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[Page i]Spring 1998

World Order

2000—APOCALYPSE OR REBIRTH? EDITORIAL

LANGUAGE AS JUSTICE IN THE NEW WORLD ORDER JEFFREY S. GRUBER

AMERICAN BAHÁ’Í PUBLISHING: 1896–1922 ROGER M. DAHL [Page ii]World Order VOLUME 29, NUMBER 3. WORLD ORDER IS INTENDED TO STIMULATE, INSPIRE, AND SERVE THINKING PEOPLE IN THEIR SEARCH TO FIND RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN CONTEMPORARY LIFE AND CONTEMPORARY RELIGIOUS TEACHINGS AND PHILOSOPHY

Editorial Board: FIRUZ KAZEMZADEH BETTY J. FISHER HOWARD GAREY ROBERT H. STOCKMAN JAMES D. STOKES

Consultant in Poetry: HERBERT WOODWARD MARTIN

WORLD ORDER is published quarterly by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States, 536 Sheridan Road, Wilmette, IL 60091-1811. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the publisher, the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States, or of the Editorial Board. Send manuscripts and other editorial correspondence to WORLD ORDER, 4516 Randolph Road, Apt. 99, Charlotte, NC 28211. E-mail WorldOrder@usbnc.org. Manuscripts can be typewritten or computer generated. They should be double spaced throughout, with the footnotes at the end and not attached electronically to the text. The contributor should send five copies an original and four legible copies—and should keep a copy. Return postage should be included.

Subscription rates: U.S.A. and surface too all other countries, 1 year, $19.00; 2 years, $36.00; single copies, $5.00. Airmail too all other countries, 1 year, $24.00; 2 years $46.00. Send address changes to and order subscriptions and back issues from Bahá’í Dsitribution and Subscriber Service, 5397 Wilbanks Drive, Chattanooga, TN 37343-4047. Telephone, 1-800-999-9019; E-mail: subscriptions@usbnc.org.

WORLD ORDER is protected through trademark registration in the U.S. Patent Office. Copyright 1998, National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. All Rights Reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. ISSN 0043-8804

IN THIS ISSUE

2000-Apocalypse or Rebirth? Editorial

Interchange: Letters from and to the Editor

Language as Justice in the New World Order by Jeffrey S. Gruber

On Looking at a Picture poem by Joan Imig Taylor

American Bahá’í Publishing: 1896-1922 by Roger M. Dahl

Authors and Artists in This Issue

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2000-Apocalypse or Rebirth?

WHAT is one to make of them-the fast approaching end of the twentieth century and, with it, the approximate end of the second millennium? With the double arrival so imminent, the year 2000 has become a kind of temporal Rorschach in which the spectrum of responses reflects each person's view of life itself. Some, who see humanity as incorrigible and irredeemably fallen, believe, even hope, that the approach of the millennium will bring endings and apocalyptic punishment as a terrible but necessary cleansing of the world. Those less persuaded of the need for a literal cosmic scourging tend to view the event as a moment for beginnings that hold the promise of hopeful change and liberating departure from outmoded forms, practices, and ideas. Both views reflect an apocalyptic aspect of human nature the need to search for beginnings and endings.

Obviously a century or a millennium, like other artificial, humanly imposed markers (such as years, months, days, and even the milliseconds of atomic clocks), are ways of creating those boundaries, of counting, and of placing a form of symbolic narrative into what is otherwise an endless and, therefore, inchoate sea of time. But centuries and millennia must be among the most imperfect of all such markers. Momentous defining events almost never happen with clear and simple definition precisely at the end of a century. Indeed, the defining qualities of a century take shape invisibly, imperceptibly, undetected by nearly everyone, over the course of several decades before the end of the century, and continue, even accelerate, long after the next century has begun.

Yet markers have value. The Bahá’í community acknowledges their validity and importance but understands them in subtle terms. As a revealed religion, the Bahá’í Faith shares with other religions the fundamental belief that both the universe as a whole and humanity within it were created for a purpose by a loving God and that both, therefore, reflect an essential coherence and sublime unfolding meaning, however inaccessible it may be to human sight and understanding. The Bahá’í writings are replete with references to the underlying unity of creation and the coherence of the divine process within human history. Process of any kind implies beginnings and endings. In an address ‘Abdu’l-Bahá gave when visiting Europe early in this century, He observed that everything in creation either makes progress or loses ground and that not only do the religions themselves (the primary source of human civilization) live out individual lives that take them [Page 3]from birth to maturity to decline but that families of religions also unfold coherently in great cycles covering vast expanses of time.

Our own century, characterized by a paradoxical mixture of wonders and horrors of a greater scope and intensity than perhaps the world has ever known, can be seen within the context of that recurring pattern of growth and decline. In two masterful works of historical analysis, Shoghi Effendi, Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith from 1921 through 1957, described the two simultaneous processes that characterize the present age. The one is the collapse, in successive catastrophic waves, of ideas, institutions, and ways of life that have become impediments to a flourishing humanity: excessive nationalism; obsessive self-interest; and racial, ethnic, religious, and other prejudices. The result has been recurring inundations of war and suffering from the mid-nineteenth century to the present.

The other is the birth and increasingly vigorous growth of an utterly new way of looking at the world, characterized by an essential universality of vision and an acknowledgment of fundamental interdependence—whether one is thinking about family, race, gender, economics, the environment, political peace, or any other aspect of human life.

In considering how to respond to the end of the present century, one might well resist the urge to oversimplify and look for cataclysmic events that create some form of historical theater but, rather, let oneself see everywhere, at the end of the twentieth century, continuities and increasingly visible evidences that the underpinnings of world unity are growing daily—in the spread of nongovernmental organizations, in local alliances on behalf of racial equity, in scientific and humanistic communities that have global membership, in the transnational sharing of medical and technical knowledge, in the gradual diffusion of economic and political power, and in the similar benefits arising from thousands of other arenas of cooperative human activity. From that perspective one might also see the end of the century as similar to one of those stations in a marathon race—neither the end nor the beginning, but a mere moment, even while moving through it, in which to be refreshed, encouraged, and filled with optimism about the ultimate destiny of a struggling humanity. [Page 4]

Interchange

LETTERS FROM AND TO THE EDITOR

THE practical application of spiritual principles is manifest in the two articles appearing in this number of WORLD ORDER. In the early days of the Bahá’í Faith in America that is, during the stewardship of the Bahá’í community by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá almost at once the need was perceived for an instrument by which the Faith might be made available to as many people as possible. Various publishing enterprises were undertaken as early as 1896. Roger Dahl recounts the story of their origins and evolution during those crucial years in his article entitled "American Bahá’í Publishing: 1896-1922."

One is struck by Dahl’s admirably deep research into personal letters, the archives of the Bahá’í consultative bodies that existed in the early days of this century, and the earliest Bahá’í publications. Bahá’ís whose memories do not stretch back before 1922 will perhaps be surprised by the number of publications that existed before Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith from 1921 through 1957, began his heroic work of translation, interpretation, and correspondence with the Bahá’ís of the world. It is true that the very earliest publications were in the form of a few handwritten and typewritten copies of translations into English of tablets and other writings of Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, as well as of lessons of teachers of the Bahá’í Faith in North America. But it is eye-opening to see individuals and Bahá’í communities establishing institutions for making available the sacred writings of their new-found Faith and for publishing works about the Bahá’í Faith that enabled them to share their beliefs with others. It is also inspiring to see how, in the opening years of the twentieth century, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the son of Bahá’u’lláh, the Founder of the Bahá’í Faith, and His appointed successor and interpreter of His writings, offered His direction, supervision, and encouragement to the fledgling publishing houses. The growing pains of new institutions are vividly portrayed, along with their strengthening and maturing. The early believers learned from their first contacts with the writings of Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá that publication was an indispensable instrument for the "promotion of the Cause." Accordingly they set about publishing an astonishing range of materials: sacred writings of the Bahá’í Faith, pilgrim’s notes, works about the Faith’s spiritual and social teachings, pamphlets, a magazine for children, and a magazine for adults with sections for readers of English and of Persian, which got a worldwide readership.

The practical application of spiritual principles applies equally to the future. Jeffrey S. Gruber takes up the vexed problem of a universal auxiliary language-mandated by Bahá’u’lláh to be realized some time in the future with new and encouraging insights. The title of Dr. Gruber’s article "Language [Page 5]as Justice in the New World Order" itself is a challenging one. The many advantages of a language understood by all are manifest, but language as a manifestation of justice- this is an idea that has not to our knowledge yet been proposed. Justice is not served if the language of a great power is imposed on peoples of lesser influence. Gruber calls this linguistic imperialism and tells us how this outcome may be avoided and justice assured.

Gruber goes beyond enumerating the benefits of having a universal language; he foresees its possible development through the centuries. As a linguist, Gruber knows that languages change as they are used; they can- not be hardened into a permanent form. In the past, languages that were used over a wide area have split into dialects, often mutually unintelligible. Will the same thing happen to a universal language in the new world order? Read this article for a glimpse of ways in which the world might com- municate in that perhaps not so distant time.

SHOGHI EFFENDI ISSUE- MUST READING

To the Editor The issue about Shoghi Effendi [Fall 1997] meant a great deal to me in the way it illustrated the de- velopment and growth of the Bahá’í Faith. The figure of Shoghi Effendi himself revealed itself to me as warmly human and sympathetic and, at the same time, profoundly heroic. This issue was one of the best WORLD ORDER has ever produced and should be "must" reading for all Bahá’ís and for anyone interested in the Bahá’í Faith.

MINNIE DOROTHY GAREY North Haven, Connecticut 6

WORLD ORDER: SPRING 1998

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Language as Justice in the New World Order

BY JEFFREY S. GRUBER

NE hundred and fifty years ago Bahá’u’lláh, the Founder of the Bahá’í Faith, dried and fifty years ago Bahing lan we found it of the B and social evolution, the stage of world civilization and unity. The global com- munity that has been emerging since that time is a sign of the gradual fulfillment of His vision. Bahá’u’lláh prescribed, as a principal element of the world community ultimately to be attained, the adoption of a universal language:

O members of parliaments throughout the world! Select ye a single language for the use of all on earth, and adopt ye likewise a common script. . . . This will be the cause of unity, could ye but comprehend it, and the greatest instrument for promoting harmony and civilization, would that ye might understand!'

The new stage of unity and oneness proclaimed by Bahá’u’lláh constitutes a new social order informed by justice. He admonishes all people to "Bestir" themselves "in anticipation of the days of Divine justice," explaining that "The world's equilibrium hath been upset through the vibrating influence of this most great, this new World Order." Justice is, in fact, at the very core of the world civilization and unity of which He speaks: "The purpose of justice is the appearance of unity among men. . . . Verily I say, whatever is sent down

Copyright 1998 by Jeffrey S. Gruber. A version of this paper entitled "A Universal Auxiliary Language: Humanity's Inheritance" was first presented at the International Seminar on United Nations Restructuring: Turning Point for All Nations, sponsored by the Bahá’í International Community, 18 October 1995, United Nations Plaza, New York. Another version entitled "Language in the New World Order" was presented at the New World Order in Bahá’í Perspective Conference, sponsored by the Institute for Bahá’í Studies, 26-28 January 1996, Bahá’í National Center, Evanston, Illinois. I wish to thank Dr. C. O. Lerche for suggestions on an earlier version and the World Order editors for constructive criticisms, especially Dr. Betty J. Fisher, Associate and Managing Editor, for insightful professional assistance and Dr. Howard B. Garey, professor emeritus of French and Romance philology, Yale University, for substantive contributions. All shortcomings remain my own.

1. Bahá’u’lláh, The Kitáb-i-Aqdas: The Most Holy Book, ps ed. (Wilmette, Ill.: Bahá’í Publish- ing Trust, 1993) 189. [Page 8]from the heaven of the Will of God is the means for the establishment of order in the world and the instrument for promoting unity and fellowship among its peoples." "2

While the principle of oneness is "the pivot round which all the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh revolve," justice is their essence.³ Indeed, justice is the divine attribute that distinguishes and pervades all of Bahá’u’lláh’s revelation for this era and is associated with a maturity of vision detached from past prejudices and limitations: "The essence of all that We have revealed for thee is Justice, is for man to free himself from idle fancy and imitation, discern with the eye of oneness His glorious handiwork, and look into all things with a searching eye."⁴ The principle of a universal language, therefore, as a major component of Bahá’u’lláh’s World Order, must also be fundamentally a reflection of divine justice.

At the level of spiritual and social evolution, justice and a universal language are connected in that both are identified with humankind's attainment of maturity, the stage, according to the Bahá’í writings, that humanity is now entering. The Bahá’í writings explain that the appearance of justice that characterizes this new age and the attendant "fears and agitation" may be likened to the weaning of a child from its mother's milk.⁶ In addition, they explain that the adoption of a universal language will be one of the cardinal signs that humanity's maturity has been reached."⁷

One may say that the adoption of a universal language is possible in the present era of maturity precisely because universal justice is now possible. Linguistic diversity has been a characteristic of human society for millennia. According to the biblical account of its origin with the Tower of Babel, which in some sense is confirmed by Bahá’u’lláh, the purpose of such diversity may have been to protect humanity during its childhood by limiting human

2. Bahá’u’lláh, Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, trans. Shoghi Effendi, Ist ps ed. (Wilmette, Ill.: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1983) 17; Bahá’u’lláh, Kitáb-i-Aqdas $181; Bahá’u’lláh, Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh revealed after the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, comp. Research Department of the Universal House of Justice, trans. Habib Taherzadeh et al., Ist ps ed. (Wilmette, Ill.: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1988) 67. 3. Shoghi Effendi, The World Order of Bahá’u’lláh: Selected Letters, new ed. (Wilmette, Ill.: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1991) 42. 4. Bahá’u’lláh, Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh 157. 5. See ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, The Promulgation of Universal Peace: Talks Delivered by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá during His Visit to the United States and Canada in 1912, comp. Howard MacNutt, 2d ed. (Wilmette, Ill.: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1982) 37-38. 6. Bahá’u’lláh, Gleanings 175. 7. Bahá’u’lláh, in calling for the adoption of a single language and a common script, says that He "appointed two signs for the coming of age of the human race: the first, which is the most firm foundation, We have set down in other of Our Tablets, while the second hath been revealed in this wondrous Book" (Kitáb-i-Aqdas 189). Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith, 1921-57, explains in "Notes," in Bahá’u’lláh, Kitáb-i- Aqdas, n94, that the second sign is the adoption of a single language and a common script. [Page 9]collective power and by preventing the widespread tyranny it could have then fostered. Today, however, according to the revelation of Bahá’u’lláh, the condition of linguistic diversity is to change. If through His revelation hu- mankind reaches the stage of maturity in which universal justice is possible, unity can be a reflection of justice, without tyranny. In that case, a universal language becomes not only permissible but necessary.

