ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's journeys to the West were a series of trips ʻAbdu'l-Bahá undertook starting at the age of 66, journeying continuously from Palestine to the West between 1910 and 1913. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá was the eldest son of Baháʼu'lláh, founder of the Baháʼí Faith, and suffered imprisonment with his father starting at the age of 8; he suffered various degrees of privation for almost 55 years, until the Young Turk Revolution in 1908 freed religious prisoners of the Ottoman Empire. Upon the death of his father in 1892, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá had been appointed as the successor, authorized interpreter of Bahá'u'lláh's teachings, and Center of the Covenant of the Baháʼí Faith.
At the time of his release, the major centres of Baháʼí population and scholarly activity were mostly in Iran, with other large communities in Baku, Azerbaijan, Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, and Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
Meanwhile, in the Occident the religion had been introduced in the late 1890s in several locales, with the very first mention of Baha'u'llah occurring in a talk given by a Christian missionary during the First World Parliament of Religions held in conjunction with the Chicago World's Fair in 1893. However, by 1910 the religion's followers still numbered less than a few thousands across the entire West. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá thus took steps to personally present the Baháʼí teachings to the West by traveling to Europe and North America. His first excursion outside of Palestine and Iran was to Egypt in 1910 where he stayed for around a year, followed by a near five-month trip to France and Great Britain in 1911. After returning to Egypt, he left on a trip to North America which lasted nearly eight months. During that trip he visited many cities across the United States, from major metropolitan areas on the eastern coast of the country, to cities in the midwest, and California on the west coast; he also visited Montreal in Canada. Following his trip in North America he visited various countries in Europe, including France, Britain and Germany for six months, followed by a six-month stay again in Egypt, before returning to Haifa.
With his visits to the West, the small Western Baháʼí community was given a chance to consolidate and embrace a wider vision of the religion; the religion also attracted the attention of sympathetic attention from both religious, academic, and social leaders as well as in newspapers which provided significant coverage of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's visits. During his travels ʻAbdu'l-Bahá would give talks at the homes of Baháʼís, at hotels, and at other public and religious sites, such as the Lake Mohonk Conference on International Arbitration, the Bethel Literary and Historical Society, at the NAACP, at Howard and Stanford universities, and at various Theosophical Societies, among others. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá talks across the West also became an important addition to the body of Baháʼí literature. In succeeding decades after his visit the American community substantially grew and then spread across South America, Australasia, Subsaharan Africa and the Far East.
During these journeys Bahíyyih Khánum, his sister, was given the position of acting head of the religion.
Trip to Egypt ʻAbdu'l-Bahá left Haifa for Port Said, Egypt on 29 August 1910. Earlier on that day he had accompanied two pilgrims to the Shrine of the Báb, and then he headed down to the port in the city where at around 4pm he set sail on the steamer "Kosseur London" and then telegrammed the Baháʼís in Haifa that he was in Egypt. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá stayed in the city for around one month where Baháʼís from Cairo came to visit him.
On 1 October, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá again set sail; his intention was to go to Europe, but because of his poor health, he instead landed in Alexandria where he stayed for nearly eight months. While in Egypt there was increasingly positive coverage of him and the Baháʼís from various Egyptian news outlets. While in Alexandria he met with a larger number of people. In November he met with Briton Wellesley Tudor Pole who later became a Baháʼí. He also was visited by Russian/Polish Isabella Grinevskaya who also became a Baháʼí. In late April Louis Gregory, an African-American who had gone on Baháʼí pilgrimage, met with ʻAbdu'l-Bahá while he was in the suburb of Ramleh. Later in May ʻAbdu'l-Bahá moved to Cairo and got more favourable press coverage, including from Al-Ahram. During his time there he met the Mufti of Egypt, with Abbas II of Egypt, the Khedive of Egypt.
Finally on 11 August 1911 ʻAbdu'l-Bahá left Egypt towards Europe. He boarded the SS Corsican, an Allan Line Royal Mail Steamer towards the port of Marseille, France accompanied by secretary Mírzá Mahmúd, and personal assistant Khusraw. Memoirs that cover the periods in Egypt include .
First trip to Europe ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's first European trip spanned from August to December 1911, at which time he returned to Egypt. During his first European trip he visited Lake Geneva on the border of France and Switzerland, Great Britain and Paris, France. The purpose of these trips was to support the Baháʼí communities in the West and to further spread his father's teachings, after sending representatives and a letter to the First Universal Races Congress in July.
Various memoirs cover this period.Note several volumes covering the talks given on ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's journeys are of incomplete substantiation — "The Promulgation of Universal Peace", "Paris Talks" and "ʻAbdu'l-Bahá in London" contain transcripts of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's talks in North America, Paris and London respectively. While there exists original Persian transcripts of some, but not all, of the talks from "The Promulgation of Universal Peace", "Paris Talks", there are no original transcripts for the talks in "ʻAbdu'l-Bahá in London". See .
Lake Geneva When ʻAbdu'l-Bahá arrived in Marseille, he was greeted by , a prominent early French Baháʼí. Dreyfus-Barney accompanied ʻAbdu'l-Bahá to Thonon-les-Bains, a French town, on Lake Geneva that straddles France and Switzerland.
