She was born in 1887 and named Akkawiya (the one who belongs to ‘Akká) by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. She was the granddaughter of Hadji Abderrehim Yazdi, one of the first bearers of the Sacred Standard. Born in the fortress of ‘Akká, she grew up in the Sacred Household under the shelter of the Greatest Holy Leaf.
With her mother, she moved to Alexandria, Egypt where for a few months she was in charge of cleaning the private room of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and was asked by Him several times to sew some of His clothes. She was entrusted to be the Early Prayer Reader of His private quarters.She was the first woman to become a member of the Spiritual Assembly of Alexandria, and dedicated her time to deepening the women in her locality.
She passed away on October 6, 1971 and was buried in the Bahá’í Cemetery at Rabat, Morocco. Her funeral was attended by a large number of believers of Morocco, the majority native believers; also in attendance was a representative from the Íránian Embassy in Rabat. A message was sent from the Universal House of Justice to honour her life of service. [BN No 490 January 1972 p7]

The book was republished in 1986 by Kalimat Press. PDF1986.

This short memoir is the account of the first visit by a Western Bahá'í to South and Southeast Asia, at the behest of Master himself. Sprague has given us a priceless description of several early Bahá'í communities in the region. From the author's pilgrimage to 'Akka, and the instructions given to him by 'Abdu'l-Bahá, through trips to Bombay, Rangoon, and Mandalay, then to Delhi and Lahore, we see a broad spectrum of Bahá'í community and life at the turn of the twentieth century. Sprague paints a clear picture of the transforming power of the Faith's message of unity in diversity that could bring together Muslims, Zoroastrians, Buddhists, and Hindus as a single-family.

Moses was dismissed from his position because of the influence of the priest but he was asked to return to Naranjal because of the demands of the parents of his students. He remained at this school until his retirement during the late 1970's. [Heroes of God: History of the Bahá'í Faith in Ecuador, 1940-1979 by Helen Basset Hornby p69; 77]

MacNutt arrived in Chicago on August 8th. At ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s instructions, a feast was held on August 10, at the home of Mr. and Mrs. George Lesch, where the entire Chicago Bahá'í community was invited to be the guests of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. MacNutt delivered to the community ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s message of unity and love. The election was held the following day the 11th of August.

On Sunday evening, the 1rth of August, the Chicago Assembly selected a "Spiritual Meeling'' of nine, composed of men and women. whose service-according to the wish of Abdul-Ilahá -is, first, to propagate the teachings of the Revelation, and, second, to attend to other matters necessary lo the welfare of the assembly. [SoW Vol 3 No 9 20 August 1912 p16]

In August 1932 he died after a brief illness and was interred at Cypress Lawn cemetery. The Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of San Francisco expressed its "grief and sense of serious loss" and paid tribute to "the untiring services and inspiring leadership of their first Chairman, Dr Frederick W. D'Evelyn". [Bahá'í Council website]

Anwer Cadir was one of Sri Lanka’s earliest civil engineers, who served under Lord Mountbatten in the Royal Engineering Corps at Peradeniya Gardens during World War II. After the war, he later worked for the Ceylon Public Works Department before traveling to Burma (Myanmar) to work as an engineer and there he married a Burmese lady. In Sri Lanka, he worked on the Gal Oya project and on the Norton Bridge Dam project. In Nigeria, he worked on the Niger River dam project,

On February 9, 2025 was the day of the launch in Sri Lanka of the biography, The Lamp of the Company Above – the life story of Anwer Cadir of Dehiowita. The author, Ian Bayly, came from Australia for this special occasion after releasing his book in India, Myanmar, Thailand and Nigeria, which were also countries in which the late Anwer Cadir lived in and served their communities. The book launch was held at Hill House, Pirivena Road, Dehiowita, which was Mr. Anwer Cadir’s family home, where he was born and passed away. [Sunday Observer]

In another message about a year later he provided further details. [MBW78-79]

Agnes Carey passed away in 1958 and her live story can be found in BW13p943

On May 2, 1954, Cynthia R. Olson arrived on Guam in response to the call from Shoghi Effendi; becoming the first permanent Bahá’í Settler in the Mariana Islands.