A Natural Process

A UNIVERSAL auxiliary language is an intrinsic, natural, and necessary com- ponent of the era of unity and justice now dawning. Bahá’u’lláh’s assertion that "The day is approaching when all the peoples of the world will have adopted one universal language and one common script" not only proclaims the unfoldment of part of God's plan for humanity but also testifies to a natural sociolinguistic process taking place on a worldwide scale. The move- ment toward the worldwide adoption of a universal language today, in par- ticular a universal auxiliary language to supplement all mother tongues, is an inevitable and necessary response to the present exigencies of global contact among the peoples and languages of the world. In that it represents an essential weaning from the limited conditions of the past, this process is a manifestation of justice.

Compelling Conditions. Auxiliary languages have arisen in response to na- tional and international linguistic needs many times in the past, as well as in recent times, although on less than a global scale. On the one hand, languages have emerged historically and naturally, serving as lingua francas. These are languages used in common by people of diverse tongues connected in some way, such as by trade or geography. Some examples are Hindustani, Swahili, forms of Latin and Arabic, as well as the various pidgins and creoles that have arisen in response to contact between languages. 10 On the other hand, national governments have adopted international languages as official means of communication, usually among numerous ethnic languages.11 These are

8. Mark Baker, The Polysynthesis Parameter (New York: Oxford UP, 1995) 512-15, suggests an interpretation of the biblical account along these lines and its value as an explanation for the diversity of languages. See also Gen. 11:1, 3-9, and Bahá’u’lláh, Gleanings 173. 9. Bahá’u’lláh, Gleanings 249-50. 10. A "pidgin" (from an alleged Chinese pronunciation of "business" [English]) is a means of communication developed between peoples who do not know each other's language. It has a simplified grammar and consists of words largely derived from the language of the dominant people. When individuals marry who must communicate only through the pidgin, their children will speak it as their first language. This language, that of the first generation of native speakers of the pidgin, is, by definition, a "creole." A creole develops like natural languages, gaining in complexity and expressiveness. 11. Because of this sense of the term international language, it is felt preferable to refer to the language to be adopted worldwide by the term universal auxiliary language rather than interna- tional auxiliary language. [Page 10]languages that are used for international communication and as major languages, such as for government or education, in a number of distinct nations, while not necessarily being worldwide. Today these are primarily the European languages English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, German, and Russian, the influence of which originally spread largely through colonization. Every one of the twenty-one countries in West Africa has adopted one or another international language as its official language.12

As auxiliary languages have, by necessity, been adopted in the past on national and regional scales, so one can now anticipate that circumstances will increasingly compel the world's governments to adopt a universal auxiliary language on a worldwide scale. One can identify several factors, bringing immense practical and material benefits, that today overtly contribute to this natural impulse. These include enormous savings of administrative costs, time, and effort spent in translation in business, governance, education, and other enterprises taking place across linguistic, ethnic, and national boundaries. Andrew Large, in his notable survey of the universal language movement, estimates that nearly 50 percent of the European Community's administrative costs in the 1980s were related to language and attributable to its multilingual policy. 13 Similarly, devising a satisfactory translation-interpretation system for the six official languages used at the United Nations poses problems that would be obviated by its adopting a single language for all its internal operations. In addition, areas of concern that are becoming increasingly cooperative and global today, such as efforts against crime, drugs, violence, and poverty and for protecting the environment, require a universal auxiliary language.14

Potential benefits inherent in the emergent global community itself make the adoption of a universal auxiliary language compelling. For example, the promise of technological transfer among members of the global community necessitates a universal auxiliary language. Moreover, the promise of the global community is for a grander mutual state of benefit for all peoples, not only from the so-called technologically developed to the technologically developing. To fulfill this promise the ease of interchange of ideas at all levels is needed. Such pervasive improvement in world communication can only come about through the adoption of a universal auxiliary language. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Bahá’u’lláh’s son and appointed successor and the interpreter of His writings, said early in this century:

12. See C. M. B. Brann, "Functions of World Languages in West Africa," West African Journal of Modern Languages 3 (June 1978): 6-28. These international languages are largely English and French but include also Portuguese (Bissau) and Spanish (Equatorial Guinea), as well as Arabic as both an international and indigenous language (in Mauritania, where it shares status with French as an official language). 13. Andrew Large, The Artificial Language Movement (Oxford: Blackwell, 1985) 199. 14. See John W. Buono, "Why a World Language?" Eco-logos 18.65 (1972): 1-3. [Page 11]

LANGUAGE AS JUSTICE IN THE NEW WORLD ORDER

the very foremost service to the world of man is to establish an auxiliary international language. It will become the cause of the tranquillity of the commonwealth of man. It will become the cause of the spread of sciences and arts amongst the nations of the world. It will be the cause of the progress and development of all the races.15

The global community now emerging, of course, offers the prospect of world peace and unity, both of which are hindered by the lack of direct communication among the peoples of the world. The adoption of a universal auxiliary language fills this communicative need. It has the capacity to encourage the development of feelings of transnational identification, unity, and brotherhood among all the world's peoples. Bahá’u’lláh writes that "The greatest means for the promotion of that unity is for the peoples of the world to understand one another's writing and speech."16

It is well known that a common script alone has a unifying effect, even when the spoken forms of the languages differ and are not mutually intelligible. For example, Chinese is not a single language in the sense of mutual intelligibility. Rather, it is a group of distinct dialects that share a writing system and hence are socially regarded and psychologically felt as part of one language. In contrast, different scripts differentiate peoples and cultures, even when the languages are virtually the same. For example, religious communities speaking the same language distinguish themselves by adopting a form of writing, together with loaned vocabulary, derived from the language of a parent religious community and scriptures. Hindi and Urdu are fundamentally the same language but are distinguished not only by their Hindu or Muslim religious ties but commonly by script and Sanskrit or Persian loan words.17

Similarly, Serbo-Croatian is a single language with Cyrillic writing for the Serbian Eastern Orthodox community and Roman writing for the Croat Roman Catholic community.

Thus people identify themselves with a community that is perceived as homogeneous with respect to language. By enabling open communication within an otherwise diverse group of nations and ethnicities, a universal auxiliary language would engender feelings of identification with the worldwide community and thus tend to sustain world peace.

A New Social Milieu. A principal facilitator in the adoption and spread of a lingua franca or auxiliary language is the inception of a new and broader social milieu. At various times and places, often at historic turning points, a new social entity or milieu emerges that crosses existing linguistic boundaries and thereby requires and encourages the adoption of an associated auxiliary

15. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, "This Question of an Auxiliary International Language is of the utmost importance," Star of the West 11.18 (7 Feb. 1921): 304. 16. Bahá’u’lláh, Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh 127. 17. Including Arabic and Turkish loans by way of the Persian. [Page 12]language to partake of the benefits it offers. Today, as in the past, a similar response is necessitated whereby an auxiliary language must be adopted for a new milieu. The new social milieu is the emerging global community. A lingua franca or auxiliary language is not adopted so much by coercion or force as by the irresistible attraction the new social entity presents, for which a single language is required. The process can occur without a sense of loss, since the adopted language is seen as specifically for the new milieu, while the old contexts remain. The new language does not, at least initially, replace the old languages in the contexts in which they have been used so that the existing languages are not threatened in their own contexts. It is simply the desire to attain the benefits of the new social milieu that leads to the willing adoption of the new language.

The risings of empires, the expansion of trade, and the spread of religion in the contexts of which lingua francas naturally arose in the past provide historic examples on regional or international levels. Examples are also plentiful on the level of nation-building. In France the use of standard French has led to the gradual erosion of the local patois, but German and Italian have become standard languages in their respective countries without replacing local dialects for local use. 18 Whether in use alongside local dialects or eventually replacing them, the new language is willingly adopted to enable its speakers to identify with the nation as a whole.

The new social entity of the present era, the emergent global community, carries the material and spiritual benefits of the spread of technology and the arts and the prospect of world peace. Its elements are typified by such institutions as the United Nations, particularly with respect to its internal operations. In addition to the substantial benefits that would follow from the adoption of a single official auxiliary language to be used in all its forums, the United Nations provides a new context for the adoption of such a universal language transcending ethnic and national contexts without causing them any loss. The worldwide community of the Bahá’í Faith provides a current example in the sphere of the spread of religion. 19 The Internet is another striking constituent of the emergent global community. Here one witnesses the emergence of electronic "communities" and a new society characterized by a transcen-

18. This was noted by Dr. Howard B. Garey in a personal communication.

19. Ian Semple, a member of the Universal House of Justice, the supreme governing and legislative body of the Bahá’í Faith, discussed in an interview the use of English as an administrative language of the Bahá’í World Center at Haifa, Israel. The Bahá’í Faith states no preference for which language should be chosen as a universal auxiliary language. Also, at the present time, it does not impose a universal auxiliary language on Bahá’ís, who in many parts of the world must already learn a regional lingua franca or national language in addition to their mother tongues; "to require them to learn yet another language would be an unfair burden at this time." However, for practical reasons, English and Persian are the official languages of the Bahá’í World Center ("An International Auxiliary Language," English Today 9 [Jan. 1987] 18-19) [Page 13]dence of spatial, political, and even linguistic and temporal barriers; in the case of an unfamiliar language, for example, time can be taken to read and compose messages. 20 Indeed, the stage in humanity's communicative evolution signaled by the advent of computer networking has been compared to those reached by the successive advents of speech, writing, and print. To enable full participation in this and the many other parts of the new world-embracing milieu and for it to function efficiently the increased use of a single language has great attraction.

The Adoption of a Universal Language

IN ADDITION to the natural course, similar to what has occurred many times in the past, now leading to the adoption of a universal auxiliary language, the process, responding to present necessities, also requires a conscious collective decision and action motivated by a spirit of justice.

Bahá’u’lláh explicitly calls for the adoption of a universal auxiliary language through consultation and collective action: "It behoveth the sovereigns of the world... to take counsel together and to adopt one of the existing languages or a new one to be taught to children in schools throughout the world. . . . Thus the whole earth will come to be regarded as one country." He further states that "It is incumbent upon all nations to appoint some men of understanding and erudition to convene a gathering and through joint consultation choose one language from among the varied existing languages, or create a new one, to be taught to the children in all the schools of the world." ‘Abdu’l-Bahá similarly refers to agreement in the adoption of a universal auxiliary language: "A language shall be agreed upon by which unity will be established in the world."23

Eliminating Linguistic Imperialism. It is clear from a spiritual and social perspective that the eventual adoption of a universal auxiliary language should flow from the forces of justice. Only by such means will it result in true unity. It should not, as has often been the case, be driven principally by an impulse toward linguistic imperialism—the tendency for disproportionate power and resources to accrue to speakers of a favored language, thereby asserting and maintaining the language's social dominance. 24 Indeed, one of the driving

20. John S. Quarterman, "The Global Matrix of Minds," in Linda S. Harasim, ed., Global Networks: Computers and International Communication (Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 1993) 52-53. 21. John D. Cumming, "The Internet and the English Language," English Today 11.1 (Jan. 1995): 3-8. 22. Cumming, "Internet and the English Language" 4. 23. Bahá’u’lláh, Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh 22, 165-66; ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Promulgation of Universal Peace 300. 24. Robert Phillipson, Linguistic Imperialism (Oxford: Oxford UP, 1992). The international use of English is described as an example of linguistic imperialism. [Page 14]forces of the recent spread of international languages has been the desire to assure the benefits of dominance that their spread then reinforces. Such a force produces and sustains political and social inequalities, oppressing peoples with other languages and cultures, assuring love-hate attitudes toward the international language and compromising the rights of peoples to use, maintain and develop their mother tongue."

The adoption of a lingua franca with neutral socioeconomic connotations, on the contrary, is devoid of linguistic imperialism and can promote unity. This can be seen, for example, in the use of present-day Swahili, which, in parts of Africa, is preferred in common uses to the official international language, such as English, which often carries the onus of linguistic imperialism. 26 Also, in the case of an international language that is regarded as adopted, rather than as culturally other, the sense of linguistic imperialism diminishes. Thus a universal auxiliary language collectively adopted in a spirit of justice and unity will have the support of all peoples and will enable all to contribute to the forging of a unified world culture. A recent statement by the Bahá’í International Community's Office of Public Information reflects the character and needs of the current process:

endowed with the wealth of all the genetic and cultural diversity that has evolved through past ages, the earth's inhabitants are now challenged to draw on their collective inheritance to take up, consciously and systematically, the responsibility for the design of the future.

Justice is the one power that can translate the dawning consciousness of humanity's oneness into a collective will through which the necessary structures of global community life can be confidently erected. 28

Unity and Justice as Motives

The adoption of a universal auxiliary language in the new world order must be motivated by a spirit of unity and justice in

25. This has been given as a reason for favoring a constructed universal language-for example, Esperanto-over English. See Mark Fettes, "Europe's Babylon: Towards a Single European Language?" Esperanto Documents 41 (1991): 1-16.

26. Carol M. M. Scotton, "Towards a Sociolinguistic Theory of Choosing a Lingua Franca," Studies in African Linguistics, Suppl. 2 (1971) 109-29.

27. For broader and alternative perspectives on effects concomitant with the spread of English, see Braj B. Kachru et al., "Symposium on Linguistic Imperialism," World Englishes 12.3 (Nov. 1993): 335-73; Braj B. Kachru, "Englishization and Contact Linguistics," World Englishes 13.2 (Jul. 1994): 135-54; Alastair Pennycook, The Cultural Politics of English as an International Language (London: Longman, 1994). Although spread by linguistic imperialism, the use of English has had the positive effects that any international language would generally have, such as empowering its users to assert their cultural rights, in turn affecting and enlightening its initial promoters.

28. The Bahá’í International Community, Office of Public Information, The Prosperity of Humankind (Wilmette, Ill.: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1995) 2, 7. [Page 15]other respects as well. In addition to the right to maintain one's mother tongue, linguistic justice requires that each human being has the right to communicate with the society in which he or she lives.29 Hence a universal auxiliary language must be adopted that will provide all human beings with the ability to communicate in the world community and to partake of and contribute to the emerging world society and its affairs. Implicit in this right is the necessity for interchange at grass-roots levels. There are perhaps five thousand languages and major dialects in the world." All except for a handful of these languages each account for less than 2 percent of the world's population, a great many being the languages of minorities." In the same way that international languages function for communication and cultural exchanges in national and regional contexts, a universal auxiliary language would be important in enabling linguistic minorities to contribute to and participate in world society."

   An indication of the growing consciousness of the effort to adopt a universal auxiliary language is the phenomenon of constructed auxiliary language, or interlanguage, movements. Some, beginning in the nineteenth century-in particular the movement of Volapük, meaning "world speak," in 1880, and that of Esperanto, meaning "one who hopes," in 1887-were infused with an aspiration for unity and justice. Among more recent proposals, Interlingua, introduced in 1951, emphasized immediate ease of use in international settings. Other relatively prominent planned interlanguages during the period include Ido, Latino sine Flexione, Occidental, Novial, Basic English, and Glosa. As many as nine hundred artificial or planned languages have been proposed, most quite ephemeral. Esperanto seems unique in the strength of its inner idea to promote a sense of oneness and world community and bring a message of peace and justice for all humankind. Indeed, its author, Ludwig Zamenhof, who saw language differences as a major cause of injustice, had as his principal motivation the quest for world brotherhood and the reconciliation of religions. The spirit of Esperanto as a movement in this respect,

   29. Humphrey Tonkin, "Language and International Communication: The Right to Communicate," Esperanto Documents 15 (1979) 1-12.

