Bahiyyih Nakhjavani

Bahiyyih Nakhjavani was born in Iran, grew up in Uganda, and received education in Britain.{{cite AV media

| people =Bahiyyih Nakhjavani

| title = Us & Them: Breaking Free from Cultural Branding & Identity Politics

| medium =video

| publisher = Library of Congress

| location =Washington, DC

| date =April 25, 2017

| url =https://www.loc.gov/item/webcast-7860/ |quote=(She) grew up in Uganda, was educated in the United Kingdom and then in the United States, and now lives in France. She is the author of Women who Read Too Much, a book on the poetess and woman leader if you like Tahirih Qurratu'l-Ayn, a 19th-century icon. Also she's written The Saddlebag. Her novels have been published in French, Italian, Spanish, German, Greek, Turkish, Hebrew, Russian, Korean and Chinese. }}

• {{cite AV media

| people =Bahiyyih Nakhjavani

| title = The Woman Who Read Too Much

| medium =video

| publisher = Library of Congress

| location =Washington, DC

| date =April 2, 2015

| url =https://www.loc.gov/item/webcast-6783/|quote=In short, she was born in Iran but raised in New Ganda(sic), Africa, and has lived in the U.K, the U.S., and is a British citizen, but lives in France right now, and has worked in Canada, Cyprus, Israel, and, of course, Africa. Currently, she is teaching English in Paris. … she has several books and publications in French, in Persian, and English, and, of course, translations in several languages.}}{{cite web |url= https://bahiyyihnakhjavani.com/ |title = Bahiyyih Nakhjavani |date= |publisher = bahiyyihnakhjavani.com|accessdate =Jul 25, 2021}} She earned a PhD at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1978.{{cite thesis |last=Nakhjavani |first=Bahiyyih |date=1978 |title=The voyeur in epyllia of the 1590's "rage of lust by gazing qualified" |type=PhD |publisher= University of Massachusetts at Amherst|oclc= 917940398 |url= https://fu-berlin.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=alma990012940200402883&context=L&vid=49KOBV_FUB:FUB|access-date=Jul 26, 2021}}

Although originally from Nakhchivan, her father Ali Nakhjavani was born in 1919 in Baku, the capital of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic. Ali Nakhchivani, whose mother was Palestinian, moved to Palestine after the death of his father, and after growing up there, he went to Uganda in 1951 to spread the Bahá'í Faith.{{cite book|chapter=In Memoriam; Jalál Nakhjavání (1917-1982)|chapter-url=https://bahai.works/index.php?title=File:BW_Volume18.pdf&page=818|date=1986|first=Mona|isbn=9780853982340|last=Bossi (Bakhjavání)|location=Haifa, Israel|pages=797–800|publisher=The Universal House of Justice|series=An International Record|title=Baha'i World|url=https://bahai.works/Bahá’%C3%AD_World/Volume_18|volume=18}}{{cite news

| title =ʻAli Nakhjavani, 1919–2019

| newspaper =Baháʼí World News Service

| publisher = Baháʼí International Community

| date =October 11, 2019

| url =https://news.bahai.org/story/1361/

| access-date = Oct 11, 2019}} Ali Nakhjavani's father, Ali Akbar Nakhcivani, was from Ordubad, Nakhchivan district of Azerbaijan.{{cite news

| title = Baha'i Community of Uganda celebrates its 50th anniversary

| newspaper = Bahá'í World News Service

| location =Kampala, Uganda

| date =August 5, 2001

| url =https://news.bahai.org/story/135/

| access-date = Jul 26, 2021}}{{cite web |url= https://www.tefekkur.org/ali-akber-naxcivani |title= Əli Əkbər Naxçıvani |publisher=Yeni dövr, Yeni Təfəkkür Mərkəzi|author= Ramazan Əsgərli|date= 2016 |website= www.tefekkur.org|accessdate = 23 July 2021 |language =Azerbaijani }}

Her first novel, The Saddlebag - A Fable for Doubters and Seekers was an international bestseller. It describes events set in the Najd plateau along the pilgrim route between Mecca and Medina during one day in 1844-1845, when a mysterious saddlebag passes from hand to hand, and influences the lives of each person who comes across it. Inspired by Chapter VII of The Dawn-Breakers by Nabíl-i-Aʻzam, where the Bab - the forerunner to Baha'u'llah, the Founder of the Baháʼí Faith - has His saddlebag stolen while traveling to Mecca and Medina for pilgrimage. The main characters are the Thief, the Bride, the Chieftain, the Moneychanger, the Slave, the Pilgrim, the Priest, the Dervish and the Corpse.

The novel Paper - The Dreams of A Scribe is an allegory centered on a Scribe who is searching for the perfect paper for writing his masterpiece. It is set in Máh-Kú, a border town in the north-west Persia, between the Summer of 1847 and the Spring of 1848. It contains 19 chapters which are structured symmetrically around five dreams. Other main characters are the Mullah, the Widow, the Warden, his Mother and Daughter, and the Prisoner.

