# Music, Devotions, and Mashriqu'l-Adhkar

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> Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: R. Jackson Armstrong-Ingram, Music, Devotions, and Mashriqu'l-Adhkar, Los Angeles: Kalimat Press, 1987, bahai-library.com.
> ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
> 
> STUDIES IN BABf AND BAHA'I HISTORY
> VOLUME FOUR
> 
> MUSIC,
> .DEVOTIONS,
> AND
> MASHRIQU'L-ADHKAR
> R. JACKSON ARMSTRONG-INGRAM, PH.D.
> 
> KALIMAT PRESS
> LOS ANGELES
> Copyright© 1987 by R. Jackson Armstrong-Ingram
> All Rights Reserved
> 
> First Edition
> 
> Manufactured in the United           of America
> 
> Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
> (Revised for vol. 4)
> 
> Studies in Babf and Bahaf history.
> 
> Includes bibliographies and indexes.
> Contents: [1] [no title]-v. 2. From Iran east
> and west I edited by Juan R. Cole and Moojan Momen­
> [etc.]-v. 4. Music, devotions, and Mashriqu'l-Adhkar I
> R. Jackson Armstrong-Ingram.
> 1 . Baha'i Faith- History. 2 . Babism-History.
> I. Momen, Moojan. II. Armstrong-Ingram, R. Jackson.
> BP330.S78 1982          297' .89   83-22
> ISBN 0-933770-16-2 (v. 1)
> To Karen
> CONTENTS
> 
> PREFACE                                            IX
> 
> INTRODUCTION                                       Xl
> 
> PART ONE: The Devotional Heritage                   1
> Chapter One: From the East                         3
> (i) Eastern Baha'f Devotional Practice
> (ii) The Mashriqu'l-Adhkar in the
> Eastern Baha'f Community
> (iii) Eastern Chant and Western Baha'fs
> Chapter Two: Early Devotions and the Music
> of Louise Waite                             27
> (i) Early Baha'f Devotions in Chicago
> (ii) Louise Waite
> (iii) Bahai Hymns of Peace and Praise
> Chapter Three: Baha'f Hymnody in Community Life   61
> (i) The Absorption of Waite' s Hymns into
> Baha'f Community Life
> (ii) Other Baha'f Hymnodists
> Chapter Four: Opposition to the Use of Hymns      87
> (i) Early Objections
> (ii) The End of the Era of Baha'f Hymnody
> 
> vii
> PART Two: The Building                         1 19
> Chapter Five: The Choice of a Site and the
> Development of National Organization     121
> (i) The Choice of a Site
> (ii) The Bahai Temple Unity
> Chapter Six: The Bourgeois Design             175
> (i) The Choice of the Design
> (ii) The Development of the Design
> (iii) Further Comments on the Development
> of the Design
> (iv) The Legitimation of the Design
> (v) Opposition to the Design
> (vi) The Implementation of the Design
> 
> PART THREE: The Practice                       237
> Chapter Seven: Choral Song and Sermonizing
> in Wilmette                             239
> (i) The Vahid Choral Society
> (ii) Early Uses of Foundation Hall
> (iii) Developments in the 1930s
> (iv) "High Church" Baha' i Practice
> Chapter Eight: The Mashriqu'l-Adhkar in Use   275
> (i) The Auditorium Dedications
> (ii) Post-1953 Practice
> Chapter Nine: Scripture and Culture
> in the Development of Western Baha'i
> Devotional Practice                       311
> MUSICAL EXAMPLES                               343
> NOTES                                          361
> BIBLIOGRAPHY                                   381
> PREFACE
> 
> This work draws on research done over the last several
> years, mostly since 1982. The use of that research here is
> highly selective, and much material of interest that space does
> not permit to be discussed here will be presented elsewhere.
> As is the case with all who do extended research at the Na­
> tional Baha'i Archives, I am indebted to the archivist, Roger
> Dahl, for his assistance in locating pertinent materials. I am
> also obliged to Richard Hollinger for supplying copies of some
> correspondence from the archives of the Spiritual Assembly
> of Los Angeles.
> I wish to thank all those Baha'is who shared their experi­
> ences of devotional activity with me. I owe especial thanks
> to Rick Hill and Shery McDonnell Rak for many stimulating
> discussions and for their participation in recitals of music by
> early North American Baha'fs..
> I am deeply indebted to the late Ghazzal Towfiq who as­
> sisted me with the identification of Arabic and Persian texts
> and in annotating their English translations. I will always
> remember the conscientious enthusiasm she brought to our
> search.
> Naturally, these acknowledgements notwithstanding-as is
> the case with any scholarly work-the conclusions presented
> here are solely my own and should not be taken to represent
> the views of any other individual Baha'i or Baha'i institution.
> 
> ix
> x     Preface
> 
> The preparation of this work for publication was assisted
> by a grant-in-aid toward my ongoing research and writing
> from the Victory Foundation. Such support by independent
> foundations is vital to the development of any new field of
> scholarly endeavor and I am grateful for the Victory Founda­
> tion's assistance with my work as part of their encourage­
> ment of vigorous growth in Baha'I studies.
> As with all of my writing, mere mention cannot do justice to
> the extent to which the forbearance and support of my wife
> and family have contributed to this work.
> For the record, I will note here the differences between my
> doctoral thesis and the present work. Both the introduction
> and first chapter have been shortened for the published ver­
> sion, with the omitted material mostly intended for use else­
> where. The remainder of both versions is substantially the
> same, except for largely trivial differences caused by the
> different requirements of the two modes of presentation.
> Beyond the architectural illustrations used to support the
> arguments in Chapter Six, this published version includes a
> number of period photographs that I hope will add to the tan­
> gibility of my discussion of events over the last nine decades.
> Of the architectural illustrations, the one of the Bourgeois in­
> terior design of 1920, which is used in the thesis was not avail­
> able for use here. A Bourgeois sketch of the interior from the
> later 1920s has been substituted . As with the development of
> the exterior design, this later interior sketch demonstrates
> even more forcibly the use of derivative material as discussed
> in the text than does the unavailable one from 1920.
> 
> R. Jackson Armstrong-Ingram
> August 1987
> INTRODUCTION
> 
> Before its introduction to North America the Baha'f Faith
> was, in a broad sense, a Middle Eastern religion. Its adher­
> ents extended from Egypt across the Ottoman and Persian
> Empires to India, and the host societies and cultures for most
> Baha'f communities were Islamic. This was generally true at
> the level of daily interaction even in places such as Russian
> Turkestan and northern India, where the ultimate reigns of
> control were not in Muslim hands. The social and cultural en­
> vironment to which the Baha'f Faith was introduced i:Q North
> America was, of course, considerably different from that of
> the Middle East.
> Yinger suggests that:
> 
> A complete religion . . . is a social phenomenon: it is shared, and
> it takes on many of its most significant aspects only in the interac­
> tion of the group. Both the feelings from which it springs and the
> solutions it offers are social; they arise from the fact that man is a
> group-living animal. 1
> 
> And Jones observes:
> 
> . . . if alternation or conversion 'is to be manifested it becomes so
> as the articulated and ordered arrangement of major constituents
> or roles in an interactional setting. To change an identity is to
> 
> xi
> xii.    Introduction
> 
> change the manner in which one sees oneself, one's reference
> group, and role-set. The 'facts' in the cultural milieu-mores,
> folkways, status-systems, sanction mechanisms-also change.
> . . . The belief systems to which individuals are converted do not
> exist in some d,isembodied state but are tangible in some organ­
> isation or group which are an integral part of the larger social
> system.2
> 
> Obviously, for those attracted to the Baha'i Faith in North
> America, Middle Eastern Islamic societies were not ' 'the
> larger social system" in which they lived, and the "mores,
> folkways, status-systems" and "sanction mechanisms" that
> had developed in Baha'i communities within such social sys­
> tems were not wholly transferable to the North American so­
> cial context. Also, the immediate "reference group" and
> ' 'role-set' ' for these early North American Baha'is were being
> created by themselves as they identified with the Baha'i
> Faith. Through the processes of their interaction they created
> their own " social phenomenon" by initiating a North Ameri­
> can Baha'i community.
> Yinger, in broadening his conception of a "complete reli­
> gion, ' ' summarizes Joachim Wach as holding that:
> 
> . . . all religions, �espite their wide variations, are characterized
> by three universal expressions: the theoretical, a system of belief;
> the practical, a system of worship; and the sociological, a system
> of social relationships. Until all of these are found, one may have
> religious tendencies, religious elements, but not a full religion. 3
> 
> When the first four North Americans became Baha'is in
> 1894, they did so under the influence of a Syrian Baha'i who
> had come to Chicago and who himself knew comparatively lit­
> tle of the Baha'i Faith's theoretical, practical, or sociological
> systems. In the following years those who became Baha'i� en­
> tered a community that may be characterized as being in a
> Introduction       xn1
> 
> liminal situation-bestriding a culturally Christian past and a
> prospective Baha'f future-and:
> 
> In this interim of "liminality, " the possibility exists of standing
> aside not only from one's own social position but from all social
> positions and of formulating a potentially unlimited series of alter­
> native social arrangements. 4
> 
> The North American Baha'f community had to gradually
> negotiate this "potentially unlimited series" in relation to its
> growing exposure to and appreciation of the theoretical sys­
> tem of belief that it had potentially espoused in accepting a
> new faith, and from the process derive not only social but also
> practical and ideational alternative arrangements. Both the
> process of exposure and the process of negotiation operated
> through the activities of particular individuals and groups
> (whether official administrative or ad hoc) within the larger
> Baha'f community. This led to the development of values and
> norms specifically associated with the Baha'f community by
> its members and seen by them to differentiate it from other
> communalities within North American society.
> Yet, as Cohen asserts:
> 
> Norms and values do not exist on their own but are everywhere
> couched in symbolic formations. They are developed and main­
> tained within the psyche of the individual through continual sym­
> bolic activities. Often it is the objective symbols that generate the
> subjective experience of obligation and not the other way round.
> As our subjective life is shifting, vague and chaotic, we are only
> too happy to be assisted by the objective symbolic formulations
> provided to us by "experts, " leaders, teachers or, generally, the
> culture under which we live. Symbols are essentially objective
> forms. They may be originally the spontaneous creation of indi­
> viduals going through specific subjective experiences, but they
> attain an objective existence when they are accepted by others in
> xiv     Introduction
> 
> the course of social interaction . . . subjective and individual now
> becomes objective and collective. They develop a reality of their
> own, become obligatory and begin to exercise constraint on the
> individual. 5
> 
> The aim of this study is to investigate some of the symbolic
> formations that arose in the process of the development of a
> North American Baha'f community, and how those symbolic
> formations exercised constraint on the individuals and groups
> engaged in that process. The focus of the symbols to be dis­
> cussed is the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar at Wilmette, Illinois.
> The concept of the Mashriqu' l-Adhkar (literally, the Dawn-
> -          -
> 
> ing-Place of the Mention, or Remembrance, of God; "House
> of Worship " or "Temple" are used as English equivalents)
> in the Baha'f Faith is fairly broad. It may refer to: (a) a build­
> ing, fulfilling specific architectural requirements, that is re­
> served solely for devotions (unlike a church, for example, it
> may not be used for such rites as weddings, funerals, or nam­
> ing children, nor may it be used for sermons or lectures); (b) a
> building, not fulfilling the architectural requirements, that is
> similarly reserved for devotions; (c) a room similarly reserved
> for devotions in a building used primarily for other purposes
> (for example, a home or administrative center); (d) a complex
> of buildings which includes either a, b, or c and a series of
> "dependencies, " buildings or parts of buildings catering to
> social needs (such as a meeting hall, school, hospital, or­
> phanage, etc.); (e) a devotional meeting; or (f) the "heart" of
> the sincere worshiper. Within the current North American
> Baha'f community the term is usually perceived as applying
> to (a) and (d), and most specifically to the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar
> at Wilmette. (There are also Mashriqu'l-Adhkar of class (a) in
> Uganda, Australia, Germany, Panama, Samoa, and India.)6
> The Mashriqu'l-Adhkar at Wilmette is probably the most
> potent objective symbol of Baha'i social and cultural identity
> Introduction      xv
> 
> for North American Baha'fs, and the process of its erection is
> seen as inextricably linked to the development of the adminis­
> trative institutions of the Baha'f Faith in this continent.
> 
> The centering of thought, devotion and financial offering upon
> the great ideal of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar has been the formative
> element . . . to bring the Baha'is to maturity throughout this
> continent. ...
> 
> The building must be regarded as a symbol of the power of the
> teachings of Baha'u'llah.7
> 
> From 1903, when the idea of building a Mashriqu'l-Adhkar
> in the Chicago area was first mooted, to 1953, when the build­
> ing was substantially brought to its present form, the Baha'f
> Faith in North America passed from being a loosely knit net­
> work of ' 'cells' ' adhering to a ' 'movement' ' to being a
> ' 'religion' ' with its own distinctive developed institutions and
> parameters of belief and practice accepted as such by the in­
> stitutions of its host society. The development of the physical
> structure of the Wilmette Mashriqu'l-Adhkar is generally
> seen as having been a major motive force in this transition.
> Ironically, however, since the building began to be used regu­
> larly for devotional purposes in 1953, there has been dissat­
> isfaction with that use and, indeed, many Baha'fs now feel
> considerable alienation from the use made of the building and
> few attend devotions in it regularly.
> How is it, then, that a . building which is a positively viewed
> physical symbol of Baha'f identity has developed a praxis that
> alienates many Baha' fs, pleases few of those who do support
> its use, and may be said to function for many as a negative
> symbol of Baha'f devotional practice, thus engendering con­
> siderable ambivalence toward the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar as a to­
> tal building and praxis concept? This is the question that I will
> investigate in the following chapters by discussing selected
> xvt     Introduction
> 
> aspects of the development of the project and of Baha'i devo­
> tions in North America g�nerally.
> Hodgen suggests that " change, since it takes place in time,
> can best be studied with an eye to the dated records of the
> cultural past, ' '8 and it is in this spirit that this study has been
> carried out. The view of its past held by the current North
> American Baha'i community is generally highly formalized .
> Even the "recollections" of those who were participants in
> the early days of the community, are often formulaic and not
> borne out by the dated records. A frequently occurring exam­
> ple is that Baha'is whose memories supposedly go back to the
> community before, say, World War I state flatly, "Of course,
> we had no books i n those days, " and this is widely accepted.
> Actually, Baha'i publishing flourished quite healthily from
> 1900.
> Obviously, the development of such formulas in relation to
> the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar will be considered in this study, but,
> equally obviously, the formulas themselves do not form an
> adequate basis for a discussion of the actual processes of the
> development of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar and its praxis. There­
> fore , much of the d,iscussion is based on extensive analysis of
> materials, both personal papers and institutional records, in
> the National Baha'i Archives, Wilmette, Illinois; some mater­
> ials from other Baha'i archives ; and contemporary printed
> sources. As relevant, the discussion also includes material
> derived from interviews with selected individuals and my par­
> ticipation since February 1982 in the process of developing a
> devotional practice for the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar. .
> Alt quotations are reproduced as in the original except that
> obvious typing errors have been corrected. Apart from in quo­
> tations, this study uses the system of transliteration from the
> Arabic to the Roman alphabets that has been standard Baha'i
> usage since 1923. The only exceptions are in the cases of
> Eastern Baha' is who resided in the West, or who used Ro-
> Introduction     xvii
> 
> manized versions of their names. The spellings that they used
> for their own names are followed , rather than correct trans­
> literations given.
> In citing archival materials in this study, I have followed as
> closely as possible the same conventions as for citing printed
> sources: using name references to identify the collections and
> short descriptions to identify the document, e.g. (Robarts
> Papers: True to Robarts, 9 August 1 922), or (Chicago
> Records: Minutes, 28 June 1908).9 In the case of the records
> of the National Spiritual Assembly, this extensive collection is
> divided into various subseries; thus, citations to these records
> sometimes include a modifier to the name reference if neces­
> sary for clarity, e.g. (NSA Records, Music Committee: NSA
> to Committee, 18 February 1931). 10
> References to correspondence from 'Abdu'l-Baha, Shoghi
> Effendi, and the Universal House of Justice are usually solely
> by recipient and date, and letters so cited may be assumed to
> be in the general collections of letters from these successive
> heads of the Baha' i Faith held in the National Baha'i Ar­
> chives. Where this is not the case, fuller references have been
> given.
> Collections in the National Baha'i Archives include many
> copies of letters and other documents, some direct carbons
> and others that post-date their original. Unless there has been
> a specific reason to do so, no attempt has been made in the ci­
> tations to distinguish between originals and copies where
> there is no prima facie reason to doubt the general accuracy of
> the copy.
> A final point that must be made about the use of sources in
> this study is that quotations from the Baha'i writings are used
> as necessary for the purposes of elucidating the actions of
> those Baha'is who were exposed to these texts, not with a
> view to providing an adequate analysis of the actual purport
> of them. Thus, all quotes from letters of 'Abdu'l-Baha are the
> xviii    Introduction
> 
> translations received by the original recipients, which may or
> may not be adequate translations for purposes of doctrinal
> analysis but are the relevant texts for a consideration of the
> subsequent acts of the recipients and their contemporaries.
> Similarly, letters from Shoghi Effendi are quoted to the ex­
> tent relevant to the discussion of processes within the North
> American Baha' f community, and not for the purpose of sys­
> tematically considering his position on any particular issue.
> This study does not attempt to present an abstract "Ba­
> ha'f" perspective on the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar and its praxis.
> Rather, it discusses the particular experience of the North
> American Baha'f community in creating its Mashriqu'l­
> Adhkar, with its praxis, in relation to that community's de­
> veloping perceptions of the aspects of the Baha'i Faith to
> which it was progressively exposed within its particular social
> and cultural context.
> There has been little scholarly study of the Baha'i commu­
> nity, and most of what has been published has usually concen­
> trated on events of half a century and more ago. As a result,
> Baha'is are not used to reading serious analyses of their his­
> tory, and especially not of their more recent history. I would
> ask that Baha'fs who read this work bear in mind that,
> although the actions of Baha'fs should be based on the teach­
> ings of the Faith, there is no necessary connection between
> those teachings and the activities of Baha'fs . It is up to Ba­
> ha'is as individuals and communities to decide to what extent
> they base their lives on the writings of the Faith. The degree
> to which they do so does not in any way reflect on the station
> of the writings or their Authors, but only on the understand­
> ing of the Baha'is.
> PART ONE:
> 
> THE DEVOTIONAL HERITAGE
> THE MASHRIQU'L-ADHKAR IN 'ISHQABAD, RUSSIA.
> The first Baha'i House of Worship to be constructed.
> CHAPTER ONE:
> 
> FROM THE EAST
> 
> For the first North Americans to come upon the Baha'f
> Faith, it was a new idea, but " Ideas are the genes of cul­
> ture . " 1 When that idea was accepted as part of their personal
> belief systems, they took the first step toward the develop­
> ment of a North American Baha'f community, with its as­
> sociated cultural practices. However, the introduction of the
> Baha'f Faith to North America was not merely a one-way
> process. That introduction was also the first step in a process
> of change for the Baha'f communities in the Middle East. It
> goes beyond my present purpose to discuss this comprehen­
> sively, but in the areas of devotional practice and the
> Mashriqu'l-Adhkar there is much of relevance to the develop­
> ments in the North American cgmmunity to be learned by giv­
> ing some attention to the donor community of that germ idea.
> To date, there has been no comprehensive study of the
> Eastern Baha'f community, but I have attempted to draw
> upon such materials as are available and, in particular, to con­
> sider the degree of exposure that Western Baha'fs had to
> Eastern practice.
> 
> 4       Part One: The Devotional Heritage
> 
> EASTERN BAHA'f DEVOTIONAL PRACTICE
> 
> When the Baha'i Faith was introduced into North America
> in the 1890s, the Eastern Baha'i community had established
> forms of devotional song for use with the Persian and Arabic
> originals of its sacred text and an associated body of devo­
> tional poems and songs. These forms of devotional song are
> what Western Baha' is today refer to as "chanting. " How­
> ever, these musics were not new forms created for the Baha'i
> Faith, but were adopted from traditional Islamic practices
> ranging from Quranic cantillation to Sufi songs.
> That the early Babi community followed the established
> practices of the culture surrounding it is evident from such
> references as :Uaji Mirza :Uaydar-'Alf's account of his inter­
> polating verses written by the Bab into his reading of the Qur­
> ,
> an in morning devotional meetings of opponents of the Faith,
> in mid-nineteenth-century Iran, without this being detected. 2
> Also from :Uaydar-'Ali we have an account of Baha'is engag­
> ing in devotional song that is presumed by non-Baha'i listen­
> ers to be Sufi. Once, while imprisoned because of his religion
> in an Egyptian jail in a closed , dark cell and in chains,
> :Uaydar-'Alf and his companions:
> 
> . . . decided to chant the Tablet of Naqus, which had been re­
> vealed by Baha'u'llah for the celebration of the night on which the
> Bah had declared His mission. We were eight prisoners and our
> voices united in chanting the verses. When the soldiers heard
> this, they came in with a lamp for us. They thought that we were
> dervishes and that we were chanting something which contained
> the mention of God. This attracted their kindness toward us.
> Thereafter, the soldiers kept the door of our cell open during the
> day and unchained us. 3
> 
> The continued use of Islamic forms of devotional song by
> Eastern Baha'is is not surprising. There was continuity in the
> From the East         5
> 
> languages of devotional practice; there were continuities of
> literary form and style; and many prominent early Babfs and
> Baha'fs were formerly Muslim clergy and theologians trained
> in these song styles . Another factor that was probably of
> some importance was the lack of physical security for the
> community itself. Devotional observance often had to be cir­
> cumspect, as . on an occasion in Rasht in 1908 described by
> Remey:
> 
> I recall one day when we had gathered, nineteen in number, in
> the upper part of a dwelling. The friend who chanted the prayers
> and holy verses used caution in modulating his voice, so that it
> might not carry to the street below, lest it might attract the atten­
> tion of unfriendly ears. 4
> 
> To attract attention to the fact that a Baha'f meeting was
> taking place at all could be dangerous enough; to readily iden­
> tify such meetings by a "Baha'i" sound would have been fool­
> ish. The established forms of Islamic devotional song. could
> be used in Baha'f meetings without either theological or aes­
> thetic objection, and , quite sensibly, they were. But these
> specific forms were not in themselves part of the faith they
> served, and serve, and had no essential connection with it;
> that is, they were not, and are not, a required part of its devo­
> tional practice.
> As well as using sacred text, the Eastern community in­
> cluded poetry written by community members in their devo­
> tions. According to Browne, ' 'it would be easy to compile a
> fair-sized anthology of Babf [and Baha'i] poems. ' '5 The sing­
> ing of devotional poetry, whether traditional poems or recent
> ones originating in the community itself, was of deep signifi­
> cance to Babfs, to the extent that there are recorded instances
> of Babfs in the throes of the most hideous martyrdoms ex­
> pressing their willingness to die for their faith by singing.
> 6       Part One: The Devotional Heritage
> 
> This attachment to devotional poetry continued in the Baha' f
> community. However, the most famous o f the Babi poets did
> not live through the transitional period between the Mar­
> tyrdom of the Bah and the Declaration of Baha'u'llah. This
> poet was Tahirih (1817-1852), a woman whose career was
> an important symbol to early Western Baha'f women and
> whose example continues to be felt within the worldwide Ba­
> ha'f community.
> The life and death of Tahirih have not only been considered
> exemplary for Baha' i women, but also made an impression
> beyond the confines of her country and faith. Her story be­
> came known among intellectual circles in nineteenth-century
> Europe and inspired much praise and wonderment among
> French and English writers on Persia. 6 Her life so impressed
> Edward Granville Browne that he wrote of her:
> 
> The appearance of such a woman as Kurratu'l-'Ayn is in any
> country and any age a rare phenomenon, but in such a country as
> Persia it is a prodigy-nay, almost a miracle. Alike in virtue of her
> marvellous beauty, her rare intellectual gifts, her fervid elo­
> quence, her fearless devotion, and her glorious martyrdom, she
> stands forth incomparable and immortal amidst her country­
> women. Had the Babi religion no other claim to greatness, this
> were sufficient-that it produced a heroine like Kurratu'l-'Ayn.7
> 
> In many respects Tahirih is more important as a symbol
> than as a poet, but nonetheless her poetry was and is
> regarded as being "very fine. "8 The early North American
> Baha'i community only had possible access to three of her
> poems in English, two ghazals9 and a mathnavi, 10 but her life
> was well known to them. Tahirih' s poetry itself obviously had
> more impact in the Eastern community. But even in Persian­
> speaking communities there was considerable difficulty in de­
> termining the exact authorship of poems attributed to her.
> From the East        7
> 
> Browne remarks of his search in tlie 1880s for poems by
> Tahirih:
> Anxious as I was to obtain some of her poems,· I only met with a
> very limited amount of success. None of the Babis :at Shiraz
> whom I conversed with had any in their possession, and they said
> that Kazvin and Ramadan where Kurratu'l-'Ayn had preacfied,
> and Tihran, where she had suffered martyrdom, would be the
> most likely places to obtain them. 1 1
> 
> It was, in fact, in Yazd that Browne eventually saw and cop­
> ied the two ghazals that he later translated. The difficulty of
> attributing particular poems to Tahirih has been exacerbated
> by two main factors. First, that the papers in her possession
> at the time of her death are said to have been burned, mean­
> ing that such works as reputedly survive are rarely identifi­
> able by comparison with autograph copies. Second, the very
> quality of her work led to its use by Muslims. Thus Browne
> states:
> 
> . . . it must be borne in mind that the odium which attaches to the
> name of the Babi amongst Persian Muhammadans would render
> impossible the recitation by them of verses confessedly composed
> by her. If, therefore, she were actually the authoress of poems,
> the grace and beauty of which compelled an involuntary admira­
> tion even from her enemies, it 'Would seem extremely probable
> that they should seek to justify their right to admire them by at­
> tributing them to some other writer, and this view is supported by
> an assertion which I have heard made by a learned Persian with
> whom I was acquainted in Teheran, and who, though not actually
> a Babi, did not lack a certain amount of sympathy for those who
> were such, to the effect that many poems written by Kurratu'l­
> 'Ayn were amongst the favourite songs of the people, who were
> for the most part, unaware of their authorship. Open allusion to
> the Bab had, of course, been cut out or altered, so that no one
> could tell the source from whence they came.12
> 8     Part One: The Devotional Heritage
> 
> In 1930, Martha Root spent four months in Iran gathering
> material which she later used in her book about Tahirih, 13 in­
> terviewing relatives of the poet, visiting sites associated with
> her life, and collecting copies of some of the poems attributed
> to her. She found the poems to be so popular among the Ba­
> ha'fs that they were available sung on records which she "of­
> ten heard . . . ort the victrolas in Persian homes. " 14 From
> Iran, Root went to India and Burma, where she found that
> "the cultured classes know about Qurratu'l-'Ayn and were
> deeply interested in her poems. ' ' She was astonished at ' 'how
> many of the educated classes in India know the Persian lan­
> guage, and they know the life and poems of Qurratu'l-'Ayn
> better than we in the West know them. ' ' She also found that
> "many Indian scholars know Tahirih's poems by heart. " 15
> Isfandiar Bakhtiari, a Baha'f resident in Karachi, published
> an edition of 1 , 000 copies of the collection of poems that
> Root had acquired in Iran in 1 930, and a further edition of
> 1 , 000 copies in 1933. These were distributed to "the literati
> of India. " 1 6
> There has never been an edition of Tahirih's poems in En­
> glish, perhaps because the value of her life as a symbol to the
> Western Baha'f community is unlikely to be greatly enhanced
> by increased exposure to her poetry, created, as it was, on the
> aesthetic premises of classical Persian literature. 17
> Slight as the exposure of early Western Baha'fs was to Ta­
> hirih's poetry, it was more than they had to the works of other
> early Eastern Babf/Baha'f poets. Writing soon after his expe­
> dition to Iran to meet ' 'Babfs, ' ' Browne mentions ' 'the poems
> of Nabil, Na'im, Rawha, Maryam, and other Babis who have
> drawn the inspiration of their verses from the doctrines of the
> new religion. " 18 He states that he intends to discuss their
> work at a later date, but, unfortunately, with the exception of
> brief discussions of Nabfl and Na'fm in other works, this "fu­
> ture occasion" never arose.
> From the East        9
> 
> Two other Eastern Baha' i poets we might mention here are
> Varqa, who was well known to Western Baha'is as having
> been martyred with his twelve-year-old son Rul).u'llah in
> 1896, 19 and 'Andalfb, "a poet of superb accomplishment, "20
> who had met Browne in 1888.
> Although many editions of these poets' works have been
> published in Persian and they are well known among Eastern
> Baha'is, very little Persian Baha'i poetry has been translated
> into English, and so the main import of these, poets for the
> Western Baha'i community has been as legitimatory exam­
> ples for the role of poet in the Baha'i community.21
> In what contexts, then, were these poems sung, apart from
> individual or infor�al group use? A late nineteenth-century
> description of Baha' i meetings in Iran (the source, of course,
> says Babf) states that they consisted of a reading from the
> "Bajan akdas" (possibly the Kitab-i Aqdas is meant here) and
> a "sermon, " followed by questions and answers (these were
> presumably related to the reading and, if this was the case, it
> suggests such an arrangement as is implied by Alkany' s les.:.
> son book, see below), the whole meeting taking one to three
> hours.22 The meeting was begun and ended with singing by
> one ' 'who has a good voice . ' ' It is not clear whether this refers
> to chanting of prayers or singing of poems. Also, as the ac­
> count later mentions the Nineteen-Day Feasts as the "main
> meetings, ' ' it is not clear exactly which kind of meeting this
> early account refers to. But as it states that there "are special
> meetings for women, which follow the same course as those
> for the men, ' ' it seems likely that what is being described is
> the program for a weekly community meeting such as took
> place in Eastern Baha'i communities.
> Various accounts of these weekly meetings by Western Ba­
> ha'is who traveled in the East refer to poems being sung as
> well as prayers and sacred text, and that this was an accepted
> part of community meetings would explain the ease with
> 10     Part One: The Devotional Heritage
> 
> which translations of hymns by Western Baha'is could be in­
> corporated into them (see Chapter 3).
> 
> THE MASHRIQU'L-ADHKA.R IN THE
> EASTERN BAHA.'f COMMUNITY
> 
> Meetings in Eastern Baha'i communities might simply be
> held in the home of a member, but many communities
> managed to establish some kind of Mashriqu'l-Adhkar. This
> was rarely a purpose-built structure, but usually was an ordi-
> . nary house that was discretely used by the community for
> devotional and other meetings. An Eastern Baha'f writing
> around 1908 described the situation in Iran in order to en­
> courage the American Baha'is to go ahead with building their
> Mashriqu'l-Adhkar:
> 
> God Willing, the Friends in America must show an effort in order
> to build . . . a Bahai Temple . . . . People in America are enjoying
> the freedom of conscience. But the Friends cannot do anything in
> Persia on account of the absence of freedom. In most of the cities
> in Persia, the Believers have bought houses in The Narne of . . .
> Abdul-Baha, using them privately as the Bahai Temples. Many
> villages and towns have dedicated houses in The Name of The
> Master; such as one house for Mashregol-Azkor, one house for
> travelers, one house for Bahai School, and one house for meeting
> and teaching The Truth. 23
> 
> In a few places in Iran the Baha'is were able to construct
> their own buildings. Remey mentions a "Mashrak-el-Azcar"
> built in the garden of Tahirih's former home in Qazvin,24 and
> .   there was the nine-sided mausoleum of Varqa and Rul)u'llah. 25
> A few years after Remey's visit in 1908, Moody saw an ambi­
> tious building project being undertaken by one community:
> 
> I had the pleasure of standing within the walls of an unfinished
> Mashrak El Azkar. . . . It is still unroofed, built after the plan of
> From the East        11
> 
> Ishkabad, but small. It is in a Zoroastrian village eighteen miles
> out on the desert. There are fifteen families there and all Bahais.
> Last Rizwan three hundred believers gathered there and had a
> wonderful Feast.26
> 
> The city of 'Ishqabad (Ashkabad) in Russian Turkestan pro­
> vided not only the model for this village project but also the
> most complete model of a Baha'f community available to the
> early North American Baha'fs. 27 By the early years of this cen­
> tury, this .community was functioning as a separate religious
> community within its city and was in the process of erecting
> the first Mashriqu'l-Adhkar in the world to observe the archi­
> tectural requirements of such a building and to be supplied
> with its requisite dependencies. Indeed, it was reports of the
> beginning of this structure in November 1902 that supplied
> much of the initial impetus for building a Mashriqu'l-Adhkar
> in North America.
> The land for the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar in 'Ishqabad had been
> bought in the late 1880s and approved as a site by Baha'u'­
> llah. Although the meeting hall and several dependencies were
> built before 1900, it was not until 1902 that 'Abdu'l-Baha
> gave instructions to begin building the central place of wor­
> ship. He provided a general idea of the plan and design, and
> the details were worked out in ' Ishqabad. The foundation
> stone was laid on 28 November 1902, with General Krupat­
> kin, the governor-general of Turkestan, acting as the tsar's
> representative. The structure was substantially completed
> between 1902 and 1907 and, although the details of the or­
> namentation were not completed until more than a decade
> later, the building was usable from around that time.
> The best-known and most frequently published description
> of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar in 'Ishqabad is that by Charles
> Mason Remey, who visited the city in 1908. His description
> was originally written in a letter to the Chicago House of
> Spirituality in October 1908,28 and was first published in The
> 12     Part One: The Devotional Heritage
> 
> Bahai Bulletin in early 1909.29 Remey subsequently used the
> description . in his book Observations of a Bahai Traveller
> 1908,30 and in other works. 31 It has also been used in many
> other places and may be considered the standard description.
> Here is a shortened form of it:
> 
> The Mashrak-El-Azkar stands in the center of the city, sur­
> rounded by a large garden, which is bounded by four streets. It
> rises high above the surrounding buildings and trees, its dome be­
> ing visible for miles. . . . The building in plan is a regular polygon
> of nine sides. One large doorway and portico, flanked by turrets,
> facing the direction of the Holy Land, forms the principal motive
> of the facade, while the dome dominates the whole composition.
> The walls of the temple are of brick covered with a firm and
> hard stucco, which in that climate resists quite well the action of
> the elements, while the floors are concrete supported by iron or
> steel beams.
> In plan the building is composed of three sections: namely, the
> central rotunda, the aisle or ambulatory which surrounds it, and
> the loggia which surrounds the entire building.
> The interior of the rotunda is five stories in height. The first
> . . . consists of nine arches, supported by piers, which separate
> the ambulatory from the rotunda proper. The second story con­
> sists of a similar treatment of arches and piers and balustrades,
> which separate the triforium gallery, which is directly above the
> ambulatory, from the wall of the rotunda. The third story is deco­
> rated with nine blank arcades, between which are .shields, upon
> which is inscribed, in Persian characters, "Ya-Baha-el-Abha. "
> The fourth story contains nine large windows, while the wall of
> the fifth story, which is not as high as the others, is pierced by
> eighteen bull' s-eye windows.
> Above, there is the dome, which is hemispherical in shape. The
> rotunda from the floor to the top of the dome is elaborately deco­
> rated with fretwork and other designs, all in relief. We were told
> that the ultimate aim was that color and gildiqg should be added
> to this interior decoration.
> The inner dome is of iron or steel and concrete, while the outer
> From the East          13
> 
> dome o r roof i s entirely o f metal. The intention i s that this shall
> be gilded.
> The main portico of the temple is two stories in the clear, while
> the loggias, which surround the building, are on two floors, the
> lower being on the main floor level, while the upper one is on the
> level of the triforium gallery. This upper loggia is reached by two
> one to the right and one to the         of the main en-
> and the gallery is entered from the loggia.
> On the main floor the principal entrance is through the
> door-way, but there are also several minor doors, which connect
> the ambulatory with the loggia. An abundance of, light is admitted
> through the windows in the upper part of the rotunda, as well as
> through the windows of the upper gallery and ambulatory, which
> open upon the loggias.
> The            style of architecture has been used in treating the
> details and decorations of the building.
> At present the stucco work is not quite completed. The interior
> of the rotunda is finished, but the decoration of the loggias and
> gallery and ambulatory is only done in part. . .  .
> 
> The layout of the garden is not yet complete. Nine avenues of
> approach lead to the Mashrak-el-Azkar. The main avenue of the
> nine, leading to the entrance portico, will be entered from the
> street by a monumental gateway. Last July they were completing
> the plans for this principal gateway of the grounds.
> 
> Another early but, for the North American community at
> the time, much less accessible description of this Mashriqu'l­
> Adhkar is that by Hippolyte Dreyfus contained in an article
> written for a volume of papers published in memory of Hart­
> wig Derenbourg, late professor of the Ecole Nationale des
> Langues Orientales in Paris. In this article Dreyfus warns his
> readers against taking the term "Machreqou'l-Azkar," "le
> lieu d'ou montent les ?ikrs" (the place from which adhkar
> rise), too literally, as they cannot expect to see whirling white
> robes here. 32 (dhikr is the term used for Sufi devotions; adh­
> kdr is plural). He also distinguishes it from a mosque as it has
> no mihrab, pools for ablutions, or minbar and Friday sermon.
> 14     Part One: The Devotional Heritage
> 
> He then gives a plan of the building, describes it, and dis­
> cusses its basis in passages from the Kitab-i Aqdas.
> After it was sufficiently completed to be used, a few of the
> 'lshqabad community went to the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar for
> -                                            -           -
> 
> daily morning prayers, but its principal community ,u�e was
> for prayer meetings on Fridays and the celebration of ijaha' f
> holy days. The ,Muslim context in which the community lived
> intruded into the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar to the extent that men
> and women were seated separately, men on the main floor
> and women in the gallery. This separate seating was also the
> practice in the rpeeting hall. The Spiritual Assembly, too,
> consisted solely of. men, although women did vote in its elec­
> tion, and the Baha'f women continued to veil in public. These
> concessions to Muslim practice were, at the least, designed to
> avoid a possibly violent reaction to too public an expression of
> the equality of the sexes, whatever they may also suggest
> about feelings within the community itself.
> Devotional practice at this Mashriqu'l-Adhkar is further
> elucidated by two sources. First, Remey notes that the com­
> munity used a cantor:
> 
> Sheikh Mohammed Ali upon whom devolves the chanting of the
> prayers and holy words in the Mashrak-el-Azcar, who has been
> given this service to perform on account of his vocal qualifications
> and devotion to the cause. From his brilliant face, smiles and
> good cheer, one could hardly believe that his back and shoulders
> were a mass of scars from wounds inflicted as torture for his faith
> at the hands of fanatical Moslems.83
> 
> And second, a small book of lesson notes for teaching Ba­
> ha'i children about their faith, published in ' Ishqabad in 1913,
> gives some understanding of the ideological underpinning of
> devotional practice in the community. 34
> Lesson 19 is specifically about the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar and,
> From the East         15
> 
> as is the general case with these lessons, it is recognizably
> related to study of a specific passage in the Kitab-i Aqdas:
> 
> The people of every nation and various religions have a special
> place to which they go at fixed times in worship. For example, the
> Mosque of the Mohammedans, the Church of the Christians, the
> Synagogue of the Jews, the Fire-Temple of the Zoroastrians and
> the Pagoda of the Brahmans and Buddhists.
> The Bahai place of worship is the Meshrak ol Azkar, which we
> must enter at dawn, which is the best time of the day to be oc­
> cupied in the mention of God. Also at noon and in the evening,
> repenting of our sins and supplicating God's pardon and forgive­
> ness. When we enter the Meshrak ol Azkar we must sit in
> lence, in perfect humility and great reverence, turning our hearts
> towards God, and entirely absorbed in listening to the holy
> verses. As it is written: ''Blessed is he who turns toward the
> Meshrak ol Azkar at dawn, praying and supplicating God's
> pardon, and who in silence listens to the divine verses. "
> Since the Meshrak ol Azkar i s especially established for the
> mention of God, all else save this is forbidden. Only sacred verses
> should be chanted in the most beautiful fashion and lordly admo­
> nitions and exhortations sung in the sacred temple. 35
> 
> Lesson 20 discusses in mystical terms, analogous to Sufi
> concepts, the effect of chanting sacred text:
> 
> He who chants the verses of God in a melodious voice, and he
> who listens in deep earnestness with the ears of the soul, enter
> into such a condition of inward joy that they would not exchange
> it for a kingdom. Verily, through the effect of the holy utterances,
> pure hearts become attracted to the spiritual realms which sur­
> pass all description and definition.
> The special nature of these realms can only be understood by
> the souls which are pure and it can be perceived and felt only by
> the illumined conscience, the spirit.
> Ah! happy is that fortunate soul which ascends to these realms
> 16     Part One: The Devotional Heritage
> 
> on the wings of these holy utterances and through the power of
> the spirit of detachment soars into these holy and divine regions
> and mounts into this purified atmosphere of reality and spiritual
> 
> And in Lesson 25 the author comments on the rationale, as
> he sees it, of the permission granted to Baha'fs in the Kitab-i
> Aqdas to listen to music:
> 
> The holy religious laws permit listening to songs and melodies
> and when these are        in such wise as not to exceed the limit of
> refinement and dignity which are as ornaments to the temple
> [body] of man they aid the soul to mount into the loftiest realms of
> exaltation. It is well known that this condition is produced when
> the Tablets and holy verses are sung, or the odes and enconiums
> composed in praise of BAHA'U'LLAH or Abdul Baha are
> chanted by a beautiful voice. But when music ceases to
> and dignified, becoming frivolous and            it is           for­
> bidden and is unlawful. For in so doing, that which made it law­
> ful, that     its power of attracting                  and liberating
> souls so as to enable them to mount unto divine horizons, is com­
> pletely annulled and the contrary effect is produced: that        the
> mind is veiled, the soul becomes turbid and man sinks into a con­
> dition which is not worthy of his station. 37
> 
> Among the "odes and enconiums" sung at devotional
> gatherings in 'Ishqabad were translations of some of the
> hymns written by North American Baha'is . 38
> In the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar at ' Ishqabad, then, the North
> American Baha'f community had a model for both the ar­
> chitecture and practice of their own proposed building. We
> shall see that the form of the building in ' Ishqabad was of con­
> siderable consequence for the development of expectations
> for the form of the North American building, but that practice
> in 'Ishqabad was of little importance as a model for practice in
> Wilmette, either in the early stages of formulating expecta-
> From the East       17
> 
> tions or i n the actual use of the building at its various stages
> of completion.
> For the Baha'i community in 'Ishqabad itself, circumstances
> changed with the Russian Revolution. At first, the commu­
> nity was. permitted to carry on its affairs more or less as
> usual, but with the expropriation of religious foundations in
> the Soviet Union in 1 928, ownership of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar
> passed from the community to the state. The building was
> leased back to the Bah�'is at various times, but the commu­
> nity itself declined through emigration, and eventually the
> Mashriqu'l-Adhkar passed completely from the hands of the
> Baha'is and was turned over to secular purposes. The build­
> ing was severely damaged in an earthquake in 1968 and sub­
> sequently demolished.
> 
> EASTERN CHANT AND WESTERN BAHA'fs
> 
> Early Western Baha'is were exposed to Eastern devotional
> practices by going on pilgrimage, visiting the Holy Land to
> meet 'Abdu'l-Baha and to visit the tombs of Baha'u'llah and
> the Bab. Between 1 898 and 'Abdu'l-Baha's visit to North
> America in 1912, approximately 1 0 1 North American adult
> Baha'is went on pilgrimage, some more than once. 39 In all, this
> figure represents somewhere between 5o/o and 1 0o/o of the
> North American Baha'is of those early years.
> The usual route by which these early pilgrims traveled in­
> volved staying in Egypt until receiving notice that it was
> to proceed to Haifa, where they would wait until called to
> 'Akka. The length of time spent in the Holy Land varied
> greatly, depending on the current degree of restriction and
> surveillance imposed on 'Abdu'l-Baha by the Ottoman
> authorities. Some pilgrims could remain only a few days, a
> few remained for considerable periods of time. While waiting
> in Egypt, or while in the Holy Land itself, it was not unusual
> 18     Part One: The Devotional Heritage
> 
> for interested pilgrims to learn to chant a prayer by rote.
> Those few Western believers who became fluent in Persian
> or Arabic or who traveled more extensively in the East obvi­
> ously had the chance to become acquainted with the Eastern
> devotional repertoire, but there is little indication that many,
> even of those few, ever learned more than a few pieces.
> The learning of a chant by Western pilgrims began with the
> first Western pilgrimage in the winter of 1898-1899. An
> anonymous account of that pilgrimage probably written by
> one of the three young ladies of the Hearst party, records:
> 
> The Greatest Holy Leaf had given us each a copy of the Tablet
> revealed by the Manifestation when they were all in Constantino­
> ple. It was written to revive their drooping spirits, and they used
> to chant it every morning while they were there. We learned part
> of it which is like a refrain. 40
> 
> May Maxwell's account of that same pilgrimage mentions
> hearing the Tablet of Visitation chanted at the Tomb of Ba­
> ha'u'lhih. 41
> In 1905 , Mary Lucas, a professional singing teacher,
> learned to chant a tablet in Egypt, which she then performe-d
> twice in 'Abdu'l-Baha's house in 'Akka.42 Lucas also mentions
> being moved by the chanting of the children of the house­
> hold .43 In 1907, Asseyeh Allen wrote to the Chicago c.ommu­
> nity on her way back to the United States from the Middle
> East that she, Miss Sanderson, and Miss Moore had "chanted
> as best we could" for 'Abdu'l-Baha. She added that the
> "Master enjoyed my chants and asked me often to sing."44
> In her account of her pilgrimage in 1909, Louise Waite
> records that Dr. Susan Moody of Chicago, who was passing
> through the Holy Land on her way to Tehran, chanted on
> three occasions in Haifa and 'Akka. Waite also comments on
> her reaction to morning devotions in 'Abdu'l-Baha's home.
> From the East         19
> 
> For example, on one occasion, when two of 'Abdu'l-Bahci' s
> daughters chanted :
> 
> There was a wonderful sweetness to Zeah's voice, a tend�r plead­
> ing quality that went straight to my heart. After she had finished,
> Monever chanted a commune, her voice is also beautiful but of a
> deeper richer quality than Zeah's. I realized the great power of
> the Word while attending this service, for I could not understand
> a word yet the vibrations affected me most deeply. 45
> 
> The experience of Eastern devotions by early pilgrims and
> by the few Western Baha'is who traveled in Iran, India,
> Burma, and Russian Turkestan was shared with the rest of
> the North American Baha'i community through books and
> pamphlets, letters written home to individuals that were then
> duplicated and widely circulated, and by formal and informal
> talks about their travels upon their return. Apart from pil­
> grimage and the accounts of travelers, however, the North
> American Baha'i community was also exposed to Eastern
> devotional practice by those few Eastern Baha'is who lived in
> their midst.
> Obviously, it was necessary for the North American Baha'is
> to have among them some people who could translate cor­
> respondence to and from 'Abdu'l-Baha, as well as do more
> general translating of Baha'i texts. 46 The first one or two
> translators did not know Persian, only Arabic, but by 1902
> there were translators in Chicago and Washington, D.C., who
> were capable, to varying degrees, of translating from either
> language. From this time there were, always at least one or
> two Eastern Baha'is resident in each of these cities. Because
> of their important position as keys to correspondence with
> 'Abdu'l-Baha, these translators became nationally prominent
> in the Baha'i community and could have considerable influ­
> ence. While they all would chant in devotions upon occasion,
> 20      Part One: The Devotional Heritage
> 
> one in particular seems to have wished to press Eastern prac­
> tice upon the Western community, Dr. Ameen Ullah Fareed.
> Fareed came to the United States in 190 1 , at the age of
> nineteen, to study medicine in Chicago. There he joined his
> father, Mirza Assad'Ullah, who was one of a small group of
> Eastern teachers sent to North America by 'Abdu'l-Baha to
> increase that community's knowledge of the Faith. During his
> first few years in Chicago Fareed served the community as
> well as he could in translating, allowing for his inexperience
> and limited English. But after his return from a visit to the
> Holy Land in 1905 , he seems to have attempted to create a
> position of greater influence for himself, in part at least by the
> charisma of his Eastern background. Thornton Chase, who
> had earlier been very much in favor of Fareed and had
> regarded his presence in Chicago as a great asset, wrote
> about this episode:
> 
> After his return last fall from Acca, he was Invited (at his own re­
> quest) to give a series of Sabbath evening talks to the assembly in
> the regular meetings in the hall. He did so at irregular periods. If
> many were present, he was ready and all right; if few were
> present, he had nothing prepared . He prefaced each talk with a
> chant or supplication in Arabic, and then used the Greatest Name
> for a public response . . . . There are always strangers at those
> meetings who have more or less interest, and it was apparent that
> this foreign chanting and use of the Name struck them unpleas­
> antly, and in some cases created ridicule. Therefore a hint was
> given that it might/be well not to use those things in the public
> meeting, but it was not regarded, until at a meeting of the H. of S.
> [House of Spirituality] when he was present, the matter was
> brought up, and unanimously agreed that it was not wise to use
> those forms in the public meeting. M. Ameen [Fareed] objected,
> and stated that he should continue to use them (thus defying the
> judgment of the H. of S.). He stated that he was commanded to
> use them, thus giving us to understand that the Master had so
> From the East         21
> 
> commanded him. Then we said we would write t o the Master con­
> cerning it, when he changed his statement to the effect that his
> father had commanded him to use them. Then we proposed to
> write to the Master about it anyway, when he replied that if we
> demanded it, he would translate the letter to the Master altho' he
> was very busy with study. One of those present then said, No, we
> will have it translated by another. Then he blushe'd, stammered,
> and said that it would not be necessary, as he would not use it (the
> foreign prayer and Greatest Name) in that way any more. This
> ended the matter, but immediately another meeting was started
> at his home (Mrs. Russells and Dr; Moodys), at 10.30 Sunday
> mornings, which were given forth as meetings after the way of
> the Orient. There he wore the robes, and chanted to his heart's
> content.47
> 
> In this same letter Chase stated that Fareed's circle of sup­
> port consisted of women, whom he later termed ' 'devotees. ' '48
> Two apparent relics of this period of Fareed's activities sur­
> vive. One is a few pages of notes for a lecture by him on
> ' 'Oriental Music , ' ' which was to be illustrated with his perfor­
> mance of Persian and Arabic "songs corresponding to your
> present day popular variety, to be followed by some classical
> selections & ending with chants comparing with your sacred
> songs & anthems. ' '4� The other is a slip of paper with a tran­
> scription of a chant with "Dr Ameen" written on the back. 50
> The chant itself is the refrain from the Lawl)-i Naqus. This
> was the tablet chanted by I:Iaydar-'Ali and his companions in
> Egypt; hearing this tablet was instrumental in converting
> Na'fm to the Baha'f Faith; and it was probably this same re­
> frain that w�s learned by the young lady on the first Western
> pilgrimage.51 I sang this refrain as notated on the slip, for two
> Baha'fs brought up in the Baha'f community in Tehran in the
> 1930s and 1940s, and they said that it is exactly the melody
> used in Iran in their youth. The verses of the tablet would be
> sung by an individual and all present would join in the refrain.
> 22     Part One: The Devotional Heritage
> 
> It would seem probable that Fareed was teaching such a per­
> formance practice to his circle of followers. 52
> One other chant known to early Western Baha'fs sur;vives
> in notation, a version of The Remover of Difficulties (a well­
> known prayer by the Bab) in the original Arabic .53 This
> melody my two informants did not know, but they catego­
> rized it as an appropriate, typical Arabic chant. I have heard
> on one occasion an Eastern Baha'f use a similar melody for
> this prayer. This chant was probably well known in North
> America; the prayer itself was and is extremely well known.
> A manuscript version of the chant appears in Louise Waite's
> papers, a printed version in a small booklet of prayers that
> was printed possibly around 1910,54 and there is a recording
> of Harlan Ober made in 1951 that ends with his chanting of
> this melody several times. Ober and his wife chanted this
> prayer at the 1916 Baha'f Temple Unity convention. As he
> visited the East in 1907, this particular melody may have
> been introduced into North America by him.
> In both the Waite manuscript and the printed version, the
> chant has been provided with an accompaniment. It is possi­
> ble that this was composed by Waite. The text of the manu­
> script is in her handwriting and evidently has not been copied
> from the printed version as the transliteration is much cruder,
> appearing to be an attempt to capture a heard text with the
> Western alphabet rather than a consistent transliteration
> from the written Arabic. However, the music is the same in
> both versions. Unfortunately, no account has yet come to
> light of the performance of this chant, or any other Eastern
> original, with accompaniment, so it is not possible to assess
> the position of such a piece as this in the community's devo­
> tional life. Nevertheless, the inclusion of it in the little booklet
> suggests that such a form was considered suitable for devo­
> tional usage by some.
> Chants to both these texts were known in Washington,
> From the East          23
> 
> D.C., as they were sung by a group of Baha' is at Alma Knob­
> loch's graveside in 1910 .55 And a letter from Moody describ­
> ing a Baha'i women's meeting in Qazvin demonstrates that
> Fareed's pupils in North America, at least, were familiar with
> other chanted texts:
> 
> Tarazeah Khanum . . . chanted the "Shamay shabastanay hagh. "
> The air i s the same w e use, but her chanting o f i t is inimitable by
> our Western throats. . . . They . . . wanted to know if I knew a
> Pers1an prayer. I told them I could not chant like they do, but
> they would recognise the words, and s�lected the "Allah-a­
> Mabooda" which they often chant. 56
> 
> Interest in learning and adapting Oriental chants continued
> into the third decade of the century. Ella Robarts, editor of
> Children of the Kingdom , received at least two requests from
> readers to include such material in her magazine. Mrs. C. L.
> Jones wrote, "May I suggest later that you print a Persian
> Chant occasionally with music. I know I would appreciate the
> supplications. "57 And Ernest Harriso1;1 of Canada asked, "Can
> you not also persuade some one to put the Oriental chanting
> to modern piano arrangement. I long and yearn to hear it
> daily and thereby learn it. "58
> One local development of chanting that seems to have dis­
> appeared without a trace was created by Edward Kinney.
> Various accounts of conventions and other occasions mention
> that Kinney chanted, and some of these give the text he used.
> However, as yet no music has come to light. It would seem
> improbable that Kinney, as a professional musician, did this
> for so many years without writing any of his chants down. But
> unless some written versions come to light, what he actually
> did will remain a mystery. It can be inferred from the descrip­
> tion that he definitely "chanted" in English to his own piano
> accmnpaniment, and that the performance was highly ap­
> preciated in its day. It was Kinney's intention to include
> 24     Part One: The Devotional Heritage
> 
> "some simple and singable chants" in a projected Baha'f
> hymn book, 59 which · description may be a clue to the charac­
> ter of his performances. Unfortunately, he never followed
> through on the planned book. 60
> By the 1930s, the term ' 'chant' ' was being used to charac­
> terize any setting of the words of Baha'u'llah or 'Abdu'l-Baha
> to music, as, for example, in Louise Rich's "Baha'f Chants. " 61
> More recently the term has been used mainly to descril:>� the
> devotional song of Eastern Baha'fs, although it occasionally is
> used to denote improvised singing of sacred text in English.
> The Eastern practice is considered by most Baha'fs,
> Western and Eastern, to be a Baha'f practice, and thus some­
> thing to be suffered on that account even if it is not liked.
> However, as these chants have come to be seen as "Baha'f"
> in themselves, rather than as a particular culture's vehicle for
> delivery of Baha'f texts, this has occasionally been a source of
> tension for both individuals and communities, as disliking or
> not wishing to use them may be seen as .an attempt to avoid
> something which is part of a Baha'f identity.
> z
> �
> 
> [
> �
> �
> l
> �
> J
> �
> 
> CHILDREN HOLDING COPIES OF BAHAI HYMNS OF PEACE AND PRAISE.
> Detail of group photograph taken at the Naw-Rt1z celebration at the first Baha'i National
> Convention, March 2 1 ,
> CHAPTER TWO
> 
> EARLY DEVOTIONS AND
> THE MUSIC OF LOUISE WAITE
> 
> The years before 1940 may be characterized as the era of
> Baha'i hymnody, as during this period the North American
> Baha'i community selectively adopted hymns from its Chris­
> tian heritage for its own use and created a genre of Baha'i
> hymns in the tradition of that heritage. This genre was incor­
> porated into the community's life and the socialization of its
> children, and then disappeared from general use almost over­
> night. That it ever existed is largely unknown to later Baha'is.
> From the consideration of the creation, use, and disappear­
> ance of this genre, then, we can learn much of the ideological
> concerns of those endeavoring to develop a social and reli­
> gious identity for the Baha'i Faith in the Western world.
> 
> EARLY BAHA'i DEVOTIONS IN CHICAGO
> 
> Little is known of the Baha'i community's devotional ac­
> tivity before 190 1 . As a few prayers, some of the Hidden
> Words, and some tablets were available to the community, it
> is probable that these were used in some meetings. But it is
> 
> 28     Part One: The Devotional Heritage
> 
> not until 1901 that we begin to get records of the conscious
> development of community devotional procedures.
> At the meeting of the House of Justice in Chicago on 28
> May 190 1 , it was ' 'proposed that . . . a Tablet in English from
> the Manifestation or Master, be read before each meeting, in
> accordance with the desire of a number of believers. " 1 And at
> the meeting of 4 June, it was reported that Mirza Assad'Ullah
> was in favor of this. In early 1902, Assad 'Ullah repeated this
> approval in a letter written from New York:
> 
> In the beginning of all your meetings and assemblies chant a
> prayer of the Blessed Perfection, so that your hearts may be sev­
> ered from this world of dust and nature, and be turned toward the
> Kingdom of God, the Exalted One. So, also, close your meetings
> by reading a Tablet of the Master, so as to strengthen the hearts
> to be nurtured by the Heavenly Food.2
> 
> Assad'Ullah further enjoined them to continue "Meetings
> of Prayer" in Chicago, though whether this refers to the Fri­
> day meetings that had been held at Assad 'Ullah' s lodgings or
> the Sunday community meetings is not specified. The Friday
> evening meetings had consisted of listening to Tablets
> chanted in the original, read in English, and discussed. 3 The
> Sunday meetings were more complex.
> On 17 November 190 1 , the House of Spirituality decided to
> have a member of the House chair each Sunday's meeting,
> ' 'on behalf of order, ' ' and to accept the offer of Mary Lesch to
> lend an ' 'organ . ' ' At the following meeting a committee of
> two was appointed ' 'to draft program to guide chairman of
> the regular Sunday afternoon meetings. ' ' At the meeting af­
> ter that, the "question of securing some songs in leaflet form
> was discussed. "4
> The minutes of this last meeting also record the first
> celebration in North America of the "Feast of the Master"
> (The Day of the Covenant, 26 November):
> Early Devotions       29
> 
> The festivities began with · the hymn "The tie which binds our
> hearts together, " in which all took part with organ accompany­
> ment. . . . [then a reading and talk by Assad'Ullah followed by
> refreshments] . . . . Another Tablet revealed by the Master was
> then read, followed by a hymn, after which all gradually left for
> home.
> 
> On 8 December, it was reported that some progress had
> been made in locating song leaflets, but more time was asked
> for. More importantly, a program for the conducting of Sun­
> day meetings was presented and approved at this meeting:
> 
> Program for Chairman's Guidance
> 1st -Music, singing by believers
> 2nd-Translation in English of Tablet revealed by the
> Manifestation
> Reading from the Utterances of Jesus Christ
> Translation in English of Tablet revealed by the Master
> 3rd -Solo, etc.
> 4th -Address by Teachers
> Address by Visitors, if any present
> 5th -Singing by the believers
> 6th -Reading of announcements, reports of committees, etc.
> -Tablet in Persian, or Arabic, by Mirza Assad'Ullah, to be
> followed by an interpretation in English5
> 
> Sunday meetings seem to have been held regularly well into
> 1 902, as the 9 August 1902, minutes note that "the regular
> Sunday evening meetings" are being held "as usual. " How­
> ever, they ceased in that month. 6 In early 1903, the House
> was ' 'considering a weekly service of the Bahais in this City, ' '
> which was further described as ' 'a regular Sunday Bahai
> meeting of worship, under the auspices of the House of Spiri­
> tuality, in a central location. ' ' The plans for this meeting were
> developed over the succeeding weeks, and the meetings
> 30     Part One: The Devotional Heritage
> 
> began on 22 February in Room 200 of the Athenaeum Build­
> ing, with about sixty attending the first one. 7
> For this meeting of worship, the House had "expressly
> compiled" and printed the first Baha'i hymn book, Songs of
> Prayer and Praise. This was a carefully chosen selection of
> nine Christian hymns and a doxology that adequately pro­
> vided for " the immediate need , " as its preface stated was the
> intent. The hymns were:
> 
> From All That Dwell Below the Skies
> Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty!
> Sun of My Soul! Thou Saviour Dear
> Softly Now the Light of Day
> Come, Thou Almighty King
> Nearer, My God, to Thee! (known to be a favorite of
> 'Abdu'l-Baha)
> Abide With Me!
> Blest Be the Tie That Binds
> Joy to the World, the Lord Is Come
> 
> The doxology reflected 'in the rewriting of its last line the
> influence of a then well-known prayer thought to have been
> written by Baha'u'll,ah but actually composed by Kheiralla
> and taught to his stud.ents:
> 
> Praise, God, from whom all blessings flow,
> Praise Him, all creatures here below;
> Praise Him, ye heavenly hosts above;
> Praise Him, with knowledge, Faith and love.
> 
> These new Sunday evening meetings seem to have been popular,
> as in' October 1904 the House could report that:
> 
> The general meetings in Chicago, held Sunday evenings, are well
> attended and much holy love and enthusiasm is manifested by the
> Early Devotions       31
> 
> believers. These meetings have been kept u p all summer, even
> during the very hot weather, and have been like a central magnet
> holding together the people coming from different parts of the
> city.8
> 
> The Sunday evening meetings continued in Chicago, but it
> is evident from the surviving records that there was tension
> between those who saw the meeting as a Baha'f community
> event and those who saw it as an event to attract non-Baha'fs:
> the tension centering on the degree to which talks and discus­
> sion were to be a part of the meeting. Thus, on 20 Apri1 1907,
> the House d,ecided that at the direction of the chairman,
> ",members of the Assembly, even if they do not appear on the
> Program" could make "remarks, " but on 4 May "After due
> consideration, it was decided that no discussions be allowed
> at Sunday evening general meeting. "9
> On 11 January 1908, the "Greater portion" of the House's
> meeting was spent discussing a "suggestion on the part of
> Mrs. Russell and Miss Buikema that we make our Sunday
> meetings more valuable by reading more of the Words of Ba­
> ha'u'llah and Abdul Baha and eliminate talks and addresses
> on the part of friends. " 10 And later in 1908, Moritz Schmidt
> wrote to the House objecting to ' 'teaching any personal ideas
> in any meetings which are for the purpose of worship and
> bringing into such talks . . . political or other matters con­
> cerning affairs not spiritual whatever. "1 1
> In early 1909, the House stated that the Sunday meetings,
> now held in the morning, were " intended to interest visi­
> tors, " and that the Unity Feasts (Nineteen-Day Feasts) were
> ' 'special occasions of the coming together of the friends and
> the 'House' , when information is given of such matters as
> would not be of interest to strangers. ' ' They also noted that
> the Sunday meeting previous to their writing had about one
> hundred people present, and that there were also in Chicago
> small meetings almost daily in homes, a Friday evening study
> 32     Part One: The Devotional Heritage
> 
> meeting, a Saturday afternoon ' 'industrial class , ' ' where chil­
> dren were taught sewing and other skills, a children's "Sun­
> day school, ' ' and a Sunday evening teaching meeting at the
> Moody-Russell home led by Arthur Agnew. 12
> In October 1909, the House more explicitly outlined the dis­
> tinction they saw between the Nineteen-Day Feast and the
> Sunday meeting:
> 
> Purpose of Sunday morning meeting, also the nineteen day Feast,
> was discussed and it was the opinion of those present that efforts
> should be made toward attracting seekers and visiting friends at
> the Sunday service; that the Feast gathering should be conducted
> in favor of those confirmed in the Faith and to matters of a private
> nature. That texts in both cases should be from the Utterances
> of Baha'u'llah and Abdul Baha. That the House of Spirituality
> should assume the responsibility of programs in both cases and
> that the material food feature of Feast be made as simple as possi­
> ble . 13
> 
> There was still a feeling among some , however, that the
> Sunday meeting was insufficiently devotional in character:
> 
> Realizing the marvelous effects of a truly spiritual meeting, such
> as I attended daily while in Acca, I felt upon my return that our
> Sunday meetings were not so worshipful as they should be. There
> was more the interpretation of the Words, which I feel should be
> confined to the morning class and to the group meetings. No mat­
> ter if strangers do not realize what we are talking about, when
> they come under the power of the Sun of Truth, or Word of God,
> they will feel its warmth and be cheered and blessed. It may be an
> unknown tongue, but the vibration is universal-the one language
> understood by the heart alone . . . . Believe me, dear brothers, I
> do not want to dictate in the slightest degree. I only want to hum­
> bly suggest what l feel is lacking in our Sunday service-what I
> keenly felt having just come from that Holy Centre of worship.
> Abdul-Baha does not try to conform His teachings to the different
> Early Devotions          33
> 
> nations or strangers who come to Him. He gives forth the one
> great Light to all . . . . . The Truth has been uttered, the seed sown,
> and God alone giveth the increase. 14
> 
> This tension over whether even one regular community
> meeting should be primarily devotional in character would
> continue and have considerable impact on the eventual devel­
> opment of the use of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar. 15 Throughout
> this period, however ,' hymns continued to be used at meetings
> whether they were primarily devotionally or didactically
> oriented. This is evident from the various mentions of Lillian
> James and Miss McCoy as " organist" or "pianist" for the
> meetings in House minutes, and in the development of the
> career of Louise Waite.
> 
> LOUISE WAITE
> 
> The most significant of the early Baha'i hymnodists was
> 'Louise Waite. Not only was she the most prolific of them, but
> her work was of a generally high standard and was used in the
> community to a much greater extent than that of any other
> writer. 1 6
> Louise Waite was born in La Crosse, Wisconsin, in 1867.
> Her parents were originally from Baltimore, Maryland, and
> they returned to that area when Waite was a young child. She
> attended school in Baltimore and Washington, D.C. Waite's
> parents were Episcopalian and her mother, especially, had a
> deep love for hymns and encouraged a devotional attitude in
> her daughter with morning and evening prayers. As a girl
> Waite would improvise around hymn tunes on the piano, but
> she did not have a systematic musical education and never
> learned to read or write music.
> Waite married, while still "a girl, " a Mr. Spencer of Balti­
> more. They had one daughter, Violet, who was to be Waite's
> 34     Part One: The Devotional Heritage
> 
> only child. In one year Waite lost her mother, brother, hus­
> band, and daughter, and as a result of this traumatic ex­
> perience she left the Baltimore area. She may have lived in
> New York for a while, but by the early years of this century
> she was living in Chicago.
> In Chicago, in 1902, Waite heard about the Baha'f Faith
> from a neighbor, Mrs. Nash, and accepted it almost immedi­
> ately. On the day she did so, she invited some friends, to her
> home to hear about it from Nash. Before Nash's talk she im­
> provised on the piano. But when asked to repeat what she had
> played, she explained that she could not repeat her improvisa­
> tions: "It comes, and then it is gone . " The following morning
> the tune came back to her, with words which she wrote down,
> and on going to her piano she found that she could repeat the
> music. That afternoon she had a musician friend write the
> music for her, and she had the song, "If Ye Seek Me, "
> printed and circulating within the week.
> This first song of Waite's was only directly linked to the Ba­
> ha'i Faith by the dedication to 'Abdu'l-Baha on the title page.
> To anyone who merely heard it, it would seem a normal reli­
> gious concert song. (Indeed, it was reprinted by a California
> publisher of church music in 193 1 , without the dedication.) In
> November of 1902, Waite wrote the words to her second song,
> "The Greatest Name, " which were unmistakably Baha'i.
> As a usual part of becoming a Baha'f in those years, Waite
> had written to 'Abdu'l-Baha, and she received the first of
> more than forty tablets from him in early 1903. Shortly after
> this she received. her second tablet, in which 'Abdu'l-Baha
> praised the words of "The Greatest Name, " which she had
> sent to him, saying that he had chanted it (indicating that it
> had been translated into Persian) and that it would be sung in
> meetings and the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar forever. After receiving
> this second tablet, Waite "received" (her usual word) the
> music for ' 'The Greatest Name . ' ' Another tablet that arrived
> Early Devotions      35
> 
> soon after again praised the words of this song and stated that
> 'Abdu'l-Baha had had it spread in the Eastern community.
> In Apri1 1 903, Waite married Edgar Waite, a salesman with
> the Baldwin piano company. During this year she continued
> to write and to increase her involvement with the Chicago Ba­
> ha'i community. +
> In 1904, the Bahai Publishing Society brought out Waite's
> first book, Bahai Hymns and Poems, which contained only
> words. There was opposition to this book in some quarters, as
> some felt that the Publishing Society should print only sacred
> text and commentaries and discussions on the Faith. How­
> ever, 'Abdu'l-Baha was sufficiently pleased with this little
> book to praise it in three tablets. (For unknown reasons, two
> of these tablets were not sent when written, and only came to
> Waite after 'Abdu'l-Baha's death.) Waite countered the criti­
> cism by organizing the first large fund-raising event for the
> Temple fund in December 1904. She and Edgar arranged a
> concert by professional Chicago artists who were friendly to
> the Faith, which raised just over $ 100. At Waite's suggestion,
> instead of being merely deposited in the Temple fund, this
> money was given to the Publishing Society as an interest-free
> loan to finance the printing of a translation of the Hidden
> Words that had been ready for some months, but for which
> there were no funds. This edition also included ' 'Words of
> Wisdom' ' (excerpts from various Baha' i writings) and a selec­
> tion of prayers.
> Between 1905 and 1908, Waite continued to write and to be
> active in the community. In 1905, she first published as a
> song-sheet "Great Day of God , " which would become her
> most printed song, appearing in tens of thousands of copies in
> various publications over the next three decades. In late 1907,
> she wrote two of her best loved songs for the Chicago Baha'i
> community children's classes, " Softly His Voice is Calling"
> and "Tell the Wondrous Story. "
> 36     Part One: The Devotional Heritage
> 
> In 1908 Waite's influence on the devotional life of the Baha'f
> community increased greatly with the publication of her first
> book of songs with music, Bahai Hymns of Peace and Praise,
> and her participation in the founding of the Vahid Choral So­
> ciety . 17 In March 1909, Waite wrote the most widely used of
> her songs, "Benediction, " and while on holiday at Corinne
> True's house in Fruitport, Michigan, that summer, she re­
> ceived an unexpected invitation from 'Abdu'l-Baha to visit
> 'Akka.
> Waite financed her trip to 'Akka by selling her piano, which
> had been Edgar's wedding gift to her. With her she carried a
> letter from the Chicago House of Spirituality asking for direc­
> tions abouf music in the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar. On her journey
> through Europe she spoke at various places on the Baha' f
> Faith. She eventually reached 'Akka via the usual route of
> Egypt and Haifa.
> Waite stayed in 'Abdu'l-Baha' s house in 'Akka for five
> days. During her stay she had a number of meetings with him,
> during which he told her of his approval of her work, gave her
> the name of Shahnaz (translated as ' 'melody'' for Waite by his
> daughter), and presented her with one of his own pens. Waite
> also had a number of meetings with the women of 'Abdu'l­
> Baha's household and with a number of distinguished Eastern
> Baha'f scholars. She played some of her songs while in 'Akka,
> and was surprised to learn from the Eastern visitors how well­
> known her work was in their community. Mter Waite's return
> to 'Haifa en route to Egypt, she had some further unexpected
> meetings with 'Abdu'l-Baha.
> Waite returned to the United States via Naples, where she
> met Carrie and Edward Kinney, with whom 'Abdu'l-Baha had
> instructed her to travel home. The Kinneys had been in 'Akka
> shortly before Waite, and as a professional musician Kinney
> had discussed music with 'Abdu'l-Baha. During this return
> journey Waite was able to read and copy Kinney's notes of
> those discussions. They also discussed her work, and she
> Early Devotions          37
> 
> found that he had set verses from her 1 904 book to music, not
> knowing that there was music already written for any of
> them. (Unfortunately, none of these Kinney settings have
> come to light.) On the Atlantic crossing Kinney and Waite
> jointly wrote a "sentimental" song which became popular on
> the ship.
> On her arrival in Chicago, Waite found two Tablets waiting
> for her. One was a personal letter approving her work with
> the Vahid Choral Society, and the other was to the Chicago
> . House of Spirituality asking that the "Benediction" be used
> in Baha'i rn = ·or
> n-,
> 
> Shortly        her return to Chicago, Waite wrote "At Even-
> tide, " and for the Bahai Temple Unity convention in 1910 she
> wrote "Song of the Temple. " By this time, her songs were
> being used by peace societies as well as by Baha'is, and in
> the summer of 1910, she published a booklet of five hymns,
> Hymns of Peace and Praise, for their use . In 191 1 , Waite at­
> tended the Races Congress held in London as an official
> Societies' delegate, speaking at various meetings there.
> During 'Abdu'l-Baha's visit to the United States in 1912, he
> expressed frequent approval of Waite' s work, both in public
> and in private talks with her.        also gave her a prayer for
> her personal use, asking for divine assistance in her work. At
> the 1912 convention, Waite's "The New Jerusalem" was
> Later in this year she wrote "Song of Thanksgiv­
> ing, ' ' which was approved by 'Abdu'l-Baha on one of his visits
> to Chicago, and "The Song of the Covenant, " on his O IJ'-·'"'�... .....,
> instructions.
> In 1914 Waite was co-opted onto Jane Addams' Women's
> Committee by virtue of her peace hymns. And in late
> 1914 the Chicago Board of Education gave permission for the
> use       Waite's peace-oriented "Song of America" in the Chi­
> cago schools. In 1915 Waite had a letter from President Wil­
> son approving of this song, and at a peace pageant in Chicago
> it was sung by a chorus of 5,000 children .
> 38     Part One: The Devotional Heritage
> 
> In March 1915, Waite and her husband moved to Califor­
> nia. This move had been contemplated for some time, but al­
> though they appreciated the mild climate and the general way
> of life there, it was not a wise move financially and their in­
> come never recovered to the level it had been at in Chicago.
> When the United States entered World War I in 1917,
> Waite worked with the Red Cross in California, writing a
> booklet, ' 'The White Cross , ' ' to be sold as a fundraiser for
> them. Mter the war she was one of a few pioneers teaching
> the Baha'f Faith in prisons, organizing by correspondence Ba­
> ha'f study classes in San Quentin. In 1919 Edgar Waite be­
> came a Baha'f.
> After the war Waite continued to write, but none of these
> songs had the widespread effect of her earlier compositions,
> which continued to be used. The financial difficulties of these
> years, exacerbated by periods of ill health, prevented her
> from having her music written for her and limited most of her
> new publication efforts to words only.
> During the 1920s and 1930s, Waite was in some demand as
> a traveling Baha'f teacher, both in California and further
> afield. She would spend a few weeks or months as the guest
> of a community, teaching classes on aspects of the Faith for
> Baha'fs and interested non-Baha' fs.
> Waite died peacefully in her sleep on 27 May 1939, without
> preceding illness but, her executrix felt, yearning to go. Her
> period of involvement with the Baha'f Faith had spanned the
> era of Baha'f hymnody, her work had formed its most signifi­
> cant element, and it would not long survive her.
> 
> BAHAI HYMNS OF PEACE AND PRAISE
> 
> As the emphasis in this chapter is on the place of hymnody
> the devgtional life of the Baha' f community, rather than on
> the career of an individual, I will not discuss Waite's work as
> a whole but concentrate on her Bahai Hymns of Peace and
> Early Devotions        39
> 
> Praise as this collection includes the most used of her compo­
> sitions. It is difficult to determine exactly how many editions
> of this booklet there were, as the plates made for the first edi­
> tion were used for subsequent editions and all editions simply
> say "Copyright MCMVIII" on the cover. Editions after the
> first one had some further songs added, and there were some
> changes made to the plates. From these clues and the
> documentary evidence, we can reconstruct a possible publish­
> ing history of the work. Fortunately, the dates of the first and
> last editions are known, and between them there seem to
> have been at least three other editions.
> The first edition was issued in 1908. The cover reads: "BA­
> HAI HYMNS OF PEACE and PRAISE/ 9/ Copyright MCMVIII
> by L. R. WAITE. " Despite the last line , the booklet was not
> actually copyrighted. The first page presents a ruled box con­
> taining '"'Index' ' in bold type heading a list of the titles of the
> hymns in order:
> 
> Great Day of God.
> Hymn of Praise.
> The Greatest Name.
> Awake ye Nations All.
> His Glorious Sun has Risen.
> The Day of Certainty.
> Praise Thee Oh God .
> Alleluia Song.
> Tell The Wondrous Story.
> Softly His Voice is Calling.
> 
> The hymns then follow on pages numbered 4 to 13. The
> reverse of page 13 also has a ruled box with this text:
> 
> Funds for the publication of this book having been provided, the
> proceeds from its sale will be devoted to the building of the Tem­
> ple in America.
> 40     Part One: The Devotional Heritage
> 
> The form of the first edition is slightly confused by the exis­
> tence of a copy inscribed in Brittingham's hand, "I.D. Brit­
> tingham/ Sept. 1908 , " which has the funds notice printed at
> the front and the index at the back.18 Otherwise, this copy is
> the same as described above. It would seem likely that the
> printer struck off a few sheets with the plates for "Index"
> and " Funds . . . " in the wrong places, rather than this repre­
> senting an entirely separate edition.
> The other edition for which · the data is certain, the last, was
> issued in 1927. The cover of this edition has ' 'By Louise R.
> Waite (Shahnaz)" added beneath the title and is the only edi­
> tion to have this. The index box has the bottom rule removed
> and four more hymn titles added:
> 
> At Eventide.
