The Secret Of Divine Civilization
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The Secret Of Divine Civilization
''The Secret of Divine Civilization'' is a book written anonymously by ʻAbdu'l-Bahá in 1875, addressed to the rulers and the people of Persia, but can be applied to developmental reform in any society. It is considered to be part of the authoritative religious text of the Baháʼí Faith. The work was lithographed in Bombay in 1882 and received wide circulation in Iran under the Persian title ''Risali-yi-madaniyyih'' or the ''Treatise on Civilization''. Background The original text was written under an anonymous author, and the first English translation was published in London in 1910, and Chicago in 1918, under the title ''Mysterious Forces of Civilization'' written by "an Eminent Bahai Philosopher". The currently used translation was completed by Marzieh Gail and published in 1957, with an introduction by Horace Holley. According to Peter Smith, "the book was written at a time when genuine reform of Iran seemed possible as Mirza Husayn Khan was still politically influe ...
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ʻAbdu'l-Bahá
ʻAbdu'l-Bahá (; Persian language, Persian: ‎, 23 May 1844 – 28 November 1921), born ʻAbbás ( fa, عباس), was the eldest son of Baháʼu'lláh and served as head of the Baháʼí Faith from 1892 until 1921. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá was later Canonization, canonized as the last of three "central figures" of the religion, along with Baháʼu'lláh and the Báb, and his writings and authenticated talks are regarded as a source of Baháʼí sacred literature. He was born in Tehran to an Aristocracy, aristocratic family. At the age of eight his father was imprisoned during a government crackdown on the Bábism, Bábí Faith and the family's possessions were looted, leaving them in virtual poverty. His father was exiled from their native Iran, and the family went to live in Baghdad, where they stayed for nine years. They were later called by the Ottoman Empire, Ottoman state to Istanbul before going into another period of confinement in Edirne and finally the prison-city of Acre, Pal ...
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Persian Empire
The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire (; peo, wikt:𐎧𐏁𐏂𐎶, 𐎧𐏁𐏂, , ), also called the First Persian Empire, was an History of Iran#Classical antiquity, ancient Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC. Based in Western Asia, it was contemporarily the List of largest empires, largest empire in history, spanning a total of from the Balkans and ancient Egypt, Egypt in the west to Central Asia and the Indus River, Indus Valley in the east. Around the 7th century BC, the region of Persis in the southwestern portion of the Iranian plateau was settled by the Persians. From Persis, Cyrus rose and defeated the Medes, Median Empire as well as Lydia and the Neo-Babylonian Empire, marking the formal establishment of a new imperial polity under the Achaemenid dynasty. In the modern era, the Achaemenid Empire has been recognized for its imposition of a successful model of centralized, bureaucratic administration; its multicultural policy; building comp ...
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Baháʼí Faith
The Baháʼí Faith is a religion founded in the 19th century that teaches the Baháʼí Faith and the unity of religion, essential worth of all religions and Baháʼí Faith and the unity of humanity, the unity of all people. Established by Baháʼu'lláh in the 19th century, it initially developed in Iran and parts of the Middle East, where it has faced ongoing Persecution of Baháʼís, persecution since its inception. The religion is estimated to have 5–8 million adherents, known as Baháʼís, spread throughout most of the world's countries and territories. The Baháʼí Faith has three central figures: the Báb (1819–1850), considered a herald who taught his followers that God would soon send a prophet similar to Jesus or Muhammad; the Báb was executed by Iranian authorities in 1850; Baháʼu'lláh (1817–1892), who claimed to be that prophet in 1863 and faced exile and imprisonment for most of his life; and his son, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá (1844–1921), who was released f ...
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Marzieh Gail
Marzieh Gail (1 April 1908 – 16 October 1993), born Marzieh Nabil Khan, was a Persian-American Bahá'i writer and translator. Early life Marzieh Khan was one of the three children of Mirza Ali Kuli Khan and Florence Breed Khan. Her father was a diplomat from Iran; her mother was an American Bahá'i convert and diplomatic hostess. Her grandmother, Alice Ives Breed, was a Boston clubwoman and socialite. As a child, Khan lived in Washington, D.C., Paris, Tehran, Istanbul, and Tbilisi, because of her father's work. Khan attended Vassar College, Mills College, and Stanford University, graduating from the last of these in 1929. She earned a master's degree in English in 1932, at the University of California, Berkeley. Career Khan was an early admirer of Shoghi Effendi, longtime head of the Bahá'i Faith. She and her first husband went to Iran to teach Bahá'i classes. Gail was an early woman journalist in Tehran. After her husband's death, she concentrated on translating Bah ...
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Horace Holley (1887-1960)
Horace Holley may refer to: * Horace Holley (minister) (1781–1827), Unitarian minister and president of Transylvania University * Horace Holley (Baháʼí) (1887–1960), follower of the Bahá'í Faith {{hndis, name=Holley, Horace ...