   30. "Languages of the World," Collier's Encyclopedia, 1993 ed., estimates anywhere from 2,500 to 5,000 languages in the world, depending on how language and dialect are distinguished.

   31. In 1997 only twelve languages had more than 116 million speakers (native, or first-language, plus nonnative) out of a world population of 5.8 billion: Mandarin, English, Hindi, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Bengali, Portuguese, Malay-Indonesian, French, Japanese, and German (World Almanac and Book of Facts [Mahwah, New Jersey: World Almanac Books, 1998]).

   32. Giorgio Braga, "International Languages: Concept and Problems," International Journal of the Sociology of Language 22 (1979): 27-49.

   33. Aleksandr D. Dulicenko, "Ethnic Language and Planned Language: On the Particulars of the Structural, Genetic and the Functional Aspect," in Klaus Schubert, ed., Interlinguistics: Aspects of the Science of Planned Languages (Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 1989) 47-61.

[Page 16]together with its emphasis on viability as a living speech community, has been said to account for much of its success.34

The Evolution of a Universal Language

THE ADOPTION of a universal language, as foreseen by Bahá’u’lláh, is a two-stage process. In the initial stage, which is now imminent, one language will be universally accepted as an auxiliary to all mother tongues. Not until the final stage, in the far future, will there be one language for all humankind: Bahá’u’lláh enjoins the adoption of a universal language and script. His Writings envisage two stages in this process. The first stage is to consist of the selection of an existing language or an invented one which would then be taught in all the schools of the world as an auxiliary to the mother tongues....The second stage, in the distant future, would be the eventual adoption of one single language and common script for all on earth."35

Preservation of Ethnic Languages

The two-stage process in the adoption of a universal language is itself a manifestation of justice. Since a universal auxiliary language and script is a language that supplements existing ethnic and national languages and scripts, all people will be free to preserve their mother tongues while learning a single auxiliary language. By decisive collective action, eliminating the forces of linguistic imperialism, the adoption of a universal auxiliary language will determine which language is to be learned by all. It will be used both internationally and as a lingua franca within nations. Emphasis on national and regional majority languages at the expense of local minority ones will, therefore, decrease. In relation to the universal auxiliary language, local, national, or regional languages will come to rest on a more nearly equal footing. Hence, in the first stage, local, ethnic, and minority languages will be encouraged to flourish alongside national and international ones. Paradoxically, the adoption of a universal auxiliary language will, at least initially, stimulate the development of local languages.

Indeed, in relation to social conditions, the contemporaneous use of ethnic languages with a universal language is, in the present period, important and to be promoted. The situation is similar to the use of native or ethnic languages alongside international languages or regional lingua francas today. In such circumstances, the ethnic language has value as a medium of education, especially elementary education, even to the extent of fostering competence, at a later stage, in the international language itself. The use and maintenance of the mother tongue, viewed as a basic human right, also has an elevating

34. E. James Lieberman, "Esperanto and Trans-National Identity: The Case of Dr. Zamenhof," International Journal of the Sociology of Language 20 (1979): 89-107. See also Bernard Golden, "The Social Factor in the International Language Movement," Eco-logos 23.83 (1977): 1, 12-16, and Peter G. Forster, The Esperanto Movement (The Hague: Mouton, 1982) 111. 35. "Notes," in Bahá’u’lláh, Kitáb-i-Aqdas n193. [Page 17]social and economic effect, contributing to positive feelings of self-identity as well as toward integration into the multilingual society as a whole.

Moreover, from the perspective of world civilization, the diverse languages of the world should not simply disappear. Each language is the result of thousands of years of linguistic and cultural development. Linguistic conservation is at the present time of inestimable value for its potential to enrich humanity's cultural and linguistic inheritance. By adopting a universal auxiliary language to be taught alongside all mother tongues in the first stage, the fruition of human capacity represented by the languages of the world will not be annulled but allowed to contribute to this heritage.

Concern about preserving the world's diversity of language can to a certain extent be compared with the concern for the conservation of the earth's biodiversity. All the practical, scientific, and aesthetic values of the diverse life forms of the earth cannot be known, but their existence can be appreciated, and the loss of any one life form can be deplored. The conservation of linguistic and cultural diversity is for the present of similar importance. But species and languages are unlike each other in a significant respect. While biological species tend to differentiate from one another when in contact, seeking to fill distinct ecological niches, languages in contact exhibit convergence and tend to assimilate to each other in various ways, drawing from and enriching one another. In this respect language distinctions are rather like the inessential distinctions of biological race, rather than of species. The linguistic importance of diverse languages today lies perhaps not so much in their ultimate preservation as in their potential for contributing, through contact, to humanity's linguistic heritage in a developing universal language.

Mutual Enrichment

Languages are by no means static; they continually change and evolve. Just as individual languages have developed in the crucibles of various cultures throughout past ages, one must expect the evolution of the adopted universal auxiliary language to take place in the arena of world civilization in the future. In particular, one must expect that during the first stage in its evolution the centuries of contact of the universal auxiliary language with the diverse languages of the world will lead to their mutual enrichment. The universal auxiliary language would, interacting in a situation of contact with the diverse languages, inevitably become imbued with their influences, reflecting the varied linguistic development of all of humanity.

The process of linguistic interaction is a common occurrence on a limited scale, historically and currently. A well-known example is the augmentation of the English vocabulary by Old French following the Norman conquest. Recent cases include the convergence of syntactic structures in the "Englishization"

36. Ajit K. Mohanty, "Psychological Consequences of Mother-Tongue Maintenance and the Language of Literacy for Linguistic Minorities in India," Pychology and Developing Societies 2.1 (1990): 31-51. [Page 18]of various languages, such as that of Korean, and, at the same time, the "nativization," or "Koreanization," of the local variety of English. The term linguistic area is commonly used to refer to a group of contiguous languages that, although genetically not immediately related, have come to resemble each other by the diffusion of various linguistic features as a result of a long period of bilingual contact. South Asia offers numerous examples, where "centuries of language contact have resulted mainly in enriching and expanding the verbal repertoire of the Indian speech community."38

One can foresee that conditions in the unified humanity of the future will be conducive to the diffusion of linguistic features through a universal auxiliary language. It is well known that linguistic borrowing occurs in the two languages spoken by bilinguals. In like manner the diffusion of linguistic features will take place between the languages of peoples using the universal language as an auxiliary to their mother tongue-that is, it will occur in their mother tongues and in the varieties of the universal auxiliary language they develop. In terms of local effect, the more prestigious, populous, or functionally necessary language is more likely to maintain its identity (in vocabulary) and lend more of its features to the other strictly local language. However, subsequent diffusion of borrowed linguistic features in the broadly used language beyond the bilingual area of the feature's source and throughout a linguistic community is effected by the movements and contacts of segments of the population. For example, the word "cool" in its slang sense spread as an innovation from American Black English, itself derivative of a creole English, into the mainstream, initially through the subculture of jazz."

The density (or strength) of the communicative ties within a society refers to the frequency or intensity of the communications for which these ties are used. For example, a communicative network is dense when most pairs of individuals in the network communicate for a multiplicity of reasons. It appears that the diffusion of linguistic features is more rapid where the linguistic community exhibits a widespread but less dense (weaker, more diffuse) communicative network. In contrast, in the dense networks of isolated communities where single communicative ties are more often multipurpose (strong), changes in language are conservative." Icelandic and English, both

37. M. J. Baik, "Syntactic Features of Englishization in Korean," World Englishes 13.2 (Jul. 1994): 155-66. 38. Rakesh Mohan Bhatt, "Language Identity, Conflict, and Convergence in South Asia," Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 22.1 (Spring 1992): 17-37. 39. Alix Nyberg, "The Debate over Black English Heats up," Nassau Spigot 18 (Princeton U, <http://spigot.princeton.edu>, 8 Feb. 1997): 12; see also J. L. Dillard, Toward a Social History of American English (New York: Mouton, 1985). 40. See James Milroy, Linguistic Variation and Change: On the Historical Sociolinguistics of English (Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell, 1992) and J. Milroy and L. Milroy, "Linguistic Change, Social Network, and Speaker Innovation," Journal of Linguistics 21 (1985): 339-84. See also April S. McMahon, Understanding Language Change (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1994). [Page 19]Germanic languages, are excellent examples. While Icelandic communities exhibit close ties within themselves and few ties outside Iceland-that is, great density within and little diffusion to and from the outside world—and while the language has changed little from its early Germanic origins, English communities exhibit weak ties, and the language has changed rapidly and considerably. One may surmise, then, that, in the case of the universal auxiliary language developing in the global village of the future, the widespread nature of such contacts will be conducive to the rapid spread of linguistic features and consequent language evolution.

The creation of pidgins and creoles also involves processes of linguistic interaction. A pidgin is a rudimentary language formed out of a mixture of tongues by peoples who have come into contact over some geographic area and must communicate for some particular reason, such as trade. A creole is derived from a pidgin but is commonly distinguished from it by having become the sole and broadly used language of a community. In various ways what one surmises about the evolution of the universal auxiliary language globally can be compared with these processes as they occur over a limited area in the creation of pidgins and creoles. In the creation of a pidgin, or pidginization, a dominant international language typically provides much of the vocabulary base while the sentence patterns are often carried over from local languages, termed substrata, or arise from strategies that, according to some linguists, are integral to the human language faculty. This results in a linguistic system of usually reduced structure with local influences and variation. Subsequent creolization, however, involves expansion and convergence of forms, often following presumably universal patterns, producing a fully elaborated and consistently defined new language over the area as a whole.* For example, it seems that, historically, the pidginization and creolization of classical Arabic played a role in producing the varieties of modern Arabic." Today the effect is evident in the varieties of usage of international languages and their pidgins and creoles.45

What language is chosen to be a universal auxiliary language is less important than that some language be chosen. Nevertheless, a particular choice must

41. See footnote 10. 42. See, for example, Loreto Todd, Pidgins and Creoles (London: Routledge, 1974); Suzanne Romaine, Pidgin and Creole Languages (London: Longman, 1988); and Albert Valdman, ed., Pidgin and Creole Linguistics (Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana UP, 1977). 43. For a discussion of universal patterns, see Derek Bickerton, Roots of Language (Ann Arbor, Mich.: Karoma Publishers, 1981). 44. See Kees Versteegh, Pidginization and Creolization: The Case of Arabic (Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 1984). 45. See S. Salikoko Mufwene, "English Pidgins: Form and Function," World Englishes 7.3 (Winter 1988): 255-67. See also Jessica Williams, "Language Acquisition, Language Contact and Nativized Varieties of English," RELC Journal 20.1 (June 1989): 39-67, and Brann, "Functions of World Languages in West Africa," West African Journal of Modern Languages. [Page 20]eventually be made. The question of which language, or the nature of the language, thus becomes almost immediately an unavoidable issue. In fact, although all might agree that the adoption of a universal language is beneficial or essential, the main problem for humanity in its implementation could be agreement on a particular language. Because natural languages come with ethnic or national associations, there is an argument in favor of choosing an ethnically neutral artificial or planned language." An artificially constructed language has the advantage of being purposely free of cultural and linguistic traditions. However, adopting an artificial language could seem unnatural with uncertain effects, some of which might be undesirable, on human cognition and communication.

Such prejudices and fears impede steps toward choosing a universal auxiliary language. They remind one of the "fears and agitation" that Bahá’u’lláh said must accompany the appearance of justice in this age, leading to the unity of humankind and the maturity it must attain in adopting a universal auxiliary language. It is essential, therefore, to overcome these prejudices and fears. Allaying them is the acceptance of the idea that the universal auxiliary language, whatever its origin or initial nature, could, through the convergent effects of contact, come to reflect the diverse linguistic developments of the world. Even an artificially constructed language would be subject when actually in use to influences from the natural languages with which it is in contact and to conformity with the human faculty of language. In the fullness of time, this evolution would lead to the second stage, in which one single language, embodying the linguistic heritage of humankind, would be adopted by the world as its sole active language, the native language of all on earth.

The Emergent Universal Language

THROUGH an evolutionary process, then, the form of the universal language would itself come to exhibit the attribute of justice and manifest the oneness of the human race. Some of the ways in which justice and unity may be reflected in the form of a universal language by its coherent and enriching incorporation of the world's linguistic diversity can be illustrated by exploring examples of the world's linguistic tools.

The Innate Faculty of Language. A premise of modern linguistic science is that each separate language is a manifestation of the same innate and universal human cognitive capacity. Disclosing the nature of this capacity is linguistic science's ultimate goal. Languages that seem very unlike each other have merely developed different aspects of the same linguistic faculty as tools of linguistic expression.

46. See, for example, Humphrey Tonkin, "The Future of Modern Languages in English-speaking Countries," Esperanto Documents 18 (1979): 3-14. 47. See Noam Chomsky, Knowledge of Language: Its Nature, Origins and Use (New York: Praeger, 1986). [Page 21]

LANGUAGE AS JUSTICE IN THE NEW WORLD ORDER

The Whorfian hypothesis of linguistic relativity-that differences of thought and the classification of experience are molded by the language one speaks- must be seen as regarding differences of development. 48 For example, virtually all languages have the colors red, black, and white as basic terms and concepts, but eleven or so basic color terms in a number of languages represent a fuller development of color conceptualization that follows universal and innate lines.

In the realm of the sound systems of language, virtually all languages have at least a three-way contrast in consonant sounds, usually represented by -p-, -t-, and -k-, and three vowel sounds, usually -a-, -i-, and -u-.50 Other more complex sounds that occur represent further phonological developments of the language faculty. For example, many, but not all, languages contrast these voiceless consonants with their voiced counterparts -b-, -d-, -g-. But the contrast of -t- with the -th- sound, as in the English word thin, is much rarer. Also rare are the click consonants prevalent in the Khoisan language family of southern Africa, such as the lateral click in //gama, meaning 'God' in #Hòa, which represent an extreme development of the consonant system. 51

The Riches of the World's Linguistic Tools

The variety of syntactic tools developed in the languages of the world entail various kinds of expressiveness. The expression of certain sorts of situations is inherently easier with some kinds of syntactic construction than with others. Their coherent incorporation in a single universal language can, therefore, be enriching as well as reflective of the linguistic unity of humankind.

An area in which differences of syntactic tools are particularly clear is that of the expression of complex events. Different languages provide different means to express complex events. For example, the word smash is complex in that it expresses in a single word two constituent events, one in consequence of the other-a hitting event followed by a breaking event. Languages may also express complex events by combining words. English may signal a consequent event by adding a complement word that expresses the result. Thus to knock, expressing a hitting event, English can add apart, expressing a resulting breaking event, as in (1), giving the same meaning as smash.

48. See B. L. Whorf, Language, Thought, and Reality: Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Wharf. ed. J. B. Carrol (New York: Wiley, 1956).

49. These are black, white, red, green, yellow, blue, brown, gray, pink, orange, and purple. See Brent Berlin and Paul Kay, Basic Color Terms: Their Universality and Evolution (Berkeley: U of California P, 1969).

