Immigrating to the US from Iran

The New York City Baha’i community in which Hussein and Tahirih Ahdieh served was racially and ethnically diverse. The Persian believers were hard-working immigrants—dentists, jewelers, car mechanics, architects, bookkeepers, and dental technicians.

Hussein and Tahirih regularly brought their children, Linda and Bobby, to the Green Acre Baha’i School in Maine became a second home for their family. This property was blessed by ‘Abdu’l-Baha and began life as a hotel owned by a progressive thinker and activist, Sarah Farmer, who dreamed of creating a center for thought and spirituality.

After meeting ‘Abdu’l-Baha in the Holy Land, she made Green Acre a center for promoting the social teachings of the Faith, most notably those on world peace and amity. The Master visited Green Acre during his trip across the United States.

Hussein was elected to the Spiritual Assembly of New York City and served as its treasurer. His father was very proud of him because serving on an Assembly was considered a great honor in Iran.

His grandfather, Muhammad Husayn, had been the first secretary of the Assembly of Nayriz, and my father, who was an especially good writer and speaker, later served in this capacity as well.

Muhammad Husayn

Among his wonderful colleagues on the Assembly was Viola Wood, the daughter of a Baha’i couple from Milwaukee. Her father had been a successful dentist in Milwaukee, which was no small feat for a black man in a white-dominated society. He continued to serve an underserved population through his practice. Viola’s selfless service was greatly valued by the Assembly and community members.

Francis, second row all the way left; Viola first row all the way right

Francis Merle Des Isles grew up in French Algeria, the son of a high official. A deeply mystical man, he had spent some of his early years living as a hermit. At his mosque, his teacher had told him that the day of the fulfillment of Islam had come, that Francis must go on a search and if he found the promised one of the age, he must write back to him. When Francis first heard of the Faith, possibly in Europe, he thought it was his duty to kill Baha’is because of what he saw as their heretical teachings but, after a powerful conversion experience, he instead became a devout Baha’i.

The mission

Ahdieh worked well with the Carpenters in the administration of the Harlem Prep school. He preferred to stay in the background. The school was blessed with many talented individuals who were dedicated to its mission and sacrificed greatly to assure the success of the students.

One of those dedicated teachers was George “Sandy” Campbell who had considered a life in the priesthood but found too many inconsistencies in the Christian faith. His life took a decisive direction when he was hired to teach English at the Prep. He had found a place that was his true calling. At the same time he also became a Baha’i. So began six fruitful years of teaching in the English department. His courses opened the minds of many of his students.

George ‘Sandy’ Campbell

The sisters of Manhattanville College were essential to the successful founding and launch of the school and provided essential human resources. Because Vatican II mandated that the church become more involved directly in the life of society, they did not live in a convent but rather in an apartment in Harlem. They drove to school in an old Dodge, arriving earlier than any other staff and leaving later. They worked selflessly, even sometimes going so far as to contribute their own pay to the school. The New York Times chose Sister Dowd as one of its ‘women of the year’ for her crucial role in establishing the school.

John Czerniejewski was a gentle giant who had come from a Polish family and later became a Baha’i along with the rest of his family. Though he was a stranger to Harlem, he acted like he belonged there. Once during a stick-up he simply walked confidently around the young man as though nothing was happening. Nothing could dissuade him from his commitment to the school. In addition to his hearty laugh, his humorous stories, and his imitation of the Three Stooges, students appreciated his dedication to creating interesting science experiments for them.

John Czerniejewski

A young Naledi Raspberry arrived at Harlem Prep in 1970, barely older than her students. Having grown up in a sheltered environment in Kansas City and at Vassar College, she found the world of Harlem to be much rougher than anything she had known. She rose to the occasion by encouraging her English and drama students to include their own experiences in their work; one class of students wrote a play based on their lives. She also introduced them to live theater by taking them regularly to the National Black Theater located nearby.

Naledi Raspberry

The Prep was also a place of dynamic interaction and discussion. For many students these interactions were the most important learning experiences of the school day. Ed Carpenter insisted on courteous exchanges, so while the debates between students could get heated, they were always respectful and finished with everyone still friends.

The school’s flexibly configured open spaces allowed for maximum interaction among students and the holding of school-wide assemblies which were rich in discussion. Guests included William F. Buckley who exposed students to the conservative point of view; Julius Lester, a liberal writer, photographer, radio host, and teacher, who was challenged by some students who found him insufficiently militant; and Sen. Jacob Javits, a prominent liberal Republican who supported the civil rights movement and worked to create the National Endowment for the Arts.

Force outs not dropouts

The streets of Harlem were a long way away from the dirt lanes of Ahdieh’s small hometown of Nayriz, Iran, and yet, Harlem was where he found himself in the late 1960s working as an administrator at the innovative Harlem Prep School.

Harlem Prep was a fruit of times that demanded social justice and change.

The post-World War II prosperity, the Kennedy administration, and the powerful civil rights movement provided the momentum for. President Johnson proposed the creation of a Great Society through the active involvement of the Federal government.

One of the largest legislative efforts in American history, the Great Society aimed to alleviate poverty and advance civil rights. The Federal government now took part directly in addressing issues involving civil rights, poverty, education, health, housing, voting rights, pollution, the arts, urban development, occupational safety, consumer protection, and mass transit.

One of the glaring needs in central Harlem was for a college preparatory high school for at-risk youth. Rev. Callender or the Urban League partnered with Manhattanville College, a school run by the Order of the Sacred Heart.

The Vatican II council revolutionized the work of the Catholic Church and all its orders became more involved in the life of the societies. For decades, the students at Manhattanville College had already been serving in neighborhoods in need such as Harlem. Sister McCormack, the president of the college, knew the prominent leaders in Harlem and decided to work with Rev. Callender on developing a college preparatory school in Central Harlem for at-risk youth.

Sister McCormack put the implementation of the project in the capable hands of Sister Ruth Dowd. In June of 1967, Rev. Callender and Sister McCormack signed a memorandum of understanding to found an alternative school to the troubled public school system, the Harlem Prep school.

The school opened in an old armory with forty-nine students—over 200 had applied—and by the end of the year the enrollment topped seventy students. The efforts of that first year bore fruit when all of its students were accepted to colleges. With the help of corporate funding Harlem Prep took up its permanent home in a refurbished supermarket with new furniture donated by the designer Herman Miller.

