Mírzá Abu'l-Faḍl-i-Gulpáygání arrived in North America. [BFA2:XV]
• Laura Barney financed the visit of Mírzá Abu'l-Fadl to the United States in 1901-04 in order to propagate the Faith and to help publish the translation of his Ḥojaj al-bahīya (Cairo, 1342/1925; tr. Ali-Kuli Khan as The Bahá'í Proofs, New York, 1902; 2nd ed., ed. J. R. I. Cole, Wilmette, Ill., 1983) [Wikipedia, Laura Clifford Barney.]
• See BFA2:80–7 and BW9:855–860 for accounts of his visit.
• See Wikipedia, Green Acre and Wikipedia, Mary Hanford Ford for accounts of Mírzá Abu'l-Fadl at Green Acre.
• Mirza Ahmad Sohrab was sent to assist him. Sohrab remained and worked at the Iranian Consulate until 1912 and during this time he translated much of the correspondence between 'Abdu'l-Bahá and the Western believers. At the conclusion of the American tour he returned to the Holy Land. After the passing of 'Abdu'l-Bahá he rejected the authority of Shoghi Effendi and was expelled. [APD155]
• [LDNW17] says he was accompanied by Ali-Kuli Kahn.

The 14 Tablets of the Divine Plan were unveiled in a dramatic ceremony at the Hotel McAlpin in New York, during the `Convention of the Covenant'. The Tablets had been brought to America by Ahmad Sohrab at the request of 'Abdu'l-Bahá. [ABNYP172Note24, BBD219; PP437; SBBH1:134; SBBH2:135; SBR86; AB434; TDPXI]
• For details of the convention programme, Tablets and talks given see SW10, 4:54-72; SW10, 5:83-94; SW10, 6:99-103, 111-12 SW10, 7:122-7, 138; SW10, 10:197-203; and SW10, 12:2279.
• Mary Maxwell (Rúhíyyih Khánum) was among the young people who unveil the Tablets. [PP437]
• Hyde and Clara Dunn and Martha Root responded immediately to the appeal, the Dunns went to Australia where they open 700 towns to the Faith, and Martha Root embarked on the first of her journeys which are to extend over 20 years. [GPB308; MR88]
• See also CT138-9.
• Agnes Parsons arrived from her pilgrimage just before the close of the convention and was able to convey the instructions from `Abdu'l-Bahá to arrange a Convention for `the unity of the coloured and white races'. [BW5:413; SBR87]
• The book Unveiling of the Divine Plan includes nine talks given by Mirza Ahmad Sohrab to the National Convention.
• Shoghi Effendi calls the Tablets of the Divine Plan a charter for the propagation and the establishment of the Administrative Order. It has also been called a charter for the teaching of the Faith. [MBW84; LOG1628]
• For the significance of the Tablets of the Divine Plan see 'Abdu'l-Bahá Champion of Universal Peace by Hoda Mahmoudi and Janet Khan.

The New History Society came into conflict with the local Bahá'í Assembly. Sohrab refused to allow the New York Spiritual Assembly, to have oversight of the affairs of the New History Society. The Assembly saw the organization as a threat to the unity of the Bahá'í Faith. [BBRSM124]
• Shoghi Effendi wrote to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada to make a definitive statement regarding that organization and the Cause.

"Both the local and National Assembly on several occasions attempted, through oral and written communications, to bring about full and frank consultation with the leaders of the New History Society, but without success.

"Under these conditions it becomes the obvious responsibility of the National Spiritual Assembly to inform the friends that activities conducted by Ahmad Sohrab through the New History Society are to be considered as entirely independent of the Cause, as outside the jurisdiction of the local and National Assembly, and hence in no wise entitled to the cooperation of Bahá'ís."

This statement also quoted from a letter written on behalf of the Guardian by his Secretary to the National Spiritual Assembly on May 30, 1930: "To accept the Cause without the administration is like accepting the teachings without acknowledging the divine station of Bahá'u'lláh. To be a Bahá'í is to accept the Cause in its entirety...." "The administration is the social order of Bahá'u'lláh. Without it all the principles of the Cause will remain abortive. To take exception to this, therefore, is to take exception to the fabric that Bahá'u'lláh has prescribed, it is to disobey His law." [Ahmad Sohrab and the New History Society]

Further, in a letter from Haifa to the Yonkers Assembly, "The Guardian pointed out the difference between the freedom defined by Bahá'u'lláh ("To have liberty is to observe My commandments") and that advocated by Sohrab ("The other kind of freedom which is in defiance of law He (Bahá'u'lláh) considers to be animal, and far from being of any good to man"). [Ahmad Sohrab and the New History Society]

Some members of the National Spiritual Assembly filed suit against Ahmad Sohrab to try to stop him from using the name Bahá'í. He had opened a Bahá'í bookshop in New York in 1939. This suit was filed in the Supreme Court of New York County. The judge granted a motion to dismiss, stating that "the plaintiffs have no right to a monopoly of the name of a religion. The defendants, who purport to be members of the same religion, have an equal right to use the name of the religion..." The judge mentioned that the complaint could be further amended and the NSA appealed but the Appellate Court affirmed the decision of the lower court.
      The National Spiritual Assembly of the United States and Canada distributed a mimeographed statement concerning the New History Society entitled The Basis of the Bahá'í Community, which explained the purpose and outcome of the lawsuit entered against the founders of the New History Society to prevent their misuse of the name "Bahá'í" on which the National Spiritual Assembly had obtained a trademark patent. [The Basis of the Bahá'í Community: A Statement Concerning the New History Society]
• Also see United States National Spiritual Assembly vs. Mirza Ahmad Sohrab.
• During the second World War the New History Society put forth an alleged passage from 'Abdu'l-Bahá which would justify citizens in refusing to obey their governments when drafted into the military forces. The National Spiritual Assembly was obliged to explain the true Bahá'í position to the federal authorities as set forth by the Guardian.

Mírzá Ahmad (Esphahani) Sohrab, the Covenant-breaker who rebelled against Shoghi Effendi, died. [MC90; CBN No 102 July 1958 p1]
• For the story of his defection from the Faith see CB343–7.
• He was buried in the Saint Paul Episcopal Church Cemetery, Glen Cove, Nassau County, New York.iiiii
• Bahaipedia.

Fourteen year old Edith Magee of London was sent by her parents to visit and aunt and uncle in Chicago, Mr and Mrs Guy Magee. He was the editor of the Chicago Tribune and had been in close contact with many of the leading figures of the Parliament of Religions. He was attracted by the quotation of E G Browne in the presentation of Dr Henry Jessup and further investigation led him to Ibrahim Kheirullah who was gathering a class of interested inquirers.

Edith's mother had raised her two daughters to share her passion to look for religious truth. Upon learning of the Faith Edith hurried home to share her findings with her mother and other relatives. Mrs Magee left immediately for Chicago, found Kheirullah and enrolled in his first class. She returned to London a Bahá'í and with her two daughters, Edith and Harriet formed the first Bahá'í group in Canada.

In 1902 Edit moved to New York to study music. When her father John Magee passed away her mother and sister Harriet followed her. All three women remained steadfast believers, active in the New York and Green Acre communities. Harriet became a friend of Abdu'l-Bahá's translator Ahmad Sohrab and his letters to her after His departure from America have become a valuable account of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's movements and activities.

Edit Magee became Mrs Edith Englis and spent her last years in Alexandria, Virginia with her son and daughter-in-law. [CBN September 1966 p6; OBBC1; BFA2p156]

• See Bahá'í Chronicles.
• See BC Vol 2 No 2 June 1979; or CBN No 200 September 1966 p6.