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Peter Smith (historian)
Peter Smith helped establish Mahidol University International College (MUIC) in 1987, where he served as university administrator and chair of the Social Science Division until his retirement in 2013. He also teaches courses at the Wilmette Institute, an online Baháʼí educational institution, and is an author of several books specializing in Baháʼí studies. Career Smith earned a Certificate of Education, with distinction in Geography, from the University of Bristol, in 1972, followed by a B.Ed. in Geography with honors from the University of Bristol, England in 1973, and then a Ph.D. from the University of Lancaster, England, in the Sociology of Religion in 1983, with his dissertation later published as ''The Babi and Bahaʼi Religions: From Messianic Shiʻism to a World Religion''. Along the way Smith convened four Bahá'í Studies Seminars while at the University of Lancaster - 1977, 1978, 1979 and 1980 - and gave a paper at an August 1983 conference on Bahá'í history at ...
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Reform
Reform ( lat, reformo) means the improvement or amendment of what is wrong, corrupt, unsatisfactory, etc. The use of the word in this way emerges in the late 18th century and is believed to originate from Christopher Wyvill#The Yorkshire Association, Christopher Wyvill's Association movement which identified “Parliamentary Reform” as its primary aim.Reform in English Public Life: the fortunes of a word. Joanna Innes 2003 Reform is generally regarded as antithetical to revolution. Developing countries may carry out a wide range of reforms to improve their living standards, often with support from international financial institutions and aid agencies. This can include reforms to macroeconomic policy, the civil service reform in developing countries, civil service, and Public finance, public financial management. In the United States, rotation in office or term limits would, by contrast, be more revolutionary, in altering basic political connections between incumbents and constit ...
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Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmenistan to the north, by Afghanistan and Pakistan to the east, and by the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf to the south. It covers an area of , making it the 17th-largest country. Iran has a population of 86 million, making it the 17th-most populous country in the world, and the second-largest in the Middle East. Its largest cities, in descending order, are the capital Tehran, Mashhad, Isfahan, Karaj, Shiraz, and Tabriz. The country is home to one of the world's oldest civilizations, beginning with the formation of the Elamite kingdoms in the fourth millennium BC. It was first unified by the Medes, an ancient Iranian people, in the seventh century BC, and reached its territorial height in the sixth century BC, when Cyrus the Great fo ...
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Mirza Hosein Khan Moshir Od-Dowleh
Mirza Hosein Khan Moshir od-Dowleh Sepahsalar ( fa, میرزا حسین خان مشیرالدوله سپهسالار) or simply Mirza Hosein Sepahsalar ( fa, میرزا حسین سپهسالار) (1828–1881) was the Grand Vizier (prime minister) of Iran (Persia) during the Qajar dynasty under King Naser al-Din Shah Qajar between 1871 and 1873. After a successful career in the Iranian foreign service, serving in Tiflis, Mirza Hosein Khan was made ambassador to Istanbul during the great Ottoman reform period after 1856. He seems also to have been influenced by at least two reformist thinkers: Fatali Akhundov, whom he got to know well in Tiflis, and Mirza Malkam Khan, whom he met in Istanbul. On becoming Grand vizier, Mirza Hosein persuaded the Shah to grant a concession for railroad construction—the Reuter concession—and other commercial development projects to Baron de Reuter. Opposition from bureaucratic factions and clerical leaders, however, forced the Shah to dismiss hi ...
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Nasser Al-Din Shah Qajar
Naser al-Din Shah Qajar ( fa, ناصرالدین‌شاه قاجار; 16 July 1831 – 1 May 1896) was the fourth Shah of Qajar Iran from 5 September 1848 to 1 May 1896 when he was assassinated. He was the son of Mohammad Shah Qajar and Malek Jahan Khanom and the third longest reigning monarch in Iranian history after Shapur II of the Sassanid dynasty and Tahmasp I of the Safavid dynasty. Nasser al-Din Shah had sovereign power for close to 51 years. He was the first modern Persian monarch who formally visited Europe and wrote of his travels in his memoirs. A modernist, he allowed the establishment of newspapers in the country and made use of modern forms of technology such as telegraphs, photography and also planned concessions for railways and irrigation works. Despite his modernizing reforms on education, his tax reforms were abused by people in power, and the government was viewed as corrupt and unable to protect commoners from abuse by the upper class which led to increasi ...
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Works By `Abdu'l-Bahá
Works may refer to: People * Caddy Works (1896–1982), American college sports coach * Samuel Works (c. 1781–1868), New York politician Albums * '' ''Works'' (Pink Floyd album)'', a Pink Floyd album from 1983 * ''Works'', a Gary Burton album from 1972 * ''Works'', a Status Quo album from 1983 * ''Works'', a John Abercrombie album from 1991 * ''Works'', a Pat Metheny album from 1994 * ''Works'', an Alan Parson Project album from 2002 * ''Works Volume 1'', a 1977 Emerson, Lake & Palmer album * ''Works Volume 2'', a 1977 Emerson, Lake & Palmer album * '' The Works'', a 1984 Queen album Other uses * Microsoft Works, a collection of office productivity programs created by Microsoft * IBM Works, an office suite for the IBM OS/2 operating system * Mount Works, Victoria Land, Antarctica See also * The Works (other) * Work (other) Work may refer to: * Work (human activity), intentional activity people perform to support themselves, others, or the community ** ...
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