# In Memoriam: Amin Banani (1926-2013)

*Exported from [Holy-Writings.com](https://www.holy-writings.com/) on 2026-06-18 — 1 clipping.*

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> Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Anonymous, In Memoriam: Amin Banani (1926-2013), bahai-library.com.
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> 
> Amin Banani
> 
> (1926-2013)
> 
> Amin Banani1 was born in Tehran on September 23, 1926. He
> received his elementary education at Jamshid Jam Primary
> School and completed the first three years of high school at the
> Alborz Secondary School. In 1943, in the midst of the Second
> World War, he joined a number of young Persian Bahá’ís who
> came to the United States on board a U.S. troopship arriving in
> February 1944 to complete their education. Due to the more
> advanced curriculum of the Persian schools at the time, he was
> able to graduate from high school by June of 1944 as the
> valedictorian of his class. In September 1944 he was admitted to
> In Memoriam                                                 419
> 
> Stanford University and graduated in 1947 with a major in
> history. He obtained his M.A. from Columbia University in
> 1949 and returned to Stanford University to receive his Ph.D. in
> 1959.
> His academic career began with teaching history at the
> Overseas Program of the University of Maryland in Athens,
> Greece, in 1956-58. Then he taught for one year as an Instructor
> at Stanford University, 1958-59; two years as an Assistant
> Professor of Humanities at Reed College, 1959-61; two years as
> Research Fellow and Assistant Professor at Harvard University,
> 1961-63. In September 1963 he was invited to UCLA by
> Professor Gustave von Grunebaum to start the program of
> Persian studies. From the start his teaching was not narrowly
> focused but covered both history and literature. This broad
> encompassing of Persian cultural history was reflected in his
> research and scholarship. From his first book, The
> Modernization of Iran, published in 1961, to his latest
> contribution to the volume published by the Danish Academy
> of Sciences in 2008 entitled Religious Texts in Iranian
> Languages, he concerned himself with vital aspects of a living
> and continuing cultural tradition.
> Some of the more significant writings of Amin Banani are
> chapters entitled “Ferdowsi and the Art of Tragic Epic” in Islam
> and its Cultural Divergence (1971); “The Conversion of a Self-
> Conscious Elite” in Individualism and Conformity in Classical
> Islam (1977); “Ahmad Kasravi and Purification of Persian: A
> Study in Nationalist Motivation” in Nation and Ideology (1982);
> and “Rumi, The Poet” in Mysticism and Poetry in Islam (1988).
> His collaborative translation with Jascha Kessler of the poetry
> of Forough Farrokhzad was published in 1982 under the title
> Bride of Acacias. The same collaborative effort in 2005 yielded
> a beautiful volume of translation of the poems of Tahereh, the
> nineteenth century heroine of the Bábí movement, who sounded
> the clarion call of emancipation of women and equality of
> rights of men and women, entitled Tahereh: A Portrait in
> Poetry.
> 420                                           Lights of Irfán vol. 15
> 
> In the course of more than thirty years of teaching at UCLA
> he laid the foundation of a broad and integrated program of
> Iranian Studies culminating in establishment of the first
> Undergraduate Major in Iranian Studies at any American
> university.
> Amin Banani served on the Board of Directors of the Middle
> East Studies Association of North America, the Executive
> Council of the Society for Iranian Studies and as Vice President
> of the American Association of Iranian Studies.
> Unlike some academicians who seek their fulfillment
> exclusively in their academic career, Amin Banani from the
> beginning led a rich life of service in the Bahá’í community
> world-wide. His global-level Bahá’í service began in the 1940s,
> when he accepted assignments to represent the Bahá’í
> community at a UN conference of nongovernmental
> organizations and a human rights commission. In the early
> 1950s he also served as a member of National Bahá’í Youth
> Committee in the United States.
> In 1953 he and his wife, Sheila Wolcott, responded to the call
> of Shoghi Effendi to move to countries and territories without
> Bahá’ís. They moved with their first child to Greece, where they
> spent five years fostering the beginnings of the Bahá’í
> community. His first university teaching post was in Athens
> with the Overseas Program of the University of Maryland.
> During this time Amin was called by Shoghi Effendi for
> further work in the United Nations to protect the rights of
> Bahá’ís in Iran, ultimately being appointed in 1956 to an
> international committee for defense of the Faith.
> After the family’s return to the United States in 1958, the
> National Spiritual Assembly appointed Amin at various times,
> from the 1960s through the 2000s, to serve on the Community
> Development Committee, Publishing Committee, Persian
> Reviewing Board and Payam-e-Doost Governing Board. He was
> In Memoriam                                                      421
> 
> a delegate to the Bahá’í National Convention several times in
> the 1950s and 1970s.
> Over the years he was elected to Local Spiritual Assemblies
> serving Bahá’í communities in California, Greece, Oregon,
> Massachusetts and California again. He taught at various
> sessions at Bosch, Louhelen and Green Acre Bahá’í schools; of
> summer schools in the United States, England, Iran, Ireland,
> Italy, Switzerland and Germany; and of the ‘Irfán Colloquium.
> He was elected to the Bahá’í Assemblies of Palo Alto,
> California; Athens, Greece; Portland, Oregon; Cambridge,
> Massachusetts; and Santa Monica, California. He made
> presentations at the ‘Irfán Colloquium sessions held at Bosch
> and Louhelen Bahá’í Schools in North America and at Acuto
> Center for Bahá’í Studies, Italy, in Europe. He also taught at
> the Bahá’í Summer Schools in the United States, England, Iran,
> Ireland, Italy, Switzerland and Germany. From 1980 to 2006 he
> served as the Deputy Trustee of Ḥuqúqu’lláh, a global Bahá’í
> philanthropic fund.
> Amin Banani was a passionate lover of music both eastern
> and western, and found much of his spiritual fulfillment in
> enjoyment of that art.
> He passed away on Sunday, July 28, 2013, in Santa Monica
> and is buried in the Woodlawn Cemetery, Santa Monica.
> The Universal House of Justice in a message of tribute
> praising Amin Banani’s services says:
> 
> Whether in the pioneering or administrative fields, he
> served with distinction — a service that was ever
> characterized by humility and self-effacement. … [W]e
> recall with heartfelt admiration and gratitude his staunch
> and effective defense of the Faith, the signal
> contributions he made to the advancement of both
> Bahá’í and Iranian studies, and his twenty-six years of
> service to the institution of Ḥuqúqu’lláh. In all respects,
> 422                                                    Lights of Irfán vol. 15
> 
> his was a life that exemplified unwavering devotion to
> the Cause and abiding commitment to its high ideals.
> 
> NOTE
> For more information on the life history and academic achievements of
> Professor Amin Banani see Professor Ehsan Yarshater’s article on Amin
> Banani, Journal of Iranian Studies, Vol. 47, 2014.
>
> — *In Memoriam: Amin Banani (1926-2013) (Used by permission of the curator)*