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AMINE MESBAH
(AMI’N’U’LLAH MISBAH) 1905—1982
JEANNE MESBAH (MARIE-JEANNE IRADY MISBAH) 1909—1983
DEEPLY GRIEVED PASSING STAUNCH DEVOTED PROMOTER FAITH AMINULLAH MESBAH. HIS PIONEERING SERVICES THREE CONTINENTS HIS SCHOLARLY WORK HIS SPIRIT UTTER DEDICATION WILL ALWAYS BE REMEMBERED AND SERVE AS INSPIRATION HIS COUNTLESS ADMIRERS. CONVEY LOVING SYMPATHY MEMBERS FAMILY. PRAYING HOLY SHRINES PROGRESS HIS NOBLE SOUL ABHA KINGDOM.
Universal House of J ustice 30 December 1982
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DEEPLY GRIEVED PASSING JEANNE MESBAH. HER RADIANT SPIRIT HER DEVOTED PIONEERING ACTIVITIES HER WHOLEHEARTED SUPPORT SERVICES HER BELOVED HUSBAND WILL ALWAYS BE TENDERLY REMEMBERED. PRAYING SHRINES NOBLE SOUL THIS DISTINGUISHED REPRESENTATIVE BASQUE "PEOPLE WILL CONTINUE UNFOLD PROGRESS ABHA KINGDOM. EXTEND HEARTFELT SYMPATHY MEMBERS FAMILY.
Universal House of J ustice 14 April 1983
All those in Europe, Asia and Africa who knew Dr. Amin’u’llah Misbah remember having been in contact with an exceptional personality. His deep knowledge of the Faith, his global vision of events, his scientific mind, his literary aptitude and his poetical gifts made of him a man open to every avenue of culture. He was not a public speaker nor an eloquent leader of the multitudes, but rather a fascinating interlocutor whose lucid and intuitive sensibilities inspired in all whom he met a recognition of a reality beyond the moment and beyond material existence, that of the image of God which he carried within him.
A physician, the confidant of the most intimate sufferings, a member of Assemblies, a witness of the most private individual problems, he was attentive and close to every heart, listening to every person who unburdened himself to him, yet he roused and stirred up these same people in the name of the glorious destiny promised to their souls.
All those who came from nearor far to seek his opinion, an elucidation or an explanation and who submitted to him the fruit of their research or a manuscript found him to be of valuable assistance and a source of knowledge. Never did he avoid answering even at risk of breaking the contact through his complete frankness and the boldness of his remarks: his moral integrity would not brook any compromise.
This erudite Persian who had access to the Arab and French cultures, this tormented and lucid poet, this scholar who even at an advanced age'regarded science with the enthusiasm and wonderment of an adolescent, consecrated his life to the Bahá’í ideal which inspired him. All his life—not easy, monotonous or banal—was marked and guided by
THE BAHA’I’ WORLD
the personality of Shoghi Effendi.
Amin’u’llah Misbah, born in Tihran in 1905, came from a family whose maternal and paternal roots go back to the very beginnings of the new Dispensation. His father, ‘Azizu’llah Misbéh, director of the Tarbiyat School, was an eminent poet and writer; his mother, Qudsiyyih ‘Ala’i, was the sister of the Hand of the Cause fliu‘a‘u’llah ‘Ala’i. From his earliest years Amin’u’llah captivated those around him by his literary talents and his scientific gifts. Enamoured of literature and passionately devoted to science, he cultivated these two interests throughout his life, aligning oriental mysticism to occidental rationalism.
After he completed his studies at the Tarbiyat School chance, in the garb of a competitive examination, opened the door to the study in France of biology and medicine. Then, at the Institute of Physiopathology in the Paris Faculty of Medicine, he undertook research on the physiology of the anterior hypophysis. The publications which resulted from his work are, in large part, the source of our understanding of certain diseases of this gland.
He married Marie-Jeanne Irady, a French Bahá’í, and started his life with her in 1937 with a pilgrimage to the Holy Land where they met the Guardian. He then returned to train and joined the Faculty of Medicine in Tihran as a professor. It was evident that a comfortable and tranquil university career seemed to await him, but such was not the destiny nor the desire of the young couple. In 1942, as soon as Amin and Jeanne heard the Guardian’s call for pioneers in the forty-five month Plan assigned to the Bahá’í community of Train, they arose and settled with their son in Afghanistan where they remained until 1945, isolated from the world and unable to communicate with anyone, but happy to have been able to respond to the appeal of the Guardian. After persevering for three years, tired, indebted and with the life of their fortyday-old daughter in jeopardy, they returned to trim.
Amin took up again his teaching position on
the Faculty of Medicine and opened a medical
practice. He also devoted much energy to the
Bahá’í community, serving as a member of the
Local Spiritual Assembly of Ṭihrán, of com
[Page 813]
IN MEMORIAM
Jeanne Mesbah
mittees, of commissions and of the Board of Directors of Missaghiyeh (Mit_haqiyih) Hospital. His life and that of his family again appeared to be laid out: intense Bahá’í activity and the sustained pursuit of his professional and scientific interests provided material, intellectual and spiritual satisfaction and comfort. Once more the call of the Guardian—the launching of the Ten Year Plan—disrupted the organized pattern of their lives. Without regrets, Amin and Jeanne with their two children abandoned family, friends, school, profession and secure future to throw themselves, as did so many others, into the adventure of the Ten Year Crusade.
