March 27. On this date in 1864, A. L. M. Nicolas was born in Rasht, in the Gilan Province of Iran where his father was stationed with the French Consular Service in Persia. He was an historian and orientalist, official interpreter of the Legation French abroad, France's consul general in Tabriz, and the first Western Bábí.

 

March 27. On this date in 1864, A. L. M. Nicolas was born in Rasht, in the Gilan Province of Iran where his father was stationed with the French Consular Service in Persia. He was an historian and orientalist, official interpreter of the Legation French abroad, France's consul general in Tabriz, and the first Western Bábí.

A. L. M. Nicolas was born in Rasht, in the Gilan Province of Iran on March 27, 1864. His father, Louis Jean Baptiste Nicolas, was stationed with the French Consular Service in Persia.

A. L. M. Nicolas would become a historian and French orientalist, official interpreter of the Legation French abroad, and France's consul general in Tabriz. 

After reading Gobineau's Trois ans en Asie, 1855-1858he checked all the information Gobineau had written in his book, corrected some of it, and then began to translate the writings of the Báb. Over the course of translating the Báb’s Persian Bayán and Dalá'il-i-Sab'ih)(The Seven Proofs) from Persian to French, he developed a growing appreciation for the teachings and person of the Báb, and converted to Bábism, becomin the first Western Bábí. He wrote various works Seyyed Ali Mohamed dit le Báb (1905) and was the first to translate a work of the Báb into French: the Arabic Beyan and the Persian Beyan, an Essai sur le Chéikhisme (1911) and several articles in newspapers such that Review of the Muslim World. Nicolas became knight of the Legion of Honour in 1909.

A. L. M. Nicolas died on February 28, 1939