Harlem Prep inside

Harlem Prep outside

The Board of Harlem Prep found a dynamic leader in Ed Carpenter, a Baha’i from New York who had the ability to inspire others with a vision of improving the lives of young people. He didn’t see the students as ‘dropouts’ but rather as ‘force-outs;’ kids who had been pushed out by the indifference and tedium of the public system. His wife, Ann, worked tirelessly organizing the tedious details of school administration such as schedules, teacher training/supervision, and materials.

Ann Carpenter

Ed Carpenter

Ahdieh heard about the Prep through Ed and Ann who were both Baha’is and whom he admired greatly. His experience as an immigrant trying to eke out a living in hot and crowded kitchens, and his experience of persecution in Iran made him open to trying to understand the struggle of black Americans against racism.

Ahdieh was inspired in his work at the school by distinguished Baha’i educators. Dr. Stanwood Cobb founded the Chevy Chase Country Day School in 1919 and served as president of the Progressive Education Association which emphasized experiential learning, critical thinking, collaboration, social responsibility, and a more personalized form of education.

Stanwood Cobb

Dr. Daniel Jordan developed a wholly new educational model, ANISA, in the 1960s-70s which took a holistic approach to education that sought to transmit knowledge in a cohesive, forward-looking framework grounded in reality and experience.

Big beautiful rug

The young Ahdieh from Nayriz married Tahirih Missaghi from Shiraz in a simple ceremony in their friend’s apartment in New York City. He had a car so they considered him rich. Being a poor student, Ahdieh could not afford much in the way of wedding trappings—serving turkey and cookies to the few guests.

Her father sent them the gift of a rug from Iran. Ahdieh asked his friend to bring his station wagon to go pick it up at the airport. He dreamed of this big beautiful rug coming from his home country which would give distinction to their small studio apartment. When he went to the counter at the airport, the attendant placed a small rug on the counter.

It was a personal prayer rug for our daily use as prayer was a true foundation and source of sustenance for a marriage.

All around the young Iranian couple, the new young American generation of the late 60s was challenging many of the social norms.

At the university, Ahdieh listened to a guest speaker rail against the government. He was astonished that hear this as such speech would not be allowed in the country he’d grown up in. Left-leaning Iranian students pressured him into joining one of their political groups but, being a Baha’i, he wanted to avoid partisan politics.

Universities were exciting places in those days. The Vietnam conflict had become a full-blown war after years of gradual military build-up. The public mood about Vietnam was souring as Americans saw the horrors of war in living color on their televisions every night.

The new generation was increasingly vocal about its antipathy to a war many young people had to come to see as immoral. A new sense of idealism was spreading among younger people who were earnestly seeking justice and answers. They had a great spiritual openness.

Ahdieh worked shoulder-to-shoulder with Black Americans in restaurant kitchens and got a glimpse into their lives and struggles. As a foreigner struggling in this new society, he felt a sense of kinship with the difficulties of his black coworkers who, like him, were often viewed with suspicion and were more likely to be mistreated than white persons.

The Civil Rights Movement also appealed to young Iranians who hoped to create a more open society in Iran. I joined a group of Iranian friends driving to the March on Washington in 1963. We had no money for a motel, so we slept in the car because we wanted to be a part of this exciting moment in history.

The quest for social justice and the teachings of the Baha’i Faith on racial equality attracted young people. Many of them became Baha’is in those days.

This American civil rights movement had started during the more conservative late 1950s when bus boycotts and sit-ins, led by the charismatic and inspiring figure of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and others challenged the decades-long Jim Crow laws.

With his powerful persona out front, and a growing public awareness and acceptance among white people of the reality of racial injustice, the movement made substantial inroads resulting in the Civil Rights Act in 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Finding a spouse

Attending Baha’i meetings in his new country of the United States greatly enriched the spiritual life of the young Ahdieh from Nayriz. He even dreamed of Shoghi Effendi—the towering figure of those days in the early 60s—riding a bicycle and coming upon a sickly boy with a skin infection all over his head whom Ahdieh had known in Nayriz. This unfortunate boy was very shy and tended to stay indoors. Shoghi Effendi stopped the motorbike, reached out his hand, and touched the boy’s head, healing him instantly.

The early sixties were such an exciting time to be a Baha’i. The worldwide Ten-Year Crusade launched by Shoghi Effendi was reaching its culmination in 1963 with the long-dreamed of election of the Universal House of Justice. The Crusade had aimed to establish the Faith on a strong international footing by strengthening twelve national communities and territories where there were already Baha’is.

The most exciting goal was the opening of new regions to the Faith. Baha’is who were the first to settle in a country or territory were honored with the title of ‘Knights of Baha’u’llah,’ and their names were written on a scroll that was buried under the entrance of the Tomb of Baha’u’llah.

Before his untimely death, Shoghi Effendi had provided for the election of the Universal House of Justice once there were sufficient national assemblies to provide a solid foundation. Baha’u’llah’s vision of a Universal House of Justice came to fruition when members of fifty-six National Assemblies gathered in the house of ‘Abdu’l-Baha in Haifa in April of 1963, and cast their ballots, bringing this most important of Baha’i Institutions into existence.

This momentous act occurred six years after the death of Shoghi Effendi and a century after the public declaration of Baha’u’llah in the Garden of Ridvan. The whole Baha’i world was in awe.

In those heady days, Ahdieh decided to marry. His Aunt Mahin was keen on fixing him up with Tahereh Missaghi, a devout Baha’i from Shiraz. In Iran, the custom was for parents to arrange marriages and if this did not happen, a matchmaker such as an aunt might get involved.

Baha’is in Iran had an easier time with finding a spouse because boys and girls met and freely associated in Baha’i gatherings which gave them the opportunity to get to know one another.

Tahereh’s plan was to finish medical school and teach the Faith. She was capable, kind-hearted, and compassionate. Her family used the Baha’i network to help them decide regarding consent. Ahdieh did not feel he was much of an enticing prospect as he lived in a cheap hotel in midtown in a single room covered with posters of Marx, Freud, Einstein, and ‘Abdu’l-Baha.

Tahereh came to the United States in 1968. There was a shortage of doctors in the U.S., so the sponsoring hospital provided her with a green card, a stipend, and an apartment, into which the young couple moved.