ʻAbdu'l-Bahá stayed in Thonon-les-Bains in France for a few days before going to Vevey in Switzerland. In Vevey ʻAbdu'l-Bahá offered a talk on the Baháʼí point of view on the immortality of soul and relationship of worlds and on the subject of divorce. He also met Horace Holley there. While in Thonon, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá met Mass'oud Mirza Zell-e Soltan, who had asked to meet ʻAbdu'l-Bahá. Soltan, who had ordered the execution of King and Beloved of martyrs, was the eldest grandson of Naser al-Din Shah Qajar who had ordered the Execution of the Báb himself. Juliet Thompson, an American Baháʼí and artist who had also come to visit ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, shared comments of Hippolyte who heard Soltan's stammering apology for past wrongs. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá embraced him and invited his sons to lunch. Thus Bahram Mirza Sardar Mass'oud and Akbar Mass'oud, another grandson of Naser al-Din Shah Qajar, met with the Baháʼís, and apparently Akbar was greatly affected by meeting ʻAbdu'l-Bahá.
Great Britain On 3 September ʻAbdu'l-Bahá left the shores of Lake Geneva travelling towards London where he arrived on 4 September; he would stay in London until 23 September. While in London ʻAbdu'l-Bahá stayed at a residence of Lady Blomfield. by Rob Weinberg and originally published in Baháʼí Journal UK On the first few days in London ʻAbdu'l-Bahá was interviewed by the editor of the Christian Commonwealth, a weekly newspaper devoted to a liberal Christian theology. The editor was also present at a meeting of the Reverend Reginald John Campbell and ʻAbdu'l-Bahá and wrote about the meeting in the 13 September edition of the Christian Commonwealth and the reprinted in the Star of the West Baháʼí magazine. After the meeting, the Reverend Reginald John Campbell asked ʻAbdu'l-Bahá to speak at City Temple.
Later in the month ʻAbdu'l-Bahá took a trip to Byfleet near Surrey where he visited Alice Buckton and Anett Schepel at their home. On the evening of 10 September he gave his first public talk in the Occident at City Temple The English translation was read by Wellesley Tudor Pole and the talk was printed in the Christian Commonwealth newspaper on 13 September.
On 17 September, at the invitation of Albert Wilberforce, Archdeacon of Westminster, he addressed the congregation of Saint John the Divine, in Westminster. He spoke on the subject of the kingdoms of mineral, vegetable, animal, humanity, and the Manifestations of God beneath God; Albert Wilberforce read the English translation himself. On the 28th ʻAbdu'l-Bahá returned to Byfleet again visiting Buckhorn and Schepel. He visited Bristol on the 23rd–25th for several receptions and meetings though less public. On one such meeting he mentioned "When a thought of war enters your mind, suppress it, and plant in its stead a positive thought of peace." On the 30th he spoke to a Theosophical Society meeting with Annie Besant, Alfred Percy Sinnett, Eric Hammond, who later published a volume on the religion in 1909. Back in London Alice Buckton visited Abdu'l-Bahá once again, and he went to Church House, Westminster to see a Christmas mystery play titled Eager Heart that she had written.
From 23 to 25 September, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá went to Bristol where he met with many leading individuals including David Graham Pole, Claude Montefiore, Alexander Whyte, Lady Evelyn Moreton among others. Rev. Peter Z. Easton, a Presbyterian in the Synod of the Northeast in New York who was stationed in Tabriz, Iran from 1873 to 1880, did not have an appointment to meet ʻAbdu'l-Bahá. Easton attempted to meet and challenge ʻAbdu'l-Bahá and in his actions made those around him uncomfortable; ʻAbdu'l-Bahá withdrew him to a private conversation and then he left. Later he printed a polemic attack on the religion, Bahaism—A Warning, in the Evangelical Christendom newspaper of London (September–October 1911 edition.) The polemic was later responded to by Mírzá Abu'l-Faḍl in his book The Brilliant Proof written in December 1911.Burhan-i-Lamiʻ (The Brilliant Proof): Published, along with an English translation, in Chicago in 1912, the paper responds to a Christian clergyman's questions. Republished as
ʻAbdu'l-Bahá returned to London on 25 September, and a pastor of a Congregational church in the east end of London invited him to give an address on the following Sunday evening. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá also visited to Oxford University where he met the higher Bible critic, Thomas Kelly Cheyne. Though ill, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá embraced him and praised his life's work. News of his activity in Britain was covered in New Zealand in a couple publications.
Ezra Pound met with him about the end of September, later explaining to Margaret Craven that Pound approached him like "an inquisition… and came away feeling that questions would have been an impertinence…." The whole point is that they have done instead of talking, and a persian movement for religious unity that claims the feminine soul equal to the male… is worth while."
On 1 October 1911, he returned to Bristol to perform a wedding of Baháʼís who had traveled from Persia and who brought humble gifts as well. On 3 October ʻAbdu'l-Bahá left London for Paris, France.
France ʻAbdu'l-Bahá stayed in Paris for nine weeks, during which time he stayed at a residence at 4 Avenue de Camoens, and during his time there he was helped by Mr. Dreyfus-Barney and his wife, along with Lady Blomfield who had come from London. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's first talk in Paris was on 16 October, and later that same day guests gathered in a poor quarter outside Paris at a home for orphans by Mr and Mrs. Ponsonaille which was much praised by ʻAbdu'l-Bahá.