Bahiyyih Nakhjavani

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Bahiyyih Nakhjavani, 2007 ceremony for honorary doctorate at University of Liege Nakhjavani 19-09-2007.jpg
Bahiyyih Nakhjavani, 2007 ceremony for honorary doctorate at University of Liège

Bahiyyih Nakhjavani is an Iranian writer who grew up in Uganda in the 1960s. [1] She was educated at Dr Williams School, Dolgellau, United Kingdom and the United States. She taught European and American literature in Belgium, and later moved to France, where she teaches. [2]

Contents

In 2007, Bahiyyih Nakhjavani received the honorary doctorate Doctorats Honoris Causa from the University of Liège. [2] Her books have been translated into many languages.

Life

Bahiyyih Nakhjavani was born in Iran, grew up in Uganda, and received education in Britain. [3] [4] She earned a PhD at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1978. [5]

Family

Although originally from Nakhchivan, her father Ali Nakhjavani was born in 1919 in Baku, the capital of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic. Ali Nakhchivani, whose mother was Palestinian, moved to Palestine after the death of his father, and after growing up there, he went to Uganda in 1951 to spread the Bahá'í Faith. [6] [7] Ali Nakhjavani's father, Ali Akbar Nakhcivani, was from Ordubad, Nakhchivan district of Azerbaijan. [6] [8] [9]

Novels

Her first novel, The Saddlebag - A Fable for Doubters and Seekers was an international bestseller. It describes events set in the Najd plateau along the pilgrim route between Mecca and Medina during one day in 1844-1845, when a mysterious saddlebag passes from hand to hand, and influences the lives of each person who comes across it. Inspired by Chapter VII of The Dawn-Breakers by Nabíl-i-Aʻzam, where the Bab - the forerunner to Baha'u'llah, the Founder of the Baháʼí Faith - has His saddlebag stolen while traveling to Mecca and Medina for pilgrimage. The main characters are the Thief, the Bride, the Chieftain, the Moneychanger, the Slave, the Pilgrim, the Priest, the Dervish and the Corpse.

The novel Paper - The Dreams of A Scribe is an allegory centered on a Scribe who is searching for the perfect paper for writing his masterpiece. It is set in Máh-Kú, a border town in the north-west Persia, between the Summer of 1847 and the Spring of 1848. It contains 19 chapters which are structured symmetrically around five dreams. Other main characters are the Mullah, the Widow, the Warden, his Mother and Daughter, and the Prisoner.

Her third novel The Woman Who Read Too Much is also set in the middle of the nineteenth century and centers around Tahirih Qurratu'l-Ayn, a poet and scholar from Qazvin, who shocked the political powers of Qajar Persia and violated religious convention by casting aside her veil. This protagonist is a heroine from early Baháʼí/Babi history and was one of the Bab's early followers who were known as the Letters of the Living. This novel is divided into four parts with revolving points of view of mother, sister, daughter, and wife, respectively. It traces the capture, incarceration, torture and final execution of the central figure of the mysterious poet while exploring her impact on the mayor, minister, mullah and monarch in a world of intrigue and corruption in Qajar Persia. The book has been translated into French, Italian in 2007 and will be out in Korean and Spanish by 2008/9; [10] it was nominated for the 2008 Latifeh Yarshater Award, and has been published in English by Stanford University Press in 2015.

Bibliography

Novels

Other books

Further reading/viewing

See also

Related Research Articles

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References

  1. ↑ Nakhjavani, Bahiyyih (2017-02-17). "A Wandering Alien". Stanford University Press . Retrieved 2020-10-23. I first came across the word "alien" in a non-stellar context when I had to sign a card identifying myself as one, soon after the Immigrants Act of 1962 was passed in the UK ... (when) my family... (was) living in Uganda
  2. 1 2 "Author Bahiyyih Nakhjavani honored in Belgium". Archived from the original on 2021-09-24. Retrieved 2009-12-24.
  3. ↑ Bahiyyih Nakhjavani (April 25, 2017). Us & Them: Breaking Free from Cultural Branding & Identity Politics (video). Washington, DC: Library of Congress. (She) grew up in Uganda, was educated in the United Kingdom and then in the United States, and now lives in France. She is the author of Women who Read Too Much, a book on the poetess and woman leader if you like Tahirih Qurratu'l-Ayn, a 19th-century icon. Also she's written The Saddlebag. Her novels have been published in French, Italian, Spanish, German, Greek, Turkish, Hebrew, Russian, Korean and Chinese.
    • Bahiyyih Nakhjavani (April 2, 2015). The Woman Who Read Too Much (video). Washington, DC: Library of Congress. In short, she was born in Iran but raised in New Ganda(sic), Africa, and has lived in the U.K, the U.S., and is a British citizen, but lives in France right now, and has worked in Canada, Cyprus, Israel, and, of course, Africa. Currently, she is teaching English in Paris. … she has several books and publications in French, in Persian, and English, and, of course, translations in several languages.
  4. ↑ "Bahiyyih Nakhjavani". bahiyyihnakhjavani.com. Retrieved Jul 25, 2021.
  5. ↑ Nakhjavani, Bahiyyih (1978). The voyeur in epyllia of the 1590's "rage of lust by gazing qualified" (PhD). University of Massachusetts at Amherst. OCLC   917940398 . Retrieved Jul 26, 2021.
  6. 1 2 Bossi (Bakhjavání), Mona (1986). "In Memoriam; Jalál Nakhjavání (1917-1982)". Baha'i World. An International Record. Vol. 18. Haifa, Israel: The Universal House of Justice. pp. 797–800. ISBN   9780853982340.
  7. ↑ "ʻAli Nakhjavani, 1919–2019". Baháʼí World News Service. Baháʼí International Community. October 11, 2019. Retrieved Oct 11, 2019.
  8. ↑ "Baha'i Community of Uganda celebrates its 50th anniversary". Bahá'í World News Service. Kampala, Uganda. August 5, 2001. Retrieved Jul 26, 2021.
  9. ↑ Ramazan Əsgərli (2016). "Əli Əkbər Naxçıvani". www.tefekkur.org (in Azerbaijani). Yeni dövr, Yeni Təfəkkür Mərkəzi. Retrieved 23 July 2021.
  10. ↑ French: Actes Sud Archived 2008-12-03 at the Wayback Machine , Italian: Libreria Rizzoli [ permanent dead link ], Spanish: Alianza Editorial.
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