Inspiring Americans

After arriving in the United States, Ahdieh, the young Baha’i from Nayriz, first encountered the American Baha’i community in New Jersey. He lived near the ‘cabin’ in Teaneck, a racially diverse suburban town a half an hour from Manhattan. Teaneck had voluntarily desegregated its public schools in the mid-60s.

Teaneck’s anniversary of desegregation

Roy Wilhelm, a Baha’i who was in the coffee business, owned a home there with a grove of trees down the hill. Behind his house he built a rustic cabin roughly in the shape of a ship because he loved the sea.

Roy Wilhelm

Roy Wilhelm’s ‘Cabin’

Every year, Baha’is gathered on the property to commemorate the unity feast and talk given there by ‘Abdu’l-Baha during his visit in 1912. Louis Bourgeois, the architect of the Baha’i House of Worship in Wilmette, became so inspired while visiting the property, that he drew the design for the Wilmette temple there.

Ahdieh was in for a shock when he visited the Baha’i Center in New York City. He was used to the beautiful centers in Nayriz, Shiraz, and Abadan. The one in New York City, though, was off the lobby of a dingy hotel on 72nd St., and next to the restrooms, which meant that the unpleasant odors pervaded the meetings.

On his first visit, he knocked apprehensively at the door, and a man opened it slightly. He greeted Ahdieh with “Allah’u’Abha," and he smiled and opened the door wide. This was Roy King. He and the other Baha’is, Ahdieh soon learned, were less formal in their approach to Baha’i meetings and prayers than the Baha’is in Iran but very earnest in their devotion.

Among of these Baha’is was Hooshmand Taraz who, like Ahdieh, was born into a Persian Baha’i family of humble origins. He was kind-hearted and totally devoted to the Faith. Over the years, they became like brothers.

Hooshmand Taraz on the left

Don Kinney whom ‘Abdu’l-Baha had surnamed ‘Vafa’ was there, as well as Bill DeForge, who had the character of a saint. The level of commitment and devotion to Faith of these Americans inspired the young Ahdieh, especially when he considered the temptations that were everywhere in this liberal and fast-moving society.

This community was blessed during these years by the presence of Zikru’llah Khadem who was appointed a Hand of the Cause by Shoghi Effendi in 1952. He was the first Hand to reside in the West. During these years, he lived with his wife on Staten Island. He loved Shoghi Effendi so much that whenever he spoke of him, tears welled in his eyes. On Shoghi Effendi’s behalf, he travelled to dozens of countries, among the most of any Hand of the Cause.

Hand of the Cause Zikrullah Khadem

The Traveller

The young Ahdieh from Nayriz departed for the United States from Southampton, which had been the home port of the Titanic, the sinking of which left hundreds of Southampton families bereft, and which ‘Abdu’l-Baha had been encouraged to travel  on before turning it down.

The huge Queen Mary carried more people than lived in Ahdieh’s small hometown. The crossing $50 in the early 1960s and took six days.

Entering the ship entered the port of New York and seeing the Statue of Liberty come into view, he thought about how far he’d travelled and felt close to the millions of immigrants who had fled religious and political persecutions.

How much more of a shock such a site must have been for Haji Sayyah, “The Traveller,” who had arrived in New York City in 1867 from Central Asia. He was the first Iranian to receive American citizenship.

Baha’is had an even greater motive for immigrating when, in the mid-‘50s, a prominent cleric unleashed a national campaign of persecution via the radio. He incite Muslims to take action against their Baha’i neighbors. His sermons were especially virulent during the season of Ramadan, a season of supposed restraint and fasting.

The Baha’i national center was occupied and its dome demolished. In the village of Hurmuzdak in the Province of Yazd, seven Baha’is—ages nineteen to eighty—were hacked to pieces with spades and axes by a mob of villagers. These persecutions were stopped by only when they brought unwanted international scrutiny.

Many Baha’is who emigrated from Iran during the 1950s to teach the faith and fulfill the international plans of Shoghi Effendi. After 1979, the 16,000 or more Iranian Baha’is who came to North America were fleeing the persecution unleashed by the Islamic Revolution.

The town of Nayriz was virtually depopulated of Baha’is after that year with only a few impoverished Baha’i families remaining who could not afford to leave.

The golden eagle

The whole Ahdieh family gathered one morning in 1961 to send off their nineteen-year-old son, Hussein, to the United States. He was the first family member to do so.

His mother worried about what she’d heard of the West and how its culture might affect her son. But the family understood that the restrictions on Baha’is in Iran made a future in the West more appealing to a youth full of promise.

His close and extended family members who gathered that day at the Tehran airport were sure they would never see him again. After all, he was the first Baha’i from Nayriz to ever undertake such a trip. Most of them were correct that they would not see him again though as he waved goodbye, Hussein genuinely believed he would one day send for them all.

In his jacket, Hussein had the phone number of Ugo Giachery. Mr. Giachery was born into aristocracy in Palermo, Italy, and accepted the Faith in the United States after being wounded in World War I. He had even visited Iran after the war.

Shoghi Effendi found in Mr. Giachery a reliable co-worker and put him in charge of procuring the marble for the Shrine of the Bab and the Archives Building at the Baha’i World Center. In 1951, Shoghi Effendi appointed him a Hand of the Cause and named one of the doors in the Shrine of the Bab after him in honor of his outstanding service.

In Rome, Hussein was able to make his way to Mr. Giachery’s home. That evening over dinner, the distinguished Mr. Giachery, later appointed Hand of the Cause, patiently taught the young Iranian how to handle spaghetti properly.

Hussein had to fly to England to catch the boat to the United States. Not used to these big cities, he was unsure whether the tall men at the door of the hotel who were moving towards his luggage to steal it or help him with it.

He made a pilgrimage north of London to the New Southgate Cemetery in New Southgate, to the gravesite of beloved Shoghi Effendi whose passing had left a gaping hole in the hearts of Baha’is the world over.

The gravesite reflected Shoghi Effendi’s majesty and his perfect sense of proportion. A single white Corinthian column was topped by a globe upon which a large, golden eagle seemed to be either taking off or landing.

While travelling in Edinburgh, Shogi Effendi had purchased the statue of an eagle in this same position which he brought back to Haifa and placed in his bedroom which was also his office. He had expressed to his wife Ruhiyyih Khanum the desire to have his own Corinthian column, which surprised her since she didn’t see how he could use just one column.

