Lawḥ-i-Hawdaj
The Lawḥ-i-Hawdaj, also known as Lawḥ-i Sāmṣūn, provisionally translated as Tablet of the Howdah, is an Arabic Tablet revealed by Bahá’u’lláh. It has not yet been officially translated but a provisional translation exists.
The Tablet was revealed in Samsun, approximately August 1863, during the course of Bahá’u’lláh's exile from Baghdad to Constantinople. It was revealed by Bahá’u’lláh at the request of Mírzá Áqá Ján as He saw the Black Sea from His howdah. Bahá’u’lláh revealed it in His own handwriting while reciting it aloud and seated on His howdah.
Adib Taherzadeh notes that the Tablet refers to the voyage from Samsun to Constantinople and states that it was predicted in the Tablet of the Holy Mariner, and warns of further difficulties that Bahá’u’lláh's companions would face. Christopher Buck has observed that while the Tablet has some similarities to the Tablet of the Holy Mariner, with both narrating what Buck describes as a mystical pilgrimage to the sacred presence of Bahá’u’lláh and both emphasizing the relationship between personal faith and community integrity, it has a contrasting celebratory and joyous tone as opposed to the Tablet of the Holy Mariner's sorrowful tone.
Provisional Translation[edit]
References[edit]
- Taherzadeh, Adib. Revelation of Baha'u'llah: Volume II, pp 6-7
- Buck, Christopher. Paradise and Paradigm: Key Symbols in Persian Christianity and the Baha'i Faith (1999) State University of New York Press, Albany. p 183
- Lambden, Stephen. At the Shore of the Black Sea: The Lawh-i Hawdaj/Samsun of Mirza Husayn 'Ali Nuri, Baha'-Allah, accessed 16-9-2019
