- 1898-00-03 — The Tarbíyat School for boys was established in Tihrán by the Bahá'ís. [BBD221]
- 1902-11-28 —
Construction began on the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár of `Ishqábád with the laying of its cornerstone. [BFA2:116-17; YSxvii]
- BBRXXX says this was 12 December. The discrepancy may lie in the use of two different calendars.
- The foundation stone was laid in the presence of General Subotich, governor-general of Turkistan. [BFA2:116–17; GPB300; see discussion of Krupatkin vs Subotich in The City of Love:
Ishqábád and the Institution of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár by Bruce Whitmore] Also see BBR442-443 for the account of a Russian official, A D Kalmykov who says it was General Subotich.
- `Abdu'l-Bahá commissioned Hájí Mírzá Muhammad-Taqí, the Vakílu'd-Dawlih, son of Hájí Siyyid Muhammad, the uncle of the Báb for whom Bahá'u'lláh had revealed The Kitáb-i-Íqán, to be in charge of the project. He largely paid for it. [AB109]
- `Abdu'l-Bahá Himself delineated the general design and a Russian architect, Volkov, planned and executed the details of the construction. [AB109–10; Universal House of Justice 20 June 1991 para 8]
- A meeting hall and some of its dependencies had been built before 1900.
- The dependencies included two Bahá'í schools, a travellers' hostel, a medical dispensary and Hazíratu'l-Quds. [BBD122; BBR442; BBRSM:91]
- For a Western account of this see BBR442–3.
- See jacket of BBR for a photograph of work on the Temple.
- See the message of the Universal House of Justice dated 1 August, 2014 for more on the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár in `Ishqábád.
Specifics
Location: In the heart of the city of `Ishqábád
Foundation Stone: Late 1902 by General Subotich, the governor-general of Turkistan who had been delegated by the Czar to represent him.
Construction Period: Initial step had been undertaken during the lifetime of Bahá'u'lláh. Superstructure: 1902 – 1907. External Ornamentation: 1919
Site Dedication: No record of a dedication ceremony on completion of the building can be found although the external ornamentation was completed in 1919 it is probable that the building had been in use for some years by this time.
Architects: `Abdu'l-Bahá Himself delineated the general design. More specific design was by Ustad Ali-Akbar-i-Banna and a Russian architect, Volkov, planned and executed the details of the construction under the supervision of Hájí Mírzá Muhammad-Taqí, the son of Hájí Siyyid Muhammad, the uncle of the Báb for whom Bahá'u'lláh had revealed The Kitáb-i-Íqán. [AB109]
Seating:
Dimensions:
Cost:
Dependencies: two Bahá'í schools, a travellers' hostel, a medical dispensary and Hazíratu'l-Quds
Expropriation:1928
Lease period: – 1938
Seizure; the building was turned into an art gallery
Earthquake: 1948
Demolition: August 1963 the Universal House of Justice announced that it had been demolished by the authorities and the site cleared.
References: AB109, BW14p479-481, GPB300-301, CEBF236, EB266-268, MF126-128
- 1909-10-00 —
The Persian-American Educational Society was founded and inaugurated in Washington DC on the January 1910. [BFA2:XVII; 355–8; Washington Herald 9 January 1910]
- Its primary purpose was to assist the Tarbíyat School in Iran by establishing scholarships. Mr. Sidney Sprague was the administrator of the school at this time. Many Americans contributed toward scholarships for children. [BFA2:357]
- 1909-11-26 —
Within a year of her arrival in Persia, Dr. Susan Moody opened the Tarbíyat School for Girls in Tihrán. [BBD221–2; BFA2:360–1] Some of those serving at the school were: Susan Moody, Sydney Sprague, Lillian Kappas, Sarah Clock and Elizabeth Stewart. [GPB261]
- Miss Lillian Kappes of Hoboken, New Jersey arrived in December of 1911 to serve as a teacher. She stopped in Thonon to visit 'Abdu'l-Bahá on the way. [SoW Vol 2 No 17 Jan 19. 1912 p2] She died on the 1st of December, 1920 of typhus and was buried there.