> Sweet Peace.
> Benediction.
> Anthem of all Nations.
> 
> These four hymns appear on pages 14 to 17. The funds no­
> tice appears after the additional hymns. This edition con­
> sisted of 1 , 038 copies (38 copies being the printer's overrun
> on an order of 1 , 000 copies). 19
> According to Waite, the edition that preceded the 1927 one
> was one which she had authorized Mary Lesch to bring out
> under the auspices of the Bahai Publishing Society, with any
> profits to go to their work. Thus, in the Lesch edition the
> funds notice is omitted. The other contents of this edition are
> the same as in the 1927 edition. Waite mentions that she gave
> this permission to Lesch after she moved from Chicago to
> California, which would mean after March 1915� Waite also
> says that ' 'Mr. Talbott who had done all of my music printing
> held my plates. ' '20 The account book of the Publishing Society
> includes an entry that states that on 10 July 1917, the Society
> Early Devotions      41
> 
> "Paid Talbot & Co for 1000 Songsters & Bens ["Benedic­
> tion" in sheet form] $37.40 . " 21 Talbot[t] was not the Publish­
> ing Society's regular printer, so this entty probably refers to
> tne printing of Waite's plates, and therefore the Lesch edition
> seems likely to have been issued in 1917.
> We have seen that the Lesch and 1927 editions include four
> more hymns than the 1908 edition, but there is also an edition
> that contains only three more. In the Lesch and 1927 editions,
> "Anthem of all Nations" is listed last in the index, after
> "Benediction. " In fact, "Anthem" is on page 16 and "Bene­
> diction" follows on page 17. The reason for "Anthem" being
> out of order in the index becomes clear when we find that the
> index in the edition with only three added hymns stops at
> "Benediction, " which appears on page 16 of that edition. Ob­
> viously, once the three extra hymn titles . had been added to
> the plate, they could not be rearranged to admit "Anthem"
> before "Benediction" in the index, even though that became
> the page order when "Anthem" was added. What, then, is
> the date of the edition with the three additional hymns?
> Receipts for contributions made to the Temple Fund from
> sales of the hymn books show the following payments:
> 
> $ 14 August 1908
> $8 �uly 1909
> $32.50 February 1910
> $3 December 1910
> $3.50 May 191 122
> 
> Although these receipts present a far from complete record,
> they may be illuminating. The comparatively large amount of
> $14 in August 1908 was contributed after the publication of
> the first edition. The large amount of $32 . 50 in February
> 1910 may have resulted from the publication of<othe edition
> with the three added hymns. This new edition would have
> been especially attractive as it included the ' 'Benediction, ' '
> 42     Part One: The Devotional Heritage
> 
> which was fast becoming Waite' s most popular piece. Among
> the three hymns added to this edition was ' 'At Eventide, ' '
> which was written in December 1909. The omitted HAn­
> them , ' ' which would be added to later editions, was written
> by 191 1 . It seems unlikely that Waite would have added only
> the three hymns to the booklet after "Anthem" was written,
> so the songs included also suggest 1910 as a possible year for
> this edition.
> However, 1910 may not be the date for the edition with the
> three added hymns. In March 191 1 , Chase wrote to a Baha'f
> in Germany who had asked him to send some hymn books
> that "I sent to Chicago and requested that some of the Hymn
> ·   Boo�s should be sent to you, on my account. I have received
> answer that another edition of the hymns is being published
> and, as soon as it is out from the press, some will be sent
> you. "23 This must refer to Waite's booklets, as in July Chase
> wrote to her saying that he presumed she had sent the "Hym­
> nals" to Germany and asking her to let him know how much a
> dozen would cost for Los Angeles. 24 If these references are in­
> deed to the edition with three added hymns, then the date of it
> is evidently early 191 1 . Chase' s March reference seems to be
> too early for his remark to refer to an edition including "An­
> them of All Nations. " However, there is always the possibil­
> ity that there was more than one printing of the edition with
> the three added hymns. At any rate, there seems to have been
> an edition of this description sometime in 1910-191 1 .
> If the date is early 191 1 , and there was only one printing,
> then the large contribution to the fund in February 1910
> might simply be from accrued sales of the first edition of
> 1908. That first edition initially sold for 20¢ . That the Febru­
> ary 1910 contribution from hymn book receipts is not evenly
> divisible by 20 but is by 10 may then reflect a reduced price to
> clear the first edition to make way for the expanded reprint.
> There was at least one further edition of Bahai Hymns of
> Peace and Praise, as there are copies that include both "An-
> Early Devotions        43
> 
> them" and the funds notice, and so are not the Lesch edition,
> but do not have' "By Louise R. Waite (Shahnaz)" on the cover,
> and so are not the 1927 edition either. In February 1915,
> Waite wrote to Miriam Haney, ' 'Will you also anriounce to
> the friends that a new edition of the hymns is out with the
> Benediction included[.] Mrs. Lesch has them now for sale and
> will continue to handle them in the future. ' '25 At first glance
> this seems to refer to the Lesch edition, putting the date nf
> that at 1915. However, this was written before Waite moved
> from Chicago, and Lesch had been distributing the hymn
> books since at least 1912. The Publishing Society records
> make it clear that Lesch was buying the books from Waite in
> batches as she needed them and simply acting as distributor.
> Lesch's accounts show that she received 100 hymn books
> from Waite on 7 May 1914; and on 1 1 February 1915, she
> seems to have received a similar number. She had not previ­
> ously received such large numbers, although she had bought
> some hymn books from Waite in September 1913 and April
> 1914. Waite described the books to Haney as a new edition in
> February 1915. However, the edition may have come out be­
> fore Lesch's receipt of 100 copies in May 1914.
> As Waite specifically mentions the "Benediction" in �her re­
> marks to Haney, it might be thought that her comments refer
> to the edition with the three added hymns, as this was the
> first with that song. However, Waite is quite specific in her
> 1927 letters to Windust that the edition immediately preced­
> ing the one of that year was the Lesch edition, which I have
> dated as probably 1917. That the Lesch edition is later than
> April 1916, is confirmed by a postcard of that date from
> Waite to Joseph Hannen on which she states that Lesch "han­
> dles' ' the hymn books for her in return for half the proceeds
> going to the Publishing Society (the other half going to the
> Temple Fund), but that Waite had paid the cost of publica­
> tion.26 As there is definitely an edition that includes ' 'Anthem' '
> apart from the Lesch and 1927 editions, it must thus predate
> 44     Part One: The Devotional Heritage
> 
> the Lesch edition. If the edition with only three added songs
> had come out as late as 1914 or 1915, there is insufficient
> time to compass this further edition between it and the Lesch
> one in 1917. So the new edition mentioned by Waite in 1915 is
> most likely the first edition including ' 'Anthem . ' '
> The date of the first edition with all four hymns added can­
> not be estimated as precisely as that of the other undated edi­
> tions. As it contains "Anthem " it must be 191 1 or after. If it
> had been issued shortly before or during 'Abdu'l-Bah<fs visit
> to North America in 1912, however, it would seem likely that
> it would have been associated with him in some way, as are
> Waite's other productions of that time. Thus, I will assign
> 1913-1915 as the probable date range for this edition.
> This attempted reconstruction of the publishing history of
> Bahai Hymns of Peace and Praise suggests that there were at
> least five editions: in 1908, 1910-191 1 , 1913-191 5 , 1917, and
> 1927. Probably, each edition was around 1 , 000 copies, total­
> ing around 5,000 copies in all. The price of the booklet varied
> over the years. The first edition sold for 20¢ a copy in 1908.
> From at least 1912 the booklet was being offered by the Pub­
> lishing� Society for 10¢ . 27 The 1 927 edittion sold for 30¢ a
> copy. By the early 1930s, this last edition was sold out. That
> so many copies of this work could have been sold when the to­
> tal adult Baha'f 'community of North America was probably
> short of 1 , 500 at any time during the period amply testifies to
> its popularity.
> During the period that Bahai Hymns of Peace and Praise was
> in print, other compositions of Waite's (as well as a few from
> the booklet) were available in sheet form and were sometimes
> used. However, the most used single sourc� of music for Ba­
> ha'f meetings was this booklet. Indeed, it is generally referred ·
> to in records of community meetings as simply ' 'the Bahai
> Hymns . ' '
> Bahai Hymns of Peace and Praise includes examples of
> Early Devotions      45
> 
> Waite's various types of devotional songs, with the exception
> of the elaborated solo concert type, of which she wrote a few.
> Five of the hymns are explicitly Baha' f in their text ("The
> Greatest Name, " "Tell the Wondrous Story, " " Softly
> Voice is Calling, " "At Eventide, " and "Benediction"), and
> the remaining nine are of a type referred to at the time as
> "universal. " This latter type were so called as their texts
> have no specific Baha'f references but are nonetheless satu­
> rated with Baha'f meaning. To non-Baha'fs they would seem
> like ordinary hymns.
> Five of the universal hymns ( "Great Day of God , " "Awake
> Ye Nations All, " "The Day of Certainty, " "Praise Thee Oh
> God, " and " Sweet Peace") comprised Hymns of Peace and
> Praise, which Waite published in 1910 for the use of
> groups. In a review of this booklet, the Rev. ]enkin Lloyd
> ] ones (a prominent Chicago clergyman) stated that they
> forth the great longing of the human heart for universal
> brotherhood, unity and peace which is seeking for utterance
> in a thousand ways in these days . " He also invited "more at­
> tention to the fundamental strain" in them. In closing, he
> described the last stanza of "Great Day of God" as "the
> prayer of the Twentieth century' ' and quoted it in full. 28
> Such universal hymns were an important element in contact
> between Baha'is and non-Baha'fs, as their use could put a
> Baha'i stamp on an occasion without alienating other par­
> ticipants. Thus, at the Race Unity Convention organized by
> Baha'is in Washington, D.C., in 192 1 , with the participation
> of non-Baha'f            (the first of a number of such conven­
> tions), stanzas from "Great Day of God" were used to open
> and close each session. The words of the hymn were included
> on the printed convention program and 19,000 copies of this
> program were distributed to publicize the aims of the conven­
> tion. The program was also reproduced in facsimile in various
> Baha'f publications at the time and subsequently. The spread
> 46      Part One: The Devotional Heritage
> 
> and use of Waite''s specifically Baha'i work in that community
> will be discussed in the following chapter.
> As we have seen1 Waite's career as a composer began with
> her discovery of the Baha'i Faith. Her first song, "If Ye Seek
> Me, " is a concert style solo of much charm. The words had
> come to her after the music. In the case of her next song,
> "The Greatest Name, " the words came first and she "re­
> ceived" the music some months later. For those of her later
> songs for which we have details of the composition process,
> she "received" words and music simultaneously. Waite
> looked upon her compositional ability as a gift of faith rather
> than a personal accomplishment. After the dedication to 'Ab­
> du'l-Baha in Bahai Hymns and Poems ( 1904), she included the
> following verses:
> 
> No praise be mine for songs here ·written,
> Thou my inspiration art;
> Thine the thought, I do but catch it,
> But reflect it from my heart.
> Thine the songs, I do but sing them,
> Though imperfect be my tone;
> Aught they may contain of merit,
> Help or comfort, Thine alone.
> 
> Waite seems to have made a distinction between her songs
> and her poetry. She could write poetry (and she wrote some
> quite good blank verse and other poems) of herself, as it were;
> but songs were given to her. Sometimes she did receive po­
> etry, but this was usually the mode through which her songs
> came into being. That songs were poetry with music put them
> in a distinct category for Waite. To her:
> 
> In the final analysis of all things, physically, mentally and spiritu­
> ally , we are brought face to face with the great truth that Life is
> Love, and Love is Life,. and its audible Voice is MUSIC.
> Early Devotions         47
> 
> Music to the realm of Spirit, to the realm of Love belongs,
> And the heart becomes enraptured thru sweet melodies and
> songs.
> Music cheers and music strengthens, music lifts our souls
> above;
> Music is the heart's own language;
> Music is the Voice of Love.
> (This is from a paper on Music which I gave before I went to
> Acca. It is very significant that Abdul Baha said to me when
> there, some months after: "Music is the heart's own language; its
> vibrations uplift the spirit; it is very beautiful and a great art. ")
> L.R.W.29
> 
> As she could not read or write music, Waite regarded her
> musical compositions as wholes rather than the sum of parts.
> The way they came to her was the way she played them; and
> the way she played them was the way she wanted them
> recorded in notation. This could be difficult when she did not
> have a sufficiently sympathetic scribe to work with. She com­
> plained at various times of individuals who "corrected" her
> work in their copying rather than writing what she played.
> This was especially so after she moved to California. During
> the period she wrote the hymns included in Bahai Hymns of
> Peace and Praise, she had professional musical friends in
> Chicago who would take the time to play over for her what
> they had written so that she could ensure it was what she had
> intended.
> Waite had been exposed to Christian hymnody on a daily
> basis in her childhood , and for her it was a completely familiar
> realm of discourse. Indeed, it was a familiar realm for most
> early Western Baha'fs; it is not uncommon to come across
> phrases from hymns incorporated in their correspondence
> and other writings as figures of speech. Waite's own composi­
> tions draw on this familiarity, her acquaintance with Baha'f
> writings and the views held by Baha'fs in her day, and her
> 48     Part One: The Devotional Heritage
> 
> own growing body of work. Thus, in the received entities of
> her compositions we find echoes of Christian hymns, quotes
> and paraphrases from Baha'f writings, and phrases and im­
> ages from her own earlier work.
> As we might expect, Waite does not seem to have revised
> her received songs to any appreciable extent. Where early co­
> pies exist of the words of songs which would be given perma­
> nent printed form with their music, differences between the
> early text and the final form are trivial, usually consisting of
> matters of punctuation and capitalization. An exception to
> this is her first explicitly Baha'f song, "The Greatest Name"
> (see Musical Example 3).
> There are two early versions of the text of ' 'The Greatest
> Name" extant. One was included in Bahai Hymns and Poems
> (1904: pp. 6-7), and there is a typewritten copy that evidently
> predates that published version. 30 The first noticeable distinc­
> tion between the two earlier versions and the one included in
> Bahai Hymns of Peace and Praise is that they have nine
> stanzas, whereas the final version has eight. The last stanza
> of all three versions includes "Allaho Abha" in the first and
> last lines. At some stage it either occurred to Waite or was
> pointed out to her that, although the early versions had the
> pleasing number of nine stanzas, in the course of the text the
> Greatest Name was repeated ten times. As repeating the
> Greatest Name nine times is a specific Baha'f devotional act
> in itself, by cutting the number of verses to eight for the final
> version Waite increased the devotional content, as one now
> repeated the Greatest Name nine times in the song. This must
> have been her intent, as there seems no other reason to have
> dropped the verse she did; and the fact that the Greatest
> Name is repeated nine time� is mentioned by her and others
> as one of the song's merits.
> The changes that were made in the text of ' 'The Greatest
> Name, " apart from the omitting of one verse, are probably
> related to its music. After the music was received, the previ-
> Early Devotions      49
> 
> ously received text must not have fit quite comfortably to it.
> In the first version the opening line was, ' 'We as Bahais, do
> proclaim, ' ' which would fit the tune as published only if Ba­
> ha 'is was correctly pronounced as three syllables. This pro­
> nunciation was never really adopted by Western Baha'fs, who
> have always preferred to pronounce the word in two syllables.
> In the version printed in 1904, the line is, "We, Bahais, do
> proclaim. " This is too short, however Bahd 'fs is pronounced.
> This 1904 version, though, is presumably the one first as­
> sociated with the tune, as the music was received in 1903.
> There may have been two variants of the beginning of the
> tune, as the first lines of stanzas one to four of the 1904 ver­
> sion of the text are too short to fit the tune as published in
> 1908. The 1908 text lengthens each of theS,e lines. The first
> lines of the other stanzas in the 1904 version were retained
> unaltered in 1908, as they fit the tune. In the final version the
> first line is altered to, "With joyful hearts we do proclaim. "
> This is a degree of change in one line that is rarely met with
> elsewhere in an entire song. Other lines had their scansion im­
> proved or were made more euphonious: ' 'That dispels dark­
> ness through its might' ' became ' 'Dispelling darkness by its
> might. "
> When words and music were received together, the music
> must have helped to establish and maintain the poetic struc­
> ture. Verses Waite wrote without any musical connection
> (apart from those in blank verse, which are usually well struc­
> tured) show weaknesses and infelicities that do not usually oc­
> cur in her song texts.
> The only other song in Bahai Hymns of Peace and Praise
> that seems to have undergone considerable rewriting is "Al­
> leluia Song" (Musical Example 4). In the earlier version of
> this song (1904: p. 28) the first stanza was:
> 
> Alleluia! Alleluia!
> Christ our Lord has come again
> 50     Part One: The Devotional Heritage
> 
> To fulfill His Glorious promise
> Given through the Sacred Pen.
> Once again He comes to save us,
> Once again our sins He bears,
> Tho' the Lord of all Creation,
> Yet no diadem He wears.
> 
> The second stanza in the earlier version was the same as
> that published in 1908, except that the first word of lines four
> and five was "Wise, " not "Glad. " The first half of the third
> stanza was different:
> 
> Alleluia! Alleluia!
> Sing it forth from shore to shore;
> Spread the Message of Glad Tidings:
> Christ our Lord has come once more.
> 
> The second half of the stanza was the same , except that in
> the penultimate line it had "His Kingdom" rather than "God's
> kingdom. ' ' Obviously, the intent of the revision of this song
> was to decrease the Christological content and make the text
> more universal in character.
> In other cases we can detect links between an early text and
> a later hymn, although the latter goes beyond being simply a
> revision of the former. The words of " Softly His Voice is Call­
> ing" (Musical Example 5), written in late 1907, are evidently
> related to " Sometimes, " written on 16 July 1903:
> 
> Sometimes I almost hear His voice,
> Calling so sweet and low;
> Sometimes I almost see His face,
> With Love Divine aglow!
> Sometimes I almost feel His hand,
> Laid gently on my head,
> And peace most sweet then comes to me;
> My hungry heart is fed .
> Early Devotions   51
> 
> 0 Master! let me closer come,
> More like Thee grow each day;
> So that these heavenly Sometimes
> Become one grand Alway.31
> 
> The relationship between earlier and later texts can be
> much more oblique, however. "The Morning Star, " written
> on 19 February 1904, contains echoes of "His glorious Sun
> has Rjsen" and foretastes of " Great Day of God , " "Awake
> ye Nations All, " and "The Day of Certainty" (Musical Exam­
> ples 6-9):
> 
> Awake! all ye that sleepeth
> And from your slumbers cease.
> The golden morn now breaketh,
> Now comes the day of peace.
> God's glorious Sun has risen,
> Its rays shine forth afar,
> And in the clear horizon,
> Behold! the Morning Star,
> Why spend your hours in sleeping
> This precious time away?
> The night of gloom hath yielded
> Unto the "perfect Day . "
> The curtains that make dark your soul,
> Arise and open far;
> There in the clear horizon,
> Behold! the Morning Star.
> Awake, and hear the trumpet,
> By God's own angels blown;
> Spend no more time in sleeping,
> The night of doubt hath flown;
> The Sun of Truth hath risen;
> Naught can its glory mar,
> And in the clear horizon
> Shines forth the Morning Star.
> 52     Part One: The Devotional Heritage
> 
> Awake with might and power;
> Awake and loudly
> Proclaim to slumbering servants
> The coming of their King.
> Baha'u'llah, all glorious,
> We praise Thee near and far,
> And Abdul-Baha Abbas,
> Our radiant �Morning
> 
> Fairly early in her career, Waite established a repertoire of
> phrases and imagery which she continued to use throughout
> her life and in her best works presented in refined form. As a
> conscious poet might draft and redraft the same material,
> Waite received complete works that had a familial relation­
> ship to previously received pieces. It would seem that such
> derivation went on largely unconsciously. To Waite, each
> received work was a ' 'thought' ' she had merely caught and
> reflected. This unconsciousness of derivation also applied to
> her use of Christian hymns as models. It would seem that
> Christian hymnody was so integral a part of her psyche that
> she could produce complete songs that are quite evidently
> related to specific Christian hymns without being conscious of .
> the relationship. Occasionally, a song of Waite's will call to
> mind a Christian hymn, as "Tell the Wondrous Story" (Musi­
> cal Example 10) brings to mind "I Love to Tell the Story, "
> although there is little more than a thematic similarity be­
> tween the two. But in some cases there is an evident organic
> relationship between the Christian hymn and Waite 's song. A
> case in point would be "At Eventide" (Musical Example 1 1).
> "At Eventide" is more like one of Waite's concert style
> songs in character than most of her hymns, but it is evidently
> intimately related to the well-known hymn "Abide With Me, "
> which must have been a part of Waite's hymnic consciousness
> from childhood. Fortunately, the circumstances of the compo­
> sition of "At Eventide " are known. There is a copy of a talk
> Early Devotions         53
> 
> given by Windust in Chicago on 19 December 1909, which
> has the details attached. 33 The latter part of Windust's talk
> was on the importance of "personal devotions" and the in­
> struction by Baha'u'llah in the Kitab-i Aqdas to "Chant the
> Utterances of God every morn and eve. " Windust concluded
> his talk with the following paragraphs:
> 
> How blessed it will be when not only one member of every house­
> hold obeys this Command, but the whole household together will
> fulfill this Covenant of God. It is an old saying, and a good one,
> that, "They who daily pray in their homes, do well; they who not
> only pray, but read the Word, do better; but they do best of all
> who not only pray and read the Word, but sing the praises of
> God. " Surely, the Bahais have an abundance of material where­
> with they may fulfill every phrase, i.e., prayer, the reading of the
> Word, and singing. Although we are commanded to read the
> Word of BAHA'O'LLAH every morning and evening, yet we be­
> lieve the Tablets of Abdul-Baha will also be read daily. His
> Words seem especially appropriate in the evening. This is just a
> personal opinion. The former is like the seed, the latter is like the
> fruit; the former is like the sowing time, the latter is like the har­
> vest; the former is like the dawn, the latter is like the eventide.
> As for the songs, we are blessed in having our Bahai hymns.
> During the past cycle-it is generally conceded-when a people
> attained to where they had their songs, it was co-incident with the
> dawn of national life for them. Already, the Bahais in the Occident
> have attained to that position-thanks to our good Mrs. Waite­
> and I believe that remarkable composition of hers, the "Benedic­
> tion, " written at the time of the Convention this year, will in fu­
> ture, be sung in every home on occasions of rejoicing or sorrow. It
> is an ideal "good-night" song.
> 
> A note by Gertrude Buikema says that this meeting was the
> first that Waite attended after returning from pilgrimage, and
> so Windust "Took the opportunity to pay a tribute to the
> great service she has rendered in the field of music . ' ' The
> 54     Part One: The Devotional Heritage
> 
> copy of "At Eventide " with the talk has the note that the
> song was " called forth" by Windust's remarks. After having
> discovered the thoughts that inspired "At Eventide, " it would
> be helpful at this point to quote "Abide With Me" for pur­
> poses of comparison with Waite 's song:
> 
> Abide with me! Fast falls the eventide,
> The darkness deepens-Lord, with me abide!
> When other helpers fail, and comforts flee,
> Help of the helpless, oh, abide with me!
> Swift to its close ebbs out life's little day;
> Earth's joys grow dim, its glories pass away;
> Change and decay in all around I see;
> 0 thou, who changest not, abide with me!
> I need thy presence every passing hour;
> What but thy grace can foil the tempter's power?
> Who, like thyself, my guide and stay can be?
> Thro' cloud and sunshine, oh, abide with me!
> Hold thou thy cross before my closing eyes;
> Shine through the gloom, and point me to the skies;
> Heaven's morning breaks, and earth's vain shadows flee!
> In life, in death, 0 Lord, abide with meP4
> 
> When this hymn was used by the Baha'i community in Chi­
> cago, the word "Light" was substituted for "cross" in the last
> stanza.35
> Although "At Eventide" is not simply a contrafact or ver­
> sion of ' 'Abide With Me, ' ' it is intimately related to it. There
> is the general thematic resemblance. There are closely
> related phrases: ' 'The darkness deepens' '/' 'when darkness
> falls around us" ; "ebbs out life' s little day"/"life's short day
> is ended" ; "Earth's joys grow dim, its glories pass away"/
> ' 'Earth's sorrows dim and burdens fall away ' ' (the difference
> Early Devotions      55
> 
> in attitude between these two related lines is striking); ' 'I
> need thy presence every passing hour"/"Love's holy pres­
> ence doth all fear allay. " And through Waite's more expan­
> sive melody we hear echoes of the other tune. "Abide With
> Me" is evidently the seed for "At Eventide. " Equally evi­
> dent, "At Eventide " is much more than a merely derivative
> song. Waite's song expresses quite explicitly Bahcfi feelings.
> It draws on the imagery of her own hymns as well as on
> "Abide With Me, " her recent experience of visiting 'Abdu'l­
> Baha, and her acquaintance with Baha'i scripture. "And
> death's glad tidings fall upon our ear" in the last stanza refers
> to Baha'u'llah's Hidden Words from the Arabic No. 33 (No.
> 32 in the current numbering) in the translation published with
> the proceeds of the concert Waite organized in 1904: "I made
> death for thee as glad-tidings . . . " (The currently used trans­
> lation is, "I have made death a messenger of joy to thee. ")
> Thus, in this song Waite presents a remarkably successful
> synthesis of the heritage of her Christian upbringing and her
> new Baha'i identity.
> Before leaving this consideration of some aspects of the
> songs gathered in Bahai Hymns of Peace and Praise as compo­
> sitions by Waite to turn to a discussion of how they were in­
> tegrated into the life of the community, it is necessary to
> consider ' 'that remarkable composition of hers , ' ' as Windust
> termed it, her most important contribution to Baha'i devo­
> tional life: "Benediction" (Musical Example 12). This piece
> was performed more than any other at Baha'i meetings dur­
> ing the era of Baha'i hymnody and was so absorbed into the
> fabric of Baha' f life that its use even survived the end of that
> era to some extent. For many Baha'is, the ' 'Benediction" was
> the musical expression of Baha'i devotion and a deeply mov­
> ing affirmation of their faith. This is Waite's account of its
> composition, written a few days after the event:
> 56    Part One: The Devotional Heritage
> 
> On Tuesday March 23rd. [1909] the last session of the first Bahai
> Temple Unity Convention was held in Mrs. True's home, and
> she had engaged luncheon for all of the delegates at a little res­
> taurant near by, kept by one of the believers. I went there at 10
> A.M. to help her prepare for them. Five other of the dear sisters
> were there, and we all worked hard until 2 :30. I came home very
> very tired, but 0! so happy! On my way home-it was only about
> four blocks from my house-I heard in my innermost soul these
> words-
> 
> May God's Love now hover o'er us
> As a dove with outstretched wings,
> While His Peace that flows around us,
> To each heart sweet comfort brings;
> May we now receive His Spirit,
> And Its radiance shed afar;
> Now and here in Love abiding-
> In the realms of El-Abha.
> 
> The music-tender and beautiful-came with it. I hastened home
> and sat down to my piano entranced. 0! if you dearly loved one
> could have heard and felt what I did then. I pray God that I have
> caught . enough of that marvelous essence and held it fast in this
> Benediction, that I may share my joy with all mankind. I felt and
> spiritually saw that blessed white Dove actually hovering over me,
> pure, white, and glistening, and the Spirit of Peace that emanated
> from it fell in heavenly showers upon me. I lost Louise Waite
> forever. I was baptized with a New Name and I sailed out upon a
> ocean of Peace, Love and Life, and exquisite Harmony and
> Melody and my White Dove was still with me and also Abdul
> Baha's tender words: "I pray God to make thee a sign of Love, a
> standard of agreement, a means of Harmony and a spreader of
> Peace amongst all peoples" [from 'Abdu'l-Baha's first Tablet to
> Waite in 1902]. Surely those who hear or sing this Benediction
> must feel in a measure what I so blissfully felt, and feel the
> PRESENCE that seemed to be with me as I played it over and
> over. To me every note tells a wondrous story of LOVE and
> Early Devotions      57
> 
> PEACE and the ecstatic Joy of the in taking of the Holy Spirit
> with all Its "quickening Powers"-which is LIFE.36
> 
> By 191 1 , Waite had added a " Prelude " to the "Benedic-'
> tion" which was intended for solo performance, with all
> present then joining in on the "Benediction" itself. As well as
> being available in Bahai Hymns of Peace and Praise, "Benedic­
> tion" was available until the 1930s in sheet form (with or
> without the " Prelude " in the later years).
> During the nineteenth century it had become accepted for
> women to compose hymns and sentimental ballads. However,
> they were more likely to compose texts than music. Ammer
> notes that for a collection of hymns by women published in
> 1885, 2,500 hymn texts were gathered representing more
> than 820 authors. At the last moment, it was decided to in­
> clude music, and tunes by 52 women were gathered. The
> compiler stated that, given more time, she could probably
> have found more m,usic by women. 37 The implication from the
> background to this volume, that to find music by women you
> had to search but to find texts was easy, is evident.
> Waite grew up at a time when it was not exceptional for a
> middle-class American woman to write verse, but for her to
> write music was much more so. It was taken for granted that
> the young Waite should play the piano and sing, but regarded
> as unnecessary for her to be musically literate. The inade­
> quacy of her musical education undoubtedly limited the pro­
> ductiveness of Waite's career, particularly after 1915, when
> she was increasingly unable to have her work transcribed. In­
> deed, that much of her later work is in blank verse and other
> nonmusical forms cannot be unrelated to the frustration she
> must have felt at not being able to have her songs properly
> recorded.
> Waite's financial difficulties also circumscribed the devel­
> opment of Bahai Hymns of Peace and Praise. Although she
> 58     Part One: The Devotional Heritage
> 
> was able to issue a few of her other songs as sheet music (e.g. ,
> " Song of the Covenant" and " Song of Thanksgiving, " which
> were both written in 1912, the former at the express request
> of 'Abdu'l-Baha), she was not able to issue a further expanded
> edition of Bahai Hymns of Peace and Praise that would include
> songs written after ' 'Anthem of All Nations' ' as she wished to
> do.
> Waite continued to write songs into the 1930s. Sometimes
> she compensated for her inability to have new music written
> by writing new texts to her published tunes or to other hymn
> tunes. She also was able to have the words of some new songs
> printed. However, as none of these newer songs made it into
> the covers of ' 'the Bahai hymns, ' ' their penetration of the life
> of the community was relatively slight. Of the hymns that
> were in Bahai Hymns of Peace and Praise, some of them be­
> came so well known that they could be sung, with or without
> books, by Baha'is who spoke English anywhere in the world.
> Numbers of Baha'is were familiar with them in other lan­
> guages, too. The best known of these songs assumed almost a
> folk quality from their ubiquity, as to many they seemed sim­
> ply a part of Baha'i life. They were an important element in
> producing a feeling of Baha'i cultural identity in North Amer­
> ica and of affinity between North American Baha'is and those
> they visited in other Baha'i communities overseas.
> �
> g�
> ::I
> e:.
> 
> �
> �
> �·
> !!'
> 
> �
> }
> F
> 
> THE NAW-RUZ CELEBRATION IN 1 909
> held at the first Bahai Temple Unity Convention. Standing at the back are the members
> Choral Society.
> CHAPTER THREE
> 
> BAHA'I HYMNODY IN
> COMMUNITY LIFE
> 
> THE ABSORPTION OF WAITE'S HYMNS INTO BAHA'i
> COMMUNITY LIFE
> 
> The Chicago House of Spirituality had published its Songs
> of Prayer and Praise in 1903 just as Waite was beginning to
> write hymns. The House's selection remained in use, but it
> was gradually supplemented by copies of Waite 's hymns
> which were being circulated in duplicated form (by the same
> distribution network as copies of tablets and other items of
> interest) with words only. Although Waite's music was not in­
> cluded with the first circulated copies of her hymns, assis­
> tance was given occasionally for using them by mentioning
> well-known tunes that would fit. Thus, on a sheet that must
> date from early 1903: the words of " His glorious Sun has
> Risen" are given with a note that the tunes of "Jerusalem the
> Golden" or "Greenland's Icy Mountains" may be used. The
> first of Waite's hymns to be available with its music was prob­
> ably "Great Day of God, " which appeared as sheet music in
> 1905.
> 
> 62     Part One: The Devotional Heritage
> 
> The selection of nine hymns and a doxology in Songs of
> Prayer and Praise must have soon seemed rather limited, and
> other Christian hymns were used as ,well as the new hymns by
> Waite. An example of how songs from these three sources
> were used is the program for the Baha'f funeral of Mrs. Good­
> ale in 1905. The singing consisted of two hymns from Songs of
> Prayer and Praise ( "Sun of My Soul" and "Nearer My God to
> Thee"), another Christian hymn ("Lead Kindly Light"), and a
> "Requiem" hymn especially written by Waite for the occa­
> sion to the tune of "All Through the Night . " 1 The music
> sung at meetings could also be varied by the inclusion of solo
> pieces, usually in the middle of the program.
> The desire for a wider selection of hymns was presumably
> behind the adoption of Brewer 's Edition of Sacred Songs and
> Hymns (1905) by the Chicago community in 1907 as a replace­
> ment for the 1903 selection. A copy of Brewer survives which
> has been imprinted with "The Bahai Assembly" on the front
> and back covers and which has emendations in Chase's hand
> to some of the hymn texts. 2 There also survive a few scraps of
> paper on which Chase scribbled the programs of three Sun­
> day community meetings he chaired in 1906 and 1907.3 On 23
> September 1906, Songs of Prayer and Praise was still being
> used, as Chase uses numbers from it to identify the hymns be­
> ing sung (as he had done on the program for Goodale's
> funeral). In the notes of the programs for 26 October and 3
> November 1907, the hymns are listed by title and page num­
> ber, and these correspond to the contents of Brewer.
> That Brewer had been adopted by late 1907 as the Chicago
> community hymn book is confirmed by entries in the minutes
> of the Spokane, Washington, Assembly. These record that
> on 13 December 1907, "The Bahai Hymnals which brother
> Lehman brought from Chicago to the Assembly were used for
> the first time. " In a number of subsequent entries over the
> next few months, the titles of the hymns sung at meeting are
> Bahd 'i Hymnody       63
> 
> given. All the titles mentioned are hymns included in Brewer,
> not all are in Songs of Prayer and Praise, so the former must
> be the book brought from Chicago by Lehman as a ' 'Bahai
> Hymnal. "4
> The Brewer selection, however, was shortly to be displaced
> in both Chicago and Spokane by Waite' s Bahai Hymns of
> Peace and Praise. After its publication, which was probably in
> mid-June 1908, this booklet spread quickly around the coun­
> try. The Spokane community began using it on 10 July 1908,
> and seems to have used it exclusively thereafter, as the
> hymns used at meetings in subsequent months are all from
> Waite's booklet.5 The Kenosha, Wisconsin, community took
> delivery of five dozen of the booklets for their use by the end
> of July 1908. 6
> As little research has been done on the life of most Baha'f
> communities in the early years of this century, I have had to
> rely on the uneven availability of early minute books and
> accounts of meetings in correspondence to attempt an assess­
> ment of how quickly Bahai Hymns of Peace and Praise pene­
> trated general community life on a national scale. Another
> difficulty is that in some cases those aspects of meetings that
> were considered so normal as to be taken for granted were
> not necessarily recorded in the minutes . Some community
> secretaries scrupulously recorded the details of meetings;
> others used general terms like "singing, " "a hymn, " "scrip­
> ture" ; and others simply noted that "the usual service" was
> held. Thus, although mention of Bahai Hymns of Peace and
> Praise or hymn titles from it confirms its use, lack of mention
> does not confirm that it was not used. For example, the min­
> utes of the Portland, Oregon, community do not give much
> detail of their meetings and do not mention hymns or singing
> more than five times between November 1906 and May 1910.
> However, on 19 May 1910, it was noted that "There is left
> only 2 Hymn books-40¢ . ' ' So, although there is no record in
> 64     Part One: The Devotional Heritage
> 
> their minutes of the books arriving or being used, the mem­
> bers of the Portland community had been buying them and
> presumably were using them. 7
> The amount of material currently available on the various
> early communities is too incomplete to draw firm conclusions
> about how quickly Bahai Hymns of Peace and Praise was ab­
> sorbed into community life nationally. That the booklet went
> through so many editions proves its general appeal and subse­
> quent availability to have been considerable. The question is
> how to distinguish between individual ownership of it in par­
> ticular places and its integration into community practice in
> those same places. It seems that the booklet was almost im­
> mediately integrated into community life in the Midwest and
> probably to some extent in the Northwest (information on the
> latter area is much less complete). By 19 10, it was being used
> as far west as Honolulu. 8
> The widespread acceptance and use of Bahai Hymns of
> Peace and Praise by communities on the East Coast seems to
> have been delayed. There were individuals in New York, for
> example, who corresponded with ' Waite and praised her
> work; but when the Bahai Temple Unity Convention was held
> there in 1913, the song sheet printed for use at its meetings
> had the words of three Christian hymns: "Joy to the World, "
> "Nearer My God to Thee, " and "Blest Be the Tie that
> Binds. " The first was under the rubric, " INCARNATION AND
> ADVENT, ' ' and the second and third were each headed ' ' THE
> CHRISTIAN LIFE. ' ' Significantly, the words of the third hymn
> begin in the standard way, "Blest be the tie that binds/ Our
> hearts in Christian love . " In Chicago, from the time of the
> 1903 hymn book this had been altered to "in holy love. "
> Waite's "Great Day of God" was also sung at this conven­
> tion, 9 but this is one of her universal songs rather than a spe­
> cifically Baha'f one. The New York community had been
> accustomed to use Christian hymns at its public meetings. It
> is possible that with their ties to churches in the city some of
> Bahd '{ Hymnody          65
> 
> the New York community were not entirely comfortable with
> Waite's explicitly Baha'f hymns. 10
> In Jersey City, New Jersey, meetings opened and closed
> with devotional exercises, including singing, from 1908 to
> 1910, but what they sang is not recorded. 1 1 Accounts of meet­
> ings in Washington, D.C., do not often mention hymn singing
> of any kind , but by 1910 Waite's hymns were being used. 12
> The "Form of Meeting" adopted in 1909 by the Baltimore
> community, which had close links with the Washington com­
> munity, does not mention singing at all. 13
> In Chicago, Bahai Hymns of Peace and Praise had com­
> pletely displaced the use of Christian hymns by 1910. Waite,
> however, tried to encourage the continued use of suitable
> Christian hymns along with her own:
> 
> Friday night [ 1 1 March 1910], Mr. Windust, in a most beautiful
> spirit, brought up the subject of singing the old hymns with the
> Bahai hymns. It was discussed but no definite resolution made. I
> sat silently and heard it all, not a vibration was there in my heart
> save the thought of "THY WILL BE DONE. " I felt two hymn
> books did not express unity, but other than this, there was no
> J.'-''-UUJ�. or desire save HIS WILL in my heart. If, as the mother of
> 
> those hymns, I loved my child, I had, like Abraham, laid it on the
> altar of GOD'S WILL. All must be sacrificed in His Cause, even
> the spirit of man.
> Saturday morning, while working out a thought for my lesson
> [for the following day's community meeting], I was directed by
> the Spirit to the Tablet on page 90, beginning-"0 maid servant
> of God! know thou that in the sight of God the conduct of women
> is the same as the men-The nearer we draw to God, the nearer
> comes to us. "
> . . . . as I wrote the words- "the nearer we draw to God, the
> nearer He comes to               said aloud-this is the real "Nearer
> My God to Thee. " Then I realized that it was Abdul Baha's
> vorite hymn, and by His request, Mr. Kinney had sung it in the
> Holy Tomb, at the Holy Threshold of Oneness.
> 66    Part One: The Devotional Heritage
> 
> I dropped all and ran to my piano and I played an arrangement
> of my own, which my dear Mother had so many times had me
> play for her; one I have not thought of for over 9 years. A love for
> our old hymns swept over me; I took my precious hymn book
> [given to her in 1880 by her mother] and ran it through. Sing the
> old hymns? Yea, indeed sing the old hymns as never before! Sing
> with hearts overflowing with the joy of certainty! Sing the old and
> new! Let them join hahds and stand before the altar of Oneness,
> in Unity and Love, and so resurrect them, for this is the great day
> of resurrection of all things. So I came down to the hall [on Sun­
> day] with our purple covered hymn book [Brewer, 1905] in my
> hands and I opened the Service with playing "Nearer My God to
> Thee" and I was back again in the Holy Tomb and then the Ser­
> vice was closed by all singing one verse of this glorious hymn. . ..
> 
> Now, I also ask with all my heart, soul and spirit that our old
> hymns be sung again; Sung with our spiritual eyes and ears and
> mouths opened, and singing forth His Glorious Praises from
> whatever book we open, having the single eye, which giveth light
> to the whol� body. 14
> 
> There was a further attempt to encourage the use of suita­
> ble Christian hymns along with Waite's songs with the re­
> issue <:>f Songs of Prayer and Praise in 1912. This edition
> included the previous nine hymns and doxology and added to
> them five popular pieces by Waite:
> 
> His glorious Sun has Risen
> Tell the Wondrous Story
> Great Day of God
> Temple Song
> Benediction
> 
> These added songs were not printed directly from Waite's
> plates, as this booklet had a smaller page size than Bahai
> Hymns of Peace and Praise, and s� the music had to be
> reduced. The only song by Waite that was added that did not
> Bahd '( Hymnody        67
> 
> come from her booklet was "Temple S ong, " which she had
> written for the Bahai Temple Unity Convention of 1910.
> This expanded reprint of Songs of Prayer and Praise does
> not seem to have been a great success. The edition size is not
> known, but it would seem probable that it was 1 , 000 copies,
> as the editions of Bahai Hymns of Peace and Praise seem to
> have been. At any rate, by 1923 there were still 800 copies
> unsold. 15
> The Christian hymns retained in the 1 9 12 revision of Songs
> ofPrayer and Praise probably appealed to many individual Ba­
> ha'is and communities, but they were all readily available
> elsewhere and the selection was still as small as in 1903. We
> have already seen that the 1903 selection had been replaced
> by Brewer to give the Chicago community more choice. As to
> the Baha'i hymns included, they were also too few, and such
> general favorites as " Softly His Voice is Calling" were omit­
> ted. The collection, therefore, addressed an issue rather than
> a market. In respect of the issue, communities continued to
> sing Christian hymns, Baha'i hymns, or any mixture of the
> two they pleased. The new edition of Songs of Prayer and
> Praise was neither necessary nor adequate to assist them.
> By the early 1920s, the use of Waite' s hymns had become a
> feature of the socialization of Baha'i children. Waite had writ­
> ten "Softly His Voice is Calling" and "Tell the Wondrous
> Story" for the Baha'i children's classes of Chicago in late
> 1907. Most communities with children organized special ac­
> tivities for them from fairly early on. When 'Abdu'l-Baha
> visited North America in 1912, he met with children's groups
> in Washington, D.C . , Chicago, and Oakland, California. On
> each occasion the children sang ' 'Softly His Voice is Calling. ' '
> From 1919, Baha'i children's activities became more na­
> tionally coordinated through the efforts of Victoria Bedikian
> and Ella Robarts. Bedikian organized a loosely affiliated na­
> tional and international network of children's "Gardens. "
> 68     Part One: The Devotional Heritage
> 
> These were mostly operated by Baha'is, but some were run
> by others and they all were open to Baha'i and non-Baha'i
> children. Bedikian herself was particularly concerned with
> the needs of children from deprived backgrounds. She or­
> ganized these Gardens through her mammoth correspon­
> dences and was generally known to their participants, and to
> most Baha'is, as Auntie Victoria. She also produced a con­
> siderable quantity of printed matter: poems, illustrations with
> and without text, of various sizes, and a number of magazines
> under various names in the 1920s.
> Robarts began organizing her "Bahai Juniors" activities in
> 1919. In the same year she began publication of The Maga­
> zine of the Children of the Kingdom , which she continued un­
> til 1924. A large part of each issue consisted of accounts of
> Baha'i children's activities, often written by the children them­
> selves. Waite wrote for both Robarts' and Bedikian's maga­
> zines, contributing stories, poems, and even an occasional
> song. The main influence Waite had on children's activities,
> though, was through Bahai Hymns of Peace and Praise, whose
> integration into the socialization of Baha'i children is recorded
> in Robarts' corresponaence, from which she drew the items
> for her magazine.
> In May 1920, Robarts received a typical request from a
> young woman who was beginning a children's class: "I also
> would like to be able to get some children's songs, I mean Ba­
> hai hymns. I think singing is very essential in working with
> the little ones. " 1 6 It seems to have been through the answer­
> ing of such requests that Bahai Hymns of Peace and Praise en­
> tered fully into the life of those communities, especially those
> more recently founded, which had not yet adopted it.
> Another woman wrote to Robarts about her community's
> plans for children's classes: " . . . we of course will lay out
> different plans to amuse them and keep their interest, beside
> teaching them some of the beautiful hymns . . . . We are now
> teaching them, 'Softly His Voice is Calling. ' " 17 Indeed, teach-
> Baha 'i Hymnody        69
> 
> ing the children the Baha'f hymns was often the first suitable
> activity that came to mind.
> " Softly His Voice is Calling" continued to be the favorite
> piece for children, but other songs were also taught. In
> November 192 1 , Frances Olds (age 13) of Oma:ha, Nebraska,
> wrote to Robarts that her community had celebrated the
> Birthday of Baha'u'llah, and "Softly His Voice is Calling" had
> been included in the program. In the Kenosha, Wisconsin,
> community what the children had learned in their classes was
> featured at the community's holy day celebrations. At Naw­
> Rtlz 192 1 :
> 
> The evening was mostly devoted t o the children with speaking,
> music & reading. At the end of the program Parveen Bagdadi [a
> child] of Chicago chanted for us. There were Bahais from Chicago
> & Racine. In all about 74 were present. The meeting was closed
> with the Benediction. After which refreshments were served. 18
> 
> Later that year, the children had a program for ' 'Abdul
> Baha' s Day" (Day of the Covenant). This program included
> Waite's first song, "If Ye Seek Me, " sung by the "Bahai Jun­
> iors, " and later "Softly His Voice is Calling, " sung by the
> "Little Juniors. " At Naw-Rtlz 1922, the Kenosha Juniors also
> sang two songs. The "big Juniors" sang " Sweet Peace, " and
> the "small Juniors" sang " Softly His Voice is Calling"
> again. 1 9
> In Geyserville, California, the community met on 7 January
> 1922, for the memorial meeting held in each community forty
> days after the death of 'Abdu'l-Baha. Lawrence Tomlinson (a
> child) played "Softly His Voice is Calling" on the violin. His
> mother noted that he was then learning the ' 'Benediction. ' ' 20
> Lawrence's endeavors must have been successful, as he
> played the "Benediction" at the Geyserville Naw-Rtlz cele­
> bration that March. Mildred Meyer ' 'played the Bahai songs
> on the piano, " and, Mrs. Tomlinson noted, "It makes one
> 70     Part One: The Devotional Heritage
> 
> happy to see the Juniors active in the Cause. "2 1 At the "Rain­
> bow Sunday School" held for the Geyserville children, Mrs.
> Tomlinson also noted, "Lawrence plays the Bahai hymns on
> his violin and the children sing them. "22
> Amelia Collins of Pasadena, California, taught ' 'three beau­
> tiful little girls in the morning-to see them hold the sheet and
> sing from it ' Softly His voice' and two of them cannot read is
> heavenly. " She also remarked that before she left for pilgrim­
> age in early 1923, "Little Jane McGee of 4 as a present to me
> learned the first verse of the Softly His voice is calling and the
> older sister of 7 taught it to her-that being her gift to me. "23
> By the mid-1920s, the place of Waite's hymns in the life of
> the community had been considerably reinforced by this inclu­
> sion in the national effort to socialize Baha' f children to a com­
> mon standard. Here is one last quote from "Charlotte, " who
> wrote to Bedikian, "I am a little girl nine years old and belong
> to the Garden of Favor. I have been)earning Baha' i prayers,
> the Benediction, and 'Softly His Voice is Calling Me. ' ' '24
> The influence of both Bedikian and Robarts spread beyond
> North America. Bedikian's Gardens were organized in many
> countries and Robarts' magazine circulated among Baha'fs in
> Europe, the Middle East, and as far away as Australia. A girl
> reporting on "the Bahai Children's Festival" at Esslingen,
> Germany, held in March 192 1 , noted that Fraulein Stabler
> sang "this is the day of fulfilment" (Waite's "Song of the
> Covenant"), showing that at least this one of Waite's post­
> Bahai Hymns of Peace and Praise compositions became known
> in Germany. 25 There is an account of a later meeting at Ess­
> lingen in April 1930 at which a "litte girl recited the 'Benedic­
> tion. ' ' ' Her recitation is retranslated from the German in the
> report with charming naivety: ' 'May God's Spirit be upon us,
> as a white dove, His Peace gladden · our hearts, and our faith
> be strong. How great is His Love, His aid so near. We feel
> ourselves in God's Lap in the Kingdom of El-Abha. "26
> The degree to which Waite's hymns had entered the con-
> Baha 'i Hymnody         71
> 
> sciousness of the. North American Baha'f community by the·
> mid-1920s may be demonstrated by an incident that occurred
> during the 1926 national convention. On the afternoon of 30
> April discussion became a little heated and the convention
> chariman, Roy Wilhelm, made the following remarks:
> 
> I am going to ask Mrs. Waite to play one of the Baha'i songs so
> we can all sing. We have some energy here that is pushing pretty
> strong and I think we had better run off a little static. (Laughter)
> (At this point the delegates and friends joined in singing "Softly
> His Voice is Calling" accompanied by Mrs. Waite on the piano.)27
> 
> Waite's songs acted as a unifying force and a reminder of
> their ultimate concerns to those attending Baha'f meetings.
> As with the children, adults around the world used Waite' s
> compositions. One of the first Baha'f communities outside
> North America to adopt her work was that in Iran. The words
> of Waite's first explicitly Baha' f song, "The Greatest Name, "
> which she had sent to 'Abdu'l-Baha, were translated into Per­
> sian on His instructions and were circulating in the Eastern
> Baha'f community by early 1903. 'Abdu'l-Baha continued to
> have Waite's hymns (and those of the few other Western Ba­
> ha'fs who wrote them) translated and circulated, using distin­
> guished Persian Baha'f poets to recast the rough translations
> from English. The circulation and use of such translations
> meant a great deal to the Eastern community, as it was tangi­
> ble proof to them that the Faith had taken root in the West.
> The general reaction may be represented by a letter from the
> Baha'i community of Benah in Azerbaijan to Chicago in 1 906:
> 
> . . . the pamphlets and the books written by the American be­
> lievers ought to be sent to Persia and the works and writings of
> Persian believers be forwarded to America. · To carry out this no­
> ble plan will be conducive to great attraction of hearts and the en­
> kindlement of souls. Therefore, in these days, the verses which
> were written by the maid-servant of God, Louise Spencer [Waite],
> 72      Part One: The Devotional Heritage
> 
> (Upon her be Beha-Ullah-El-Abha) were sent to Teheran, and our
> beloved Lord Abdul-Beha (May our lives be a sacrifice to Him!)
> has commanded the believers to translate them and forward them
> to all the assemblies. After its translation their honors, Niar and
> Sina (two Persian teachers who are eminent poets [translators
> note]) have rendered it into Persian poetry, and forwarded a copy
> of it to Benah (Azerbeyjan [translator's note]) all read it in the As­
> sembly of Benah, with great joy and happiness and invoke confir­
> mation and assistance from the Center of Oneness for the
> maid-servant of God, Louise Spencer. Through this Bounty the
> believ�rs became more attracted, more ignited, and they have
> found a new life and they thanked God that the Sun of the True
> Knowledge has dawned from the West and the shining Luminary
> appeared from the Horizon of the East and has burned the dark
> veils of the people of the Occident.28
> 
> The translation of Waite's "The Greatest Name" remained
> in use in the Eastern community for some years. In 1916,
> Moody noted that as part of the program at the first annual
> examinations of the religious classes for the girls of the Baha'i
> community in Tehran it was chanted by the teachers and assis­
> tant teachers, with the girls joining in the refrain. 29 Moody's
> correspondence during her many years in Iran often mentions
> the use of Waite's hymns.
> One of the areas in which a culturally Persian Baha'i com­
> munity exi�ted outside Iran was India, and there, too, Waite's
> hymns became familiar. In 1920, Martha Root wrote to Waite,
> ' ' Did I tell you about the Irani children in Poona, India, sing­
> ing your beautiful Baha'i hymns? It was so sweet to hear them
> singing in English your songs in that far-away land. " 30 On 26
> February 1939, the devotional program to end a Baha'i Youth
> Symposium meeting in Poona included "Benediction. " 3 1
> Waite's hymns were used in the Eastern community in
> three different ways : in English with the original tunes; in
> Persian translation with the original tune; and in Persian
> translation chanted in traditional style. The most versatile use
> Bahd '£ Hymnody          73
> 
> of them seems to have been by the Baha' i students at the col­
> lege (now American University) in Beirut. They used them in
> all three ways, and there are a number of references in vari­
> ous individuals' correspondence to their "glee club " . These
> students were in Egypt in the autumn of 1913:
> 
> At six o'clock we went to the house of Hadji Khorassani, where a
> large room was filled with turbaned brothers. Mrs. Stannard, my-
> self and Miss           an American believer who is now living in
> Egypt, were their           The boys from the College at Beirut
> formed a glee club and they sang the Bahai songs with a dash and
> earnestness which I have never heard before, with the possible
> exception of the way our American children sometimes           "On­
> ward Christian soldiers. " They are the songs of Mrs. Waite of
> Chicago, translated into Persian by .two of the best poets of Tehe­
> ran and sung to the American music. It was beautiful. 32
> 
> In 1915, the students spent their summer in Haifa, despite
> the occasional bombardment of parts of the town by naval
> vessels:
> 
> 1   Not a day passes that your hymns are not sung by the              stu-
> dents and myself. Every night the sacred quiet atmosphere of Mt.
> Carmel brings back the               distinct echo of your songs, and
> you, as the creator and composer of these immortal songs, are liv-
> in our hearts and spirits . . . . How wonderful it is that God has
> you this Divine Gift, and through your musical              you
> have united the          of the Eastern and Western friends. I have
> learned the Persian setting of several of these hymns and when I
> am in America I will sing them to you and you will be glad, be­
> cause the hymns are translated into Persian by two of the most
> celebrated poets of Teheran-Nayai and Sina-and they are beau­
> tiful and thrilling. Some of them have become most popular and
> every little child sings them, or as he walks along whistles them.
> Especially are they very beautiful when they are sung in chorus.
> They move the hearts of all the listeners. 33
> 74     Part One: The Devotional Heritage
> 
> Among that group of students in Haifa in 1915 was Shoghi
> Effendi. Not only the students but the children living in
> 'Abdu'l-Baha's household were well acquainted with Waite's
> songs:
> 
> We were three weeks in Haifa. The little children of the Holy
> Family and of the believers have learned Mrs. Waite's songs,
> translated into Persian, and in the evening when the believers
> 1 gather, these little ones sit down on the divan, all anxious to be
> 
> called upon in turn to sing these songs. 34
> 
> Lua Getsinger wrote to Waite, "You are lovingly remem­
> bered and spoken of in the Land of Desire [the Holy Land].
> The little children here sing your heartfelt ·songs in the
> Presence of the Glorious Beloved [ 'Abdu'l-Baha]-what more
> can you desire?' '35
> Waite's reputation among the Eastern community was con­
> siderable. Fuad Rouhani of Tehran (who was the grandson of
> Tayere Khanum, a leader of the Baha'f women in Tehran and
> a poet who had corresponded with Waite before her death in
> 1911) wrote to Waite iti 1925:
> 
> Of course I had heard of you so very often before (there is no Ba­
> hai who has not) . . . . My mother tells me a great deal about you
> the letters you used to write to my grandmother (when I was
> only a little boy), and of the Bahai literature you used to send her.
> To my utmost happiness, a few typed copies of your Bahai hymns
> and songs, as well as some letters were found among my grand­
> mother's papers, and I have kept them as a valuable treasure.
> How proud we all are of such precious souls as you, to whom all
> the friends owe so much!36
> 
> Jenabe Fazel, an eminent Baha'f teacher of international re­
> pute, wrote of his expectation of meeting Waite on a visit to
> North America: ' 'We have heard your melody when we were
> Bahd 'f Hymnody       75
> 
> in the East, and we were anxious to see the nightingale of
> Abdul-Baha, who is enchanted and enraptured in His love. " 37
> In Europe, Waite' s hymns were sung in English, German,
> and Esperanto in Germany. In England and Scotland they
> were sung in English and occasionally in Esperanto. In 1913,
> Lady Blomfield wrote to Waite (after apologizing for her
> previous letters to Waite being lost with the Titanic!): "One
> was to thank you for the delightful Bahai Music, which we so
> greatly appreciate . . . We often sing your hymns and Bene­
> diction at the gatherings. " 38
> In 1924, an Australian Baha'i, Amy Florence Wilkins,
> visited London to attend the Conference of Some Living Reli­
> gions Within the British Empire. This conference was or­
> ganized by the School of Oriental Studies and the Sociological
> Society in conjunction with the British Empire Exhibition at
> Wembley and lasted from 22 September to 3 October. The
> conference itself was held at the Imperial Institute in South
> Kensington. Two Baha'i papers were presented at the confer­
> ence on 25 September. The London Baha'is also organized
> various other associated events. One of these was a meeting
> at the home of Mrs. George on 28 September. This meeting
> began with tea, and there was a devotional program before a
> number of talks. The devotional program was described by
> Wilkins: ' ' Mter a short time of silence we had several
> prayers, and then a little girl repeated with great reverence
> the wonderful prayer for healing the sick. Hymns were sung
> from the Bahai selection. ' ' 39
> In Australia itself Waite' s hymns were also known. In 193 1 ,
> Keith Ranson-Kehler (an American Baha' i who was touring
> the world visiting Baha' i communities) wrote from Sydney:
> " Shahnaz, it would warm your sweet and sensitive heart to
> hear the Friends here singing your hymns: they make a great
> feature of them, and there is not only congregational singing
> but always a good soloist to sing one at each meeting. "40
> 76     Part One: The Devotional Heritage
> 
> In the early 1920s, Waite's hymns were becoming known to
> the small Baha'f community in Japan. In 1920, Ida Finch
> wrote from Tokyo, " Mr Kubotu will be very happy to have
> your permission to translate your beautiful hymns. ' ' She then
> noted that Waite's hymns were being used by Japanese stu­
> dent friends of hers, and ' 'I thank you on their behalf for the
> privilege of having them translated into the language which is
> most familiar to them. "4 1 In the same year, Agnes Alexander
> wrote to Waite from Tokyo, "I have sung the Esperanto
> Benediction hymn and think it wonderful. "42 In 192 1 , a
> Japanese friend wrote to Finch, ' 'I have with thousand thanks
> received a Bahai Hymn Book along with your letter. "43
> To conclude this discussion of the absorption of Waite's
> songs into Baha'f community life, I will consider once more
> her "Benediction. " Waite's description of receiving this song
> which was quoted above was written to Isabella Brittingham.
> Brittingham replied, ' 'The Benediction is very beautiful and
> will go down through time as the Experience of His Presence
> when His Convention was ended (outwardly) in Chicago. " 44
> Shortly after receiving the song, Waite sent a copy of the
> words to Mary MacNutt in Brooklyn. MacNutt commented,
> ' 'The Benedicti@n you wrote is beautiful. I copied it and will
> give it to the dear ones here. " 45
> Within a short time, it was no longer necessary to copy the
> "Benediction, " as it was available in sheet form with its
> music. This first sheet edition is immediately identifiable, as
> it is the only one that does not have 'Abdu'l-Baha's comment,
> ' 'Sing this melody in all gatherings of Love and Harmony of
> the beloved of God, ' ' printed beneath the title. He wrote this
> comment on a copy of the first edition which Waite showed
> him in Haifa in October 1909. The translation was made at
> Waite's request immediately after that interview by his
> daughter Monever Khanum. When Waite returned from her
> pilgrimage, she found that 'Abdu'l-Baha had written about
> the ' 'Benediction' ' to the Chicago House of Spirituality:
> Baha 'i Hymnody         77
> 
> The song and anthem that Louise R. Waite raised in the Assem­
> bly of the Unity of Bahais reached to the ears of the people of the
> Kingdom. It bestowed joy and fragrance upon the spritual ones.
> J ask God that this song may be sung eternally and this melody
> and anthem become everlasting.
> 
> The immediate and continued response of the Baha'f com­
> munity to the ' 'Benediction' ' was extraordinary. It evidently
> struck exactly the right devotional note for most Baha'is of
> the time. It is out of the question to list here any significant
> number of the thousands of occasions on which the "Benedic­
> tion" was sung. I will but recount a few of the reactions to it,
> beginning with two middle-class Scottish women. Possibly in
> early 1913, Isabella Mears of Edinburgh was in London for
> only one day, a day that a Nineteen-Day Feast was being held:
> 
> In the beginning and at the end they sang the "Benediction. "
> During the meeting one could          the Presence of the Benedic­
> tion, which filled the hearts of the congregation. It penetrated the
> whole assembly; it went out from the words of the speaker; it en­
> tered the thoughts of the listeners and bound us into one strong
> brotherhood. Afterwards when my friend and I were waiting for
> the leaving time at the great animated depot, we were still fully
> conscious of the Presence of the Benediction. The Benediction
> came home with me-it remains with me even now.46
> 
> Mears was president of the Edinburgh Esperanto Society,
> and she translated the "Benediction" into Esperanto. The
> story is taken up by Mears' friend, Agnes Sitkin, who wrote
> to Waite:
> 
> I procured your address from my friend Miss Marion Jack of Lon­
> don that I might write and try to give you some idea of what your
> most beautiful Benediction has been and still shall be to us in
> Edinburgh . . . . We have used it every Sunday at our Bahai meet­
> ings and I have just finished a most refreshing time in Retreat at
> 78     Part One: The Devotional Heritage
> 
> Rhodes-Wallace School near Edinburgh where all the members of
> groups were so fond of it. Mrs. Wallace asked me to play it daily
> and at all times of worship. Personally it is to me much more than
> I can express. Mrs. Wallace also feels as I do that it is the charm­
> ing obligato that sings all day in our hearts.
> Then my friend Mrs. Mears at whose house the Bahai meetings
> are held has put it into esperanto, of which I am sending you a
> copy. Mrs. Mears has greatly enjoyed doing it and she would like
> to have some printed copies, perhaps double sheets, on one side
> music and English words, and on the other side the Esperanto.
> Our Edinburgh Esperanto Soc. wish copies. Now how is this to
> be accomplished do you think. Of course it is for the spread of the
> good Cause alone and to supply the demand for copies. We have
> written copies of the words for meetings but people wish the
> music too. Will you kindly let me know your mind on the sul'>ject;
> and of any question of copyright.
> With much love and joyous gratitude to the happy composer of
> such pure and soul refreshing music. 47
> 
> In order to make the "Benediction" even more readily usa­
> ble by the community, Waite had a phonograph recording
> made of it in late 1923. One side of the record had the "Pre­
> lude" and "Benediction" sung by Ragna Linne with Waite at
> the piano. There was also a violin obligato by Carl Hatch, but
> this is so faint on the recording (at least on the copy I have
> heard) as to be practically inaudible. The other side of the rec­
> ord had Waite playing the music (with the subliminal violin) in
> order "that the friends can use her record to accompany them­
> selves in singing. " The record was available for $ 1 . 00 a copy
> and half of the proceeds were to go to the Temple Fund. 48
> In 1929, E.A. Rogers wrote to Waite of his reaction to hear­
> ing ' 'Benediction. ' ' Rogers was president of the Montezuma
> Mountain School for Boys in Los Gatos, California, which was
> a somewhat "advanced" boarding school. He was one of
> those who in the 1920s associated with Baha'is and would
> Baha 'i Hymnody         79
> 
> even call themselves Baha' is, but who were more Baha'is by
> some ethical or social sympathy with the principles of the
> Faith than Baha'fs by faith. By the definitions of later de­
> cades, most of these people would be considered friendly to
> the Faith rather than Baha'is as such. Rogers disassociated
> himself from Baha'f identification with some ascerbity in the
> early 1930s, after Shoghi Effendi insisted that Baha'is abstain
> from involvement with party politics. Rogers reaction to the
> "Benediction" is of interest because his was a largely social
> and political conception of the relevance of the Baha'i Faith:
> 
> I want to tell you of my personal impressions of ' 'Benediction. ' '
> When you first played i t for us, I was moved t o tears. I felt my
> mother very near. She seemed to be able to       nearer because of
> the vibrations of the music.
> Since then my secretary has played it twice for me. It carried
> me out into the great spaces, nearer to God.
> It is not written for time or space. It is the everlasting dance
> music for the eternal electrons themselves , and helps them find
> their way.
> Thank you so much for sending all this beautiful music to us. I
> so enjoyed the poem too. Come when you can to visit us. I
> remember you with joy. 49
> 
> The ' 'Benediction' ' did not appeal only to Baha'is and those
> who sympathized with the Faith. As with the friends of Mears
> and Sitkin in Edinburgh, it would seem that it resonated with
> general devotional taste. This appears to be true even for
> the music alone. Waite recounted this experience of her
> husband's:
> 
> Just last week Edgar went to tune a piano for an old lady, he had
> not been there for a year. After he had finished the tuning, he
> played a bit, just improvised. The old lady said, won't you play
> that beautiful piece you played for me when you were last here,
> 80      Part One: The Devotional Heritage
> 
> you said Mrs. Waite composed it. I forget the name, but it was
> heavenly. Edgar said, was it the Benediction? and he began play­
> ing it. Oh yes, she exclaimed, that is it, I think it is the most beau­
> tiful thing I ever heard, it brings such a wonderful peace into my
> heart. 5°
> 
> In both their words and music, Waite 's songs provided ex­
> actly what most of the Baha'i community in North America
> and overseas ·wanted for their community devotions. Both the
> number of copies of her works bought and the myriad of writ­
> ten references to their use testify to the approval and accep­
> tance of her songs by the majority of the Baha'i community.
> 
> OTHER BAHA'f HYMNODISTS
> 
> Although Waite's work was the most influential in the de­
> velopment of early North American Baha'i devotions, there
> were others within the community producing songs. A num­
> ber of early Baha'is wrote songs, and those who sent them to
> 'Abdu'l-Baha were encouraged to make them available to the
> community and to write more. Despite this encouragment,
> few, apart from Waite, did produce any extended body of
> work; and most of those Baha'is who were professional, or at
> least accomplished, musical performers tended to concentrate
> on the performance of materials from their general repertoire
> at Baha'i events rather than participate in the development of
> a specifically Baha'i repertoire. It is worth discussing, how­
> ever, such information as is available about some of those
> who did produce new material and the occasions of its use.
> Given her educational and professional background, one of
> the most potentially interesting people for the development of
> Baha'i devotional music was Charlotte Gillen. That her work
> did not have more influence was probably due to the relative
> geographical isolation of the Seattle Baha'i community for
> which she produced it.
> Baha 'i Hymnody       81
> 
> Gillen was born on 10 July 1869, in Springfield, Ohio, and
> as a child attended the United Lutheran church. She studied
> music from the age of eight, and began to teach professionally
> at the age of twelve. She studied at Boston Conservatory, and
> then headed the music department at Stetson University in
> Deland, Florida. At this time she also directed the choirs and
> played organ for the local Baptist and Presbyterian churches.
> In 1894, she married Richard Gillen, M.D. They had a daugh­
> ter Evelyn June, and in 1901 moved to Seattle, Washington,
> where Gillen opened the Seattle School of Music. Gillen be­
> came a Baha'I in 1 907, hearing of the Faith through Ida
> Finch, who had been taught by Isabella Brittingham. In 1912,
> Gillen and her daughter went to Chicago to meet 'Abdu'l­
> Baha and were present at the dedication by him of the site for
> the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar. Shortly after the death of her hus­
> band in 1916, Gillen moved to the village of Chelan, Washing­
> ton, where she lived until 1944, there running an apple orchard
> and playing the organ in the local Roman Catholic and Epis­
> copal churches each Sunday. Gillen visited Chicago and the
> Mashriqu'l-Adhkar in 1942, and in 1944 she sold her orchard,
> attended the Baha'f Centenary celebrations and the dedica­
> tion of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar in Wilmette, and then embarked
> on a five-year tour of the United States teaching the Faith. In
> 1950, she moved to Laramie, Wyoming, where, at the age of
> 8 1 , she enrolled at the University of Wyoming to assist in es­
> tablishing a Baha'I club there. She was present at the 1953
> dedication in Wilmette, and in 1959 she moved to Alaska to
> help teach the Faith there. After somewhat more than a year
> there, Gillen returned to Washington, where she died in Seat­
> tle on 25 May 1962.51
> As to Gillen's musical contributions to the Baha'I Faith, she
> recorded on her historical record card in the mid-1930s that
> she "Invented first chants to Bahai prayers and Greatest
> Name for Seattle believers. " Unfortunately, there is little in­
> formation currently available about the early Seattle Baha'f
> 82     Part One: The Devotional Heritage
> 
> community and its devotional practices, and it is unknown
> how many pieces Gillen may have written for it or to what ex­
> tent they were used. There is no indication of their having
> ·
> 
> been used outside Seattle.
> The only music of Gillen's which is available is an undated
> setting of the Greatest Name. 52 This piece consists of a sim­
> ple, single voice setting of "Allah-0-Abha" (Allah-u-Abha)
> repeated nine times, with a keyboard accompaniment. The
> setting is notable in putting the musical accent correctly on
> the second and fifth syllables rather than on the first and
> third, which is a common error.
> There is a surviving account of one early meeting con­
> ducted by Gillen. It was held in the statehouse in Boise,
> Idaho, where Gillen was visiting to teach,the Faith. The meet­
> ing occurred on New Year's Eve of 1916-1917, and Gillen ar­
> ranged it as one of a number of meetings dedicated to peace
> planned by various Baha'fs across the United States for that
> evening. This is her description of it:
> 
> [A] judge, a Christian Scientist gave a good address for fifteen
> mins. Then I gave a fifteen minute talk on BahaOllah's peace
> message explaining from '�Universal Principle' ' [ Universal Princi­
> ples of the Bahai Movement Social, Economic, Governmental, 1912]
> about the international police and arbitral court. All paid close at­
> tention and I had to spea.k strongly as the rotunda is very wide
> and people were all around the circle and the upper floor. I
> opened with the prayer Pg. 1 in little book then sang Come Thou
> Almighty King with audience. After that the judge spoke. After I
> spoke we sang America. At the stroke of midnight I read the mid­
> night prayer and "Unite the hearts etc . " and all listened with pro­
> found silence. I closed with the words Glory be to the people of
> Glory as I thot [sic] the crowds would not understand Ya Baha El
> Abha.53
> 
> According to Gillen, this was the first religious meeting of
> any kind held in the Idaho statehouse, as, when it had been
> Baha 'i Hymnody       83
> 
> completed, the governor had been so concerned with getting
> the furniture in place and the building in use they had forgot­
> ten to hold a dedication! The combination on this occasion of
> a Baha'f prayer and a Christian hymn to start, talks, singing
> again (even if here a patriotic hymn due to the nature of the
> occasion), more Baha'f prayers, and then closing with the
> Greatest Name (a very Isabella Brittingham touch, if here
> paraphrased in English) suggests that Baha'f meetings as
> Gillen had known them in Seattle were similar to those in
> communities for which we have more information. Perhaps in
> community meetings in Seattle, Gillen' s setting of Baha'f
> prayers substituted for read prayers or the Christian hymns,
> and, as Ida Finch of Seattle was one of those who introduced
> Waite's hymns into Japan, it is probable that Waite's hymns
> were used, too.
> The only other musician in the early North American Ba­
> ha'f community who was active in producing Baha'f devo­
> tional materials and had a background comparable to Gillen's
> was Edward Kinney. I have already discussed his chanting,
> and some of his hymns will be discussed below.
> Two other writers who produced a moderate-sized body of
> work were Margaret Duncan Green of Washington, D.C., and
> Mattie Watson of Chicago. Around 1912, Green wrote twelve
> sets of verses which she sent to 'Abdu'l-Baha. Six of these are
> available and five of them are singable as hymns, three of
> these being explicitly Baha'i. There is no record of any of
> Green's songs being used in North America, but there is a
> reference to them being sung by the Baha'f students at the
> University of Beii'U,t. 54
> Mattie Watson wrote a number of song texts and verses
> over the years, but there is no record of any having been
> sung. The words of her "The First Bahai Temple Song, "
> which, as is noted on the printed copy, may be sung to ' 'Robin
> Adair, " were read at a meeting on the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar site
> in Wilmette on 23 May 1908. Watson also wrote a number of
> 84     Part One: The Devotional Heritage
> 
> acrostics on the names of early Chicago Baha'is, several
> gospel-type song texts, and som� contrafacts. As with other
> minor songwriters in the Baha' i community, it seems possible
> that her work was used occasionally by small groups of her
> friends but that it was not used frequently enough to be men­
> tioned in the record. It is also possible that the crudity of
> structure in verses such as hers, which makes them not as
> read ily singable as more accomplished efforts, militated
> against their being used, however worthy and acceptable
> their sentiment.
> There are a few writers contemporary with Waite for whom
> only one song is known.
> Mrs. Emily Olsen lived mainly in Chicago, but may have
> been related to a number of Baha'is named Olsen in Wiscon­
> sin. In the early years of this century, she was responsible for
> the translation of a number of Baha'i books into Danish. In
> 1905 , she published her hymn, " Praise be to Thee, 0 Lord of
> all Creation, ' ' set to her arrangement of a Danish melody. 55
> This may       considered a Baha' i hymn, as it uses the Greatest
> Name in two of its three verses. The charming syncopated
> tune and Olsen's words fit well together. The Chicago House
> of Spirituality, meeting on 15 July 1905, approved a letter of
> thanks to Olsen which acknowledged receipt of one hundred
> copies of the song sheet of this hymn which she had donated
> to the community. 56 Although quite deserving of continued
> use, this hymn does not seem to have survived alongside
> those of Waite which were being adopted by the community
> at this time. Olsen was herself a friend of Waite, and in 1907
> sent a copy she had made of the words of Waite's newly writ­
> ten songs, "Softly His Voice is Calling" and "Tell the Won­
> drous Story, ' ' to the RaCine community, noting that the music
> was not yet written down. 57
> Emma Holmes' song, "The Comforter Has Come , " was
> sung for the first time at the morning session of the Bahai
> Baha 'i Hymnody       85
> 
> Temple Unity convention on 30 April 191 1 , by Mountfort
> Mills. It was 'sufficiently well received to be repeated, by
> request, at a later session of the convention.58 At the 1912
> convention, Mills sang this song again at the opening Feast
> on 27 April. 59
> Henry Grasmuk wrote a contrafact to "Nearer, My God, to
> Thee, " which appears on an undated song sheet. 60 The first
> verse runs thus:
> 
> 0 Thou, my Light and Guide,
> Draw me to Thee,
> Cleanse Thou this heart of mine
> And make me
> 0 Thou, our Glorious King!
> Spread Thy Eternal wing,
> Till each poor aching heart
> Finds shelter there.
> 
> The song sheet is only recognizable as having Baha'f con­
> nections by its having a 9 on the front. I have found no infor­
> mation on the use of this song or of further compositions by
> Grasmuk. As he seems to have lived in the New York area, it
> is possible that it was used there.
> Howard MacNutt' s "Easter Hymn" appears on a song
> sheet dated 1913. 6 1 This is an Easter resurrection hymn writ­
> ten in four parts with organ accompaniment. That it was for­
> mally printed with music suggests that it may have been
> used, and its writing may have been connected with the New
> York Baha'is' involvement with St. Mark's (see Chapter
> Seven). As this is the only known musical work of MacNutt's,
> it seems possible that his friend Edward Kinney assisted with
> the setting, at least.
> Marian C. Hotchkiss' song "Mashrak-El-Azcar" opened
> the first session of the Bahai Temple Unity convention on 29
> April 1912. 62 This is the only known song by Hotchkiss, and
> 86     Part One: The Devotional Heritage
> 
> the song sheet shows it to be a well-conceived song with a
> pleasantly syncopated tune, keyboard accompaniment, and
> explicitly Baha'f text. A copy of the song sheet held in the Na­
> tional Baha'f Archives has a note stating that the song was
> "received" as compensation for forgoing a trip to 'Akka and
> giving the money to the Temple Fund.
> Others of Waite's contemporaries wrote verses that may be
> described as "hymnoid" in form, 63 rather than actual hymns
> (Thornton Chase, Louis Gregory, Marie Watson, among
> others), and there is no indication that these were sung, or in­
> tended to be sung, although many could be fitted easily to a
> suitable hymn tune. Chase did write one text with the aim of
> assisting Baha'fs to learn the correct pronunciation of Ba­
> ha'u'llah' s name, as singing the name to a suitably rhythmic
> tune "gives the proper accents. " 64
> It is readily apparent from this consideration of Waite's
> contemporaries that none of them came near to equalling her
> output or popularity, as expressed by the degree to which the
> songs were used in the community. Her work, then, stands as
> the preeminent expression of the era of Baha'f hymnody.
> CHAPTER FOUR
> 
> OPPOSITION TO THE USE OF HYMNS
> 
> Perhaps the most extraordinary feature of the era of Baha'f
> hymnody is that it ended. The use of hymns, whether
> Waite's, Christian, or the occasional compositions by other
> Baha'fs that were used, was such a ubiquitous and seemingly
> essential part of Baha'f community life that for it to end al­
> most overnight was revolutionary. This was especially so as it
> happened without anything else taking the place of hymns.
> Hymnody was simply removed from the gamut of Baha'f com­
> munity devotional experience.
> 
> EARLY O BJECTIONS
> 
> There were basically two types of objectors to the use of
> hymns: those who objected to the use of specifically Baha'f
> hymns but found universal hymns by Baha'is and selected
> Christian hymns acceptable; and those who objected to any
> hymns at all. As the provision of hymns for the community
> was so largely the work of Waite, there was room for a con­
> siderable personal element in .objection to their use. For
> 
> ·ss    Part One: The Devotional Heritage
> 
> some, the objection may have been to Waite rather than to
> the hymns.