50. See, for example, Roger Lass, Phonology: An Introduction to Basic Concepts (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1984). In some languages, individual sound categories in these patterns may be substituted by different but related sounds. For example, in Hawaiian and in Cockney English, - t- is replaced by a "glottal stop" -- (matter pronounced-ma?a).

51. Jeffrey S. Gruber, "Hoà Kinship Terms," Linguistic Inquiry 4.4 (1973): 427-49. The lateral click // is like the sound to "giddap" a horse; the alveolar click is like "tsk" but neater. [Page 22](1) The stone knocked the wall apart.

A verb-complement construction used in this way does not exist in many languages, which, instead, must combine clauses. For example, in French one cannot combine a form of frapper 'hit' with a complement phrase like en mille morceaux "into a thousand pieces'. This would produce the unacceptable French sentence (marked *) in (2a). Instead, French may combine frapper with casser 'break' in a second clause expressing the result, as in (2b).

(2) a. *La pierre a frappé le mur en mille morceaux. 'The stone knocked the wall into a thousand pieces." b. La pierre a frappé le mur et l'a cassé. "The stone hit the wall and broke it.'

A similar French example is illustrated in (3a), in which the main verb is combined with a modifying (participial) verb expressing manner. (3a) translates English (3b).

(3) a. Il est entré dans la salle en courant. 52 'He entered the room by running." b. He ran into the room. c.

• Il a couru dans la salle.

'He ran into the room.'

In (3b) the English word run has a complex meaning that French must analyze with two verbs entrer 'enter' and courir 'run', the latter only expressing the manner of movement, not the direction. It cannot be directly combined with a complement phrase expressing direction, such dans la salle meaning 'into the room', so that (3c) cannot have the sense of (3b) and can only mean 'he ran (about) in the room'.

West African and some East Asian languages, as well as some pidgins and creoles, employ what are called serial verb constructions to express complex events, as in a Yoruba example:"

(4) Okúta gbá ògiri fó. stone hit wall break "The stone smashed the wall." (Yoruba)

Each of these methods has its own unique expressive power. They are three ways of expressing the same "meaning," each with different advantages. The serial verb construction, for example, permits the efficient and creative expression of new complex events, as in the following example of Edo:54

52. This example was provided by Dr. Howard B. Garey in a personal communication. 53. Jeffrey S. Gruber, "Proper Argument Projection in Igbo and Yoruba," in MIT Working Papers in Linguistics 17: Proceedings of the Kwa Comparative Syntax Workshop (Department of Linguistics and Philosophy, MIT, Jan. 1992) 139-64. 54. Rebecca N. Agheyisi, "Verb Serialization and Lexical Reanalysis: The Case of Compound Verbs in Edo," Studies in African Linguistics 17 (1986): 13. The analysis in Agheyisi's article is somewhat different from that presented here. [Page 23](5) a. Òzó dè éwù rré. (Edo) Ozo buy shirt come 'Ozo got the shirt to come by buying it.' b. Ozo bought the shirt here.

• 'Ozo got the shirt to come by buying it."

The complex event intended here, which can be expressed with two verbs in Edo, de 'buy' and rré 'come' in sentence (5a), is 'Ozo bought the shirt and (so) it came-hence, 'Ozo got the shirt to come by buying it'. It may be that Ozo sent money and ordered the shirt, for example. This complex event cannot be expressed by an English single-verb complement construction with the verb buy and the complement here, as in sentence (b). In the English sentence here can only mean where the speaker is when uttering the sentence and where the buying took place. It cannot refer to the resultant place of the thing bought. In fact this sense of the Edo sentence can only be expressed awkwardly in English.

However, a single-verb complement construction has the advantage of unambiguously identifying the subject of the second event, while a serial construction can be ambiguous in this respect. In the English single-verb construction (1), it is unambiguously the wall that broke. To express the meaning 'the stone hit the wall and the stone broke' the single verb must be used intransitively instead of transitively, as in (6).

(6) The stone knocked apart against the wall.

But in the Yoruba serial construction (4) both interpretations are possible. Similarly in the Edo serial construction (5a) with the meaning indicated it is the shirt that comes. But (5a) can also mean 'Ozo bought the shirt and (he) came here (with it)', where it is Ozo that comes. The latter meaning is not present in the English single-verb construction (5b).

Note that it is not asserted that the serial construction is inherently more ambiguous than the verb-complement construction. The latter can be ambiguous in other ways: for example here in 'the ball rolled here' refers either to the place where the ball rolls to or the place in which it is rolling. In fact, in expressing the place in which it is rolling a serial verb construction would be unambiguous in this respect.

Thus comparing the syntactic constructions of serial verb and verbal complement, one sees expressive advantages and disadvantages to each. Incorporating the various linguistic tools that humankind has developed in a single universal language would reflect its unity and wholeness and the completeness of this development.

The Universal Language: Humankind's Inheritance

One may envision that natural processes of language contact and evolution will impart to any universal language that is adopted and used alongside the diverse ethnic languages of the world some of the expressive tools that have developed in these languages. This will take place given the conditions, described above, conducive to the diffusion of such features that a unified world linguistic community [Page 24]will provide, and to the extent that the various modes of expression are able to coexist in the same language.

As noted, language distinctions are rather like those of race rather than species. Just as racial types involve a concentration of certain genetic traits, language types represent a compression of linguistic characteristics, resulting from historic isolation and development but accessible to convergence and integration through contact. How and to what extent divergent structures can be combined in a single language is a matter requiring careful investigation. Nevertheless, from the perspective of work in contact linguistics, it appears that linguistic features of many sorts can be transferred between languages of many different structures,"

Thus there are languages with multiple types of expression, often with one or the other type peripheral. This is so for serial-verb and verb-complement constructions. While Yoruba primarily uses serial verb constructions, it has, in addition, some single-verb plus complement constructions. Yoruba expresses the instrument used to accomplish an action by means of a serial verb fi 'use', as in (7a). But there is also the word pèlu 'with' that can be used as a preposition in a single-verb construction (7b) to express the instrument of an action. The two constructions are distinguished syntactically by ordering principles, so that the preposition pèlu follows the verb ge 'cut' in (7b) while the serial verb fi precedes ge in (7a).

(7) a. Bádé fi òbé ge bread. Bade use knife cut bread 'Bade cut the bread with a knife."

b. Bádé ge bread pèlu òbé. Bade cut bread with knife. 'Bade cut the bread with a knife." (Yoruba)

The sentences in (7a) and (7b) exemplify the appearance through contact of the expressive tools of one language in another, occurring naturally in the contact situations. On the one hand, the English gloss of the Yoruba sentence in (7a), 'Bade use knife cut bread', corresponds to the words in a typical West African Pidgin English sentence. Here English-based words are used in a serial construction typical of West African languages. On the other hand, the structure of the Yoruba sentence (7b) contains a prepositional phrase typical of English. When the languages are equal socially so that there is stable and mutual bilingualism, convergence tends to take place where the languages maintain their identity by distinct vocabulary but become similar in syntactic

55. See Sarah Grey Thomason and Terrance Kaufman, Language Contact: Creolization and Genetic Linguistics (Berekeley: U of California P, 1988).

56. Whether the appearance of serial verbs in pidgin and creole languages arises from convergence with substrate languages or from universal innate strategies is controversial. Compare Suzanne Romaine, Pidgin and Creole Languages (London: Longman, 1988). [Page 25]pattern. This seems to be happening here. Each language borrows from the other and increases its own expressiveness—for example, by filling vocabulary gaps and adopting syntactic tools that may be lacking." In the same way, a universal auxiliary language could naturally come to reflect in a unified manner the modes of expression of the diverse linguistic backgrounds of its users.

A constructed or planned universal language could aim at the outset to incorporate within it a more complete development of the potentialities of the human language faculty and an inheritance from the languages of the world. However, whatever language is adopted, artificial or natural, it will have to be planned in some way. Language planning, complementing the natural evolution of the universal auxiliary language, could be directed toward making it easy to learn, expressive, and reflective of the world's linguistic inheritance. Such planning, based on unbiased principles, would also dissipate any feelings of linguistic imperialism that might be associated with the adopted language. Indeed, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá suggests that the universal language should be planned in just such a manner:

It must be made by a Council representing all countries, and must contain words from different languages. It will be governed by the simplest rules, and there will be no exceptions; neither will there be gender, nor extra and silent letters. Everything indicated will have but one name. In Arabic there are hundreds of names for the camel!

He further states that Esperanto "will be spread and universalized to a certain degree, but later on a language more complete than this, or the same language will undergo some changes and alterations and will be adopted and become universal." Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith, adds that "Perhaps the main consideration in future will be the specific qualities of a [universal] language as being exact, rich and easy to learn for both East and West,"

It might be proposed, then, that the natural process of evolution stimulated by contact with the diverse languages of the world could be supported and guided globally by conscious decision and continued planning. Constructed language movements, such as that of Esperanto and Interlingua, have done this to some degree, by determining vocabulary without imposing many rules

57. Rajeshwari Panharipande, in "Counteracting Forces in Language Change: Convergence vs. Maintenance," Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 12.2 (Fall 1982): 97-116, describes mutual borrowing of this sort between Hindi and Marathi in Central India.

58. See Jeffrey S. Gruber, "On the Selection of an International Auxiliary Language," World Order 1.3 (Spring 1967): 19-25.

59. See Robert Phillipson, Linguistic Imperialism (Oxford: Oxford UP, 1992) 86.

60. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in London: Addresses and Notes of Conversations (London: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1982) 94; ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Tablets of Abdul-Baha Abbas, 3 vols. (New York: Bahai Publishing Society, 1916) 3: 692; Shoghi Effendi to an individual, 18 May 1928, in memorandum by the Research Department of the Universal House of Justice, 7 Jul. 1994. [Page 26]of syntax. In that case, usage would, within judiciously determined limits, be free to follow the patterns of mother tongues. To some extent this has also been advocated in the use of natural international languages, where teachers are advised to acknowledge various manners of expression, or "tones" and regional "flavors of the language as part of its international character. Such freedom to follow native patterns would also be similar to the natural contact situation of pidginization and creolization, which results in variation followed by convergence over a limited geographic area. The institution of a universal auxiliary language, however, must differ from the development of a pidgin or creole in that it will be global and deliberately planned and taught. While variations of use will occur as a result of varying mother-tongue substrata, fragmentation into conflicting dialects or mutually unintelligible daughter languages (such as took place with Latin, for example), therefore, will not occur. This will be prevented by the existence of a single world-encompassing linguistic community, with no parts isolated from others. Instead, variations of use of the universal language, especially with its institutionalized planning and instruction, would converge globally, incorporating within the language a variety of the world's linguistic tools, thus expanding it in expressive power and as a manifestation of the human linguistic potential.

It is interesting that international languages of the past, such as Latin and Classical Arabic, had to be deliberately kept uniform to avoid the local variation that in their case led to fragmentation and the inability to be used internationally. This usage was possible, however, only for an educated elite. Moreover, it was done at the cost of preventing the natural evolution of the

61. Lingua Franca, a Romance-based pidgin formed in the Middle Ages, has been said to resemble modern planned languages (see Hugo Schuchardt, Pidgin and Creole Languages: Selected Essays, ed. Glenn G. Gilbert [London: Cambridge UP, 1980] chap. 5).

62. Larry E. Smith, "English as an International Auxiliary Language," RELC Journal 7.2 (Dec. 1976): 3842. Research is required to determine standards (communicability?) in the international use of English without the imposition of any one national standard. In many quarters English is felt already to be truly internationalized, no longer belonging to any particular country, and comprising "nativized" varieties, including recognized national standard varieties, the institutionalized teaching of which may be fully justified. Bhatt describes the process of convergence, such as the "nativization" of English, as eliminating language conflict and establishing a new identity. See also Hartmut Haberland, "Whose English, Nobody's Business," Journal of Pragmatics 13 (1989): 927-38: The worldwide academic and scientific use of "bad English" could lead to a new standard that would "serve the purposes of its community of speakers better than any existing standard of English would, since it would be far less culture-bound and ethnocentric than all the other Englishes we can choose today" (937).

63. Varieties of English about the world in relative isolation may already be unintelligible to speakers of other English varieties, such as between Indian and Filipino non-native English speakers who use English only to communicate with other Indian or Filipino non-native English speakers. See Larry E. Smith, "Spread of English and Issues of Intelligibility," in Braj B. Kachru, ed., The Other Tongue, English across Cultures (Urbana, Ill.: U of Illinois P, 1992) 75-90.

64. This was noted by Dr. Howard B. Garey in a personal communication. [Page 27]language. The universal auxiliary language as an active living language used for all purposes by all social strata will be subject to natural influences of variation, change, and development. Yet because of the global character of the speech community, and through planning, convergence rather than fragmentation will occur, unifying and enriching the universal language.

In natural situations, the variability that characterizes pidgins and creoles becomes associated with elaborate social codes of usage, prestige, and prejudices, as, for example, in Jamaican Creole English. This also could be averted by institutionalized planning and acceptance. All languages are logical systems reflecting innate characteristics of the human cognitive capacity; so-called substandard varieties are no less logical. For example, there is nothing inherently illogical about dialects of English that use double negatives, such as in (8a). Double negatives are a device to express the scope of negation. They have their own systematic usage and logic and occur in many languages, including Russian (b).

(8) a. I don't know nothing. 'I don't know anything.' b. Ya nichevo ne znayu. I nothing not know 'I don't know anything."

Evolutionary language planning could be as much descriptive as prescriptive, codifying, sanctioning, and developing patterns of expression in the language as they appear naturally in diverse usages. Rather than rigidly constraining the usages of the universal language, latitude can be taken to incorporate intelligently within it, without conflict, forms originating from the linguistic backgrounds of its users and reflecting the innate human capacity for language. Such usages could be promulgated in the normal course of education in the language. The process of perfecting the universal language, making it more complete, would be continuous and evolutionary.

A language manifesting such a full development of the human language faculty will be incomparably rich in expressive power. It will have the capacity for both exact and more fluid modes of expression. Initial learning of the universal auxiliary language will also be relatively easy to all speakers. Languages restricted to certain forms of expression they have developed are difficult for speakers of a language not especially developed in this way. But a language

65. See William Labov, The Study of Nonstandard English (Washington, D.C.: Center for Applied Linguistics, 1969).

66. One conflict to be avoided would be the presence of universally incompatible forms. Another would be the inclusion of syntactic forms that are contrary to one another but have the same significance and value as expressive tools, such as basic word-order pattern—for example, verb-object and object-verb. Their inclusion in the same language could lead to misunderstanding. However, even different word-order patterns could be included if they were assigned different significances. [Page 28]with certain free and optional use of what is innately possible, without many obligatory rules, will allow speakers to use more basic and familiar patterns from their mother tongues. Such a language will have the simplest possible set of rules, which, as in some constructed interlanguages, means the absence of stated rules, deriving syntactic patterns from mother tongues or universal innate patterns.

Given the immense use of the universal auxiliary language at the grass roots over hundreds of years and the enormous interface of language contact between it and the languages of the world, the enriching influence of that contact could be a much more important factor in its evolution than any initial imposition of culture or language form. Whether newly invented or of ethnic origin, the ultimate form of the universal auxiliary language, possibly evolving into the single language of all humanity in the second stage, will, like the emergent global society, be a new creation and the heritage of all humankind. [Page 29]

On Looking at a Picture

Looking at the picture brought back memories no longer willingly remembered.

