Husayn Rúhí

Husayn Rúhí
Born	1878 Cairo, Egypt
Died	November 10, 1960 Cairo, Egypt
NSA member	Egypt & Sudan ???? - ????
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Husayn Rúhí (1878 - November 10, 1960) was an Egyptian Bahá’í who served on the National Spiritual Assembly of Egypt and Sudan. In his career he worked in education.

Biography

Rúhí was born into a Bahá’í family Cairo, Egypt, in 1878 with his father, Hájí Mullá ‘Alí Tabrízí having pioneered to the country at the request of Bahá’u’lláh. His father was martyred when he was young during a travel teaching trip to Turkey and he was raised by another Bahá’í, Hájí Mírzá Hasán Khurásání, who taught him Persian and about the Bahá’í religion. He also learned English at some point.

In 1899 a group of Bahá’ís including Hájí Mírzá Hasán was asked to visit the United States by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and Rúhí was selected to serve as their interpreter. They settled in Chicago and lived there until 1902 which gave Rúhí the opportunity to study at an American College. After returning to Egypt he became an English teacher working at several schools and later established two magazines which aimed to teach the English language and the Bahá’í Faith. In 1906 he was able to learn more about the Faith when Mírzá Abu’l-Faḍl visited Cairo and taught at several meetings throughout the year.

In 1910 Rúhí established the Abbassia boys school and Abbassia girls school in Cairo which were named after ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. The schools offered education to both Bahá’í children and children from the wider community and they operated until 1919. In 1914 he began working as the confidential secretary of Ronald Storrs, a representative of the British government in Cairo, writing reports, delivering correspondence, and translating documents. He accompanied T.E. Lawrence when he visited Jeddah in 1917 and worked for the British government in the Middle East until 1920.

Rúhí was appointed the Inspector of Education for Palestine in 1920 and moved to Jerusalem allowing him to regularly visit ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. He was present when the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was first publicly read, appointing Shoghi Effendi the Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith, in 1921 and he was able to provide assistance to the Guardian by relaying information to the civil authorities in Palestine at his request.

Rúhí retired in 1935 and then returned to Egypt on the instructions of Shoghi Effendi. After returning he served on Local Spiritual Assemblies and was elected to the National Spiritual Assembly, and he also served on various committees, taught at Summer Schools, and assisted in translating some of the Writings into Arabic. He passed away in 1960 and was buried at the Bahá’í cemetery in Cairo.