Bushrui, Hasan Foadi

by Fereydun Vahman

FOʾĀDI BOŠRUʾI, ḤASAN (b. Boshruya in Khorasan, 1899; d. Tehran, 11 Shahrivar 1315/1 September 1936; Figure 1), historian, philologist, educator, and head of Bahai (see BAHAI FAITH) schools in Iran and Turkmenistan. He was born to the family of notable Bahais. His great-grandfather, Mollá Mohammad-Ebráhim, was an eminent mojtahed of Boshruya, and his grandfather, Mohammad-Hasan, became a Bábi (see BABISM) at the outset of the movement. His mother, Soltán Khánom (1869-1964), the daughter of Mohammad-Esmáʿil, who was from a mojtahed (q.v.) family of Boshruya, was a Bahai and was given the title of "Dhabih" by Baháʾ-Alláh. His maternal great-grandfather, Mollá ʿAbd-Alláh, became a Bábi through the mother of Mollá Hosayn Boshruʾi (Solaymáni, p. 377; Vahman, pp. 21-22). When Foʾádi was seven years old, his father, Hosayn, migrated with his family to Ashkhabad (ʿEshqábád). In 1927 Foʾádi married Howiya (1912-2001), the granddaughter of Fáżel Qáʾeni Nabil-e Akbar (1829-92, q.v.) and the daughter of Áqá Shaykh Mohammad-ʿAli Qáʾeni (1860-1924; Vahman, pp. 22, 25).

Foʾádi studied at the Persian Bahai school in Ashkhabad. Evidence of his intellectual and linguistic abilities comes from reports that he taught himself both Russian and Turkish languages when he was 8-9 years old. Then, from the age of 10, he taught Russian in order to support his family. He graduated from the Bahai school at the age of 14 and started to teach there. In 1912, he joined his uncles, who were merchants at Takhta-Bázár in Turkmenistan and took a teaching position at the Bahai school there (Vahman, pp. 22-23).

After eight years of teaching in Takhta-Bázár, his reputation had grown to such an extent that in 1921 he was invited to become the head of the Bahai school in Marv in Turkmenistan. After a year, he was asked by the local Bahai governing committee to head the large Bahai school in Ashkhabad—a post which he accepted (Solaymáni, pp. 382, 385). In 1925 he decided to continue his education. He passed the necessary examinations to enter the university and was awarded a scholarship by the regional Ministry of Education, a unique award for a Persian or a Bahai at that time. He, in return, pledged to complete the four-year course in two years and to take a government teaching position after graduation (Solaymáni, p. 388).

In 1927 he enrolled in the Faculty of Oriental Languages at the University of Tashkent, where he was reported to excel in his studies. There he learnt ancient and modern languages, including Old Persian and the dialects of Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Turkistan. In 1929 Foʾádi was expelled from the university because of his religious beliefs. He was later imprisoned in Ashkhabad, and after six months he was exiled to Iran in January 1930 as part of an amnesty for Persian subjects (Solaymáni, pp. 390-91; Vahman, pp. 27-29, 31).

...

Read the rest of this article online at www.iranicaonline.org/articles/foadi-boshrui-hasan.