Marzieh Gail
Marzieh Gail | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Marzieh Khan April 1, 1908 |
| Died | October 16, 1993 (aged 85) San Francisco, United States |
Marzieh Nabil Carpenter Gail (April 1, 1908 - October 16, 1993) was a Persian-American Bahá’í who assisted in the development of Bahá’í communities in the United States, across Europe, and in Iran. She wrote several books on the Bahá’í Faith and assisted in the production of some official translations of the Bahá’í Writings into English.
Biography[edit]
Gail was born into a Bahá’í family as Marzieh Khan in 1908. Her father was Ali Kuli Khan, who had served as a secretary of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, and her mother was Florence Breed. Her father was Persian and her mother was American and they were the first married Bahá’í couple between the two cultures.[1] In Gail's youth her father worked as a diplomat for Iran and in 1908 they left the United States. Her father represented Iran at the Versailles Peace Conference in 1919 with Gail living in France while her father worked at the Conference. The family stayed in France into 1920 and she met Shoghi Effendi when he lived in France from April to July 1920.[1]
Gail and her family went on to live in Istanbul in Turkey, Tbilisi in Georgia, and Tehran in Iran in her youth. Due to moving often she received her education from private tutors and generally only had the company of her siblings, Rahim and Hamideh, as a child. The family eventually returned to the United States where Gail's parents encouraged her to pursue higher education and she enrolled in Vassar College in New York in 1925 but transferred to Mills College when the family moved to California in 1926.[1] In 1927 the prestigious Stanford University changed its rules setting a quota on the number of women attending the university and Gail was able to enroll in Stanford.[1]
While at Stanford Gail collaborated with fellow Bahá’í student Howard Carpenter to hold weekly discussions on the Bahá’í Faith and they married in June 1929 and the same year she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts. She also began writing essays on the Faith while attending Stanford which were published in the Bahá’í magazine Star of the West. After graduating from Stanford she completed a Masters Degree in English at the University of California graduating in 1932 and her husband graduated from Stanford Medical School the same year.[2]
In 1933 Gail and her husband went on pilgrimage spending three weeks in the Holy Land with Shoghi Effendi who instructed them to help develop the Administration of the Bahá’í Faith in the East to bring it to the standard of Bahá’í Administration in the West.[2] They pioneered to Iran settling in Tehran where she secured a job as a reporter making her the first female reporter for a newspaper in the city, but Howard was unable to obtain a medical license.[2]
After one year in Iran Howard Carpenter was able to secure a medical license, but he contracted poliomyelitis after receiving the license, rendering him a paraplegic and he was hospitalized for seven months. They left Iran in 1935 arriving in San Francisco in the United States where Howard died in November that year. Marzieh devoted herself to working on translations of the Bahá’í Writings and writing essays on the Faith after his death.[2]
In the late 1930s Gail met Harold Gail and they married in 1939 with Harold helping her organize her writing and assisting her in more actively serve the Faith. As of 1954 they were living in Portland, Oregon, but pioneered to France that year to assist in the work of the Ten Year Crusade, settling in Nice where they helped form a Local Spiritual Assembly in 1956. After the Assembly of Nice was formed they pioneered to Salzburg in Austria for six years helping establish an Assembly in the city. They then pioneered to Arnhem in the Netherlands where they again helped establish an Assembly and they then spent several months travel teaching in Italy, England, and Spain.[3]
Upon the conclusion of the Ten Year Crusade in 1963 the Gails returned to the United States, settling in Keene, New Hampshire, where they helped establish the town's first Local Spiritual Assembly. She was able to devote herself to literary pursuits after returning to the United States with her husband taking care of domestic duties and other practical tasks to leave her with additional time to write.[2] In 1981 the Gails moved to San Francisco where Harold passed away in 1992 and Gail passed away on October 16, 1993. The Universal House of Justice conveyed the following message after her passing:
DEEPLY SADDENED PASSING MARZIEH GAIL FAITHFUL MAIDSERVANT BAHÁ’U’LLÁH. HER PIONEERING EFFORTS AND HER VARIOUS ENDEAVORS AS ENGLISH TRANSLATOR ORIGINAL BAHÁ’Í LITERATURE AND AS AUTHOR BOOKS AND ARTICLES ENSURE ENDURING REMEMBRANCE HER OUTSTANDING SERVICES CAUSE GOD. FERVENTLY PRAYING HOLY SHRINES PROGRESS HER SOUL ABHÁ REALM.[4]
Publications[5][edit]
- 1944 - Headlines Tomorrow
- 1946 - He Has Come to the Nations
- 1950 - Atomic Mandate
- 1951 - Persia and the Victorians
- 1953 - Six Lessons in Islam
- 1955 - Bahá’í Glossary
- 1959 - The Sheltering Branch
- 1966 - Avignon in Flower: 1309-1403
- 1968 - Life in the Renaissance
- 1969 - The Three Popes
- 1976 - Dawn Over Mount Hira
- 1981 - Khanum, The Greatest Holy Leaf
- 1982 - Other People, Other Places
- 1987 - Summon Up Remembrance
- 1991 - Arches of the Years
Translations[edit]
- 1945 - The Seven Valleys and Four Valleys
- 1957 - The Secret of Divine Civilization (with Ali Kuli Khan)
- 1971 - Memorials of the Faithful
- 1976 - Selections from the Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá with a committee at the Bahá’í World Center.
- 1982 - My Memories of Bahá’u’lláh by Ustád Muḥammad-‘Alíy-i-Salmání, the Barber.
External links[edit]
- Marzieh Gail 1908 - 1993
- Obituary: Marzieh Nabil Carpenter Gail (1908-1993) by Constance M. Chen
- Marzieh Gail on WikiTree - family tree
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Baha'i World: In Memoriam 1992-1997, p 93
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Baha'i World: In Memoriam 1992-1997, p 94
- ↑ Baha'i World: In Memoriam 1992-1997, p 95
- ↑ Bahá’í World: In Memoriam 1992-1997, p 95
- ↑ Collins, W. P. (1990). Bibliography of English-Language Works on the Babi and Bahá'í Faiths 1844-1985. Oxford, UK: George Ronald. ISBN 0-85398-315-1., p 82-83
