Hasan Balyuzi

Hasan Balyuzi, who died in 1980 after a long illness, on the eve of the publication of his full-length biography of Baha' Allāh, had devoted himself with particular attention to researching and writing on the lives of the central Baha'I figures. … Beginning somewhat late in life, he wrote three biographical studies devoted to the three 'Central Figures' of the Baha'i religion: 'Abdu'l-Bahā: the Centre of the Covenant of Bahá'u'llāh (London, 1971) [see review by L.P.Elwell-Sutton, JRAS, 2 (1973), 166-8], The Bab: the Herald of the Day of Days (Oxford, 1973) [see review by idem, JRAS, 1 (1975), 64-51, and finally, Bahá'u'llah: the King of Glory (Oxford, 1980). The last of these is by far the most useful, attempting as it does to fill in the details of a life only the broadest outlines of which had hitherto been available even in Persian or Arabic. What is extraordinary though our author cannot be held responsible for this is that, even after over 400 pages of well-researched narrative, all lavishly illustrated, the figure of Baha' Allah remains hazy and incomplete, a creature of myth rather than history.

(Baha'u'llah: The King of Glory by Hasan Balyuzi, Review by: Denis MacEoin)