> Although there are various strands of objection discernable
> throughout the era of Baha'f hymnody, we must not lose sight
> of the fact that confirmed objectors were only a small part of
> the total community. That their objections eventually tri­
> umphed is related to the influence of personal position and
> status rather than the force of numbers.
> There was some objection to Waite's work from the begin­
> ning. The publication of Bahai Hymns and Poems in 1904 was
> objected to by some, as they felt that the Publishing Society
> should concentrate on the writings of Baha'u'llah and 'Abdu'l­
> Baha with the occasional exception of a book like Dealy's
> (1902), which explained the teachings. 1 However, this objec­
> tion was to the mode of publishing rather than to the content.
> Waite met this objection both by the fund-raising concert she
> organized in Decemher 1904 which financed the Hidden
> Words (1905) and by having the publication of her future
> work privately financed. All the editions of Bahai Hymns of
> Peace and Praise, apart from the one which she allowed to be
> printed for the benefit of the Publishing Society, were funded
> by her or her friends and provided a return to the Temple
> Fund. Her sheet music publication operated on the same
> basis.
> There was also objection to the content of Waite's work at
> this time. Around the beginning of January 1905, Waite re­
> signed from the post of Corresponding Secretary for the
> Woman's Assembly of Teaching. Apparently, a committee of
> two had been appointed (it is not clear by whom, but possibly
> by the Woman's Assembly) to visit the various group meet·
> ings held in homes ih Chicago to report on ' 'the nature of the
> teachings that were being given. ' ' The report on the meetings
> in Waite's home was unfavorable. Waite said that she seemed
> to ' 'have been classified as one who is not a true Bahai whose
> Opposition to the Use of Hymns           89
> 
> verses are like 'morphine pills , ' and whose teachings are
> 'too wide and broad to be in keeping with Bahaism: ' ' ' She
> therefore wished to resign, lest she lead anyone astray through
> correspondence. She later explained the objections more
> explicitly:
> 
> I have been told that I do wrong to point people to nature, yet
> does not our Master do so constantly? To the orange, to the egg,
> the diamond, the sun, moon and stars, the trees, the seasons, all
> these to illustrate His Teachings; and yet, if I see God's reflection
> in these things, and express it in verse, I am not a true Bahai. If I
> say there are many roads to the One Goal, I do not say there are
> many goals, but many roads leading to the one, and, when there,
> each will see that God is but One, and that He has manifested
> Himself in all His Splendor and Glory through Baha'u'llah. But
> still in a lesser degree through all of His Prophets and Mes­
> sengers. They too were the way. Never do I for one moment by
> thought, or word, or deed, intend to lessen the great and glorious
> Truth of our Rel�gion. 2
> 
> Whatever the feelings of the committee of two, it would
> seem that the matter was patched up. The exact details of
> what happened are not available, but by February the House
> of Spirituality recorded without comment that Waite's home
> ' 'would be open to all for the study of the utterances of
> Baha'u'llah every Wednesday afternoon" beginning 24
> February.3
> This objection t o Waite's work seems t o have be�n rela­
> tively trivial although evidently hurtful to her. Indeed, it may
> have been limited to the committee of two itself. However, a
> more fundamental objection to some of her songs was. to be
> raised later. Some felt that the use of Waite's specifically Ba­
> ha'f songs labeled the community as distinct, and that this
> was likely to put off non-Baha'fs who might otherwise be
> sympathetic to Baha'f principles. In early 1910, Sohrab wrote
> 90     Part One: The Devotional Heritage
> 
> to Waite from Washington, D.C. , sympathizing with her over
> the objection of a new believer in Chicago to the singing of
> Baha'f hymns:
> 
> I am indeed very sorry that some people object to the singing of
> the beautiful and inspiring songs of "Tell the Wondrous Story"
> and "Softly His Voice is Calling" . I always loved dearly these two
> hymns, better than all the rest, and our Baha'is here sing them ev­
> ery Sunday at our meetings. Oh! the children love them very
> much and sing them so gloriously. To me it is hair-splitting and
> inconsequential when we try to persuade ourselves and others
> that people object to these heavenly songs. Last summer I did a
> little traveling when I left Chicago, and wherever I went I heard
> these songs on the lips of the Baha'is. I am heart and soul in favor
> of their singing in our meetings, public and private . . . If in this
> .
> 
> day we are afraid to declare His Name in our congregations and
> gatherings, in ,song and praise, in anthems and melodies, then it is
> better not to call ourselves by His Wonderful Name; the old name
> and the old garments will answer just as well the purpose. 4
> 
> This same new Baha'f (probably Harry Thompson) also ob­
> jected to the singing of any other songs. He maintained that
> the day for hymn singing was over and cited the objectionable
> nature of music to ' 'Orientals. ' ' Although Waite did not agree
> with him, she wrote to 'Abdu'l-Baha to get an authoritative
> answer to the points rather than argue. 'Abdu'l-Baha replied
> to her query in early 1912 :
> 
> This wonderful age has rent asunder the veils of superstition and
> has condemned the prejudice of the people of the East.
> Among some of the nations of the Orient, music and harmony
> was not approved of, but the Manifested Light, Baha'u'llah, in
> this glorious period has revealed in Holy Tablets that singing and
> music are the spiritual food of the hearts and souls. In this dispen­
> sation, music is one of the arts that is highly approved and is con-
> Opposition to the Use of Hymns         91
> 
> sidered to be the cause of the exaltation of sad and despondent
> hearts.
> Therefore, 0 Shahnaz, set to music the verses and the divine
> words so that they may be sung with soul-stirring melody in the
> Assemblies and gatherings, and that the hearts of the listeners
> may become free from the bond of sorrow and sadness, the soul
> and the spirit may become tumultuous and rise towards the King­
> dom of Abha in supplication and prayer.
> 
> The new Chicago Baha'f was not the only one to have a par­
> ticular objection to the Baha' f hymns. Another who pressed
> Waite on this issue was Alice Buckton, although she had no
> objection to hymn singing as such. Buckton was an English
> Baha'f who also spent time in the East Coast cities of the
> United States. She was a fairly well-connected, middle-class
> woman of sufficient means who was associated with settle­
> ment work in London. She also wrote Christian religious
> dramas that were performed on both sides of the Atlantic.
> Buckton disassociated herself from the Faith in 1914.
> Waite later recounted her experience with Buckton:
> 
> When I was in London in 1911 at the Races Congress, Miss B­
> was very anxious for me to make changes in our hymns, that they
> might be "universally used" and also sell generally and bring in
> more money for the Temple. She took one of the hymn books and
> some of her blue pencil changes were: "Songs of Peace and
> Praise" , not "Bahai Hymns of Peace and Praise" . The hymn of
> the "Greatest Name" was left out entirely (after such a wonderful
> Tablet about it). Then, "Tell the Wondrous story, tell it far and
> near of the loving Father, holy Name so dear" not "of Baha'u'l­
> lah" . Also, in "Softly His Voice Is Calling" not "Abdul Baha we
> turn to Thee" , etc . , but "Love is the power which giveth life,
> Love is the perfect way." There were many other changes writ­
> ten in, but these were the most important. I told her I would pray
> over it. I returned to America and prayed and thought deeply
> 92     Part One: The Devotional Heritage
> 
> over it, but it seemed as if my heart would be hurt to change
> those hymns, written to the Beloved Himself. Yet I wanted to
> cooperate in every way possible with Miss B- . 5
> 
> When 'Abdu'l-Baha was in Chicago, Waite had an interview
> with him on 5 May 1912. She showed him the copy of Bahai
> Hymns of Peace and Praise that Buckton had marked and
> asked him what she should do. He asked who had requested
> such changes. When Waite replied that it was Buckton, he ex­
> plained that she was very ' 'young' ' in the Faith and that
> Waite should only make changes if he told her to do so. (In­
> deed, during that visit to Chicago 'Abdu'l-Baha did make a
> change in one of Waite's songs. In "The New Jerusalem" , he
> altered "Wherein God's sun shall ever shine" to "Baha's
> sun, " thus making the song explicitly Baha'f.) He further ex­
> plained that Buckton's work was in the churches, but Waite's
> work was "to sing of the New Kingdom and to declare the
> Names to the people . " 6
> It was difficult for Waite to champion the singing of Baha'f
> hymns, however, as she was the sole author of such songs
> whose work was widely adopted by the community. She ex­
> plained her position thus:
> 
> In objecting to our Bahai Hymns in any way, one is objecting to
> His expressed will. I personally cannot say so, for at once the op­
> posers say, "She wants them sung because she wrote them. "
> This is so absolutely false, for if I could have had my own way, I
> never would have given out anything I wrote, for I only wrote to
> Him, my Beloved, and after I sent Him a copy, as I always did, I
> should have preferred to lay it aside in the        of my heart, but
> he would not have it so, as His Tablets prove. 7
> 
> A much more public show of opposition to Waite's work,
> and to singing in general, occurred at the 1915 National Con-
> Opposition to the Use of Hymns          93
> 
> vention. That year the convention was held in San Francisco.
> Waite had moved to Los Angeles less than two months be­
> fore, and she traveled from there to San Francisco to attend
> the convention. · Afterwards, she wrote of her experience
> there to Agnes Parsons, a wealthy and prominent Washing­
> ton, p.c. , Baha'f:
> 
> I felt very sad all the while I was there. I had written on several
> weeks before that I had a new song which Abdul Baha had
> wished me to "send out" and I had had it published especially for
> this convention and hoped it might be sung. When I arrived I was
> .
> informed that there would be no music, and there was none . Once
> or twice they sang to close a long session, but without a piano and
> .
> all did not know the words as there were no books. My new song
> went unsung and unnoticed, in a way, how heartily I wished I had
> not brought it. It seems so strange that in spite of all Abdul Baha
> has said of the importance of music & written with his own pen
> on the Benediction "Sing this melody in all gatherings of love &
> harmony of the beloved of God" that they should, because of per­
> sonal prejudice held for this poor instrument, refuse to obey. I
> grieve over it deeply, and wish I could remove my personality
> from their minds & hearts. 8
> 
> The documentation available for the 1915 convention is
> more fragmentary than for most of the other early Bahai
> Temple Unity conventions. This increases the difficulty of
> determining what happened. The ban on music was such a
> departure from previous practice that it would seem it must
> have been sanctioned by at least some of the Bahai Temple
> Unity Board. If the local arrangements committee had im­
> posed it on its own initiative, there would surely have been
> some protest. Waite suggests that the ban originated in a per­
> sonal prejudice against her, and later events show that there
> was some influence at work against Waite at the level of the
> Bahai Temple Unity Board.
> 94     Part One: The Devotional Heritage
> 
> At the Board's meeting on 1 7 August 1916, "It was unani­
> mously agreed that the Executive Board convey to the Pub­
> lishing Society the request that it issue no compilation of
> hymnsl songs, chants, or append its name as publisher of
> such, except after submission to Mr. Kinney, and others who
> may be selected, for approval. ' '9 This may be related to
> Waite's permission to Lesch to bring out an edition of Bahai
> Hymns of Peace and Praise for the benefit of the Publishing
> Society. There is no indication that the society had any other
> compilation in mind. That the Publishing Society did issue an
> edition of Waite's booklet does not necessarily mean that it
> went through this approval procedure. The Board requested
> that it do so, but at this time the Board had no direct control
> over the society, and it (which for practical purposes meant
> Mary Lesch) might not choose . to comply.
> At the National Conventions in 1916, 1917, and 1918, there
> was music again. It seems that, in each of these years, a song
> by Kinney was strongly featured-the only years in which this
> happened. None of these songs was specifically Baha'f. The
> conventions of 1916 and 1918 featured his "International An­
> them" and that of 1917 his "National Anthem" (Musical Ex­
> amples 13-14). The differences between these two songs are
> significant. " International Anthem" was a plea for peace and
> unity; "National Anthem" was a jingoistic call to arms. The
> gulf between the sentiments of these two songs typifies the
> split in Baha'f opinion over the war at that time. Some felt
> that Baha'fs should stand fifmly behind the United States to
> defeat the enemy. Others felt that, while obeying their gov­
> ernment, as was their religious duty, Baha'fs should continue
> to declare the evils of war and the need to work for peace.
> The reports of the 1916 to 1 9 18 conventions in Star of the
> West are somewhat sparse in mentions of music, but there
> seems to have been more music used than they suggest.
> Opposition to the Use of Hymns      95
> 
> Waite stated that Linne had written to her that ' 'there was
> music at each meeting" of the 1916 convention.10 Also, a
> printed sheet of the words of ' 'hymns for use ' ' at the 1917
> convention survives. The sheet has the words of eight songs:
> 
> Joy to the World
> Tho' We Have Wandered Far (Kinney)
> National Anthem (Kinney)
> Great Day of God (Waite)
> The Greatest Name (Waite)
> International Anthem (Kinney)
> Awake Ye Nations All (Waite)
> Benediction (Waite)
> 
> This is quite a catholic selection with something to suit ev­
> ery shade of controversy over the war, or hymn singing, at
> Baha'i meetings. That both Kinney's "National Anthem" and
> "International Anthem" were included (to say nothing of
> "Awake Ye Nations All") suggests that those planning for
> the convention were not sure what attitude toward the war
> those attending would wish to express in song. The third Kin­
> ney song on this sheet, "Tho' We Have Wandered Far" (Mu­
> sical Example 15), was published in sheet form in 1918. It is a
> charming song whose title and words suggest an ironic stance
> toward KJnney's "National Anthem" which was published
> the previous year. However, the text addresses itself to the
> individual ' 'wounded, broken heart'' and there is no explicit
> social message as in his " International Anthem " of 1916.
> Waite's work was not totally excluded from the conventions
> of these three years. Apart from the inclusion of her songs in
> the 1917 song sheet, at the 1916 convention Linne sang the
> "Benediction" to open and close the convention and the 1918
> convention also opened with this song.
> 96     Part One: The Devotional Heritage
> 
> It would seem that there was a determined attempt be­
> tween 1916 and 1918 to push Kinney forward as a replace­
> ment for Waite . I say "push" as it seems highly unlikely that
> Kinney took the initiative to attempt to oust Waite himself.
> Kinney had known and admired Waite' s work since Bahai
> Hymns and Poems (1904), some texts from which he had set.
> He had known Waite personally since 1909, and there is no
> indication that their relationship was ever other than cordial.
> Kinney seems to have had regard for Waite's ability as a com­
> poser, even though she did not produce the kind of work he
> would have·. In 1920-192 1 , when ideas were being gathered
> for possible fund-raising activities to assist in providing for
> building the newly chosen design for the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar,
> Kinney suggested holding concerts, and he offered to make
> arrangments of "Mrs. Waite' s lovely melodies. " 11 In 192 1 ,
> Waite wrote that she was confident that Kinney ' 'could bring
> out my idea unchanged , as he is a Bahai and in the same
> vibration, ' ' if he was available to write down music for her.
> However, as they were "many miles apart, " she would trust
> him to revise and "put in good form" the music for her song
> "The New Liberty Bell" which had not been well transcribed
> by the assistance she could obtain in Los Angeles .12 Neither
> Kinney's various comments on Waite nor Waite's on Kinney
> suggest that there was bad feeling between them at any time.
> Kinney seems to have been a very amenable person and to
> have been drawn into disputes on other occasions by the prin­
> cipal parties involved. It would seem that he was being used
> by one or more members of the Bahai Temple Unity Board in
> an attempt to supplant Waite and her work. While (or possb
> bly because) Kinney was a well-educated and proficient musi­
> cian, he did not have Waite's affinity for a popular tune that
> was readily singable. He also seems to have felt uncertain
> about his ability to write verse. There are some printed copies
> Opposition to the Use of Hymns         97
> 
> of his three songs on which he has written changes to the
> words which are largely for the worse.
> Whoever was behind Kinney was disappointed, as Kinney's
> songs seem to have had relatively limited use in the commu­
> nity, and the conventions of the 1920s returned to using
> Waite's songs. The maneuvering of the years from 1915 to
> 1918 seems to have resulted from opposition to Waite (and
> possibly to Baha'f hymns) rather than from opposition to
> hymn singing as such. Perhaps the dearth in 1915 reflects the
> lack of perceived alternatives to Waite at that time and led to
> the encouragement of Kinney to provide such for the follow­
> ing year. This would seem particularly likely as, to judge by
> the practice of the preceding and following years and the
> comments of those who then attended conventions, the lack
> of singing in 1915 was probably quite unpopular.
> Apart from the three songs composed by Kinney, there was
> another effort to broaden the scope of Baha'f hymnody (or,
> more specifically, the hymns used by Baha'fs) around this
> time. In 1920, Howard MacNutt wrote to Corinne True:
> 
> I am instructed by the Spiritual Board of Consultation of Greater
> New York to write to the Bahai Assemblies of Boston, Washing­
> ton and Chicago, looking to the purpose of compiling from
> ing hymnals a collection of hymns and hymn tunes suitable for
> use at Bahai Meetings. The sanction of Abdul Baha, by his own
> statement, already rests upon any unified work by the Assem­
> blies above named. The         of suitable hymns and tunes is ap­
> parent. The material from which selection can be made is most
> abundant; much of it is of superior excellence, universal in its
> theme, and adapted to the Cause we .a...,.....ac-.an1'"
> ...
> 
> MacNutt suggested that a committee of two be appointed to
> correspond with New York on the matter. Carl Scheffler re­
> plied to MacNutt's letter, and MacNutt sent him further sug-
> 98      Part One: The Devotional Heritage
> 
> gestions as to the way in which they intended to carry out
> their plan:
> 
> We wish to proceed with this important and needful work without
> delay. Will you call your sub-committee together and decide upon
> the best hymnals which in your opinion should be used in our
> process of selection? We will then be able to reduce and sys­
> temize the work in the four centers and make our examination
> and search from the same sources. · This will insure unity and
> agreement in the compilation. 14
> 
> It is noteworthy that MacNutt does not mention Waite or
> other Baha'i hymnodists in these letters, and that the need for
> a hymnal is described as urgent, as if Baha'is were just wait­
> ing for something to sing. This suggested hymnal may rep­
> resent a continued strand of feeling against Baha'i hymns in
> New York as well as a final effort in the anti-Waite campaign
> launched in 1915. However, the compilation never did appear.
> At the 1929 convention, Kinney brought up the question of
> MacNutt's hymnal:
> 
> I would like to make one request for the National Assembly to
> consider; also, I'd like to state it before the delegates , because it
> has to do with the request of 'Abdu'l-Baha years ago, made to
> Howard MacNutt, and through him to me, that we compile a Ba­
> hai Hymn Book. I left it to Mr. Howard MacNutt, and as time
> went on, just after the storm at Palm Beach and just before his
> death I spoke to him seriously about the matter.
> He said, ' 'Well, I am afraid you will have to take that up your­
> self. " I did not realize what that would mean then, but as you
> know, shortly after that, before the half year had passed out
> Howard had passed on, and I feel that it is important. I neglected
> it simply because I relied upon Mr. MacNutt to take the initiative,
> according to 'Abdu'l-Baha's word, but now that leaves me the
> only one to carry out his own particular request. If material can
> Opposition to the Use of Hymns          99
> 
> be sent to me and if the National Spiritual Assembly agree, I will
> undertake this matter at any moment.15
> 
> There was no immediate response to Kinney's statement,
> and a little later Mrs. Ford (an East Coast Baha'i) remarked to
> the Chairman: "I don't believe you heard Mr. Kinney's re­
> marks about the hymn book. That was very important. ' ' The
> Chairman, Allen McDaniel, then asked Kinney if he had put
> his suggestion as a motion, and Kinney replied:
> 
> No, but I want to call the attention of the delegates to a very im­
> portant thing. We have not any hymns that we recognize except
> just a few, and I feel that we are constantly needing them, and we
> ought to begin at once to do something about it. I made those re­
> marks because of a special request made by 'Abdu'l-Baha, which
> was important. It was not made to me, so I am not responsible for
> anything more than informing you that 'Abdu'l-Baha specifically
> requested Mr. Howard MacNutt to do this, and Mr. MacNutt ne­
> glected to do it, and has passed on, and it leaves me in the posi­
> tion that if I should die perhaps I will have to tell him why some
> day.ls
> 
> On further prompting by the chair, Kinney made his sug­
> gestion a motion and it was seconded by Windust. On
> McDaniel asking if there was further discussion, Mr. Duckett
> of Los Angeles said, "Mrs. Waite has compiled a hymn book
> and 'Abdu'l-Baha has approved this hymn book. I think it is a
> very wonderful hymn book. ' ' To this Ford replied:
> 
> It does not mean we will give up Mrs. Waite's hymn book, but
> that now the Baha'i Cause needs a larger variety of hymns. That
> is what Mr. Kinney has in mind. There are other hymns besides
> those of Mrs. Waite's, and there are great hymns in existence
> which very well express Baha'i, and I think Mr. Kinney's idea
> should be a compilation and publication of the new hymns. 17
> 100     Part One: The Devotional Heritage
> 
> After the suggestion was made by Mrs. Finch that the
> book should include some chants, to which Kinney replied
> that he intended it would, the question was put and the mo­
> tion carried.
> This is the last mention of the MacNutt hymnbook I have
> found. At what time 'Abdu'l-Baha had asked MacNutt to
> work on a hymn book is not clear. Certainly, as early as 1905
> he had written to MacNutt of his approval of Kinney working
> on chants. It would seem that the attempt at a MacNutt com­
> pilation in 1920-192 1 might have been a further effort against
> Waite after the failure of the attempt to use Kinney to sup·
> plant her work. Certainly, the implication of MacNutt's let­
> ters is that the need was for a compilation from generally
> accepted Christian hymnals. Kinney's revival of the idea in
> 1929 probably reflects his conscientiousness rather than total
> sympathy with an anti-Waite position. He may also have
> reasonably felt that a wider choice of hymns would be useful.
> Why this could not be met by simply using a good Christian
> hymnal and selecting from it (as was done earlier with
> Brewer) is unclear. It is also unclear why there was not to be
> encouragement for other Baha'is, including Kinney, to write
> hymns for the community's use. The comments made on Kin­
> ney's suggestion by Duckett and Ford suggest a distinction
> between those who were quite satisfied with Waite's work
> and those who wished "a larger variety, " which would be
> drawn from Christian sources. 'Abdu'l-Baha had encouraged
> any Baha'f who had sent verses to him to write songs for the
> community. Waite was the only one to consistently do so. It is
> interesting that those who were dissatisfied, for whatever rea­
> son, with Waite's work sought to supplement or replace it
> with Christian hymns rather than encourage a general flour­
> ishing of hymnody within the community. This may indicate a
> tacit recognition that Waite was unbeatable on her own ground
> as well as a disinclination toward specifically Baha'f hymns.
> Opposition to the Use of Hymns           101
> 
> In the mid-1920s, the Chicago community faced some oppo­
> sition to the form of their meetings which included an objec­
> tion to hymn singing. A few people led by Moseley agitated
> for changes:
> 
> The situation here is becoming more difficult every day instead of
> seeming to clear up. I attended a consultation meeting last even­
> ing. The Assembly, that is, a few members of the Assembly
> [community] met with the Spiritual Assembly and, led by our
> friend Mr. Moseley, they expressed the idea that all meetings or
> any meeting where hymns are sung or where there was an at­
> tempt at a public address was contrary to the spirit of the Cause
> and was an attempt on the part of the Board [Spiritual Assembly]
> to foist ritualism on the Cause. They are not satisfied with any at­
> tempt that is made to give a public presentation in the Bahai Hall
> and vote to have such meetings abolished . 18
> 
> The objectors further described those who ran the current
> meetings as "ex-church members who conducted the meet­
> ings like a Methodist church affair. ' ' 19 The dispute blew over,
> possibly because Moseley left town. (He later turned up in
> California to cause other trouble there.) The issue of music at
> meetings in Chicago was discussed again in the mid-1930s, as
> was noted in the local Baha'I newsletter:
> 
> The Assembly appointed a committee composed of Mr. Harry
> Walrath and Mr. Allah K. Kalantar to report on a survey made to
> determine the desire of the community with regard to Music at
> Feasts and public meetings. The Assembly has voted that music
> at Feasts is optional with the hosts, but no decision has yet been
> reached concerning music at public meetings.20
> 
> There may not have been too strong a diversion of views on
> the subject, as no further mention of the survey was published.
> 102      Part One: The Devotional Heritage
> 
> THE END OF THE ERA OF BAHA'f HYMNODY
> 
> In 1935, Waite was personally involved in a dispute over
> her hymns, particularly the ' 'Benediction, ' ' in Los Angeles.
> Waite was told by members of the community that the Spiri­
> tual Assembly had "ruled that in the future the Baha'i Bene­
> diction be eliminated from all programs, save the Feasts, and
> that at these it be optional as to whether it be called for by the
> chairman of the program or not. " Waite commented:
> 
> I was not at the last Feast so do not know whether that ' 'new rul­
> ing'' was read in the report of your Assembly meeting and actions
> taken, but personally no word has been officially sent to me.
> This is an old smouldering fire, which I hoped the water of
> Love had quenched, but it is evident that it has burst forth into
> flame once more. Some years ago, when the Baha'i hymns and
> Benediction were sung at every meeting-the desire by some to
> stamp them out was set aflame and I was made most unhappy­
> not because they were mine in the sense that I was the channel
> through whom-as Abdul Baha said, many times and to many of
> the friends both in America and Europe-that "Baha'u'llah gave
> them to the Baha'i world through me"-but in this personal oppo­
> sition of some of the Baha'is it seemed that the Words of Abdu'l­
> Baha were ignored.
> This fire in time partially died out, but now I know the smoul­
> dering embers are still there and have been fanned into a flame
> again by some new breeze of opposition-the result being your
> "new ruling. " 2 1
> 
> Waite continued that she felt it best if the "Benediction"
> was omitted in all meetings from then on rather than let the
> issue of whether or not to use it be a source of conflict. She
> stated that she had realized when she returned from a trip in
> Janaury 1935 and heard that a young visiting English Baha'i
> had objected to the Baha'i hymns that the problem was going
> to arise again. She personally was upset when people asked
> Opposition to the Use of Hymns            103
> 
> her after the most recent meeting she had attended why the
> " Benediction" was not played, or apologized to her for it be­
> ing left out: ' 'All of these questions and apologies are to me
> most unpleasant, and I most heartily dislike the personal
> aspect of it all . ' ' The Spiritual Assembly replied that Waite
> had been incorrectly informed of their attitude toward the use
> of the ' 'Benediction' ' :
> 
> It was suggested by the Spiritual Assembly that it be "optional"
> at the public meetings, subject to the chairman calling for it, if no
> musical program had been arranged by the music ,committee, and
> not that it be "ruled out" anywhere.
> Since this was merely to eliminate confusion of programs and
> had nothing to do with personality, the secretary was not in­
> structed to notify any one, and the reason the suggestion was not
> read at the Feast was probably due to the illness of the recording
> secretary, and when another recording secretary was elected it
> was overlooked. 22
> 
> The Assembly also enclosed a "resolution" which they had
> sent to the National Spiritual Assembly and which had been
> approved by them. This resolution superseded their previous
> ruling, and the Assembly hoped that Waite would "cooperate
> with it in the attempt to eliminate the personal angle from all
> endeavors to establish the World Order of Baha'u'llah on the
> basis of a harmonious whole, and that you will continue to dis­
> courage any discussion of the matter so disturbing to you,
> hoping that the friends will soon be able to appreciate the Ba­
> ha'i Benediction and hymns, not only because Abdul-Baha
> loved them but for their intrinsic value also . ' ' The resolution
> referred to was published in the Los Angeles community
> newsletter with an excerpt from the National Spiritual As­
> sembly letter supporting it. The resolution referred to both
> the "Benediction" and the use of the so-called "prayer for
> Shoghi Effendi" (in reality an excerpt from a letter):
> 104     Part One: The Devotional Heritage
> 
> "As regards the chanting of Tablets in the Temple, Shoghi Ef­
> fendi wishes in this connection to urge the friends to ·avoid all
> forms of rigidity and uniformity in matters of worship. "-Baha'i
> News, July 1935
> The Spiritual Assembly has been conscious for some time that
> in this Community there has been a tendency for rigidity to creep
> into our meetings, specifically with regard to the pl'aying of the
> Benediction and the saying of what is erroneously termed the
> prayer for Shoghi Effendi.
> With regard to the Benediction, it has become so much a matter
> of form to play it at every meeting that on occasions when it has
> not been called for by the chairman, a request has been made for
> it. The Spiritual Assembly is of the opinion that the conduct of
> meetings is, subject to the approval of the Spiritual Assembly, en­
> tirely a matter for the appropriate committee or feast chairman to
> decide. In addition a music committee has been appointed for the
> purpose of collaborating with other committees in making the
> programmes of meetings and feasts. Whether any one item is in­
> cluded in the programme or not is a matter for those who arrange
> the meeting to decide. In any case the Spiritual Assembly is not
> in favor of making any particular song or prayer an essential part
> of every meeting. The friends are earnestly requested to cooper­
> ate with the Spiritual Assembly in their efforts to ensure that
> nothing be allowed to become a form or ritual, both of which are
> opposed to the spirit of our beloved Faith.23
> 
> In this dispute over the use of the ' 'Benediction' ' we can
> again see that those opposed to it were in the minority and
> that the general assumption was that it should be used.
> In 1938, the Spiritual Assembly of San Francisco wrote to
> the National Spiritual Assembly that on a recent visit to that
> city Lorol Schopflocher had told the Baha'fs there that they
> were disobeying the Guardian by using the "Benediction. "
> The Assembly referred to the statement by 'Abdu'l-Baha
> printed on the "Benediction" and remarked that they were
> Opposition to the Use of Hymns            105
> 
> ' 'not aware of any instructions from the Guardian abrogating
> those words. " They asked the National Spiritual Assembly to
> advise them if any instruction had been received from Shoghi
> Effendi that the "Benediction " should not be used. 24 The
> NSA replied:
> 
> . . . as far as our records go, there has never been any ruling one
> way or the other about the use of Baha'i Benediction. No Assem­
> bly has ever been ordered to use it nor ordered not to use it.
> In fact, the National Assembly has recently written the Guar­
> dian to ask him to explain the relation of Mrs. Waite's music to
> the Cause at the present time in view of the well-known words of
> 'Abdu'l-Baha, about them.
> When his reply is received we trust that the matter will be clari­
> fied once and for all for the entire American Baha'i community.25
> 
> Before turning to the National Spiritual Assembly's own at­
> titude and that of Shoghi Effendi, it seems appropriate to look
> at the background of Schopflocher' s statement. Schopflocher
> was a woman with considerable financial resources at her dis­
> posal who spent much of her time traveling about the world
> visiting Baha'i communities. She was immensely egocentric,
> and whatever she wished was, as far as she was concerned,
> the way that things should be. She seems to have had the abil­
> ity to impose this view upon others so that they cooperated
> with     in creating her reality. (On one occasion, when cross­
> ing the Atlantic in the Hindenburg, she had the captain
> "buzz" her home in Montreal. )
> Schopflocher's mother was (according t o Schopflocher) as
> morbidly obsessed with religion as Waite's was construc­
> tively religious. Schopflocher's elder sister had died in in­
> fancy, and after this her mother was transformed from a bon
> vivant into "a person obsessed with a single idea-to obtain a
> seat in Heaven beside her beautiful child. " She did not find
> 106     Part One: The Devotional Heritage
> 
> any church that came up to her own fervor and so ' 'Her own
> home became her church-and ours. " As a child, Schop­
> flocher seems to have been as self-willed as she was as an
> adult, and her temperament led her to clash with her mother,
> who she believed regarded her as an inadequate substitute for
> the lost baby. Schopflocher related of her childhood : "There
> was little time for play or 'recreation' other than the singing
> of hymns and listening to long discourses on the Bible and
> other dull subjects in the programme laid down for me . . . .
> When I was permitted to take piano lessons, they were for re­
> ligious music only. "2 6 Significantly, Schopflocher titled the
> chapter on her childhood in her autobiography "The Cage. "21
> Schopflocher' s own religious activities as a supposed
> teacher of the Baha' f Faith inclined more to dances, cocktail
> parties, and afternoon teas with Eastern rulers. She records
> that a fellow passenger on a ship remarked that she was the
> first ' 'missionary'' he had ever seen with such good legs. That
> Schopflocher might have had a personal antipathy to hym­
> nody is not surprising; neither is it that she attempted to im­
> pose this view on others. Her considerable wealth, prestige,
> and evident social position placed her in a powerful position to
> do so, especially when she was telling people that Shoghi Ef­
> fendi agreed with her view of tp.e matter.
> By the mid-1930s, the 1927 edition of Bahai Hymns of Peace
> and Praise had been sold out for some time. There was still a
> demand for copies, however, and Waite wrote to the National
> Spiritual Assembly in early 1936 to inform them that she was
> willing to allow the Publishing Committee (which was in New
> York, not Chicago, at this time) to use her plates to bring out
> a new edition. Holley remarked , in a letter written as National
> Spiritual Assembly secretary to the committee, that ' 'This
> offer raises a number of questions which it might be well for
> the Publishing Committee to refer to the National Spiritual
> Assembly. ' '28
> Opposition to the Use of Hymns        107
> 
> By the end of 1936, the committee had obtained the plates
> from Windust in Chicago and was awaiting further instruc­
> tions from the Assembly. In January 1937, the National
> Spiritual Assembly asked the committee to simply hold the
> plates. In November 1937, the Assembly asked the commit­
> tee to supply e�timates for the cost of 1 ,000 and 2,000 copies
> of the booklet. The committee reported that 1 ,000 copies
> would cost $93.08 and 2,000 copies would cost $ 120.06. On
> the letter reporting this estimate, the words "Baha'i" and
> ' 'Hymns' ' have been circled in pencil and a ' '? ' ' put beside
> them in the margin. In January 1938, the Assembly informed
> the committee that it had "voted to request the Guardian to
> advise the National Assembly in the matter of reprinting the
> songs composed by Shahnaz Waite. " In March 1938, the As­
> sembly informed the committee that Shoghi Effendi had writ­
> ten to Waite ' 'explaining to her that in view of the increasing
> national expenses of the Cause in America it would hardly be
> possible for the National Fund to provide for the publication
> of her hymns. ' ' They suggested that the committee simply re­
> tain the plates, unless Waite wanted them returned . 29
> It is evident from the prolonged nature of this correspon­
> dence that there was little enthusiasm about providing for the
> demand for copies of Bahai Hymns of Peace and Praise on the
> part of either the Assembly or the Publishing Committee.
> Also, that by the end of the correspondence it is implied that
> Waite was looking for a subsidy from the National Fund to is­
> sue her work, rather than that she was again offering her
> work as a proved seller and fund raiser (at the price set in
> 1927, 1 ,000 copies could have realized up to $300 and 2,000
> copies up to $600, a good profit potential on the outlay) is
> somewhat mendacious and suggests that an acceptable ex­
> cuse was being sought for the decision not to reprint.
> We might note here that the Reviewing Committee (another
> East Coast committee) in the mid-1930s decided that the
> 108      Part One: The Devotional Heritage
> 
> words of a song by Waite were not appropriate for their atten­
> tion: "We do not approve or disapprove the words of songs or
> poems as these are works of aesthetic value alone and time
> alone will prove their merit. "30 The National Assembly agreed
> with the committee's decision "that material of this kind is
> not suitable for review by a Baha'i committee. "31
> At the time this decision was made, North American Ba­
> hcffs had become attuned to the idea that material related to
> the Faith was to be considered available for general circula­
> tion and use only if it had been approved by the Reviewing
> Committee . To decline to give approval to "the words of
> songs or poems" and to suggest that they were of "aesthetic
> value alone" was to impugn both their legitimacy and their
> validity in terms of teaching the Faith or expressing Baha'f
> identity. The secretary of the Reviewing Committee when it
> made this decision was Doris Holley, the wife of National
> Spiritual Assembly Secretary Horace Holley.
> We should turn now to the letter the Assembly wrote to
> Shoghi Effendi in 1 938, which included their inquiry about
> Waite's songs:
> 
> The final enclosure consists of a copy of a Tablet revealed by the
> Master to Shahnaz Waite. The National Assembly would like
> your advice and instruction on how to deal with the general ques­
> tion of publishing music for Baha'is' use, and, specifically, in rela­
> tion to the significance of this Tablet to the songs composed by
> Mrs. Waite.
> Mrs. Waite's book of songs was originally published during the
> period of more or less uncontrolled individual initiative in the
> American Baha'i community. Many of the believers love these
> songs and like them to be used both at public and non-public Ba­
> ha'i meetings. Many others feel that they are in the spirit of the
> traditional Christian hymn and that the Baha'i Faith should not
> maintain practices developed during the history of the Christian
> church. The National Assembly itself some years ago recorded
> Opposition to the Use of Hymns          109
> 
> the view that the Reviewing Committee cannot be expected to
> pass upon music, poetry and other art forms, but only such
> manuscripts whose accuracy can be referred to the Teachings.
> This matter of music is so important that we hope very much
> that some instruction can be given as a guide to future policies
> and practice. 32
> 
> The objection to Waite' s hymns had now come full circle.
> Twenty-five years before, her Baha'f hymns were objected to
> as too obviously non-Christian in text; now they were being
> objected to as too Christian in form. We should note also in
> this letter the distrust of "uncontrolled individual initiative"
> (although this is hardly an accurate description of the antece­
> dents of Waite's work with its frequent review by 'Abdu'l­
> Baha) and the ritual statement on the importance of music
> that is characteristic of National Spiritual Assembly pro­
> nouncements on the subject.
> Shoghi Effendi replied to this enquiry:
> 
> As to the question     Mrs. Waite's Baha'i Hymns; the Guardian
> it inadvisable to issue any general instruction at present
> regarding the matter of publishing music for use by the believers
> in their meetings. He thinks that the situation arising out of Mrs.
> Waite's request for the re-publication of her songs is not such as
> to call for any general ruling. He has, however, written Mrs.
> Waite explaining to her that in view of the increasing national ex­
> penses of the Cause in America, specially in connection with the
> teaching work, it would hardly be possible for the National Fund
> to provide for the publication of her hymns. All those believers
> who are talented in music and desire to make some contribution
> along this line should be encouraged and advised to send their
> musical compositions to the editorial Committee of the "Baha'i
> World" for reproduction in that book.3�
> 
> As we have seen, the National Assembly took this opportu­
> nity to shelve the issue of reprinting Bahai Hymns of Peace
> 1 10    Part One: The Devotional Heritage
> 
> and Praise. Neither did they make any vigorous attempt to
> counter the opinion of such as Schopflocher that using these
> songs contravened Shoghi Effendi's wishes.
> Although the concern of this work is sociological, and so the
> concentration is on what Baha' fs thought and did-not on
> what the Baha'f Faith teaches-in the area of devotional ac­
> tivity, it seems appropriate at this point to consider what
> Shoghi Effendi's expressed attitude on hymnody was during
> the 1930s, as his instructions were claimed as the basis of all
> positions in the dispute over the use of hymns. 'Abdu'l-Baha
> had written more that fifty tablets to North American Baha'fs
> encouraging the use of singing and music at Baha'f meetings.
> These Tablets included a number specifically and generally
> approving songs by Waite and others. Shoghi Effendi con­
> tinued this approval, both generally and in relation to Waite.
> In 1930, Shoghi Effendi wrote to Waite in his own hand,
> ' 'Your poems are indeed most interesting and helpful to the
> believers and your name will ever live in the annals of the
> Cause as the first to extol and celebrate in the western world
> the glory and virtues of the Cause of God. " 34 In 193 1 , he in­
> cluded in another personal note, ' 'Your past services are
> graven upon the Tablet of my heart and have earned you the
> esteem and gratitude of the believers. "35 In 193 1 , Waite was
> informed, " Shoghi Effendi is almost determined to start a
> new section in the coming issue of the Baha'i World devoted
> to music composed by the friends . In it he will surely include
> your "Benediction" which has brought joy & inspiration to
> many hearts. "3 6 In February of 1932, Bahd 'f News informed
> the community that Shoghi Effendi "expects to create two
> new sections in Volume IV of The Bahd 'f World, one devoted
> to Baha'f poems, and another to Baha'f music. "37 The music
> in the first few volumes of Bahd 'f World was personally
> selected by Shoghi Effendi, not by the Bahd 'f World editorial
> committee. Among the nine pieces in Volume IV (1932) were
> Opposition to the Use of Hymns·         111
> 
> six by Waite; Volume V (1934) had the same nine pieces with
> four more added, one by Waite; and Volume VI ( 1936) had
> sixteen pieces, eight of which were by Waite. In these three
> volumes Shoghi Effendi included the following songs by
> Waite (those marked with an asterisk were included in both
> Volumes IV and V):
> 
> * Prelude
> *Temple Song
> * Great Day of God
> * His glorious Sun has Risen
> *Tell the Wondrous Story
> * Benediction
> I Will Follow Thee
> Praise Thee 0 God
> The Day of Certainty
> The Temple Beautiful
> Anthem of All Nations
> Awake Ye Nations All
> Song of the Covenant
> Sweet Peace
> Song of Thanksgiving
> 
> Toward the end of 1 932, Waite was told:
> 
> The Guardian values the hymns that you are so beautifully com­
> posing. They certainly contain the realities of the Faith, and will
> indeed help you to give the Message to the young ones. It is the
> music which assists us to affect the human spirit; it is an impor­
> tant means which helps us to communicate with the soul. The
> Guardian hopes that through this assistance you will give the
> Message to the people, and will attract their hearts. 38
> 
> In 1935, Shoghi Effendi specifically addressed the issue of
> hymns at Baha'f meetings:
> 1 12     Part One: The Devotional Heritage
> 
> In regard to the main question you have raised in connection with
> the singing of hymns at Baha'i meetings. He wishes me to answer
> you that he sees no objection to it whatsoever. The element of
> music is, no doubt, an important feature of all Baha'i gatherings.
> The Master Himself has emphasized its importance. But the
> friends should in this, as well as in all other things, not pass be­
> yond the limits of moderation, and should take great care to main­
> tain the strict spiritual character of all their gatherings. Music
> should lead to spirituality, and provided it creates such an at­
> mosphere there can be no objection against it. 39
> 
> In the same year, Shoghi Effendi wrote to Gesene Koch:
> 
> With regard to your question concerning the use of music in the
> Nineteen Day Feasts, he wishes to assure all the friends that not
> only he approves of such a practice, but thinks it even advisable
> that the believers should make use, in their            of hymns
> composed by Baha'is themselves , and also of such hymns, poems
> and chants as are based on the Holy Words. 40
> 
> As one might expect from the above, when Waite was in­
> formed by Shoghi Effendi in 1938 that it would not be possi­
> ble to then reprint Bahai Hymns of Peace and Praise, it was not
> in terms to suggest that her work was no longer of vall;le or to
> be used:
> 
> In connection with the republication of your hymn book; he has
> read with profound interest what the Master has written regard­
> ing the hymns you have composed, but feels that in view of the
> increasing expenses which the National Fund is incurring in
> connection with the Seven Year Plan, & particularly with regard
> to the teaching work, it would be preferable to postpone the pub­
> lication of the above book until such time as the necessary means
> for the printing will be , available.
> In the meantime, the Guardian wishes you to remain assured
> that your hymns, as promised by our beloved Master, will be sung
> by the believers � & will be increasingly appreciated by them. 4 1
> Opposition to the Use of Hymns          113
> 
> I t i s obvious that Schopflocher was at best mistaken i n as­
> serting that the San Francisco Baha 'is were disobeying
> ShoghrEffendi in using the "Benediction. " It is equally evi­
> dent that Shoghi Effendi had an interest in the issue of devo­
> tional music for the community that was not actively shared
> by the National Spiritual Assembly.
> Many Baha'is who were part of the community during the
> era of Baha'i hymnody now express a sense of puzzlement as
> to why it ended. They recall how much they had loved the
> singing and how good the songs were for creating a feeling of
> group unity. They cannot give a specific reason why the use
> of hymns stopped, but many remember receiving an impres­
> sion that they should not be used. One woman told me that
> she thought people were informed that the hymns were ' 'too
> Christian, or something. " Some older Baha'is who attended
> lecture recitals of Baha'i hymnody in 1 983-1985 expressed
> their pleasure at hearing the songs again and remarked that
> they did not understand why the community ever stopped us­
> ing them. The general memory seems to be that the end came
> around 1940. One Baha'i said that she had learned the songs
> as a child in the 1920s but did not think of teaching them to
> her children in the 1 940s and 1950s; she did not know why,
> and felt some regret that she had not.
> One community that lost its Baha'i hymns in a very literal
> sense was that of Topeka, Kansas. In the late 1 930s, the
> secretary of the Assembly left the Faith, and town, taking
> with her the community's early re,cords and their hymn
> books. 42 The community did still sing the "Benediction" at
> least. May Brown, a long-term member of the community,
> commented in 1982 :
> 
> I'm not sure just why we gave up singing the Benediction. Maybe
> it was when some of the younger ones didn't like our squeeky
> voices and the record player had too many worn out records for
> us to continue. At any rate, some of us older ones sure enjoyed it
> 1 14    Part One: The Devotional Heritage
> 
> and I find that my voice is such that I can't stand to try to sing
> that Benediction even when I'm all alone. I wish I could. If there
> is anyone around who could sing it, I'd like to have it sung at my
> funeral if it were possible. (Or at least read.)43
> 
> Waite died in 1939. While she was alive she may have had
> some effect in keeping the anti-hymn forces at bay. Certainly
> she was not shy about sending copies of her Tablets and her
> letters from the Guardian to whoever wished them or to those
> she felt needed to be informed of them. A number of her
> friends also circulated them. The written evidence of ap­
> proval of hymn singing and music generally in the Baha'f
> writings was incontrovertible, but clearly, the forces of rumor
> and suggestion employed by those opposed to hymns won.
> The National Assembly did not actually support such rumors,
> but neither did it take any pains to refute them. Indeed, its
> own evidently cool attitude toward both hymns and the issue
> of music generally may have seemed tacit approval and confir­
> mation of the opinions of those campaigning against their use.
> This chapter may have given the impression that there was
> considerable opposition to the use of hymns (whether Chris­
> tian, universal, or Baha'f) and that the number of Baha'fs who
> objected, was on a comparable scale with the number who ap­
> proved. This was not so. The section discussing the absorp­
> tion of Waite's hymns into the life of the community only
> cites a tiny fraction of the documentation of the approval and
> use of her work. This section has discussed virtually all of the
> documentation on opposition of which I am aware. In most of
> the cases discussed, only a relative handful of individuals
> were active objectors. In the late 1930s, the final effort
> against hymnody must have represented the opinion of a
> small minority of the national community. However, the
> majority of those who were not actively in favor of hymns
> (and especially of Baha'f hymns) seems to have been drawn
> Opposition to the Use of Hymns          115
> 
> from the middle and upper-middle class, mainly East Coast
> Baha'fs who formed the national power structure of the Faith.
> The extent to which many local communities supported
> hymnody may be gauged from the continued use of the
> "Benediction" after 1940. In the privacy of their Nineteen­
> Day Feasts, many older communities continued to consider
> the "Benediction" the usual way to end Feasts until the
> 1960s. That the "Belfediction" then faded away in even these
> communities is probably the result of the aging and death of
> the members who had lived through the heyday of Baha'f
> hymn singing and the fact that those born into or joining the
> community after the 1930s had not been socialized fnto sing­
> ing as had the Baha' f children of the 1920s and before.
> When communities brought the issue of hymn singing to
> the attention of the National Assembly, the general tone of
> their response was off-putting. As late as 1955, an American
> Baha'f who was secretary of a Local Assembly in Africa
> wrote to the Africa Teaching Committee asking for "the Ba­
> ha'f song book, ' ' remarking that they had asked about this be­
> fore and not had a reply. She was informed, ' 'There is really
> no Baha'f song book-there was years ago but this is out of
> print and will not be printed again as they did not seem to be
> really Baha'f songs . " 44 This is a good example of the institu­
> tionalization of the anti-hymn feeling. The person who wrote
> that reply recently told me that she did not understand why
> the community stopped using hymns, that they were a good
> way of bringing people together and encouraging · community
> unity, and that she was delighted that my publishing imprint
> was issuing a facsimile of Bahai Hymns of Peace and Praise.
> At the national convention in 1957, one of the delegates
> brought up:
> 
> . . . the tremendous need we have for music. The Baha'i Faith is a
> joyous, happy religion. It is a religion of song, there is much
> 1 16     Part One: The' Devotional Heritage
> 
> poetry in the Writings, and yet Fireside after Fireside and Feast
> after Feast we have no one raising voices in song.
> I think this is because we do not have a song book, one that col­
> lects the songs from the musical traditions of the past, some of
> the present that our Faith needs such as the United Nations
> Hymn or "Lift Every Voice and Sing" and other music in the pro­
> cess of creation. Perhaps it needs to be simplified for the youth.
> I feel very strongly we ought to have a song book brought
> together perhaps cheaply in the beginning by some simple
> reproduction process and ultimately lifted into more permanent
> being. Let's lift our Baha'i voices in song.45
> 
> Another delegate then remarked that she had been asked
> by a state convention to request that Waite 's booklet be
> reprinted. 46 A number of delegates spoke in favor of the idea
> of providing a song book. A recommendation that a children's
> song book be produced was carried, although it is obvious
> from the consultation that most of the delegates who spoke
> had something for the community generally in mind. After
> the convention, the National Spiritual Assembly wrote to
> Shoghi Effendi to inform him that ' 'great interest was shown
> in the adoption by the National Spiritual Assembly of plans to
> make available music suitable for use by believers, the pur­
> pose apparently being to reproduce a book of Baha'i songs. "
> The Assembly expressed itself unsure of the propriety of
> such an endeavor, stating "with respect to a Baha'i book of
> songs the Assembly is in need of the Guardian's approval. "47
> Shoghi Effendi replied:
> 
> As regards producing a book of Baha'i songs, your understanding
> that there is no cultural expression which could be called Baha'f
> at this time (distinctive music, literature, art, architecture, etc . ,
> being the flower o f the civilisation and not coming at the begin­
> ning of a new Revelation), is correct. However, that does not
> mean that we haven't Baha'f songs, in other words, songs written
> by Baha'is on Baha'f subjects. 48
> Opposition to the Use of Hymns       1 17
> 
> The songs of Waite and her contemporaries were undoubt­
> edly "songs written by Baha'Is on Baha'I subjects. " At one
> time that had been exactly the ground on which they were
> criticized. But by 1957, a generation of Baha' Is had grown up
> in, or come into, the Faith without being acquainted with
> them. Apart from in those communities which stuck to the
> "BeneQ.iction" at Feasts (and even there it seems to have
> been regarded as a fad of the older people by this time), Ba­
> ha'Is had been socialized to expect and accept a devotional life
> largely devoid of musical content. They had also been social­
> ized to regard anything that seemed overtly Christian with
> suspicion and were thus cut off from the popular devotional
> music roots of their own culture. All this left was an occa­
> sional Eastern Baha'I chant, which was regarded as a "Ba­
> ha'I" sound and not as the continuation of Islamic cultural
> practice that it is.
> During the 1960s, the last vestiges of the "Benediction"
> were dying away. That same decade saw the growth of a new
> crop of Baha'I songs, but this time the models were secular.
> Thirty years after that last National Spiritual Assembly letter
> on songs to Shoghi Effendi, and over fifty years after Waite's
> last attempt to have Bahai Hymns of Peace and Praise reis­
> sued, Baha'I devotional life is almost totally barren of com­
> munal song.
> PART TWO
> 
> THE BUILDING
> �
> �
> tJ:j
> �
> ��
> >
> 
> t
> !!'
> 
> �
> �
> �
> ;:3
> 
> THE SITE OF THE MASHRIQU'L-ADHKAR
> in Wilmette, Illinois, as itTooked when selected.
> CHAPTER FIVE
> 
> THE CHOICE OF A SITE AND
> THE DEVELOPMENT OF NATIONAL
> ORGANIZATION
> 
> Before the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar could be built, two questions
> had to be settled: where was it to be built and under what or­
> ganizational auspices? Both of these questions were answered
> in a brief period at the end of the first decade of the century,
> but the mode of their answering delayed the actual building
> for a further decade. 1
> 
> THE CHOICE OF A SITE
> 
> On 26 November 1907, a small group of Baha'is from vari­
> ous communities met in Chicago to look at possible sites for
> the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar. In the morning they visited the south
> side of the city and in the afternoon the north. That evening
> they met to discuss the sites they had seen. According to
> Corinne True, they suggested the current site of the
> Mashriqu'l-Adhkar in Wilmette as the best location. True
> said this from at least 1915, in an account of the early days of
> the project that was written for the 1915 National Convention
> 
> 122      Part Two: The Building
> 
> and which has been much reproduced since; 2 she stated it in a
> public talk at the Baha'f Congress associated with the Na-
> . tional Convention in 1920;3 and this has been accepted as the
> standard account of the origin of the present site. However,
> this version of events is not accurate. True herself found the
> present site in 1908 and, with the support of a few Baha'fs,
> imposed her choice on a reluctant Chicago community.
> Whatever True's motives may have been in the actions she
> took, the account she gave of the origin of the site in later
> years was not true. To understand how this imposition of the
> site came about, it is necessary to discuss the progress of the
> project from its beginning.
> News of the . building of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar in ' Ishqa­
> bad, reached Chicago in late 1902 . In a talk given at the meet­
> ing held in Chicago to celebrate the "Feast of the Master"
> (Day of the Covenant) on 26 November 1902, a brief descrip­
> tion of the 'Ishqabad venture was given to the community. 4
> Such details as were available were also relayed to other
> North American Baha'f communities in correspondence.5
> Probably around the turn of the year, a member of the
> House of Spirituality, Albert Win dust, wrote to Mirza As­
> sad'Ullah (who was then living in the Holy Land) to ask for
> further details about Baha'f places of worship. Whether this
> was purely a personal query on Windust's part or one he
> made on behalf of the House is not clear, but Assad'Ullah's
> reply was evidently circulated to some extent:
> 
> Regarding your question as to how the place of worship should
> be, and that some are of the opinion that it should be a house es­
> pecially dedicated for the purpose and so situated that it may be
> free from all noise and outside interruptions, or what should be
> done if such a room is not possible, the answer is that all that is
> revealed in Kitab-el-Akdas is as follows: Three times in a day and
> night, one should pray, in the morning, at noon and in the even­
> ing. No such particulars, as you ask, are given. Yes, it is evident
> The Choice of a Site        123
> 
> that one must be free from all thoughts at the time of communion,
> and while praying he must do so entirely unconscious of his sur­
> roundings. Sincerity of the heart is the important thing. When
> man is in this state it matters not whether he is in private or in
> public.6
> 
> At its meeting on 2 1 February 1903, the House read a letter
> dated 29 November 1902, from the 'Ishqabad community in
> which their ' 'attention was ,called to the laying of the founda­
> tion of the first Bahai House of Worship, which information
> caused joy to enter the hearts of all. " It was the day after this
> meeting that the first of the Sunday community devotional
> meetings for which the House had had Songs of Prayer and
> Praise published was held.
> On 7 March 1903, the meeting of the House was concerned
> mainly with the topic of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar. They read a
> letter from Ahmed Yazdi, who had enclosed a photograph of
> the architect's design for the 'Ishqabad building and another
> photograph of the ceremony in which the Russian governor
> had laid the foundation stone. They read a letter written by a
> Baha'f who had been present at the ceremony. And they read
> a letter from Assad'Ullah in which he urged the Chicago Ba­
> ha'is to build a Mashriqu'l-Adhkar in their city. The meeting
> unanimously decided to send a letter to 'Abdu'l-Baha asking
> permission to do so. They also selected a committee of five
> members to look for a suitable site and asked another member
> to info�m the local community. Another member was asked to
> investigate the possibility of obtaining the house at 475 W.
> Monroe St. , as some felt this location was sacred to the Cause
> as the House of Spirituality had first met there. Other mem­
> bers thought that site would probably be too small.
> The House sent a letter to 'Abdu'l-Baha asking that he
> ' 'Permit us to begin the blessed undertaking of the erection of
> the Mashrak el Azkar in Chicago! "7 At their meeting on 30
> May the House read 'Abdu'l-Baha's reply in which he gave
> 124      Part Two: The Building
> 
> permission and encouraged them to proceed. They also re­
> ceived another encouraging letter from Assad'Ullah, in which
> he quoted from the tablet and pointed out to the House the
> importance of their undertaking:
> 
> . . . ever since I met you, I wished for you great spiritual develop­
> ment and good progress, both in the world and in things pertain­
> ing to the Kingdom . . . . Praise be to God, the first House of
> Justice was organized there first, and in its establishment you
> took precedence of all, and in following the Commandments of
> the Most Holy Book, such as praying, fasting, etc. Now, through
> the Mercy of God, I hope you will be the first to establish the
> Mashrek-el-Azcar. The Master says distinctly: "Indeed ye are
> the first to arise for this glorious cause, in that great region. ' ' Ob­
> serve the lofty station of this Verse and the intrinsic value of
> these words. Then know that hereafter all the Temples of Wor­
> ship that shall be built in America will revolve around the first.8
> 
> On 27 June, the House decided to hold a special meeting
> "on Thursday evening July 2nd, to be devoted entirely to the
> subject of Mashrek-el-Azcar. " At that meeting, they dis­
> cussed the need for definite procedures and decided to write
> to 'Ishqabad for a copy of the plans that had been used there
> to help them determine how much land would be needed. The
> committee that had been appointed to look for a site was re-
> . quested to wait until further details had been received, and
> the general feeling was that the House did not yet have
> enough information to make definite plans. In the autumn of
> 1903 , 'Ishqabad wrote that they had received the request for
> plans and hoped to send them shortly. I have found no indica­
> tion that plans were ever received.
> Little seems to have happened in relation to the Mashriqu'l­
> Adhkar project for over a year. In December 1904, Louise
> Waite organized a concert for the benefit of the Temple
> Fund, the proceeds of which were temporarily loaned to the
> The Choice of a Site      125
> 
> Bahai Publishing Society. This was the first large fund­
> raising event held.
> In January 1905, the House wrote in a circular letter to the
> Eastern Baha'f communities, "we hopefully look forward to
> the time when . . . we shall have a Mashrek-el-Azcar built in
> His Name, wherein the sincere Bahais may gather to wor­
> ship. " 9 However, no immediate steps were taken. Undoubt­
> edly, the major factor holding back the House was financial.
> They were having considerable difficulty in even meeting the
> rent on the hall that was used for the weekly community
> meeting and were in no position to initiate a building project.
> In October 1905, Waite presented the House with a certifi­
> cate for $100 discount on a piano, suggesting that it be used
> toward purchasing one for the community. It was decided to
> return the certificate to Waite with a letter of appreciation.
> This letter explained, "in view of the fact that we do not
> know at present just when we shall be able to have the 'home'
> of which you speak, it was .deemed advisable to bend all ef­
> forts to raising the hall rent every month and then for trans­
> lating and publishing the Holy Utterances . ' '
> I n addition to the House of Spirituality i n Chicago, there
> was another body called the Woman's Assembly of Teaching.
> The membership of the House was limited to men, although
> both men and women elected it. The Woman's Assembly was
> composed solely of women and elected by the women of the
> community. The Woman's Assembly had been founded at the
> same time as the House with the intention that it serve as a
> women's auxiliary to that body. It had quickly become a
> largely independent women's institution that functioned in
> many ways parallel to the House in the community . 10
> The House and the Woman's Assembly had occasional joint
> meetings, and it was at one of these, on 2 1 October 1905, that
> it was decided to refuse Waite's offer of the piano certificate.
> It was at the suggestion of Corinne True that this was done
> 126      Part Two: The Building
> 
> and that the reasons of the demands of the hall rent and pub­
> lishing were given. At this joint meeting, it was also unani­
> mously decided to amalgamate the treasuries of the House
> and the Woman's .Assembly under:
> 
> . . . one Treasurer, whose disbursements of monies shall be under
> the auspices of the H. of S. [House of Spirituality]. Also a finance
> Committee of two, one chosen by the ladies (probably Mrs. Phil­
> lips), and one by the H. of S. but all collections and contributions
> made in a general way by the whole Assembly will go into the
> hands of one Treasurer, Mr. Scheffler, and be               for pay­
> ing necessary hall rentals, then for needed translations and pub­
> lishing of Holy Utterances.1 1
> 
> Thus, it i s evident that the Woman's Assembly, and Mrs.
> True herself, understood the financial stringency under which
> the House operated and that the resources· of the community
> were barely meeting its current needs let alone providing a
> surplus from which to initiate a building project.
> Despite this decision to amalgamate the treasuries of the
> House and the Woman's Assembly, it would seem that the
> Woman's Assembly continued to keep most of the funds it re­
> ceived under its own control. In the autumn of 1906, a house
> was bought in Muskegon, Michigan, by the Chicago Baha'is.
> )'he Muskegon Baha'is, who had been taught the Faith by
> True, who had a summer home in nearby Fruitport, met at
> the home of a widow who had three orphaned grandchildren
> to care for. Considerable aid was being given to this woman
> by the Chicago Baha'is, as she was without resources. Rather
> than continue to assist her to pay rent on her house, True sug­
> gested that the house should be bought and the family permit­
> ted to live in it rent-free. The house was purchased for $225,
> and at the time it was bought all funds then held by Mrs. Phil­
> lips for the Woman' s Assembly were turned over to Charles
> Ioas, who was conducting the purchase on behalf of the House.
> The Choice of a Site        127
> 
> As the Woman's Assembly was then short of funds, they
> asked for the return of the money raised by Waite 's concert
> that had been loaned to the Publishing Society. Although the
> $101 .50 that had been raised by the concert was supposedly
> loaned interest-free, the Woman's Assembly received a small
> bonus, as $103 was returned to True on their behalf in De­
> cember 1906. The difference is hardly large enough to consti­
> tute interest and may have been simply an accounting error or
> a lapse of memory as to how much had been loaned. This sum
> formed the basis of a new Temple Fund.
> In early November 1906, at a " 19 day Tea" hosted by the
> Woman's Assembly, the women present proposed that a peti­
> tion to 'Abdu'l-Baha confirming the desire of the Baha'fs to
> build a Mashriqu'l-Adhkar be circulated throughout North
> America and signed by as many as possible. In late Novem­
> ber, a Sunday community meeting was devoted mainly to the
> subject of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar. Fareed, Assad'Ullah's son,
> gave a talk on how the 'Ishqabad community had gone about
> building their Mashriqu'l-Adhkar:
> 
> drew comparisons between the Oriental and Occidental
> methods of procedure and the ways of doing things. He said the
> Ashkhabad Assembly did not wait (as we do) until they had a
> sufficient sum of money in the bank to complete the edifice be­
> fore they commenced its erection-which the average Occidental
> is the practical way-but they purchased a piece of ground,
> made it a beautiful garden, held open air meetings in the summer
> time; and when they could, erected a frame structure, which was
> used as a school for the Bahai children during week days; until
> finally-nine years after the ground was purchased, and when all
> the Bahai world knew of their intention-they commenced the
> edifice; at which time money poured in from all parts of the
> Orient-Persia, India, Egypt, Syria, Arabia-and enough and to
> spare was received to complete the work.
> By way of illustrating the particular point I referred to, he said
> 128      Part Two: The Building
> 
> that the friends in Rangoon, India [Burma], did not say, ' 'We will
> not send money, but keep what we have for our own Temple
> when we can erect one; for a Temple in Russia will not benefit us
> thousands of miles away! "-but they said, "This is the first Tem­
> ple of God in this Glorious Age, and we are happy to do what we
> can to see it arise! " He said, they were true Bahais for glory is not
> for him who loves his country or his city; but for him who loves
> the whole world. 12
> 
> This talk contributed to a growing opinion that although it
> was proposed to build a Mashriqu'l-Adhkar in Chicago, this
> was not to be considered merely a Chicago project but,
> rather, it was to be a national endeavor. True felt that the
> earlier view, that the project was mainly a Chicago concern,
> had held it back: ' 'It was this limitation which rendered us
> powerless & now that its fetters are broken let those of us
> who can, arise to offer our incompetent services today, as the
> widow's mite; blunt instruments will make a beginning. " 13
> However, it must be noted that although contributions to as­
> sist with the 'Ishqabad building did come from many Baha'f
> communities, the bulk of the cost was born by one Baha'f,
> who put his personal resources at the disposal of the project.
> The widows' mites helped, but they could not have done it
> alone.
> During 1 906, it became generally known throughout the
> country that Chicago was intending to build a Mashriqu'l­
> Adhkar and enquiries began to be received from various Ba­
> ha'f communities asking for details of what was being done.
> Around this time also a number of communities wrote to 'Ab­
> du'l-Baha asking if they could build a Mashriqu'l-Adhkar of
> their own. They were informed that they should assist with
> the one in Chicago. However, it is clear that 'Abdu'l-Baha
> intended that the one in Chicago would be for the Chicago
> community to use, but that it was necessary for all the com­
> munities to assist, as the Chicago community did not have
> The Choice of a Site      129
> 
> sufficient resources of its own. After the completion of the
> Chicago building, then the united efforts of the national com­
> munity would be focused on another city, and so a Mashriqu'l­
> Adhkar could be successfully provided for each community
> one by one. Indeed, 'Abdu'l-Baha even wrote to one commu­
> nity that they could start their Mashriqu'l-Adhkar immedi­
> ately if they could also contribute to the Chicago project.
> Another idea about the Chicago Mashriqu'l-Adhkar that
> was widely discussed in late 1906 was that the building did
> not need to be an expensive and monumental structure, but
> that a fairly simple and inexpensive building would do. This
> idea was communicated to the House of Spirituality ' 'through
> various sources" and originated with 'Abdu'l-Baha. The im­
> portant thing was to erect as soon as possible a structure that
> would function as a ' 'central meeting place, no matter how
> humble as a beginning, that could be increased in size and
> grandeur as fast as circumstances and conditions would war­
> rant . " 14 This idea did not enter the consciousness of the com­
> munity to the extent that the "national" concept did. Indeed,
> the national concept probably militated against the idea of a
> modest structure for immediate local use.
> Arthur Agnew, a member of the House, was planning to
> visit 'Abdu'l-Baha in early 1907, and the House decided to
> send a letter with him putting the various questions they had
> in relation to the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar project. The petition
> suggested by the Woman's Assembly was being circulated by
> True, and it was planned that Agnew should also take this to
> 'Abdu'l-Baha. The Agnews were delayed by the illness of a
> child and True herself took the petition. When Agnew and his
> family went they were accompanied by two other members of
> the House: Chase and Scheffler. The Agnew party met True
> in Naples on their way to the Holy Land and as she was
> returning from there. In its letter sent with Agnew the House
> asked:
> 1 30     Part Two: The Building
> 
> Is it well that the people in America shall at this time bend all
> their efforts to the erection of a material temple (Mashrek-el­
> Azcar) and that this matter shall precede all other work in the
> Cause? Or shall we first provide for the necessary expenses of a
> meeting-place where all the friends may gather from the different
> parts of this great city of nearly two million inhabitants, and also
> provide for the care of the sick and needy among us. We greatly
> desire the erection of a glorious temple as a standard of the Great
> Cause of God before the eyes of all the people, and at all times we
> are making effort to assist in that work; but as far as we can now
> see with our short vision, the first requirement is to unite the
> hearts and purposes of the people into one, and win to the Cause
> many more strong believers than we have now. As yet we are but
> a few souls scattered among the great multitude, and we need to
> come together weekly in meeting to know each other, to learn of
> each other, to assist each other. These things require material
> means, and we have felt that they, together with the publishing of
> books to carry the Word to seekers, and the provision of money
> for our Brothers Harris and Ober [who were traveling for the
> Faith in India] were necessary before the actual buying of land
> and building of a material temple. We feel that we must strive to
> feed the hungry and seekers with the Word of God, and attract
> them by entire unity of a body of earnest friends, before we can
> erect a great and costly edifice befitting the dignity, loftiness and
> beauty of the Cause of God. This city has many great and fine
> churches standing amid multitudes of the poor and needy, to
> whom they seem a mockery. Must we not build a great and
> strong temple in the hearts of men, before we can wisely erect
> such an edifice? Our service is that of God and of men, not the
> honoring of Gold which seals the hearts; to feed the souls of men,
> rather than to pander to pride. 0 our Lord and Master, guide us
> to wisdom in this matter.
> This is a country of wealth, but there are a few rich and many
> poor people. The cost of living is very high. The mass of the be­
> lievers are very poor in worldly goods, though rich in faith and
> love. The writer [Scheffler], who has for years handled the funds
> The Choice of a Site        131
> 
> o f the Chicago Assembly knows well that the members have
> much difficulty to bear their current expenses which the main­
> tenance and progress of the Cause requiTe. The rent of our hall,
> which is our meeting place and Mashrek-el-Azcar, must be paid.
> The sick and needy must be helped. Books of the Word must be
> printed. Our friends in India must be aided on their journey.
> These are the things in which we are trying to unite all the
> friends, and with our present number and their means, it is the ut­
> most for which they can provide.15,
> 
> After the pilgrims returned from the Holy Land, they in­
> formed the community that 'Abdu'l-Baha did indeed wish
> them to proceed with a building as soon as possible; that he
> considered it to be a matter of the utmost importance and pri­
> ority; that other communities should assist Chicago and that
> Chicago should keep them informed of developments in the
> hope that they would contribute financially; that it was not
> necessary to build in one of the more expensive areas of the
> city, but it was preferable to acquire a site near the lakeshore;
> and that a modest structure should be built now rather than
> wait until a large edifice was feasible. The organizational de­
> velopments that took place after these two pilgrimages will be
> discussed in detail in the next section; in this section, I will
> concentrate on the process of selecting and confirming a site.
> During the summer of 1907, a number of Baha'fs were ac­
> tively looking for a suitable site. Initially, attention was con­
> centrated on the North Shore area, but in August the House
> was informed of a large area of land that included many sites
> for sale just south of Jackson Park on the southern side of the
> city. Several members of the House visited this area and they
> recommended one particular block as a possible location.
> However, when the owners were contacted, it was discovered
> that the asking price was $85,000 for the block and that they
> would not COt;l-Sider dividing it into smaller lots. As a result,
> 132     Part Two: The Building
> 
> this site was not seriously considered, but a member of the
> House, Sutherland, was asked to make enquiries about other
> property near it.
> In September, Sutherland reported on a nearby site that
> was only a quarter of a block (300ft. x 180ft.). At their meet­
> ing on 14 September, the House asked Sutherland to find out
> terms for this site. On 2 1 September, he reported that the
> asking price was $15,500 and that the sellers would accept
> $1 ,000 down with $4,000 at the end of a year and the balance
> to be paid on terms to be agreed . The House was in favor of
> this site but asked Sutherland to see if he could get better
> terms.
> Just after the House reached this decision, Windust went to
> Washington, D.C., to represent them at a reception for the
> Turkish minister which was to be held at the home of Miss
> Grosvenor on 24 September 1907. Representatives of all Ba­
> ha'f communities had been invited to attend. At the reception,
> the news was quietly spread that Windust had photographs of
> the site selected by the House and that there would be a meet­
> ing the following afternoon for all who were, interested in see-
> ing them.
> Nineteen Baha'fs, including members of the Uttica, Roches­
> ter, New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Washington com­
> munities, came to the meeting. Windust explained that the
> movement to build a Mashriqu'l-Adhkar in Chicago dated
> back to 1903 and had been approved by 'Abdu'l-Baha. He
> stated that the House felt that they were acting as agents of
> all the Baha'f communities in the matter and that they had
> sought to locate a site that would be generally pleasing to
> 'Abcl.u'l-Baha and Baha'fs throughout the country. He showed
> a sketch of the layout of Chicago to show how the proposed
> site was contiguous to the area being developed as part of the
> "Beautiful Chicago" scheme that created the lakeshore
> The Choice of a Site      133
> 
> parks; the site, indeed, was on the park line, and a Mashriqu'l­
> Adhkar on this site would be visible for miles. The area had a
> sentimental attraction, as it was at Jackson Park that the
> World's Columbian Exposition had been held in 1 893. In con­
> junction with that event there had been the World's Parlia­
> ment of Religions during which the Faith had been publicly
> mentioned for the first time in Chicago. The site was also
> highly practical as it was readily accessible by public trans­
> port and equally accessible to the working districts of the
> Calumet area and the wealthier residential districts of
> southern Chicago. Furthermore, it was not unduly expensive
> for land so well situated close to the lake and the parks.
> Windust reported that those at the meeting "seemingly en­
> dorsed the action of the House of Spirituality in their en­
> deavor to serve the Cause in this important matter. ' ' After his
> return to Chicago, Windust attended a meeting in Kenosha on
> 3 October and explained the site choice there. 1 6
> On 5 October, the House heard from Sutherland that the sit­
> uation in regard to the terms remained unchanged and it was
> up to the House to make a definite proposal to the agent. The
> House decided to notify the community at the general Sunday
> meeting on the following day that the question of the site
> would be presented to them for final decision on the next Sun­
> day, 13 October. However, at its meeting on 12 October, the
> House "agreed that no action for decision on Temple question
> be had before Assembly tomorrow evening as was the inten­
> tion one week previous, but that instead informal gatherings
> be held in the homes for further consultation by all concerned
> and that Assembly be notified to that effect. " There is no fur­
> ther mention of the House's chosen site in its minutes.
> We have seen that initial efforts to locate a site were con­
> centrated on the North Shore area. It would seem that those
> who had decided on that area as the most appropriate in
> 134     Part Two: The Building
> 
> which to search held to their opinion and did not wish to con­
> sider a site on the southern side of the city. Rather than en­
> courage a community dispute, the House let the matter rest.
> True, in particular, pressed for the adoption of a North
> Shore site. In October 1907, she was negotiating for a site in
> Evanston. The asking price on this site was $28,000, and she
> wished the House to offer $25,000. She informed them that
> "we could not find a better location. " 17 True also had an in­
> terest in other sites in Evanston.
> Obviously, if the House was hoping to negotiate a lower
> price on the site they had selected and which was offered at
> $15,500, they were not going to consider a site at $25, 000. At
> the time, the resources they could call upon to begin purchase
> of any site were between $1 ,500 and $2 ,000 .
> On 26 November 1907, the famous gathering of Baha'fs to
> consider the matter of a site took place in Chicago. In later
> years, True referred to this meeting as "the first Mashriqu'l­
> Adhkar convention" and she called the 1 909 convention at
> which the Bahai Temple Unity was formed the "second
> Mashriqu'l-Adhkar convention. " She was unique in this; to
> everyone else the "first" convention was the one in 1909.
> Despite this attempt to link the 1907 meeting with later in­
> stitutional developments and to give it a national status, the
> meeting was arranged by True herself, possibly with the
> cooperation of the Woman's Assembly. The House discussed
> the coming meeting on 23 November, and Windust annotated
> the minutes to specifically exclude any official status for the
> 26 November gathering. He wrote that it "was not a conven­
> tion, but the gathering of a few friends from the west coast
> and others adjacent to Chicago. "
> If we consider those who attended on 2 6 November, we find
> that it was hardly a national event. With the exception of one
> man from Kenosha, there were no representatives from the
> communities which had been informed of the rationale behind
> The Choice of a Site     1 35
> 
> the House's choice of site and had endorsed their actions.
> Apart from the few Chicago Baha'is who attended there was a
> Baha'i from Racine and another from Milwaukee in Wiscon­
> sin; one from Muskegon and one from Bangor, Michigan; one
> from Spokane, Washington; and one from Oakland, Califor­
> nia. The evening discussion to consider the sites they had
> viewed during the day was actually held in True's home .
> Most of the House did not attend the discussion, and it is un­
> likely that those Chicago Baha'is who were opposed to a
> North Shore        considered going to her home to discuss a
> matter on which her opinion was known and settled . 18 At any
> rate, the meeting voted to recommend a site on the north of
> the city.
> True later claimed , and it became generally accepted, that
> this was the site on which the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar now stands,
> but it was actually another site in North Evanston. 19 On 30
> November 1907, the House decided to look into a site on
> " S.W. cor. Sheridan Rd. and Hill St. , North Evanston, ap­
> proved of by delegates at meeting held on Tuesday evening,
> Nov. 26th, at the home of Mrs. True; also ascertain price and
> terms and make report to Assembly [community]. " Agnew
> and Lesch were appointed as an investigating committee to
> make enquiries. There is no further mention of this site, and
> we may assume that it was too expensive to consider. 20
> While the House continued to discuss the Mashriqu'l­
> Adhkar regularly, they seem to have laid aside the matter of a
> site and concentrated on other aspects of the project. As they
> had selected a feasible site at reasonable cost and had it re­
> jected through the efforts of those pressing for a North Shore
> site, there was really nothing they could do. Each North
> Shore site that was proposed was much more expensive than
> the one they had felt the community was barely able to afford.