In Ethiopia, from 1955 to 1959, Amin, while consecrating himself to teaching the Faith, carried on his profession and obtained the position of military doctor in Asmara. In Morocco, from 1959 to 1969, he was chief physician of the anatomopathology laboratory. And finally, in France, at the service of the International Pioneer Committee of the United States, he took advantage of his retirement. During his last ten years, at the
813
Amine Mesbah
suggestion of the Universal House of Justice, he conducted historical research in Paris at the National Library and in the Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs which brought to light material that has already served historians of the Faith.
This itinerant life (never more than ten
years in one place), this life with no rest (for
he was always at the service of the ill and was
active in Bahá’í teaching activities), was for
Amin a source of inexhaustible enrichment
and of poetic inspiration, for he was one of
those who offer humanity, in the form of an
enduring work, the fruit of every ordeal and
joy. His literary work consists primarily of
poems inspired by the events of the moment,
happy or sad, and dedicated to his venerated
parents, to his dear wife, to his children and
grandchildren, or to the launching of the
Ten Year Crusade, to the conquests of the
pioneers, to the glory of the Guardian or in
honour of the establishment of the Universal
House of J ustice. During the last period of his
life he laboured relentlessly on the epic task of
writing the history of the Bahá’í Faith in
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verse. He had ardently hoped to finish this
work, but on 29 December 1982, when he was
in full possession of his physical and intellectual forces, a cerebral haemorrhage carried
him off leaving his friends, his family and
in particular his wife, Jeanne, in profound
dismay. Their destinies had been so intimately
linked that his companion and partner in a
life he laboured relentlessly on the epic task
of writing the history of the Bahá’í Faith in
the Abhá Kingdom a scant three-and—a-half
months later on 14 April 1983. Forty-seven
years of life together had welded inseparably
these two beings, so different and so complementary.
In contrast to Amin who had tormented and hidden depths, Jeanne was elegant, fascinating, enchanting and lively, and travelled through life like a ray of sunshine. Armed with her bright and sparkling smile, her polished speech and her refined manners she set out to conquer the most morose dispositions and the most reticent hearts; she faced ticklish situations with equanimity and was at ease in the drawing-rooms of the great of this world. She was born on 27 March 1909 to a Catholic family in Biarritz, a Basque area, where traditions and values seemed fixed for eternity. As'a child she aspired to a secure and tranquil life without surprises, but a serious and protracted iIlness at an early age led her to reflect and meditate upon life and death. As a student in Paris she accepted the Bahá’í Faith through May Maxwell and frequented the homes of such early Bahá’ís as Mme Dreyfus—Barney, Miss Edith Sanderson and Mme Scott. She met Amin in the Bahá’í meetings and found herself, as a result of her marriage, embarked upon an epic adventure. ‘You must be proud to belong to the Misbah family,’ the Guardian told her in the early days of her married life. She found herself in trim, a young and inexperienced Bahá’í, a refined and emancipated woman in the grip of foreign customs; but Amin’s family welcomed her, and her sincerity and radiance opened many doors and won for her acceptance and love. Later she found herself pioneering—she who had nothing of the adventurer in hernot hesitating to encourage or support her husband in hazardous enterprises or to enlist his energetic aid in projects in which she was sure she could succeed.
THE Bahá’í’ WORLD
Having proved herself and gained confidence by serving on various committees in iran and particularly on the East—West Committee, she continued to serve wherever she found herself. She was a member of the Regional Assembly of North-east Africa. She travelled, using her natural charm and her ease of expression (in F rench, English, Persian and Italian) to meet and interest people. Always she represented the Faith with dignity. She was in touch with the authorities in Djibouti, then a French dependency, gave French lessons to the daughter of the king (Negus) of Ethiopia, became secretary to the Viceroy in Eritrea, and the 'President of the Alliance Frangaise in Asmara. The Guardian pointed out to her in 1953 that he had inscribed the Basque country on the map of the Ten Year Plan. Proud] of being the first Basque Bahá’í Jeanne, foliowing Shoghi Effendi’s instructions, had a text of Bahá’u’lláh translated by the Director of the Basque museum in Bayonne.
Jeanne took pleasure in measuring the path she had followed since accepting the Faith. She, who had struggled so much, communicated a‘climate of peace, of quietude and of certitude. She had an expansive nature and could listen for hours to complaints and sighs; she knew how to comfort the saddest soul.
Amin and Jeanne spent the last years of their lives near their children in France in an Alsatian village called Hegenheim on the borders of three countries, France, Switzerland. and Germany: After a full life they took their flight to the Abhá Kingdom. Even their departure provided opportunity to proclaim, as the local newspaper reported, that the fate of humanity depends upon its acceptance of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh.
(Adapted from a memoir by DR..A. CH. MISBAH and LEYLA Missing SABERAN; translated from the French by DIANE STARCHER)
