The Chosen Highway/Editor’s note
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EDITOR’S NOTE
It was my privilege, not only to know Lady Blomfield, but to discuss with her, in company with Mr. Balyuzi, the publication of The Chosen Highway, and I was present when she asked him to write a preface. As a representative of the Baha’i Publishing Trust, she authorized me to publish the book and to attend to the final arrangement of the manuscript.
An examination of her notes shows that at one time she had visualized the book as an historical outline of the Baha’i Faith. This is disclosed in the rough draft ofaletter to Lord Lamington, dated 14th March, 1939. ‘““The book I am writing begins in Persia, before the proclamation of the Bab.” The notes outline a continuous narrative down to the time when ‘Abdu’l-Baha returned to the shelter of heaven. ‘“To this story is added some narrative of the progress of the Faith down to the present day, including the immense work of the Guardian, Shoghi Effendi, in administering the affairs of the Cause in forty countries, embracing eight hundred Assemblies, the members of which are quietly proceeding to awaken mankind to the necessity for a spiritual outlook on the problems of this great day.”
Her desire to write the story of the Faith of Baha’u’lla4h in later times was not fulfilled. But we may be exceedingly thankful that the early history received the full measure of her attention and ardent devotion. During her two visits to the Holy Land she listened to the stories of Baha’u’llah’s daughter, ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s wife, His four daughters, and of several people who played a part in the Heroic Age of the Faith. In addition to this she received ‘Abdu’l-Baha when He came to London. Her qualifications for writing of the early days were thus unique.
The editing and preparing for press was greatly simplified by the amount of work which Sitarih Khanum herself had done, and by the many discussions I had had with her. I wish to express sincere thanks to Mrs. Basil Hall, her daughter, who
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gave the manuscript into my hands, for all the help which she
has given. I am also deeply grateful to Mr. Balyuzi, both for
his knowledge and his work. The uniform accuracy of the
transliteration of Oriental words is due entirely to him, and his
knowledge of the events described and the persons and places
mentioned has been invaluable.
The system of transliteration used throughout is one adopted by a conference of Orientalists at Oxford, and recommended by Shoghi Effendi, Guardian of the Baha’i Faith.
In that part of the book which contains the “Spoken Chronicles” (mainly Part II) it has been necessary to indicate where the actual narrative has been amplified and explained by Lady Blomfield. The simplest way to do this seemed to be by the use of stars to separate the spoken word from Lady Blomfield’s own writing. Thus the reader will find, during the “Spoken Chronicles,”’ that the story often endsthus * * * The following passage is Lady Blomfield’s own, and is ended in the same way, after which the spoken narrative begins again.
In the original manuscript, the “Spoken Chronicles’ are written down in a series of single sentences. This is understood when we realize that, as the speaker related the story, it was translated sentence by sentence, and written in that way. These sentences have been connected into paragraphs, thereby making a more flowing story, but no other alterations have been made.
Except in a few instances the old name of Persia has been used for fran, since at the time the events recorded took place it was called Persia, and the chief characters always used the older name.
The pleasure and profit which I derived from many visits to Lady Blomfield ‘‘to talk about the book” remain with me. She asked for the cover to be in Irish blue, and this in itself will bring her to mind, but, in addition, now that she has returned to the presence of ‘Abdu’l-Baha, she will not object to the inclusion of a photograph of her beautiful and saintly face.
Davin Horman. Lonpon, May 1940.