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Search for tag "Laura Clifford Barney"

from the chronology

date event locations tags see also
1879 Nov 30 Birth of Laura Clifford Barney (Laura Dreyfus-Barney) in Cincinnati, Ohio. She compiled Some Answered Questions from her interviews with `Abdu'l-Bahá during her visit to Acca between 1904 and 1906. (d. Paris 18 August 1974) Cincinnati; Ohio; United States Some Answered Questions; Laura Clifford Barney; Births and deaths
1899 Spring After May Bolles returned from pilgrimage in 1899 she was the lone Bahá'í in Paris but soon established the first Bahá'í group on the European continent. The list of those who enrolled in the Faith before 1902 include: Edith MacKaye (the first to believe), and by the New Year of 1900, Charles Mason Remey and Herbert Hopper were next to follow. Then came Marie Squires (Hopper), Helen Ellis Cole, Laura Barney, Mme. Jackson, Agnes Alexander, Thomas Breakwell, Edith Sanderson, and Hippolyte Dreyfus, the first French Bahá’í. Emogene Hoagg and Mrs. Conner had come to Paris in 1900 from America, Sigurd Russell at fifteen years old returned from ‘Akká a believer, and in 1901, the group was further reinforced by Juliet Thompson, Lillian James, and “the frequent passing through Paris of pilgrims from America going to the Master . . . and then again returning from the Holy Land.” These are but a few, for “in 1901 and 1902 the Paris group of Bahá’ís numbered between twenty-five and thirty people with May Bolles as spiritual guide and teacher. [BW8p634; BFA2:151–2, 154–5; GBP259-26/a>; AB159; BBRSM106; SBBH1:93] Paris; France May Maxwell (Bolles); Thomas Breakwell; Hippolyte Dreyfus-Barney; Laura Clifford Barney; Charles Mason Remey; Herbert Hopper; Marie Squires (Hopper); Helen Ellis Cole; Mme. Jackson; Agnes Alexander; Edith Sanderson; Emogene Hoagg; Mrs. Conner; Sigurd Russell; Juliet Thompson; Lillian James
1901 (In the year) Hippolyte Dreyfus heard of the Bahá'í Faith from May Bolles in Paris and soon after accepted it. [AB81–2]
  • He was designated by Shoghi Effendi the `first Frenchman to embrace the Faith'. [GPB259]
  • He was the first European Bahá'í to visit Iran. [AB81]
  • After his marriage to Laura Clifford Barney they adopted the surname Dreyfus-Barney. [AB81]
    		•  Paris; France Hippolyte Dreyfus-Barney; May Maxwell (Bolles); Laura Clifford Barney
    1901 Aug Mírzá Abu'l-Faḍl-i-Gulpáygání arrived in North America. [BFA2:XV]
  • Laura Barney financed the visit of Mírzá Abu'l-Fadl to the United States in 1901-04 in order to propagate the Faith and to help publish the translation of his Ḥojaj al-bahīya (Cairo, 1342/1925; tr. Ali-Kuli Khan as The Bahá'í Proofs, New York, 1902; 2nd ed., ed. J. R. I. Cole, Wilmette, Ill., 1983) [Wikipedia, Laura Clifford Barney.]
  • See BFA2:80–7 and BW9:855–860 for accounts of his visit.
  • See Wikipedia, Green Acre and Wikipedia, Mary Hanford Ford for accounts of Mírzá Abu'l-Fadl at Green Acre.
  • Mirza Ahmad Sohrab was sent to assist him. Sohrab remained and worked at the Iranian Consulate until 1912 and during this time he translated much of the correspondence between 'Abdu'l-Bahá and the Western believers. At the conclusion of the American tour he returned to the Holy Land. After the passing of 'Abdu'l-Bahá he rejected the authority of Shoghi Effendi and was expelled. [APD155]
