláh fulfilled the Báb’s prophecies by proclaiming the Bahá’í faith. The new creed eventually evolved into a global religion. Exiled from Persia to Ottoman Baghdad and then the imperial capital Constantinople — today Istanbul — in 1868, Bahá’u’lláh was imprisoned in Acre’s Turkish citadel in remote Palestine. For Israelis, the notorious jail and its gallows are best known for the prison breakout on May 4, 1947, near the end of the British Mandate of Palestine, in which gunmen from the Irgun underground freed 27 incarcerated freedom fighters.

After being released from Acre Prison, Bahá’u’lláh moved 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) to the north to Mazra’a, also called Mazra’ih. Two years later, he settled in the Mansion of Bahjí, meaning “delight,” in Acre. That palatial home was built in 1821 by ‘Abdu’lláh Páshá, then the Ottoman governor of Acre. Bahá’u’lláh remained there until his death in 1892.

The Bahá’í pilgrimage sites in Haifa and the western Galilee on UNESCO’s World Heritage List include the Shrine of Bahá’u’lláh and adjoining Mansion of Bahjí and Bahjí Gardens in Acre; the Shrine of the Báb; the 19 terraces of the Bahá’í Gardens and Bahá’í World Centre in Haifa; and the House of ‘Abbud in the Old City of Acre, where the Bahá’u’lláh spent time after being released from Acre Prison. The Mount Carmel administrative center includes the Seat of the Universal House of Justice; the Center for the Study of the Sacred Texts; and the Center for the International Counselors.

Iain Carlos is a reporter for the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal and formerly participated in the Dow Jones News Fund for American business journalists. He graduated from St. Olaf College with a B.A. in religion.

Gil Zohar was born in Toronto, Canada and moved to Jerusalem, Israel in 1982. He is a journalist writing for The Jerusalem Post, Segula magazine, and other publications. He’s also a professional tour guide who likes to weave together the Holy Land’s multiple narratives.