Knights of Baháʼu'lláh

The title Knight of Baháʼu'lláh was given by Shoghi Effendi, Guardian of the Baháʼí Faith in the period, to Baháʼís who arose to open new territories to the Faith starting in the Ten Year Crusade.

Those pioneers who succeeded in establishing the Faith's first foothold in a country or territory were designated "Knights of Bahaʼu'lláh", and their names inscribed on a Roll of Honour destined, in time, to be deposited, as called for by the Guardian, under the threshold of the entrance to the Shrine of Bahaʼu'lláh. Nothing testified quite so dramatically to the foresight embodied in Shoghi Effendi's successive Plans than the fact that, within each of the new nation-states born after the second world war, Baháʼí communities and Spiritual Assemblies were already a part of the fabric of national life.” (Commissioned by The Universal House of Justice, Century of Light, p. 78)[1]

Shoghi Effendi kept a Roll of Honour of all the Knights of Baháʼu'lláh. While inaugurated during the Ten Year Crusade, local restrictions caused some of the goals to remain unfilled. The final Knight of Baháʼu'lláh arrived at Sakhalin Island in December 1990. There were 254 total Knights of Baháʼu'lláh that settled in 121 localities, they had been sent to open 131 nations and territories of which 10 had already been opened. On 28 May 1992, during the commemoration of the centenary of the ascension of Baháʼu'lláh, the Roll of Honour was deposited by Amatu'l-Baha Rúhiyyih Khanum at the entrance door of the Shrine of Baháʼu'lláh.[2]