The top part of the Chronology is divided in two. First, a menu which takes you to pages and graphics. From either of these, you will have the same navigation menu.

Second, a menu which takes you directly to one of the five parts of “The Extraordinary Life of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá” or directly to one of the three original graphics we created for this Chronology.

Owing to the large volume of information we intend to share in The Extraordinary Life of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, we have decided to release one part a month, releasing the final part about the passing of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in mid-November 2021.

The parts which are live on the website are be clickable and bordered in gold, and the upcoming parts appear darkened.

Once you click on “Part I”, you will be led to a graphic for that part which lists the color-coded sections covered in the range of years.

Generally the sections are named after places, but sometimes they will be thematic.

Once you’ve arrived at the “part” menu, you now have a choice of sections.

In the “sections” menu below each “part” graphic, you will see replicated the same list of sections, in the same color themes, and in the same order but in the form of clickable buttons.

Each section of the entire chronology has its own color theme throughout. For example, Haifa will appear multiple times throughout the final chronology but will always be the same color scheme.

Clicking on any of these section buttons will take you directly to a section which you can read through.

Once you arrive at the bottom of a section, you have four options.

Sections will appear completely unfolded with a date for an event at the top, and a story, sometimes a photograph or two, sometimes with a quote and/or a photograph, will be found in the body of the event.

You can, however, collapse the events into the date if you want them to take up less space on your screen, or as you read them.

To collapse an event, just click once on the date bar, and the body of text will be hidden.

To unhide, click once again on the date bar.

This is what a collapsed section for Adrianople will look like:

At the end of a section or a graphic (or a part), you can easily navigate back to one of four places:

The top of the page, where you can access other parts or the graphics;

The top of the section which you just read;

The references for the section you just read.

The top part of “The Extraordinary Life of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá” is a fixed menu of five pages (of which only four are displayed because you are on the fifth page):

Who wrote the chronology and how we got the idea.

How to use the system of internal anchor links inside the Chronology…i.e. this page!

Every person who helped us bring this chronology to life. Please, we implore you, read this section. We could not have done it without them, please click on their links!

The full list of articles, journals, unpublished materials, website pages and books we used to write the chronology, in alphabetical list using as-close-as-possible-to-Chicago-Style, and with links when possible.

Takes you back to “The Extraordinary Life of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá”


“The Extraordinary Life of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá” is essentially, first and foremost a storytelling chronology, and not an academic work, though Violetta has been extremely diligent about her sources.

We have provided sources and references for stories that are beyond the scope of events that are well known.

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