> In early March 1908, True located another North Shore
> site. She had set out one day with Cecilia Harrison and
> 136     Part Two: The Building
> 
> Enayat Ullah Esphahani to find a location, and they had dis­
> covered a site for sale just north of North Evanston on Sheri­
> dan Road and Linden Avenue in Wilmette. This is the site on
> which the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar was built. True contacted an
> agent about the land and was informed that the asking price
> for the sixteen lots that comprised the site was $42, 078, but
> the agent recommended an offer of $36,315. 21
> True took her correspondence with the agent to the House
> meeting on 2 1 March, taking Mrs. Foster and Susan Moody
> (members of the Ways and Means Committee) with her for
> support. She proposed that a small part of the site be bought
> at the best terms possible and an option be secured on the
> rest. The House decided to postpone action for a week. The
> three women attended the following week's meeting on 28
> March. It was reported that a six-month option could be had
> for $ 1 ,000, and this could be extended for a second six
> months for a further $ 1 , 500. The House decided that an op­
> tion was inadvisable , as land prices were falling, but that to
> secure a small part of the site, "say 100 feet at lowest cash
> price, ' ' would be feasible. It was decided that this conclusion
> should be reported to the community at the weekly meeting
> on the following day and their approval asked for. Approval
> was received, and two lots on Linden Avenue were purchased
> for $2,000 in cash. (This was accurately represented by True
> and her supporters as a good price for these lots; the going
> rate would have been between $2, 500 and $3,000. )
> The purchase of these two lots was not considered to b e a
> final choice of site by the House, however, but a means to de­
> crease the pressure that was being brought to bear by the
> True lobby and a safe investment. In December 1 908, the
> House published an official statement in The Bahai Bulletin
> on ' 'the history and the details of the purchase of the ground' '
> as ' 'there seems to b e a general desire t o know ' ' what oc­
> curred. Despite the carefully conciliatory tone of this state­
> ment and its repeated insistence that everything happened in
> The Choice of a Site         137
> 
> a "friendly" way, it reported that "a number of the maidser­
> vants" came to the meetings of the House and "insisted on
> action, arguing against delay. ' ' The House had then taken the
> idea of buying the two lots to the community. The statement
> explains that they ' 'felt it wise to recommend to the friends
> the purchase of this land for various reasons, " but the only
> reason mentioned is that it was a "safe investment" that
> ' 'could be readily converted into cash'' if it should not prove
> to be the best site.
> The pressuring of the House into making the initial pur­
> chase of part of the Wilmette site took place when its most
> stalwart member, Thornton Chase, was out of town. After
> '
> seeing a plat of the site, he wrote to Windust that he thought
> it unwise to try "to procure all that $34,000 plot. " However,
> he did think "it would be fine to be able to get another 100 ft.
> front [on Linden Avenue], so as to have a practical square 200
> x 196 ft. This would be enough, not only for the Temple, but
> to take care of. "22 Later in the year, after he was apprised of
> the details and had seen the site, Chase wrote that he would
> not personally have assented to the purchase if he had been in
> town.23
> Apart from their published statement, the House sent a pri­
> vate explanation of the land purchase to the New York Board
> of Consultation in late 1908:
> 
> When the land was bought it was because of several reasons.
> Abdul-Baha had urged that a start be made, and as there was
> $2,000 on hand, the friends showed extreme anxiety that some­
> thing should be done. They were agitated and calling earnestly
> for some tangible evidence of action. A few of them had ascer­
> tained that the piece of land, two lots, could be bought for cash at
> a low price, and brought the strongest pressure, week after week,
> upon the members of the House of Spirituality to buy that piece
> of land. Finally, although it was not desired by all the friends, the
> majority of them acceded, and the land was bought as a possible
> beginning of the Temple site, and with the feeling that it was a
> 138     Part Two: The Building
> 
> safe investment anyhow, as the land could doubtless be sold for
> as much or more at any time, if another site should be found more
> desirable. It was also felt that by buying some land and thus
> showing readiness to "do something" a greater degree of unity
> might ensue and funds for further progress come in more quickly
> and abundantly. 24
> 
> It is evident that the House did not consider that having
> bought the two lots they were committed to the site, nor did
> they feel committed to buying the entire expensive site if it
> was decided to build there. For True and her supporters, this
> was not an acceptible attitude. They considered the land in its
> entirety to be the site; no other could be considered, and all
> the land must be secured. The House continued to work on
> the project, developing their plans for a system of national or­
> ganization to help build the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar and encourag­
> ing Baha'is locally and nationally to lend their support. In
> particular, they tried to increase the funds available, as they
> considered it advisable to avoid debts and that the money for
> each stage of the project should be collected before they en­
> tered into financial commitments. What they would not do
> was obtain an option on the entire site or agree to ascribe to it
> the ordaihed quality that was being insisted upon by True's
> group.
> In September, True wrote to the House suggesting that
> they obtain an option on the rest of the site in case the price
> should rise . At their meeting on 29 September the House de­
> cided such an action was not feasible. Chase was not at this
> meeting, but a few days after it he wrote:
> 
> The ground paid for is by no means certain to be the building
> ground. Mrs. T. and some others think, because Abdul-Baha has
> approved it, that it only can be the building spot, but all do not
> thi;nk so, and letters we have from Him show that it is not neces-
> The Choice of a Site        139
> 
> sarily the place, as we are advised to get more land by adding to
> that or elsewhere. But the purchase of any considerable amount
> of land there, or anywhere, is out of the question until we have
> the money to pay for it. We do not propose to go into debt in this
> matter, nor to waste the trust funds committed to our care. The
> money comes but slowly. We have about $ 1,600 cash and $2,000
> in the land, and we could "call" on about $700 more in case of
> need, which is being held by two assemblies, Kenosha and New
> York, to accumulate until it shall be needed. 25
> 
> In November 1 908, Chase wrote to 'Abdu'l-Baha:
> 
> Dear Master: The House of Spirituality with the aid of many
> others is striving to gather sufficient money to add more land to
> that already bought, or to secure a larger plot elsewhere and to
> begin on the foundation of the building. The money comes but
> slowly as it is earned by toil and labor of the poor, but it does
> come and the amount is steadily increasing. It does not seem fit­
> ting that this great work shall be only begun as a small hut, nor
> that debt shall be incurred in its building, but we long to make it
> a dignified building that shall command at least the respect of
> men. We long to fulfil Thy 9esire and are all endeavoring to for­
> ward the work as rapidly as possible. 26
> 
> From at least the time of the purchase of the two lots, True
> and her supporters sought to sanctify the site she had chosen.
> They assumed the right to use all the land, even though the
> Baha'fs only owned two lots in one corner. Indeed, they point­
> edly did not use these two lots, but met at the highest point of
> the ground toward the middle of the site. They went to the
> site in small groups to pray, but there were also larger-scale
> efforts to link the site to the Faith.
> On 18 May 1908, the House received a circular from True
> that she was sending out inviting Baha' fs to celebrate the
> Declaration of the Bab on the Site:
> 140     Part Two: The Building
> 
> 0 thou who art firm in the Covenant!
> Praise be unto GOD, the Clement, the Merciful! We are thank­
> ful that we are again allowed to celebrate the day of the Declara­
> tion of His Holiness, the Bab.
> Dear Bahai Friends:-
> This year it is requested that all the assemblies in this part of
> the country celebrate the day of the Declaration of His Holiness,
> the Bab, on the grounds selected for the first Mashrek-el-Azcar
> (Bahai Temple), in America, at the North-west corner of Sheridan
> Road and Linden Ave . , Saturday, May 23, 1908.
> The friends from Milwaukee, Racine, Kenosha and Chicago
> will unite in this celebration, also those in nearby towns, serving a
> basket dinner at one o'clock.
> Take the Evanston Electric Car to Ridge Ave. and Central St.
> (North Evanston), and walk North on Ridge to Linden Ave.
> In case of inclement weather, the friends will hold the celebra­
> tion in the home of Mr. & Mrs. True . . . .
> 
> At the celebration, the words of Mattie Watson's "The First
> Temple Song" were read, as were letters from communities
> around the country pledging to assist with the Mashriqu'l­
> Adhkar.
> The experience of visiting the site on this and other occa­
> sions produced m ixed reactions, as some Baha' is discovered
> how relatively inaccessible it was. In July 1908, Emma Car­
> michael wrote to the House:
> 
> I hope you will receive this communication in the kind spirit it is
> offered. You speak of erecting a Mashrak-el-Azkar in America,
> when the beloved One, Abdul-Baha is calling from that Bright
> Spot in tones of thunder in every Tablet, "Build in Chicago" and
> to other towns in America when they ask for a Mashrek-el-Azkar,
> "No, build in Chicago first" etc. Now I have been to the land
> selected and we find it takes us all of lf2 day to get there and back
> to Chicago, not remaining for any service, besides walking a mile
> The Choice of a Site        141
> 
> to the grounds from any car lines, which in the most beautiful day
> is not a very pleasant thing for many of our people and I find we
> are building or expect to build on those lots putting our own dear
> Temple three towns beyond Chicago, and how can we attend
> service there every day, it is an utter impossibility for many of
> our people, as we are not millionaires, and our dear little band
> seems to grow smaller every day and I have heard several say:­
> , 'I have been there once but I never can go away out there to wor­
> ship. " Dear brothers can't we trade those lots off for lots in
> CHICAGO? Regarding the matter of being on the lake, those lots
> are not on the lake. We are very anxious to co-operate and help
> all we can in the matter of erecting the Mashraek-el-Azkar, and
> desire nothing so much as the promotion of the Cause of Abha. 27
> 
> The House received an even more pointed expression of
> opinion from Mattie Watson, the author of ' 'The First Bahai
> Temple Song," in response to one of their appeals. "I have
> given $6 .00 toward the Temple, and $5. 00 toward the rent of
> hall ..   I do not now enclose a dollar, as I otherwise should if
> .
> 
> I was pleased with the location of the Mashrek-el-azcar. "28
> Chase commented on the site : "it does seem to me rather
> lacking in wisdom to place the Temple away out in the coun­
> try, where it not only requires from one and a half hours to
> two hours with the very best transportation to reach it, to say
> nothing of a long walk at the further end , rather [than] within
> at least 'reaching' distance of the city center. ' '29
> As well as using the site for gatherings, a more overtly sym­
> bolic attempt to establish the unpurchased land as the
> Mashriqu'l-Adhkar location was made when True and some
> others made a circle of nine stones on the ground and said
> prayers while anointing the stones with perfume and olive oil.
> As with most of her actions in regard to the Mashriqu ' l­
> Adhkar., True wrote of this occasion to 'Abdu'l-Baha. Whem
> she received his response, she used it to reinforce her claim as
> to the site's "consecration. "
> In August 1 908, the House distributed a printed leaflet
> 142     Part Two: The Building
> 
> which included a Tablet from 'Abdu'l-Baha and a long letter
> from Assad'Ullah. In the letter, Assad'Ullah commented,
> "Now is the time for expending energy and power in the erec­
> tion of the edifice, be it a mere stone, laid in the name of the
> Bahai Mashrak-el-Azkar. For the glory and honor of the first
> stone is equivalent to all the stones and implements which will
> later be used there. " However, that the implications of this
> statement were largely metaphoric can be seen from the sen­
> tences that followed: "If the first stone is not firmly laid upon
> a solid foundation, no stone will stand upon another. Reflect a
> little upon the name Peter and the building of the Christian
> Church, so that the subject becomes fully elucidated. ' ' Cer­
> tainly Assad'Ullah was encouraging the Baha'is to proceed
> with building, but his imagery seems to have inspired a very
> literal enactment.
> True's seamstress, Nettie Tobin, obtained an unwanted
> stone from a Chicago construction site and took it home.
> Shortly thereafter, she enlisted the aid of an older Persian Ba­
> ha'i to assist her to take the stone to the site where they were
> to meet True and Cecilia Harrison. After a difficult journey
> by public transport to the end of the commuter train line, they
> tried to drag the stone to the site. As they were so long in
> coming, True and Harrison walked toward the station and
> met them. They were unable to bring the stone to the site,
> and it was left overnight. The next day, Tobin returned and,
> with the aid of a newsboy, managed to get the stone to the
> site. This stone became a focal point for prayer gatherings
> and was later used as the dedication stone when 'Abdu'l-Baha
> visited the site. It has been generally known as the "corner­
> stone , ' ' although it has never served any structural function.
> The extraordinary effort that Tobin put into this gesture no
> doubt increased its symbolic effect, which was probably the
> intent, as True could easily have provided some rational
> means of transport to get the stone to Wilmette.
> The Choice of a Site      143
> 
> Throughout the summer and autumn of 1908, True was
> also making use of Tablets from 'Abdu'l-Baha to support her
> position. She maintained that they indubitably confirmed the
> choice of site. The House, which took a broader range of
> Tablets into consideration, felt that it was more accurate to
> consider that 'Abdu'l-Baha did not object to the site but
> would be happy either if more land were bought there or if a
> larger plot than the two lots in Wilmette were purchased else­
> where. They felt that the important thing was to obtain a site
> and build on it in a practical and timely fashion, and that this
> was what 'Abdu'l-Baha urged rather than an unswerving at­
> tachment to a particular piece of land. True found this view
> unacceptable.
> The situation was exacerbated when Annie Boylan of New
> York returned from pilgrimage in the autumn of 1908. She
> claimed that 'Abdu'l-Baha had told her that the site must not
> be changed and that he had said that he had written to that
> feet. This report was widely circulated and True distributed
> copies of it. The problem for the House was that the report
> did not square with 'Abdu'l-Baha's written statements. They
> suggested that perhaps Boylan or her interpreter had been in­
> fluenced by their own wishes in the construction they had
> placed .on 'Abdu'l-Baha's words. They were also well aware
> that �q�J4Ul was a leader of the group opposing the New York
> Board of Counsel (which would succeed in ousting the Board
> and electing their own slate in 1910) and was not well dis­
> posed toward the Chicago House either.
> On 17 November 1908, there was a j oint meeting of the .
> House and the Ways and Means Committee of the Chicago
> Baha'f community to discuss the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar. Accord­
> ing to Chase, after this meeting True:
> 
> . . . wrote a letter to me accusing the members of the House of
> Spirituality of "denying Abdul-Baha, " etc . . . .
> 144      Part Two: The Building
> 
> The cause of such action was simply that when a joint meeting
> of the House and the ladies of the local "Ways and Means Com­
> mittee" was held, and Mrs. True was speaking of the consecra­
> tion of the land, the members all stated calmly and quietly that as
> they were not aware of such a consecration, nor was it certain
> that that location would be the ,one to be finally used. Further­
> more it was clearly stated that there was no shadow of antagon­
> ism to that location, no feeling either for or against, but there was
> a question of doubt as to whether it was as good a location, as fit­
> ting and appropriate as some other that might yet be found. That
> was all, and at the time it seemed to create no feeling but kind­
> ness. Afterward, however, the letter named was sent to me. It
> was referred to the House, and the reply was made brief and sim­
> ple, to the effect that (without naming it) if such a condition as
> was mentioned in her letter existed, the H . of S. prayed that it
> might soon cease, and that all should work together for the carry­
> ing out of Abdul-Baha's desires. That ended the matter as far as
> any of the members know. 30
> 
> The matter was certainly not closed for True. In late Decem­
> ber 1908, she sent the House copies of Tablets and correspon­
> dence (including a copy of a letter to her from Boylan detailing
> the conversation with 'Abdu'l-Baha; this version differs in
> wording from another version circulating at the same time)
> and her covering letter included this pointed comment:
> 
> God grant that every Bahai surrender his will, his reason, his
> judgment, to the One Supreme Will of Baha'Ullah which today is
> made flesh & dwelling among us in the person of Abdul Baha.
> Through Tablets Abdul Baha has given us perfect instructions
> how to organize this Great Temple Work and where to build the
> Mashrak el Azkar. May we become as the ' 'little Children' ' Jesus
> taught & without a trace of desire go to the Holy Tablets for our
> guidance and obey them. 31
> 
> For True and her supporters, the site was chosen; for the
> House, a site was needed and it might be the site in Wilmette
> The Choice of a Site               145
> 
> or it might not; it was still an open question. The House felt
> the decision was up to the new national organization that was
> developed to help erect the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar.                     the
> case of the national organization also, the True party was to
> ·n r, ,., _ .:l Cwe shall see-and the site was t o be confirmed.                ul-
> timate                               had to wait a few          though, until lapse
> of memory allowed it to be identified with the November 1907
> convention. ' '
> the Wilmette                    was only two blocks north of the
> recommended by the meeting at True' s home                                1907, it
> seem that some of                    who attended that rn a,c.r• -n• IT
> could have                        confused as t o whether they saw the Wil-
> then or not. Actually, the Wilmette
> r h +·ta1"'.o-nt- relationship to Sheridan Road, the
> F' I HT"l � I L.>T<Cl i'< T
> 
> and                                 District Canal than the 1907            and it
> would be hard to confuse the                              without the           of a
> of years and an expectation that the Wilmette
> was the one seen                         1907. Obviously, there is no way
> could                 believed the two                  to be the same
> first                     that the Wilmette               had been chosen in 1907,
> although                 may have come to believe                own story in
> 
> At                                             1913, Albert
> Hall          an afternoon meeting. In his           he spoke
> of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar and described the land as being
> picked by "a few simple hearted good women of large
> faith."32 At least from the time of True's 1915 written ac­
> count of the beginnings of the project, these few women had
> lost precedence to the 26 November 1907, gathering. As the
> Faith became more institutionalized, for the     to have been
> recommended by a supposed "Mashriqu'l-Adhkar conven­
> tion" rather than a few individuals greatly enhanced its le­
> gitimacy, something that True seems to have felt it needed
> despite her strenuous efforts at consecration.
> 1 46     Part Two: The Building
> 
> THE BAHAI TEMPLE UNITY
> 
> In the last few months of 1906, the news that there was a
> plan to build a Mashriqu'l-Adhkar in Chicago reached various
> Baha'i communities throughout the country. It would seem
> that this was the first time most had heard of it. Even a com­
> munity in as close contact with Chicago as Kenosha was not
> aware of the details of what had happened previously, and the
> Kenosha Board wrote to the Chicago House asking for details
> in December 1906. In particular, they wished to know exactly
> what 'Abdu'l-Baha had asked to be done. The House replied:
> 
> In your letter you ask questions, regarding the proposed building
> of a Mashrek-el-Azkar (Bahai Temple) in America . . . .
> We, the members of the House of Spirituality, as well as others,
> have received Tablets bearing upon this subject, a printed copy of
> a        of them is herewith enclosed. It will become evident,
> through a perusal of enclosed Tablets, that no particular city or
> place has been designated, in which this Temple is to be erected.
> That· no person, or persons in particular have been appointed to
> take charge of the preparatory work, such as gathering of funds,
> etc. Our Master has simply invoked the blessing and confirma­
> tions of the True One (God) to descend upon any and all who will
> arise for this service. Permit me to say, however, in this connec­
> tion, that our Master (Abdul-Baha), as well as the Father (Baha'­
> u'llah), have ordained it to be the function of the Counsel Boards
> in the various centers to attend to and negotiate the business
> fairs of their respective localities and that the General Assemblies
> [communities] should conduct thep1selves in harmony with the
> deliberations of their chosen representatives. There is, no doubt,
> great wisdom in this.
> From the information we have on hand there is nothing which
> would lead us to believe that this work has been specialized to
> any particular locality, and the conditions existing at present
> seem to strengthen us in the conviction that it is a general work
> for the good of the whole body of American believers. And we
> The Choice of a Site        147
> 
> might add, in this connection, that there is a movement on foot to
> give impetus to this very idea.
> There is no time limit as regards the completion of this work,
> but there appears to be a great deal of virtue and strength in the
> suggestion that it be done while the Master is still with us.
> Our Beloved Master does not designate any particular method
> of procedure; this He has no doubt left entirely to our good judg­
> ment and consideration.
> As regards what has been done in Chicago, in relation to this
> work, permit me to say that as far as we know about Fifteen
> Hundred Dollars (1500.00) has been subscribed to the Temple
> Fund, which I feel reasonably sure will be forthcoming at the op­
> portune moment. 33
> 
> It would seem that the " impetus" toward making the
> Mashriqu'l-Adhkar project "a general work" expressed itself
> at this time in letting other communities know of the project's
> existence. In part, this was accomplished through the circula­
> tion by True of the petition to be sent to 'Abdu'l-Baha. The
> sheets for signatures were accompanied by a printed leaflet of
> three Tablets: the first 1903 Tablet to the House approving
> the idea of the project; a second Tablet from 1903 in which
> building the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar is described as "the greatest
> affair and the most important matter today"; and a recently
> received Tablet to True which again stressed the importance
> of the project. Both True and the House also corresponded
> with communities and individuals around the country about
> the project.
> As the House had decided in December 1906 to submit vari­
> ous questions concerning the project to 'Abdu'l-Baha through
> Agnew when he went on pilgrimage, they probably did not
> wish to take further steps until these questions were an­
> swered. Indeed, they expressed to the Kenosha Board their
> expectation of having ' 'more light upon the subject as soon as
> . . . Agnew returns, ' ' which would then bring them ' 'into a
> 148                 Part Two: The Building
> 
> clear understanding of the situation. " After the return of Ag­
> new's party, the House began to take definite steps to organ­
> the project.
> In June 1907, the House consulted with William Young (a
> Chicago Baha'f who was professionally involved with real es­
> tate) as to the legal requirements to be met for the community
> to be able to purchase land and build. As a result,           the
> regular Sunday evening community meeting on 30 June there
> was a business meeting ' 'for the express purpose of bringing
> this matter before the Assembly. " First, the meeting had to
> "decide upon an incorporate name, whereby the Assembly
> shall be known. ' ' It was proposed and accepted ' 'that the cor­
> porate name of this Assembly shall be the 'Bahai
> bly. ' " Second, it was proposed that the "members of the
> of Spirituality, be and are hereby
> ..... n' " '"� ""                                  and declared
> trustees of the 'Bahai Assembly' and shall have the care, cus­
> tody and control of the real and personal property of the
> 'Bahai Assembly, ' subject to the direction of the ' Bahai As­
> sembly,' and may, when directed by the 'Bahai                    '
> erect houses or buildings, and improve and repair and alter
> the same, and may when so directed, mortgage, incumber,
> sell and convey, any real or personal estate of the 'Bahai
> sembly' and enter into all lawful contracts in the name of and
> in behalf of the 'Bahai Assembly. ' " This motion was also
> passed and the meeting adjourned.
> The phrase "subject to the direction of the 'Bahai Assem­
> bly' ' ' in the resolution declaring the House members trustees
> for the community points up the difference between the
> general conception of the House 's status and that now held by
> Spiritual Assemblies. The early administrative bodies of the
> Baha'f Faith in North America were generally viewed as plan­
> ning and executive bodies, whose actions were subject to the
> direction and approval of their constituency, rather than as
> authoritative institutions who arrived at and implemented de-
> The Choice of a Site        149
> 
> cisions on their own best judgment. The need to seek ap­
> proval from the general community for any steps it took in the
> Mashriqu'l-Adhkar project contributed to preventing the
> House from carrying out its plans, as this laid the plans and
> actions of the House open to being blocked by pressure
> brought from within the community. We have seen how this
> operated in relation to the site.
> After filing an affidavit of the 30 June proceedings in the
> county recorder's office, the House felt that they had a legal
> basis upon which to act. We have seen how the House then
> initiated a search for a suitable site and what happened when
> they found one. After the matter of a site came to an effective
> halt in late 1907, the House concentrated on establishing a
> broader organizational base to support the project.
> At their meetings on 7 and 14 December 1907, the House
> ' 'considered, approved, ordered printed and circulated as
> soon as possible" a circular letter on the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar
> which was to be sent "throughout America. " The circular
> was dated 1 9 December 1907, and after briefly outlining the
> project from 1903, it noted the current state of affairs:
> 
> . . . in the spring of 1907, upon the return of pilgrims from Acca,
> we were informed that the building of the Mashrak-el-Azcar was
> the most important matter in America today.
> This word has gone forth and reports are being received from
> different parts that many Assemblies are each establishing a local
> fund to           in erecting this Monument to the Cause in this
> Western World.
> It is the purpose of this communication therefore, to announce
> to the Friends everywhere that we are ready to serve the Cause of
> God in this most important matter; having already made investi­
> gation, and found that it is possible to procure a suitable site as
> soon as we are ready to make the purchase . In pursuance of this
> purpose the present members of the House of Spirituality have
> been duly made Trustees for the holding of any properties and
> 1 50                       Part Two: The Building
> 
> buildings under their jurisdiction, according to the legal
> necessary in the State of Illinois.
> Kindly favor us with an acknowledgment of this communication
> at the earliest possible moment, that we may be assured of
> arrival.
> 
> It is significant that the House made no mention of the 27
> November meeting or that meeting's recommendation of a
> specific site. The House was also following the policy
> rt'Oc:<1- a rl by 'Abdu'l-Baha of simply informing other communi­
> 
> ties of what was happening and leaving it to them to offer
> assistance. With the circular was sent a printed copy of a
> prayer by 'Abdu'l-Baha for the Chicago community, which in­
> cluded the hope that they would arise "to build the Mashrak-
> "
> In November 1907, Charles Mason Remey had written from
> Washington, D.C. , that the "Working Committee " of the
> ha' fs of that city supported the House in             endeavors for the
> Mashriqu'l-A_            dhkar. (Washington had a history of
> to institutional development in the Faith. The Working Com­
> ...., of this date was the most
> ..... .. .. �, .., .....                         had       tolerated.) On
> December, Remey met with the House to discuss how both
> and the Washington Baha'is (in                  the few direct sup­
> porters of the Working Committee) might best cooperate with
> Chicago House and community in the project. Fareed was
> also present as a                   at this meeting, and he spoke of the
> need for unified action by all the communities. There was also
> a Baha'f from Kenosha present. As a result of the n-� �:.ar,, n
> steps were to be taken to establish a national organizational
> base for the project, and Washington was to act as an inter­
> mediary through which to present the plan:
> 
> due consideration, it was decided that effort be made
> toward establishing an association of oneness among the different
> assemblies throughout this country and that committees be ap.,.
> The Choice of a Site          l5 1
> 
> pointed i n various cities t o co-operate with the House o f Spiritual­
> ity in Chicago, in order that the Temple project be brought to a
> successful termination.
> The aforesaid met with the approval of all present and it was
> that this matter be presented to other assemblies through
> Mr. Remey and the friends in Washington.
> 
> Throughout January 1908, the House received replies to
> their December circular from various communities which ex­
> pressed willingness to cooperate. They also corresponded
> with Remey about the plan of national organization to be in­
> troduced by Washington. In late February and late March,
> circular letters were sent out from Washington addressed to
> ' 'the Bahais of America. ' ' These letters had been approved by
> the House.
> The first letter from Washington gave the usual brief sum­
> mary of the project from 1903 and then allu�ed to the House's
> 1 9 December 1908, letter and the response to it. It continued
> on the need for united effort to erect the building and the im­
> portance of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar as an institution of the
> Faith. In the final paragraph it promised a further communi­
> cation "which, in addition to the abstract aspect of this work
> of erecting a Temple in America, will touch also upon a plan
> whereby all may unite in actual tangible service and be able to
> manifest to all the world their purpose and desire to serve in
> this most important of works . ' '
> The second Washington letter, sent i n late March, set out
> the scheme planned by agreement with the House in detail:
> 
> After consultation with those friends in Chicago, the House of
> Spirituality of Bahais, through whose efforts this Temple Move­
> ment was inaugurated, we propose the following plan by which all
> interested will be enabled to unite and serve together in the erec­
> tion of this the first Mashrak-El-Azcar (Temple) in the Western
> World.
> 1 52     Part Two: The Building
> 
> It is suggested:
> 1 . That the Bahais in this country unite in forming ' 'The Bahai
> Temple Association of America" , the object of which will be to
> unite the Believers in this great work, to receive voluntary offer­
> ings and therewith purchase suitable land, and to erect thereon
> the Temple.
> 2. That The Bahai Temple Association of America have no
> individual membership. That it be composed of local branches
> throughout the country.
> 3. That in every city or town where there are three or more in­
> terested souls, that they form one branch. . . . That all of these
> branch associations keep in touch with the general association,
> each through the working of a committee which shall be chosen
> by the friends in that place . . .
> 4. That the Chicago House of Spirituality of Bahais be the legal
> trustee of the Bahai Temple Association of America for the trans­
> action of all legal business in connection with the receiving and
> holding of funds (offerings) and the dispensing of the same for
> lands upon which to build The Temple, for the building of The
> Temple itself together with any incidental expenditures in con­
> nection with the said service of building a Mashrak-El-Azcar in
> America.
> 5. That for the present until it seems wise to make a change,
> The Washington Branch . . . serve the General Association by
> sending out and receiving communications . . . .
> The Washington Friends therefore urge that in each place
> where there are three or more Bahais banded together, they unite
> in this work as soon as possible, forming themselves into a
> Branch Association and placing themselves in communication
> with the Washington Assembly . . .
> The object of organizing the work as above laid out is to distrib­
> ute equally among the Friends the opportunity to serve in this
> great work of Unity which will be to the foundation of the Cause
> in America as cement will be to the foundation of the material
> Temple . . .
> 
> Despite resistance in a few communities (such as Washing­
> ton) to local organization, the subject of national organization
> The Choice of a Site         153
> 
> was in the air in the Baha'f community in 1907-1908. In June
> 1907, Louise Codwise of Washington, D.C. , sent out a printed
> circular proposing a national system of nine member "links"
> in an "endless chain. " In each town one of these circles of
> nine members was to act as the "center for all the links" in
> that town; in each state there was to be a state center; and
> the "Central Circle of the District of Columbia" was to act as
> national center and the channel for communication with
> 'Abdu'l-Baha.
> In July, the New York Board brought this scheme to the
> attention of the Chicago House. Howard MacNutt was un­
> officially in touch with Cod wise on the Board's behalf, and
> sent a copy of a letter that he wrote to her to the House. Mac­
> Nutt reminded her that Baha'u'llah and 'Abdu'l-Baha had
> instituted a plan whereby ' 'the various Bahai communities
> throughout the world are at present under the advice and
> guidance of an appointed Body known as the Board of Conn-
> or         of Spirituality, regularly elected, organized and
> operative. "      could not see how Codwise's plan would
> monize" with this, but remarked that if the working out of her
> scheme was to be "Bahai in its character, " it must do
> MacNutt noted in his covering letter to the House that Cod­
> wise had informed him that her plan had generated ' 'consider­
> able enthusiasm. "35 It does not seem to have really had much
> but it may have helped prepare the ground for the
> ......... ... ,� ..... ... .
> 
> Bahai Temple Association plan proposed a few months later.
> In April l908, the House was informed of a more compre­
> hensive plan of national organization by Edward ....... ""'"J ..LLJ;;;. vL
> Getsinger had developed an elaborate proposed system of na­
> tional Baha'f administration. Like Codwise's, his scheme had
> local, state, and national levels with a Board at each level. He
> also suggested that national administration be concentrated in
> Washington, D.C., with the members of the "National Execu­
> tive Board " resident there and receiving maintenance from
> the National Treasury. Publishing was also to be centered in
> 154     Part Two: The Building
> 
> Washington, and two or three " Persian translators " were to
> reside there in the Board's employ.36
> The Bahai Temple Association plan being circulated by
> Washington seems to have met with a ready response. By
> May 1 908, there were local Branches in numerous communi­
> ties including Morgan Park, Illinois; Fruitport, Michigan;
> Ithaca, Johnstown, and New York, New York; Cincinnati and
> Sandusky, Ohio; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Clarkston, Seat­
> tle, and Spokane, Washington; Kenosha and Racine, Wiscon­
> sin; Washington, D.C. ; and Montreal, Canada. The first aim
> of each of these Branches was to begin to collect a local Tem­
> ple Fund to be held until required in Chicago. For its part, the
> House as a body and its members as individuals corresponded
> regularly with communities throughout the country to keep
> them in touch with the project. The Washington committee
> did so, too.
> It is necessary at this point to go back to late 1906 to fill in
> the background to True's position in May 1908. We have
> seen that in December 1 906 a new Temple Fund was estab­
> lished in True's keeping on the basis of the $ 103 returned by
> the Publishing Society. The exact status of this fund is un­
> clear. It seems that it was begun under the auspices of the
> Woman's Assembly, to some extent at least. However, it
> soon became a general ' 'Assembly' ' Temple Furid maintained
> individually by True, separate from the funds held by the
> House.
> At their meeting on 8 June 1 907, the House decided to ask
> True to "act in the capacity of Treasurer for Temple Fund
> . . . for the entire Assembly, ' ' which seems to have been a
> recognition of the actual state of affairs. A few weeks after
> the meeting on 30 June 1907, at which the "Bahai Assembly"
> was organized, with the House appointed to act as trustees in
> the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar project , True wrote that she was
> ready to ' 'turn over to the Official treasurer the sums held by
> ,
> The Choice of a Site      1 55
> 
> me for the Temple Fund" now that the members of the
> House "have been duly appointed Trustees for the Assem­
> bly. "37 The House accepted her offer and asked her to act as
> Corresponding Secretary for the Temple Fund, on the under­
> standing that ' 'in future all moneys collected for the Cause be
> forwarded ' ' to their treasurer.38 The House later explained to
> the New York Board that they had asked True to serve in this
> capacity, ' 'In order that there might be the utmost effort for
> harmony'' and to endeavor ' 'to prevent any foolish or unwise
> statements being sent broadcast" by having some oversight
> of her activities. 39
> Of course , by May 1 908, two lots of True's chosen site had
> been purchased and she was endeavoring to have the entire
> site confirmed. Apparently, as well as writing to 'Abdu'l-Baha
> about the site, she had included some remarks about organi­
> zation in a letter written probably around the middle of May
> 1908. It would seem likely from his reply that she had
> described the meeting she had organized on 26 November
> 1907, and suggested another similar meeting to make ar­
> rangements for building the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar. 'Abdu'l­
> Baha approved of the idea of a national meeting, suggesting
> that each community send a delegate to "establish a new
> meeting for the provision of the needs of the Temple. " He
> stated that in this "new meeting . . . ladies also are to be
> members. " However, he also explicitly stated that True
> should consult with the House about the matter, and that it
> was necessary for any plans to be carried out in a spirit of har­
> mony. After receiving this tablet, True wrote to the House
> about it, after first commenting on the site issue:
> 
> Since reading Our Lord's last Tablet in which He speaks of the
> Map of the Temple Site �& confirms it, I have been puzzling my
> brain as to our future mode of procedure . This morning's mail
> brought the answer direct from God, through the Pen of Abdul
> 156       Part Two: The Bu£lding
> 
> Baha "The King of the Day of the Covenant" as Baha'o'llah calls
> Him. Evidently the first step necessary is to call a         of
> the representatives of all the Assemblies and form a permanent
> Building Association to take the place of the         appointed
> for temporary purposes. 40
> 
> In her remarks, True seems to discount the House's steps
> toward national organization and to assume that their being
> appointed trustees was merely temporary, which was hardly
> the understanding of the House or the meeting that had ap­
> pointed them.41 The House, however, took 'Abdu'l-Bah;fs
> statements as confirming that what they had been doing was
> the best course.
> On 1 September 1 908, the House decided to write to the
> "Bahai Temple Committees throughout the country" to
> what would be the most suitable time and place to hold a
> meeting to form a national association in conformity with
> 'Abdu'l-Baha's wishes. On                     September, it was           to
> out a circular calling for the election of delegates. The
> letter was approved on 22 September. It recounted the
> scheme proposed through Washington and quoted from their
> March circular. The letter then noted that                      had        a
> 'I"OC" 'f" I"\1"" C"O
> to the plan and suggested ' 'that it is ap­
> proved by Abdul-Baha is shown by His statement in a recent
> Tablet to Mrs. Corinne True. ' ' The entire Tablet was quoted
> and, on the basis of "these instructions, " each community
> that had not already done so was requested to appoint a Tem­
> ple Committee, "each Temple Committee to be a member of
> The Bahai Temple Association of America-which shall con­
> sist of all these Temple Committees and be a Society of Unity
> for all." As well as fund raising for the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar,
> keeping in touch with developments in the Faith, and en­
> couraging unity and harmony in their community, each com­
> mittee should also prepare:
> The Choice of a Site         157
> 
> . . . for the sending of one or more representatives to a Temple
> Convention to be held in Chicago at the earliest practical time.
> This parliament of delegates, representing as far as possible all the
> American Believers, will constitute the "New meeting for the pro­
> visions of the needs of the Temple" as instructed by Abdul-Baha.
> 
> The House was not able to make plans to hold the national
> meeting as soon as they wished, as they received only a few
> replies to this circular. In November 1908, they wrote to the
> New York Board asking how they felt about having the meet­
> ing in "the week between Christmas and New Year" or, "If
> that is too soon or impractical, how would the five days pre­
> ceding the Fast do?' ' ; or, should it be put off until Ri<;lvan?42
> On 1 December, Chase wrote to Assad'Ullah:
> 
> . . . in strict accord with the expressed desire of Abdul-Baha, the
> House of Spirituality has made, and is making every possible en­
> deavor to gather a Convention of delegates from all parts of the
> country as soon as it can be accomplished. In this work the
> of Spirituality is working in thorough harmony with the Counsel
> Boards of New York and Kenosha and with the Committee in
> Washington . . . . It is the earnest desire that the coming Conven­
> tion shall represent every body of believers in this country, be­
> cause this Temple is not a Chicago Temple only, but an American
> Temple, and we hope that every believer in this land will feel his
> personal interest in it, and be a contributor according to his
> means for its building, and also have a voice in the matter of its
> establishment. Two letters have been sent, and a third will �oon
> follow, from the House of Spirituality to every known body of
> friends, urging upon them to make preparation as rapidly as pos­
> sible for the Convention, which will be held j:ust as soon as the
> time can meet the opportunity of the greatest number.
> It is understood that when this Convention of delegates shall
> meet, all the matters, of every kind, pertaining to the building
> of the Temple, the land, etc . , will be decided by that Convention.
> It is hoped that the Convention will · also appoint a permanent
> 158      Part Two: The Building
> 
> Temple Committee from its members to represent the Temple
> Committee of each assembly (which are being formed), such per­
> manent Committee to have the whole Temple matter in its hands.
> Until such time-that is until this Convention meets and assumes
> the care of matters-the House of Spirituality is doing all that
> it can to hasten that time of meeting, and to incite the      of
> generosity and loving          in the hearts   the friends every
> where. This is done through the local Temple Committees in
> locality. 43
> 
> That the process of developing a national organization was
> conceived in New York in the same terms as by the Chicago
> House may be seen from a comment by Harris, who was
> chairman of the New York Board at the time. He                        in
> a                  to Chase that he took the instruction to True in the
> Tablet about a "new meeting" to consult with the             .._ _.. ,_, ._.""'--
> 
> mean that that body was ' 'to                the initiative and
> until the control shall pass from your hands into
> the                        " 44
> 
> One factor that may have delayed the calling of the national
> u..n.-v i.JlJ.J..F. was               (indeed, puzzlement) over how to
> the delegates from each community <;�nd whether
> communities could send more than one                          The Tablet
> to True had mentioned one representative from each commu-
> nity, but               seem to have taken this literally. Indeed, True
> herself was                     out cards asking communities to
> aeJeg;ates. The problem was that when it came to ac­
> tually voting and making decisions there was uncertainty as
> to how voting power should be distributed among the commu­
> nities in an equitable fashion. This problem seems to have
> been worked out on an ad hoc basis in each community. In the
> event, some communities sent more than one delegate and
> some delegates represented more than one community.
> Around the turn of the year, the House selected 20 Febru­
> ary 1909, as the date for the national meeting. Soon after this
> The Choice of a Site                  159
> 
> they heard that this would not be a good date for those plan­
> ning to come from New York. So on 5 January 1909, they
> decided to begin the "Bahai Convention" on Saturday, 20
> March. The House then sent a circular letter dated 12 Janu­
> ary 1909, to approximately seventy different places giving the
> starting date for the convention and asking that names of
> delegates be sent within three weeks. This prior notification
> of names was also to serve as credentials for the delegates.
> The number of delegates was not specified, but left up to
> each community.
> On 26 January 1909, the House met with the Chicago Tem­
> ple Committee to begin planning for the convention. At this
> u.J.'-'''-'"'U.,LJI'. it was agreed that 20 March would be a reception
> 
> day for visiting delegates, with the Nineteen-Day Feast held
> t: "tr.c.-n , ...,. rr at Mrs. Foster's home, and that the rt a l. a rr"l t-a c<
> 
> invited to attend the community's weekly Sunday
> C' t:\'l'' T r•
> "t , a on the following morning. At this meeting True was
> 
> named as chairman of the Reception Committee. At another
> joint                                        February, it was decided to rent a hall for
> a                                            of the convention on Monday,          March
> and a program committee was appointed consisting of Chase,
> Windust,                               Louise Waite. However, at an open meeting at
> house on 17 March to complete plans for the conven­
> tion, True recounted the details of the arranged program. In
> outline                      stated that ' 'visiting        [would be] es-
> corted to site of Mashrak-el-Azkar the afternoon of the 2 1st. "
> In the official printed program for the meeting, it was also
> stated that on the Sunday afternoon ' 'Visiting delegates es­
> corted to Site of Mashrak-el-Azkar. " Of course, for the House
> and those who had participated with them in developing the
> Temple Association, one of the issues to be decided by the
> delegates to the convention was the choice of a site.
> The House had deferred the Chicago community's election
> of delegates until returns came in from other communities
> 160      Part Two: The Building
> 
> and they had an idea of how many delegates were being sent
> from each. On Sunday March 7, the Chicago community
> elected three delegates: True, Susan Moody, and Arthur Ag­
> new. It would appear from the total voting figures that about
> sixty people voted (possibly a quarter to a third of the Chicago
> Baha'f community). True received 37 votes; Agnew received
> 2 1 votes; and Moody received 20. Chase also received 20
> votes, but there is no explanation of why Moody was elected
> rather than him; there is no record of a tie-breaking vote.
> The present discussion is concerned only with the business
> sessions of the convention on 22 and 23 March. 45 Thirty-nine
> delegates representing thirty-six communities attended the
> convention. The representation varied from four delegates
> representing New York to one delegate representing five .
> communities (San Francisco, Oakland, Los Angeles , and Pas­
> adena, California, and Honolulu, Hawaii). That events did not
> go quite as planned by the House may be judged from a later
> comment written by Chase to Remey:
> 
> Abdul-Baha has repeatedly told Mrs. True that in the Temple
> matters, the House of Spirituality must be consulted. Yet . . . the
> House of Spirituality was intentionally and steadily ignored in the
> Temple Convention, and has been almost entirely so since, except
> in so far as you and Bro. Agnew have asked its attention. This
> was of purpose aforethought, not accidental. It was "arranged"
> by the women, and Mr. Mills and Mr. Hall were made the instru­
> ments of its carrying out, all unconsciously to themselves. 46
> 
> Remey replied:
> 
> Although I never mentioned it to you, I was a party to your own
> personal suffering those days of the convention, and I felt
> strongly upon the matter. In the convention meeting I remember
> arising and suggesting to the people that some cognizance should
> be taken of "The Bahai Temple Association of America" for
> The Choice of a Site        161
> 
> which the H. of S. was trustee, and of the work of the latter (H. of
> S.) but there was no response whatever, so I quietly sat down.47
> 
> The business sessions of the convention are documented in
> a published record of its proceedings. This is a summary
> document and does not record the details of the discussions.
> There is no mention in this official record of the Bahai Tem­
> ple Association plan that had actually brought the delegates
> together; nor in the numerous votes of thanks at the end of
> the meeting was there any mention of the House or its work
> toward national organization. These omissions can hardly be
> accidental.
> On the mprning of 22 March, the                 were welcomed
> on behalf of the Chicago community and the House by Chase.
> They then heard True read the tablet 'Abdu'l-Baha had sent
> to the convention, in which he restated the importance of the
> Mashriqu'l-Adhkar project. Chase then read an early Tablet
> address.e d to the ' 'House of Justice' ' (as th� House of Spiritu­
> ality was first known), the main purport of which was the
> for unity and harmony. After appointing a temporary
> chairman and secretary, the convention heard a report that
> the gathered delegates were duly accredited by their commu­
> nities. The tablet to True approving the calling of a new
> meeting was read, and the report on credentials was ac­
> cepted. The appointment of convention officers was then
> fied and another prayer read. Then the, delegates came to the
> first substantial business to be brought before them-the site.
> It might have been thought that the first order of business
> should logically have been to finalize the details of the na­
> tional organization and appoint a national committee for the
> Bahai Temple Association, as this was the primary purpose
> for which the meeting had been called by the House. How­
> ever, the matter of the site was introduced before any discus­
> sion of the proposed national organization. It was first resolved
> 1 62     Part Two: The Building
> 
> that "the City of Chicago, or its suburbs be selected as the
> place to build. " Then:
> 
> Upon request, Mr. Agnew, of the House of Spirituality of
> Chicago, informed the Convention regarding sites and other local
> features, and Mr. Hall, of Minneapolis, gave detailed information
> regarding the locality proposed for the Temple site and in which
> some ground has already been purchased.
> Each delegation was called upon to express its opinion regarding
> the location of the Temple site in Chicago. The roll call brought
> forth the unanimous decision of all the delegates that the plot in
> which a piece of ground has been acquired should be chosen as
> the site for the Temple, as already approved by Abdul-Baha.
> 
> The wording in which the previous day's visit to the Wil­
> mette site had been described on the program for the con­
> vention, the use of the words "as already approved by
> Abdul-Baha" in the report, and the fact that the question of
> the site was brought up before the formal establishing of a na­
> tional organization all suggest an active continuation of the
> campaign by True and her supporters in favor of her chosen
> site.
> It would seem that the issue of the location of the site was
> really only of much consequence to those in Chicago who
> wished to see the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar built where it could be
> used and those who supported True as to her choice. For the
> rest of the country it did not really matter. The construction
> of the building was assuming symbolic status for them;
> whether it would or could be used was a lesser question. Thus
> in November 1908, Harlan Ober had informed Chase:
> 
> Outside of Chicago I find but little feeling that the site is too far
> from the city, on the contrary the newness of the land, the new­
> ness of the associations, the fact that out there, there is a new
> start has seemed to some to be of considerable significance more
> The Choice of a Site       163
> 
> advantageous than otherwise. There seems also to be the feeling
> that considerations regarding the adaptability of the Mashrak el
> for the holding of meetings for teaching and for worship or
> for any peculiarly local purpose, are not wholly pertinent since
> the real object is more comprehensive than that. There are thou­
> sands who will never be able to visit the Mashrak el Azcar and
> wander around its courts, yet it is for them also. 48
> 
> This feeling worked to the advantage of the True party in
> getting their site confirmed, but it was disadvantageous as
> regards True's goal of actually seeing a building built. The
> same symbolic orientation that made practical considerations
> of accessibility and cost irrelevant in the choice of a site did
> not encourage the timely erection of a building. If it did not
> matter whether the building was useful, the really important
> thing about it was the idea. The idea was perfectly service­
> able without a stone ever being laid.
> After the confirmation of the site, the convention heard a
> financial report that $3,525 was being held by the treasurer of
> the Chicago House for the Temple Fund. Various delegates
> also reported that a total of $2 ,306 was being held in local
> community funds.
> On the afternoon of 22 March, the delegates turned to the
> matter of "permanent organization to effect the objects of this
> Convention. " On motion by Hall, it was resolved "that this or­
> ganization to be formed of all of the Assemblies represented or
> hereafter associating with us, shall have full power and au­
> thority in Temple matters and to provide ways and means
> therefore; that final authority therein shall rest with the mem­
> bers of the Bahai several Assemblies and that the majority
> thereof, through their representatives, control . " Again, mat­
> ters seem to be somewhat backwards, as the convention was
> voting to give total control of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar project
> to a body whose nature was still undetermined.
> 164     Part Two: The Building
> 
> A committee was appointed ' 'to propose a plan for an or­
> ganization in accord with the preceding motions. " This com­
> report was to be elaborated on the following day in
> the new organizational constitution, but here we may note
> that it nominated "delegates to represent the several Assem­
> blies, subject to the confirmation or election of a substitute by
> each Assembly. " The committee named thirty individuals,
> and         were confirmed by the convention as representa­
> tives of the communities for which they were named (in which
> they did not necessarily live) subject to subsequent confirma­
> tion or substitution by the named communities. For present
> purposes, however, these thirty were to form the basis of the
> national organization. A committee was then appointed to
> draft a constitution in accord with the organization commit-
> report.
> sessions on    March were held in True's home. In the
> morning, after prayers and tablets, the convention heard the
> proposed constitution of the national organization, in which it
> was called the "Bahai Temple Unity. " By an ironic slip, the
> constitution as             and approved stated that the object
> of the organization was to acquire a site and           a Mash­
> riqu'l-Adhkar "at Chicago, Ill . , in accordance with the
> dared wish of Abdul-Baha" ; there was no               to "or its
> suburbs. " The constitution stated that "the powers of this
> Unity shall abide in the several Bahai Assemblies" and should
> be             through one representative chosen by each As­
> sembly, with the exception of Chicago, New York (Borough
> of Manhattan), and Washington, D.C., which should each se­
> lect two representatives. The "affairs of this Unity" were to
> be managed by an Executive Board of nine members elected
> annually in convention or by mail and the Board was to have
> the authority to incorporate the Unity at its discretion.
> The constitution was accepted, and the delegates from
> The Choice of a Site      165
> 
> Chicago, New York, and Washington were requested to name
> an additional representative from each of their cities. It was
> resolved to ask 'Abdu'l-Baha ' 'to be the Honored Head' ' of
> the Bahai Temple Unity (he declined), and that the minutes of
> the convention should be edited and corrected and a copy sub­
> mitted to him with that request. On a motion by Hall, the
> Board was authorized to complete the purchase of the Wil­
> mette site and to acquire ' 'the adjacent lots commanding the
> lake front, as rapidly as means therefor become available. "
> Again this seems somewhat beforehand, as the Board was yet
> to be selected. The convention adjourned to reconvene a� the
> Bahai Temple Unity and then appointed a committee to rec­
> ommend nine members to form the Executive Board.
> The Bahai Temple Unity reconvened in the afternoon and
> approved the nine members suggested for the Board. The
> meeting then adjourned as the Bahai Temple Unity and re­
> convened as the Bahai Temple Convention again. The recon­
> vened convention then approveq the action of the Bahai
> Temple Unity in approving the committee's selection of a
> Board. Pledges were made of financial support for the Tem­
> ple Fund, and the business of the convention concluded with a
> series of votes of thanks. Despite the rather baroque proceed­
> ings of this convention, it had brought into being a national or­
> ganization that was now going to have to take responsibility
> for the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar project.
> In view of Chase's later comment on the convention quoted
> above, it is worthwhile to consider the roles of Hall and Mills
> during the convention. Apparently, previous to the conven­
> tion, Hall had taken an option on additional lots of the Wil­
> mette site for $500. After this site was confirmed, he was
> offered a vote of thanks ' 'for his great kindness' ' by the con­
> vention. Hall, who as a lawyer was familiar with procedural
> matters, offered and had accepted seven motions and two
> 166      Part Two: The Building
> 
> suggestions during the convention. No other delegate is re­
> corded as offering more than a total of three. (In a number of
> cases, the name of the person making the motion is not re­
> corded, so either of these figures may be an understatement.)
> Of the six temporary committees appointed during the con­
> vention, Hall served on three. When he was not appointed to
> the largest committee selected (the one to devise a plan of
> "permanent organization" which had ten members), that
> committee asked that he act as an adviser. Hall was one of the
> three-member committee which drew up the Bahai Temple
> Unity constitution. Mills (another lawyer) was also on this
> committee, and the third member was Mrs. Hahn from New
> York. Mills also served on the committee to recommend a
> Board, as did True. True was on three more of the        com­
> mittees. There was no committee that did not have at least
> one of these three individuals on it. Three of the committees
> had two of them, four if we count the committee for which
> Hall was an adviser. Hall, Mills, and True were selected for
> the Board.
> Mills was a New York delegate to the convention, but he
> was not named as a representative to the Bahai Temple Unity
> by the "permanent organization" committee. After the accep­
> tance of the constitution, when the Chicago, New York, and
> Washington delegations were asked to name a second rep­
> ,
> resentative, New York selected Roy Wilhelm, who was not
> present. After the reconvening of the meeting as the Bahai
> Temple Unity, Mills was appointed proxy to act in :Wilhelm's
> place on a motion by True. It was immediately after this that
> he was appointed to the committee to recommend the mem­
> bers of the Board.
> It is not clear from the constitution whether Board mem­
> bers were to be selected only from community representa­
> tives, but it would seem from the fact that the "Convention"
> The Choice of a Site          167
> 
> adjourned to reconvene as the "Bahai Temple Unity" to con­
> sider the matter of the Board that certainly only Bahai Tem­
> ple Unity representatives were to vote for the Board. Indeed,
> immediately after voting in the Board the Bahai Temple
> Unity adjourned and reconvened as the Bahai Temple Con­
> vention again. The only action specifically taken by the Bahai
> Temple Unity as such (apart from accepting Mills as a proxy)
> was to appoint the committee to recommend a Board and to
> accept their recommended list. Despite the supposed intent to
> create a national association to take control of the project, it
> was the general convention that passed all other resolutions
> and left a body of instructions for the Board. The backwards
> nature of the proceedings had dealt with almost all business
> before the national organization was in place. The national or­
> gatuz<itlcm did not confirm any of the previous resolutions of
> convention; on the contrary,      convention con-
> Temple Unity's choice of a Board.
> procedural chaos of this first national convention was to be
> r h •::u• -:J r'f"t:)r,c:�1"11"' of      in future years.
> True's motion to substitute Mills for the unavailable Wil-
> was                  just      the           as the Bahai
> ple Unity. It seems evident that if he had not been elected as
> a proxy at this                         he would not have been eligible   the
> committee to recommend a Board, to                              in electing a
> Board, and · possibly to be elected to the Board, as                    would
> have been merely a convention delegate and not a member of
> the Unity. 49
> Obviously, the New York delegation was aware of Wilhelm's
> absence and Mills' presence when they made their choice of a
> second representative. That the substitution of Mills as proxy
> was made after the reconvening of the meeting as the Bahai
> Temple Unity and confirmed by the Unity representatives
> (which only included one other of the New York delegation),
> 1 68    Part Two: The Building
> 
> rather than the New York delegation being asked to select
> a proxy before the status of the gathering was changed , is
> suggestive.
> At their meeting on 28 March 1909, the House authorized
> their treasurer to "turn over all Temple Fund in his posses­
> sion to newly appointed Treasurer of Bahai Temple Unity. "
> By 6 April, the contract was closed for the rest of the Wil­
> mette site.
> After the clo se of the convention on 23 March, the Board
> had met for the first time. The composition of the Board was
> rather mixed, ranging from True to the House's ally in the
> Bahai Temple Association plan, Remey. At that first Board
> meeting Remey was ' 'requested to confer with architects and
> have them submit designs and plans for the Temple. " Remey
> and Hall were then appointed as "a standing Building Com­
> mittee" and directed to do basically the same. 5°
> In late spring, Hall and Remey issued a circular letter to
> "all architects, designers, draughtsmen and engineers who
> desire to contribute designs for the Bahai Temple (Mashrak­
> el-Azcar) to be bui1t,1-in Chicago. " The circular gave some
> specifications of the site and the expectations for the building.
> These expectations did not include that the building would be
> reasonably modest in scale and able to be built soon with
> fairly limited resources. It was specifically stated that the
> hope of the Bahai Temple Unity was to begin construction
> soon, but that they only expected to complete "the founda­
> tion and basement story or crypt, which latter will serve as a
> place of worship until the main part of the building be com­
> pleted. " Later it was stated that in formulating designs "it
> should be borne in mind that this Temple is an edifice for fu­
> ture as well as for present needs, and that it should be monu­
> mental in design and in construction. " It was requested that
> design ideas be submitted by 10 July 1909, and stated that
> The Choice of a Site          169
> 
> ' 'the object of this matter here presented is to have an offer­
> ing of as many ideas and designs as possible, from the sum to­
> tal of which a design for the actual building of The Temple
> will be forthcoming. ' '
> Both the time allowed and the description of the object of
> the circular show the call for designs to have been a less than
> serious search for a qualified architect. In fact, before the es­
> tablishment of the Bahai Temple Unity, a number of Baha'f
> architects (and one non-Baha'f) had already done several de-
> and a number of them had champions                   for
> selection. When the Board viewed designs at their meetings
> in August and October 1909, virtually all of them had been
> done                   before the circular was issued, and          had
> been no further                  shown by non-Baha'fs. These designs
> were mostly impractical in                 and cost.
> True became Financial Secretary for the Board, and with
> O 'M r'A1 1 " ">
> ..
> fund
> <TjOJoTY l'-l 'Yl T
> to pay for the land was about
> only practical result that distinguished the              years of
> . the Bahai Temple Unity. The extra land on the lakeshore that
> the 1909 convention had directed the Board to look into was
> contracted              during 191 1--1912 at a further cost of $17,000 .
> By early 1914, the land .had all been paid for at a cost of
> $51 ,500, not including                  payments (in 1909-1910 alone
> these amounted to $1 ,425). The total received by the Temple
> Fund between 1907 and April 1915 was over $72,000, an
> amount that would have bought and built on the site proposed
> by the House in 1907. In October 1908, Remey estimated for
> the House that a large building on the scale of the one in
> qabad would. cost at least $150,000. A more modest structure
> would have cost proportionately less. A reasonably impres­
> sive religious structure could have been built at that time for
> $35,000 to $45,000.
> During the rest of 1909, the House continued to discuss the
> 170     Part Two: The Building
> 
> Mashriqu'l-Adhkar project. They arranged for a RiQ.van
> celebration to be held in a large tent on the site on 2 May in
> association with the Woman' s Assembly, and they consulted
> with the Women's Temple Committee about stimulating in­
> terest in the project in Chicago. However, the House increas­
> ingly felt that now that the Bahai Temple Unity had been
> formed, some Baha'is considered them to be redundant, and
> they declined to push themselves forward into what were now
> seen as Temple Unity Board affairs unless they were invited
> by the Board. Remey, in particular, and Agnew felt that the
> Board should work closely with the House, as the new body
> needed the House's practical experience to assist them. Their
> feeling was not shared by the rest of the Board.
> By the end of 1909 , the House was in serious difficulties.
> The members were generally discouraged and felt that their
> efforts were unwanted, and several of them had serious finan­
> cial and business problems. By early 1910, Chase had been
> transferred by his employers to California. On 1 March 1910,
> the last meeting with recorded minutes of the Chicago House
> was held, and a considerable hiatus in its functioning ensued.
> The Board had done little at its meetings in 1909 other than
> admire plans of enormous and impractical buildings and was
> to do even less in the following years. Around the middle of
> the second decade of the century, the Board would be rein­
> vigorated by a number of East Coast Baha'is , and the focus of
> national organization would shift from Chicago to Boston and
> New York until the late 1930s. Apart from True's fund rais­
> ing to pay for the land in Wilmette and the holding of its an­
> nual conventions, the early, Bahai Temple Unity did not do
> much. It certainly did not speed the erection of any building.
> There can be no doubt that True was devoted to the idea
> of having a Mashriqu'l-Adhkar built. It is equally the case
> that she was the prime mover in both of the factors that un­
> dermined the plans of the Chicago House to build one: the
> The Choice of a Site       171
> 
> insistence on a North Shore site, as opposed to the one recom­
> mended by the House, and the substitution of the Bahai Tem­
> ple Unity for the proposed Bahai Temple Association. Some
> of True's contemporaries felt that her actions were inspired
> by the gender conflict that existed within the Chicago and
> New York Baha'f communities. It is true that there is consid­
> erable evidence that True resented the exclusion of women
> from membership on the Chicago House and that in pressing
> for her ideas about the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar project she allied
> herself with leaders of the opposition to the all-men Board in
> New York. However, it is too simple an analysis to put her ac­
> tivities down to gender conflict alone. 51
> True's relationship with the Woman's Assembly of Teach­
> ing in Chicago (an institution that had its own uneven rela­
> tionship with the House) was often as ambivalent as her
> relationship with the House. Indeed, she seems to have been
> at odds with most of the leading women in that organization
> at one time or another. During the period leading up to the
> founding of the Bahai Temple Unity, the "work of the
> Woman's Assembly as a body had become desultory, ineffec­
> tive. "52 In early May 1909, the Woman's Assembly reor­
> ganized with an elected board of nine members after "the
> mode of procedure of the Bahai Temple Unity. " True was
> conspicuously absent from this board.
> True was not an institutionally oriented person (indeed, in
> the mid-1920s she declined to accept election to institutions at
> Shoghi Effendi's suggestion) and does not seem to have been
> able to work well in institutional contexts. A Chicago House
> was elected again in 1912 and, on 'Abdu'l-Baha's instruc­
> tions, women as well as men were considered eligible for elec­
> tion to the body. True was among those elected, but the new
> mixed body was not much more active than the lapsed all­
> men one and would not be for several years. When there was
> a revival of local institutionalization of the Faith in Chicago, it
> 172     Part Two: The Building
> 
> was in the context of a battle royal between True and another
> prominent woman in the community with the function of local
> institutions being mainly to support one or the other.
> Another factor that probably played some part in True's ac­
> tions, but that was not so overtly alluded to by her contem­
> poraries as that of gender, was           True was of a higher
> social standing than any member of the House, although there
> were some women in the Chicago community of at              equal
> standing. One of the factors in creating gender            in the
> Chicago Baha'f community was that there were women from
> more elevated social levels than any of the men. The prE�se11ce
> of such women among them             the Chicago Baha'f women
> as a group access to more resources than the men. In particu-
> lar, women were able to be more                        than men,
> meeting more frequently and dominating               to ' '�"'� �"'' "" "" '"' "" ""
> 
> community   m <::> m n.L>
> '1'" L'
> 
> It was a not uncommon pattern in         early North
> Baha'f community nationally for women          some
> to        any          by bodies within the
> members were            social            to exert control over
> them. Indeed, in one local community the most socially
> prominent woman refused to permit            development of any
> local institutional organization of the Faith for          years.
> The actions of True fit this pattern.
> Just as in Chicago the women of highest social position
> were above any of the men, so in the national community
> there were no men b� positions equivalent to those of the most
> socially elevated women. One of the factors in the early lack
> of results from the Bahai Temple Unity may have been that it
> did not have the active support of any of these prominent
> women. It had True , of course, but she was more outclassed
> by other women on the national level than she outclassed the
> Chicago men.
> It is probably not accurate to see True as a feminist, as
> some of her contemporaries portrayed her. As a woman, her
> The Choice of a Site      173
> 
> activities were enmeshed in gender rhetoric, but this was
> mostly coincidental. She does not seem to have had a basic
> commitment to women's issues in the early Baha'i commun­
> ity. She had an ) idee fixe-the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar-and if
> gender rhetoric and the channeling of gender tensions would
> assist her to that end, they were as useful as any other means.
> True's commitment to the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar was deeply
> emotional rather than rational. For some reason she felt it
> must be located on the North Shore and her efforts were
> largely directed to that end. That she had no real concept of
> how a building was to       built there or what it would be used
> for (for a while she adopted the idea that it would be 'Abdu'l­
> Baha's tomb and that the remains of Baha'u'llah would be
> transported there, too!) was beside the point. She believed
> she knew what needed to be done, and bent her considerable
> energy toward it. 54
> Although it was largely through True's actions that the
> House's 1907 plans came to ·nothing, it should also be noted
> that the lack of action by others was significant. The amount
> raised to pay for the Wilmette site would have paid for a
> building on the site the House wanted to buy. If True had
> been prepared to submit her fund-raising abilities to the
> House's direction in support of their plans, she might have
> seen a Mashriqu'l-Adhkar in use forty years earlier than she
> did . However, if some others had been prepared to support
> the Hause's plans financially, True's objections would have
> been much         significant.
> It is correct, as the House frequently pointed out, that most
> of the North American Baha'i community earned their living
> by daily work and did not have much surplus resources; but
> there were some Baha'is who had considerable resources.
> There were even a few who could have built the whole project
> virtually out of their loose change. In 1907, some Baha'is
> were in a position to spend vast sums on mansions, travel, art
> collections, private theatricals, and charitable contributions;
> 1 74    Part Two: The Building
> 
> none of them made any significant contribution to the Temple
> Fund. Even in 1912, three years after the founding of the Ba­
> hai Temple Unity and after five years of continuously pub­
> licizing the project within the Baha'i community, they were
> not doing so. 'Abdu'l-Baha was in the United States in that
> year and (according to the translator on the occasion who
> later recorded the event) he was walking in New York with a
> wealthy Baha'i one day when she asked him what she could
> do to please him. He simply gave her a generalized answer
> about being a good person. The translator (who was from
> Chicago) asked why he didn't ask her to build the Mashriqu'l­
> Adhkar, and he replied that she should know that without be­
> ing asked.
> The enthusiasm for the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar project was
> largely at the level of those for whom the ' 'widow's mite' ' was
> all they could contribute. Just as Baha'is from this level of the
> community participated most thoroughly in the development
> of community devotional practice by enthusiastically adopt­
> ing Baha'i hymnody, so they wished there to be a Baha'i
> building in which to worship. Not only in Chicago but through­
> out the country, Baha'is of ordinary circumstances eagerly
> looked forward to the construction of the building. Decades
> later, when the project was transformed from a place of wor­
> ship to a largely symbolic structure, a number of wealthy Ba­
> ha'is would add considerably to the "mites" contributed by
> the generality of the community to enable the building to be
> constructed. But in the first decade or so of this century, no
> one came forward to fill that role.
> True helped to frustrate the plans of the Chicago House and
> the developing Bahai Temple Association, but the main rea­
> son the House's plans were not realized was lack of money.
> The equation had been simply stated by the House over and
> over again: no money, no building.
> CHAPTER SIX
> 
> THE BOURGEOIS DESIGN
> 
> Since it was chosen in 1920 to be built on the Wilmette site,
> the design for a Mashriqu'l-Adhkar produced by Louis Bour­
> geois has served as a symbol of the Baha'f Faith in North
> America, and to it has been attributed exceptional aesthetic
> and symbolic status. Indeed, the design has become so im­
> bued with an apparently essential attachment to the Baha'f
> Faith that neither it nor its execution have been analyzed in
> an intellectually or historically cogent manner to date. The
> aim of this chapter is to discuss the development of the Bour­
> geois design in order to shed some light on its actual
> sence, " and to consider how its choice, the reactions to that
> choice, and the use of the design as a basis for the constructed
> building relate to various strands in the ideological develop­
> ment of the North American Baha'f community.
> 
> THE CHOICE OF THE DESIGN
> 
> When the delegates to the Bahai Temple Unity annual con­
> vention met in New York in 1 920, the options for a design for
> the Mashriqu'1-Adhkar in Wilmette had been effectively nar­
> rowed from the various submissions of 1909 and later to either
> 
> 1 76    Part Two: The Building
> 
> a design by Charles Mason Remey or the one by Bourgeois.
> The only other architect to speak on his design at the conven­
> tion was William Sutherland Maxwell, and it seems likely that
> he was induced to increase the visibility of his candidature not
> long before the convention, as he stated that his drawings
> were only finished just before he caught his train from Mon­
> treal. 1 If there was an attempt to introduce a vote-splitting
> dark horse in Maxwell it failed , as his design received only
> one vote and the main trend of the convention discussion indi­
> cates a fairly general assumption of the choice being between
> a Remey design and the one by Bourgeois.
> Despite there being much to be said for some of the 1909
> collection of designs, and for Maxwell's new effort, this limi­
> tation of the perceived choice is not surprising, as both
> Remey and Bourgeois had been energetically publicizing their
> designs for some time. Remey had been touring an exhibition
> of his work, which drew reasonably good press notices, for
> several years, and had published two books of his designs. 2
> Bourgeois had been exhibiting his design in his home since
> 1918, and had produced a circle of admirers. Another factor
> that probably helped to concentrate the choice in the conven­
> tion itself, apart from which architects were there to speak
> and answer questions, was that the Bourgeois design and one
> of Remey's were represented by models, and .these designs
> were therefore more visually present than the others.
> Remey had chosen his Indian design to have modeled on the
> basis of two factors: (1) cost, in that the estimated building
> cost of this design seemed realizable by the community in a
> reasonable time; and (2) 'Abdu'l-Baha's expressed stylistic
> preferences. Neither of these grounds helped this design's
> chances much in the convention. There was much support for
> the idea that possible cost should not be considered a relevant
> factor in choosing a design, as either the building of the Ma­
> shriqu'l-Adhkar would be the work of generations to come, or
> The Bourgeois Design        1 77
> 
> God, or non-Baha'f sympathizers with the presumed symbolic
> purpose of the building, would provide funds as necessary.
> There was also a reluctance to consider in full 'Abdu'l-Baha's
> instructions regarding the building. As 'Abdu'l-Baha had
> given the choice of a design to the convention, some felt that
> this overruled all preceding instructions from him and that
> the convention should follow its own inspiration. Remey had
> provided the delegates with an illustrated booklet on his In­
> dian design which included a discussion of its adherence to
> 'Abdu'l-Baha's stylistic preferences, but in the convention
> discussion such expressions were not included in those
> ences to the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar by 'Abdu'l-Baha that were
> read; and when Remey attempted to get them read, the Chair­
> man ruled that this was unnecessary. 3
> Two other factors, beyond the previously established parti­
> sanship and the lack of certainty as to the criteria to be consid­
> ered, that complicated the design choice were the conQ.ucting
> of the convention itself and the introduction of outside expert
> advice.
> The convention was poorly chaired, on the whole: motions
> were made and seconded and not further acted upon; the
> chair sometimes summarized with utter inaccuracy informa­
> tion that had been given to the delegates; and discussions of
> factual points were left uncompleted before moving on. There
> was also some confusion over the voting. The 1920 conven­
> tion marks a transitional point in the conduct of Bahai Temple
> Unity conventions in that previously one delegate could
> represent several areas and have a vote for each, but at subse­
> quent conventions a delegate could represent only one area
> and have one vote. In 1 920, there was multiple representation
> but considerable feeling against multiple voting in the design
> choice, and the convention d e cided to limit delegates to one
> vote even if they represented more than one area. There was
> also some confusion, over substituting alternates for delegates
> 1 78    Part Two: The Building
> 
> who left before the vote on the design. It is not necessary here
> to attempt to unravel this procedural tangle; indeed, the con­
> vention itself did not manage to do so.
> After the initial vote on the designs, which gave 28 of the 49
> votes cast to the Bourgeois model, Remey suggested that the
> convention pass a unanimous vote for that design; after some
> discussion as to how to do so, this was done. Considering
> Remey' s preceding and subsequent attitudes, it may seem
> strange that he did this. As it is evident that his arguments
> carried little weight on the ,convention floor, he may have
> thought he stood a better chance by getting the whole matter
> back to the Board. It must be realized that up to the choice of
> the Bourgeois design the general assumption was that any de­
> sign chosen would be the basis for the eventually constructed
> design, not a final design choice binding in all its details.
> The outside architect brought in, over the objections of
> some yvho felt that a non-Baha'f could not approach the issue
> of design choice in the right spirit, was H. Van Buren Magoni­
> gle. His opinions were definitely to the detriment of Remey' s
> chances. He disliked Remey' s model, but he did like aspects of
> another of Remey' s designs: his Persian. As this was a larger
> and more expensive design, the attention paid to it helped to
> further blur the basic issue of financial practicability in the
> choice of a design. The influence of Magonigle's preference
> and its distracting from Remey's rationale in proposing his In­
> dian model can be seen in the voting, as the Indian model
> received only 7 votes and the Persian design received 13
> votes. Magonigle's comments on the Bourgeois design were
> mixed, as he found it to exhibit considerable imagination but
> felt that some aspects of it were not practically executable.
> On the whole, Magonigle's remarks served to close in the
> focus of the choice, but at the same time to blur what was the
> Remey option. Indeed, Magonigle's participation points up
> Remey's basic miscalculation in how he exhibited. The pres-
> The Bourgeois Design       1 79
> 
> ence of eight designs by him in the form of drawings, in addi­
> tion to the main and subsidiary models of the Indian design,
> while it may have impressed by evidencing his long-term con- '
> sideration of Mashriqu'l-Adhkar design, occasioned consider­
> able distraction from the design which he actually wished to
> propose for use.
> The choice of the Bourgeois design in 1 920, then, was made
> in an atmosphere of some confusion as to goals and proce­
> dures, both in regard to the making of the choice itself and
> in regard to implementing whatever was chosen. After the
> choice, however, it quickly became clear that Bourgeois had a
> different idea of what had happened than most Baha'fs would
> have presumed possible before the choice. The general as­
> sumption had been that any design chosen would form a more
> or less specific basis from which a final design would be de­
> veloped, and that the honor of providing this basis would be
> all the designer would expect. Bourgeois and his more ardent
> supporters expected that his design would be implemented ,
> exactly (barring certain changes of scale to fit the site) under
> his supervision, and that he would be paid a      for the aesurn
> and hired at the usual rate as architect. What is more, he indi­
> cated that he was prepared to sell the design elsewhere if his
> terms were not met. The construction of the Mashriqu'l­
> Adhkar in Wilmette had thus unwittingly become established
> upon an entirely new basis.
> 
> THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE DESIGN
> 
> Pemberton records that in the spring of 1901 in California
> Bourgeois had told him, "at some length that his mission in
> life was to build a large temple to be dedicated to Truth,
> which was to be surrounded by other buildings devoted to Art
> and Science and the welfare of humanity. "4 The first fruit of
> this mission was a proposed design for the Peace Palace to be
> 180     Part Two: The Building
> 
> built at the Hague submitted by Bourgeois and Paul Blumen­
> stein in 1906. Bourgeois described this design as "the new art
> that will flourish in the home of the workers. "5 This design
> was published in Architecture, 6 and may be characterized as a
> rather naive juxtaposition of elements of art nouveau and a
> symbolism that derives in part from late eighteenth- and early
> nineteenth-centu.ry Utopian "ideal" architecture and in part
> from turn-of-the-century occultism. (See p. 1 18.)
> In 1909, Bourgeois submitted a design for a Mashriqu'l­
> Adhkar to the Bahai Temple Unity which is obviously related
> to the Peace Palace design. Bourgeois states that he produced
> this qesign after being invited to submit a design, "about in
> April 1909. " 7 It is possible that Bourgeois was one of those
> sent the circular calling for designs in 1909, but it seems
> likely that the design he did submit was made earlier. In
> 1920, Bourgeois stated that he made the design "some twelve
> years or more ago, I do not know now just how long, ' '8 and in
> February 1908 the Chicago House of Spirituality viewed a
> "beautiful set of plans" for the "Temple project" which were
> in the possession of Percy Woodcock.9 In the published list of
> those who submitted designs in 1909 there is no mention of
> Bourgeois by name, but there is a                  to "a beautiful
> and elaborate design under a nom de plume by an eminent ar­
> chitect of New York City. ' ' 10 As all the others who submitted
> designs are named in the list and so accounted for, this must
> to the Bourgeois submission. Also, photographs of Bour­
> geois' 1909 submission which belonged to Helen Goodall have
> "Woodcock" written on the back. It seems possible, then,
> that Woodcock was representing Bourgeois and that the de­
> sign was produced before early 1908. That Bourgeois may
> have been interested in designing a Mashriqu'l-Adhkar in
> 1907 is suggested by a note of Roy Wilhelm' s stating that
> Bourgeois had given him the plan of the Peace Palace to show
> to 'Abdu'l-Baha when Wilhelm visited him that year. Wilhelm
> The Bourgeois Design          181
> 
> states that 'Abdu'l-Bah,fs only comment on it was, "The Ba­
> hai Temple will have nine sides . " 11 Thus, it seems possible
> that Bourgeois produced the design submitted in 1909 in the
> latter part of 1907 under the impetus of Wilhelm reporting
> the "nine sides" remark, the increased general interest in the
> project itself at that time, and as a salve to the previous rejec­
> tion of the Peace Palace design. 12
> The design which Bourgeois submitted in 1920 can be
> dated with more certainty, it was begun in mid-1917 and com­
> pleted by mid-1918. There exist two principal accounts by
> Bourgeois of the development of this design: (1) the transcript
> of the talk about his design that he gave at the Bahai Temple
> Unity Convention in 1920; and (2) an undated manuscript in
> his papers which on close examination would seem to have
> been written in the early 1920s.
> In his talk at the 1920 convention Bourgeois described the
> creation of the design thus:
> 
> On this design that I have made you will see that I have not tried
> to follow the past. From the reading of the "Hidden Words" I
> found out that a New Art was to come with this Revelation, a new
> Science, and everything was to be renewed.
> Therefore I have undertaken to avoid all the style of the past.
> In one sense still the teaching says that Baha'Ollah was here to
> unify all the religious thought of the past into one and the reli­
> gious thoughts of the past have expressed themselves in the
> plastic by different style of architecture. All the creations of ar­
> chitecture really are shown in the temple. So if Baha'Ollah's pur­
> pose is to unify all the religious thought of the world, I thought
> that those religious thoughts that were represented by architec­
> tural creations ought to be unified and made composite like the
> past architecture: That is to say, the essence but not the detail­
> the details I thought would come after.
> My first impression which was the symbolizing of the Hidden
> Words, most of it-at the same time I used the symbolism of all
> 182     Part Two: The Building
> 
> the religious thoughts, the Swatiska [sic] cross, the seal of Solo­
> mon, the cross and the crescent, and I put that into the decorative
> motif and I used the form that gives the idea of the classic, the
> Romanesque type, the Moorish, the Gothic and the Renaissance,
> and blended that into one whole, and I tried to harmonize that,
> and it was a great problem, and I tried many times and for many
> years, but nothing comes to me. I could not find how to har­
> monize that very well, until I went to the Boston Convention
> some years ago, and I had a design there made some twelve years
> or more            do not know now just how long-and Mr. Lunt
> called my attention to a symbolical building they had made there,
> and just before my departure he says, "I like the symbolism of
> this, but couldn't you make that a little more Oriental?"
> Well, I told him, I had only three months to make that study in,
> and I didn't think that this was the thing anyhow, it was just sug­
> gestion of the symbolical form.
> When I returned home the thought came very strongly to me
> that that was the time to start, and while I had struggled for eight
> years, the first floor came to me in about an hour, and I sat down
> as soon as I got in the house-returning from that trip-And I got
> that first floor, and as it was a new form, I realized it was impossi­
> ble to make anyone understand that. Now, the shape of the build-
> was a nine pointed star, made out of inverted               upon
> circles.
> Afterwards, I decided that the only way to express that was to
> make a model, and I started to draw the second floor, but I could
> not      anything; I could not get anything to harmonize with the
> first floor, it was very elaborate and very rich, and I did not know
> that it was going to come, and I made up my mind, maybe I have
> to carve that floor first, and finish that, and so I did spend about
> six months probably making the first floor, and then I started to
> see what I was going to get for the second floor, and immediately,
> in about an hour or so, I got the second floor; it came to me all by
> piecemeal like that . . . . I never got a floor above until the floor
> below was finished , and when I got to the dome that came the
> last, and I couldn't get anything, but after I got that dome, then I
> didn't know how it is going to work, which was very unusual.
