- 1957-12-26 —
The passing of Mirzā Asad-Allāh, known as Fāżel Māzandarāni (b. Bábol, Persia 1881).
- He became a Bahá'í in Tehran in 1909. He travelled to Egypt in 1919-1911 where he met with 'Abdu'l-Bahá and was send to India and Burma to promote the Faith.
- 'Abdu'l-Bahá sent him to North America for the period 1920-1921. He arrived in North America with Manúchihr Khán in time to speak at the National Convention. His purpose was to assist and stimulate the Bahá'í communities. He departed for the Holy Land on the 9th of July, 1921. [AB443; SBR88]
- Mírzá Asadu'lláh Fádil-i-Mázandarání visited North America again in 1923-1925 at the request of Shoghi Effendi. [Fádl Mázandarání, Mírzá Asadu'lláh by Moojan Momen]
- See Jináb-i-Fádil Mazandarání in the United States by Fadl Mazandarani (published as Jinab-i-Fadil Mazandarani) compiled by Omeed Rameshni for transcripts of his talks.
- In about 1924 Shoghi Effendi wrote to the Central Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Persia, asking them to gather materials towards the compilation of a general history of the Bahá'í faith. Initially this work was handed to a committee and Fāżel served as the liaison between this committee and the Assembly, of which he was himself a member at the time. However, after the committee failed to make significant progress, Fāżel took on the responsibility to compile this work himself. His work, Ẓohur-al-Ḥaqq (variously also called Tāriḵ-e Ẓohur-al-Ḥaqq and Ketāb-e Ẓohur-al-Ḥaqq) is said to be the most comprehensive history of the first century of the Bahá'í faith yet written. It records the full biographies of the Báb, Bahá'u'lláh, and ʿAbdu'l-Baháʾ, the Faith's leading disciples and learned members, poets, martyrs, and other prominent personalities. It covers the history of the persecutions of the Bahá'ís; discusses the internal crises of the faith and, more significantly, contains excerpts from the holy writings and includes documentation and a considerable number of pictures. It was compiled in nine volumes: volumes 1-3 completed in May of 1932, the fourth in February, 1936, and the final volume in 1943. For various reasons it has not been translated into English. [Ẓohur-al-Ḥaqq]
- Other works of Fāżel include his dictionary of commonly used proper terms and titles in Bahá'í literature, Asrār al-āṯār, which was published in five volumes (1967-72) of more than 1,600 pages.
- Fāżel's other major work, Amr wa ḵalq, contains hundreds of selections from the Bahá'í holy writings grouped under topics related to philosophical, theological, religious, and administrative matters. The work was published in Iran (1954-74) in four volumes.
- The Collected Works of Asadu'llah Fadil Mazandarani.
- Wikipedia page.
Note: There is some question about whether Shoghi Effendi considered him a Hand of the Cause. See letter addressed to Dr Peter Smith sent on behalf of the Universal House of Justice 11 August 1998 found on Baha'i Library Online. The message concludes by saying that the Universal House of Justice, in a memorandum dated 1 April 1979, has instructed that additional names should not be included in the list of the Hands of the Cause. The list of Hands of the Cause can be found at BW14p445-466.
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