Alfred Lunt

Alfred Lunt

Prominent Boston Baha’i lawyer who became a Baha’i shortly after hearing a lecture by Ali Kuli Khan in the winter of 1905. He was engaged by Sarah Farmer as her lawyer in her struggle to keep Green Acre in the hands of the Baha’is. He was a member of the Executive Board of the Baha’i Temple Unity and later of the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States.

Nabil-i-A'zam -- An Apostle of Baha'u'llah and the author of Dawn-Breakers

Muhammad-i-Zarandi, surnamed Nabil-i-A'zam

Amatu’l-Bahá Rúhíyyih Khánum describes The Dawn -Breakers, Nabíl’s chronicle, as ‘a classic among epic narratives in the English tongue’ (PP 215). The author was Muhammad Zarandí, who wrote his narrative in Persian. Bahá’u’lláh gave him the title of ‘Nabíl-i-A‘zam’, which means ‘the most great Nabíl’. Nabíl, in both Persian and Arabic, means ‘noble’, or ‘excellent’, and according to the Abjad reckoning, the two words Muhammad and Nabíl have equivalent numerical values. Zarand is a town in one of the outlying districts of Tehran. Nabíl was on a visit in a nearby locality in Rubat-Karim when he heard for the first time that a merchant in Shiraz had declared Himself as the Promised One of Islam. He soon pursued his interest in the new Faith by contacting those who were among the most prominent believers of the Báb, and became a Bábí around the year 1847. During that period he met Bahá’u’lláh twice, once in Kirmánsháh, and once in Tehran.

Dr. Stanwood Cobb

Dr. Stanwood Cobb

Dr. Stanwood Cobb presenting a talk in Atlanta, Georgia, shortly before his passing in 1982 at the age of 101. (Baha'i News, March 1989)

To review Dr. Cobb's life is to make a beautiful and heavenly journey through those marvelous years beginning with the early dawn of the Bahá'í Faith in the United States when news of this 'new Revelation' and of the presence of 'Abdu'l-Bahá in the Holy Land reached the ears of a few 'ready souls', aroused their curiosity, quickened their hearts and resulted in their making their way to 'Akká in an ever-increasing stream to enter the Master's presence.

An account of Dr. Cobb's introduction to the Bahá'í Faith in 1906 is given in his Memories of 'Abdu'l-Bahá and in Star of the West, Vol. 15, No. 1, April 1924. He was at that time studying for the Unitarian ministry at the Harvard Divinity School but was drawn to Green Acre in Maine as a result of a series of weekly articles in the Boston Transcript. Miss Sarah Farmer introduced Dr. Cobb to the singer, Mary Lucas, who had just returned from visiting 'Abdu'l-Bahá. '… within half an hour from that moment I became a confirmed Bahá'í and have remained so ever since,' Dr. Cobb wrote.