> The Bourgeois Design           183
> 
> The architect plans his things in the ensemble, but this thing
> came so strongly that I felt completely what came to me, and I
> decided I would take a year to work, maybe a year, or two, and
> then maybe I would know what the result would be, and I would
> put it together; I carved out one section at a time, and I would
> adopt that, and after I had gotten the different sections, I put
> them together to see what the results would be, and you can see
> the result now. . . .
> But, so far as the size is concerned, I had no information from
> anybody that I could find, what the size of the Mashrekol-Azkar
> that you wanted to build would be, and when I questioned those
> that seemed to be at the head of it, they said, "Well, do anything
> you want." You know, that is very liberal. I couldn't do anything
> I wanted to do, but I did what I was dictated to do, and I did it
> that way. 13 [This comment on a lack of information strongly sug­
> gests that the detailed architects' circular issued in 1909 was of
> little moment in occasioning Bourgeois' interest or fueling the de­
> velopment of his ideas.]
> 
> And in the manuscript account Bourgeois describes the pro­
> cess thus:
> 
> About in Apri1 1909 I was invited by the Committee on Designs
> for the Mashrack-el-Azcar to submit a design giving me to Au­
> gust for the task, about 3 month's time. As three months were
> comparatively short for such an undertaking, I could but submit
> preliminary sketches [they were actually an elaborated set of pre­
> sentation drawings], which I did, but they were not satisfactory to
> me. I could get only the general outline, the Inverted circle I had
> choose for the form of a 9 pointed star were my Ideal in symbol,
> as an open circle is a magnet but the feeling of the space for win­
> dows and doors were not satisfactory. From 1909 ti11 1917 I often
> try to sketch a more fitting architectural arrangement for those
> spaces but rpet with failure · every time, nothing seems to fit . . .
> [second page of manuscript is missing] . . . among his designs
> that were brought to the Convention mine that was submitted in
> 1909 was brought there from Chicago I expect[,] to compare with
> 184     Part Two: The Building
> 
> the finished designs of Bro Remey. I was no more satisfyed with
> my design of a three months work than I was when I delivered
> them in 1909, but the Basic principle of the symbolism I could not
> find anything to alter. Only the details were not my Ideal. When
> the Convention was over, I was approached by Mr Lunt of Boston
> and was asked by him If I could not give a more oriental feeling to
> my design. I agreed that I could and told him that this was not my
> final design only a sketch. I left Boston with a new fire in my
> heart and the desire to do something worthy of the cause if I
> could but do it. . . . Then the experience started. I sat at my
> drawing table as soon as I return from Boston and start the first
> floor of the Temple, as soon as I started I felt a powerful in­
> fluence with me full of thrilling sensations that give me courage
> and this wonderful space I had try for 8 years without success to
> design come to me without interruption. I was very happy and I
> realized that I was leaded and that the thoughts this time was not
> of mine but from the source of Inspiration. I show it to Artists for
> there critic, all were very enthusiasm about it considering it a
> wonderful inspiration. Then I realized that this wonderful original
> thought could not be understood by any on a simple drawing as
> the world is not accustomed to new form, but that the only way to
> present it should be a model. . . . I work at this first floor of the
> temple a long time. In classic training we are thought to design
> first the floor plan then the mass for the Elevation then work up
> the details, but I try this persistently without success. I got that
> first floor that all and could not see anything above, so I decided
> that if it was the work of Inspiration I could trust that power and
> would work according to the leadings. Therefore I start to carve
> the first floor. It was a        deal of work but I start early in the
> morning and kept at it till dark till it was accomplished. Then I
> start to draw the second floor, and to my surprise, it come to me
> at once. I try to draw the third but could not get anything then I
> proceed on that unusual way-and when finish I got the third. I
> could not get the dome design before the . third was carved, then
> finely [finally?] got it as soon as I had completed the third. Now I
> had all those separated pieces and was very anxious to see How
> the[y] all put together what the result would be. It was all trust
> The Bourgeois Design          185
> 
> and hoped for the best now to my surprise It is harmonious and
> show a thoughted ensemble better than I could myself do . . . . 14
> 
> McDaniel gives a version of this account by Bourgeois
> within quotation marks, as if it were Bourgeois' own words. 15
> However, McDaniel edited it far beyond correcting Bour­
> geois' imperfect English, making major changes in the sense
> and even introducing a remark suggesting that Bourgeois had
> studied at the Beaux Arts. 1 6
> As a supplement to these two main accounts, we may note
> that Pemberton, writing in 1921 after having traveled from
> the United States to the Holy Land and back with Bourgeois
> and his wife, describes the process thus:
> 
> The first thing he did was the doors and windows of the first
> story, a wonderful piece of architectural design, symbolizing the
> descent of the Holy Spirit. After finishing this he got the entire
> form of the lower story and sketched it out in an hour's time, but
> he realized when the sketch was finished that the idea could not
> be properly expressed in a drawing on a flat surface. So he
> proceeded to make a plaster model. Then the second story
> dawned on him and he modeled that, but being deeply perplexed
> all the time as to whether it would be possible to design a suitable
> dome, one rich enough to complete the vision that had already
> been         him. Then the quiet and restful third story appeared,
> which added still more to his perplexity and brought several days
> of grave doubt as to his ability ,to produce a           worthy to
> complete the structure. One morning he was awakened suddenly
> at three o'clock and saw before him the dome, which he hastened
> to sketch out.17
> 
> Despite the inconsistencies between these accounts, they
> do seem to establish that until after attending the Bahai Tem­
> ple Unity Convention in .Boston in 1917, Bourgeois was una­
> ble to further develop to his satisfaction the design he had
> submitted in 1909, and that in particular he was unable to
> 186     Part Two: The Building
> 
> achieve a satisfactory design for the doors and windows.
> What then occurred in Boston that demolished this longstand­
> ing block on Bourgeois' creative powers? It would seem that
> it was seeing the designs by Remey exhibited alongside his
> own. A detailed analysis of the changes in form that Bour­
> geois made in his revision of the earlier design after he
> returned from Boston suggests that they derive from a num­
> ber of designs by Remey.
> The Remey designs are only available now as printed in his
> books, so it is not always easy to see the details in these small
> reproductions. As they were originally exhibited, the eleva­
> tions were 43 inches wide and 70 inches high, 18 rendering the
> details easily readable and memorable to a trained eye.
> McDaniel states that at the 1917 convention Remey's Per­
> sian, Arabian and Moorish, Indian, Roman Classic, and Byz­
> antine Romanesque designs were shown. 19 However, it is
> probable that this exhibit actually occurred at the 1916 con­
> vention. The report of that convention is illustrated with
> plates of those five designs,20 and in 1916 Remey issued a lim­
> ited edition book of them. Also, the names McDaniel gives for
> these designs are as used by Remey in 1916 but differ from
> the names used subsequently. In 1917, Remey published a
> book containing nine designs with a preface dated July of that
> year. As Remey toured these nine designs as a collective ex­
> hibit during that year, and indeed until 1920, and as they had
> all been completed before the end of 1916, it seems unlikely
> that he would have shown less than the nine in Boston, and
> particularly unlikely that he would have omitted the newer
> designs which had not previously been shown at a convention.
> The principal Remey designs which will concern us in the fol­
> lowing discussion are those named (as of 1917) Byzantine
> (which was Remey's 1909 submission and is the one called
> Byzantine Romanesque in the 1916 collection), Romanesque,
> Gothic, and Renaissance (see pp. 216, 217, 218, and 2 19).
> The Bourgeois Design        187
> 
> We will begin, as Bourgeois is said to have done, with the
> doors and windows of the first story. In the Peace Palace de­
> sign (see p . 420) the doorways cut through pyramidal struc­
> tures that mark the ends of second-story ribs, which pierce
> the upper part of the first story. In the 1 909 submission (see
> p. 222; this design survives only in poor-quality photographs,
> which is reflected in the illustration), Bourgeois retained
> these doorways with little change. The windows of the main
> facades of the first story of the Peace Palace consist of a rib­
> bon of glass on either side of the pyramid , each being divided
> by columns. The 1909 submission retains these ribbon win­
> dows, simply increasing the number of columns and grouping
> them in pairs. The facade above the windows in the Peace Pal­
> ace is curved through two planes and ornamented with carv­
> ing. The 1909 submission reserves this double curvature for
> the extreme upper portion of the facade and fills in the now
> simply curved section above the ribbon windows with glazing.
> In the 1920 submission Bourgeois instituted an entirely new
> treatment (see p. 223). The space beneath the archivolt of the
> facade is divided into nine bays, a larger central bay giving ac­
> cess to a recessed porch. Each of the smaller bays is occupied
> by a semicircular arch supported on two columns and filled
> with a rosette supported on a colonette. The central bay is
> similarly composed, except here the rosette is part of the
> decorative treatment of each of the three sides of the recessed
> porch. The upper part of the main bay is filled in with a type
> of elaborate ornament, which will be discussed below. The
> upper parts of the side bays contain an interlacing series of
> smaller semicircular arches which are a simplified version of
> the larger arches below them, the wider of the pointed arches
> produced by this interlacing are . filled with rosettes on
> colonettes. The area between this arcading and the archivolt
> enclosing the entire fenestration is filled with an interlacing
> ornamental treatment, whose major lines grow out of the
> 188     Part Two: The Building
> 
> curves of the arches themselves. In the watercolor version of
> the design prepared in the summer of 1920, and some of the
> detailed design sheets, as opposed to the plaster model, a
> short section at the bottom of each of these side bays has an
> arcading of interlacing arches related to the top section (see p.
> 224).
> If we turn to the Remey designs, we' find in his Romanesque
> that the main facade consists of a large central bay with a
> semicircular arch supported on columns enclosing a rose win­
> dow, flanked by smaller bays of similar composition. In the
> Gothic design we find pointed arches filled with rosettes and
> divided by colonettes. And in the Byzantine design we find
> another three-bay entrance, consisting of semicircular arches
> on columns. In the Byzantine we also find arcaded porticoes
> around the apses on each of the other eight sides. The invert­
> ing of the curve of these porticoes, or indeed of the apses of
> the Romanesque design, would produce an effect not unlike
> that used in the lesser bays of the Bourgeois fenestration.
> Going beyond the windows in the Bourgeois 1920 submis­
> sion we find that the double curve featured in his earlier de­
> signs has been entirely eliminated. There is still ornament in
> the upper corners of the facade, but the now simply inward
> curving wall ends in a straight cornice supported by corbels.
> The first story facades of Remey's Byzantine, Romanesque ,
> and Renaissance designs are completed by a cornice on
> corbels.
> The pylons, or towers, at the corners of the first story of the
> Peace Palace design are basically square in cross section,
> with ornamental sections applied to their faces, which pro­
> duce at the base a cross section of two equal squares overlap­
> ping to form an eight-pointed star; the applied sections taper
> to ornamental nodes from which they splay out again to merge
> into the ornament of the tops of the pylons. For the 1909 sub­
> mission, Bourgeois changed the pylons to a regular polygonal
> The Bourgeois Design       189
> 
> cross section tapering inward from the base and then splaying
> toward the top. He also enlarged the ornamental nodes and
> capped the pylons with rather ' 'busby' ' like finials. In the
> 1920 submission, Bourgeois retained the regular polygonal
> cross section and tapered form, but he eliminated the nodes
> and inserted three "slots" that were probably intended as
> windows in the plain lower part of each face, the upper part of
> each face being elaborately ornamented above an arch-like
> transition. The Remey Byzantine shows "slots" beneath an
> arch in the outer bays of the main entrance facade, and there
> are other formal congruities with Remey designs which will
> be discussed below in considering how Bourgeois continued
> to develop the pylon�.
> Turning to the second story, in the Peace Palace each of the
> second-story facades consists of a ribbon window, like the
> first story, topped by a mural and an arch curved through two
> planes. The 1909 submission is little altered, the ribbon win­
> dow now having the columns grouped in pairs, the mural re­
> placed by glazing, and the double-curved arch retained . The
> 1920 submission adds a row of subsidiary arched windows,
> filled by rosettes on colonettes, below the main windows. All
> four of the Remey designs we have been considering have a
> row of subsidiary arched windows below the main windows of
> the second story. The 1920 submission retains the horizontal
> division of the window space from the 1 909 submission, but
> instead of a solid lintel, the division is made by a series of
> interlaced semicircular arches supported on columns, the
> pointed arches that result being occupied with rosettes on
> colonettes and the band of the arches themselves being made
> visually dense by embedding it in elaborately intertwining or­
> nament. The upper part of these windows is occupied by an­
> other arcade on a smaller scale, the space above this being
> filled as on the first story. Instead of an arch curved through
> two planes completing the story, as in the earlier designs, the
> 1 90    Part Two: The Building
> 
> 1 920 submission has a compoundly curved archivolt above
> the window, and the story is completed with ornamented
> spandrels leading to a straight frieze and cornice, the whole
> structurally curved through only one plane.
> The second-story facades of Remey's Romanesque, Gothic,
> and Renaissance designs all have main windows that consist
> of a smaller series of arches below a taller series, which, in­
> verted and overlapped, would produce an effect not dissimilar
> to Bourgeois' large arches topped by smaller ones. Also, the
> Gothic design has the rosette and colonette, and the Renais­
> sance has an elliptical arch above the window topped by span­
> drels and a straight cornice supported by corbels.
> In the Peace Palace the "ribs" or buttresses at the corners
> of the second story pierce through the double curve of the
> first story to entrance level. This feature is retained in the
> 1909 submission. In each of these cases the rib is square in
> section and tapered. The 1920 submission cuts off the ribs at
> the roof line of the first story, retains the square section for
> the main part of the rib, but adds a highly ornamented section
> to its front face that makes a sweeping curve from the edge of
> the first story to the upper part of the rib. Remey' s Renais­
> sance design shows such a curved buttress on its second
> story, although not, of course, oriented to the middle of the
> lower story.
> In both the Peace Palace and the 1909 submission, the
> dome springs directly from the second story. In the 1920 sub­
> mission there is an added drum with semicircular arches sup­
> ported on columns framing windows filled with rosettes on
> colonettes with pairs of columns between the windows.
> Remey's Byzantine, Romanesque, and Renaissance designs
> have drums with arch- and column-outlined windows below
> their domes. Remey's Roman Classic design (see p . 225) also
> has pairs of columns between these windows and a frieze be­
> tween the tops of the windows and the cornice below the
> dome similar to the one Bourgeois uses .
> The Bourgeois Design       191
> 
> In the 1920 submission the dome has lost the finial used in
> the earlier designs by Bourgeois and has gained ribs that
> meet in a point above the apex and extend down over the
> drum, curving outward to meet the upper part of the second­
> story buttress. This lower part of each rib is pierced with an
> arch. The dome of the Remey Renaissance design has a
> pointed silhouette, and the lower sections of its second-story
> buttresses are pierced with arches and curve out to meet the
> upper sections of the first-story towers.
> On the basis of the foregoing analysis, it would not seem un­
> reasonable to suggest that the sudden undamming of Bour­
> geois' inspiration after the Boston convention in 1917 was
> related to his seeing the Remey designs there, and that the
> design he submitted in 1920 derives both substantial formal
> aspects and specific details from Remey' s designs. That this
> is unlikely to have been entirely unknown to Bourgeois is
> gested by the fact that he had previously based a design of his
> on one by Remey.
> At the Bahai Temple Unity Convention in New York in
> 1913, it was announced that a fund had been started to pay
> for a vase to be sent to the Tomb of Baha'u'lhih to com­
> memorate 'Abdu'l-Baha's visit to North America in 1912.
> Sometime before early 1914, Remey made a design for this
> vase (see p. 226), and he circulated copies of this design in
> March 1914 to encourage contributions. The design shows lit­
> tle imagination, being a fairly stolid bottle shape with applied
> Baha'f symbols. In June 1914, Bourgeois copyrighted a model
> of a vase (see p. 227) whose design obviously derives from
> the Remey one. However, Bourgeois' proportions are much
> better, the roundels in the middle section are fairly success­
> fully integrated with their background , rather than being
> merely applied, and, most obviously, the handling of the neck
> is much more imaginative. In Bourgeois' design, Remey's
> heavy bottle neck is replaced by a flared shape ornamented
> with Gothic-like tracery that prefigures the more confidently
> 192     Part Two: The Building
> 
> sweeping tracery of Bourgeois' 1920 submission and its revi­
> sions. By early 1915, the Bourgeois design had supplanted
> Remey's as that proposed to be sent. To date, no details of
> the supplanting have come to lig�t except that it took place.
> Although the Bourgeois design is obviously better (if not al­
> together happy, the heavy base and the airy neck being rather
> ill-matched), it would seem unlikely that its displacing the an­
> nounced Remey one can have been achieved without some
> acrimony. That the change of intent may not have been en­
> tirely harmonious is indeed suggested by the delay in sending
> the vase. It had been planned to send it in 1914, but it did not
> actually go until 192 1 . Whatever the details of the vase affair,
> the fact remains that the possibility of building upon a Remey
> foundation was not unknown to Bourgeois when he saw the
> Remey designs in Boston in 1917.
> 
> FURTHER COMMENTS O N THE DEVELOPMENT
> OF THE DESIGN
> 
> After his design was chosen in 1920, Bourgeois had to re­
> duce it in scale to fit the site. This he did primarily by re­
> ducing the number of bays in each facade from nine to five.
> However, along with the necessary reduction in scale he also
> made other changes, particularly to the first- and second­
> story facades, and he continued revising until the late 1920s.
> (See p. 228 for a more or less final version of the exterior
> design.)
> These revisions suggest continued reference, either in actu­
> ality or from memory, to the Remey designs. The pylons of
> the first story have only one slot in the revised design, as do
> the Remey Renaissance design corner towers; and the upper
> part of the pylon, the disposition of whose ornament is low­
> ered relative to the first-story roof line in the revision, merits
> some attention. The Remey Renaissance design corner tow-
> The Bourgeois Design        193
> 
> ers are topped by domes resting upon a cornice, below which
> is an arcade of blinded arches, each arch being enclosed in a
> rectangle. The Bourgeois pylon is capped with a shallow
> dome, and nestling in the ornament below the cornice can be
> seen an arcade of blinded arches enclosed in rectangles.
> In the second-story facade, the compoundly curved ar­
> chivolt above the main window in the 1 920 submission was
> changed to a simple elliptical curve, similar to the curve in the
> upper part of the Remey Renaissance design second-story fa­
> cade. The weakly designed frieze below the cornice in the
> 1920 submissfon was totally redrawn to suggest a row of
> small arches immediately below the cornice, as in the Remey
> Romanesque and Gothic designs. The large curved sections
> of ornament applied to the lower part of the second-story but­
> tresses were redesigned as outsweepingly curved sections
> framing a door piercing the buttress itself. The ornament of
> the pylon was largely confined to its front face and consists of
> a band framed by a plain strip on each side which continues
> the line of the curved sections. The Remey Renaissance but­
> tresses have plain sides, and the band of ornament on their
> front faces is similarly framed. In the Remey design the lower
> section of the buttresses curves out, the side frames continu­
> ing to border the plain stonework of the curve rather as Bour­
> geois' curved sections frame the space in front of his arched
> and rosette- and colonette-filled doorway.
> If we look at Bourgeois' interior design, we can see further
> links with Remey. The Peace Palace interior (see p . 232) em­
> bodies in its central section an ornamented, probably glazed
> dome above a painted mural and gallery, the latter overlook­
> ing an upper hallway ringed with doors, arches, and a mural
> frieze. This hallway in turn overlooks the main entrance hall,
> with its large Egyptesque doorway flanked by staircases.
> This central section of the interior is surrounded by domed
> chambers and other rooms. The 1 909 submission had a very
> 194      Part Two: The Building
> 
> similar interior, except that a greater proportion of the space
> was given to the central hall on the main floor and less of the
> building devoted to subsidiary rooms. The interior of the
> 1920 submission is very different from the earlier designs (see
> p. 231). There is a certain similarity to the glazed dome, al­
> though its patterning is considerably more accomplished, but
> the lower sections all relate to the arch forms established in
> the exterior design. This revised interior, with its two main
> tiers of large arches divided by a band of small arches (which
> is actually a screen, or balustrade, for the gallery), the large
> arches being divided from each other by narrow sections out­
> lined by plain verticals, is similar to Remey' s interior for his
> Renaissance design (see p . 230), which is the only Remey
> interior to have such outlined sections between the large
> arches. As Bourgeois reworked the interior design during the
> 1920s, it became more and more lavishly ornamented, and
> during this process he continued to draw on the formal
> aspects of the exterior that I have suggested derive from
> Remey' s designs and the ornamental influences to be dis­
> cussed below.
> As stated above, one of the principal influences on the
> Bourgeois and Blumenstein Peace Palace design was Art
> Nouveau. The use of curves through two planes, some as­
> pects of the composition of the pylons, and the general ex­
> travagance of line are typical of such manifestations of the
> Art Nouveau movement as the " style Guimard" . More specif­
> ically, in its total composition, both exterior and interior, the
> Palace design suggests familiarity on the part of either
> Bourgeois or Blumenstein with D 'Aronco's Central Rotunda
> at the Turin Exhibition of 1902. However, the influence that
> is felt in this design that is of most significance for the current
> discussion is that of Louis Sullivan, the earlier examples of
> whose work were being built in Chicago when Bourgeois
> lived there in the 1880s and early 1890s.
> The Bourgeois Design       195
> 
> In 1907 Roy Wilhelm had been given not only the Peace
> Palace plan to show 'Abdu'l-Baha but also a photograph
> which Wilhelm later understood to be a part of the house
> Bourgeois had built for Paul de Longpre in Hollywood (see
> p. 233). The photograph showed part of the arcade at the
> main entrance of the house. Gebhard describes this house as
> having a "rich frosting of Sullivanesque ornament" and, in­
> deed, the building amply demonstrates Bourgeois' acquain­
> tance with Sullivan's work.21
> The Peace Palace design uses various Sullivan elements,
> but the use of Sullivan style ornament in this design and in the
> 1909 submission is slight compared to the extensive use Bour­
> geois made of it in the 1920 submission and its revisions. It is
> worth recalling here that in his comments on the Bourgeois
> design at the 1920 convention Magonigle remarked, "it is
> very difficult for me to refer it to any known period of ar­
> chitecture except possibly the modern note that has grown up
> in Chicago under Louis Sullivan. "22
> In 192 1 , Bourgeois had a section of his proposed window
> ornament modeled full-size. This model was made at the
> American Terra Cotta Company by Kristian Schneider, who
> had been Sullivan's chief modeler for over three decades. The
> model does not deviate significantly from Bourgeois' draw­
> ing, but the extent of Sullivan influence on the style may be
> gauged from the fact that a former plant superintendent of
> the company, who was interviewed in 1973, believed that
> " Sullivan and Schneider made several changes from the origi­
> nal architect's concept, " and that "Sullivan . . . had a major
> influence on the design of the building. "23 The model (see
> p. 234) shows clearly how Bourgeois embedded his formal ar­
> chitectural elements, in this case the semicircular arch on
> columns, in a plethora of Sullivanesque ornament.
> As Bourgeois revised the design during the 1920s, he in­
> creased the extent to which the ornamentation of the building
> 196      Part Two: The Building
> 
> was consistently Sullivanesque. For example, the ornament in
> the spandrels of the first- and second-story facades was a
> fairly typical, if weakly drawn, Art Nouveau "whiplash" in
> the 1920 submission. In the revised design they were redone
> in thoroughgoing Sullivan style. Another of the changes Bour­
> geois made in the 1920s was to replace the doors cast with the
> interlacing arches motif that he had used in the 1920 submis­
> sion with doors related to those used in the Peace Palace de­
> sign. This door design was modeled by Schneider (see p. 235),
> and it may be usefully compared with a Sullivan design of the
> mid 1890s for a door plate in the Guaranty Building (see p.
> 236).
> These examples should serve to demonstrate the Sullivan
> influence on Bourgeois' decorative style: the intertwining
> lines, the seaweedy efflorescences, in which Bourgeois em­
> beds his religious symbols and his derivations from Remey.
> Indeed, even the way in which Bourgeois intertwines his
> arches can be associated with Sullivan' s principles of gen­
> erating complex designs from a simple basic element by over­
> lapping and superimposition as readily as with historical
> examples of intertwined arcading.
> Having thus analyzed the design, and in particular noted
> how Bourgeois continued to draw on Remey and Sullivan as
> he revised, it is difficult to understand how he could have
> honestly presented his design as he did . There is no doubt
> that his design is a moderately successful synthesis of the
> materials on which he drew and is much superior to the Peace
> Palace design or his 1909 submission. Nevertheless it is pri­
> marily a synthesis, a ' 'bricolage, ' ' there being little in it that
> cannot be traced to Remey, Sullivan, or the Pea�e Palace.
> It is possible that Bourgeois and Blumenstein considered
> the Peace Palace design to be from ' 'The source of real
> knowledge" that Bourgeois believed he had contacted in
> California (notwithstanding its seeming similarities to the
> The Bourgeois Design              19 7.
> 
> D' Aronco Rotunda), and that, therefore, Bourgeois regarded
> the use of material from this design as not invalidating the in­
> spirational nature he claimed for his 1920 submission. How­
> ever, it seems unlikely that he could have been unaware of his
> derivations from Remey. It is undoubtedly the case that Bour­
> geois was familiar with the historical materials upon which
> Remey drew for his designs; Bourgeois' papers include nu­
> merous photographs of French late Gothic and Renaissance
> buildings. It is equally the case that Bourgeois did not utilize
> any of these design elements until after seeing Remey's use
> of them, and that those he did use are closer to elements in
> Remey' s designs than to those in the actual period buildings
> in his collection of photographs. Nor does it seem likely that
> Bourgeois could have been unaware of his Sullivan deriva­
> tions. Indeed, according to Carl Scheffler , ' 'Very many people
> have accused Mr. Bourgeois of taking this style of design
> from Mr. Louis Sullivan, that this is his style-a modified Sul­
> livan design. "24 But Scheffler also stated that Bourgeois had
> convinced him and the others investigating the charges of
> plagiarism that his style was different. Unfortunately, Schef­
> fler says nothing of how Bourgeois convinced them, but that
> he did says more for Bourgeois' powers of persuasion than
> Scheffler's perspicacity as a professional artist.
> Notwithstanding all of this, however, Bourgeois does seem
> to have believed in some special status for his design. In the
> draft of a letter he wrote to Shoghi Effendi in the later 1920s,
> he stated:
> 
> My insistance that there shall be no interferance with this design
> is that first I am not the creator of this original design-It is an in­
> spiration from the creator I was told from the world of spirit · that
> this Temple is a copy of a Temple that exist in the spiritual world
> - r 'h "",.."" ':l t·r""""
> I am only the instrument I claim no credit but the
> instrument that did it, furthermore my experience has proven me
> 198      Part Two: The Building
> 
> that the body does not create anything, that even thoughts are not
> of the body-but of the reality, this body being but a receiver-a
> mirror that reflect the thought image so we do not place much
> credit on the Physical performance since the early history of art
> in this planet the great monuments took more than the period of
> one mans life so the successors not knowing any better chooses to
> alter the original design of those monument the result was that all
> those monuments are distorted and are a mixture of different
> thoughts It is against this that I want to guard this Temple from
> desecration of its beauties . . . from the world of ignorance in Art
> We have no man at present in the cause in America that can ap­
> preciate this work and many of them would like to change it to
> save few penneys . . . . Mrs Moffett . . . told me of few things you
> would like me to add to the Temple-as I told you above my per­
> sonality is not in this Monument we are ["I am" crossed out] but
> the instrument. May be you have seen in the other world this
> glorious monument and if my vision has not see it in all its com­
> pletion-I am willing to be shown and you can do it in all liberty.
> I inclose one of the small color picture-you can with ink and a
> fine pen suggest in the Picture what you saw-certainly it will not
> be as satisfactory as if I was with you-to talk this over but El
> Baha will lead us to that which is to be for his glory. 25
> 
> It is difficult to reconcile such touchingly naive assertions of
> being a mere "instrument" with Bourgeois' monetary de­
> mands on the Baha'f community. But it is conceivable that he
> felt his use of other artists' design materials without credit
> justifiable in that they, too, were seeing fragments of this
> "Temple . . . in the spiritual world" and were themselves
> only instruments to aid its appearance in this world through
> Bourgeois.
> 
> THE LEGITIMATION OF THE DESIGN
> 
> After the choice of the Bourgeois design in 1920 and the
> subsequent realization that the demands of Bourgeois and his
> The Bourgeois Design       199
> 
> supporters had changed the expected nature of further
> proceedings it was necessary for the choice and the change to
> be legitimized. The main legitimizing arguments used were
> the supposedly unique status of the design as an inspired
> structure and the symbolic aptness of that structure to rep­
> resent the Baha'f Faith. That 'Abdu'l-Baha had approved the
> choice and Shoghi Effendi confirmed that approval in 1925
> were also used to some extent, but usually in such a way as to
> imply that approval had been given to the grounds on which
> the Bourgeois enthusiasts supported the design, which was
> hardly the case. 'Abdu'l-Baha had given the choice of a design
> to the delegates at the 1920 Bahai Temple Unity convention
> as he felt that his choice would not be harmoniously accepted;
> therefore, to use his confirmation of that convention's choice
> (while sidestepping his suggested ceiling on cost) as uniquely
> legitimating any design chosen was somewhat specious. In­
> deed, Shoghi Effendi later described the situation bluntly:
> "The American Baha'is freely chose the Bourgeois model
> . . . They must bear the burden oftheir choice. "26
> We have seen how Bourgeois presented his design as an
> "inspiration" and indeed possibly even believed it to be so, in
> spite of its dependence on the Peace Palace design, let alone
> any other of the derivations we have discussed. This is obvi­
> ously not the type of assertion that is capable of being demon­
> strably proved, and therefore the supporters of this viewpoint
> could do little more than assert it. However, they did have the
> advantage of a widely accepted ideology of aesthetic creation
> within the Baha'f community with which their assertion reso­
> nated. The body of Baha'f hymnody that had developed within
> the community since the early years of the century, together
> with much other literary material, was believed by its authors
> to have been "received" as gifts of spiritual communion with
> the central figures of the Baha'f Faith, with a generalized
> spiritual world, or with the Holy Spirit. Therefore, to many
> 200      Part Two: The Building
> 
> Baha'fs the idea expressed in the claim for the Bourgeois de­
> sign was an accepte d fact of their view of aesthetic creation
> and, for a considerable number, part of their personal ex­
> perience. This coherence between the nature of the claims
> made for the process by which Bourgeois unfolded his design
> and this widely accepted ideology seems to have provided a
> "hook" by which many Baha'fs could grasp onto the rather
> abstract world of architecture.
> However, the degree of importance claimed for the Bour­
> geois design on the grounds of its inspired status went far be­
> yond anything ever claimed for, or granted to, the earlier
> products of receiving, and the design came to be regarded by
> some as having a degree of numinous endowment that ren­
> dered it an object of awe. By 1 930, the year of Bourgeois'
> death, the design was widely accepted as being a direct reve­
> lation with Bourgeois as its prepared vehicle. Thus, at the
> 1 930 National Convention Allen McDaniel, as convention
> chairman, could refer to ' 'this revelation which has come to us
> through our dearly beloved brother, Mr. Louis Bourgeois, "27
> and could later introduce Bourgeois to the convention as the
> ' 'one to whom this great creation has been revealed. ' '28 In her
> poem "In Memoriam, " Waite apostrophized Bourgeois and
> his design thus:
> 
> 0 thou who caught the vision crystal clear
> And brought it forth to man in outer form,
> A thing so mystical, so wondrous fair,
> That those who stand before it, bow their head
> As if before a shrine and say, "Behold!
> This is the work of God, and not of man!
> A Temple whose design was drawn above,
> And given to humanity through thee. " 29
> 
> And in the eulogy at Bourgeois' funeral, the choice of his
> design in 1 920 was represented as a divinely guided triumph
> The Bourgeois Design       201
> 
> over the "forces of materialism, " and the design itself charac­
> terized as the "symbolic manifestation of Divine Essence in
> all its purity. " 30
> The second major theme in the legitimation of the design
> was the symbolic. The symbolism of the Peace Palace design
> was heavily imbued with the number eight as representing
> the eight states who had collectively established the interna­
> tional court of arbitration. The Mashriqu'l-Adhkar design
> was equally heavily imbued with the number nine as repre­
> senting "the Nine Great /World Manifestations;"31 Where
> there had been eight of an element in the Peace Palace design
> there were now nine. This symbolization of religious continu­
> ity was further emphasized by Bourgeois' use of symbols of
> succeeding religions in his ornamentation.
> The other main symbolic strand in Bourgeois' design that
> we need to consider here is his use of light. A common early
> translation of "Baha" in North America was "light," and
> Bourgeois saturated his design with references to outpouring
> light. All his ornamentation was pierced through so that its
> ground was light itself, his representations of the Greatest
> Name were to be superimposed on outspreading gilded rays,
> and he had an elaborate scheme for using electric illumination
> to make the building a blaze of light outside and in.
> Bourgeois' use of nine and the concept of light had obvious
> attractions for his Baha'f contemporaries. They had been us­
> ing the figure 9 on books, letter heads, and in various other
> ways to express their feelings of Baha'f identity since the turn
> of the century, and among some there was considerable in­
> terest in the wider aspects of numerological speculation and
> symbolization. Equally, the idea of capturing light in the
> structure of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar was appealing both sym­
> bolically and aesthetically. But most important for the de­
> sign's resonance with a growing ideological trend within the
> Baha'f community, and its subsequent reinforcing of that
> 202     Part Two: The Building
> 
> trend, was that in its use of nine and light it symbolized not
> just the Baha' f Faith but a succession of religions which were
> seen as leading to it, each of which was equally welcome in
> the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar. This idea was dramatized by the nine
> identical sides of the building, each approached by a path and
> entered by a great central doorway which led to a common
> center (such a pattern actually being embodied in Bourgeois'
> design for the floor). This physical arrangement, with its
> equal treatment of all sides, cohered strongly with a growing
> conception within the Baha'f community of the Baha'f Faith
> (many came to prefer the term "Baha' f Movement") as a
> universalist and nonsectarian endeavor to bring together peo­
> ple from all religions in an ecumenical brotherhood without
> challenging fundamentally their previous religious identities,
> let alone' supplanting them with an exclusively Baha'f iden­
> tity. The Bourgeois design expressed this concept admirably,
> and the basic linking of the design to the Baha'f Faith through
> its "revealed" status in turn helped to spread and legitimate
> the nonexclusive ideology of the Baha'f Movement.
> Despite the ability of those supporting the Bourgeois design
> to press their claims for its inspired status and the undoubted
> resonance of much of its symbolic content with contemporary
> ideological developments within the Baha'f community, there
> was one considerable legitimatory problem that was left un­
> touched by these successes: the legitimation of the design as
> an architectural concept. As there was no Baha'f architect or
> engineer who supported its being built, there was urgent need
> for "expert" opinion in support of the design on architectural
> grounds, and this need was filled primarily through press
> comment on the design. The importance of press approval as
> a legitimizing factor may be gauged from the fact that a book­
> let of press comment was published at Bourgeois' request in
> 192 1 , and in an introductory paragraph to a review of press
> notices the following statement is made:
> The Bourgeois Design         203
> 
> The model created by Louis Bourgeois, and accepted by the Ba­
> hai Convention of April, 1920, as the design for the Temple to be
> built in Chicago, has attained a wide publicity, and has aroused
> such praise from the world of architects, that there can be no
> question as to the wisdom of its choice. 32
> 
> The evidence of such praise was its mention in the press.
> However, on reading the press notices we find very few
> names that are invoked as giving it, and only one of those was
> a significant American architect, the same Magonigle who
> had advised at the 1920 convention.
> Two early exended articles on the Bourgeois design were
> those by Boswell and Reid. 33 A close reading of these articles
> suggests strongly that they were not written without some ex­
> terior assistance being provided to their authors, in that the
> extent of correlation between the two articles in structure and
> phrasing indicates a common base text. When we consider
> the range of articles published on the design, we find many
> similarities that further suggest the circulation of a publicity
> text on Bourgeois and the design. Many of these articles at­
> tribute to Magonigle-this opinion on the design, ' 'It is the first
> new idea in architecture since the thirteenth century. I want
> to see it erected. " Boswell explicitly suggests that he deli­
> vered this comment as his "verdict" at the 1920 convention.
> Magonigle did not make this comment, or anything approach­
> ing it, according to the convention transcript, but it became
> extensively used in the press and elsewhere as legitimating
> the design's architectural standing. Magonigle later denied
> ever having made the remark and asked that it cease to be
> used, 34 but despite a notice in Bahti '{ News35 asking that the
> comment no longer be attributed to Magonigle, it has con­
> tinued to be used occasionally.
> This supposed comment by Magonigle, supported as it was
> by his considerable reputation, was undoubtedly of impor-
> 204      Part Two: The Building
> 
> tance in counterbalancing the lack of approval , of the Bour­
> geois design by Baha'f architects and engineers. However, if
> Magonigle did not say it, where did the corpment originate?
> First, we may note that Magonigle was one of the leading
> classicist architects in the United States and highly unlikely
> by temperament or aesthetic sensibility to leap to pre-Rapha­
> elite comparisons, and, indeed, the comment itself is merely
> silly rather than judgmental and evidently the result of enthu­
> siasm rather than consideration .
> As it seems likely that a publicity document on the Bour­
> geois design lies behind many of the press articles, it is possi­
> ble that the purported quote originated with it or its author.
> The most likely source for such a document is Mary Hanford
> Ford. Ford was a long-term Baha'f and professional writer
> and lecturer on the arts. She was apparently part of the group
> that introduced Bourgeois to the Baha'f Faith, and after the
> choice of the Bourgeois design she lectured extensively in its
> favor. Indeed, according to Roy Wilhelm:
> 
> Through Mrs. Ford, I believe, Mr. Bourgeois had heard that �he
> Baha'is were contemplating the constructiop. of a universal Tem­
> '
> ple [the context makes it clear that Wilhelm believes this to have
> been before early 1907], and with her encouragement he became
> active in association with the friends, particularly in its (Temple)
> promotion. 36
> 
> An article by Ford completed the pamphlet of press com­
> ments published in 192 1 , and she probably wrote the diges( of
> press notices itself. Ford reported shortly after the choice of
> the Bourgeois desiḥn that the sculptor George Gray Barnard
> (whose work does, on occasion; show pre-Raphaelite sympa­
> thies) declared that "the Temple marks a new development in
> architecture, and the beginning of a great era 1n art. "37 In
> The Bourgeois Design         205
> 
> some press articles Barnard is quoted as having declared on
> unidentified occasions variations of this opinion: ' 'the greatest
> creation since the Gothic period, ' '38 ' 'the first new conception
> in architecture since the Gothic. ' ' 39 We should note also that
> Ford herself began an article on the concept of the Mashriqu'l­
> Adhkar published in 1915 with the extraordinary comment
> that, "Since the 1 3th century men have not been much given
> 'tO building cathedrals or temples. "40
> It �eems possible, then, that the comment attributed to
> Magonigle derives from the enthusiasm of Ford, perhaps
> fueled by the comments of Barnard. However the comment
> may have originated, Magonigle himself seeming the least
> likely source, such an apparently authoritative "approval" of
> the design's architectural soundness supplied the missing in­
> gredient in the mix that enabled the supporters of the Bour­
> geois design to bring about an almost total conflation between
> the concept of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar as such and this partic­
> ular design.
> 
> OPPOSITION TO THE DESIGN
> 
> Opposition to the choice of the Bourgeois design has always
> been most closely linked with the name of Remey. Indeed,
> those who opposed it were sometimes called ' 'Remeyites. ' '
> However, although Remey undoubtedly committed more to
> paper on the subject than any other objector, it would be inac­
> curate to see him as leading the party of objectors or as
> representing the only strand of opposition.
> Remey stated his objections to the Bourgeois design in a
> series of letters written mainly to the Bahai Temple Unity
> Board (subsequently the National Spiritual Assembly) from
> 1920 to 1929, and those objections may be summarized as fol­
> lows: (1) the design departs from 'Abdu'l-Baha's expressed
> 206     Part Two: The Building
> 
> wishes on style and cost, and its production and implementa­
> tion ignore his desire for the design to be the work of a group
> and not one individual; (2) the design is excessively individu­
> alistic and not rooted in any established and approved tradi­
> tion, and the surrounding aura of inspiration associated with
> it is un-Baha' f in character; and (3) the design has basic
> problems of structure and material.
> In regard to the deviation from 'Abdu'l-Baha's wishes, we
> have seen the lack of interest shown in considering his ex­
> pressed preference for the Mogul style at the 1920 conven­
> tion. This question of stylistic deviation was never seriously
> addressed except insofar as there was, and continues, a men­
> dacious attempt to compare the Bourgeois design with the
> Taj Mahal. On cost, 'Abdu'l-Baha asked after the choice of
> the Bourgeois design that it be reduced in scale to bring its
> projected cost to around $1 million. The actual reduction was
> to an estimate that was $200,000 in excess of this, and that
> did not include the interior (which in itself was estimated by
> Bourgeois as likely to cost $ 1 million). On the third ground of
> departure from 'Abdu'l-Baha's wishes, Remey's case was
> personally at its weakest. It had been known for many years
> that 'Abdu'l-Baha had suggested that the design should not
> be the work of one hand but should represent a collaborative
> effort on the part of several designers. No one, including
> Remey, had ever attempted to do this. Now Remey suggested
> that a board or commission of qualified people be appointed to
> revise the Bourgeois design in order to bring it into line with
> 'Abdu'l-Baha's wishes and the practicalities of the situation.
> Remey excluded himself from consideration for this board,
> but suggested the names of various well-qualified Baha' is,
> some of whom were being consulted about the project but
> only as part of a process of implementing Bourgeois' wishes.
> Remey' s objection to the Bourgeois design as too individu­
> alistic draws strength from the group design preference of
> The Bourgeois Design        207
> 
> 'Abdu'l-Baha, but he also substantiates this objection on two
> other grounds. That styles in art are the result of lengthy cul­
> tural processes and it is not possible to pull a full-blown new
> style for the Baha'f Faith out of thin air. Such a style must de­
> velop over time and be securely based in cultural precedent.
> And secondt that the "cult" of revelation surrounding the
> Bourgeois design was un-Baha' f in that it suggested a channel
> of unerring communication between Baha'u'llah and his fol­
> lowers other than 'Abdu'l-Baha and was thus aberrant from a
> Baha'f perspective.
> In his discussion of the design, Remey never suggests the
> possibility of Bourgeois deriving any of his inspiration from
> himself, or indeed from Sullivan, but insists on characterizing
> it as a slightly revised Peace Palace design. (The only hint
> Remey gives of other derivation on Bourgeois' part is in a let­
> ter of 1929 when he describes the design as "the purported
> work of one man . " ) To have accused Bourgeois of having
> taken from others would have been in effect to have retracted
> the main grounds of his argument that the design was too in­
> dividualistic. Remey had also stated for years that he consid­
> ered his own designs were done solely to provide a basis upon
> which the eventual design could draw. Thus, if he did regard
> Bourgeois as having used material from his designs, he could
> only have objected to the result and not the process. To be
> able to object to the design in essence as well as substance, he
> had to confine the process to Bourgeois.
> Structurally Remey objected to the design on the grounds
> that the proposed method of building was ' 'commercial' '
> rather than ' 'monumental' ' and involved materials of a quality
> that had a relatively short life expectancy. He also pointed out
> that the design had features ill-adapted to the situation and
> climate of the site.
> Many of Remey' s objections were well founded and sup­
> ported by others who were less vocal about them. It seems
> 208     Part Two: The Building
> 
> unlikely that Remey was without personal animus toward
> Bourgeois as he claimed; and that the choice of a design had
> been made on an"either-Remey-or-Bourgeois basis gave a per­
> sonal edge to his objections that made it more difficult for him
> to be seen as concerned principally with the success of the
> Mashriqu'l-Adhkar pr�ject. That his objections were not seri­
> ously discussed and dealt with was, however, unfortunate,
> and that none of those who agreed with his position were pre­
> pared to take a stand, the same. As the 1920s progressed,
> Remey's objections tended to take on a certain tone of hys­
> teria and his lack of success led him into involvement with
> grandiose schemes elsewhere, but the basic issues that he
> raised were valid, whatever the personal element involved in
> his argument.
> As well as those who actively opposed the Bourgeois design
> there were those such as Carl Scheffler, ' 'who were passively
> opposed to the Bourgeois Model, that is, I did not raise a hand
> to hinder, but I did nothing to help, because I felt that there
> was something about it that was not right. "41
> Apart from the objections made to the design as such, there
> were objections among both opposers and supporters of the
> design to Bourgeois himself. There was considerable discon­
> tent over Bourgeois' financial demands, which was greatly
> exacerbated when he built himself a studio on the Mashriqu'l­
> Adhkar property without proper permission. The studio, al­
> though really rather shoddily built, looked quite palatial in
> contrqst to the hideous basement structure which was all
> '
> there was to show of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar itself in the mid-
> -          -
> 
> dle and later 1920s, and Bourgeois' vastly inflated assertions
> as to what it had cost did not help matters. He asserted on
> various occasions that it had cost over $30,000, but cor­
> respondence between various people at the time it was built
> suggests $5,000 as a more realistic figure.
> The objections to Bourgeois personally extended to how he
> would be involved in the construction of the building. Theo-
> The Bourgeois Design        209
> 
> retically, he was the architect in charge, but in practice the
> Board/National Assembly came to prefer to distance him
> from the actual building operation as much as possible, and
> they reposed their main trust in their appointed engineer,
> Major Burt, until his death in 1928. 42 This disinclination to let
> Bourgeois da'bble too closely in the building process was well
> founded. The foundation of the structure as built consists of
> nine caissons, presumed sunk to bedrock, and a network of
> pilings. Bourgeois had insisted, largely for the symbolic rea­
> sons that thus the building would rest upon rock, on sinking
> these caissons, although experienced engineers recommended
> a foundation of only pilings at considerably less cost. Simi­
> larly, the height of the basement structure had been agreed
> by consultation between Bourgeois and an advisory panel, of
> Baha'i engineers, but Bourgeois unilaterally increased this
> height by ten feet, necessitating the redrawing of structural
> plans and considerable increased expense. (This increase in
> height was to accommodate the domed room known as Foun­
> dation Hall, which was not part of the original design.) It
> seems extraordinary that Bourgeois was permitted to do such
> things at the beginning of the construction process, but the
> lack of unity within the Board, and within the community it­
> self, as to whether the building should actually be attempted
> at all, plus the fact that Bourgeois seems to have been re­
> garded as an elemental force rather than a rational being, re­
> sulted in a lack of control over what was happening on the
> site.
> Among those who worked closely with Bourgeois on the
> project and who cannot be supposed to have had any personal
> animus against him, there seems to have been a feeling as to
> his lack of practical competence as strong as among:his oppo­
> nents. Thus, Corinne True stated that he '"'istoo much of a
> dreamer to be turned loose to have what he wants done with-
> out a good practical committee to put a check on him. "43 And
> Scheffler, after some years of working with him, described
> 210     Part Two: The Building
> 
> Bourgeois as "above all an artist, a designer of exquisite
> decorative forms, rather than an architect, and even though
> he now has a license issued by the Illinois Board [of
> chitects], I do not think that he is a thoroughly trained archi­
> tect. "44 And an assessment of Bourgeois given by Miriam
> Haney on the floor of the convention in 1925, without
> recorded contradiction, suggests that even the most ardent
> supporters of his design regarded him in a light that was not
> entirely complimentary:
> 
> God has sent us a genius, one in whom has been born a beautiful
> idea. . . . That         was handicapped by having added to the
> temperament of a genius the temperament and feelings of a
> Frenchman. God has given us a genius who is a temperamental
> an artist. God means us to deal lovingly with him. 45
> 
> THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE DESIGN
> 
> It goes beyond the purposes of the present discussion to
> consider the building of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar in Wilmette in
> detail, but as there is an understandable tendency on the part
> of most commentators to conflate the building that was
> n�£l•f'1"£H'1 with that designed by Bourgeois, I wish to briefly
> 
> note some aspects of the process by which                   was
> implemented.
> During Bourgeois' lifetime no more than the basement
> structure, which includes the meeting hall known as Founda­
> tion Hall, was completed. Foundation Hall, although structur­
> ally complete in 1922, was only made fully usable in 1928. At
> that time Bourgeois' own elaborate decorative scheme for
> this room was ignored and a severely plain treatment which
> concurred more adequately with the aesthetic sensibilities of
> such as Remey was implemented. As the remainder of the
> building was constructed after Bourgeois' death, the proce-
> The Bourgeois Design        211
> 
> dures followed produced results that continued t o depart from
> Bourgeois' aesthetic intentions.
> In 1930, it was decided to abandon Bourgeois' plan of build­
> ing a complete first story with a temporary roof as the next
> stage in construction, the upper stories to be added as possi­
> ble, in favor of a scheme proposed by Research Services, Inc . ,
> o f Washington, D.C. , who were t o take charge o f building the
> Mashriqu'l-Adhkar. The new plan was to build a complete su­
> perstructure in reinforced concrete that would give the silhou­
> ette, as it were, of the complete building apart from the ribs of
> the dome. This method of proceeding totally changed the na­
> ture of most of Bourgeois' exterior except for the ribs and
> dome themselves, in that most of his light-embedded orna­
> ment was now destined to be carried out as mere surface or­
> nament upon an established form rather than the ornament
> itself defining the form. Equally, the material used to produce
> the exterior ornamentation between 1932 and 1942 (exposed
> aggregate concrete produced at the Earley studios in Virginia)
> led to a coarsening of the design. Bourgeois had pressed for
> the use of this material from the early 1920s; however, it
> would seem that his attraction to it was largely that it was sup­
> posed to be new and that he felt its newness made it appropri­
> ate for his supposedly new architecture. He cannot have
> seriously considered the practicality of using this material for
> what he had intended, though considering practicality is not
> something one associates with Bourgeois in any sphere. Bour­
> geois had originally conceived his ornament for the plasticity
> of terra cotta and cast bronze, and the much cruder definition
> possible in concrete, together with the fact that Earley's
> modelers were no Christian Schneiders, necessitated a simpli­
> fication of Bourgeois' designs that tends toward the naive and
> compares sadly with the richness of the original drawings.
> The ornamentation of the exterior was stopped in 1942, and
> its completion has been indefinitely postponed. Indeed, it is
> 212     Part Two: The Building
> 
> generally supposed to have been completed. However, the re­
> sult of omitting Bourgeois' elaborate window grilles, and also
> the rustication on the :p,ow plain areas of the facade, is to
> produce a contrast between pattern and void that is not part
> of Bourgeois' aesthetic. Further, the creation of an entirely
> white building was never his intention.
> In 1946, Shoghi Effendi instructed that the interior should
> be completed. He stipulated �hat the Bourgeois design should
> be adhered to as closely as possible, with modifications being
> made in materials to keep the complete cost within reasona­
> ble bounds (which he set at $650 ,000). Bourgeois' interior de-
> included marble skirtings and door frames, elaborately
> patterned walls, mosaic floors, cast glass arches, stained glass
> windows, cast bronze grilles, and a soaring stained glass
> dome. The cost of actually realizing Bourgeois' design would
> have been enormous, but much of the effect could have been
> preserved, as is demonstrated in the first design adaptations
> sent to Shoghi Effendi. Both McDaniel and Reed, a Chicago
> architect, had prepared versions of the interior, and Shoghi
> Effendi instructed that the McDaniel version, with some ele­
> ments added from the Reed one, should be built. A modified
> McDaniel design was prepared and widely publicized in 1947
> as the design to be built. Shoghi Effendi had also instructed
> that further architectural advice should not be sought.
> The National Spiritual Assembly engaged Alfred Shaw, an­
> other Chicago architect, to produce the working drawings and
> to supervise the building of the accepted McDaniel design,
> specifying in his contract that this was all he was to do. Nev­
> ertheless, Shaw completely redesigned the interior, and in
> 1948 the Assembly exhibited this design at the National Con­
> vention and widely publicized it as the one to be built. Shoghi
> Effendi gave this design his approval and instructed that
> building should begin immediately. However, with the en­
> couragement of a handful of prominent Baha'is, Shaw con-
> The Bourgeois Design       213
> 
> tinued to revise the design until in December 1948, Shoghi
> Effendi insisted that no further revision take place and that
> building begin. Due to the continued delay, the interior could
> no longer be built for the budgeted figure . Even with a con­
> siderable increase, it was only possible to finish the main part
> of the auditorium, and the rest remains uncompleted to date.
> The constructed Shaw interior shows the utter lack of sym­
> pathy both he and those Baha' fs who wished him to continue
> revising had with the Boutgeois design. All the richness of
> contrasting colors and textures is gone, a loss which is com­
> pounded by the fact that the painted walls were left white and
> never painted rose and blue as intended in the earlier interior
> revisions. Shaw's interior ornamentation is carried out in the
> same concrete as the exterior, but it omits religious symbols
> and vegetative elements. It consists solely of rather weakly
> drawn interlacing tracery, the patterning of the lower areas
> of the central space being developed from the patterning of
> the inner pierced dome, rather than relating to the
> storys.
> Indeed, the inner dome aptly demonstrates the lack of un­
> derstanding of Bourgeois' intentions on the part of Shaw and
> his supporters. Bourgeois' scintillating colored glass dome,
> patterned with religious symbols and sacred text, has become
> a white concrete doily the patterning of which is but a skeletal
> reduction from Bourgeois' design. That the inner dome was
> conceived by Shaw and his advisors as a pierced struct11re
> probably derives from their mistaking a drawing of part of
> Bourgeois' scheme for Foundation Hall for a drawing of the
> Auditorium dome. The design of the ornament of the Founda­
> tion Hall dome is significantly different from that of the Au­
> ditorium dome but there is a note ( " 36 PERFORATED ORN.
> PANELS IN THE CEILING") on the drawing that               to the
> high relief stucco work of the ornamentation. No Auditorium
> dome design drawing, or textual reference, suggests that
> 214      Part Two: The Building
> 
> Bourgeois ever intended anything other than a stained glass
> dome in the Auditorium. That Shaw, and others, thought a
> perforated one was intended can only derive from their mis­
> understanding the Foundation Hall drawing.
> That the Bourgeois design was never in a real sense "ar­
> chitecture, ' ' as it was made without considered reference to
> site, climate, materials, or construction methods, and that it
> was impossible to realize in a satisfactory way, given the real­
> ities of the twentieth century rather than the state treasury of
> a determined autocrat, may be fairly readily understood. It
> was principally an exercise in the ' ' ideal, ' ' but since it was be­
> lieved by many to represent the incursion into this world of a
> reality fr:om "beyond, " the design acquired and retains a
> numinous authority that was hardly justifiable. Much of its
> symbolism and most of its associated ideology represent pass­
> ing developments in Baha'f belief in North America; the deci­
> sion to adopt the design embodied the temporary triumph of
> those ideologies, rather than a reasoned choice on practical or
> aesthetic grounds.
> The problems faced in translating the design into an actual
> structure clearly demonstrated its shortcomings as architec­
> ture. But its authority prevented any conscious and sys­
> tematic revising of it. The forced revision of the exterior that
> occurred due to the financial and technical inability of those
> executing it to carry out the design itself, exacerbated by
> their lack of understanding of it, added to the aesthetic
> problem of the building and failed to adequately conquer the
> structural problems. By the time of the ornamentation of the
> i�terior, it had become possible to more consciously subvert
> the authority of the design. But at the same time the design
> was even less understood, making its revision even more of a
> happenstance.
> Whatever the fate of Bourgeois' aesthetic at the hands of
> those who produced the interior, the ideologiccll concepts of
> The Bourgeois Design      215
> 
> the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar that he had embodied in his work by
> that time had become not only ubiquitous but elaborated.
> Though Bourgeois' various religious symbols were omitted
> from the interior, concern for the other religions they signi­
> fied was now paramount. The Mashriqu'l-Adhkar was not to
> be considered a place for Baha'fs, indeed they were discour­
> aged from using it for themselves. The Mashriqu'l-Adhkar
> was a "universal " building, a "teacher" of non-Baha'fs, in
> some unidentified way ideologically residual to its "inspired"
> status. The building in itself had come to be perceived in an
> almost talismanic way, and the functions it had originally
> been planned to shelter had been largely forgotten.
> REMEY'S " BYZANTINE" DESIGN.
> REMEY'S " ROMANESQUE" DESIGN.
> REMEY'S " GOTHIC" DESIGN.
> REMEY'S " RENAISSANCE " DESIGN.
> 2 19
> ELEVATION FOR PEACE PALACE AND LIBRARY.
> Court of Arbitration, The Hague,
> by Bourgeois and Blumenstein
> 
> l:'.j
> l:'.j
> l:'.j
> 
> BOURGEOIS DESIGN SUBMITTED TO THE BAHAI TEMPLE UNITY IN 1909.
> �
> �
> �
> f.
> Y'
> 
> _i
> F
> 
> 1:\:)
> 1:\:)
> w
> 
> PLASTER MODEL OF THE MASHRIQU'L-ADHKA.R DESIGN
> exhibited bv Bourgeois at the Baha'i National Convention in 1920.
> DETAIL DRAWING
> OF BOURGEOIS
> for proposed orna­
> ment for first story
> facade of the Mash­
> -
> riqu'l-Adhkar.
> 
> REMEY'S " ROMAN CLASSIC " DESIGN.
> REMEY VASE DESIGN, 1914.
> BOURGEOIS VASE DESIGN, 1914.
> 
> BOURGEOIS ' S FINAL REVISED DESIGN
> for the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar.
> SECTION, REMEY ' S " RENAISSANCE " DESIGN.
> 
> SECTION, BOURGEOIS MASHRIQU ' L-ADHKAR DESIGN.
> 
> SECTION, BOURGEOIS AND BLUMENSTEIN PEACE PALACE AND LIBRARY.
> Court of Arbitration, The Hague
> National Baha'i Archives, Wilmette, Ill.
> MODEL OF BOURGEOIS DESIGN FOR WINDOW ORNAMENT
> for the third story of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar.
> MODEL OF BOUR­
> GEOIS DESIGN FOR
> CAST BRONZE DOORS
> for the first story of
> the Mashriqu'l­
> Adhkar�
> 
> s
> g
> a
> �
> uJ
> 
> �
> �
> ,,....
> �ro
> 
> �               235
> ]ro
> z
> SULLIVAN
> 'nOOR PLATE
> for the Guaranty
> Building.
> 
> PART THREE
> 
> THE PRACTICE
> CHAPTER SEVEN
> 
> CHORAL SONG AND SERMONIZING
> IN WILMETTE
> 
> During the years in which a design for the Mashriqu'l­
> Adhkar was being sought, and when selected built, a parallel
> process of developing a . devotional practice for the building
> was occurring. The song aspect of this process was primarily
> concerned with choral music: from the Vahid Choral Society
> of over seventy years ago to the dissolution, and subsequent
> attempted reformation, of the Baha'i House of Worship Choir
> in 1983.
> 
> THE VAHID CHORAL SOCIETY
> Following the provisional selection, in the spring of 1908, of
> a site on which to build, there was a sense of expectancy that
> a completed building in which to worship would soon be avail­
> able and a determination to be prepared . In the early summer
> of 1908, Albert Windust drafted a letter at the request of
> Louise Waite to be sent to 'Abdu'l-Baha, which stated that:
> 
> 240      Part Three: The Practice
> 
> . . . we, the Friends of Chicago and vicinity, looking forward to
> the crowning event-the dedicatory exercises held in the com­
> pleted Building-believing that music and singing will be a promi­
> nent feature of that event, as well as all large gatherings in that
> Sanctuary thereafter, inquire of Thee regarding Its Musical De­
> partment of Service . . . .
> 
> The letter further stated that its purpose was to inform
> 'Abdu'l-Baha that it was intended to:
> 
> . . . encourage the gathering together in regular rehearsals [of]
> those blessed with singing voices-whether children or adults or
> both-and others who are desirous of learning the grand, the sub­
> lime� or the restful choruses from the great Oratorios, together
> with humbler compositions, forming the nucleus of a "Dedicatory
> Chorus, " to sing at the dedication of the Mashrak-el-Azcar-bap­
> tizing It, as it were, with an outburst of melody and harmony be­
> fitting such a great event in the Kingdom of God . . .
> 
> After asking whether an organ or other musical instru­
> ments could be used in the building, the letter stated that it
> was believed that beginning these rehearsals would serve as
> ' 'an added stimulus to the accomplishment of the erection of
> the Building-especially among the young. ' '
> Seventy-two signatures were gathered for this letter from
> people in Chicago, Fruitport in Michigan, Kenosha and Ra­
> cine in Wisconsin, and, one woman in Bellingham, Washing­
> ton. The letter was considered at a meeting of the Chicago
> House of Spirituality on 28 June 1908, but they decided to
> defer sending it. 1
> Interest in the matter did not disappear, however. Later
> that summer the Kenosha community decided to buy a new
> piano, as they wished "to learn some of the songs preparatory
> to the Dedication of the first Mash-rek-el-Askar erected . . .
> in these regions. "2 And in Chicago itself the first Western Ba­
> ha'f choir was founded: the Vahid Choral Society.
> Choral Song and Sermonizing           241
> 
> The exact date of the foundii}g of the choir is not known,
> but regular rehearsals probably started sometime during the
> summer or fall of 1908. As it was originally planned to hold
> the first national Baha'i convention in November 1908, it is
> likely that this occasion would have been a target for the new
> choir's efforts. The choir was jointly founded by Louise Waite
> and Albert Windust and drew its members from the young
> people of the Chicago Baha'i community.
> In early 1909, at a joint meeting of the House of Spirituality
> and the Chicago Temple Committee to make arrangements
> for the postponed convention, now planned for March, Louise
> Waite, as chairman of the Music Committee. and Miss Tyck­
> son, of the Young People's Society, were asked to coordinate
> the music for a special program planned for the Naw-Ruz
> feast to be held as part of the convention on Sunday, 2 1
> March. 3 This substantial program included the first public ap­
> pearance of the Vahid Choral Society and set a pattern for
> such celebrations at early conventions.
> 
> At 10 o'clock the delegates and friends began to assemble in
> Corinthian Hall, Masonic Temple, but it was nearly 1 1 o'clock be­
> fore the blaze of electric lights announced the commencing of the
> meeting. The platform was decorated with palms and flowers,
> and to the left of the hall were banked the singers of the Chicago
> Assembly, who had prepared special music for the occasion. The
> opening chords of the piano prelude silenced the assemblage and
> the limpid tones of a beautiful violin solo, rendered by Miss Lena
> Moneak, quieted the soul. 4
> 
> All then sang Waite' s hymn "His glorious Sun has Risen" ;
> Thornton Chase read 'Abdu'l-Baha's "New Year's Tablet";5
> the Chicago Assembly Sunday School children recited the
> "Bahai Alphabet" ; and Charles Currier read the twenty­
> fourth psalm. At this point came the choir's debut, as they
> sang the anthem "King of Kings" (Simper), with Bessie Dig­
> gett as soloist.
> 242     Part Three: The Practice
> 
> After the reading of "the glorious Festival Commune, re­
> vealed by Baha' o'llah, and a few moments of silence, the sing­
> ers, quietly, while seated, rendered 'Lovely Appear' (Gounod)
> as a greeting to the delegates and speakers. ' ' 6 Then followed
> four brief talks by visitors, after which all sang Waite's
> "Great Day of God, " and Mirza Raffie chanted . There were
> two more talks, then all sang Waite's "Tell the Wondrous
> Story, ' ' and after another three talks the meeting was closed
> by the choir singing "The Prophetic Song" (Parker).
> The choir also participated in a public meeting held in con­
> junction with the convention on the evening of Monday,
> March 22 . The meeting was chaired by Thornton Chase,
> there were eight speakers, and, in addition to the choir's per­
> formance, Lena Moneak again played and Bessie Diggett and
> Albert Windust sang solos. 7
> After the convention the choir remained active. On Sunday,
> 13 June 1909, they went to Kenosha, Wisconsin, to join with
> the Kenosha Baha'f community in their regular Sunday meet­
> ing. The Kenosha minutes record that:
> 
> A very beautiful and interesting meeting was held and the Choral
> Society favored us with some fine singing, which was followed by
> selections from the Redeen orchestra. After the morning meet­
> ing, the visitors enjoyed a short walk about the city and upon
> returning to the hall they were served with dinner. About 2:30 in
> the afternoon another meeting was held in the hall and the Choral
> Society rendered several more beautiful selections, the Redeen
> orchestra played a few pieces and Brother Windust sang a beauti­
> ful solo.8
> 
> Those at the afternoon meeting also heard talks by Thorn­
> ton Chase, Albert Windust, and Bernard Jacobsen and en­
> joyed light refreshments.
> During the summer of 1909, Louise Waite received an un­
> expected Tablet from 'Abdu'l-Baha inviting her to come to
> Choral Song and Sermonizing             243
> 
> 'Akka. The night before she left in early September, she met
> with the Choral Society to hear them once more. Windust was
> not able to be present, but he telephoned a message that he
> had a letter to send with Waite asking for 'Abdu'l-Baha's in­
> structions about music in the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar, and that he
> also wished her to take his conductor's baton to ask 'Abdu'l­
> Baha to bless it. Louise Waite had originally given him this
> baton, and on her way to 'Akka she had it set with a heavy
> silver tip in London. 'Abdu'l-Baha did bless the baton, and
> he explained to her that in the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar itself
> there would be only voices heard, but that in an adjoining as­
> sembly hall singing accompanied by instruments would be
> permissible . 9
> On 24 January 1910, Waite , as president of the Vahid
> Choral Society, sent a circular letter to its members which
> described to them 'Abdu'l-Baha's attitude to their work and
> encouraged them to participate in rehearsals in preparation
> for that year's convention:
> 
> Dear singers to the King:
> On Friday evening, January 28th, at the Baldwin Piano Rooms,
> 262 Wabash Avenue, a continuance of the weekly rehearsals of
> the Vahid Choral Society will be begun and the music for the
> Unity Temple Convention . . . will be taken up. It is my sincere
> hope that all will enter into the spirit of this work, for the cause is
> great. Last year your singing at the Convention was spoken of all
> over the country by returning delegates. You did wonderfully
> well. This year you will, I know, do wonderfully better, for your
> incentive is greater. Last year's work was done in an experimen­
> tal way with no thought of permanent organization. This year our
> Society stands with the stamp and seal of recognition and ap­
> proval of Abdul-Baha. Let me quote again to you His words said
> to me while in Acca. I asked Him if He approved of our Choral
> Society and their past work. There was real joy in His face as He
> replied: "Yes. Music has a great place; it is one of the highest
> 244      Part Three: The Practice
> 
> forms of expression of spiritual ideas; it is a great art and should
> be cultivated. All who have talent should study and develop it,
> and the work of the Choral Society was most acceptable; it was
> very good . " I said: "I wish you could have heard them sing at the
> Convention on the 2 1st of March; they sang as if inspired. " He re­
> plied: "Abdul-Baha did hear them and saw them too, and He will
> always hear them. " And in the Tablet received by me, upon my
> return to Chicago, from Abdul-Baha, He wrote: "I ask that the
> Choral Society may become assisted to the guidance of the peo­
> ple, the love of the human kind and the attraction of the hearts . ' '
> Surely n o greater inspiration could b e needed than these words of
> assurance and His prayers. To the end that we may add to His
> joy, let us work most earnestly, for there remain but a few weeks
> in which to prepare for the great occasion before us.
> Hoping all will be present on Friday evening, January 28th . 10
> .   .
> 
> On 16 February 1910, a "Musicale" was held under the Va­
> hid Choral Society's auspices to raise money for the Temple
> Fund. The choir itself did not perform, but an "excellent per­
> formance given by artists of note , " including violin, piano,
> and vocal items and reading of verse by Louise Waite, raised
> "a goodly sum. " 1 1
> The second convention, i n 1910 , was the first to be held
> during the RiQ.van period. Those attending gathered for a
> Festival Service on Sunday morning, 24 April. As in the
> preceding year, the "meeting was called for 10, but it was
> near 1 1 o'clock when it convened, the intervening time being
> spent busily in getting acquainted, delivering greetings, etc . ' '
> The program began with a piano rendition of ' 'Contempla­
> tion" from Gaul's oratorio "The Holy City, " followed by all
> singing ' 'His glorious Sun has Risen . ' ' The Tablet of Vis­
> itation of Baha'u'llah was read, and then the choir sang
> " Prophetic Song" (Parker). Mountfort Mills, as chairman,
> welcomed the delegates; Corinne True read a tablet; Miss
> Waller sang "Song of Thanksgiving" (Allitsen); Zia Bagdadi
> Choral Song and Sermonizing
> 
> chanted; and a prayer was read followed by silent con­
> templation.
> At this point there was a substantial m:usical interlude, with
> the pianist playing "Adoration" and the choir singing an ar­
> rangement of "A New Heaven and a New Earth, " both from
> Gaul's "Holy City. " This was followed by Bessie Diggett
> singing Waite's " Prelude, " with the choir then performing
> her ' 'Benediction. ' ' This latter song of Waite's had been com­
> posed under the influence of her experience of the preceding
> year's convention and was rapidly becoming accepted as the
> most popular Western Baha'i devotional song.
> After three brief talks, all sang "Great Day of God, " and af­
> ter three further talks, Madame Ragne Linne sang "Come
> Unto Me. " The final six talks were divided by all singing
> Waite's "Temple Song, " which she had composed especially
> for this convention. The program then ended with the choir
> singing "The Heavens Resound" (Beethoven). 12
> During the 1910 convention the Vahid Choral Society also
> participated in the public meeting held on the evening of
> Tuesday, 26 April. The choir, assisted by Miss Ellerman,
> added "sweet strains of music" to a meeting which lasted
> until nearly midnight. I3
> Some time after this convention the Vahid Choral Society
> declined. Albert Windust entered a period of business diffi­
> culties, and he may have been unable to give enough time to
> directing them. Also, the organizational difficulties in the
> Chicago Baha'i community itself may have played a part in
> the choir's eclipse (see Chapter Five). Whatever the reason,
> in 191 1 Windust had to announce "that upon this occasion the
> audience was to be the choir. " 14
> However, the lack of a choir did not prevent the 1911 con­
> vention from being richly musical. There were vocal contribu­
> tions to its programs by Miss Ellerman and Windust. At the
> Unity Feast given on Saturday evening, 29 April Louise
> 246      Part Three: The Practice
> 
> Waite's husband, Edgar, sang the "Prelude" and all joined in
> the familiar ' 'Benediction. ' ' In the Sunday morning program
> Mountfort Mills gave the first performance of Emma Holmes'
> ' 'The Comforter, ' ' which he repeated by request at the clos­
> ing of the convention on 2 May. And throughout the conven­
> tion there was singing of hymns by Waite. 15
> For the convention of 1912, with its expected "special
> guest, " 'Abdu'l-Baha, the choir was revived. That year they
> numbered about forty-five, and according to Ella Robarts,
> who as a trained musician and piano teacher should have been
> able to judge, they were good. 1 6
> In 1912, the RiQ.van Feast was held on Saturday evening,
> April 27, and was attended by around 350 people. The tables
> at which they sat were decorated with roses, hyacinths, vio­
> lets, anemones, and the occasional sunflower. Mills again
> sang "The Comforter, " the audience heard a message from
> 'Abdu'l-Baha that he would soon arrive in Chicago, and there
> were several brief talks. Then Ragne Linne gave the first per­
> formance of Louise Waite' s most ambitious composition,
> "The New Jerusalem, " which she would sing again a few
> days later for 'Abdu'l-Baha himself.
> After further talks, a Miss Lee sang, and after more talks
> Mr. Paton sang. Then after a final group of talks, the meeting
> closed with all singing Waite's ' 'Softly His Voice is Calling, ' '
> which she had written originally for the children of the
> Chicago Baha'f community in 1907.
> At the meeting on Sunday morning, 28 April the "hall was
> filled to overflowing. ' ' After an opening period of silence, the
> program began with selections by the choir, assisted by
> Emma Holmes at the organ, Lillian James at the piano, a
> violinist, a harpist, and a flautist. The program continued
> with alternating groups of short talks and songs by the choir,
> and this ' 'meeting of wonderful spiritual fragrance, power
> and unity" closed with Linne singing the "Prelude" and the
> Choral Song and Sermonizing         24 7
> 
> choir the "Benediction . " 17 On the evening of 30 April 1912,
> 'Abdu'l-Baha was to speak at the closing public meeting of
> the convention. The meeting opened as the ' 'chorus vocalized
> the songs of praise which filled every heart, ' ' and then
> 'Abdu'l-Baha spoke on the importance of the Mashriqu'l­
> Adhkar. After he spoke all sang the "Temple Song,,... Linne
> sang the ' 'Benediction, ' ' and to close the meeting the choir
> sang ' 'The Prophetic Song. ' ' At last the singers had sung for
> their " King . " 18
> The programs the Vahid Choral Society participated in
> at these early conventions are obviously expansions of the
> community meeting model drawn up by the House of Spiritu­
> ality in 1903 (see Chapter Two), but they were also consid­
> ered paradigmatic for future Mashriqu'l-Adhkar practice by
> those who took part in them. The original impetus for the for­
> mation of the Vahid Choral Society had been the expectation
> of "baptizing" such a building with song, and their work was
> known to have the approval of 'Abdu'l-Baha. Similarly, the
> use of Waite's hymns, which feature so largely in these con­
> vention programs, was known to be encouraged by him, and
> such compositions generally had been approved in Tablets for
> Mashriqu'l-Adhkar use . Dropping the brief talks, which were
> mostly personal comments from delegates on their feelings at
> attending the convention, and the instrumental elements
> would have made these programs fit for community devotions
> in a Mashriqu'l-Adhkar by the criteria. then known.
> As was demonstrated in 1911, this type of program was not
> dependent on the existence of a choir, however. The absence
> of a choir that year did not substantially alter the type of pro­
> gram used. The "grand" and " sublime" could still be offered
> by talented individuals, and the audience could essay the
> ' 'humbler compositions. ' ' When the choir did participate, its
> repertoire and that of the soloists and congregation over­
> lapped to some extent: a piece such as the "Benediction"
> 248     Part Three: The Practice
> 
> could be passed from one to the other from occasion to occa­
> sion. The participation of a choir no doubt heightened the ex­
> perience of attending one of these programs, but its absence
> would not fundamentally alter it.
> Indeed, with the exception of the hiatus in 1915 (see Chap­
> ter Four), devotional programs at conventions after the de­
> mise of the Vahid Choral Society continued in much the same
> form as before, although their scale was more on the lines of
> the reduced programs of 1912, than the marathons of 1909 or
> 1910. The singing of Waite's hymns also occurred during the
> business sessions of these · later conventions, as they were
> used on occasion in conjunction with or to substitute for a
> prayer at the beginning of a session. Thus, with the example
> given at national Baha'f events, as well as in the accustomed
> practice of most local communities, the average Baha'f who
> thought about the issue in 1920 would most probably have ex­
> pected Mashriqu'l-Adhkar devotions to consist of the reading
> of Baha'f writings and other scriptures, with song elements
> ranging from the singing of hymns by all, a choir, or a soloist
> to solo and part singing of more elaborate compositions.
> 
> THE EARLY USES OF FOUNDATION HALL
> On the 9th July 1922, the Martyrdom of the Bah was com­
> memorated in the uncompleted basement structure of the
> Mashriqu'l-Adhkar. The account of this occasion published in
> the National Teaching Committee Bulletin described this as
> "the first service" held there, 19 and True also described this
> meeting as a " Service" . 20 The program was rather different,
> however, from what might have been expected. The lumber
> being used on the site had been arranged into temporary seat­
> ing and "a speakers stand and platform, "21 and there were
> talks by Vail, Bagdadi, and True, followed by Mrs. Bagdadi
> chanting and Vail reading prayers. There were no hymns and
> no other music.
> Choral Song and Sermonizing          249
> 
> Later in 1922, the Birthday of Baha'u'lhih was celebrated in
> Foundation Hall on the afternoon of November 12. Consider­
> ing the time of year, the condition of the structure, and that it
> was pouring rain, that around 1 50 people attended argues for
> a reasonable degree of enthusiasm about using the building
> among the adjacent Baha'i communities. At this meeting
> True chaired, Vail and Bagdadi spoke, Mrs. Bagdadi chanted,
> "and after a check of $1000.00 was presented for the Temple
> -was sung: "Nearer My God to Thee" which was exceed­
> ingly impressive. " 22
> The form of these two meetings was obviously similar, as
> was the personnel conducting them. That the former lacked
> any ingredient of song might be accounted for by the solem­
> nity of the occasion commemorated, but the latter was also
> conspicuously lacking in any of the several well-known Baha'i
> songs that would have been appropriate to the occasion. Yet
> however these two meetings may have differed from what we
> might have expected based on past events, they began to de­
> fine a pattern for the use of Foundation Hall that would last
> for many years to come. National Conventions held there con­
> tinued to include hymns through the rest of the period of Ba­
> ha'i hymnody, but the meetings organized specifically for
> Foundation Hall concentrated on the verbal presentation of
> certain aspects of the Faith and directed that presentation, in
> particular, to non-Baha'is.
> A central figure in this development was Albert Vail. Until
> 1918, Vail had been a Unitarian minister in Urbana, Illinois,
> but in that year he was forced to resign because of his Baha'i
> teaching. He moved to Chicago and proposed to establish
> there an "independant, undenominational church . . . dedi­
> cated to the universal principles of Baha' o'llah. "23 He further
> explained:
> 
> This church would belong to the old religious order and be con­
> ducted by a Bahai minister. But of course it could not be a Bahai
> 250     Part Three: The Practice
> 
> church for in our new revelation this is impossible. It would be
> simply a bridge between the old order and the new. At its ser­
> vices I would plan to present the great principles of the Bahai
> Revelation, the pure Christianity of the Christ. . . . Step by step
> would I and any other of the friends who spoke from this pulpit
> endeavor to lead the seekers who are attracted by these universal
> principles out of the old to the Threshold of the Abha Revelation.
