Tarázu’lláh Samandarí (1874-1968) – “Ornament of God”; “The Divine Adornment”; Hand of the Cause; a "strong pillar" and an outstanding example of “obedience and dedication”; "an Apostle of the Crimson Ark"; a "strong pillar of the luminous Faith of God"; a "Knight of the arena of detachment"; a "foremost exemplar for the righteous"; "a true herald of the Greatest Name"; "the most distinguished of friends"; "the shining lamp among Bahá’i teachers"; “exemplary service to the Lord of Hosts”; “precious remnant of the Heroic Age”

Tarázu’lláh (Ornament of God) was the name given by Bahá’u’lláh to the son of Samandar,[1] one of the nineteen Apostles of Bahá’u’lláh, and Ma’súmih Khánum Farhádí, both from families of early Bábís. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá called him Mírza Taráz and bestowed upon him many honorifics including Taráz-i-Iláhí (The Divine Adornment). The beloved Guardian addressed him as Jináb-i-Samandarí and appointed him a Hand of the Cause, one of the twelve in the first contingent, on December 24, 1951.

Tarázu’lláh Samandarí was born in 1874, in Qazvín, Persia, and was brought up by his parents and his grandmother, who was one of the companions of that immortal early heroine of the Faith, Táhirih. His upbringing is described by ‘Abdu'l-Baha, in a prayer revealed for him:

“...I supplicate before the Throne of Thy mercifulness and the threshold of Thy oneness that Thou mayest rain down Thy manifold confirmations and favours upon this servant of Thine who was born in the cradle of Thy love, nourished from the breast of Thy knowledge, reared in the lap of Thy servitude, nurtured in the bosom of Thy life-giving Faith, until such time as he was fully developed through the outpourings of Thy bounty, attained maturity through Thy loving kindness and turned his face with devotion toward Thy countenance, with his heart wholly centred on Thee and his reliance completely placed in Thee ...”

The life of Tarázu’lláh Samandarí, his character and the quality of his service to the Faith, are best described by the pens of ‘Abdu’l-Baha and Shoghi Effendi. ‘Abdu’l- Bahá designated him in Tablets as "a luminous candle", "a cause of happiness of souls", "a mine of joy", and "a cause of happiness of hearts".

The exceptional number of years of Tarázu‘lláh Samandarí’s active service commenced in early youth and ceased only with his passing in his ninety-fourth year. His service spanned the last years of the ministry of Bahá’u’lláh, the whole of the ministries of ’Abdu'l-Bahá and Shoghi Effendi, and extended through the period of stewardship of the Hands of the Cause. He lived to witness the election of the Universal House of Justice in 1963 and 1968.

Because educational facilities were limited in the Persia of his childhood, and often denied to the children of Bahá'is, Tarázu'lláh was taught at home by Mullá ‘Alí who was praised by Bahá'u'lláh as the first teacher to put into practice the Bahá'í principles of education. The child learned Persian and Arabic grammar, the simple bookkeeping of that period and calligraphy. At the age of thirteen he entered the office of his father who was a merchant.

Marzieh Nabil Carpenter Gail (1908-1993) - second child born of the first Persian-American marriage in the Baháí Faith; traveled with Martha Root for three weeks in Central Europe and the Balkans; five weeks of teaching in Bulgaria with Marion Jack; Shoghi Effendi, hoped that her marriage (with Howard Carpenter) would become the "vital link connecting the East and the West in the Baháí world."; first female reporter on the staff of a Tihrán newspaper. Fluent in English, French, Persian, and Arabic, and some Russian; served for a time as chairman of the National Spiritual Assembly of Austria; translations: The Seven Valleys and the Four Valleys (1945), The Secret of Divine Civilization (1957) with her father’ Memorials of the Faithful (1971), Selections from the Writings of Abdu’l-Bahá with a committee at the Baháí World Centre, and My Memories of Bahá’u’lláh (1982); books: The Sheltering Branch (1959), Khánum: The Greatest Holy Leaf (1981), Dawn Over Mount Hira (1976), Other People, Other Places (1982); The Three Popes (1969), Persia and the Victorians (1951), Six Lessons in Islam (1953), Summon Up Remembrance (1987), Arches of the Years (1991), Bahá’í Glossary (1955), and Avignon in Flower: 1309—1403 (1966).

As a little girl Marzich Khanum wrote a letter to the Master: "Dear Abdu’l-Bahá, I love you. I hope you will come to see us." And He wrote His reply in Persian on the same letter, turning it into a Tablet: "O God, make Marzieh, Razieh," voicing His desire that she who is pleasing to God (Marzieh) might be well pleased with God (Razieh).

For the rest of her life the second child and eldest daughter born of the first Persian-American marriage in the Bahá’í Faith would devote herself with heart and soul to the Cause of God. Her parents, Persian diplomat Ali-Kuli Khan and Boston debutante Florence Breed, were called upon by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to unite East and West. Like her parents before her Marzieh would spread the Bahá’í message in the United States, Europe, and Persia, seeking always to promote greater understanding between two cultures, Persia being only slightly less obscure in the West than the Cause she championed.

Her parents’ position took her to the Versailles Peace Conference, where her father was a member of Persia’s delegation, and in Tihrán she was presented at the Court of the then Crown Prince Regent from whom she would one day receive a proposal of marriage. At age ten Marzieh left the United States with her family to spend her formative years in Paris, Constantinople, Tiflis, [1] and Tihrán. Her education was unorthodox, derived from a succession of tutors. Lacking other children to play with, she and her two siblings, Rahim and Hamideh, found companionship with each other and the adults around them.

Marzieh met and became friends with the future Guardian as he passed through France on his way to Oxford. Her parents had been nurtured by the Master with whom Marzieh and her siblings had been photographed. On her finger she wore a ring given to her by the Greatest Holy Leaf. Part of a small circle of Bahá’í families whose interests had become synonymous with those of the Faith, her love for the Holy Family would carry her throughout her life, and this love would eventually become devotion to the Universal House of Justice.

Suitors began to pursue Marzieh when she was as young as thirteen, but her par- ents, following the directives of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and Shoghi Effendi, wished her to pursue an education. Enrolled in Vassar College in 1925, Marzieh transferred to Mills College for her sophomore year when her family moved to California. In 1927 David Starr Jordan broke the quota on women to allow Marzieh to finish her last two years at Stanford University, where she was known among her classmates as "our Persian princess." Using the attention to great advantage, she and Howard Carpenter organized small weekly discussion groups on the Bahá’í Faith. In 1929 she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and obtained her BA "With Great Distinction”—the honor being the non-Latin equivalent of summa cum laude. In June 1929 she became Marzieh Carpenter.