Bahá’í World/Volume 18/Manúchihr Ḥakím
MANÚCHIHR ḤAKÍM
1910—1981
Manúchihr Ḥakím, son of Dr. Arastú Ḥakím, was born in Ṭihrán in 1910. After receiving elementary and secondary education at the Tarbíyat School, he studied medicine in France for the next nine years on a government grant. He completed a course in general medicine and specialized in teaching anatomy. He and his wife, Germaine, were married in 1938; they had two children, Paul and Christine.
Manúchihr Ḥakím
He returned to Írán, served his term of conscription, and for two years worked at the University of Ṭihrán where he established a Chair of Anatomy. He returned to Paris where he took his degree at the Medical College and then won the agrégation for professorial rank in the Universities of France. Returning to Írán, he taught in the University of Ṭihrán for the next thirty years. He was renowned for his researches in anatomy, his discoveries being twice cited in Le Rouvièr, the standard work on the subject. His writings have become part of the textbooks used in many medical colleges. He was also well-known as a specialist in gastroenterology. In 1976 he was decorated by the French government with the Légion d’honneur for his humanitarian services. At the time of his death, Professor Ḥakím had retired from the University of Ṭihrán and had been associated for several years with the work of the medical school of the National University of Írán.
Professor Ḥakím was no less distinguished
in his work for the Bahá’í Faith. Over a long
period he was a member of the National
Spiritual Assembly of Írán, and several times
its chairman; he was a member of various
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other Bahá’í bodies, as well. He laboured long
to extend and organize the facilities of the
Bahá’í hospital in Ṭihrán and was for many
years chairman of its Board of Directors.
At about 5.30 p.m. on 12 January 1981 some assailants, posing as patients, gained admittance to Professor Ḥakím’s surgery and shot him dead. The newspapers, aware for the most part that he was killed because he was a Bahá’í, feared to report it. One lone exception was the daily Mízán of Ṭihrán which mentioned it briefly in its issue of 17 January. The magazine Tib va Dárú, No. 62, 4 February 1981, carried an article by Dr. Shukru’lláh Asadí mentioning Professor Ḥakím’s achievements. This assumes special import by virtue of the fact that the author was fully aware of the reason which brought about the assassination. Shortly after his tragic death, Professor Ḥakím’s residence and its contents were confiscated under a government order issued, significantly, several months prior to this event.
A befitting funeral was given him on 15 January, and at memorial meetings held on 19 and 20 January, warm and endearing tributes were paid to the nobility of his life, a fruitful and honourable life that had been devoted to study and research for the welfare and well-being of all people. There were many in all parts of the country who had such faith in his skill and healing power that they used to speed to him when ailing and return home hale and hearty. More than four thousand Bahá’ís attended the funeral of Professor Ḥakím. An eyewitness described it as ‘a truly great event . . . This remarkable gathering had a tremendous effect on the morale of the Bahá’ís as a demonstration of love, unity and the readiness for sacrifice by the beleaguered and oppressed Bahá’í community in the Cradle of the Faith.’
Moving tribute was paid Professor Ḥakím by his daughter, Christine Samandarí—Ḥakím, in her book Les Bahá’ís ou victoire sur la violence (Lausanne: Editions Pierre Marcel Favre), written shortly after his death. Upon its publication the Universal House of Justice, on 25 March 1982, cabled the National Spiritual Assembly of Switzerland requesting that it relay LOVING CONGRATULATIONS to the author on the publication of her VALUABLE BOOK WHICH ASSUREDLY WILL CAUSE SOULS HER
DEAR FATHER AND OTHER MARTYRS REJOICE ABHA KINGDOM.
(Translated from the Persian by RUSTOM SABIT)