Sara Louisa Blomfield (née Ryan; 1859 – 1939) was an Irish humanitarian and distinguished early member of the Baháʼí Faith in the British Isles, and a supporter of the rights of children and women. [1] She became styled Lady Blomfield after her husband was knighted in 1889.
Blomfield was born in Ireland and spent much of her adult life in London and Broadway, Worcestershire. She was married to the noted Victorian era architect Arthur Blomfield, son of Charles James Blomfield, Bishop of London. An accomplished writer and humanitarian, Blomfield assisted in founding the Save the Children Fund [2] and was a supporter of the adoption of the Geneva Declaration of the Rights of the Child by the League of Nations. [1]
Blomfield joined the Baháʼí Faith in 1907 [3] and soon became one of its outstanding proponents and historians. During the visit of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá to Paris, she took copious notes of his public meetings which were used in preparing the volume called "Paris Talks". As a tribute to her, ʻAbdu'l-Baha bestowed upon her the name "Sitárih Khanum" (in Persian, "sitárih" means "star", and "khanum" means "lady"). After the passing of ʻAbdu'l-Baha in 1921, Blomfield accompanied Shoghi Effendi on his trip from Britain to Haifa. [4] [5] While in Haifa, she interviewed members of Baha'u'llah's family. Those recorded recollections, together with her account of the days when she hosted ʻAbdu'l-Baha in London, make up the contents of her book, "The Chosen Highway." [1]
Blomfield was an anti-vivisectionist. She was a member of the Animal Defence and Anti-Vivisection Society's executive council. [6]
Blomfield spent her final days at a nursing home. She died on 31 December 1939 at Belsize Grove, Hampstead. [7]
ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, born ʻAbbás, was the eldest son of Baháʼu'lláh, founder of the Bahá’í Faith who designated him to be his successor and head of the Baháʼí Faith from 1892 until 1921. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá was later cited as the last of three "central figures" of the religion, along with Baháʼu'lláh and the Báb, and his writings and authenticated talks are regarded as sources of Baháʼí sacred literature.
Covenant-breaker is a term used in the Baháʼí Faith to refer to a person who has been excommunicated from the Baháʼí community for breaking the Covenant of Baháʼu'lláh, meaning actively promoting schism in the religion or otherwise opposing the legitimacy of the chain of succession of leadership. Excommunication among Baháʼís is rare and not used for transgressions of community standards, intellectual dissent, or conversion to other religions. Instead, it is the most severe punishment, reserved for suppressing organized dissent that threatens the unity of believers.
Shoghí Effendi (; Persian: شوقی افندی; 1 March 1897 – 4 November 1957) was an Ottoman-born Iranian religious figure and the Guardian of the Baháʼí Faith from 1921 to 1957. As the grandson and successor of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, he was responsible for creating a series of teaching plans that oversaw the expansion of the Baháʼí Faith to a number of new countries, and also translated many of the written works of crucial Baháʼí leaders. Upon his death in 1957, the Hands of the Cause, which included his Canadian wife Rúhíyyih Khánum, took on the role of overseeing the transfer of the religion's supreme legal authority to the Universal House of Justice, which has held elections every five years since 1963.
Amatu'l-BaháRúhíyyih Khánum was an American-born Canadian Hand of the Cause of the Baháʼí Faith. She was the wife of the Ottoman-born Iranian religious figure Shoghi Effendi, who succeeded his grandfather ʻAbdu'l-Bahá to become the Guardian of the Baháʼí Faith between 1921 and 1957. Appointed as a Hand of the Cause in 1952, her primary responsibility was to expand and protect the global Baháʼí community. In this capacity, she was among the leading Hands of the Cause who, following Effendi's death in 1957, took on the role of ensuring the transfer of the religion's supreme legal authority to the Universal House of Justice, which has governed out of Haifa, Israel, since 1963.
Baháʼu'lláh was the founder of the Baháʼí Faith. He was born in 1817 to Khadíjih Khánum and Mírzá Buzurg of Nur, a Persian nobleman, and went on to be a leader in the Bábí movement, and then established the Baháʼí Faith in 1863. Baháʼu'lláh's family consists of his three wives and the children of those wives.
Mírzá Mihdí was the youngest child of Baháʼí Faith founder Baháʼu'lláh and his wife Ásíyih Khánum. He was given the title G͟husn-i-Athar.
Ásíyih K͟hánum was the first wife of Baháʼu'lláh, the founder of the Baháʼí Faith. She is also known by her titles of Navváb, the Most Exalted Leaf, Búyúk K͟hánum or Hadrat-i-K͟hánum. K͟hánum is a title usually given to a Persian lady and is equivalent to madam or dame. Baháʼu'lláh and Ásíyih Khánum were known as the Father of the Poor and the Mother of Consolation for their extraordinary generosity and regard for the impoverished. Baháʼu'lláh, along with Ásíyih Khánum and her children, are regarded as the Baháʼí holy family.
Hand of the Cause was a title given to prominent early members of the Baháʼí Faith, appointed for life by the religion's founders. Of the fifty individuals given the title, the last living was ʻAlí-Muhammad Varqá who died in 2007. Hands of the Cause played a significant role in propagating the religion, and protecting it from schism.
The following is a basic timeline of the Bábí and Baháʼí religions emphasizing dates that are relatively well known. For a more comprehensive chronology of the timeline, see the references at the bottom.
