The Garden of Ridván (גן רידוואן) (حديقة الرضوان)

The Garden of Ridván is one of the Bahá'í holy places in Israel, situated just outside Akko (Acre). In 1875, `Abdu'l-Bahá, who later served as head of the Bahá'í Faith from 1892 until 1921, for his father, Bahá'u'lláh, who was the founder of the Faith, rented an island formed by two water canals, diverted from the Na'mayn river to power a huge complex of flour mills: fifteen pairs of millstones were apparently operated simultaneously in five structures. After 'Abdu'l-Baha rented the island, pilgrims from Persia and neighboring countries brought shrubs, trees and flowering plants to populate the flower beds, keeping them watered at the expense of their own thirst. On this island, 'Abdu'l-Baha created an exquisite garden for his father who, by then, had suffered more than two decades of imprisonment and exile. Originally called the 'Garden of Na‘mayn', Bahá'u'lláh called it 'Ridván' – meaning "paradise". Laurence Oliphant, the British writer who visited in 1883, remarked, "Coming upon it suddenly it is like a scene in fairy land...The stream is fringed with weeping willows, and the spot, with its wealth of water, its thick shade, and air fragrant with jasmine and orange blossoms, forms an ideal retreat from the heats of summer."

Left: `Abdu'l-Bahá (1844-1921) [Credit: http://centenary.bahai.us/sites/default/files/imagecache/lightbox-large/images/press_clippings/Abdul-Baha%20Portrait299.jpg, Public Domain]; Right: Bahá'u'lláh in 1868. The inscription is his Persian name, Mírzá Ḥusayn-`Alí Núrí [Public Domain]

Bahá'u'lláh is one of the central characters of the Bahá'í Faith. In 1844, at the age of 27, Bahá'u'lláh had become a follower of the Báb, a Persian merchant who began preaching that God would soon send a new prophet. The Báb and thousands of his followers were executed by the Persian authorities for their beliefs. Bahá'u'lláh was exiled first to Baghdad, in 1863, where he claimed to be the expected prophet foretold by the Báb. He made this proclamation a wooded garden in what is now Baghdad's Rusafa District, on the banks of the Tigris river, also known (rather confusingly) as the Garden of Ridván or Najibiyyih Garden. These events are celebrated annually by members of the during the Bahá'í Faith during the Festival of Ridván, which has no connection with the Akko garden.

But Bahá'u'lláh faced further imprisonment under the Ottoman authorities, initially in Edirne, and ultimately in Akko, where he spent his final 24 years of life. After years in prison in Akko, though still formally a prisoner of the Ottoman Empire, he was allowed to leave the city and visit nearby places. Baha'u'llah visited the garden often, sometimes staying overnight in a modest house on the island. From 1877 until 1879, Baha'u'llah lived in a house at Mazra'a, north of the garden near Narahiya, and from 1879–1892 he lived at the Mansion of Bahjí, just north of Akko, where he died. He is buried at Bahjí (Al-Bahjá means "Place of Delight"). All these places are sites of pilgrimage for members of the Bahá'í Faith.

The Ridvan Garden includes a small house where Baha'u'llah would sometimes spend the night. The Shrine of ‘Abdu’l-Baha will be constructed in the vicinity of this garden [Credit: © Bahá’í World News Service]

The site is an ancient one, and the gardens contain remnants of its past uses. From the Roman era into the early 20th century, water mills on the site produced the flour to feed the local population. The mills were first documented in 1799 by a French survey of the area in connection with Napoleon's intended conquest. The Templar’s “King’s Mills” were apparently located on or near the site of the Ridván Gardens, and it is assumed that the remains of the flour mills were built on top of earlier remains. In the gardens were found the remains of an ancient construction that is probably Crusader, along with ceramics from the Byzantine and Crusader periods and a coin dating to the Ayyubid period.

During the 1930s and 1940s the island setting of the garden disappeared, as a result of a nearby swamp drainage project against malaria. In 2010 a three year restoration and conservation project of the garden and the original water canals surrounding it was completed, after which the Ridván Garden, referred to by Bahá'u'lláh as 'Our Verdant Isle', became an island once again. An international team of architects and engineers restored the Ridván garden to how it was in the time of Bahá'u'lláh, using historic photographs and descriptions, with the assistance of the Israel Antiquity Authority, which provided a conservation survey of the entire site and carried out part of the work. The antique mills and associated structures are in a rare good structural condition for the region, including the gears, axle, drum and storage pool.

Baha’u’llah visited the Ridvan Garden several times, which Shoghi Effendi described as one of His "favorite retreats" [Credit: © Bahá’í World News Service]

In the Ridván Garden [Credit: dragfyre, CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2441699]

In 2019, in its annual Ridván message, the Universal House of Justice of the Bahá'í Faith announced that the future Shrine of `Abdu'l-Bahá, Bahá'u'lláh's father and the founder of the Faith, is to be constructed in the vicinity of the Garden of Ridván.

Unlike the famous gardens in Haifa and at Bahjí, north of Akko, the Garden is not open to the general public―though it has been said that it may be in the future―but only to members of the Bahá’í Faith, hence the above pictures inside the Gardens are not mine. I was able only to see the larger enclosed piece of land from the recently-constructed boundary wall and gates; the cultivated part of the Garden is hidden at the centre within a wooded area.