  • [LDNW17] says he was accompanied by Ali-Kuli Kahn.
    		• New York; United States Mirza Abul-Fadl Gulpaygani; Proofs; Publications; Laura Clifford Barney; Ahmad Sohrab; Covenant-breakers; Green Acre
    1904 (In the year) Laura Clifford Barney made a number of extended visits to `Akká during this period. She brought with her questions to ask `Abdu'l-Bahá and she compiled His responses. These answers were approved by Him and published in the book Some Answered Questions. [AB81–2; BFA2:238]
  • For more complete history of the making of Some Answered Questions see “Some Answered Questions” and Its Compiler by Baharieh Rouhani Ma‘ani published in Lights of Irfán vol. 18 p425-452.
  • See AB81–2 for information about Laura Clifford Barney.
  • The translator during this period was Dr Yúnis Afrukhtih (Yúnis Khán), whose memoirs, translated in English as Memories of Nine Years in Akka, make a valuable contribution to the history of the Faith. [BW12:679–81; M9YA341-345]
    		•  Akka Laura Clifford Barney; Some Answered Questions; Abdul-Baha, Life of; Abdul-Baha, Basic timeline; Abdul-Baha, Writings and talks of; Philosophy; Youness Afroukhteh (Yunis Afrukhtih); - Basic timeline, Expanded
    1906 summer/autumn Hippolyte Dreyfus, Marianne Jerard and Laura Barney visited Russian Turkistan and Iran, specifically Tabriz, Máh-Kú ,and Ishqabad. While in Iran, they witnessed the disturbances associated with the constitutional revolution, which had reached its climax that summer. [BFA2:XVI]
  • They were the first Western Bahá'ís to do so. [For72; BFA2:XVI; Some Answered Questions" and Its Compiler by Baharieh Rouhani Ma'ani published in Lights of Irfan, 18, pages 444; Prezi]
    		• Iran Marianne Jerard; Hippolyte Dreyfus-Barney; Laura Clifford Barney; Firsts, Other
    1907 (In the year) `Abdu'l-Bahá started to move His family to the house that He had designed and built in the German colony at the foot of Mount Carmel in Haifa. [BBD107; DH145]
  • Laura Clifford Barney helped to purchase the land for the house and to pay for its construction. [DH145]
  • See Uplifting Words for photos and a history of the house.
  • Some members of the family occupied the house as early as February 1907, if not before. [DH145; GBF56]
    		•  Haifa House of Abdul-Baha (Haifa); Abdul-Baha, Life of; Laura Clifford Barney; Purchases and exchanges; Architecture; - Bahai World Centre buildings, monuments and gardens; World Centre
    1907. Easter Having obtained 'Abdu'l-Bahá's permission to publish in 1906, Laura Barney travelled to Paris to work on Some Answered Question by Easter Ethel Rosenberg come from London had settled into the same hotel and the collaboration began. [AB82; EJR85] Paris, France Some Answered Questions; Ethel Rosenberg; Laura Clifford Barney
    1908 Mar The book Some Answered Questions; Collected and Translated from the Persian of Abdu'l-Baha was published simultaneously in Great Britain in English (Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co in London) and was translated into French by Hippolyte Dreyfus under the title Les Leçons de Saint Jean-d'Acre (Ernest Leroux in Paris) and the Persian edition (Al-Núru’l-Abhá fi Mufavi∂áti-‘Abdu’l-Bahá)(The Light of Bahá Shining in Discourse with 'Abdu'l-Bahá and had the sub-title Talks During Luncheon ( E.J. Brill in Holland). [AB82; BBD212–13; BFA2:238; ABF8; M9YA 314-219, 340-345; LB108-117]
