Munirih Khanum: Memoirs and Letters

Corrected Edition

This collection of writings is an attempt to rectify one of the great chasms in the reporting of Baha’i history. There are mentions of the many devoted and strong women who taught and defended the Faith, but their voice and perspective is lost to the male dominated age in which they lived.  This autobiographical sketch is all we have to understand the feelings, opinions, and perspective of Munirih Khanum, the wife of Abdu’l-Baha. Born into a distinguished family in Isfahan, descended from the Prophet Muhammad, daughter of an early Babi she was born to a couple who long thought they could have no children. This is a new translation of her account of her life until her marriage to Abdu’l-Baha in Akka in 1871. After that, nothing else was written for 50 years until her husband’s death in 1922.

Included are a series of laments and letters from that later period, including her expression of loss of her husband and then of his sister, Bahiyyih Khanum, the only woman to lead an Abrahamic religion. Letters also include her thoughts on the education of women and the strength of women in service to the Cause of God.

A must have for seeking an understanding of the lives of early Baha’is.