An Empire of Many Cultures

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An empire of many cultures explores how Bahá'ís in England and Palestine, Muslim missionaries from India based in Woking, and Jews in England on both sides of the Zionist debate understood interactions with the British state and larger imperial culture prior to and during World War I. With the outbreak of the war and British expansion into the Middle East, certain Bahá'í, Muslim, and Jewish leaders found it necessary to form new relationships with the government and its representatives. These relationships would prove to be of pivotal importance for each, and have a lasting impact on future generations. This book, based on extensive archival research, brings to life the words and actions of Bahá'í, Muslim, and Jewish leaders during this time, shedding light on how each found meaning and value in the diversity that characterised the British Empire.While an appreciation of diversity tends to be regarded as a modern, postcolonial phenomenon, this book illustrates how the men and women of the early twentieth century understood diversity as a defining characteristic of the empire itself. They found meaning and value in the variety of religions, races, languages, nations, cultures and ethnicities that comprised that vast, global entity. This recognition allowed extraordinary individuals to find common ground between the state and their own beliefs and aspirations, thus helping to lay the foundation for the eventual development of the Bahá'í faith as a world religion, a new era of Muslim missionary activity in the West, and a Jewish state in Palestine.