Sa'udi, the red roan stallion

Remembering and celebrating the 12th Day of Riḍván

Here’s a selection that tells a bit about Baha’u’llah, the 12th Day of Ridvan & Sa’udi,
from this website. https://thebahaispace.wordpress.com/2020/05/16/a-red-roan-stallion/

But, the red roan stallion of which I speak is the one that Baha’u’llah rode when he was exiled from Baghdad, in May of 1863.  Details of that horrific time in His life are described in The Dawn Breakers, Nabil’s Narrative.  Here is Nabil’s story:

The Departure of Baha’u’llah from The Garden of Ridvan, at noon on May 3, 1863, witnessed scenes of tumultuous enthusiasm no less spectacular, and even more touching, than those which greeted Him when leaving His Most Great House in Baghdad.  “The great tumult,” wrote an eye witness, “associated in our minds with the Day of Gathering, the Day of Judgment, we beheld on that occasion.  Believers and unbelievers alike sobbed and lamented.  The chiefs and notables who had congregated were struck with wonder.  Emotions were stirred to such depths as no tongue can describe, nor could any observer escape their contagion.”

The journey to Constantinople was arduous and fatiguing, taking 110 days to reach the Port of Samsun on the Black Sea. The route took the party across uplands, woods, valleys and mountain passes which entailed the careful negotiation of narrow roads above dangerous precipices. Bahá’u’lláh was accompanied by members of His family, plus 26 men who were some of His disciples.

A mounted guard of ten soldiers accompanied the caravan of 50 mules and seven howdahs; a howdah is a litter consisting of a pair of panniers in which two individuals can ride to balance each other’s weight. It is carried by a beast of burden, in this case a mule. Most of the time Bahá’u’lláh sat in one pannier with His wife in the other. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá describes how, many a night, He and Jinab-i-Munib, a devoted lover of Bahá’u’lláh, walked on either side of the howdah. Every time the party approached a village, or was about to depart from it, Bahá’u’lláh would mount His horse — a practice befitting His station as He appeared in public. On such occasions Abdu’l-Bahá would replace Him in His howdah. It is interesting to note that Bahá’u’lláh rode the red roan Arab stallion some of the way, but travelled mostly in the howdah.  Abdu’l-Bahá supervised the entire convoy and organized and directed the activities of those to whom certain tasks were allocated. He often rode Bahá’u’lláh’s horse in order to keep in contact with various members of the party. About an hour before entering a town, He would usually bring the horse to Bahá’u’lláh, who would then ride into the town, while Abdu’l-Bahá took His place in the howdah; and the same arrangements were made when the caravan was leaving the town.

Mounted on His steed, a red roan stallion of the finest breed, the best His lovers could purchase for Him, and leaving behind Him a bowing multitude of fervent admirers, He rode forth on the first stage of a journey that was to carry Him to the city of Constantinople.  “Numerous were the heads,” Nabil, himself a witness of that memorable scene, recounts, “which, on every side bowed to the dust at the feet of His horse, and kissed its hoofs and countless were those who pressed forward to embrace His stirrups.”  

“How great the number of those embodiments of fidelity,” testifies a fellow-traveler, “who casting themselves before that charger, preferred death to separation from their Beloved!  “Methinks that blessed steed trod upon the bodies of those pure-hearted souls.”  “He (God) it was,” Baha’u’llah Himself declares, “Who enabled Me to depart out of the city (Baghdad), clothed with such majesty as none, the denier and the malicious, can fail to acknowledge.”  These marks of homage and devotion continued to surround Him until He was installed in Constantinople.

And, so, we know no more of the red roan stallion, how beautiful, how valiant, how noble he must have been to have carried the Master, Bahá’u’lláh, on yet another of his journeys.

By Stella Gordon

Sources:

The Dawn Breakers – Nabil’s Narrative

Arabian Horse Association

The Color of Horses by Dr. Ben K. Green

Betsy Bailey – Horse color sage

Mary Alice Williams – Horse color sage