Hippolyte Dreyfus-Barney

Hippolyte Dreyfus-Barney

Hippolyte Dreyfus-Barney (born April 12, 1873 in Paris ; † December 20, 1928 there ) was the first French Baha'i and was appointed by Shoghi Effendi as one of the 19 disciples of Abdu'l Baha .

Life

Hippolyte Dreyfus received his doctorate in law in February 1898 and became the first French Baha'i in 1901. Around 1903 he gave up his legal career to devote himself to oriental studies. He enrolled at the École pratique des hautes études in Paris, where he studied Arabic and Persian to translate the Baha'i scripts into French . He was the only Western Baha'i of his generation to receive such a formal education. He was the author of numerous books, articles, and translations of the Baha'i Faith. After his marriage (1911) to the American Baha'i Laura Clifford Barney , he took the name Dreyfus-Barney. He also traveled to numerous states and represented the Baha'i in legal disputes. He died on December 20, 1928 and was buried in the cimetière de Montmartre .

Translations and writings

Dreyfus-Barney translated the following works of Baha'u'llah into French from Arabic or Persian: Book of Certainty , Seven Valleys , Hidden Words , Letter to the Son of the Wolf , Surah of the Temple ( Claim and Annunciation ); Ishráqat (The Splendor), Lawh-i-Aqdas (Most Holy Table), Lawh-i-Hikmat (Table of Wisdom), Tajalliyát (The Radiance), Tarázát (The Jewelry), Words of Paradise ( Messages from Akka ). The translations were either published individually or / and in the collective works "Les Préceptes du Béhaïsme" or "L'oeuvre de Baha'u'llah". Dreyfus-Barney also translated the Kitab-i-Aqdas and the Testament of Abdu'l Bahas , but these were not published. Dreyfus-Barney also published an introductory work into the Baha'i Faith entitled "Essai sur le Béhaïsme" and various articles and lectures and conference reports. His lecture at the university with the title "Le babisme et le béhaïsme" was also published in German . Dreyfus-Barney translated together with Laura Clifford Barney the Persian transcripts of Abdu'l Baha's answers to her philosophical and theological questions. The translation was published under the title “Les Leçons de Saint-Jean-d'Acre” ( Questions Answered ). Dreyfus-Barney later accompanied and interpreted Abdu'l Baha on his travels through Europe .

Defense and Travel

Dreyfus-Barney attended an audience with Mozaffar ad-Din Shah in Paris in September 1902, together with the American Bahai Lua Getsinger , at which the regent was personally presented with a petition to protect his fellow believers in Persia . In the 1920s, Baha'u'llah's house in Baghdad , which was listed as a place of pilgrimage in the Kitab-i-Aqdas, fell into the hands of fanatical opponents of the Baha'i faith. Dreyfus-Barney advocated this problem and got the League Council to condemn the occupation of the house. In Tunisia he defended the faith against the French administration. Dreyfus-Barney intervened with Egyptian civil servants around 1925 after a religious appeals court ruled three marriages invalid because the spouses were Baha'i. Dreyfus-Barney visited most of European countries, the United States , Canada , Cuba , Mexico , Algeria , Tunisia, Burma , China , India , Japan , Persia and several times the Holy Land .

Works

• Baha'u'llah, Kitab-i-Iqan (Le Livre de la Certitude (Kitab el-Ikan), un des Livres Sacres du Behaisme), Ernest Leroux, Paris 1904
• Hippolyte Dreyfus, Le Bábísme et le Béhaïsme in the book Religions et Sociétés, 1905
• Baha'u'llah, Les Paroles cachées en Persan, Ernest Leroux, Paris 1905
• Hippolyte Dreyfus, Babism and Bahaism: Lectures given at the University of Social Sciences in Paris, Neuer Frankfurter Verl., Frankfurt a. M. 1907
• Baha'u'llah, Les Préceptes du Béhaïsme, Ernest Leroux, Paris 1906
• Abdu'l Baha, Les Leçons de Saint-Jean-d'Acre, E. Leroux, Paris 1908
• Hippolyte Dreyfus, Le Béhaïsme, lecture on May 23, 1908 in Lyon
• Hippolyte Dreyfus, Essai sur le Béhaïsme, Ernest Leroux, Paris 1909, 4th edition 1973
• Baha'u'llah, L'Épître au Fils du Loup, Honoré Champion, Paris 1913
• Hippolyte Dreyfus, Le mouvement bahá'í, conference report of the 6th International Congress Progrès religieux, 1913
• Hippolyte Dreyfus, Unified Religion: Its Effect on the State, Education, Social Policy, Women's Rights and on Individuals, Baha'i Association, Stuttgart 1917
• Hippolyte Dreyfus, Le bahaisme in the magazine "Vers l'unité", 1924.
• Baha'u'llah, L'oeuvre de Baha'u'llah, Ernest Leroux, Paris Vol. I 1923, Vol. II 1924, Vol. III 1928

literature

• Shoghi Effendi , Roger White (Ed.), A Compendium of Volumes of The Bahai World I-XII, pp. 464-465
• Mariam Haney, Star of the West, Vol. 15, No. November 8, 1924, pp. 230-234

Web links

• detailed curriculum vitae of Dreyfus (French)
• Translation by Dreyfus of Abdu'l Baha's article on politics