Editing ʻAbdu'l-Bahá (section)

===Post-war period===

[[File:‘Abdu’l-Bahá portrait.jpg|thumb|left|upright|The elderly ʻAbdu'l-Bahá]]

The conclusion of [[World War I]] led to the openly hostile Ottoman authorities being replaced by the more friendly [[Mandatory Palestine|British Mandate]], allowing for a renewal of correspondence, pilgrims, and development of the [[Baháʼí World Centre]] properties.{{sfn|Balyuzi|2001|pp=400–431}} It was during this revival of activity that the Baháʼí Faith saw an expansion and consolidation in places like Egypt, the [[Caucasus]], Iran, Turkmenistan, North America and South Asia under the leadership of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá.

The end of the war brought about several political developments on which ʻAbdu'l-Bahá commented. The [[League of Nations]] formed in January 1920, representing the first instance of [[collective security]] through a worldwide organization. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá had written in 1875 for the need to establish a "Union of the nations of the world", and he praised the attempt through the League of Nations as an important step towards the goal. He also said that it was "incapable of establishing Universal Peace" because it did not represent all nations and had only trivial power over its member states.{{sfn|Esslemont|1980|pp=166–168}}{{sfn|Smith|2000|p=345}} Around the same time, the British Mandate supported the ongoing [[Aliyah|immigration of Jews to Palestine]]. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá mentioned the immigration as a fulfillment of prophecy, and encouraged the [[Zionism|Zionists]] to develop the land and "elevate the country for all its inhabitants... They must not work to separate the Jews from the other Palestinians...If the Zionists will mingle with the other races and live in unity with them, they will succeed. If not, they will meet certain resistance."<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Declares Zionists Must Work with Other Races |url=https://bahai.works/Star_of_the_West/Volume_10/Issue_10#pg196 |newspaper=Star of the West |page=196 |volume=10 |issue=10 |date=8 September 1919}}</ref>

[[File:Abdulbaha knighting.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|ʻAbdu'l-Bahá at his investiture ceremony as a [[Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire]], April 1920]]

The war also left the region in famine. In 1901, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá had purchased about 1704 acres of scrubland near the [[Jordan river]] and by 1907 many Baháʼís from Iran had begun [[sharecropping]] on the land. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá received between 20 and 33% of their harvest (or cash equivalent), which was shipped to [[Haifa]]. With the war still raging in 1917, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá received a large amount of wheat from the crops, and also bought other available wheat and shipped it back to Haifa. The wheat arrived just after the British captured Palestine, and as such was widely distributed to allay the famine.{{sfn|McGlinn|2011}}{{sfn|Poostchi|2010}} For this service in averting a famine in Northern Palestine he received the honour of [[Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire]] at a ceremony held in his honor at the home of the British Governor on 27 April 1920.<ref>{{cite book |last=Luke |first=Harry Charles |author-link=Harry Luke |date=23 August 1922 |title=The Handbook of Palestine |url=http://www.bahai-library.com/luke_handbook_palestine |location=London |publisher=Macmillan and Company |page=59 }}</ref><ref>[https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/bitstream/1807/69065/3/Yazdani_Mina_20116_PhD_thesis.pdf Religious Contentions in Modern Iran, 1881–1941], by Mina Yazdani, PhD, Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations, University of Toronto, 2011, pp. 190–191, 199–202.</ref> He was later visited by [[Edmund Allenby, 1st Viscount Allenby|General Allenby]], [[Faisal I of Iraq|King Faisal]] (later [[King of Iraq]]), [[Herbert Samuel, 1st Viscount Samuel|Herbert Samuel]] (High Commissioner for Palestine), and [[Ronald Storrs]] (Military Governor of Jerusalem).{{sfn|Effendi|1944|p=306-307}}