The sweetness of youth filled the room with fragrance. Objects from travels quickly faded as water from the lake washed over me.

The trees on the campus stood straight and tall and full of promise waiting to shade me against the brilliance of a shining future.

On looking back at the picture of my youth my heart leaps wildly. Little did I know then of the quiet joy that comes with old age.

-Joan Imig Taylor Copyright © 1998 by Joan Imig Taylor

�[Page 31]American Bahá’í Publishing: 1896-1922 BY ROGER M. DAHL

Introduction

UBLISHING Bahá’í literature has been an integral activity of the Bahá’í Faith since the time of its Founder, Bahá’u’lláh (1817-92). During His own lifetime, five of His works were published in India. Soon after the first North Americans became Bahá’ís in 1894, they realized the importance of publishing, especially of publishing the scriptures of their Faith. The period from 1896 through 1922 is marked by determined efforts to establish a publishing house that could produce Bahá’í books for a variety of purposes and audiences and to found a magazine that would be more than a news organ. The modest number of Bahá’ís and the paucity of their funds were no deterrent. During the Bahá’í Faith’s first quarter century in North America, the Bahá’ís’ love for their new-found religion and their determination succeeded in laying the groundwork for a strong publishing tradition that is still a hallmark of the United States Bahá’í community.

Copyright 1998 by Roger M. Dahl. 1. See Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, intro. George Townshend, new ed. (Wilmette, Ill.: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1974) 195, and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, The Promulgation of Universal Peace: Talks Delivered by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá during His Visit to the United States and Canada in 1912, comp. Howard MacNutt, 2d ed. (Wilmette, Ill.: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1982) 372, 398, 432, 434-435. 2. Copy of letter from Behais Supply and Publishing Board of Chicago to Haji Mirza Hassan Khorasani [Hájí Hasan-i-Khurasaní] and Mirza Asadu’llah [Mírzá Asadu’lláh], December 1900, Ahmad Sohrab Papers, National Bahá’í Archives, Wilmette, Ill. (hereafter NBA); Arthur S. Agnew to Ali Kuli Khan, 6 March 1908, attached to Minutes of 10 March 1906, Chicago House of Spirituality Records, NBA; Arthur Agnew Personal Recollections, n.d., Arthur Agnew Personal Recollections Collection, NBA.

The initial motivation for publishing the Bahá’í scriptures and works about the Bahá’í Faith can be found in the letters and communications of the early North American Bahá’ís. In an undated letter, possibly written around December 1900, one Bahá’í noted that a publishing entity was needed "to furnish" the Bahá’ís "with such supplies as they deem necessary to carry on the work of the Cause in America." In 1906 another Bahá’í discussed publishing in terms of unity and understanding the teachings of the Bahá’í Faith: "We feel the crying necessity of to-day is to get the Words of Baha’u’llah and Abdul-Baha [Bahá’u’lláh’s son and appointed successor and interpreter of His writings] in the possession of the American believers. It cannot be expected that there will be unity among the believers until they know the commands and instructions of Baha’u’llah."

Yet other Bahá’ís recognized the importance of producing dignified editions of the scriptures of the Faith. Thornton Chase, the first Bahá’í in North America, showed some friends a typewritten booklet of Bahá’u’lláh’s Arabic Hidden Words, asking them what they thought of it and observing that these were the "most wonderful words ever given to man" but that "the way it is gotten up looks like an old rag." Chase asked his printer friend to see what he could do with the booklet- to see if he could not "dress it up as it should be." [Page 32]As more translations of the writings of Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá became available, due in large measure to contact with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and the efforts of a number of Persian teachers and translators whom ‘Abdu’l-Bahá sent to North America to educate the Bahá’ís in the tenets of their new faith, the Bahá’ís found scriptural support for their efforts. Bahá’u’lláh Himself, in The Kitáb-i-Íqán, first published in the United States in 1903, extols the power and potency of the written revelation as the Word of God, explaining that it offers “the cup of knowledge unto them who wander in the wilderness of ignorance” and confers “the guidance, the blessings, the learning, the understanding, the faith, and certitude” that humans seek.³

In addition, the early North American Bahá’ís understood that the Bahá’í Faith, which has no clergy to act as the repository and channel of spiritual knowledge, is intended to be open for investigation and study by everyone. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá explained in a talk given in New York City in 1912 that individuals must “investigate reality” for themselves.⁴ Thus early North American Bahá’ís, just as do Bahá’ís today, considered it extremely important to translate the works of Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá from the original Persian and Arabic and to publish and disseminate them as widely as possible within the Bahá’í community.

‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s call to the Bahá’ís to spread Bahá’u’lláh’s teachings to all of humankind was yet another motivation. He exhorted them “to spread” Bahá’u’lláh’s “spirit and diffuse” His “light” so that they might “guide” souls “to the running water of life and lead them to the field of knowledge.”⁵ Thus the early North American Bahá’ís saw the obvious need for introductory books and pamphlets about the Bahá’í Faith to give to inquirers. It also reinforced the importance of having Bahá’í literature for study classes, for, if Bahá’ís were to promote Bahá’u’lláh’s teachings, they would need to have a thorough understanding of the Bahá’í writings.

As Bahá’í communities grew, there was a demand for specialized literature, such as literature for the education of children and books of music to enrich the life of the community.

Initial Period, 1896–1902

THE earliest North American publications about the Bahá’í Faith appear to be those by Ibrahim Kheiralla, a Syrian Bahá’í who in 1893 began teaching the Bahá’í Faith in the United States. In 1894 he attracted at least four individuals to the Bahá’í Faith in Chicago and developed a series of lessons to prepare those interested in the Bahá’í Faith for hearing about Bahá’u’lláh.⁶ In 1896 and 1897, respectively, he published some of his lessons in Chicago as pamphlets—Za-ti-et-Al-lah: The Identity and the Personality of God and Bab-Ed-din: The Door of True Religion. Neither pamphlet mentioned the Bahá’í Faith by name; they were intended to arouse interest in Kheiralla’s classes. The Bahá’ís also had access to several books on the Bahá’í Faith published by Edward Granville Browne, a Cambridge University Orientalist who was a prominent scholar of the Persian language

---

3. Baha’u’llah, Kitáb-i-Íqán: The Book of Certitude, trans. Shoghi Effendi, ‎lst 1st‎ ps ed. (Wilmette, Ill.: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1983) 200. 4. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Promulgation of Universal Peace 433. 5. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Tablets of Abdul-Baha Abbas, 3 vols. (New York: Bahai Publishing Society, 1909), 1: 197–98. 6. See Ibrahim George Kheiralla, O Christians! Why do ye Believe Not on Christ? (Chicago: Goodspeed Press, 1917) 166–67. See also Richard Hollinger, “Ibrahim George Kheiralla and the Bahá’í Faith in America,” in From Iran East and West: Studies in Bábí and Bahá’í History, Volume Two (Los Angeles: Kalimát, 1984) 104–09. For accounts of Kheiralla’s activities in America, see Hollinger 98–110, and Robert H. Stockman, The Bahá’í Faith in America: Origins, 1892–1900, Volume 1 (Wilmette, Ill.: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1985) 26–59. [Page 33]and Persian literature and who became interested in researching the Bábí and Bahá’í faiths when he visited Persia in 1887 and 1888. These included A Traveller's Narrative Written to Illustrate the Episode of the Báb, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s history of the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh, published by Cambridge University Press in 1891; A Year Amongst the Persians, an account of Browne's 1887-88 visit to Persia, published in London in 1893; and possibly The Tárikh-i-Jadid: or, New History of Mirza ‘Alí Muḥammad the Báb, Browne's translation of an early history of the Bábí movement, published by Cambridge University Press in 1893.7

In 1898 the North American Bahá’ís began to make direct contact with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá through correspondence and through the visits of the first American Bahá’í pilgrims to Haifa, Palestine, where He resided. In 1900 and 1901 several Persian Bahá’í teachers, including ‘Abdu’l-Karim-i-Tihrání, Mírzá Asadu’lláh, and Mirza Abu’l-Fadl, arrived in America. The interactions with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and with the Persian teachers and their translators began to expand the number of translations of the writings of Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá available to the American Bahá’ís.

In 1900 the two most populous Bahá’í centers, Chicago and New York City, began publishing ventures. In New York City most of the publishing was carried out under the auspices of the local Bahá’í governing body called the New York Board of Counsel. In contrast, Chicago relied on the efforts of individuals. Four Chicago Bahá’ís—Thornton Chase, an insurance agency manager; Frank H. Hoffmann, a bookbinder; Arthur S. Agnew, an employee in the publishing business; and Charles H. Greenleaf, a banker—formed on 4 June 1900 a not-for-profit Illinois corporation called the Behais Supply and Publishing Board of Chicago. Its purpose was to publish "literature for the use of religious believers in America known as Behais and to provide engravings, etc. for the use of said believers." According to a letter from the Supply and Publishing Board, it had an initial capital of $300 loaned by four or five Bahá’ís." When the Chicago House of Spirituality, the third local governing body the Bahá’ís had elected in Chicago since 1899, was formed in 1901, it agreed to allow the Publishing Board to continue to carry out the publishing needs of the Chicago Bahá’ís."

Both the New York and the Chicago Bahá’ís concentrated on publishing the few available tablets (letters) of Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and some introductory works about the Bahá’í Faith. In 1900 the Behais Supply and Publishing Board of Chicago published two works by Bahá’u’lláh—Surat’ul-Hykl: Sura of the Temple, a work describing Bahá’u’lláh’s powers as a Manifestation of God, and The Hidden Words, Bahá’u’lláh’s gem-like utterances capturing the inner essence of reli-

7. See Kenosha Bahá’í Community Minutes, 30 June 1899, 23 February 1900, and Cincinnati Bahá’í Community Minutes, 26 July 1899, NBA; Stockman, Bahá’í Faith in America: Origins 45. For more information on Edward Granville Browne's early publications on the Bahá’í Faith, see Moojan Momen, ed, The Bábi and Babd’l Religions, 1844-1944: Some Contemporary Western Accounts (Oxford: George Ronald, 1981) 29-33, and H. M. Balyuzi, Edward Granville Browne and the Bahá’í Faith (Oxford: George Ronald, 1970). 8. The corporation was legally dissolved by the State of Illinois on 8 July 1921. Behais Supply and Publishing Board of Chicago Corporate Charter, 4 June 1900, and Dissolution document, July 16, 1921, Dissolved Domestic Corporation Charters, Record Series RS103.112, Illinois State Archives. 9. Copy of letter from Behais Supply and Publishing Board of Chicago to Haji Mirza Hassan Khorasani [Hájí Hasan-i-Khurasání] and Mirza Asadu’llah [Mírzá Asadu’lláh], December 1900, Ahmad Sohrab Papers, NBA. 10. Agreement between Chicago House of Spirituality and Supply and Publishing Board of Chicago, 22 October 1901, Chicago House of Spirituality Records, NBA. [Page 34]gion.¹¹ It also published several small pamphlets to aid the Bahá’ís in teaching about the Bahá’í Faith; a photograph album entitled Views of Acca, Haifa, Mount Carmel and Other Holy Places (1900), a work reflecting the interest in the pilgrimages of a number of Bahá’ís to visit ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in the Holy Land; and possibly a small booklet of prayers that was issued during ‘Abdu’l-Karím-i-Ṭehrání’s visit to Chicago in 1900.¹²

The New York Board of Counsel produced several small booklets of Bahá’í scripture, using the few tablets of Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá that Anton Haddad, a Lebanese Bahá’í, had translated, including the Persian Hidden Words (190–); the Lawh-El-Akdas (date unknown), a tablet by Bahá’u’lláh about Christian themes addressed to a Bahá’í of Christian background; and The Book of the Covenant, Kitab-el-Ahd (c. 1901), Bahá’u’lláh’s last will and testament in which He appoints ‘Abdu’l-Bahá His successor. The New York Bahá’ís also had received from the first Persian Bahá’í teachers and from some of the earliest American pilgrims several tablets from and pilgrim notes about ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. These were published in three pamphlets.¹³

Charles Sprague, an early New York Bahá’í and member of the New York Board of Counsel who in 1901 had been appointed the publishing agent for the Board, wrote to a Bahá’í in Racine, Wisconsin, saying that he had produced a series of mimeographed volumes of translations of tablets of Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and lessons by early Bahá’í teachers.¹⁴ To aid the Bahá’ís in their teaching work, the Board of Counsel also published several introductory works, including three small introductory booklets by Anton Haddad—The Maxim of Bahaism (ca. 1900), A Message from Acca (1900), and The Station of the Manifestation and the Greatness of the Day (1901). Yet another popular publication was The Dawn of Knowledge and the Most Great Peace (1903), a work on biblical prophecies by Paul Dealy, an early Chicago Bahá’í who was an active teacher of the Faith. The two

9

The Book of the Covenant

Kitab-El-Ahd

Revealed by The Blessed Perfection

Published by The Board of Counsel, New York I-I-’01-1½M

11. The Surat’ul-Hykl: Sura of the Temple and The Hidden Words may have been printed before the Behais Supply and Publishing Board was formed or may have been circulating in manuscript form, for the Bahá’ís in Racine, Wisconsin, were studying the Surat’ul-Hykl in December 1899 (see Racine, Wisconsin, Bahai Community Minutes, 27 December 1899), and the Chicago Board of Council was giving out The Hidden Words in March 1900 (Thornton Chase to Mr. Blake, 21 March 1900. Thornton Chase Papers, NBA).

12. Thornton Chase to Isabella D. Brittingham, 25 May 1902, Thornton Chase Papers, NBA.

13. Tablets Revealed by the Blessed Perfection and Abdul Beha Abbas Brought to This Country by Haji Mirza Hassan, Mirza Assad’Ullah and Mirza Hussein (1901); Tablets of Abdul Baha Abbas to Some American Believers in the Year 1900: The Truth Concerning A. Reincarnation, B. Vicarious Atonement, C. The Trinity, D. Real Christianity (1901); Utterance of Abdul Beha Abbas to Two Young Men, American Pilgrims to Acca, 1901 (1901).

14. Charles Sprague to Andrew Nelson, 17 October 1901, Racine, Wisconsin, Bahá’í Community Records, NBA. [Page 35]thousand copies of Dealy's book sold quickly. Dealy expanded the book by one-third by adding a chapter, but the Board of Counsel found it necessary to ask for subscriptions in advance to raise the funds needed to reprint the work. The need for advance funds to publish books was a difficulty all of the Bahá’í publishing ventures faced.

Individual New York area Bahá’ís also published a few works. In 1901 Hooper Harris, an early New Jersey Bahá’í and a lawyer, and Arthur P. Dodge, one of the founders of the New York City Bahá’í community, each wrote a book and published it privately. Harris' Lessons on the Beha Revelation covered the lessons in his Bahá’í study course based primarily on the Bible; Dodge's The Truth of It dealt with proofs of the Bahá’í Faith based on common-sense, science, and religion. In 1902 another book was published privately: Hujaj’ul Beheyyeh, (The Bahäi Proofs), a summary of the history of the Bahá’í Faith, the station of its founders, and proofs of the prophecies of earlier religions, written by Mírzá Abu’l-Faḍl, an early Persian Bahá’í teacher and scholar, and translated by Ali-Kuli Khan, a young Persian sent by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to the West to learn English and to translate Bahá’í materials.

