Early Bahá’ís and Pioneers | Bahá’í Media Bank

History

Other Historical Figures: Early Bahá’ís and Pioneers

Gloria Faizi (center) with students of her Bahá’í class in Najafabad, Iran, early 1940s

The Bahá’ís of Ngalibui with Gertrude Blum (at front, right) and Barbara Hunt (partly obscured), 1977

Hand of the Cause Martha Root with a group of women in Melbourne, Australia, c. 1924

Hands of the Cause Enoch Olinga (left) and Rahmatu’lláh Muhájir (right) in front of the Shrine of the Báb, 1973

Hand of the Cause Dorothy Baker with a group of Bahá’ís at the Bahá’í Centre in Belgaum, India, 1946

Sara Louisa Blomfield (1859-1939)

Gloria Faizi and Lutfu’llah Hakim, member of the Universal House of Justice (1963-1968), outside the Shrine of the Báb, Mount Carmel, Haifa, Israel

Hand of the Cause Amatu’l-Bahá Rúhíyyih Khánum in Kampala, Uganda, January 1961

Hand of the Cause Dorothy Baker with a group of Bahá’ís at the Bahá’í Centre in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India, 5 December 1953

Hands of the Cause Hyde Dunn and Clara Dunn with a group of Bahá’ís in Australia, c. 1940

Dr. Auguste Forel, who wrote in his will: I have become a Bahá’í. May this religion live and prosper for the good of mankind; this is my most ardent wish

Rodney Hancock, on a trip to Australia from Papua New Guinea, 1956

Hand of the Cause Martha Root with a group of Bahá’í in Hamadan, Iran, c. 1930

Hand of the Cause Enoch Olinga in Henley-on-Thames, England, c. 1972

Aziz Yazdi (seated left) with Hand of the Cause Martha Root (center) and Esperanto students, Cairo, Egypt

Enoch Olinga, later to be appointed a Hand of the Cause (second left), and Elsie Austin (right) with other Bahá’ís at the African Intercontinental Bahá’í Conference, Kampala, Uganda, 1953

The Hand of the Cause Rahmatullah Muhajir (fourth from left) with some Bahá’ís of The Gambia during a visit he made to the country

Hand of the Cause Martha Root (center) with a group of Bahá’ís in Tabríz, Iran, May 1930

Bertha Dobbins, Knight of Bahá’u’lláh for the New Hebrides Islands with a group of Bahá’ís in Vanuatu

Madame Ruhiyyih Rabbani, a Hand of the Cause, (right) is greeted by the Head of State of Samoa, His Highness Susuga Malietoa Tanumafili II, and his wife, Masiofo Lili Tuni Malietoa, at the dedication of the Samoan Temple, 1984. At far left is Suhayl Ala’i, a member of the Continental Board of Counsellors

Hand of the Cause `Alí-Muhammad Varqá (center) and Mihdi Samandari (far right) with Bahá’ís of Nkwen, Cameroon in 1972

Group of Bahá’ís, including Hands of the Cause Hermann Grossmann and Adelbert Mühlschlegel in Esslingen, Germany, 24 May 1926

Hand of the Cause Martha Root at the English Literary Society in Beijing, China, c. 1937

Hand of the Cause Martha Root with a group of Bahá’ís in Karachi, Pakistan, July 1938

Violet Hoehnke (center) visiting Bahá’ís in the West Sepik region, Papua New Guinea, 1985

Elizabeth Laws, known as Mother of Love, with local people in Lesotho. They arrived on 13 October 1953, just three days before the end of the Holy Year at the beginning of a ten-year plan to take the Baha'i teachings around the world. For their services, they each received the accolade, Knight of Bahá’u’lláh, from Shoghi Effendi

One of the first two Bahá’ís in Switzerland, Edith McKay (later Edith de Bons), right, with May Bolles (later May Maxwell), who introduced her to the Bahá’í Faith in Paris in 1900