After his funeral, Ruhiyyih Khanum was leaving the burial site which was festooned with flowers from the funeral when the picture of a single Corinthian column with this eagle atop it came to her. Later her vision became a reality when the Roman architect who had helped build the Shrine of the Bab designed the gravesite monument.

The original model of the eagle remains in the Archives building. The eagle symbolizes Shoghi Effendi’s majesty, and the globe reflects the worldwide spread of the Faith with the map of Africa facing forward, reflecting the great joy the conversion of African peoples to the Faith brought him.

No angel will ever visit

One summer in 1956, Mahin Ahdieh, a Baha’i from Nayriz, took her young nephew for a trip from Abadan to Isfahan.

On the way, they stopped in the village of Sead Atabad, where the severed heads of the Babi martyrs of the conflict in Nayriz were buried. After the conflict and general massacre had ended, Babi prisoners and the remains of martyrs were being brought to Tihran. The court sent word it did not want the procession to come into the capitol as originally intended.

The locals insisted that the heads of these Babis not be buried among the Muslims. Open ground was found outside of town which ‘Abdu’l-Baha later blessed by naming it “The Garden of the Merciful,” and a proper wall and shrine were built and a garden planted to beautify the cemetery; these were destroyed following the 1979 revolution.

The Bab’s arrival in Isfahan generated tremendous excitement. His many admirers among the common people rushed not the bath house after the Bab had visited it, to collect the water he had used, believing it to be imbued with healing powers.

The leading cleric of the city asked the Bab to write a commentary on the Súrih of Va’l-‘Asr, the 103rd chapter of the Qur’an. The Bab chanted the homily with which he prefaced His commentary. The hearers in the room, all important clerics, were overwhelmed with wonder at the power of these words and rose to kiss the hem of the garment of the Bab.

Shah Abbas made Isfahan the capitol of the Safavid dynasty in the late 16th century. In the center of the city he built one of largest squares in the world. The three pillars of power in his kingdom were represented there: the central mosque for the clergy, the palace for the king, and the bazaar for the merchants. At one end stood the blue minarets of the Jameh mosque with its seven-colored tiles and calligraphy. Today, it is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

After Isfahan, the travelers arrived in Gulpaygan, a town known for its artists and the hometown of the learned Baha’i, Mirza Abu Fadl. Abu Fadl first encountered the Baha’i Faith in Tihran where he met an illiterate Baha’i blacksmith who asked him a question: “Is it true that in the Traditions of Shi’ah Islam it is stated that each drop of rain is accompanied by an angel from heaven? And that this angel brings down the rain to the ground?” Abu Fazl agreed that this was true. The blacksmith followed up, “Is it true that if there is a dog in a house no angel will ever visit that house?” Again, Abu Fazl agreed. The blacksmith then concluded, “In that case no rain should ever fall in a house where a dog is kept.” Abu Fazl was ashamed at falling into such an easy logical trap; his companions told him that this blacksmith was a Baha’i.

This innocent incident set Abu Fazl on a course of serious inquiry about the faith. He went on to become an influential teacher of the Faith in Egypt and, at the request of ‘Abdu’l-Baha, in the United States. His important written works in defense of the faith are today the only books by a Baha’i from the early 20th century to remain in print, including his Baha’i Proofs.

Limbs of each other

Summers in the early 1950s in Iran, meant the opportunity for Baha’is to join each other at summer schools. In Shiraz, up to several hundred youth gathered for such schools during which time, they made lifelong friends and were confirmed in their faith.

Shiraz was the physical heartland of the Bab’s dispensation, and the Bab’s House where He declared Himself is its center.

One of the summer school teachers in Shiraz was Mr. Eshraq Khavari. He was considered among the most learned of scholars of the Faith with an almost encyclopedic knowledge of the writings. He wrote poetry and did translations as well, including The Dawn-breakers. Khavari translated this original version in English into Farsi.

Mr. Eshraq Khavari

Enayatu'llah Fananapazir, another great teacher, explored the Qur’an and Islamic traditions with us in an engaging style filled with humor. Shoghi Effendi advised him in 1954 to devote himself entirely to teaching the Faith. Fananapazir and his family pioneered to the Gambia, Morocco, and Kenya.

Mr. Fananapazir

Fadil Mazandarani, a famed historian of the Baha’i Faith, spoke at the Shiraz summer school. Born of a Shaykhi father, he had become a Baha’i in 1909. ‘Abdu’l-Baha and Shoghi Effendi asked him to make two trips to the United States; he also taught the Faith in India, Burma, Caucasia, and Turkmenistan, as well as many areas within Persia. During his travels in Iran, he compiled stories of Baha’i communities from all over the county which became a nine-volume history of the Faith.

Mr. Mazandarani

Shiraz was also the ancient city of poets. Hafez, the world-famous 14th-century poet from Shiraz was often quoted by Baha’u’llah and Abdu’l-Baha and was buried in an alabaster sarcophagus in the middle of a garden of roses and orange trees crossed by streams of water.

Born a century before Hafez, the poet Saadi lived a storied life that took him throughout a near East that had just been ravaged by the Mongols. In his many interactions with common people who had suffered terribly at the hands of the Mongol invaders, Saadi developed an unusually modern humanistic concern for the suffering of people and this excerpt by him is today in the entrance of the U.N.:

The sons of Adam are limbs of each other, Having been created of one essence.
When the calamity of time affects one limb The other limbs cannot remain at rest.
If thou hast no sympathy for the troubles of others
Thou art unworthy to be called by the name of a human.

Force outs not dropouts

The streets of Harlem were a long way away from the dirt lanes of Ahdieh’s small hometown of Nayriz, Iran, and yet, Harlem was where he found himself in the late 1960s working as an administrator at the innovative Harlem Prep School.

Harlem Prep was a fruit of times that demanded social justice and change.

Documentary on Harlem

The post-World War II prosperity, the Kennedy administration, and the powerful civil rights movement provided the momentum for. President Johnson proposed the creation of a Great Society through the active involvement of the Federal government.

One of the largest legislative efforts in American history, the Great Society aimed to alleviate poverty and advance civil rights. The Federal government now took part directly in addressing issues involving civil rights, poverty, education, health, housing, voting rights, pollution, the arts, urban development, occupational safety, consumer protection, and mass transit.

LBJ’s ‘Great Society’

One of the glaring needs in central Harlem was for a college preparatory high school for at-risk youth. Rev. Callender or the Urban League partnered with Manhattanville College, a school run by the Order of the Sacred Heart.