- She was replaced by Genevieve Coy, a qualified psychologist, a Ph.D. in 1922 who was followed by Adelaide Sharp in 1929. Her mother, Clara Sharp joined her in 1931. [BFA2p361, AY233]
- Elizabeth Stewart who served as a nurse at the school accompanied Lillian Kappes on her arrival. Miss Stewart served until 1924 when she returned to Philadelphia where she died in 1926. [ABF43]
- Munírih Khánum Ayádí, the mother of Dr Karím Ayádí (later famed as the Shah's much-trusted doctor) was Persia's first official Director of the Tarbíyat School for Girls. She was widely recognized as exceptional, at a time when Persia's Bahá'í women were only gradually emerging from their earlier state under Islam. Much respected by the men, her attitude toward them was one of total equality. Her greatness was in herself, her devotion to the Faith absolute, and she was made a member of such advanced committees as the Bahá'í Women's Committee. Her views were moderated by her sense of humour, which included self-deprecation so that she never subjected you to her piety. One day during the Bahá'í Fast, she asked Marzieh Gall: 'Do you think God would notice if I ducked into that room and sneaked a few puffs of tobacco?' [AY333]
- 1911-08-27 — 'Abdu'l-Bahá and His party took a ferry to Vevey, a resort town on the other side of Lake Geneva (Lake Leman). Vevey was the location of the Dreyfus summer home and it was near here that Lady Blomfield and her daughters finalized the translation of Paris Talks [ABF33-44, DJT186, SoW vol 2 no 14]
- He took a room at the Park Hôtel Mooser where He took some rest and also met Edith Sanderson and her mother. With the assembled friends He discussed immortality and divorce.
- The party returned by ferry to Thonon-les-Bains, stopping at Évian-les-Bains. [DJT196-197]
- In the afternoon He met with Lillian Frances Kappes and Elizabeth Harnill Stewart who had just arrived from America on their way to teach at the Tarbiyát School for girls in Iran. The school for boys had been in operation since 1897 and the school for girls was just being established in 1911 after the arrival of Dr Susan Moody. [ABF43, SoW vol 2 no 18, SoW vol 2 no 14] Perhaps it was at this time He delivered the talk that has been entitled, "The oneness of humanity and of religions". ['Abdu'l-Bahá Speaks]
- 1933-00-02 — The Tavakkul Bahá'í School in Qazvín, Iran, was closed. [BW18:388]
- 1934-00-04 —
The government of Iran took several measures against the Bahá'ís throughout the country. [BW18p389]
- Nineteen Bahá'í schools are closed in Káshán, Qazvín, Yazd, Najafábád, Ábádih and elsewhere. [ARG109]
- Bahá'í meetings were forbidden in many towns, including Tihrán, Mashhad, Sabzivár, Qazvín and Arák.
- Bahá'ís centres in Káshán, Hamadán and Záhidán were closed by the authorities.
- Some Bahá'í government employees were dismissed.
- Some Bahá'í military personnel were stripped of their rank and imprisoned.
- Bahá'ís in many places were harassed over the filling-in of marriage certificates, census forms and other legal documents.
- 1934-12-06 —
The Tarbíyat Bahá'í Schools in Tihrán and all other Bahá'í schools across the country were closed by order of the Minister of Education (headed by 'Ali-Asghar-i-Hikmat, a well-known Azali) when they failed to open on a holy day. [BBD221–2; BW18:389; CB312; GPB363; PP308; RoB4p313; BN No 97 January 1936 p1]
- In spite of (or because of) their high standards of education, the Bahá'í schools, which attracted ordinary people as well as a number of rich, famous and influential families to send their children as pupils, faced harsh opposition, mainly from the more traditional and conservative elements in the society, and specifically from the Shi'i clerics. This was hardly surprising, given the strong animosity towards the Bahá'ís in Shi'i Iran. According to Shoghi Effendi, while the 'ulama' headed the opposition to the Bábis and Bahá'ís, it was the Qajar kings and governors who willingly became the means through which this opposition was translated into action, as a way to obtain the clerics' support and backing for their own policies. But as far as Nasir al-Din Shah was concerned, he had his own reasons for persecuting Bábis and Bahá'ís (between whom he did not appear to differentiate) . In 1852 an inept attempt had been made on his life. [The Forgotten Schools: The Baha'is and Modern Education in Iran, 1899–1934 p97]
- For Western accounts of the episode see BBR475–9.