The Baháʼí World Centre buildings are buildings that are part of the Baháʼí World Centre in Israel. The Baháʼí World Centre buildings include both the Baháʼí holy places used for pilgrimage and the international administrative bodies of the Baháʼí Faith; they comprise more than 20 different administrative offices, pilgrim buildings, libraries, archives, historical residences, and shrines. These structures are all set amidst more than 30 different gardens or individual terraces.
One of the fundamental teachings of the Baháʼí Faith is that men and women are equal and that equality of the sexes is a spiritual and moral standard essential for the unification of the planet and a prerequisite for peace. Baháʼí teachings stress the importance of implementing this principle in individual, family, and community life. Nevertheless, the Baháʼí notion of the full spiritual and social equality of the two sexes does not imply sameness, so that gender distinction and differentiation are observed in certain areas of life. Significantly, while women can and do serve in an extensive range of elected and appointed positions within the Baháʼí administration at both national and international levels, they are not permitted to serve as members of the Universal House of Justice, the supreme governing institution of the Baháʼí Faith.
Paris Talks is a book transcribed from talks given by ʻAbdu'l-Bahá while in Paris in the first stages of his journeys to the West. It was originally published as Talks by ʻAbdu'l-Bahá Given in Paris in 1912. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá did not read and authenticate the transcripts of his talks in Paris, and thus the authenticity of the talks is not known. Shoghi Effendi, head of the Baháʼí Faith in the first half of the 20th century, has said that, while the texts are not authenticated, the compilations can still be used by Baháʼís and in the future work will be done to find which parts are authentic.
Baháʼí literature covers a variety of topics and forms, including scripture and inspiration, interpretation, history and biography, introduction and study materials, and apologia. Sometimes considerable overlap between these forms can be observed in a particular text.
Munírih K͟hánum was the wife of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, a prominent figure in the Baháʼí Faith. She was entitled the Holy Mother. Her memoirs, first published in 1924, are regarded as one of the first published memoirs by a Persian woman in the 20th century.
The Baháʼí Faith in the United Kingdom started in 1898 when Mrs. Mary Thornburgh-Cropper, an American by birth, became the first adherent of the Baháʼí Faith in England. Through the 1930s, the number of Baháʼís in the United Kingdom grew, leading to a pioneer movement beginning after the Second World War with sixty percent of the British Baháʼí community eventually relocating. At the 2021 UK Census, there were 4,725 Baháʼís in England and Wales, making it the 17th largest religion, a decline of 6% compared to the 2011 UK Census, when there were 5,021 Baháʼís in England and Wales. In Northern Ireland, there were 281 Baháʼís recorded in the 2021 census.
The Baháʼí Faith in England started with the earliest mentions of the predecessor of the Baháʼí Faith, the Báb, in The Times on 1 November 1845, only a little over a year after the Báb first stated his mission. Today there are Baháʼí communities across the country from Carlisle to Cornwall.
The Baháʼí Faith in Egypt has existed for over 150 years. The first followers of the Baháʼí Faith arrived in Egypt in 1863. Baháʼu'lláh, founder of the religion, was himself briefly in Egypt in 1868 when on his way to imprisonment in ʻAkká. The first Egyptians were converts by 1896. Despite forming an early Baháʼí Local Spiritual Assembly and forming a National Assembly, in 1960 following a regime change the Baháʼís lost all rights as an organised religious community by Decree 263 at the decree of then-President Gamal Abdel Nasser. However, in 1963, there were still seven organized communities in Egypt. More recently the roughly 2000 or 7000 by ARDA Baháʼís of Egypt have been embroiled in the Egyptian identification card controversy from 2006 through 2009. There have been homes burned down and families driven out of towns.
Bahíyyih Khánum was the only daughter of Baháʼu'lláh, the founder of the Baháʼí Faith, and Ásíyih Khánum. She was born in 1846 with the given name Fatimih Sultan, and was entitled "Varaqiy-i-'Ulyá" or "Greatest Holy Leaf". Brought up through the trying times her family lived through, in adulthood she served the interests of the religion and was even occasionally trusted with running the affairs of the religion. Greatly favoured by Bahá'u'lláh, she is seen within the Baháʼí Faith as one of the greatest women to have lived. According to Baháʼís, every dispensation has one particular holy woman or "immortal heroine". In the time of Jesus it was the Virgin Mary, the time of Muhammad it was his daughter Fatima Zahra and during the Báb's dispensation it was Táhirih. Baháʼís believe that Bahíyyih Khánum is the outstanding heroine of the Baháʼí dispensation.
ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's journeys to the West were a series of trips ʻAbdu'l-Bahá undertook starting at the age of 66, journeying continuously from Palestine to the West between 1910 and 1913. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá was the eldest son of Baháʼu'lláh, founder of the Baháʼí Faith, and suffered imprisonment with his father starting at the age of 8; he suffered various degrees of privation for almost 55 years, until the Young Turk Revolution in 1908 freed religious prisoners of the Ottoman Empire. Upon the death of his father in 1892, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá had been appointed as the successor, authorized interpreter of Bahá'u'lláh's teachings, and Center of the Covenant of the Baháʼí Faith.
Ethel Jenner Rosenberg became the first English Baháʼí.
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