  • See Some Answered Questions" and Its Compiler by Baharieh Rouhani Ma'ani published in Lights of Irfan, 18, pages 425-452. Some details:
    • Laura Barney's first pilgrimage to met 'Abdu'l-Bahá was in 1900. As with other Western pilgrims the practice was to travel to Cairo and from there, after resting from the long travel and permission had been granted, to make the final leg of the journey to the Holy Land. Mírzá Abu’l-Fadl help prepare the visitors for the experience. He became her beloved teacher and friend.
    • Initially she made notes herself for her personal study but decided to make His answers available to others. During her third visit in 1904, when Western visitors were limited because 'Abdu'l-Bahá had been re-incarcerated, she asked permission to bring Ethel Rosenberg as stenographer. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s answers were also recorded in Persian. Mírzá Munír, the son of Mírzá Muhammad-Qulí, the faithful half-brother of Bahá’u’lláh, was given this task. These Persian transcripts were corrected by 'Abdu'l-Bahá, revised and then verified again by HIm and became the basis for the publications that were to follow. Due to this diligence the book can be considered as Bahá'í scripture. [M9YA 340-345; BFA2p238]
    • During this extended visit (winter 1904-1905) the visitors stayed with the Family in the house of ‘Abdu’lláh Páshá. Youness Khán Afroukhteh served as interpreter as well as His daughters Rouha Khánum and Munavar Khánum when no men could be present and after Afroukhteh's departure for Europe.
    		•  United States; United Kingdom Some Answered Questions; Pilgrims notes; Publications; Translation; Authenticity; House of Abdullah Pasha; Youness Khan Afroukhteh; Laura Clifford Barney; Mirza Abul-Fadl; Ethel Rosenberg; Mirza Munir
    1909 21 Mar The first printing of Volume 1 of Tablets of 'Abdu'l-Bahá by the Bahá’í Publishing Society in Chicago.
  • Laura Dreyfus-Barney was credited as being one of the translators. [ABF9not53]
    		•  Chicago; United States Tablets of Abdul-Baha (book); Publications; Laura Clifford Barney
    1910 (In the year) The publication of God’s Heroes: A Drama in Five Acts by Laura Clifford Barney, (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner, 1910). The play, based on the life of the Báb, centred on Táhirih. London Laura Clifford Barney; Plays; Drama; Tahirih; Bab, Life of
    1910 Aug Having moved all His family to Haifa, `Abdu'l-Bahá Himself moved from the House of `Abdu'lláh Páshá to His new home at 7 Haparsim (Persian) Street, Haifa. [BBD13, 107; DH145]
  • Laura Barney helped with the purchase of the land and with the plans. [Prezi]
    		•  BWC; Haifa; Akka Abdul-Baha, House of; House of Abdullah Pasha; Abdul-Baha, Life of; Abdul-Baha, Basic timeline; - Basic timeline, Expanded; - Bahai World Centre buildings, monuments and gardens; World Centre; Laura Clifford Barney
    1911 28 Apr The marriage of Laura Barney and Hippolyte Dreyfus. [See Some Answered Questions" and Its Compiler by Baharieh Rouhani Ma'ani published in Lights of Irfan, 18, pages 444] Hippolyte Dreyfus-Barney; Laura Clifford Barney; Weddings