> We would then announce to them that classes for the study of the
> Bahai principles were being held here and there throughout the
> city on weekday evenings and afternoons, and there we could
> give them the full Revelation. Thus would this church, we feel be­
> come an open door to the Bahai Cause, and who knows how
> through the assistance of the Covenant it may bring many souls
> into our glorious Cause and strengthen the Chicago Assembly and
> raise up those who are to worship in the Mashrak-el-Azkar.
> Whenever the service of this institution was ended it could dis­
> solve into the universal glory of the Mashrak-el-Azkar.
> And all the time between Sundays the minister of this "Church
> of the Kingdom" would be free to herald in Chicago and the un­
> tilled West the divine Glad Tidings. And thus he could . . . be
> both a travelling Bahai teacher and the minister of the "Church of
> the Kingdom. "24
> 
> Among Vail's supporters for this plan were May Maxwell
> and W. H. Randall from outside Chicago, and a Professor
> Rugg, True, and Bagdadi in the city. 25 However, not all were
> in favor. After two hours of discussion, the House of Spiritu­
> ality ' 'unanimously voted against the establishment of a
> church outside of the assembly. " 26 They wrote to Vail, asking
> that he discuss the matter with them before going any fur­
> ther, and stated that they hoped that he would decide ' 'in
> favor of traveling and teaching as a Bahai teacher rather than
> the establishment of the church you mention. ' ' 27 Vail did so
> decide and began a career as a financially supported Baha'f
> teacher that was to last until 1932.
> The subject of Vail conducting independent Baha'f-related
> Choral Song and Sermonizing         251
> 
> events came up again in 1920, however, when he proposed to
> hold meetings at his home at the same time as the Chicago
> Baha'i community's regular Sunday meetings. The House of
> Spirituality sent a delegation to attempt to dissuade him, em­
> powering it to ask Vail to take charge of the community Sun­
> day meetings. 28 The minutes of the House of Spirituality over
> the following year have various references to Vail being re­
> quested to take charge of specific Sunday meetings, or series
> of meetings, until he was asked to ' 'take charge . . . for an ex­
> tended time" in October 192 1 . The arrangement then made
> was that Vail would conduct all Sunday meetings in Chicago,
> except for once a month, when he visited the Urbana Baha'i
> community.29 Thus, by the time of the "first service" in the
> basement structure, Vail was well established as a quasi-min­
> ister to the Chicago Baha'i community, and thereafter his talks
> dominated the presentation of the Faith in the Mashriqu'l­
> Adhkar for the following decade.
> Not surprisingly given his background, Vail was a univer­
> salist Baha'i, seeing the "supreme concept" of "the teaching
> of . . . the Bahai Movement" as being "the inherent unity of
> the universe. "30 He was disinclined to press matters that
> might seem exclusivist or dogmatic on non-Baha'is, to the ex­
> tent that he on occasion accepted people as "Baha'is " who
> only later found out, to their horror in some cases, that the
> Baha'i Faith taught racial equality and even approved
> "mixed" marriages. There was even a time in 1928 when Vail
> had the Arabic Greatest Name removed from Foundation
> Hall because it appeared foreign. It is not surprising, then,
> that during his time as "pastor" of Foundation Hall the Baha'i
> hymns were not used at public events. That ' 'universal' ' ones
> were not much in evidence either may be related to the
> general hymn controversy in Chicago (see Chapter Four) or
> may be because the ethos of the meetings was so oriented
> toward the direct presentation of selected aspects of the Faith
> 252      Part Three: The Practice
> 
> in speech. It is highly unlikely that Vail or True, his close as­
> sociate in these activities, were of the anti-hymn party in
> Chicago. Indeed , the meeting in the Perron home to hear
> True's report of her 1925 pilgrimage began with prayer by
> Vail, the singing of Waite's ' 'Softly His Voice is Calling,' ' and
> Vail reading a tablet.31 It would seem, however, that their
> general attitude toward most uses of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar
> was to deemphasize anything that made it seem " Baha'i" in
> an exclusivist, denominational sense.
> Although the main use of Foundation Hall during the 1920s
> was public presentations, there were some attempts at com­
> munity devotional use . During the summer of 1923, it was
> planned to hold meetings on Friday evenings, as well as the
> Sunday meetings, and these were probably for community de­
> votions.32 And after the substantial completion of the base­
> ment interior in 1928, there was another attempt. The
> general letters of the Chicago Spiritual Assembly to commu­
> nity members for August to October 1928 mention a devo­
> tional or prayer meeting at 8 P.M. on Fridays. 33 It would seem
> probable from this latter designation that this was a program
> of readings , and from the lack of further mention that the ser­
> ies of meetings died out from a combination of transport
> difficulties and the onslaught of winter.
> During the 1920s also, the use of Foundation Hall came to
> be conceptualized as a national, rather than a Chicago, affair.
> In its report to the National Convention in 1925, the National
> Spiritual Assembly noted that in "Chicago the Assembly is
> most fortunate at having at its disposal the Foundation Hall of
> the Temple at Wilmette. "34 But in its 1926 report the Assem­
> bly stated:
> 
> We desire also to make it clear that the meetings held in the
> Foundation Hall of the Temple should not be regarded as a func-
> Choral Song and Sermonizing        253
> 
> tion of any local Assembly, but as national in scope, and, because
> it is necessary to regard the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar as a national
> Baha'f institution, the National Spiritual Assembly during the
> present year requested the Temple Committee to supervise all
> meetings in the Foundation Hall and grounds. 35
> 
> This changed conceptualization has been expressed
> through the years in the organization of events in Foundation
> Hall, and later in the auditorium, being under the jurisdiction
> of variously named Temple Program, Worship, Devotions,
> and Activities committees appointed by the National Spiritual
> ·
> 
> Assembly.
> It is evident from a letter from the Chicago Assembly to
> community members of 6 March 1929, that by the later 1920s
> Foundation Hall meetings were not satisfying the needs of lo­
> cal Baha'fs (be these devotional, informational, or social).36
> This letter notes that during the previous autumn the number
> of people attending the Sunday afternoon meetings averaged
> around 90 to 100, and that even during the winter it had aver­
> aged around 40 to fifty, but ' 'the percentage of Baha'i friends
> as compared with the strangers has been very small. ' ' The
> letter goes on to describe the teaching work of Vail, to say
> how many of the people he had interested attend the Sunday
> meetings, and to urge the Baha'fs to attend to give support to
> his work.
> Thus, by the time the superstructure of .the building began
> to be erected, the last vestiges of the conceptualization of the
> Mashriqu'l-Adhkar' s use as a Chicago Baha'f community
> devotional center had disappeared, and it was seen increas­
> ingly as oriented toward non-Baha'fs. The Chicago commu­
> nity rented its own center in the city and arranged its own
> community events there. The Mashriqu'l-Adhkar was now to
> serve a "national" constituency.
> Part Three: The Practice
> 
> DEVELOPMENTS IN THE 1930s
> With the resumed construction of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar
> during the 1930s there were moves to explore the possibilities
> for its future use.
> In February 193 1 , the National Spiritual Assembly ap­
> pointed a five-member music committee to "give considera­
> tion to the subject of music and its relationship to Bahai
> meetings and gatherings. ' ' 37 A copy of a chant by Kinney was
> enclosed with the letter appointing the committee for it to
> ' 'report upon, ' ' and the letter concluded with a confession:
> 
> We realize the rather vague nature of the commission we are
> turning over to you, and that it may not be feasible to work out
> any extended recommendations, except gradually, but if your
> Committee should be successful in defining, even to a small ex­
> tent, that type of music most ideally adapted to the universal and
> mystic spirit of the Bahai Cause, or to state to what extent music
> should become a practical part of regular Bahai meetings and how
> best adapted to the program of a meeting, much gain would be re­
> alized. Later, other developments will appear.38
> 
> The members of this committee had not been active previ­
> ously in Baha'f music. However, they produced a general
> report (although there is, unfortunately, no surviving report
> on the Kinney chant) that suggests a serious consideration of
> the.ir topic:
> 
> The shortness of the time available to the present Music Commit­
> tee has made it difficult for it to do more than make a recommen­
> dation on the general subject of Baha'i music, and to request
> some basic information for the use of the incoming Committee.
> Although in the past several compositions have received the ap­
> proval of the Master and are now being used at meetings and
> feasts, your Committee feels that no exact pattern can now be
> laid down for all future Baha'i music, and that the present func-
> Choral Song and Sermonizing            255
> 
> tion of a Music Committee must be to recommend such music as
> it considers suitable for Baha'i use, without the creation of any
> official standard or definite type of Baha'i music.
> The most important need at the present time would seem to be
> to determine the general character of the musical accompaniment
> to the Temple services, when inaugurated·. While it is undoubt­
> edly necessary to make all possible use of the services of those
> qualified and willing to contribute to the Temple music, it is also
> highly desirable to safeguard the Temple from any musical ef­
> forts, however well meant, which might not be commensurate
> with the unique standard of the edifice.
> It is necessary, also, to determine whether existing religious
> musical motives may be adapted for Baha'i use, or whether, in
> this wonderful building, it will be found best to create a new and
> universal type of music truly Baha'i in character, animated by the
> spirit of the Teachings and in keeping with the aims and nature of
> the Temple itself.
> Any Music Committee would undoubtedly hesitate to take upon
> itself the responsibility of recommending any particular type of
> music for Temple use until some general principles shall have
> been laid down by the Guardian. The attached list of questions is
> submitted, therefore, with the hope that this information will
> make it possible for future Music Committees to function with en­
> tire assurance that their work will be in accord with the wishes of
> the Guardian and the National Spiritual Assembly.39
> 
> The questions, which were not sent at that time but which
> were all previously or subsequently answered, were:
> 
> Since architectural motives from all religions have been used in
> the Temple, may we assume that religious musical themes may
> be likewise adapted to Baha'i use in that edifice? Or should the
> characteristic themes of the music associated with the various
> world religions be used only in the nine chapels, and a new and
> universal type of purely Baha'i music be evolved for use in the
> Temple proper?
> 256      Part Three: The Practice
> 
> Is the Temple music to be purely vocal, or is instrumental
> music also permitted? Can Baha'i chanting be "inspirational" or
> must it follow a definite score, as a protection · against the un­
> skilled? Must any particular language be used? Should all re­
> quests to chant in the Temple be approved, or should permission
> be extended only to those of proven ability, and a gradually rising
> standard of musical perfection be adhered to? Should the chanting
> be       the Persian or the Occidental manner, or both? Should
> chants follow the exact words of the Holy Utterances, or are any
> changes permitted for greater ease in singing?40
> 
> The appointment of this first music committee was not offi­
> cially announced, nor was its report included with the collected
> reports of national committees printed for consideration at
> that year's National Convention. It is possible that the report
> was not written until too late for inclusion. Indeed, the ensuing
> music committee was only sent a copy in the middle of June
> 193 1 , with a covering letter that suggests that the National
> Assembly might have only recently received it. 41 Neverthe­
> less, the lack of announcement of the committee's existence or
> any verbal report to the Convention suggests that the Assem­
> bly was as tentative about the venture as was the committee.
> The letter written on Shoghi Effendi's behalf to be read at
> the May 1931 National Convention included the information
> that:
> 
> Shoghi Effendi would urge that choir singing by men, women and
> children be encouraged in the Auditorium and that rigidity in the
> Baha'i service be scrupulously avoided. The more universal and
> informal the character of Baha'i worship in the Temple the better
> . . . . Prayers revealed by Baha'u'llah and the Master as well as
> the sacred writings of the Prophets should be read or chanted as
> well as hymns based upon Baha'i or non-Baha'i sacred writings.42
> 
> After the Convention the incoming National Assembly es­
> tablished a new, and announced, committee on music. This
> Choral Song and Sermonizing          257
> 
> committee included three members of the first committee and
> three new people, including Albert Windust. The members of
> the earlier committee , with one exception, had lived on the
> East Coast, but two of the new members lived in the Mid­
> west. This geographical dispersion of its members prevented
> the committee from meeting more than once, a meeting
> which "resulted in discussion as to what would not be accept­
> able rather than forming decisions, " 43 and the bulk of their
> report to the 1932 Convention consisted of their Chairman's
> pilgrim notes.
> Louise Drake Wright was Chairman of this second music
> committee, and in the spring of 1931 she had been in Haifa
> and had discussed the subject of music in the Mashriqu'l­
> Adhkar with Shoghi Effendi. According to her account of
> their conversation, he said that he preferred a solo voice for
> the performance of sacred text. She then asked about choirs
> and, as she put it, "after considering the beauty, dignity and
> spiritual effect of the great Russian Choirs, he gave his con­
> sent to the use of such choruses when the Words of Baha'u'­
> llah are set to music. "44 During this conversation also:
> 
> Shoghi Effendi was asked if he thought it advisable for the
> Western composers to pattern their music after the beautiful
> Eastern way of chanting. He did not approve of this, he said the
> West should use its own natural gifts of expression, that imita­
> tions were never spontaneous and therefore not acceptable. 45
> 
> The same Committee on Baha'i Music was reappointed in
> 1932,46 but does not seem to have met again.
> In 1930 the National Spiritual Assembly had written to
> Shoghi Effendi asking for a statement on the use of the
> Mashriqu'l-Adhkar47 so that when they received the awaited
> information in the letter read at the 1931 Convention (which
> seems to reflect the Drake Wright conversation as well as
> their request) o�e might have thought that some more sub-
> 258      Part Three: The Pract£ce
> 
> stantive steps than the abortive music committee might have
> been taken. They were not. However, one Baha'f in Chicago,
> Louise Rich, was attempting to develop a body of Baha'f
> choral music.
> During the 1930s Louise Rich wrote settings for a number
> of Baha'f sacred texts. Sometimes her music was original and
> sometimes it was adapted from such composers as Mendel­
> ssohn and Liszt. Her settings were mostly intended for unac­
> companied choral performance in six parts, and in 1933 she
> began to suggest their use at the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar. In De­
> cember 1933 , the National Assembly wrote to the Temple
> Program Committee that:
> 
> Mrs Rich has written music for some Baha'i prayers . . . and . . .
> this music has been commended by the Guardian. The members
> felt that this singing should be tried out as an interesting experi­
> ment and the Temple Program Committee is requested to make a
> further report later on.
> This matter of Baha'i music is extremely important, and only
> by gradual evolution can this phase of the Cause become
> thoroughly established on the proper and spiritual basis.48
> 
> The committee wrote back to the Assembly suggesting the
> establishment of a music reviewing committee, ' 'In order that
> compositions . . . may be passed on by people trained along
> these lines. ' ' The committee also informed the Assembly that
> they had had one of Rich's settings performed experimentally
> as a solo at a Sunday meeting, but they made no comment on
> the experiment.49 At the end of this letter in the National As­
> sembly's files is penciled the following extraordinary note by
> Carl Scheffler:
> 
> Horace-
> isn't there a command somewhere which forbids set­
> ting of the Holy Utterances to music. I believe there is but am not
> sure.
> Choral Song and Sermonizing            259
> 
> Not only had Scheffler been a member of the Vahid Choral
> Society in its day, but it was he who had informed the National
> Assembly of Shoghi Effendi's approval of Rich's work!50
> Horace Holley informed the committee tersely that a music
> committee had been tried before, "without the slightest
> result. "51 He went on to say:
> 
> The only general principle we have is a statement made by the
> Guardian that western believers should not imitate Persian chant­
> ing . . . . It would seem advisable to allow the question of Baha'i
> music to develop normally, taking one step at a time, and will
> your committee consider this suggestion and express your views
> again before our meeting on January 27th?52
> 
> Despite this direct request, neither the committee nor the
> Assembly brought the subject up again until May 1934, when
> the committee decided to audition another piece by the impor­
> tunate Mrs. Rich, but with the reservation that the Assembly
> would have to make the final decision on whether it should be
> used.53 The audition was scheduled for 13 May, but there is
> no record. as to whether it took place.
> The surviving programs for 1930s activities in Chicago do
> not suggest that Rich's music was being used at local Baha'f
> events. Indeed, despite the number of pieces she produced,
> there is no record of any performance other than the unfruit­
> ful "experiment" under the auspices of the Temple Program
> Committee. Undoubtedly, her addiction to six-part settings
> without there being any trained Baha' f choir in the country
> had much to do with her music not being used. However, it
> could have been performed with one or more voices and piano
> accompaniment, as for the ' 'experiment , ' ' and it seems likely
> that it may have been so used in private homes, on occasion,
> and that some account of such use may yet come to light.
> Nevertheless, as Rich also wrote some undemanding Baha'f
> hymns that do not seem to have been used by the community,
> 260      Part Three: The Practice
> 
> while a couple of inferior pieces by Nina Matthisen and Janet
> Bolton were sometimes featured in Chicago, there may have
> been personality factors involved in the exclusion of Rich's
> music.
> In 1935, Louise Waite attempted to support the use of
> music by sending the Temple Program Committee a copy of a
> letter that she had received from Shoghi Effendi which en­
> couraged singing at Baha'f gatherings. 54 And in 1935 also, the
> issue of chanting in Persian came up once more and the com­
> mittee asked the National Assembly to ask Shoghi Effendi
> about it. He replied that: "It should neither be required or
> prohibited. " 55 This must have satisfied the last of the commit­
> tee's curiosity on the subject of music in the Mashriqu'l­
> Adhkar, as notice of the receipt of a copy of this letter from
> Shoghi Effendi is the last mention of music in the surviving
> minutes, which continue up to October 1 938.56
> It should be noted that during this period when the National
> Spiritual Assembly and the Temple Program Committee
> were so indefinite over the issue of music in the Mashriqu'l­
> Adhkar, and generally, Shoghi Effendi himself instituted a
> music section in Baha 'i World, 57 and chose the music for it,
> mainly by Louise Waite and Louise Rich, in the first three
> volumes to include music. 58 It would seem that in their con­
> cern over what was or was not correct to do, the Assembly
> and the committee felt safer doing nothing, despite Shoghi
> Effendi's instructions and encouragement. To understand how
> this position came about, it is necessary to consider certain
> aspects of the history of the East Coast Baha'f community,
> and how these influenced the development of the ideology of
> Baha'f devotions among those who made up the administra­
> tive elite of the national Baha' f community.
> Choral Song and Sermonizing           261
> 
> " HIGH CHURCH " BAHA ' f PRACTICE
> In 191 1 , Dr. William Norman Guthrie came to New York to
> take over the position of rector of the Episcopal Church of St.
> Mark' s-in-the-Bouwerie. 59 This long-established church had
> been left substantially high and dry by population movements
> in the city, its former ' 'old family' ' parishioners having moved
> out of the rapidly deteriorating area. The church, however,
> was very well endowed and had sufficient income to sustain
> itself eve:q. without much interest in it by the immediate neigh­
> borhood. Guthrie set about creating a new clientele for the
> church by trying to attract people from other parts of the city,
> encouraging the use of church tacilities by various groups and
> instituting a program of liturgical experiment that incorpo­
> rated drama, dance, and non-Christian elements into a basi­
> cally Anglican "office" framework. This policy made the
> church both famous and infamous, the bishop of New York
> refusing to make pastoral visits to it for a number of years in
> the 1920s because of Guthrie's "pagan" rites.
> Guthrie had had an association with Sarah Farmer's Green
> Acre summer lectures in their pre-Baha'f days, lecturing
> there in 1896, 1897, and 1900, 60 and it was possibly on the ba­
> sis of contacts preserved from this time that he came into con­
> tact with the New York Baha' fs after he came to St. Mark's.
> Around the end of 1913 or the beginning of 1914, Guthrie in­
> vited the Baha'fs of New York, through Edward Kinney, to
> make use of:
> 
> . . .a      audience room in the Parish House of his church, in
> which to hold a weekly Bahai meeting on Sunday afternoons with
> an unfettered platform. Through this he also invites us to come
> into touch with the members of his church, and in cases wherever
> convenient, to become members of the church, sacrificing noth-
> of the glorious Cause, but bringing into it the Bahai Spirit.
> 262      Part Three: The Practice
> 
> While not, himself, a Bahai, he is an admirer of the principles and
> vitality of that Spirit. 61
> 
> The invitation was accepted and the meetings of this "Con­
> gregation of the Spirit" were planned to consist of " Readings
> from the Word/Spiritual Conferences/Hymns and Volun­
> taries. " 62
> During the following years Baha'f association with St.
> Mark's continued and developed. In 1919, Hooper Harris was
> "conducting a Bahai Forum Sunday evenings, " 63 and the
> church premises were being used for such events as a regional
> convention of Baha'f communities. 64 A few detailed programs
> of special Baha'f meetings at St. Mark's in the early 1920s
> survive. On 7 January 1922 (a day on which meetings were
> held throughout the country to mark the fortieth day after the
> death of 'Abdu'l-Baha), and on November 28, 1922 (Com­
> memoration of the Ascension of 'Abdu'l-Baha), there were
> programs of readings of prayers and Tablets, and on 28 No­
> vember 1923, a program of similar readings was held but with
> the addition of music between the readings and to open and
> close the meeting. 65
> In 1924, the Baha'fs became more involved with Guthrie's
> liturgical experimentation when, on the Sunday afternoon of
> May 25, there was held a "Symposium on the Bahai Move­
> ment, " preceded by "a ritual Office on the Glory of God, " the
> latter especially compiled for the occasion and both being
> held to celebrate the birthday of 'Abdu'l-Baha (actually 23
> May). The "Office" was "rephrased from translations" of Ba­
> ha'f writings and consisted of parts for "Minister" and "Peo­
> ple" including an Invocation, Responsive Reading, Litany
> and Collects, and Congregational Benediction, with places
> provided for hymns, Sentences, Lection, Address, and Offer­
> tory. After the office, Guthrie was to "challenge with friendly
> criticism the so-called NEW " CAUSE" as to its social Pro­
> gramme, its world Message, and its alleged capacity for true
> Choral Song and Sermonizing         263
> 
> federation, or spiritual Unification of existing religious sys­
> tems and institutions, " to which Horace Holley, Mountford
> Mills, and J enabe Fazel (a distinguished visiting Eastern Ba­
> ha'i described as a " Mohammedan Mullah (or Priest)" on the
> program) were to respond with speeches .
> From 1925 to 1927, a similar event was held each year but
> moved to the afternoon of Easter Sunday, and in 1 928 it was
> held on the Sunday after Easter. On each occasion the office
> was performed and followed by speeches. These meetings
> were arranged by the Baha'is but under the supervision of
> Guthrie, who stipulated that he wanted "no gush, slush or
> twaddle, but . . . a straight up and down question and answer
> business such as carries conviction to the Western mind . ' ' 66
> Apart from Holley (1924, 1 925, 1927), Mills ( 1 924, 1927,
> 1 928), and Jenabe Fazel ( 1924), the other Baha'is who spoke
> on these occasions were Ali Kuli Khan ( 1926), Howard Colby
> Ives (1926), Marie Moore ( 1926), Harry Randall ( 1925), Keith
> Ransom-Kehler ( 1928), and Roy Wilhelm ( 1925). Apart from
> Guthrie's regular contribution, the non-Baha'is who spoke
> were Jules Bois ( 1925), Kahlil Gibran ( 1 925), and Alfred W.
> Martin (1928). In 1927, the proceedings were embellished be­
> yond the usual organ solos by Kinney improvising "on orien­
> tal themes. " 67
> Apart from these special annual events, the New York Ba­
> ha'is continued to use St. Mark's on a regular basis for a wide
> range of religious and social activities during the 1920s. A
> number of Baha'is were also actively involved in the running
> of St. Mark's as an Episcopal church during this time. Apart
> from those who were simply church members, Kinney was
> choirmaster for a few years, Bert Randall was church treas­
> urer for a time, and, most importantly, Holley was Junior
> Warden of the vestry from 1928 to 1933. Holley wrote the
> church's publicity materials and public statements (of special
> importance as there was a fresh assault on Guthrie's experi­
> ments by the bishop in these years), was part-time manager of
> 264     Part Three: The Practice
> .
> 
> the church's rental apartment buildings, and spearheaded the
> fund-raising effort that was necessitated by the loss of much
> of the church's investment income after 1 929.
> Although initially a firm supporter of Guthrie, Holley be­
> came the vestry's spokesman in a fight with the rector that
> broke out in the early 1930s. As Guthrie had expended con­
> siderable funds on his liturgical experiments prior to the
> decrease in value of the church' s investments, the church had
> no reservoir of funds but only current income. The vestry
> wished Guthrie to come to terms with this radically changed
> situation, to curtail his more expensive activities, and to keep
> the church open solely by . the performance of the minimum
> required services until its financial position had recovered.
> Guthrie largely refused to abide by the vestry's advice, and
> after a period of considerable acrimony and politicking,
> Guthrie had the vestry overturned at the 1933 parish meeting
> and replaced by a slate of his own nominees. The result of this
> election was challenged in the courts by the old vestry, but
> stood.
> The association of New York Baha'fs with St. Mark's from
> around 1913 to 1933 is of some significance, especially as
> many of the Baha' fs involved were, or would become, influen­
> tial in the national Baha'f community. In particular, Holley' s
> experiences as warden must have a t least reinforced his
> growing tendency during the later 1920s and early 1930s to
> display a distrust of individual innovation in religious practice
> in his Baha'f administrative work at both the New York and
> national levels.
> Although the involvement with St. Mark's was by far the
> most intensive by a large number of Baha'fs with a non-Baha'f
> religious institution, it was not the only case. There were
> other examples of Baha'fs being involved with and borrowing
> from the ' 'higher' ' and more liberal circles of the American
> Protestant church.
> Choral Song and Sermonizing       265
> 
> The Baha'fs of New York held occasional meetings at the
> Community Church of New York during the 1920s, and the
> minister of this church, John Herman Randall, became even
> more influential in the development of the public presentation
> of the Baha'f Faith in North America than Guthrie. Baha'fs
> also sometimes borrowed choirs from churches for their
> meetings, as in 1924 when, at a meeting at the Community
> Church, music was provided by the choir of the Russian St.
> Nicholas Cathedral. 68 And in 1927, at the "Evergreen cabin"
> meeting held annually to commemorate the visit of 'Abdu'l­
> Baha to Roy Wilhelm's summer home in West Englewood,
> New Jersey, in 1912, the choir of St. Paul's Lutheran Church
> of Teaneck sang four selections. 69
> Another example of the adaptation of a relatively "high"
> service format to Baha'f use is the graduation service at Hen­
> derson Business College in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1925.
> This small, Negro college was founded by George W. Hen­
> derson and proclaimed itself to be a Baha'f college, though it
> did not require any recognition of the Baha'f Faith from its
> students. The program for the service on Sunday, 14 June
> 1925, consisted of:
> 
> ORGAN PRELUDE
> Graduates' Processional - Holy Holy Holy
> Responsive Reading
> Song    Choir
> Scripture Reading
> Decalogue
> Announcements
> Beside Still Waters - Rosetta Ammons
> SERMON - REV. J. W. Hall, D.D.
> Offertory
> Bahai - Benediction
> Dedicated to the Cause of BahaUllah
> 266      Part Three: The Practice
> 
> The printed program was also headed with a figure 9.
> There had been a few signs of interest by Baha'is in high
> church practices before the 1920s. In the early years of this
> century, Lucy D. Hall Fake of Chicago produced an expanded
> responsive version of the twenty-third psalm which ended
> with six lines related to the then well-known "Knowledgf:!,
> Faith and Love" prayer (thought to be by Baha'u'llah, but ac­
> tually by Kheiralla).70 This text, without the last six lines, also
> appears in a Baha' f funeral service dated 30 May 1910.71
> There is another printed offic:e, "The Day of God, " compiled
> for use at St. Mark's, which Is more simply constructed than
> the "Office on the Glory of God. " As this simpler office is not
> mentioned in any of the 1920s records, it may have been pro­
> duced for use in the preceding, and less well-documented, de­
> cade's Baha'i involvement with St. Mark's.
> These instances, and the few others that exist, suggest that
> although some Baha'is were open to reconstituting some of
> the more elaborately liturgical forms of Christian worship for
> Baha'i use, there was no broad movement devoted to this end
> comparable to the widespread support for Baha'i hymnody
> (see Chapter Three). Indeed, the occasions on which there
> were Baha'i-sponsored religious observances that could be
> roughly characterized as showing high church tendencies
> seem insignificant in proportion to the thousands of occasions
> on which Baha'is expressed their religious devotion in deriva­
> tives of more populist Christian forms. The importance of
> these numerically insignificant events lies, however, in the in­
> fluence of those Baha'is who were involved with them and
> their deference to those Christian clergy who were also
> involved.
> In a number of Baha'f communities in the 1920s, Baha'fs
> were actively involved with churches, or at least were fre­
> quent attendants at their services. This involvement was not
> Choral Song and Sermonizing         267
> 
> new; some Baha'is had been active in churches from the turn
> of the century. However, there does seem to have been a shift
> in the dominant conception of the relationship between the
> Baha'i Faith and the churches by the 1920s. This shift seems
> to have had its strongest roots on the East Coast and to have
> been greatly reinforced there by the prominence of clergy in
> public Baha'i activities. This conceptual shift is not simply a
> factor of the passage of time, but is rather a concomitant of
> the power shift that saw the diminishing of the national im­
> portance of the Chicago Baha'i community after 1909, and the
> growth of a new national power base on the East Coast, which
> became dominant from about 1915.
> The Midwestern Baha'is who had taken the lead nationally
> in the community had had a clear conception of the Baha'i
> Faith as an independent religion. When they associated with
> churches, it was usually with the intent that this should pro­
> vide eventual openings to teach the Faith to church members.
> On the East Coast, the Baha'i Faith seem:s to have been con­
> ceived more as a social force. Thus by the 1920s, the standard
> way of referring to it had become the ' 'Bahai Movement' '
> rather than the earlier common ' 'Bahai Revelation. ' '
> These differing conceptions probably relate closely to the
> backgrounds of those who became Baha'is. The Baha'is of
> the Midwest at the turn of the century saw and taught the Ba­
> ha'i Faith as the fulfillment of biblical prophecy and their
> Christian hope. They conceived of membership in the Baha'i
> Faith as the natural next step for the sincere Christian. East
> Coast Baha'is seem to have come more frequently from tran­
> scendentalist and nondenominational backgrounds and to
> have viewed the Baha' i Faith as potentially socially redemp­
> tive through the application of its principles. The first concep­
> tion was based on a belief in the station of Baha'u'llah in
> cosmic history, the second on the principles he expounded.
> 268     Part Three: The Practice
> 
> Thus, when the power center of the Baha'i Faith in North
> America shifted to the eastern United States, it was not sur­
> prising that its status as a distinct religion became blurred
> and that it was relatively easy for socially activist and ecu­
> menically minded clergymen to link themselves to it and cre­
> ate for themselves positions of considerable influence. Just as
> in the nineteenth century some American missionaries in Iran
> had seen the Baha' i Faith as a wedge driven into the solid
> body of Islam preparing it for conversion to Christianity, so in
> the 1920s a number of "advanced" United States clergy saw
> the "Baha'i Movement" as a form of higher ecumenism that
> could bring together "advanced" members of all religions in
> nondenominational concurrence to better the world, but in no
> way was this to imply that anyone should change their previ­
> ous religious identity. This conception is obviously one which
> is capable of being more widely accepted than that which saw
> becoming a Baha'i as a change of identity, and it became very
> much the face that the East Coast dominated Baha'i Adminis­
> tration determined should be presented to the public during
> the 1920s and early 1930s. And, indeed, this presentation was
> frequently made by clergy during these years, the prohibition
> on clergy in the Baha'i Faith seemingly being seen more in
> terms of its lack of discrete religious identity than as a decla­
> ration of the redundancy of clerical authority for its purposes.
> We have already discussed Guthrie's involvement with Ba­
> ha'i activities at St. Mark's, and in the New York area there
> were also some ministers of black churches who encouraged
> Baha'i involvement with their congregations and who spoke
> at Baha'i meetings. But the cleric who was most used by the
> Baha'is as their spokesman was John Herman Randall. As
> early as 1923 Randall traveled to Boston once a month to
> speak for the Baha'is at a public meeting, 72 and as the 1920s
> progressed Randall became more and more a public presenter
> for the Baha'is. Indeed, his role was not limited to public pre-
> Choral Song and Sermonizing        269
> 
> sentation; he was even a featured speaker at Baha' f National
> Convention sessions as in 1927, when in his talk he describes
> himself as a Baha'f.73 There was some discussion of Randall's
> status at this convention, the chairman, Mountford Mills, re­
> ferring to him as a Baha'f, "but he does not accept the man­
> ifestation [i.e. , the station of Baha'u'llah], "74 this being a
> typically acceptable way of looking at things from the Baha'f
> Movement perspective. Objection was made to Randall hav­
> ing addressed the convention by Nellie French, who felt that
> only those who accepted Baha'u'llah should do so, although it
> was acceptable for Randall to address public meetings.
> Randall's involvement with the Baha'is intensified the fol­
> lowing year when he was made director of the World Unity
> Foundation, a body formed and financed by a small group of
> Baha'fs specifically to promote generally ecumenical and so­
> cial reform propaganda. The secretary of this foundation was
> Holley, who actually did most of the organization while Ran­
> dall did most of the public speaking. In the financial difficul­
> ties of the end of the decade, the Baha'fs who financed the
> foundation and its magazine found that they had to reduce the
> amount of money they put into it and a split grew between
> them and Randall as the money they paid him had to be
> reduced. Randall had actually resigned from his church and
> become a full-time paid lecturer for the foundation, but now
> he progressively lessened his commitment to it and eventu­
> ally returned to a clerical post.
> Also associated with the World Unity Foundation and a fre­
> quent speaker for the Baha'fs was Alfred Martin, the quasi­
> ministerial head of the Society for Ethical Culture. Although
> not as influential as Randall, he had considerable prominence
> in the presentation of the Baha'f Faith at that time. Among
> the Baha'fs themselves we have noted that Albert Vail was a
> paid Baha'f teacher during this period (the only other person
> in such a position was Louis Gregory, a black lawyer who did
> 270      Part Three: The Practice
> 
> not have the general influence of Vail), and the former Unitar­
> ian minister Howard Colby Ives was also prominent. The
> former church associations of these two were usually featured
> . in publicity surrounding their activities.
> Although there were a number of Baha' is who were travel­
> ing and teaching the Faith in the 1920s, there was a definite
> tendency to see the work of the Baha'i clerics (whether ac­
> cepting Baha'u'llah or not) as the most important for present­
> ing the Baha'i Movement to the public and expanding its
> membership, and the prominence given to them at National
> Conventions amply demonstrated their status.
> It is evident that for those who wished to present the Baha'i
> Faith in broad social and nonexclusive terms the idea of its de­
> veloping its own distinctive devotional practice would be not
> only irrelevant but potentially dangerous. If adherence to the
> Baha'i Faith was not to replace previous religious affiliation,
> there was no need to provide for devotional wants that were
> presumed to be met in the new adherent's previous commu­
> nity of faith. Conversely, the development of a distinctive de­
> votional practice for the Baha'i Faith would stand in the way
> of its serving as an ideological umbrella for those still adher­
> ing to various religious traditions, as such a distinctive prac­
> tice would suggest that the Baha'i Faith was simply another
> religion itself. Thus, attempting to develop a Baha' i commu­
> nity devotional practice, locally or for the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar,
> was not encouraged by the national Baha'i administration.
> We can see· how this indifference to the devotional quality
> of Baha'i community life actually induced Baha'is in some
> areas to join churches for spiritual sustenance in the dispute
> that arose in New York in the late 1920s between the Local
> Spiritual Assembly (of which Holley was the Secretary, at the
> same time that he was Secretary of the National Assembly,
> and Junior Warden at St. Mark' s) and a group of Baha'is who
> felt that Baha'i community meetings in the city were not
> Choral Song and Sermonizing           271
> 
> providing them with spiritual support. A leading member of
> this group, Dr. Genevieve Coy, a well-known Baha'f, de­
> scribed her rationale for joining a church to supplement her
> Baha'f experience thus:
> 
> I find that if I am to make any progress in spiritual living, I must
> at least occasionally have some source of inspiration outside what
> I can get from my own prayers and meditation and reading. Natu­
> rally I had hoped to get that inspiration from the New York Bahai
> meetings. Actually I have never felt that, save in rare instances
> the meetings here have given me that. Rather, I have felt that I
> had to find outside the Bahai Cause, some inspiration to help me
> face the weight of discouragement that came to me when I at­
> tended most of the Bahai meetings. In searching for spiritual
> help, I eventually found a church where the pastor had a spiritual
> vision which gave me the thing I needed. After a great deal of
> hesitation, I joined this church. I do not mean that I gave up at­
> tending Bahai meetings. I continued going to them, from a sense
> of duty, but I had to look elsewhere for the inspiration I needed
> for daily living. 75
> 
> It would seem fair to suggest that this indifference to the
> devotional needs of many Baha'fs by the administration was
> reinforced by the close ties that its most influential members
> already had with churches, and that as their personal needs
> were thus taken care of they did not feel any need for Baha' f
> activities to address this area of their lives. Indeed, we may
> note that in the case of Louise Drake Wright, the chairman of
> the ineffectual Music Committee, her 1931 diary contains
> only two brief mentions of that committee. but numerous
> references to her enjoyment of services at St. Paul's Church
> in Boston. 7 6
> In the case of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar, we have seen how the
> use of Foundation Hall came to be dominated by the former
> minister Vail, and how the concept of the building's purpose
> 272     Part Three: The Practice
> 
> became to present the Baha'i Faith to non-Baha' is. With this      ·
> 
> local situation being reinforced by the nationally dominant
> anti-exclusive concept of the Faith, it is not surprising that
> the efforts of Louise Rich received as little encouragement as
> they did or that the committees responsible for the use of
> Foundation Hall were so apparently unconcerned with any
> need for devotional development. There was always the read­
> ing of prayers, of course, and occasional discrete use of chant­
> ing in Persian or Arabic, but no searching for new forms in
> worship comparable to the claims being presented as to the
> new possibilities for social reform and advancement provided
> by the Baha'i Faith. The one development that had taken place
> in Baha'i devotional life, its hymnody, was limited to the rela­
> tive privacy of national convention sessions. The Mashriqu'l­
> Adhkar had become-and, despite developments in other
> areas of the Baha'i Faith, would remain-conceptually a
> "Non-Sectarian Temple , " as it was described on the card
> labeling a model of it exhibited in Philadelphia in 1939.77
> When Shoghi Effendi informed the American Baha'is in the
> 1930s that active membership in, as opposed to friendly con­
> tact with, churches was incompatible with membership in the
> Baha'i Faith, as in being a church member a Baha' i was sub­
> scribing to beliefs incompatible with the teachings of the
> Faith, there was some consternation. This was not as great as
> it would have been just a few years earlier, however, because
> by this time the fight between the rector and vestry at St.
> Mark's and the estrangement of Randall from the Baha'is in­
> volved with the World Unity Foundation had lessened the in­
> volvement of the higher echelons of the national Baha' i power
> structure with churches and clergy. This breaking of mem­
> bership ties between Baha'is and churches, and the concomi­
> tant insistence on the status of the Baha' i Faith as a distinct
> religion, did draw attacks from some of those clergy who had
> been active in promoting the Baha'i Movement. They saw
> Choral Song and Sermonizing        273
> 
> Shoghi Effendi's, and the National Spiritual Assembly's, en­
> deavors to strongly establish the Baha' i Faith conceptually
> and actually as a separate religion as the betrayal of the aims
> they had had for the Baha'i Movement, aims which they er­
> roneously continued to attribute to 'Abdu'l-Baha in particular
> on the basis of their relatively superficial acquaintance with
> Baha'i writings. Among the Baha'is there were few cases in
> which separating from church membership was seen as a
> major problem. But one of the reasons Baha'is had continued
> to affiliate with churches, the wish for a communal devotional
> experience, remained mostly unaddressed within the now
> more clearly boundaried Baha'i community.
> Since the mid-1930s� there has been no further confusion in
> North America as to whether belonging to the Baha'i Faith
> constitutes a distinct religious identity. But the emphasis on
> the presentation of the social aspects of Baha'i teachings that
> marked the 1920s has continued, supplemented by a concern
> with the development of internal administrative institutions.
> This certainty of a distinct religious identity has been accom­
> panied, however, by a continued lack of support for any de­
> velopment of distinct community devotional observance.
> That individuals should observe the few aspects of individual
> Baha'i devotional life that are known about and taught is
> recognized; but at the community level, "devotions" is syn­
> onymous with one person at a time simply reading aloud from
> the Baha'i writings to a group in order to begin or close a
> meeting whose focus of concern is elsewhere. The problem,
> however, was and is that, despite this unconcern for Baha'i
> community devotional life, the national Baha'i community has
> had a large and expensive House of Worship that is in itself a
> major contact point between the Baha'i Faith and non­
> Baha'is, and with which something has had to be done.
> (
> �
> f.
> !!'
> 
> �
> J
> ;3
> 
> THE NATIONAL BAHA'f CONVENTION OF 1944
> gathered in Foundation Hall. In association with this convention, the Centenary of the
> Declaration of the Bab was celebrated and a dedication held for the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar.
> CHAPTER EIGHT
> 
> THE MASHRIQU'L-ADHKAR IN USE
> 
> THE AUDITORIUM DEDICATIONS
> In the c.ourse of the years it took to construct the Mash­
> riqu'l-Adhkar in Wilmette, a number of events were held that
> had some dedicatory character and intent; here I will concen­
> trate on the two official dedications of the upper part of the
> building (known as the Auditorium, which is the House of
> Worship proper). However, before turning to the first of
> these dedications in 1944, it might be well to recount the first
> devotional meeting held in the stark concrete shell of the Au­
> ditorium on 1 May 193 1 , during that year's National Conven­
> tion, to mark the construction of the shell and the nineteenth
> anniversary of the dedication of the site by 'Abdu'l-Baha. The
> report of the convention written by Louis Gregory includes
> this description of the occasion:
> 
> During the afternoon of the first day the delegates and friends
> went to the main auditorium where standing in a silent and rever­
> ent attitude, they listened to the prayers and Tablets of Baha'u'­
> llah as read and chanted by a little band of angels who occupied
> the gallery above. An atmosphere of sanctity pervaded this meet­
> ing . . . . [He then quotes from the readings used.]
> 
> 2 75
> 2 76    Part Three: The Practice
> 
> These brief quotations from Tablets may well suggest the so­
> lemnity and beauty of the service during which all stood. It is
> characteristic of a place which will be used for worship, medita­
> tion and prayer, where also beautiful music will pay homage to
> God, but where no speeches will be made. Even the foundation
> hall is being used only temporarily for other kinds of meetings,
> this by permission of the Guardian. 1
> 
> This account by such a long-established member of the
> community as Gregory exhibits a concern for the devotional
> intent of the building and suggests a knowledge of the writ­
> ings of the Faith related to it that was becoming rare at the
> time it was written and would become rarer still.
> In 1943, there was another of the occasional experiments
> with a devotional meeting in Foundation Hall: ,
> 
> As a variation in the type of program in the Temple, a Devotional
> Service was held there on January 24. It consisted of prayers and
> selected readings, which were given by a Chairman and three
> readers. From favorable comments received, the program ap­
> pealed to those who heard it. We plan using this type of program
> again from time to time. 2
> 
> However, the emphasis remained squarely on the use of
> Foundation Hall for talks. During 1942-1943 also, the Tem­
> ple Program Committee noted:
> 
> The presentation of our Sunday services has been improved in
> spirit, reverence and respect, by the installation of a combination
> radio-phonograph which, with a selection of choice records, pro­
> vides a preliminary musical program lasting ten minutes prior to
> each lecture. During the playing of the music, those attending are
> · seated and remain quietly in their seats, thus being in a proper
> mood to hear the Creative Word. This has reduced to a very great
> extent the noise and confusion that formerly prevailed. 3
> The Mashriqu 'l-Adhkar in Use            277
> 
> We may note the use of the term "services" here as syn­
> onymous with lecture meetings.
> As part of the National Convention in 1944, it was planned
> to celebrate the centenary of the Declaration of the Bab and
> to dedicate the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar, whose exterior had now
> been ornamented. To accomodate these events, the conven­
> tion was held later than usual and for a longer period, from
> May 19 to May 25. Shoghi Effendi had instructed that the
> programs for these two celebrations should include :
> 
> . . . appropriate selections from the revealed writings . . . whether
> prayers, meditations, Tablets, the addresses of the Master or
> selections from the Bible or the Quran. Passages from the writ­
> ings of the Bah should be a special feature of the readings
> selected for this occasion. Singing, whether by soloists or choirs,
> should form part of the program. The utmost care should be
> taken to ensure that the standard of the vocal music should befit
> that solemn occasion. The Guardian approves the selection of
> some of the psalms of David as an evidence of the universality of
> the Faith which should be amply demonstrated on that occasion. 4
> 
> In the event, the Auditorium was supplied with loud­
> speakers "to bring the voices up from Foundation Hall" and
> was used as overflow seating throughout the convention. In
> particular, those younger and more sprightly Baha'is who
> could easily negotiate all the steps were expected to sit there
> and resign Foundation Hall seating to older Baha'is and to
> non-Baha'is who attended the public meetings held as part of
> the convention. The programs thus relayed to the Auditorium
> included talks and recorded music from Foundation Hall's re­
> cently acquired radio-phonograph, , including symphonies by
> Franck and Beethoven, oratorio, and Bach. (Baha'is in North
> America had been informed that instrumental music was not
> permitted in the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar a number of times from
> 278     Part Three: The Practice
> 
> 1909, and were also aware that speeches were not allowed in
> the House of Worship proper.)
> The Dedication and the Centenary Commemoration were
> held one after the other on the evening of 22 May 1944. The
> evening began with a public meeting in Foundation Hall, with
> the Auditorium being used for overflow seating as usual. This
> meeting heard three talks on the general theme of the need
> for a religiously constituted world consciousness to bring
> about world unity and peace. After this meeting, those Ba­
> ha'is Who were in Foundation Hall joined those already up­
> stairs in the Auditorium. Children under twelve years were
> supposed to be excluded, as the readings were to be recorded
> and silence was desired. The two programs ran into each
> other. The Dedication consisted of readings from the writings
> of Baha'u'llah and 'Abdu'l-Baha. The Centenary program
> also included readings from the writings of the Bah, a psalm,
> selections from the New Testament and the Qur'an, and "the
> John Charles Thomas recording of the Lord's Prayer. " After
> the Centenary Commemoration, a copy of a portrait of the
> Bah which Shoghi Effendi had sent to be shown on this occa­
> sion was displayed together with a framed lock of his hair. As
> the Baha'is filed past to view these, "the strains of Parsifal"
> were heard!5
> It is not necessary to question the sincerity of those who ar­
> ranged and took part in this joint celebration and the events of
> the days surrounding it. Nevertheless, it can only be charac­
> terized as extraordinary. That the Auditorium functioned
> mainly as an annex of Foundation Hall during the convention
> and so was used for relayed talks and instrumental music;
> that Shoghi Effendi's instruction that vocal music should be a
> part of the Dedication and Commemoration program should
> be responded to only by a recording of the Lord's Prayer
> (Walter Olitzki of the Metropolitan Opera, and a Baha'i, sang
> twice as part of a program broadcast from the banquet held in
> The Mashriqu 'l-Adhkdr in Use           279
> 
> the ballroom of the Hotel Stevens on 25 May to celebrate the
> coming of the Faith to Chicago in 1894); and that a recording
> of Parsifal (or any instrumental music at all) was chosen as a
> background to the viewing of the portrait of the Bah all testify
> to the lack of knowledge and consideration of the place of the
> Mashriqu'l-Adhkar in Baha'i life as expressed in the writings
> of the Founder of the Faith and his successors.
> The background to this state of affairs may be seen in views
> such as were expressed in an article on the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar
> by Horace Holley, which first appeared in Bahd '{ World in
> 1928 and was subsequently reused (although in increasingly
> shorter form) in volume after volume of that work. Holley
> stated:
> 
> Moreover, since the Baha'f Faith has no professional clergy, the
> worshipper entering the Temple hears no sermon and takes part
> in no ritual the psychic effect of which is to establish a separate
> group consciousness. Not even music-only the reading of the text
> '
> of the Holy Books-will condition the experience of free worship
> and meditation in this edifice dedicated to the unity of mankind.
> 
> It is helpful to realize that Holley wrote this at a time when
> he was enthusiastically welcoming the 1 928 reprint of Bahai
> Hymns of Peace and Praise, was still active at St. Mark's, on
> good terms with Guthrie, and some years before the abortive
> attempt at a music committee. Thus, although Holley can be
> shown to have had positive views about devotional music,
> when it came to considering the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar in the ab­
> stract he seemed to feel that this environment was above us­
> ing it. No doubt such a feeling encouraged the tentativeness
> shown by the National Assembly in the 1930s on the issue of
> song for the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar.
> Equally, although the building is ' 'dedicated to the unity of
> mankind, ' ' Holley seemed to regard any attempt to create a
> 280      Part Three: The Practice
> 
> particular unity among the worshippers in it as suspect. His
> acknowledgment of a lack of sermons in the Mashriqu'l­
> Adhkar may be seen as an almost ritual statement consider­
> ing the emphasis that had already been established, by the
> time he was writing, on the use of Foundation Hall to deliver
> speeches and the general · trend of development in Baha'i
> group meetings. Indeed, Holley had written to Shoghi Effendi
> in December 1926:
> 
> It seems to me that we American believers have unconsciously
> produced in our Assembly [community] life a psychological imita­
> tion of the Protestant churches which represented the previous
> experience of by far the greatest part of our numbers, and that
> the tendency to make the life of a Baha'f Assembly revolve exclu­
> sively around preaching has been responsible for a dullness and
> apathy which must have been more or less inevitable but no
> longer corresponds to the opportunities which now reach out to
> us from the public itself. We must find a way of severing our
> group consciousness from minor internal questions and creating
> such expressions of the Baha'i ideal as correspond to the needs of
> the hour. As people of varied character and capacity enter into
> the life of the local Assemblies, the Baha'i communities will un­
> doubtedly reflect more richly and interestingly other aspects of
> the Cause which up to now have been held in suspense.6
> 
> However, Holley' s example of another aspect that shows
> current promise is ' 'the beginning of a conscious effort to put
> into application some of the economic principles, " not any
> sign of a decline in preaching. By the time of the Auditorium
> dedication in 1944, " preaching" was still the major Baha'i ac­
> tivity; it absorbed much of the energy of the most active
> members of the community and proficiency in it was the sur­
> est way to acquire status.
> In 1942, Holley as National Assembly Secretary wrote to
> Shoghi Effendi that "we have but a feeble and inadequate
> The Mashriqu 'l-Adhkdr in Use        281
> 
> conception of a Mashriqu'l-Adhkar in full operation as a Ba­
> ha'i House of Worship, though of course there may be years
> before the American believers are called upon to conduct
> such a holy edifice. ' '7 Most of the not inconsiderable material
> available from the Baha'i writings on the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar
> now was available when that statement was written. The lack
> of knowledge of it among the leading ranks of the Faith in
> North America, together with the frequent repetition of the
> same questions to Shoghi Effendi (especially as the same
> queries had often been answered by 'Abdu'l-Baha on more
> than one occasion), suggests an unconscious selective blind­
> ness to certain parts of the writings of the Faith and the let­
> ters of Shoghi Effendi where these did not cohere with
> feelings and views already held. Indeed, we might suppose
> that for an institution of the status of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar
> that banned the exercise of the principal means to recognition
> within the community, the ability to make speeches, and fo­
> cused on producing spiritual cohesion through prayer in
> spoken and sung form to become operational could be seen as
> threatening. Perhaps it was more reassuring to "have but a
> feeble and inadequate conception' ' of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar's
> function and to suppose ' 'there may be years before the
> American believers are called upon to conduct such a holy
> edifice. "
> It is difficult to distinguish between Holley's views and
> those of the National Assembly (as Secretary he wrote their
> correspondence and public statements), but it may be noted
> that in the case of the function of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar at
> -         -
> 
> least there is little indication of disagreement with his views
> by either the other members of the Assembly or the commu­
> nity as a whole. On the contrary, he seems to have been re­
> garded as the principal elucidator of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar's
> function both to the community itself and tonon-Baha' fs.
> In October 1948, Holley gave a talk at the Baha'i Center in
> 282     Part Three: The Practice
> 
> Los Angeles which was highly appreciated . It was circulated
> in typescript and later published in Baha'f News. In this talk he
> spoke of the necessity to finish the interior of the Mashriqu'l­
> Adhkar "because the meetings conducted in that Temple will
> revolutionize religion on this continent. ' '8 He continued:
> 
> When we asked the Guardian to give us a clearer picture than
> what we have of the meetings to be held in the Temple, he said:
> "Only readings from the Holy Books . " Now he did not say read
> only the words of the Bab, Baha'u'llah, and 'Abdu'l-Baha. We can
> read words of all the Manifestations of God, but we cannot read
> anything else.
> 
> This is the only purported instruction from Shoghi Effendi
> that he mentioned. He then turned to describing a future
> meeting in the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar, concentrating entirely on
> the supposed effect on non-Baha' fs; he made no mention at all
> of how a Baha'f might experience it. The whole point was to
> provide non-Baha'fs with an experience that "is going to be
> infinitely more potent than our outer teaching word can ever
> be. ' ' The Mashriqu'l-Adhkar was to ease the teaching process
> for Baha'fs, and its services were to function as one more ele­
> ment in the teaching program that presents the Faith through
> preaching; they may be more potent, but their aim is the
> same. There was no suggestion that Baha'fs have anything
> to gain from the services other than more easily increased
> numbers.
> In the late 1940s, the United Nations asked for statements
> on worship from various religious groups with a view toward
> possibly adopting some/ interfaith form for its own use. The
> National Assembly wrote to the Secretary General of the
> United Nations that " Congregational worship among the Ba­
> ha' fs consists of the reading of passages from all extant Holy
> The Mashriqu 'l-Adhkdr in Use          283
> 
> Books, with no ritualistic device, no racial, denominational or
> nationalistic discrimination. ' ' Later in the letter, the following
> is given as a quotation without attribution as to source:
> 
> The Baha'i House of Worship is not one more religious edifice of
> denominational character. It has been built according to a new
> and higher pattern of worship, wherein persons of all races, na­
> tions and creeds may enter the unifying Spirit �hich emam:Ltes
> from the Word of . God. Baha'i worship includes no sermon, no
> physical drama, no man-conceived prayer, invocations or conven­
> tionalized response. The Manifestation of God, He alone, has ut­
> terance in this holy place. 9
> 
> Although this passage was placed within quotation marks
> as if fro111 an authoritative source, it is actually from an essay
> by Holley, 10 who wrote the rest of the letter, and is more nota­
> ble for its ponderousness than its accuracy. However, we
> again see in it the simultaneous assertion of the aim of unity
> with an underlying suspicion of anything that tries to draw
> the worshipper beyond a purely personal and individuated en­
> counter with the word of God. In a strange inversion, a highly
> individuated experience in worship is supposed · to fuel a
> highly unified ,§!Ocial experience.
> As further evidence of the paradoxical attitudes that sur­
> rounded the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar we may note that, despite the
> indifference shown to providing vocal music at the Dedication
> in 1944, the information about the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar com­
> piled for the training and use of those who were to explain it
> to the public included the following statement: "There will be
> a new form of singing-not like church, popular, or classical
> music-but something that will evolve from the present forms
> of music . " 11 Thus, the 1930s' claim to aspire to an eventual
> Mashriqu'l-Adhkar musical style was not entirely forgotten in
> the 1940s.
> 284     Part Three: The Practice
> 
> To summarize the view of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar that im­
> bued the dedication of 1944, then, the building was seen as di­
> rected largely toward non-Baha'fs rather than Baha'fs; there
> was abstract expression of the sacredness of the building
> combined with a casualness as to its actual use; there was an
> expressed concern for the eventual development of a music
> form for the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar associated with a reluctance
> to encourage this or even a flat denial of the possibility of us­
> ing music, all from the same sources; information coming
> from the highest sources in the national administration was
> often simply wrong when judged by the Baha'f writings; and
> instructions of 'Abdu'l-Baha and Shoghi Effendi regarding
> the building and its use were recollected in a very selective
> fashion. As we shall see, this confused conception of the
> Mashriqu'l-Adhkar and its functions continued.
> After its dedication in 1944, the Auditorium was no more
> usable than before; the interior was still a concrete shell and
> the emphasis of use continued on Foundation Hall. As plans
> for the ornamentation of the interior of the Auditorium were
> being developed from 1946, Shoghi Effendi emphasized the
> importance of acoustical considerations and specifically men­
> tioned that acoustics should be the main consideration in
> deciding where to place singers when the building was in use.
> Unfortunately, almost all of the highly competent acoustical
> advice that was obtained from the well-known acoustician
> Dr. Paul Sabine was ignored or misapplied as the plans for
> the interior were developed and carried out.
> By 1952, the National Assembly realized that it was soon
> going to be in the position of actually operating a Baha'f
> House of Worship, after all, and they sent a list of questions
> to Shoghi Effendi related to the use of the completed build­
> ing. One thing they asked was whether they could begin to
> train a choir. The answer was, ' 'By all means prepare a
> choir. ' ' As Shoghi Effendi had first urged the Assembly to do
> The Mashriqu 'l-Adhkar in Use          285
> 
> exactly this twenty-one years previously, this answer is not
> surprising.
> During the year 1952-1953, the Temple Program Commit­
> tee 'YfOte to the National Spiritual Assembly:
> 
> . . . suggesting that they appoint a National Music Committee to
> do a research job for appropriate musical selections for an a cap­
> pella chorus; that the Baha'f music now available, as printed in
> the Baha'f World Books, be given first consideration and Baha'f
> talent be used to make the arrangements for use by choruses, that
> the various assemblies be alerted about this, especially in Chicago
> and its environs. 12
> 
> Also, in February 1952 , the National Assembly appointed a
> committee to make arrangements for the dedication to be held
> in 1953. In a letter to the members of that committee written
> in early March, Holley, as chairman, outlined some of the mat­
> ters the committee would have to decide, and among these he
> included "Music: This is one of our most important features.
> One question is whether Baha'f singers can be trained, and if
> not the choice of a suitable chorus of non-Baha'fs . " 13
> Despite these signs of concern, no apparent effort was
> made to supply the need with Baha'fs. In September 1952, the
> National Assembly gave permission to the committee to en­
> gage a choir. In October, they expanded this instruction to
> suggest that "an attempt is to be made to secure the services
> of such a choir without compensation' ' before engaging one
> that had to be paid. 14 On 13 December the committee decided
> to engage the Northwestern University a cappella choir to
> perform "classical non-sectarian pieces, " 15 and arrangements
> were finalized in that month. The choir was to perform ' 'three
> groups of selections . . . of from 5 to 6 minutes each" in the
> dedication service and was to be paid $ 1 50 per service. 1 6 It
> would seem that the continued high church leaning toward
> 286      Part Three: The Practice
> 
> "classical non-sectarian pieces" of the kind performed by
> such a semi-professional choir as most suited to the Mash­
> riqu'l-Adhkar was a factor militating against the sung part of
> the program being actively sought from within the Baha'f
> community itself. As to the music to be sung, the pieces later
> suggested by the choir director might be defined as nonsec­
> tarian Christian, although they were ' 'classical' ' merely in the
> sense that this is used as the opposite of ' 'popular, ' ' as they
> were mostly twentieth century.
> At their meeting on 13 December, the committee had also
> decided to have Holley write to Charles Wolcott, a· Baha'f of
> considerable professional musical standing, to ask for copies
> of his settings of Baha'f texts. In January 1953, Eunice Braun
> wrote to the committee suggesting that they consider using
> Wolcott's " From the Sweet-Scented Streams, " as "Many
> who have heard it think it is a very fine and acceptable piece
> of work and it would be wonderful to have some Baha'f music
> appear on the dedication program, containing a Baha'f
> prayer. " 17 ,The choir director's suggestions came to the com­
> mittee in February 1953, and by early March they had made
> their final decisions on the music after having had further dis­
> cussion with Northwestern's music department. The dedica­
> tion program was to open with ' 'Who Can Comprehend Thee' '
> (Peter C. Lutkin) and "God b e i n my Head" (Walford Davies);
> in the middle there would be "Have Ye Not Heard" and "Ye
> Shall Have a Song, " both from "The Peaceable Kingdom"
> (Randall Thompson); and the program would close with Wol­
> cott's "From the Sweet-Scented Streams. " It was also noted,
> "It is gratifying to note that the Music Department commend
> Wolcott's Baha'f song and are glad to use it. " 18
> The 1953 dedication was held as part of a series of events
> connected to the national convention of that year, which
> marked the Jubilee Year of 1 5 October 1952, to 15 October
> 1953. This year commemorated the centenary of Baha'u'­
> llah's period of imprisonment in the Sfyah-Chal in Tehran,
> The Mashriqu 'l-Adhkar in Use         287
> 
> during which he received intimation of his station. The dedi­
> cation was preceded by the National Convention and followed
> by an Inter-Continental Baha'i Conference, one of a number
> held in various parts of the world during the Jubilee Year. As
> well as the public dedication of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar, which
> was held on 2 May, there was also a private service, held for
> Baha'is on 1 May to observe the anniversary Qf 'Abdu'l­
> Baha's visit to the site. It is interesting to note the rationale
> behind the scheduling of the two meetings:
> 
> This matter of two services has been thoroughly discussed by the
> National Spiritual Assembly, and an important distinction made
> between the meeting scheduled for Friday, May 1 , and the public
> dedication on Saturday, May 2 .
> The original thought of the Temple Dedication Committee was
> to have the public dedication take place on May 1 , the Anniver­
> sary of the Master's visit to the Temple grounds. The National
> Spritual Assembly selected May 2 because Saturday is a much
> better day than Friday for a public event.
> . To observe the Anniverary, however, it was decided to hold a
> meeting in the Temple auditorium on May 1 for Baha'fs only, in
> the nature of a commemoration of the Master's visit. 19
> 
> If we turn to the programs for the two events, we see that
> the emphasis was placed on the public dedication. There
> seems to have been no consideration of . using singing in the
> Baha'fs-only meeting. The committee discussed the program
> for this meeting in December 1952, but it was left indefinite
> until clarification could be obtained from Shoghi Effendi as to
> whether the words of 'Abdu'l-Baha :could be included.20 In the
> end, the program for this meeting was supplied by Shoghi Ef­
> fendi, and on his instructions it was considered to be a service
> of dedication as well as commemorative of 'Abdu'l-Baha's
> visit.21
> In respect to the public dedication, Shoghi Effendi added
> material from the writings of the Faith to be chanted in the
> 288     Part Three: The Practice
> 
> original.22 The planned program as published in April 1953 in­
> cluded one " Commune, Chanted in the Original Persian. "23
> Shoghi Effendi added to this: passages from the writings of
> the Bab in the original language, with the suggestion that
> these be followed by others in English (there had been noth­
> ing from the Bab in the original program), and passages from
> Baha'u'llah in the original, to be followed by the same in
> translation.
> The program used at the meeting on 1 May consisted of a
> passage from The Epistle to the Son of the Wolf by Baha'u'­
> llah relating his experience in the Sfyah-Chal; the same in
> translation; the address by 'Abdu'l-Baha at the dedication of
> the site on 1 May 1912; the Tablet of Visitation of Baha'u'llah
> in the original and the same in English.
> The public dedication program on 2 May consisted of the
> first two choral selections; a message from Shoghi Effendi
> presented by Rul)fyyih Khanum as his representative; Psalms
> xix, xxiv, and cxxi; Matthew V, 3-17; John XVI, 12-13;
> Qur'an, sura II, 81, 130, 284-286; second two choral selec­
> tions; from the Bab in the original and a prayer and excerpt
> from the Commentary on the Surih of Joseph in English; from
> Baha'u'llah in the original, excerpts from various works in
> English (Kitab-i-Iqan, pp. 153-1 54; Epistle to the Son of the
> Wolf, pp. 13-14; Prayers and Meditations, pp. 94-95) and a
> prayer in the original; and Wolcott's ' 'From the Sweet-Scented
> Streams. " More than half of Rul)fyyih Khanum's address was
> actually the reading of a prayer by Baha'u'llah. The entire
> service, except for the introduction of Rul)fyyih Khanum and
> the words of her address other than the prayer, was repeated
> three times to accomodate the numbers who had come, some
> of the readers being different each time. 24
> As at the 1944 dedication, the portrait of the Bab was ex­
> hibited in the Auditorium in 1953, this time together with a
> portrait of Baha'u'llah that Shoghi Effendi had sent for the oc-
> The Mashriqu '1-Adhkdr in Use        289
> 
> casion. The viewing of the portraits was held separately from
> either of the dedication services, and this time there was no
> Parsifal. Shoghi Effendi had sent instructions that each view­
> ing (there were several to a:ccomodate the numbers of Baha'is
> there) should be accompanied by a brief devotional program
> consisting of an ode and a prayer by Baha'u'llah chanted in
> the original follo��d by a prayer read il}J�ggli�h , the last to
> be cbosen by the National Assembly. For this program, as for
> the other, Shoghi Effendi stressed that those chosen to chant
> should know how to do it well. 25
> The dedication of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar in 1953, then, had
> fewer peculiar characteristics than that of 1944, in great part
> because of the direct . participation of Shoghi Effendi in the
> programming. However, the main emphasis w�s still placed
> on non-Baha'is, even to the changing of the date of the dedica­
> tion from one of historic associations to one more likely to be
> convenient to non-Baha'is. Although Shoghi Effendi restored
> to the meeting planned for the original date a dedicatory
> character, the balance of concern and resources was heavily
> weighted toward the public occasion on 2 May. Shoghi Ef­
> fendi's intervention may have made the 1 953 dedication less
> odd than that of 1944, but the basic ideological conception of
> the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar and its function held by those Baha'is
> who were to operate the building afterwards had not substan­
> tially altered.
> 
> POST-1953 PRACTICE
> Following the dedications on 1 and 2 May 1953, the prin­
> cipal use made of the Auditorium was for public devotional
> meetings on Sunday afternoons. From their beginning, these
> meetings were organized ' 'following the pattern set in the
> service of public dedication, "26 rather than being directly
> based on the accumulated instructions from 'Abdu'l-Baha and
> 290      Part Three: The Practice
> 
> Shoghi Effendi on Mashriqu'l-Adhkar worship. This may
> have been in part because the various dedication meetings as­
> sociated with the building from the 1920s had obscured the
> essentially transformatory quality of dedicating a place of wor­
> ship: such a dedication is not a model for future practice but,
> rather, marks a giving over of the building to that practice .
> That such a distinction applied i n this case may be confirmed
> by noting that in his instructions for the 1953 dedication
> meetings Shoghi Effendi included material (such as the ad­
> dress given on his behalf by Rtil)fyyih Khanum at the public
> dedication and the reading of a talk by 'Abdu'l-Baha at the
> Baha'f ded1cation) which he elsewhere stated were impermis­
> sible in the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar. However, the pattern set in
> 1953 of a series of readings from various sources with choral
> music (usually around the beginning, the middle, and the end
> of the program) was considered the norm and continued for
> next thirty years with little apparent change. I will discuss
> this thirty years of use by considering first the concept of de­
> votional meetings in the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar as primarily pub­
> lic events, and then the issue of providing choral music. 27
> After the inception of Sunday afternoon devotional meet­
> ings in the Auditorium, Sunday afternoon public meetings
> with a speaker in Foundation Hall continued for many years
> with the hope that visitors would attend both. Nevertheless,
> despite the continuing Foundation Hall meetings, it was felt
> that the devotional meeting itself had to address some spe­
> cific topic in order to be of interest; mere devotional intent
> was deemed insufficient. This point of view was expressed in
> June 1953, in a letter from the Baha'f Centenary News Ser­
> vice (which had been set up,to handle publicity for 'the cente­
> nary events) to the W<>rship Committee, apparently in reply
> to a request from the comnrittee as to how to set about pub­
> licizing the devotional meetings:
> The Mashriqu 'l-Adhkdr in Use          291
> 
> As you know, publicity for Sunday services in Christian churches
> is usually built around the subject or the speaker. In the "old
> days" the subject was often a quotation from the Bible. We have
> no clergy, no serm9nizing, no organ recitals, but one thing that
> can be publicized is" the theme used in selecting the readings, the
> prayers and the singing.
> These Sunday gatherings are for public worship and the themes
> chosen, no doubt, will be selected with an eye to the public's in­
> terest. In other words, these gatherings will be designed to uplift
> the soul and educate it through hearing the Creative Word as
> found in the various Sacred Scriptures on a particular theme
> which could be publicized because it is one that holds the public's
> interest . . . .
> We believe that worship at the Temple which includes the read­
> ing of various          Scriptures, coincides with a growing inter­
> est in comparative religion, courses for which are being presented
> by schools and churches and that emphasis upon this aspect of
> our services may be utilized in publicity.
> 
> Both of these things, the use of a particular theme and an
> assumption that there was inherent interest in an event that
> drew on scriptures from various religious traditions, became
> and remained the principal points around which devotional
> meetings were programmed and publicized .
> At the Worship Committee meeting of 12 September 1953,
> these "topics for future programs were listed: Unity of
> Mankind/ Eternal Life/ Man/ Forgiveness/ Justice/ Humility/
> Prayer/ Joy, Gladness/ True Liberty (Reward & Punishment)/
> Submission (to will of God)/ Trust in God/ Detachment. " It
> was decided that the first four topics would be researched by
> the members for the next meeting, and at the current meet­
> ing they worked out a program on immortality and one on
> world peace.
> Apart from the Sunday afternoon devotional meetings,
> 292      Part Three: The Practice
> 
> whose form had now been settled, another type of occasion
> with which the committee was concerned was Baha'f holy
> days. Again, the rationale for selecting which holy days would
> be commemorated in the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar (as opposed to
> the obvious assumption that they all should be) and how to
> commemorate them was based on public appeal. In July 1 954,
> the National Spiritual Assembly wrote to the committee:
> 
> The National Spiritual Assembly wishes your Committee to as­
> sume responsibility for planning and ·conducting the following
> Anniversaries:
> Declaration of the Bab, May 23
> Birthday of the Bab, October 20
> Birthday of Baha'u'llah, November 12
> Day of the Covenant, November 26
> Naw-Ruz [Baha'f'New Year], March 2 1
> The cooperation of the neighboring Assemblies can b e re­
> quested, for example in the providing and serving of material
> refreshment.
> Because of their value in teaching, the Anniversaries are to be
> handled as public meetings. . ..
> 
> The National Assembly is anxious to bring up all Temple Ac­
> tivities to a higher degree of perfection in keeping with the dig­
> nity and significance of the dedicated House of Worship.
> The personal part can be conducted in Temple Foundation Hall
> and the spiritual readings in the Auditorium.
> 
> Thus, holy day meetings were also fitted into the Sunday
> afternoon mold: talks in Foundation Hall and readings in the
> Auditorium. The extent to which these commemorations of
> Baha'f holy days were seen as directed at the public, rather
> than at Baha'fs, may be seen from the reluctance to disturb
> visitors with too much devotional use of the Auditorium or to
> suggest too strongly the distinctive nature of the Baha'f Faith
> The Mashriqu '1-Adhkdr in Use          293
> 
> as a separate religion by publicly commemorating those holy
> days that were harder for non-Baha'fs to comprehend.
> In 1960, it was decided to permit the Temple Children's
> Committee ' 'to hold a half hour program of prayers and read­
> ings in the auditorium" to mark the Birthday of Baha'u'llah
> on the afternoon of Saturday 12 November: "Even though
> visitors may be coming in, the program will go forward and
> the guides can explain that this is a Baha' f Holy Day and the
> children are conducting a program of worship. ' ' There seems
> to be an underlying presumption that visitors might be sur­
> prised to find the building being used for such a purpose . .
> Also, in the mid-1960s there was some disagreement over
> whether to permit the use of the Auditorium to commemorate
> the Martyrdom of the Bah. In June 1964, the Assembly secre­
> tary wrote to the Worship Committee:
> 
> You have requested permission to hold a special public worship
> service on the occasion of the Martyrdom of the Bab, July 9,
> 1964. The Temple Activities Study Committee , comprising four
> NSA members, discussed the issue, recognizing the need for your
> having an immediate decision. Following full consultation, it was
> felt that, as a project, and an experiment in the public worship
> activities in the House of Worship, it did not promise well at this
> time.
> 
> The letter then listed several reasons for this decision, in­
> cluding the statement that this ' 'is essentially a Baha'f affair,
> requiring rather elaborate explanation in terms of the non­
> knowledgeability of the public' ' ; that it would be difficult to
> find explanatory material that could be used in a devotional
> program; that if Foundation Hall were used "for presentation
> of the background . . . and further effort to make intelligible
> what otherwise would be a private Baha' f celebration" in the
> Auditorium, this would involve the ' 'usual clumsy time' ' in
> 294      Part Three: The Practice
> 
> transferring from one venue to the other; that ' 'on a Thursday
> afternoon in mid-summer, in competition with a crowded au­
> ditorium of sight-seers, perhaps on tour, we wonder whether
> more than a handful of Baha'is could possibly plan to attend";
> and that as communities in the Chicago area planned their
> own commemorative meetings ' 'we wonder whether there is
> time to bring :all the communiti�s together in the early after­
> noon, since work schedules are what they are . ' ' The letter
> concluded :
> 
> I n short, we have thought seriously of the innovation which such
> a program would represent. While we applaud the thought behind
> the suggestion, and are entirely open to the possibility of such an
> event, we were reluctant to consider its occurrence this year.
> Our warm Baha'i regard in every sense notwithstanding.
> 
> It is evident that behind this letter are the assumptions that
> the first duty of the building is to present the Baha'i Faith to
> the public and that this duty is not fulfilled by inviting their
> participation in a purely devotional experience of spiritual
> intent.
> In 1965, a local Spiritual Assembly in the North Shore area
> wrote to the Department of Temple Activities (this title was
> then used for the umbrella committee generally responsible
> for the House of Worship; the Worship Committee was under
> the direction of this committee):
> 
> We are seeking permission to use the auditorium of The
> Mashriqu'l-Adhkar for a devotion service at noon on July 9, our
> Holy Day commemorating the Martyrdom of the Bab. In view of
> the fact that it is our understanding that the Temple Worship
> Committee is not now held responsible for conducting such a
> service, we would hope that permission could be granted. We
> would select readings from our Baha'i Scriptures and would ex­
> tend invitations to all Baha'is in this area to join us in this worship
> The Mashriqu 'l-Adhkdr in Use            295
> 
> service which we anticipate would be approximately one-half
> hour long.
> In the event you are unable to grant our request, our commu­
> nity would like to simply use one of the small sections in the au­
> ditorium [usually known as the alcoves] to pray quietly among
> ourselves.
> We are aware of the fact that the auditorium is open to the visit­
> ing public at that time of day, but our thinking is that since a
> guide is always on duty, they could· inform any visitors that a wor­
> ship service is in progress and if they wish to join us in prayer,
> they are certainly welcome to do so.
> Our reason for making this request is twofold: we earnestly
> wish to see our House of Worship used to the fullest extent possi­
> ble for the purposes for which it was intended and we especially
> feel that it is of the utmost importance that all of our Holy Days
> should be observed within its hallowed precincts. Also, we would
> hope that the friends, through such observances, may little by lit­
> tle become more aware of their duties and obligations in living the
> Baha'f life.
> Under the stimulus of this letter, the Department of Tem­
> ple Activities instructed the Worship Committee to ' 'arrange
> for a devotional service at the auditorium for noon, July 9, in
> commemoration of the Martyrdom of the Bab . " This may
> have been, in part, because of the suggestion in the Assem­
> bly's letter that their local community intended to com­
> memorate the holy day in the Auditorium by themselves if
> they could not sponsor a larger meeting. Since the shift from
> Chicago to national status for the use of the building in the
> mid-1920s, there had been a disinclination to have a local
> community sponsor any event. Their place was to assist the
> national committees in charge. We should also note that the
> Secretary of the local Assembly which requested permission
> was also a member of the Activities Department staff and the
> request may have been made with an insider's expectation of
> it causing the department to sponsor the event.
> 296     Part Three: The Practice
> 
> The 1965 commemoration of the Martyrdom of the Bab did
> not occur without objection, however, as it drew forth a
> lengthy letter from Charlotte Linfoot, a long-time member of
> the National Assembly and, as assistant secretary during the
> 1950s, sometimes the de facto Secretary due to Holley's de­
> clining health. She wrote:
> 
> This is a purely personal letter which is not to be interpreted as
> reflecting any view of the National Spiritual Assembly. It is writ­
> ten because of my own deep personal interest in the gradual im­
> provement of the services of public worship which I feel are not
> as inspiring and meaningful as they should be to visitors who
> have no background or very little background about the Baha'f
> Faith.
> Beginning with the recent observance in the Baha'f House of
> Worship of the Anniversary of the Martyrdom of the Bah, I ques­
> tion whether that service was truly effective. Since I was one of
> the very few individuals who sat downstairs in Foundation Hall to
> hear the program [relayed from the Auditorium through a loud­
> speaker], I could not, of course, observe the reactions of visitors
> or even the believers. I tried to put myself in the position of a non­
> Baha'f who may have dropped in because she saw people going
> into the Temple, or even one who had been invited by a Baha'f to
> be present. The reading was beautifully done but there was noth­
> ing whatsoever in the program to indicate its purpose. While the
> Baha'fs could appreciate the prayers and the readings they must
> have been almost completely meaningless to non-Baha'fs. Had
> there been distributed at the door a very brief statement about
> the purpose of the service, who the Bah was and something about
> His martyrdom, it could have been understandable. Or, if there
> had been a brief meeting before the service of worship in Founda­
> tion Hall in which the story of the Martyrdom of the Bah could
> have been told, then the service upstairs would certainly have
> been meaningful. I personally question the wisdom of making this
> particular event one open to the public. It is comparable to the
> Commemoration of the Ascension of Baha'u'llah and 'Abdu'l-
> The Mashriqu 'l-Adhkdr in Use          297
> 
> Baha and therefore very intimate and precious to the believers. I
> believe it is for this reason that the National Spiritual Assembly
> for many years has indicated to the Temple Worship Committee
> those particular Baha'f Holy Days which are to be shared with the
> general public by services in the Baha'f House of Worship. It is
> my understanding that this service was requested by one of the
> communities and the responsibility for planning it was referred to
> the Temple Worship Committee for carrying ou"t .