Antonio Alfonso, the first Filipino national to embrace the Faith, became a Bahá’í on 19 March 1956, and Joe Erie Ilengelkei of Palau, Western Caroline Island became the first Micronesian to accept Bahá’u’lláh when he became a member of the Bahá’í Faith on 7 April 1956. [BW13:454; Marianas Bahá'í Community website]

She was convinced of the truth of the Bahá'í Revelation because of the similarities between it and her Lakota heritage; to cite two examples, the legend of the return of White Buffalo Calf Maiden and the prophecies of Black Elk and his vision of Bahá'u'lláh. [Article by Radiance Talley]

• During a pilgrimage in late 1904 'Abdu'l-Bahá suggested he visit the Bahá'ís of the East. He toured India and Burma from December 1904 until the summer of 1905 becoming the first Western Bahá'í of go to the far Orient fulfilling Bahá'u'lláh's prophecy the "The East and West shall embrace as lovers". [YBIB6] iiiii
• See YBIB55-60 For the story of Kai Khosroe, the Zoroastrian Bahá'í from Bombay who gave his life while nursing Sprague in Lahore when he was deathly ill with typhoid fever.
• In 1908 he became a resident of Tehran, first teaching in the Bahá'í school and, when he returned the following year, he became principal.
• He married a niece of 'Abdul'-Bahá and became a brother-in-law of Ameen Fareed. When Fareed was expelled from the Faith in 1914 Sprague and his wife as well as his father-in-law followed. Fareed's father was Mírzá Asadu'lláh-i-Isfahání, the emissary who had taken the remains of the Báb from Iran to the Holy Land [Efforts to preserve the remains of the Bab]. Sprague applied to be reinstated in 1931 (or 1937) and was finally accepted in 1941, two years before his passing. [BW9p633-635]
  • He married Farahangiz Khanum on the 20th of July, 1910, a day selected by 'Abdu'l-Bahá so that Stanwood Cobb could attend. The Bahá'í wedding was performed by 'Abdu'l-Bahá and the legal ceremony was conducted by a mullá four days later. [BN Vol 1 No 12 October 1910 p 7]
• He made a teaching trip to South America and died soon after his return to the United States. [AB409]
• He was the author of The Story of the Bahai Movement published in London in 1907 and A Year with the Bahá'ís of India and Burma in May of 1908. [YBIBxi] iiiii

The Continental Board of Counsellors sponsored the first West African Bahá'í Youth Conference in conjunction with the National Spiritual Assembly of Upper West Africa. The Conference was held in The Gambia on the campus of Yundum College some fifteen miles from the capital city of Bathurst. Youth representing nine countries in this zone attended: Nigeria, Upper Volta, Ghana, Liberia, Mali, Sierra Leone, The Gambia, Senegal and Mauritania, plus pioneers originating from the United States, Mauritius, Malaysia, Iran, and friiq. A young Bahá'í from Sweden was able to greet the friends during a brief stop on a boat cruise. Counsellors Mr. H. R. Ardikani and Dr. William Maxwell Jr., were present as well as six of their Auxiliary Board members, Mr. Amos Agwu, Mr. Muhammad Al-Salihi, Mrs. H. Vera Edwards, Mr. Friday Ekpe, Mr. Shidan Kouchekzadeh and Dr. B. Sadiqzadeh. A total of fifty-six persons attended. [Bahá'í News 504]

Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights recognized freedom of religion as a central value of the post-World War II international legal order. The right was cemented in Article 18 of the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Another source says that Sra. Angela Ochoa Velazquez was the first believer. [The Beginnings of the Bahá'í Faith in Latin America: Some Remembrances by Artemus Lamb]

• To recapitulate His talk, `Abdu'l-Bahá emphasized the personal sacrifice of Northern whites for southern blacks in the course of the Civil War, and that African Americans (as the descendants of emancipated slaves) should therefore be grateful to whites in kind. In so saying, `Abdu'l-Bahá invoked history (or a certain view of it) in order to make history—by completing the unfinished work of the Emancipation Proclamation. ['Abdu'l-Bahá's 1912 Howard University Speech: A Civil War Myth for Interracial Emancipation by Dr Christopher Buck p134]
• See as well TMTW51.

The conference was seen as an historic one in that it was the first to which participants had come to order to discuss the whole area of the European Arctic and sub-Arctic stretching from Finland in the west in Greenland in the east, from Svalbard in the extreme north to the Scottish islands in the south.

Iceland is the only country in Europe that has planned and systematically carried out, year by year, a program of proclamation (now in its fourth year) that has taken the Faith throughout the entire country, north, south, east and west. (Betty Reed, Continental Board of Counsellors for Europe) [BN No 525 8 December 1974 p10-11]

Some of those serving at the school were: Susan Moody, Sydney Sprague, Lillian Kappas, Sarah Clock and Elizabeth Stewart. [GPB261]

      According to the description of Renée Szántó-Felbermann, they could not even meet in Budapest: „It was at their (the Sugárs) house in Alag (today part of Budakeszi) that we elected the first Spiritual Assembly in the history of Hungary, Ridvan 1939. When we boarded the train for Alag, in order to avoid suspicion, we Bahá'ís did not remain together, but went by twos and threes. The same procedure was repeated on our arrival to Alag. It was a memorable, unforgettable evening, that Feast of Ridván in the small house at Alag fragrant with spring flowers. We were all deeply moved. And our dear Bertha Matthiesen was radiant. … Jenő Sugár was elected chairman, Mária Kleinberger became treasurer and I continued as secretary." [www.bahai.hu]