- 1937-05-02 —
- 1938-02-05 —
Bahá'ís in the Soviet Union were persecuted by the authorities. [BBR473, BW8p87-90, 179-81, BW14p479-481, SETPE1p155; YS6]
- Five hundred Bahá'í men were imprisoned in Turkistán. [Bw8p89]
- Many Persian Bahá'ís living in various cities of the Soviet Union were arrested, some are sent to Siberia, others to Pavladar in northern Kazakhstan and yet others to Iran. [BW8p87, 179, 184]
- Six hundred Bahá'í refugees-women, girls, children and a few old men, went to Iran, most to Mashhad. [BW8p89]
- The Bahá'í Temple in Ishqábád (now Ashgabat, Turkmenistan) was confiscated and turned into an art gallery. [BDD122, BW8p89]
- The Bahá'í schools were ordered closed. [BW8p89]
- Spiritual Assemblies and all other administrative institutions in the Caucasus were ordered dissolved. [BW8p89]
- Shoghi Effendi included all these territories in his Ten Year Plan, unveiled in 1953, as follows:
- The National Spiritual Assembly of Germany and Austria was made responsible for opening Albania, Estonia, Finno—Karelia, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldavia (Moldova), Romania and White Russia (Belarus) and for consolidating Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic (S.F.S.R.), and Yugoslavia.
- The National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of lran was made responsible for opening Kirgizia (later named Kyrgyzstan), Mongolia, Tajikistan (Tadzhikistan) and Uzbekistan, and for consolidating Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, and Turkmenistan.
- The National Spiritual Assembly of the United States was responsible for opening Kazakhstan, Sakhalin, and the Ukraine. [BW20p196-197]
- 1945-08-01 —
Initially founded as a hostel for Bahá'í children with sixteen children, what was the New Era High School and Senior Secondary had grown to become a leading international co-educational institution with many hundreds of students.
- Founded as a separate institution in 1987, the New Era Development Institute had its beginnings as a service project for students in the 1970s and 1980s when the school set up programmes to assist the poor and underdeveloped villages in the region.
[New Era High School and Senior Secondary website, Wikipedia, BBD171; BBRSM153]
- For the history of the school see BW16:320–6.
- 1948-00-00 — The first Bahá'í school in Haiti was inaugurated in Carrefour, a suburb of Port-au-Prince.
- 1960-00-00 — A number of Bahá'í primary schools were opened in Bolivia.
- 1960-00-02 — Two Bahá'í primary schools were opened in Uganda.
- 1962-10-00 —
A property was acquired outside of Gwalior, India, for a teaching institute. [DM192]
- The institute was later converted into a boarding hostel solely for Indian children and still later into the 'Rabbani School', now an accredited agricultural school. [DM192–3; VV82]
- 1966-09-11 —
The rescue of six Tongan boys from the uninhabited island of 'Ata by Peter Warner and his crew on his yacht the Just David. The boys, all students at St Andrew's College, had stolen a 25 foot whaling boat and, on their first night at sea, had lost the sails and the rudder in a storm. They lost the little food they had carried as well. They were adrift for 8 days without water before reaching the island in June 1965. By the time Warner arrived, the boys had set up a commune with a food garden, hollowed-out trees to store rainwater, a gymnasium, badminton court, chicken enclosures. and a permanent fire. [Wikipedia]
- This documentary was made in 1966 shortly after the rescue.
- Here is Peter Warner's own story of the rescue.
- A documentary has been made of the experience. Here is the trailer.
- In 1974 Peter Warner was once more in the right spot at the right time, when he rescued a shipwrecked sailing crew on Middleton Reef in the Tasman Sea, with the help of Sione Filipe Totau, one of the Tongans he had rescued earlier.
- Mr Warner lived in Tonga for thirty years where he became a Bahá'í and help found Ocean of Light International School. His time there was documented in his autobiography called Ocean of Light: 30 Years in Tonga and the Pacific. In the 1990s he moved to the Northern Rivers of NSW, and become a noted macadamia farmer and tree manager near Lismore, before settling in Ballina. This period of his life was covered in his autobiography Twilight of the Dawn.
- He died on the 13th of April 2021 at the age of 90 after his boat capsized during an attempted crossing of the Ballina Bar in rough conditions.
[The Echo]
- 1967-11-12 —
The dedication of two schools founded by Bahá'ís in Odusai and Tilling Uganda. (Note: Tilling was where the home of Hand of the Cause Olinga was located.) [CG70-71]
- The schools had been confiscated during the regime of Idi Amin and had fallen into poor repair. A project was undertaken by the Mona Foundation to restore the facilities. [Website]
- 1970-01-01 — Claire Gung opened Auntie Claire's Kindergarten in new facilities in Kampala with an enrollment of 146 children. [CG81]
- 1978-03-00 — The first Bahá'í-owned school in Pakistan, the New Day Montessori, opened in Karachi.
