Marzieh Gail

Marzieh Gail (1 April 1908 – 16 October 1993), born Marzieh Nabil Khan, was a Persian-American Bahá'i writer and translator.

Marzieh Gail
A young woman with dark hair, looking downward.
Marzieh Gail, from a 1945 newspaper photo
Born
Marzieh Khanum

1 April 1908
near Boston, Massachusetts, US
Died16 October 1993
San Francisco, California, US
Other namesMarzia Nabil Khan, Marzia Nabil Carpenter, Mardiyyih Nabil
Occupation(s)Writer, translator
Spouse(s)Howard Carpenter (d. 1935); Harold Gail (d. 1992)
ParentFlorence Breed Khan
RelativesAlice Ives Breed (grandmother)

Early life

Marzieh Khan was one of the three children of Mirza Ali Kuli Khan and Florence Breed Khan.[1] Her father was a diplomat from Iran;[2] her mother was an American Bahá'i convert and diplomatic hostess.[3] Her grandmother, Alice Ives Breed, was a Boston clubwoman and socialite.[4]

As a child, Khan lived in Washington, D.C., Paris, Tehran, Istanbul, and Tbilisi, because of her father's work. Khan attended Vassar College, Mills College, and Stanford University, graduating from the last of these in 1929. She earned a master's degree in English in 1932, at the University of California, Berkeley.[5]

Career

Khan was an early admirer of Shoghi Effendi, longtime head of the Bahá'i Faith. She and her first husband went to Iran to teach Bahá'i classes. Gail was an early woman journalist in Tehran.[6][7] After her husband's death, she concentrated on translating Bahá'i texts. From 1936 to 1939, she taught summer classes at Louhelen Baháʼí School in Michigan.[8] During World War II, she did translation work for the Office of War Information.[6] In the 1950s, with her second husband, she worked on Bahá'i projects in France, Austria, and the Netherlands.[5]

Gail's writing included three books about the fourteenth century, books on Bahá'i topics, newspaper articles, and magazine essays. She translated several Bahá'i texts into English.[1][5]

Selected works by Gail
  • Persia and the Victorians (1951)[9]
  • Six Lessons in Islam (1953)[10]
  • Bahá'i Glossary (1955)[11]
  • The Sheltering Branch (1959)[12]
  • Avignon in Flower, 1309-1403 (1966)[13][14]
  • Life in the Renaissance (1968)[15][16]
  • The Three Popes (1969)[17]
  • Khanum, The Greatest Holy Leaf (1981)[18]
  • Dawn Over Mount Hira, and other essays (1976)[19]

Gail also wrote three family memoirs, Other People, Other Places (1982),[20] Summon Up Remembrance (1987),[21] and Arches of the Years (1991).[22] She edited an autobiography by fellow American Bahá'i Juliet Thompson.[23]

Gail translated The Seven Valleys and Four Valleys (1945) (as a combined text),[24] The Secret of Divine Civilization (1957, with her father),[25] Memorials of the Faithful (1971),[26] Selections from the Writings of 'Abdu'l-Bahá (1976),[27] My Memories of Bahá'u'lláh (1982).[28]

Personal life

Marzieh Khan married Howard Luxmoore Carpenter, a medical doctor, in 1929. Carpenter was paralyzed by polio while the couple were living in Iran. He died in 1935. She married again in 1939, to Harold Gail. They lived in California.[6] She was widowed again when he died in 1992; she died in 1993, aged 85 years, in San Francisco.[1][5]

