Friday, April 20, 2018

April 19. On this date in 2004, Aziz Yazdi died. He had served as an Auxiliary Board member in Africa; a Counsellor for Central and East Africa; a member of the NSA of Central and East Africa, and later of Kenya; and as one of the first members of the ITC, from 1973 to 1988.



April 19. On this date in 2004, Aziz Yazdi died. He had served as one of the first members of the International Teaching Centre, from 1973 to 1988. He had previously served as an Auxiliary Board member in Africa; a Counsellor for Central and East Africa; and as a member of the National Spiritual Assembly of Central and East Africa, and later of Kenya.

Aziz Yazdi was born in 1909 in Alexandria, Egypt to Bahá’í parents who had traveled there on direction from Bahá’u’lláh, who Yazdi's grandfather had previously met. During Bahá’u’lláh's confinement in ‘Akká the Yazdi's trading company in Egypt was used to send and receive correspondence and tablets.

Aziz Yazdi was given his name by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá during his 1910 visit in Alexandria. During World War One, the Yazdi family moved to Damascus on the instructions of 'Abdu'l-Baha, and in 1919 ‘Abdu’l-Bahá called the family to Haifa. Aziz Yazdi remained there until ‘Abdu’l-Bahá's death on November 28, 1929.

Aziz Yazdi's brother, Ali (later a member of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States and husband to Marion Carpenter Yazdi), was instrumental in assisting Bahiyyih Khánum in preventing Mírzá Muhammad `Alí from taking over ‘Abdu’l-Bahá's house after his death.
Aziz Yazdi studied banking in Egypt and electrical engineering in England. In 1941 he married Soraya Khamsi, with whom he had four children. He lived in a number of countries including Egypt, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Great Britain, Uganda, Kenya, Israel, and Canada.

While in Iran he worked in the oil industry, and in Kenya he ran a successful import business for 20 years.

He was a member of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of Central and East Africa, and later of Kenya. In 1954 he was appointed as a member of the Auxiliary Board in Africa, and in 1968 he was appointed to the Continental Board of Counsellors in Central and East Africa. In 1973, Aziz Yazdi was appointed to the newly-established International Teaching Centre, on which body he served until retiring in 1988. Upon his retirement, he moved with his wife to Canada, where he died on April 19, 2004 in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Aziz Yazdi was survived by his children Mona Yazdi Grieser, Vida Yazdi Ditter, Jamileh Yazdi, and Aziz John Yazdi, and by his seven grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

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