- 1980-09-00 —
The Anís Zunúzí Baháʼí School, located at Lilavoix, Haiti, opened its doors to students in 1980. The inauguration ceremony took place on the 20th of October 1982 when Hand of the Cause Amatu'l-Bahá Khánum planted an orange tree as part of the opening ceremonies. [BN No 625 April 1983 p5-7; BW17:158; Wikipedia]
- The cost of the construction of the school was about $300,000 which was donated by the Hassan Ali-Kamran family in Belgium. [LB304]
- The school is partnered with the Mona Foundation.
- Bahaipedia.
- 1983-02-24 — The inauguration of the Bahá'í Vocational Institute for Rural Women at Indore, India. It offered rural women residential courses on literacy, health care and income generating skills. The success of this school was recognized when it won one of the Global 500 Environmental Action awards that was presented at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 [The Baha'is magazine].
- 1984-00-02 —
The first Bahá'í university, Universidad Núr, opened in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. [VV82–3]
- Website.
- 1986-00-00 —
The founding of the Ruaha Secondary School in southwestern rural Tanzania near Iringa, about 500 km from Dar-es-salaam. The school was operated under the auspices of the National Spiritual Assembly. [The Mona Project (information on the Iringa School no longer available on this web site), One Country]
- By 1988 the school had 300 pupils and taught classes in English, geography, Swahili, history, chemistry, agriculture, physics, political science, mathematics, biology, and religion – Christian, Bahá'i, and Islamic studies were covered by representatives of other religions –all part of the Ministry-determined curriculum. Each student participated in service projects. [BW14p96; History of the Bahá'í Faith in Tanzania]
- In 2001 the school received a grant to build a girls dormitory. [BWNS145]
- The Mona Foundation provided funding for the building of a boys' dormitory with the capacity of 120 beds. [History of the Bahá'í Faith in Tanzania]
- 1987-00-03 — The first National Children's Camp in Australia was held in Yerrinbool School with 36 children between 9 and 13 years of age in attendance. [BINS173:10]
- 1988-00-00 —
The opening of the School of the Nations in Taipa, Macau with 5 students enrolled in kindergarten and operated out of an apartment. The teachers outnumbered the students.
- In its second year it had 100 students and nearly 200 in the third year. Eventually, the Macau government donated land where a 7-story facility was opened in 2008. That new building included a library that was also accessible to the public throughout the week. In 2019 School of the Nations had 600 students from kindergarten through high school and 100 teachers.
- The school became a high performer in the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme and was the first in Macau to offer the International General Certificate of Secondary Education, the two most widely recognized international qualifications accepted by the majority of universities in the world.
[SoN, BWNS460; BWNS1305]
- The school's website.
- Bahaipedia.
- 1989-09-00 — The founding of the Maxwell International Bahá'í School. It was a co-ed Bahá'í school located on Shawnigan Lake, British Columbia, Canada. It offered day students and boarding students from many parts of the world instruction from grades 7-12. Its educational philosophy was based on the principles of the Bahá'í Faith. The school was opened in a ceremony with guest of honour Amatu'l-Bahá Rúhíyyih Khánum (Mary Maxwell, daughter of May and Sutherland) and wife of the Bahá'í Faith's Guardian, Shoghi Effendi). A tree was planted in dedication to the opening of the school. In the early 2006-2007 school year, the school board decided to drop "Bahá'í" from its name, changing it to "Maxwell International School".
The school closed on its 20th anniversary in 2008. [Wiki]
- 1992-06-19 — Graduation ceremonies were held for the thirty-eight members of the first graduating class of the Maxwell International Bahá'í School. More than seven hundred participated in the ceremonies. ["Maxwell Eagle" Sep/Oct 1992 Vol IV no. 1 page 1]
- 1992-09-00 —
The establishment of the Townshend International School situated in the heart of Europe in Hluboká, South Bohemia, Czech Republic.
- This private, non-affiliated, co-educational high school, accredited by the Ministry of Education with English as the teaching language, is a non-profit project and sponsors a number of students from its host country. [TIS Web Site]
- 1993-00-02 —
The opening of the Bádi School with an enrollment of 12 students by the Torrez family members in Las Cumbres Villa Zaita, Panamá City, Republic of Panama. They rented a small, dismantled house from the Panama Social Security Agency, remodeled it and closed the garage in order to use it as a classroom.
