Her photograph, taken about 1895, shows a slim figure in
Victorian dress - a narrow tailored jacket, with embroidered collar and cuffs,
and buttoned down the front a spreading, floor-length skirt, with vertical
flowered bands, the general effect being a delicately elegant blend of East and
West. Unusually, she wears no kerchief; she stands facing the camera, her hands
loose at the sides, dark hair off the face and hanging down her back, the ears
showing, the face fragile and delicate; under curving brows the long blue eyes
gaze off into distance, and her presence is somehow diffident and regal at the
same time.
This is Khánum, the Most Exalted Leaf, the Lady par
excellence, the Liege Lady of the people of Bahá, and next to her brother
‘Abdu’l-Bahá, “the brightest embodiment of that love which is born of God
..." [1]
She lived to be “the last survivor of a glorious and heroic
age”. [2] …
- Marzieh Gail (‘Khanum, The Greatest Holy Leaf’)
[1] Shoghi Effendi, ‘Baha’i Administration’
[2] Shoghi Effendi, ‘The Dispensation of Baha’u’llah’,
included in ‘The World Order of Baha’u’llah’