> I do not wish to seem unduly' critical, but as an individual I do
> feel deeply about the services of worship and wish so much that
> they could be made more attractive and more meaningful to non­
> "
> Baha'fs . The Temple Worship Committee is a very hard-working
> group and some of their programs are excellent but there are still
> a number which are far beyond the comprehension of non-Baha'fs.
> Again, my comments are purely personal and made only be­
> cause I have given them a great deal of thought during the past
> year.
> 
> That the event "was beautifully done" and that Baha'fs
> "could appreciate the prayers and readings" is evidently be­
> side the point; the focus is again on the non-Baha'f. This letter
> is based on similar premises to those of Holley's 1 948 talk in
> Los Angeles on the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar and equally discounts
> the importance of how Baha'fs might feel in the Baha'f House
> of Worship. That ' 'this service was requested by one of the
> communities" and so arranged in response to the expressed
> wishes of Baha'fs for the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar to contribute to
> their community devotional life, rather than arranged with an
> explicit orientation toward the general public, seems to be
> sufficient to cast suspicion upon the legitimacy of the exercise.
> The other two holy days Linfoot mentions, the Ascensions
> of Baha'u'llah and 'Abdu'l-Baha, are commemorated in the
> early hours of the morning. When they came to be commemo­
> rated in the Auditorium, they do not seem to have occasioned
> the misgivings as to their appropriateness as surrounded the
> 298      Part Three: The Practice
> 
> Martyrdom of the Bab. Of course, they were commemorated
> at a time when there would be no visitors. 28
> In November 1965 , a member of the Worship Committee
> suggested that at the top of the ' 'Order of Devotions' ' given to
> visitors attending Sunday devotions there should be a state­
> ment to "tell what these devotions really are-that they are
> for the public & it is not a Baha' i service. " That was undoubt­
> edly largely the case, and still is, but the statement was not
> included.
> One factor which has generally been considered essential in
> devotional meetings that are oriented to the public, but not so
> important when the targeted audience are Baha'is , is vocal
> music. After the public dedication in 1953, a professional
> choral director was contracted to provide a choir of eight
> singers to perform at the subsequent Sunday public devo­
> tions, and in 1954 the oversight of this choir was given to the
> Temple Worship Committee. The importance given to pro­
> viding such music at the public devotions can be seen from
> the Committee's 1954--1955 budget, in which $5,900 was de­
> voted to the choir and $500 to all other expenses (printing
> programs, flowers, stationery, etc.). However, despite this
> disproportionate sum being appropriated for the choir, it was
> far from adequate to ensure the standard of vocal music the
> committee wanted, and the subject of financing a choir that
> fulfilled the committee's expectations became a matter of in­
> creasing concern from 1958. Thus, on 22 March of that year
> the committee heard:
> That [committee members] talked to [choir director] about the
> singing. [The director] was not satisfied with the singers, either,
> but it seems better to have a good choir some of the time than a
> mediocre one all the time. The difficulty is, of course, that the top
> singers can get $65 for one night elsewhere & we are able to pay
> them only $10 a Sunday, which is quite a difference. [The direc­
> tor] said he would do the best he could.
> The Mashriqu '1-Adhkdr in Use               299
> 
> The amount paid to the choir director and members re­
> mained the same from 1953 to the mid-1 960s. In 1963-1964,
> the director requested some · increase and was told that this
> would be considered in the 1964-1965 budget. However, pay­
> ment remained the same for that year and the following one.
> In the budget allocated by the National Assembly for
> 1966-1967, not only was there no increase, but the total sum
> available for providing vocal music was cut to $2,500. The
> Assembly secretary explained the rationale behind this deci­
> sion to the Activities Department:
> 
> The purpose of the reduction in funds was to reduce what is to
> many a disproportionate expenditure in the total of those funds
> disbursed for the operations and functions of the House of W or­
> ship. Further, it is felt that, with the retention of Mr . . . . as ,choir
> director, and working with a selected small advisory group of the
> Temple Activities Department, a varied and unusual musical fare
> might be achieved, using the choir for perhaps one Sunday a
> month, invited choirs, such as the New Trier High School Choir,
> varied church choirs, etc, for other days of the month, and having
> chanting, single voices and varied voices for the remainder of the
> services. It would not be inappropriate to have occasional ser­
> vices without music.
> 
> This proposed "radical change, " as the Assembly itself
> termed it, appalled the Worship Committee. At a special
> meeting on 15 May 1966, the committee decided to write to
> the Activities Department, "explaining why we .feel this sud­
> den ruling regarding the choir to be impossible & asking that
> time be extended to Jan. 1968 . " The contractual commitment
> to the current situation ran through June 1966, the following
> month, at which time the Assembly expected any new ar­
> rangement to take effect. The letter the committee wrote to
> the Activities Department (as a sub-committee, the Worship
> Committee was supposed to communicate with the Assembly
> 300     Part Three: The Practice
> 
> indirectly through the Activities Department) urged the
> reconsideration of the decision, as "we must maintain a qual­
> ity and excellence that cannot be changed by substitution of
> the choir in a period of a month or two, " and therefore the
> commitment to the current choir "should continue through
> January 1 , 1 968. " The letter then commented on the limita­
> tions of the Baha'f singers in the area and the unsuitability of
> borrowing choirs from churches and schools, as ' 'by using
> them we are assuming [financial] support as well as a sympa­
> thy with the Cause on the part of the Church which does not
> always exist' ' and as it was difficult to ensure control of what
> they sang. The committee concluded their objections with,
> "We do not feel that by eliminating the present a cappela
> choir at this time that we are fulfilling our objectives in
> presenting to the public a program of such beauty and power
> that they will be aware of Baha'u'llah and the Baha'f Faith. "
> By means that are not entirely clear, as the Assembly did
> not reply to any of these objections to the planned change, the
> choir was granted a stay until the beginning of 1 968. The
> Worship Committee does not seem to have seriously consid­
> ered the groups of Baha'f singers that were active in the area
> as possible substitutes for the choir, and in the end it came to
> an arrangement with the director that he would use the re­
> duced funds to supply duets (in practice it was sometimes a
> soloist) during the winter and a quartet during the summer
> months when there were more visitors. The Activities De­
> partment report for 1967-1968 had this to say about the
> change: "This new format has allowed for pleasing innova­
> tion in musical selections and, of course, has helped the
> budget by greatly reducing expenditures for this purpose. "29
> However, the Worship Committee was not so sanguine. Be­
> fore the department' s report was written, the committee
> wrote them on 8 March.
> The Mashriqu 'l-Adhkdr in Use             301
> 
> For two months we have had either a soloist or duet. The singers
> have been most capable, the selections have been excellent but
> we do not feel that the overall effect has been up to the standard
> of this "Most Holy House of Worship. "
> We have had several of the friends say that it just wasn't the
> same without the choir. That the mingling of voices raised in
> Praise of God, added much to the beauty of the devotions.
> We realize that there is a deficit but isn't it possible to cut down
> somewhere else and continue with the a cappela choir? We feel it
> is most important for our Proclamation effort to the public, that
> an outstanding Devotional Program be presented every Sunday.
> 
> And the department itself was nbt quite so happy as its re­
> port seemed to indicate. On 27 Apri1 1968, they wrote to the
> committee that they were in full agreement with the view of
> the committee that the previous choir " added much to the
> beauty of the devotions, ' ' and added that they hoped ' 'to pur-
> sue this matter in the coming new year. ' '         ,
> On 22 December 1968, the committee wrote to the Activi­
> ties Department asking them to forward a letter to the Na­
> tional Assembly expressing the committee's views on the
> matter of the choir:
> 
> There is no question that the loss of the choir to solo voices has
> produced a noticeable change in the character and quality of our
> devotional programs. After many months this has become quite
> apparent to the members of the committee, and to many who
> have attended the Sunday programs. Oftentimes the voices can­
> not be understood and this destroys much of the intent of the
> music. Our musical director, Mr. . . . , has been most cooperative
> and done a fine job under such limitations. However, he shares
> our concern. He has told us that an a capella choir does not lend
> itself to two, three, or four voices and that it is very difficult to
> continue to find appropriate music.
> 302      Part Three: The Practice
> 
> We are aware of the many important and time consuming mat­
> ters which the National Spiritual Assembly must consider, includ­
> ing the budget. At the same time we would imagine the activities
> taking place in the House of Worship would be of primary con­
> cern. With a national budget which has been so increased over
> this time, we fail to understand how the necessary allocation for a
> full choir could be excluded. This raises an important question of
> priorities which we feel must be re-evaluated.
> We ask you to consult upon this. We continue to pray and hope
> that the Guardian's intentions for the House of Worship may al­
> ways be fulfilled.
> 
> In February 1969 , the committee acknowledged a letter
> from the Activities Department confirming that these com­
> ments had been forwarded to the Assembly along with the
> department's own recommendations. The committee averred
> that they "sincerely hope and pray that we will be able to
> have an eight-voice choir again soon and that a Baha'f choir
> will be organized and functioning for the House of Worship. "
> The committee did get the choir back, although it was not
> quite the same as before. The new choir did sing in four parts,
> but it consisted mainly of Baha'fs, with a sprinkling of non­
> Baha'f voice students. However, the director did remain a
> hired non-Baha'f professional. This situation lasted until
> 1983, when the choir broke up, in part because of disputes be­
> tween the then director, with his principally musical goals and
> shallow acquaintance with the Baha'f Faith, and the amateur
> Baha'f members of the choir. Subsequently, there have been
> attempts to revive the choir under various expedients and, al­
> though these have met with indifferent success, there is still a
> feeling that a choir is needed for Sunday public devotions.
> I am informed by a participant that between the two non­
> Baha'fs who have directed the choir, there was an interreg­
> num of about a year during which a Baha' f choir director and
> choir' provided the vocal music. According to my informant,
> The Mashriqu 'l-Adhkdr in Use        303
> 
> the Baha'i director composed for the choir and took a gener­
> ally experimental attitude that was not always appreciated by
> others involved with operating the House of Worship. The ex­
> istence and career of this short-lived choir was not reflected
> in the records available to me, and I am unable to discuss it in
> detail here. It may be that this experience with a director and
> choir that had specifically Baha'i motives and goals further in­
> clined the institutional structure toward employing a ' 'profes­
> sional' ' with only musical goals.
> Despite the changes in the arrangements for vocal music
> that took place over the three decades, the repertoire re­
> mained largely similar in character and even actual pieces
> from 1 953 to 1983 . It consisted mainly of suitably "universal"
> music, which might be more accurately characterized as high
> church Christian music whose texts lacked blatantly denomi­
> national implications. Probably as a result of the notes of
> Louise Drake Wright's discussion with the Guardian in 1931
> being publicized and thus entering into the miasma of half­
> truth as to Shoghi Effendi's instructions regarding the Mash­
> riqu'l-Adhkar, there was a vastly disproportionate use of
> Russian church music. Works by Palestrina and Orlando Gib­
> bons and a reasonable number of twentieth-century church
> compositions were also used. The repertoire was mostly sug­
> gested by the director, although the committee had approval
> and did occasionally ask for pieces to be discontinued (usually
> on the grounds of loudness). Baha'is were encouraged to sub­
> mit settings of Baha' f sacred text to some extent, but always
> with the understanding that it be in the approved style. The
> one piece by a Baha'i that was used with any frequency was
> Wolcott's "From the Sweet-Scented Streams. " When this
> was sung, a printed sheet with the words was added to the
> program sheet. Indeed, this was used so often that it was re­
> ferred to by the Worship Committee in conversation and in
> records as " SSS . " There was and is a particular aversion to
> 304      Part Three: The Practice
> 
> anything, from whatever source, that could be characterized
> as "loud. " Assertiveness of vocal tone or compositional style
> does not fit the model of vocal music as meditative punctua­
> tion between readings. Although the change from a profes­
> sional to a largely amateur choir had an obvious effect on the
> difficulty of music that could be used, there was no basic
> change in the character of the repertoire.
> The above discussion has concentrated mainly on the
> 1960s, as this was a time when the way in which the Mash­
> riqu'l-Adhkar functioned seemed most likely to change. The
> building had been in use long enough for the gilt to have worn
> '
> off the gingerbread, for the realization to have dawned that it
> was not going to induce people to become Baha'is in some
> mystical, talismanic way, however doggedly its use was fo­
> cused on the public. Indeed, it was seen that the area around
> it was apparently less fertile for the growth of the Faith than
> others in the country, which still holds true. Thus, a report
> written in 1962 noted:
> 
> O n the basis o f Baha'i population considered a s a "teaching
> force, " the Temple area . . . should have enrolled 160 believers
> last year, but, in fact, only enrolled 102 . . . . This is all the more
> amazing when one considers the fact that the Temple makes be­
> tween 35,000 and 40,000 contacts for us annually in this area . . . .
> New York has not pulled her load so far as enrollments are con­
> cerned, but she has done better than the Temple area and she has
> no Mashriqu'l-Adhkar to help her.
> California has been largely responsible for the increase in en­
> rollments. She alone has handled 22% of the total enrollments in
> the Continental United States during the past 5 years. The Tem­
> ple area was responsible for 6%.30
> 
> Nevertheless, there was no general impetus to reorient the
> use of the building toward Baha'is; better ways to directly
> reach the public was the usual goal. The fundamental ideolog-
> The Mashriqu 'l-Adhkdr in Use        305
> 
> ical assumption remained unchanged. Currently, the House of
> Worship is visited annually by many more people than in 1962
> (203,089 in 1982-1983), but even fewer residents of the area
> enroll in the Faith.
> The National Assembly of the 1960s was in many ways an
> institution attempting to be in flux. Between 1960, when Hol­
> ley moved to the Holy Land where he died shortly thereafter,
> and 1968 there were three different Assembly Secretaries,
> and considerable changes in Assembly membership from the
> 1950s. The emphasis throughout the period, and particularly
> in the mid-1960s, tended toward openness to innovation.
> There was a desire on the part of the Assembly, however na­
> ively expressed, for the Faith to develop and grow not only in
> numbers but in understanding and action; and there was con­
> siderable tension between this desire and the wish of some
> other participants in the national administration to leave well
> enough alone and continue the . patterns firmly established in
> the preceding decades. In the case of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar,
> at least, the latter won; the drag of the past was sufficient to
> slow the impetus toward change until the push for change
> was over.
> Although the National Assembly was not in disagreement
> with the Worship Committee over the primary clientele for
> the building being the general public, their approach toward
> how the Sunday devotions directed at that public should de­
> velop was quite dissimilar. We have seen how on the issue of
> the choir the committee fought for the status quo, and gener­
> ally they saw no need for much change in format. The Assem­
> �bly, on the other hand, wrote to the committee in 1964, "we
> hope that the music will begin to assume an experimental ap­
> proach, seeking innovations of various kinds, until ultimately
> there is evolved a steadily more unique and distinctive Baha'i
> presentation of music with the readings of the Word of God . ' '
> And during the period of controversy over discontinuing the
> 306     Part Three: The Practice
> 
> professional choir, the Assembly expressed itself in stronger
> terms on 3 May 1967:
> 
> As we enter a new Baha'f year, we hope that the Committee will
> experiment with more variety in the programs of devotion. We
> feel that they have become almost ritualistic in manner, and we
> would like to see much more variety in the selection of passages
> and prayers to be read and also in the manner in which they are
> presented. For example, consideration might be given to having
> only one reader occasionally, in which case the reader should be
> particularly good. Thought may be given also to having an occa­
> sional program of Baha'f selections only. Finding new and in­
> teresting programs for these services presents a real challenge,
> which we are sure you will welcome.
> 
> In both of these quotes and in the comments of the Assem­
> bly regarding the discontinuing of the professional choir given
> earlier, it is evident that there was a dissatisfaction with cur­
> rent practice and a desire for change. It is equally evident that
> the concept of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar held by the Worship
> Committee pervaded these comments, although there was
> discomfort with it. The difficulty, however, was that the nor­
> mativeness acquired by that conception was considerable,
> and there was no countervailing concept based on the Baha'i
> writings (or anything else, for that matter) to give substance
> to the Assembly's discontent. The suggestions for change
> made by the Assembly were trivial and tentative; the commit­
> tee, on the other hand, knew exactly what it wanted. Under
> the circumstances, it is not surprising that the established
> form weathered the squall.
> On the Assembly, the bridge between the 1950s and the
> later 1960s was Linfoot. After 1 968, she witnessed the older
> pattern regain its stable hold on the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar.
> From the late 1960s to the demise of the choir in 1983, there
> was no further sustained push to change the expression of the
> The Mashriqu 'l-Adhkdr in Use           307
> 
> premises that had guided the Temple Worship Committee
> since 1953 . There was certainly no significant pressure to
> change the premises themselves. Whatever dissatisfaction
> continued to be felt in the surrounding Baha'f community, the
> operation of the administrative structures of the Faith stood
> behind the status quo. The ideology had held firm, and the
> form through which it was expressed survived its few years of
> questioning relatively intact. It still did not attract non­
> Baha'fs to the Faith to any significant extent, and it did not at­
> tract Baha'fs to attend, but it survived.
> That the form still does survive is probably because it is so
> firmly attached to the ideology of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar in
> Wilmette as a public place. It is acceptable to criticize the de­
> tails of the devotions, to suggest tinkering with them only in
> terms of that ideological assumption. To suggest that the
> principal aim of devotions in the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar, indeed
> the principal aim of its use, should be to attract Baha'fs and to
> cater to their spiritual needs is to suggest the subversion of
> the ideology on which the entire conception and use of the
> building has been based for over half a century.
> In April 1 986, the Baha'f House of Worship Activities Com­
> mittee wrote to " Every Baha'f Within 100 Miles of the House
> of Worship, " urging them to attend events there, primarily
> held in Foundation Hall, stating:
> 
> During the past two years the quality and diversity of programs
> have been improved dramatically in an effort to attract more peo­
> ple to the House of Worship. When these programs are poorly
> attended by Baha'is, however, we run the risk of appearing un­
> caring and inactive as a group. Unfortunately, such a perception
> is enough to cause a visitor to abandon any interest they might
> have in learning more about the Faith.
> This situation is also offensive to non-Baha'fs participating in
> these programs. On Naw-Ruz we were privileged to present a
> concert by [two violinists] . . . . These outstanding professionals
> 308     Part Three: The Practice
> 
> performed at no cost to us; yet, sadly, only some sixty people
> were in attendance.
> 
> The premise is the same as the appeals in the late1920s for
> Baha'fs to support Vail's talks. Baha'fs should attend for the
> non-Baha' fs; their function is to pack the house, to form part
> of the mise-en-scene , not to expect the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar to
> cater to them. As we might expect, the public ideology is still
> dominant in the use of Foundation Hall as it is for the Audito­
> rium. The deciding factor is public appeal. Even when it has
> been explicitly pointed out that an activity was named by
> Shoghi Effendi as inappropriate for Foundation Hall, there is
> no hesitation about doing it if it is thought to be a possible at­
> traction for the public. This despite the continued fact that,
> just as in the case of the use of the Auditorium, events in
> Foundation Hall do not attract large numbers and have not
> occasioned any considerable expansion of the membership of
> the Faith.
> A pattern has been set that is supposed to lead to certain
> ends, and a great deal of energy and resources have been
> committed to that pattern. To admit that it does not work, to
> admit that the ends have been sought by inadequate means, is
> to admit that the administrative structure of the Faith in the
> United States has been mistaken in its leadership of the com­
> munity. Therefore, more resources are called for to pursue
> the set patterns, Baha'fs are exhorted to support them and
> chastised for not doing so, and the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar in Wil­
> mette becomes more and more a beloved abstract symbol of
> their Faith for Baha' fs and an irrelevance in their lives.
> One day I overheard a visitor asking one o{ the Baha'f
> guides what the building was built for. The Baha'f replied
> that it was built for all those who would come to see it. Yes,
> replied the visitor, but what was it built for? The Baha'f sim­
> ply looked puzzled and had no reply, other than to repeat that
> The Mashriqu 'l-Adhkdr in Use      309
> 
> it was for those who would come t<? see it. Like any Gothick
> folly, the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar has become a conspicuous con­
> sumer of assets with no actual function other than to look
> pretty. To imbue it with any other function would necessitate
> a revolution in North American, and probably world, 0Baha'f
> thought about the institution of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar and
> the place of devotions in Baha'i community life.
> I
> 
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> CHAPTER NINE
> 
> SCRIPTURE AND CULTURE IN THE
> DEVELOPMENT OF WESTERN
> BAHA'I DEVOTIONAL PRACTICE
> 
> Between 1903 and 1953, developments took place within
> the North American Baha'f community that resulted in a
> building in Wilmette with an associated devotional praxis. Be­
> tween 1 953 and 1 983, that praxis and the ideological basis for
> it remained largely unchanged, despite dissatisfaction with it
> and its results. The processes that led to this situation have
> been discussed in some detail in the preceding chapters. In
> this final chapter, I will deal with some general aspects of
> the establishment of the Baha'f Faith in North America as
> these have been expressed in the development of Mashriqu'l­
> Adhkar devotional praxis.
> I began this work by stating that before the introduction of
> the Baha'f Faith to North America it was, in a broad sense, a
> Middle Eastern religion. This had implications beyond the
> merely socio-historical. The scriptures of the Baha' f Faith
> were written in Arabic and Persian and thus of necessity are
> imbued with the religious and cultural environments of those
> 
> 312     Part Three: The Practice
> 
> languages. The religious and cultural environments of their
> English translations was, and is, considerably different.
> The originals of Baha'f scripture draw upon a technical Is­
> lamic vocabulary that often has no specific English equiva­
> lent. Moreover, the Islamic vocabulary is not always used in
> its usual sense, but words may be reoriented to specific Ba­
> ha'f referents so as to transform them into Baha'f terms.
> There was a presumption on the part of early Western Ba­
> ha'fs that Eastern Baha'fs could understand the Baha'f writ­
> ings by virtue of being literate in the appropriate languages.
> This was not necessarily so, as understanding required not
> only an acquaintance with each language's technical Ishtmic
> vocabulary but also with the re-referenced use of it in Baha'f
> texts. It is evident from correspondence and accounts of con­
> versations between Eastern and Western Baha'fs that some
> Eastern Baha 'fs had as far to go in understanding aspects of
> Baha'f scripture as Western Baha'fs generally did.
> Let me approach the subject of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar from
> an angle that would seem odd to most current Baha'fs: daily
> obligatory prayers. Two distinctive features of Baha' f reli­
> gious practice are the requirement for daily )'Obligatory
> prayers and the annual fast. The observance of these prac­
> tices is between the individual and God, and there is no
> mechanism for determining whether or not they are ob­
> served. Berger remarked that, " Personal impression seems to
> indicate that they are widely observed in the community. " 1
> This i s probably the case. From the 1890s, there has been
> considerable interest among Western Baha'fs in these two
> aspects of Baha'f religious life, and it would seem likely that a
> reasonable percentage of those who could be considered ac­
> tive Baha'fs have always observed them with some degree of
> exactitude .
> Currently, the individual responsibility for daily obligatory
> prayer is taken to mean not only that there . is no mechanism
> Scripture and Culture        313
> 
> of oversight but that the practice itself should be carried out
> in private, indeed, almost secretively. This has not always
> been so. As recently as 1 95 1 , the agendas for the first annual
> conventions to elect the National Spiritual Assemblies of Cen­
> tral and South America (which were prepared by the Inter­
> America Committee of the National Spiritual Assembly of the
> United States) included that at noon each day:
> 
> The Chairman is requested to ask the friends to rise and face the
> east for a period sufficient for the use of the noon obligatory
> prayer in silence. The Chairman will indicate the close of this
> period.2
> 
> In the Baha'f writings, the term saldt (Arabic; namdz in Per­
> sian) is used for the obligatory prayers. This is the standard
> Islamic term for the "ritual prayer" or "worship" that is of­
> fered five times daily. In Islam, it is regarded as more mer­
> itorious to offer saldt in congregation than individually, and
> attendanc.e at noon congregational saldt in a mosque on Fri­
> days is h!ghly regarded. The extent to which attendance at
> Friday congregational saldt is seen as obligatory, rather than
> merely preferable, varies. In particular, Shf'ih Islam has not
> always stressed this practice as strongly as has Sunnf Islam. 3
> In the Kitab-i Aqdas, Baha'u'llah requires saldt to be offered
> three times daily and abolishes the offering of congregational
> saldt, making it an individual duty.
> In Islam, there are various saldt other than the daily one. In
> the Baha'f Faith the only other one is the funeral saldt, which
> must be said in congregation. As funerals are not held in a
> Mashriqu'l-Adhkar, it goes beyond our current concern to dis­
> cuss the Baha'f funeral prayer here.4
> The saldt text to which Baha'u'llah refers in the Kitab-i Aq­
> das was later replaced by him with three other texts. Baha'fs
> are free to choose any one of these three texts for their daily
> 314     Part Three: The Practice
> 
> saltit, and each has its own ritual requirements. The three
> texts are differentiated simply by reference to their compara­
> tive lengths. All three are said facing the Baha'f qiblih (the
> Tomb of Baha'u'llah at Bahjf).
> The short obligatory prayer is recited after ablutions (wash­
> ing the hands and face) at "noon" (betweeq midday and sun­
> set), preferably while standing. The medium obligatory
> prayer is said three times, in the "morning" (sunrise to mid­
> day), at "noon".. and in the "evening" (sunset until two hours
> after sunset). The medium prayer has verses to be said while
> performing ablutions and actions to be performed during the
> rest of the prayer. The long obligatory prayer is said once a
> day at any time during the twenty-four hours that the individ­
> ual chooses. It is recited after ablutions and has prescribed
> actions.
> While the Baha'f saltit has obvious structural parallels with
> that of Islam, fulfilling the required devotional practice is con­
> siderably simplified, as the apparatus of ritual stipulation sur­
> rounding the Islamic practice (and upon the observance of
> which depends the validity of the devotional act) is absent. In­
> deed, Baha'u'llah specifically abrogates the principle, of such
> importance in Islamic practice , of prayer being nullified by
> contact with any of a long list of ritually impure substances.
> As the Kitab-i Aqdas states that saltit should be offered
> three times daily, the medium obligatory prayer seems to
> have been regarded as the preferred Baha'f one by Eastern
> Baha'fs around the turn of the century. A.t least, that is the
> impression they gave early Western Baha' fs. The Western
> Baha'fs had a translation of the medium prayer from 1899 and
> translations of all three prayers by 1 902, at the latest. In the
> twenty-six pages of prayers included with the early 1 905 edi­
> tion of the Hidden Words, the medium prayer is headed sim­
> ply ' 'The Daily Prayer, ' ' and there are accurate directions as
> to the required actions. The short prayer is given after the
> Scripture and Culture        315
> 
> medium one, as it " may b e used instead of the longer 'Daily
> Prayer. ' ' ' The long prayer is not included in the selection.
> The information available on Eastern Baha'i devotional the­
> ory and practice is not sufficient to draw firm conclusions, but
> it seems that the medium prayer was conceptualized as the
> actual daily saltit; the short prayer as a possible substitute at
> need; and the long prayer as a supererogatory prayer that
> could be added at will to daily devotional practice. At any
> rate, the circumstances under which most of the Eastern Ba­
> ha'i community lived required them to continue public obser­
> vance of the Islamic salat. The Baha' i saltit was seemingly
> limited to their homes. Even in those cases in which Baha'i
> communities did have a Mashriqu'l-Adhkar (including 'Ishqa­
> bad) they do not seem to have used it for sa lat. This would not
> seem strange to current Western Baha'is, as they regard the
> daily obligatory prayers as required to be said in such privacy
> as exists at home. But in the early days of the Mashriqu'l­
> Adhkar project, the Western Baha'is were differently informed.
> 'Abdu'l-Baha addressed this question in a Tablet to Charles
> Mason Remey that was translated by Ali Kuli Khan in Janu­
> ary 1905, and "for the sake of further elucidation" the trans­
> lator added notes in parentheses:
> 
> As to the prayer (by which he means obligatory prayer, which is
> to be said three times a day): Each one must say his prayer alone
> by himself, and this is not conditional on a private place-that is,
> both at home and in the worshiping-place which is a gathering
> place, it is allowable for one to say his prayer, but each person
> must say his prayer by himself (i.e. not in company with others
> who might recite the same words and continue the same postures
> together at the same time).
> 
> The term which is translated as "prayer" is saloL The term
> which is translated as "worshiping-place" is ma 'abad, which
> 316     Part Three: The Practice
> 
> is a generic term for a place of worship of any religion. In
> other Tablets, 'Abdu'l-Baha used it as synonymous with
> Mashriqu'l-Adhkar. This understanding of the Mashriqu'l­
> Adhkar as an optional place for the performance of salat was
> embodied in the architect's circular of 1 909, in which the
> main floor requirements for the interior included that ' 'Near
> the entrances provision should be made for fountains and ba­
> sins, where worshippers may perform their ablutions. ' '5
> Again, to most contemporary Baha'is this would seem like a
> quaint misunderstanding on the part of their predecessors.
> The architect's circular also included the stipulation that
> there should be a pipe organ. This was later discovered to be
> impermissible, and many modern Baha'is would feel that the
> demand for facilities for ablutions was equally mistaken. That
> it was not is evident from information that the early Baha'is
> did not have: the actual content of three Tablets written in
> 1903 .
> One of the difficulties faced by those translating 'Abdu'l­
> Baha's Tablets into English was that when he used precise
> Islamic terminology there was no English equivalent. Unfor­
> tunately, few translations included parenthetical glosses (as in
> the 1 905 translation quoted above) to aid the understanding of
> the reader. It was more usual for translators to give a general
> sense of the original. When 'Abdu'l-Baha had actually been
> very specific, such generalized translation could do consider­
> ably less than justice to his intent.
> In one of the Tablets written in 1 903 to the Chicago House
> of Spirituality in which 'Abdu'l-Baha approved of the building
> of a Mashriqu'l-Adhkar, he exhorted the members of the
> House to, " Exert your energy in accomplishing what ye have
> undertaken so that this glorious temple may be built, that the
> beloved of God may assemble therein, and that they may pray
> and offer glory to God for guiding them to His Kingdom . ' ' In
> this Tablet, the word translated as ' 'pray' ' is salat. Another of
> Scripture and Culture         317
> 
> the 1903 Tablets approving the idea o f a Mashriqu'l-Adhkar
> in Chicago concluded with a passage that has since become
> famous, has been quoted in innumerable places to testify to
> the importance of the project, and has been used in virtually
> every fund-raising campaign for the building to date:
> 
> When the Mashrak-el-Azkar is accomplished, when the lights are
> emanating therefrom, the righteous ones are presenting them­
> selves therein, the prayers are performed with supplication
> towards the Mysterious Kingdom (of Heaven), the voice of glorifi­
> cation is raised to the Lord the Supreme; then the believers shall
> rejoice, the hearts shall be dilated and overflowed with the love of
> the All-Living and Self-Existent (God). The people shall hasten to
> worship in that heavenly temple, the fragrances of God will be
> elevated, the Divine teachings will be established in the hearts
> like the establishment of the Spirit in mankind; the people will
> then stand firm in the Cause of your Lord the Merciful.
> 
> r
> Again, the "prayers" that are to imbue the Mashriqu'l-Adh-
> -          -
> 
> kar with this power of attraction are saldt. The prayers which
> are currently used in the Wilmette building are du 'a (Arabic;
> mundjdt in Persian). Du 'a is the Islamic term for personal
> prayers and for prayers that may be piously inserted into a
> mosque service, the heart of which is saldt. In the Tablets spe­
> cifically addressing the issue of the planned Mashriqu'l-Adh­
> kar, 'Abdu'l-Baha did not mention du 'd, but only saldt. He
> also mentioned other devotional practices which we may sim­
> ply gloss here as using the Greatest Name. The Islamic
> vocabulary he used, let alone its implications in a Baha'i con­
> text, was even more beyond the ability of the translators to
> convey than the distinction between saldt and du 'd. As the sig­
> nificance of these further sug,gestions for Mashriqu'l-Adhkar
> -          -
> 
> practice was lost to the Western Baha'is, it is not relevant to
> my current purpose to discuss them here. The early transla­
> tors did try to distinguish du 'd to some extent by translating it
> 318      Part Three: The Practice
> 
> as "supplication. " However, they did not do so consistently
> or adequately explain the distinction between this form of
> prayer and saldt to the Western Baha'fs.
> The 1905 Tablet quoted above continues after the discus­
> sion of saldt to suggest that " if they chant supplications (com­
> munes) together and in company in a good and effective voice
> -this is very good. " Here " supplications" is mundjdt. The
> two types of prayer are brought together in another Tablet
> from 1903 .
> When the Chicago House of Spirituality decided to inau­
> gurate Sunday community devotional meetings (for which
> they published Songs of Prayer �nd Praise) in early 1903, they
> sent their proposed program to 'Abdu'l-Baha. His reply gave
> specific instructions for conducting a Baha'f community devo­
> tional meeting, but the specificity was lost in the translation.
> The original terms are added here in brackets to the transla­
> tion provided to the House in Apri1 1903:
> 
> . . . in a meeting for worship, first, prayer [mundjat] should be
> .
> chanted and supplication made until all gather; then communion
> [ namaz] should be made: after praying [namdz], sacred readings
> [mundjdt] with melodious voices should be read by all together. As
> this is the commencement of holding meetings, this is sufficient.
> 
> What seems to have been suggested by 'Abdu'l-Baha is a
> simple program with general prayers being chanted while all
> gather; then those present perform saldt individually; and the
> meeting is to finish with all j oining in general prayers.
> When Mountfort Mills was on pilgrimage in the spring of
> 1909, 'Abdu'l-Baha spoke to him of the distinction between
> meetings to teach the Faith and general community devotional
> meetings. The current form of meeting, with its emphasis on
> teaching, was a temporary form, but the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar
> was a permanent form. 6 'Abdu'l-Baha evidently felt that the
> Scripture and Culture        319
> 
> matter discussed was of some importance since, in August
> 1 909, he repeated his comments in a Tablet to Mills. He ex­
> plained in the Tablet ,that, as the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar was yet
> to be built, the current teaching meetings served a dual pur­
> pose, but that when a Mashriqu'l-Adhkar was available, there
> would be a distinction between meetings ' 'devoted especially
> to teaching" and the "place of worship. "7
> It would seem that just as 'Abdu'l-Baha used the relative
> freedom of religious practice that surrounded the Baha'i com­
> munity in the West to encourage the development of Baha'i
> administrative organization there, to an extent beyond that
> possible in the East, so he wished the Western community to
> develop community worship beyond what had been achieved
> in the Eastern community.
> In both the East and the West, the dominant form of Baha'i
> meeting was oriented toward teaching the Faith; whether this
> be teaching non-Baha'i visitors or expanding the understand­
> ing of community members. Such meetings included devo­
> tional elements, but these were subsidiary to the main
> purpose. In his specific instructions about the Mashriqu'l­
> Adhkar, 'Abdu'l-Baha was evidently trying to direct the
> Western Baha'is toward purely devotional forms of meeting
> with an explicitly Baha'i content. The practice of Baha'i saldt
> distinguishes a Baha' i from a member of any other religion. If
> the performance of saldt is restricted to absolute privacy, then
> its distinguishing character is limited to the interior life of the
> individual Baha'i. The public performance of saldt in Baha'i
> devotional meetings and in a Mashriqu'l-Adhkar open to gen­
> eral public observation would be a powerful expression of dis­
> tinction between Baha' is and the adherents of other faiths.
> We have seen how 'Abdu'l-Baha's intent was only imper­
> fectly known to Western Baha'is, due to the limitations of
> communication through translation. However, it is the case
> that enough of that intent was known to have the requirement
> 320      Part Three: The Practice
> 
> of facilities for ablutions included in the original specifications
> for the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar in Wilmette. Currently, there is no
> feeling of association between the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar and ob­
> ligatory prayers on the part of many Western Baha'is; quite
> the opposite.
> One Baha'i informs me that in recent years she had been
> asked to leave the Wilmette building when caught saying her
> obligatory prayer in the cornerstone room. Another Baha'i,
> who had grown up in Tehran and had lived in the United
> States as an adult, stated that she had first come to Wilmette
> with the expectation of saying her obligatory prayer in the
> Mashriqu'l-Adhkar there on the basis of her understanding of
> the original texts of the Baha'i ,writings. She was startled to
> be told that it was not considered suitable to do so. When she
> read the originals of the 1 903 Tablets discussed above, she
> wept to discover she had been right all along, and that her
> desire to perform saltit, "worship, " in the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar
> was not a personal aberration or a life-long misunderstanding
> on her part. In contrast to the experience of these Baha'is, it
> is not unknown for Muslims to be courteously shown into a
> quiet room if they ask if there is somewhere they can perform
> their obligatory prayer at the prescribed time.
> The Mashriqu'l-Adhkar has thus been divorced from the
> most specifically Baha'i devotional observance. Indeed, the
> distancing of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar from any specifically Ba­
> ha'i devotional content, in the minds of many Baha' is who
> would be supposed to be well informed about their faith, may
> be represented by Hatcher and Martin's comments on the
> institution:
> 
> At the present time, the houses of worship are not principally
> used for Baha'i community services. Rather, they are opened as
> places where individuals of all religious backgrounds (or those
> professing no particular faith) meet in the worship of the one God.
> Scripture and Culture         321
> 
> Services are nondenominational and consist of readings and
> prayers from the scriptures of the world's faiths, with no sermons
> or other attempts to cast these teachings in a mold of specifically
> Baha'i interpretation. Selections are often set to music and sung
> by trained a capella choirs. 8
> 
> This description, while a fair representation of the actual
> experience, ignores the fact that the intent of those arranging
> the services is certainly not ' 'nondenominational' ' or neutral
> in how they wish those" attending to be affected in relation to
> the Baha'f Faith.
> We have seen that the categorical distinction between saldt
> and du 'd was not adequately expressed "in translations of Ba­
> ha'i writings and that the Western Baha'f community did not
> absorb the full implications of the distinction. Another com­
> plication was that the term "congregational" had different
> meanings in Islamic and Christian devotio"nal contexts. In Is­
> lamic practice saldt is congregational when led by an imam.
> Individuals ' 'follow' ' the imam in a prescribed way, but their
> aim is not to be in unison with the imam or the 9ther members
> of the congregation, each of whom is independently following
> the imam. The general popular concept of a congregational
> devotional act in the West is that it is performed jn unison by
> a group of equal participants; if any leads , it is for, the purpose
> of assisting the unison effect, to keep everyone together.
> The abrogation of congregational saldt (except for the
> funerary prayer) in the Kitab-i Aqdas may be seen as one of
> the many directives in that work that is aimed at removing
> distinctions between clerical and lay roles in religious life.
> The imam need not be a cleric as such, but the position is one
> that confers religious merit beyond that acquired by the fol­
> lowers in performing the saldt and which puts the imam in an
> intermediary position between the worshiper and God. The
> Baha'f Faith has no clergy and views each individual as able
> to approach God without a human intermediary.
> 322      Part Three: The Practice
> 
> In the early years of the century, Western Baha'fs had no
> qualms about congregational (unison) acts of devotion. Apart
> from the obvious case of hymn singing, they used the
> Greatest Name and the few prayers in the original that they
> knew in unison, and they read translated passages and prayers
> together. In 1906, the Chicago House of Spirituality exper­
> imented with unison prayer to open their meetings and de­
> cided to recommend the practice to others:
> 
> At a recent meeting of the House it was decided to open the meet­
> ing by all the members arising, facing the East, and remain stand­
> ing during the reciting aloud , or chanting in unison of the Opening
> Commune, revealed by our -Lord-instead of the usual manner of
> having only one member read it aloud while the others remained
> silent with bowed heads.
> Having found it a means of strength by so doing, we have had
> copies printed and send a number to you, believing you will be in­
> terested in knowing this and join with us in this means of strength
> you have not already adopted this manner of procedure. We
> have had dashes (-) inserted where commas (,) are placed in the
> original to better assist the reading aloud and taking of breath­
> which the pause suggests-thus keeping the voices in unison. 9
> 
> During the 1930s, the National Assembly asked Shoghi Ef­
> fendi for clarification regarding congregational prayer: ' 'that
> is, the reading of Baha'f prayers in unison by all believers
> present at a meeting. " 10 Shoghi Effendi replied:
> 
> Regarding the practice of congregational prayer, the Guardian
> wishes you to know that this form of prayer has been enjoined by
> Baha'u'llah only for the dead. In all other circumstances there is
> no obligation whatever imposed upon the believers. 11
> 
> This reply was printed in Baha 'i News, 12 but it did not an­
> swer the question fully enough for the Chicago community,
> who wrote to the National Assembly:
> Scripture and Culture         323
> 
> Another question . . . is one on which there is considerable uncer­
> tainty in the minds of the members of the Chicago Community. It
> is on the subject of prayer in unison. The article appearing in a re­
> cent issue of "Baha'f News" has not answered the question, and
> they have asked for a definitive answer on whether or not prayer
> in this form is permitted. Although there are statements by
> 'Abdu'l-Baha which indicate that with the exception of the obliga­
> tory prayers the practice is commendable, Dr. Bagdadi informs us
> that in Kitab-i-Aqdas prayer in unison, except for the dead, is
> forbidden. 13
> 
> The National Spiritual Assembly replied:
> 
> Concerning the question about congregational prayers, or prayer
> in unison. The National Assembly understands from the recent
> statement written by the Guardian on this subject that congrega­
> tional prayer is not a Baha'f teaching except in the special case of
> prayers for the dead. Since congregational prayer is therefore in
> all other cases not a Baha'f teaching, it would seem preferable for
> local Assemblies and the believers generally not to promote the
> practise of congregational prayer, since the Baha'f community is
> committed to uphold what are the fundamental Baha'f teachings
> and congregational prayer is surely usually brought about as the
> result of some individual believer's personal desire. It seems clear
> that increased knowledge shows us that we should not let our per­
> sonal desires lead us to a practise which the Manifestation did not
> reveal for the new Day. 14
> 
> Apart from the obvious ignoring of the question of 'Abdu'l­
> Baha' s endorsement of unison prayer and the inherent ig­
> norance of the distinction between salat and du 'd and the
> difference between the Islamic and Western concepts of ' 'con­
> gregational" , the most notable feature of this reply is its nar­
> row interpretation of Baha'i possibilities; if something is not
> required, it should not be done, as to do it was to give in to
> ' 'personal desires. ' ' The stress is against individual initiative
> 324      Part Three: The Practice
> 
> in developing Baha'f devotions but toward individuated ex­
> perience of what is believed to be required. In a study course
> on the Baha'f Faith that was probably prepared in the 1940s,
> one of the essay questions to be addressed was, " Show how
> the development of the individual has made congregational
> prayer unnecessary today. " 15
> There was also a strand of resistance through the years to
> the concept of obligatory prayer as such. For many Wester­
> ners, especially Protestants, there was something not quite
> legitimate about Islamic daily prayers, and this view could be
> reinforced in early Western Baha'fs by the opinions of their
> Eastern coreligionists. Thus, in a talk on Islam given on Sun­
> day, 24 June 1906, an Eastern Baha'f told an audience in Pon­
> tiac, Illinois:
> 
> The Muhammedan's conception of prayer is that it is the render­
> ing of worship or the paying of a debt of service to the creator. It
> is a duty which the faithful are under obligation to perform. The
> idea of confession, petition and intercession are not present in
> their mind. The prescribed prayer is called the ' 'namaz . ' ' There is
> also called the "dua , " which is more in accordance with true
> prayer, it being an expression of their desire to God . 16
> 
> Despite this view that there was a difference between
> prayer as an "obligation" and "true prayer, " early Western
> Baha'fs do not seem to have had much difficulty in accepting
> the idea of Baha'f saldt. However, by the mid-1930s there was
> evidently more resistance to the idea. Shoghi Effendi wrote to
> an active teacher of the Faith:
> 
> As to the attitude of resentment which the young believers are in­
> clined to assume regarding certain precepts of the Cause such as
> obligatory prayers; there can & should be no compromise what­
> ever in such matters that are specifically en;joined,, by Baha'u'lhih.
> We should neither have any feeling of shame when observing
> Scripture and Culture         325
> 
> such laws & precepts, nor should we overestimate their value &
> significance. Just as the friends have no difficulty in recognizing
> the value of the specific prayers revealed by Bah;:l'u'llah, such as
> the Tablets of Fasting & Healing, so also they should recognize
> that the obligatory prayers are by their very nature of greater ef­
> fectiveness & are endowed with a greater power than the non­
> obligatory ones, & as such are essential. 17
> 
> The undertow of resistance to the idea of ritual prayer re­
> mained, however. The notes for a course given at Green Acre
> Baha'f School in 1956 include the comment, "But there are
> two kinds of prayer (1) real, sincere and simple, which is con­
> versation with God and (2) formal, merely ritualistic prayer
> �hich has no results. " 18 While this comment may be applied
> to the attitude of the worshiper, whatever the type of prayer,
> it is only too readily applicable to the distinction between ' 'ob­
> ligation" and "true prayer" made in 1906 .
> The lack of a clear concep�ion of the import of the distinc­
> tion between saldt and du 'a arid the imposition of a Western,
> Christian concept of "congregational" on the prohibition of
> congregational salOl led to suspicion about congregational
> (unison) devotional acts generally and to the idea that Baha'f
> obligatory prayers must be performed in solitary privacy.
> This divorced the concept of obligatory prayers from that of
> the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar in the dominant strains of Western
> Baha'f thought and discouraged the utilization of unison devo­
> tional forms in Baha' f life generally.
> As so frequently in this work, we encounter in the issue of
> obligatory prayer a considerable disjunction between the in­
> tent at the beginning of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar project in the
> first decade of this century and its result in the second half of
> the century. This particular disjunction is clearly rooted in a
> clash between the culture which imbued the writings of the
> Faith and the culture which surrounded the developing West­
> ern Baha'f community. In the case of devotions, at least, we
> 326      Part Three: The Practice
> 
> may say that in the long run the Baha'i Faith was substantially
> acculturated to the Western Baha'i community rather than
> that Western Baha' is were acculturated to the Baha' i Faith.
> Or, again at least, that this has been the position to date.
> Another conceptual distinction that is inherent in the linguis­
> tic context of Baha' i scripture, but that was not appreciated
> by Western Baha'is and had implications for the development
> of Mashriqu'l-Adhkar practice, was that between music and
> the singing of devotional texts (whether scriptural or not).
> Broadly speaking, Islamic cultures draw a sharp distinction
> between music (musfqt) and those devotional forms of expres­
> sion that a Westerner would term ' 'religious music. ' ' While
> the latter are laudable, music per se is morally objectionable.
> The Baha'i scriptures acknowledge that music may be used in
> morally objectionable ways and contexts but assert that music
> is equally capable of producing spiritual upliftment. Music in
> itself is morally neutral; its use is reprehensible or laudable
> according to intent and result.
> However, despite the fact that music (musfqt) is approved of
> and Baha'is are encouraged to study it and use it in acceptable
> ways, there is still a fundamental distinction drawn in � the Ba­
> ha'i writings between music and those devotional song forms
> that are used in the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar. To be acceptable,
> music should have the same spiritual intent as the devotional
> forms, but it is still conceptually distinct from them. Music
> has been rehabilitated in its own sphere, but the separate con­
> ceptual sphere of devotional song remains. The Islamic di­
> chotomy had opposed devotional song to secular music; the
> Baha'i dichotomy sees them as parallel activities which should
> be directed to compatible ends. In Western culture, the im­
> portant dichotomy was not between music and devotional
> song but between popular and elite forms of music, whether
> in a devotional or secular context.
> Scripture and Culture       327
> 
> The Eastern Baha' is drew upon Islamic forms of devotional
> song and used them for their own purposes. The Western Ba­
> ha'is drew on Christian forms to fulfill the needs of their devo­
> tional life. The emphasis in relation to the Faith was different,
> in that the tradition drawn on by the Eastern Baha'is provided
> generally accepted ways of rendering sacred text in song so
> that for Eastern Baha'is it was a simple matter to provide for
> ·"Cantillation of their sacred text; all they needed was ready at
> hand. Devotional poetry among the Eastern Baha'is devel­
> oped in a situation in which both it and sacred text had estab­
> lished forms of sung devotional usage provided by the general
> cultural background of those who became Baha'is.
> In the West, few Baha'is came from church backgrounds
> that had an established tradition of sung sacred text (I am ex­
> cepting metricized psalms, etc. , as these forms are basically
> hymnic). Among these few, fewer had the specialized back­
> ground to be actively participant in that tradition. One who
> was, as a church organist and choirmaster in Episcopal circles,
> Edw:ard Kinney, did personally sing Baha'i prose sacred text
> to his own piano accompaniment, and we may assume that his
> church experience influenced how he did so. However, Kin­
> ney's personal usage seems to have had almost no diffusion in
> the community. For Kinney to perform was appreciated, but
> others did not learn his technique (or even individual composi­
> tions of his) or make use of it to any appreciable extent.
> The tradition more widely drawn on in Western Baha'i de­
> votional song was the popular one of hymnody. By the begin­
> ning of this century, the role of the lay (even woman)
> hymnodist was well validated in the Protestant churches , and
> this role was ready for adoption by those Western Baha'is
> who were drawn to express their religious devotion in song.
> Equally, the general adoption by a religious community of
> hymns produced by individuals was an established part of
> 328     Part Three: The Practice
> 
> Protestant church life. Thus, the model of devotional song
> use and innovation most available in their previous church ex­
> perience to those who became Baha'is was naturally the one
> they followed in their Baha' f devotional life.
> This left an imbalance in Western Baha'f devotional song.
> Sung devotional poetry, the communally accepted manifesta­
> tion of individual religious response, was well taken care of,
> but there was a void in respect to sung sacred text. There
> were some attempts at metricized versions and expansions of
> Baha'i sacred text, but there was no generally available way
> of rendering the unchanged prose text in song. When some
> slight steps toward this were taken in the 1930s (and subse­
> quently), they were based on a full-fledged choral model that
> had no immediate general utility for individual Baha'is or the
> general community.
> The balance between sung sacred text and devotional po­
> etry in comm�nity devotional life that was so readily achieved
> and sustained by the Eastern Baha'i community was not
> reached by the Western community. To have achieved it in
> the West would have required a conscious process of develop­
> ment a:"n d not simply the continuance of established cultural
> forms.
> The Western community also had to deal with the ideologi­
> cal concepts regarding rri'usical creation in their culture. In
> the Eastern community, Baha'is came from a background
> which assumed that anyone who had some degree of educa­
> tion would be able to use the song forms appropriate to both
> sacred text and devotional poetry. Not everyone could do it
> well, of course, but to be able to do it in a functionally ade­
> quate way was regarded as a normal accomplishment.
> In the West, of course, music was a specialized profession
> whether it was applied to religious or secular use. As in any
> situation where professionalization has taken place, there
> were very definite status differences between the efforts of an
> Scripture and Culture       329
> 
> accredited specialist and those of someone not ' 'qualified' ' in
> the field. Even in those Western churches that had a tradition
> of sung prose sacred text, the developed use of it and its crea­
> tion were firmly in the hands of specialists. In the Eastern Ba­
> ha'f community, functionally adequate transfer of the cultural
> tradition of sung sacred text could take place through both
> nonspecialists and religious professionals. In the West, such
> an automatic transfer could only have taken place through
> such religious specialists as clergy, choirmasters, and trained
> singers. Even if many such individuals had become Baha'fs,
> there would still have been the problem that in the West the
> practice itself was associated with the roles they had held in
> specific churches; they did not simply practice at the most de­
> veloped level something widespread in the culture. That the
> Baha'f Faith provided no parallel roles for such individuals to
> take up would have in itself been sufficient to severely limit
> their transferring their specialist ability to Baha' f use. Kin­
> ney's "chant" was favorably received as the performance of
> an individual member of the Baha'f community, but there was
> :db role or channel that provided for the adoption and diffusion
> of it.
> In the case of hymns, creation by those who were not reli­
> gious or musical specialists was perfectly legitimate in
> Western culture, and diffusion required merely the circula­
> tion of copies. If a community so desired, it could use any
> hymn without further ado. The Western churches had desig­
> nated hymn singing a nonspecialist activity; anyone could do
> it. Equally, anyone could write a hymn, and for that hymn to
> be used and reused required simply that it meet with a
> reasonable level of general approbation. This was both the
> strength and the weakness of Baha'f hymnody. As the use of
> hymns rested upon general approbation, all that was required
> to limit that use was to limit the approbation. The use rested
> upon a feeling; cast doubt on the validity of the feeling and
> 330      Part Three: The Practice
> 
> the use could be made suspect. That is exactly what seems to
> have happened.
> The events that transferred the national power center of the
> Baha'i community from the Midwest to the Eastern Seaboard
> of the United States around the middle of the second decade
> of the century meant also a transfer of power from thos�
> whose background was rooted in the more populist religious
> tradition to those with ' 'higher' ' religious roots; a transfer up­
> ward in the social scale; and a transfer to those imbued with
> the ethos of professionalism and specialism. In this changed
> context, suitability became a concern in a different way. Not
> general, but specialist approbation was the proper standard;
> and the specialist standards to be adopted were largely those
> of appropriately "qualified" members of the non-Baha'i peer
> groups of those Baha'is participating in the power structures
> of the Baha'i community. Baha'i hymnody (like populist Chris­
> tian hymnody) was declasse; if there was to be Baha' i devo­
> tional music (a big if), it should be "suitable, " it should come
> up to the proper standards of metropolitan "high" churches in
> being choral and specialist; and until those standards could be
> met, it must be done without. It was never actually said quite
> so bluntly, but those individuals and institutions with influence
> acted upon such a basis, and Baha'i hymnody disappeared.
> The position of hymnody probably also suffered from the
> growth of the anti-congregational attitude . Although Western
> Baha'is never conflated hymn singing with prayer in such a
> fashion as to bring it directly under the ban on congregational
> prayer that was developing in the 1930s, its indubitably con­
> gtegational nature probably made it suspect on those grounds
> also. As the model of Baha'i worship became increasingly i:t�­
> dividuated, it would have been difficult to find a legitimate
> place for congregational hymn singing. In 1958, the Temple
> Worship Committee discussed:
> Scripture and Culture        331
> 
> Letter . . . dated May 8th, 1958, suggesting that the Sunday af­
> ternoon devotions be made a "two-way communication system. "
> This to b e done with "two o r three prayers of responsive reading
> & a couple of hymns or psalms to be sung by the worshippers. ' '
> Recorded-That the secretary write M r. . . . thanking him for
> his suggestions & explaining why this can not be done. That we
> don't make the rules but only carry out what 'Abdu'l-Baha has
> said using actual quotes. 19
> 
> Unfortunately, the committee's reply has not come to light.
> It would be fascinating to see how they explained the
> illegitimacy of hymn singing based on " actual quotes" from
> 'Abdu'l-Baha, let alone in the face of the numerous approving
> statements by Shoghi Effendi. Indeed, the committee had
> been informed in 1955 of a letter the National Spiritual As­
> sembly had received from Amelia Collins in which she re­
> corded that Shoghi Effendi approved of the occasional use of
> Christian hymns in the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar. 20 As to the re­
> sponsive reading, Shoghi Effendi had commented on the ef­
> fectiveness of this devotional practice to an American Baha'i
> in 1927, 2 1 and there is a body of devotional texts in respon­
> sory forms by Baha'u'llah. The committee did "make the
> rules, ' ' even though they believed they were only following
> instructions.
> In 1962, as part of its "sharing of the reaction to the ser­
> vices which sometimes comes to us, " the National Assembly
> sent to the Temple Worship Committee some comments from
> a letter a Chicago columnist had written to a Baha'i. The
> columnist remarked:
> 
> I have been at the forty-minute service both on balmy Sundays
> and in the dead cold of November and had the feeling that this
> service, similar to the readipg service in the Christian Science
> Church, would go on if the Temple was filled to the last seat or if
> 332      Part Three: The Practice
> 
> only three persons were sitting there. Speakers follow one an­
> other in reading excerpts with a dispassionate attitude and after­
> ward you hear the unseen choir and you get up and leave with the
> feeling that nobody really cared whether you came or not. Only the
> most accepted [exceptional?] persons . . . can embrace a phi­
> losophy so appealing to the intellect, with no need for personal
> recognition. . . . 22
> 
> The Assembly suggested to the committee that "in view of
> the fact that others have commented on what appears to be
> overemphasis on the letter rather than the spirit of the read­
> ings, we hope that the workshops [for readers] will call for
> swifter reading but most of all interest in the subject by the
> readers themselves who should be affected by it, inspired by
> it and happy about it. " 23
> In the same year, the National Spiritual Assembly ap­
> pointed a study committee to look atthe whole question of the
> House of Worship. Their report was mainly concerned with
> teaching, but they did have some comment on the devotions:
> 
> The worship service itself is somehow above the heads of most of
> the audience . Americans apparently cannot sit and listen to some­
> one read, particularly something so metaphorical as most sacred
> writings are. Our cultural expectations insist that we be enter­
> tained visually more than auditorily. Neither Baha'is nor the pub­
> lic really support the service. This is a problem which will take a
> great deal more study. 24
> 
> In early 1964, the Assembly submitted a letter about in­
> creasing " the teaching efficiency of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar"
> to the Universal House of Justice . This letter-together with
> a list of questions that had been attached, the reply, and a list
> of references on the subject-was later duplicated in booklet
> form for the study of those concerned with the building. In
> the letter the Assembly stated:
> Scripture and Culture        333
> 
> An expanded use of the auditorium of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar is
> being examined as our first step, in the hope that, for the Baha'is
> of the national community and locally, as well as for the public
> which we hope to reach by the millions, we can develop a wider
> framework of activity and bring a higher luster to our ' 'Taj Mahal
> of the West." For example, many Baha'is of great loyalty find the
> worship services lacking in diversity and interest, boring and
> tedious. We have in fact developed a rigidity of method all un­
> suspecting. New approaches which will bring diversity and at­
> tractiveness are probably essential.
> It is our vision and dream that the first Mashriqu'l-Adhkar of
> the West will become justly famous for its unique and beautiful
> vocal music, its stimulation to the jaded and materialistic, and its
> evocativeness to the true seekers who find their way through its
> portals into the religion of today and tomorrow.25
> 
> In one of the appended questions we might take note of
> here, the Assembly asked whether there might be "occa­
> sional use of a 'voice choir, ' where several readers in unison
> harmoniously and rhythmically bring out the music of certain
> passages? Since the singing chorus is possible, may we as­
> sume that the voice choir will be acceptable, if done with pro­
> fessional skill after intense rehearsal?' ' The House of 1ustice
> replied that "the use of several readers in unison" was per­
> missible, provided it avoided theatricality. 26
> Although this 1964 correspondence does show a greater
> degree of concern on the part of the Assembly, with the
> response of Baha'fs to the use of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar than
> previously, their main concern is still with the "seeker. " In
> the case of the voice choir, it does reintroduce the topic of uni­
> son devotional activity, but only in the context of professional
> skill being the criterion of suitability, as with the "singing
> chorus. "
> I n 1968, a former member and Secretary of the Assembly
> sent a long memo on ' 'Towards the Full Development of the
> 334      Part Three: The Practice
> 
> Baha'f House of Worship" to the National Assembly. In it he
> remarked about devotions:
> 
> We must be alert to the need for the steady improvement of our
> services, our attitudes and our creativity as Baha'is who are de­
> veloping an authentically new society. Our worship and Holy Day
> services should continuously be improved. Our music and litera­
> ture should be upgraded and made always more unique and dis­
> tinctive. We should not be the epitome of conservatism and
> traditionalism. We should be willing to consider, develop and ex­
> periment with new approaches.
> Recommendation: That we keel-haul the Sunday afternoon wor­
> ship services in an effort to make them intelligible, meaningful,
> and beautiful, in order better to express the Baha'f idea of Pro1.
> gressive Revelation, presenting, as the services do, the Bibles of
> the world.
> Recommendation: That we take strenuous steps, utilizing musi­
> cians of the Faith and others, to develop music which will be
> proper and fitting for the Baha'f House of Worship and for the
> Faith, using such innovations as voice choirs, voice music such as
> the Swingle Singers, more Baha'f compositions procured by com­
> missioning and by invitation, etc.
> 
> The author of these remarks was prip.cipally concerned
> about the use of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar as "our greatest
> teaching instrument, ' ' but he did also show sensitivity toward
> the effect of the institution on Baha'fs. In particular, he was
> concerned that for new Baha'fs visiting the building for the
> first time it was too easy "to find us just old cool Calvinists
> with a Baha'f veneer. ' ' The reference to the Swingle Singers
> in the comments specifically on the development of music for
> the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar may be regarded as an epitome of the
> general attitude toward the development of such a music.
> The author supplied a footnote in which he expanded on the
> subject:
> Scripture and Culture        335
> 
> The Swingle Singers are well known as extraordinary innovators
> in vocal music. Their human voice renditions of orchestral music
> are phenomenal. Perhaps it is one of the Baha'f answers to the re­
> quired use of the human voice only in our houses of worship.
> 
> That there had never been a grasp by Western Baha'Is of
> the distinction between music and devotional song inherent in
> the Baha'I writings (and their cultural background) has led to
> the prohibition on the use of instruments in the Mashriqu'l­
> Adhkar being seen as a handicap to the development of Baha'I
> devotional music that must be overcome . It is seen as a limita­
> tion in technical possibilities rather than a different orienta­
> tion. Indeed, it is not unusual for settings of Baha'f texts by
> Baha'is to include parts without meaningful text where the
> use of vocables substitutes for instrumental accompaniment.
> In the Kitab-i Aqdas, Baha'u'llah uses the terms for
> Qur' anic recitation, tartil and tildwdt, in reference to deliver­
> ing sacred text in the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar. Tartil is the term
> usually used by 'Abdu'l-Baha. The implication of these terms
> is that the text is rendered in a slow and distinct manner with
> absolute attention to accuracy of pronunciation. The point is
> that the manner of delivery should enhance both the reader's
> and the listener's comprehension of the text. Obviously, this
> is not the aim of Western musical setting of textual material.
> There the emphasis is on musical values and structure, and
> the basis of those derives largely from historical instrumental
> practice. 27
> A common complaint of those attending devotions in the
> Wilmette building over the last three decades has been that
> the words of the singers are unintelligible. Indeed, in even
> moderately elaborate music, which language they are singing
> in is not always certain. I sat through one piece on a Sunday
> afternoon unable to determine whether the choir was singing
> the original German text or an English translation. This
> 336      Part Three: The Practice
> 
> problem is not simply the fault of the vocal production of the
> singers, as the acoustics of the building have an inordinately
> long reverberation time and succeeding notes often overlap.
> T�is not only destroys what little chance there is of textual in­
> telligibility in four-part settings, but can also make the choir
> sound horrendously off-key.
> I have attempted here to briefly point out the differences
> between the devotional environment of the languages that are
> used in Baha'f scripture and the concepts brought to the un­
> derstanding of that scripture by Western Baha'fs . From this
> discussion, and that of the preceding chapters, I think it is
> evident that contemporary North American Baha'f devotional
> practice as centered on the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar in 1Wilmette is
> rooted much more firmly in the socio-cultural background of
> the North American Baha'f community and the dynamics of
> that community's history than it is in an elaborated theologi­
> cal understanding of Baha'f scripture. Thus, insofar as West­
> ern society and culture may be characterized as, in a general
> sense, "Christian, " North American Baha' f devotional prac­
> tice may also be characterized as "Christian, " and we might
> expect to understand its development better by consider­
> ing the development of Christian devotional practice in North
> America.
> In the decades that preceded the introduction of the Baha' f
> Faith to North America, there was a n upsurge o f organized
> Christian activity across the continent. A succinct account
> of the implications of this for communal devotional practice
> may be excerpted from White' s excellent study of Protestant
> worship:
> 
> . . . it was ma$s evangelism of the revivalistic type which changed
> America from a nation with a Christian minority to a nation in
> which most of the population belongs to a Church . . . .
> The keynote of revivalism was that of producing a conversion
> Scripture and Culture          337
> 
> . . . . Beside such an earnest concern for producing converts, wor­
> ship as an offering to God seemed to be only a side issue . . . . It is
> not strange that in such a situation worship became a means to an
> end-producing conversions-rather than an end in itself. Wor­
> ship was utilized primarily for inducing conversion experiences
> rather than the offering of a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving
> by God's people . . . .
> The consequences are quite dear. One stresses all means avail­
> able for bringing the individual to conversion . . . . The approach
> to the worshipper is emotional, subjective, and individualistic . . . .
> The congregation was increasingly a passive audience for whom
> worship was something done for them and to them by experts.
> The mood-setting beauties of the building and the music condi­
> tioned the congr:egation for worship but they did less and less as
> active participants . . . .
> It was not long, of course, before churches were built specifi­
> cally under the influence of the revival system. They are often
> referred to, even today, as the "auditorium" and the term is ex­
> pressive . . . they are largely used as a place where the congrega­
> tion hears worship.28
> 
> As well as revivalism, the other main strand in the develop­
> ment of Protestant worship in North America in the last cen­
> tury was the adoption of the cathedral service, in which the
> active roles were taken by the clergy and choir. In its original
> context, the cathedral service had been both choral and con­
> gregational, as on most occasions the active participants had
> also formed the congregation in and of themselves as the mem­
> bers of the religious community associated with a cathedral.
> With the introduction of the cathedral model into ordinary
> churches, "the choir often monopolize[ d] worship almost as
> much as it would were no other congregation present. ' ' 29
> The revival and cathedral service trends had rather differ­
> ent class associations. According to Stevenson, as early as
> 1850, "the American denominations had already so drawn
> 338     Part Three: The Practice
> 
> their social lines that some ministered to the wealthy and elite
> in big cities while others served the. common folk on farms
> and frontiers. ' '30 A major symptom of this split was a prefer­
> ence for the use of " elevated" music and a cathedral service
> model in the elite churches. By the latter part of the nine­
> teenth century, most churches with any social pretensions
> made use of a paid " mixed quartette" of soloists as the mini­
> mum necessary to elevate their services. The split was not
> just between elite and populist churches, however. There was
> virtually as much distinction between the devotional practice
> of the high churches (in both a liturgical and social sense) of
> the urban elite and those of the merely comfortable and salar­
> ied middle class as there was between the churches of the
> ·middle class and those of the ' 'common folk. ' '31
> It can be seen that both of these trends in North American
> ·Protestant worship, however dissimilar the views and social
> positions of their supporters in other ways, tended toward
> a passive experience in which the worshiper was, at best,
> acted upon and, at worst, an irrelevant observer. The rna-
> . jority of North American Baha' is from the turn to the middle
> of the century came from a mainstream Protestant back­
> ground.32 The distinction, as discussed previously, being that
> the power structure of the community came from a compara­
> tively "higher" church background after the mid-teens.
> It seems likely that a vital factor in the development of Ba­
> ha'i devotipnal practice for the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar in Wilmette
> was an underlying tension between the "revivalist" conver­
> sion ideology that surrounded the use of the building and the
> "high-church, " "cathedral" sensibility of those in control.
> The unrestrained use of whatever would produce a conver­
> sion, however emotional or "vulgar" (in the strict sense of
> being associated with the common people), was not an accept­
> able possibility to those concerned first and foremost with
> suitably " elevated" music and devotional practices. The
> Scripture and Culture      339
> 
> Western cult!lral dichotomy between popular and elite, with
> its associated value connotations, entered fully into the con­
> ceptualization of Baha' i devotions in the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar.
> As a result, there was a feeling of alienation from the practice
> on the part of the ordinary person, Baha'i or non-Baha'f.
> Woodward remarks, ' 'The twilight zone that lies between
> living memory and written history is one of the favorite breed­
> ing places of mythology. ' '33 The beginnings of the Mash­
> riqu'l-Adhkar project in North America are only now passing
> completely out of the realm · of living memory. But that the
> American Baha'i community constantly brought in new mem­
> bers and expanded its membership considerably from the
> 1930s on, and even more considerably from the 1960s to date,
> has diluted the depths of its communal memory. Even Horace
> Holley, who played a key role in the development of the com­
> munity from the 1920s through the 1950s, was not a par­
> ticipant in the North American Baha'i community before 1914
> when the center of vigor and power was already shifting to
> the East Coast, which resulted in a vitally important foreshor­
> tening of that memory at the institutional level.
> The constant infusion of acculturated North American Pro­
> testants (whether or not they were active church members)
> into the Baha'i community over the decades without any ac­
> tive process of reacculturation to concepts of community
> devotional life derived from the Baha'i writings led to the de­
> velopment of a devotional practice for the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar
> on a largely, if selective, Christian basis. What was seen as
> Christian from an elite standpoint, the popular forms of devo­
> tional expression, was rooted out. What derived from the elite
> strata of Christian devotional expression, and was not ruled
> out by the anti-congregational stance, was defined as "non­
> sectarian' ' and constituted the standard by which any further
> attempt at developing Baha' i devotional expression or forms
> was to be judged.
> 340     Part Three: The Practice
> 
> It has been the experience of many Baha' is that the Baha'i
> Faith in the West is perceived by cnon-Baha'is as a middle­
> class movement. This seems also to be the impression of
> those non-Baha'is who have written about it. In actuality,
> there have been Baha'is of all social strata from the early days
> of the Faith in the West. However, in the case of North
> American Baha'i devotional practice, there has been · an evi­
> dent adoption of an upper-middle.;.class ideological framework
> for its development. Investigation may show there to have
> been other areas in which unconscious ideological carryover
> from the backgrounds of those Baha'is who have constituted
> the power elite of the community has influenced develop­
> ments in the socio-cultural expression of Baha'i adherence "in
> the West. It is perhaps the recognition of such carry overs
> that suggests to observers that the Baha'i Faith is particulqrly
> cohesive with a middle-class identity.
> In the case of Mashriqu'l-Adhkar devotions, it may be that
> the adopted ideological framework that has structured re­
> sponse to the Baha'i writings in their development is now out­
> dated. We have seen that there has been no substantial
> change in ideology or practice since 1953 . However, it would
> seem unlikely that one could substantiate a case that there
> has been no change in North American middle- to upper­
> middle-class cultural expectations and preferences since
> 1953, let alone since the 1930s, when the basis of the current
> practice was crystalizing. Indeed, I have found dissatisfaction
> with the use of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar to be as common
> among evidently middle-class Baha'is as among Baha'is of
> other social backgrounds.
> The problem that has been created is that what are now
> dated North American socio-cultural values have been concep­
> tualized as "Baha' f" values legitimated by Baha'f scriptural
> authority. To change the practice, whether on the basis of di­
> rect derivation from Baha'f writings or of the substitution of a
> Scripture and Culture      341
> 
> more up-to-date set of North American socio-cultural values,
> there has first to be a recognition of the primacy of socio-his­
> torical rather than scriptural considerations behind the estab­
> lishment of the current practice. Whether such a recognition
> will occur, either on the part of the institutional structure of
> the Faith or in the consciousness of the general membership
> of the Baha'i community, remains to be seen. Whatever the
> case may be, the development of Baha' i devotional practice
> for the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar in Wilmette will continue to be a
> fascinating contact node for the acculturation of the Baha'i
> Faith to the West and of Westerners to the Baha'i Faith.
> MUSICAL EXAMPLES
> "Sobanhaka ya Hu"
> 
> Original text and tune:
> 
> So     ·   ban   •   ha     ka ya      Hu,       So         ban   •   ha • ka ya   Hu.   Ya   man   Ho - va    Hu,
> 
> Ya         man haz        A - ha · don El    •   la   Hu.
> 
> Original translation :
> 
> Glory b e unto Thee, 0 Thou, 0 He !
> 0 thou who art He.
> 0 Thou who art Incomparable, 0 He!
> 
> Transliteration in the currently used system:
> 
> Subl:J.3.naka ya hu.
> Ya man huva hu,
> Ya man laysa, al:Jadun illa-hu.
> 
> EXAMPLE ONE
> Original in the archives of the Spiritual Assembly of the
> Baha'is of Chicago.
> C'H A N T
> I            I             b t b                                     •
> I
> - ·                          JwL            ..r .
> �   y , :l •• :::101 1,.;:;,� :�. ..                                                                                                                                                                              ..!lttiL     _)
> ....   1                                                            -                    -         1           _)
> I..: V  - I                                                                        ...                                             -
> -- .
> �
> - ·                                        _)
> .,
> •                              .. .
> 
> H•l min mu-fi!-nJ
> "
> 
> %                                                                                                                             ghlr                            AI- Jolt f
> 1 1     I ,
> ·� · � � ·:t- :t                                                   f',;.• J .                                  0 •                   .. .                            0. •
> ]
> I � • ·J J;;;.;� w.-
> / ·-    I         ,
> •                                  .J •            - ...-..L                 ;;J .             ..                                     .                      ..,       I
> ,
> .                    .,
> I          I
> II I
> -
> 
> I                                                                                                                                                                                                                    _]
> �                 ""'
> 
> I
> 'II
> �            I             "                       I       ""'                                                                                   l                         j
> '       ..,.
> � _l
> .-.                                                                   .....         ..al • _l
> '""
> -                                                                                   -
> !" It [                (                                                     L.:JI •
> �                                                                                                                                                                                         A                  -'iii . _]
> ..                 M
> -
> •                               _I,L ...                                                             ....                     _....                                     _]
> '                                                                               ..._...                                  ....                                                -
> 
> H"'l 5Uh-holf Rl IIIJ, -                                                                                           hu -                          Ill- lo h I                                           Ku/.
> ,.,
> �                   •           •           •                       �•                                      rJ .                      •           •              �                          ::l� .
> _]
> •.                                                                                                                                                                                                               ._ • _j
> � ....           ..... ,
> -                -
> ....
> -
> _...            _I. •                                            �                       _J
> Jil l""'
> --
> r                                           r                                                                                     .J
> 1.1                     I<"                             �                                   '             t       I                                           ..
> 
> ,..       1                             l'                             h                                 I                                                                                                        _h
> IL                             l                                                                                                                                                                           _]
> , ...   .-./.                -                                                                    --J                 .�                                                 �                                      _]
> 1 1"' 1' .,...,                , , . _.                   "":        ... •                          :;;;;;              ·-             •                ......             _o                         •           .J _..
> \,. �                                                                r                         .-, -                                   •                _.,...,                                      _.      _a � .J
> .,                                                                                                                                                                                                         'i
> 
> un                      'a        -
> batl-                                                                              Ia - ti J                                                    W4 It�/-
> ,. ,
> ��                    .:!::             :l!:             •
> �J                        v               I                �                                            •             II_
> _]
> •· rr               .� ....               ..                  •          I                           I: .:J                                    ..            .:1                                                              ]
> / . ..
> -
> I                                                                       .......
> -
> ioo..      _j
> .. ..ll
> -
> I
> �                                                                                                                                                                        l-J
> 
> "        t                                     �          I                    II,..                   ""'          I                              �                 ..1
> •                                                  I                   il                         ...L                                                                                                               ll
> �    ...                      ""'                         J                                              � -·                                             ..1.                                                             • II
> ,... ḥ IC.                ,
> -
> •                                         •     � L                   •               ...       ...... _!.                            ...                        ..Jtl.l
> If       L                    ....                     .,                                                  -
> _.               ...       � ·                                                                :.1.1
> ..                             ..      -                                                              -                                                     -
> 
> un                     ba _ ,·, - ra - h /                                                                    ha - 'a m · un .                                                               (9)
> �                       •             •               •                             �                       •               •             t"") •
> ,..,.                                                                                                                                                                                                                         ..u
> ,.      .,      . -                                                                                                                                         ;L         •
> ..,        .. .l.. - L
> -                                                                      -
> IL                                                                                                                                                                                 •..U
> Jl                                                                                       r--                                                                                                                     ..u
> ,                             I'                                                                    ....
> 
> EXAMPLE TWO
> The Remover of Difficulties (a prayer of the Bah).
> The Greatest Name
> Words & Music
> by L R WAI T E
> J f. jj                                I                                                                                                                  ' }
> 
> tJ                               ..                            ••                •               •                 •                  ..
> w�                                    ..
> 
> j
> joy         •   ful           hearts we                      do                 pro - claim, The
> Great                 Name            that           is                a          shin           •    i g                  lif:ht             To
> I          J               J              I                    .h          J                                   _.                 {IL
> 
> l
> 
> tJ jj        I
> 
> ;;•
> tJ        I                      .. .           ..
> J� � la                                   p r g :                                                      jl
> �
> p ow - er             of              the             at-          t           me; T         •       d y                    r           v      -    er •
> lead             us    on - ward through the-night; D i                                       - spel - ling dark - ness
> (II.                   -                                       I                       .J.                                            I            �
> I              r          I                         I           r                     I .
> 
> I tJ .ii                                                                               I
> 
> "'       tr• • ft�               ......._                                                    ..,               ...                   '1!1""--"f!t
> more the               same :
> AL - LAH·HO                           An                -                 -   UA .
> by  i t�              might:
> 
> ..              •     .--..                  til-         ..           ..          n                     I
> I
> -
> I               v                            I                         I
> r                                            .......__.,
> 3                                                                                       6
> Let nations rise from shore to shore,                                          Great Name we love mo re every day,
> And sing it over o � r and o� r;                                               To say it over i s to pray,
> Then wars shall ceasfit forevermore :                                          And angels listen and obey:
> ALL AHO A BUAI                                                                       ALLAHO ABBA!
> "                                                                                       1
> Great Name of joy; of peace,and rest;                                          Its rhythm swings from pole .t o pole;
> That fills with harmony each breast;                                           Its music soon shall fill each soul;
> It� glory shines from east t o west :                                          And heavens scroll shall backward roll:
> AL�AHO A B HA ! ,                                                                ALLAHO A B HAI
> Repeat it,and it reaches far;                                                  AL L AHO ABH.AI Let it ring
> From world .to world and star to star; Up to the throne of Go d,our King ;
> Naught can. its glorious radiance mar: Let men and angels joyous sing :
> ALLAHO ABBA!                                                         ALLAHO A BHA!