Mr. and Mrs. Hainsworth with their son, Richard, at the top of the Bahá’í House of Worship in Kampala, Uganda, shorthly before it was completed in 1961. Mr. Hainsworth was one of the six Bahá’ís who founded the Bahá’í community in Uganda in 1951

Hand of the Cause Amatu’l-Bahá Rúhíyyih Khánum performing the groundbreaking ceremony for the future Bahá’í Centre, Nairobi, Kenya, c. 1961

Marion Jack (1866-1954), early Canadian Baha'i and pioneer to Bulgaria

Early Bahá’ís of Swaziland, 19 November, 1954: (front, left to right) Margot Bosch, Valera Allen, Jemima Phala, Maude Fisher. (Middle, left to right) Maxwell Ndlovu, Isaiah Phala. (Back, left to right) Dale Allen, Kenton Allen, John Allen

Hand of the Cause Hájí Amín (seated, right), Hakim Bashi (seated, left), Muhammad Labib (standing), early 1900s

William Masehla (Masetlha), a member of South Africa’s first Local Spiritual Assembly and National Spiritual Assembly, and a member of the Continental Board of Counsellors

The first South African woman to become a Bahá’í, Dorothy Senne, with her husband, Ephens

May and Mary Maxwell in Alexandria, Egypt, 1923

Hands of the Cause Agnes Alexander (left) and Martha Root (right) in Japan, c. 1930

Gerda and Martin Aiff with their six children, following their arrival in South West Africa, 1959

Gloria Faizi (center, rear) with her mother Najmieh (left), her father Rahmatu’llah Khan ‘Ala’i (right), and her brother, Manuchihr

Hand of the Cause Collis Featherstone and Mrs. Featherstone with the Local Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Tarawa, Kiribati, 1975

The first Bahá’ís of Switzerland, Dr. Joseph de Bons and his wife, Edith de Bons, with their daughter, Mona, in 1911

(Left to right) Rima Nicholas and Tuaine Karotaua (Mr. Peter Titi), the first people to become Bahá’ís in the Cook Islands and Edith Danielsen, Knight of Bahá’u’lláh to the Cook Islands. Photo from 1955

Early Cameroonian Baha'i and pioneer James Mbu on his way to Northern Ghana in 1956

Hand of the Cause Agnes Alexander with a group of Bahá’ís in Tokyo, Japan, August 1916

David Tanyi (back row, fourth from left in white shirt) with Bahá’ís in Tamale, Northern Ghana, 1960

Violet Hoehnke and Rodney Hancock, Rabaul, Bismarck Archipelago, Territory of New Guinea, 1955

Hand of the Cause Enoch Olinga with wife Elizabeth at a Teaching Conference in Palermo, Italy, August 1968

Hand of the Cause Martha Root in Kermanshah, Iran, February 1930

Hand of the Cause Keith Ransom-Kelher with a group of Bahá’ís in Iran, c. 1933

Early Bahá’ís of Botswana James and Stella Moncho

Elsie Austin (at right of woman carrying umbrella) in a group of Bahá’ís including Hands of the Cause Tarazu’llah Samandari (wearing dark hat at right), Leroy Ioas (wearing jacket and tie, center), Zikrullah Khadem (at left of Mr. Ioas), Ali-Akbar Furutan (wearing spectacles, at right of Mr. Ioas). Hasan Balyuzi, later appointed a Hand of the Cause is at center, rear. Kampala, Uganda. 1953

The first Bahá’í of Burundi, Selemani Bin Kimbulu (standing left), with other Bahá’ís including Mary Collison (front, left) and Reginald (Rex) Collison (front, right) Knight of Bahá’u’lláh for Ruanda-Urundi

Harry and Bahiyyih Ford, early Bahá’í pioners to South Africa

Saichirō Fujita (1886-1976), one of the earliest Japanese Bahá’ís

Hand of the Cause Keith Ransom-Kehler (seated at left) and the parents of Gloria Faizi, Rahmatu’llah Khan ‘Ala’i (standing at right) and Najmieh (standing at left), with Gloria (right) and her brother, Manuchihr