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Of particular value and significance has been the production, over a period of many years, of successive volumes of biennial international record of Baha'i activity, profusely illustrated, fully documented, and comprising among other things a statement on the aims and purposes of the Faith and its Administrative Order, selections from its scriptures, a survey of its activities, a list of its centers in five continents, a bibliography of its literature, tributes paid to its ideals and achievements by prominent men and women in East and West, and articles dealing with its relation to present- day problems. (382:1) Nor would any survey of the Baha'i literature produced during the concluding decades of the first Baha'i century be complete without special reference being made to the publication of, and the far- reaching influence exerted by, that splendid, authoritative and comprehensive introduction to Baha'i history and teachings, penned by that pure- hearted and immortal promoter of the Faith, J. E. Esslemont, which has already been printed in no less than thirty- seven languages, and is being translated into thirteen additional languages, whose English version has already run into tens of thousands, which has been reprinted no less than nine times in the United States of America, whose Esperanto, Japanese and English versions have been transcribed into Braille, and to which royalty has paid its tribute, characterizing it as "a glorious book of love and goodness, strength and beauty," commending it to all, and affirming that "no man could fail to be better because of this Book." (382:2) Deserving special mention, moreover, is the establishment by the British National Spiritual Assembly of a Publishing Trust, registered as "The Baha'i Publishing Co." and acting as a publisher and wholesale distributor of Baha'i literature throughout the British Isles; the compilation by various Baha'i Assemblies throughout the East of no less than forty volumes in manuscript of the authenticated and unpublished writings of the Bab, of Baha'u'llah and of Abdu'l- Baha; the translation into English of the Appendix to the Kitab- i- Aqdas, entitled "Questions and Answers," as well as the publication in Arabic and Persian by the Egyptian and Indian Baha'i National Spiritual Assemblies respectively of the Outline of Baha'i Laws on Matters of Personal Status, and of a brief outline by the latter Assembly of the laws relating to the burial of the dead; and the translation of a pamphlet into Maori undertaken by a Maori Baha'i in New Zealand. Reference should also be made to the collection and publication by the Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of Tihran of a considerable number of the addresses delivered by Abdu'l- Baha in the course of His Western tours; to the preparation of a detailed history of the Faith in Persian; to the printing of Baha'i certificates of marriage and divorce, in both Persian and Arabic, by a number of National Spiritual Assemblies in the East; to the issuance of birth and death certificates by the Persian Baha'i National Spiritual Assembly; to the preparation of forms of bequest available to believers wishing to make a legacy to the Faith; to the compilation of a considerable number of the unpublished Tablets of Abdu'l- Baha by the American Baha'i National Spiritual Assembly; to the translation into Esperanto, undertaken by the daughter of the famous Zamenhof, herself a convert to the Faith, of several Baha'i books, including some of the more important writings of Baha'u'llah and of Abdu'l- Baha; to the translation of a Baha'i booklet into Serbian by Prof. Bogdan Popovitch, one of the most eminent scholars attached to the University of Belgrade, and to the offer spontaneously made by Princess Ileana of Rumania (now Arch- Duchess Anton of Austria) to render into her own native language a Baha'i pamphlet written in English, and subsequently distributed in her native country.
(382:3)
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