> 
> EXAMPLE THREE
> Alleluia Song .
> Words & Music by L . R . WAI TE.
> ere II
> 
> to my fold. Glftd&l't� Wi:! Who \mowuur�h..-jda�t·•L
> or His word. Ht� "ill if&· tb�:�J• ev · 'ry natio'l.
> 
> paths or my- ster. y .
> tl<:ho�:�s loud - ly ring.     Al   •   ll:l - lu • ia!     AI · ll:l - lu - ia!   Al · le · l u - j ,d
> i�:� in h�:�av'n a-bovt�.
> 
> EXAMPLE FOUR
> ·S oftly His Voice is Calling.
> Espressi:vo .                                                                                     Words & :\fusie by L R WAITE..
> .I    fJ
> 
> ..,                                                                                                                                                 �tTl •
> Soft - ly His voice                               is           call - ing            J:w                     call - ing to you and·
> '
> Soft - ly His voice                                is           call - ing now                                call - ing to ev - ry
> 
> ...      "' ·       ..        ,.              .,.          I!.         .             . .                    ...           ..                       .         ..
> 
> '                                                                                                                                 r             v             v         l           v
> 
> J t,                                                                                               I               .
> 
> ..,                                                                                                                                                                     -.-.
> �
> me                                 Hark                  to those tones                          so                sweet                           and       low
> heart                              Come               lit - tie              chil - dren                            un               -             to        me
> 
> .;,::-.,.--                             .,.         b.            .,.        ./1-                ...,.             k.                              .          ..
> 
> '
> 
> ) fJ
> 
> itr-                                                                               ........__. -                                    it �" •
> 0     -     ver          !
> t e dis - t nt
> '
> f                  sea                              Chil - dren of mine                                               a -
> and          from me ne· r de -                                   part                              Oh                    be               ye           ten - der
> 
> � ..         •            ..        ..          ..                - �                                     -                                    ..        ..          ..
> :
> 
> '                                                                                ,.....__... ,                           "'                 v                 ,         I         f
> 
> ..) n                                                                                                  I                      L                      I                   I
> 
> -.1                                               I ,.         'I'                                                                                 ""-"'
> bide            in        love                  e - ver               he · seems                          to                     say
> kind         and true                          e - ver                he      seems                 · to
> 
> .                       .. .                 ...         � ..         .,.                               IJ.                    .,...:-..._
> .
> 
> "                                                             ,.          ,.          r           I                     ,..
> 
> j fJ
> l--filll
> -.1             .,       ..        ..        ..        .,
> y                                        I "'--1
> A b - dul Ba- h a we                                 turn to thee Thou art the per-fect                                                                 way.
> Ab - dul             B a- h a we                     turn to thee Thou art the per-fect                                                                 way.
> 
> j) ), j)                     .J il J ,t, .J. b .                                                -             •        ..,.             ..             �
> 
> '                                                                                                                                       I                r
> 
> EXAMPLE FIVE
> His gloriou� Sun has Risen .
> Words & �lusic
> b y.. L . R
> · r . WAITE. .
> fJ                                          �        I
> 
> t)                                                                                                         •              ...
> 
> His       g l o • rious Sun                 baa            ris                en ,         to             set            for         us       no
> Go            tell         the       joy · OUB                 tid .              ings : His                 K i n g . dom              now       hath
> He    !came            and dwellt               a.        lmong               us ,      with             all             lib        won- drou�>
> 
> ..             ...          .,.       .,.       .,.             -                  ..          ...            ....            ...        ..       fL
> 
> '                   I          I            r         I             I           I                 I                           f
> 
> fJ                                                   I     I                             .                                                                           l
> 
> 4tJ     I                                                                        .,
> 
> more           The             ech         0       of         His         prais -                         !low·     r i n g·s l't·om Shore to
> 
> comel 'Vhtore i n                         a l l pain          and          nor                row, anJ                 ev          ' r•y rluubt         liU('
> '
> pow rs ; Hi�:� Lovto                       cmbraoed all                     ua.             tun;�          tht!      lJil'd l:! , t htl tl't!l:lS, t he
> 
> ..                ..          . ..        .,.     ...        .,.              ..             .,.         .,.               ...                 .fL.      fL
> · =-�
> I            r                 I
> 
> ll         I                                                         I               I                                        I                          I       I
> 
> t)                    I                                    •         •           4
> .. .           .                                                ..        I
> shore; He                  came            to       han · ish             dark· ness,                 to           show             t he       per - feet
> l>O - ev
> '                            ,,nd                                                                                                   er
> cumb ; Es - tabl ish d here on earth  it    is ,                                                                   '' who
> '
> flow rs;Kins of        a   Roy - al  King -dom , we                                                                praist� Thy Ho                        ly
> 
> fl.•          ..          ..             ..        ..                                     .,.       ..             tt•             t!t        tt      f!;.
> 
> '                                     .                                  T                                      r             ·r                '        T        r
> 
> EXAMPLE SIX
> Great Day of God.
> Words & Music by                               R. WAITE.
> ec-o·
> L.
> J    " II.                                                                                                                        I I
> 
> eJ                              l               ... ..                     I            I    I            I           I
> G    hat day                         of God,long               �ooked for, Thy                dawn we           do     pro -
> Great            day                 of Might and               Pow - er, Of                  Know-ledgeand of
> I               I            I           •   I&        .fll.        •   ..            J.          ..    f!    I&
> 
> .                                                                                                                 I
> 
> Light, No
> 
> fa        I            I   I               I            I                                       I   I             ,...---...
> 
> tJ                                                   I       I   I    I                                        ,_,                l
> day        of re - sur -                    rec - tion, Of                  ' - 1r - ty and
> un                         love,             Soon
> Day, whenGod,the                            Fa - ther, Is                 known �r all the            earth,            And
> 
> ..           r.          •    ..             .. . . -= �               c-t.. ..
> I                                                                      I
> 
> bright in all its    splen -dor Thy                                         Sun ahall ahine a -
> to   His whole ere - a - tion Hath                                                    a new
> 
> Great Day of th e un,·eiling                                              Great D ay of God,All glorious;
> Of Truth� D e ep .mysteries,                                              Great Day of Peace,so blest;
> When every hidden secret                                                  The thought of Thee b ri.Dgs gladness,
> Of earth and sky and seas,                                                    And dilatee every breast.
> ln all their wondrous beaut�;                                                 Great Day of one religion,
> To man shall b e revealed;                                                    When all are understood;
> Nor can an act or motive                                                      One faith ill Life Eternal,
> By man now be concealed.                                                      One God, one Brotherhood.
> 
> EXAMPLE SEVEN
> Awake Ye Nations All.
> Words &. MW!ie
> by L. R . WAI TE.
> 
> A-wake ye         n a - tious all Let cru- e l       war now cease,Thill is     the day for
> He calls   i "    mighty tones       A:� wake and hearHis voice , He b ids us all         as
> A-wake ye         n a - tibna all    A- wake and. see the light,\Vhich shineth o'el' the
> 
> .u   •   ui • ty The    day for love and peace, Spend no more time i n strife                 But
> 
> brothers oneWitb heartsth&tdo re - joice , To                 gath-er round His bo&l'd And
> moun,tain t9ps Dis- pell - intr dis-cords ni�rht , A - wake and sing a - loud             Your
> 
> hear that cla • rion    call;\Vhi<·h eometb forth from God a· bove The          fa-ther o t' us
> 
> of the feast par - t ake,Drink deeply o f          the    \l.ine of LoveThe bread of Peace now
> prais-es now in- crease,Tbe kno9.·ledg'8 of our God as One Brings u - ni - ver-sal
> 
> all , Which com-eth forth from God a. - bove the               fa. · ther of    us    all .
> break, Drink deep ·ly      of    the      \l.in e of Love The brea.d of Pea.ee now br�:�a.k.
> 
> Peace, The     knowledge of wr            God a..s One Brings u - ni • v�:�r • sal    Peace .
> 
> EXAMPLE EIGHT
> The Day of Certainty.
> Words & Music
> by        L . R . WAITE.
> J 11 Joj                                   I                                                                     I                 I                I                                    I               I
> 
> tJ                                -                    ...           ..                                                                                                                                        ..
> le         - joice, re -joice b e                                               -    l i e - vers,The                                    night of doubt is
> Re         - j oice, re -joice b e                                              -    l i e - vers,As                                     chil- dren of                                  the
> Re         - joice, re -jo ice b e                                              -    lie - vers,For                                      ;Knowledge,Faith and
> Re         - joice,                  re -joice be                               -    l ie - vers,With                                    ban - ners white u n -
> I                                 .             .(1.               ,.             p..            fl.                 ,_
> 
> .....           I                                                                                                                             I
> I               I              I
> 
> 11 Joj                                            I                                l                                                 I
> 
> tJ          u.,__.,•                              ..
> j   ft • •                 ..                                                                                         ..                ..
> I
> oer                        The                               Sun                  of        t ru t h               has                      ri               - s - en                      It"
> King                       Give                            forth His                  Pro - c l am                                          a            - tion              Let
> '
> Love                       Falls                             oer                 God� whole ere -                                           a - tion                             Like
> furled                 Where                          - on                       sweet Peace is                                         writ - ten . Yea
> ,...-..
> .                               •                                              •              •
> 
> '                         I                   r                          I
> 
> .J    t1 �
> 
> tJ          ...              ..           •
> ;11                             �...._,
> :                        .r ,                         r                        P           '                 r
> rays reach ev - ry                                                           shore.                      Doubts                         sha - dows now with
> ev -  ry   na - tion                                                             s ing.                  Doubts                         sha - dows now with
> sweet dews                  from                   a              -               bove.                   Doubts                         sha - dows now with
> p eace         to           all                the                                world.                  Doubts                         sha - dows now with
> •                                                                                   -                         I                            I                     "              I             I
> 
> I                              I         r               I                            I                                                    .......,
> 
> I     t1 �                                         l                  I                                     I                  I                I                            I
> 
> tJ          ..            -               ..                                                                                                                                   -
> night must                  flee, This
> J
> tS            the           day               of                        C E R-TAIN-TY.
> night must                  flee This                                         is            the           day               of                        C F: R -TAlN -TY.
> night must                  flee This                                         is            the           day               of                        C E R·TAI!'f · TY.
> night must                  flee This                                         is            the           day               of                        C ER -TAI� · TV.
> 
> •                          ..            •              ..                   fA                        ,.              n.
> I                                                                                                                                                        I
> I                r                                                                                                                                                         \:1
> 
> EXAMPLE NINE
> Tell the Wondrous Story
> Words & Music by L R WAITE
> II                        .. .
> 
> tJ                                              ..         ..                ...             ..                               ...          .
> Tell             the won - drous                               sto - ry,                          Tell          it near and                               far
> He          has come a s                                   pro - mised                        He            the Prince of                             Peace
> ..      .    •                •                            ...             ...                 .             •           ..           ..              ..          ...
> 
> I             I           I            I               I
> 
> Tell it e - ver
> 
> (j        I                                                          I               I   - I. �                       I
> I
> 
> iJ                               ,...                                                        ....._.,            ...
> 
> tell it                 That all men may                                                Know            Now has come Gods King o m                                         J
> glo - ry                Dark ness now must                                           flee                   Fa - ther of all                                   na-tions
> �           .,..               f&            .,..          .fl.     .fl.            .p.#_                   ...           ...          ..          ..
> 
> I          I            I            '                                   I                                                               T
> 
> J   !J                                                               I               I             I        I             i            I            I
> 
> iJ                -
> .......,.
> 
> far                   or                   the        lov - ing                    Fa - ther Of - BA                                  H.A
> '
> UL
> ,
> �
> 'If/(""".,.             ..                  ..         .            ..                        �                           ....         ..              .            .....-
> 
> I           I                                         I            I               I          I             I            I            I               I           I
> 
> EXAMPLE TEN
> At Eventide.
> LOUISE R. WAITE.
> 
> e • ven -   t ide, when hearts areworn ana weary,
> 
> At eventide when darkness fall s               At eventide when life s short day
> around u s                                    is ended
> Earth's sorrows d im and burdens               And deaths glad t irl ings fa ll upon
> fall away                                     our ear
> As we w i t h dear ones, meet in               As into realms of b l i ss and joy
> sweet communion                               and rapt u re
> Lovf>s holy presence doth all                  Thy h a n d wi l l g u i d e us. Thou
> fea r a llay                                   w i l t sti l l be near
> Abdul Baha                                      Abd u l B ah a
> We t u rn our hea r ts to Thee                  We t u rn our hea r t s t o Thee
> F'or Thou a r t lOl-e devine                   Fot Thou a r t love divine
> Eternally.                                        Etern a l ly.
> 
> EXAMPLE ELEVEN
> Benediction
> "f:ing this melody in all gatherings of Love and
> Harmony of the beloved of Goo:'                         LOUISE R. W:A.ITE.
> p
> Ahdul-Ba/w, Abbas.              (Skahna!II)
> 
> May God$ love now       hov. er                                       outrstrechOO. Vling'!l
> 
> a tempo
> 
> -
> 
> peace that flows a. - rolind us            To each h�:�art �>weet comfort     hrit1g'l'l
> 
> I
> t'tl · C'dve His
> 
> in   Love   a     •   hid· ing   In tht! realms of
> 
> EXAMPLE TWELVE
> INTERNATIONAL A N T H E M
> "Let n o t a m an glory i n this, that h e loves his country;
> l et h i m rat her g l ory in this, t ha t he loves his          kind!'
> BABA V' LLAB
> 
> SAFFA       K I NNEY
> 
> r              �
> east and                  Bro. t h1-rs <'Omt'       forth !   From out
> 
> � J         ��
> 
> ye    are i n      fact     Be     Bro.thers i n      d e t- d s .
> 
> ; l b.J
> 
> 2.                                                                      4.
> O n e l ovi n g Father, .Lord of t h i s e a r t h .             E a r t h's s u rgi n g a rm i e s fi ght i n t h r "fi e l d.
> 
> �
> B re a t h ed forth the breath of l i fe :                       Arm\' of H eave n _
> Gttve u s our b i r t h .                                       'Ti s •l ov 's sword we wi11l d !
> H i " c a l l goes o u t ,                                      C o m e j o i n our rank s .
> H i s m an dat e's d e c reed !                                  Com e , s o w H e :tn· n ly Hn·d .
> Why w i l l ye l i s t e n n o t                                 B ro t h e r s )'f' are i n fa c t
> O h , y e o f o n e st-e d !                                     B e Bro t h e rs ind,. ., d !
> 
> 3                                                                              .. .
> 
> Th e s e laws are m a n m ad e , t h e s e ye obry:              G o d of our fat h e r s . Gocl of t o d ay
> E s 11e n c e of c ru el ty_                                     Grant u s t h e pow'r to           S t' t' ­
> 
> 0 do n o t d e l ay.                                             The r i g h t way to p ray!
> 
> �·b i l e 't i s d ay
> Vi'ri t e on ,·our forel! r a d s ­                              Then will our s o n g
> Wri t e                                                          B e well u n d e rs t o od :
> Ye, wh o a r e s o n s of Go d                                   O n e common Fat h e r, G o d !
> Wri t e "Bro t h e rs alway."                                    A n d on E Brotherh ood .
> 
> EXAMPLE THIRTEEN
> Respectfully Dedicated to t h e President of t h e United States,
> His lh:oellenoy'WIJOdrowWilson
> 
> NAT I ON A L                    A N T HE M
> Words and Musi c
> Composed March-AprilJ 1917
> by SAFF A KIN:NEY
> 
> 2.                                                                4.
> As they have bled and died ,                                    L ive t o maintain the
> M ay we with lofty pride,                                       Jus t i c e in place of
> D o all they dared t o do,                                      So, t h a t a s brothers,
> And move b e s i d e .                                           Stand hand i n hand.
> They gave u s l i b e rty;                                      And if the n e e d b e real,
> Forth flung Demo c racy;                                        Face death with ardent zeal,
> Shall we not with them stand                                    Die fo r the great Ideal ,
> What e'er betide?                                               For Freedom's land!
> 
> 8.                                                              1) .
> 
> T h i s fair Un i t e d S t a t e s                             Lord o f t h e l an d and sea,
> From E ast t o Golden Gates,                                    Father o f l i b e rty,
> From Gulf to Northernland                                       May this                   n a t i on's path
> Now c almly wai t s :                                           Wi t h                shine.
> .Waits for a noble band                                                                        o u r trust,
> Drawn forth from every land,                                    Do Thou our cause make just,
> Who'll live or die for t h e e                                  God of the nat i o n s , make
> Beloved land !                                                   This n a t i o n Thi n e !
> 
> Copyright 1 9 1 7 b y ltrlward B.lliru>tf
> 
> EXAMPLE FOURTEEN
> '
> THO '\VE HAVE WA NDER' D FAR
> 
> SAFFA   KINNEY
> 
> 2                                                                     3
> A l l d own t h e a gt-s pa R t                                    H ow in t h i s glad n e w d ay,
> 
> Great m e s se n ge r s han� come ­                                Tht:' Vo i c e rin gs out aga i n ,
> How m i ghty wa!> t h e t rumpet call                             T h e C e n t re o f G o d 's C o v e n a n t
> To wa rn m e n .                                                  I s t e a c h i ng,
> To d raw m e n .                                                  B e s e e ch i n g ,
> 
> T o c a l l G o d 's c h o s e n p e o p l e h o m e .             A n d mak i n g all t h e Pathway p l a i n .
> 
> 0 s a d and l o n ely h e a r t ,
> Ca n'st t h o u n o t h ear t he call?
> Awake e'er t h ou h a s t gone thy 'Wil)·,
> To h e ar H i m ,
> T o heed H i m ,
> To Jo"e H i m who would save us a l l .
> 
> EXAMPLE FIFTEEN
> NOTES
> 
> INTRODUCTION
> 
> 1 . Yinger, The Scientific Study of Religion, p. 10.
> 2. Jones, "Paradigm Shifts, " pp. 72-73.
> 3. Yinger, The Scientific Study of Religion, p. 10.
> 4 . Turner, Dramas, Fields, and Metaphors, pp. 13-14.
> 5. Cohen, "Symbolic Action, " pp. 120- 1 2 1 .
> 6. This passage is not intended as a full discussion of the vari­
> ous meanings of the term mashriqu 'l-adhkdr to be found in the
> Baha' f scriptures, which is beyond the scope of this study. But the
> reader should be alert to the fact that only one such meaning is
> treated in this book. For references to the various ways the term is
> used, see: Tablets of A bdul-Baha (Chicago: Bahai Publishing Soci­
> ety, 1909-16), especially volume one; and three recent compilations
> by the Universal House of Justice titled "Baha'f Meetings/The
> Nineteen-Day Feast, " "Baha'f Writings on Music , " and "The Im­
> portance of Prayer, Meditation, and the Devotional Attitude. "
> 7 . National Spiritual Assembly, The Baha'i Temple, p. 15.
> 8. Hogden, Anthropology, History, and Cultural Change, p. 19.
> 9. The term "papers" always denotes materials that belonged
> to an individual, and "records" materials associated with an ad­
> ministrative or other institutional body.
> 10. Note that this example indicates a different source from
> (Music Committee: NSA to Committee, 18 February 1931), which
> would indicate the Committee's records and not a sub-series of the
> National Assembly's records.
> 
> 362        Notes to pages 6-13
> 
> PART ONE: The Devotional Heritage
> 
> Chapter 1 : From the East
> 1 . Gifford, "The Prehistory of Homo Sapiens, " p. 83 .
> 2. I:Iaydar-'Alf, Stories from the Delight of Hearts, p. 4 .
> 3 . Ibid. , p. 43.
> 4. Remey, Observations, p. 74.
> 5. Browne, Materia{s for Study, p. 352 .
> 6. See Browne, "The Babis of Persia," A Traveller's Narratt've,
> Materials for Study; Cheyne, The Reconciliation of Races; Curzon,
> Persia and the Persian Question; Gobineau, Les Religions; and Young­
> husband, The Gleam.
> 7. Browne, A Traveller's Narrative, p. 309.
> 8. Browne, Materials for Study, p. 347.
> 9. Browne, A Traveller's Narrative, pp. 3 14-315.
> 1 0. Browne, Materials for Study, pp. 343-347.
> 1 1 . Browne, "The Babis of Persia, " p. 934.
> 12. Ibid. , 935-936.
> 13. Root, Tahirih.
> 14. Ibid . , 86-87.
> 15. Ibid. , 93-94.
> 16. Ibid. , 94.
> 17. For a recent discussion of Tahirih's poetry, see Sandler,
> ' 'The Poetic Artistry of Qurratu'l-Ayn. ' '
> 1 8 . Browne, "The Babis o f Persia, " 981 .
> 1 9 . See Kazemzadeh, "Varqa and Rtihu'llah."
> 20. Balyuzi, The Bdb, p. 235.
> 2 1 . Recordings of poems by Tahirih, Na'im, and 'Andalfb in the
> original have recently been made available to the Western Baha'i
> community on Davis, In Memory of the Martyrs. Such recordings
> have long been available to and distributed among Persian-speaking
> Baha'is.
> 22. Momen, "Early Relations, " p. 74.
> 23. Goodall Papers: Menshadi to Unidentified, n.d.
> 24. Remey, Observations, pp. 85-86.
> 25. Ibid. , pp. 100- 1 0 1 .
> 26. Moody, News Itemscof 1 91 4-1915, p. 3 .
> Notes to pages 14-24          363
> 
> 27. This account is based primarily on Lee , "The Rise of the Ba-
> ha'i Community, " except as otherwise cited.
> 28. Chicago Records.
> 29. The Bahai Bulletin, vol. I, no. 6, pp. 6-8.
> 30. Remey, Observations.
> 3 1 . Remey, Mashrak-El-Azkar.
> 32. Dreyfus, ' 'Une Institution Behaie, ' ' p. 526.
> 33. Remey, Observations, p. 6 1 .
> 34. This book was written either by the cantor mentioned above
> or by his uncle, who had the same name and was a well-known
> Baha'i teacher. It was translated into English in 192 1 by Edith
> Sanderson.
> 35. Alkany [Qa'inf], Lessons, p. 3 1 .
> 3 6 . Ibid. , p. 32.
> 37. Ibid . , p. 40 .
> 38. See, for example, Chapter two of this book.
> 39. This figure derives from a list of names in National Spiritual
> Assembly, The Bahd '£ Centenary, pp. 141-142. I have omitted the
> names of one non-Baha'i, one non-North American, and five chil­
> dren from the count. Of these 101 people, 70 were women and 3 1
> were men.
> 40. Cooper Papers: Anonymous pilgrim notes.
> 4 1 . Maxwell, An Early Pilgrimage, p. 37.
> 42. Lucas, A Brief Account, pp. 14-15.
> 43. Ibid . , pp. 10, 16, 31.
> 44. Chicago Records: Allen to Chicago community, 28 May 1907.
> 45. Waite Papers: Diary, 1909.
> 46. Sometimes translations were made in the Holy Land or
> Egypt, where some early translation was made into French.
> 4 7. Chase Papers: Chase to Bryant, 17 May 1906.
> 48. Ibid. : Chase to Bryant, 24 May 1906.
> 49. Cooper Papers.
> 50. Archives of the Spiritual Assembly of Chicago.
> 5 1 . On Law\1-i-Naqus, see Taherzadeh, The Revelation of Bahd'­
> u 'ltah, pp. 1 8ff.
> 52. See Musical Example One for this chant.
> 53. See Musical Example One.
> 364      Notes to pages 24-41
> 
> 54. Windust Papers.
> 55. Chase Papers: P. Hannen to five Chicago women, March
> 1910.
> 56. Ibid. : Moody to Russell, 27 November 1909.
> 57. Robarts Papers: Jones to Robarts, 6 February 1920 .
> 5 8. Ibid. , Harrison to Robarts, 1 2 August 1922 .
> 59. Convention Transcript, 1929, p. 333.
> 60. Kinney's personal papers are currently not available for re­
> search, being in the possession of his son and others, and their exact
> nature is undetermined . It is possible that materials related to his
> chants may be among them.
> 61.      Chapter Seven.
> 
> Chapter 2: Early Devotions and the Music of Louise Waite
> 1. Chicago Records: Minutes, 28 May 190 1 .
> 2 . Chase Papers: Assad'Ullah t o "Brothers and Sisters in
> Spirit, " 16 January 1902.
> 3. Chicago Records: House to 'Abdu'l-Baha, 5 July 1902 .
> 4. Ibid. : Minutes, 17 November, 24 November, 1 December
> 190 1 .
> 5 . Ibid.: Minutes, 8 December 190 1 .
> 6. Chase Papers: Chase t o Isabella Brittingham, 14 September
> 1902 .
> 7. Chicago Records: Minutes, 17 January, 28 February 1903 .
> 8. Ibid. : House to 'Abdu'l-Baha, October 1904.
> 9. Ibid . : Minutes, 20 April, 4 May 1907.
> 10. Ibid. : Minutes, 11 January 1908.
> 1 1 . Ibid . : Schmidt to House, 8 August 1908.
> 12. Ibid. : House to New York Board of Counsel, 19 February
> 1909.
> 13. Ibid. : Minutes, 19 October 1909 .
> 14. Ibid. : Waite to House, 6 December 1909.
> 15. See Chapter Seven.
> 16. The following account of the life of Waite is based on
> materials in the Chicago Records, National Spiritual Assembly
> Records, Parsons Papers, Robarts Papers, Waite Papers, and Win­
> dust Papers.
> Notes to pages 42-65         365
> 
> 17. See Chapter Seven.
> 18. Cowan Papers.
> 19. Windust Papers: Waite to Windust, 16 June, 12 July, 29 Au-
> gust 1927.
> 20. Ibid . : Waite to Windust, 16 June 1927.
> 2 1 . Mary Lesch Papers: Publishing Society Account Book.
> 22. Waite Papers.
> 23. Chase Papers: Chase to Herrigel, 2 March 1911.
> 24. Ibid. : Chase to Waite, July 191 1 .
> 2 5 . Parsons Papers: Waite t o Haney, 5 February 1915.
> 26. Knobloch Family Papers: Waite to Hannen, 18 April 1916 .
> . 27. We may also note that the amounts paid into the Temple
> Fund from hymn book sales in 1910 and 1911 are divisible by 10 but
> not by 20, suggesting that the price was also 1 0¢ . This might reflect
> the lower production cost of a second edition that was mainly
> printed from plates that had already been paid for, a reduced price
> to clear the first edition� or a combination of both.
> 28. Unity, 22 September 1910, pp. 5 1-52.
> 29. True Papers: Compilation of Extracts About Music.
> 30. Chase Papers.
> 3 1 . Waite, Bahai Hymns and Poems, p. 27.
> 32. Ibid. : pp. 30-31.
> 33. Chase Papers.
> 34. Brewer, Sacred Songs and Hymns, p. 8 .
> 3 5 . Cooper Papers: Chase's copy o f Brewer's Edition of Sacred
> Songs and Hymns with his handwritten emendations.
> 36. Waite Papers: Waite to Brittingham, 5 April 1909.
> 37. Ammer, Unsung, p. 96.
> 
> Chapter 3: Baha'i Hymnody in Community Life
> 1 . Chase Papers: Funeral Exercises, Mrs. Goodale, 15 Febru-
> ary 1905.
> 2. Cooper Papers.
> 3. Chase Papers.
> 4. Spokane Minute Book, 1907-1910.
> 5. Ibid.
> 6. Kenosha Records: Minutes, 28 July . 1908.
> 366      Notes to pages 65- 74
> 
> 7. Portland Minute Book, 1906-1911 .
> 8 . "History o f the Cause o f God i n Honolulu, " c. 1912.
> 9 . Star of the West.
> 10. See Chapter Four and Chapter Seven.
> 1 1 . Jersey City Minute Book, 1908-1942 .
> 12. Wagner, The Bahd 'z Hymns and Music, p. 2: Sohrab to
> Waite, 4 February 1910.
> 13. Baltimore Minute Book.
> 14. Waite Papers: Waite to Thompson, 17 March 1910.
> 15. Mary Lesch Papers: "Rough Estimate of Books on Hand,
> May 16, 1923 . "
> 1 6 . Robarts Papers: Yahn to Robarts, 17 May 1920.
> 17. Ibid. : Cadwallader to Robarts, n.d.
> 18. Ibid.: Mae Nelson to Robarts, 26 March 1921 .
> 1 9 . Ibid. : Mae Nelson t o Robarts, 30 November 192 1 ; 29 March
> 1922 .
> 20. Ibid. : Hazel Tomlinson to Robarts, 10 January 192 2 .
> 2 1 . Ibid . : Hazel Tomlinson to Robarts, 23 March 1922.
> 22. Ibid. : Hazel Tomlinson to Robarts, c. 1923 .
> 23. Ibid. : Collins to Robarts, 15 December 192 2 ; c. early January
> 1923.
> 24. World Fellowship, vol. I, nos. 9/10, August 1924, p. 3.
> 25. Robarts Papers: "Report of the Bahai Children's Festival at
> Esslingen, March 27, 192 1 . "
> 2 6 . Bahd'z News, vol. 48, February 1931, p p . 6-7.
> 27. Convention Transcript, 1926, p. 223.
> 28. Chicago Records: Benah to Chicago, translated by Ahmad
> Esphahani (Sohrab), 30 January 1907.
> 29. Cooper Papers: Moody to Cooper, 7 June 1916.
> 30. Wagner, The Bahd'z Hymns and Music, p. 2 : excerpt from
> Root to Waite, 1920.
> 31. Bahd 'z News, vol. 126, June 1939, p. 8, quoted from Bahd 'z
> Newsletter of the National Spiritual Assembly of India and Burma,
> March 1939. After a lecture-recital of Waite's work in Wilmette in
> 1 985, a Baha'i who had grown up in the Indian community during
> the 1940s and 1950s told me that he had known "Softly His Voice Is
> Calling" since childhood but he had had no idea that it was written
> by an American until that evening.
> Notes to pages 74-86        367
> 
> 32. Robarts Papers: extract from Isabel Fraser to Juliet Thomp­
> son, 19 September 1913.
> 33. Wagner, The Baha'i Hymns and Music, p. 2: Sohrab to
> Waite, July 1915.
> 34. Ibid. , p. 1 : excerpts from E . C. Getsinger to a believer in
> Chicago, n.d.
> 35. Waite Papers: Lua Getsinger to Waite, 26 September 1915.
> '
> 36. Waite Papers: Rouhani to Waite, 14 June 1925.
> 37. Lunt Papers: copy of Fazel to Waite, 12 August 1920.
> 38. Waite Papers: Blomfield to Waite, 9 June 1913.
> 39. National Spiritual Assembly Records, Temple .Committee:
> Wilkins to Holley, 27 Apri1 1926.
> 40. Waite Papers: Ransom Kehler to Waite, 24 September 193 1 .
> 4 1 . Ibid. : Finch t o Waite, 16 August 1920.
> 42. Ibid. : Alexander to Waite, 27 October 1920.
> 43. Finch Papers: Mashida to Finch, 7 October 192 1 .
> 44. Waite Papers: Brittingham to Waite, 1 0 June 1909.
> 45. Ibid. : MacNutt to Waite, 8 May 1909.
> 46. Wagner, The Baha 'i Hymns and Music, p. 5: Mears to Star of
> the West, n.d.
> 4 7. Windust Papers: copy to Sitkin to Waite, forwarded to Win-
> dust, 12 September 1913.
> 48. Star of the West, vol. XIV, no. 9 , December 1923, p. 278.
> 49. Waite Papers: Rogers to Waite, 23 August 1929.
> 50. Windust Papers: Waite to Windust, 25 February 1930.
> 51. Baha'i World, vol. XIV, pp. 341-342; Baha'f Historical
> Record Cards.
> 52. Baha'i World, vol. IX, pp. 943-944.
> 53. Goodall Papers: Gillen to Goodall, n.d.
> 54. Tablets, trans: Hannen to Green, 8 February 1914.
> 55. Racine Records.
> 56. Chicago Records: Minutes, 15 July 1905.
> 57. Racine Records: Olsen to Nelson, 15 December 1907.
> 58. Star of the West, vol. II, no. 4, pp. 4-5 .
> 59. Ibid. , vol. III, no. 4, p. 3 .
> 6 0 . Lesch and Lundberg Papers.
> 6 1 . Parsons Papers.
> 62. Star of the West, vol. III, no. 5, p. 2.
> 368      Notes to pages 88-106
> 
> 63. Fox, English Hymns, p. 17.
> 64. Chase Papers: Chase to Hoagg, 13 November 1907.
> 
> Chapter 4: Opposition to the Use of Hymns
> 1 . Chase Papers: C. E. Sprague to Chase, 30 April 1904.
> 2. Ibid. : Waite to Officers of Woman's Assembly and House of
> Spirituality, n.d. (early 1905).
> 3. Chicago Records: Minutes, 18 February 1905.
> 4. Wagner, The Baha'i Hymns and Music, pp. 2-3.
> 5 . Waite Papers: Waite to Coles, 8 June 1924.
> 6. Win dust Papers: Waite, "My visits with, and instructions
> from Abdul Baha while He was in Chicago from April 30th to May
> 6th, 1912 . "
> 7. Waite Papers: Waite t o Coles, 8 June 1924.
> 8. Parsons Papers: Waite to Parsons, 25 May 1915.
> 9. Bahai Temple Unity Records: Minutes, 17 August 1916.
> 10. Knobloch Family Papers: Waite to "Bahai brother" (Han­
> nen?), 10 June 1916.
> 11. Lunt Papers: Root to Bahai Temple Unity Board, 17 July
> 192 1 .
> 12. Robarts Papers: Waite to Robarts, 10 July 192 1 .
> 1 3 . Windust Papers: MacNutt t o True, 9 December 1920.
> 14. Ibid . : MacNutt to Scheffler, 14 January 192 1 .
> 1 5 . Convention Transcript, 1929, pp. 329.:..3 30.
> 16. Ibid. , pp. 331-332.
> 17. Ibid. , pp. 332-333.
> 18. Scheffler Papers: Scheffler to Florence Morton, 3 July 1926.
> 19. National Spiritual Assembly Records: Scheffler to Holley, 12
> July 1926.
> 20. Chicago Baha 'i News, January 1936, 'p. 7.
> 21. Los Angeles Archives: Waite to Spiritual Assembly, 28 Oc-
> tober 1935.
> 22. Ibid. : Assembly to Waite, 13 November 1935.
> 23. Baha 'i News, Los Angeles, December 1935, p. 38.
> 24. National Spiritual Assembly Records: San" Francisco Assem­
> bly to National Assembly, 17 January l 938. ;
> Notes to pages 1 06-1 1 6        369
> 
> 25. Ibid . : National Assembly to San Francisco Assembly, 28
> January 1938.
> 26. Schopflocher, Sunburst, pp. 13, 16-17.
> 27. Ibid.
> 28. National Spiritual Assembly Records, Publishing Commit­
> tee: National Assembly to Committee, 25 February 1936.
> 29. Ibid. : National Assembly to Committee, 15 Janua,ry 1937; 12
> November 1937; 3 January 1938; 1 1 ·March 1 938; Committee to Na­
> tional Assembly, 28 December 1936; 7 December 1937.
> 30. National Spiritual Assembly Records , Reviewing Commit­
> tee: Committee to National Assembly, 17 July 1935.
> 31. Ibid. : National Assembly to Committee, 8 August 1935.
> 32. National Spiritual Assembly Records: National Assembly to
> Shoghi Effendi, 6 January 1938.
> 33. Letter on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to National Assembly, 30
> January 1938.
> 34. Postscript to letter on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to Waite, 22
> December 1930.
> 35. Postscript to letter on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to Waite, 22
> July 193 1 .
> 3 6 . Letter o n behalf o f Shoghi Effendi t o Waite, 5 January 1932.
> 37. Baha'i News, vol. 59, February 1932, p. 6.
> 38. Letter on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to Waite, 15 November
> 1932.
> 39. Letter on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to Waite, 17 March 1935.
> 40. Letter on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to Koch, 7 April 1935.
> 41. Letter on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to Waite, 21 January
> 1938.
> 42. May Brown Recollections, p. 7 .
> 43. Ibid. , p. 17.
> 44. Africa Teaching Committee Records.
> 45. Convention Transcript, 1957, pp. 483-484.
> 46. Ibid. , p. 485.
> 47. National Spiritual Assembly Records: National Assembly to
> Shoghi Effendi, 13 May 1957.
> 48. Letter on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to the National Assembly,
> 2 1 September 1957.
> 370      Notes to pages 121-134
> 
> PART Two: The Building
> 
> Chapter 5: The Choice of a Site and the Development of
> National Organization
> 1 . Except as otherWise cited, this chapter is based on Chicago
> Records: Minutes and Correspondence.
> 2. Star of the West, 13 July 1 9 1 5, p. 56.
> 3 . Congress Transcript, 1920, p. 20.
> 4. Chase Papers: "The Bahai Feast of the Master, " 26 Novem-
> ber 1902.
> 5. See, for example, ibid. : Chase to Bryant, 9 February 1903.
> 6 . Ibid. : Assad'Ullah to Windust, 19 February 1903.
> 7. Ibid . : House to 'Abdu'l-Baha, c. March 1903 .
> 8. Ibid . : Assad'Ullah to House, 4 May 1903 .
> 9. Ibid. : Circular letter from House, 1 January 1905.
> 10. For a more detailed discussion of the issue of gender-seg­
> regated and integrated institutions in the early North American
> Baha'I community, see Armstrong-Ingram, "Recovering a Lost
> Horizon. "
> 1 1 . Chase Papers: Chase to Waite, 2 3 October 1905.
> 12. Chicago Records: Windust to Remey, 28 November 1906.
> 13. Ibid . : True to Windust, 26 November 1 906.
> 14. Ibid. : House to Kenosha Board, 3 1 December 1906.
> 15. Chase Papers: House to 'Abdu'l�Baha, 26 January 1907.
> 16. Windust Papers: "An outline of the proceedings of the House
> . . . during the Summer of 1907 . . concerning the �rection of a
> .
> 
> Temple, " 26 November 1907.
> 1 7. Chicago Records: True to Agnew, 25 October 1907.
> 18. It was a regular practice for True to offer to host community
> meetings that were called to discuss specific issues. Often those
> who disagreed with her and thus might not have been on the best
> personal terms with her felt disinclined to attend. The outcome of a
> number of important meetings over the years was skewed by this.
> That the House, although aware of the effects, seems to have felt
> unable to refuse True's public offers to host meetings is in itself an
> interesting indication of her position in the community.
> Notes to pages 134-1 55         371
> 
> 19. At the time, the present town of Evanston consisted of three
> separate towns: South Evanston, Evanston, and North Evanston.
> 20. Hill Street is now called Maple Avenue. The site suggested
> by those gathered on 26 November 1907 is now part of the campus
> of the National College of Education.
> 2 1 . Eventually, $34,500 was paid for the site, not including in­
> terest. It should be noted that there was a falling land market be­
> tween 1908 and 1909, when the final price was settled. There is a
> discrepancy in the site descriptions as the plat shows it to have been
> divided into sixteen lots but True's 1915 report of the early history
> of the project mentions only fourteen lots: the two purchased in
> 1908 and "twelve" negotiated for in 1909. True may have been con­
> fused and subtracted the first two lots bought from the total number
> twice.
> 22. Chicago Records: Chase to Windust; 22 May 1908.
> 23. Chase Papers: Chase to Harris, 27 November 1908.
> 24. Chicago Records: House to New York Board, 25 November
> 1908.
> 25. Chase Papers: Chase to Bryant, 2 October 1908.
> 26. Ibid. : Chase to 'Abdu'l-Baha, 5 November 1908.
> 27. Chicago Records: Carmichael to House, 9 July 1908.
> 28. Ibid. : Watson to House, 8 August 1908.
> 29. Chase Papers: Chase to Harris, 27 November 1908.
> 30. Ibid . : Chase to Ober, 13 December 1908.
> 3 1 . Chicago Records: True to House, n.d. (late December 1908).
> 32 . Convention Transcript, 1913: "Open Meeting . . . Sun. Apr.
> 27. "
> 33. Chicago Records: House to Kenosha Board, 3 1 December
> 1906.
> 34. Ibid . : MacNutt to Codwise, 29 July 1907.
> 35. Ibid. : MacNutt to House, 28 July 1907.
> 36. Ibid . : Getsinger to House, 15 April, 27 Apri1 1908.
> 37. Ibid . : True to House, 23 July 1907.
> 38. Ibid. : House to True, 29 July 1907.
> 39. Ibid. : House to New York Board, 26 November 1908.
> 40. Ibid. : True to House, 18 August 1908.
> 372      Notes to pages 155-1 76
> 
> 4 1 . At the time of that meeting True may have been out of town
> at her summer home in Michigan.
> 42 . Chicago Records: House to New York Board, 25 November
> 1 908.
> 43 . Chase Papers: Chase to Assad'Ullah, 1 December 1908.
> 44. Ibid. : Harris to Chase, 12 December 1908.
> 45. For an account of the devotional meeting of 21 March, see
> Chapter Seven.
> 46. Chase Papers: Chase to Remey, 19 January 1910.
> 47. Ibid . : Remey to Chase, 25 February 1910.
> 48. Chicago Records: Ober to Chase, 27 November 1908.
> 49. As he was supposedly a proxy for Wilhelm, a case could be
> made that Mills' appointment to the Board should really have been
> taken up by Wilhelm.
> 50. Bahai Temple Unity Records : Minutes, 23 March 1909.
> 5 1 . It goes far beyond the scope of this discussion to evaluate the
> role that Corinne True played in the development of the American
> Baha'i community. The interested reader is referred to the minutes
> of the Chicago House of Spirituality for further information con­
> cerning her tensions with that body. On gender tensions, see
> Armstrong-Ingram, ' 'Recovering a Lost Horizon . ' '
> 52. Chicago Records: Woman's Assembly t o House, 2 2 May
> 1909 .
> 53. See Armstrong-Ingram, "Recovering a Lost Horizon."
> 54. We might note that True's religious search, which ended
> with her discovery of the Baha'i Faith, was first occasioned through
> grief at the loss of her eldest daughter while still a child and rein­
> forced by the later loss of a son. Shortly after becoming a Baha'i,
> she lost another son. The deaths of these three children, coupled
> with the use of mother imagery that surrounded discussion of the
> implications of the building of the first Mashriqu'l-Adhkar in North
> America (the building would be the "mother" of many subsequent
> ones throughout the continent), may underlie her tenacious commit­
> ment to the building although she did not have any developed func­
> tional concept of the institution of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar.
> Notes to pages 1 77-197          373
> 
> Chapter 6: The Bourgeois Design
> 1. Convention Transcript, !920, p. 89.
> 2. Remey, Mashrak-El-Azkar (1916); Remey, Mashrak-El-Azkar
> .
> (1917).
> 3. Convention transcript, 1920, p. 2 17.
> 4. Pemberton, A Modern Pilgrimage, pp. 78-79.
> 5. Marie Watson Papers: Bourgeois to Watson, 9 August 1906.
> From the rest of this letter, and from other letters of around this
> date, it is probable that by "workers" Bourgeois is referring to
> those engaged in some form of mystical activity, rather than to the
> working class.
> 6. Architecture, vol. XIV, no. 1, 13 July 1906.
> 7. Bourgeois Papers: undated manuscript.
> 8. Convention Transcript, 1920, p. 69.
> 9. Chicago Records: Minutes, 8 February 1908.
> 10. Bahd 'f News, vol. I, no. 4, 17 May 1910, p. 12.
> 1 1 . Wilhelm Papers.
> 12. It may be noted here that Remey produced the Byzantine de­
> sign that he submitted in 1909 in 1906, and that Woodward pro­
> duced his 1909 submission around 1908, both before the architect's
> circular or, indeed, the establishing of the Bahai Temple Unity.
> 13. Convention Transcript, 1920, pp. 67-71 .
> 14. Bourgeois Papers: undated manuscript, pp. 1-5, 10-12.
> 15. McDaniel, The Spell of the Temple, pp. 22-26 .
> 16. Ibid. , p. 24.
> 17. Pemberton, A Modern Pilgrimage, p. 78.
> 18. Remey, Architectural Exh ibition.
> 19. McDaniel, The Building of the Temple, p. 27.
> 20. Star of the West, vol. VII, no. 7, 13 July 1916.
> 21. Interestingly, both Gebhard, "One Hundred Years of Ar­
> chitecture, " p. 58, and Apostol, "The Painters and Sculptors, " p.
> 34, describe the design for this house as being popularly attributed
> to de Longpre himself. As his daughter eloped with Bourgeois in
> 190 1 , it would not be surprising if he did not later give due credit for
> Bourgeois' contribution to the design, whatever may have been the
> actual ratio of each man's input to the final product.
> 22. Convention Transcript, 1920, p. 125.
> 374      Notes to pages 1 98-210
> 
> 23. National Properties Committee Records: Gilfillen to Commit-
> tee, 10 December, 29 December 1 973.
> 24. Convention Transcript, 1925, p. 96.
> 25. Bourgeois Papers: Bourgeois to Shoghi Effendi, c. 1928.
> 26. Letter on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to the National Spiritual
> Assembly of the United States, 1 1 April 1949.
> 27. Convention Transcript, 1930, p. 363.
> 28. Ibid . , p. 385.
> 29. Baha 'f World, vol. IV, 1 930-1932, p. 521 .
> 30. Bourgeois Papers.
> 3 1 . Ibid. : "This Is the Great Day of God , " c. 1919.
> 32. The Bahai Temple, p. 13.
> 33. Boswell in New York American, 23 May 1920; Reid in The
> Architectural Record, June 1920.
> 34. National Spiritual Assembly Records: McDaniel to National
> Assembly, 23 April 1934.
> 35. Bahd 'f News, January 1935, p. 10.
> 36. National Spiritual Assembly Records: Wilhelm to National
> Assembly, 13 February 1950. It may be noted here that this contra­
> dicts a frequently repeated opinion that Wilhelm initiated Bour­
> geois' interest in attempting a Mashriqu'l-Adhkar design.
> 37. National Teaching Committee Bulletin, 19 July 1920, p. 9.
> 38. San Francisco Chronicle, 8 August 1920.
> 39. The Outlook, 1 December 1920.
> 40. Everywoman, October 1915, p. 10.
> 41. Scheffler Papers: Scheffler to Morton and Collins, 8 April
> 1925.
> 42. Engineering services were taken over by Research Ser­
> vices, Inc., of Washington, D.C. , in 1930 and supervision was there­
> after principally by Allen McDaniel, who had been among those
> who wished to see building plans on the basis of the Bourgeois de­
> sign abandoned in the early 1920s but who had later undergone a
> ' 'conversion . ' '
> 43. Lunt Papers: True t o Lunt, 18 December 1921 .
> 44. Scheffler Papers: Scheffler to Shoghi Effendi, 31 March
> 1929.
> 45. Convention Transcript, 1925, p. 108.
> Notes to pages 240-250         375
> 
> PART THREE: The Practice
> 
> Chapter 7: Choral Song and Sermonizing in Wilmette
> 
> 1 . Chicago Records: Minutes and attached copy of letter.
> 2 . Ibid . : Jacobsen to House, 28 August 1908. The songs they
> wished to learn probably were those in Louise Waite's Bahai Hymns
> of Peace and Praise, published earlier that year.
> 3. Ibid. : Minutes, 26 January 1909.
> 4. The Bahai Bulletin, vol. I, no. 6, 1909.
> 5. Tablets of Abdu 'l-Bahd, pp. 38-40.
> 6. The Bahai Bulletin, vol. I , no. 6, 1909.
> 7. Ibid.
> 8. Kenosha Records: Minutes , 15 June 1909.
> 9. Waite Papers: "The Magic Wand" ; Pilgrim Notes. For a
> more detailed discussion of the trip and Waite's songs, see Chapters
> Two and Three.
> 10. Buikema Papers.
> 1 1 . Bahai News, 21 March 1 9 10, p. 14.
> 12. Ibid. , 1 7 May 1910, pp. 2-3.
> 13. Ibid. , 17 May 1910, p. 4.
> 14. Star of the West, 1 7 May 191 1 , p. 4.
> 15. Ibid. , 1 7 May 191 1 , pp. 3-5.
> 16. Robarts Papers: Diary notes, 1912.
> 17. Star of the West, 17 May 1912, pp. 3-5.
> 18. Ibid. , 17 May 1912, p. 32. The account of the Vahid Choral
> Society is adapted from Armstrong-Ingram, Singers to the King.
> 19. National Teaching Committee Bulletin, 1 August 1922, pp.
> 3-4.
> 20. Robarts Papers: True to Robarts, 9 August 1 922.
> 2 1 . Ibid.
> 22. Ibid. : Olsen to Robarts, 20 November 1922.
> 23. Chicago Records: Vail to House of Spirituality, 25 May
> 1918.
> 24. Ibid.
> 25. Ibid. : Vail to House of Spirituality, 2 June 1918.
> 26. Ibid. : Minutes, 30 May 1918.
> 376      Notes to p(lges 250-260
> 
> 27. Ibid. : House of Spirituality to Vail, 31 May 1918.
> 28. Ibid . : Minutes, 2 1 September 1920.
> 29. Ibid. : Minutes, 28 September 1920; 24 May 192 1 ; 7 June
> 192 1 ; 1 October 192 1 .
> 3 0 . Vail, The Bahai Movement, n.p.
> 31. M. Lesch Papers: Notes on 1 7 May 1925 meeting.
> 32. Robarts Papers: Olsen to Robarts, 13 July 1923.
> 33. Osenbaugh Papers.
> 34. Convention Transcript, 1925, p. 32.
> 35. Ibid . , 1926, p. 42.
> 36. Osenbaugh Papers.
> 37. National Spiritual Assembly Records, Music Committee: Na-
> tional Assembly to Committee, 18 February 193 1 .
> 3 8 . Ibid.
> 39. Ibid. : Committee Report, n.d. (1931).
> 40. Ibid.
> 4 1 . Ibid . : National Assembly to Committee, 17 June 193 1 .
> 42. Letter o n behalf o f Shoghi Effendi t o the National Spiritual
> Assembly, 2 April 193 1 .
> 43 . Baha'i News, May 1932, p. 1 6 .
> 44. Ibid.
> 45. Ibid.
> 46. National Spiritual Assembly Records, Music Committee: Na­
> tional Assembly to Committee, 22 June 1932.
> 47. National Spiritual Assembly Records: National Spiritual As­
> sembly to Shoghi Effendi, 4 April 1930.
> 48. National Spiritual Assembly Records, Temple Program
> Committee: National Assembly to Committee , 6 December 1933.
> 49. Ibid. : Committee to National Assembly, 13 December 1933.
> 50. Ibid. : National Assembly to Committee , 6 December 1933.
> 5 1 . Ibid . : National Assembly to Committee, 22 December 1933.
> 52. Ibid.
> 53. Temple Program Committee Records: Minutes, 6 May 1934.
> 54. Ibid. : Minutes, 2 June 1934.
> 55. Letter on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to the National Spiritual
> Assembly, 15 June 1935.
> Notes to pages 260-276          377
> 
> 56. Temple Program Committee Records: Minutes, 11 August
> 1935.
> 57. Baha 'i News, February 1932, p. 6.
> 58. Baha 'i World, vols. IV, V, and VI.
> 59. This discussion of St. Mark's is based on Holley Papers: St.
> Mark's Records, except as otherwise cited.
> 60. Farmer Papers: Green Acre Programs.
> 61. Petersen Papers: Bahai brothers and sisters of St. Mark's to
> Bahai Friends, 27 February 1914.
> 62. Invitation card reproduced in Star of the West, vol. V, no. 2, 9
> April 1914, p. 25.
> 63. Travelling Fellowship, 1 August 1919, n.p.
> 64. Gaudreaux Papers: Committee of Nine to Baha'i Assemblies
> of the North Eastern States, 20 September 1919.
> 65. National Spiritual Assembly Records: New York Programs
> for Baha'f Holy Days.
> 66. Ibid. : Guthrie to Ali Kuli Khan, 21 February 1928.
> 67. Ibid. : Programs.
> 68. Ibid . : Programs.
> 69. Bergen Evening Record, 27 June 1 927; Interboro Review, 1
> July 1927.
> 70. Racine Records.
> 71. Chicago Records.
> 72. National Teaching Committee Bulletin, 15 January 1923, p. 5.
> 73. Convention Transcript, 1927, pp. 20ff.
> 74. Ibid. , p. 68.
> 75. National Spiritual Assembly Records: Coy to National As­
> sembly, 24 July 1930.
> 76. Wright Papers.
> 77. "History of the Philadelphia Baha'f Community, " 1934-1939.
> 
> Chapter 8: The Mashriqu'l-Adhkar in Use
> 1. Baha 'i News, vol. 52, May 193 1 , p. 2.
> 2 . Annual Baha 'i Reports, 1942-1943, p . 37.
> 3 . Ibid. , p. 38.
> 378      Notes to pages 277-290
> 
> 4. Letter on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to the National Spiritual
> Assembly, 28 March 1943.
> 5 . Bahd 'f News, vol. 170, September 1944, pp. 9 , 15-16.
> 6 . National Spiritual Assembly Records.
> 7. Ibid. : Secretary to Shoghi Effendi, 13 January 1942 .
> 8. Bahd'f News, vol. 2 17, March 1944, p. 1 1 .
> 9 . Ibid. , vol. 228, February 1950, pp. 7-8.
> 10. Bahd'f World, vol. XI, pp. 46-50.
> 1 1 . Temple Guides Committee, 1 942, p. 17; 1947, p. 16.
> 12. Bahd 'f Annual Reports, 1952-1953, p. 16.
> 13. Holley Papers: Holley to Temple Dedication Committee, 5
> March 1952.
> 14. National Spiritual Assembly Records, Temple Dedication
> Committee: National Assembly to Committee, 5 September 1952;
> Holley Papers: Notes, House of Worship Dedication.
> 15. Ibid. : "Summary of Consultation . . . Dec. 13., 1952. "
> 1 6 . National Spiritual Assembly Records, Temple Dedication
> Committee: Mussulman to Holley, 3 1 December 1952. On the mul­
> tiplicity of services, see below.
> 17. Ibid . : Braun to Holley, 14 January 1953.
> 18. Holley Papers: Holley to Committee, 19 March 1953.
> 19. National Spiritual Assembly Records: Secretary to Shoghi
> Effendi, 19 March 1953.
> 20. Holley Papers: "Summary of Consultation . . . Dec. 13,
> 1952 . "
> 2 1 . Letter o n behalf o f Shoghi Effendi to National Assembly, 6
> March 1953; 6 April 1953.
> 22. Ibid.
> 23. Bahd'f News, vol. 266, April 1953, p. 5.
> 24. National Spiritual Assembly, Jubilee Celebration, pp. 10-15.
> 25. Letter on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to National Assembly, 6
> Apri1 1953.
> 26. Bahd 'f News, vol. 268, June 1953, p. 1 1 .
> 2 7 . Except a s otherwise cited, this discussion draws o n the
> minutes and correspondence in the Temple Worship Committee
> Records. Gaps in the documentation have been filled from copies of
> Notes to pages 298-322          379
> 
> this committee's records in the Somerhalder Papers. As this discus­
> sion covers events that occurred so recently, I have refrained from
> mentioning most of the names of the individuals involved. To main­
> tain this anonymity, it is necessary to omit the detail given in cita­
> tions elsewhere in this work and to rely on this general citation of
> the committee's records.
> 28. All Baha'i holy days are now commemorated at the House of
> Worship, the devotions for them being in the same vein as the Sun­
> day afternoon ones, although those held at times when there is not
> likely to be a public presence are less elaborate in program.
> 29. Bahti 'f Annual Reports, 1967-1968, p. 23.
> 30. Report on Temple Activities, 1962, p. 4.
> 
> Chapter 9: Scripture and Culture in the Development of
> Western Baha'i Devotional Practice
> As well as the sources cited, the discussion of the Kitab-i Aqdas in
> this chapter is based on A Synopsis and Codification of the Kittib-i­
> Aqdas, 1973 (Baha'i World Center), typescript translations in En­
> glish and French; and reference to the original Arabic with the kind
> assistance of Ghazzal Towfiq.
> 1 . Berger, From Sect to Church, p. 139.
> 2. Inter-America Committee Records: Convention Agendas,
> 1951.
> 3. Momen, An Introduction to Shi 'i Islam, p. 181.
> 4. On Islamic salat generally, see Quasem , Salvation of the Soul,
> pp. 85-176.
> 5. Bahai Temple Unity Records.
> 6. True Papers: Notebook, copy by True of Mills' pilgrim
> notes, 1909.
> 7. Ibid . : 'Abdu'l-Baha to Mills, 12 August 1909.
> 8. Hatcher and Martin, The Baha 'i Faith, p. 1 70 .
> 9. Chicago Records: House t o Kenosha Board, 13 August 1906;
> note states copy sent to Union, New Jersey, 19 August 1906.
> 10. National Spiritual Assembly Records: National Assembly to
> Shoghi Effendi, 25 July 1933.
> 380      Notes to pages 322-339
> 
> 1 1 . Letter on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to National Assembly, 6
> September 1933.
> 12. Baha 'i News, vol. 79, November 1933.
> 13. National Spiritual Assembly Records: Spiritual Assembly of
> Chicago to National Assembly, 23 February 1934.
> 14. Ibid. : National Assembly to Spiritual Assembly of Chicago, .
> 14 March 1934.
> 15. Robarts Papers: Untitled study course, c. 1940s.
> 16. Chase Papers: S. M. Raffi, "Islam. "
> 17. Letter on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to Loulie Mathews, 4
> January 1936 .
> 18. Champ Papers: George Spendlove, "Prayer and Medita­
> tion, " 1956.
> 19. Temple Worship Committee Records: Minutes, 17 May
> 1958.
> 20. Somerhalder Papers: National Assembly to Committee, 1 1
> January 1955.
> 21. Robarts Papers: Ruth Moffett Pilgrim Notes, 1927.
> 22. Temple Worship Committee Records: National Assembly to
> Committee, 16 March 1962.
> 23. Ibid.
> 24. Report on Temple Activities, 14 June 1962, p. 13.
> 25. National Assembly to Universal House of Justice, 23 Janu­
> ary 1964.
> 26. Universal House of Justice to National Assembly, 13 March
> 1964.
> 27. For an extended discussion of the implications of these
> points, see Armstrong-Ingram, Considerations.
> 28. White, Protestant Worship, pp. 121-122, 124-126.
> 29. Ibid. , pp. 135-136.
> 30. Stevenson, 1974, p. 684.
> 3 1 . Ibid. , pp. 684-686.
> 32.        Berger, From Sect to Church, pp. 132-134; Hampson,
> The Growth and Spread of the Baha'i Faith, pp. 338 ff; Smith, The
> American Baha'i Community, pp. 1 19-120.
> 33. Woodward, The Strange Career of Jim Crow, Preface.
> BIBLIOGRAPHY
> (I) Archival Sources
> (A) National Baha'i Archives
> (i) Papers
> Bourgeois, Louis and Alice Bourgeois Pemberton, Papers
> Buikema, Gertrude, Papers
> Champ, Dorothy, Papers
> Chase, Thornton, Papers
> Cooper, Ella Goodall, Papers
> Cowan, Aline, Papers
> Farmer, Sarah, Papers
> Finch, Ida, Papers
> Gaudreaux, Maud, Papers
> Goodall, Helen S . , Papers
> Holley, Horace, Papers
> Knobloch Family Papers
> Lesch, Fanny and Effie Lundberg, Papers
> Lesch, Mary, Papers
> Lunt, Alfred E . , Papers
> Osenbaugh, John, Papers
> Parsons, Agnes S., Papers
> Peterson, Nels and Christine, Papers
> Robarts, Ella, Papers
> Scheffler, Carl, Papers
> Somerhalder, Beatrice, Papers
> True, Corinne, Papers
> Waite, Louise R. (Shahnaz), Papers
> Watson, Marie A. , Papers
> Wilhelm, Roy, Papers
> 382        Bibliography
> 
> Windust, Albert, Papers
> Wright, Louise Drake, Papers
> 
> (ii) Records
> Africa Teaching Committee Records
> Bahai Temple Unity Records
> Chicago House of Spirituality Records
> Congress Transcripts, Baha'f
> Convention Transcipts, Baha'f National
> Inter-America Committee Records
> Kenosha, Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'fs of, Records
> National Properties Committee Records
> National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'fs of the United
> States (and CaQada) Records
> Racine, Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'fs of, Records
> Temple Program Committee Records
> Temple Worship Committee Records
> 
> (iii) Other Materials
> Original Tablets from 'Abdu'l-Baha (microfilm).
> Translations of Tablets from 'Abdu'l-Baha (microfilm).
> Original Letters from Shoghi Effendi (microfilm).
> 
> Brown, May, Recollections.
> Historical Records Cards, Baha'f, 1935-1936.
> "History of the Cause of God in Honolulu. "
> "History of the Philadelphia Baha'f Community. "
> 
> (B) Other Archives (Items marked with a n asterisk are available
> on microfilm at the National Baha'f Archives.)
> Archives of the Spiritual Assembly of Baltimore: Minute Book
> 1909 . *
> Archives o f the Spiritual Assembly o f Chicago: Music.
> Archives of the Spiritual Assembly of Jersey City: Minute Book
> 1908-1942. *
> Bibliography        383
> 
> Archives of the Spiritual Assembly of Los Angeles: Correspon­
> dence with Louise Waite.
> Archives of the Spiritual Assembly of Portland, Oregon: Minute
> Book 1906-191 1 . *
> Archives of the Spiritual Assembly of Spokane: Minute Book
> 1907-1910. *
> Chicago Historical Society: Earl H . Reed Papers.
> 
> (II) Other Sources
> (A) Books and Articles
> There are numerous editions by various publishers of the best
> known works of Baha'u'llah and 'Abdu'l-Baha as well as of the
> works of Shoghi Effendi. The one case where I have referred to a
> specific edition here is Hidden Words, Words of Wisdom and Com­
> munes, 1905, Chicago: Bahai Publishing Society. The page refer­
> ences to various works of Baha'u'llah on page 288 Qf this work are
> as given in the source description of the program for the dedica­
> tion in 1953 and presumably refer to the then current United
> States editions.
> 
> Alkany [Qa'inf], Mohammed Ali (trans. Edith Rouhie Sanderson),
> 1923. Lessons in Religion. Boston: Tudor Press.
> Ammer, Christine, 1980. Unsung: A History of Women in American
> Music. Westport, CT: Greenwqod Press.
> Annual Bahd'f Reports. Wilmette: National Spiritual Assembly of
> the Baha'is of the United States (and Canada).
> Apostol, Jane, 1 980. The Painters and Sculptors. In Anderson,
> Timothy J., Eudorah M. Moore, and Robert W. Winter (eds),
> California Design 1 91 0. Santa Barbara: Peregrine Smith, Inc.
> Armstrong-Ingram, R. Jackson, 1985. Singers to the King. Misha­
> waka, IN: Aubade.
> --     , 1987. Recovering a Lost Horizon: Women's Contributions
> to North American Baha'i History. In Caton, Peggy L. (ed.),
> Equal Circles. Los Angeles: Kalimat Press.
> --     , In Progress. Considerations in the Setting of Sacred Text for
> Mashriqu 'l-Adhkdr Use.
> 384       Bibliography
> 
> The Bahai Temple: Press Comments, Symbolism, 192 1. Chicago: By
> request of Louis J. Bourgeois.
> The Baha 'i World. II-XII. 1928-1956. New York (later Wilmette):
> Baha'i Publishing Committee (later Baha'i Publishing Trust).
> The Bahd'i World. XIII ff. 1970-date. Haifa: Universal House of
> Justice.
> Baha 'i Year Book. I (later The Baha 'i World), 1926. New York: Ba­
> ha'i Publishing Committee.
> Balyuzi, H. M . , 1973. The Bab: The Herald of the Day of Days. Ox­
> ford: George Ronald.
> Berger, Peter Ludwig, 1954. From Sect to Church: A Sociological In­
> terpretation of the Baha 'i Movement. Ph.D. thesis. New School for
> Social Research, New York.
> Brewer, Orville (ed.), 1905. Brewer's Edition of Sacred Songs and
> Hymns. Chicago: Orville Brewe_r Publishing.
> Browne, Edward Granville, 1889. The Babis of Persia I. Sketch of
> Their History and Personal Experiences Amongst them. II. Their
> Literature and Doctrines. In The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Soci­
> ety of Great Britain and Ireland. XXI, July and October 1889.
> --      (trans.), 189 1 . A Traveller's Narrative Written to Illustrate the
> Episode of the Bab. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
> --     , 1918. Materials for the Study of the Babi Religion. Cam­
> bridge: Cambridge University Press.
> --     , 1930. A Literary History of Persia IV Modern Times 1500-
> 1924. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
> Bush-Brown, Albert, 1960. Louis Sullivan. New York: George
> Braziller.
> Cheyne, Thomas Kelley, 1914. The Reconciliation of Races and
> Religions. London: A. & C. Black.
> Cohen, Abner, 1977. Symbolic Action and the Structure of the Self.
> In Lewis, loan (ed.), Symbols and Sentiments. London: Academic
> Press.
> Connely, Willard, 1960. Louis SulUvan as He Lived: The Shaping of
> American Architecture. New York: Horizon PFess.
> Curzon, Rt. Hon. George, The Earl, 1892. Persia and the Persian
> Question. London: Longmans, Green & Co.
> Dealy, Paul K. , 1902. The Dawn of Knowledge and the Most Great
> Peace. Chicago: Bahai Publishing Society.
> Bibliography         385
> 
> Dreyfus, Hippolyte, 1942 (1909). Une Institution Behaie: Le
> Machreqou'l-Azkar D'Achqabad. Reprinted in The Baha'i World.
> VIII. 1942. Wilmette: Baha'i Publishing Committee.
> Fischer, Michael M. J . , 1978. On Changing the Concept and Posi­
> tion of Persian Women. In Beck, Lois and Nikki Keddie (eds),
> Women in the Muslim World. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univer­
> sity Press.
> Fox, Adam, 1947. English Hymns and Hymn Writing. London:
> Collins.
> Gebhard, David, 1968. One Hundred Years of Architecture in
> California. In Gebhard, David and Harriette Von Breton (eds) Ar­
> chitecture in California 1869-1968. Santa Barbara: University of
> California.
> Gifford, James C., 1978. The Prehistory of Homo Sapiens: Touch­
> stone for the Future. In Maruyama, Magorah and Arthur M. Har­
> kins (eds), Cultures of the Future. The Hague: Mouton Publishers.
> Gobineau, Joseph Arthur, Comte de, 1865-1 866. Les Religions et les
> Philosophies dans l'Asie Centrale. Paris.
> Hampson, Arthur, 1980. The Growth and Spread of the Bah6'{ Faith.
> Ph.D. dissertation, University of Hawaii.
> Hatcher, William and Douglas Martin, 1984. The Bahd '{ Faith: The
> Emerging Global Religion. San Francisco: Harper & Row.
> l;:laydar-'Ali, l;:lajf Mirza (trans. and abridged A. Q. Faizi), 1980. Sto­
> ries from the Delight of Hearts: The Memoirs of lfaj{ Mirza lfaydar­
> 'Alf. Los Angeles: Kalimat Press.
> Hogden, Margaret T. , 1974. Anthropology, History, and Cultural
> Change. Tucson: Tucson University Press.
> Jones, R. Kenneth, 1978. Paradigm Shifts and Identity Theory Al­
> teration as a Form of Identity Management. In Mol, Hans (ed.),
> Identity and Religion: International, Cross-Cultural Approaches.
> London: Sage Publications.
> Kazemzadeh, Kazem, 1974. Varqa and Ruhu'llah: Deathless in
> Martyrdom. In World Order, IX, 2, Winter 1974-1975. Wilmette:
> National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'fs of the United States.
> Lee, A. A., 1979. The Rise of the Baha'f Community of 'Ishqabad.
> In Baha 'i Studies V.· The Baha 'i Faith in Russia: Two Early In­
> stances. Thornhill, Ontario: Canadian Association for Studies on
> the Baha'i Faith.
> 386      Bibliography
> 
> Lucas, Mary, 1905. A Brief Account of My Visit to Acca. Chicago:
> Bahai Publishing Society.
> McDaniel, Allen B., 195 1 . The Building of the Temple. Unpublished
> typescript.
> --     , 1953. The Spell of the Temple. New York: Vantage Press.
> Maxwell, May, 1970 (1917). An Early Pilgrimage. London: George
> Ronald.
> Momen, Moojan, 1982 . Early Relations Between Christian Mission­
> aries and the Babi and Baha'i Communities. In Momen, Moojan
> (ed.), Studies in Bdb£ and Bahd'£ History. Los Angeles: Kalimat
> Press.
> ---    . 1985. An Introduction to Shi 'i Islam: The History and Doc­
> trines of Twelver Shi 'ism. Oxford: George Ronald.
> Mottahedeh, Roy P. , 1967. "Na'im: A Baha'i Poet. " In World
> Order, II, 2 , Winter, 1967. Wilmette: National Spiritual Assembly
> of the Baha'is of the United States.
> Nabfl, Mu}.lammad-i-Zarandi (trans. Shoghi Effendi), 1932. The
> Dawn-Breakers: Nabtl's Narrative of the Early Days of the Bahd '£
> Revelation. New York: Baha'i Publishing Committee.
> National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the United States and
> Canada, 1942. The Bahd '£ Temple: House of Worship of a World
> Faith. Wilmette: National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the
> United States and Canada.
> --     , 1944. The Bahd '£ Centenary 1844-1944. Wilmette: Baha'i
> Publishing Committee.
> --, 1953. Jubilee Celebration: Bahd 'fs of the. United States April
> 29-May 6, 1953. Wilmette: National Spiritual Assembly of the
> Baha'is of the United States.
> News Items of 1914-15 Devoted to the Interests of Mashrek El Azkar
> Work and Workers (probably compiled and published by Isabel
> Fraser).
> Pemberton, L. B., 1925. A Modern Pilgrimage to Palestine. Philadel­
> phia: Dorrance and Company.
> Quasem, Muhammad Abul, 198 1 . Salvation of the Soul and Islamic
> Devotions. London: Kegan Paul International.
> Record of the Bahai Temple Convention held March 22 and 23, 1909,
> at Chicago, Illinois. 1909. Chicago: Bahai Temple Unity.
> Bibliography        387
> 
> Remey, Charles Mason, 1914 (1909). Observations of a Bahai Trav­
> eller 1908. Washington, D.C. : C. M . Remey.
> --      , 1916. Mashrak-El-Azkar: Five Preliminary Sketches.
> Washington, D.C. : C. M. Remey.
> --      , 1917. Mashrak-El-Azkar: Descriptive of the Bahai Temple
> and illustrative of an exhibition of preliminary designs for the first
> Mashrak-El-Azkar to be built in America, showing nine varying
> treatments in different styles of architecture. Washington, D.C. : C.
> M. Remey.
> --      , 1920. Mashrak-El-Azkar: Illustrated Description of a Design
> in the Persian-Indian Style ofArchitecturefor the First Mashrak-El­
> Azkar (Bahai Temple) to be Erected in America, Washington, D.C. :
> C. M. Remey.
> --      , n.d. Architectural Exhibition of a Series of Preliminary De­
> signs by Charles Mason Remey for The Mashrak-El-Azkar (Bahai
> Temple). Washington, D.C. : C. M. Remey.
> Report on Temple Activities, 1962 . unpublished typescript.
> Richardson, John (revised and improved by Charles Wilkins, new
> '
> edition enlarged by Francis Johnson), 1829. A Dictionary, Persian,
> Arabic, and English; with a Dissertation on the Languages, Litera­
> ture, and Manners of Eastern Nations. London: J. L. Cox.
> Root, Martha L., 1938. Tahirih, The Pure: Iran 's Greatest Woman.
> Karachi: Civil and Military Press .
> Sandler, Rivanne, 1980. Poetic Artistry of Qurratu'l-Ayn: (Tahirih)
> A Babi Heroine. In Baha 'i Studies Notebook. December 1980. Ot­
> tawa: Canadian Association for Studies on the Baha'i Faith.
> Schopflocher, Lorol, 1937. Sunburst. London : Rider & Co.
> Shoghi Effendi, 1944. God Passes By. Wilmette: Baha'i Publishing
> Committee.
> Smith, Peter, 1982. The American Baha'i Community, 1894-1917:
> A Preliminary Survey. In Moman, Moojan (ed.), Studies in Babi
> and Baha'i History 1 Los Angeles: Kalimat Press.
> Songs of Prayer and Praise, 1903. Chicago: Bahai Publishing
> Society.
> Songs of Prayer and Praise, 1912. Chicago: Bahai Publishing Society.
> Sprague, Sydney, 1908. A Year with the Bahais of India and Burma.
> London: The Priory Press (Los Angeles, Kalimat Press, 1986).
> 388      Bibliography
> 
> Stevenson, Robert, 1974. Protestant Music in America. In Blume,
> Friedrich in collaboration with Ludwig Finscher, Georg Feder,
> Adam Adria, Walter Blankenburg, Toeber Schousboe, Robert
> Stevenson, and Watkins Shaw (eds.), Protestant Church Music: A
> History. New York: W. W. Norton.
> A Synopsis and Codification of the Kitab-i-Aqdas. 1973. Haifa: Baha'f
> World Centre.
> Szarkowski, John, 1956. The Idea of Louis Sullivan. Minneapolis:
> University of Minnesota Press.
> Taherzadeh, Adib, 1977. The Revelation of Baha'u 'lldh, II Kidling­
> ton: George Ronald.
> Temples Guides Committee, 1942. Information About the Baha 'i
> House of Worship for the Use of Temple Model Exhibitors. Wil­
> mette: Baha'f Publishing Committee.
> --      , 1947. Information for Guides of the Baha'i House of Worship
> Wilmette, Illinois. Wilmette: Baha'f Publishing Committee.
> Turner, Victor, 1974. Dramas, Fields, And Metaphors: Symbolic Ac­
> tion in Human Society. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
> Universal Principles of the Bahai Movement: Social, Economic, Govern­
> mental, 1912. Washington, D.C. : The Persian-American Bulletin.
> Vail, Albert R. , 1914. The Bahai Movement-Its Spiritual Dynamic.
> Reprint of Bahaism-A Study of a Contemporary Movement. In
> The Harvard Theological Review, VII, July 1914.
> Wagner, Henriette C., 1928. The Baha 'i Hymns and Music, unpub­
> lished typescript.
> Waite, Louise Spencer, 1904. Bahai Hymns and Poems. Chicago:
> Bahai Publishing Society.
> Waite, Louise R. , 1910 Hymns of Peace and Praise. Chicago: L. R.
> Waite.
> --, 1927. Bahai Hymns of Peace and Praise. Chicago: L. R.
> Waite.
> White, James F. 1964. Protestant Worship and Church Architecture:
> Theological and Historical Considerations. New York: Oxford
> University Press.
> Woodward, C. Vann, 1955. The Strange Career of Jim Crow. New
> York: Oxford University Press.
> Bibliography        389
> 
> Yinger, J. Milton, 1 970. The Scientific Study of Religion. New York:
> Macmillan.
> Younghusband, Sir Francis Edward, 1923. The Gleam. London:
> John Murray.
> 
> (B) Periodicals
> As in some cases only clippings from the periodicals cited were
> available, some of these citations are less complete than others.
> 
> The American Bahd'{, 1970-date. Wilmette: National Spiritual As­
> sembly of the Baha'fs of the United States .
> The Architectural Record, June 1920. The Architectural Record
> Company.
> Architecture, XIV, 1, 13 July 1906.
> The Bahai Bulletin, 1908-1909. New York.
> Bahai News (later Star of the West.), 1910. Chicago: Bahai News
> Service.
> Bahd'{ News, 1930-date. New York (later Wilmette): National Spiri­
> tual Assembly of the Baha'fs of the United States (and Canada).
> Bahd '{ News: U.S. Supplement, 1958-1968. Wilmette: National
> Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'Is of the United States.
> Baha'i News (Los Angeles), December 1935 . Los Angeles: Spiritual
> Assembly of the Baha'Is of Los Angeles.
> Ba.hd '{ Newsletter (later BaM/{ News.), 1924-1930. New York: Na­
> tional Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'Is of the United States and
> Canada.
> Bergen Evening Record, 27 June 1927. New Jersey.
> Chicago Bahd '{ News, January 1936. Chicago: Spiritual Assembly of
> the Baha'is of Chicago.
> Everywoman, October 1915. San Francisco: Everywoman Company.
> lnterboro Review, 1 July 1927. New Jersey.
> The Magazine of the Children of the Kingdom, 1919-1924. Boston:
> Ella M. Robarts.
> National Bahd'{ Review, 1968-date. Wilmette: National Spiritual
> Assembly of the Baha'Is of the United States.
> 390     Bibliography
> 
> National Teaching Committee Bulletin, 1920-1924. Washington,
> D .C . : National Teaching Committee.
> New York American, 23 May 1920. New York.
> The Outlook, 1 December 1920.
> San Francisco Chronicle, 8 August 1920. San Francisco.
> Star of the West, 191 1-1935. Chicago: Bahai News Service. (Later
> Washington, D .C.: National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of
> the United States and Canada.)
> Travelling Fellowship, 1 August 1919. New York: Travelling Fel-
> lowship Press.
> Unity, 22 September 1910. Chicago.
> World Fellowship, mid-1920s. Montclair, NJ: Victoria Bedikian.
> World Order, 1935-1949, 1966-date. New York (later Wilmette):
> National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the United States
> (and Canada).
> 
> (III) Sound Recordings
> Davis, Shokouh Rezai, 198 1 . In Memory of lhe Martyrs (tape cas­
> sette). Wilmette: Baha'i Publishing Trust.
> Waite, Louise R. (piano), Ragna Linne (sop.) and Carl Hatch (vio­
> lin), n.d. [1923]. Bahai Benediction (disc). Los Angeles: The
> Golden Record Company.
>
> — *Music, Devotions, and Mashriqu'l-Adhkar (Used by permission of the curator)*