Shoghi Effendi was the eldest son of ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s daughter
Diya’iyyih Khanum (d. 1951) and Mirza Hadi Shirazi Afnan (d. 1955). He was born
in ‘Akka on 1 March 1897, the eldest of ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s grandsons, named in the
Master’s Will as His successor when he was still a child. Educated at first at
home with other children of the household, he was later sent to Catholic school
in Haifa and Beirut and then to the Syrian Protestant College (the predecessor
of the American University) in Beirut, spending his summer holidays as one of
his grandfather’s assistants. He gained an arts degree from the college in
1918, and became ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s chief secretary. Then in 1920, he went to
Oxford University (Balliol College), where he studied political science and
economics, and also sought tp perfect his English so as to be better able to
translate Baha’i literature into that language. He was still in the midst of
his studies when summoned to return to Haifa at the news of his grandfather’s
death. He was appointed by ‘Abdu’l-Baha in His Will and Testament as the
Guardian of the Baha’i Faith.
- Peter Smith ('A Concise Encyclopedia of the
Baha’i Faith')
