Baháʼí Faith in Lebanon

The founder of the Baháʼí Faith, Baháʼu'lláh, was exiled to Acre, which was at the time was part of the same Ottoman province, or vilayet, of Beirut.

In 1880, Baháʼu'lláh's son ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, visited Beirut at the invitation of Midhat Pasha, the Ottoman governor of the Syria Vilayet.

[4] Following the visit Baha'u'llah wrote the "Tablet of the Land of Ba (Beirut)", later described as a "glowing tribute" to ʻAbdu'l-Bahá.

[4] During his visits to Beirut, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá also met Muhammad Abduh, one of the key figures of Islamic Modernism and the Salafi movement, at a time when the two men were both opposed to the Ottoman ulama and shared similar goals of religious reform.

After Abdu'l-Bahá wrote a specific tablet to him, he moved to Chicago in the United States and was instrumental in converting many of the early Baháʼí followers there.