15. Charles E. Sprague Circular, n.d., Kenosha, Wisconsin, Bahá’í Community Records, NBA. 16. The Bahai Publishing Society was legally dissolved by the State of Illinois on 21 May 1937. 17. Bahai Publishing Society Corporate Charter, 10 October 1902, Dissolved Domestic Corporation Charters, Record Series RS103.112, Illinois State Archives. 18. Extract from New York City Board of Counsel Minutes, 27 January 1905, and Arthur Agnew to W. [William] H. Hoar, 17 February 1905, attached to Minutes of 18 February 1905, Chicago House of Spirituality Records, NBA. 19. Thornton Chase to Howard MacNutt, 22 December 1902, and Suggestions by the Bahais Publication Society for the Formation of a Board of Translation, John and Louise Bosch Papers, NBA.

However, the initial Chicago and New York publishing ventures both had short lives. In 1902 the Behais Supply and Publishing Board corporation was abandoned, and on 10 October 1902 the same four Chicago Bahá’ís Chase, Hoffman, Agnew, and Greenleaf together with Albert Windust, a young Chicago printer, formed a new not-for-profit Illinois corporation, the Bahai Publishing Society.16 Its corporate purpose was nearly identical to that of the Supply and Publishing Board: "the publication and distribution of literature for the use of religious believers known as Bahais and to provide engravings, cuts, photographs, etc. for the use of said believers."17 The New York City Board of Counsel, for at least two reasons, was unable to sustain a publishing organization. The American Bahá’í community may have been too small to support more than one primary publishing house. Moreover, Chicago, unlike New York City, had a small number of dedicated Bahá’ís who had experience in the printing business. According to minutes of the New York Board of Counsel and the Chicago House of Spirituality, the Chicago Bahá’ís negotiated with the New York City Bahá’ís about how to share the publishing work. It was agreed that the Bahai Publishing Society in Chicago would handle the printing for both Chicago and New York City. 18 The Bahai Publishing Society also suggested that the New York City and Chicago Bahá’ís create a board of translators to translate and publish the writings of Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, as they wanted "a competent and scholarly translation of the sacred Works." But the board was never appointed.19

Chicago, the Primary Publishing Center, 1902-16

ORIGINALLY Arthur and Mary Agnew ran the day-to-day operations of the Bahai Publishing Society, with help from Thornton Chase. Ali-Kuli Khan did much of the translating [Page 36]of Bahá’u’lláh’s writings. 20 The Agnews used personal funds to help finance the Publishing Society, lending some $2,400 by 1909.21 By 1906 the Publishing Society had thirteen books in its price list. But it continually wrestled with financial problems as it wanted to keep Bahá’í books affordable for everyone. Chase, in a 1909 letter to Laura Dreyfus-Barney, an early Paris Bahá’í from the United States, explained that he had financed the cost of publishing one thousand copies of his book Bahai Revelation, an introduction to the Bahá’í Faith stressing its essentially mystical side. It sold for $.50 per copy, which produced a gross income of $500. But the printing costs ($400) and the postage for mailing the books ($70-$.07 per book) meant that a net profit of only $30 was available to help finance future publications. Had there been overhead for salaries or office space, there would have been a serious deficit. Indeed, Chase went on to say that all the books were "priced 'at cost,' very near the actual price of an edition, and the result has been that, what with postage, expressage, and the large numbers which are given away (no applicant ever being refused), there has been a loss on every publication."23 The lack of funds meant that some new books were delayed. In 1909 the Bahai Publishing Society had plates prepared (at a cost of $600) for all three volumes of Tablets of Abdul Baha Abbas, a collection of letters from ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to the Western Bahá’ís. But Chase wrote that it only had the funds to print the first volume. Volumes 2 and 3 had to wait until 1915 and 1916, respectively.24

By 1910 the work of running the Bahai Publishing Society was too much for the Agnews. Mary Lesch, another Chicago Bahá’í who had offered to help the Agnews, was persuaded to take over the publishing work. Lesch, who had no publishing experience, learned on the job. According to an undated account she wrote about the Publishing Society, Lesch said she was able to generate sufficient income from the Bahai Publishing Society operations to repay gradually the funds that the Agnews had advanced. 25 Lesch handled all the sales and shipping out of her home; a friend who was not a Bahá’í allowed her to store books free of charge at his factory. Albert Windust, according to a 1914 letter Lesch wrote to Alfred Lunt, a Boston lawyer, apparently handled most of the editing work of new publications.26 Much of the printing was done by Grier Press where Windust worked; it is likely that he handled the printing as well. Lesch usually had books printed in lots of one thousand or two thousand, but, according to a 1919 letter to Harlan Ober, a Massachusetts Bahá’í, she did not have them all bound at once, as binding was expensive.27

Under Lesch, the range and quantity of books the Bahai Publishing Society carried

20. Arthur S. Agnew to Ali Kuli Khan, 6 March 1908, and Ali-Kuli Khan to [Thornton] Chase and Bahai House of Spirituality of Chicago, 8 March 1906, attached to Minutes of 10 March 1906, Chicago House of Spirituality Records, NBA; Thornton Chase to Ali Kuli Khan, 12 March 1906, and Ali-Kuli Khan to Thornton Chase and Chicago House of Spirituality, 15 March 1906, attached to Minutes of 17 March 1906, Chicago House of Spirituality Records, NBA.

21. Thornton Chase to L. [Laura] Clifford Barney, 22 July 1909, Arthur Agnew Papers, NBA.

22. 1906 Bahai Publishing Society Price List, Racine, Wisconsin, Bahá’í Community Records, NBA.

23. Copy of letter from Thornton Chase to L. [Laura] Clifford Barney, 22 July 1909, Arthur Agnew Papers, NBA.

24. Copy of letter from Thornton Chase to L. [Laura] Clifford Barney, 22 July 1909, Arthur Agnew Papers, NBA.

25. A few facts regarding the Bahai Publishing Society then located in Chicago, Illinois, by Mary Lesch, Mary Lesch Papers, NBA.

26. A few facts regarding the Bahai Publishing Society then located in Chicago, Illinois, by Mary Lesch, Mary Lesch Papers, NBA; Mary Lesch to Alfred E. Lunt, 30 December 1914, Alfred Lunt Papers, NBA.

27. Mary Lesch to Harlan F. Ober, 7 November 1919, Alfred Lunt Papers, NBA. [Page 37]gradually expanded. By 1914 its catalog had grown to thirty-one books, more than doubling the thirteen books in the 1906 catalog.28 The Bahai Publishing Society, foreshadowing the later role of the Bahá’í Publishing Trust, was now the primary publisher of Bahá’í scripture in the United States. It had also become the main distribution center for Bahá’í literature, carrying works produced in England and France and by other local Bahá’í communities or individual authors.

From the early 1900s, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had been involved in several phases of the work. According to references in some tablets from ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and in the minutes of the Chicago House of Spirituality, He was kept informed of the publishing activities and received copies of the translations published by the Bahai Publishing Society.29 ‘Abdu’l-Bahá encouraged the translation of several major works of Bahá’u’lláh into English by supplying Ali-Kuli Khan with correct copies in Persian and Arabic and by instructing that Bahá’u’lláh’s tablets of Ishráqát, Tarázát, and Tajalliyát, major works summarizing the Bahá’í social teachings, be translated and published.30 ‘Abdu’l-Bahá also praised the efforts of individual authors such as Thornton Chase. In a letter to Chase about his Bahai Revelation, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá wrote: “Thy epistle was received and the book composed by thee was also seen; it is very expressive, complete and speaking [sic]. I wish thee to receive through the Favors of the Blessed Beauty each day a new confirmation with the eloquent gift of composition.” In 1902 Isabella Brittingham, one of America’s most active teachers of the Bahá’í Faith, sought ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s guidance about a correction for her book, The Revelation of Bahä-ulläh in a Sequence of Four Lessons, a summary of the lives of the Báb (the Prophet-Forerunner of Bahá’u’lláh), Bahá’u’lláh, and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and biblical prophecies fulfilled by them.32 The 1906 minutes of the Chicago House of Spirituality record that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá sent to the Bahai Publishing Society correc-

28. Bahai Publishing Society Price List, ca. 1914, Helen Moss Papers, NBA. 29. Chicago House of Spirituality Minutes, 27 October 1906, Chicago House of Spirituality Records, NBA; Tablet of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to Albert Windust, Translated 18 July 1914, Albert Windust Papers, NBA; Tablets of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to Arthur Agnew and Mamie Agnew, translated 10 July 1909 and 14 December 1909, Translations of Tablets of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá Collection, NBA. 30. Albert Windust to Chas. [Charles] Mason Remey, 27 February 1906, and Ali-Kuli Khan to Thornton Chase and Bahai House of Spirituality of Chicago, 8 March 1906, attached to Minutes of 10 March 1906, Chicago House of Spirituality Records, NBA. 31. Translation of tablet by Moneer Zaine [Mírzá Munír-i-Zayn], dated ca. 1909, attached to Moneer Zaine to T. [Thornton] Chase, 5 July 1909, Translations of Tablets of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá Collection, Thornton Chase File, NBA. 32. Isabella Brittingham was instructed by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to change a reference to the Ottoman Sultan. Tablet from ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to Isabella Brittingham, translated by Ameen Ollah 9 September 1902, Translations of Tablets of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá Collection, NBA.

TABLETS FROM ABDUL BEHA ABBAS TO SOME AMERICAN BELIEVERS IN THE YEAR 1900. THE TRUTH CONCERNING A. RE-INCARNATION" B. "VICARIOUS ATONEMENT" C. "THE TRINITY" D. REAL CHRISTIANITY. PUBLISE T THE BOARD OF COURSE, 707-708 CARNEGIR HALL, New Year. APRIL 1001. [Page 38]tions for the translation of Surat’ul-Hykl.³³ In 1912 He arranged for Albert Windust to print five thousand copies of Mírzá Abu’l-Faḍl’s The Brilliant Proof, a short refutation of attacks on the Bahá’í Faith by a Christian missionary. This work was widely distributed throughout the Bahá’í world, with 826 copies going to Iran, 15 to Haifa, 30 to Turkey and Lebanon, 50 to the author, 360 to Russia, 50 to Montreal, 83 to India, and 48 to Egypt.³⁴

In addition to encouraging publishing activities and providing corrections, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá reviewed proposed publications. As early as 1901 He instructed the Bahá’ís to send manuscripts to Him for review.³⁵ In 1906, in a letter to Arthur Agnew, He reiterated the need for review: “It is incumbent upon the Spiritual Consultative Assembly of New York to be in complete agreement with that of Chicago, and for these two assemblies of consultation jointly to approve whatever they consider suitable for publication and distribution. Following that, let them send one copy to ‘Akká, so that it may also be approved from here, after which the material will be returned to be published and circulated.”³⁶

The work of the Bahá’í Publishing Society meant that the American Bahá’ís had access to many of the major works of Bahá’u’lláh, as well as a growing collection of published tablets, talks, and stories of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. Between 1900 and 1918 eight major works of Bahá’u’lláh (see Table 1) and eight major works of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá (see Table 2) were translated and published. Another important source of talks and instructions from ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was provided by Bahá’í pilgrims to the Holy Land who published accounts of their meetings with Him. Eleven pilgrim notes were published between 1907 and 1911 (see Table 3). The early American Bahá’í community had in English a larger collection of Bahá’í scriptures and other publications about the Bahá’í Faith than many national Bahá’í communities have today in their native languages. The abundance of literature may have been an important factor in the growth of the Bahá’í Faith in North America. In Britain the

Table 1

Partial List of the Editions and Printings of the Major Works, of Bahá’u’lláh, 1900-18.

1. The Hidden Words. Chicago, 1900?; The Hidden Words from the Persian. New York, 1900?; Hidden Words, Words of Wisdom, and Communes from the Supreme Pen of Bahá’u’lláh. Chicago, 1905. 2. Surat’ul-Hykl: Sura of the Temple. Chicago, 1900. 3. The Book of Ighan. Trans. Ali Kuli Khan. New York, 1904; Chicago 1907, 1915. 4. The Seven Valleys. Trans. Ali Kuli Khan. Chicago, 1906, 1914. 5. Tablet of Tarazat, Tablet of the World, Words of Paradise, Tablet of Tajalleyat, The Glad Tidings, Revealed by Bahá’u’lláh at Acca. Trans. Ali Kuli Khan. Chicago, 1906, 1913. 6. The Tablet of Ishrakat (Effulgences), Preceded by the Tablet on the Most Great Infallibility. Trans. Ali Kuli Khan. Chicago, 1908. 7. Kitab-El-Ah’d, Book of the Covenant, the Will and Testament of Bahá’o’lláh. Chicago, 1913. 8. Lawh-El-Akdas: The Holy Tablet Revealed by the Blessed Perfection (Bahá’o’lláh) at Bagdad. Chicago, 1913.

Footnotes

33. Minutes, 27 October 1906, Chicago House of Spirituality Records, NBA. 34. Albert Windust to Abdul Baha Abbas [‘Abdu’l-Bahá], 12 September 1912, Albert Windust Papers, NBA. 35. Abul-Fazl [Abu’l-Fadl] to William Hooper Harris, 2 November 1901, Gertrude and Hooper Harris Papers, NBA. 36. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Selections from the Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, comp. Research Department of the Universal House of Justice, trans. Committee at the Bahá’í World Centre and Marzieh Gail (Haifa: Bahá’í World Centre, 1997) 83. An earlier translation can be found in Translation of Tablet of ‘Abdul-Bahá to Arthur Agnew, translated by Ali-Kuli Khan, 30 June 1906, circulated by the Chicago House of Spirituality of Bahá’ís, Racine, Wisconsin, Bahá’í Community Records, NBA. [Page 39]

Table 2: Partial List of the Editions and Printings of the Major Works of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 1900-20

1. Some Answered Questions. London/Philadelphia, 1908; Chicago, 1918. 2. Tablets of Abdul Baha Abbas. Vol. 1. Chicago, 1909, 1912, 1919. 3. The Mysterious Forces of Civilization. London, 1910; Chicago, 1910, 1918. 4. Talks by Abdul Baha Given in Paris. East Sheen, Surrey, England, 1912; Chicago 1912; London, 1915, 1916, 1920. 5. Abdu’l-Baha in London. London, 1912. 6. Tablets of Abdul Baha Abbas. Vol. 2. Chicago, 1915, 1919. 7. Tablets of Abdul Baha Abbas. Vol. 3. Chicago, 1916, 1919. 8. Letter and Tablet from Abdul Baha to the Central Organization for a Durable Peace, The Hague. Chicago, 1920.