    1911 16 Aug After four and half days of travel over 2500 kilometres L'Orénoque arrived in Marseilles, France's major port on the Mediterranean. 'Abdu'l-Bahá was met by Hippolyte Dreyfus-Barney who had recently married (28 April). He and his wife would be 'Abdu'l-Bahá's constant companions in France and would later be in His company in England and the eastern United States. They had already met 'Abdu'l-Baha in Palestine and Laura stayed there between 1904 and 1906. [ABF8]
  • He stayed at the Hôtel Louvre de la Paix at 53, la Canebière (today a C&A department store). [ABF9]
  • Thus began His first trip to France. It lasted 4 days.
    		•  Marseilles; France Abdul-Baha, First Western tour; Hippolyte Dreyfus-Barney; Laura Clifford Barney; Orenoque; Ships
    1911. 1 Dec In the evening in the home of Hippolyte and Laura Dreyfus Barney at 15 Rue Greuze 'Abdu'l-Bahá gave His last talk in Paris for this trip. [PT168-172; ABF240-243; SoW Vol 2 No 16 December 31, 1911 p6]
  • 'Abdu'l-Bahá spoke about the future of Paris. He said that He could see the day when Paris is "bathed in the light of the Holy Spirit". [SYH48]
    		•  Paris; France Abdul-Baha, Travels of; Abdul-Baha, First Western tour; Abdul-Baha, Talks other; Hippolyte Dreyfus-Barney; Laura Clifford Barney
    1914 Spring Laura and Hippolyte Dreyfus Barney started their teaching trip to China and French Indonesia. They visited the German colony of Qingdao, China with a plan to travel up the Yangzi river (and overland) to Kunming, Yunnan Province. However due to the outbreak of the first world war they returned to Europe, escaping from Qingdao thanks to Hippolyte’s adroitness. They returned to France in time for him to assume his military obligations. [Iranica] China; French Indonesia Laura Clifford Barney; Hippolyte Dreyfus-Barney
    1914 (Early to middle of the year) The defection of Dr Amín Faríd, (b. 1882, d. 1953)`Abdu'l-Bahá's translator while in America, became known publicly. His mother was a sister of Munirih Khanum, wife of 'Abdu'l-Bahá. [AB407]
  • For his activities against `Abdu'l-Bahá see AB230, 402, 407–9.
  • Dr. Aminu'lláh Faríd travelled to Europe in defiance of the wishes of 'Abdu'l-Bahá. In the absence of Lady Blomfield in London, a meeting at the Kingsway Hall had been arranged for him. Dr Lutfu'lláh prevented Dr Farid from speaking. Mason Remey and George Latimer were in London at the time. 'Abdu'l-Bahá also sent Dr Habibu'lláh Khudákhsh (later called Dr Mu'ayyad) and 'Azíz'lláh Bahádur to go to Europe to counter his activities. They were in Stuttgart when the war broke out. He recalled all four to the Holy Land (Sep-Oct). [AB407-409; Concerning Covenant-breakers: Excerpt by 'Abdu'l-Bahá translated by Ahang Rabbani] iiiii
  • Laura and Hippolyte Dreyfus-Barney were dispatched to the United States where Mrs Chevalier had been acting as Dr Farid's emissary. [AB408]
  • See the message from Shoghi Effendi in MBW53-54.
  • For a description of his activities as a young man in 'Akká see M9YA108.
    		• United States; London; United Kingdom; Stuttgart; Germany Ameen Fareed (Amin Farid); Covenant-breakers; Lutfullah Hakim; Charles Mason Remey; George Latimer; Habibullah Khudakhsh; Habib Muayyad; Azizllah Bahadur; Laura Clifford Barney; Hippolyte Dreyfus-Barney; Chevalier, Mrs
    1918. (In the year) The publication of the 2nd edition of Some Answered Questions by the Bahai Publishing Society in Chicago.

