Lidia

Baha'u'llah wrote of the concept of a universal language on other occasions and explicitly included the possibility of using a created language for the intemational tongue. The importance He ascribed to the principle of a universal language is evident in His specifying it in the Kitab-i-Aqdas, His Book of Laws. The achievement of this principle, He aflfirmed, would be a sign ofthe 'coming ofage ofthe human race'.

Early on, some Baha'fs had been attracted to Esperanto and had seen it as the fulfillment of Baha'u'llah's words. Among those who leamed Esperanto during Zamenhof s lifetime were Agnes Alexander, who came from a Christian missionary family in the Hawaiian Islands and lived in Japan; J. E. Esslemont, a Scot; and Lutfu'llah Hakim and Mirza Muhammad Labib, Persians. Martha Root, the well-known American Baha'i who would play an important role in Lidia's life, apparently began to study Esperanto in 1912 although she did not master it until many years later.

As to the 'command' to leam Esperanto, which the interviewer mentioned to Dr Zamenhof in Bem, although 'Abdu'1-Baha had strongly and repeatedly encouraged Baha'1's to study Esperanto, most of the Baha'is never took this as a binding requirement. However, according to the published translations of remarks made in two addresses in 1913, 'Abdu'1-Baha seems to have expressed his wishes very clearly. In February 1913 'Abdu'1-Baha had addressed an Esperanto meeting in Paris, and his words were reported in the Baha'i magazine Star of the West thus:

'In the world of existence an international auxiliary language is the greatest bond to unite the people. Today the causes of differences in Europe are the diversities of language. We say, this man is a German, the other is an Italian, then we meet an Englishman and then again a Frenchman. Although they belong to the same race, yet language is the greatest barrier between them. Were a universal auxiliary language now in operation they would all be considered as one . . .

'Now, praise be to God, that Dr Zamenhof has invented the Esperanto language. It has all the potential qualities of becoming the international means of communication. All of us must be grateful and thankful to him for this noble effort, for in this way he has served his fellow-men well. He has invented a language which will bestow the greatest benefits on all people. With untiring effort and self sacrifice on the part ofits devotees it will become universal. Therefore every one of us must study this language and spread it as far as possible so that day by day it may receive a broader recognition, be accepted by all nations and govemments of the world and become a part of the curriculum in all the public schools. I hope that the language of all the future international conferences and congresses will become Esperanto, so that all people may acquire only two languages - one their own tongue and the other the intemational auxiliary language. Then perfect union will be established between the people of the world.

. . I hope that you will make the utmost effort, so that this language of Esperanto may be widely spread. Send some teachers to Persia if you can, so that they may teach it to the young people, and I have written to Persia to tell some of the Persians to come here and study it.'

And in an address given in January in Edinburgh, Scotland, under the auspices of the Edinburgh Esperanto Association, 'Abdu'1-Baha was reported in Star of the IVest to have said:'We. . . have commanded all Baha'xs in the East to study this language very carefull»y, and ere long it will be spread through the entire East.'

Dr Zamenhof answered the interviewer's question: 'I feel greatly interested in the Baha'i movement, as it is one of the great world- movements which, like our own, is insisting upon the brotherhood of mankind, and is calling on men to understand one another and to learn to love each other. The Baha'fs will understand the internal idea of Esperanto better than most people. That idea is, "on the basis of a neutral language to break down the walls which divide men and accustom them to see in their neighbour a man and a brother". I, therefore, think that, when the Baha'fs learn Esperanto, its intemal idea will be a great moral force that will compel them to propagate it ... I haVe always found that the most zealous workers for Esperanto are those who appreciate its internal idea, and not those who see in it merely an instrument for material profit . . . Many people have doubted whether Esperanto would be accepted by Eastem peoples; I have never done so, and I feel certain that the Baha'fs will carry the language into many places where ordinary European propagandists would never have gone.'