Table 3: Pilgrim Notes, 1907-11

1. Agnew, Arthur S. Table Talks at Acca by Abdul-Baha Abbas. Chicago, 1907. 2. True, Corinne. Table Talks by Abdul Baha Taken Down in Persian by Mirza Hadi At Acca, Feb. 1907. Notes Taken by Corinne True. Chicago, 1907. 3. Grundy, Julia M. Ten Days in the Light of Acca. Chicago, 1907. 4. Chase, Thornton, and Arthur S. Agnew. In Galilee and In Spirit and In Truth. Chicago, 1908. 5. Goodall, Helen S., and Ella Cooper. Daily Lessons Received at Acca, January 1908. Chicago, 1908. 6. Winterburn, Mr. and Mrs. George T. Table Talks with Abdul Baha in February, 1904. Chicago, 1908. 7. Hannen, Joseph. Akka Lights. n.p., 1909. 8. Haney, Charles and Mariam. A Heavenly Feast: Some Utterances of Abdul-Baha to Two American Pilgrims, in Acca, Syria, February 1909. n.p., 1910. 9. Finch, Ida A., Fanny A. Knobloch, and Alma S. Knobloch. Flowers Culled from the Rose Garden of Acca. n.p., 1910. 10. Gregory, Louis. A Heavenly Vista. Washington, D.C., 1911. 11. Peeke, Margaret B. My Visit to Abbas-Effendi in 1899. Cleveland, 1911.

absence of active local and national Bahá’í organizations and of an active publishing program may have contributed to a lack of dynamic growth in the membership and the level of activities until the 1930s.37 Conversely, the number of Bahá’í communities in North America increased steadily during the same period.

As the work of teaching the Bahá’í Faith expanded, Bahá’ís wrote more introductory works to provide literature for Bahá’í study classes and to introduce the public to the Bahá’í religion. Among the introductory books were The Revelation of Bahä-ulläh (1902) by Isabella Brittingham; The Life and Teachings of Abbas Effendi (1903), a description of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá by Myron Phelps, a non-Bahá’í lawyer who visited Him in Acre in 1902; The Dawn of Knowledge and the Most Great Peace (1903) by Paul K. Dealy; The Bahäi Proofs (1902) and The Brilliant Proof (1912) by Mírzá Abu’l-Fadl; The Universal Religion: Bahaism (1909), an erudite introduction to the Bahá’í teachings by Hippolyte Dreyfus; The Bahai Revelation (1909) by Thornton Chase; The Oriental Rose or the Teachings of Abdul Baha, an introduction to Bahá’í history and teachings as taught by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, by Mary Hanford Ford, an active Bahá’í speaker and traveler; and Bahaism, The Modern Social Religion (1913), an introduction to the Bahá’í Faith viewed as a social movement by Horace Holley, a New York Bahá’í.

37. See Phillip R. Smith, "The Development and Influence of the Bahá’í Administrative Order in Great Britain, 1914-1950," in Community Histories: Studies in the Bábí and Bahá’í Religions, Volume 6, ed. Richard Hollinger (Los Angeles: Kalimát Press, 1992) 157-67, 174. [Page 40]

BAHAISM THE MODERN SOCIAL RELIGION BY HORACE HOLLEY

THE philosophy of the Bahai teaching is here authoritatively presented for the first time. This remarkable movement, which originated in Persia only a generation ago, has already found millions of adherents of every class and nationality. The author deals with his subject in an unconventional way and writes with fire, force and eloquence. This book may well prove one of the most vital publications on such a theme that has appeared in a long while.

MITCHELL KENNERLEY PUBLISHER NEW YORK

Chase's book, The Bahai Revelation, seems to have been an especially popular introductory work among active Bahá’í teachers. A Spokane Bahá’í wrote in 1909 that "Bro Chase 'Bahai Revelation' is a good book & I have three of them always on the go."38 In the book Chase quotes heavily from the Bible and from several works by Bahá’u’lláh, but he mentions ‘Abdu’l-Bahá only briefly.

Several Bahá’í authors used the example and stories of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to illustrate many of the Bahá’í principles, such as the unity of humankind, but they did not dwell on Him to the exclusion of coverage of Bahá’u’lláh. Many Bahá’ís, including Thornton Chase, were very attracted to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, which can be see in the great love and devotion they expressed in their letters to Him and in their pilgrim notes about visits to see Him. However, this did not blind them to the station of Bahá’u’lláh, the Manifestation of God for this age. Just as ‘Abdu’l-Bahá would later focus on Bahá’u’lláh's teachings during His 1912 talks in America, so did the Bahá’í authors give prominence to the words and teachings of Bahá’u’lláh in their introductory literature.

In 1912 there were no available introductory pamphlets about the Bahá’í Faith. With the approaching visit of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the Persian American Educational Society in Washington, D.C., a private social and economic development agency organized by Bahá’ís, decided to fill this need by preparing two simple pamphlets. The first was Universal Principles of the Bahai Movement: Social, Economic, Governmental, twenty-five thousand copies of which were printed for free distribution.39 The pamphlet, which proved to be quite popular, consisted of quotations from the writings of Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. The second pamphlet was The Bahai Movement for Universal Religion, Brotherhood and Peace: A Sketch of Its History and Teachings by Charles Mason Remey, an early Washington, D.C., Bahá’í.

Initially much of the Bahá’í literature was probably used by Bahá’ís. Most local Bahá’í communities had active local librarians who often kept on hand a good stock of Bahá’í literature for sale. 40 Bahá’í communities for which records exist (such as Johnstown, New York; Portland, Oregon; Kenosha, Wisconsin; Spokane, Washington; and Baltimore, Maryland) established study classes. The students in the classes usually read from one

38. L. A. Lehmann to John D. Bosch, 1 September 1909, John and Louise Bosch Papers, NBA.

39. Joseph Hannen to Agnes Parsons, 28 March 1912, Hannen-Knobloch Family Papers, NBA.

40. See, for example, Minutes, 27 May 1914, New York City Bahá’í Community Minutes, NBA; Thornton Chase to [Arthur] Agnew, n.d., Arthur Agnew Papers, NBA; Portland, Oregon, Community Minutes, 1909-10, NBA; Spokane, Washington, Community Minutes, 1907-14, NBA; Racine, Wisconsin, Community Minutes, 1899-1901, NBA; Kenosha, Wisconsin, Community Minutes, 1904-22, and Treasurer's Cash Book 1898-1911, NBA. [Page 41]book at a time, often studying a new book when it was first published. They studied the major Bahá’í publications—works by Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, primarily Bahá’u’lláh’s Book of Ighan, which explains the basic Bahá’í tenets and the continuity of religion, and His Hidden Words; ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Some Answered Questions, which contains explanations of the tenets of the Bahá’í Faith and of many spiritual topics, including various Christian subjects; and most of the major introductory works, especially the two works by Brittingham and Dealy’s book on biblical prophecies, Chase’s Bahai Revelation, and Phelps’ book on ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.

Birth of the Bahá’í Magazine, Star of the West

IN 1910, when Mary Lesch was asked to take over the operation of the Bahai Publishing Society, a new publishing venture was born in Chicago. The Bahai Publishing Society and the Chicago House of Spirituality had been considering an idea of Ahmad Sohrab, 41 a young Persian Bahá’í translator living in Washington, D.C., to publish, in English and Persian, a magazine called The East and West, which would “stimulate and advance the Cause in every way,” including the work of building the Bahá’í House of Worship in Wilmette, Illinois.

However, two of the key people who could undertake such a magazine were not available. Thornton Chase’s job had taken him to California, and Arthur Agnew had been forced to reduce his Bahá’í activities due to ill health and business commitments. This caused the other Bahá’ís involved to rethink the project. Instead of a general magazine, they decided that they needed a news organ to help Gertrude Buikema, an active Chicago Bahá’í who had undertaken an ever-expanding project of spreading Bahá’í news, probably by letter. 42

In 1908 the New York Bahá’ís had started the first American Bahá’í periodical, The New York Bahai Bulletin, under the editorship of Hooper Harris, who in 1901 had published Lessons on the Beha Revelation. Harris wrote that

The purpose of this publication is to provide a means of intercommunication between the different Assemblies of Bahai’s in this and other countries.

To publish the time and place of Bahai meetings.

To record the progress of the cause and promote harmony and unity among the believers.

However, Harris was not able to maintain the periodical, which was being “published at a loss,” and it ceased publication in 1909 after five issues. 43

After it was clear that the Bahai Bulletin was defunct, Star of the West was born in 1910 with Albert Windust as editor and Gertrude Buikema as managing editor. 44 Windust, in a 1910 letter, described it as “a News Service; not a magazine. Only letters containing news or helpful suggestions, Tablets of Abdul-Baha, recent translations of the writings of BAHA’O’LLAH and items of news will be

41. Minutes, 24 August 1909, 29 September 1909, Chicago House of Spirituality Records, NBA.

42. Albert Windust to Mountfort Mills, 7 February 1910, Star of the West Correspondence Files, Ahmad Sohrab Papers, NBA; Albert R. Windust to [Ahmad] Sohrab, 7 February 1910, Star of the West Correspondence File, Ahmad Sohrab Papers, NBA.

43. The Bahai Bulletin may have developed from a 1907 proposal by Arthur P. Dodge for a magazine called The Bahai Messenger (Arthur P. Dodge to Bahai Assembly of Chicago, Ill., 25 July 1907, attached to Minutes of 10 August 1907); Minutes of Chicago House of Spirituality, 16 November 1907; Hooper Harris to Chicago House of Spirituality, September 1908, attached to Minutes of 22 September 1908, Chicago House of Spirituality Records, NBA; Hooper Harris to [Arthur] Agnew, 20 November 1908, Arthur Agnew Correspondence, Bahá’í Temple Unity Records, NBA.

44. During its first year (March 1910-March 1911) Star of the West was called Bahai News; it was small enough to be mailed in an “ordinary envelope” (Albert [Page 42]Vol. II. March 21, 1911. No. 1. STAR OF THE WEST

CONTENTS

Diagram showing location and dimensions of the land of the Mashrak-el-Azkar in Chicago, Ill., U. S. A...... 2 The Message—By Mirza Assadollah.... 3 Persian-American Educational Society. 4 News from the Occident..... Photograph of the Oakland (Cal.) Assembly ........ 9 New Year’s Greeting from ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. 10 The Mashrak-el-Azkar in America. 11 Assemblies in the Occident. 13 Persian Section 14-20

published. It is for what people are doing; not what they are thinking—and only to a certain extent what they are planning to do."45

Star of the West was to play an important part in developing a sense of community among the North American Bahá’ís and in helping to deepen individual Bahá’ís in their knowledge of their Faith.

Producing Star of the West was truly a labor of love for Windust and Buikema. Both had full-time jobs and had to produce, during their spare hours, an issue every Bahá’í month, each of which contains nineteen days. At the beginning Windust found the work particularly difficult, as he and his wife were caring for three small children and two elderly parents. In a 1911 letter he wrote:

"I must do my day’s work for the necessities of life and my family, and labor today demands the giving of every ounce of flesh and blood; the result is that I am physically and mentally tired when night comes—the only time I have to write letters and the children demand their hour.... As I write the little one is crying lustily, and since I began this letter I have been interrupted many times. . . . My wife is thoroughly tired out with the children and her parents to be waited upon. . . . Night after night we go to our bed exhausted. And this is not all: The Assembly asked me to look after the congregational singing at the convention, and because of internal conditions among the friends, it has been difficult to obtain results, etc. etc."46

Buikema, who was working so hard that her doctor warned her to slow down, handled the correspondence and mailed out the magazine.47

Star of the West struggled to survive financially. Windust and Buikema watched the costs carefully and limited the number of pages in each issue. Their main income came from subscriptions, which in 1911 were $1.00 a year. Occasionally some Bahá’ís would give some extra donations, and in 1910 the Bahá’í Temple Unity, a North American Bahá’í organization originally formed to build the Bahá’í House of Worship in Wilmette, Illinois, financed the National Convention issue. But such extra funds could not be relied upon to

45. Albert R. Windust to Ahmad Sohrab, 14 April 1910, Ahmad Sohrab Papers, NBA. 46. Gertrude Buikema to Ahmad [Sohrab], 21 April 1911, and Albert R. Windust to [Ahmad] Sohrab, 21 April 1901 [1911], Ahmad Sohrab Papers, NBA. 47. Albert R. Windust to Ahmad [Sohrab], 9 August 1911, Ahmad Sohrab Papers, NBA; Gertrude Buikema to [Leone] Barnitz, 27 February 1917, Leone Barnitz Papers, NBA. [Page 43]cover the annual costs. 48 Windust and James Woodworth, another Chicago Bahá’í, had decided on a publication schedule of every nineteen days. Buikema wrote in a letter that she would have preferred publishing every Gregorian month, for the seven fewer issues would have saved $350 in 1911, a significant sum for the magazine.49

By August 1910 Windust added a section in Persian to Star of the West. He worked with Ahmad Sohrab, who produced the Persian copy and became the magazine's Persian editor. The new section meant that circulation to Eastern Bahá’ís became an important part of the magazine's subscriptions and finances. On 1 August 1911 the magazine had 794 sub- scriptions from the Middle East, Russia, and India but only 713 subscriptions from the West. 50 By 1918 the print run of Star of the West had grown to two thousand copies."

Just as ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had supported the publication of Bahá’í books and pamphlets, He supported the new magazine by sending it items to publish. By 1919 three items had been received, the last one a lengthy one to be published in Persian and English.52

48. Gertrude Buikema to Ahmad [Sohrab], 15 May 1911, Ahmad Sohrab Papers, NBA. 49. Gertrude Buikema to Ahmad [Sohrab], 18 May 1911, Ahmad Sohrab Papers, NBA. 50. Albert Windust to Ahmad [Sohrab], 15 July 1910; 1 August 1911 Subscription List; Albert R. Windust to Ahmad [Sohrab], 12 August 1911, Star of the West Correspondence File, Ahmad Sohrab Papers, NBA. 51. Albert Windust to Harlan Ober, 19 June 1918, Albert Windust Papers, NBA. 52. Albert R. Windust to Harlan F. Ober, 18 July 1919, Albert Windust Papers, NBA. 53. Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By 305. 54. See, for example, Alfred Lunt to Jos. [Joseph] E. Hannen, 9 December 1916, Hannen-Knobloch Family Papers, NBA; Alfred Lunt to Harlan Ober, 22 Decem- ber 1916, Alfred Lunt Papers, NBA; [Alfred E. Lunt] to Mary Lesch, 24 September 1919, Alfred Lunt Papers, NBA.

Under Windust's editorship, Star of the West underwent a gradual evolution in con- tent. During and after the visit of ‘Abdu’l- Bahá to America in 1912 the magazine con- centrated on publishing His talks and accounts of His activities. In the following years there remained a heavy focus on ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, together with significant coverage of national events, such as building the House of Wor- ship in Wilmette, Illinois, and national con- ventions. However, the number of news items from local Bahá’í communities decreased and the number of talks, articles, and compila- tions by Bahá’ís increased. The magazine gradually moved away from its original mandate, which was to concentrate primarily on what people were doing and not on what they were thinking.