    The book was in high demand and the Society had sold all its copies so they asked Laura Barney for permission for a second publishing. She took the opportunity to make some corrections and added "one lesson". She asked that the copyright of the book be put in her name in the United States. [LB174-175]

    		 Chicago, IL Some Answered Questions; Laura Clifford Barney
    1920 - 1922 Laura and Hippolyte Dreyfus-Barney visited China and the Far East from 1920 to 1922. [Film Early History of the Baha'í Faith in China 8 min 23 sec ] China Hippolyte Dreyfus-Barney; Laura Clifford Barney
    1922 12 Feb Laura and Hippolyte Dreyfus-Barney arrived in Haifa from their travel teaching trip in Burma and Bombay. [EJR208]

    Between the years of 1920 to 1922 they stayed in many cities in China including Chengdu.

    		Haifa; Myanmar (Burma); Mumbai (Bombay); India Travel teaching; Laura Clifford Barney; Hippolyte Dreyfus-Barney
    1974 18 Aug Laura Clifford Dreyfus-Barney, (b. 30 Nov 1879, Cincinnati, Hamilton County, Ohio, USA) passed away in Paris. [BW16:296]
  • For her obituary see BW16:535–8.
  • She was buried at Cimetiere de Passy, Paris, City of Paris, Île-de-France, France.
  • She is best known for having compiled the Bahá'í text Some Answered Questions from her interviews with `Abdu'l-Bahá during her visit to Akka between 1904 and 1906. [Wikipedia]
  • See Laura Barney’s Discipleship to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá: Tracing a Theological Flow from the Middle East to the United States, 1900–1916 by Layli Maria Miron in The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 28.1-2 2018.
  • She was the only Western woman to have been designated as "Amatu'l-Bahá" (Handmaid of Bahá) by 'Abdu'l-Bahá. [Some Answered Questions" and Its Compiler by Baharieh Rouhani Ma'ani published in Lights of Irfan, 18, pages 445; M9YA314]
  • At the end of the war she placed her faith in the League of Nations and represented the International Council of Women in that body, playing an important role in cultural exchange. She was the only woman named by the League Council to sit on the Sub-Committee of experts on Education, a post which she held for many years, beginning in 1926. On 23 July 1925 she was appointed Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur. In that same year she formed under the aegis of the League of Nations the ‘Liaison Committee of Major International Organizations to promote through Education better Understanding between Peoples and Classes’ and became a permanent member of the committee as well as its liaison officer. In 1934 she became a member of the Advisory Committee of the League of Nations on Teaching; she was also a member of the French Committee on Intellectual Co-operation. [BW15p537]
  • See A Glimpse into the Life of Laura Dreyfus-Barney by Mona Khademi for a brief biography of Laura Barney and her family.
  • My Interview with Laura Dreyfus-Barney by Jack McLean (1967)
  • See The Life of Laura Barney by Mona Khademi published by George Ronald in 2022.
    • See page 67-71 for an account of her recording of the "table talks" of 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
    • See page399 for her listing in Who's Who in America.
    		•  Paris; France Laura Clifford Barney; In Memoriam; Births and deaths; Amatul-Baha (title); Some Answered Questions
    2014 (In the year) The publication of the new, extensively retranslated edition, of Some Answered Questions. It is a collection of transcriptions of table talks given by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in ‘Akká between 1904 and 1906 in response to questions posed by Laura Dreyfus-Barney. It was first published in 1908.

    In the Foreward to this edition the Universal House of Justice explained:

      The main objective of this retranslation has been to better represent the substance and the style of the original, in particular by capturing more clearly the subtleties of ‘Abdu’l‑Bahá’s explanations, approximating more closely a style that is at once conversational and elevated, and by rendering more consistently the philosophical terms used throughout the text. While not bound by the original translation, this version nevertheless strives to retain many of its elegant expressions and felicitous turns of phrase. [SAQxvi]
    • For a Spanish translation, Contestación A Unas Preguntas of the 1994 edition
    • Some Answered Questions 1990 edition.
    • Some Answered Questions: Study Outline compiled by Brett Zamir.iiiii
    • See the message from the Universal House of Justice dated 21 February 2016 addressed to an individual in response to a question regarding evolution.
    		BWC Some Answered Questions; Laura Clifford Barney; Publications; Translation; Evolution; Science