Rev. Eugene Callender

The Vatican II council revolutionized the work of the Catholic Church and all its orders became more involved in the life of the societies. For decades, the students at Manhattanville College had already been serving in neighborhoods in need such as Harlem. Sister McCormack, the president of the college, knew the prominent leaders in Harlem and decided to work with Rev. Callender on developing a college preparatory school in Central Harlem for at-risk youth.

Sister Elizabeth McCormack

Sister McCormack put the implementation of the project in the capable hands of Sister Ruth Dowd. In June of 1967, Rev. Callender and Sister McCormack signed a memorandum of understanding to found an alternative school to the troubled public school system, the Harlem Prep school.

Sister Ruth Dowd

The school opened in an old armory with forty-nine students—over 200 had applied—and by the end of the year the enrollment topped seventy students. The efforts of that first year bore fruit when all of its students were accepted to colleges. With the help of corporate funding Harlem Prep took up its permanent home in a refurbished supermarket with new furniture donated by the designer Herman Miller.

Harlem Prep inside

Harlem Prep outside

The Board of Harlem Prep found a dynamic leader in Ed Carpenter, a Baha’i from New York who had the ability to inspire others with a vision of improving the lives of young people. He didn’t see the students as ‘dropouts’ but rather as ‘force-outs;’ kids who had been pushed out by the indifference and tedium of the public system. His wife, Ann, worked tirelessly organizing the tedious details of school administration such as schedules, teacher training/supervision, and materials.

Anne Carpenter

Ed Carpenter

Ahdieh heard about the Prep through Ed and Ann who were both Baha’is and whom he admired greatly. His experience as an immigrant trying to eke out a living in hot and crowded kitchens, and his experience of persecution in Iran made him open to trying to understand the struggle of black Americans against racism.

Ahdieh was inspired in his work at the school by distinguished Baha’i educators. Dr. Stanwood Cobb founded the Chevy Chase Country Day School in 1919 and served as president of the Progressive Education Association which emphasized experiential learning, critical thinking, collaboration, social responsibility, and a more personalized form of education.

Stanwood Cobb

Dr. Daniel Jordan developed a wholly new educational model, ANISA, in the 1960s-70s which took a holistic approach to education that sought to transmit knowledge in a cohesive, forward-looking framework grounded in reality and experience.

Talk by Dan Jordan

Big beautiful rug

The young Ahdieh from Nayriz married Tahirih Missaghi from Shiraz in a simple ceremony in their friend’s apartment in New York City. He had a car so they considered him rich. Being a poor student, Ahdieh could not afford much in the way of wedding trappings—serving turkey and cookies to the few guests. Her father sent them the gift of a rug from Iran. Ahdieh asked his friend to bring his station wagon to go pick it up at the airport. He dreamed of this big beautiful rug coming from his home country which would give distinction to their small studio apartment. When he went to the counter at the airport, the attendant placed a small rug on the counter. It was a personal prayer rug for our daily use as prayer was a true foundation and source of sustenance for a marriage.

Hussein and Tahirih being married

The Tablet of Ahmad set to music by Gary Sterling

Exploration of the Tablet of Ahmad

All around the young Iranian couple, the new young American generation of the late 60s was challenging many of the social norms.

At the university, Ahdieh listened to a guest speaker rail against the government. He was astonished that hear this as such speech would not be allowed in the country he’d grown up in. Left-leaning Iranian students pressured him into joining one of their political groups but, being a Baha’i, he wanted to avoid partisan politics.

The Baha’i Faith and partisan politics

Universities were exciting places in those days. The Vietnam conflict had become a full-blown war after years of gradual military build-up. The public mood about Vietnam was souring as Americans saw the horrors of war in living color on their televisions every night.

The new generation was increasingly vocal about its antipathy to a war many young people had to come to see as immoral. A new sense of idealism was spreading among younger people who were earnestly seeking justice and answers. They had a great spiritual openness.

Baha’i Youth late 1960s

Ahdieh worked shoulder-to-shoulder with Black Americans in restaurant kitchens and got a glimpse into their lives and struggles. As a foreigner struggling in this new society, he felt a sense of kinship with the difficulties of his black coworkers who, like him, were often viewed with suspicion and were more likely to be mistreated than white persons.

The Civil Rights Movement also appealed to young Iranians who hoped to create a more open society in Iran. I joined a group of Iranian friends driving to the March on Washington in 1963. We had no money for a motel, so we slept in the car because we wanted to be a part of this exciting moment in history.

The quest for social justice and the teachings of the Baha’i Faith on racial equality attracted young people. Many of them became Baha’is in those days.

Baha’i youth 1970s

This American civil rights movement had started during the more conservative late 1950s when bus boycotts and sit-ins, led by the charismatic and inspiring figure of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and others challenged the decades-long Jim Crow laws.

With his powerful persona out front, and a growing public awareness and acceptance among white people of the reality of racial injustice, the movement made substantial inroads resulting in the Civil Rights Act in 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow

Finding a spouse

Attending Baha’i meetings in his new country of the United States greatly enriched the spiritual life of the young Ahdieh from Nayriz. He even dreamed of Shoghi Effendi—the towering figure of those days in the early 60s—riding a bicycle and coming upon a sickly boy with a skin infection all over his head whom Ahdieh had known in Nayriz. This unfortunate boy was very shy and tended to stay indoors. Shoghi Effendi stopped the motorbike, reached out his hand, and touched the boy’s head, healing him instantly.

Shoghi Effendi

The early sixties were such an exciting time to be a Baha’i. The worldwide Ten-Year Crusade launched by Shoghi Effendi was reaching its culmination in 1963 with the long-dreamed of election of the Universal House of Justice. The Crusade had aimed to establish the Faith on a strong international footing by strengthening twelve national communities and territories where there were already Baha’is.

Talk about Shoghi Effendi by Hand of the Cause Leroy Ioas

The most exciting goal was the opening of new regions to the Faith. Baha’is who were the first to settle in a country or territory were honored with the title of ‘Knights of Baha’u’llah,’ and their names were written on a scroll that was buried under the entrance of the Tomb of Baha’u’llah.

Sean Hinton, Knight of Baha’u’llah for Mongolia

Before his untimely death, Shoghi Effendi had provided for the election of the Universal House of Justice once there were sufficient national assemblies to provide a solid foundation. Baha’u’llah’s vision of a Universal House of Justice came to fruition when members of fifty-six National Assemblies gathered in the house of ‘Abdu’l-Baha in Haifa in April of 1963, and cast their ballots, bringing this most important of Baha’i Institutions into existence.