Publishing and the Tablets of the Divine Plan, 1916-19

A SERIES of tablets that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá wrote to the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada in 1916 and 1917 had a profound impact on publishing in North America. The tablets, which were published under the title Tablets of the Divine Plan, gave the North American Bahá’ís the mission of carrying the Bahá’í Faith to all five continents. 53 When the first five Tablets of the Divine Plan were received in 1916 and published in Star of the West, a surge of teaching activities ensued. This re- sulted in a continual plea from Bahá’ís on teaching trips for free Bahá’í literature, as they had difficulty keeping supplies in hand. The Bahai Temple Unity tried to meet this need but never had sufficient funds. 54.

Some of the need for teaching literature was met in 1916 when Roy Wilhelm, a wealthy New York Bahá’í businessman, to help in the teaching work stimulated by the Tablets of the Divine Plan, produced his extraordinarily popular pamphlet, a compilation of the writ- ings of Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. An introduction to the Bahá’í Faith, "the little- blue-booklet-for-inquirers" was the earliest [Page 44]best seller in the history of Bahá’í publishing in the United States. Because Wilhelm’s initial print run of twenty-five thousand sold out quickly, he printed sixty-five thousand copies of a condensed version (very small in size), which he called Little Ben to distinguish it from the initial printing, which he dubbed Big Ben.⁵⁵ By 1918 Wilhelm had sold fifty-three thousand copies of Big Ben and was preparing a new edition.⁵⁶ By 1919 he had sold sixty-three thousand copies of Big Ben; by 1920 Big Ben had been translated into Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Italian, and French.⁵⁷

Other literature to support the teaching work after the publication of the Tablets of the Divine Plan came from Washington, D.C., and Boston. Washington, D.C., was the home of Charles Mason Remey, a prolific writer who had inherited wealth that enabled him to publish most of his books privately. Remey wrote on a wide variety of subjects, including the Covenant, and his designs for the Bahá’í House of Worship in Wilmette, Illinois. He also published several small introductory booklets. Several of his books were placed in public libraries as a result of the ‎Bahai Bahá’í‎ Temple Unity Library Committee’s 1916 project of offering to public libraries a basic selection of Bahá’í books. Because the Library Committee had limited funds, Remey donated copies of two of his books at no cost; they made up a significant portion of the Library Committee’s offerings to libraries.⁵⁸

In 1916, during World War I, the Boston Bahá’ís published three compilations of the writings of Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá put together or introduced by Isabel Fraser Chamberlain, a journalist who had heard about the Bahá’í Faith when she interviewed ‘Abdu’l-Bahá for the Hearst newspapers. These included ‎Abdul Baha ‘Abdu’l-Bahá‎ on Divine Philosophy, a compilation of passages attributed to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá; From the World’s Greatest Prisoner to His Prison Friends: Prophecies and Precepts from the Utterances of Baha’ollah and ‎Abdul Baha ‘Abdu’l-Bahá‎, a collection of prophecies and teachings from the writings of Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá; and a pamphlet entitled The Most Great Peace, yet another compilation.

Archival records offer a few clues about which Bahá’í books were considered most suitable for inquirers. In 1916 Alfred Lunt, a member of the ‎Bahai Bahá’í‎ Temple Unity Executive Board, sent an inquirer the following recommendation concerning Bahá’í literature:

I judge from your inquiry that you are not wholly familiar with the ‎Bahai Bahá’í‎ literature, and offer the following suggestions as a possible wise choice for first reading:

‎Bahai Bahá’í‎ Revelation,

by Thornton Chase ......... $ .75

‎Bahai Bahá’í‎ Proofs

by Mirza Abul Fazl .......... 1.00

Hidden Words

by Baha’ollah ....................... .25

Seven Valleys

by       "        " ....................... .25

Some Answered Questions,

Miss Barney ...................... 1.50

The ‎Bahai Bahá’í‎ Revelation and Some Answered Questions are especially good for beginners as they take up the general questions and answer them clearly and

---

55. Neither Big Ben nor Little Ben had a title per se. Both pamphlets, like a number of the early Bahá’í publications, had the number “9” on the cover. For Bahá’ís, the number nine, the highest single number, symbolizes perfection (see Lights of Guidance: A Bahá’í Reference File, comp. Helen Hornby [New Delhi: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1988] nos. 1372–74]). Circular Letters from Roy [Wilhelm], n.d. and ca. 1916, Joseph Hannen Correspondence, Hannen-Knobloch Family Papers, NBA.

56. Roy [Wilhelm] to Joseph [Hannen], 3 October 1918, Hannen-Knobloch Family Papers, NBA.

57. Roy [Wilhelm] to Joseph [Hannen], 24 September 1919, Hannen-Knobloch Family Papers, NBA; [National] Teaching Committee Bulletin No. 5, October 1920.

58. J. [Joseph] H. Hannen to Alfred E. Lunt, 28 November 1916, Alfred Lunt Papers, NBA. [Page 45]plainly. Some Answered Questions is really the Words of Abdul Baha given to Miss Barney during her stay in the prison city of Acca for over a year and a half for the purpose of gathering these facts. This is an especially valuable book, and one that you will want to have sooner or later. . . .

There is also published a Bahai magazine called “The Star of the West” there are 19 issues of this in a year and the price is $1.50 per year or $.10 per copy. In this is given many of the Tablets (letters) of Abdul Baha and Baha’o’llah and the latest news of vital importance to the Bahai world.⁵⁹

Another need of the teaching work was met in 1919 when Ella Robarts, a Canadian-born Bahá’í, started the first magazine for children and youth, the Magazine of the Children of the Kingdom. Robarts, who published the magazine until 1924, had been inspired by the introduction of all of the Tablets of the Divine Plan at the 1919 National Convention to work to increase the unity and cooperation of the Bahá’í children and youth. Her first endeavor was to collect the signatures and words of greeting from 463 children and youth from forty-six Bahá’í communities to send to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and to publish the list in the magazine’s first issue. The magazine carried articles written by Bahá’í children, such as “How I Gave My Chum the Message” by Helen Maude Frankland, the thirteen-year-old daughter of Kathryn Frankland, a California Bahá’í, as well as news items and material useful in children’s classes.⁶⁰ In a 1923 letter Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith appointed by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in His Will and Testament, mentioned some of the contributions of the magazine:

The “Magazine of the Children of the Kingdom”, the latest issue of which I have just received from that indefatigable pioneer of your cause, . . . has kindled in me such fresh hopes that I feel moved to send you this message of love and confidence in the great part you are destined to play for the future of the Cause.

I feel it is urgent and important that this first and only organ of the Bahá’í youth throughout the world should, in whatever it publishes, instil in its readers, and particularly in every Bahá’í child, the sense of his unique opportunities and future responsibilities in the great task that awaits him in future.

Its duty is to initiate, promote and mirror forth the various activities of the rising generation throughout the Bahá’í world, to establish and strengthen a bond of true fellowship amongst all the children of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá whether in the East or in the West, and to unfold to their eyes the vision of a golden future before them. It should impress upon their hearts the vital necessity of establishing, now, whilst in their tender age, a firm foundation for their mission in life.⁶¹

National Publishing Activity, 1916–22

BETWEEN 1916 and 1922 Bahá’í publishing activities in North America moved from local endeavors to a national one. The Bahai Temple Unity, which was originally formed to build the Bahá’í House of Worship in Wilmette, had by virtue of its Illinois corporation charter, authority to publish books and other

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59. [Alfred Lunt] to A. J. Swift, 29 January 1916, Alfred Lunt Papers, NBA.

60. “Introduction,” The Magazine of the Children of the Kingdom, 1.1 (Dec. 1919): 2–3; “Bahai Juniors,” The Magazine of the Children of the Kingdom, 1:1 (Dec. 1919) 14–21; Helen Maude Frankland, “How I Gave My Chum The Message,” The Magazine of the Children of the Kingdom, 1.3 (June 1920): 23.

61. Shoghi Effendi (through his sec’y.) to the Magazine of the Children of the Kingdom, 30 December 1923, in Bahá’í Education, in The Compilation of Compilations: Prepared by the Universal House of Justice 1963–1990, vol. 1 (Australia: Bahá’í Publications Australia, 1991) No. 643. [Page 46]literature. This was a responsibility it began to take very seriously in 1916, despite a paucity of funds, when ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Tablets of the Divine Plan reached North America. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá gradually gave the Bahai Temple Unity other functions, including review. Originally He had instructed Bahá’í authors to send to Him for review manuscripts of proposed works. In 1916 He instructed the Bahai Temple Unity to take over the function of review. To handle the matter the Bahai Temple Unity Executive Board formed a Publications Committee, composed of three Bahá’ís: Jean Masson, a Chicago journalist; Horace Holley, a New York poet and writer; and Harlan Ober, a well-educated and experienced Bahá’í living in Cambridge, Massachusetts.⁶² In 1920 the Bahai Temple Unity Executive Board decided that it should also enter the publishing field and in 1920 and 1921 opened negotiations with Mary Lesch, Albert Windust, and Gertrude Buikema to assume direction and management of the Bahai Publishing Society and Star of the West. All parties were agreeable, and, according to correspondence between Alfred Lunt and Lesch and an account in Star of the West, the transfer of ownership of both the Bahai Publishing Society and Star of the West was accomplished by 1922.⁶³

With the passing of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in 1921 and the appointment of His eldest grandson, Shoghi Effendi, as Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith, the development of the Bahá’í administrative order entered a new phase. Shoghi Effendi created a uniform, worldwide structure of local and national spiritual assemblies to govern the affairs of the Bahá’ís. The National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada grew out of the Bahai Temple Unity and assumed responsibility for national Bahá’í activities. It created a Bahá’í Publishing Committee to publish books, pamphlets, and Star of the West.⁶⁴ Because the Publishing Committee was located in New York City, the National Spiritual Assembly decided to move the publishing operations to New York. The books were shipped there in 1924.⁶⁵ With the August 1922 issue Albert and Emily Vail, a former Unitarian minister and his wife, became the new editors of Star of the West and changed the publication schedule to once a Gregorian month, as Gertrude Buikema had wished in 1911. The magazine now published mostly literary articles and only a few news items. It had become the general literary magazine that had been Ahmad Sohrab’s original concept a journal containing general articles about the Bahá’í Faith.

A new era in American Bahá’í publishing had arrived. But the early pioneers in Bahá’í publishing had provided the American Bahá’í community with a rich resource of Bahá’í books and periodicals. Theirs had been a labor of love. Early Bahá’í publishing had been an entirely volunteer, part-time, unpaid effort by a handful of very busy but dedi-

62. "Committee to Examine Manuscripts of Books and Pamphlets Composed by Bahais," Star of the West, 8.10 (8 Sept. 1917): 133-34. See also "Report of the Tenth Annual Convention of the Bahia Temple Unity held at the Auditorium Hotel, Chicago, April 27th to 30th, 1918," Star of the West, 9.5 (5 June 1918): 60-61, 65-66.

63. Mary Lesch to Alfred Lunt, 20 January 1920; Alfred Lunt to Mary Lesch, 4 March 1920; [Alfred E. Lunt] to Mary Lesch, 31 May 1921; Mary Lesch to Alfred E. Lunt, 8 February 1922; [Alfred E. Lunt] to Mary Lesch, 11 February 1922, Alfred Lunt Papers, NBA; "Change of Management of the STAR OF THE WEST," Star of the West, 13.4 (17 May 1922): 80.

64. Shoghi Effendi, in a 23 December 1922 letter to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada, complimented it on how it had organized its affairs and sent his appreciation to the members of the Bahá’í Publishing Committee and the Reviewing Committee (Shoghi Effendi, Bahá’í Administration: Selected Messages 1922-1932, 7th ed. (Wilmette, Ill.: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1974) 29.

65. Arthur Agnew to Horace Holley, 7 April 1924; Horace Holley to Arthur Agnew, 20 April 1924, Arthur Agnew Correspondence in Albert Windust Papers, NBA. [Page 47]cated Bahá’ís. Their desire to make the Bahá’í scriptures and materials about the Bahá’í Faith widely available to all who sought them found motivation first in their desire to educate the Bahá’ís about the tenets of their faith and to have materials available for those interested in the Faith. Then, as more and more Bahá’í writings became available, they found motivation in the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh regarding the power and potency of the written revelation as the Word of God and in the writings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. By translating, publishing, or distributing sixteen major works of Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, they succeeded in making it possible for the Bahá’ís and inquirers alike to read the Word of God and investigate its truths. Nor did they neglect accounts of the lives of Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, for they published many stories about them in the form of pilgrim notes and in Star of the West. The introductory books, which explained the Bahá’í teachings from a number of perspectives, together with inexpensive pamphlets, greatly improved the ability of the Bahá’ís to teach their faith to others. These teaching activities resulted in a steady growth in the number and often the size of local Bahá’í communities. This growing community life encouraged the publication of song books to enliven their meetings and lesson materials for children’s classes. Their legacy laid a strong foundation upon which the Bahá’í Publishing Committee and its successor, the Bahá’í Publishing Trust, would build in their efforts to fulfill Shoghi Effendi’s wishes for publishing expressed in a 1933 letter written on his behalf to Clara Wood, a member of the Bahá’í Publishing Committee for twenty-two years.

Today proper literature can achieve far more than a teacher[,] for the public has learned to read & ponder over what they read as material for thought. Many prefer this to attending lectures & obtaining a superficial discussion of the subject.

Shoghi Effendi, therefore, hopes that through your efforts, as well as the efforts of the other members of the committee, the publications of the Cause will daily improve & become more representative of our glorious Faith.⁶⁶

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66. Shoghi Effendi (through his sec’y.) to Clara Wood, 25 March 1933, Shoghi Effendi Letters Collection, NBA.

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Authors & Artists

ROGER M. DAHL, who received his Master’s degree in American history from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, is the archivist at the National Bahá’í Archives, Wilmette, Illinois. His “History of the Kenosha Bahá’í Community, 1897-1980 appeared in Community Histories: Studies in the Babi and Bahá’í Religions, published by Kalimát Press in 1992, and “Three Teaching Methods Used during the First Seven Year Plan” in The Journal of Bahá’í Studies, vol. 5, no. 1.

JEFFREY S. GRUBER holds a B.S. in life sciences and a Ph.D. in linguistics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His work in linguistics theory stemming from his dissertation and subsequent research at Systems Development Corporation, Santa Monica, California, led to the publication of Lexical Structure in Syntax and Semantics, which has become widely known. He lived for seven years in Botswana, where he did field research on a Khoisan (‘click’) language, and for fourteen years in Nigeria, where he was professor and head of the Department of Linguistics at Awolowo University at Ife and at the University of Benin. Since 1992, Dr. Gruber has been engaged in theoretical linguistic research (until 1997 he was based at the University of Quebec at Montreal) on the relation between semantics and syntax, which has appeared in a number of publications.

JOAN IMIG TAYLOR, a writer and poet, is a frequent contributor to World Order. Her poems have appeared in many journals.

ART CREDITS: Cover design by John Solarz, cover photograph, Steve Garrigues; pp. 1, 6, 28, photographs, Steve Garrigues; p. 30, photograph, Darius Himes; pp. 34, 37, 40, 42, book and magazine covers, courtesy National Bahá’í Archives, Wilmette, Ill.; p. 48, photograph, Steve Garrigues.