Shoghi Effendi at Oxford

A retelling for children, based on The Priceless Pearl by Rúḥíyyih Khánum.

In the autumn of 1920, a young man of twenty-three began his studies at Balliol College in the English city of Oxford. His name was Shoghi Effendi, and he was the grandson of 'Abdu'l-Bahá.

For almost two years he had served at 'Abdu'l-Bahá's side as His secretary, and had translated some of His letters into English. Now he had come to England to make his English good enough to translate the holy writings of the Faith.

At Oxford he went to lectures on politics, on money and trade, on history and on logic, and he wrote down in a notebook the date each one began. He wrote to a Bahá'í friend that he hoped to learn the best that England had to offer, and then go home and share the truths of the Faith in a new form. In another letter he said he was working "day and night" to perfect himself in the art of translation.

His tutor, Mr Lindsay, remembered him years later. Shoghi Effendi, he said, would find someone whose ideas he respected, ask them questions, and write the answers in a small black book. Once he asked Mr Lindsay what he did between seven and half past eight in the evening. "Why man," said Mr Lindsay, "I dine!" Shoghi Effendi asked whether he really needed all that time. So Mr Lindsay gave him an extra quarter of an hour of teaching and ate a little less dinner. He said he had not found so much eagerness for knowledge at Oxford.

Shoghi Effendi loved the English language. For most of his life he kept notebooks full of English words and phrases. He loved to read the King James Bible and the historians Carlyle and Gibbon, and their way of writing shaped the way he would one day write and translate.

Oxford was not always a happy time for him. He kept mostly to himself, perhaps, his wife later thought, because he was shy. But he kept on with his work.

He expected to go back and help his grandfather for many years to come. Then, at the end of November 1921, news came that 'Abdu'l-Bahá had passed away, and Shoghi Effendi left Oxford and went home. In the years that followed, as Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith, he used the English he had worked so hard on to translate holy writings and to write to Bahá'ís all over the world.

This is a retelling for children. For the fuller account, see "Shoghi Effendi at Balliol".

Khánum, R.. (1969). *The Priceless Pearl*. Bahá'í Publishing Trust.