First election of the Universal House of Justice

This momentous act occurred six years after the death of Shoghi Effendi and a century after the public declaration of Baha’u’llah in the Garden of Ridvan. The whole Baha’i world was in awe.

The passing of Shoghi Effendi

In those heady days, Ahdieh decided to marry. His Aunt Mahin was keen on fixing him up with Tahereh Missaghi, a devout Baha’i from Shiraz. In Iran, the custom was for parents to arrange marriages and if this did not happen, a matchmaker such as an aunt might get involved.

Baha’is in Iran had an easier time with finding a spouse because boys and girls met and freely associated in Baha’i gatherings which gave them the opportunity to get to know one another.

Tahirih Ahdieh on the left

Tahereh’s plan was to finish medical school and teach the Faith. She was capable, kind-hearted, and compassionate. Her family used the Baha’i network to help them decide regarding consent. Ahdieh did not feel he was much of an enticing prospect as he lived in a cheap hotel in midtown in a single room covered with posters of Marx, Freud, Einstein, and ‘Abdu’l-Baha.

Tahereh came to the United States in 1968. There was a shortage of doctors in the U.S., so the sponsoring hospital provided her with a green card, a stipend, and an apartment, into which the young couple moved.

Immigrant health in the US

Inspiring Americans

After arriving in the United States, Ahdieh, the young Baha’i from Nayriz, first encountered the American Baha’i community in New Jersey. He lived near the ‘cabin’ in Teaneck, a racially diverse suburban town a half an hour from Manhattan. Teaneck had voluntarily desegregated its public schools in the mid-60s.

50th anniversary of Teaneck desegregation

Roy Wilhelm, a Baha’i who was in the coffee business, owned a home there with a grove of trees down the hill. Behind his house he built a rustic cabin roughly in the shape of a ship because he loved the sea.

Roy Wilhelm

The ‘Cabin’ in Teaneck

Every year, Baha’is gathered on the property to commemorate the unity feast and talk given there by ‘Abdu’l-Baha during his visit in 1912. Louis Bourgeois, the architect of the Baha’i House of Worship in Wilmette, became so inspired while visiting the property, that he drew the design for the Wilmette temple there.

Ahdieh was in for a shock when he visited the Baha’i Center in New York City. He was used to the beautiful centers in Nayriz, Shiraz, and Abadan. The one in New York City, though, was off the lobby of a dingy hotel on 72nd St., and next to the restrooms, which meant that the unpleasant odors pervaded the meetings.

On his first visit, he knocked apprehensively at the door, and a man opened it slightly. He greeted Ahdieh with “Allah’u’Abha," and he smiled and opened the door wide. This was Roy King. He and the other Baha’is, Ahdieh soon learned, were less formal in their approach to Baha’i meetings and prayers than the Baha’is in Iran but very earnest in their devotion.

Among of these Baha’is was Hooshmand Taraz who, like Ahdieh, was born into a Persian Baha’i family of humble origins. He was kind-hearted and totally devoted to the Faith. Over the years, they became like brothers.

Hooshmand Taraz on the left

Don Kinney whom ‘Abdu’l-Baha had surnamed ‘Vafa’ was there, as well as Bill DeForge, who had the character of a saint. The level of commitment and devotion to Faith of these Americans inspired the young Ahdieh, especially when he considered the temptations that were everywhere in this liberal and fast-moving society.

This community was blessed during these years by the presence of Zikru’llah Khadem who was appointed a Hand of the Cause by Shoghi Effendi in 1952. He was the first Hand to reside in the West. During these years, he lived with his wife on Staten Island. He loved Shoghi Effendi so much that whenever he spoke of him, tears welled in his eyes. On Shoghi Effendi’s behalf, he travelled to dozens of countries, among the most of any Hand of the Cause.

Hand of the Cause Zikrullah Khadem

Prayers for the Hands of the Cause set to music

The Traveller

The young Ahdieh from Nayriz departed for the United States from Southampton, which had been the home port of the Titanic, the sinking of which left hundreds of Southampton families bereft, and which ‘Abdu’l-Baha had been encouraged to travel  on before turning it down. The huge Queen Mary carried more people than lived in Ahdieh’s small hometown. The crossing $50 in the early 1960s and took six days.

The Queen Mary

Entering the ship entered the port of New York and seeing the Statue of Liberty come into view, he thought about how far he’d travelled and felt close to the millions of immigrants who had fled religious and political persecutions.

How much more of a shock such a site must have been for Haji Sayyah, “The Traveller,” who had arrived in New York City in 1867 from Central Asia. He was the first Iranian to receive American citizenship.

Elli Island, immigrant center

Baha’is had an even greater motive for immigrating when, in the mid-‘50s, a prominent cleric unleashed a national campaign of persecution via the radio. He incite Muslims to take action against their Baha’i neighbors. His sermons were especially virulent during the season of Ramadan, a season of supposed restraint and fasting.

The Baha’i national center was occupied and its dome demolished. In the village of Hurmuzdak in the Province of Yazd, seven Baha’is—ages nineteen to eighty—were hacked to pieces with spades and axes by a mob of villagers. These persecutions were stopped by only when they brought unwanted international scrutiny.

Many Baha’is who emigrated from Iran during the 1950s to teach the faith and fulfill the international plans of Shoghi Effendi. After 1979, the 16,000 or more Iranian Baha’is who came to North America were fleeing the persecution unleashed by the Islamic Revolution.

The town of Nayriz was virtually depopulated of Baha’is after that year with only a few impoverished Baha’i families remaining who could not afford to leave.

Version of One Hundred Thousand Veils composed by Luke Slott

The golden eagle

The whole Ahdieh family gathered one morning in 1961 to send off their nineteen-year-old son, Hussein, to the United States. He was the first family member to do so. His mother worried about what she’d heard of the West and how its culture might affect her son.

The Iranians in America

In his jacket, Hussein had the phone number of Ugo Giachery. Mr. Giachery was born into aristocracy in Palermo, Italy, and accepted the Faith in the United States after being wounded in World War I. He had even visited Iran after the war.

