John Esslemont

John Ebenezer Esslemont (born May 19, 1874 in Aberdeen , United Kingdom , † November 22, 1925 in Haifa , Israel ) was a Bahai and was posthumously appointed a disciple of Abdu'l Baha and one of the hands of the Cause by Shoghi Effendi . Esslemont was the author of " Baha'u'llah and the New Era", which has been translated into numerous languages ​​and is still the best known and most widely used introductory work to the Baha'i Faith.

Life

Esslemont received his doctorate in medicine and became an assistant professor at the University of Aberdeen. He stayed there until 1901. Esslemont had contracted tuberculosis when he was in college. He spent some time in Australia and South Africa . In 1908 he returned to his home country when he got a job as a medical officer in a tuberculosis sanatorium in Bournemouth . In December 1914 the wife of a colleague mentioned the Baha'i Faith to Esslemont and gave him some brochures. The woman had met Abdu'l Baha in London in 1911. Esslemont spoke French , German , Spanish and Esperanto . He also began learning Persian and Arabic after becoming a Bahai in early 1915. Around October 1916 he began to write the introductory work Baha'u'llah and the New Era. In the winter of 1919/1920 Esslemont stayed in Haifa for two months. During this time, Abdu'l Baha discussed the manuscript with him. After returning to Great Britain, Esslemont revised the manuscript by August and sent it to Abdu'l Baha. However, by his death in November 1921, he had only corrected a little more than three chapters. Shoghi Effendi made further suggestions for improving the manuscript in 1922 and it was finally published in 1923. In the same year Esslemont became unemployed because the sanatorium was closed. Esslemont finished a small pamphlet on the Baha'i Faith in May 1924, entitled "Baha'u'llah and His Message". In the same year Esslemont received an invitation from Shoghi Effendi to Haifa. Esslemont arrived there on November 21st. He helped Shoghi Effendi with his various correspondence and with the translation of the Hidden Words and the tablet to Ahmad from Baha'u'llah. In the spring of 1925 Esslemont's tuberculosis worsened and he spent more than two weeks in the hospital. In the summer of 1925 he stayed in the home of Bahai Victoria von Sigsfeld in the Black Forest to relax and not be exposed to the heat of Haifa. He worked with Victoria von Sigsfeld on the German translation of his book, which was published in 1927 under the title "Baha'u'llah und das neue Zeitalter". Esslemont returned to Haifa in late September. His health deteriorated there. He died on November 22nd, 1925 and was buried in the Bahai Cemetery in Haifa.

In January 2010 a Baha'i-inspired publisher was founded in Vienna in memory of his life's work, Esslemont Verlag.

Works

• John Esslemont: Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era . Allen & Unwin, London, UK 1923.
• John Esslemont: Bahá'u'lláh and the New Age . Verlag des Deutschen Bahaibundes, Stuttgart 1927.
• John Esslemont: Bahá'u'lláh and the New Age . Bahai-Verlag, Hofheim-Langenhain 1976, ISBN 3-87037-085-8 .
• John Esslemont: Bahá'u'lláh and his message . Bahai Publishing Committee, New York, USA 1924.
• John Esslemont: Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era . Bahai Publishing Trust, Wilmette, Illinois, USA 1980, ISBN 0-87743-160-4 .

literature

• National Spiritual Assembly of England: A Compendium of Volumes of The Bahai World I-XII . Ed .: Roger White, George Ronald. Oxford, UK 1981, p. 459-463 .
• Barron Deems Harper: Lights of Fortitude . George Ronald, Oxford, UK 2007, ISBN 978-0-85398-413-9 , pp. 64-74 .