- Over the years, two more buildings were added to expand the facility and enrollment capacity to 3200 square meters and 156 students. Badi's first high school graduation was scheduled for 2004, when Badi Tutorial University was scheduled to open its door. [Bádi School , Wiki Bahá'í Faith in Panama]
- 1993-01-00 —
In a commitment to education and the welfare of humanity, the Bahá'ís have setup 60 grassroots Bahá'í literacy schools and 30 Bahá'í primary health care workers were trained and deployed. The largest scale institution is the private school named the Bambino School in Lilongwe. A Bahá'í school started in January 1993 and in 2003 Bambino School had an enrolment of 1,100 from nursery level through secondary school and secretarial college and has high school graduation including taking the International General Certificate of Secondary Education.
- See BWNS240 from 1963 for a recap of the early Bahá'í history of Malawi.
- 1993-01-31 — The opening of the Banani School with 65 students in Chisamba, Lusaka, Zambia. At the time of the school's inauguration on the 18th of May, 1996 there were 120 students, a library, a multimedia computer lab, a swimming pool, and a school bus. It was inaugurated by the William Mmutle Masetlha Foundation under the direction of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Zambia and named after Hand of the Cause Musa Banani. The Primary School was inaugurated on 22 August, 2001. Today the Banani International School is a private, not for profit residential school for 150 girls from Grades 6 through 12. [Website; Wikipedia; Bahaipedia]
- 1996-03-03 — The establishment of the Ocean of Light School in Tonga. [OoL Website, BWNS195; Bahaipedia]
- 2000-01-01 —
The establishment of a high school at the Malagwane hill site in Mbabane, the capital of Swaziland, a small cosmopolitan city of about 90,000 inhabitants.
- The school, located on the outskirts of the city, was named "The Setsembiso Sebunye High School." In Siswati, the language of Swaziland, it means "the promise of unity."
- It opened with a double stream (two sections) with 120 students in Forms One and Two (the 8th and 9th year of school). In subsequent years a minimum of 70 new students were admitted.
- A two-story, twelve-room building was completed just before the opening of school. This building contains 7 classrooms, a science lab/classroom, and a modern computer room, a library and an administrative/staff room. Each classroom was equipped with computer capabilities to provide both access to a network in support of the curriculum and the internet. This building was the first of a complex of facilities to serve the needs of a modern high school, eventually having about 400 students.
- The total enrolment for all of the schools (high, primary and pre-primary schools) later exceeded 500. [Home Page]
- 2001-07-00 —
The inauguration of the new campus of the Townshend International School in the Czech Republic.
- Since its opening in 1992 the co-educational high school has gained accreditation from the Ministry of Education and has welcomed students from over thirty countries in addition to sponsoring students from the Czech Republic. This private, non-affiliated, co-educational high school was accredited by the Ministry of Education with English as the teaching language. [TIS Web Site]
- 2002-06-06 — City Montessori School in Lucknow, India won the UNESCO Peace Education award in recognition of its efforts to promote the universal values of education for peace and tolerance and to renew the principles of secularism at a time when these values and principles are increasingly being challenged. The school was founded by Mr. Jagdish Gandhi and his wife Bharti in 1959 with only 5 students and has since earned a reputation for a high level of academic excellence — and for a distinctive program of moral and spiritual education. In 1999 the Guinness Book of World Records recognized City Montessori School as the world's largest school by enrollment. The school had some 22,000 students that year. In 2002 it had 26,000 students in grade levels ranging from pre-primary to college and in 2010-11 enrolment was 39,437. In 2014-14 it was over 47,000. Technically speaking, CMS is not so much a school as a school district, with some 20 branches spread throughout Lucknow. [CMS site, BWNS165, BWNS146, One CountryVol.14,Issue 1]
- 2002-09-21 — The dedication, at the Green Acre Bahá'í School in Eliot Maine, the oldest permanent Bahá'í school in the world, of a new classroom and lecture hall designated as The Harriet and Curtis Kelsey Center, with an attendant Manny Reimer Hall. [BWNS175]
- 2007-11-14 —
In a letter to the Students, Staff, Parents and Supporters of Maxwell International School the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Canada announced that the school would close (at the end of the term). Financial considerations were cited as the reason.
- Maxwell had provided an accredited academic program for grades 7–12 leading to British Columbia high school graduation certification.
-
The school had been established in 1989 as a non-profit educational institution with a strong emphasis on the performing arts. The Maxwell Dance Workshop used dance, music and drama to challenge young people to find new solutions for the issues facing their generation.
- The school also had an ESL (English as a Second Language) program to accommodate foreign students who came from diverse religious and cultural backgrounds. [Maxwell International School on A-Channel News]
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