William Sutherland Maxwell

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William Sutherland Maxwell

William Sutherland Maxwell (born November 14, 1874 in Montreal , Canada ; † March 25, 1952 ) was the architect for the shrine of Bab and one of the twelve hands of the cause of God , who were appointed by Shoghi Effendi on December 24, 1951 .

Life

William Maxwell was from October 1899 for about two years for training at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris , where he was a student of Jean-Louis Pascal and his future wife, Bahai May Ellis Bolles, met. After the wedding in 1902, the couple settled in Montreal.

In 1902 he became a partner in his older brother's company, the architecture firm Edward & WS Maxwell . In the house of the Maxwell couple, designed by Maxwell himself, they founded the first center of the Baha'i faith on Canadian soil. This house is now regarded by the Baha'i as the only Baha'i shrine in the western hemisphere, as Abdul-Baha spent a few days here during his great teaching tour in 1912.

In 1909, William Maxwell became a Baha'i after meeting Abdul-Baha in Acre . The following year their only child was born.

After the death of his wife, William Maxwell was invited to the Bahai World Center by Shoghi Effendi, his son-in-law , where he arrived in 1941. Abdul-Baha himself had built the temporary structure of the shrine for the Bab on Mount Carmel . Shoghi Effendi commissioned William Maxwell to decorate this shrine with arcades and a superstructure according to the wishes of Abdul-Baha. The final design was selected in 1944, construction work did not begin until 1948 because of the Second World War. In that year, William Maxwell and Ugo Giachery signed the first stone work contract for the shrine of Bab.

Maxwell fell seriously ill in the winter of 1949/50. On December 24, 1951, Shoghi Effendi made him the first Canadian Baha'i to be raised to the rank of a hand of the cause . William Maxwell died a little later and was buried in Mt. Royal Cemetery in Montreal. In recognition of his services to the Shrine of Bab, Shoghi Effendi named the southern entrance of this building Báb-i-Maxwell.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Marion Holley: A Compendium of Volumes of The Bahai World I-XII . Ed .: George Ronald. Oxford, UK 1981, p. 516-527 .
  2. ↑ Hasan M. Balyuzi : Abdu'l Bahá: The center of the alliance of Baha'u'llah (Volume 1) . Bahai-Verlag, Hofheim-Langenhain 1983, ISBN 3-87037-140-4 , p. 355-366 .
  3. ↑ Ugo Giachery : Shoghi Effendi . Ed .: George Ronald. Oxford, UK 1973, ISBN 0-85398-051-9 , pp. 62 .
personal data
SURNAME Maxwell, William Sutherland
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Architect for the shrine of the Bab and one of the twelve hands of the cause
DATE OF BIRTH November 14, 1874
PLACE OF BIRTH Montreal , Canada
DATE OF DEATH March 25, 1952
Place of death Montreal , Canada