Summon Up Remembrance

The fascinating story of a pleasure-seeking Persian boy who became one of 'Abdu'l-Bah 's leading English translators and united East and West in the first Persian-American Bah ' marriage. Here is the colourful story of Ali-Kuli Khan, the first to translate into English such important works as the 'Seven Valleys', the 'Kit b-i- q n', and the Glad-Tidings. Told by his daughter, herself a well-known author and translator, Khan's story is based on his memoirs and personal papers. Through them we are given a unique and detailed picture of life in Persia at the end of the century, complete with an explanation of that oft-met protocol 'ta' ruf'. We follow the young Khan, dressed as a dervish, on his adventurous walk to 'Akk and note his transformation from a frivolous youth to a skilled translator for 'Abdu'l-Bah . In his nearly two years as a member of 'Abdu'l-Bah 's household, Khan both translated for those first groups of American pilgrims to visit the Holy Land and rendered 'Abdu'l-Bah 's Tablets into English. In 1901 Khan was sent to America to assist M rz Abu'l-Fadl and to translate the great teacher's book, The Bah ' Proofs, into English. It was in America that Khan met and fell in love with a Boston society girl, Florence Breed. Their Victorian romance unfolds in the delicate love-letters written by Florence to Khan. Their marriage, the first between a Persian and an American Bah ' , not only symbolized but portrayed the unity between East and West taught by the Bah ' Faith. 'Summon Up Remembrance' is peopled with such familiar figures as M rz Abu'l-Fadl, Laura Barney, Edward and Lua Getsinger, Mary Hanford Ford and the At bak. But this is a book dedicated to 'Abdu'l-Bah , and it is His wisdom and teaching that characterizes it. A unique feature is the inclusion of the Tablet of Cremation revealed by 'Abdu'l-Bah , here published for the first time in English in a new translation by the Research Department of the Universal House of Justice. The story continues in Arches of the Years.