Ali Murad Davudi
Dr. Ali Murad Davudi was an Iranian Baháʼà who was a member of the national governing body of the BaháʼÃs in Iran. He was a professor at Tehran University in the philosophy department. In 1979, during a wave of persecution toward BaháʼÃs, he was kidnapped and has been presumed by the Bahá'à community a victim of state execution. Stephen Lambden, a scholar at the University of California, Merced includes Davudi in a list of notable Bahai historians.
Early life and education
Ali Murad Davudi was born in the small village of Shams-Abad in Iranian Azerbaijan in 1922. He was the great-grandson of Fath-Ali Shah Qajar through his mother, and his father was the grandson of the commander of Georgia. When he was ten years old, Davudi went to Tabriz where he lived for the next eight years. When he finished high school in Tabriz, Davudi traveled to Tehran where he entered a teacher training college and studied education, literature and philosophy; he graduated after three years. He then traveled to various Iranian towns and taught Persian literature. While he was in Zanjan he married Malikih Afagh Iranpoor at the age of 31; they had two sons and three daughters.In 1955, at the age of 33, Davudi moved once again to Tehran to study philosophy at Tehran University while also working full-time as a schoolteacher. He then travelled to France, where he stayed for one year, to improve his French, which he later used to translate many French philosophical texts. In 1964 he completed his Ph.D. with a thesis on the philosophy of Aristotle and Descartes and was then invited to join Tehran University's faculty where he became a professor. Hossein Nasr, an Iranian professor at George Washington University, counted Davudi among a small number of first rate philosophers in Iran. Davudi eventually became the chairman of the philosophy department at the university until shortly after the Iranian Revolution. During his academic career he wrote many works on the history of Greek and Islamic philosophy, in addition to writing articles on Baháʼà philosophical and theological themes. He also translated many French language philosophical works in Persian that were published by Tehran University Press.
Baháʼà life
Davudi was a life-long BaháʼÃ. In 1973 he was elected to the Iranian Baháʼà National Spiritual Assembly, which is the governing body of the BaháʼÃs of Iran. One year later, he became the secretary of that body, which necessitated travel throughout the country, which left him little time for his academic work. In addition to his administrative work, he also served on the Baháʼà national publishing committees, and also helped establish the Institute for Advanced Baháʼà Studies in 1976 to promote Baháʼà scholarship and research, an initiative proposed by the Universal House of Justice, the governing body of the BaháʼÃs worldwide. Davudi developed much of the institute's curriculum, which included classes on philosophy and mysticism with an emphasis on the study of primary texts rather than commentary.Davudi would also give regular Baháʼà study classes to the Baháʼà youth in Tehran and in summer schools across the country. He would also regularly go to the recording studio where he would tape lectures that would be distributed through cassettes to the Baháʼà community. Some of his writings on the Baháʼà themes such as the "Station of Baháʼu'lláh" and "Divinity and Oneness" study some of the religion's foundational aspects. He also wrote essays on the Baháʼà teachings on life after death; the meaning of freedom; freewill and determinism; the station of man; prayer; the soul; philosophy; the study of history; science and religion; and non-involvement in politics. Many of his works were published in Baháʼà journals in Iran.