References
  1. Chen, Constance M. (1996). "Obituary: Marzieh Nabil Carpenter Gail (1908-1993): Translator and Author, "Patron Saint" of Women Bahá'í Scholars". Baháʼí Studies Review. Retrieved 2020-10-21.
  2. Riley, Marguerite (1945-08-25). "Luncheon fetes California Visitor". Detroit Free Press. p. 6. Retrieved 2020-10-22 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. "Boston Woman Chatelaine". The Boston Globe. 1910-10-30. p. 67. Retrieved 2020-10-21 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. Willard, Frances Elizabeth; Livermore, Mary Ashton (1893). A Woman of the Century: Fourteen Hundred-seventy Biographical Sketches Accompanied by Portraits of Leading American Women in All Walks of Life. Moulton. p. 118. ISBN 9780722217139.
  5. "Gail, Marzieh". Encyclopaedia Iranica. Retrieved 2020-10-21.
  6. Neill, Robert D. (1952-07-31). "Mrs. Marzieh Gail to Address Baha'i in Geysterville". The Press Democrat. p. 13. Retrieved 2020-10-22 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. "Talk on Persia Due at Center". Arizona Republic. 1945-04-14. p. 6. Retrieved 2020-10-22 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. "Mrs. Bishop Will Join Staff of Baha'i School". Detroit Free Press. 1939-08-05. p. 8. Retrieved 2020-10-21 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. Gail, Marzieh (2013-06-17). Persia and the Victorians (RLE Iran A). Routledge. ISBN 978-1-136-84148-4.
  10. Gail, Marzieh (1953). Six Lessons on Islam. Baha'i Pub. Trust.
  11. Gail, Marzieh (1955). Bahá'í Glossary.
  12. Gail, Marzieh (1978). The Sheltering Branch. George Ronald.
  13. Gail, Marzieh (1965). Avignon in Flower, 1309-1403. Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 9780608392752.
  14. Hill, Bob (1965-12-16). "Looking at Books". Spokane Chronicle. p. 20. Retrieved 2020-10-22 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. Gail, Marzieh (1968). Life in the Renaissance. Random House. ISBN 978-0-394-80298-5.
  16. "Bahai Writer to Speak at 'Banke'". The Portsmouth Herald. 1973-05-19. p. 6. Retrieved 2020-10-22 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. Gail, Marzieh (1969). The Three Popes: An Account of the Great Schism when Rival Popes in Rome, Avignon, and Pisa Vied for the Rule of Christendom. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 9780671201746.
  18. Gail, Marzieh (1981). Khanum: The Greatest Holy Leaf. George Ronald. ISBN 978-0-85398-112-1.
  19. Gail, Marzieh (1976). Dawn Over Mount Hira, and Other Essays. G. Ronald. ISBN 978-0-85398-063-6.
  20. Gail, Marzieh (1982). Other people, other places. Oxford [Oxfordshire: G. Ronald. ISBN 978-0-85398-122-0. OCLC 9890120.
  21. Gail, Marzieh; Ali-Kuli Khan (1987). Summon up remembrance. Oxford [England: G. Ronald. ISBN 978-0-85398-258-6. OCLC 19624777.
  22. Gail, Marzieh (1991). Arches of the years. Oxford: Ronald. ISBN 978-0-85398-325-5. OCLC 24697096.
  23. Thompson, Juliet. (1983). The diary of Juliet Thompson. Gail, Marzieh. (1st ed.). Los Angeles: Kalimát Press. ISBN 0-933770-27-8. OCLC 9557179.
  24. Baháʼuʼlláh, 1817-1892. (1978). The seven valleys and the four valleys (3d rev. ed.). Wilmette, Ill.: Baháʼí Pub. Trust. ISBN 0-87743-113-2. OCLC 2797616.
  25. ʻAbduʼl-Bahá, 1844-1921. (1990). The secret of divine civilization. Gail, Marzieh., Khan, Ali-Kuli. (1st pocket-sized ed.). Wilmette, Ill.: Bahá'i Pub. Trust. ISBN 0-87743-219-8. OCLC 21874618.
  26. ʻAbduʼl-Bahá, 1844-1921. (1997). Memorials of the faithful. Gail, Marzieh. (1st softcover ed.). Wilmette, Ill.: Baháʼí Pub. Trust. ISBN 0-87743-242-2. OCLC 39443324.
  27. ʻAbduʼl-Bahá, 1844-1921. (1997). Selections from the writings of ʻAbduʼl-Bahá. Universal House of Justice. Research Department. (1st U.S. pocket-size ed.). Wilmette, Ill.: Bahá'í Pub. Trust. ISBN 0-87743-251-1. OCLC 35159177.
  28. Gail, Marzieh (1982). My Memories of Bahá'u'lláh.

Further reading
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