    from the main catalogue

    1. Answered Questions, Some, by Abdu'l-Bahá (1990). 'Table talks' given by ‘Abdu’l‑Bahá in ‘Akká between 1904 and 1906 in response to questions posed by Laura Dreyfus-Barney; first published in 1908. [about]
    2. Asking Questions: A Challenge to Fundamentalism, by Bahíyyih Nakhjavání: Review, by Graham Hassall, in Journal of Bahá'í Studies, 4:2 (1991). [about]
    3. Barney, Alice Pike, by Catherine McNickle Chastain, in American National Biography Online (2000). Barney (1857-1931) was an American artist and arts patron, and mother of prominent early Bahá'í Laura Dreyfus-Barney. [about]
    4. Biography of Hippolyte Dreyfus-Barney, by Laura Clifford Barney and Shoghi Effendi (1928). A biography of the first French Bahá'í, followed by telegrams and letters from Shoghi Effendi to Laura Dreyfus-Barney and Hippolyte's sister Mrs. Yvonne Meyer-May. [about]
    5. Confessions of a Child of the Half-Light , by Jack McLean (2022). Philosophical essays; recollections of 'Abdu'l-Bahá by Laura Dreyfus Barney, Curtis Kelsey, and other Europeans; recollections of Shoghi Effendi by ten individuals; dreams and visions; eulogies of the author's parents; travel teaching across Russia. [about]
    6. Contestación A Unas Preguntas, by Abdu'l-Bahá (1994). Spanish translation of Some Answered Questions. [about]
    7. Dreyfus-Barney, Hippolyte and Laura Clifford, by Shapour Rassekh, in Encyclopaedia Iranica, Volume 7 (1996). Brief excerpt, with link to article offsite. [about]
    8. Glimpses into the Life of Laura Dreyfus-Barney, A, by Mona Khademi, in Lights of Irfan, Volume 10 (2009). The life of Laura Dreyfus-Barney (1879-1974), a prominent early American Bahá’í, compiler of Some Answered Questions, and wife of the French Bahá'í writer Hippolyte Dreyfus-Barney. [about]
    9. God's Heroes: A Drama in Five Acts, by Laura Clifford Barney (1910). A play based on events in the lives of the early Babis, with a focus on Tahirih. [about]
    10. Laura Barney's Discipleship to 'Abdu'l-Bahá: Tracing a Theological Flow from the Middle East to the United States, 1900-1916, by Layli Maria Miron, in Journal of Bahá'í Studies, 28:1-2 (2018). How Laura Barney employed ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s teachings to influence social discourse as she taught the Bahá'í Faith in Europe and the United States. [about]
    11. Light of the World: Selected Tablets of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, by Abdu'l-Bahá (2021). Tablets of ‘Abdul-Bahá describing aspects of the life of Bahá’u’lláh including the tribulations He suffered, events in His homeland, the purpose and greatness of His Cause, and the nature and significance of His Covenant. [about]
    12. Mayflowers in the Ville Lumière: The Dawning of Bahá'í History in the European Continent, by Julio Savi, in Lights of Irfan, 12 (2011). In intellectual and artistic Paris of the fin de siècle, a young American becomes the catalyst for the spiritual awakening of a group of early believers. The paper examines the mysterious ways through which they came to recognize the dawn of the new era. [about]
    13. Monologues on the Bicentenary of the Birth of Baha'u'llah and Howard University Visit Commemoration, by Vasu Mohan and Donna Denize (2017). Five biographical monologues delivered in the fictionalized voices of Harriett Gibbs Marshall, Laura Dreyfus Barney, Louis Gregory, Alain Locke, and Pocahontas Pope. [about]
    14. My Interview with Laura Dreyfus-Barney, by Jack McLean (2007). Brief interview with the compiler of Some Answered Questions, conducted in Paris in 1967. [about]
    15. New Cycle of Human Power, A: Abdu'l-Bahá's Encounters with Modernist Writers and Artists, by Robert Weinberg, in Bahá'í World (2021). On the impact of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá on a number of individuals who were at the cultural vanguard of a society undergoing rapid, radical change. [about]
    16. Some Answered Questions: An Introduction to Bahá'í Teachings, by Marco Oliveira (2020). Background of this book and Laura Clifford Barney, and overview of its themes. [about]
    17. "Some Answered Questions" and Its Compiler, by Baharieh Rouhani Ma'ani, in Lights of Irfan, 18 (2017). Overview of the life of Laura Clifford Barney and her role in assembling and publishing the book Some Answered Questions, and a comparison with the appendix to the Kitab-i-Aqdas called Questions & Answers. [about]
    18. Tales of Magnificent Heroism: The Impact of the Báb and His Followers on Writers and Artists, by Robert Weinberg, in Bahá'í World (2019). This concise survey explores how this particular episode in humanity’s religious history resonated so strongly through the decades that followed. [about]
    19. Teaching the Faith, Magic Moments, Meeting Great Souls, by Jack McLean (2012). Autobiography of a prominent Bahá'í scholar, written on occasion of the 50th anniversary of his conversion. [about]
     
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