Shoghi Effendi found in Mr. Giachery a reliable co-worker and put him in charge of procuring the marble for the Shrine of the Bab and the Archives Building at the Baha’i World Center. In 1951, Shoghi Effendi appointed him a Hand of the Cause and named one of the doors in the Shrine of the Bab after him in honor of his outstanding service.

In Rome, Hussein was able to make his way to Mr. Giachery’s home. That evening over dinner, the distinguished Mr. Giachery, later appointed Hand of the Cause, patiently taught the young Iranian how to handle spaghetti properly.

Hand of the Cause Ugo Giachery

Hussein had to fly to England to catch the boat to the United States. Not used to these big cities, he was unsure whether the tall men at the door of the hotel who were moving towards his luggage to steal it or help him with it.

He made a pilgrimage north of London to the New Southgate Cemetery in New Southgate, to the gravesite of beloved Shoghi Effendi whose passing had left a gaping hole in the hearts of Baha’is the world over.

The passing of Shoghi Effendi

The gravesite reflected Shoghi Effendi’s majesty and his perfect sense of proportion. A single white Corinthian column was topped by a globe upon which a large, golden eagle seemed to be either taking off or landing.

While travelling in Edinburgh, Shogi Effendi had purchased the statue of an eagle in this same position which he brought back to Haifa and placed in his bedroom which was also his office. He had expressed to his wife Ruhiyyih Khanum the desire to have his own Corinthian column, which surprised her since she didn’t see how he could use just one column.

After his funeral, Ruhiyyih Khanum was leaving the burial site which was festooned with flowers from the funeral when the picture of a single Corinthian column with this eagle atop it came to her. Later her vision became a reality when the Roman architect who had helped build the Shrine of the Bab designed the gravesite monument.

The resting place of Shoghi Effendi

The original model of the eagle remains in the Archives building. The eagle symbolizes Shoghi Effendi’s majesty, and the globe reflects the worldwide spread of the Faith with the map of Africa facing forward, reflecting the great joy the conversion of African peoples to the Faith brought him

No angel will ever visit

One summer in 1956, Mahin Ahdieh, a Baha’i from Nayriz, took her young nephew for a trip from Abadan to Isfahan.

On the way, they stopped in the village of Sead Atabad, where the severed heads of the Babi martyrs of the conflict in Nayriz were buried. After the conflict and general massacre had ended, Babi prisoners and the remains of martyrs were being brought to Tihran. The court sent word it did not want the procession to come into the capitol as originally intended.

The locals insisted that the heads of these Babis not be buried among the Muslims. Open ground was found outside of town which ‘Abdu’l-Baha later blessed by naming it “The Garden of the Merciful,” and a proper wall and shrine were built and a garden planted to beautify the cemetery; these were destroyed following the 1979 revolution.

Tablet of Visitation for Abadih

The Bab’s arrival in Isfahan generated tremendous excitement. His many admirers among the common people rushed not the bath house after the Bab had visited it, to collect the water he had used, believing it to be imbued with healing powers.

The leading cleric of the city asked the Bab to write a commentary on the Súrih of Va’l-‘Asr, the 103rd chapter of the Qur’an. The Bab chanted the homily with which he prefaced His commentary. The hearers in the room, all important clerics, were overwhelmed with wonder at the power of these words and rose to kiss the hem of the garment of the Bab.

The Bab in Isfahan, Luke Slott

Shah Abbas made Isfahan the capitol of the Safavid dynasty in the late 16th century. In the center of the city he built one of largest squares in the world. The three pillars of power in his kingdom were represented there: the central mosque for the clergy, the palace for the king, and the bazaar for the merchants. At one end stood the blue minarets of the Jameh mosque with its seven-colored tiles and calligraphy. Today, it is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Central mosque, Isfahan, © Ko Hon Chiu Vincent

After Isfahan, the travelers arrived in Gulpaygan, a town known for its artists and the hometown of the learned Baha’i, Mirza Abu Fadl. Abu Fadl first encountered the Baha’i Faith in Tihran where he met an illiterate Baha’i blacksmith who asked him a question: “Is it true that in the Traditions of Shi’ah Islam it is stated that each drop of rain is accompanied by an angel from heaven? And that this angel brings down the rain to the ground?” Abu Fazl agreed that this was true. The blacksmith followed up, “Is it true that if there is a dog in a house no angel will ever visit that house?” Again, Abu Fazl agreed. The blacksmith then concluded, “In that case no rain should ever fall in a house where a dog is kept.” Abu Fazl was ashamed at falling into such an easy logical trap; his companions told him that this blacksmith was a Baha’i.

This innocent incident set Abu Fazl on a course of serious inquiry about the faith. He went on to become an influential teacher of the Faith in Egypt and, at the request of ‘Abdu’l-Baha, in the United States. His important written works in defense of the faith are today the only books by a Baha’i from the early 20th century to remain in print, including his Baha’i Proofs.

Limbs of each other

Summers in the early 1950s in Iran, meant the opportunity for Baha’is to join each other at summer schools. In Shiraz, up to several hundred youth gathered for such schools during which time, they made lifelong friends and were confirmed in their faith. Shiraz was the physical heartland of the Bab’s dispensation, and the Bab’s House where He declared Himself is its center.

Pilgrimage to the House of the Bab

One of the summer school teachers in Shiraz was Mr. Eshraq Khavari. He was considered among the most learned of scholars of the Faith with an almost encyclopedic knowledge of the writings. He wrote poetry and did translations as well, including The Dawn-breakers. Khavari translated this original version in English into Farsi.

Eshraq Khavari

Enayatu'llah Fananapazir, another great teacher, explored the Qur’an and Islamic traditions with us in an engaging style filled with humor. Shoghi Effendi advised him in 1954 to devote himself entirely to teaching the Faith. Fananapazir and his family pioneered to the Gambia, Morocco, and Kenya.

Fananapazir

The Education of Girls

Fadil Mazandarani, a famed historian of the Baha’i Faith, spoke at the Shriaz summer school. Born of a Shaykhi father, he had become a Baha’i in 1909. ‘Abdu’l-Baha and Shoghi Effendi asked him to make two trips to the United States; he also taught the Faith in India, Burma, Caucasia, and Turkmenistan, as well as many areas within Persia. During his travels in Iran, he compiled stories of Baha’i communities from all over the county which became a nine-volume history of the Faith.

