- 1904-00-00 — In the summer of 1903, the Bahá’í community of Iran faced a series of brutal campaigns of attempted genocide in several cities, including Rasht, Isfahán and Yazd. When these persecutions reached their peak in the midsummer of that year, `Abdu’l-Bahá wrote a treatise outlining events leading to these pogroms, the motives and actions of the principle persecutors, and the intense sufferings of the Bahá’í community. Like all His communications on such subjects, `Abdu’l-Bahá was full of praise for the patience, forbearance and the conduct of the Bahá’ís, young and old.
In retrospect, it appears that `Abdu’l-Bahá intended this Tablet to be published in the West, galvanizing the support of prominent Bahá’ís, and Bahá’í communities in general, in the United States and Europe. Towards this, He instructed one of His secretaries, Dr. Younis Khan Afroukhtih, to translate this Tablet, which presumably was done in collaboration with some English- speaking Bahá’ís visiting `Akká at the time. This work was further assisted by an English-speaking pilgrim of Jewish-descent from Hamadan, Dr. Arastoo Hakim, and was completed on 19 September 1903.
The translated treatise was then sent to the United States to be published there under the title Bahai Martyrdoms in Persia in the Year 1903 AD”. It was received in Chicago on 29 October 1903 and its publication took place through the work of Bahá’í Publishing Society in 1904. However, for reasons which are not clear, it was published as a document prepared by Hájí Mírzá Haydar-`Alí, a prominent Bahá’í residing in Haifa at that time.
Ahang Rabbani did a translation in May of 2005. A PDF of his translation can be obtained here. - 1924-10-01 —
In the latter part of 1924, Shoghi Effendi began the process of recording the recollection of the believers who had witnessed the early years of the Bábí and Bahá'í Dispensations. He called for a systematic campaign to assemble such narratives. In the Holy Land,
companions of Bahá'u'lláh such as Áqá Husayn-i-Áshchí were interviewed for what they remembered of the days of Bahá'u'lláh and `Abdu'l-Bahá. Sometimes, as in the case of Áshchí, this happened literally on the person's deathbed. In addition, during the
next two decades, the Guardian wrote to the Bahá'ís of Iran urging them to prepare detailed histories of each local community. He
further called upon believers who had witnessed the unfolding of the Heroic Age to commit their experiences to writing.
In the 19 February 1925 issue of the Baha'i News in Persian, Akhbar-i-Amri, there is an item indicating that the Central Assembly in Tehran had "recently" sent a circular letter to localities in Iran and abroad and appointed a committee to compile the history of the Faith.
- One such narrative by Mírzá Habíb Afnán was entitled (Khátirát-i-Hayát) Memories of the Báb, Bahá'u'lláh and `Abdu'l-Bahá. It is available in the English translation by Ahang Rabbani.
- 2013-10-26 — The passing of Dr. Ahang Rabbani (b. February 6, 1956 in Tehran) in Humble TX, USA. He was buried in the Calvary Hill Cemetery. Dr Rabbasni passed away due to Multiple Myeloma.
He received his secondary education and undergraduate degree in Texas and completed his PhD in statistics at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. He served as Director of Statistics at the Bahá’í World Centre from 1980 to 1988.
He was an independent Bahá'í scholar, a prolific translator and a historian who greatly enriched the English language literature on the history of the Baha'i Faith in Iran. See Bahaipedia and Bahá'í Library Online for lists of his publications.
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