Her third novel The Woman Who Read Too Much is also set in the middle of the nineteenth century and centers around Tahirih Qurratu'l-Ayn, a poet and scholar from Qazvin, who shocked the political powers of Qajar Persia and violated religious convention by casting aside her veil. This protagonist is a heroine from early Baháʼí/Babi history and was one of the Bab's early followers who were known as the Letters of the Living. This novel is divided into four parts with revolving points of view of mother, sister, daughter, and wife, respectively. It traces the capture, incarceration, torture and final execution of the central figure of the mysterious poet while exploring her impact on the mayor, minister, mullah and monarch in a world of intrigue and corruption in Qajar Persia. The book has been translated into French, Italian in 2007 and will be out in Korean and Spanish by 2008/9;French: [http://www.actes-sud.fr/auteur.php?id=1679 Actes Sud] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081203055435/http://www.actes-sud.fr/auteur.php?id=1679 |date=2008-12-03 }}, Italian: [http://libreriarizzoli.corriere.it/autore/nakhjavani_bahiyyih.aspx?au=NAKHJAVANI+BAHIYYIH Libreria Rizzoli]{{Dead link|date=June 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, Spanish: Alianza Editorial. it was nominated for the 2008 Latifeh Yarshater Award, and has been published in English by Stanford University Press in 2015.

• {{Cite book

|author= Bahiyyih Nakhjavani

|year= 2000

|title= The Saddlebag - A Fable for Doubters and Seekers

|publisher= Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

|location= London, UK

|isbn= 0-8070-8342-9

|url-access= registration

|url= https://archive.org/details/saddlebagfablefo00nakh

}}

• {{Cite book

|author=Bahiyyih Nakhjavani

|year= 2004

|title= Paper - The Dreams of A Scribe

|publisher= Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

|location=London, UK

|isbn= 0-7475-6921-5

}}

• {{Cite book|last=Bahiyyih Nakhjavani|title=The Woman Who Read Too Much: A Novel|publisher=Stanford University Press|year=2015|location=Stanford, CA|isbn=9780804794299|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6JWZBgAAQBAJ}}
• Bahiyyih Nakhjavani (2017). Us & Them. Stanford, CA: Redwood Press. {{ISBN|9781503601581}}.

• {{Cite book

|author=Bahiyyih Nakhjavani

|year= 1979

|title= When We Grow Up

|publisher= George Ronald

|location=Oxford, UK

|isbn= 0-85398-086-1

}}

• {{Cite book

|author=Bahiyyih Nakhjavani

|year= 1981

|title= Response

|publisher= George Ronald

|location=Oxford, UK

|isbn= 0-85398-107-8

}}

• {{Cite book

|author=Bahiyyih Nakhjavani

|year= 1983

|title= Four on an Island

|publisher= George Ronald

|location=Oxford, UK

|isbn= 0-85398-174-4

}}

• {{Cite book

|author=Bahiyyih Nakhjavani

|year= 1990

|title= Asking Questions: A Challenge to Fundamentalism

|publisher= George Ronald

|location=Oxford, UK

|isbn= 0-85398-314-3

}}

• Augusto López-Claros and Bahiyyih Nakhjavani (2018). Equality for Women = Prosperity for All: The Disastrous Global Crisis of Gender Inequality. New York, NY: St. Martin's Press. {{ISBN|9781250051189}}.

• {{cite AV media

| people =Bahiyyih Nakhjavani

| title = Us & Them: Breaking Free from Cultural Branding & Identity Politics

| medium =video

| publisher = Library of Congress

| location =Washington, DC

| date =April 25, 2017

| url =https://www.loc.gov/item/webcast-7860/ }}

• {{cite AV media

| people =Bahiyyih Nakhjavani

| title = The Woman Who Read Too Much

| medium =video

| publisher = Library of Congress

| location =Washington, DC

| date =April 2, 2015

| url =https://www.loc.gov/item/webcast-6783/ }}

• {{cite news

| last = Manguel

| first = Alberto

| title =The Woman Who Read Too Much by Bahiyyih Nakhjavani review – a haunting, complex portrait

| newspaper =The Guardian

| location = New York, NY

| date =16 May 2015

| url =https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/may/16/woman-read-too-much-bahiyyih-nakhjavani-review

| access-date = }}

• {{cite web

| title = Lecture at UCLA: Novels and Iranian History: Beyond Diaspora

| url =http://www.payvand.com/news/08/apr/1113.html

| publisher =Center for Near Eastern Studies, UCLA

|location=Los Angeles, CA

| date = Apr 12, 2008

| access-date = }}

• {{cite web

| title = Association for Baha'i Studies (English-speaking Europe) International Conference on Fundamentalism

| url =https://hurqalya.ucmerced.edu/sites/hurqalya.ucmerced.edu/files/page/documents/abs_ese_2002.pdf

| website =Center for Shaykhī and Bābī-Bahā’ī Studies, University of California at Merced

|publisher=The Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London

|location=London, UK

| date = 9 June 2002

| access-date = }}

• Baháʼí Faith in fiction
• Declaration of Independence (Azerbaijan), Contemporary history of Azerbaijan, Greater Iran

{{Reflist}}

• [https://bahiyyihnakhjavani.com Official website]
• [http://www.international.ucla.edu/podcasts/article.asp?parentid=91185 Novels and Iranian History: Beyond Diaspora], a public lecture and reading by Bahiyyih Nakhjavani, Ecole Superieure des Arts Decoratifs de Strasbourg, France, April 16, 2008.
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20110718025825/http://www.radio.rai.it/radio3/radio3_suite/view.cfm?Q_EV_ID=278242&Q_PROG_ID=68 Interview in English/Italian on RAI3, about herself and her writing]

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Category:Year of birth missing (living people)

Category:Living people

Category:20th-century Bahá'ís

Category:21st-century Bahá'ís

Category:Iranian women writers

Category:Iranian people of Azerbaijani descent