Fadil Mazandarani, for more click HERE

Shiraz was also the ancient city of poets. Hafez, the world famous 14th-century poet from Shiraz was often quoted by Baha’u’llah and Abdu’l-Baha and was buried in an alabaster sarcophagus in the middle of a garden of roses and orange trees crossed by streams of water.

Born a century before Hafez, the poet Saadi lived a storied life that took him throughout a near East that had just been ravaged by the Mongols. In his many interactions with common people who had suffered terribly at the hands of the Mongol invaders, Saadi developed an unusually modern humanistic concern for the suffering of people and this excerpt by him is today in the entrance of the U.N.:

The sons of Adam are limbs of each other, Having been created of one essence.
When the calamity of time affects one limb The other limbs cannot remain at rest.
If thou hast no sympathy for the troubles of others
Thou art unworthy to be called by the name of a human.

Creation of the United Nations

The wild horse

Mahin Ahdieh, a Baha’i from Nayriz, took her young nephew for a trip cross Iran in 1956.Their second stop was Urmia, (‘Urumiyih’ in Baha’i histories). The Bab stopped in Urmia on his way to his trial in Tabriz. The only portrait of the Bab was painted during his stay there. The population greeted him as a holy man, and after he had used to the public bath, the water he had used was taken by local people who hoped to receive blessings from it.

Urumiyyih in 1911, people waiting for the Shah’s visit

One of the miracle stories associated with the Bab unfolded there when the local ruler decided to put the Bab to the test by bringing out his wildest horse for him to ride. The townspeople gathered around to see how this horse would react to the holy man and if he really had spiritual power. The Bab approached the animal, calmly took the bridle up in his hand, stroked the horse, put his foot in the stirrup, and hoisted himself up onto his mount. All the while the wild horse stood still.

Luke Slott tells the story of the wild horse at Urumiyyih

This story was known from The Dawn-Breakers, a chronicle written by Nabil-i-Zarandi.

Nabil was in the Presence of Baha’u’llah in 1851 after which he travelled throughout Iran collecting stories of important events related to the Faith. Baha’u’llah instructed him to record the events objectively. Nabil began to put his notes together into a chronicle in 1887 with the help of Baha’u’llah’s brother, Mirza Musa. The manuscript was reviewed by Baha’u’llah and ‘Abdu’l-Baha and corrected, but the corrected version was taken by Mirza Muhammad Ali, the Covenant-Breaker, after the Ascension of Baha’u’llah.

Shoghi Effendi wanted believers in the West to know about the history of the Faith. Over the course of eight months in 1930, Shoghi Effendi worked on an English translation of Nabil’s narrative, though he had to use the original manuscript and make his own corrections.

Dr. Moojan Momen on Shoghi Effendi’s historical work

Aunt Mahin and her nephew next drove through the mountains of Eastern Azerbaijan to Ardabil. This ancient city is mentioned in the Zoroastrian scripture. The gifted founder of the Safavid dynasty, one of the most extensive and well-administered empires of its time, was born there.

Safavid Tomb

The Safavid Dynasty made ‘Twelver Shi’ism’ which the early Babis followed.

Shi’ism is the“… branch of Islam that accepted `Ali ibn Abi-Talib, Muhammad's son-in-law, as the Prophet's legitimate successor. The Twelver Shi`is, the branch of Shi`ism that accepted a line of twelve hereditary successors called Imams, are the majority of modern Shi`is. The Babi and Bahá'í Faiths arose in the Twelver Shi`i milieu in Iran and are related in many ways to Shi`i belief, practice, and concepts.” (Dr. Moojan Momen)

Article on Twelver Shi’a prophecy and the Baha’i Faith HERE

Empire of Faith—-the history of Islam

The theater of His agony

Mahin Ahdieh, a Baha’i from Nayriz, took her young nephew for a trip cross Iran in 1956.Their second stop was Tabriz, the capitol of Azerbaijan, a province blessed by the Bab having spent “the saddest, the most dramatic, and in a sense the most pregnant phase of His six year ministry” but, also, “the theatre of His agony and martyrdom.”

Aunt Mahin

The authorities decided to imprison Him in the fortress of Mahku in a remote region of the province in the hope that this would cause His influence to wane. From his dark and cold cell, though, the Bab revealed his Holy Book, the Bayan, meaning “Utterance”.

The Persian Bayan

In an attempt to stem the growth of the Bab’s Faith, the authorities brought Him to Tabriz for a trial, but it was the petty-minded clerics themselves who were judged and condemned by the Bab’s powerful proclamation:

            “"I am," he exclaimed, "I am, I am the Promised One! I am the One Whose name you have  for a thousand years invoked, at Whose mention you have risen, Whose advent you have  longed to witness, and the hour of Whose Revelation you have prayed God to hasten. Verily, I say, it is incumbent upon the peoples of both the East and the West to obey My  word, and to pledge allegiance to My person."

Luke Slott, the Promised One

Luke Slott tells about Dr. Cormick, a physician who treated the Bab

On July 9th, 1850, the Bab was brought before a firing squad in a square in Tabriz. After a first thunderous volley of rifles, the smoke cleared, and the Bab had disappeared from sight

Bewilderment spread throughout the spectators. The commander remembered that the Bab had absolved him of responsibility and immediately took his soldiers out of the square. Only when the Bab was ready did the appointed hour come, and after a second volley of rifle fire, He, along with his young devotee, Anis, ascended.

Tabriz, the city from which Shi’a Islam was declared the official religion of Persia became the place where the One who fulfilled its very prophecies was martyred.

“Say God Sufficeth”

The point of the Bab’s Bayan was to prepare the way for Baha’u’llah.

The claims of Baha’u’llah reached Tabriz in the mid-1860s. Tabriz was located on the main road from Iran to Edirne, and Baha’i pilgrims passed through on their way to visiting Baha’u’llah in exile; as a result, most of the Babis as well as others from Tabriz’s diverse population of Azeri Turks, Armenians, and Assyrians became Baha’is.

Tabriz had been the capitol of Iran during several dynastic periods but became a center of the constitutional movement in 1905 and 1911. Tabriz was the first Iranian city affected by modernization and westernization because it was the closest Iranian city to Europe and, consequently, more influenced by the West than the rest of the country. The French consul there was A.L.M. Nicolas who wrote one of the earliest histories of the Bab as well as translated three of the Bab’s major writings into French. Hippolyte and Laura Dreyfus-Barney, the first European Baha’is to visit Iran, came first to Tabriz in 1906.

Hippolyte Dreyfuss